diumenge, de desembre 31, 2006

Last Day of Oh-Six

Waking up today, you'd never know it was New Year's Eve; it feels more like a dreary October morning with all the rain coming down. It's so dark in the house, the perfect weather for lighting candles, drinking tea, and reading.

Last night (or early this morning), I woke up at 3:00 thinking that the carbon monoxide alarm was going off. [There was no actual reason that I awoke, the CO thing was just what was in my head, and I often do weird things like this. Austin once found me looking for him in the storage room.] I confirmed that the alarm was in fact not going off but then decided to look at the crème fraîche since it had hit the 36 hour mark, supposedly as long as the stuff would need. It indeed appeared to be thicker but still pourable so I threw it in the fridge and went back to bed. This morning, it seems to have the same consistency in spite of the refrigeration but I know it's not supposed to set up like sour cream so hopefully it's right. The instructions say "thick cream" and that it is.

We have to run to the store today to get the rest of the ingredients. Also, Austin is also working on some art for our bedroom; we got a red bedspread and he felt we needed additional accent items in the room. At Pier 1 (where, incidentally, we ran into CorgiDad's parents), we saw a cool canvas for the wall which Austin felt he could easily make and in the appropriate colors. We picked up some canvases, red paint, and the other color we are using is copper so our bedroom colors match our wedding colors. Awww.

That's how we'll be spending the last day of the year.

dissabte, de desembre 30, 2006

DIY Fish Stock

Last night I made spicy baked shrimp and we had it over rice. The recipe said that you could boil the shrimp shells and create your own fish stock. This was great since I need some for the New Year's Eve dinner and I'm already (hopefully) making my own crème fraîche so why not do everything from scratch? Well, I'm not sure what went wrong but the end result was simply water with a vague seafood undertone and was hardly broth. I only used shells but I didn't have to de-vein so that's the only guess I have as to what went wrong. At any rate, I was left with a foul looking pot of headless pink shrimp ghosts, delightful.

At least the entree turned out and, for one of the few times on record, Austin had no ideas of how to modify, tweak, or alter my finished product. I always wanted to marry a man who could keep up with me in the kitchen but with Austin, I got my wish and then some: his talent surpasses mine! I appreciate his culinary curiosity, his desire to be creative with recipes, but when I make something new, I just want a baseline thumbs up or thumbs down to begin with. We can discuss tweaking it in good time but when he takes the first bite, does that thoughtful look where his gaze turns upward, and then waves his fork saying something like "less lemon, more salt, and oooh! you could totally do ginger with this," well, I can handle the critique but it's all about the timing :-)

As for the c.f., it's still on the counter doing its thing and, as far as I can tell, it hasn't thickened at all yet.

divendres, de desembre 29, 2006

Proving Science: Crème Fraîche

We decided to go with the salmon and risotto in puff pastry for the main course on New Year's Eve but it requires crème fraîche, something I knew would be a bit difficult to find in our neck of the woods. I called around to the stores I thought would be mostly likely to carry it but no luck. It was like I was speaking Greek :-) Anyway, I found that it can be made at home by mixing whipping cream with buttermilk and letting it rest at room temperature... for two days. Um, leaving dairy on the counter for a coupla days makes me a bit squeamish so I had to research this.

Julia Child and my Bon Appétit cookbook both recommend almost identical methods so I emailed my former French adviser who knows everything. She emailed back with this information and reassured me that one can make their own c.f. When I read the info, there was some sciencey stuff about good bacteria keeping bad bacteria away and Bad Z wisely pointed out that the sauce will eventually be boiled so hopefully that would destroy any evil that managed to grow in the cream.

I followed the instructions, heating the cream to 105 degrees and stirring in some buttermilk. The c.f. is now culturing away on the counter (is "culturing" the right word? I think?), yay, Science! I will report on any interesting findings, if there are any.

Also, I think we are going to do a chocolate soufflé for dessert. Earlier, I was thinking of doing this and then found a recipe for one that has an Early Grey custard sauce on it. Earl Grey is the kind of tea I tend to drink in the morning and any cooking with tea sounds great to me so hopefully we can pull it off.

Holiday Recap

On Friday, December 22, I gave all of my finals. It was the last day of finals week so it wasn't much fun to have to wait that long but I think because there was no snow, it didn't feel as end-of-semester-Christmasy yet.

On the 23rd, we headed up to my parents' house and hung out, did the family gift exchange that night. Technically, there weren't supposed to be gifts since we are all going to Cancun in January for Sean and Angie's ceremony but my parents came through and were far too generous. Later that night, Austin and I met up with some friends of mine and LeeAnne gave me the Bon Appétit cookbook for my birthday; it also comes with a subscription to the magazine so it was a great gift. [Aside: I've gotten a number of interesting cookbooks lately; maybe during January break, I'll try to make a couple of things from each.]

