the stupid shoes don't fit either!

argh. the beginning of the semester is always so exciting and bustling and fucking annoying. i still don't have my schedule totally nailed down yet. there is one class that i reeeeeeeeeeeeally want to add (and have actually attended for the last two days). i talked to the prof, and he is willing to work with me, but i don't want it to look like i'm gaming the system too much. and there's another class that i may do pass/fail instead of for a grade. it's already super complex and only day two, so i'm freaking out a little. but i've already written in the textbook, so no going back now, at least not completely. and i have all my grades but one--nevermind that they were due LAST FRIDAY and that the profs got their preliminary grades back yesterday (they grade anonymously, turn those in, then the records office puts names to the numbers and sends them back to the prof for bump up or down purposes). so i'm still sweating last semester grade-wise, and now this semester schedule-wise. oh yeah, did i mention i am still looking for a job? gah.

w and i went to the store on my afternoon break and put together what will hopefully be a yummy soup--kind of a thai chicken curry coconut soup. it's a mel & w original!

i got a whole chicken and removed the guts (eeeeeeeeeeeew!) and put it in the pot with boiling water. added several cloves of garlic chopped rough, two large carrots cut into quarter inch thick pennies, a whole sweet onion roughly chopped, a leek chopped, a bunch of fresh cilantro, a bunch of fresh basil (both chopped), 2 handfuls of thinly sliced kale, a one inch piece of fresh ginger chopped, a healthy amount of yellow (muchi) curry powder, a generous shaka-shaka of crushed red pepper, and a three inch stalk of fresh lemongrass whole. boil for a while till the chicken's done, occasionally skimming the surface for fat. pull the chicken out of the soup after it's been boiling for 30-45 minutes (this bit is sketchy--i didn't use a timer or a thermometer. it just kept boiling long enough for w to drop me back off at school, stopping at the organic market on the way, and returning home). i think next we'll just see what we think, adding the can of lite coconut milk and pulling the chicken off the bone in chunks to put in the soup. we also got some angel hair rice noodles that we will put in as we eat the soup--get it simmering on the stove, drop in the noodles and the whole thing should be yummy and ready to go in about three to five minutes (the noodles cook fast). the good thing about this one is that you can leave it boiling for as long as you like, and it just makes a quick stock (so you don't have to buy any). i'll tell you if it's good.

oh yeah...

and i got the shoes. i hope they fit--buying shoes online is so scary. they will be delivered tomorrow, and are my reward for completing my first day of class.

tomorrow is january 9th. dammit.

i have to go back to school tomorrow. for the first time in many years, i have to do the add/drop dance. i had one of those frenzied, last minute, harried changes when two of the classes i wanted were full. so i added conflicts of laws in a panic and have since realized that i don't want to take it. i want to add another class that's alredy full, and a class that i thought was full but has since been moved to a larger classroom. so i read for the classes i know i'm keeping (which also happen to be my earliest classes of the day), and the rest will be changing. this will probably necessitate a breathless trip to the bookstore during my lunch break and a quick perusal of the days reading for my two (possible) afternoon classes. gah!

w and i have declared a moratorium on eating out, so i'll be cooking a lot more this semester. i also took the dogs to the nature trail today, which was fun. it was also wet and terrible and annoying, but something that i am committed to try to do more often. i'm running kind of late to make resolutions, but i have some ideas of things i want to do to improve our quality of life here at the casbah. priority one is to get new sneakers. i have a lot of sneaking on the agenda, and the ones i have simply won't do. i'm annoyed, as they're fairly new and the last pair of this brand i had lasted me forever and were super comfy from day one. these, i've had for a year, and they tortured my right heel (as usual) after we had walked about half of our route. sucks. i'll be in clogs for the rest of the week. it hurts when my jeans brush against the back of my right heel.

i made a yummy southern-style dinner tonight. hopefully slightly healthier than the average old school southern dinner...anyway, here are the recipes.

i shake-n-baked some boneless center-cut pork chops. pretty self explanatory there. then i made ccarolina kale and baked sweet potatoes to go along. we had the twin fin pinot noir with the dinner. a steal at $7.99 (on special, usually $10.99), but really any decent pinot should do okay with pork. don't say you never learned nothin from me. i cheated with the sweet potatoes; i forked them and cooked them on a paper towel it the microwave for 8 minutes (turn them halfway through if your mic doesn't have a turntable). then i took them out, wrapped them quickly in foil, and stuck them into the oven with the chops. set the timer for another 8 minutes and finish making the kale, and it's all ready at the same time (i advise prepping the kale stuff first though, so it goes quicker).

mel's carolina kale:
1 bunch of kale, rinsed, stalk removed, coarsely chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
.5 large red onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 c. chopped tomatoes (i used low-sodium with jalapenos)
a few shakes of cumin (maybe a little less than a tbsp)
a few splashes of balsamic vinegar (maybe 2-3 tbsp)
a pinch of cayenne
a shake or 2 of crushed red pepper
a couple shakes of pepper vinegar
a pinch of kosher salt and some fresh ground pepper

get the kale rinsed, and shake it off. add the oil to a stock pot and heat over med-hi. mince the garlic and chop the onion while the oil heats, then add them to the pot. saute until the onions begin to soften and are kind of saturated with the oil. as it cooks, add the tomatoes and cumin, and lower the heat down to medium. while the onions are sorta sweating down with the tomatoey stuff, chop the greens roughly, and toss them into the pot. don't be too neurotic about extra water, it will just help them steam. turn the greens from the bottom repeatedly, to mix in the onion-tomato mixture and wilt them. do this for about 2-3 minutes. then splash on the balsamic, toss toss, sprinkle in the cayenne, toss toss, shake in the crushed red, toss toss, shake in the pepper vinegar, toss toss. (as to the pepper vinegar, it's just distilled white vinegar. i worked at a restaurant in nola where one of the side jobs was to refill the pepper vinegar with distilled white vinegar. so pepper vinegar is totally reusable, and obviously better the longer it sits.) then you let it steam for a while over med heat, tossing occasionally. i like my kale a little al dente, if you will, while w likes his more tender and smooshy (okay, i do say that a lot). so you just cook them down to desired tenderness. if the chops and potatoes are done first, just leave them in the oven and turn the heat off until the greens are ready.

this was a great meal, fairly simple and inexpensive, and there was enough left over for w and i to both have it for lunch or dinner tomorrow.

okay, i'm off. i felt like i should write a lot as i have neglected this space for so long, but now the new simpsons is on and i have to give it my full attention. i'm practicing for school tomorrow. as a final note, i mash up my sweet potato with a pinch of brown sugar and fake butter; w uses salt and butter. it's good either way.

w thinks the opening of the simpsons was an homage to the six feet under finale. it was funny.