I am sitting in CFAC 230 watching the remaining three students in English 101 finish their grammar exam. Before they set down to take the test, there were skittered remarks about the demise of this component to the course. No more after today will Calvin students have a separate test to evaluate their grammar knowledge from Written Rhetoric!
They think this is cause to celebrate, but really it is a call to the department to incorporate the evaluation into the course more cohesively. Which I think is fair.
Without practice, grammar knowledge fades, and I must confess that a few months after my three week grammar course in January, I have gaps in my memory. I remember where commas go in relation to coordinating conjunctions (after the clause, before the coordinator when it is followed by an independent clause), but don't always remember some other use questions.
I particularly disagree with Chicago Sixteen's decision to have plural s's after everything. Jesus's, Moses's, presumably, cats's. How stupid does that last one look? It just feels wrong on the tongue.
Perhaps I should set a better example for these last remaining two now. Although, as far as they are concerned, I am working on my final paper.
Except that I have finished enough to satisfy the prompts and have decided to simply move on to the next task.
Graduation.
And then there was one.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
Helmsley Castle
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Sanna, I am doing this for you.
Someday I will remember to take my camera with me to the kitchen. Until then, this will all just remain very boring looking text. Unless I can change font!
Which I totally can! Although, it's not really that wide a variety or significant improvement.
So back to roman it is.
Back to my original thought.
I never buy box mac and cheese anymore. Not because it isn't delicious on occasion, it is. Mostly when I'm at home eating it off of small, pink, rectangular plates my mother has had since my much, much younger days. As tempting as the thirty cent boxes might be, I am convinced it is WAY cheaper to make my own from whatever shape noodle I please and the simple ingredients needed for a simple roux.
Don't be scared by the x, it's French, which means you don't have to pronounce it but it will taste delicious.
I have been making this roux the same way for a few years now, but today I shifted my recipe and it turned out far better. So I thought I would share it. Here goes.
Homemade Mac and Cheese with Roux!
Ingredients:
water
noodles (small shells are nice)
butter
salt
black pepper
flour
milk
cheese (I generally use cheddar)
Tools:
two small pots
two stirring utensils (rubber spatulas are the best)
Instructions:
1. Fill one pot with water for noodles and set to boil. Add noodles and a dash of salt when boiling. Stir occasionally to keep them from sticking to the bottom.
2. Melt 1-2 tablespoons of butter in the other pot.
3. When melted, add a dash of salt and a sprinkle of pepper. Mix up.
4. Add flour 1 tablespoon at a time (should be about 3) mixing after each addition, or until the mixture is just grainy and is beginning to stay together.
5. When noodles are done, strain them and put however many you plan on eating in your bowl.
6. Scrape the roux out onto the noodles.
7. Pour 1.5 tablespoons (ish) milk onto the roux.
8. Grate as much cheese as you think necessary on top of this all.
9. Mix it up and eat it. YUM.
That looks a lot bigger and more complicated than it is. It seriously only takes as long as it takes to cook noodles. I just broke it down into very simple steps.
I'm going to go cough myself to sleep now.
Which I totally can! Although, it's not really that wide a variety or significant improvement.
So back to roman it is.
Back to my original thought.
I never buy box mac and cheese anymore. Not because it isn't delicious on occasion, it is. Mostly when I'm at home eating it off of small, pink, rectangular plates my mother has had since my much, much younger days. As tempting as the thirty cent boxes might be, I am convinced it is WAY cheaper to make my own from whatever shape noodle I please and the simple ingredients needed for a simple roux.
Don't be scared by the x, it's French, which means you don't have to pronounce it but it will taste delicious.
I have been making this roux the same way for a few years now, but today I shifted my recipe and it turned out far better. So I thought I would share it. Here goes.
Homemade Mac and Cheese with Roux!
Ingredients:
water
noodles (small shells are nice)
butter
salt
black pepper
flour
milk
cheese (I generally use cheddar)
Tools:
two small pots
two stirring utensils (rubber spatulas are the best)
Instructions:
1. Fill one pot with water for noodles and set to boil. Add noodles and a dash of salt when boiling. Stir occasionally to keep them from sticking to the bottom.
2. Melt 1-2 tablespoons of butter in the other pot.
3. When melted, add a dash of salt and a sprinkle of pepper. Mix up.
4. Add flour 1 tablespoon at a time (should be about 3) mixing after each addition, or until the mixture is just grainy and is beginning to stay together.
