Grind

Jess on January 24, 2009

Lately, I’ve felt stressed out and overwhelmed. I feel like things are never quite put-together enough at the apartment for me to work and have time to play. It’s like I’m always straightening something up or rushing to get something done or trying to find food to eat. I think most of this will ease up as I start to settle into my weekly schedule, especially as I incorporate work into it so I’m not constantly stressed about when I’m going to work or whatever. It’s also nice because we have a whole-day meeting for Interp & Communication so I don’t have any reading to do in either of my Tuesday classes. This should help me work Intercultural Communication into my regular reading schedule.

I still like my classes well enough. The history one is especially great, at least, it’s good discussion and thought provoking and far more like what I expected graduate school to feel like. I’m hoping that intercultural comm. will feel the same, but who knows.

We have a PS3 now, and I found Animal Crossing: City Folk really cheap for the Wii at Blockbuster. So now I have Little Big Planet and Animal Crossing to keep me good and distracted. Also, using the free browser on the PS3, I can play last.fm radio over the TV. Pretty baller. Should help me get some studying done, hopefully.

Soup warms the winter soul

Jess on December 20, 2008

I made soup for Kyle’s parents the other day and liked the recipe so much I’ve committed to eating it all the time. I made it tonight for my parents and they really liked it too, which is astounding as usually they won’t even eat the things that I bring into the house on account of they are crazy and vegetarian and often include words that have been appropriated by english speakers from foreign vernaculars. I’m quite fond of it and would like to recommend it to anyone looking for a sweet, warming break this holiday season:

Red Medley Soup

Combine one chopped red onion, one chopped red pepper, chopped fresh garlic cloves to taste (the recipe says one but I love garlic and use more) in a large saucepan with two tablespoons olive oil. Cook at medium heat until sizzling and then reduce heat to low and cover, cooking for five minutes.

Combine mixture in sauce pan with one drained can of dark red kidney beans, one undrained can of diced tomatoes, four cups of vegetable stock, two tablespoons of long grain rice, two tablespoons worcestershire sauce, one teaspoon sugar and one teaspoon dry oregano leaves in a large stock pot. Stir vigorously and bring the soup to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for fifteen minutes.

Serve soup over long grain rice garnished with grated cheddar cheese, fresh chopped parsley, salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 4-6.

As we use long grain rice in the easy cook packets from uncle bens, we always have plenty left over to serve the soup over. I don’t notice the extra rice at the bottom and am convinced that you could just add more rice to the recipe. I think Kyle and I just like the idea of serving food with hidden rice in the bottom. I’m also pretty sure, after thinking about it during dinner tonight, that the recipe I have intends for you to toss two tablespoons of dry rice into the recipe, not to cook it. This would be massively cheaper as one bag of long grain rice translates into many-a-tablespoon and it would take the microwave out of our efforts.