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February 2024 – Page 2 – The Prospector

Month: February 2024

Categories
Cuisine and Recipes

Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut butter. It’s a debated food, as I’ve heard from most people that they either love it or hate it. And some are sadly allergic to it. If you couldn’t tell, I love it. It has such a strong, distinct flavor that is like no other. I feel so bad for those who have peanut allergies, as they can’t regularly eat something I think is a wonderful invention. I also feel bad because peanut allergies can be deadly, which is probably the point I should’ve mentioned first, but oh well. Anyways, if you’re a fellow peanut butter lover, these easy cookies are perfect for you.

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ cups flour
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
  • 1 cup peanut butter (preferably smooth)
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup white sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 large egg
  • ¾ teaspoons baking powder
  1. Preheat your oven to 350℉. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt until combined. Set aside.
  1. In a separate bowl, beat the sugar (white and brown), peanut butter, and butter until light and fluffy.
  1. Add vanilla and egg, and mix until combined.
  1. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, and fold until combined.
  1. Separate mixture into ¼ cup large scoops, and move onto a baking tray.
  1. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown.
  1. Remove from the oven and use a fork to make indents on the top of the cookies in a square pattern.
  1. Allow to cool, and enjoy!
Categories
News Sports

McClatchy Lions vs. Whitney High Semi-Finals Boys Varsity Soccer

McClatchy’s varsity boys soccer team has made it to the semi-finals of the CIF Sac Joaquin sections. They have worked so hard to get where they are, and they had a challenging opponent to beat to advance to the finals.

McClatchy started strong from the beginning to when the whistle blew, and their opponent, Whitney High, had the kick-off. McClatchy knew that they had to win this game to make history.

Whitney High had a corner kick. McClatchy made a mistake with their communication, which led to a goal against them, but that did not stop them. It only made them play harder. But soon after McClatchy had a corner against them on their side, they went in strongly, crashing the box with a header to the back of the net, which Kevin Miller made. All the boys gathered around cheering each other on while the crowd went wild.

The score was 1-1, making a very intense game. A little bit before halftime was about to end, McClatchy had another corner kick beautifully crossed into the box with a header straight to the back of the net by Ethan Roach. The boys all cheered Roach on, pushing him around, giving each other high-fives, and heading back to their side of the half.

Half-time began, McClatchy gathered around talking strategy for the next half so they were well-prepared and fixed their communication from earlier in the game. The whistle blew to alert the boys that the half would begin and the crowd started to cheer on both sides as the boys started to get ready to head onto the field. McClatchy had the kickoff this time, and as the whistle blew they kept position and good control over the ball, getting the other team tired.

Later into the half, Kevin Aguilar had a magnificent goal; he struck the ball low and with a lot of speed on the ball straight to the right side of the net and the crowd went crazy. McClatchy had secured their spot in the finals! The whistle blew, and McClatchy fans cheered. The team all congratulated one another and shook hands with Whitney, who also had an amazing season.

McClatchy is on their way to the finals after a great game. Now, we wait for the final match on Saturday, February 24th.

Categories
News Sports

McClatchy Lions vs. Davis Blue Devils Boys Varsity Soccer

The McClatchy Lions played against the Davis Blue Devils on Tuesday, February 13th. McClatchy had a huge crowd cheering them on as they stepped onto the pitch; the audience included family, friends, coaches, and even college scouts!

The starting lineup was as follows: #8 Alexis Ramos, Goalkeeper; #22 Vicente Robles, Right Center Back; #15 Reid Paskey, Left Center Back; #11 Joseph Gray, Right Outside Back; #21 Kevin Miller, Left Outside Back; #6 Adali Parra, Defensive Midfield; #13 Ethan Roach, Left Winger; #10 Darwin Mendiola, Right Winger; #18 Kevin Aguilar, Center Midfield; #17 Nathaniel Ochoa, Center Field; and #9 Frank Thao, Center Forward.

McClatchy started with the ball in the first half, and the game started off strong. In no more than 20 minutes, McClatchy scored a beautiful goal by Kevin Aguilar with a chip that had speed on it, and all the boys got up and yelled and ran to the side of the field, cheering on their teammate Kevin. The crowd went crazy and chanted; McClatchy was up 1-0.

Both teams were getting fouled from left to right, and McClatchy got fouled in the box, which caused a penalty kick for them.

A memorable moment came when Nathaniel Ochoa stepped up to the box ready to take the kick. Everyone went silent, and then the whistle blew. Bottom left, straight to the back of the post; therewent one heck of a penalty for Nathaniel Ochoa.

 McClatchy’s goalkeeper, Alexis Ramos, came off the field limping when he had hurt his knee during one of the plays but chose to stay in and battle it through for the team for the rest of the half. 

