A GRAND birthday cake. Pun 100% intended.

Today is my friend Danny's 20th birthday.  Since we just moved in, we didn't want his birthday to be forgotten in the chaos.  I came up with the perfect plan-- a homemade birthday cake.  I had a mix in the cupboard, baked it last night, and texted my friend Sully to let her in on the plan.  She responded that his mother had had a cake made for him and brought to the school.  A really awesome cake.

Shit.

Since I already had a cake baked and Danny eats more than any other human I know, I figured I'd still be okay.

We took another Walmart trip, and this time it only cost $10 (we're following a reader's request and hitting a farmer's market this weekend, so I'll let you know how that goes later.)  I got the idea to put his favorite candy on the cake, hoping that it would be something easy like Reese's Pieces.  It turns out his favorite candy is 100 Grand bars, so I decided to give it a try.

Look at the title.  Now look down here.  BAHAHAHA.

Turns out 100 Grand bars are full of caramel, so they don't really crunch up nicely.  I put them in between the layers and stretched out the caramel, which was alright in theory.  The cake (yellow with chocolate frosting and some purple sprinkles I found in the cupboard) turned out nice looking, if a little lopsided.

You don't need to look back up at the other cake.  It's really okay.

We somehow got Danny over without him knowing what was going on, and he was very happy about his cake.  We decided pre-dinner cake was acceptable today.

His birthday gift to us?  A child's laughter.

Here's where I recommend not using 100 grand bars to fill a cake, even though it tastes really good.  Those strips of caramel couldn't really be cut with a butter knife, and since they were only frosted on one side, the other side stuck to the cake and pulled out big chunks with it.  So my less-than-pretty cake crossed the line into ugly once it was all cut up.

Happily, they were all too busy eating it to care.

Overall, a successful, if messy, birthday party.

The biggest shopping trip EVER

Today was my first full day in my new apartment.  It's really sweet.  I've got my own room, 1 1/2 bathrooms, a living room, and, most importantly to you, my dear reader, a kitchenette.

Moving in was a little rough.  I still haven't unpacked everything.  My room at home is a mess though, so I'm pretty good at climbing over stuff and ignoring it.

Today, the roommates and I took a trip to Walmart.  My parents gave me a really generous food allowance for every month, and I had this secret plan to spend just a little bit of money and then save up the rest for some undetermined money-related goal (taking a bath in it is the current front-runner.)  Of course, that was until after I dropped $87 at Walmart and remembered that I probably couldn't get away with spending $5 a week on food (that's a blog project for someone who likes eating WAY less than me.)  I needed some apartment stuff, so it's not like I bought $87 worth of food, but still.

Our only other grocery option in this town is the Tops, which is more expensive, but probably worth it when it comes to produce.

That is some sadsack zucchini.

I was trolling around with my cookbook with the plan for vegetable stew.  I ended up skipping the eggplant because it looked sadder than the zucchini, and adding some other veggies I thought would be good.  When we got home, I decided to try out the crock pot and mostly follow the recipe.  Today's post is brought to you by The Vegetarian Slow Cooker.

All my cookbooks were purchased for under $3 on half.com, because I am cheap.

I don't know how legal it would be for me to post the recipe online.  Until I get that straightened out, I'm just gonna show you a picture of my ingredients and let you have an adventure.

Actually, I didn't use the flour.  That is a trick only people who read captions know about.
Also there was an onion involved.

It took awhile to sauté the vegetables, because our only skillets are about the size of a single pancake.  I did it in two rounds.  The first round took forever, but during the second round I kept myself occupied with the fact that my new crockpot wasn't working.  After trying a bunch of different outlets, I realized that the dial was between two settings.  Then I burnt my hand a few minutes later making sure it really was hot.  Awesome.

Whattup we are vegetables in a pan.

Whattup I'm a temperamental bitch.

I cooked it on high for about four hours and we ate it over noodles.  The vegetarian roommate and the mostly vegetarian manfriend both approved.

Everyone else ate chicken.
Whatever.

The best part?  A big container of leftovers.  Mama's gonna eat tasty stew all week.

Get in mah belleh!

Welcome to Blanket Blog.

I already have a LiveJournal to be emo and a Tumblr to be professional.  I'm gonna use this to post pictures of food I cook and things I make.  It's gonna be awesome.

ABOUT ME

I am in college.

I am a vegetarian.

I knit.

I crochet.

I play the ukulele.

I study journalism and theater and pre-med stuff.

We're gonna have fun.