Raspberry Jam (Page 924)

RECIPE #1276

• Date: Saturday, July 23, 2011 -- 3pm
• Location: East Lansing, MI
• Kitchen: Our House
• Dining Companions: Matty, Helen, Charles, Clara, Karen H, Dave, Georgina, PJ, and Georgia
• Recipe Rating: B+
  

There were raspberries in abundance at the Farmer's Market in late July, so it seemed like the right time to make this recipe. I tossed a lot of raspberries with a lot of sugar and some lemon juice and let the berry mixture sit for an hour and a half. Meanwhile, I sterilized canning jars in my boiling water canner. I chilled a couple small plates in the fridge, for testing the jam. I then brought the raspberry mixture to a boil, and boiled until it was done (i.e. until a spoonful of the jam placed on a chilled plate and refrigerated for 1 minute remained in a mound when the plate was tilted). I then whisked together some pectin and sugar, and added it to the jam. I boiled it for a minute longer, then ladled the hot jam into the sterilized jars. I sealed the jars, then processed them in the boiling water canner. This jam came out very nicely. The raspberry flavor came through well, and despite all the sugar, the jam didn't taste overly sweet. The consistency of the jam was also just right. We have already been through several jars of it -- it was definitely tastier than what you can buy at the store. My one complaint about this recipe was that the jam had too many seeds in it. I would prefer that the seeds (or at least some of the seeds) had been strained out. As it was, the jam was a little too crunchy for my taste! Aside from that, it is delicious, and I am quite happy that we still have a few jars of it left!

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Somehow it is that time of year again: classes start tomorrow. I lecture at 9am tomorrow morning and I am prepared. My lecture is written, my syllabi are photocopied. I even went to a faculty lunch seminar this week all about the first day of class. So I am prepared. Yet I don't feel ready. It's always a stressful time, the transition from summer back into the academic year. Honestly, summer is glorious. I worked hard this summer, but I also had time to eat some leisurely dinners on the porch. I swam in lakes, and pools, and seas. I ran along the river trail and canoed down the river. I traveled in Europe and the US, seeing friends and going to conferences. I ate corn on the cob and blue raspberry snow cones. It was awesome. And although in some ways I prefer the academic year to the summer months, I am always sad to see the summer go. Summer really ended more than a week ago, when faculty meetings began. But I held onto it as tightly as I could nonetheless, choosing to view the meetings, learning assistant training, etc, as blips in my summer, rather than the start of a new year. Tonight, though, my denial has ended. Ready or not, bright and early tomorrow morning the school year will be upon me. At 9am I will have 41 Calculus 3 students in front of me. We'll talk about multivariable calculus. I will struggle to draw 3-dimensional pictures on a 2-dimensional chalkboard. It will be fun. Indeed, it is silly to mourn the passing of the summer, as I have ahead of me what is bound to be a great semester. I only have the one class, and generally speaking Calculus 3 students are a good bunch: smart, motivated, reasonably interested in math. Plus, I have never taught Calc 3 before, which will make it an interesting new adventure. The math in Calc 3 is a piece of cake, but the drawing is a real challenge. Will I make a fool of myself trying to draw hyperbolic paraboloids? Only time will tell!

I am also starting various other new career adventures this term. I am on a faculty search committee for the first time, which will involve a lot of application-reading and candidate-interviewing. I am also serving for the first time as a faculty advisor to a Women in Science student group, which I am excited about. As always I'm traveling some fun places to give talks (Brown, University of Virginia, etc...). Add to that a long list of research goals and it will no doubt be a jam-packed and challenging semester. Before I know it there will be snow on the ground and I will be grading final exams and baking Christmas cookies. That's how it goes -- the semesters fly by. I love the fast-paced rhythm of the academic year almost as much as a I love the leisurely meander of the summer. I feel almost ready to trade in the hot summer months for a cool fall breeze. But I wish I could have just one more week of summer...

Fragrant Crispy Duck (Page 394)

RECIPE #1275

• Date: Saturday, July 23, 2011 -- 5pm
• Location: East Lansing, MI
• Kitchen: Our House
• Fellow Chef: Matty
• Recipe Rating: A-
  

My special gentleman and I both love duck, so I would have made this recipe sooner, but it had a pretty intimidating look about it. The Ingredients list was short, but the Special Equipment list was long, and the recipe took up two pages. This recipe involved first marinating the duck, then steaming the duck in a wok, then blow-drying the duck with a fan, then deep-frying the duck (twice!). Madness! One Saturday in July, though, I decided it was time for a cooking extravaganza. I cooked all day, making this duck and finishing off the canning I had left to do for the project. It was fun! To make this duck I started by making the Toasted Sichuan Peppercorn Salt, which I had already made once before as a component for a different dish. Then I broke the breastbone of the duck (Truth be told, my special gentleman broke the breastbone. I tried and failed. I don't have a lot of upper body strength.). I heated the Sichuan peppercorn salt with some Chinese five spice powder. I reserved some of the spice mixture, and rubbed the rest on the inside and outside of the duck. I marinated the duck in the spice rub, refrigerated, overnight. I then put the duck in a glass pie plate and rubbed it with rice wine. I put ginger and scallions in the cavity and on the duck, then steamed the duck for 2 hours in a covered wok by putting the pie plate on a metal rack in the wok with boiling water below it. While it was steaming, I siphoned off the fat with a turkey baster every 30 minutes, and replenished the water below the rack as necessary. I then slid the duck onto a wire rack to cool, setting it in front of a fan to blow dry for two hours:

Once the duck was very dry, I brushed it with mushroom soy sauce, then dusted it with flour. I very, very carefully deep-fried it, turning once, in a wok full of oil. I increased the temperature of the oil, then deep-fried it again. I served the duck with the reserved spiced salt.

This recipe was definitely fussy, but the result may have been worth it. This duck was DELICIOUS. The meat was tender, moist, and incredibly flavorful, while the skin was crispy and seasoned perfectly. My special gentleman declared it the best duck he had ever eaten, and I couldn't really argue. It was incredibly tasty. I would have liked it even better with a sauce to accompany it, but it was pretty fantastic as it was. However, I doubt I will be making this recipe again soon -- it was a lot of hassle for a recipe which serves only a few people and is basically impossible to double (without another wok at least). But it was very, very tasty, so if you have an afternoon set aside for cooking and are looking for something to try, I would recommend this one.

The recipe is here.

Only 18 recipes left to go!

What a crazy week! We returned from Denmark a little over a week ago now. After a long 22 hours of travel to get from Aarhus, Denmark back to East Lansing, Michigan, we were pretty happy to be home. We arrived home late Saturday night, and enjoyed a couple days at home, catching up on work and sleep. On Wednesday, it was time to leave for another trip! We started by driving to Chicago to meet our adorable niece Hannah. Unfortunately we got a flat tire somewhere outside of Michigan City, Indiana, and ended up spending a decent chunk of our day at Wal-Mart getting a new one. Eventually we made it though, and Hannah is super cute! We spent the afternoon with Brad, Deniz, and Hannah, and the evening with our friends PJ and Georgia who also live in Chicago. We stayed the night in Chicago, and after a swim in Lake Michigan Thursday morning we hit the road again. Next stop: Upstate New York! We drove the 14+ hours to New York over two days, stopping for the night in the middle of a crazy storm near Ashtabula, Ohio. We arrived in Lake George, New York on Friday afternoon. The trip to Lake George was to attend our friends Mike and Tim's wedding. On Friday evening we went to a pre-wedding cocktail party before the Saturday wedding.

