Breakfast - my hated enemy

I have an oft-mocked aversion to breakfast foods. I also have to be at work at 7:45am, and I am not supposed to eat anything until an hour after I take my first medicina of the day. This means I almost never eat breakfast at home, and rarely at work. If I do eat at work, it's usually not breakfast food, but rather leftovers (I love to have curry for breakfast) or whatever frozen meal I happen to have handy.

HOWEVER. Whole grains are important to the goals I am trying to achieve, and breakfast is a really easy time to work them in. Or so I thought, until I inspected every cereal option at Trader Joe's and failed to find a single one that didn't have added sugar. I was looking for muesli, which I used to eat all the time in France, with fruity yogurt. There were times when I ate it three times a day. It's also recommended by Summer Tomato, which made me feel really smart about my breakfast choices for about three seconds until I realized I haven't eaten muesli since 2008. I wanted plain muesli, maybe with some dried fruit in it but what I was really hoping for was muesli with nuts and no added sugar. I would have settled for plain granola. I found neither.

Perhaps my particular Trader Joe's just happened to be out of regular old muesli. The closest I found was this "blueberry" muesli, which seemed fine until closer inspection of the ingredients revealed that there are not actually any blueberries in this cereal, but rather dried cranberries flavored to taste like blueberries. This isn't that big of a deal, but I am really aiming for simplicity here, and duplicitous Trojan cranberries are not included in my plan. So instead, I opted for Trader Joe's Lowfat Granola with Almonds. Unfortunately it still contains cornstarch, which is gross, but the sweetening seems to come from brown rice and barley malt syrup. And natural flavors... what does that ever mean?? With 15g of sugar per .75 cup, I could definitely do better, but better to eat some breakfast than no breakfast, I say. So I got that and some lowfat plain yogurt as well as two fuji apples (um, delish).

This morning, as usual, I did not eat breakfast before work. I brought all the ingredients with me and put them in the staff fridge. Unbeknownst to me, the staff lounge was being used from 9:30 to 11 for a meeting, so when I decided it was time for breakfast, I was wrong. I waited til eleven and then went in to make my healthy and possibly gross breakfast.

Usually the staff lounge has some paper bowls lying around, but not today! No no no. So I scrounged around until I found something that was probably used to house hummus at some point but had since been washed and put in a cabinet. I added about as much granola as I could and then put plain yogurt on it. This is tricky for me, as I loathe soggy food, especially bread, and I am sure this will come up at some point because I am known for it and take a lot of teasing about it. Anyway, I cringed as I put the yogurt on the granola but really, I knew it would be okay from having eaten similar meals in Paris. Then I attempted to cut up a bit of the apple with a plastic knife, using a paper plate as a cutting board, because, well, I am rather dumb. I ended up tearing bits of the apple apart with my bare hands, exhibiting a display of brute force that I am sure seriously intimidated the people leaving the meeting. Then I smushed everything together, put the hummus/granola container on the paper plate/cutting board, put the apple next to it, and went back to my office to eat it! Hooray!!!!

It's already 11:15 at this point.

If this looks gross to you, I beg you to attribute that to my cell phone photo and fluorescent lighting. It was REALLY GOOD. In France, I always bought fruity yogurt to put in my muesli because I thought plain yogurt would be boring and not taste like anything. I was totally wrong. Turns out that the tasty bit in yogurt is actually yogurt. Who knew?

Things I have learned:

-Plain yogurt is tasty

-Fuji apples are tasty

-Bring a knife to work? Hmm.

-Buy some bowls and bring them to work as well.

-Check the staff lounge calendar (read: the e-mail that Jan S-F faithfully sends out every week and that is much appreciated by myself and many others)

And now for something completely different!

So. Um. Sorry I haven't called. It's nothing personal, there's just someone else in my life right now, and that someone is... actually a bunch of things, and those things are not worth going into, so I won't.

I would, however, like to tentatively announce my RETURN TO BLOGGING. This is motivated in large part by my fear that I won't actually stick to a routine unless everyone I know is holding me accountable.

I have been concerned about my health a bit lately, and have been informed by a few doctors that losing weight will help some of my problems. More importantly, if I succeed in losing weight I don't have to buy new pants, and that money can then instead be spent on frozen margaritas.

So I am going to be FOOD BLOGGING! Well, food and exercise and general wellbeing blogging. I know next to nothing on this subject, but that has never stopped me before.

Being me, I really wanted to come up with a cool name for food blogging, but unfortunately the obvious portmanteaux are taken. I will not be calling this phase if my blog "Flog!" or "Blood!" as neither of those make me want to eat anything at all.

