Red Lentil and Tofu Dal (Page 278)

• Date: Sunday, May 13, 2007 -- 8pm
• Location: Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: Matty's Apartment
• Dining Companion: Matty
• Recipe Rating: C
  

I picked this recipe for dinner a couple weekends ago because it sounded like the sort of thing that Matt really likes. It was not good though. My main complaint (and it's a serious one) was the amount of water. This recipe called for 1/2 cup of red lentils to be cooked in 3 and 1/2 cups of water, and then NOT DRAINED. There is no way that such a small quantity of lentils can absorb that much water. There was tons of excess water. So as not to completely ruin the meal, I did then drain a bunch of water from the lentils, but they were still terribly watery. The flavor of the dish was ok, but it was a bit bland. Matt wasn't totally sold on the combination of lentils and tofu. That was actually the one thing that didn't bother me about the dish. Overall this one was not a winner. It didn't taste bad, but as written the recipe creates a soupy, watery mess, and even after draining it is a bit flavorless.

When I moved to Boston, I brought a lot of my notes, problem sets, and exams from college. I remember thinking at the time that perhaps I would want to look at them during my graduate studies. Today I was sorting through the boxes that they are in, trying to decide what to take with me to Bloomington and what to throw away. Instead of thinking, "Well I may want to reference this material some day, so I should keep these notes" as I went through the various class notes I was thinking, "Well, I may be teaching this class some day, so I should keep these notes."

Despite having worked for many years towards this goal, it is difficult for me to believe that I am going to be a math professor. Ok, well really I am going to be a post-doc for the next three years, but I am going to be teaching my own classes, which feels very official to me! I got my teaching assignment for the fall. I am teaching two separate sections of the same calculus class. I know that a lot of mathematicians don't like teaching calculus, but I actually like that kind of teaching a lot. I am very much looking forward to it!