Spinach Salad with Gorgonzola Croutons and Bacon Twists (Page 139)

• Date: Friday, March 24, 2006 - 8:30pm
• Location: Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Fellow Chef: Cotton
• Recipe Rating: A-

Cotton picked this one out. This salad was extremely good. Cotton pointed out that it's a shame we can't grade the croutons separately, because they deserve an A+. The gorgonzola croutons were awesome! Although we ate this salad as a first course to our meal, it is intended as a main course salad, and I think it work quite well that way too. I'm usually not a fan of the dressing on these types of spinach salads, and I was certainly skeptical when I saw that this dressing contained mayonaise. However, the dressing came out both flavorful and light. All in all, an excellent salad, and one that I hope to make again soon!

Spring break starts today and I am so excited! In reality it doesn't make a huge difference -- I will still try to get a lot of work done over break. But not teaching, and not having any classes gives me so much more freedom in my schedule! I could even sleep in if I wanted to! Then again, today I got up at 5:30am, so I guess I am not really taking advanatage of my break yet! Hopefully I will also have time to do some cooking over break... The last week was so busy that I just couldn't find much time to cook. It was a great week though. My advisor was in town and we had a really encouraging talk. Plus, it's always mathematically very helpful to see him, and generate some new ideas with him for directions to go in my research.

I have three non-mathematical goals for my spring break. One, buy a new phone. Yesterday I was talking on my cell phone with Mike and I accidentally broke it in half (I kid you not!). Shockingly, it still works, but it's only a matter of time... I think I am going to get a new one today. Two, organize Food for Thought (more on this a different time). And three, figure out what to do about my car. So my parents have generously offered me the chance of getting my mom's car. It's in Wisconsin though, so I have to figure out if I want to go there and get it, or have someone bring it to me, or what.

Oatmeal Cookies (Page 664)

• Date: Tuesday, March 21, 2006 - 10:30pm
• Location: Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Recipe Rating: B-
  

I picked these cookies because I didn't have to go to the grocery store in order to make them! This recipe is not a winner though. The cookies came out much too doughy, and not nearly oatey enough. They have hardly any flavor. Plus, they aren't so cute. The recipe for oatmeal cookies on the Quaker Oats package is much better than this one! You know, most of the stuff I have made in this project has been pretty good, but I haven't been super impressed by the cookies in this book so far. Maybe I just have higher standards for cookies!

Today was a long day (13 hours at the office!), but a good day. My thesis advisor is in town from Japan for 3 days, so we spent much of the day working together (computing Mackey functor Ext groups!). The rest of the day was mainly consumed by my 18.03 students, who have an exam tomorrow.

This has been a good week so far. Last week was so weird, and this weekend I was really crabby. The last few days though I have just been in a great mood. I feel as though I have really been able to appreciate all the things that are wonderful about my life. When I was in college, Emilee and I would sometimes try to have attitude adjustments about things we were unhappy about. For whatever reason I would always stand on a chair when trying to adjust my attitude. I still do that sometimes. It gives you a different perspective on the world, being up so high. That was one of the best skills I learned in college: how to find and attach to a good perspective on a bad situation. I didn't know how to do that when I was younger. I was so crabby this weekend, about such stupid stuff. When I woke up Monday morning, I spent 10 minutes thinking about all the valuable things to come out of the situations that were making me so upset. And ever since, I have felt so much better. It's strange how powerful it can be to just tell yourself that you are going to view your life differently...

Ok, I am exhausted. I am going to crawl in to bed and sleep!

Hollandaise Sauce (Page 883)

• Date: Many times in 2004
• Location: Cambridge, MA
• Kitchen: Cambridge School of Culinary Arts
• Recipe Rating: A-

This is another one that I have made before. The recipe in this book is the same as our recipe for Hollandaise sauce in culinary school, so I have made it many, many times. I gave it an A- because if I were going to make Hollandaise, this is certainly the recipe I would use. However, I can't stand Hollandaise sauce so I never make it! When I was studying before exams at culinary school I would make batches of Hollandaise, and Mayonaise, and Bechamel, taste them, and then just put them down the garbage disposal. I felt bad about it, but not bad enough to actually want to eat them! So, I'm not a huge fan of Hollandaise, but for a Hollandaise sauce this one is pretty good.

I wrote this long, really personal thing to put here, and then erased it.

I don't really know what to say. My weekend has been weird, and not really at all what I had hoped it would be. But at the same time, I have felt comforted by it. This afternoon, over bread pudding and tea at 1369, Mike said "You know, sometimes things turn out the way you hoped they would, and sometimes they just don't." This weekend they didn't, but I feel ok about that. I think it's important to have days that are hard. It's important to remember once in a while that you can't always have everything that you want.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble (Page 812)

• Date: Friday, March 17, 2006 - 5:30pm
• Location: Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Dining Companions: Alex's Partygoers: Alex, Jon, Natasha, Mary Beth, etc...
• Recipe Rating: B+

Every so often Alex has wine-tasting dinners at his place, and I traditionally provide dessert. I picked this one for Alex's dinner last night because it seemed like it would both be easy and tasty. After making Bridget's cake, I wasn't ready for another fussy dessert quite yet! This was a good recipe. It didn't come out particularly beautiful, but it did taste quite good. The recipe gives a range for the amount of sugar to add -- I went with the middle of the range, but were I to do it again, I would put in less. Rhubarb is always best if you let the tartness of it come through. Also, I made the mistake of covering it while it was still warm in order to transport it from my place to Alex's. The net effect of this was that the crisp topping got much less crispy. I recrisped it a bit at Alex's, but I think it would have been better had I not covered it in the first place. Overall though, people seemed to really like this dessert. If you're looking for something quick and relatively foolproof, this recipe is not bad at all!

Well, the one person I really wanted to hear from yesterday never called (of course -- doesn't it always work out that way! :) ), but I did get a chance to spend some time with a couple people I hadn't really seen in a while. Much to my surprise, Rob appeared in the math department yesterday afternoon. I hadn't seen him since his wedding in July. He has a job at Columbia so he and his wife moved to New York. It was really great to catch up with him briefly. I miss having Rob around and watching the occasional Stanford football game with him! Then last night, when I went to Alex's party, Jon was there. I saw Jon at Bridget's celebration Thursday but before that I hadn't seen him in months. Jon and I met at math camp when we were undergrads! I just say that because it drives him crazy -- we actually met at an extended conference in Park City, Utah. We both ended up at MIT for grad school, although he's in the computer science department, hence I hardly see him. Anyway, last night we got a chance to really catch up. When I drove him home after the party he gave me an amazing pep talk - which aside from really embarassing me was quite sweet.

My other pep talk yesterday came in the form of a complete stranger working at a coffee shop paying me some very unusual compliments. After our chat I left, drink in hand, and laughed to myself all the way through Central Square.

It's about 8:30am on Saturday morning and the whole world seems so quiet. I love this time of day on the weekends...

Golden Cake with Chocolate-Sour Cream Frosting (Page 725)

• Date: Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 5:15pm
• Location: Cambridge, MA (MIT!)
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Dining Companions: Bridget, Mike, Francesca, Vigleik, Jon, Michael B., Alex, Mark, Prof. Stanley, Prof. Postnikov, Prof. Gessel, etc...
• Recipe Rating: B+

I picked this cake for Bridget's thesis defense because it sounded good and seemed like it would be generally appealing to a lot of people. I modified the recipe in several ways. One, instead of putting frosting between all four layers, I did one layer of frosting, and filled the other two with raspberry filling, which I think was a good adjustment. I also covered the cake with a chocolate band after frosting it. I have been wanting to try this technique for a while, so I figured I would give it a shot. It didn't come out perfect, but I was fairly happy with it. Overall the cake wasn't bad. The cake itself was a little dense for my taste, and maybe just slightly too dry. It's a matter of personal taste, but I generally prefer the texture of a chiffon-style cake to a butter cake like this one. However, the buttery flavor of this cake was very nice.

This has been a weird, weird week. This morning, before anyone else was in the office, Josh and I were sitting around, comparing how strange our respective weeks have been. I think that his week has been even more odd than mine, but I gave him a run for his money. Maybe I would have actually won if I had really been able to explain everything that has happened this week! My desire to maintain some privacy prevents me from doing this though. We decided there must just be something in the air. Last night when I went to bed I finally felt like things had settled down a little. Then I woke up to an email this morning from someone that I wasn't expecting to see for quite a while, saying that he is coming to town tomorrow. I am excited about the idea of seeing him, and hoping that he wants to see me too. I guess I can only wait and see...

Chocolate-Sour Cream Frosting (Page 726)

• Date: Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 5:15pm
• Location: Cambridge, MA (MIT!)
  
