Portobello Vegetarian Gravy (Page 881)

• Date: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 -- 8:30pm
• Location: Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Fellow Chef: Matt
• Dining Companions: Matty, Glen, Genevieve, and Ana
• Recipe Rating: B-

I chose this recipe to make with dinner on Wednesday because the "Sauces and Salsas" section of The Book was again the section that I was furthest behind on. This gravy was ok, but nothing special. My main objection was that it didn't seem at all deserving of the name gravy. It tasted like a cream sauce with some vegetable flavoring. We put it on mashed potatoes, and it was fine, but it wasn't like having gravy on them! It was also disappointing because the homemade vegetable stock that this sauce was made from was quite tasty. This recipe didn't do it justice!

Before I left for Christmas Haynes started giving me a hard time about setting concrete goals for myself with respect to the writing up of my dissertation. Haynes' advice is usually right (I can't think of any instance, actually, when he has given me poor advice...) so I have been goal-setting. It's true that I get more done when I have a very concrete timeline. It also makes me much less stressed out. In August I was worrying a lot about job applications, so I made a timeline of what I was going to do every day between the middle of August and the middle of October. That was perhaps a little obsessive! Of course eventually I got off my schedule, but it helped. I am hoping to stay on track with my thesis schedule for as long as possible (or until I am done!). The exciting thing is that it is really starting to look like a dissertation! Even a few months ago it seemed infathomable to me that I would ever have a completed thesis in my hand, but now I am almost there... Who knew!?!?