Good Things Currently Happening:

1. We are on a three-week break!

2. We went to buy a vacuum cleaner today, and the one we wanted was fifty percent off!

3. More publication! Yesterday I submitted an essay to a few journals, and when I woke up this morning, I had an acceptance email from Southern Indiana Review. Less than twenty four hours--talk about instant gratification. And I get fifty dollars (my first time being paid for an essay).

4. Joe just found out he gets to teach a higher level English class next semester. 

5. We are on a three-week break!

Fluffy Anise Sugar Cookies

You know what's good? When you don't have the ingredients you need and your hasty substitutions turn out to be delicious.

You know what else is good? A cookie.

When I saw the Lofthouse Style Soft Frosted Sugar Cookies from "What Megan Making," I tried not to get my hopes up. I didn't believe it was possible to make something so delicious.

But when I pulled mine out of the oven, I knew right away that Megan was a cookie genius.

I followed her recipe exactly, except I also added in 1 1/2 teaspoons anise extract. When it came time to make the frosting, I was out of vanilla, so I substituted it with equal parts Gran Marnier. The licorice flavor from the anise in the cookies combined very well with the orange from the Gran Marnier.

Twenty minutes and four cookies later, I knew I was in trouble.

Find the recipe from the blog "What's Megan Making" here.

Too early!

What do ya think of the new design? Better? Worse? Needs improvement? Cedric said he needed to be more prominently displayed.

It's the last day of my semester! I'm sitting in my office after a horrible night of sleep and bitterly dragging myself out of bed at 7:30. I used to be a morning person, but after years of night classes and afternoon teaching, my body hates to be bothered before nine.

My exam periods last until four today--I'll just keep the lights low until then.

Muffin Break

For the first time in five years, it looks like I won't be desperately searching for a summer job. I am probably going to have a few summer classes to teach!

And yesterday I found out one of my oldest essays is finally getting published! This is very good because I was about ready to give up on it.

And I finished grading:

And I made cranberry cream-cheese muffins! I had to do something with all those leftover Thanksgiving cranberries.

 

No, that's not a pool of melted butter on my muffin....

Baked Apple Oatmeal

More oatmeal! I can't eat the same thing every day for too many days in a row. That's why I mix up my oatmeal. Last night we used a fourth of a granny smith apple for our salad (blue cheese + almonds + spinach + apples + balsamic = yesssss), and I didn't want the rest of our apple to get all brown and depressing. That's where the oatmeal came in.

This only serves one person, but you can double, triple, quadruple it depending on your number of hungry mouths. It's also great to make the night before, so you can just toss it in your cooked oatmeal in the morning. 

Ingredients

1 apple (whatever kind you want)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon butter, cut into small pieces

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cut the apple into 1/2 to 1 inch cubes. You could peel 'em first. I didn't.
2. Put the apples in a small oven-safe dish and mix in the cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar.
3. Dot the top of the apples with butter.
4. Cover with foil and bake for 30-45 minutes, or until apples are tender, stirring a couple times to keep the liquids distributed.
5. In the morning, make your oatmeal and mix in the apples (and whatever juices are left).

I just dumped my uncooked oatmeal directly into the apple dish, poured some hot water over it, and waited a few minutes.

I also topped mine with some candied almonds. See them there? They make for a nice crunchy surprise.

How do you candy almonds? Just throw a couple of tablespoons of sugar in a pan on medium and watch closely for it to melt. Then toss in about a 1/4 cup of almonds, or walnuts, or whatever else you wanted coated in sugary goodness, and mix until they are crunchy. Don't let them burn! Then find someone else to wash the concrete mess at the bottom of your pan.

Almost Done!

The semester is almost over, and I've been getting some funny compliments in my students' end-of-the-semester reflections. One student said she learned a lot and that the class even made her a better text message writer. Ha, definitely a concern of mine.

Another wrote this: "Thank you for all your hard work, you rock. I hope you are enjoying my dream truck-- you're so lucky." He was the one who saw me parking one day, and when I got out and waived, he didn't respond. When we got to class, he apologized and said he didn't realize it was me at first. He said he was shocked that I was driving such a nice truck and that he was even more shocked when he saw me parallel park it so well.

