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Finalizing Final Exams & Grades

Last week sort of flew by since it was final exam week. On Tuesday, my colleagues and I wrapped up a project that we had been working on since January; we are making it into a presentation for early June and are hopeful that it will also be published in article format. We'll see, either way it turned out well and it feels good to have some closure on it.

Thursday I gave all my final exams and then took myself out to lunch, grading while I waited for my crab salad sandwich and garbanzo pancetta soup. The little cafe was rather busy so I got a lot of grading done and then headed to my salon for a haircut. This was followed by more grading.

On Friday, I went to visit some friends that I had met at my very first job out of college. Usually, you don't stay in touch with people like that but we went through a traumatic management experience together and I guess that's what solidified the friendship. They had a bonfire and we just relaxed and caught up.

On Saturday, I went to a friend's grad party. He had finished his Masters in International Management, very cool and had I stayed in a corporate setting, I think I would have considered such a degree. The party was wonderful- perfect decorations, awesome food, and it was fun to see some old friends again.

Saturday night I was back home again. Home alone, even, since Austin had gone off to fight in the Great Paintball War (aka his annual paintball/camping event with the boys). I enjoyed the night to myself and watched a chick flick set in Paris.

Sunday I ran some errands with the intention of making Austin a really nice meal, both because I had been too busy to cook lately and because I thought he might enjoy it after a weekend of subsisting on hotdogs and beer and cigars. The meal I had in mind was from the most recent issue of Bon Appetit but my culinary endeavors lacked the results I was hoping for.

First off, I made a lemon cream tart with a champagne-berry compote for the top. This actually turned out the best of the dishes except that I inadvertently bought a larger pie crust than I had intended so the tart itself was nestled down in a giant crust and looked ridiculous.

The other dishes (sorry, too lazy for hyperlinks) were roasted shrimp in a champagne-shallot sauce with an orzo shallot risotto. Well, the roasted shrimp turned out nicely (just tossed them with olive oil, kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, and some lemon zest-- can't go wrong there) but the champagne-shallot sauce was really runny and had been reduced to the point that it was too sweet. The orzo risotto turned out like a San Francisco treat gone wrong. It wasn't bad... it just wasn't good. Plus the recipe said you just throw all the liquid on top of the risotto and let it absorb. When I made more authentic risotto (also rice and not pasta based), you added the liquid in a number of additions, waiting for absorption before adding more. I have no idea what the science is but maybe that's what made a difference?

Anyway, we basically ate all the shrimp and had a nibble of the risotto. The tart was really good in spite of its unfortunate aesthetics and that recipe just might be made again. I probably won't try the other dishes again since there are other recipes that produce a similar effect that I know will yield better results. Ah well, that's how it goes.

Now it's time to spend most of the day finalizing the grades. They aren't due until tomorrow evening but hopefully I can finish them today. Then it's off to another Sand Crab v-ball game. Pinch, pinch!

Etiquetes de comentaris: cooking, weekend, work

posted by Kelly @ 9:14 a. m.