It is a typical Tuesday night. Homework is piling up and the weekend is still days away. In times like these, a quick and easy home cooked meal is just what you need to make it through the homework-ridden night. You need things like a bowl of fresh guacamole to stuff yourself with, or a quick and spicy burrito you were able to cobble together from leftovers.

The kitchen should be a place of comfort, the wafting smells of home cooking promising a fresh meal to recharge after a long day. The refrigerator filled with food just begging to be cooked. The dishes, pots, pans and silverware all cleaned and gleaming, ready to go. Even the stove top is free of crud.

But if you are like most college students, this is not your kitchen. True, your stove top might be spotless, but only because it is so seldom used. The refrigerator probably has beer, and if you are lucky, a mostly-random collection of leftovers and condiments you most likely inherited from the house’s last tenants. If you have silverware, it is probably thrown willy-nilly in the sink along with the couple of glasses stolen from the nearest dive bar that you got so you would have something to drink out of.

Do not beat yourself up. Not only are you not alone, there is indeed hope for that once-forgotten section of your studio or city-sized apartment. It takes surprisingly little work—and even less money—to turn your kitchen from that-awkward-extra-space-to-put-knick-knacks into a warm and happy room. A room that is capable of turning even the most basic ingredients to tasty, healthy and easy meals.
EQUIPMENT
The first part of having a kitchen is having the tools to use it. You would not, say, try to change your car’s oil without a wrench or maybe use the bathroom without toilet paper, so do not be fooled into thinking the two-burner hotplate your apartment came with is going to be enough. It is not.

Fortunately, it does not take much to equip your kitchen. Simply looking on websites like craigslist.org for free stuff can work great, just make sure to act fast, as the more desirable freebies tend to get snatched up right away. Second-hand stores like Salvation Army and Goodwill are equally helpful. If sparkling new cookware is more to your liking, discount shops like Ross and even Wal-Mart sell most kitchen essentials at rock-bottom prices.

And basic tools really are all you need. A pot and pan are the first obvious essentials. If you are short on space or college-aged, you probably should stick to medium or small gear. Besides, how often do you really cook pasta for five people anyway? Make sure that your pots and pans come with lids. Not only do they help save energy by heating up food and water faster, but they also help keep the kitchen clean by keeping food in the pot where it belongs.

With the basics covered, make sure to have a few cooking utensils, like spatulas, tongs, big spoons, and so forth. Sets are available that include all the basics plus a nice bucket to keep them in, helping to keep clutter at bay. The last things needed are a few good knives and some silverware, plates and bowls for actually eating with. If the kitchen is tiny and has limited dishwashing space, disposable plates and cutlery are a convenient, if less earth friendly option.

Always make sure to have some dishrags lying around, because life happens, and food gets spilled. Shop rags, the little red squares of fabric used by mechanics, work surprisingly well in the kitchen, and are sold cheaply at auto parts stores. Fancy dishtowels might look nicer, but when you can get ten shop rags for the price of one, the price is hard to beat. Keep a few within reach at all times.

Even if your kitchen is only a hot plate and a toaster oven, don’t get discouraged. “Sometimes, you just need to look around at what you have,” says Amber Crago, 25, a mostly-self-taught cook-extraordinaire. When cooking dinner aboard an old houseboat, with only a toaster oven and weak, two-burner hot plate to work with, Crago pulls out a trick she first discovered while living in Hawaii, where the local love for rice means every house is equipped with a rice cooker.

“It’s not just a rice cooker,” she says. “It’s just like a hot plate, but with an auto-off switch and built-in warmer.” Rice cookers are perfect for making soups, stews, and even chilies and beans. And here’s a tip: a used rice cooker can be picked up for under ten dollars.

GETTING THE FOOD

With the kitchen brought up to speed, it is time to actually buy the food to cook. Having food in your kitchen is what really makes it the happy place it is meant to be, but choose carefully, because it’s easy to go overboard.

If you have recipes you know you want to try, read up beforehand. But more often than not, purchasing every single ingredient listed in a cookbook rapidly becomes prohibitively expensive. After all, if you have to spend twenty dollars to have everything for a burrito, why not just buy a burrito for six dollars instead?

Rather than thinking in terms of recipes, appraise in broader terms. Consider ingredients as components. For example, bread, tortillas and buns are really all the same part of a dish—something to hold everything together. Rice, pasta and noodles all serve as the base to put something else on top of.

“I buy a log of the really cheap ground beef, and add it to regular pasta sauce to make a meat sauce,” says Jonathan Scion, 24, in his extremely cluttered and mostly unfurnished kitchen in Berkeley, Calif. “I cook a lot, believe it or not,” Scion says, looking around and noticing the partially-full trash bag on the floor.