I know making students write a reflection on how they've progressed this semester and what they still need to work on is pretty much just fishing for compliments, but these nice comments really help my morale on days when I've had to repeat some random announcement eighty times or when I feel like nothing is sinking in. This is one thing I need to work on, getting a thicker skin. In my interview, they asked me what my strongest traits were, and I said one of them was that I was really sensitive. And when they asked what my weakness was, I said that I was really sensitive. But this wasn't one of those cliche interview tricks to indicate that my weakness was a strength; it was an honest admission that sometimes students have far too much of an effect on me than they should.

Anyway, just some end-of-the-semester reflecting. This weekend I finish grading and Tuesday will be my last trip to Coeur d'Alene for a few weeks. I'm excited to start fresh with some new ideas, but I always hate having to say goodbye to the old students (well, usually). This semester, I really lucked out and had students who very nice and not too cool to participate and have fun in class. I hope that trend continues.


And here's a picture of our moon yesterday.

Meet Ivan

Cedric wants you to meet someone. But not until you look at his Christmas portrait:

His new friend is our little potted Christmas tree. I hope he doesn't mind the bulbs too much. I spared him the lights, just in case he's sensitive.

We're hoping he's going to be around every Christmas. If someone keeps him alive.

Stagnant Air Alert

For the last two days, this red altert has popped up on my weather tracker. Usually it's for snow, or winds, or fog, but I have never seen an Air Stagnation Alert. 



 When I click on the air quality link, I discover we have a moderate fine particles alert.

WHY ARE WEATHER ALERTS WRITTEN IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS? I FIND THESE DIFFICULT TO READ. WHY NOT, INSTEAD, ATTRACT OUR ATTENTION WITH SOME COLOR OR ARROWS OR PICTURES OF MODERATE FINE PARTICLES?

I'll translate into regular case letters:
A ridge of high air pressure has been building and plans to stick around for most of the week. Because not much is happening underneath this mass of pressure, pollution wants to cozy up inside this windless area of stagnant air and eventually get bored and move on to our lungs.

We'll just stay inside, cuddling with our air purifying plants.

David Sedaris Hates Me

More on that in a minute. First, I will say seeing him read last night was wonderful. He is a machine, making edits and pulling out a notepad to record ideas on even while he's reading--without the slightest pause! His timing and delivery is perfect. But let's start at the beginning. Joe and I were pleased to find out that our seats were in the front row, which is good for me because I need a full, unobstructed view to fully enjoy myself. That's why I always make us leave unreasonably early for these types of things.

He doesn't allow photos to be taken (a good idea, I think, to avoid seeing so many unfavorable pictures of yourself), so I have none to post. I tried to construct some photoshopped version of what he looked like, but it's hard when you only have Microsoft Word. Oh well.

But why does he hate you, Cynthia? After he read his hilarious book excerpts and diary entires, right before he started signing books, he explained his hatred for the overuse of the word "awesome." He made an excellent argument, and said if any of us used that word at his table, we would owe him a dollar.

Joe and I stood in line for only about twenty minutes before getting to speak with him. "How is your night going," he said, tricking me I think. And what did I say? "Awesome!" Now, he doesn't need my money. He just finished telling us about a trip he took to Hawaii and a 400-year-old house he bought, but I gave it to him. I was the first one of the night to say it, and he wrote it down on a piece of paper. 

David Sedaris hates me, I told Joe as we walked away from his table. Don't worry, he said, he won't even remember us.

Anyway, I hope he used my dollar for something AWESOME.

Earl Grey Tea Latte

I used to drink a lot of Earl Grey Tea Lattes from Starbucks, back when they were calling them by a much cooler name: The London Fog.  Saying "London Fog" out loud made me feel as if I were whispering some kind of code word over the counter, like I should be sitting in the corner with a trench coat and fedora, studying people from behind a newspaper.

Anyway, I've decided to start making my own (without the help of an espresso machine's handy milk steamer).

Earl Grey Tea Latte 

Makes one large or two small lattes

Things you'll need

1 1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon honey (more if you like your drinks sweet)
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk


1. Bring 1 1/2 cups water to a boil in a small pot.  

2. Pour water into a largish cup and steep one earl grey tea bag.

3. While steeping, stir in honey and vanilla, and heat your milk until it's steaming (make sure not to boil). If you whisk the milk, you'll get a beautiful foam. 

4. Stir milk into steeped tea.


You should probably go ahead and have a cookie with that.



Oh, and just in case you want to stare at it all month long:

Click here for the 1280 x 800 download.

Keep Eating - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Chocolate Cake with Candied Orange Peels

Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies

A Quick Gloat

After writing for five hours this morning and then grading for four this evening, I am too tired for a real post. I just wanted to say:

I'm seeing David Sedaris tomorrow!

