Hi everyone! Next week, I’m going to have a special guest on my blog: my fiance, Jordan Martinus, a magnetics design engineer who enjoys playing role-playing and board games, teaching kids at Bible Study Fellowship, and staying active with CrossFit and basketball. He also loves hanging out with me and participating in such pastimes as walking, cooking, and watching movies. What would you like to know about Jordan? Post your questions here, and we’ll tackle them in next week’s post!
Tag Archives: cooking
what I’m doing this week: making risotto, being student-centered, and still planning a wedding
This post should not be read as me tooting my own horn (“you should be just like me”) but rather as me sharing some things that I’m doing that may or may not work for you–after all, you may have even better ideas. Also, it’s an aspirational post for me, too; I mean, this is only Monday, and even in a normal week, my best-laid plans can turn into a mess of arrows bumping tasks down to later in the week on my planner page (some of which tasks will fall off the page entirely). So, with all that in mind, here are three things that I (you are free to do as you like) am planning to do this week.
- Making risotto. This morning, I bought ingredients to make one of my favorite dishes, risotto. I know that not everyone loves cooking, but for me, it’s relaxing and a way for me to use totally different skills than the ones I use in my work. Also, there’s sometimes a temptation, when we are housebound or just generally in stressful situations, to throw basic nutrition guidelines out the window, but I think it’s important for us to continue to be at least mindful of what we’re eating and feeding those we love. I’m not saying risotto is the pinnacle of healthy eating, but it certainly is filling and nourishing, and I’m adding peas and shrimp to mine (thanks for the idea, Betty Crocker) for some green and protein. So, again, I’m not telling you what to do, but perhaps you’d like to use some of your time at home to prepare something special in the kitchen–even if it’s just toast with your favorite nut butter.
- Being student-centered. My university, like most, has moved on-campus classes online for the next three weeks. There’s been a lot of talk in higher ed circles about the best way to ensure students are still getting both the rigor and the support of a traditional classroom setting. I’ve chosen to make things relatively easy for myself by using the same format–loosely based on a typical asynchronous* online course–for all three of my on-campus classes. But the really important thing, I think, is that I’m trying to be present for and supportive of my students–answering their emails promptly and encouragingly, commenting on their discussion boards here and there, etc. For me, one of the most crucial (and enjoyable) parts of teaching has always been letting my students know I’m a real person (hence the many times I “accidentally” display my desktop, which features a cute picture of me and my fiance, on the screen in the front of the classroom) and letting them know that I care about them as real people. This can be harder in an online environment, but it’s worth the effort, especially in times when students are facing even more anxiety than usual. So, if you’re looking for takeaways (again, it’s okay if you’re not), here are two: a. Keep doing your best work, even if it looks different than it did last week, and b. Make sure the people you care about know that you care.
- Still planning a wedding. So, speaking of my cute fiance…we are planning to get married on May 24. As of now, that’s far enough in the future that we may as well keep planning as if everything’s going forward as normal. When we get closer to the date, we may have to make some difficult decisions, just like couples with March wedding dates are having to make right now. (My heart goes out to them.) But today, I’m working on booking a salon so my bridesmaids and I can get our hair done, because right now, I’m still fully intending to have a wedding on May 24. The takeaway here is that we can’t know what the future is going to look like. We never can; this virus has simply highlighted that truth for us in a particularly poignant way. Not knowing the future is frightening, but acting like we know it usually only leads to despair. As Gandalf once said, “Even the very wise cannot see all ends…and that is an encouraging thought.”
*a fancy word that means “not conducted in real time”
“Michigan seems like a dream to me now”
I’ll go ahead and warn you that I’m not totally sure what direction this post is going to take–whether it’s going to turn out profound like last week’s post or be a stream-of-consciousness reflection on how Simon and Garfunkel lyrics have kept coming to my attention over the past week, which is all that I have in mind right now. Just letting you know.