Shaun Goo, 22, also touts the benefits of the Italian staple. “All you have to do is dump it in boiling water and boil the hell out of it,” he says. “You’d have to be an idiot to not be able to do it.” Goo says he typically augments the regular jarred red sauce with fresh veggies like zucchini or whatever else he happens to have. “The good thing about pasta,” he says, “is that you can put anything in and it’ll be good.”

Rice and pasta are great to buy in bulk because they have a long shelf life and don’t take up much space. But other things, like bread and tortillas, expire quickly. So choose carefully. When shopping for one person, remember that eight burger buns will last what seems like forever. It is easy to get sick of them well before they are done, and unless you eat them for all three meals every day, they can mold before the bag is empty.

“Farmer’s markets are some of the best places to find deals on produce, especially in season,” Crago says. Even better, the fruits and veggies found there are usually fresher than what is found in grocery stores. But, like bread, be realistic about what you will eat and how much fridge space you have—it feels great to hop on Muni with two full bags bursting with fresh food, but unless you really, really eat a lot of salad, it might be a false economy. Buying in bulk is a double-edged sword. Sure, there are significant savings to be had, but remember that if not properly stored, food can go bad fast, and quickly negate any of the savings.

Meat will last for ages in the freezer, but will also take a long time to thaw, ruining the spontaneity of cooking. Meat in the fridge will last maybe a week at best.

While it’s hard to beat the taste of fresh meat—or tofu, for that matter—there are easier options for the lazy college chef. There are pre-frozen burger patties in practically every combination of meat imaginable, and of course there are veggie burger patties as well.

Inevitably, eating burgers every night gets gross real fast, but don’t look at it that way. Patties don’t have to be eaten as burgers; they can be cooked up practically any way imaginable.
Keeping it simple is key, but never forget that flavor is the most important thing, so be sure to stock on spices and a couple of hot sauces—a Mexican-style one and an Asian-style seasoning will cover most everything. Spices aren’t cheap, but a little goes a long way, so consider it an investment. Cumin is a versatile spice that goes well with just about anything, as do garlic powder and paprika. Just use your nose and buy what appeals to you.
The key to shopping is just grabbing what you think will go well together. Just remember that America’s obsession with bulk purchasing means that pretty much anything you’ll buy will last a long time when just one person is using it, so make sure there are lots of possibilities for every ingredient you buy.

COOKING

Now comes the fun part. With the kitchen stocked and ready, it is time to cook. Don’t be scared, the most important thing is to just go with it and use your gut. Baking is a science that requires careful measurement, precise temperatures and exact timing. Cooking is the opposite—all it requires in an idea.

“It’s really a matter of getting over the initial fear,” says Tom Shattuck. “It’s super basic, just getting things together and whipping it up.” Shattuck, an English major at San Francisco State University, would know. When he first started working at Whole Foods, he’d never really cooked before. “I started from nothing,” he says. “That’s what’s so sick about cooking.” Now he’s a chef. While Shattuck wants nothing to do with a career in the restaurant industry, cooking is a good skill to fall back on.

Remember that it is the little things that separate a delicious meal from a gross, desperate concoction. Toasted bread is almost always better than cold bread. If you have a toaster oven, just stick the bread inside and keep an eye on it until it is just how you like it—anywhere from lightly warmed to brown and crunchy.

Use spices to your advantage, and remember that even basic things can become delicious with just a little ingenuity. Take instant ramen noodles, for example. Just throw away the gross and MSG-laden flavor pack. Cook the noodles, but add whatever you desire to make your own soup—soy sauce or hot sauce and spices for flavor, and top it off with fresh veggies or tofu. That’s a decent meal in less than ten minutes.

Be sure to think creatively. You may have gotten sick of those burger patties ages ago, but they can easily be re-imagined. Break the patties into pieces and cook them in a pan with jarred curry sauce and serve over rice for a quick Indian meal. Don’t tell, and no one will even guess you used burger patties. Salmon patties can even be cooked and added to salads, instantly making you look like a gourmet salmon chef. If bread is starting to go stale, butter it up and throw some spices on to make croutons by toasting it in the oven until it becomes crunchy.

“You know what you like,” Shattuck says. “Don’t panic. Just fucking get your feet wet.”
So follow Shattuck’s advice. The worst thing that can possible happen is you will make something that does not taste like you hope, but that is what the learning process is all about. Grab some spices, your foods of choice, and get a pan full of home cooking going.

“Where exactly are we going?” Jonathan asks.