As I said, I have no FLIPPING idea what I am doing. I bought a gym membership that I haven't used yet, so that part is not going very well. But even if I can convince myself that I don't have time for the gym, eating is still a key part of not dying. After conversations with some friends, I decided to change my eating habits instead of just eating whatever I want and then (theoretically) working it off. Upon the recommendation of one such friend, I checked out the Summer Tomato website, which I promptly became obsessed with, and you should do the same. Based upon recommendations from Summer Tomato, I bought the book Eat, Drink and Be Healthy, published by Harvard Medical School. It has sixty recipes, and just you wait, because we shall be trying them together.

Although the book arrived today, I was not expecting it until tomorrow, so I was looking on Summer Tomato for an easy recipe to make tonight, since it's me, and I have zero patience. Must start eating healthy NOW! I found the perfect recipe on Summer Tomato for a meal made entirely of ingredients that can be found at Trader Joe's. Since Trader Joe's is the closest grocery store to me, I pounced on this recipe and spent the rest of the day blissfully dreaming about how cool and healthy I'll be.

The recipe, called "Warm Sausage Salad à la Trader Joe’s" can be found here.

A bit after I left work on a joyful mission to change the world one vegetable at a time, it started downpouring. Generally, I love the rain, but for those of you who are unaware, this is my ride:



I alos just moved from what was a 5-minute drive to work to what is a 20-minute drive, and that can double at rush hour. So basically it's sheeting down, smacking me in the chest as I go 30 miles per hour in a t-shirt, and overall making me a little less optimistic about my evening. But if there weren't adventures, it would be interesting! In the end I made it to Trader Joe's, soaked and shivering, and purchased my ingredients, glad that there was going to be some warmth involved in the meal I was making. Quite a bit of warmth, actually, but we'll get to that later.

My ingredients:


From Summer Tomato:

2 Trader Joe’s cooked sausages (any flavor): I chose jalapeño chicken sausage because, really, how could I not?
1 bag of salad greens: As suggested in Darya Pino's recipe, I got the herb salad mix, which was a really amazing choice. It has SO MANY THINGS IN IT. The highlights for me were the dill, cilantro and parsley. I will be getting this salad mix again - It's good on its own.
1 small (or 1/2 medium) sweet onion: Being onion-obsessed, I used a whole medium onion. I really want someone to discover that onions are wildly excellent for you and that because I adore them so much I will be better than everyone else.
1 small red bell pepper (optional): Done.
6-8 brown crimini mushrooms: I couldn't find crimini mushrooms, nor do I have the faintest idea what they are or what might resemble them, so I got shiitake mushrooms because I have never used them before and it's an adventure!
1 small avocado: I think eating avocado is like eating straight butter, so I skipped it.
2 Persian or Japanese (small) cucumbers: I found the Persian ones. I would not have known to look for these. They are AWESOME.
Good quality olive oil: Filippo Berio - free at CVS because I had coupons.
Good quality vinegar: I bought a huge jug of TJ's balsamic because balsamic vinegar is just splendid.
Salt and pepper: Simple, right? WRONG. Turns out Trader Joe's has umami-flavored smoked sea salt. I had to get it, despite the fact that linguistically it's nagging at the back of my head that something can't be umami-flavored. That's like saying it's sweet-flavored. Flavor of sweet. Nom nom nom.

I also added cherry tomatoes, which ended up kind of flavorless, and corn, which ended up kind of awesome.

The rest of the recipe pretty much went as planned. Sort of. Mostly. A little.

Slice onion and bell pepper into slivers about 1 inch long. Clean mushrooms and slice into desired thickness. Dice the cucumber and avocado. Cut sausages into thin slices. - This part is easy! Hooray! Except that I have cheap knives, a tiny cutting-board, and no counter space. IMPROVISE. Cutting board goes on top of burner, Bobbie tries not to amputate entire limbs whilst chopping an onion.

Heat olive oil in a large pan on medium-high heat until it swirls easily. Add onions and peppers and cook until translucent, 1-2 minutes. - Things still going pretty much according to plan at this point. Okay, so I don't have a large pan, but I shoved everything into a smallish one and hoped for the best.

While the onions and peppers are cooking, empty salad bag into a large bowl add and the cucumber and avocado. - It started to get tricky here, as I do not have a salad bowl and was working with my colander, the nicest piece of equipment currently in my kitchen, given to me by my boss. But there was no liquid in it yet, so smooth sailing.

Dress the greens with olive oil and vinegar (balsamic is my favorite), and season liberally with sea salt and cracked pepper. Toss with tongs and set aside. - I put the colander on top of a pasta bowl. Hey, it worked.

Don’t forget to monitor your vegetables while you are tending to your greens. - This emphasis is Darya's, and shall become key momentarily.