Christmas Eve is when we celebrate with my dad's side so the relatives came pouring in around noon for lunch, gift exchanging, and then a shower for S & A. It was a small space filled with lots of people, talking, laughing, merriment etc.

That night, we went to Austin's parents' and just sat around a roaring fire, sipping wine and talking; very relaxing. His sister and her husband came over the next morning and we opened stockings and gifts. One of the highlights was from Austin's stepmom; she made us really precious little books with sepia-tone photos from our wedding, each page captioned with one word that summarized the essence of the picture.

We stayed until the 26th, watching some movies that we gave to A's sister, and then headed back home. The 27th was my birthday but I was a bit under the weather so it was fairly low-key. I finalized and submitted my grades that afternoon, good times. We went out for dinner but I wasn't thrilled with my pick of the special. No matter, I have a lot of time off so we're going to have a "re-do" sometime in January.

Now we're looking forward to New Year's Eve, staying in and cooking something new. In the BA cookbook, I found a recipe for salmon and risotto wrapped in puff pastry envelopes, that's my current vote for the main course.

dijous, de desembre 21, 2006

Rainy December Days

It rained almost all day today and the last time I checked, it was still raining but the water was starting to freeze on surfaces. Some local schools closed early today and I came home from the office around 3:00 since I was done with student appointments. The trees were starting to turn white from the water and slush; I think it's so beautiful when the branches are encased in ice but I know it's bad news in a lot of ways too. Here's what our shrubs looked like when I arrived home.

Ice on branches

Icy Branches

Besides the icy branches, I found a package of Adagio Tea waiting for me. I had ordered the holiday sampler because I was running low on seasonal tea due to studying for my SLA class. So far I've tried the chestnut tea and it didn't disappoint. Now I'm going to sit down to a stack of compositions so I can have all my grading done until the finals tomorrow.

Finals = Tea + Grading

Austin bought me the gerbera daisies on Monday so they were waiting when I got home from my final exam. They are very bright and summery, a nice contrast to the icy weather today on the winter solstice.

dimarts, de desembre 19, 2006

Strange Days

Ok, the title of this post is a little shout-out to J. Morrison but it really has been a weird past couple of days. Finals week is always a little nutty because it's a significant change to the routine of the past 16 weeks; there isn't class to teach which frees up some time but on the other hand, the correcting and grading and student issues and meetings... it adds up.

In addition, I have been taking a class. I spent most of Sunday running around getting materials to create a physical model of how a second language is acquired. I spent part of Monday finalizing the assembly of what turned out to be a beehive and then writing a paper to explain the metaphor. In doing so, not only did I think about SLA theory but I also learned lots about bees and honey. For example, honey is essentially bee vomit, something I had heard that before but wrote off as an urban legend. Lovely.

On Monday night I took the final exam for my class, got home late, and then got up today for... Jury Duty! Yep, I got to do my civic duty and it was something else. Today's event was a one day trial so I'm all done for the moment. The good thing was that it was an easy case to decide but the strange part was the defendant. He chose to represent himself and it was just a disaster. As much as he was obviously guilty and did something rather awful, I almost felt bad and embarrassed for him because he was so pathetic. It was just weird but at least I didn't have to make some sort of heart-wrenching decision that could have the potential to be haunting.

Tomorrow I'm going to spend several hours on campus, meeting with students and doing some grading. Then I'm having a late lunch with a friend, running some last-minute holiday errands, and heading home for... more grading!

dimecres, de desembre 13, 2006

All I Want for Christmas...

I work at a university so there are always masses of signs advertising grad programs, study abroad programs, etc. I hardly ever pay attention but today, while waiting for my lunch to heat up, I happened to look more closely at one and it was the program of my dreams. Art and Barcelona, sighhhhhhhhh....... and it's not just art in my favorite city, it's special art: hot glass (fusion) classes, something I've wanted to try since learning about cold glass (i.e. stained glass).

Aggghhhhhhh........ it gives me that indescribable feeling of sadness and frustration but total passion for something. It doesn't help that Austin had TiVo-ed a travel show on Barcelona that he had me watch just last night. I don't know what it is about that city, the place that at first offended my naive 20 year old self for being so unparislike, but I feel like it's not enough to know that I can travel there on occasion, I need to somehow have it more thoroughly. Maybe Papá Noel is listening and will stuff my stocking with thousands of dollars the summer program tuition?

dimarts, de desembre 12, 2006

One More Week

Our weekend was quite busy with the two family weddings, as I mentioned. Sean and Angie got the paperwork out of the way so we can look forward to the Cancun event in January. Austin's mom also got married and had a really cool ceremony. Dinner was catered in and the officiant wove the ceremony through the courses, beginning with a reading about feasts. It was such a unique and intimate way to conduct a ceremony and it was exactly what the couple wanted. The food was wonderful-- very eclectic with everything from sushi to Tibetan dumplings to chicken satay. Dessert was excellent vanilla ice cream and truffles.