“The Moving Sale,” Giovan says, stepping out of the staircase to his apartment and on to the pavement, zipping his windbreaker all the way up to the brown tuft of hair hanging off his chin. “Imagine every garage sale you’ve ever been to stacked in a warehouse.”

Jonathan Sanders, 22, is up from Los Angeles with a few friends, staying with San Francisco State University student Giovan Alonzi, 21, at his quaint SoMa apartment. A good rest after a day consumed by transit, Jonathan is ready to absorb what San Francisco has to offer. And this afternoon, after about a week of rainfall, the washed pavement and cool colors that paint the south of Market skyline seem to glow, illuminating this chilly, but bright path up 5th Street and down Howard Street.

And Giovan is not far from the truth. Small bookshelves filled with idiot’s guides and tattered spy novels, French-American dictionaries, toasters, tables, and chairs sit outside on the street, where most of them had been left in the first place, only to be gathered and appropriated for curious and thrifty urban dwellers. They do not obstruct the path so much as they guide the eye into the endearing warehouse on the right, from which they seem to be spewing out.

Upon entry, the midday light falls through the open door on Howard Street lighting up the hallway surrounded by chairs, cushions, DVDs, 50-year-old credit card mProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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hines, and all sorts of knicks and knacks by the time it stops at the beginning of the main room of the live-work space. Piles of furniture, televisions, a piano, and the faded books, given a subtle coloring and character by the lamps hanging overhead and stationed around the room, are all for sale, validating the sign that hangs above the door: “It’s not just a garage sale, it’s the whole house.”

Rhythmic echoes of rummaging come to an end and shortly after, store owner Mark Swenson steps into the light leading into the warehouse’s main space, decked out to the ceiling in antiquity. His protruding chin accentuates his grin at the sight of Giovan, who is at this point a regular.

Giovan first stumbled upon this place in December, and, for less than $35, bought Christmas gifts for his roommates and entire family. Ralph Bakshi’s lesser-known Lord of the Rings, a decadent olive oil-vinegar dispenser, a jello mold, Plato’s Ethics, and an old framed Yamato-e are stacked in his arms by the time he exits onto the street, only to return with friends several times over.

Swenson, now 48, moved to San Francisco in the late 1980s after graduating with a degree in Communications from the University of Minnesota. The son of an apartment manager, he spent his whole life in Minneapolis, learning electrical and repair skills he would later put to use. His social skills finally bloomed in college when he became a representative for his fraternity, and he could realize his passion for people. Dreams of entering the entertainment business brought him to California, first shacking up in San Francisco, where he worked selling hot dogs on a street corner.

“Best job I ever had,” Swenson smiles, taking off an examining the perfect round lenses on his glasses, legs crossed and knee bouncing. “I loved it because I could just stand there and talk to tourists all day. This was years ago when only one company had all the permits to sell so they had like five or six carts throughout the city.”

In 1989 he found himself in Los Angeles selling Ricoh and Xerox copy machines, where he first learned how to sell. Still feeding his fondness for showbiz, he specialized in production and entertainment accounts, and it was about this time that a client in the business helped him land a gig as an extra on several episodes of Cheers.

“And I was on The Love Connection,” he laughs. “I was on the Scrabble gameshow and I actually won. It was weird because they said if you win, you’re going get your check 90 days from the air date. Don’t call us on day 89 on day 90 you’ll get it. And on day 90, $500 came in the mail. It was amazing.”

Several years into the 1990s, Swenson moved back to San Francisco, working at Macy’s, selling men’s shirts and ties. An accident on the job required him to take leave on workman’s compensation for several months, and during that time what would eventually become The Moving Sale is conceived.

“I had picked up a piece of furniture on the street that somebody had put out and refinished it,” he recalls. “I think I marbleized it.”

The repair skills inherited from his father years earlier would finally be put to their best use in these years, when he developed his passion for collecting.

“A friend of mine and I started going out from like 11 p.m. at night sometimes 3, 4, 5 or 6 a.m. picking furniture up or other things,” Swenson says. It’s rare when manages to suppress his seemingly unending grin. “And what I found was if somebody had a coat rack or a hall tree they would get rid of it because one part of it was broken, and then two blocks away from it somebody would have the same thing. So I could take two things and make one out of it.”

It would be easy to consider Swenson a passive environmental activist, definitely something to chew on. But the very nature of the lifestyle of collection, repair, and reuse ultimately ends up saving so many knicks, knacks, odds, and ends from what would be their unnecessary fate in landfill. A de facto conservationist, Swenson knows that what he does should be the precedent for the distribution of goods, and not just the ever popular “greening” of manufacturing.

