My life in a nutshell

I finally got settled in my room, which is a big improvement in my living situation since the last post. For one thing, I'm not living out of a duffel anymore, and have more than six t-shirts and three pairs of jeans to choose from. It also means running out of underwear less quickly, so laundry less often! I moved into the room as soon as the last subletter left, and spent a whole day cleaning and unpacking instead of studying... Oops. :)

Well, so I will be spending the next ten months or so of my life in a room about the size of a nutshell. It is easily the smallest space I have had to occupy since the one-bedroom apartment in Eagle Heights in Madison, and then it was only because I had had to share the room with my mom and younger brother.

This room here is actually tiny.

The room came furnished with a lofted bed, a desk, half a chest of drawers (the bottom drawer is AWOL), a chair, and a bookshelf, all of the Ikea variety.





It's hard to snap just one picture that will convey a sense of the whole room because I can't get far enough back.

I actually don't mind having a small room since I don't have much stuff, and it's much easier to keep it tidy. What I do mind, however, is the nutshell of a kitchen.



Makes me really miss the kitchen of Hatherly College, stripes and all.



Hey, but I still have a kitchen! I don't have nearly as much time to bake and cook now, given that I have spent a staggering majority of the past month holed up in a corner of the (windowless) second floor of the med school library, and expect to continue this trend for much of the rest of the year.

However, de-stressing breaks are good for the soul. We just finished the first unit on Thursday, so I can relax just a little bit before jumping into the next unit on Tuesday. And you know what that means: Chinese takeout, hilarious Korean TV shows, a new YA novel, and baking.

Oh yeah, I've been fantasizing about my wild, wild weekend for a while now.

(By the by, Becca sent me the recipe for the Golden Grand Marnier Cake so I could share it here! Go check it out!)


Doughnut Muffins
Adapted from Kirbie's Cravings.

I came across this recipe a while back, probably through TasteSpotting, and bookmarked it because, dude! Doughnut muffins! I think the mini muffins are a great idea, but I lack the proper tins, and the regular muffins are tasty, too. I left them on the kitchen counter with a note for my flatmates to please have some, and most were gone by this morning.



3/4 c. sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking power
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 c. vegetable oil
3/4 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Lightly grease a muffin tin.

In a large bowl, beat together the sugar and egg until light in color.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Stir into the egg mixture. Mix in the vegetable oil, milk, and vanilla extract.

Divide batter evenly into 12 muffin cups or ~24 mini-muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full.

Bake until done, 15-18 min. for standard-sized muffins or 11-12 min. for mini-muffins.

Optional: After muffins have cooled, lightly brush on some melted butter, then roll in sugar.