Final Stretch
Two more weeks till my time in England is over. Of course, I do have to fit three 6-10 page papers in there, and a short trip to Greece. And I still have two weeks in Ireland after that with the family, so it's not all that bad. But I'll definately miss it here, and all the things I didn't quite manage to do. But enough about the future.
Last weekend I threw a huge dinner for everyone in the program, all 26 of us. Really it was closer to a feast, and by far the most ambitious act of cooking I've ever done. Indeed, I'd class it up there with one of the most intenstive single things I've done period. For my birthday I got a bit of money to take some friends out to dinner. Of course, I happened to be in Rome, and no one else could make it, even with two weeks notice, and so that never ended up happening. Fast forward almost two months, and it would have been a little awkward to try and take everyone out for a, by that point, rather random event. Plus with everyone around, it would have been significantly more expensive. So instead, and because I like cooking, I decided to spend the money on food and feed everyone that way. Because of rowing schedules, when I had that idea I hadn't been able to really cook for weeks, and so I was getting a bit deprived, which might have reflected itself in my ambitions.
What I came up with was a five course plan, with at least two separate dishes for each course, all in rather large quantities. We had deviled eggs (4 dozen halves), two kinds of wings (20 each) and a spinach salad for appetizers. Then there was cream of asparagus and New Orleans French Market soup (more gallons than I care to count), followed by my personal marinara sauce and a pesto for pasta (enough to cover 5 pounds (when dry) of fettucine). Mains were ribs (two whole pigs worth) and a blackened salmon caesar salad (at least an entire fish). Finally, three pies, two apple and a strawberry. Even starting two days ahead of time I spent almost the entire time cooking, and even then had at the peak more than 10 people working under me getting things ready, right before serving time.
The results were amazing. Of course there were a few hiccups, especially with the ribs (cheap gas grills + fatty meat) in which one rack (of four) caught fire and then essentially melted through the grating, and the other grill, when heating after cooking, had a rather large grease fire, resulting in all sorts of bits (wooden side-boards, metal dial-panel, paint) catching fire. Despite this, the food was awesome, I got a huge number of compliments, and they even got me a cake and a birthday card. So I'm pretty happy about that one.
Other than that, it's really hot here now (or at least it feels like that), which paid off when one of my profs. cut my final paper in half because he felt sorry for me working out in this weather. Plus it means I can lounge around outside while reading the children's stories (original Jungle Book anyone?) that are one of my two assignments this week. Here's hoping it holds out for Ireland.
Oh, and I've been better about posting more travel pictures to flickr, so check over there every so often for more at http://flickr.com/photos/icelight (/shameless plug).
Last weekend I threw a huge dinner for everyone in the program, all 26 of us. Really it was closer to a feast, and by far the most ambitious act of cooking I've ever done. Indeed, I'd class it up there with one of the most intenstive single things I've done period. For my birthday I got a bit of money to take some friends out to dinner. Of course, I happened to be in Rome, and no one else could make it, even with two weeks notice, and so that never ended up happening. Fast forward almost two months, and it would have been a little awkward to try and take everyone out for a, by that point, rather random event. Plus with everyone around, it would have been significantly more expensive. So instead, and because I like cooking, I decided to spend the money on food and feed everyone that way. Because of rowing schedules, when I had that idea I hadn't been able to really cook for weeks, and so I was getting a bit deprived, which might have reflected itself in my ambitions.
What I came up with was a five course plan, with at least two separate dishes for each course, all in rather large quantities. We had deviled eggs (4 dozen halves), two kinds of wings (20 each) and a spinach salad for appetizers. Then there was cream of asparagus and New Orleans French Market soup (more gallons than I care to count), followed by my personal marinara sauce and a pesto for pasta (enough to cover 5 pounds (when dry) of fettucine). Mains were ribs (two whole pigs worth) and a blackened salmon caesar salad (at least an entire fish). Finally, three pies, two apple and a strawberry. Even starting two days ahead of time I spent almost the entire time cooking, and even then had at the peak more than 10 people working under me getting things ready, right before serving time.
The results were amazing. Of course there were a few hiccups, especially with the ribs (cheap gas grills + fatty meat) in which one rack (of four) caught fire and then essentially melted through the grating, and the other grill, when heating after cooking, had a rather large grease fire, resulting in all sorts of bits (wooden side-boards, metal dial-panel, paint) catching fire. Despite this, the food was awesome, I got a huge number of compliments, and they even got me a cake and a birthday card. So I'm pretty happy about that one.
Other than that, it's really hot here now (or at least it feels like that), which paid off when one of my profs. cut my final paper in half because he felt sorry for me working out in this weather. Plus it means I can lounge around outside while reading the children's stories (original Jungle Book anyone?) that are one of my two assignments this week. Here's hoping it holds out for Ireland.
Oh, and I've been better about posting more travel pictures to flickr, so check over there every so often for more at http://flickr.com/photos/icelight (/shameless plug).