Irish Beef Stew

Okay... blogging under the name of "Chef on a Budget" would be redundant if I never included my recipes in here... So, therefore, since school's out and I have more or less nothing to do, I shall now publish my first recipe: Irish Beef Stew.

Ingredients:

Beef (of course... buy the cheapest cut you can... I did, since I'm obviously on a budget)

Guiness Stout (BC liquor store sells them for about $12 for 4... a bit of a splurge I admit, but did I mention? school's out!!)

Flour (seasoned with salt and pepper)

Bay leaves (2 should be enough)

Potatoes

Tomato Paste (half a can or more than enough to coat the beef)

Celery

Carrots

Onions

Garlic

Oil

Method:

1- Cut your beef into bite sized pieces. Pat them dry with a kitchen towel (makes the browning easier :D) and toss them in your seasoned flour.

2- Heat some oil up in a pan. Brown the beef in said pan. (Browning can be done in batches if you are making a big portion)

3- Remove beef from pan and add in onions and garlic for about 1-2 mins and then the carrots and celery comes next. Stir in half a can of Guiness while scraping the brown bits of the bottom of the pan. (mmMMMmmmm yuuummm)

4- Put the beef back in and stir in the tomato paste. After about 3 mins, pour in the rest of the Guiness, about 1/2 a cup of water, add the bay leaves and give it a good mix, and leave it to simmer for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

5- Every chef's privilage- when you think its almost done, open up the lid and have a taste and then season to your liking. And then... Bon apetite!

p.s. It goes oh-so-well with mashed potatoes, otherwise, some bread would be good too :D

Combined with a huge group of friends and some beer, this was the perfect way to end the studying term.

School's Out!

Well...

and there we have it folks... yesterday was the last day of classes and guess what i managed to do? Skip them.

With a certain fondness for the act of procrastination, I decided to push all my work till the last possible moment and guess what? Success.

What happened you ask? Well the result of indulging in procrastination was 10 hours of sleep for the past 2 days and a whole load of forcing my brain to co-operate and produce smart sounding essays. On top of that, I bullied my mind into submission and produced a "psychedelic" piece of a life sized self portrait and

I now know how the library looks like at 6 in the morning with rubbish and prone bodies looking somewhat like an academic battle field. I have been scarred for life but somehow, I have a strong suspicion and feeling that this vicious cycle will repeat itself again when classes start in January.

Art Studio

My final assignment for art is a bad-ass life-size portrait of... myself.... what a bummer.. i see so many other beautiful specimens out there, ready to pose for me and my assignment has to be about myself... and it has to be recognizable too.... bummer...

And so, C came with me on a hunt for my art supplies: a life size canvas which i would have to convey back to my dorm in university by means of riding on a bus because a taxi ride would have just killed my budget for this month :(

Guess what? Exhibition quality life size canvases cost A BOMB! Like $69 or something!! I then ended up buying a 9ft by 5ft unprimed raw canvas ($15) a bottle of Gesso/canvas primer ($12) and a big brush ($14)- coz i didnt want to be priming my 5ft by 2ft canvas with my teensy 3'' brush :P

and the grand total? all in all with tax and everything... about $40 :D

Downside of it all? I have to prime my own canvas for which i have to first stretch it out and my room has been turned into an art studio for that purpose :D

Frats

Well.... My friend E and I joined this club at the beginning of the school year and to make it simple... it functions like a sorority but is NOT a sorority... and therefore, we have social exchanges with the Frat houses... The first one that I went to had a Tacos and Tequila night and E and I were so excited that we decided to skip on dinner in order to indulge in the tacos and tequila which costs us only $10 for an unlimited amount of either one of the two..

Big mistake..

E almost passed out after having 3 tequila shots before the 3 puny tacos she had and then proceeded to have more tequila... the boys who surrounded us demanded that they would de-virginize us if we were still virgins (a secret I will never tell...) and one of them even flashed his nether regions at me... not impressed... However, was too shocked to come up with a bitingly sarcastic response to his flashing and could only kick myself mentally in the ass 10 minutes later when my brain unfroze from the shock and a million retorts flash flooded my mind.. "Is that all??" "Where is it?" "That's it??!!" "Omg!! How cute!! Look at how small it is.." The last comment would be accompanied with a little nudge at E... Seriously... did he think I'd run up to him and demand that he deflower me on the spot (again... IF I was a virgin...) like in a sordid twisted romance novel?

Oh well.... my first encounter with the Frat species in their natural habitat, imbibing on their favourite substance "alcohol", was indeed very enlightening and amusing... can't wait for the next one :P

Busted Budget

Okayyyyyyyyy.....

I am dead... busted... in a state of despair.... in other words.... i'm BROKE...

I think I officially have only about $10 left in my bank account and I still don't have a job... how am i supposed to survive? I shall try and be positive and use my best Bridget Jones logic to figure this out... lets see...

$10 left in bank account. Dont eat out until the parents send some money. Not eating will cause immense amount of weight loss. Weight loss will result in fab body. When money arrive, will have lots of money to shop for clothes and a fab body to stuff in said clothes. Will therefore be a v. hot person with v. pretty clothes. Fabulous.

Now... thats what I call looking on the bright side. I will try to keep this mantra in my head and be positive until the parents send me money and if my plan goes well... well, see above :D

Missing Mac Charger

Wellllllllll.......

I lost my mac charger... and so therefore, for the past two weeks, my comp has been down and out....

As soon as I realised I lost it, I used up the remaining 26% of my battery to google up 'Mac Chargers' and found out the chargers from Mac costs about like $89. I almost died. Here I am, an aspiring chef, with shopaholic tendencies who's ALREADY on a tight budget, and I found out I have to spend almost $95 on an electrical appliance! 

And so I found out the joys of Ebay and got myself a charger for $25. I applaud myself and have decided to spend some money to reward myself for such a good move :D

I think a pretty scarf or a pair of gloves would be a sensible reward :D

The Beginning

The start of this series of misadventures began when I left my family behind and started a new life 1187okm away from home. This monumental move marks a new chapter of my life which is due to the start of my University life. 

Budgets on clothes, kitchen appliances, household appliances, textbooks, stationaries, and worse of all: FOOD, has stressed me out so much so that I think I've never shed so much hair in my life! 

But not to fear, this blog shall be a beam of light to all who dwell in the same darkness, my mishaps shall serve as a lesson to all!