The wedding wasn't until Saturday evening, so on Saturday morning we went to visit our friends Paps and Katie, who happen to own a vacation home about 20 minutes from where we were staying. They just had a baby, and it was great to get a chance to meet little Peter. Later in the day we met up with Vero and Philippe (also in town for the wedding) for some lunch and shuffleboard. It was a beautiful day, and definitely one of the most vacation-like days I have had all summer. The wedding was Saturday evening. It was held right on Lake George and the setting was unbelievably beautiful. I have known Mike for almost a decade now and Tim for only slightly less. They are such a fantastic couple, and it was a great privilege to celebrate with them on their special day. The wedding was black tie, which was fun, and they served barbeque, which was delicious! There was plenty of drinking and dancing. It was a good time!

We couldn't stick around long in Lake George because I had to be back at work for a retreat on Monday. So Sunday we drove straight back home. We went through Canada on the way back, and it ended up being about a 12 hour drive. It was long, but definitely worth it for such a special weekend. Now we are home! My special gentleman announced with excitement this morning that he isn't traveling again for another two and a half weeks. Two and a half weeks at home!! He was so excited. It is exciting to be home. The semester starts soon, and I have a lot to do before I will feel ready. I should get to it! I can't believe summer is over.

Squab Salmi (Page 406)

RECIPE #1274

• Date: Thursday, June 30, 2011 -- 7pm
  
• Location: East Lansing, MI
  
• Kitchen: Our House
• Dining Companion: Matty
• Recipe Rating: C+
  

I put off making this recipe because it looked insanely fussy. Indeed, it was. I started by cutting off the necks and wing tips from four squabs. (Aside: Does that look wrong to you? The internet tells me that the plural of squab is squabs, but I always thought it was just squab. Four squabs? Four squab? I don't know.) I then cut out their backbones and cut the backbones into pieces. I cut one of the squabs up into 2-inch pieces. I put the remaining three whole squabs in the fridge, while I browned all the cut-up squab pieces and their giblets (minus the livers) in butter with some carrot, celery, and onion. I added water and boiled to form a stock. I strained the stock, then seasoned the whole squabs with salt, pepper, and thyme. I poured melted butter over them and roasted them. Meanwhile, I cooked some carrots, celery, onion, and thyme in butter. I sprinkled flour over the vegetables, then added the stock and simmered. In a different pan I cooked mushrooms in butter. I pureed the vegetable and stock mixture, then added the mushrooms. I halved the squabs and added them too. I set up a double boiler and cooked the squabs further in the sauce on the double boiler. Meanwhile, I cut some rounds from slices of brioche. I browned the livers in butter and mashed them with Cognac, butter, salt, and pepper. I toasted the brioche rounds in butter, then spread them with the liver puree. I served the toasts with the squabs and sauce.

I never appreciate when a recipe seems especially designed to use up as many dishes as possible, and this was that kind of recipe. It took a roasting pan, three pots, two skillets, four cooking bowls, two cutting boards, etc. I am more than willing to engage in that kind of culinary fussiness if the results are outstanding, but that was just not the case here. The squab meat was pretty nicely cooked but the skin wasn't crispy, due to the moist heat cooking after the roasting (Why, oh why, does The Book like to do that?). The sauce was reasonably flavorful but thin. The toast got soggy as soon as the bird went on top of it. Soggy toast is always a sad thing. Overall the dish was a lot of fuss without a lot of reward. It was ok, but certainly not something I would make again, and not even something I particularly enjoyed eating.

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We have two freezers at home: the one attached to our refrigerator, and a medium size standing freezer which we keep in the basement. On a typical day both of our freezers are bursting at the seams. I hate for food to go to waste, and I love the convenience of frozen food, so I freeze everything. We don't buy any frozen prepared foods, but given the variety of foods that we make, there is still a wide selection of frozen dinners at our house. Right now if you rummaged through our freezers you would find brisket a la carbonnade, beef wellington, salt cod chowder, lentil dal, miso soup, turkey chili, potato leek soup, several mystery soups (which somehow escaped my labeling system), tapioca pudding, three kinds of cake, four kinds of cookies, etc... It's a little out of control. I also stock the freezers with various cooking ingredients: chicken stock, veal stock, leftover white wine, leftover red wine, chopped onions, chopped green peppers, tomato paste, chipotle chiles in adobo, various homemade spice blends, frozen berries, frozen vegetables, homemade sauces, etc. And throughout this year when I found meat I needed for the project, I bought it and threw that in the freezers too! So up until recently I also had a turkey, tripe, a goose, and 10 squabs in my freezers. Needless to say, the freezers were getting a bit packed.

To top it all off, the top tier of our wedding cake was also in the freezer! We had planned to eat it on our one-year anniversary, but when the anniversary rolled around we were in Japan. On our two-year anniversary we were in France. So the cake remained in the freezer. One evening this summer my special gentleman commented, "I could go for some wedding cake." So we unwrapped it after 25 months of marriage, and cut ourselves some cake! It was still tasty! Now only one piece remains in the freezer, and it will surely get eaten as soon as we get back from this trip. Eating the cake inspired me to clear out the freezers a bit. So I prepared the turkey. And the tripe. This recipe took care of the last of the squab, and soon after I made this one I made the goose as well. Now, although the freezers are far from empty, there is a bit of space in them. It has inspired me! When we get home I plan to eat through some of the old frozen food, clearing out some space for a freezer reorganization. I would like to tame the freezer chaos once and for all with some sort of system. My usual system, throw things in wherever once can find space, is not ideal. Once the freezers are organized, I am going to cook, cook, cook to fill up the freezers with yummy prepared food before the chaos of the school year starts!

My non-Book cooking style often involves making things in enormous batches. I make enough chili to serve 25, for instance, then freeze it in many small containers. It makes for a very easy weeknight dinner: throw something from the freezer into the microwave or the toaster oven, make a green salad, and serve both with some homemade bread. Yum! It also makes it easy when we have house guests. I just thaw a variety of things from the freezer before their arrival and then there are plenty of options for eating! My special gentleman and I have cut way, way back on processed foods in the last year or so. Cooking in bulk and freezing the results has definitely been key in this cut back.

Thinking about the food in freezer is making me hungry. It might be about time to hunt down a snack.

Tripe Roman Style (Page 464)

RECIPE #1273

• Date: Saturday, June 25, 2011 -- 6pm
• Location: East Lansing, MI
• Kitchen: Our House
• Dining Companions: Matty, Helen, Charles, Clara, Chris C., and Whitney
• Recipe Rating: C+
  

I put off making this recipe for a long time because cow stomach just didn't sound super delicious to me. But I am nearing the end of this project, and there is no sense in putting off recipes any longer. So I invited some friends over and I made the tripe! I started by putting the tripe in cold water, bringing it to a boil, then draining and rinsing it. I put it in new cold water and brought it to a boil again. I simmered the tripe for four hours. The Book warned that the "tripe will have a pungent aroma while simmering." No kidding! Indeed the smell even drove away our kitties. Normally they love to be where the action is, but they were hiding in the basement while this was cooking. When the tripe had finished simmering it looked like this:

Mmm... delicious. I then cooked some onion, carrots, celery, and garlic, then added salt, pepper, white wine, tomato juice, chopped canned tomatoes, water, and mint. I simmered the sauce. I cut the tripe into strips and added the strips to the sauce and simmered until the tripe was tender but still slightly chewy. Then I seasoned the sauce and sprinkled the dish with some mint. I was supposed to also sprinkle with some pecorino Romano, but I forgot. Whoops!