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Dining Companions: Bridget, Mike, Francesca, Jon, Michael B., Mark, Alex, Vigleik, Prof. Stanley, Prof. Postnikov, Prof. Gessel, etc...
• Recipe Rating: A

I chose this frosting because it went with the cake recipe that I made for Bridget's thesis defense today. I had actually made this frosting before, but never the cake that it went with, so I remade it for the project. I really love this frosting. It is very chocolately, and not too sweet. The sour cream gives it a great tang. I reccomend using good chocolate -- I used Callebaut and the chocolate flavor was fantastic. This frosting also has the great property that it starts very easy to spread and then firms up as it cools. Thus, it is both extremely easy to crumb coat with and extremely easy to pipe, which is a rare quality in a frosting. You do have to work quickly though, as once it has really thickened it is difficult to do anything with it. Overall, a wonderful frosting that is simple to make, good to work with, and very tasty.

Bridget successfully defended her doctoral thesis this afternoon! Congratulations Bridget! After her presentation we had cake and champagne, and then a bunch of us went out for dinner. When we were at dinner I couldn't help but think that it felt like not so long ago that we were all out for dinner celebrating Bridget passing her qualifying exams. In reality, that was almost 3 years ago. Grad school is really flying by. I guess it's not surprising that when you spend every day doing something that you love doing, surrounded by people that are great friends, time will seem as though it is passing quickly. I feel really lucky to have a job that I love and an office that I look forward to going to each day. That is such a huge blessing.

I was also reminded today that next year Bridget won't be here. Mike will be in Virginia. Vigleik will be in Chicago. It will be so different without the three of them around. Bridget is my resource for all things girly. She's the perfect person to watch a chick-flick with. She's great to talk with in the middle of the afternoon, sitting in my office with our feet up on the desks. Mike is my gym buddy, my source of all advice, and the first person I go to with a dilema. Mike will patiently listen to me rehash the same scenario over and over. Mike never gets sick of eating at Anna's with me. Vigleik is my rock. Possibly the most stable, even-tempered person I have ever known, Vigleik cheers me up when I feel bad, and calms me down when I am too excited to concentrate. Vigleik sits next to me in class every day. He eats lunch with me every afternoon. It's possible that I spend more time with him than with anyone else in my life. It makes me sad to think that next year they will be gone. The department will feel so different without them. But I am so lucky to have shared four great years with them...

Persian-Style Chicken with Walnut, Onion, and Pomegranate Sauce (Page 372)

• Date: August, 2005
  
• Location: Palo Alto, CA
  
• Kitchen: Emilee and Brian's Apartment
• Fellow Chef: Emilee
• Dining Companions: Brian, Chris, Eric, and Rachel
  
• Recipe Rating: C+
  

This is another one that I made long ago, but am just documenting now. Emilee and I made this in California last summer when I was visiting. It sounded really good, but wasn't so great. It wasn't nearly as bad as it looked though! I don't feel even slightly bad about the fact that there is no picutre of this one. This dish was terrifyingly ugly! Pomegranate apparently wasn't in season when we made it, so we had to use pomegranate juice instead, which seemed to work fine. The flavor of the dish was not bad, but somehow the appearance and texture made it not so appealing to eat.

Today was hard. I found out today that I am going to have to say goodbye to Lipschitz, my car. Partly it's upsetting because getting a different car will be expensive. I have a number of obligations that require driving though, so not replacing it isn't really a viable option. Plus, I love to drive so much -- I can't imagine not having a car. More than that though, I'm upset because Lipschitz has been with me so long -- that car is really special to me. I drove to Boston from California in that car. I drove to Emilee's wedding in that car. I drove to visit Melanie in North Dakota, and Greg in DC. I drove it down the California coast many times. It has had whitewater kayaks and surfboards and Christmas trees strapped to its top. For one week it had everything I owned inside of it. I have ridden in that car with boyfriends, and close friends, and family. I will miss all of those things. Brian has always referred to Lipschitz as "piece-of-shit." I will even miss that. But sometimes letting go is the only option. That car and I have had almost 124,000 miles together. And now, the cost of repairing it enough to make it safe to drive is many times the value of the car. I know it's time to let go, but I'm still so sad. On the bus home from school today I started to cry. Maybe it is silly to be so upset, but that car has been with me through so much... It's like losing a friend that has always been faithful to me.

I'm sure some of you reading this have good (and bad!) memories in that car too... (Em: our breakdown in the middle of the night in that terrifying neighborhood of San Francisco, or driving up those amazing hills to see the church with the labyrinth?!?!).

I'm writing this from my apartment, where I am baking a cake for Bridget's thesis defense tomorrow. Warm cake smells are drifting from the kitchen to my bedroom, and consoling me in my misery.

Beef Roasted in a Salt Crust (Page 413)

• Date: Sunday, March 12, 2006 - 7:30pm
• Location: Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Dining Companions: Mike, Vigleik, Shihchi, Marco, Josh, Vero, Alex, and Ana
• Recipe Rating: A-

I chose this for last night's dinner because it is a big recipe so I wanted to make it when I was having a few people over. It came out really nicely. I have roasted fish in salt before, but never a big beef roast, so it was a new experience for me. This recipe is incredibly simple, and the meat came out beautiful and tasty. I ended up using a boneless standing rib roast rather than one with the ribs in, as that was all they had at the butchers, but it still came out great! It would be a perfect dish for a special occasion.

For almost a year now, a small group of people have been getting together periodically for potluck dinners at my place. Over the summer these dinners happened weekly on Tuesdays, and became somehow forever known as Tuesday Dinners. Now that term is in session at MIT, dinners have not been so frequent, or consistent. But occasionally, like last night, we manage to get some of us together for such a potluck. I make a big vegetarian pasta dish (and often some other things) and everyone brings something with them. There ends up always being tons of good food. The crowd changes a bit from dinner to dinner, and over time we have added some new faces, and some people have moved away. We always have a good time though! I really love to eat with friends, and I always look forward to occasions that bring up all together over dinner.

I've included a picture of the roast before I removed the salt. When some people arrived last night the salt crust was still on and they couldn't figure out what it was. My favorite guess came from Marco: "Is it a cake?" Even once it was established that the white stuff was salt (and not frosting, or ice, and some people thought) people had a hard time figuring out what might be inside. It was quite entertaining.

Pasta with Asparagus Lemon Sauce (Page 205)

• Date: Sunday, March 12, 2006 - 7:30pm
• Location: Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Dining Companions: Mike, Vigleik, Shihchi, Marco, Josh, Vero, Jacob, Alex, and Ana
• Recipe Rating: A-

I chose this because I needed a vegetarian pasta dish for last night's potluck dinner, and this fit the bill. It didn't sound particularly good to me but I actually ended up liking it quite a lot. It is very simple: just penne and asparagus tips in a pureed asparagus sauce with lemon and cheese. The asparagus flavor was nice though, and not as overpowering as I might have imagined it would be. The sauce thickened up nicely when the cheese was added, giving it an almost creamy texture. Overall a simple, tasty pasta dish!

I bought a little filing cabinet at Staples on Saturday. At dinner last night, I somehow convinced everyone to assemble it for me! It was really great. Mike was the contractor for this project, and he delegated tasks to the other 8 or so people in the room. A few people seemed not so excited about this project (Ana: "You call this a party?"), but many people seemed almost like they were having fun! It went really fast though. They were able to do in well under an hour what would have taken me several hours for sure. My contribution: I took dessert orders and served up dessert for the people doing the real work! The top picture is Mike, Josh, and Marco, busily working. The bottom one is the assembled filing cabinet, with everyone (except Marco) who helped assemble it.

Roasted French Fries (Page 568)

• Date: Saturday, March 11, 2006 - 6pm
• Location: Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Recipe Rating: B

I picked this recipe last night because I have potatoes left over from Talbot that I need to use before they go bad. These fries were good, but inconsistent. To be fair, this is likely due to user error. Some of my fries burned, some didn't cook enough. Some stuck to the pan and tore apart, others came off easily. Probably most of this inconsistency in cooking stemmed from my inconsistency in cutting the potatoes into equal sized matchsticks. In any event, the fries that weren't burnt or undercooked tasted really good! Likely if I took more care in making this recipe it would be great!

So last night I went to a party. I left home around 9pm with the intention of only staying at the party a couple of hours. I was exhausted and wanted to get some rest. Things didn't quite work out that way though. I ended up back home around 3pm, and when I crawled in to bed, I just stared at the ceiling for a moment and thought, "huh." This party was unusual in so many respects, and I couldn't possibly try to explain the evening here. It was the kind of night I love though: really eye-opening in a way, and very different from every other night. It was the kind of night after which I am sure at least half a dozen people (myself included) woke up feeling slightly embarassed this morning. It was a memorable evening. A lot of these same people are coming over to my place for dinner tonight. I am wondering if the events of last night will be a major topic of conversation, or totally ignored. We shall see...

