I Suck At Wii Music

saturday night, karen and i went to my favorite sister-in-law's (janine) for dinner. on thursday, i had made dinner for my friends (marc and kelley). the dinner for my friends was macaroni and cheese... alton brown style. as the recipe called for half a box of macaroni (or 1/2 lb), i still had the other half of the box sitting on our kitchen counter. plus, i still had the other half of the finely diced yellow onion sitting in the fridge. so, karen and i thought we could just make the recipe again for janine and her family (pj, pj, and kaleigh).

sadly, my culinary skills have grown now so that i can only make two things: mac 'n cheese... and apple crisp. needless to say, i hope janine and everyone enjoyed the mac 'n cheese meal. i need the meal to be extremely delicious so that i can challenge my friend (hot amy) to a bake off of macaroni and cheese... a challenge that she will inevitably lose due to her genetic disposition. just kidding.

speaking of which, hot amy was interested in getting together on saturday. as karen and i were already at janine's, janine invited everyone over to hang out. so shortly after dinner, my friends (jen, andrea, and hot amy) came over to janine's to hang out... and have fun.

(pictured below is jen... concentrating hard about something.)


anyway, it was an interesting night. for anyone curious, one of the topics of conversation: body hair. to everyone's surprise, the smooth away pad apparently does work. (and no, i did not try the smooth away pad.) i have been told that the pads work very well... although not as well as waxing. i cannot confirm or deny that claim as i was only able to feel the smoothness of a freshly waxed leg and not the smoothness of a freshly smooth awayed leg. although based on visuals, the smooth away pad does appear to work.

i also found out an interesting tidbit of information... whether true or not. apparently, when you are growing up (and if you are a female)... you are not supposed to shave from the waist down due to hair coarseness. i also learned that hair on your legs need to be at least a quarter of an inch long before waxing. yes, my life is now complete to know all this new information about body hair. (and for anyone curious, yes i do have hair on my legs.)

after being enlightened by all the information about body hair, the seven of us did what anyone would do on a saturday night: play wii music. too bad i suck at wii music. wii music is a game where you basically play the role of a conductor and... conduct a band. needless to say, it was an interesting time.

it turns out... janine and karen... even though they are sisters... are both equally terrible at conducting an orchestra at the same time. jen and pj were pretty good. unfortunately, jen and pj were not the best. the competitive andrea and hot amy were apparently the most compatible. (i guess there is some truth to them being bff's.)

i did not partake in the wii music fun... (hence, i suck at wii music, remember?) i actually enjoy watching others play more. (it also makes good video footage.) plus, i still have the elitist gamer mentality that the wii is not a gaming console... so it pains me to actually play the wii. okay, so maybe that could be a load of crap.

nonetheless, it was a fun night at janine and pj's. it was good to be silly for a night.

I Suck At Making Macaroni And Cheese

yesterday, karen and i got to hang out with my friends (marc and kelley). in my attempt to become a little more proficient with my culinary skills, i offered to do something that i normally don't do... cook dinner for everyone. (it's not that i do not want to cook dinner or anything like that. i actually like to cook. it's just that karen seems to enjoy cooking more. so, i simply stick with the manly duties of grilling and stir frying whenever the opportunity arises.)

on the menu yesterday was macaroni and cheese... made from scratch and not of the box-orange variety. too bad i suck at making macaroni and cheese. i heard that making the meal was fairly simple, so i figured i would give it a try. plus, marc loves macaroni and cheese. (i aim to please.)

anyway, marc and kelley lent me a macaroni and cheese cookbook in preparation for my culinary task. after reviewing all of the recipes in the cookbook, i decided that i would start with the basics and if it went well, would progress further with more complicated recipes. unfortunately, the aforementioned cookbook did not have a basic recipe. thus, i ended up scouring the internet.

the recipe i finally used came complements of my man, alton brown of food network fame.

it was definitely an interesting exercise in making macaroni and cheese. the recipe calls for the use of a diced yellow onion. well, needless to say, i have never diced an onion... ever. i have cut them into strips... but never dicing. my eyes were actually tearing by the end of my dicing experience. lucky for me, i have two working tear ducts unlike my friend (hot amy).

as well, i had a little setback with my "rue". i have no idea what a rue is. in fact, i just got exposed to the word yesterday only because karen started telling me that i should be doing x, y, and z for the rue. (i am thinking this is why karen cooks the majority of the time... bossy boots tendencies.) of course, karen was absolutely correct in this case because i was making the rue incorrectly.

when all was said and done, i had created a cheese filled mess in a casserole dish... and not only in the dish, but also in the kitchen... all over the countertop... all over the stove... yes it was fun to clean up.

(pictured below is the macaroni and cheese dinner prior to baking. the guinness bottle is just a shameless plug.)


i was actually concerned because the cheese filled mess looked nothing like the picture online. as well, the cheese filled mess looked like it contained more cheese than macaroni. unfortunately, i did not have a plan b. all i had was faith... in my man... alton brown.

to my surprise, the meal actually came out pretty well. everyone told me that they liked it. of course, they could have just been saying that. i was pleasantly surprised. and let this be a lesson: always have faith in alton brown. alton brown will never lead you astray!

needless to say, all of us polished off the mac 'n cheese while we watched the latest episode of "lost". the episode of "lost", by the way, was excellent. had someone walked by the window at the right moment, that person would probably have seen all of us pumping our fists in excitement and joy over the latest twist in the show.

and naturally, after "lost", we were also able to catch a few more episodes of the greatest tv show ever: buffy the vampire slayer. the three episodes were "helpless" about buffy's rite of passage upon turning 18; "the zeppo" about xander and his usefulness to the group; and "bad girls" which introduces the new character: wesley wyndham-pryce.

"the zeppo" is one of marc's favorite episodes proabably because the episode is xander-centric and he enjoys the xander character. of the three episodes, i actually liked "bad girls" the most... not only because it has the faith character in it (which it does)... or introduces wesley... but because the episode sets up the rest of season three. (this is probably where you can tell i was a psychology and sociology major because i find the episode so interesting with its id versus ego underlying theme.)

anyway, last night was quite enjoyable... with the macaroni and cheese... lost... buffy the vampire slayer... and hanging out with marc and kelley. it was definitely a good time.