Veggie week- Sunday

I am planning on writing a dissertation tomorrow on my new philosophy of life and getting things done. Reflect with me for a minute on the irony of that statement... As you can tell, from this post and others, getting things done has always been a struggle for me. More on this tomorrow.

Anyway, one thing that I have decided to do, in order to both incorporate more vegetables in my diet and post more on my blog, is to have a veggie week on my blog. Here is the idea- each day I have to make one vegetable dish to go along with dinner (quit judging me!) and I am going to post how I made it on my blog. Hopefully this way I will keep myself accountable to both things.

Sunday's vegetable: asparagus

Cooking method: roasting

First, I broke the ends off of the asparagus and rinsed the good end (that's the knobby, pointy one) in a colander. Then, I drizzled the asparagus with olive oil.

I know some people add the olive oil when the asparagus is in the pan. I prefer this way, because then the excess oil can drip off.

Next, I add salt and freshly ground black pepper.Grinding pepper with one hand is not for the faint hearted.

Next, I made a little rectangle out of aluminum foil, which I put on a cookie sheet. I do this because my cookie sheet doesn't have a lip and I don't want juices to run all over my oven. Come to think of it, there actually aren't any juices, so I'm not sure why I do it..

Then, you pop these babies into a 345 degree oven for 10-15 minutes and you're good to go!

My pork has been split down the middle because I am paranoid about raw meat and I have to SEE the middle to believe that it's done.

So this is Veggie week. And I invite you to join me, either by having a veggie week on YOUR blog, or by commenting to each post with your own vegetable adventures. Watch out vegetables! Your days are numbered.

Typical Thursday night

I should be grading my large pile of tests.
Instead I am updating my blog.
I should be planning tomorrow's classes.
Instead I am catching up on thepioneerwoman.com.
I should be updating grades online.
Instead I am allowing myself to get sucked into an argument about the philosophy of sports on Google Buzz.
I should be brushing my teeth and going to bed.
Instead I am drinking peppermint tea with honey.

In the time of the butterflies

Since my last post mentioned a movie that wasn't really worth watching, I figured I owe it to everyone to recommend a movie that is. I stumbled a cross this movie a few days ago on hulu.com and it was really phenomenal. The good thing about it being on hulu is that you can watch the whole thing for free on your computer.

The movie 'In the time of the butterflies' is a movie about 4 sisters who lived during the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. They are the Mirabal sisters, who formed part of the resistance movement against the regime.

What I liked about the movie was that it didn't show any excessive sex or violence or contain much bad language. Even though it is about violent, sad times, it portrays it in a way that even my weak stomach can handle. And, it was fairly educational. I didn't know anything about the Trujillo dictatorship before I watched this movie, and now I have at least a sense of what it was about and why people were fleeing their country during that time. It's also an inspiring movie. It makes you want to go out and change the world. Watch at your own risk!

Here is the link to hulu. If you watch it, let me know what you think!
http://www.hulu.com/watch/34568/in-the-time-of-the-butterflies

Brisket part 2

The brisket, mentioned a week or so ago, turned out beautifully! The flavor was perfect and the meat was tender and well done. My husband even forced me to sit down THAT NIGHT and write down every step of the process in my cookbook so that I could replicate it next time. Now that's a compliment!

I have no pictures of any of it because we ate it too quickly. Next time I make it, I'll be sure to snap a picture of each stage and the finished product.

On a side note- did you know that using your crockpot is one of the most energy efficient ways of cooking? Go green and make brisket! Do it. Do it. (Starsky and Hutch- if you haven't seen it, don't. It really isn't worth it)

Big words

One thing that is funnier than anything else to me is when people try to use big words to sound impressive, and then choose the wrong big word. Take, for instance, this sentence. I found it on a comment page, after the article 'Why does the West love the Dalai Lama?' on the BBC website. The angry commentor summons all of their big words, and throws them into an impressive 53 word sentence.

"The Dalai Lama is essentially a dictator who uses religion as a front in his quest to reinstate a system whereby the vast majority of people live in abstract poverty and are forced to give most of what little they have to the monasteries and monks who rule through religious indoctrination and violence."

Well, that sounds terrible! And it makes all those people live in abstract poverty! Unfortunately, that one misused word makes me immediately discount all of his other words. What a sad waste of a 'whereby'.

Ok, now I will reread this post a few hundred times to make sure I said everything correctly..

