Q.E.D.

so I’m all sugared out. not sure how it happened; ’twas supposed to be an ordinary weekend spent visiting with in-laws, doing ordinary laundry, eating ordinary things, and watching ordinary TV. instead, between Thursday and Sunday, I somehow ended up party to more sugar (and delicious fat and a little protein too, I guess) than I have in a while. hm. “party to more sugar.” that’s a strange phrase I just considered deleting, but will in fact leave because it brings to mind the phrase “sugar party” which is what I’m going to title this post.

so I didn’t have my camera at the inlaws’, but I came home with some leftovers and thought I’d present evidence of said sugar party for others’ enjoyment; it might also be nice to look at tomorrow while I’m intentionally avoiding sugar and giving my poor pancreas a rest.

first, some run of the mill chocolate chip cookies left over from mid-week. these are made with a new (to me) ingredient: Trader Joe’s semi-sweet chocolate chips. ooh-la-la. Giant Eagle’s chocolate chips now have dairy in them so I made the switch. quite pleased:

next up, my favorite oatmeal cookies- the plain old boring kind with nothing added. so good. the recipe is from the Betty Crocker “Cookie Book,” (veganized, of course). leave it to ol’ Betty to win the vegan oatmeal cookie battle in my heart:

three rotting bananas + nut allergy => slightly overdone banana bread - nuts:

and this last one isn’t mine but I think it’s time to share it’s awesome power with the world. it’s apple pie, and the best goddamned apple pie in the entire fucking universe. my mother in law makes it. I never even really cared about apple pie before I tried it several years ago. it’s amazing. I have her recipe, and if you want it, ask and I’ll give it to you. it’s actually not hard at all, nothing fancy.. just a perfect recipe. PERFECT:

that is all. still hoping to have some green tea ice cream to show off here soon, maybe a new concoction I’m working on involving brownies, fudge and mint, and maybe if you’re lucky something to read that involves non-food topics. stay tuned.

#1: I will not be going on strike any time soon.

#2: Patriots 38 Chargers 14

I don’t know why my previous blog post didn’t show up until today, since it was written back a week ago.. but anyway I guess it just means more updates for all three of you reading this to enjoy.

I don’t have much to offer except a few more food photos.. this week was brutal on several levels and I felt completely exhausted up until about two hours ago.. and now that I’m rested I have to go to bed. c’est la vie. what’s been on my mind?

1.) the teachers union at my school came to a tentative agreement last week and our ratification meeting is this week. while I’m happy that we seem so close to a conclusion on the matter after working the beginning of the year on our expired contract and coming precariously close to a strike, I’m also not exactly looking forward to a several-hour-long meeting after a long day of school in cramped auditorium seats listening to union representatives tell me why I should be happy to approve a contract requiring me to do more work for less pay and shittier health care. blah.

2.) my team has aparently been up to some shady business. if you’ve been even minimally aware of the sports media over the past several days, you don’t need an update from me; suffice it to say that I’m disappointed they were up to no good and completely agree with the punishment and general consensus that ol’ Bill wasn’t just “misinterpreting” the rules. but if I hear one more student, or so-called “friend” for that matter, ask me about the gigantic asterisk that apparently goes down next to every Patriots victory of the Belichick era, I’m going to puke. want to know what I think? not only are they going to go to the superbowl as many predict, and win the superbowl as a few are calling, they are going to finish the season undefeated.. yep. I said it. now they have something to prove. they haven’t had that in a while. and you know how that works.

3.) but I still made some food.

earlier this week I tried a new recipe from Voluptuous Vegan, whose recipes have never been less than amazing every time I’ve tried them, but tend to fall on the fancier and generally more time consuming side of things. most recipes aren’t great for weeknights unless you want to modify them or do some prep work in advance. we chose the former, and replaced the absurd variety of peppers required for this chili cornbread casserole with a boatload of garden variety jalapeno.. don’t know why I’d never heard of baking cornbread with chili in the middle before but it’s a damn good idea:

sometime this weekend I threw together a desperation meal, (don’t act like you don’t know what I mean).. I was hungry and writing a paper and probably would have happily scarfed down cardboard but somehow ended up with my head in the freezer thinking that edamame sounded good.. so I threw it together with some TVP and every herb and spice in the pantry, and roasted up what vegetables were getting old in the fridge.. then I was surprised at how appealing it looked so I took a picture:

then tonight it dawned on me that I needed a decent, non messy, and microwaveable leftover dinner to take for the hour or so I am stuck at school before our ratification meeting, so behold a quinoa/black bean/mushroom stuffed pepper:

and finally, I realized this afternoon that our household contained no dessert.. which is simply unacceptable. (especially with a football game that needs to be watched). with limited ingredients and time, here be the thickest peanut butter cookies ever produced:

yep. I’d comment on the Pats and Chargers but, well, it’s only halftime and I don’t want to jinx anything.

not at the same time though..

I’ve been wanting to make cola cake for a while, but haven’t had a chance to do so.. but the other night I had some extra cherry coke in the fridge so I turned a normal batch of chocolate chip cookies into double chocolate cherry coke cookies:

(just use your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, substitute cocoa powder for some of the flour and replace most of the liquid with cherry coke)

and these green tea cupcakes are just the latest method I’ve found to consume the bulk matcha powder I am buying in quantities that would make an emperor blush:

(buy Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and follow the recipe found therein)

just so you’re ready, I’m hoping to get to that cola cake in the next week or so.. and I forsee some homemade green tea ice cream in the near future.

from the most recent issue of Discover Magazine, wherein an award winning high school science teacher interviews Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings:

How does the Department of Education plan to support creative approaches to science teaching?
One of the best ways to strengthen science instruction is to get more scientists into the classroom to teach and share their real-world knowledge. President Bush has proposed an Adjunct Teacher Corps, which would provide an opportunity for talented and dedicated industry experts from outside the teaching profession to share their knowledge in middle and high school classrooms.

What do you regard as good science education?
The ability to apply a problem to a real world, a relevant kind of example, I think you’d see that. I’m big on this because I think often our schools are isolated from the community broadly. I hope you’d find a veterinarian or a NASA scientist or a doctor or a pharmacist or people who were using those sorts of skills in fields successfully today.

what the hell is this woman talking about? apparently, since science teachers aren’t “using those sorts of skills in fields successfully,” or helping students “apply problems to the real world” through “relevant examples,” we ought to forget about professional development, hell forget about those guys anyway.. (you know what they say.. “those who can’t, teach..”) ..and while we’re at it, let’s forget about developing and supporting better science curricula in the schools where reading and math assessments have pushed some, ahem, other subjects aside. instead, let’s hope those people who were smart enough to take their science brains into the “real world” and become “scientists” instead of teachers will be happy to do what those silly teachers can’t seem to get done, in addition to all that “science” they’re doing there at NASA and stuff.

good idea, Marge.