So, yes, last night while I was making a tuna layered salad to chill for tonight’s meeting of my creative writing group, I listened to my Simon and Garfunkel greatest hits record because for days, I had been coming across direct and indirect references to their songs, from a former grad student telling me that “Bridge over Troubled Water” played an instrumental role in the conversion of Christian singer Jason Gray (shout out to you, Kandy, if you’re reading this!), to Max Lucado’s odd but appropriate mention of “The Boxer” in his early book No Wonder They Call Him the Savior, to the Michigan place-name Saginaw, which always makes me think of the song “America” (which, since that’s the most generic song title ever, most people probably think of as “All Gone to Look for America”). (“It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw.”) By the way, I haven’t been to the city of Saginaw, but the reason I fairly often think of the name and hence the song is that there’s a thoroughfare called Saginaw (Street? Avenue? It’s just called Saginaw, apparently. They do that a lot around here) in Lansing where the American Red Cross platelet donation center is. Yes, I do drive an hour to Lansing to donate platelets when I could donate here in Grand Rapids with Michigan Blood Services. I’m loyal to the Red Cross, and I don’t mind making the drive once or twice a month, especially now that I have a new Mazda CX-5 that I really enjoy spending time in.
Okay. Rambling. Focus.
There’s a line in “America”–near the Saginaw line, of course–that I never really paid attention to or possibly even heard until last night. (I recently got a new turntable and speakers, and I’m having all these revelations because I can now hear my records properly for the first time.) It says, “Michigan seems like a dream to me now.” This line brought a bemused smile to my face as I was chopping cucumbers or whatever I was doing at that moment. Michigan does seem like a dream to me now, not because–like the protagonist of that song–I have passed through it quickly and left it behind, but because I am still here after seven months and yet it sometimes doesn’t seem real that I live here. And I don’t mean “dream” in the sense of “beyond my wildest dreams”; after all, if you told me I could live anywhere in the world, no restrictions, I’d probably pick Italy or somewhere else more temperate in climate and with better food than Michigan (no offense intended). But I’m awed, blessed, and kinda proud of myself that I am not only living in a state that a year ago I’d never remotely considered living in, but also working at a university that a year ago I’d never heard of (but only because it’s a hidden gem)–and I own a house in that state and just a few blocks from that university. I even have a Michigan license plate on the four-wheel-drive vehicle I probably would not have bought in Virginia. But it all feels a little surreal, like an unusually long vacation.
That’s all I have to say about that, as Forrest Gump says. I hope it was sufficiently profound for you. Go listen to some Simon and Garfunkel.
Don’t try to do everything–but do something.
Last year, I enjoyed writing an Advent-themed post for each Monday leading up to Christmas (and I hope you enjoyed reading them), so I’ll be doing it again this year. Christmas Day is a Monday this year, and I plan to post as usual!
Today, I want to give you a life hack from The Girl Who Tries to Do Everything. Ever since Facebook started suggesting events in my area (sometime this past summer, I think), I’ve become obsessed with marking myself “Interested” in as many events as possible. They all look so fun! The events I actually show up to comprise, predictably, only a small percentage of the ones I star. Also predictably, the number of suggested events that look really fun has increased sharply with the onset of the Christmas season. And also predictably, I didn’t go to a single one of the events I was supposedly interested in this past weekend. But I did have a lovely time at home decorating my tree, writing Christmas cards, listening to the same Christmas albums I always listen to, and drinking way too much hot chocolate. So here’s my advice: Don’t try to go to every event and participate in every activity that comes to your attention this Christmas season. But, conversely, don’t let your inability to do everything paralyze you into inaction. Do a few meaningful things that make you happy–which may not be the same as mine.
Here are some things I’ve decided to do this month:
- Go see ONE Christmas play/show/concert: A friend of mine is stage-managing a production of White Christmas, and since I know that I love this story and its music (here is a post that addresses an interesting sartorial question from the film), I know that attending the show will be worth my time. Accordingly, I’ve already bought myself a ticket and put it on my calendar.