This dish was just not that delicious. The tripe was actually inoffensive enough. After having seen it and dealt with it through the preparation I wasn't super eager to eat it, but I think if I had just been served the dish without witnessing all that I would have thought the tripe was neither here nor there. It didn't have a lot of flavor to it. I didn't love the chewy texture, but it didn't bother me too much. I was actually more disappointed with the sauce. I had hoped the tripe would be in a sauce so delicious that it would convince me to enjoy tripe. Rather, this sauce was just blah. It didn't taste bad, but it didn't have much flavor to it, and it was very thin. In the end no one hated this dish, but no one was gobbling it up either. This was not one that I will make again.

The recipe is here.

Only 20 recipes left to go!

Hello from Denmark! My special gentleman and I are back in Europe. Last weekend we flew from Detroit to Copenhagen, where the two of us parted ways and headed to two different conferences. My special gentleman made his way to Aarhus, Denmark, while I traveled to Hamburg, Germany. When I booked my train ticket to Hamburg I didn't give much thought to how the train was going to cross the Baltic Sea. Much to my surprise, my train boarded a ferry for the crossing. It was so strange -- the train just drove right on board of the ferry, we all got out of the train for the 45 minute crossing, then we piled back on and the train kept going. Crazy! It was wonderful though. I was exhausted after a super-long "day" of travel involving an overnight flight, and the sea breeze was a fantastic pick-me-up. Here's a photo from my "train" ride:

I traveled to Hamburg to attend and speak at a conference. There were 80 or so mathematicians there from around the world. My dear friend Mike was there, and he and I shared a room. We went to graduate school together and are in the same field in addition to being good friends, so we have a long history of traveling to conferences together. It is always fun to spend time with Mike! Here's a picture of Mike at dinner on one of our first nights in Hamburg. He ordered Wurstsalat (aka sausage salad):

Those things that look a bit like noodles in the picture are actually strips of sausage. It was a crazy dish, which Mike described as a deconstructed hot dog. The conference was busy, but we had a bit of time to see the sights of Hamburg. Math conferences are often Monday-Friday with a Wednesday afternoon excursion, and this was no exception. It was brought to my attention recently that many other academic fields do not have this tradition of excursions. In math we do, and more often than not, they involve a boat ride. The talks ended early on Wednesday afternoon and we all piled onto a boat for a tour of Hamburg:

Hamburg is a very pretty city. There is water everywhere, and lots of parks scattered throughout. This photo is from a very beautiful park a few blocks from our hotel:

What the picture fails to capture is that I almost fell into that little lagoon. There were some stepping stones you could walk on to cross it and somehow I tripped. I screamed and all the German onlookers gasped. It was pretty funny. Luckily I didn't end up in the water. I think Mike was disappointed!

Weeks before this trip Mike sent me an email with the one thing he really wanted to see in Hamburg: the Miniatur Wunderland. It is the world's biggest model railroad exhibition, but saying just that doesn't do it justice. There was room after room after room full of miniature version of various cities and regions of the world. There was an airport with planes that take off and land. The cars and trucks move as well as the trains, and if you stood in one place for a while you could watch miniature drama unfold: a small forest fire would start, then the police cars and fire engines would arrive. They would slowly put out the fire, and once it was extinguished the fire trucks would drive away. The place was crazy! Here is Mike in front of a miniature concert. There must have been thousands of miniature people in that one small piece of the exhibit alone, and each one with incredible detail.

Every 15 minutes or so it would become night inside the Miniatur Wunderland and the lights would go down. Here is a picture of miniature Las Vegas at night:

It was a crazy experience. If you ever find yourself in Hamburg, it is worth a stop.

Mathematically the conference was really good. It was great to hear the talks, and talk to people. Unfortunately my talk was late in the week, so I had lots of time to stress about it. It's always better to talk on the first or second day of a conference because then you can relax. I talked on Thursday. My talk went fine though and I was quite glad once it was over! I had a big beer and some yummy Vietnamese food to celebrate. The conference ended Friday and on Saturday I headed up to Denmark to meet my special gentleman. Unfortunately, the 4 and a half hour train ride to Aarhus didn't go on a ferry, but it was still very pleasant! On Saturday we took a long walk through a park. Here's my special gentleman:

We also walked along the beach, eating ice cream bars. It was great! Here we are on the beach:

Yesterday we did some work, and also walked around town. We visited the botanical garden:


My special gentleman's conference started back up today. I don't have any responsibilities this week so I am taking the opportunity to get a lot of work done. I have already made great progress on my ever-growing To-Do list and I hope to have a very productive week. On Saturday we are headed back home, where we will be for three days or so before heading off on our next trip. Summer craziness!

In totally unrelated news, I am an aunt! My special gentleman's brother Brad and his wife Deniz welcomed their daughter Hannah into the world this weekend! We are so happy for them, and super-excited to meet Hannah, so we will be heading to Chicago for a visit in the middle of next week. So exciting!!

Roast Turkey with Herbed Bread Stuffing and Giblet Gravy (Page 376)

RECIPE #1272

• Date: Saturday, June 25, 2011 -- 6pm
• Location: East Lansing, MI
• Kitchen: Our House
• Fellow Chef: Matty
• Dining Companions: Helen, Charles, Clara, Whitney, and Chris C.
• Recipe Rating: B
  

This recipe called for a kosher turkey, which Helen and Charles kindly bought for me in Ann Arbor a few months back. The bird had been sitting in my basement freezer for a while, so I decided it was about time we thawed it and celebrated Thanksgiving in June! I started by seasoning the bird with salt and pepper. The recipe gives you the option of either stuffing the bird with the Herbed Bread Stuffing, or baking the stuffing separately. I chose the latter, as I am a nut about food safety. I had already made the stuffing part of this recipe once, but I went ahead and made it again so that we could have the full experience of the turkey plus stuffing.

I roasted the bird for half an hour in a hot oven, then reduced the temperature of the oven and poured some butter over the bird. I roasted it until it was done, basting every 20 minutes. While the turkey was resting I baked the stuffing. Then I made the gravy. I deglazed the roasting pan with the Turkey Giblet Stock then added defatted pan juices. I whisked some of the turkey fat with flour to form a roux, then added the stock mixture and whisked until the gravy was slightly thickened. This was a solid turkey recipe, with a tasty stuffing and gravy. Everyone enjoyed it, but I probably won't make it again. There is such potential with turkey to make the bird really flavorful, and/or the gravy really flavorful, and/or the stuffing really flavorful, and this recipe had none of that. It was classic: turkey seasoned only with salt, pepper, and butter. Gravy made from only the pan juices and turkey stock. Stuffing with only a few vegetables and herbs. I prefer turkey recipes which are a little more exciting. My old standby roast turkey involves a flavorful brine and a gingersnap gravy. Yum! Or my recent favorite, the Grilled Turkey with Cranberry Gravy is bursting with flavor. This recipe just couldn't hold a candle to either of those. That said, there was nothing wrong with it. If you are looking for a truly simple and classic turkey dinner, this is the recipe for you.

The recipe is here.

Only 21 recipes left to go!

After a few glorious weeks at home, we are hitting the road again. Tomorrow my special gentleman and I are headed back to Europe. I am speaking at a conference next week in Germany. My special gentleman is speaking the following week at a conference in Denmark. His thing in Denmark is two weeks long, starting Monday, while my conference is only a week (also starting Monday). So we are flying from Detroit to Copenhagen together, then we will get on trains headed two different directions. I will head down to Hamburg, Germany, and he will head off to Aarhus, Denmark. I will meet him in Aarhus once my conference is over, and once his conference is done we will fly back together. It should be a fun trip, although given my love of being at home, and my hatred/fear of flying, it's always hard for me to rally for such a thing.

