Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Recipe: Alfredo Macaroni

I like to try out new recipes with my little sister, Molli. Today I experimented a little bit, swaying from our usual Alfredo Ravioli. This dish came out great, according to our standards. I'm thinking it would be an easy and simple recipe to make on a lazy night in or for lunch in a college dorm. Here's my recipe:

Alfredo Macaroni
(beginner level: eat in 10-15 minutes, tops)

You'll Need:

1 large pot
1 small pot (or sauce pot)
1 strainer
2 spoons
1 bag of large elbow macaroni pasta
1 tub of Buitoni Alfredo sauce
water
olive oil
salt
pepper
Tony Chacere's Seasoning
butter

Steps:
1) Fill the large pot halfway with water. Add 1 shot of olive oil (eyeball it). Boil.
2) Pour in half of the bag of pasta (or more, or less, depending on your personal preference). Boil for 8 minutes to al dente. (Stir at intervals to prevent sticking).
3) While the pasta is boiling, take half of the tub of Alfredo sauce and pour it into the sauce pot. Heat on simmer. Add salt, pepper, and Tony's (personal preference).
4) Once the pasta is done, strain it. Transfer the strained pasta into your serving container.
5) Pour the sauce over the pasta and stir thoroughly. Top with Tony's, if desired. Serve.

(**Sidenote: When I made it in this way ^, it served 4 people.**)

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Book Review: THE CHOSEN

For my senior year (in preparation for Humanities Honors), four books are required reads for during the summer. In my new attempt to not get overwhelmingly stressed, I decided I would try as hard as I could to actually get into the books. Through a month's worth of effort, I finally finished The Chosen by Chaim Potok.
I absolutely loved this book. Without spoiling anything, I will now attempt to summarize the book.
The story is centered around the lives of two Jewish boys and their fathers. Reuven Malter is the main dynamic character but Daniel Saunders is a bit dynamic as well, though the story is told from Reuven's point of view. They become unlikely friends and change each other's lives in ways that they would have never thought possible if not for the accident that brought them together. It talks about their journey to becoming men, growing in relationship with their father, deciding their relationship with their faith, and choosing a life path that satisfies their internal need with the external need of their world. It is set in New York City during the 1940's.

**SPOILER ALERT: If anyone is interested in reading or currently reading, keep in mind that this is a book about faith and, therefore, must have some recurring theme. I recommend defining as many of the Yiddish terms as possible as they come up in the book to form a clearer understanding and picture, especially if you are not familiar with the faith. The entire time I was reading, I thought of the musical I was in 2 years ago, Fiddler on the Roof. Reb Saunders most likely symbolizes God or some godly entity. If you think of him that way, he makes a lot more sense. Also, Reb Malter and Reuven symbolize prophets, each in their own way. It seems for a while that the plot is not progressing quickly enough for my interests but if this would have clicked earlier than chapter 17, the book would've gone a lot smoother for me. Anyway, Reuven is a stereotypical prohet, a vessel through which God speaks to his people (or son) and Reb Malter is more of an advisor or messenger than Reuven**

Remember kids, silence speaks if you only learn to listen ;)

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

College? Scary!

I've recently realized that I will be off to college soon... very soon. I feel like its creeping up on me more and more each day.

If my calculations are correct, I have 18 more months until I am off to college, fending for myself in the real world.

A big issue with today's college goers is money. I've come upon an awesome scholarship website (fastweb.com) and I can win $500 for referring people. All you have to do is click this link:


I know what some of you may be thinking: "What's in it for me?" Well, you can win things too! Every person's scholarship matches are different so just registering makes you eligible to win lots of college bucks!

Sunday, January 19, 2014

DIY Weekend! (Sunday)

A few years ago, when my mom was feeling really crafty and started a bow making business, she came to me and asked me if I wanted this bracelet-looking thing she called a "Hippie Tie." Of course, at the time, being an annoying, bratty 12 year old, I looked at her like she was insane. I was not wearing that in my hair. No way. Come sophomore year, though, these hair ties my mother discovered exploded into a huge fad. Only then did I want to wear them in my hair. I found, though, that the one's going around didn't quite work with my obnoxiously thick hair, so I asked my mom for any supplies she had left and I started to make my own. Recently, I've used them up (they do stretch excessively after a while if you are thrice-wrapper like me) and I've gotten back into the crafty habit.
I did not make the one above ^ but this is an example of the one's that didn't quite fit. I only use this one for certain kinds of buns or half-up do's. Today I'm just using it as an example of what the finished product should look like.
Start with a full headband like this one. It should be made of pure elastic, not the round, slim ones with rubber cores.
First I cut off the 'nub'.
 Then I measure the band around my wrist to get a good feel for the length I want.
Then you take both ends and tie a knot where the ends do not form the knot; they stay together going through the loop.
 Cut off the excess band on the end of the knot so that it doesn't stick out while the tie is in your hair.
This is what the finished tie looked like. Below are some other examples of the bands I use. I believe they can be found on etsy.com under 'supplies' or maybe 'hair accessories'. They were originally used for infant headbands, if that info is of any help.
As you can see, there are many different color options and they look great worn on your wrist or in your hair. I recommend, though, to measure them out depending on their purpose (bracelet, hair, buns, ponytails, etc.) because they do stretch according to how often you use them.