“I don’t get how we can keep manufacturing new things,” he says. “I would see stuff out being thrown away, little leveler blinds. You have to know that there’s an overabundance of everything already, why you would keep making more of it is beyond me. We can make it cheaper, too.

“We don’t make anything here anymore its mostly made overseas I suppose,” he continues. “What I’ve found over the course of time here is it seems like younger people now would rather by something from Ikea rather than getting a good solid piece of furniture that’s going to last.”

By 1997, Swenson had moved into a live-work space down the street from his current spot in between 5th and 6th streets on Howard Street, as his garage on Octavia Boulevard can no longer manage to fit his trove of found goods. But by the time he had moved, he was having garage sales every Friday with roommates.

“I was making more money doing that then I was when I worked at Macy’s,” he says. “I would get stuff and fix it if it needed it and then go to auctions in the mornings. And kind of in the back of my mind I always wanted to open a little store. And what I would find while doing that was I had everything that people needed.”

“It was a big decision to quit to do something I liked,” he continues. “But what I found was that when I was in LA it was always about chasing money and never having any, because the lifestyle was like that, I guess. But the minute I moved up here I always had money in the bank and I was able to accumulate it enough to do this.”

Swenson pauses, stares off into the distance, before rolling his upward eyes back around, the movement barely hidden by the glare on his lenses.

“I’m not just some ‘junk man,’” he says. “I do this for a greater purpose. I believe I get things and sell things because people need them.”

This is not signifying an over-inflated sense of self; while Swenson’s business is collecting things, he is no hoarder. Everything in his store is for sale. He recalls a point where it seemed as if he was selling his own couch every week, only to replace it with a new piece of furniture shortly after.

“I remember specifically one time I was in my garage,” he remembers. “I had this pair of shoes, and some guy was walking by and liked them and asked the size and I remember saying, ‘I don’t know, what size do they need to be?’ And they were the size that they needed to be. And he was so happy. It was great.”

It seemed that everything somebody needed, it was in that garage and Swenson could come up with it, and so came the altruism that helps him along in his entrepreneurial venture, ending up with the opening of The Moving Sale.

“I was living in the place, and at night would be bringing all this stuff home and neighbors and people in hotels would be like ‘Oh what the fuck’s going on there?’” he says through breathy laughter. “And finally I was like, ‘Okay I’m opening this store.’”

Initially, Swenson had a different name for it.

“But one day I was sitting around and I had all these boxes and I thought, ‘Boy, if I called it “Moving Sale,” then I wont have to unpack anything,’” Swenson says. “So it was kind of out of laziness in a way that I came up with that.”

The area around Harrison and Stevenson, between 5th and 7th streets was an earthquake recovery zone after the 1989 earthquake, and it became a redevelopment project area. When he first learned that the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency bought his building (from which he subsequently moved to his current location), he found out one of his customers was the secretary for the SoMa Project Area Committee, which is the committee that advises the redevelopment agency.

When he got on, they were writing the plan amendment to make 6th street the major focus of a major redevelopment area, trying to improve living conditions and do away with blight. At the time, and still, a lot of his customers were homeless and lived in single room occupancy apartments. People needed heaters, hotplates or things they could use in their hotel rooms, like microwaves. So when he first started business in SoMa those were his customers. Swenson would go to auctions and get 15 microwaves at a time. Ultimately, he says, he improved peoples living conditions because he sold items to people who otherwise couldn’t get it, for cheap.

“My thing has always been that I don’t care what something’s worth,” Swenson says. “I sell things for what I want to sell things for. I don’t price a lot of things. I determine prices based on who I’m talking to. There’s no reason that somebody who needs something can’t just come in and get it from me, because ultimately I’ll work with them however I need to do it in order for them to get it. Even if it’s lowering the price or putting it on layaway.”

Swenson’s reputation among locals grew since the mid 1990s, especially as their standards of living increased. And as it turned out, Howard Street was the thoroughfare to get from Financial District to the Bay Bridge, so many on the other end of the economic spectrum would drive by every evening. Along with the Yellow Pages, The Moving Sale’s demographic grew and diversified over time. College students needing furniture, artists re-imagining the excesses of our culture to create a terrifying or beautiful sculpture, or the blighted needing decent stuff cheap. At the same time, Swenson was still going on late night runs, going to auctions and fixing up his findings.

And even now in the wake of and through constant process of urban redevelopment, most of his fan base has not been ebbed out of town. While built-in poverty is still around with halfway houses and SROS, the demographic has not changed much.

Into his third decade in SoMa, Swenson has seen it grow, and seen the infrastructural spit-shine of redevelopment morph the neighborhood around him. When he moved to San Francisco, he knew nothing about redevelopment or what it meant.