Brisket part 1

One great memory I have from college involves a certain brisket made by my best friend's mom. At certain InterVarsity functions, she would come and cook for the group and make this brisket. It was amazing. Melt-in-your-mouth beef. Since I have gotten married, I have always looked longingly at the brisket at the grocery store, but have never been brave enough to try it myself.
Until now. It helped that the meat was on super-sale, so at least if I ruin it completely I won't feel too bad about throwing away my money.
Being the foresightful planner I am, I shot an e-mail off last night to both Kristina and Jen, demanding their mother's recipe. I told them I needed the recipe by this morning, or else. Needless to say, there was no recipe in my inbox this morning. So I threw some random things in the crockpot and we'll see. I decided I should write this down so that in case it should turn out well, I would be able to replicate it. And, I guess, in case it turns out terribly, I'll know what to avoid.
On the bottom of the crockpot:
2 onions, quartered
1 celery stalk, cut into 1 inch pieces.
2 cloves of garlic, rough chopped
2 dried chipotle peppers
1 bay leaf

On the meat:
fresh ground pepper
ground cumin
onion powder
garlic powder

Poured over all:
3/4 cup of liquid that included
Soy sauce
worcestershire sauce
beef boulion
hot water
juice of 1 lime
1/2 tsp salt

I seared the brisket before I thought of the little spice rub, so I put those dry spices on AFTER it was seared. I think if I did it again, I would do that before I seared it, possibly even overnight.
I'll let you know how it goes.

The ANSWER

For those of you who know me well, you know that caffeine and I don't get along. Like, at all. My latest post was about coffee. Well, I have now drunk (drank? drinked?) half a cup of my concoction, which was about 40% coffee and 60% milk and caramel, and I already feel jittery and just a teency bit nauseous.
I have had just about enough of this caffeine reaction business. I want to be able to drink coffee whenever I feel like it! I want to drink black tea at night! Come on! So I went online to do some research about caffeine. I just knew that there had to be something that would counteract the effects of caffeine and make my life a little easier. Guess what? THERE IS!!
Let me quote, from Prevention Magazine's website:

"Tobacco
Smoking can increase caffeine metabolism, decreasing effectiveness. Smokers who use caffeine-containing.. products may require higher amounts of caffeine to achieve effectiveness."

Well, I trust Prevention's advice. I will start smoking posthaste.

Shhhh

I don't even know if I'm allowed to write about this on this blog. The tea might get jealous. But, I'm making coffee (stage whisper) this morning. Not just any old coffee. This is the gourmet, amazing stuff. I have been looking forward to this coffee for a few weeks now, but the perfect day to make it never presented itself. Today, however, the second snow day in a row, is finally the perfect day. I have time. It's not too late in the day for caffeine. AND I have some chocolate chip banana bread that I made yesterday. So here is the plan:

In the coffee filter:
Cafe Leon, imported by my own hands from Guatemala.
Broken up cinnamon sticks

To sweeten and soften:
milk
dulce de leche (basically, caramel)

I got this idea from the pioneer woman here: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/01/dulce-de-leche-coffee/

I wish I had my camera with me, but alas, it's at school and there are mountains and mountains of snow between here and there. Ok, maybe not. Maybe we only got about 4 inches. So you'll just have to imagine. And I will have to go curl up with my new amazing book and drink my amazing coffee and be so thankful that I'm not at school trying to cram the love of Spanish into teenagers' heads.

New book

I went to Borders and bought a book today with a gift certificate I had gotten for Christmas. I had read about this book somewhere, and then saw that the book club at school is reading it now. So that sealed the deal. The book is The Help by Kathryn Stockett. The librarian at school told me that it would really open my eyes to the realities of slavery and racism in the South. Sounds rough, but I'm up for it.

Another thing that contributed to me picking up this book is that it is a New York Times Bestseller. My mom says that if you want to be a bestselling author, you should read bestselling books. Sounds like wise advice. I don't know that I'll ever be an author, but if I am, then I am determined to be a bestselling one.

House

Lately I've been getting a hankering to get my own house. I don't know if it's the terrible windows of my apartment that ice over.. on the INSIDE.. in winter, or maybe the feeling of wanting to hunker down and hibernate from the cold, or maybe the long trek through the snow to the laundry building, or, most likely, from hours and hours of watching HGTV.
As I think about buying a house, here are the things that would be dealbreakers for me:

1> Laundry. In the house. Sounds like a miracle. Although then I might have to start thinking about getting my exercise elsewhere.
2> Gas stove. Preferably a dark blue Viking. What? They cost 8,000 dollars? Surely the previous homeowner will leave one behind..
3> A guest room.
4> At least 2 bathrooms.
5> A little bit of yard so I can play gardener.

I think those are enough dealbreakers. Things I would like besides that:
1> A big kitchen with enough storage space. Ooh, and a pantry.
2> A non-carpeted entrance so you have a place to take off wet and snowy shoes.
3> A fireplace.
4> A separate dining room. I think I've had enough of multi-purpose rooms.

And, I have to confess, one of my favorite things in the world (of houses) is when upstairs rooms have irregular ceiling lines, like a sloping ceiling with a window jutting out of it.
We'll see. For now, I have decided to just be content that I am warm and out of the snow and slush. Incidently, there is a lot of snow in the forecast for Monday and possibly Tuesday. Do I see a snow day or two in my future??