Monday, March 21, 2011

Sunday, March 20, 2011

I looove looming deadlines on multiple papers

This is my music of choice for the current essay on which I'm working (Beowulf).

Monday, March 14, 2011

Books books books

I have a lot of reading for this semester's courseload, which is proving difficult to balance when my brain feels like mush 90% of the time from training.

But I guess all college students probably feel overwhelmed. The good news is that A. I to read and write, hence the whole English-major gig; and B. most of the literature has been good, or at least enriching.

And amidst all the work, I've found time to read fun books too! Like today, I sat down for 3-4 hours and read a book cover-to-cover. I only got up once. (To abruptly run from my towel on the lawn when 4 sprinklers went off within 2 feet of me.)

So here's what I've read since February:

Beowulf
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The Canturbury Tales
- Chaucer
The Kite Runner- Khaled Houseini
The Book of Ruth- Jane Hamilton
Between, Georgia- Joshilyn Jackson
An Unsuitable Job for a Woman- P.D. James
Utopia- Thomas More
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn- Twain
The Great Gatsby- Fitzgerald
My Antonia- Willa Cather
Of Mice and Men- Steinbeck
To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee
A River Runs Through It- Norman McLean

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Well, shoot.

Maybe I should quit while I'm ahead?

Jambalaya recipe

So dig this: I planned to make jambalaya this week, before I even knew that yesterday was Mardi Gras! How inadvertently festive of me! I based my recipe off of this recipe. But my version is way better. I zoned it out with the intention of blogging it for my Crossfit Rochester friends; the full recipe makes a 12P/6C/12F pot of deliciousness. I split it up into three tupperwares of 4P/2C/4F meals.



1.3 links Andouille sausage (I got mine from Trader Joe's. 1.3 links happened to equal 4 blocks protein)
6oz. shrimp (I started with about 9oz raw, so it would cook down to 6oz)
4 oz. chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces (again, I started out with about 6oz. raw)
2/3c onion
2c chopped bell pepper (I used red and green)
14.5oz can diced tomatoes
4c riced cauliflower
4 cloves garlic
1.5c chicken broth
1T +1t olive oil
1t thyme
1.5T parsely
2t chili powder

Put the olive oil in a large frying pan and cook the chicken. When it's almost done, add the peppers, garlic, and onion and sautee until the onion becomes translucent. Then, dump everything into a large pot along with the diced tomatoes, chicken broth, and spices. Simmer for about 20 minutes while you rice your cauliflower in the blender. (I bought 2 small-ish heads to make the 4 cups of "rice", and I had some left over.) Add the cauliflower to the pot and keep simmering while you cook the shrimp in 1t olive oil. When they're done, dump 'em in the pot. Add more spices as you see fit. When the cauliflower is cooked enough, it's done!!

*the original recipe called for less spices and less garlic, but I thought it needed more. At the end, I was practically dumping chili powder into the pot to make it more spicy. Finally, I found some "cajun barbeque seasoning" in the cabinet and used a liberal amount. That was key. The final result was so delicious.

Enjoy!

Monday, March 7, 2011

Welcome to hard week!

Good evening, and welcome to week 4 of the training cycle: aka when everyone gets overworked and their brains turn off so that every day is filled with extreme fatigue and extreme lack of intelligence. Best of all, everything is funny! These effects will begin to set in on Wednesday, and will continue through the last workout on Saturday. Maggie calls it fatigue retardation syndrome.

I wish I had more to report but my days are only spent training, sleeping, and doing homework. It's very repetitive and boring in a pleasant way. Maybe next week when I have some free time I'll get out hiking or surfing like a real Californian and take some pictures to make you jealous. But for now I'll just keep wearing down the path between my bed to the boathouse, to the kitchen, bed, boathouse, weightroom, shower, kitchen, bed..... you get the idea.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Keeping in Touch with Friends

Did you know you can 3-way video chat....







Across 5 times zones and an ocean!?