I'm Back

It's 1:30 a.m. I just got home. Here's the summary:

• The northwestern coast of the North American continent is absolutely stunning.
• Staying shomer negiah with someone you really, really like is infinitely difficult.
• And, oh yeah, he definitely IS all that AND a bag of chips.

I'm going to bed.

Date with Destiny

In four hours, I will leave my house for a date with destiny. Will keep you posted.

T-3 Days

I was very productive yesterday: washed and put up the storm windows, shopped for paint for my bedroom, and made split pea soup (see Lentil Soup recipe below and substitute split peas for lentils). I also saw the new Harry Potter movie. It was honestly breathtaking. I know they left out lots of stuff from the book and not everything matched, but it was extraordinarily well done - gone was the Roald Dahl-esque feel that all the weirdness was fundamentally harmless. In it's place was a dark, post-modern film that seemed to have more in common with the Cirque du Soleil than the previous movies. Definitely PG-13.

I simply adored it.

Which brings me to my next point: I might be seeing it again this weekend with Soulmate... Yes, just three days remain until I board the airplane and wing off to finally meet him. All signs are positive - will update you upon my return.

I've dropped out of the NaNoWriMo challenge (sorry, Elster), but I've just had to devote brain space to other things (like how to look as cute as possible when I get off the plane...). But I've been trying to resume my morning writing in spite of the fact that every cell in my body seems to want to hibernate. It's going well and I'll post more to my writing blog later this week.

Spy Master K

So, I'm sitting in the school computer lab while my students busily type away on memoirs they are writing for class. Why, you ask, am I not up making sure they aren't surfing porn or gambling online?

The answer is simple. I can see every screen from the comfort of my monitor. We have a program called NetOp on the instructor console. This lovely little program allows me to see all screens in the lab at once. It's fun to play with, but I feel like Big Brother. I can change the font color and start typing on their documents making them think their computers are possessed.

It's also a little disturbing. What guarantee do we have that the government will not one day do "sneak and peek" on our computers the way they can invade our homes under the Patriot Act? And what right does corporate America have to find out so much information about me that I get ads targeted to my interests on my Yahoo Mail login page? I don't often get paranoid, but NetOp freaks me out. What if the powers-that-be at SBC decide to do market research by surfing the desktops and documents of its subscriber's computers? OnStar, the popular new automobile feature touted as the "in-vehicle safety and security system", also freaks me out. The automobile industry now knows exactly where and when we operate our vehicles.

M.H. thinks that we are conditioned to be paranoid that the government can get too much information about us. And she has a point. If I have nothing to hide, why should I care who's looking?

Nevertheless, the potential invasion of my privacy by snooping FBI gumshoes or corporate researchers leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Tillie!

Success!

Tillie has, after ten days of patient feeding, yielded her first loaf - a yummy, sourdough round loaf!




Next week: Tillie tries challah (are you up for the taste test, M.H.?) and whole wheat bread.

I'm so cool

Just thought you'd like to see a snippet of the email I received this morning:

"I am so looking forward to seeing you. We will have a wonderful visit. I will split the cost of the airfare with you. I must sign off and give myself over to the siren song of this hotel bed, as I have to get up really early to make it to the Orthodox minyan here."

Ahhhh.

Trip, Awesome Lentil Soup, and Tillie

I'm flying to visit Soulmate over Thanksgiving weekend. For complicated reasons, he couldn't get away just then. Since I already have the time off school, it just made more sense than for him to fly in here a different weekend (which he offered to do). Will keep you posted.

I made my second soup tonight and it's full of all the yummiest things - garlic, onion, tomatoes... Here's the recipe based on the Lentil Soup Recipe in the Moosewood Cookbook:

Lentil Soup
3 c. dry lentils
7 c. water
2 t. salt
6-8 medium cloves garlic, crushed
2 c. chopped onion
1 c. baby carrots (chopped, if you must - I left them whole)
1 t. basil
1/2 t. thyme
1/2 t. oregano
black pepper to taste
1 large can diced tomatoes (or if you're really groovy, chop your own - I used the canned out of laziness)

Boil lentils in water with salt. Lower heat and simmer 20-30 min, partly covered. Add vegetables (except tomatoes) and herbs and simmer another 20-30 min. Pour in the canned tomatoes, juice and all, and heat through. Yum!

Oh, and I named the bread starter "Tillie". Thanks for all the harassment. Am waiting for the starter to develop fully before attempting any more bread - the first "loaf" was tasty and remarkably flat. Tillie should hit puberty later this week and be fully mature sometime next week if i can manage to keep her warm and fed.

Soup-a-rific

I made Mushroom Barley Soup on Tuesday night. It was ok the first night, but today when I took some to school (and laboriously kashered the microwave), it, as my Opa would say, hit the spot. Yum. Lentil soup is next on the list - perhaps I'll start it tonight and let it bubble away overnight.

In other cooking endeavors, I am attempting to create a bread starter. This is done by combining a cup of flour and a cup of water and placing it in a jar covered by a towel in a warm spot on the counter. After feeding and stirring it for several days, you should have a natural growth of lactobacillus and wild yeast. This is how the bakeries in France and the sourdough bakeries in San Francisco make their bread.

I've created my starter. Now I need a good name for it. It needs a name because starters, with regular care and feeding, quite literally live forever and can be used throughout the years to make thousands upon thousands of loaves of bread. I'm thinking of either Ezekiel (could call it Zeke for short) or Matilda (Tillie for short). Will accept votes for one or the other and announce the decision motzei Shabbos.