“I didn’t know what poor people were at the time,” he says. “I guess growing up in the Midwest we were by no means rich or anything. I guess I didn’t know what it was like on 6th Street.

“I used to sell a lot of stuff to artists,” Swenson continues. “They would come it to by odds and ends for art projects. I don’t have a lot of that anymore because they can’t afford to live here anymore, they went to Oakland. Once in a while I’ll have that, but not like I used to.”

His gaze is lost in the distance between himself and the brick wall obstructing the eyes from penetrating any further. Swenson cocks his head back and forth, his smile flickers as he travels through the subspace of memory.

“When I lived here in 1986 or 1987, and even when I went to college, I would see people that lived in warehouses and I always thought it was cool,” Swenson says, finally baring his teeth, sipping up the last of his coffee. “I always wanted to do that. And when I lived here initially I always thought it would be cool to live SoMa. And here I was living in SoMa in a warehouse!”

“Sometimes I think wow, it’s pretty cool, I actually have everything I ever wanted, in a way. Other times I think I have nothing and that I’m a miserable failure,” he chuckles. “So whatever. But, that’s essentially what led me to move where I’m currently at, while I’m doing all this. And luckily, I knew this place and I really love it.”

Rafael Lopez swears by Burk Hall. Kyle Nicolos considers the top floor in the Fine Arts building his home base. Vincent Munoz declares that the men’s locker room is like a secret garden, and any Business major will adamantly maintain theirs are the best on campus. And if you ask any female at SF State, well, don’t ask because they don’t poop.

Yes, good ‘ole number two. It happens. Whether you’re sitting in English 214, studying Physics in the Annex or eating lunch in the Student Center with that cutie patootie you’ve had your eye on the whole semester, pooping is a part of life and it can strike as randomly and violently as Jason on Halloween.

The worst part about a stinky situation? Is where exactly, and where in closest proximity, is the best place to handle your situation. That depends where you are on campus.  Are you coming from MUNI at the top of State by Holloway? Or are you coming from SamTrans by Lake Merced? Perhaps, you are in a major hurry because you just tried looking for parking in Park Merced for the last twenty minutes. Whatever the situation, location is integral in deciding where to relieve yourself in such a desperate moment.

First and foremost, lets answer the biggest question of all. Where is the cleanest, most settling place on all of SF State to go number two you ask? Fifth floor administration building, right outside President Robert Corrigan’s office. It is essentially the five-star version of any bathroom on campus. However, it may be rather intimidating to go to that top floor where you wonder if everything from the fancy furniture to the state-of-the-art boardroom is financed by student tuition. But march on soldier. Once you hit those bathrooms you’ll forget about the shiny oak desks, lack of classes and thousand dollar books, and you’ll be basking in bathroom glory right outside the president’s door. Talk about stinkin’ it to ’em.

Unfortunately, the Administration building isn’t always going to be a viable solution, and when you have to go, you have to go. If you are coming from the Lake Merced direction onto campus and do not have access to the dorms, your best bet is to hit any bathroom in the Humanities building. The higher the floor you go, the cleaner the bathroom. Burk Hall, Rafael Lopez’s personal favorite, is just across from Humanities. BH’s bathrooms are a little more modern than Humanities and thus seemingly cleaner. The Creative Arts building is also an option for those coming from the Park Merced area, the bathrooms are a bit outdated, but more sanitary than most places on campus.

If you are coming from a Stonestown excursion to get your freshest gear for the weekend and that Hot Dog on a Stick starts to rumble around in that belly of yours, get to Hensill Hall as soon as possible. Most of the SF State student body doesn’t even know this building exists. There are multiple floors with two-stall bathrooms that are frequently clean and quiet. There are also lockers adorning the walls in Hensill Hall, bringing back old memories of high school and yesteryear to calm you before unleashing the beast.

There are certain lavatory’s everyone should try to avoid at all times. Particularly the ones that are heavily trafficked. The bathrooms in the HSS building are simply gross. The Science building’s restrooms weren’t easy to find, and both building’s toilets look like they were last remodeled in 1950. The gym too should be avoided. Despite Munoz’s declaration, bathrooms at gymnasiums should just be used for number one.

The Business building isn’t ideal either, and if you are in that region of SF State you might as well find something in the Administration building that’s literally steps away. However, there are private one-stall bathrooms in the Business building that are a notch above the HSS and Science bathrooms.