When ready, add mushrooms to the pan and sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. Cook until mixture starts to slightly brown then add sausage, making sure the cut ends touch the surface of the pan. Continue to cook until the edges of the sausage start to brown, 4-6 minutes. - This is when the smoke alarm goes off, as I had pretty much expected but was hoping to avoid. I smacked it a few times in between bouts of trying to open the window, which I finally got open. The smoke alarm conceded defeat, possibly permanently.

:-(

Scrape contents of the pan on top of the greens and mix well with tongs. This salad serves well with a chunk of baguette and even a bowl of TJ’s boxed Tomato and Red Pepper soup. - The ordeal finally over, I settled in to eat my delicious supper. This recipe supposedly serves two, but I halved it, saving the rest to prepare at work tomorrow, and it was way too much. I have tried saving it in the (probably vain) hope that somehow it might be the first salad in history to still be edible the next day.

Things I have learned:

-Balsamic vinegar + corn = amazing (I already knew this but was happy to rediscover)

-Say yes to Persian cucumbers

-I need a mixing bowl

-Open the window

But for tonight, bliss. The end result was a truly delicious salad:

Warm Sausage Salad à la Trader Joe's

Recipe by Darya Pino

found on summertomato.com

"I'm reading a really good book."

As a linguist whose favorite class was Semantics, I can't help but be intrigued by the language used by blind students. It is surprising to outsiders (myself included) how often Perkins students use phrases like, "I'll see you later," or, "Come here, look at this!" Some of them make a joke of it, like the student who came into my office yesterday, laying on the charm. He said he wanted to travel the world "and, you'll get a kick out of this Bobbie - I want to see everything I can see. Pretty funny coming from a blind guy, huh?" But I think most of them don't even think of it. They're not associating the words they use with their original meaning, but rather with the corresponding actions in a blind world. The best example so far is the student who just came into my office to be rescheduled. I sent him to the library, and asked him to think about what he might like to do for the later period in which he will also have to be rescheduled. He said, "Oh, I don't mind going back to the library. I'm reading a really good book," despite the fact that no actual reading or books will be involved in that scenario - he'll be listening to a recording.

Baptism by fire.

One of the teachers came in this morning and asked me when Diane will be back. Diane is the other Admin Assistant in the secondary program, and she's on vacation for three weeks. I'm doing her job as well as training for mine, and it ain't easy. It requires a much better knowledge of the individual students and staff than I have yet. I told him she was out all week and possibly next week, and he said, "Wow, it's really baptism by fire, isn't it?" I couldn't have put it better myself. And eight teachers (EIGHT!!) are out today, which means for every student they have I have to reschedule them on a case by case basis, period by period, which is part of Diane's job and is going to keep me from getting a lot of my work done today. Of course, my work is building new student files which is less than thrilling, but it's what I am here to do, and I am not doing it.

All whining aside, I had an EXCELLENT weekend! A friend of mine had a small, private wedding and afterwards hosted a dock party on a houseboat to which I was invited. Jimmy and I went and had a grand old time. Saturday morning we watched Always Sunny before getting in the car, picking up Monique and driving to Vermont to hang with the wedding folks and friends for the weekend. We went to Lake Caspian on Saturday evening and lit sparklers and had a fire going and drank beer and were merry. There weren't enough beds, so Jimmy and I slept in a tent, which was quite lovely. Sunday we went back to the lake, swimming and tubing and being tickled by minnows. I did not much enjoy the tubing, as it seemed the whole goal was to knock me off the tube into the water. This goal was met with much success, as well as some bleeding. Jimmy was the champion of the tube by far, staying on until the other Jim and I were almost ready to give up because we were so tired from driving the boat around.

Sunday night we set off some excellent fireworks, although I was beat and went to bed early. Monday we went to the Cabot Creamery, which was awesoooome. Jimmy and I eventually peaced out and came home, exhausted. We watched some Always Sunny and then went to Sweet Chili for Thai food. They had Kikkoman plum wine, which I haven't had in a long time and was super delicious. As was the Pad Thai, which I will continue to consume for at least the next three meals. The apparent endlessness of Pad Thai led Jim and I to speculate that the Feeding of the Multitude might actually be misrepresented, and there was in fact one order of Pad Thai rather than five loaves and two fish. Thai noodles and shrimp... close enough, right?

You know what? I like you.

So I started slacking again. Big surprise. Well, I got my Masters degree in Linguistics from Tulane and moved back to Boston to my parents' house (for the moment). I finally got a job, and it's all I could ever want! At least for now. I am the Administrative Assistant in the Secondary Program at the Perkins School for the Blind. I'd love to blog in detail about it but there's a lot of stuff that's confidential and I'd rather err on the side of caution than betray someone's trust and lose my job.

