Another food book

Ryan would be the first person to tell you that I've been a little obsessed with the whole food thing lately. I just finished reading another book by Michael Pollan (the same guy who wrote The Omnivore's Dilemma). The book is called In Defense of Food. It was so interesting! He turns the whole concept of reading nutrition labels on its head, as well as what he calls" The Lipid Hypothesis". His philosophy for eating better is simply put: "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants."

Eating "food" is harder than it sounds. There are a lot of non-food things out there that are pretending to be food, and some interesting legislation that was passed a few decades ago that allowed those things to be sold without the label "imitation" on them. Science has tried its hardest to break down what it thinks all the nutrients in food are, and has promoted the idea that if you get enough of the right nutrients, you will be healthy. Problem is, we still don't know what all of the properties are in raw food items that are good for us, and do helpful things for our bodies. We probably never will. Breaking down the nutrients item by item and packaging them in a sugary breakfast cereal, or attempting to make a baby formula that replaces a mother's milk simply does not work. The whole is more than the parts.

It's funny that most of the stuff in the book are things that my mom has strongly believed, even though for a time it was not considered in vogue to be health-conscious. I remember one time going to a church activity, and someone there who happened to be a chemist of sorts was telling us that science has now found a way to get all of the nutrients you need and put them in a chocolate cake--or any other form you want. He thought this was great, because now you can give kids chocolate cake, and they will get the same nutrition you would get from eating something boring for breakfast. I was fascinated by this concept, and being a sugar-deprived Spencer, thought I'd run that one pass the boss. I told my mom about it, and she said that was the biggest load of nonsense she had ever heard. She also pointed out that if I took a look at the physical well being of this chemist, he was not a prime example of good health and probably not the best source to believe on the topic of nutrition. She was right.

Anyway--a fascinating read. The last part of the book is particularly helpful, because it gives suggestion on ways to eat real food, ways to eat more plants, and how to eat less. Five stars from me.

Still alive.

I think that pretty much sums up how I feel at this point on Friday afternoon, and boy am I glad it's Friday!

Registration was due this week for the Silent Weekend I am assisting with, and I had to place the shirt order on Thursday so we can have them back in time for our big event. Talk about blood, sweat and tears! Wednesday night there were still six schools I had not heard back from. Two of the six had not confirmed if they were even coming or not. Aaaaargh! Fortunately, I finally got responses from everyone, the shirt order is in (some of the sizes are guesses), and I feel like I'm finally regaining some semblance of being on top of things at school. Oh, and did I mention that midterm grades were due on Tuesday? I got a visit from the computer guy at school during 4th period asking me why I hadn't sent my grades in yet...

It always helps to keep a sense of humor at times like this. Sometimes the administration unwittingly provides a laugh. We got matching faculty shirts last week, and were told that a group faculty picture would be taken at 7:00 a.m. Tuesday morning (15 minute earlier than we are really required to be there). In an attempt to pacify us, we were told we could leave at 2:30 on Tuesday and Wednesday instead of being required to stay until 3:15. I always think it's funny when they do that, because the teachers who were planning on leaving early were going to leave early anyway, and the shmucks who didn't have their midterm grades done last week (me) will be there late getting them sent in regardless of what time we have been given permission to leave.

So--Happy Friday to all, and to all a good night!

Word games

The other night, Ryan was on a roll. (Isn't he always...?) After some prodding, I came up with a few of my own. I can't remember most of them--here are a few. Feel free to join in.

After Igor lost his brain, he had to be reminded to get a new one.

That man wrote me a note on toilet paper.
Did you reply?

I heard the John McCain was considering choosing Romney as his running mate.
He was hoping to reMitt some payments on campaign bills.

There was a man who quit his job.
Before the new guy replacing him could move into his office and have everyone know his name, the man had to resign.

Forgive me Ryan if they didn't come out as funny in my feeble attempt to recapture and remember what the originals were. I'm sure there's a pun in that somewhere in that last sentence too, although I think I'm too tired to figure it out.

Quail eggs

This week for the CSA garden share, I got a little box of quail eggs along with the rest of the produce. They are tiny! Ryan made me a miniature Wild and Wacky Willie with one.
It tasted like a regular Wild and Wacky Willie, just smaller! =)

A tour of my room

I got a new camera the other day, and was playing around with the movie feature on it. Here is a panoramic view of my room, now that I've found a place to stow most of my junk. (Pay not attention to the stuff under the counter top...)

The wall is still very yellow, but as you can see from the picture taken from my point of view, I don't have to look at it.

My students are the ones who get to gaze at its yellowness:
Here is my favorite poster I have up in my room. Ryan made it for me (who else?), and used the design he created for a Silent Weekend a few years ago. I love it!
It has been a great year so far. My students have been receptive (for the most part), and I go to school thinking, "I love my job!" I haven't been able to say that every year I've taught. Don't get me wrong, I care deeply about my profession and what I do, but some years are easier than others. So far, so good this year. The jury's still out, but I think it will be great.

