An Update from the Kittchen

Apologies to my loyal readers (all three of you) for the lack of posts recently; lacrosse season just started and I've been getting home from school each night at about 8:00 p.m., making a sad salad of cucumbers and vinaigrette or (if I'm feeling crazy) cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and vinaigrette and passing out. On the upside, I'm getting outside for two-three hours each day and my girls all finished their timed mile in under 10:30!

Since I haven't been doing a lot of real cooking, I thought I'd offer a few updates instead.

First and most importantly, I ate a fried pickle tonight! We were at the Home Team Grill to have dinner and drinks, and someone innocently pointed out that fried pickles and jalapeno caps were on the menu. Channeling Andrew Zimmern (only not as badass), I decided I had to try one, even if every ounce of my Northern upbringing was screaming "NOOOOOO!" I also tried a fried jalapeno cap. They were both really good. So essentially what I've gained from two years living in the South is...having eaten a deep-fried oreo, pickle, and jalapeno. My arteries thank me.

Second, in a sad turn of events, my friend C and I decided to pretend to observe Lent in order to give up my two biggest weaknesses: sweets and pasta. As you can imagine, this has made it difficult to keep my New Year's Resolution to bake more. The phyllo dough that I ran out and bought with absolutely no plan in mind is sitting in the freezer, lonely and whimpering as I type. I still haven't really defined what "no sweets" means, but I've successfully avoided any desserts, candy, etc. and am thinking that I should focus on baked goods that are sugar-free if I really can't wait 40 days and 40 nights. Once life settles down, I'll see if I can choose a sugar-free baked goods recipe that doesn't make me want to yurk (technical term), and I'll give it a whirl.

Third, I'm contemplating a serious "life decision," by which I mean moving on from teaching for a while and doing something totally selfish. I've been accepted to BU's Master's program in Gastronomy, which examines "the role of food in historical and contemporary societies from a variety of perspectives—gaining a holistic view of the impact of food, food science, and nutrition on world civilization." So, essentially, I'd get to think about, talk about, write about, and EAT good food, for a degree. The program was founded, in part, by Julia Child, so that's cool. It's also in Boston, which makes my heart sing (Dirty Water, of course). I'm still waiting to hear from NYU's Master's program in Food Studies, which covers mostly the same ground, and is, from what I can tell, the stronger program. Even though it's in New York (do I even need to say it? Oh, OK: Yankees Suck.), I'd be really thrilled to get in. And I'm really impatient, so...yeah. Waiting for big news is not my favorite. I'll keep you posted.

Grad school presents a myriad of problems, including but not limited to: the cost, the risk of this degree not doing much for me professionally, the cost, the fact that Boston and New York are not known for their Marine Corps bases (which is where T is headed), and, oh yeah, the mind-numbing cost. I'm already drowning in student loan bills as it is--is a Master's really worth it? Again, I'll keep you posted.

That's all for now. I will have a Kittchen adventure this weekend, come hell or high water (maybe rosemary-lamb burgers?), and I promise to post about it.