On the upside, this trip is much less logistically complicated than the last Europe trip. There are many fewer destinations, the destinations are easier to get to, and the trip is just shorter. So in comparison, planning for this one has been a piece of cake. That said, I am still scrambling today to get the house ready for the housesitter, get my talk ready, get the things done I had hoped to finish before I left, etc.

I am also wondering where my summer has gone. We are returning from this trip in mid-August. The weekend following our return our good friends Mike and Tim are getting married, so we are headed to upstate New York for their wedding. The weekend after that my in-laws are coming to visit us in Michigan. And a few days after they leave, the semester starts again. The summer is rapidly winding down, I am sad to say. I started the summer with an ambitious list of fun things I wanted to do in the summer months, in addition to an ambitious list of work things I wanted to do. I am disappointed to say that I haven't finished either list. I have made particularly poor progress on my list of fun activities (e.g. I haven't made it to a Lansing Lugnuts baseball game, or to the zoo, or to the Sleeping Bear Dunes...). There's still some time I suppose. This evening, though, there are no fun activities in store for me (except perhaps a trip to Tasty Twist). Instead I will be packing, cleaning, and desperately attempting to get my life in order. And tomorrow, it's back to Europe!

Turkey Giblet Stock (Page 377)

RECIPE #1271

• Date: Saturday, June 25, 2011 -- 6pm
• Location: East Lansing, MI
• Kitchen: Our House
• Dining Companions: Matty, Helen, Charles, Clara, Whitney, and Chris C.
• Recipe Rating: B+
  

This was a component for a turkey dish I made a few weeks back. This recipe is for a quick stock made from the turkey neck and giblets. The turkey I had said on the package, "Some giblets may be missing." This was no joke. Indeed, nearly all of my giblets were missing. And our local butcher doesn't sell giblets without the bird this time of year. So for me this was more of a turkey neck stock than a turkey giblet stock. Oh well. I started by browning the neck and giblets, then added celery, carrot, onion, water, chicken stock, bay leaf, black peppercorn, and thyme. I simmered it for almost an hour, strained it, and skimmed off the fat. This stock was fine. It didn't have the depth of flavor that you get from a stock that simmers for hours, but it was pretty flavorful. The gravy that I made from it was tasty, although not remarkable in any way. If I need a quick poultry stock in the future, this is a decent recipe.

The recipe is here.

Only 22 recipes left!

I have been in a bit of a funk lately. There are reasons, and they are legitimate, but I don't want to go into them here, nor would I even know where to start if I did. For the most part the summer has been lovely, but there have been some bad days, and quite a few of those days were consolidated into last week. By the time the weekend rolled around I felt defeated. I had planned to work all weekend, but I couldn't find the presence of mind to do it. On Saturday, the only thing I wanted to do was cook. So I did. I made a wheat berry salad, some cookies, a batch of brownies, a couple pizzas, etc. For the first time all week I felt as though a weight had been lifted. I love to cook.

I have always, ALWAYS, been good about finding space in my life for cooking. Even before I started this project I made it a priority to spend time in the kitchen. My busiest semesters in graduate school, I still baked cakes and hosted dinner parties. It was excellent stress-relief. And up until recently this project kept me very disciplined about finding time to cook. Lately, though, I have barely been cooking. I can't explain it. I have been busy, but not remarkably so. Usually I am wonderfully excited to cook from The Book. Lately, that has not been the case. In part I think it is because I am so close to the end, and the idea of finishing this project, which has come to be a part of me, makes me sad. And I haven't decided what, if anything, I will do next. Will I take on another cooking project? Will I continue to blog? I just don't know. So I am dragging my feet on the project. And not cooking from The Book has somehow morphed into not cooking much at all. Luckily my special gentleman has been making some delicious things (mmmm... porcini risotto) to supplement my minimal cooking. But it is time for me to prioritize my kitchen time again. Tonight I made more pizza, with toppings piled high on whole wheat crust: tomato sauce, onions, garlic, green peppers, pimientos, black olives, bacon, and a variety of cheeses. This weekend I have big plans for cooking from The Book. Duck? Salmon? Scallop mousse? So hard to decide. Perhaps I will make them all!

In difficult times especially, it is important to remember to hold on to the things one loves, rather than letting them fall by the wayside. I think it is time for me to spend some time in the kitchen again.

Italian Fried Salt Cod (Page 50)

RECIPE #1270

• Date: Saturday, June 25, 2011 -- 6pm
• Location: East Lansing, MI
• Kitchen: Our House
• Dining Companions: Matty, Helen, Charles, Clara, Whitney, and Chris C.
• Recipe Rating: B
  

The last time I tried to make this recipe there was no salt cod at the store. They told me it was "out of season," which cracked me up since it is dried and salted and therefore hardly something I think of as seasonal. Nonetheless I couldn't find it. Apparently it is salt cod season now though, because a couple weeks ago I stumbled upon some and snatched it up to make this recipe. This dish was quite simple. I soaked the salt cod for two days, changing the water often. Then I cut it into strips. I dipped the strips in a mixture of flour, salt, olive oil, water, and parsley, then deep-fried them until they were golden. I sprinkled them with sea salt and served! The result was... just OK. I prefer the texture of fried fresh fish to the texture of fried salt cod. The flavor of the salt cod was nice though. The ratio of ingredients for the batter seemed a bit off. As it was the batter was extremely thick, and consequently didn't coat the fish at all evenly. In the end, fish that has been battered and fried tastes good -- so this tasted pretty good. But there are certainly better recipes out there in that genre.

The recipe is here.

Only 23 recipes left to go!

I was running with Helen last Friday and we ran along a portion of a trail I used to frequent when I was marathon training almost two years ago. It brought back memories -- mostly bad ones. Marathon training was hard, and for the most part I do not remember it fondly. But there is one aspect of the training that I do really miss. I always did my long run of the week on either Saturday or Sunday morning. My special gentleman and I would often head out at the same time. We didn't run together (he is much faster than me!) but we would run the same trails and occasionally pass one another as we made loops around. As the runs got longer the training got more miserable, and I certainly have some bad memories of 16-20 mile runs that didn't feel too good. But the hours following the runs were so wonderful! I was exhausted. After a relaxing shower I would climb in bed and eat either Taco Bell, or macaroni and cheese from a box (salty, craveable food!). Then I would fall asleep in the middle of the day while my special gentleman watched terrible zombie movies next to me in bed. I was so physically spent that I felt not-at-all bad about sleeping away the early afternoon. There was no way I could have possibly done anything productive with that time. It was luxurious and I loved it. The exhaustion following a truly difficult workout is one of my favorite feelings.

I haven't felt that way in a while. It's not that don't exercise. I do. We have a treadmill in the basement and that thing gets a lot of use. I exercise, I just don't push myself very hard. So this summer I am adopting a new strategy: exercising with friends. I have been lifting weights and biking around town with my special gentleman, running with Helen, and yesterday I played in an ultimate frisbee game with a mix of undergrads, graduate students, and faculty. It's more fun to work out with other people and I push myself harder. It's a win-win! For the first time in a long time I am starting to feel like I am in pretty good shape. And I am sore. Constantly. I like the feeling of sore muscles, because then I know that I have indeed pushed myself. My return to fitness has definitely given me back some of that post-workout exhaustion that I enjoy. And there is nothing nicer than taking a little summer cat nap after a workout with two very sweet kitty cats to keep you company:


Now that I have successfully integrated exercise into my summer life, the next challenge is figuring out how to stick with it once the academic year starts again and I am much, much busier! For now, though, I won't worry about that.

