Ramshackle Kitchen's Blog

Withdrawal

ramshacklekitchen — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 17:30:34 +0000

So I’ve been without my net book for about a month now, since my darling daughter dropped it on the floor and no doubt the guys are tired at guessing what’s for dinner. I’m updating the menu now to include this Thursday through next Tuesday and hopefully once I’m done with what I expect to be a very busy and painful weekend, there will be regular updates.

Commodoties

ramshacklekitchen — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 21:58:48 +0000

I’ve always taken for granted a working computer and internet connection until this past weekend. My little girl managed to grab onto a shelf that held my netbook and it came tumbling down, bounced a couple of times on the floor and now the lcd display is destroyed. Thankfully one of the boys is helping me to solve this because quite honestly I can update this blog on my phone. I need a bigger keyboard. So my apologies for not updating the menu. Just found this app for my blackberry so hopefully it will do until then. Dinner for sunday is curried chicken with brown rice. Steak with blue cheese crust on monday.

New semester, boys, and vegans?

ramshacklekitchen — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 16:56:53 +0000

So. It’s been a while. I’ve been away from this blog long enough to come back with interesting material for the most part, I guess. Since the end of the spring semester, I managed to get pregnant and am now more exhausted than before. With a toddler who falls asleep at midnight (after much crying and whining) who then wakes up at 6:30am every day and then dealing with the heat, everything has been exhausting me. The only reprieve is that now that the fall semester has begun, it’s as if the new students to the area brought the cold air with them. Thank goodness. Cooking for Rush on a couple of hot days made my situation worse and there was nowhere I could go to cool down. Currently it’s 62 degrees outside and cloudy. Yay!

Rush went well. A little hectic here and there but I can’t complain. Since I told the guys about the pregnancy, they’ve been very supportive and caring which I guess would surprise a lot of people seeing as they are college boys, albeit in a frat. But it’s just made work that much better. Oddly enough it’s more comfortable being around them rather than when I worked in a medical office surrounded by women. I’m trying to not slack off but get so tired that sometimes I just need to sit or stand somewhere and just space off and they’re okay with that. Bless them!

With a new food service, this semester will be better and will allow me to prep for next semester. As always I welcome all comments and suggestions as long as it’s for the better and not someone just being an ass. Last night’s comment recommended using less meat and more sauce. I think the veg contingent in the house is growing. I’m kidding. I hope. On ward and upward.

Fancy Schmancy

ramshacklekitchen — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 03:15:01 +0000

The boys have their spring jacket and tie dinner in 2 weeks and all I can think of is chicken as an entree. (There will be a vegetarian meal!) It’s not that I can’t be creative with that but I also don’t want the girls ruining their dresses and the boys needing to send their suits to the dry cleaners the next day. Seriously, sometimes I care more about those guys than I do about the food. SO! As for dinner, chicken for sure, green pea risotto instead of regular rice or pasta, and dessert is looking to be along the lines of a carrot cake. It’s spring, right? Rather than having the chaos of the winter dinner’s crazy molten lava cakes (although they were a success), it’ll be easier to make a massive carrot cake, a huge fruit salad and perhaps pick up a couple of gallons of ice cream and let them make sundaes.

Just a couple of more weeks left for me and then it’s off to a nice long vacation with no idea as to what the hell I’m going to do in regards to income. My father is attempting to find land in Puerto Rico to start a tilapia farm and I’ve asked him to bring me along to help him out. If that doesn’t work then I’m really going to find something part time so I can still spend time with Rina. She’s starting to speak a little bit clearer now which is wonderful and fun to listen. I hope she keeps improving having me around her more. Now to bed and to enjoy Marathon Monday no where near the marathon, but perhaps with the little one at a park.

The Littlest Things

ramshacklekitchen — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 03:19:22 +0000

Sometimes I take for granted my city and how close I live to the house. I literally live at the other end of Mass Ave away from Cambridge so a walk to work normally takes 30 minutes or a 10 minute bus ride on the #1. So I’ve done this walk only once this semester and of course I did not sit down at all while at work which was my own fault. I keep forgetting to take a break to actually sit and stretch my muscles instead of just walking around the block to get a coffee. So the point to all of that was sweet house manager Sammy has felt bad and decided to give me this wonderful present: a stool. Of course the moment I posted this picture on Facebook all of my same generation friends came out of the woodwork to make fun of me but whatever. They all have cushy jobs sitting on their asses, typing on computers, taking phone calls, blah blah blah. The office environment I was very happy to be kicked out of. It’s about comfort but this also forces me to BE comfortable. Maybe even comforted as sometimes I just need to sit down and take in the whole scene. This stool will get engraved with the frat’s Greek letters and I’ll probably sharpie my name onto the bottom of the seat. Just be warned, people. I will kick butt if someone messes with my new throne. We’ll have to lock it away in storage or something on my last night….