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Good Enough

 It's been a productive six days off! I crafted, and cooked, and wrote, and best of all, saw Joe for most of every day.

And, the couch is finished! It's not perfect, but for a first time try, it's not too bad.

Before!

After!

I need to get it some legs. Also, some of the sewing is a little funky and bunchy, but I'm not fixing it!

I had just enough of the green fabric to cover one side of the pillows . So, if I wanted, I could flip them and have all yellow pillows.

Way-too-much-work couch, meet took-an-entire-weekend coffee table.

I'm not sure I like the green and gold, but Joe says the gold is good for our chi.

Citrus Walnut Salad with Fennel and Goat Cheese

This is a refreshing, light salad that we'll be making often. The brightness of the citrus, the deep licorice flavor of the fennel, and the creamy goat cheese are delicious.

Ingredients
1 medium orange--peeled and cut into segments
1/2 medium grapefruit--peeled and cut into segments
1/4 medium red onion--peeled, cut in half, and sliced into half rings
1/2 fennel bulb--cut in half and sliced into half rings
2 small radishes--thinly sliced
1/3 cup goat cheese--crumbled
1/3 head red butter romaine--chopped
handful of walnuts

For the balsamic vinaigrette
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tbs olive oil
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper

Directions
Whisk the vinaigrette ingredients in a small bowl. Place butter lettuce on serving dish, top with the remaining ingredients, and drizzle with vinaigrette.  

Dinner Time

It's a little dark for pictures, but here's our little feast:

Salad: Red butter lettuce, fennel, red onion, radish, grapefruit, orange, goat cheese, walnuts, and a homemade citrus balsamic vinaigrette.

Chicken Roulade filled with goat cheese, pancetta, and sauteed kale. This tasty dish was kept company by some homemade bread stuffing and mashed potatoes and parsnips.

Dessert: Chocolate, walnut, and pecan pie. We also made a cranberry orange creme brulee, but our broiler decided to die while it was preheating. Maybe we can try tomorrow.

 

And now it's time to relax. 

Happy Thanksgiving

To distract ourselves from the fact that we can't be with our families in Michigan today, Joe and I will eat what we want at any point in the day that we want.

I'm starting with some cranberry orange oatmeal. Last night I made my first batch of creme brulee, flavored with cranberries stewed in a pot of sugar and Gran Marnier. This morning I put the leftovers in my oatmeal, and it is perfectly sweet and tangy. Oh and the walnuts on top are a texture must.

Last night we decided against making dinner. Instead, we stood over our kitchen counter with a glass of wine, some excellent cheese, and a crusty loaf of bread. The baguette was a little dark, but still so soft on the inside.

And the cheeses were all so different and delicious. The cheese sections in a couple of our stores are impressive, and my first time seeing one, I spent half my morning reading and oooohing at all of the labels. The best part: they sell little sample sizes, so you never have to make a decision again. Just get them all!

My favorite was the brie on the right. Joe also made some balsamic/olive oil dipping sauce with some Parmesan. A dinner of cheese and bread is good enough for me any night.

For the rest of the day we'll be cooking, and snacking, and watching movies. I always think I won't miss seeing the whole family that much, that it will be a relaxing day of lounging in pajamas, but as soon as one of them calls, and I hear everyone yelling and laughing in the background, it's hard to keep it together. I'll save the desserts for that moment.

Guess what I'm sitting on...

The couch is almost finished! Yesterday I sewed all the cushion covers. I even conquered my slacker habits and bought a special upholstery needle and special upholstery thread. I also hand-stiched the sides of the couch that were being held together by pins and have developed some lovely calluses. 

I still need to hand sew all of the open cushion ends so you can't see it yet, but you can see the fabric I bought for the cushions. After getting halfway through the sewing, I realized I was making a couch in NMU colors. Hmm... Not sure I like the look, but it's too late now!

Low on Fabric, Energy, Mental Capacity

This weekend was consumed by our couch. Friday night, we went out into the snow and ice to see to a great reading, Debra Gwartney.  After the reading, our friend Jonathan offered us his old couch! And there went the weekend.

Saturday afternoon, Joe and I drove out to Cheney and picked it up. Here it is after we got it home and I spent the rest of the evening dehairing it (our friends Jonathan and Amy own two mysterious cats (after staying there for a few days, I think I only saw a glimpse of one) and an adorable Newfoundland). Amy kept insisting, "you don't want this couch!" But it's a huge step up from our broken futon.