McClatchy was sitting at 2-0 right in time when the 1st half was done.There was a switch goalkeepers, and Israel played in goal as the 2nd half began. The crowd cheered so loud that the other side of the field could hear them. McClatchy unfortunately got caught off guard and made a mistake, and the Davis Blue Devils scored a goal, making the score 2-1.

But McClatchy did not let that get to their heads and instead used it as a tool to make sure they won this match with everything they’ve got! McClatchy got the ball from the defense up to Emilio Godnick, and he got past the last line of Davis and had a one-on-one moment with the goalkeeper and shot a magnificent mid-air ball to the right of the goalkeeper. Everyone was so hyped and jumped around, and the boys all gathered together to celebrate the amazing goal.

The whistle was blown for the game to be over in 10 minutes after Emilio’s goal, and everyone celebrated getting ready to shake hands with the opposing team. McClatchy gave it their all out on that field. It was a great game for the Lions!

Categories
Cuisine and Recipes

Lovely Sugar Cookies!

Ahh, Valentine’s Day. 

Some love it, some hate it, but I love it. Pink and white are some of my favorite colors and hearts are just so cute to me. It’s a day to celebrate the love you feel for your partner or any of your other loved ones. You don’t need a significant other to celebrate Valentine’s Day in my opinion. Going out with friends and appreciating them and the love you share for each other is such a nice way to spend your time. Sure, you can show your love for another person any other day, but having a whole holiday centered around love can remind us to appreciate one another. And if you don’t have a plan to give anyone Valentine’s Day presents, then these adorable heart-shaped cookies are perfect for you.

Ingredients

For the cookie dough:

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour (Remove 3 tablespoons of flour as well)

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

¼ teaspoon espresso powder

1 large egg

¾ cup unsalted butter

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For icing:

3 cups powdered sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons light corn syrup

4 tablespoons water

¼ teaspoon salt

Food coloring (optional)

Sprinkles (optional)

  1. In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, and baking soda. Whisk until combined.
  1. In a large bowl, cream together sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
  1. Add egg and vanilla extract, and mix until combined.
  1. Pour the dry mixture into the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
  1. In the meantime, mix powdered sugar, water, corn syrup, vanilla extract, and salt until smooth for the icing. 
  1. Add your desired amount of food coloring to the icing, and mix until the color is the same throughout.
  1. Preheat your oven to 350℉ and sprinkle flour on a clean counter to roll out your dough.
  1. With a rolling pin, flatten the dough until the dough is about ⅛ of an inch thick.
  1. Using a cookie cutter or knife, cut out cookies to the desired shape.
  1. Place on a cookie sheet, and bake for around 10 minutes, or until cookies look golden brown (depending on size)
  1. Place on a cooling rack and wait until completely cool.
  1. Once cooled, use a knife to spread icing on the cookie and add your sprinkles. Place back on the cooling rack to allow the icing to dry.
  1. Enjoy!
Categories
Book Buzz With Amanda Book Reviews Entertainment Opinion

Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs Review

With a story far away from reality, I chose the first book of the thrilling Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children, written by Ransom Riggs, for this week’s Book Buzz. 

Most of you have either seen or heard of the movie based on this book, which got incredible reviews back in 2016, starring Asa Butterfield, Samuel Jackson, and Eva Greene. 

This story is a fantasy filled with deranged twists and turns cover to cover. To keep the imagery alive, Ransom Riggs included pictures and descriptions to help the reader see exactly what the character sees. 

This fantasy follows a bland teenager named Jacob (Jake) Portman who lives in Florida. He views the world from a glass half-empty angle. He holds no value to anything or anyone other than his “deluded” grandfather Abe. Jacob’s grandfather came from Poland in the darkest depths of World War II, he took refuge in Wales along the coast. He was welcomed into a home made for children with added quirks to them. 

The beginning starts with Jacob talking about his grandfather’s stories about the unique home he lived in, saying how unrealistic they were now that he was older. He brought up the pain he felt for being so foolish for believing such impractical fictions. Though Abe had photo evidence to back up his claims, Jacob always found a hidden truth to debunk it. The older Jacob got, the more he wanted to label his grandfather as sick and mental. Nonetheless, they had an unbreakable bond. 

Working his retail job that he was hopelessly trying to get fired from, Jacob received a stomach-churning call from Abe asking if he knew where the key to his gun box was. Filled with certainty that he was just going through a peculiar episode, Jacob rubbed it off and lied saying he had no idea. Abe started to get restless saying something was after him, and that it was coming for Jacob next, making it easy for Jacob to believe that his grandfather was going insane. He still went to check on him anyway, only to find a costly riddle and years of therapy. 

