It's harder than expected to cook for one person.

My family is out of town, so I only had to feed myself yesterday. Maybe even just a year ago, I would have popped a pizza or something in the oven. But yesterday, I just had to cook something for real. Maybe it's because I have not been able to cook anything in my dorm this past semester (because it is lame and has no stove for student use in the entire building). Maybe it's because I was super bored and had nothing else to do. After all, I was bored enough to start a blog yesterday afternoon.

I decided to make myself a Spanish Omelette. My mom and I love this dish. My dad and my younger brother don't like eggs, but whenever it's just mom and me, she usually ends up making this for us. A couple weeks ago, she gave me directions and had me make it by myself. It actually turned out quite well. 

See, I love baking. I could bake for days on end, but I don't have any real experience with cooking. I can follow a recipe, sure, but without a recipe, I'm basically clueless. But yesterday I decided to make a Spanish Omelette just for me. I knew the ingredients were in the house, and there was nothing to stop me. 

I went ahead and got out the small frying pan, cut up two small, red potatoes, broke two eggs, and started chopping up the onion. The only problem was, once I started cutting the large onion, I didn't want to just stick half of it in a container and put it in the fridge. I had no clue how long onion stays good or fresh, and I wasn't planning on cooking something else with onion in it in the next day or so. 

So I threw the whole onion into the small frying pan, along with the two chopped potatoes. The frying pan was almost completely full. There would be no room for much else, and it was very onion-y. I decided to go ahead and chop up two more red potatoes, and got out the large frying pan. When everything was cooking in the olive oil in the pan, I realized that two eggs would not cut it. I got out three more eggs, and whipped them up. I was set.

A yummy lunch on the way

I cut off a good size piece of the block of Manchego cheese, and cubed it into small pieces. I adore Manchego cheese. I'm not exactly sure why, but it is my favorite. My parents had lived in Spain for a couple years while in the Navy, and they brought back their love for certain flavors with them, and when Costco started selling Manchego, it was a no-brainer for them to introduce it to their kids. I love the stuff.

Once the onions and potatoes were ready, I ground some pepper on top, to add seasoning, poured the eggs over everything, and dropped in the cheese. Five eggs should have been enough. I was sure of it. But somehow they weren't. Maybe I forgot something my mom said, in how they should be added, but they weren't filling up all of the onions and potatoes. I quickly whipped up another egg and added it, but that didn't seem like enough either, plus the cheese was just standing on top. 

I mixed up all the stuff in the pan, to see if that would help, but it just looked like I was about to make some interesting scramble eggs. I spread the stuff evenly in the pan, mixed up one more egg, and poured it over the top. I put the lid on and crossed my fingers, hoping for the best. Surprisingly, it did turn out well. Really well. 

It tastes even better than it looks!

Success! I loved the small cubes on half-melted Manchego cheese throughout the omelette, although I may grate/shred the cheese next time, so it can be mixed more thoroughly throughout. I ate one fourth of the omelette, and was full. I put the rest in the fridge, and ate another fourth for dinner, as by that time I was busy figuring out how to make a Blog. It was good when cold, too. Almost like how pizza can get better after sitting in the fridge overnight. Now I have two more easy meals out of that one omelette.

This is a meal I can easily make in my apartment next year. Although I won't be able to afford Manchego cheese, the potatoes, onions, and eggs are pretty affordable, even for broke college students. I need more meals like this, that I can afford to make, and will love eating the leftovers for a couple days. Do you have any suggestions or recipes that are easy and inexpensive to make for just one person? I will take all the help and advice that I can.

Now Also A Cook,

The Purple Writer

I had the strangest dream last night.

Granted, I've been having much more vivid dreams since I came home for Christmas break, but I actually half-remember this one. Well, the end of it.

Isn't that how it always goes? As I wake up, I realize that I had a dream, and that I want to remember it, but I can only ever remember the ending of the dream, when I first started being conscious of the dream and interacted with it.

Anyhow, when I started interacting with my dream last night, I was in the middle of a palace with lots of my people. I'm not sure what it means that they were "my people," whether they were my friends, family, or just of the same species, but we had a common enemy.

Our enemy was a horde of giant wizards and either orcs or monkeys, I couldn't tell. There were a lot of them. They swarmed around us in the halls, and I was running around, trying to kill them. The only problem was that I didn't have any weapons, and I couldn't run very fast. It wasn't a good situation to be in. A group of my people came and surrounded me, half pushing me away from the enemies and out into a field outside. They turned around and faced the open gate of the palace, telling me to run ahead. They said that they would catch up soon, which was a little bit insulting. Surely I didn't run that slowly. (Now as I am awake, I acknowledge that yes, I do run that slowly.)

So, I ran. Across the giant field, which somehow only took like 5 steps to cross, and I reached a tiny building. It was like a mix of an old shed and a glass office. It only had one room, and while the rest of the building was made of rotting wood, it had two full glass doors and giant, sparkling windows. Inside were several giant, stacked tubs of school supplies. Very helpful against the evil, cannibalistic wizards. (Although, I'm not sure if the wizards were humans as well or not, in which case it wouldn't be cannibalism to eat me. It's surprising the clarity that comes when one is not in a weird dream state.)

So, I filled my shoulder bag with lots of pencils from one of the tubs and ran back outside. Everyone was a lot closer. They were right on top of the new hill that sprang up right in front of the weird building. Both enemies and my people were mixed together, so I slipped back into the crowd without being noticed, and went to slay some orc-monkey creatures. Sadly, for some reason, when I threw my pencils at the face of an orc-monkey, nothing happened.

Well, the creature started coming towards me, which was something, but not a good something. So I turned around and ran back into the glass hut. For some reason, I had really thought that the pencils should have worked, and I was pretty disappointed in them, so I passed by the tubs of pencils and grabbed lots of pens that time.

I turned around and was staring at a giant, floating wizard this time. He was trying to come into the hut, but was too big to fit through either of the two glass doors. I threw a red pen at through the door, and surprisingly actually hit him with it. The pen exploded in giant fireworks. I was scared by the fireworks (although I would have thought that certain fear of mine would not exist in a dream), and when I opened my eyes again, the floating wizard was gone. That was good. It also seemed as though all the other wizards and orc-monkeys were gone, but looking around, I saw that they were just super tiny. Like ugly ants. I think. I was waking up at that point.


The moral of this dream is that red pens have great power. Not only to make papers bleed with editing, but also to vanquish evil dream villains.



World, You Are Welcome,
The Purple Writer.



-- What is the strangest dream that you have had lately, that you remember enough to make a moral out of it?

Hello World, I have started a blog.

Yes, that was an original first title, and I am proud of it.


Well,  I have decided to start writing blog posts and sharing the interesting things that happen to me. I am not sure what interesting things will happen to me, but you will know about them almost before I will. At least, that is the plan. 

I will always welcome comments, questions, and advice. I usually check my email every hour, if I can, so my response time should be surprisingly fast. Or surprisingly slow, depending on how seriously you took that statement of mine.

I figure that the world doesn't really care about the boring details of my life, but I have put bits of information on the internet, that really should not be too hard to find. If you happen to be curious about something in particular, or are just exceedingly bored, you can always ask me whatever you like. I will most likely answer with the truth, depending on what you ask. That is the plan, anyhow.


Thank you, Internet, for letting me join the multitude of bloggers in your system. I only want one chance to prove my worthiness as a blogger. Or multiple chances, depending on how my first attempts are received.

Forever Purple,
The Purple Writer.