baked oats green chile chicken enchiladas chow mein bakery-style butter cookies


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archive for May 2007

return to the commonwealth

Saturday, May 5th, 2007

It was a very long day getting to Virginia. I got up at 2 am to pack and get my junk in order *yawn*. All of these nights of truncated sleep are catching up to me. I rarely sleep soundly on planes, but managed to not only sleep, but dream during both flights. Atlanta is a stupid stupid airport, but I will give them one thing – they have seats at the gates that do not have arm rests which means you can lie across three or four to take a nap.

We got into Virginia at 5:15 this evening and my parents were their typical high energy selves. Their new house is quite lovely with beautiful views. I think their ramped up entertaining schedule has helped them with their decor, although I see a lot of competing themes in the style: ornate chinese, contemporary chinese, ornate western, contemporary western. Virginia is totally green and all of the cherry blossoms have long fallen to the ground. My father is heartbroken over an apparent double-attack on his fish pond in the front courtyard. It looks like the MO of a blue heron who has nipped a nice meal or two of the fishes. Dad has now set up a boobie trap worthy of an action movie to prevent the heron from landing in the water (a crazy network of fishing line strung across the top of the pond) and a motion-triggered floodlight.

Dad made his famous bouillabaisse for dinner tonight while everyone snacked on sweets I brought from my class. Boy, that really hit the spot. I love the way my dad makes that soup. Perfect night for it too – cool and rainy.


mom and dad with more energy than most 25-year olds

**Jump for more butter**

chocolate factory

Thursday, May 3rd, 2007

Tonight we began working with chocolate: ganache, tempering, and enrobing. I chose to make Earl Grey and Kona Coffee truffles. They will be enrobed next week. This week, we took out the fondant and caramel we made last week and enrobed those with tempered chocolate.


enrobing fondant

**Jump for more butter**

at long last

Tuesday, May 1st, 2007

I passed my PhD defense!

Only minor revisions left to do.

Thanks so much to everyone for their emails and well-wishes. I’ll get to those when I have a lucid moment.

Must leave for a party now. Here is a shot of Ro enjoying the lovely cherry blossoms on campus – so pretty!


spring blooms