I always enjoy books that are followed by a movie, so I can point out what was left out and what was left in. This book is the start of a six-book saga. This story is deeply descriptive and makes it easy to paint a picture in your head. It has humor, style, horror, but most importantly, peculiarity. 

Categories
Entertainment Opinion

Songs That I Forgot Existed

This was inspired by that feeling you get when you hear a song that you haven’t heard in years, here are some songs that make me feel that way:

Close Friends, by Lil Baby

This song came out in 2018. It was mainstreamed almost everywhere for like 4 months straight and it was never heard again. It kinda went ghost and I found it like last month and am glad I did.

You Was Right, by Lil Uzi Vert

This song was used and abused for quite a while. It was one of those summer songs that you’d listen to while driving on the freeway. Now that I have my license I will be using and abusing it myself.

772 Love, by Ynw Melly

This song was on the radio for three very long months. It was overplayed so much that I don’t think anyone wanted to know about it at all for a very long time. But I found it the other day and it still hurts my ears to listen to more than once a week but the song still has a vibe.

223’s, by Ynw Melly

This song was also super overplayed by most radio stations when it first came out. They’d play it at least twice per hour and the song lowkey became super overrated. It’s a good song to listen to every once in a while, def not something I’m bumping everyday though

Say It, Tory Lanez

This was one of those songs that you would listen to in the summers of 2016-17. You’d be on the freeway with the windows rolled down and this song came on making it feel like such a great moment. This song was a big part of everyone’s childhood.

Tunnel Vision, Kodak Black

This song was something I listened to every day for like 2 years. One day I felt like it just got annoying. Now that I’ve found it once more I still find it annoying but in some sort of good way. This song is overrated not gonna lie

Look At Me, XXXTentacion

This song was one of 2016’s prime songs. Everyone was blasting this and singing this. It’s a song that you can find again and almost immediately add to your playlist once more.

03 Flow, Wallie the Sensei

I found this song today and let me tell you I will be blasting this song all summer. I have always liked this song and could never in my life remember the name. I will make sure not to forget it this time. If you haven’t heard it before, it’s one of California’s most popular songs.

Categories
Entertainment Opinion

Review of The Nun *SPOILERS*

It started as a branch-off movie to The Conjuring trilogy but has become one of my favorite horror series. Here are my thoughts:

This series starts with the main two protagonists, Ed and Lorraine Warren. In the movie The Nun the main character is Sister Irene. She is related to Lorraine Warren because They were both scions of Saint Lucy.

The main problem in the whole movie is that there is an evil spirit in the form of a nun that was released years ago. There started to be cases of nuns hanging themselves from a church.  Sister Irene tries to find out the real reason why these cases are happening. However, she encounters the evil spirit and the evil spirit gets angry at her. She tries her best at what the spirit came from and how to get her to go back to where she came from.

Towards the end, she finds out what brought her to the real world and tries to return her back to where she came from. In the end, sister irene and the evil spirit get into a battle, and when they face each other face-to-face, sister irene spits the blood of Christ on the evil spirit’s face to make her go back to where she came from. 

However, when that happened, sister Irene started to drown in the pool of water she was in. This guy that helped her get to the place where the evil spirit was, came and took her out of the water and saved her. 

However, his coming to the rescue helped the evil spirit stay in the real world by getting into the guy’s body and possessing him. That’s what brings us to the second movie of The Nun.

Perhaps, many people don’t like horror movies because they are too scared to watch any. But it is a good movie and worth giving it a try because it is very entertaining, just as the other movies in The Conjuring series are. 

This was the first occurrence that happened chronologically in the series. This movie was a very entertaining watch and definitely one horror movie that should be on your list.

Categories
News Photo Series Sports

McClatchy vs. River City: Senior Night!

The McClatchy Lions played against the River City Raiders on February 9th. It was senior night, with cheer, step, dance, and basketball players bringing their friends and families to the main gym to celebrate their last home game of the season.

Before the game, senior members from the Cheer, Dance, Step, and basketball teams walked out with their friends and family, greeted by cheers from the crowd. 

Starting for the McClatchy Lions were #0 Eddie Pimpton, #1 Eugene Castillo, #12 Isaiah Hooks, #15 Vinny Seyford, and #3 Kendall Andrews.

Though it was a hard-fought game, with McClatchy being up 1 point at the end of the second quarter, the River City Raiders were able to pull ahead in the 3rd quarter, scoring 33 points, causing them to be up 63-40. In the 4th, the Lions put up 28 points. One notable player on the Lions was #3 Senior Kendall Andrews, who scored 30 points.