Garlic and Rosemary Jelly (Page 915)

RECIPE #1269

• Date: Sunday, April 24, 2011 -- 1pm
• Location: East Lansing, MI
• Kitchen: Our House
• Dining Companions: Matty, Helen, Charles, Clara, Emilee, Brian, Sam, Georgina, Bob M, Teri, Terry, Corbett, Mary, Allison, Kendra, Jubin, Watson, and Mark W
• Recipe Rating: C-
  

The Book suggests this jelly as an accompaniment for lamb, so when I made lamb as part of our Easter dinner, I figured I would take the opportunity to make this jelly as well. The ingredients for this jelly: 2 cups total of liquid (white wine plus white wine vinegar), 15 garlic cloves, 4 rosemary sprigs, a pouch of pectin, and 3 and a half cups of sugar. That's a lot of sugar. I started by sterilizing some jars. Then I chopped the garlic and combined all the ingredients except the pectin. I boiled the mixture, then stirred in the pectin and boiled some more. I strained the jelly to separate the rosemary and garlic from the rest. I divided the rosemary and garlic between jars, then poured in the jelly. I sealed and processed the jars in a boiling water canner. This jelly was not delicious. Generally speaking I am a huge fan of sweet and savory combinations, but in this case it just did not work for me. The jelly was extremely sweet, jet garlicky. It also had a very non-uniform consistency, with the chopped garlic sinking to the bottom. I tried the jelly on its own. I also tried it with lamb. And I concluded that I couldn't think of one possible use for it. We still have several jars of it sitting in the cupboard, but I think they are going to find their way into the trash soon. This recipe was not good.

The recipe is here.

Only 24 recipes left to go!

I don't think I have ever in my life been quite so enamored with summer as I am this year. It is 9pm on a Wednesday evening. I worked hard today, and now I am sitting at the dining room table eating a raspberry truffle chocolate bar that Georgina gave me for my birthday in April. I am drinking white wine left over from Monday evening when some of my girlfriends came over. I have squab stock simmering on the stove and Lori McKenna playing loudly in the kitchen. The little kitty is curled up on the chair next to me and the big kitty is looking out the screen door. And I feel completely relaxed. I. Love. Summer.

This past weekend I had what may have been the perfect summer weekend. On Friday evening, after I got home from work, I took a two hour bath. I lounged in the bath tub, reading magazines and luxuriating. After my bath my special gentleman and I watched a terrible movie. It was great. Saturday I spent the day cooking from The Book. I made four recipes (which at this point is a pretty decent percentage of what I have left to make!). I cooked all day in a leisurely, no-stress fashion. In the evening we had a bunch of friends over to eat the results. We sat on the porch, eating turkey and not-eating tripe. The weather was perfect. After dinner we ate the best strawberry shortcake I have ever had (made by Helen!) and played board games. It was a lovely summer day. On Sunday we spent most of the day in the yard, weeding, pruning, talking to the neighbors. In the evening we walked over to the stadium on campus to see U2 in concert. The concert was great and the atmosphere was great. I ate concession stand food and danced through the whole concert. It was awesome. I didn't work at all this weekend. And more importantly, I didn't feel guilty about it. I worked very hard all through the academic year. I worked seven days a week nearly every week. So this summer if I take some weekends off I am choosing to do so without guilt!

The fantastic thing about summer is that without teaching there is a little more time in the day. Time to cook. Time to exercise. Time to take care of administrative things. Yesterday we had someone come out to the house to give us an estimate on the cost of putting on a roof deck. This morning before work we went to the bank to start the paperwork for refinancing from a 30-year to a 15-year mortgage. I am checking things off my To-Do list that have been there for months and it feels good! We are spending nearly all of July at home in Michigan and I have high hopes for the month. I am going to plow through both my work To-Do list and my non-work To-Do list. I am going to cook from The Book like a crazy person. I am going to exercise every day. And most importantly, in the evening if I feel like sitting around, sipping white wine and eating chocolate, that is what I am going to do. I love summer!

Classic Foie Gras Terrine (Page 24)

RECIPE #1268

• Date: Sunday, April 24, 2011 -- 1pm
• Location: East Lansing, MI
• Kitchen: Our House
• Dining Companions: Matty, Emilee, Brian, Sam, Terry, Teri, Helen, Charles, Clara, Kendra, Jubin, Watson, Mary, Corbett, Allison, and Mark W
• Recipe Rating: B
  

I considered saving this recipe to make as the very final recipe of my project since it is so very, very indulgent. But when Easter rolled around this year and we were not only celebrating Easter, my birthday, and my baptism, but Em and Brian were also in town to celebrate with us, it seemed like the appropriate occasion for a terrine of foie gras! I started by deveining the foie gras, which I did with the assistance of a youtube video, as I had never done it before, nor even seen it done. I wouldn't call myself a deveining expert now, but it went pretty well. I sprinkled the lobes of duck liver with salt and white pepper. I put some Armagnac in the bottom of a small terrine, then put the larger lobe of foie gras in. I sprinkled with some more Armagnac, then put the smaller lobe in. I sprinkled with more Armagnac, covered the surface of the terrine with plastic wrap, then put the lid on the terrine. I put the terrine on a towel in a roasting pan, then filled the roasting pan with hot water to reach halfway up the sides of the terrine. I baked the terrine (Plastic wrap and all! Definitely my first time putting plastic wrap in the oven.) in a very low oven: 120 degrees. When the terrine was done baking I took it out and weighted it. After a while I removed the weight and refrigerated the terrine for a day. To serve, I unmolded the terrine and served it with toasted slices of baguette.

As you can see above, this terrine looked very scary. That large yellow layer was just pure fat. The yellow fat layer is typical for foie gras terrines, but my fat layer seemed thicker than most. We all eyed this dish quite suspiciously. Truth be told, though, it tasted really good. That yellow fat layer was quite scrumptious, and although I am typically not really a liver person, I very much enjoyed this liver. Most people who dared to taste it seemed to like it, but I think its appearance drove a few people away from it! Plus, we had so many other food options that weren't so scary looking. I didn't want to fill up on the foie gras when I had a plate of other food waiting for me that looked like this:

Indeed it was quite a spread. Here's one table of food:

And another:

And a table just for the asparagus, which wouldn't fit anywhere else. (Note: if you think those potholders are cute that the asparagus is sitting on, you should visit my friend Mel's online store. She makes incredibly beautiful kitchen things.)

It was a big and tasty meal, and I am glad that this was the occasion for which I made the foie gras terrine. It did seem appropriately celebratory!

The recipe is here.

Only 25 recipes left to go!

This week was our Boot Camp summer retreat. It sounds military, or athletic, but this was a different kind of boot camp: Writing Boot Camp. I'm not sure where this idea came from, but in our group I think it was a colleague named Cheryl who started it. Our Boot Camp group typically meets on Fridays throughout the school year. On a typical Friday anywhere from 4-10 people might show up. We meet in a conference room somewhere on campus, and at the beginning of the day (typically around 8:45am) everyone announces what they hope to accomplish that day. There are several different departments represented in the group: Fisheries and Wildlife, History, Mathematics, etc, so people tend to be working on many different things (e.g. writing grants, writing books, writing papers, writing referee reports, writing talks, writing book reviews, writing manuscript reviews... there is a theme: writing!). Everyone in the group is both a researcher and a teacher, but Boot Camp is a time when we DO NOT work on teaching-related activities. We don't prep lectures, or grade. We work on research.

One of the lovely things about life in academia is its lack of structure. It is very freeing. On the other hand, especially during the semester, it can be difficult to get the research writing done that you would like to, simply because it is hard to carve out the time. Boot Camp, unlike most of academic life, is very structured. We work on a schedule. A typical Boot Camp day is something like:

8:45 - 9: Settle in, chat, eat snacks
9 - 10:45: Work cycle
10:45 - 11: Break -- read email, eat snacks, chat
11 - 12:30: Work cycle
12:30 - 1:15: Lunch
1:15 - 2:45: Work cycle
2:45 - 3: Break - read email, eat snacks, chat
3 - 4:30: Work cycle
4:30 - 5:30: Some continue working, while others leave.