Twinkle toes and a redneck power point

My feet were killing me last week in a major way--particularly at the end of the days when I have no prep hour. I used the situation as an excuse to go shoe shopping on Saturday, and found some cute shoes that are very comfy! They are worth every dime (and they ended up being a lot of dimes). I had my long day today, and felt great at the end of the day. Lovely what kind of magic a new pair of shoes can work.

Last night I was in a rush at school and didn't have time to polish up my lesson plans for today. I spent about an hour at home thinking through what I wanted to accomplish with my Level II class, and developing a power point presentation to accompany. I've found that using power point has allowed me to sign more and voice much less. I e-mailed myself what I thought was my completed presentation, and even checked my school e-mail on line to make sure it got there. It didn't occur to me to OPEN the dang thing.

As the first bell rang for class, I opened my power point, only to find that I had sent myself the wrong one. Dang! I had about 3 minutes to scribble some things on some overhead transparencies I (luckily) had kicking around from last year and write some stuff on the board. Things ended up going surprisingly smoothly despite the downgrade in technology, proving to me that I really didn't need to spend all that time sweating out the details last night... right? It's been nice having a fancy projector installed in my ceiling, but it's not the end all be all of education. I hate it when things like that happen though! Doh!

Movie Madness

So apparently, it's a school tradition for each department to come up with a skit of sorts for the opening assembly we have on the first Friday of the year. I personally think it's a recipe for insanity. Because our department is small, and I'm the only one with a prep hour, I volunteered to make a short little video clip for our department.

Lessons learned from my experience last week:

#1 Never volunteer to make the short little video clip.

#2 Don't assume the brand spanking new camcorder you borrowed from the school has an interface for a fire-wire, even though an ounce of logic would dictate that any camcorder would have that.

#3 Read the compatibility information VERY carefully before purchasing and throwing away the packaging for mini DVD+RW discs that should have been mini DVD-RW discs.

#4 The nice people in charge of the video production class are very helpful and sympathetic. They also have nifty equipment to transfer the data from the afore-mentioned camcorder (even though it shouldn't have to require nifty equipment to transfer the data). It took us about an hour to figure out, but hey--I was contemplating just dumping the whole project by that point.

#5 It doesn't hurt to mention your nephew's name when making friends with the people mentioned in #4. They sang Sid's praises to the rafters. Mrs. Atkinson says hello, Sid.

#6 Remember that short little skit? It takes approximately 2 hours to edit the video footage into the 2.38 minutes of finished video. That's without adding music. Which I didn't do. I was too stressed out (and out of time) by that point.

#7 After all of that, don't be surprised if the English department pulls off a mini-Broadway musical on film that puts everything else to shame.

What to do with pesto?

Eat it, of course! I've used some of the pesto I made in a yummy recipe that I came up with on the fly. It turned out pretty tasty, if I do say so myself:

Portobello Mushrooms with Orzo Pasta and Pesto

INGREDIENTS:
2 portobello caps, washed and thinly sliced
1/2 small onion, cut in half lengthwise and then thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1-2 tablespoons fresh thyme, chopped
2 tablespoons oil
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 cup cream or half and half
3/4 cups uncooked orzo pasta
1/4 cup pesto

DIRECTIONS:
1. Heat a medium-sized saucepan with olive oil. Cook onion, over medium heat for a few minutes until onions are translucent. Add garlic and thyme, cook for a minute, then stir in flour and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Add sliced portobellos, stir periodically until cooked.

2. Bring 4 cups of water to a boil. Add a pinch of salt and the orzo pasta. Cook for 7-9 minutes. Reserve 1/3 cup of water from pasta, drain.

3. Stir in the cream to the portobello mixture on the stove. Give it a few minutes to thicken.

4. Stir the pesto into the drained pasta. Serve pasta with the portobello on top.

And, if you are wondering how to make pesto, here is an adaptation of a recipe I found on allrecipes.com. There's been an abundance of basil in my garden. I've had to augment it with stuff from the garden share and from the farmer's market. Don't waste your money on the stuff at the grocery store. I got a TON of basil at the farmer's market for $1 per zip-loc bag.

Pesto

INGREDIENTS:
3 cups chopped fresh basil
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup pine nuts
2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon chipotle
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

DIRECTIONS:
1. Place the basil in a blender. Pour in about 1 tablespoon of the oil, and blend basil into a paste. Gradually add pine nuts, Parmesan cheese, garlic, chipotle and remaining oil. Continue to blend until smooth.

STORAGE:
This keeps up to about a week in a tupperware in the refrigerator. Freeze pesto in an ice-cube tray, then transfer to a zip-loc bag for longer storage in the freezer.