Madison Bucket List

I HAVE SO MUCH TO SHARE WITH YOU ALL.


First of all, Blogger just got all fancy and now I can look at all the general stats of the people reading my blog. Lets guess which Google word search brings people to my blog the most.


Wait for it...


Waaaaaaiiiit for it.....






MERYL. STREEP.


I'm so happy I could cry. Also, if you're worried that now I can see exactly who is reading/how many times they are reading, I can't. I can only see general things like what countries are reading (Egypt and Ukraine, how you doin?) and which operating systems are being used to view my blog the most (Windows, thanks so much for the unending support.)


So I'm gonna go ahead and spend the next 4 hours learning exactly how everything on the new Blogger works. But first!


I've been keeping something from this blog. A terrible secret. 


Just kidding I have zero secrets. I'm no where near mysterious enough for secrets. But I have been keeping one thing off the blog. I'm calling it my Madison Bucket List. I didn't put it up because I was thinking I'd do it just for myself and then post it once I was done. Then I ended up telling everyone (once again, no secrets) because it turns out that bucket lists are better with friends. 

Did I use WordArt? Obviously. 

What is a Madison Bucket List? Thank you for asking. It's a list of entirely achievable adventures or tasks that I somehow never got around to doing in these last four years at Madison. I'm trying to do one per day. 


And everyone that I've talked to about it have been incredibly interested. Also very willing to help a lady out. I received many requests to post my adventures here, so I'll just start by posting what I've done so far. 


**editor's note: No just kidding I won't post everything I've done so far because that makes for a REALLY long blog post so this is going to be divided up. Enjoy days 1-5**


Madison Bucket List (Days 1-5)


Day 1) Try a new flavor of Babcock ice cream

For those wondering how liberal of a campus Madison is, please direct your questions to my roommate's bumper stickers

For those of you unfamiliar with Babcock Ice Cream, it's pretty great. It's primarily student run, and it's only available in Madison so I figure it's the perfect thing to start off my list. The flavor was Union Utopia: peanut butter caramel and chocolate. I think. Apparently I'm the only person in Madison that hadn't tried the flavor, based on the reactions I got when I told people that it was the flavor I chose.

Day 2: Read The Onion cover to cover

Did you know that The Onion was founded by two UW-Madison juniors? That's right. We're awesome. Anyway, because of that UW-Madison has hard copies of The Onion at every campus building and at every street corner. And yet I've still never read it cover to cover! I've definitely read it before, but only enough to read the stories with the funniest headlines. This time, I sat down and read every little thing in that paper.


My favorite headline: "Rod Stewart Mistaken for Elderly Aunt"

Day 3: Go back to Pop's as a senior

That beautiful building is where I got my food every day as a freshman. It's where I ate a croissant at every meal and wondered why I was gaining weight. It's where I voted for the first time (because for some reason we voted in our dining hall). If you go in and turn left, you get to Pop's, which has hot food that you put on a tray and pay for the regular way. To the right is Ed's, which is like a mini mall. Also it had pizza. And maybe wraps? I don't really remember.

This stunning building is being knocked down soon, so I thought I'd stop by and give it my last respects. Unfortunately I thought of this at about 11:40 pm and I was freaking out about getting my Bucket List item done by midnight, so my roommate Maggie and I sped there on our bikes, only to find that Pop's was closed for the night.

Not to be discouraged, we went to Ed's instead. But I had to do something that I'd never done before for the list, so we bought a pint of Babcock ice cream (which I've never done before!) ( I know that's basically what I did the first day) (Shut it).

Day 4: Go to Johnny O's

Or in my case, stand in line at Johnny O's for two seconds because the line was too long. But don't worry, I went back later.

So, there are about a million bars in Madison, and I've been to about 5 of them. For many reasons, the biggest being that I turned 21 very late. But I really want to get to all the college bars before I leave because I know I won't want to go back to them once I've graduated.


I mean, it's already a struggle to get me to go to them now. And I draw the line at Whiskey Jack's. I just... can't. Not when their website home page plays dirty country music and has pictures of girls wearing cowboy hats unironically. 

Day 5: Go to Shoo


Okay now see... some of these are going to be more interesting than others. This one is not interesting. It's a shoe store. More like a boutique, really. But it is Madison-based!


I bought a new pair of Tom's. Then the next night I wore them in a rainstorm like a FOOL and now they're covered in mud and I can't be bothered to do anything about it. They sit in my closet, mocking me. 


------------------------


Wow, that was a really boring one to end on, but what can you do? The list goes on! I'm on day 13 right now. 


Here's the list of things I have not yet accomplished. Hopefully it gets warmer, otherwise canoeing and kickball might get a little difficult. 


Madison Bucket List (not yet completed)
- Watch sunrise over one of the lakes
- Buy flowers from the farmer's market
- Sit in Abe's lap (this one's waiting for graduation)
- Get dessert from Big 10
- Work out at the Nat
- Picnic at Picnic Point
- Eat at Buraka
- Buy that quarter zip from the bookstore you've wanted for 4 years
- Try the Great Dane beer flavored chocolates
- Get canoe from Hoofers
- Find someone who can sail and con them into taking you sailing
- Kickball at Vilas
- Get cupcake from Madison Sweets cupcake place




Have any ideas for what I should add? Let me know! I'm struggling to come up with cool-weather ideas.

This is not a food blog

But I really wish it was! Oh how I wish I could just wake up one day all, "I do believe I would truly enjoy a nice cheddar souffle this morning. Perhaps with a chutney glaze? Quite, quite."

In that reality I'm British. Evidently.

But I am 100% incapable of imagining up recipe ideas and I'm INCREDIBLY average at cooking. I am the equator of cooking. Likewise baking. But not today, dammit! Today I will cook something from my pinterest page and it will be delicious. What is it going to be, you ask? Uh... I have no idea. Hold on while I go find something really simple but looks really difficult.

....

........

....

GOT IT!

Except it's not from Pinterest. It's from my friend's food blog. GO CHECK HER OUT RIGHT NOW. http://theapartmentbaker.wordpress.com/ 

She is a wonderful chef. She has these qualities called "patience" and "resourcefulness" that I seem to lack.


Here's what I will be making! It's called "Orange Olive Oil Cake and Orange Curd"

Oh! Oh okay. Okay okay okay.

Baking comes easier to me than cooking, so that's what we're going with people. For those of you who think I'm chickening out because I'm not making a stuffed hen or something... you are correct. Don't worry. Baking will still cause plenty of hilarity, I'm sure. 

If you want the recipe, go to the link above the photo (hint hint... you'll need oranges). It's not my recipe so I don't really want to take credit for it on my blog. Cuz I'm COOL LIKE DAT. 

aaaand now I have to go shower off the shame that comes from uttering the phrase "cool like dat."

LETTUCE BEGIN! (get used to the food puns people, I've been STOREing them up.) (that last one was a stretch.)

Step one was basically me figuring out how to zest an orange. As it turns out, I had to zest 4 oranges & 2 lemons. It was not enjoyable. I don't know how to zest so I kept messing up and giving myself little cuts. Then the lemon juice would get in the cuts and my hand would slip from the pain & I would cut my hand again. The vicious cycle of lemon zesting, if you will.

That thumb is no longer cut-free

But I did it! And then I mixed it up with a ton of sugar and it looked awesome:

I wanted to eat it but I contained myself when I remembered that it is equal parts sugar and orange peel.
By the way the entire time I was cooking my roommates were behind me studying for some sort of science class. I believe it was... biochem? That sounds like science.

The sound of science-y words filled my ears as I rubbed my fingers raw on a grater. For the name of our interior designer, please inquire in the comments. 

Next, the recipe said I had to "supreme an orange."And my first thought was, "sweet mother of god that sounds difficult." And it was.

Essentially, supremeing an orange means that you cut off the top and bottom, shave off all the peel, and then remove the transparent skin so that you're left with the membrane. By the way, there is no grosser recipe instruction than "remove membrane and place in bowl."

So that took me about an hour. But actually.

I put the loaf in the oven, and started on the curd. Which is the second most disgusting word in this recipe.

Here is where I'm the worst. I don't do "simmering." Recipes always say to simmer and I'm just kind of like, "MEH. LETS CRANK IT UP. It'll cook faster then, right?" So I tried really hard this time to keep it simmering.

Let me interrupt my thrilling curd story to tell you that our apartment does not have the best appliances. They don't always "heat" or "blend" or "work."Which brings me to our oven(s). The upstairs oven is a glorified easy-bake-oven. You look inside, only to discover that your cookies are being baked by a lightbulb. And the magic is gone. It's also roughly the same size as an easy-bake-oven. The downstairs oven is very touchy. You never know what you're going to get.

And today I got a loaf that was burned on top and liquid in the middle. So you know... the usual. I tried rotating it around the oven like I have any idea what I'm doing, but it got a little crispy on top. And it's STILL liquidy in the very center. I don't want to talk about it.  But here it is!

By the way I couldn't go anywhere because I had to keep checking on the touchy oven, so to pass the time while cooking this I looked up photos of Meryl Streep from the 80s.

You look troubled, Meryl. Tell me what's wrong.

You're welcome.

After 20 minutes of Meryl-searching, it was time to put the bread on the cooling rack. And of course I was too impatient to do it the right way so I turned it upside down and shook it as hard as I could. This happened:

So I glued the piece back on with some curd. No one knew the difference. Except they totally did because, as it turns out, curd does not make a good adhesive.

Our finest china

Voila! The finished result!
Oh yes, you're seeing REAL chunks of orange membrane, my friends. My opinion? The loaf was delicious, the curd was too sweet for me. Keep in mind that I don't like frosting either, so I feel like my opinion shouldn't count. My roommates loved it!

In the end, I ate half the loaf while watching Meryl Streep be adorable at the Oscars.

My final unrelated thoughts: Meryl wore the exact same gold color at her win for Sophie's Choice 30 years ago. And she gets better with age!