4 Pre-Frosh and a Funeral

ramshacklekitchen — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 02:34:20 +0000

I know I originally told some of the guys that I would not be in tomorrow due to a funeral that I must attend but I’ve changed my mind and I will be in after the service. It’s the first day of CPW where pre-freshmen come and get to see what campus life is like and for me not to be there when the guys bring them down into the kitchen would be wrong. I figure 1.) it would be a great distraction from dealing with the loss of a friend’s mother who was always very kind to me and 2.) these guys need to get used to this face especially if they plan to pledge next semester. Oh, and if they do pledge, they better get used to calling me Most Noble Chef. I’m not cocky. Really. You cook for 50 guys in that kitchen, you bet your bottom you deserve a title like that. I am kidding though. I’m not cocky. The guys have gone through some lengths to make the kitchen comfortable enough to work in and I couldn’t be happier. (By the way there are probably more than 4 pre-frosh in the house. I just couldn’t think of a better blog title.)

Spring has sprung

ramshacklekitchen — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 02:55:02 +0000

The gorgeous weather that we have had the last couple of days has finally given me that energy I’ve been lacking for a few months now. No matter how energized mentally and excited I am, it never translates into physical energy. Lack of certain vitamins and sleep will also do that to you to. Guilt? Yes. That will hurt you too. I feel guilt because of this little girl right here. This is Rina, my 2 year old ball of energy. She puts the Energizer Bunny to shame. I wish I had that energy. I spend more time at the house than I do with her so that’s where the guilt sits but then i stop and remind myself that without said job I wouldn’t be able to afford things for her, etc., so then the guilt goes away a little bit. The lack of energy has been the main reason why I’ve been away from my blog. By the time I get home all I want to do is crawl into bed so tonight here is your post for the day. Perhaps there will be one tomorrow that involves alumni, beer pong, Stevie’s pizza, a potential new food supplier, my garden and mice.

Posts this week

ramshacklekitchen — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 00:14:54 +0000

With spring break coming to an end today i will post something tomorrow. Today being my birthday and having worked on my birthday iI’m tired and going to bed. Again my boys are the best.

Family

ramshacklekitchen — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:35:17 +0000

I’ve been avoiding this blog like the plague for the last week or so mainly because I didn’t want to relive a moment at work where I actually did not feel happy. The words “I don’t feel any love for my boys today” actually poured out of me and I couldn’t wrap the thought around my head until some things were explained to me, by senior brothers, who have lived here the longest. “Some people don’t care.”

Let me back track with a super short version: Half-assed done dishes I can deal with. Half-assed done dishes that are put to dry, clearly not 100% clean bother me to no end. I wasn’t angry because it meant I had to wash items just so I could work. Having a family of my own we depend on each other to get things done to make the house work which is why I understand when shit hits the fan and people let things fall by the wayside a home suffers. But I know the meaning of being a part of a family. I remember family dinners as a kid and everyone would do their part. Basically I felt like no one cared about their brothers. No one cared if the dishes were sanitary enough to be used to make the dinner they would eat. The mom in me came out and felt hurt that her boys weren’t taking care of each other.

Since then I’ve gotten over it. Enough of the usual visitors to the dungeon have learned of my level of angst that day and I’m letting it go. If stuff I need isn’t clean, I’m just going to clean it and move on. It may mean no dessert or whatever but at least I’ll get dinner done.

On a much happier note, we had Exotic Meats night this past sunday. This semester’s Rex, Schmidty, has been wanting to eat Yak since he first had it last year. It was a hit and we’ll most likely do it before he graduates this semester.

I’d write more but I’m exhausted after experiencing the Dropkick Murphys last night and yes, your chef went crowdsurfing. It was awesome and i’m hurting right now.

Unknown Identities

ramshacklekitchen — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:19:21 +0000

It’s kind of hard for me to deny, whilst standing in the kitchen holding my chef’s knife or making a dessert or something, that I’m the cook in the house. Not to mention, at some point through out the day, I think I’m the only female in the house. So with that said, I wish to relay the following: if you are a brother who has never met me, come on down and say hi. Even if you’re a friend who has eaten my food, still stop by and say what’s up. My ego needs it every once and while.

On that note, yesterday went really well with newbie Manyu helping me out. Up until yesterday I had never been introduced to him and only really knew him from random sightings and from what the brothers told me. I’m glad I got to work with him though. Trying to look at these busy days from another angle than just a day with extra help. It’s a good way to learn more about the brothers I would normally not see. Except for Vijay, who I have for 2 more sundays. He needs to totally sweep me off my feet on my birthday as that is his last sunday with me or Tim will totally win the B$%^& of the semester award.