I went to the homeless shelter this morning, after not enough sleep. I helped Carol with the dishes most of the time. It's not my favorite job in general, but when I am exhuasted it's perfect. It's fast paced, but repetitive, and doesn't really require interaction with other people. It's a good task for someone who's not totally awake. Plus, no one on my shift besides Carol really likes to do the dishes, so she's always pleased when someone helps voluntarily.

Ok, I should start thinking about making dinner for my guests this evening...

Molasses Sponge Candy (Page 698)

• Date: Saturday, March 11, 2006 - 3pm
• Location: Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Recipe Rating: C-
  

A friend is having a small party tonight, so I made this candy with the intention of bringing it to his get-together. It's not so good though, so I think I won't be leaving the house with it. It's a shame really because it was a lot of fun to make. I love making candy -- I find it so fascinating how the properties of sugar change so drastically just from boiling. Plus, the effect of adding the baking soda to the boiling molasses and sugar was incredibly cool. It was very remniscent of a science experiment: you have this boiling liquid, you add a tiny amount of powder, and you get this huge growing column of stuff. It was really beautiful to watch. But, the end result just doesn't taste very good...

Yesterday was Marco's birthday (Happy Birthday Marco!) so after a wonderfully long workout at the gym, Mike and I went over to Marco's place to hang out last night. I stayed up much later than usual and ate an obscene number of chocolate covered dried cherries. This morning I woke up feeling the sugar hangover from those cherries!

There's a new butcher shop in Cambridge called Savenor's Market, and I went there today for the first time. The butcher guys were extremely nice. I needed a standing rib roast for dinner tomorrow night, and the only ones they had at the moment were boneless. They felt so bad about not having exactly what I wanted that they gave me the boneless one for the same per pound price as the one with bones! Not a bad deal at all. Well I shouldn't say that really -- it was the most expensive piece of meat I have ever purchased in my life -- by a long shot! Somehow it was also way more meat than I intended to buy... but that's a different story... I think I will be eating slices of rib roast all week! One of the butchers asked me if I was trying to impress my husband with my rib roast. That made me laugh. I told him I didn't have one to impress, and that the rib roast was just for friends. He seemed skeptical.

Before my butcher shop adventure this morning I finally got the pedicure I have been trying to find time for all month! It was so wonderful!

Cream Cheese Ice Cream (Page 855)

• Date: Thursday, March 9, 2006 - 10pm
  
• Location: Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Dining Companions: Mike, Vigleik, Shihchi, Marco, Josh, Vero, Jacob, Alex, and Ana
• Recipe Rating: A

I picked this recipe because I am having a few people over for a potluck dinner on Sunday, and I thought this ice cream could accompany whatever people bring for dessert. Just from reading the recipe I wasn't too excited about it, but actually this ice cream is fantastic. I really, really like it! The cream cheese adds an amazing and unique tang, which is accentuated by the addition of lemon juice. The ice cream came out rich, and creamy, and wonderful. It looks a little melty in the picture, but that's because I took the photo right after I took it out of the ice cream maker and before I put it in to the freezer to harden.

Tonight a bunch of us went out for a prospective dinner. When prospective students who have been admitted to the math graduate program at MIT come to visit, we get together a bunch of graduate students and go out to dinner. Tonight we had two prospectives with us: one from Harvard and one from The University of Maryland. These dinners are always fun -- plus the department pays for it! We spent most of our meal this evening screaming about politics. It always strikes me as amusing how riled we all can get even when everyone at the table is essentially on the same side of the argument. Hopefully we didn't scare off the prospectives!

Yesterday I finally made some time to go to the gym. I hadn't been in about 2 and a half weeks, which is probably the longest I've gone without working out in more than a year. When I don't workout for a while I start to feel really sluggish and generally sort of bad. Plus, running really improves my mood. I had a fantastic workout yesterday, and I felt so good when I woke up this morning! I'm telling you all this so that you can keep me accountable: I really want to get back in to my every other day workout routine. Now that I am done traveling for a while, I think I should have a little more time. I love to run, but sometime my running suffers when work gets a little crazy. I am going to really make an effort to make some time though. I am already looking forward to my run tomorrow!

Clarified Butter (Page 935)

• Date: Many times in the past
• Location: Cambridge, Somerville, etc...
• Kitchen: Culinary school, home, etc...
• Recipe Rating: A-

I didn't actually do this one today. This is another recipe that I have made many times before but which I wanted to add to the blog for completeness. What can you really say about a recipe for clarified butter? All clarified butter is pretty much the same. You simply melt it and separate out the milk solids to increase the smoke point of the butter. It's great -- even fattier than regular butter! Plus, is doesn't burn so easily!

I was planning on cooking tonight, but now I am a little too shell-shocked and upset to really think about cooking or food. I was looking forward to this evening. Today I gave my 7th talk in the past 6 weeks, and I was excited about the prospect of being done with all of them. The evening hasn't turned out exactly as I expected though.

I gave a talk today at MIT. It was in Babytop, which is essentially a seminar for the topology graduate students and post docs. In other words, I was speaking in front of a group of people who I consider to be friends. I was looking forward to it -- I have never really given a talk about my own research at MIT and I thought it would be fun. I was wrong. After my talk, I sat in my office and just stared at the water stains on the wall for 30 minutes, feeling completely disheartened and trying not to cry. While giving my talk I was interupted at least once every five minutes, not by math questions, but just by people joking around, or laughing, or having their own conversations. The group is really rowdy in general, and I have certainly been given a hard time before while giving talks, but nothing like this. More than anything I just felt like no one in the room was interested in what I had to say. They were all too busy joking around with one another. It's fine with me if they aren't interested in what I spend my time doing, but at least, out of respect, they could try to be a little polite. It actually took a tremendous amount of willpower for me not to just leave the room in the middle of my talk. I have given this same talk at multiple other institutions, where the audiences were supportive, and kind, and interested. This afternoon I felt like a substitute teacher, trying to teach second graders who had eaten too much candy. Today, for the first time, I actually didn't like, and didn't want to be a part of the MIT topology group.

I hope that I have never made a speaker feel the way they all made me feel today...

Spice Sugar Cookies (Page 669)

• Date: Monday, March 6, 2006 - 10pm
• Location: Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Recipe Rating: B
  

Andre picked the page number for these cookies when we were driving back from Talbot on Saturday. I make cookies for Babytop each week (one of the graduate student topology seminars at MIT) and these are the cookies for tomorrow. They aren't great, but they aren't bad either. I like the sugar on the exterior, and the spicy flavor of the cloves really comes through clearly. I had originally thought that they were going to be a bit too crunchy for me (I generally prefer soft cookies!) but after sitting for a bit they became pretty soft. They are a little dry, but then again I did eat two of them, after eating dessert at a restaurant, so they aren't too bad!

Today we had our first Monday topology seminar of the term, and hence our first topology dinner. We went to The Elephant Walk, which was pretty good. There were 13 of us - a bigger crowd than usual. I was sitting across from Veronique, which is always an adventure! She, like Mike, likes to meddle in my love life. The problem with people attempting to live vicariously through me is that my love life really isn't that interesting. It's not that I don't like to date, but I am just rarely interested enough in anyone to pursue it. Tonight Veronique decided she was going to start a mission to set me up with a certain tall, blond, Danish mathematician who lives 3000 miles away. I tried to tell her that said mathematician, although admittedly desirable, seems not the least bit interested in me. She ignored this minor detail and continued to plot ways of getting me to California, or him to Boston. When she tried to recruit Haynes for her cause, I finally did try to stop her. Haynes just smiled though, and commented that Veronique makes a good replacement for Mike when he's away. I suspect that Vero is slightly more dangerous than Mike though: Mike usually forgets about his plans before he executes them. Somehow I think Veronique is less forgetful...

I am speaking in Babytop tomorrow so I should go think about my talk now.

Fruit Crumble (Page 815)

• Friday, March 3, 2006 - 6pm
• Location: North Conway, NH
• Kitchen: The "Talbot" House Kitchen
• Dining Companions: Andre, Vigleik, Mike, Vero, John, Jacob, Chris and 15 other Mathematicians
• Recipe Rating: A-

I picked this one for dessert on our last night of the Talbot workshop. I made it with a combination of peaches and nectarines. It was very good! I had to cook it about twice as long as indicated in the recipe, although this was probably because I was using deep baking dishes rather than pie plates. The flavor and texture of the crumble topping was extremely good. Overall, a very simple, but tasty dessert. It was perfect served warm with vanilla ice cream.