- Pick ONE recipe to take to parties: Fortunately, several of the Christmas parties I’m attending this month are catered or at a restaurant. But for those parties where I’m excepted (or feel obligated) to contribute food, I’m not trying a different ambitious recipe for each one; I’m making festively-shaped sugar cookies. That’s it. I do love to cook and bake–you know that if you read my blog regularly–but I can get serious burnout at this time of year if I’m not careful. By reserving my cooking/baking powers, I should have enough motivation to contribute quite a bit to my family’s holiday meals at the end of the month.
- Look at Christmas lights: Along with listening to music, it’s one of the only forms of holiday entertainment that is free and can be done on the way to something else. My neighborhood is making a solid showing this year, so all I need to do in order to infuse a bit of Christmas cheer into my day is take a slightly different route to my house.
- Make every moment special: That sounds like it belongs on an especially cheesy greeting card, but it’s actually quite practical advice. In December, if I’m sitting down to grade papers or read a book, I plug in my Christmas tree, light all my candles (and there are a lot–I like to pretend I have a fireplace), put on some Christmas music, and make some hot chocolate in one of my festive mugs. So I’m celebrating Christmas even when I’m not celebrating Christmas.
- Spend time with people: I’ve made it sound like I’m doing all of this alone, and I certainly do enjoy hibernating in my house. But this year, I had friends over to help decorate my Christmas tree, and even though I didn’t attend any of those events I starred this past weekend, I did spend some time with people each day. Because in the end, what we do is less important than who we do it with. And that’s sappy, but I can say it because it’s Christmas.
Opportunity for you to laugh at my expense
I’m taking a break from grading papers to share a brief funny story with you about something dumb I did tonight.
So tonight I made some coconut chicken soup, kind of an Asian-fusion thing. You might have seen the recipe in the latest Real Simple. My first mistake was that I bought an unidentified chili pepper. This is a terrible idea for anyone except the most heat-tolerant folks. I saw these little orange chilies at Kroger; they were in the jalapeno bin, but the sign said that the jalapenos were temporarily out of stock. I sniffed one of the chilies and thought “It doesn’t smell spicy.” I bought it, but I was actually worried that I had bought some wimpy mini bell pepper (is there such a thing?) and that my soup wouldn’t be spicy enough. Irony alert.
Tonight I cut the pepper in half as the recipe instructed, and I noted that it did smell spicy after being cut. I briefly considered seeding it, since the seeds are supposed to be the spiciest part, but the recipe didn’t say to seed it, so I didn’t. I have a bad habit of slavishly following recipes, mainly because I’m afraid to deviate.
So I threw the halved pepper in the hot pot where I was cooking the onions. Almost immediately I started coughing, just from inhaling the steam. I mean really coughing. My neighbors probably thought I was in the last stages of tuberculosis. This should have been a warning sign.
The coughing continued throughout the entire cook time of the soup (including the part where I had to stick the chicken in longer because it was still pink). Still, I never took the chili out. I took the lemongrass out, because the recipe told me to, but I didn’t take the chili out. This is called legalism.
When I finally sat down to eat the finished product, you can imagine what happened. My taste buds were singed. My nose ran. I cried. But doggone it, I was going to power through it. I grabbed a Cherry Coke Zero to cool off my mouth. And I worked on that soup for about ten minutes. (Incidentally, I came up with a good nickname for a sexy redhead while I was eating. I got a big hunk of ginger in one bite, and I said, “That’s a big hunk of ginger.”)
I finally had to give up. I was suffering. I ate all the chicken out of my bowl, but I ended up dumping out a lot of the broth. I hated to throw away all the leftovers, so I put the rest of the soup in a large container. AND I TOOK THE CHILI OUT. That’s an important detail. Later, when I was packing my lunch, I hesitantly tried a spoonful of soup. It was still really spicy, but it didn’t make me weep. So I’m going to save it and try again tomorrow. I also put a big handful of croutons in the container, hoping they would counteract some of the heat. I don’t know if croutons actually have that power, but I’m trying anyway. I do a lot of magical thinking when I’m cooking.
Back to grading papers.
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