If you have to leave to teach, you leave to teach. But otherwise, you follow the schedule. The work cycles are very focused and very quiet. We don't chat. We don't write social emails or play around on Facebook. We sit and we write. If you have to pee you are allowed to go pee. Maybe it sounds silly, and for those who are outside academia it might sound completely ridiculous. But it is amazing. It is a great work environment. When you reach that point in the day when normally you might say to yourself, "I have done enough of this difficult writing today, I am going to work on ______ instead," you look around the room and see everyone else working hard: Helen working on her book, Georgina writing a grant, Kendra analyzing data for a paper, Mark revising a paper, Cheryl writing a review, Matt writing a paper, etc, and you feel motivated to keep working on whatever mentally challenging work you were doing.

This week was our Boot Camp retreat. We had Boot Camp every day Monday through Friday from 9-5. Not every single person was there all day every day, but there was a nice size crowd the whole week. It was intense. We spent the week locked in a conference room, writing. It was productive for me and I think for many other people as well. And although this week was the official retreat, our Boot Camp is continuing throughout the summer. We have a sign-up sheet, and it seems that at least a couple people will be in that conference room each day throughout the next two months. I am sure I will be spending many days in there myself. It's a particularly great place to go on days when you are feeling unmotivated. There is nothing like a room full of hard-working assistant professors to inspire you to work! In fact, I think I am headed back to Boot Camp on Monday!

Blini with Three Caviars (Page 39)

RECIPE #1267

• Date: Sunday, April 24, 2011 -- 1pm
• Location: East Lansing, MI
• Kitchen: Our House
• Fellow Chef: Emilee
• Dining Companions: Brian, Sam, Matty, Teri, Terry, Helen, Charles, Clara, Georgina, Bob M, Kendra, Jubin, Watson, Mary, Corbett, Allison, and Mark W
• Recipe Rating: B-
  

I hadn't made this recipe yet because it calls for three kinds of caviar (which is a little extreme, no?), but we had a big party on Easter/my birthday, and it seemed like just the occasion for such extravagance! To make the buckwheat pancakes, I proofed some yeast, then added buckwheat flour, sugar, heated milk, and butter. I let the mixture rise overnight in the fridge. (Note: The Book gives the option of letting it rise on the counter for 2 hours or overnight in the fridge. For logistical reasons I chose the latter. The Book also notes that the overnight option will produce tangier batter, and I can confirm that the pancakes were extremely tangy. If I were to make them again, I would let the batter rise on the counter instead -- my pancakes had too much tang!) I then added more warm milk, flour, salt, and egg yolk to the batter. I let it rise for an hour. I beat heavy cream until soft peaks formed, then folded the whipped cream into the batter. I beat egg whites to stiff peaks and folded them in as well. I cooked the blinis in a heavy skillet brushed with melted butter. Emilee helped me top them with sour cream and three different types of caviar (golden caviar, black caviar, and salmon roe). We had several vegetarians and people with fish allergies in attendance, so we also topped some of them with sour cream and chopped black olives. These blinis were met with mixed reviews. I thought the pancakes alone didn't have a very good flavor (too tangy/yeasty, as previously mentioned, and they tasted a bit like dirt), but when topped with the sour cream and caviar (or olives) the flavors balanced well and I kind of liked them. Emilee, on the other hand, almost puked on our family room floor after tasting one of these. To be fair, she is pregnant, so perhaps her stomach is a little off, but she maintains that it wasn't pregnancy related. She says the blini was just so disgusting that it was a struggle to keep it down. So, they weren't an overwhelming hit. Indeed, although some of them did get eaten, many of them remained untouched. I doubt I will be making this recipe again.

The recipe in the book calls for twice as much yeast (in proportion to other ingredients) as the recipe online, which is here.

Only 26 recipes left to go!

I am home, and so very, very happy to be home! Our trip was really wonderful, but five weeks was a long time to be gone, and by the end I was definitely feeling ready to go home. Plus, summer in Michigan is spectacularly beautiful. I can't get over how lush, and green, and gorgeous everything is right now. And the weather the last few days has been spectacular. I have lived in California, Boston, South Carolina, Southern Indiana, Wisconsin, and Michigan, and I can honestly say that I think summer in the upper Midwest is the nicest summer in the country. Yes, we suffer in the winter, but the summer is so fantastic! While walking to work yesterday I was just overcome with joy. I love summer. During the semester I always feel behind. I work long hours and never feel caught up. This school year was insanely busy and as soon as the school year ended we left for our trip. And the trip was fabulous, but it was logistically complicated and involved a lot of work obligations. I wouldn't call it a vacation. But now, back at home, I feel as though I can exhale. I am still working hard, but I also have time. I have time to work out. Time to cook. Time to sit around with my kitties. Time to see friends. Today was my friend Helen's birthday, and we went together to get facials to celebrate. I have time for a facial! And it feels amazing. For the first time in a long time, I feel genuinely relaxed. I love summer. And the fantastic thing about our schedule this summer is that we consolidated a lot of the travel. So we were gone for a long time, but now I don't have to get on another airplane for seven weeks! I can't even put into words how delighted I am about seven weeks of Michigan summer, in the comfort of my own home. I can't remember the last time I felt as happy as I do today. Ah, Michigan summer.

Fried Perch Fillets with Fresh Cucumber Relish (Page 297)

RECIPE #1266

• Date: Saturday, April 16, 2011 -- 6pm
• Location: East Lansing, MI
• Kitchen: Our House
• Fellow Chef: Matty
• Recipe Rating: A
  

I hadn't made this recipe yet, although it sounded delicious, because I hadn't seen lake perch at the store. So when I spotted some a few weeks back I was very excited, and I took the opportunity to make this dish. My special gentleman prepared the relish by whisking together lemon juice and vinegar, then adding olive oil, cucumber, red bell pepper, red onion, celery, and salt. Meanwhile, I skinned the fillets, then dipped them in a mixture of egg and milk followed by a dip in a mixture of fresh bread crumbs, flour, Parmesan cheese, dill, thyme, salt, and pepper. I then dipped each fillet in the egg mixture again, followed by the crumb mixture for a second time. Then I deep fried the breaded fish until the breading was golden brown. In a word: Yum! Oh my gosh was this dish good! I don't typically get too excited about fish, but this fried fish was delicious. The double dipping gave the fish a hearty layer of breading, which was flavorful and crispy. The cucumber relish was delicious, and the fresh, acidic flavors of the relish offset the heaviness of the fried fish very nicely. The dish was simple to prepare, and extremely tasty. This will definitely be my go-to recipe for fried fish in the future.

This recipe isn't online.

Only 27 recipes left to go!

Hello from California! After four weeks in Europe, last Friday I headed back to the States. My 11-hour flight from Paris to San Francisco was long, but otherwise uneventful. I spent last weekend hanging out with my dear friends Emilee, Brian, and Sam. On Monday my mini-workshop started. There is a math institute in Palo Alto which funds collaborative research. So they paid for me and three of my collaborators from around the country to fly out here for a week and work together on some projects. They provide lodging, workspace, and never-ending snacks and wine -- it's a very nice arrangement! It is an intense experience, but also quite fun as the three guys I am here working with (Mike, V, and Andrew) are also friends of mine. We have had a productive and exhausting week.