I am back in Boston now. It's nice to be home. I had a very low key day today: I went to the homeless shelter, graded my students' first differential equations exam, took a long nap, and went to Koreana with Chris and Marco. Now I am, theoretically, unpacking. In reality I am just enjoying some time alone. Living in a house for a week with 22 other mathematicians is fun, but it certainly doesn't allow for too much solitude. By the last day I had reached my limit of being constantly surrounded by other people. I dismissed my kitchen crew for the day, ordered pizza for dinner, and baked dessert alone in the kitchen while most people were either skiing or sleeping. It was a nice break. Today though, I have really had some time alone, which has been so therapeutic.

Parmesan Balsamic Vinaigrette (Page 172)

• Date: Thursday, March 2, 2006 - 7pm
• Location: North Conway, NH
• Kitchen: The "Talbot" House Kitchen
• Fellow Chefs: Stacy, Joachim
• Dining Companions: Chris, Mike, Vigleik, John, Vero, Andre, Jacob, and 15 other Mathematicians!
• Recipe Rating: A-

I held a "vote" (more like a very loud debate) to pick the salad dressing. The result of this argument was the Sherry-Walnut Oil Vinaigrette. But, much to my dismay, the lovely North Conway grocery store didn't have walnut oil. So, we had to settle for our second choice: this one. It was very good though. I liked the combination of the balsamic vinegar, parmesan, and basil quite a lot. I dressed a big chicken, walnut, and parmesan green salad with it and it was quite good.

For dinner last night we had lasagna, potato-leek soup, salad, and carmelized onion and brie crostini with bananas foster for dessert. Tonight I am ordering pizza! Cooking five nights in a row for 23 people was enough for me -- I need a break!

Here's a picture of the true Talbot experience: Vigleik drinking a beer.

Last night was a weird night. First, in the process of climbing over a sofa I did something amazingly horrible to my neck. It took a long, long time and some drugs for the spasms to stop. Mike, Vigleik, Vero, and Chris took good care of me though. Just as I was starting to feel ok, a strange car pulled up in the driveway and a near-hysterical woman told us to call 911. A small ways up the street another car had driven in to an electrical pole and the car was engulfed in flames. A bunch of people here went out to the scene to try to help. Fortunately, it appeared that everyone had gotten out of the car before the fire overtook it.

Today is the last full day of Talbot, so everyone is starting to think about packing up and returning home. It was such a fun and productive week, but I am still looking forward to being back in Boston without any serious traveling for a while.

Smoky Black Beans (Page 267)

• Date: Wednesday, March 1, 2006 - 7pm
• Location: North Conway, NH
• Kitchen: The "Talbot" House Kitchen
• Sous Chefs: Owen, Tibor, Jeffrey
• "Kitchen Bitch": John
• Dining Companions: Jacob, Mike, Vero, Vigleik, Chris, Andre, and 16 other Mathematicians!
• Recipe Rating: A-

I picked these beans to go with our Mexican food feast last night. They were really excellent! I got a few skeptical looks from some members of my cooking team when I added the orange juice to the pot of beans, but I think they all came around about the OJ when they tasted them! This recipe is extremely quick, since it starts with canned black beans, but it still has a great hearty, rich flavor. The smokiness contributed by the chipotle chiles is wonderful! We used an immersion blender rather than a potato masher to partially puree our beans, and that worked perfectly.

For dinner we had: Build your own tacos with ground beef, shredded garlic-lime chicken, black beans, and all the fixings, plus tortilla soup and Mexican rice, with baked apples for dessert. We really made a lot of food, so I think we will be having a taco bar for lunch today too!

Here's a picture of some of the guys in the Talbot "seminar room."

A month or so ago I was having dinner with a woman who is a PhD student in experimental physics. We were talking about the curiosities of being women in male-dominated fields. She said that the key to success as a woman in such an environment is to remember, "They are your colleagues. They are not your friends." I was so shocked when she said that, and for weeks her words echoed through my head. Last night around midnight I was standing in the bathroom with Mike, John, and Jacob, all of us in either our pajamas or our swimsuits, brushing our teeth. I looked around and all I could think was, "Yes, they are my friends. And that's a good thing." It's nice to be here, surrounded by friends, learning together and having a good time!

It's early now and not so many people are awake. Mike is still sleeping. I predict he will be pissy at me when he wakes up -- in the middle of the night I (accidentally) elbowed him in the head! Whoops!

Minestrone (Page 106)

• Date: Tuesday, February 28, 2006 - 5pm
• Location: North Conway, NH
• Kitchen: The "Talbot" House Kitchen
• Sous Chefs: Maia, Jacob, Veronique, and Vigleik
• Dining Companions: Chris, John, Vero, Andre, Mike, and 17 other Mathematicians
  
• Recipe Rating: C+

I picked this soup because it was easy to make it vegetarian and it sounded like a good post-skiing dish. It wasn't really very good though. As mentioned above, I did adjust the recipe slightly: omitting the pancetta, and using vegetable broth rather than chicken stock to make it so that the vegetarians could eat it too. For the tremendous amount of peeling, shredding, and chopping that Maia, Jacob, and Vero did to make it, I'm not sure the end result was worth it. It didn't taste bad, it just wasn't anything special. I did like the addition of the pureed beans though -- they gave it a nice texture. I wouldn't make this one again. In fact, I didn't even finish the bowl of it that I served myself with dinner! On the other hand, everyone else ate it, so it wasn't too terrible.

This afternoon I was making blueberry pudding cake for dessert and I needed 5 melted sticks of butter. I put the butter in a bowl in the microwave and kept cooking. An hour or so later my cakes were done and looked really beautiful. Several more hours passed and then Andrew came in to the kitchen to make a snack. He opened up the microwave and asked "Teena, can I move this bowl?" Apparently, I had forgotten the butter in the microwave! In other words, my beautiful cakes were butterless! Veronique and I tasted them and concluded that they weren't so good. After some frantic brainstorming, we decided we could try to fix it. We ended up quickly making some raspberry pastry cream, layering it with chunks of the cake and serving it with vanilla pastry cream on the side. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad at all. I was very grateful for Veronique's help and adventurous spirit in helping to fix my mistake! Tomorrow I will be more careful...

Here's a picture of the dinner table...

Green Beans with Almonds (Page 522 )

• Monday, February 27, 2006 - 7pm
• Location: North Conway, NH
• Kitchen: The "Talbot" House Kitchen
• Sous Chefs: Allegra, Vesta, Chris, Scott, and Vigleik
• Dining Companions: Andre, Mike, Jacob, John, Vero, and 17 other Mathematicians!
  
• Recipe Rating: A-
  

I am at the Talbot workshop now and cooking dinner for 23 people each night. Fortunately, I had some great helpers for this meal! My companions in the van on the drive up here Sunday helped me choose these green beans. These beans were really quite good. I especially liked the effect of grinding the almonds rather than adding slivered or whole almonds to the beans. We bought every green bean they had at the grocery store, and we ate them all, so everyone else must have liked the recipe as well! Other fine things about this recipe: the beans were perfectly crisp-tender, the almonds added great crunch, and it was easy to make in huge quantities (which is very important this week!).

Talbot has been fun so far. These green beans were part of last night's meal. The first night we had Pasta Arrabbiata, Emilee's mother-in-law's salad, and fig, prosciutto, and goat cheese sandwiches, with molten chocolate cake with raspberry sauce for dessert. Last night we had pork tenderloin, lentil stew, and these green beans with strawberry budini for dessert. Tonight we had macaroni and cheese, minestrone, and carrot slaw, with blueberry pudding cake with raspberry pastry cream for dessert.

I gave my talk this morning (just an introduction to Waldhausen's A-Theory). It's nice to be done with that! Now I can relax a bit more. Not that much relaxing is possible with this schedule. Between 5 or so talks per day, cooking for everyone, and sitting in the hottub, my days are pretty full! It's fun though - I have no complaints!

Raspberry Sauce (Page 876)

• Date: Saturday, February 26, 2006 - 10pm
• Location : Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Dining Companions: Chris and Andre
• Recipe Rating: A

I have no idea why that top part is underlined, but I find myself unable to fix it. Anyway, this sauce is excellent! I made it to go with dessert tomorrow night at Talbot (this workshop in New Hampshire I am going to), but Chris, Andre, and I sampled it tonight. The raspberry flavor is intense and the sauce is not too sweet. Plus, it is fabulously easy to make. I highly, highly recommend it!!!