A disappointing loss for the McClatchy Lions, but with such a large turnout of friends and family showing their support, it was hard to walk away disappointed. With this being the seniors’ final home game of the season, players can look forward to refining their skills for next year.

Photos from the game photographed by Gabriela Lopez:

Categories
Book Buzz With Amanda Book Reviews Entertainment Opinion

I’m With Stupid by Geoff Herbach Review

Over the past few days, I went to the CKM library to pick out a book to review for this week’s book buzz review. I came across a book called I’m With Stupid written by Geoff Herbach. This novel creates a safe space for struggle, angst, and self-doubt. 

Since we are starting the second semester out with a bang, seniors are grinding their teeth to leave high school. So I thought it would be fitting to find a book based on college fits and not-so-good fits. 

This book is about a high school football phenomenon named Fletcher Reinstein. He is a national treasure and is the top pick for every college in America. His life is very public at such a young age in the world of sports. He went to school in a small town in Wisconsin, where everyone had certain expectations of him and where he should go to college. 

The book does in fact start as a story about football and what it takes to be a jock going into college until about halfway through. He talks a lot about how he isolates himself thinking he doesn’t deserve someone to lean on and help him. A shoulder to cry on in other words. He constantly thinks of himself as a burden to others causing him to spiral very publicly causing the whole state to hate him eventually. 

This character has a lot of baggage for someone who is described constantly as someone who ‘has it all.’ Gifted with all the righteousness a young man could have. He turns to substances to ease his worries. The whole book he’s in desperate need of someone else to worry for him, instead of talking he holds it all in at the risk of being that hellish burden he thinks he is. 

This story brings an excellent reason for why there is no point in suffering alone at the cost of feeling like a burden. Everyone deserves to be heard, and everyone deserves to be seen without feeling judged or misunderstood. Isolating yourself at the cost of someone else’s feelings and expectations only brings hell down onto yourself. 

This book can offer you guidance on how to surround yourself with good people who will listen because they want to. This book will also help you reflect on yourself on how to still be there for other people you care about, but it’ll also help you understand yourself.

Categories
News Sports

McClatchy vs. River City Boys’ Varsity Soccer

The McClatchy boys’ soccer varsity team had a match against River City to take home the Metro League title earlier this Tuesday. It also was McClatchy’s senior night, with 14 amazing seniors leaving the field this year with a great future ahead. 

The game started with McClatchy having the ball for kickoff. They started strong and maintained control over the ball. The boys had a big section of supporters on the other side of the field, cheering them on as they kept possession among the other team. River City came in hot with their tackles while getting frustrated with the McClatchy boys’ talent.

McClatchy had to play their match not only against River City but also against the referee; it was a hard game to work through while the referee made unfair calls against McClatchy, allowing their opponent to gain ball control a few times. But the boys did not let that stop them from playing their game.

The first half ended with a score of 0-0, with the crowd cheering them on. They all headed over to their coaches to have a brief discussion with their team about what they could be doing better and what they had done so far 40 minutes into the half. The whistle blew to alert both teams that they would begin the match soon. The second half started with River City kicking off, but they didn’t keep the ball for long as McClatchy gained control over the game, taking them into River City’s half of the field and having shots on goal back to back.

A mistake happened with McClatchy’s defenders, which led to a goal for River City. It was unfortunate, but McClatchy took that into their own hands, knowing that they needed to score as soon as possible. McClatchy had a corner kick on River City’s side, giving them a better chance to score. McClatchy did not happen to score on the first corner kick, but then River City got a touch on the ball, leading us into another corner kick. They played the ball short to Emilio Godnick, who dribbled past 2 defenders and sent a beautiful ball to the center of the box, giving Nathaniel Ochoa a chance to score. He did it with a volley straight to the back of the net, too fast to get a reaction out of the goalkeeper. The boys all gathered around, cheering each other on while heading back to their side of the field.

It was such a nail-biting moment, knowing that both teams were tied 1-1 with River City and McClatchy desperately wanting to win the game for our seniors! Minutes went by and BAM, McClatchy was in their box once again, and everyone was in a scramble trying to get the ball in the goal while it was being kicked around and blocked. But then there goes Angel Mendoza-Ramirez, another senior, with the goal that hit the post and crossed the line. Everyone waited with such intensity to see if the referee would count it, and he did! The crowd erupted while Angel and his teammates gathered to run to their coach and cheer. The score was now 2-1, and McClatchy was up by one goal with 5 minutes remaining.

The whistle blew, and the boys started yelling and cheering, just as the parents did the same. They got together and formed a line to say good game to River City as they headed home, number 1 Metro League Champions, and with 2 seniors leaving the field having accomplished what they needed to do it was a great game for the boys’ varsity soccer team. Now, they head off to the playoffs.