Ideally, you want to be able to take care of your business in the soothing comforts of your own home. But that, like nature, cannot be completely controlled. Is it possible to somehow prevent or reduce random bowel movements? Of course. Wash your hands frequently, try to avoid big changes in your daily diet, don’t eat dropped food and wash fruits and vegetables before consuming. Also, try avoiding foods with Sorbitol, found in certain gum and candy that can lead to excessive bowel movements.

While none of this is a safe-proof plan to successfully relieving yourself on- or off-campus, this should be a decent guide of when and where to be if the moment strikes. And if you ever catch a female admitting to the unthinkable act of pooping, be sure to get in contact as soon as possible, their input would be gratefully appreciated.

The bread is piping hot and emits a fragrant steam. It has been placed on the counter to cool. The crust is a light, crispy brown. The scents of oregano and garlic fill the room. Slice through the hard crust and the steam spirals up from the rustic loaf, revealing a soft center. Lather a layer of butter on and bask in the delight of fresh, homemade baked bread.

The art of bread baking often seems daunting and difficult, but once the basics are mastered it just takes a little patience and the right ingredients to be baking homemade loafs.

No knead bread is a rustic ciabatta widely popularized in 2006 by New York Time’s columnist, Mark Bittman. The recipe was published in Bittman’s column, The Minimalist, which ran for over thirteen years. The bread was developed by Jim Lahey, the owner of Sullivan Street Bakery in New York.

Ciabatta, an Italian bread, is known for its versatility and distinct flavor. The Italian word ciabatta means slipper in english. It is often used in delis as a sandwich roll. In the most basic recipes only white flour, yeast, salt and water are required. Herbs, garlic, olive oil, and seeds can be added to give the bread more flavor. Some bakers use sourdough starters to make the dough more complex. For the beginning baker the flour and yeast recipe is simplest.

“I like how it’s a mix of art and science. You can follow the recipe to a T, or modify all the variables, like the time and temperature. But, you don’t know a good bread until you know how the dough feels,” says Chris Block, a user of Bittman’s recipe.

Tiffany Ballard, a homemade bread baker agrees with Block. “Remember that baking is where science and art meet, so it’s important to be both precise and follow your instincts.”

Block has been using the recipe for two-and-a-half years. “It’s just a basic formula,” states Block. “I don’t do no knead anymore. But, it got me in to baking bread.”

There are many ways to add flavor to your bread. Block suggests adding walnuts or other nuts in to the dough. “Take your time and use good ingredients. Bread is very simple so it’s important to pick good ingredients to start with, high quality flour and water that tastes good, not too chlorine-y,” says Ballard.

“Flavor in bread develops as yeast ferments so you want to make sure you don’t rush your bread or the texture and flavor will be off,” suggests Ballard. “On the flip side of that, though, is that you don’t want your bread to raise too long or your flavor will be too strong and your bread may fall in on itself. Never add extra yeast to make bread rise faster or you’ll get a bitter bread.”

NO KNEAD BREAD
3 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
3/4 tablespoon kosher salt (or 1 teaspoon table salt)
1 1/2 cups warm water

Begin by sifting the flour in a large mixing bowl. Add the salt and yeast, and stir to distribute them evenly within the flour. Add the water slowly, stirring with a large spoon. You may find that using your hands is easier to get it properly mixed, but a bit sticky.

If you are adding nuts, herbs, or other ingredients, this is the time to do so. Mix in any amount you feel comfortable with. Make sure they are evenly distributed throughout the dough. Try whole garlic cloves and oregano, or chives. Brush on some olive oil for an extra touch of flavor.

After everything is mixed in, cover the mixing bowl with some foil or plastic wrap. Put it in a warm place, preferably away from a draft, and forget about it for at least twelve hours. Up to twenty hours is fine, but keep in mind there is still some work to do.

Sprinkle some flour on a counter or cutting board and dump the dough out. Wet your hands to keep the dough from sticking to them and shape the dough in to a neat ball. Now place in the pan that you intend to cook it in.

The pan should have a lid, or be able to be covered with another pan that can serve as a lid. Nothing with plastic handles should be used, as the bread will be cooked at 450 Fahrenheit.

Now after the dough waits an hour-and-a-half, turn the oven to 450 and slip the pan in. Let cook for around a half hour. Remove the lid and cook another twenty to thirty minutes.

Remove from the oven.

You’ll know it is ready when the top is a crispy golden color. If you have a cooking thermometer you can test the inside to 210 Fahrenheit.

“One of the other big things for bread baking is temperature, often a recipe calls for something to be 70 degrees or 110 degrees…which are both a lot cooler than you think they are, so use a thermometer. Your oven is probably cooler than you think it is, so get an oven thermometer too,” says Ballard.