Today I was not in a good mood. Actually this morning I was fine, but at some point I discovered something really upsetting -- my recipe file is missing! I have this file that I have been slowly building over the last 4 years. It has all my favorite recipes in it: recipes torn from magazines, saved from culinary school, given to me by friends, inherited from my family. It is a collection of all my favorites. And many, many of the recipes in there I do not have another copy of, nor would I know how to get my hands on one. I have no idea how I lost it. I brought it with me to California, and there is a chance I accidentally left it at Chris' place (hopefully this is what happened -- then I can get it back!). Or it's possible that the airport inspection people took it out of my luggage and forgot to put it back in... Those recipes are so much a part of me -- losing them really hit me hard. Plus, I am supposed to be cooking dinner for 23 people all this week - there were many recipes in my file that I was planning to make. I'm just sad. If it's really gone for good I will just slowly start rebuilding it when I get back from New Hampshire. I hate the idea of losing all those great recipes though - it's like losing very special memories.

Paprika Chicken (Page 366)

• Date: Thursday, February 23, 2006 - 8pm
• Location: Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Sous Chef: Andre
• Dining Companion: Josh
• Recipe Rating: B

Andre picked this one after an unbelievably long selection process that involved large numbers and residues! It wasn't bad, but also wasn't something I would be eager to make again. Andre pointed out that it didn't have a lot of flavor, which was true, but shocking given the amount of paprika it contained! On the other hand, while the flavor was mild, it did taste good. I also enjoyed the consistency of the sauce. I ended up cooking the dish longer than indicated in the recipe, as the chicken wasn't cooked through after the cooking time suggested. Overall, not bad. -- it made a nice, comforting, winter dish.

Josh and Andre are talking about Dungeons and Dragons right now. That's all I have to say about that.

Now Josh is asking me to spell various difficult words. Since I am ignoring him, Andre is trying to spell them. Andre's spelling is notoriously bad. For several years, he would write Chris' name as Chriss. Finally we corrected him. Another great Andre error: instead of "kicks to the head" he once wrote to me that he had received many "cicks to the head". In his defense, he does speak 6 languages. I suppose it is easy to get confused!

So, I was SO hungry before we ate and I asked Andre to take a picture of the chicken. He took FOREVER setting up the background and the lighting, and then, he finally attempted to take a picture and didn't actually push the button hard enough to take one. So, in the end, furious and hungry, I had to take it. Andre does want credit though, for the lovely green background he set up. Grrrrr.... :)

Foolproof Long-Grain Rice (Page 254)

• Date: Thursday, February 23, 2006 - 8pm
• Location: Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Dining Companions: Andre and Josh
• Recipe Rating: A-

The chicken recipe (above) suggested that it be served over rice, so I decided to make this. I felt a little silly making white rice from a recipe in a cookbook, but actually this rice did come out really well! I usually just add rice to boiling water, turn down the heat and cover for 20 minutes. Instead, this recipe had first a stage of boiling the rice uncovered, then a stage of steaming it, then a stage of resting. It came out really nice. If you like rice that it not at all sticky, this seems to be a really good method.

Last night, after I flew back from Chicago, I went back to the airport to pick up Andre! Andre was a graduate student at MIT but he graduated last spring and moved to Germany. We all miss him so much! He's in town now for the Talbot workshop, and he's staying with me until we leave for New Hampshire on Sunday. It's so fun to see him again! Add to that the fact that Vigleik got back from Sweden last night! My trip to California and V's trip to Sweden overlapped in such a way that I hadn't seen him in more than 2 months. Usually I see him every day for many hours (our offices are adjacent and we eat lunch together every day!), so it was quite an adjustment not seeing him for so long. I'm so excited that he's back! Chris is flying in Friday and then our whole gang will be here!

Lime Molasses Vinaigrette (Page 171)

• Date: Thursday, February 23, 2006 - 8pm
• Location: Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Dining Companions: Andre and Josh
• Recipe Rating: D+

I picked this one out, and it was bad! I tossed the dressing with mixed greens, as suggested in the recipe, but then found myself unwilling to eat the result. I like every ingredient in this dressing: lime juice, molasses, Tabasco, etc..., but mixing them all together just did not yield a good result. I think it was really the molasses that made this salad dressing bad. It was so overpowering and unpleasant on the salad. Definitely not a recipe I would make again!!!

So I am back in Boston, after my midwest adventure! My trip went as well as I could have hoped, but I am so glad to be home. Giving the topology seminars at these other universities was just really stressful for me. The nice thing though about doing something that scares you is the feeling afterwards of knowing that you really challenged yourself. Tuesday night, sitting in my hotel room after my last talk was over, I felt like I had accomplished something.

I only have a few days at home and then I am leaving for a workshop in New Hampshire. I may post from there, as I am actually cooking dinner for 23 people all week at the workshop! I don't know if we'll have internet though, so maybe not...

Chicken and Rice Soup (Page 122)

• Date: Saturday, February 18, 2006 - 7pm
• Location: Madison, WI
• Kitchen: My Mom's Apartment
• Dining Companions: Terry and Teri (My Parents!)
• Recipe Rating: B

I don't have The Book with me on my trip, so I picked this recipe by going to Amazon.com and clicking on their "Surprise me" feature, which shows you a random page from the book. This was the page it showed me! This soup was pretty good -- very classic: a whole chicken boiled with rice, carrots, onions, and celery. Once it's all cooked, you remove the meat from the bird and stir it back in. That's it! It was extremely weather appropriate for today -- when I woke up this morning the temperature was 16 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. That's very very cold! The soup made a nice, warm dinner. I took a picture, which I will post when I get back to Boston.

I am really doing much better with airplanes. My flight yesterday was so bad that on the descent the woman next to me made the sign of the cross on her chest. But I was fine -- totally calm! Shocking for me!

I had lunch today with Ross, who was my first real boyfriend, 10 years ago. I love spending time with him. For one, he's just a great guy. But more than that, I feel that I am able to talk more openly with him about the nature of relationships than I am with most people. We had a great 2 hour conversation today over terrible Mexican food at a restaurant that I love purely for sentimental reasons. He's the kind of friend that lets me know when he thinks I am wrong or when I am being really unreasonable. We almost never agree about anything. I think that's fantastic. It was really nice to see him.

So, as many of you know, my parents are married but live most of the time in different states. Their house is in South Carolina, and my dad is there most of the year. My mom mostly stays in an apartment in Madison, which is where I am staying. My dad is also in town now, so it's the three of us in the apartment. My mom's apartment is tiny, but I like it. It is a perfect reflection of her in so many ways. My mother, in addition to being very serious about cleanliness, has an amazing sense of fashion and design. Her apartment is beautifully decorated (and clean!). She has a sense of style that I really admire -- it is such a true reflection of who she is!

Brown Sugar Fudge (Page 695)

• Date: Various times in the past (November 2004, December 2005, etc...)
• Location: Various locations: Cambridge, Somerville
• Kitchen: Various kitchens
• Eating Companions: Babytop attendees, Alex's partygoers, etc...
  
• Recipe Rating: A-

Ok, I didn't really make this one today. There are a handful of things in The Book that I had already made before I started this project. I figure I don't need to make them again specifically for the project, but in the interest of completeness, I did want to add them to the blog. Anyway, this fudge is amazing. I have made it several times. It has a wonderful brown sugar flavor, a velvety texture, and melts in your mouth! I like to use tiny decorative cutters (e.g. those used to decorate pies) to cut my pieces of fudge. The recipe really makes a lot of fudge.

I am leaving in the morning for the midwest. I am speaking at Northwestern and the University of Chicago early next week, but I am flying out tomorrow and will spend the weekend with my parents in Madison. I would be excited about going home, but the high on Saturday in Madison is apparently going to be 5 degrees F. That's really cold! I'm not bringing The Book with me, so unless I can convince my mom to buy it, I may not be adding any entries for a few days!

Whenever I get really busy with work, I always think of some specific activity that I am really looking forward to doing when things settle down. Today, after 12 hours at the office, I was on my way home a bit before 9pm, dreaming about getting a pedicure. I hadn't had a pedicure in ages, but Em and I went recently in California. I somehow picked out a really hideous orange color. Now, the ugly orange polish is chipping off and I really want a new pedicure. I'm not sure what I like best about the pedicure experience: sitting in the massage chair, having my feet in the little bubble bath, getting my feet rubbed, or actually getting my toe nails painted. It's my favorite personal care indulgence though! I highly recommend it! Maybe I will have time to go with my mom this weekend...

Old-Fashioned Gingerbread (Page 703)

• Date: Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - 10:30pm
• Location: Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Dining Companion: Jessie
• Recipe Rating: B

I picked this one because I had all the ingredients for it in my pantry! I barely let this cool before I cut myself a piece, scooped some ice cream on top, and enjoyed a really very lovely dessert! The flavor of this gingerbread is so nice. And while the cake is tender with a nice crumb, there is a bit of a crust to it, which I really like. My only complaint is that it could be moister (I am really big on cake being moist!). Overall though: yum. I highly recommend it warm with vanilla ice cream!

