Hey college seniors! Welcome back to classes and your last few months as college students. It is a stressful, yet very exciting time! Below is a fun infographic (from dailyinfographic.com) explaining growing and declining occupations, unemployment rate based on education and factors that go into a satisfying job. What factors make a job your dream career?
Finals are done, school is out, malls are packed. Must be the holiday season! Now that you finally have some time to relax, check out these fun (and tasty) holiday recipes. I’ve pulled some of my personal favorites and family traditions! Once you’ve perfected these recipes at home, you can bring them back to school and show off your new cooking skills to your friends!
White Hot Chocolate – a classic, with a twist! Found this great recipe from Martha Stewart. Add a peppermint stick to spice it up even more!
Ingredients:
2 ounces milk chocolate, for garnish
12 ounces white chocolate, coarsely chopped 
6 cups whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
1-teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Peppermint sticks, for garnish
Whipped cream, for garnish
Directions:
Apple Fritters – My grandma never follows recipes, “trial and success” is her forte. She literally can throw a few simple ingredients together and create an amazing meal and this is one of them! A sweet breakfast dish, Apple Fritters is another great family tradition, with a very simple recipe!
Ingredients: 
2 eggs
Splash of milk
Dash of salt
2 or 3 peeled apples
1 cup of flour
1-teaspoon baking powder
Directions: Image from thepioneerwoman.com
Minestrone Soup – This is a holiday tradition in my family and something I look forward to every year! There’s something about eating this warm, hearty soup that makes me feel like it’s Christmas! And even better, the recipe is pretty basic, leaving room to get creative and make it your own!
Ingredients: 
1 medium onion, chopped
4 stalks of celery, chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 can of mixed veggies
1 can red kidney beans
1 can tomato sauce
1 zucchini, sliced
3 cups medium shell pasta
pinch of red pepper
1 tbsp. oregano (dried or fresh) Recipe, image from homemadesoup.org
1 tbsp. basil (dried or fresh)
1 tsp. parsley flakes
salt and pepper for taste
Directions:
Pour water into large soup pot or large saucepan. Add onions, celery and minced garlic. Cook for 4-5 minutes or until onions become translucent. Add all other ingredients EXCEPT the past and the zucchini, set those aside. Reduce heat medium, and simmer covered for 25-30 minutes. Uncover your mixture, and stir in pasta shells, and zucchini, cook until the pasta is tender, about 10 minutes.
Once shells are done, you’re ready to eat! Pour into soup bowls, garnish with parsley or basil, and serve.
Rocky Mountain Chocolate Bars – The ultimate indulgence: a four-layered bar of brownie, chocolate chip cheesecake, gooey marshmallows and a chocolate frosting. This bar will make any sweet tooth’s mouth water! Another family favorite, this recipe comes from the Crème de Colorado Cookbook.
Crust: 
1/2-cup butter (salted)
1 oz unsweetened chocolate
2 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder Image from cookiemadness.net
1/2 cup chopped nuts (toasted pecans)
Filling:
6 oz cream cheese, softened
4 tablespoons softened butter (salted)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 cup chopped nuts (toasted pecans
6 oz chocolate chips (dark)
2 cups mini marshmallows
Frosting:
4 tablespoons butter
1 oz unsweetened chocolate
2 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup whole milk
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups powdered sugar
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 13×9 inch metal pan with foil and spray with cooking spray or Baker’s Joy.
Melt butter and chocolate together in the microwave and set aside to cool slightly. Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add melted chocolate mixture to eggs and beat well. Mix together flour and baking powder and stir (do not overbeat) into the batter along with the nuts. Spread in prepared pan and set aside.
In another bowl, beat together cream cheese, butter, and sugar until fluffy. Add the egg, vanilla and flour and stir just until mixed. Stir in nuts and spread batter in the pan covering the chocolate mixture. Sprinkle with chocolate chips. Bake at 350 F for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with marshmallows. Return to oven for 2 minutes to puff marshmallows.