Saturday, January 18, 2014

DIY Weekend! (Saturday)

For my second DIY project of the weekend, I distressed my own jeans. It really is pointless to buy a pair with holes already in them. Get a few years of use out of a nice pair and then make your own cuts.
I combined lots of different tutorials into the inspiration for this project because I wanted the rips done a certain way to my own liking. All of the links to the different references can be found on my Pinterest under the DIY board. (http://www.pinterest.com/madiburke/diy/)
Here's the before. Notice you can actually see natural lighting coming from the window as opposed to the artificial lighting from the after picture... This took all day.

The finished product came out exactly how I wanted it (pretty good for a first attempt, am I right?). Here are some examples of the different types of cuts I made and where.


The key is to make straight, horizontal cuts after trying them on and marking the lines with a pen (with still wearing the jeans). Then, you should pull out each of the vertical strings (Verticals are blue/horizontals are white).
Yes, you pull each blue string out one-by-one... hence "all day").
The first picture at the top of this post features the finished product modeled by moi.

DIY Weekend! (Friday)

On Friday, during a fit of stretching in AP Psychology, I started playing with my hair. It dawned on me that I had not had a haircut since maybe August. I asked my friend sitting next to me if she had a pair of sharp scissors. I was determined to cut my hair right then and there in the middle of story time about split-brains. She fortunately did not have any scissors in her possession. When I got home that afternoon, I actually educated myself in the art of self-trimming. I used this video as guidance because it was the best, most legitimate, well-explained tutorial I could find with hair similar to mine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um1hqXh7-cc

I'm actually really impressed with myself and how my hair turned out. I freshened and reshaped my fringe, trimmed the very ends and went through a few layers. As of now, I don't plan on ever paying to get a trim ever again now that I know how to do it myself.

It's become quite a fad amongst my friends (and now me) to trim our own or each other's hair. I know that sometimes trimming your own (or a friend's) hair can be scary and intimidating, but once you know what you are doing and you are calm about the situation, it can leave you with nice, healthy-looking hair (when done correctly).

Just a little "Hi" from me... and other personal info you probably don't care about

Hello my beautiful people of the Internet!

My name is Madi Burke. Many people assume that I don't have a life because most of it is spent online, but in reality my life gets pretty hectic. I just prefer not to wallow in it and post about it instead.

Let me tell you a bit about myself: I am 16 years old. I am addicted to Pinterest... no really. It's a serious problem (almost 12K pins and counting). I refer to myself as a Broadway junkie. For example, I have spent the past three days watching the live concert of Sweeney Todd. Speaking of, I have yet to find a horror movie that has scared me sufficiently. I love music. I am classically trained in vocals and piano. I also act. I love to read but I very seldom find time for it. My favorite novel is The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. My favorite series is the Matched Trilogy. I consider myself a writer, as well, even though I have had a severe case of writers block for a while now. You should also know that I am an extreme geek (appearances may be deceiving).

I started a YouTube channel a few years ago. This soon became 4 channels, all straying from the original purpose. Now that I have prioritized, I have one main channel (youtube.com/vlogswithmadds) where I post everything from music to fashion advice to skits and everything in between.

The story behind my separate fashion blog and Instagram, though, is quite a funny one. One day in Geometry during freshman year, my good friends Abbey and Blaze were discussing the opinion of one girl about my advice legitimacy (particularly about my "opposing neutrals" theory). Long story short, they came up with the idea that I was a style goddess (hence the namesake of this blog). I started beauty-blogging in honor of their genius stroke of intelligence only 2 years ago.

I have decided to make this more official blog (rather than just a cluttered Tumblr) to organize and keep up with my beauty-blogging, in the hope to grow an audience and inspire more young girls like myself to develop their own style.

x Madds