We got home later than expected so very little was accomplished after our drive back other than some work on a final paper for my SLA class. Yesterday I was at work/class from 7:30am-8:30pm; Mondays are always so long but after a weekend out of town, it felt longer. Today I don't have class but have students coming to my office for their oral final and other assorted end-of-semester goodness.

I plan on leaving earlyish today so I can go home and get a few things done, both the boring household stuff and a little holiday decorating. I'll undoubtedly be doing some additional correcting at home but it's always easier when I can sit at my kitchen table and be in my own (recently cleaned) space.

That's the brief recap. There's just a week of classes left and then the finals, both the one I have to take (next Monday) and the ones I administer (next Friday). The end is in sight!

dissabte, de desembre 09, 2006

Congratulations, Sean and Angie!

Happy Couple

dijous, de desembre 07, 2006

Wedding Bells and Sleigh Bells

Last weekend, Austin and I hosted Sean and Angie's bachelor/ette parties. All I'm going to say about it is that if you know Angie, well, the event was totally Angie. Anyway, we did that because they are getting married on December 8 which happens to be TOMORROW! Wow, little did we know at my wedding that another sib would manage to tie the knot before 2006 was over.

Sean and Angie are getting the paperwork done tomorrow followed by a family dinner at a cool restaurant in town. The vows-n-veil event will take place at sunset on the beach in Cancun on January 18th. I'm looking forward to the pre-party tomorrow but am getting really excited about going to Cancun with my entire immediate family plus a few others when it's 20 below in Minnesconsin.

Then on Saturday morning, we're going to Austin's mom's house for her wedding which is also not supposed to be a huge deal, just a little paperwork making her already-established relationship with Dave even more established in terms of the legal stuff. It's going to be a small group with lots of good food and merriment, exactly how the couple wants it and these guests aren't complaining either.

Besides all the excitement that's going on right now with holidays and nuptials, it's the end of the semester so that means lots going on, of course. Taking a class has added to the usual workload; it's been ages since I've had to get together for a group project or make a diorama (don't ask).

In order to free up a little more time, tomorrow will be my last day with the four year olds and I have to admit, the little buggers have grown on me. Once I stopped thinking about them as little people or students and simply started finding them to be amusing little creatures, it helped a lot. I'm not saying that the rigorous academic standards of preschool Spanish were compromised with this change of mindset, never!, but I had to remember that the content comes second when dealing with kids. We have made up some fun games, like "guess how old I am" or, when they wouldn't write their names on papers, I'd make up names for them like "Snuffles" or "Moozie" which was high-larious and I was the funniest person in the whole world for a split second. They've really taught me a lot, those little four year old hellions.

At night, I've even found a little time to start my Xmas cards. I had to scrap the idea of a newsletter; everything I wrote was horrendously cheesy and too embarrassing to ever send out to anyone who knows us. I did the same thing last year so Austin now has strict instructions to never let me do a holiday letter, no matter how good of an idea I seem to think it is. Anyway, I've said before I love making mail so I find it relaxing to write a few every night before bed with a cup of my favorite holiday tea.

I can't wait for finals week since I will have time to do other holiday-ish things. I give all my finals on Friday, the 22nd which is a huge pain in many ways but the benefit is that I'll have some less-busy time during the week to possibly bake, put up some decorations, wrap gifts, etc. That is, if I'm not called in for jury duty which is a distinct possibility unless some trials get canceled...

divendres, de desembre 01, 2006

First of December with Snow

I got to work around 7:30 and there was a tiny amount of snow on the ground but nothing was happening falling from the sky during the drive in. I finished some lesson plans in my lovely windowless office and got up to make some copies when I saw that it had begun to snow. It's the perfect, lovely kind of snow that was falling softly in the bluish morning light and it made me want to just curl up tonight and do my Christmas cards.

Yes, I'm a huge dork and I absolutely love making real mail. I love email but for certain occasions (weddings, birthdays, babies, holidays), paper is essential. I enjoy creating my holiday mail and sending it out into the world; in some tiny way I guess it allows me to travel vicariously through my inked words. I think the farthest our cards will go will be to Russia; I always think about my letter's long journey and how they process mail there when it comes addressed in a completely different alphabet. I also love getting some cards back; the postmarks and stamps and envelopes make me happy when I'm collecting our mail after work because I know right away they are not junk or bills.

I always force myself to wait until December 1 to send things out although this year, I won't have them ready right away. For one thing, I'm writing a holiday letter and it's proving extremely difficult to write to such a diverse audience without sounding like a cheese ball.

For another thing, I'm going to be running errands and getting ready for a big bachelorette bash at our place this weekend. Yep, a week from today, my bro is tying the knot and I'm hosting his bride's last hurrah. Angie's only request is to get "rowdy" so I have a feeling it's going to be an interesting weekend without much time for the genteel art of letter writing, heh.