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It’s worth mentioning that, should I ever need to rename my blog, a colleague came up with another brilliant submission: Nabakeoff. Like, Nabokov. Get it? ….get it?
Keegan: The Opposite of Loneliness →
An editorial for her graduating class at Yale, written by a senior who died in a car crash weeks later, is a simple message of hope, a reminder to me of those values that matter far more than material success. I hope I can teach my students these values. Maybe one day they will write something as beautiful (with perfect grammar, too).
http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2012/may/27/keegan-opposite-loneliness/?cross-campus
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Memorial Day Baking
This is a big baking weekend for me!
I have two sections of English 200 to say goodbye to with a loaf of banana bread each.
A Memorial Day party to attend this afternoon, to which I’ll be bringing a blueberry pie with this crust.
A friend’s request for a blueberry pie with a gluten-free crust. I’m most nervous for this project! When the dough went into the fridge to cool, it felt too oily. Also, how am I supposed to spread the dough without flour on my rolling pin? Any feedback about this or gluten-free baking would be much, much appreciated. What is baking without flour? These are the questions that keep me up at night.
I made two loaves of anadama bread last night. One for the dorm, one for me! Unfortunately, I’m in the house all day with the oven on while the outside world is warm and sunny. But while all my treats are baking, I get to grade English essays and eat anadama with honey. Life is good!
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When I meet with the Dean at the end of the year
It feels a bit like:
Source: teacherthoughtbubble
Thoughts on Food
A friend has recently gotten me thinking about the relationship I have with food. Out of fear that this blog would turn very suddenly dark and revealing, I’ll say no more than that I think far too much about food, eating, my body, and the social customs surrounding the act of taking meals. Certainly, living in a dorm and being asked to bake tasty treats for my students is not a good remedy. It might have been, had I accepted the challenge of self-control.
All of this is only to say that it’s not easy to have this love/hate relationship with food. My heart does go out to all those who also struggle to find balance, because, yes, it’s true: if it tastes good, it’s probably butter.
Just started re-reading The Tao of Pooh. Somehow, life grows easier for me as I read about a time when a stuffed bear eats too much honey and gets stuck in a rabbit hole.
Audio post - Played 15 times
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]On a day for calm reflection, while writing student term reports, I hear this song. Van Morrison cover by The Wallflowers. Beautiful.
The best breakfast on the Monday of the last week of classes?
Pie, of course.
The blueberry pie that I demolished (and subsequently have no pictures of) was actually a gift from a parent, so I didn’t even need to bake it myself! How it compares to my own? I’ll never tell. And, no, I did NOT eat the whole thing in one sitting. Many of the girls in the dorm ate some, so there was only a good 1/3 of a pie leftover for breakfast. It’s healthy! It falls in the fruit-butter-sugar-flour food group! That’s the one sorta near the top of the pyramid between ice cream sundaes and flourless molten chocolate fudge cake.
Don’t even bother asking about the bottom of my food pyramid. It’s mostly peanut butter and banana sandwiches.
True Love
In re: my last post, the blueberry pie in question was a gift for a colleague in the English department whose father has recently returned from an extended hospital stay. He reports back that the pie was competitive with those he’d had at only the best of diners.
A picture of my pie, in its final resting place.
One of my chief concerns with blueberry pie is all the extra JUICE that seems to seep out of the berries. My friend reports back: no juice. Must’ve been the extra half cup of cornstarch that I threw in at the last minute. The berries he gave me for the pie were also natural blueberries: smaller, sweeter, less juicy, not like these hormone-infused gargantuan mighty-blueberries that are mostly water.
You know what? The inescapable conclusion is that I just love making/baking/smelling/eating/sharing pie. Nothing is perhaps more beautiful in this world.
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Dear World,
I have a confession to make. While I’d promised internally and externally, to myself and to others, that I would explore the baking world thoroughly before returning to my old standby, I must report that I have fallen off the wagon.
Tonight, I made a blueberry pie. It’s for a friend, I promise! I even burnt the crust a bit because I’m out of practice.
Don’t fret. There’s more banana/zucchini/stout/rye bread to be made. But, pie - oh, yes - pie, I love thee.
Sincerely,
“Hopelessly Devoted”
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When I see student PDA
At the beginning of the year:
At the end of the year:
Source: teacherthoughtbubble
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