“Let it cool,” adds Block. “It’s pretty hard to do, but the flavor changes dramatically if you let it cool. It gets much better.”

“Dutch ovens are perfect for no knead. They hold in the steam, and that is necessary to make the crust,” informs Block.

When considering the best pan to use for the bread make sure that it has a lid, or that another pan can be used as a lid. Try a 9 x 9 inch metal baking dish and a pie crust pan for the lid. Be creative, anything that is large enough to hold the dough in and a lid can securely fit over is perfect. Keeping in the steam is essential to forming the crust.

Eric Jones suggests using no knead as a pizza dough. “It’s really easy to roll out, it’s not too yeasty, and it doesn’t bounce back too much,” he says.

Jones’ girlfriend cooks for him a lot and experiments with the bread for various dishes. He says she makes the dough, lets it rise, and then cooks it at a high temp for a few minutes and then adds the toppings. After being topped it is returned to the oven to complete the baking.

“We’ve even used different flours and ratios, we’ve gone with whole wheat and rice flour” he adds. “No knead bread is better than the bread you get at the super market!”

BAGELS
Bagels are another great thing to be able to bake on your own. The key to this process is boiling before baking. Otherwise, it is just a roll with a hole. They can be eaten at breakfast with cream cheese and jam, used for sandwiches, or enjoyed on their own.
4 cups all-purpose or bread flour
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
2 teaspoons instant yeast
1-1/4- 1-1/2 cups of warm water.

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl. After the mixture becomes uniform, flour your work surface and plop the dough out on it. Take one end of the dough and push it in to the rest of the dough, or knead the dough, until it becomes smooth.

If you like you can add cinnamon, herbs, garlic, raisins, or anything else you would like to be in the dough at this time. Toppings are added later.

Roll the dough out and cut in to eight equal-sized pieces. Roll into little balls and let sit for fifteen minutes.

Turn your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

Take each of the dough balls and roll them in to small snake-like pieces. Connect the two ends together and do your best to roll these neatly together. Another option is to poke a hole through the middle, making sure to make it wide enough to hold once the dough rises again.

Let the dough sit and rise for another fifteen to twenty minutes and in the mean time get a large pot of bowling water ready.

After the wait your bagels should look a bit puffier. Plop them into the water, making sure they do not overlap. Let them boil one minute each side. If you would like to top them with seeds, dehydrated goods, onions, or anything else now is the time. After removing them from the bowling water place them on a plate covered with your topping. Then move them off to the side, or place in a strainer so they can dry. Follow this for each bagel.

Place them in a lightly greased baking dish and place in the oven. Bake for ten minutes. Pull the tray out, flip them over, and return to the oven for another ten minutes.

Let them cool down before consuming. They are mighty delicious when fresh out of the oven, but make sure to save enough for the week!

Try wrapping the dough around your favorite cheese when forming. Use whole wheat flour for a different taste.

“Homemade bagels are much better than store bought!” says Jones. “They are the best because they are so fresh.”

Making homemade baked goods is delicious and rewarding. Give your friends or family a loaf for a present. To dress it up, cut up an old pillow case or shirt you do not use anymore. Wrap the loaf in it, and tie it neatly with a string. Throw a Sunday brunch party and invite friends to try your tasty breakfast treats. Use the bagels as a roll and make a delicious lunch on it. The possibilities are endless. Experiment, find the balance of the art and science, and taste the delicious texture of your homemade goods.

Bright sunlight is streaming through the dark pink curtain and onto the stark white walls of Adriana Amer’s bedroom. Illuminating her dark, curly hair and light brown, olive complexion, Adriana rolls over as her phone begins to ring the tune of The Office, signaling it is time to greet the day. She slowly rises from her bed within her Village at Centennial Square apartment at SF State. A transfer student, this is Adriana’s first year living on campus. She happily switches on her iHome and heads into the bathroom, grabbing her lime green toothbrush. Going through her routine Adriana brushes her teeth, pulls back her hair, applies a bit of midnight colored mascara to highlight her chocolate eyes, and finally goes to use the toilet. Adriana pushes down the silver handle, waiting to hear the wishing and swooshing of the water as it plummets below. Nothing happens. Instead, the water begins to rise, dangerously threatening to overflow. “Crap,” she says ironically, as she realizes the toilet in her on campus housing unit is broken for the second time in just one week.

Adriana is one of more than two thousand students residing on campus at SF State. The Village has been providing upper division students with a place to live since the Fall of 2001. As an international student from Lebanon, she chose to live on campus for the convenience it provided. “Being able to wake up five minutes before class and still get there on time is great,” she says. “I wouldn’t be able to do that if I lived off campus.”