Frosting: Melt the butter and chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl and let cool. In a mixing bowl, beat melted chocolate mixture, cream cheese, milk, vanilla and powdered sugar until smooth. Spread over marshmallow layer. When I did this, I couldn’t cover the entire layer of marshmallows and ended up leaving about 1/2 to 1 inch edges. Cool completely in the pan, then transfer to the refrigerator and chill for a good 4 hours or so.
When ready to cut, lift from pan and set on a big cutting board. With a chef’s knife, trim the edges where the chocolate frosting did not reach. Now score the cake in half, and then score each half into 12 bars so that you get 24 bars total.
So there you have it, a few of my favorite holiday recipes, all of which are pretty simple to make. Enjoy and Happy Holidays!
Check out this neat infographic from Online Colleges! 60% of students said they would not attend a school if it didn’t have free WiFi! Do you agree?
Last week we heard from my fellow intern Brett, what types of advertisements work on him. Here’s my response and opinion, from a girl’s point of view.
Day-to-day my eyes witness some sort of commercial, flashing add online, or billboard on my way to and from work. They always catch my eye but whether I remember them in the next hour or even fifteen minutes is another story. In this day and age we are constantly having all sorts of advertisements thrown at us and at times it can become an annoyance to keep up with them all. Here is some insight into my day-to-day college life when I come into contact with these various attention grabbers.
WHAT I AVOID EVERY TIME
On campus advertisers: Every college campus is different in how they market on campus. Generally students are walking through campus in order to get somewhere such as the library, class, somewhere to eat, or to their place of residence. They are not looking to be stopped and talked at or handed a flyer about something they don’t care about at the time. When I’m walking somewhere on campus, all I can think about is how I don’t want to be late to my class or how hungry I am on my way to lunch. The last thing I want is to be handed a flyer about animal abuse or some club. I am focusing on what’s going on in my schedule and not somewhere else. And half the time I just throw away whatever flyer or pamphlet I have been forced to grab.
YouTube: I am personally a big YouTube user but my biggest pet peeve is the advertisements they make you watch while waiting to watch that new music video or funny video you’ve been told by your friends to watch. Most of the time I just turn down the volume while the ad is playing and whenever my video is ready I turn it back up.
Radio: Nowadays a lot of people prefer their own music instead of the tunes they play on the radio stations. I am in my car regularly going to work two days a week or heading to the grocery store, etc. I generally bring my iPod along so that I can listen to the music that I prefer to hear. I don’t despise the radio but most of the time I like to only listen to music while in the car and not a car commercial.
WHAT WORKS
Emails: I am the type of person that checks their email about twenty times a day, either through my phone or my computer. I always like to know what is happening and keep myself organized. In college email is vital, it is the way you are alerted about anything academically related, stuff you are involved in on campus, work, and an endless list of things. Along with the important emails there comes the mounds of emails from clothing stores, magazines, etc. These always catch my eye and I find myself looking forward to receiving them. They give me interesting articles to read, new recipes to try, and gifts for birthdays or Christmas.
Social media: Along with millions of other college students I am on Facebook and Twitter a good portion of my day. If you haven’t noticed they both use advertising constantly. On Facebook it’s the flashing advertisements on the side of your page. These ads can be pointless half the time but I have found numerous sites that I never knew existed from clothing sites to fun blogs. Twitter also does a good job with grabbing your attention with their tweets from various websites and I learn new things everyday.
Word of mouth: A lot of times we all are so busy with other things that we don’t have time to pay attention to all of the social media. I am constantly with people all day long during classes, in my apartment, and on campus in general. I find the most successful advertising on me is just by word of mouth alone. I am more prone to listen to my good friend or sorority sister over a commercial I see on TV. I know that I can trust their opinion because I have more of a relationship with them and see them on a regular basis.
So there it is, a brief look at various forms of advertisements and which one work well and others that I completely avoid.
Time for another great infographic to share from onlineeducation.net! A recent college student survey was conducted and found an interesting conclusion how Facebook can be effectively used by college students in a positive way. Check out details below and let us know what you think!
Via: OnlineEducation.net
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