5. When noodles are done, strain them and put however many you plan on eating in your bowl.
6. Scrape the roux out onto the noodles.
7. Pour 1.5 tablespoons (ish) milk onto the roux.
8. Grate as much cheese as you think necessary on top of this all.
9. Mix it up and eat it. YUM.
That looks a lot bigger and more complicated than it is. It seriously only takes as long as it takes to cook noodles. I just broke it down into very simple steps.
I'm going to go cough myself to sleep now.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Everybody's got a set of bread makers!
Behind me there is a bread machine intoning the near end of the bread baking cycle. Or perhaps alerting me to the fact that it is lonely and that no one has been paying it any attention. When people tell me they never bake bread because of a lack of a machine, I just wave my hands at them. Everybody's got a set!
Bread machines kind of fascinate me. I'm not allowed to open the machine while the cycle is going, so I can't get a good look into the actual happenings of the process like I can when I make bread by hand. In fact, I have only used a machine myself on one occasion, that being my visit to my sister in March. She got married in August 2010--that will make it so easy to remember how long she's been married, score!--and had received a bread machine that she had no idea how to work. I wanted to make handmade bread for her and her husband, but she rightly pointed out that she would be more likely to use the convenience of a machine that would make bread for her so she could come home from class and snack on homemade bread immediately. Which is a fair point. Most of my recipes are slow rise, so they take a while, but are excellent for apartment bound study days!
Anyhow. I bought the yeast for her, since it's pricey and I knew she wouldn't want to cough up the money without knowing how it would turn out, and we decided to make the simplest recipe in the little booklet that came with the machine. It was a plain white bread with egg, and I was a little unsure of the proportions. But, again, I had never used a machine, so I figured they knew what they were saying. We deposited the wet ingredients in first--which was weird--then the dry, and finally the yeast. We closed the top, hit a button, and watched the tiny paddle at the bottom begin to mush up the dough. For being only about an inch and a half big, that paddle sure could get the dough moving.
We retreated to the coffee table to play more Munchkin while we waited.
I'm not certain we actually finished the game, perhaps it was the second or third game we were in the middle of, but eventually the bread maker asserted its presence with an insistent beep that we both initially mistook for the fire alarm. Thankfully we were wrong and were instead rewarded with savory sniffs of fresh bread. The bucket pan inside was piping hot, so we let it sit open for a bit before we pulled it out and up ended the loaf onto a wire rack.
We then let it cool for twenty minutes to let the gluten networks firm up. As one should always do.
Delicious! And makes great toad in a hole!
American style, that is.
Bread machines kind of fascinate me. I'm not allowed to open the machine while the cycle is going, so I can't get a good look into the actual happenings of the process like I can when I make bread by hand. In fact, I have only used a machine myself on one occasion, that being my visit to my sister in March. She got married in August 2010--that will make it so easy to remember how long she's been married, score!--and had received a bread machine that she had no idea how to work. I wanted to make handmade bread for her and her husband, but she rightly pointed out that she would be more likely to use the convenience of a machine that would make bread for her so she could come home from class and snack on homemade bread immediately. Which is a fair point. Most of my recipes are slow rise, so they take a while, but are excellent for apartment bound study days!
Anyhow. I bought the yeast for her, since it's pricey and I knew she wouldn't want to cough up the money without knowing how it would turn out, and we decided to make the simplest recipe in the little booklet that came with the machine. It was a plain white bread with egg, and I was a little unsure of the proportions. But, again, I had never used a machine, so I figured they knew what they were saying. We deposited the wet ingredients in first--which was weird--then the dry, and finally the yeast. We closed the top, hit a button, and watched the tiny paddle at the bottom begin to mush up the dough. For being only about an inch and a half big, that paddle sure could get the dough moving.
We retreated to the coffee table to play more Munchkin while we waited.
I'm not certain we actually finished the game, perhaps it was the second or third game we were in the middle of, but eventually the bread maker asserted its presence with an insistent beep that we both initially mistook for the fire alarm. Thankfully we were wrong and were instead rewarded with savory sniffs of fresh bread. The bucket pan inside was piping hot, so we let it sit open for a bit before we pulled it out and up ended the loaf onto a wire rack.
We then let it cool for twenty minutes to let the gluten networks firm up. As one should always do.
Delicious! And makes great toad in a hole!
American style, that is.
GrrrrmmmmmBbbllllleeeee
I am sitting on the couch with a rumbling stomach as my roommate posts about trains.
Perhaps one will burst forth from my belly.
Perhaps I should just eat some haggis.
Perhaps one will burst forth from my belly.
Perhaps I should just eat some haggis.
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