Everything in Moderation

Cook Cook Cook...

Life has been terribly busy lately, and I haven't been cooking very much. But the few things that I have had time to cook lately have been rather adventurous!

Zach and I rarely eat shrimp... I used to make a very rich (and delicious) shrimp pasta that was full of butter, oil and garlic. Now I have made a revamped version of this dish...






Oooohh.... Israeli Cous Cous with shrimp, mushrooms and grape tomatoes. No butter, No oil. Unbelievably good, less than 350 calories per serving. BOOYA!

Instead of using any butter or oil I sauteed the shrimp and mushrooms in Butter flavored PAM spray. I added lots of garlic powder, salt, and pepper for flavor, and a good chunk of low fat grated Parmesan cheese. yum yum yum.


On the other end of the healthy spectrum we have: party food. Some friends of ours had quite the big hurray a few weekends ago as their last party in their fratty apartment. I, per usual, was not planning on showing up to this even empty handed. So Zach and I showed up, with beer and snacks in tow! I made... drum roll.... home made SOFT PRETZELS. Oh my goodness. How amazing. They were just so delicious. Slightly difficult to make- but absolutely scrumptious and extremely cheap!! Some of the pretzels were a little on the ugly side- the old ladies at Auntie Ann's make making that signature pretzel shape look far more easy than it is! These were not low calorie- low fat - low carb or low anything- just a wonderful party snack. I most certainly plan to make these again!



Let me know if you want recipes!

Mmmm... Dinner

Here is a little game called 'how many pots can we use at once'

We got a new pan as a house warming present from my dad. It's beautiful! Very heave and just asking to be used. We made some salmon on it, it wasn't terribly successful, but it was still delicious. We have since used it to make some extremely yummy panini sandwiches!







We also made some Israeli Cous Cous with sauteed mushrooms and onions and fresh tomatoes in seasoned garlic olive oil and some ooey, gooey, cheesey, bubbly garlic toast. Yum!

who woulda thought...

Who woulda thought that low-calorie food could be so delicious! As I've mentioned we've started to cook and eat much healthier! We have 3 'diet' cookbooks that have great recopies all under 500 calories. So far it's going great! I have found that the recipes are for food we love, and aren't difficult to make at all! The issue with staying below the calorie mark isn't finding yummy low calorie items, it's serving size.

interesting facts about servings:

1 serving of fish or chicken is about the size of a deck of cards.

1 serving of pasta should fit in the palm of your hand

1 serving of fruit or veggies is a baseball

1 serving of cheese is a domino

1 serving of bread is ... haha who are we kidding?! eating bread!?


Think about it, the last time you were having a healthy meal of broiled chicken and steamed veggies, did you eat 1/3 of a chicken breast? Did you only have less than a handfull of veggies?? Actual servings sizes are TINY.

Although we having been making very yummy, low calorie food, most of the times I eat about 1.25 servings. Which isn't too bad considering we are making meals that have about 300 calories in one serving.



To the right is a Chicken Caprese Salad. We used 1 serving of broiled chicken, 1/2 large tomato, 2.5 slices of low-fat, part skim, fresh mozzarella, chopped basil on top of romaine lettuce with a calorie free (YUP ZERO CALORIES!) balsamic vinaigrette. Yumm Yumm Yumm- total: about 270 calories.

Rather Overdue...

Apparently it has been over two months since I last posted anything. I had no idea that I'd been so neglectful. Things are going very well. The second semester of school is over and I'm counting down the days until mid-winter recess which means a wonderful week off of school.

But going back to where I left off, christmas has come and gone. Zachary and I hosted our first christmas this year. Complete with live a tree, turkey and gravy, presents and stockings too, and a whole lot of family in our little brooklyn apartment. Christmas vacation started off with the arrival of my family; my dad, brother and sister. We went on a light tour of the city, which we lasted a grand total of 1 stop for a 'photo op' to turn into a 'drink op'. We quickly ditched the tour and found our selves focused on an entirely different holiday entirely; Halloween! We went to Jeckyl and Hyde's for dinner- a themed restaurant filled with decapitated heads, wearwolf specimens and an over all creepy vibe that my little brother thoroughly enjoyed (obviously). After a fun first day in the city (and a very early plane ride from ohio), the day ended with Daddy and Sam falling dead asleep on the train.