Happy Valentines Day everyone! I had a long, but nice, day. I taught my section, went to class, gave my talk... I left for work this morning at 7:45am and I got home tonight after 8pm so I decided to take the rest of the night off and relax! I had popcorn for dinner (which I shamefully admit that I love to do), I talked to some friends on the phone, and I baked gingerbread. It was nice to take an evening off. Lately I have been working every night until the moment I go to bed. Tonight it was so refreshing to putter around the apartment in my slippers for a few hours instead of working!

I love Valentine's Day. I know, as someone who is single, that I am supposed to hate it. But I like the idea of there being a day when you are reminded to tell the people that you love that you care about them! I also love watching everyone head home from work, carrying flowers for their significant other or spouse. A friend sent beautiful roses to me at the department today. It was so surprising and nice to get flowers delivered to my office!

This is recipe number 50 in my project! 50 down, 1243 to go!

Buttermilk Cupcakes (Page 721)

• Date: Monday, February 13, 2006 - 3:15pm
• Location: Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Dining Companions: Mike, Bridget, Haynes, Peter, Mark, Ricardo, Ana, Rekha, Francesca, etc...
• Recipe Rating: B-

Mike picked these cupcakes out for his birthday celebration at work today. They weren't terrible, but I wasn't excited about them. I liked the flavor of the cupcakes pretty well -- the buttermilk added a nice tang. But they were denser and dryer than I would have liked. I usually make layer cakes rather than cupcakes, which have the advantage that you can always use some flavored simple syrup to add moistness to a dry cake recipe. With cupcakes, you can't really do that...

I appreciated that Mike let me make something from The Book for his birthday. I was a little worried about making something experimental for Mike's special day, but he was really great about it! I sent him a list of all the cakes in the book that I could make for his birthday and he picked these cupcakes -- that really made me smile! I would have picked the Nectarine Mousse Cake, or the Blackberry Jam Cake with Caramel Icing, or the Cranberry Cognac Trifle -- something ununsual! I liked that Mike picked the cupcakes though -- cupcakes suit him well!

Tomorrow I am speaking in one of the seminars at MIT on computations of Waldhausen's A-Theory of a point (Happy Valentines Day to me!) so I should go work some more on my talk now...

Chocolate and Lemon Cream Cheese Frostings (Page 722)

• Date: Sunday, February 12, 2006 - 1pm
• Location: Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Dining Companions: Mike, Bridget, Haynes, Peter, Mark, Ricky, Ana, Rekha, and Francesca
• Recipe Rating: B+

Mike picked out this one. These are the frostings for his birthday cupcakes. Both frostings start from a cream cheese base. The chocolate cream cheese frosting is very chocolatey, and not overwhelmingly sweet, which is quite nice. The lemon cream cheese frosting is a little sweeter, but the sweetness is offset well by the refeshing lemon flavor. Both frostings were very quick to make and piped quite well (although the lemon frosting needed to be chilled for a while first). I liked that this recipe produced two different flavors of frosting with very little added effort. It's nice, when making cupcakes, to have some variety. Mike hates lemon though (and these are his birthday cupcakes!) so I carefully contained the lemon ones in a seperate box from the chocolate ones!

Today is Mike's birthday: HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKE! We are having cupcakes in the department tomorrow to celebrate. It's tradition to have cake at school for Mike's birthday. I support pretty much all traditions that involve cake!

Today we got a lot of snow. The picture is the view out the window of our guest room in the middle of the day. I couldn't make it to Rosie's this morning, as none of the streets in my neighborhood had been plowed. In fact, I didn't leave home all day. I can't remember the last time I did that! Actually, I think I have probably never spent an entire day in this apartment before. It was nice though. I showered this morning, put my pajamas back on, and made cupcakes! Then I worked at my desk the rest of the day in my frosting-covered pajamas!

Island Pork Tenderloin (Page 475)

• Date: Saturday, February 11, 2006 - 8:30pm
• Location: Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Dining Companion: Alex
• Recipe Rating: A-

This was another page number from the random number generator. This pork was really good. It was rubbed with a spice rub, browned on the stove, then glazed and roasted. The net effect of this was a very flavorful, tender, and juicy tenderloin. I was worried that it was going to be too spicy for me (the recipe has considerable quantities of chili powder and Tabasco), but in fact it turned out that while it was full of spicy flavors, it wasn't fiery. I liked it much more than I thought I would from reading the recipe, which is always a nice surprise!

I know I keep saying this over and over again, but I am having so much fun with this project! You know, I had never made a pork tenderloin before tonight. It's such a simple thing, but for whatever reason, I had just never made one. It was fun to have a cut of meat in my hands that was new to me. I keep flipping through the book, looking at what's ahead of me, and it seems so exciting! I have always loved both math and food. I think the decision to pursue math as a career was the right one, but I think and hope that food and cooking will always be a huge part of my life. This project is a concrete way to keep myself cooking during what is a mathematically very busy period.

Carrots Vichy (Page 528)

• Date: Saturday, February 11, 2006 - 8:30pm
• Location: Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Dining Companion: Alex
• Recipe Rating: B+

This one was also chosen with the random number generator. Before making this recipe I had a bad attitude about it for two reasons:

1. I love carrots, but I really only love them raw. Cooked carrots can be really squishy and gross.

2. This dish is a glazed carrots dish. I once lost a bet with Chris over glazed carrots. I no longer remember what the bet was about, or how the glazed carrots were involved. I do remember being wrong about something though, and I remember that glazed carrots were the example of why I was wrong.

These issues aside, this dish was really quite good. It was simple and comforting. The carrots were cooked through, but hadn't yet lost their integrity. The glaze was very light but added a nice touch. Overall, a good side dish.

I went to Whole Foods this morning to get things for dinner, and while I was there I was realizing how much I love going to the grocery store. It was really crowded with everyone stocking up before the snowstorm -- in fact the cashier told me that it was supposed to be her day off but she got called in because it was so busy. Apparently her manager claimed that it was busier there today than it was right before Christmas! Anyway, obviously just being surrounded by food appeals to me, but that's not my favorite thing about it. On weekend days, grocery stores are full of couples, spending time together and picking out food for the week. This morning Whole Foods was full of young couples that looked so happy. Watching them brought me so much joy! I love people-watching in the grocery store. I love seeing what people buy. I love speculating about what they are going make with the things in their cart! Really I just love the whole experience... which is good I guess because I think I end up at the grocery store way more often than most people -- especially with this new project!

Baby Greens with Warm Goat Cheese (Page 131)

• Date: Saturday, February 11, 2006 - 8:30pm
• Location: Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Fellow Chef: Alex
• Recipe Rating: A-

The random number generator picked this one. This salad was really tasty. The dressing was nice, but not overpowering. It was the goat cheese though that made it a great dish. The cheese was cut in rounds then dredged in panko bread crumbs and fried. The breadcrumbs became crisp and delicious, while the cheese was soft, warm, and perfect! Fantastic tip from The Book, that I have to share: the best way to cut a log of goat cheese into rounds is with dental floss. It is so much better than using a knife - you get a clean, beautiful cut, and the cheese doesn't crumble at all! That tip alone pushed this recipe into the A range! Seriously though, I would definitely make this salad again -- very tasty!

Alex came over for dinner tonight, which was a nice was to spend the late evening. Aside from grocery shopping this morning, I stayed in all day and worked. It was really nice. In general I prefer to work at the office during the day rather than at home. Sometimes on the weekends though, staying home and working at my desk here seems really appealing. Reading papers in bed is also a nice benefit of working at home! Supposedly there is going to be some huge snowstorm here tonight, so it sounds like I may be spending some time at home tomorrow too!

Caramel Sauce (Page 873)

• Date: Friday, February 10, 2006 - 7pm
• Location: Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Recipe Rating: D

The random number generator picked this one. Ok, yes, I realize it seems absurd that I gave a caramel sauce a D rating. You would expect that when you put sugar, heavy cream, and butter together, that only good things can happen! I'm nearly failing this recipe not because it always makes a bad caramel sauce but rather because I think there is no possible justification for them having chosen the method that they ask you to use for this recipe. I have made caramel dozens and dozens of times, and before tonight I had burnt it exactly once (the first time -- when I didn't know what I was doing). Tonight I made this caramel sauce not once, but twice, and both batches were inedibly burnt. In fact, after taking the photograph I scraped all the sauce off my ice cream before I ate it! Now, look carefully at the picture. Does it look burnt to you? This is the problem. The way you tell when caramel is done is by color. The second batch of sauce looked perfect. It was smooth, and creamy, and golden. It tasted terrrible though -- completely burnt! The usual method for making caramel involves dissolving some sugar in water and boiling until it turns golden. Now, it's true that in order for this to happen, you end up needing to boil off all the water that you added. So, this recipe employed an alternate method: put sugar (with no water) in a pot and melt it carefully, hoping it dissolves in its own juices before it begins to burn. True, this method is faster. But it is also way more difficult, and significantly less consistent. I gave this recipe a D because I think it is unfair to advise non-professional chefs to make their caramel this way. Even in culinary school, we were taught to do it with water. Why set people up for failure!?!?