It's always strange coming back to the Bay Area. I went to college at Stanford, and the place where I am staying now is just a couple miles down the street from the campus where I lived for four years. So I do feel a bit nostalgic. I have been realizing though that many of the memories that I have of this place are from my post-college experiences here. I graduated 9 years ago, and in the time since I moved away I have made at least 20 trips back to the Bay Area, including some that lasted for more than a month. I have lots of mathematical reasons to visit here, and also personal reasons, so I come back often. I went for a long walk tonight. I wandered around for a couple hours, thinking about all the experiences I have had here, the people I have spent time with, the things I have learned... I thought about college, and also my visits since then. There are several areas of the country that hold special places in my heart: Madison, Boston, Bloomington, East Lansing... but the Bay Area remains especially dear to me. So I am happy to be here. At the same time, I am also anxious to go home. Our mini-workshop ends tomorrow, and on Saturday I am headed back to Michigan! After more than a month on the road, including travel to five different countries, nothing sounds nicer to me than going home. I can't wait to see the kitties, sleep in my own bed, eat homemade food, see my friends... It sounds insanely wonderful. Even better: I am not making another long trip until August! Once I get home on Saturday, I don't have to get on an airplane again for seven weeks! In August I am headed to Europe again, for a week in Germany. But between now and then my plan is to enjoy a beautiful Michigan summer at home. I can't wait!

Hamburgers (Page 447)

RECIPE #1265

• Date: Saturday, April 9, 2011 -- 6pm
• Location: East Lansing, MI
• Kitchen: Our House
  
• Fellow Chef: Matty
• Dining Companions: Helen, Charles, Clara, Chris C., Whitney, and Tom
• Recipe Rating: B+
  

I would have made this recipe long ago since hamburgers are super delicious, but the recipe calls for a meat grinder, which I didn't own. As it turns out, the meat grinder attachment for my KitchenAid wasn't nearly as expensive as I thought it would be, so I bought myself one and made this recipe! I started by salting some boneless chuck steak and refrigerating it for 24 hours. I then rinsed the steak, cubed it, and put it through the meat grinder. Once it was all ground up, the beef looked like this:


It's very exciting to now have the equipment to transform steak into ground beef at home! I formed the beef into patties, seasoned them with salt and pepper, and my special gentleman grilled them. The result: delicious! I was skeptical about whether or not grinding your own meat would really make any difference, but indeed I would say that these burgers were juicier and more flavorful than what you end up with when you buy ground beef at the store. I would have given them a higher grade, but there was one little problem: my home-ground meat did not hold together as well as typical ground beef does, so it was hard to turn the burgers on the grill without them breaking apart. My special gentleman did the grilling and he got a little frustrated with them. We pieced together the broken ones though and they were still delicious. We set up a selection of burger toppings so everyone could customize their burger. I had pepper jack, caramelized onions, bacon, avocado, and barbecue sauce on my burger. It was good!

This recipe isn't online.

Only 28 recipes left to go!

Our European adventure continues to be absolutely lovely. The week-end before last we spent in Strasbourg, France. All of the other destinations on this trip were chosen for mathematical reasons -- destinations where conferences are taking place, or a collaborator lives. Strasbourg, however, we chose just for fun. We had a weekend between conferences -- the one in the Black Forest in Germany, and another one in Switzerland -- and we chose to spend the weekend in Strasbourg. The city was fantastically beautiful, and we had a wonderful time there. We wandered through the city, both by foot and by boat, and took in beautiful buildings such as this enormous cathedral:

We also did a lot of eating! One of the culinary stars of our trip so far has been the sandwich. It's hard to really explain why sandwiches are so much better in France than they are in the United States. I suppose the answer is simple enough: the bread in France is better. But I think there is more to it than that. In any event, we have eaten a lot of sandwiches -- many of them while sitting on the edge of a fountain, watching people wander by:


While we were in Strasbourg my special gentleman made it his personal mission to eat as many croissants as he could in two days. I have never met anyone who loves croissants as much as he does. They were especially good at our hotel. In the photo below, my special gentleman is enjoying his fourth croissant during one meal! (He also had eggs, bacon, yogurt, pastries, bread, prosciutto, and a variety of cheeses during that breakfast -- we aren't exactly dieting on this trip!).

After an awesome weekend in Strasbourg we headed back to Switzerland. During our first stint in Switzerland, at the beginning of the trip, we were in the French-speaking part of the country. This time we headed to a small town in German-speaking Swtizerland. My special gentleman had a conference there, at a resort hotel on a lake. Here's the view from just outside the building we stayed in. In the other direction the view was of the alps. It was pretty spectacular.

My special gentleman's conference lasted all week, but I only stayed there for a couple days. On Tuesday I headed to England! My good friend Chris, who I am working on a research project with, lives in Oxford. So I flew up there for 5 days to work and hang out with him. I had never been to Oxford before, and it is a beautiful city, with lots of views like this one:

A friend from high school, Anna, also lives in Oxford. She and I spent an afternoon together and she gave me a great tour of the city. We walked up to the top of a tower for some spectacular views. Here's Anna, looking out over Oxford:



As we were walking around, Anna and I also caught a brief glimpse of Michelle Obama, who happened to be in Oxford that day. That was pretty exciting!

My time in England was both fun and productive. I had a nice time hanging out with Chris and we got some work done, which is always a good thing! On Saturday I flew back to Switzerland, where my special gentleman and a different friend also named Chris picked me up at the airport. The three of us drove from Basel, Switzerland to Nantes, France, with an overnight stop in Dijon. It was about an 8-9 hour drive in total, and it was a very enjoyable European road trip experience. Chris had brought along a choose-your-own-adventure book where one attempts to survive a zombie apocalypse. He read it aloud in the car and we made choices together as a group. Our first 3 or 4 attempts ended in horrible, gruesome deaths, but eventually we managed to survive! I would recommend it for a long drive!

We arrived in Nantes yesterday afternoon. Last night my special gentleman and I went to a movie. We hadn't gone out to a movie since January (it was a busy semester!) so it felt like a great luxury. This week my special gentleman has a conference and I have no obligations! I have lots of work I need to do, but I don't have any conference activities or collaborators here in Nantes, so his week will be a little more relaxing for me. And at the end of the week I am headed back to the States. I'm not on my way home just yet though -- I am going to a workshop in California first. My special gentleman will stay in France for another week at his conference. It's hard to believe we have already been in Europe for three weeks. Time flies I guess!

Speaking of time flying, today is me and my special gentleman's two year wedding anniversary! I feel blessed every day by a fantastic marriage, and this trip has only made me appreciate my special gentleman even more. I am not a traveler by nature -- I like being at home! But travel is very fun with my special gentleman. On our one-year wedding anniversary we were in the mountains in Japan. For our two-year anniversary we are in the Loire Valley in France. I am beginning to wonder if we will ever be home on our anniversary to eat the top tier of our wedding cake, which is still in our freezer! It might be a little freezer burnt by the time we get to it. It's a small price to pay for some lovely travel adventures!

Shellfish Watermelon Ceviche (Page 154)

RECIPE #1264

• Date: Saturday, April 9, 2011 -- 6pm
• Location: East Lansing, MI
• Kitchen: Our House
• Fellow Chef: Tom
• Dining Companions: Matty, Helen, Charles, Clara, Chris C., and Whitney
• Recipe Rating: B-
  

This was the last recipe I had left to make from the Salads section of The Book! We had this at a a dinner party when my special gentleman's friend Tom was staying with us, and in fact, Tom helped to prepare this dish (the best kind of houseguest -- one who helps in the kitchen!). I started by boiling a live lobster, then removing the meat and cutting it into pieces. I then cut some shrimp and scallops into pieces. I cooked the scallop pieces and then the shrimp pieces in simmering water. Tom combined chopped orange segments, fresh orange juice, fresh lime juice, diced watermelon, grated ginger, diced red onion, chopped jalapeno, and salt. We then added the seafood and some chopped mint and refrigerated it for an hour. This ceviche was OK. Given the title I was expecting a bit more watermelon, and I think the dish would have been better had there been more watermelon in it. The combination of flavors was pretty good though. Nobody had anything particularly negative to say about this dish, but nobody was very taken with it either. This recipe didn't make a very large quantity of ceviche, but at the end of the meal at least half of it was left. Compared to the other things we had to eat that night (e.g. hamburgers!) this just wasn't very compelling.

