Monday, August 31, 2009

Stress!

1) I can't hand in my Tuition Remission form until after school begins, 'cause NYU's Bursar's Office is an asshole (just like all the other important offices, i.e. bank, post office, etc.) and is only open M-F, 9-5 for the "summer". I know it's for students, but wtf! I have until Sept. 23, which is ok, but I keep getting ominous emails entitled, "Your NYU Electronic Bill is now available".

2) School starts soon, if you weren't able to figure that out.

3) The NYU Bookstore still doesn't have the textbooks for one of my classes. *stabby motion*

4) I had to call and cancel our application for 225 Rector Street, and explain to a very sad Sean that we found something else. I'll find out if we have to pay the $100 fee this afternoon... the only upside to this is if he says, "We could have shown you that building! Why didn't you call us?" I have a very legitimate answer. "Well, Sean, Antonio said he would email us a bunch of listings and take us around on Sunday, whereupon we would have cancelled our other appointment made last week and gone with you. Since he didn't, we didn't cancel, and you missed out on a sale. That is all."

5) 2 Gold Street seems extremely anal about their application process. Whoever heard of/needed a "Landlord Reference Letter"?? Plus, the income requirement is 45x the monthly rent, which is higher than the normal 35x-40x. This means that with a rent of $2567/month, the combined income of the people on the lease needs to be at least $115,515.00. Dah! Why are they so strict? This building is all younger, just-graduated-college kids - how is everyone making this much money?

6) We forgot/didn't realize we needed to sign the form that 15 Cliff sent us to say we weren't renewing our lease. Now it's 13 days late and it says on the bottom: "Failure to do so may result in an eviction" or something extremely stressful-and-worry-worthy. I mean, I doubt they will actually bother, but I REALLY hope this doesn't affect our application process elsewhere.

7) Now there are people in the fax room, and I feel weird telling them all to move away so that I can fax personal stuff... ;lieu;askdhng.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Get Cookin'!

I've made two things in the past two days that were REALLY good. Felt like sharing... with... myself. Haha.

Note: When I cook, unless I'm making a mixture that needs precise measurements, I just eyeball the amounts. It works out just fine.

Pasta Chicken

skinless, boneless chicken breast
olive oil
linguine
carrots
zucchini
garlic
chicken broth
dried basil
grated Parmesan cheese

Dice up chicken, saute in olive oil in skillet until no longer pink. Remove and let drain.
Cook pasta.
While pasta is cooking, stir fry carrots in same skillet in a little more olive oil, adding zucchini and garlic (mashed in garlic press, makes it so much better) after about 2 minutes. Stir in broth, basil, Parmesan and cooked chicken and let simmer for about 4 minutes.
Pour chicken/vegetable mixture over pasta and serve.

It sounds pretty simple, but this was so so so good! I think the addition of chicken broth and a little bit of Parmesan really made the difference. DEFINITELY making this again!

Summer Couscous (what I got when I searched for things with chicken broth, to use up what was leftover from the previous recipe)

1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup couscous (I used tricolor couscous, was pretty good!)
olive oil
diced tomatoes
diced Vidalia onion
diced cucumber
chopped fresh parsley
lemon juice
salt, pepper to taste

Chop everything up. Will take a while.
Heat up chicken broth in pan until just before boiling. Stir in couscous, olive oil and all veggies. Place top on pot and let steam for about 4 minutes. Fluff with fork and serve.

The recipe said that this was for 4 servings, but I ate it all for dinner. So, if you really want to make 4 servings, make a lot more. I saved about half of the chopped veggies for another go tonight, since there's no way you can use a whole cucumber for a half a cup of couscous. Really good! Nice, light and cool for a summer dinner.