Despite my ranting above, I was quite happy when I burned the first batch of caramel. I think it's good that I ruin things ever once in a while -- it means I am stretching myself. I never learn as much in the kitchen as I do when things are a total disaster. When I made the second batch I learned that I needed to correct even more than I had anticipated in order to produce a non-burnt result! It was a learning experience. Unfortunately I ran out of cream before I could make a third batch. I would have though -- the best way to learn is to keep doing it.

After the caramel fiasco, Bridget came over for a girls night in, complete with a chick flick and an enormous bowl of popcorn! It was a very relaxing end to a busy, busy week.

Lentil and Brown Rice Stew (Page 276)

• Date: Thursday, February 9, 2006 - 10pm
• Location: Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Recipe Rating: B

I picked this one because I figured it would be a good use of the leftover vegetables from yesterday's not-so-good salad. And in fact, it was. This stew is pretty tasty. It's not beautiful, or fancy, but it is warm and hearty and comforting. It's perfect winter food. It doesn't hold a candle to the lentil stew recipe that I inherited from Emilee in college (if you like lentils you should get that recipe from me -- it's amazing!), but it is still good. One fantastic thing about lentils is that they freeze really well. This recipe made a huge batch, which I divided into many, many little tupperwares and put in the freezer for lunches.

Tonight I did a lot of prep work for tutoring tomorrow. I work with a very mathematically talented home-schooled girl. Tutoring may be the wrong word for what I do - I guess I am her math teacher. She was eleven when we started working together, studying calculus. She's twelve now and we have moved on to linear algebra. We just finished working through the linear algebra text actually and I am giving her the final exam tomorrow. I compiled a selection of questions from some old MIT linear algebra exams to give to her. I'm interested to see how she will do. I was at first quite skeptical of teaching someone so young this type of mathematics. In fact, she was ready for it. In addition to being remarkably capable, she is extremely motivated and curious, which makes her just a wonderful student. We work together for 2 hours each week, and in between she completes tremendous amounts of homework, without complaint. Actually, sometimes she complains that I haven't assigned her enough work! I haven't seen her in quite a few weeks, since I have been away in California, so it will be nice to meet with her tomorrow and do some math together!

Crunchy Vegetable and Brown Rice Salad (Page 150)

• Date: Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - 7pm
• Location: Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Recipe Rating: C+

The random number generator picked this one too (Aside: those of you who sent me numbers sent me so many numbers that picking from your lists is almost as intimidating as picking from the whole book... hence I've reverted back to my random number generator. If you want to send me a number or two though (or an ingredient,, etc...) please do!). Anyway, I didn't like this one. It wasn't bad -- I'm sure I will eat it for lunch tomorrow -- but it wasn't good. It looks so nice and non-threatening, but in actuality the flavors are very aggresive. Between the arugula and the mustard and the acidity of the lemon juice, I felt mildly attacked by every bite. I had envisioned something different, with more brown rice and less arugula, that I think I would like better. This recipe is good in concept, but not so good in this particular manifestation.

I spent a lot of time today thinking about why it is that some things are so hard to say. For me, one of them is "I miss you." There are certain people that I can say this to easily (Emilee comes to mind -- I miss her every day and I tell her I miss her in every email!), but with most people, no matter how much I think about them and miss their presence in my every day life, I just can't articulate it to them. An old Wisconsin friend text messaged me the other day and all it said was "I miss you. Bunches." I was so touched. One of the things I have always liked about him is his ability to be unflinchingly honest about how he feels. I wish I could do that with more people in my life. I sometimes wonder if the people that I care about really understand that I care about them...

There's a beautiful Tracy Chapman song on this topic called "Baby Can I Hold You." The song is very much with me lately.

Pecan Pie Bars (Page 694)

• Date: Tuesday, February 7, 2006 - 8pm
• Location: Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Dining Companions: Jessie and Everton
• Recipe Rating: A-

This page number was chosen with the online random number generator. These bars are really good. They consist of a shortbread base with a pecan pie filling type topping. Yum! In addition to being very tasty they are also quite quick to make. The recipe makes quite a few -- which means I will be bringing some in to the department tomorrow!

Today was the first day of classes, and hence my first day of teaching my 18.03 (differential equations) recitation. It was really fun. As far as I could tell from the one hour I spent with them, it seems like I have a fun group of students in my class! Teaching is a lot of work of course, but it is something that I really like doing. In typical MIT fashion, when I asked my students what they each were majoring in, they answered by giving their course numbers. Now of course I have no idea what these numbers mean, so I would ask, "What's course 8?" They would respond, "Physics," for example. After asking at least 5 people to translate their course numbers for me, one of my students said he was course 18. Without even thinking, I asked him what that was. He gave me a really priceless look and then said very carefully, "Math." Whoops. That was the only truly embarassing moment from today's class. I'm sure there will be more to come!

I just got back from bluegrass at the Cantab with Mark, Paul, and Kim - a Tuesday night tradition! I wasn't sure I felt like going out tonight, but I am so glad I did. I do really love bluegrass, and hanging out with friends at the Cantab is always fun. In a lot of ways the band tonight was more jazz than bluegrass, but it still really appealed to me.

I'm sleepy. Time for bed...

Garlic Lime Chicken Breasts (Page 355)

• Date: Monday, February 6, 2006 - 7pm
• Location: Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: My apartment
• Recipe Rating: A-

I picked this one because I wanted to make some chicken. This recipe was really excellent. Looking at it, it seemed a little boring: just chicken breasts marinated in garlic and lime, then roasted and finished in the broiler. But actually it was great. The lime flavor was intense and refreshing. The meat was very juicy, and the skin was nice and crispy. It was very enjoyable. I should note that I marinated the meat for 8 hours rather than the 2 hours indicated in the recipe. I made some orzo dressed with some nice extra virgin olive oil and salt to go with the chicken and it made a great meal!

Today was registration day at MIT. Reg day is always a blur, but this time more than most as I didn't sleep at all last night. It was so strange -- I felt fine, but I just laid awake all night, unable to fall asleep. For me, this is highly unusual. An old roommate of mine once summarized my sleeping habits by noting, "Teena could sleep naked on a wet rock." It's true -- 99% of the time I am asleep within 5 minutes of laying down. I used to sleep with a kitchen timer next to my bed so that when my alarm went off I could set it for a few minutes and go back to sleep (my own version of the snooze button). Once I tried to set it for 6 minutes, but accidentally set it for 6 seconds. When it went off 6 seconds later, I had already fallen asleep! Last night gave me a new appreciation for what troubled sleepers must go through -- it was totally miserable not being able to sleep! Hopefully tonight I will return to my regular pattern...

Tomato Sauce (Page 207)

• Date: Sunday, February 5, 2006 - 7pm
• Location: Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: My Apartment!
• Sous Chef: Mike Hill
• Recipe Rating: C

I picked this one because I have been craving spaghetti! This sauce wasn't great. It was very chunky (or as Mike said: "big-boned"), but at the same time quite watery. Mike compared it to tomato soup, which seemed pretty accurate. Also, there wasn't a lot of depth of flavor - it just tasted like tomatoes. We cooked up some sausage and added it to the sauce which helped a lot. It made a decent meal, but I gave it a low rating because it's so easy to make a tomato sauce with more flavor and a better consistency...

Today I got back into the swing of life in Boston. I went to Rosie's (the homeless shelter, not the bakery!) as I do every Sunday to cook and serve lunch. I did some work, grocery shopped, went to the gym, made dinner with Mike, and went to Christina's for ice cream! It was a really nice, relaxing day.

I was cleaning a table at Rosie's when one of the homeless women shouted across the dining room, "Hey tall girl, how tall are you?" I told her I was 5 foot 11 inches tall. She told me I was lying, and that I must be at least 6 feet tall. I acknowledged that I was wearing heels (my fabulous cowboy boots no less!) and that with them on I was taller than 6 feet. She told me that I was so tall that men would be scared of me. Then she offered to make me a deal: if I took off my shoes, she would find me a husband. When I declined her offer, she said to me, "No man is ever going to marry you if you wear high heels!" For the rest of the meal, when she wanted my attention she would call out, "Hey, high heels!" As far as nicknames go, I really like it!

