Mini-Quiches
For the department meeting yesterday, I brought mini-quiches. They were made with smoked gouda and bacon although I did some vegetarian ones. Being in a Foreign Languages department can be challenging because there are a lot of talented chefs who create interesting dishes so I thought mini-quiches would be cool. They went over well even though there were two grown-up quiches there along with my babies :) Also, someone always brings wine and how many people have a job where you get to drink wine at work in the middle of the day? I mean legally?! And the desserts... chocolate gâteaux, strawberry torte, peach cobbler... A good time was had by all!
Oh, and as a side note, we had to cancel our wine night on Wednesday because Austin was sick but we are on for next Wednesday and are planning some kind of baked brie. If anyone has ideas for good wine hors d'oeuvres, please comment!
Mini-Quiche for Dept Potluck
Back to School
I'm back to school now and it's been keeping me busy. Our contracts started Monday and there have been some meetings though no clear rules on when we need to be here. I think right now I am the only person here! I need to finish up syllabi, clean off my desk, and get organized. The fun part about having moved is I have an office at home that also needs to be majorly organized but it will be worth it when it's all done.
We had our first visitors last weekend. Our friends Mark and Steve had just done the Lake Superior Circle in their cute little Miata and stopped by on their way back home. We made them dinner (mustard glazed salmon) since they had been eating out for the past week.
Tonight we will have friends over to share a bottle of nice wine and have some cheese and hors d'oeuvres with it. At least the main level of our place looks fairly put together (minus the lack of hung art).
My Interview from Corgimom!
Corgimom was kind enough to dream up some fun questions to help me get my blog going with an interview. I've finally had time to answer them so without further ado, here they are.
1. A little bird (DH) told me that you used to pretend to be a fictitious character in a famous novel- tell us more...Well, the story is that Troy was convinced I pretended I was none other than the titian-haired detective, Nancy Drew. I don’t think I
pretended I was her, I think I just really, really liked her books. I read almost all the old-school ones and the newer “case files” ones. And a funny story is that I read her old-school books when I was fairly young, so I sort of absorbed the diction used in the book and my mom nearly fell over laughing when I said very conversationally, “I think I’ll don a frock today.”
2. I know you and your guy cook a lot- tell us about a time when the meal flopped- we've seen the yummy successes, but there must have been a time when it didn't quite work out?Yep, there are times like that occasionally; maybe I should be documenting those on the blog too! Anyway, the last time that comes to mind was one night when we were really, really craving a white wine sauce with pasta. You basically sauté shallots in butter then add garlic, wine, and finally cream. It smells divine when you are preparing it! Well, the cream is to be at room temperature so it doesn’t curdle, check, but this time, instead of getting heavy cream, I got half-n-half in effort to make the sauce less, well, heavy. I don’t know if that was the devastating variable, but it was the only thing we did different. As we added the half-n-half, we watched the sauce curdle in a most unsavory way. We were really bummed not to mention starving so we ran to the grocery store and got something much less tasty. The worst part was coming home; we could still smell the aroma of the sauce taunting us!
3. If you were a cheese, what cheese would you be and why?This is a tough one. I once got asked at a job interview what type of pizza topping I would be. What type of cheese… pondering… ok, I’m going to cop out and say I’d be the foam kind often found on Packer fans’ heads! It didn’t have to be edible cheese, right? ☺
4. What is it like being someone of your profession? Share a funny or embarrassing story about your work experience in your current job.Hmm… well I’m a Spanish instructor so I do stupid things all the time like dancing around in front of a class trying to act out verbs that no one is getting… but one thing that comes to mind was a particular winter day. It had snowed so there was a lot of water from melted snow in the hallways of the building where I taught. The halls were tiled, the classrooms carpeted. As I made my way to class, I suddenly hydroplaned on the water in the hall and slid toward the classroom but when I hit the carpet, I fell over like a tree! It was a bit early so not all students were there. Most laughed hysterically and only one nice girl asked if I was actually ok. I made some joke and we all laughed. It was only embarrassing for a second because who hasn’t taken a spill as a result of the treacherous winter conditions in MN/WI?
5. Did you ever get lost in Spain? What happened and how did you find your way back to where you started? I got lost in Europe all the time but as our friend
Rick Steves tells us, that can lead to some of the best adventures! A memorable getting lost story happened to me in France. I had just flown in from Dublin and it was Thanksgiving Day though most people in Ireland/France didn’t know or care but I wanted to eat a nice meal to honor the day. Incidentally, my neighbor on the plane was none other than Peter Pan from EuroDisney, going to see his girlfriend Snow White in Paris. We had a nice conversation and also sat together on the bus from the Beauvais airport to the heart of Paris where we went our separate ways. It was late, I was tired, and I was hungry (and those who know me well know what a deadly combination this can be). I didn’t know where to stay so I looked in my guidebook, tried to call some places, and for whatever reason, failed to come up with a good option. I also couldn’t figure out how to get a taxi (there were little taxi-caller things on the street I seem to recall but didn’t know how to use them). So, I hiked over to the nearest hotel and sucked it up and got a room. It was really expensive but by the time I got there, I didn’t want to go out for food so I considered the room my treat. It had a TV and a private bath, tròp de luxe! Compared to the hostels I had been staying in, it was great. For Thanksgiving dinner I had a diet coke and some chocolates my friends in Northern Ireland had sent me off with.
6. If you could knit anything in the world regardless of money or skill what would it be and why?I would knit the perfect sweater, the one that is the exact right color for my eyes, hair, and complexion, the one that fits like a perfect hug, and is ideal for wearing outside in the fall with no jacket. It would be the sweater that I would wear out (as in “over-use”) because it would easily be my favorite and of course would go with anything.
These were wonderful, creative questions! Thanks, Corgimom!
Getting Settled
Finally, I have time to do some blogging! This means we're out of the old place (well, someone needs to clean the garage but that won't be me!). Now I'm enjoying the slow process of unpacking and organizing not to mention finding some fun stuff that has lived in storage for quite awhile. The time is just right to get settled into the new digs before fall semester starts.
Today I went for a long walk this morning since I didn't need to drag myself to the old place. Now I'm getting caught up on emailing, blogging, and doing some school work since I have an education class tonight/Saturday. Last one, though!
