What I Need.

Courage. 
What makes a king out of a slave? 
Courage.
What makes the flag on the mast to wave? 
Courage.
What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist, or the dusky dusk? What makes the muskrat guard his musk?
Courage.
What makes the sphinx the seventh wonder? 
Courage.
What makes the dawn come up like thunder? 
Courage.
What makes the Hottentot so hot? What puts the "ape" in apricot? What have they got that I ain't got? 
Courage! 


-- The Cowardly Lion, The Wizard of Oz

Learning to Cook: Episode 1

Alternate title: Miserable Failure Number 1.

I decided to start cooking not because I have any skill in that area, but because I hope to one day have a husband, and everyone knows that men love to eat. And, because I believe that even a miserable cook like myself can become a good cook with enough determination and practice. (And maybe cooking lessons.)

I picked a recipe for Chicken Florentine from this Campbell's recipe book. It's kind of like a child's board book: made of cardboard, and there's a picture of every ingredient just in case you're a poor reader. Looked like a book for me!

This recipe was supposed to take 35 minutes to make. It took me an hour and a half. Not that that's unusual. In fact, if you look at the very fine print beneath every cooking time, it says "if your name is Allie, add one hour." I use that extra time to ponder deeply everything I don't know about cooking so that I can make the best guess.

Here's what I assumed about this recipe:
1) It calls for four pieces of chicken, but I only have one, so that's enough.
2) It takes 14 minutes to thaw four pieces of chicken in the microwave, so I can heat one piece for that long too.
3) It calls for Cream of Mushroom with Roasted Garlic soup, but I only have regular Cream of Mushroom, so I can just add some garlic.
4) It calls for diced tomatoes with basil and oregano, but I don't have that, so I can use Rotel.
5) It calls for Penne pasta, but I like fettuccine better, so I can use that.
6) It doesn't say if I should cook the spinach, but it's frozen. I can just heat it up in the microwave.

This is what that one piece of chicken looked like fourteen minutes after I put it in the microwave to thaw out:

Yes, that is an alien growing on the right hand side. O.o

Now, mind you, the chicken was supposed to bake, not cook in the microwave...but I cut off everything that looked nasty, chopped it up, and put it in the sauce.

Next I added the microwaved spinach. It looked and smelled exactly like freshly cut grass, and I didn't feel right putting it into the sauce. I felt somewhat like a kid making mud pies...

Anyway, mix together mushroom soup, tomatoes, spinach, and noodles, bake it for 20 minutes, add mozzarella cheese, bake ten more minutes and you get something that looks like this:

It really wasn't that bad. I thought it had too much spinach, but my Dad ate it for lunch, and I think he actually liked it. We'll see what mom thinks later today.

Well, there's my cooking adventure for the day. Tomorrow is my 19th birthday, and the family is coming over. Mom is making lasagna, and I'll be making fettuccine alfredo and cheese biscuits to go along with it. Speaking of the cheese biscuits...they are wonderful, and so easy. Even I can't mess them up!

Here's the recipe:

2 cups Bisquick
2/3 cup milk
1/2 cup cheese (or more...)
2 tablespoons butter
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder (or whatever form of garlic you like)

Mix together Bisquick, milk and cheese. Place 9 spoonfuls on a cookie sheet and bake at 450 for 10 minutes. Melt the butter and add the garlic to it. Brush this mixture over the biscuits when they are done. That's all!  ; D

Life as of Late...

For those of you reading who don't know, the radiologist who looked at my MRI agreed with the other doctors that I probably have a cyst. They scheduled my surgery for February 11th. I'm getting used to the fact...I've talked about it so much now. I had tearful days, but somehow I've managed to go on with life without thinking SO much about the risks and recovery. I know that I wouldn't be able to do this if friends weren't praying for me.

Yesterday everyone had a day off from school and work, so my family and I spent the day at Liberty packing up my stuff. I sure have a lot of it.

My online classes don't start until the 15th, after I have surgery, so for now I'm just hanging out at home. My sister has been sick the last couple of days, so at least she has been here with me. (My parents keep telling me to "STAY AWAY FROM HER" which I think is kind of funny. They don't want me sick when I have to have surgery.)

Today I took down the Christmas tree in my room, finally. I made fettuccine alfredo for lunch. I took charge and changed the lightbulb in my lamp. Tomorrow I'm going to clean.

I think this is going to be a slow three weeks.

Early Retirement

So I've been thinking a lot about what I can do to keep myself from getting too bored this semester. Of course, I'll be taking a few classes online, but that can only take so long AND it won't exactly keep me entertained.

Here's what's on THE LIST so far:

1) Learn to Cook (nightmare)
2) Get a Job (Sonic? Suggestions please.)
3) Roleplay with Elisabeth (should be interesting)
4) Try an Extreme "Adam and Eve" Diet in an Attempt to Heal Myself (definite blogging material.)

Ideas? Comment below!

Brain Surgery?

As it turns out, I don't get to be a Liberty Belle anymore. At least not this semester. We decided that with the medical problems I am facing, it would be better for me to stay at home. It's been a bad week. I don't mind staying home for a semester and taking classes online. I'll get to be with my family, and maybe get a job. I have a few friends from highschool who are still here, and I'll get to see the others when they come home for the weekend. (more often than I got to see them before!)

What I am worried about is what I will be going through in the next month or so. You see, there is a gland behind your nose, right up against your brain, called the Pituitary gland. (And I hate the word pituitary more than I have ever hated a word in my life.) This gland is the size of a bean, but it controls so many other parts of your body: the thyroid, the adrenal glands, the ovaries, growth hormones, and kidneys. And mine doesn't work. Earlier this week we went to the University of Virginia, and I saw the best endocrinologists (gland doctors) in the country. They looked at my MRI and said that they had never seen anything like it. Blood is only getting to the outer edge of my pituitary gland, which means that there is probably something inside it. They don't know what. It might be a tumor or a cyst. Right now I'm on replacement hormones, since so many things in my body are shut down, and I'm feeling fine. But since the doctors don't know what's wrong with me, they want to do a biopsy.

This is what the biopsy entails: A neurosurgeon would go in through my nasal cavity, all the way to my brain, and take out a piece of this gland. I'll feel like I've been punched in the nose, for an entire week. There is a three week recovery time. I'll have nose bleeds, and nausea. I might get a sinus infection, which causes headaches. There is a very small chance that I could lose my eyesight or have a stroke.

On the other hand, if my blood work comes back suggesting that the gland is inflamed, I will have to take very strong steroids for a month. They'll cause me to gain weight and swell up, and there is a possibility that I won't want to leave the house.

I don't really know what to hope for. When my mom gets home today at three, she will call the doctor and find out which route they suggest. As for me, I'm happy taking the replacement hormones for the rest of my life. It really doesn't bother me. In fact, there is an 80% chance that I will have the surgery and STILL have to take them.

Stupid pituitary gland.

Here's To a New Hobby.

I used to have a blog when I was in middle school. I guess it's still there, collecting dust, if they haven't deleted my account yet. I used to blog about my thoughts, and sometimes just about what was going on in my life. I've always felt like I was smarter then, when I was constantly forcing myself to think deeply and write beautifully.

I've decided to start blogging again, on a new website, under a new name, in a new stage of life. I've just started my biggest adventure yet -- college life at Liberty University. Be prepared for some pretty random thoughts.