library love affair

I am in the middle of a love affair and I'm pretty sure it's going last the whole semester.

His name is the Harold B. Lee Library.

Oh, Harold. We spend so much time together. You and me.

You're cute. With all your little brown desks and wooden seats next to rows and rows of old books and dusty shelves, who wouldn't want to spend a few hours curled up on your floor?

You welcome me in with those stiff security scanners that hum quietly, always standing to attention as I walk in. I note your old brown walls as I skip down your halls, searching among the other students with their noses in their books and laptops for a spot to call my own.

Harold, you have become my best friend, my confidante, my everything.

You can't love me back as much as I love you but just know that we're going to be spending oodles of time together, just you and I and my Spanish books.

Love,
Katelyn

Katelyn's Easy Mouthwatering Spaghetti Sauce

Tonight was night one of cooking for myself! When I went to Smith's, I bought healthy ingredients for healthy meals, including a spaghetti sauce packet so I could make spaghetti.
So there I was, about to make it. BUT ...
Bad news = the packet called for tomato paste! I hadn't bought any!
Good news = I did buy pizza sauce!

So. Solution = I used the pizza sauce instead of tomato paste and I put ground beef in it too.

THIS WAS MY FIRST TIME EVER MAKING MY OWN SPAGHETTI SAUCE.

It was time for the ultimate test. I invited my cousin over to eat the spaghetti dinner with me. She kindly obliged, even though I'm sure she was a bit fearful of my cooking abilities.

She took a bite.

"Woah! This is THE best spaghetti sauce I have ever tasted! I'm not a spaghetti person, but I would eat this any day!"

Yes. She was serious.

I beamed with joy and brilliant rainbows of self-accomplishment flooded my brain.

My sauce is not pasty and thick, but it is succulent, brimming with flavor and juicy-ness.

Here it is now.

RECIPE for Katelyn's Mouthwatering Spaghetti Sauce:

You need:

• Spaghetti - however much you want. Make it. (Boil water and put the noodles in. Eventually they'll be cooked.)
• One 14 oz. glass jar of pizza sauce (I bought Kroger's/Smith's pizza sauce - "pizza parlor style")
• One packet of dried spaghetti sauce (Kroger's/Smith's spaghetti sauce mix with dried mushrooms)
• Ground beef

Steps:

1. Cook the beef - you know, put it in a pan and stir it around until it's not red anymore. Sprinkle with pepper/salt and onion powder or any other seasonings you have in your cupboard while you're cooking it. Set it aside once you're done cooking it. I just put it in some random tupperware container until I needed it.
2. Make the sauce. Just follow the directions on the sauce packet but instead of using tomato paste, use half the jar of pizza sauce. I used the whole sauce packet, half of the pizza sauce (you can put more in if you want it to be thicker), some of the ground beef (depending on how much you like meat) and 2 ish cups of water depending on how watery you want the sauce. (Hint: the more watery, the better). Put the meat in while it's simmering. Cover for about 13 min and stir occasionally.
3. Spread over spaghetti and bask in deliciousness.

Serves up to ... like 5 ish people? Depending on how hungry they are. (I noticed that cook books never say that.)

Okay, so if you try it following my directions, it might not turn out the same, just cause I didn't use exact measurements, I just kinda winged it. (Is that a word?) So yeah!

In conclusion, I feel more confident about my cooking abilities. Stay tuned for the rest of the week! :)

First Day of School and Resolutions

So. Today was the first day of school.

I got to my apartment super late at night and then I needed to catch up with all my roommates about my holidays and then show them all my new clothes and then unpack and then figure out what I need to do with school, etc. etc. So I didn't get to sleep until late late late!

What time did classes start today? Oh yeah, 8 am.

Even though I woke up feeling slightly like a zombie, today was good. I didn't have anything for school but I was able to squeeze time in between classes to buy the necessary textbooks and a 5 subject notebook and 2 new pens. I am set for the semester!

So I survived the first day!

New Year's Resolutions include, but are not limited to:

• Cook more homemade meals for myself! No more surviving off of frozen Marie Calendar's meals.
• Exercise more! I am planning on taking zumba classes this semester. Huzzah!
• Study harder! This means saying "no" to activities that might be time wasting (ahem, facebook)
• Be kinder! Treat others with kindness, all the time, not just when I feel like it.

Welp, there ya have it! I can't wait to see what adventures await me this year! :)

Stay tuned and be sure to click the blue "Join" button if you ever read my blog.

Thanks!

New Years Eve Festivities

My New Years Eve festivities were held at the lovely home of my aunt and uncle. Mouthwatering pizza from Papa Murphy's, playing sword fighting on the Wii (I've got skills, lemme tell ya), making apple crisp with Claire, and just hanging out with the family!

One thing I missed though was the stake new years' eve dances at the church though ... Ben was there last night and I wished I could have gone but it's a little creepy since I'm almost 20 years old (wait ... what??).

Here are some pics and video throughout the night!

Dad tries out our cousin's new toy ... apparently it can hold up to 400 pounds.

As you can see, adults can have fun with it too!

Real or fake ... ? YOU decide ;)

At 12 here in TN I didn't do anything, I was actually just on my laptop waiting for Ben to come home. So I celebrated New Years at 1 am which would be 12 am in Utah. Technically I still live there. Welp, here's to a new year! 

Happy 2012 Everyone! :)