The next day was christmas eve and started with a trip to The Met. Colleen of course was in her element rushing around the decked halls chirping tid bits of information. Sam followed in her foot steps when we entered the mythological statue section of the museum. I knew that Sam was interested in Mythology and had a few books on the topic, but I did not know that he was so informed and able to recall the names and stories of each mythological figure trapped in marble on display. I was rather impressed. After a quick stop in times square (for a needed trip to toys r us, which lasted all of 3 minutes before we were over whelmed by the last minute shoppers) we headed back to Brooklyn.


Sam was enjoying our Xbox, but mostly using large alien vehicles to run over colleen's character. Needless to say, Sam is now a Halo professional. Zach made a yummy Christmas Eve dinner- seared flank steak with a red wine shallot reduction, roasted potatoes and green beans with mushrooms and onions. It was excellent. We opened up our regular one christmas eve present and all donned our new pajamas. We watched the Polar Express while enjoying some Hot Chocolate when the song called for it and went to bed excited for the morning.










Christmas was wonderful! We opened all of our presents in the morning and zach made his families christmas eggs. We went to the movies in the afternoon (tron- terrible movie) and hurried home so I could start the turkey!





It was a small bird- only 12 lbs but it turned out perfect. I was terrified that I would over cook it, or that it would be dry. I thawed it with love, brined it with a little salt and rubbed and caressed the turkey with butter before putting it into the oven. A few hours later the little red button/thermometer had not yet popped, but I was getting nervous... it should have been done by then! I was so worried about my bird i sat on the floor of my kitchen (with my beverage of course) and watched through the window of my oven, waiting for the button to pop! And soon enough, it did! It looked good, it was golden brown and the veggies were nice and soft, but I was still terrified that it was going to be dry and I was going to ruin christmas. But I was wrong! Some how, on my first try, I made the most amazing, glorious turkey the world has ever seen. Even my father, a turkey snob, was impressed and commented on its greatness. We served the turkey with mashed potatoes, gravy and carrots. For my first attempt at a turkey I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome!


The next day we ventured into the city for pizza and went to Sam's dream store - Evolution. A store completely devoted to all things gross. Sam got a allosaurus finger and fell in love with it. We trekked back to brooklyn in what was becoming the crazy new york snow storm. We got snowed in and what was supposed to be a peter luger's steak dinner turned into us ordering chinese delivery and having a die hard marathon with all 5 of us (and sam's dino finger) snuggling on the couch.

The snow storm ended up pushing dad and sam's travel plans back a day, but a few head aches and a 4am gypsy cab ride later they found themselves on a plane back to Ohio. Colleen stayed the rest of the week through new years, on which we both got dolled up in red. Overall and A+ holiday.








I went on a creative adventure on one of the walls in our apartment with the help of Ikea's super cheap frames and Kodak's online print center. The large fraame into the city after work and we took a shuttle from Port Authority over to Jersey to go to some giant ass japanese market. me in the middle has pictures from kenyon, and the ones around the outside are pictures of zach and my families and friends from home. There are also a few of us when we were little (zach and his brothers were adorable little blond babies!)










Changing topics to Zach and I's most adventurous cooking extravaganza yet. For christmas, Zach got me a 'make your own sushi at home' kit from Barnes and Noble and I got him a nice dark blue porcelain sushi set complete with little soy sauce plates and chop sticks! On a rainy friday afternoon he cIt was ridiculous, we went from being in a large parking lot right across the hudson to feeling as if we were in the middle of tokyo- yikes. We bought a variety of ingredients and took a few minutes to walk up the 'home isle' of this asian market to snicker at all of the strange asian items. We then ventured back to brookyn (a trip that took us over ninety minutes) to begin our sushi making spectacular!




It began with us preparing the rice, a rather difficult feat! "use this much water, don't stir it, fold it, don't open the lid, listen for boiling bubbles ,spend 45 minutes making the damn rice, add this special seasoning, spend $12 on a bottle you will use 2 drops of, etc etc etc..." When it was finally done we had the rice, the fish, the seaweed, the tobiko, the spicy mayonaise, the yummy eel sauce, the avocado, the cucumber (for zach, I hate the stuff), and our super special saran wrapped bamboo sushi roller things. Home made sushi: attempt 1 was a go.





