Finals Tally

All that lies between me and that lovely meal at North with Margaret on December 22nd is:

1 4-5 page paper (due 12/09)
1 2-hour exam (12/18-12/22)
1 10-15 page paper (due 12/20)
1 8-10 page paper (due 12/21)
1 20-25 page thesis chapter (due 12/22)
TOTAL: 42 pages and 1 2-hour exam

I can! I can! I can!

It's (Finally) Clementine Season!

I could argue that the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is, aside from exams, the best time of the year. Even so, one of the highlights has to be the start of clementine season. Every year, these mandarin orange varieties come from California, Morocco, Spain, and south of Bosnia and Herzegovina and stay for the majority of winter. They are small, sweet, super easy to peel, usually seedless, and delicious. I just picked up my second crate in about a week from Whole Foods. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Break

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! The break was nice and much needed, but now I'm back at school, fully rested and recuperated and ready to tackle the hell that is finals period. Before I get back to work, I do want to share some photos of the cooking I did over the break.

The first 7 photos are from my delicious first dinner back at home. My parents were nice enough to cook up my absolute favorite: bucatini all'Amatriciana (ala Marcella Hazan), with bucatini straight from Italy (via Eataly), San Marzano Tomatoes, and crunchy, salty pancetta. To top it all off, we had a delicious appetizer created with all the best of Italy: prosciutto di San Daniele, Mozzarella di Bufala, fresh arugula, and a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

The 8th photo is from the middle of my marathon bake-a-thon, in which I successfully made 2 apple pies, a pumpkin pie, a triple-layer chocolate cake, pumpkin brownies, and chocolate biscotti. This is the start of the cake in the mixer. 

Thanksgiving - Almost

It is so close to Thanksgiving it's unbearable. After a lengthy decision process, I've picked the three desserts I'm making for the Lang Thanksgiving: Mario Batali's Apple Pie, as featured in New York Magazine (it will be my first time working with lard - yum!), Martha Stewart's Pumpkin Pie, and my specialty: a three layer chocolate cake with whipped cream filling and chocolate frosting. I've also started to pick the restaurants I'm definitely visiting when I'm home: Maialino, Union Square Cafe, Momofuku Noodle Bar, and North (duh).

Now to get through all of the work I have to do before I leave on Saturday...

Bay Area Here I Come!

Kinda big moment. OK, HUGE moment.

Today I officially accepted my offer to become a 2011 Teach For America corps member in the Bay Area teaching English to students somewhere between 6th and 12th grade. So, I will be moving out there come June!

Crazy, right? All in a good way, but still. While this does mean that I am putting my restaurant industry dreams on hold for a couple years, it offers an exciting and challenging new opportunity that I am super excited to take! Don't worry, restaurant industry, I'll be back. And probably on the sooner side, since I do get all summer off both years!

On the other side of it, it will be a great place to explore culinarily with my parents when they visit! Chez Panisse, French Laundry, Ad Hoc - here I come!

Betty Rosbottom

So, when I'm at Amherst, the one thing that makes me not go insane from not having access to a. good food and b. a kitchen is my work with Betty Rosbottom, a local cookbook author and cooking school teacher. Through my amazing French major advisor, Paul Rockwell, I met Mrs. Rosbottom, who is the wife of Amherst profess Ron Rosbottom, and I volunteer with her once a week for a couple of hours, helping her prepare for her classes or a column. Her newest venture is an updated version of her website, where she lists tried and true recipes, restaurants she loves, and great products she's found. It's a great site that you should definitely check out: www.bettyrosbottom.com

A Weekend in Vermont

So this weekend I went up to Middlebury to visit some of my friends from study abroad. First of all, all of the things you hear about the food at Midd are true - it IS that good, it IS that local, it IS that fresh. They have maple syrup at breakfast, multiple flavors of Stonybrook Farms yogurt, homemade granola, they don't overcook their vegetables: I could actually go on for a while. However, one of my favorite things was this hot chocolate that we had at the local chocolate shop that we stopped in at. It's a cute little place with children crawling around (adorable!) and they offer a selection of truffles, chocolate bars, and warm drinks. They have two versions of hot chocolate: the warm sipping chocolate, which is the more classic hot chocolate, and the hot cacao, which is literally crushed cacao beans, so you have all of the bitterness that they provide. I decided to be less adventurous and went for the sipping chocolate, which was delicious. Not too intense, but unsweetened all the same and topping with creamy, thick whipped cream. Yum.

The photo on top is just one of my favorite things - fall at Amherst.

On the way home, we stopped at this amazing store that you feel like you would only be able to find in rural New England: the Vermont Country Store. It's at the start of VT103, just after you get off of 91N. It's huge and offers pretty much anything you could ever need: flannel pajamas, slippers, winter jackets, cheese, candy, chocolate, fudge, medicine, health products, kitchen supplies, toys, etc. I picked up some amazing chocolate covered pretzels and marshmallows, sea salt caramels, and a wheel of extra sharp Vermont cheddar cheese. So good.