Walking into a Village living space, you are met with cloud white walls and flat, grey-blue carpets. One navy blue couch, accompanied by a love seat of the same color, provides comfort to the otherwise bare common area. A coffee, dining, and side table, all the color of midnight, offer counter spaces to room’s residents. The Village strives to supply students with an apartment-like living experience, each unit consists of two bedrooms, two baths, a kitchen and common living area. With four roommates per space, single occupancy rooms are also available.

Chloe Woodmansee is a transfer student from Cabrillo Community College in Santa Cruz. Pulling her short, curly strawberry-blonde hair into a ponytail, Woodmansee says living on campus is finally providing her a real college experience. “Being a transfer student, it’s really hard to meet people,” Woodmansee says. “I wanted to live in the Village so I could more easily meet other students and hopefully experience a kind of college community.”

Established in 1899, SF State is one of California’s oldest public universities. Since its beginning, the university has always been primarily a commuter school. This has made it difficult for students to meet and socialize in student common areas and organized campus-life events so frequent in universities with larger on-campus populations. Those who do live on campus seem to share Woodmansee’s idea, of potentially meeting new fellow students.

A senior at SF State, Caitlin Hamer has resided on campus all four years of her college career. “I really enjoy living on campus,” says Hamer. “A lot of people I know think it’s lame, but really, I’ve met some of my closest friends because I chose to live on campus.” Hamer, with her medium length, wavy brown hair is sitting in her Village apartment, remembering the first day she moved to SF State.

It is a clear and bright day at the end of August. The sun is blanketing down a new batch of curious and eager freshmen. Caitlin is hauling two bulging brown cardboard boxes up the blinding white staircase in the Mary Park dormitory. She trudges slowly, her black Converse shuffling through a maze of students and parents moving in and saying goodbye. Caitlin arrives in front of 217. The door is already open, and she steps inside the colorless room. It looks like a box, is her first thought. Hesitant, she walks further into the tiny, square room boasting a single window and smelling like stale air. Along both vertical walls stand a twin-sized bed, desk, and three wooden shelves. Closets guard the single door on either side.

[pullquote author =”Chloe Woodmansee”]”I wanted to live in the Village so I could more easily meet other students and hopefully experience a kind of college community.”[/pullquote]

“When I first moved in my freshman year, I was hesitant and worried I’d made a mistake by living on campus,” says Hamer. “The room was small with little privacy. But I loved it, and don’t regret it.” The Mary Park residence hall was renamed in 1981 for the dorm’s beloved custodian, Mary Park, after having been called Merced Hall for decades due to its close proximity to Lake Merced. The exemplary employee trained student custodians throughout her three decades of service, teaching them the value of strong work ethics. Park not only cared for both the Mary Park and Mary Ward dormitories, she cared for the students who resided within their walls.

Besides the Village and dorms, students also have the option of living in the newly renovated Towers at Centennial Square apartments that opened to students in 2004. The Science and Technology Community is another option, giving priority housing to those majoring in the scientific and technological fields. These housing units are all within a short walking distance from another, essentially creating a small college-like town.
Living on campus does hold some disadvantages. Both going to school and living on campus leaves some students feelings cheated out of a true San Francisco living experience. “I kind of feel like I missed out on the city experience by living on campus,” says Hamer. Kelly Morgan, a junior living in the Village, agrees. “I’m just too tired after school and work to go into the city,” says Morgan. “It’s easy to stay home, on campus. So yeah, sometimes I feel I’m missing out on getting to know the true San Francisco.”

Maintenance and pest problems are another sore spot for campus residents. “I’ve had some problems with pests in the past that I wish they would do something about,” says Hamer. Junior Bree Ryan’s main complaint is maintenance related. “Our garbage disposal breaks down every other week,” says Ryan. “And we usually have to wait around a week for the maintenance man to come fix it. It can get frustrating.” Amer, with her broken toilet, says things like this are the only downfall to campus living. “I like living at school, I do,” says Amer. “But having a broken toilet, or broken anything, every couple weeks gets old, and annoying.”

Walking on a sunny day through the Village, past Subway and the Village Market, students can be seen eating some greasy pizza and sandwiches bursting with lettuce, tomatoes, turkey, and other dressings. Laughter can be heard floating down the Village steps, whispering down the paved walkway leading to the Mary Ward and Mary Park dorms. Students enter the City Eats Dining or Cantina with hungry smiles on their faces. A sense of community is easily felt, and seen. Besides the occasional broken toilet or bug, on campus living seems to be worth it for those who have experience it. “The community aspect is what really sold me on living here, though,” says Amer. “It’s fun, the people are great. I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.”