We started with simple rolls- a california for myself and a tuna avocado for zach, that were mildly successful. We were both using too much rice to start and zach was having trouble rolling it up. We then tried things a bit more complicated, experimenting with the tobiko and the mayo. We tried to use different types of fish and less rice. We made right side in rolls and inside out rolls. I made one with the avocado on the outside of the roll (not recommended for amateurs) but it wasn't nearly as pretty as i wanted.




About an hour and a half after we began cooking the rice we had a giant platter full of sushi- far too much for the two of us! We sat down on our fantastic red couch and dove in! It was our first try- we expected it to be edible, but not so great. But we were wrong! It was actually pretty good! The first few rolls that we made were way too ricey, but the ones that we made towards the end were delicious! It was an extremely fun and delicious at home date and I think that anyone who likes going out for sushi should definitely try to do it at home!


School is going very well. Some of the students are becoming harder to deal with considering the whole 'i'm a scared little freshmen and I will do what you tell me to' thing is wearing off. Some of the boys are getting tougher and the attitude on some of the girls is alarming at times. But overall I am so thankful to be at such a wonderful school. When I talk to my MfA friends and they tell me their woes from the schools that they teach at, I sympathetically nod along while I'm thanking god that I was so lucky to be hired at my school. Pi Day is coming up next month, I'm trying to figure out how we are going to celebrate... I have a few ideas- it's going to be exciting!!!

Also, we have a little friend staying with us for a few weeks! Charlie is making his Brooklyn debut!

Home Sweet Brooklyn

We are no longer wandering nomads! After a month of subletting in various locations around Manhattan we have finally moved into our own home! We have a great 2 bedroom apartment in Brooklyn! We moved in 3 weeks ago and are still settling in. We bought a nice bright red corner sofa and we even have room for a dining table! In the second bedroom we put a little fold out couch, 3 big book shelves and a desk- so it's a library/ guest room/ office / sitting room/ fish area- we really can't decide what to call it... The whole apartment has been completely renovated so new walls, floors, fixtures and appliances. It's so nice- come visit and see it!






Our new kitchen is fantastic. It's an alley kitchen, but a BIG one! We have a nice big gas stove (one of the burners has a 'power boil' setting that really does the trick!), a large dishwasher and a new fridge- all stainless steel. We have a ton of counter space- it's some sort of fake granite looking material- dark gray. It's been really fun cooking and baking in our new kitchen! I've become obsessed with sweet potatoes! Who knew those little orange taters were so delicious! I've been dicing them up with some red skins, tossing them in olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic and roasting them in the oven for about an hour. So delicious!- they get a little crunchy but still soft and sweet. I also have been baking a lot. I made some cute little cupcakes for my students (even though my mom tried to eat them all...), mini banana muffins with brown sugar crunch and some fantastic sticky buns for an early morning math department meeting. I looked a few different recipes for cinnamon rolls that called for white icing before I remembered the gooey goodness of sticky buns like the ones Paige used to make. I found a recipe that sounded good and just kinda winged it. They were fantastic. I used crescent roll dough instead of bread dough and made the gooooo from brown sugar and butter. Wow- there were so good. Zach thought they were too sweet- not too surprising given his opinion of desserts and sweet things- but that was okay- more for the math teachers!







School is going really well. The first quarter is already over- it just flew by! I had to do report cards a few weeks ago and this upcoming week we have our version of parent-teacher conferences. We do conferences a bit different then other schools- instead of it being a meeting between parents and teachers about kids its a meeting led by the student where the child explains to their parent or guardian how they did in the first quarter. A lot of work goes into the meetings so the students are prepared for them- so fingers crossed that my advisees do well! Before we started all the conference preparation we had a little fun around halloween! We made little pumpkins out of construction paper and hung them on my door! They were all so cute- and so different. They really brought some smiles to the hallway. I hung a sign on the top of my door that said "Miss P's Pumpkin Patch"
Even better than pumpkins on the door- the whole math department dressed up for halloween! My dorky enthusiasm for the holiday spread throughout the department as I strongly suggested costumes to the other teachers until we became a wonderfully festive foursome! Nora is on the far left- she teaches geometry and has an X ax and a Y ax around her neck (get it... x and y axes... ? ) I am next, with a box necklace and whiskers drawn on my face (I'm a box and whisker plot!) Julie is to my right, she also teaches geometry. She is a Google ( a one followed by a hundred zeros)- she's wearing a one necklace with a chain link of 100 zeros! And Lauriann is on the right- she teachers Algebra II and Pre-Calculus. She has a script i on her tummy- she is the number i , the rest of her costume is imaginary (math dorks who get this joke can giggle now). It was really great.