There are also some tears in the cushions, so I thought, hey let's just recover it really quickly. Yeah! Last-minute, unplanned, never-tried-before-projects always turn out great!

Yesterday morning I waited for Joe to wake up so we could go buy fabric. He slept and slept and slept. I baked and baked and baked. I made a pumpkin spice cake with brown butter and pumpkin glaze:

Then I made us some baked eggs (never tried it before): I sauteed onion, spinach, and tomato, mixed in some mozzarella and parmesan cheese, spooned it into individual ramekins, cracked a couple of eggs on top, and baked them for what felt like forever. It was really good! No picture!

The rest of the day was devoted to couch covering.

2:00 Find awesome green and black upholstery fabric for 2.49 a yard.

2:01 Debate whether the 8 yards they have left will be enough.

2:02 Hope it will be.

2:59 Seek advice from family: use a staple gun! Sew less!

3:20 Drive to Home Depot and buy cheap staple gun.

3:50  Begin project. Get two staples in before the gun breaks. Try to fix it for twenty minutes. Become irrationally angry and whiny.

4:10 Drive to Home Depot. Exchange staple gun for twenty-dollar version: THE POWER SHOT.

4:30-5:30 Make and eat dinner--fabric and cushions looming.

5:30  Stare, cut, staple.

6:00 Stare, grimace, cut, staple.

7:00 Stare, scowl, shake head, yell "what are you doing? you can't do this!" cut, staple.

After getting the main part of the couch finished, I ran out of fabric. The cushions will have to be covered in something else.

Somehow, Joe managed to get all his grading done in a room where some crazy girl was shouting at fabric and throwing pillows. And Cedric is exhausted:

And now, it's Monday morning, Joe has left for school, and I must venture out for fabric.

Cedric's New Scarf

The Geese are Gone!

For the last few weeks, there has been an amazing amount of geese and swans covering the beach next to campus. And today, when I finally remembered to bring my camera, they apparently decided they had enough.

It took some pictures anyway to show you again what I get it to look at every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. 

 Are those rocks way down there, along the water? Nope...

Found em! Except there used to be a lot more. These guys don't seem to be enjoying themselves too much.

Tomorrow's Friday, which means I drag myself out of bed at seven and drive to Coeur d'Alene for my three-hour morning class. Maybe the geese will teach it for me.

Gorgonzola, Walnut, & Spinach Triangles

Today I made a recipe from Rachel Ray, and then I mixed it up with some new ingredients.

Rachel Ray's Feta and Pistachio Triangles looked like the perfect snack to bring to a housewarming party I was attending, and I already had the phyllo dough and feta. This is only my second time using phyllo, a super thin pastry dough you can find in the freezer aisle. My first time was a failure. I layered way too many sheets together and they hardened into a weird mass that hurt my teeth. This time, I decided to follow some directions!

You can find the recipe for Rachel Ray's Feta & Pistachio Triangles here.

They had a great tang from the feta and the pistachios added some crunch and a nice color.

And below is my experiment version. Same process, different filling.


Gorgonzola, Walnut, and Spinach Triangles

Ingredients
6 sheets phyllo dough
3 tablespoons melted butter
1/8 cup Gorgonzola crumbles  
1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
1/4 cup finely diced granny smith apples
1/4 cup chopped fresh spinach 

1/8 cup finely diced onion 
1/2 teaspoon balsamic vinegar 
Honey to brush on top
2-3 tablespoons chopped walnuts for topping




Directions 

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees  *  Makes 18 small triangles
 
1. In a small bowl, combine gorgonzola, walnuts, apples, spinach, onion, and balsamic vinegar, stirring well to distribute the Gorgonzola and eliminate any overpowering clumps (some of us can't handle it in large doses).

 2.  Place three sheets of phyllo dough next to each other and coat each with 1 teaspoon butter. (I did the third sheet last after I realized I had so much leftover filling.)

  3.  Place another sheet of phyllo on top of each buttered sheet. 

  4.  Cut each sheet into six width-wise portions.

  
5.  At one end of each strip, place a teaspoon of the cheese mixture.

6.  Starting at the end with the filling, fold the strips into triangles. If I had any stray pieces at the end, I just cut them off, but I'm sure there is a way to tuck the ends in if you want them extra pretty.

7. Brush with butter and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or tin foil to bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
 

8. Brush with honey and sprinkle with walnuts.

 

Enjoy!