The recipe is here.

Only 29 recipes left to go!

This was the last recipe left in the Salads section of The Book! That means that it is time to revisit the section and pick my all-star team. In no particular order, my favorite five recipes from the section:

1. Fava Bean, Asparagus, and Arugula Salad with Shaved Pecorino -- This was a very fussy dish that was absolutely delicious. In the years when my special gentleman worked in Boston and I worked in Indiana I would live with him in Boston during the summer. I have lovely memories of those summers in Boston at his apartment. We would work during the day, run in the evening, and eat late dinners of delicious food from The Book. This was one of the dishes we ate during that time.
2. Frisee Salad with Lardons and Poached Eggs -- My special gentleman and I were both a little skeptical of this dish. I am not generally a fan of frisee and he doesn't like runny egg yolks. But somehow, with the addition of some bacon and a vinegary dressing, the combination was magical and we both loved it!
   
3. Sushi-Roll Rice Salad -- I made this dish last year in Berkeley as part of a birthday dinner for Chris. In retrospect, I have no idea why I didn't make it sooner. This dish is SO DELICIOUS. My special gentleman and I added this dish to our rotation, and this past semester we made this dish almost every week. It is simple, delicious, and easy to modify depending on the contents of one's refrigerator. Also, it is the kind of food that you feel good after eating. Yum!
   
4. Green Apple Salad with Grilled Beef -- My friend Alex and I made this dish not long after I started this crazy project. Alex had a roof deck attached to his apartment in Boston, and he had a grill on the deck! This was a rare thing in Boston, so whenever we cooked together at his place we would pick something grilled from The Book. This dish was refreshing, light, and delicious! In fact, I think I will make it again when I get back to the States after my travels. It is perfect summer food!
5. Taco Salad with Salsa Vinaigrette -- In retrospect I have no idea why I gave this recipe a B+. It deserves a better grade. I made this towards the beginning of the project, so perhaps I didn't have the perspective on grading that I do now. I think perhaps it got a lower grade because it wasn't particularly fancy, or impressive in appearance. But it was delicious, and of course that is what should count! Paul and I both enjoyed this dish and I have made it several times since we first made it back in 2006.
   

I am of glad to be making progress, but this is a section that I am sad to see go. I love salad of all sorts, and this section really was a joy to cook through. There were very few truly bad recipes (the Parsley, Fennel, and Celery Root Salad comes to mind, as does the Coleslaw with Hot Caraway Vinaigrette... weird coincidence that I made both of those terrible salads at Emilee and Brian's place. They sometimes complain that I save the worst recipes for them. Perhaps it is true!) Most of the recipes in this section were very tasty though.

This makes 13 sections completed and only 8 left to finish! Almost there!!

Smoked Salmon Mousse with Salmon Roe and Crudites (Page 19)

RECIPE #1263

• Date: Saturday, April 9th, 2011 -- 6pm
• Location: East Lansing, MI
• Kitchen: Our House
• Dining Companions: Matty, Tom, Helen, Charles, Clara, Chris C., and Whitney
• Recipe Rating: C+
  

I put off making this recipe for a long time because, well, pureed canned salmon set with gelatin just didn't sound good. But now that I am nearing the end of this project it is time to make even the less appetizing dishes! We had a little dinner party last month when my special gentleman's friend Tom was visiting. I made this dish for the party. I started by oiling a charlotte mold and lining the bottom with waxed paper. I then oiled the bottom again and decoratively arranged some cilantro leaves. I combined water, lemon juice, and gelatin, then added some boiling water. In a food processor I ground together smoked salmon, canned salmon, sour cream, and Tabasco. I added the gelatin mixture and some scallions, salt, and pepper. I beat some heavy cream in a mixer then added it to the salmon mixture. I poured the mousse into a mold and refrigerated. To serve, I inverted it onto a platter and spooned salmon roe around it. I served it with sliced cucumbers. To be fair, this wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It also wasn't good though. I had never in my life cooked with salmon from a can before. I don't know why canned tuna seems perfectly reasonable to me and canned salmon seems absurd, but it does. This dish tasted much like you would expect pureed preserved salmon mixed with whipped cream and set with gelatin to taste. The one thing that did surprise me about it was that the salmon flavor was quite mild. I think I would have liked the dish better if it had a stronger flavor. For instance, more smoked salmon and less canned salmon would have made the dish more to my liking. I also would add less heavy cream were I to make this again. As it was there was a ton of cream and a very mild salmon flavor, and I didn't love it. The salmon eggs did add bursts of salty flavor, which was nice. I can imagine a version of this dish that would be pretty tasty (or as tasty as a fish mousse is ever really going to get), but as written I wasn't loving this recipe.

The recipe is here.

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I was at a conference last week at a math institute in the Black Forest in Germany. At this particular institute, conferences are fairly small, and invitation-only. It is a fantastic place. The setting is beautiful and the food and lodging are completely paid for by the institute, which is amazing. This was my fourth trip there and I look forward to traveling there again in the future. The conference that I was a part of last week had 25-30 participants. Throughout the week people kept saying to me, "You are the only woman here," as though somehow that fact had escaped me. For reasons that aren't entirely clear to me, different fields of mathematics have different proportions of women. Women are certainly the minority in every mathematical field, but some fields are worse than others. I think of myself as an algebraic topologist and an algebraic K-theorist. Algebraic topology is a field with few women. In writing a proposal recently I needed to list all female algebraic topologists in the United States who are on the tenure-track at a research university. After much brainstorming, I couldn't even come up with five, including myself. There are another handful that already have tenure, but that's it for senior women in my field in the Unites States. Algebraic K-theory is even worse. There are very few female K-theorists around the world. The conference I went to last week was a K-theory conference.

So it was not the fault of the organizers that I was the only woman. Indeed, one other woman had agreed to come and didn't show up. And at this point in my career I am quite accustomed to being the only woman, or one of a few women, in a large group of men, so it didn't particularly bother me. It did get me thinking, though, about why it is that there are so few women in math that being the only woman in a group of 25 mathematicians seems normal to me. This is, obviously, a very complicated question, and one that I have many thoughts about, and few concrete answers. The numbers get worse at every career stage. The percentage of math graduate students that are female is higher than the percentage of math post-docs that are female, which is again higher than the percentage of tenure-track professors that are female. And the percentage of tenured math faculty that are female is lowest of all.

At every stage, a lot of women leave. In algebraic topology at least three very talented women have left academic math in the last year. These are women with PhDs from places like Stanford or MIT. There are people of both genders who leave math every year -- many of them forced out because they can't get a job. But that was not the case with these three. They chose to leave. And while I would like to say that I can't understand why they left, I do understand it. In a lot of ways being an academic is a fantastic life. But it also has some significant downsides. It seems that many people who leave are happier for it. It makes me sad though -- not because I think they made the wrong choice, or they should have done something differently -- I definitely don't think that. It just makes me sad because I miss them.

I hope that during my career I will see more women in my field. Honestly, though, I don't know if it will happen or not...