Oh, we also made duck-tape wallets in advisory a few weeks ago. All of the kids got really into it. I bought duck tape in red, black, blue, purple, silver, camo and zebra and they went to town! We had one day where I showed them how to do it and then they spent the next few days making their own wallets. Some are really intense- with change pockets and id windows. I was really impressed!





Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone it is time to start thinking about the winter holidays! I can't believe it's almost time for christmas- it feels like we just started school! Zach and I are hosting Christmas at our apartment year- quite the grown up feat! I'm excited - but nervous about it! Fingers crossed I can figure out the turkey situation...

Here We Go.

Let's begin at the beginning of my 'grown up' life. I finished my bachelor's degree last may in Mathematics (moans and groans) and promptly moved to New York City. I left behind the quaint suburbs of cleveland, where I spent my younger days, and the corn fields of Gambier, where I attended college.

Kenyon College is my favorite place in the world. Nothing will ever compare to its beauty, the amazing people I spent my college years with, or the hilarious, embarrassing and perfect memories I have of Kenyon. Honestly, I miss it more than I miss anything else. More than my family, the little town I grew up in, lost loves, softball, anything. Kenyon is my happy place.

But after four years in my little paradise, they said I had to leave. So, I graduated and moved to New York as a teaching fellow for Math for America. Sounds big and impressive, sometimes I think it is, most of the time I don't. I've just finished my master's degree in math education and procured a teaching position at a (relatively) new high school in Soho. I'll be teaching 9th grade math in this small, independent learning based school. I'm very excited, yet nervous about the beginning of my teaching career especially as the fall grows closer. More of that to come.

For the summer, I've gotten myself a little job as a barista! It's been an interesting, frustrating exhausting adventure including too much free coffee, some annoying customers, some annoying coworkers and a significant lack of sleep. Thus I've been spending my days making coffee drinks for strangers and my evenings as a house-girlfriend (housewife in training) to my boyfriend, Zach. I've become quite the little homemaker since graduating from college and moving into an apartment with a decent kitchen. Apparently I had a chef hiding underneath four years of microwaved soup and late night pizza deliveries! Hence the emergence of my new favorite hobby- cooking!

Much to Zach's pleasure, I've not only taken up cooking, but am experimenting with fancy food as well. Some nights are more interesting and fancy than others, but the majority of them are delicious! For example, here is a little 3 course tapas 'dinner' I made when the lovely and beautiful Miss Rachel came to visit me a few weeks ago. The first course/plate is a watermelon and feta layered salad over arugula with pine nuts and a lemon vinaigrette . I have to admit, I stole this one from Zach's mom! The second dish is tuna tartare with lots of avocado and crispy shallots topped with a wasabi-soy dressing . And finally we had seared sirloin steak on a boursin covered pita bread topped with a mushroom and onion sherry reduction . Overall it was YUMMY! I was pretty pleased with myself, having prepared a relatively complicated menu with out any mishaps! It was quite the evening, involving these three delicious plates and three even more scrumptious bottles of wine! Moral of the story is that I like to cook and will be including it in my posts. Who knows, maybe I'll include some recipes from time to time if I get bored with my life and need to fill up the page...


I think my main motivations here are to document the happenings of my first year of teaching. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, says that your first year of teaching is terrible. And although I'm hoping for the best, I don't have unrealistic expectations. What ever happens I'm sure it will be interesting. I'll probably have great days where all I'll want to write about it how awesome my students are or how great my lesson went, but I'm sure there will be other days where I'll want to cry if I think about school and then I'll make a delicious meal and write about that! So we'll see how it goes, I'm sure it will be quite the adventure...