Kitchen!

Okay, so I made the Greek Tilapia. The seasonings were great and perfect for dipping fresh crusty bread in. An incredibly simple recipe. I don't generally use measurements any more unless I'm baking because I have not yet baked enough to be THAT confident.

I used a glass 13 x 9 glass pan, coated the bottom with olive oil (just until the bottom was covered). Then I placed the Tilapia fillets in the pan so that they were not overlapping. I spooned some prepared pesto from the Wegman's olive bar onto the fillets and made sure they were covered with the green yumminess. Then surround the fillets with 1 inch cubed roma tomatoes. Covered all of that with Feta cheese and then poured olive oil over all of it until the fish was almost completely covered by oil. Baked uncovered at 350 for 30 minutes.

It took about 15 minutes to put together, and that was with me digging for the glass pan in my kitchen upheaval. It was quick and delicious.

My family is renovating our kitchen given that we have lived with a 1960's kitchen for a over a year now in our "new" house. Today begins the process which shall culminate with me having an electric convection wall oven and gas cooking range!

This week it's easy foods that don't make dishes or a big mess. I'm currently relegated to the half finished basement where we have a sink and our old gas stove. GAS STOVE oh how I have missed thee! No more waiting 45 minutes for water to boil and then to have my noodles, sauce, pudding, pork tenderloins, grilled tuna melts be scorched and blackened by the perverse heat of 40 year old electric coils!

*cue hallelujah chorus ( I feel it warranted)*

This joyful celebration is met with the severe annoyance of having to run upstairs every 2 seconds to dig through the numerous kitchen boxes that we have stashed in our dining room and livingroom until we get the kitchen done because "oh crud, I forgot a spoon/pan/strainer/salt/ tongs"

BUT IT WILL ALL BE WORTH IT! I'm going to hijack my mom's new camera and take pictures of the new kitchen to post as well as the christening meal! Now to figure out the first meal menu...

Nom Nom NO!

I cook dinner for my family whenever I happen to not be at work. I recently joined chow.com which is a great little site containing tons of recipes and member questions and food pairings. From this site and a few googled links I have been making Main dishes and desserts for about two weeks.

Last night was German potato dumpling night. Dumpling fail on my part. I had to adjust the recipe to begin with considering what I had in the house and substitutions I thought that could be made (using premade mashed potatoes instead of mashing my own). Don't get me wrong, its not that I was adverse to making my own mashies, we just had a container of store bought ones heading on its way out in the freshness department. Given that the mashies weren't just plain potatoes, they already had "seasoning" in them, it said so on the package, I wasn't able to form actual dumplings. So after I made the filling I was stuck with mashed potatoes with flour and eggs and meat and veggies looking at each other longingly with no attractive way to unite them.

THWOCK - in they all went into a casserole dish (Kass-ah-roll) which is French for "ew". I baked the potato concoction and poured homemade gravy on top when I served it. It wasn't bad. Honestly the flavors were all there, just ugly.

I have come to the conclusion that I do not particularly like those groups of seasonings. Like Rosemary. The herb smells pleasant enough, but its not something I'm going to go out of my way for.

I have decided that I like sharper flavors. I know I'm not explaining it correctly, but I like a flavor that hits the tongue and stands out. Perhaps there were just too many things going on in last nights dinner. Too many flavors that left the eaters underwhelmed. The meal before that was Apricot ginger chicken over rice. That was different and clean. There wasn't a ton of things going on to confuse the palate. The next meal I plan on making is Greek Tilapia which is baked in the oven with feta cheese, tomatoes, and other seasonings. I'm looking forward to this, I have yet to cook fish.

Maybe I'll start remarking upon my kitchen adventures...

Femme Phantasmogoria

Here it is, performance weekend! My ancient comedy and performance class is putting on Aristophanes' Thesmophoriazusae, set in the 1970's at an ERA meeting . . .
The women of Athens are gathered in assembly to discuss how to bring down Euripides who can never seem to stop bashing women in his tragedies.

Comedy ensues when Euripides convinces his Kinsman to infiltrate the meeting dressed in drag.

Disco, cross-dressing, and phalloi abound. I'm a little nervous and excited.

That's the update for me right now. I hope to post pictures and whatnot as soon as they come up.

Free time?

I know, I know. I'm at college, how could I possibly have free time? Granted, I have work and schoolwork and club stuff for Circus Arts. Well, this is for Circus Arts, so HA! Mark used his camera to record himself and Edwin working on their dives, jumps, and flips.

Their hard work + Mark's camera + My fun with movie maker =

Acrobatic Evolution

This will hopefully be the first of many "Evolutions". I'm learning to tumble myself! Edwin and I are working out together and I'm working on becoming more flexible. I can do somersaults and shoulder rolls on the mat we have. It's exciting to see what else I can start learning!

And now...

It has been a while. A long while.

Okay, life thus far:

The classes I am officially in this semester (given that it is now just passed mid-term season):
Cicero and the End of the Roman Republic
Greek Art and the Making of Art History
Ancient Comedy and Performance
Renaissance and Baroque Set Design

All of these classes are of course informative and interesting and wonderful. They are killing me softly.

Let me give you a wonderful little demonstration of what I'm up against in my first 300 level Latin class:

Etsi vereor, iudices, ne turpe sit pro fortissimo viro dicere incipientem timere, minimeque deceat, cum T. Annius ipse magis de rei publicae salute quam de sua perturbetur, me ad eius causam parem animi magnitudinem adferre non posse, tamen haec novi iudici nova forma terret oculos, qui, quocumque inciderunt, consuetudinem fori et pristinum morem iudiciorum requirunt. Non enim corona consessus vester cinctus est, ut solebat; non usitata frequentia stipati sumus: 2. non illa praesidia, quae pro templis omnibus cernitis, etsi contra vim conlocata sunt, non adferunt tamen [oratori] aliquid, ut in foro et in iudicio, quamquam praesidiis salutaribus et necessariis saepti sumus, tamen ne non timere quidem sine aliquo timore possimus. Quae si opposita Miloni putarem, cederem tempori, iudices, nec inter tantam vim armorum existimarem esse oratori locum. Sed me recreat et reficit Cn. Pompei, sapientissimi et iustissimi viri, consilium, qui profecto nec iustitiae suae putaret esse, quem reum sententiis iudicum tradidisset, eundem telis militum dedere, nec sapientiae, temeritatem concitatae multitudinis auctoritate publica armare.

No, that isn't just online filler for form. Those are the words of the great orator Cicero opening in defense of his friend Milo against the accusations of murdering Clodius. Cicero's argument centers around "Yeah, he killed him, but it was the right thing to do for the good of the state!!!"
My test on the entire speech is this Tuesday. Nervous? yes.

Sexy right???

I have a handle on Greek Art, Renaissance and Baroque design has me making a model of a fire breathing dragon. Awesome? oh yes.

The academic light of my life is my comedy and performance class. We are set to perform the Aristophanes play Women at the Thesmophoria. It's loud, it's bawdy, and set in the 1970's at an ERA rally. I get to act and sing. It's the most fun I've had in a class since my first semester. It's also got me thinking about doing the open auditions they hold at the beginning of each semester. I love making people laugh.

I know this post is not very eloquent, or even correct grammatically. I'm typing it in my Renaissance and Baroque lecture. SHHHHHHH