This actually turns into pasta

To make up for being horribly delinquent in posting (I have had just a few major things happen in the past week), I'm going to post some of my favorite food photos every day until I get the chance to write more! Here's pasta making in Bologna.

Thesis Update

5 days, 3-ish hours, and a bunch of editing to go! I can't wait until this is over and I can properly celebrate everything that has happened in the last five months! I just finished my Renaissance Drama paper, which I'm hoping has the "edge" that my professor requested. I don't think my papers are normally very edgy, whatever that means.

Today and tomorrow, I'm off to Boston to get a much needed respite from this and next week's thesis crunch time hell. Back to editing on Sunday afternoon!

Countdown:
5 days
3-ish hours
Introduction
Conclusion
Chapter I Edits
Chapter II Edits
Chapter III Edits

Thesis Update

Today was the Val Iron Chef competition, which I competed in with two of my good friends, Dan and Caroline (it was supposed to be a team of four, but my friend and our other member, Kristin, couldn't get out of her job in time, so we competed a man down). Dealing with five secret ingredients (black garlic, chayote, caper berries, mussels, and beets), we created a three course menu that was not too shabby: spinach salad with bacon, a fried egg, and a black garlic and red wine vinaigrette; spaghetti with mussels, beet greens sautéed in bacon fat, and caperberries; crepe with cinnamon roasted apple and chayote and peanut butter ice cream. We came in fourth out of six (though I hate being a sore loser, the food of the team that came in third looked eminently inedible, and all of the other teams served cheese on their pasta dishes, all of which incorporated the mussels - I'm pretty sure Italian grandmothers are rolling in their graves right now) and won a $25 gift certificate to Moti, a restaurant in town. Not too shabby!

The highlight of the night, of course, was when I made a quenelle out of our peanut butter ice cream. Jeremy Rousch, Val's executive chef, saw me doing it and was flabbergasted, saying he'd hire me on the spot and asking me where I learned it. My answer of course was: "I had to learn how to do quenelles out of goat cheese this summer when I was a fromagère at Restaurant North in Armonk, NY." Dear North, thanks for giving me street cred.

Now, it's back to writing my Renaissance Drama paper, so that I can return to my thesis afterwards. 

Countdown:

6 days

12 hours

Introduction

Conclusion

Chapter I Edit

Chapter II Edit

Chapter III Edit

Thesis Update

It is a rainy, ugly day in Amherst - but it couldn't be better for thesis- and paper-writing!

Countdown:
7 days
30 minutes
Introduction
Conclusion
Chapter I Edit
Chapter II Edit
Chapter III Edit

Thesis Update

One of my favorite Amherst professors came up to me the other day and said: "Is it true that your thesis is on eating and crapping?"

I knew I had the best topic ever.

To go:
7 days, 12 hours, 13 minutes
Introduction
Conclusion
Chapter I Edit
Chapter II Edit
Chapter III Edit

Point/Counterpoint: Veganism

Point: http://www.bizarro.com/vegan/vegan_cartoon13.htm

Counterpoint: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacon

Vegan Reflections

So, guess what I found out today?

Mike Tyson is a vegan!

Me?

Not so much.

Yup, Vegan Week was a disastrous failure. I made it all the way through Wednesday night at about 9:45PM. Coming back home from indoor soccer, I passed by The Donut Man and, remembering my friend Caroline's frequent stops at The Donut Man after rock-climbing, I HAD to have a glazed donut. While they didn't have glazed (I went for a jelly donut instead), Vegan Week was officially over.

And I'm not so sure this was a bad thing. I found out that, while it is really nice and beneficial to eat less animal-derived products, I think I'd prefer to do this on a once-in-a-while basis only. I like meat. A lot. But I think the thing I really missed most was dairy. Not being able to have milk or yogurt really put a hamper on my diet, and I'm really enjoying being able to eat (and drink) it again.

So, to conclude, here's to bacon. I missed you.