penn

Boarding School Moment

Tonight, I had three students over to do some baking for Easter. We made cupcakes and these awesome bird's nest coconut cookies. However, the baking was secondary. Far greater was the joy of friendship and the sharing of language.

The students are all international; they come from Colombia, Venezuela, and China. They are all in our school's performing arts programs, so I had two strings players and a singer. We had fun babbling in Spanish and teaching funny/important phrases to the Mandarin speaker (such as "be careful," "I'm sorry," and "kiss me more" -- all useful for heading off to college next year!).

The student from China is my kitchen buddy but also a senior. She's come over many times to cook here, learn recipes from me, and have fun. It's definitely a different line from teaching public school. I'm still an adult and her teacher, but we can also share together and learn from each other. Tonight, I pulled out photos from the summer I spent living and volunteering in Honduras to share with the kids, and we ended up perusing one of my scrapbooks too. They tell me stories from back home and ask questions about cultural and language nuances.

This job is time-consuming. I'm not off the clock unless I leave town (not just campus, as we run into students all over the place). But it's also rewarding, and I value the connections I've made. Plus, it's awesome to have some extra hands willing to do the dishes and clean up after three hours of baking. Yay for young hearts and minds!

Having fun with food

Matt and I have been cooking some recently. Tonight, we tried a modified form of April's cornbread. I had some jiffy corn mix, and we sauteed onions and green chiles to add into the dough before cooking. Quite delicious. To accompany this, we also made salsa chicken and red beans and rice. The salsa chicken is simple but good -- simply brown the outside of the chicken in a pan on medium heat then turn the heat to med-low/low, smother the chicken breast in salsa, and cover. The red beans and rice were from the delicious New Orleans style by Vigo.

This week, Matt also made me spaghetti with homemade sauce, and last night we had salad with Walla Walla sweet onion dressing (my favorite) and chicken breasts cooked in a sweet onion marinade.

Somehow, I always cook better stuff when someone else is eating with me. For myself, I don't worry so much about what I'm eating; my main goal is to not be hungry any more. But when I know that someone else will be eating the meal -- or when I have someone to cook with me -- I become much more concerned with putting something flavorful, healthy, and tasty on the table. As a side benefit, I also get good lunches for work; leftover spaghetti is much tastier than my typical PBJ or canned soup.

This holiday season, I'm definitely counting my blessings of good relationships and good food. I also enjoyed quite a number of great meals while at home (highlights: my mom's roast beef, finally satiating my sushi cravings, and custard). I'm lucky to have good friends who share recipes, a boyfriend who helps me try those recipes, and a family that has always valued the sit-down meal.

Recipe: Stuffed Squash Blossoms

A few weeks ago, I went over to my friend Kelly's house for lunch before we went to the Shadow Art Fair in Ypsi. She's got this lovely little garden, so we were able to make a gourmet meal of stuffed squash blossoms. I've recorded photographic evidence to share with all you fine folk. Check it out behind the cut: