Monday, December 21, 2009

Finals ate me

It has been a month to the day since I last wrote anything. That is because I have been grading term papers and final exams and writing term papers and final exams for more hours than I want to think about right now. But that seems to be the problem--here it is, 3am, and I can't turn off my brain. So, I'm writing. Why not.

Cooking becomes less of a priority during finals, but we've still managed to experiment with a few new recipes. We tried making grass fed sirloin steaks, marinated in olive oil, red wine vinegar, dijon mustard, garlic and black pepper and grilled--those were good. We also bought some raw cheddar cheese from a farm up north, sprouted mung beans for mung bean pancakes (a korean dish), and got a mushroom log as an early xmas gift--so I see a lot of mushroom eating in our future.

Thankfully, despite all the stress and madness of finals, I haven't been sick at all. Tired, yes, but not sick. I've been taking cod liver oil and bee pollen (almost) daily, and I think I owe it to that. As well as lots of grass fed butter. I'm not kidding. Eat butter.

Micael left for Mexico early on Saturday, so I won't be cooking much this week until Christmas, when we'll be braising--oxtail. Right after that I'll be leaving for Mexico myself--meeting Micael in Mexico City. And then we will eat.

I'm looking forward to the outdoor markets, beans, tortillas, molé, potato croquets, salsa, spicy peppers, fresh fish, molé, fruits I don't know the name of, street vendors, molé. I'm also excited for the music, the architecture, the anthropology museum, Frida Kahlo's house, the textile markets, the salsa dancing...I'll stop with the lists now, but you get the idea.