Deep-Dish Sausage and Tomato Pizza (Page 200)

• Date: Friday, February 3, 2006 - 8pm
• Location: Palo Alto, CA
• Kitchen: Chris' Apartment
• Dining Companions: Chris and Soren
• Recipe Rating: B+

I picked this dish for my last night in California because it was what I had a taste for! This pizza was really pretty good. Chris didn't have a cast-iron skillet, so we just made it in a glass dish, which seemed to work fine. I was skeptical of the lack of tomato sauce, but actually the sausage and chopped tomatoes (and a lot of cheese!) made nice pizza toppings. It was comfort food at its best -- A deep, chewy crust covered in meat and cheese! I always like pizza crusts with cornmeal in them, so I was pleased that there was cornmeal in this recipe. The crust was quite nice, although I have a similar recipe for a whole wheat pizza crust that I like slightly better. All in all, I really liked this pizza -- with some salad and beer it was the perfect meal for my last night in Palo Alto!

I flew back to Boston today, and I am writing this from the comfort of my own apartment! My flight was really nice -- it was so empty that I had three seats to myself. I was able to lay down, and although I can't sleep on airplanes, it still felt restful. I am happy to be home of course, but I am already missing California! With Emilee and Chris both living there now, it feels so strange to not be there with them... I am hoping to go back for some length of time this summer. I am so glad I spent this past month there -- I can't think of a better use of a January! In addition to getting work done, and spending time with some people that I love very much, I also met some great people on this trip! I have no complaints...

Oh no wait, I do have one complaint: I think I am getting sick. It seems that California gave me a cold!

Apple and Calvados Galette (Page 775)

• Date: Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 8pm
• Location: Palo Alto, CA
• Kitchen: Chris' Apartment
• Dining Companions: Emilee, Brian, Soren, and Chris
• Recipe Rating: B+

This galette was quite tasty. The Calvados cream was very boozy, but
not too sweet, so it balanced the sweetness of the rest of the dessert
well. Brian is intellectually opposed to galettes (a galette is just a "half-ass pie," according to Brian) yet he still agreed that for a galette, this was pretty good. The only opposition to it came from Chris, who just couldn't get excited about it. Personally, I thought it was not bad. Brian pointed out that the crust to filling ratio (which is sometimes a problem with galettes) was good in this recipe. It was also nice to have both the Calvados applesauce filling and also sliced apples in the filling. When you were eating it, it was almost unnoticeable that there were two separate layers of filling, but the textural effect was really nice. The crust was quite good (see below). All in all, I was happy with how it came out.

Peter suggested I explain why I picked the book that I did for this project. Partly it was out of loyalty -- I love Gourmet Magazine, and I adore the editor, Ruth Reichl (she has written 3 really fun, really fantastic memoirs). But the real reason was two-fold. One, this book has a very diverse collection of recipes. There is no single ethnic cooking style represented, nor a single type of dish. I have essentially spent the last year or two specializing in desserts. In this project I wanted to get away from specialization, and really make a wide variety of things. The second reason, and maybe the bigger one, was that this book has recipes for a lot of things that I have never made, yet I think might taste good. That seems really simplistic, but it's a delicate balance. Many, many cookbooks are filled with things that are trivial to make. Even if you haven't already made them, you know how just from the title of the recipe. Such a cookbook would make a boring, boring project. But many cookbooks that require more actual technique and different methods are for genres of food that I don't want to eat every day for a few years. For instance, classic French cooking is very demanding, and very intricate, but is also very heavy and very, very cream-intense. It's great once and while but I couldn't eat it every day. This book is full of things that are interesting to make, many of which I have never made before and that's why I chose it.

All-Butter Pastry Dough (Page 776)

• Date: Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 8pm
• Location: Palo Alto, CA
• Kitchen: Chris' Apartment
• Dining Companions: Emilee, Brian, Soren, and Chris
• Recipe Rating: A-

What can I say about this really? This crust has 2 sticks of butter in it: how could it be bad?!? This recipe is essentially a version of pate brisee, but with a very small amount of sugar added. It was easy to make, easy to work with, and came out very flaky and golden with good buttery flavor! It worked very well in the galette - even the bottom crust didn't really get soggy from the juices of the apples. It would make an excellent pie crust, and my guess is that it will be called for in many more of the tarts and pies in this book!

This month really flew by -- I can't believe I am going back to Boston in 2 days! MIT starts up this coming week. We have registration day on Monday and then classes start Tuesday. I don't have to teach for my funding, but I am TAing a section of Differential Equations anyway, which I am really looking forward to. I love teaching. Plus, Haynes (who is this fantastic prof at MIT) is lecturing for the class, so it should be really fun to work with him. I'm also traveling quite a bit in February: first to Chicago to give some talks and then to New Hampshire for a conference. Sadly, I am not going anywhere warm! I have to say, after being here for a month I am really not at all looking forward to returning to Boston weather!

Bacon-Wrapped Cornish Hens with Balsamic Glaze (Page 389)

• Date: Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 8pm
• Location: Palo Alto, CA
• Kitchen: Chris' Apartment
• Sous Chef: Chris
• Dining Companions: Emilee, Brian, and Soren
• Recipe Rating: A-

These hens were really good! I frequently make split, roasted, Cornish hens, but it had never occured to me to wrap them in bacon. The bacon is a good addition! The raspberry balsamic glaze is also extremely tasty. The only complaint anyone had about this dish was that it was hard to extract the meat from the hen, but that is always true with Cornish hens. I would definitely make this one again -- it was easy but elegant, and very tasty.

I am really liking this project so far. For one thing, it is great to be forced to constantly make and eat new foods. Old recipes are like old friends: comforting. But sometimes it is nice to branch out and meet some new foods! Plus, everyone has been so great about eating my experimental food. Tonight's dinner was all pretty good, but I know that even if it had been terrible, Emilee, Brian, Soren, and Chris would still have had fun and been understanding. It's also nice because in this setting people feel more comfortable giving their honest impressions of the food. After we ate tonight we went around the table and criticized the food. That is something that would never happen at a regular dinner party! It's great though -- this way I can really expand my understanding of the way other people think of food. I can also learn from their palates in addition to my own! I appreciate so much that everyone is willing to approach my project with the same openness that I have and be honest about their impressions. It would not be nearly as fun if I had to eat everything alone!

I'm tired. I think I will write about the dessert tomorrow...

Risotto with Peas and Prosciutto (Page 255)

• Date: Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 8pm
• Location: Palo Alto, CA
• Kitchen: Chris' Apartment
• Sous Chef: Chris
• Dining Companions: Emilee, Brian, and Soren
• Recipe Rating: A-

Well, this risotto wasn't as good at the red wine risotto from a few weeks ago, but it was pretty good! It was creamy and rich, but the lemon still brought a refreshing tone to it. The prosciutto and peas matched each other very well. It was an easy side dish to make, and everyone at the table agreed that it was enjoyable to eat.

Yesterday Soren took me out for a ride on his motorcycle! I had never been on one before. I was a little nervous -- motorcycles look like they could just tip right over! But in fact it wasn't nearly as scary as I had imagined. It felt very stable, and Soren is a really good driver. It was exhilirating! We drove up Foothill Expressway, where we could get up some speed. When we were going fast I was holding on to Soren pretty tightly. It occured to me that probably the only way we would get in an accident was if I accidentally squeezed Soren so tightly that he couldn't breathe -- that thought got me to loosen my grip a bit! :) Seriously, it was really, really fun. Now I want a motorcycle!

Panzanella (Page 144)

• Date: Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 8pm
• Location: Palo Alto, CA
• Kitchen: Chris' Apartment
• Sous Chef: Chris
• Dining Companions: Emilee, Brian, and Soren
• Recipe Rating: B-

I chose the whole meal for tonight, rather than picking randomly. This bread and tomato salad was met with mixed reviews. The flavor was very good - tomatoes, onions, basil, and cucumbers are always a good combination. It had some textural issues though. The idea is for the bread to absorb some of the dressing and tomato juices, which it did. The net reults of this: slightly soggy chunks of bread in the salad. Our little dinner party seemed to have mixed opinions about whether or not soggy bread was a good thing. Emilee and Soren really liked the salad, while Brian, Chris and I felt like maybe soggy bread wasn't a good addition to it!

We had a nice, casual dinner party tonight. Emilee and Brian came over (as usual) and Soren (an assistant prof from the department here) joined us! When Chris and I invited him we didn't warn him about the experimental food, but he didn't seem particularly bothered!

I had my last meeting with Gunnar today before I go back to Boston on Saturday. I had a very mathematically productive month here, which was really nice. Sometimes a change of scenery is really beneficial work-wise. Also, having different mathematicians to talk to and spend time with is great! I am getting excited about returning to the MIT math department though, and seeing everyone there that I haven't seen in more than 6 weeks! I have worked a lot this month so I think I may take tomorrow off and do something fun... Unfortunately, everyone I know here is really busy, so I don't know who I will do something fun with!