But there are some things I can say. I love the job, I love my office, I love the kids. Today is my first day alone, meaning that the woman training me is out today, but ALSO the woman in the downstairs office is out for three weeks, so on my first week I am doing the jobs of two different people, neither of which I have fully grasped yet.

The best thing is the kids. They're hilarious, for one thing. They're just always joking around. Yesterday I heard three of them on their way to class just singing, "Bieber, Bieber, Bieber, ooooh, Bieber, Bieber, Bieber..." Today a girl named Hailey came into the office. I had met her once before, but I don't think she remembered. She asked who it was, and I said it was Bobbie and I am replacing Debby. She asked why Debby was leaving, and I told her. And then she said, "You know what? I like you." Every day something like that happens, something to just melt your heart and make you want to do every single thing to make sure that these sweet, beautiful, funny children get to grow up to be whatever they want, despite the crappy hand they've been dealt. I've never met a more positive group of people, or anyone whose personalities shine through the way these kids' do. It's only my 5th day, maybe the way I feel will change, but right now I am so happy to be here. I can't imagine any place I'd rather be.

Hello again

I just got this comment:

"I found this site using [url=http://google.com]google.com[/url] And i want to thank you for your work. You have done really very good site. Great work, great site! Thank you!"

It makes me want to start writing again, perhaps about New Orleans though I don't do anything interesting. I do have a new camera and can start taking photos again. Right now we are all on tropical storm watch for Ida. It's very windy but no rain yet. I am considering going to the Northshore if it looks like it is going to be bad but it doesn't seem like it's getting any worse. Alas, my hopes of classes being cancelled will not be fulfilled.

Other things I could write about would be my awesome Vespa, the amusing things that go on when one works in a restaurant, especially the kitchen, being a grad student in linguistics and becoming disillusioned with it, wanting to quit doing linguistics after this year and be a nurse, looking forward to living alone in my own apartment when my lease is up, planning on adopting special needs cats... so I guess it's worth trying to keep it up. We shall see how it goes.

The Story of the Kitten

Okay, I know I have been bad at blogging lately. I'm just so busy! And after Paris, nothing seems interesting anymore. But here is something to amuse you!

It was a morning just like any other morning, I woke up, showered, had breakfast, walked to campus... When I got to Newcomb Hall and walked in the door, I saw Graham, a guy from my class, sitting on the stairs playing with a kitten. I said, "Aw, who is this?" and he said, "I don't know." Apparently she had been wandering around outside Newcomb and then she wandered inside. Graham picked her up. She had a little flea collar on but no nametag. We went to our first class, Intro to Historical Linguistics, and just walked in with the kitten. Our professor is a crazy linguist, so she didn't mind. Graham usually sits next to me anyway, so we sat down and he was trying to get her to calm down but he couldn't. I picked her up and held her next to my heart, cuddled in my sweatshirt, and she fell right asleep. She slept in my arms for the entire class! I cannot tell you how amused I was to be sitting in class with a kitten.

After class, Graham and I walked down to my Philosophy classroom and asked my (tall, bemohawked, all black wearing Hulk) philosophy instructor if I could miss class to help Graham take the kitten to the vet to check if she had a microchip and just see if she was okay. Of course the minute I walked into class with a kitten I knew I had won the battle. A girl in the class agreed to email me the notes for the day. It was a review day anyway. So Graham and I walked to the Maple Street Small Animal Clinic and brought her in. They said she didn't have a microchip, she was too small. She hadn't had her shots, but she didn't have fleas. She had probably been out for a while and possibly had an upper respiratory infection. So they gave me some kitten food and some advice and I took her home!

Walking home



Since we thought she might be sick, I had to put some food and water and litter in my bathroom and shut her in there so she won't get the other cats sick. Mary came home and played with her, and then I came home and played with her. Graham and I named her Ad Hoc (long story), but Addie for short. She's adorable! I posted an ad on Craigslist saying we found her, but nobody claimed her.





Since we couldn't find her family, I took her back to the vet early the next week. She was still a little sick so they decided not to give her her shots yet. After the vet she was so tired that we came home and took a cuddly nap!



Mary and I decided we couldn't keep her, what with already having two adult cats in the house, so we gave her to Graham. But we have joint custody! I have visitation rights, and I'm also the Vet Mommy so I take her to the vet when she needs to go. And I'm allowed to bring her home for sleepovers sometimes. I go over to Graham's every so often to play with her.



Last time I saw her she was starting to get bigger! No longer poor malnourished kitten. The vet said she wouldn't have survived if we hadn't found her. She's such a sweetheart! She runs around and wreaks havoc at Graham's except when I come over, and then she sits on me and purrs for ages. I adore her!





Helping with my French paper!




I brought her into work