Because you're never too old...

...to visit your parents and raid their fridge. My parents are remodeling their kitchen, and I'm here having had a late night and unable to drive back to SF at 1 am without crashing into the bridge. So as I type away at my (slowly dying, WTF Mac??) laptop, listening to the soothing sounds of power saws, none of this matters, because remodeling the kitchen = no cooking, which means my parents have all manner of awesome takeout leftovers for me to eat. Like Cheesecake Factory pasta.

That's right snobs, suck it. Cheesecake Factory pasta rocks.

You don't have to wait in line at Blue Bottle....

...if you're getting the New Orleans iced coffee.

This, and the chocolate hazelnut croissant at La Boulange (almost) made up for the fact that there was no baby broccoli raab at the farmer's market today. :(

In hiding

Originally uploaded by starchmouse.

So I'm not actually in hiding, but I've realized it will seem that way for the next four months, because I'm not sure I'll have time to do ANYTHING other than make powerpoint slides and teach anatomy.

Having taught a once-a-week anatomy lab for the last three semesters, I guess I got a little cocky in assuming that adding a three-times-a-week lecture on top of that wouldn't be horribly different. Boy, how WRONG I am. Here I've had the entire weekend to prep for the upcoming week's lectures, and I still haven't finished tomorrow's, I still need to START the book for this Thursday's book club (which, by the way, I picked, and therefore need to lead the discussion on), my room is a mess, there's a laundry pile spilling out of my closet, and don't even get me started on my dissertation. I woke up with a panicky feeling, as if I had just had a terrible nightmare, that I was not going to graduate because there are just not enough hours in the day to do all that I need to do and still have time to feed myself and bathe and occasionally sleep.

So what *did* I do this weekend?

I drove my friend and her family home from the hospital - because now, they are a family of three instead of two.

I soaked chickpeas overnight and made Orangette's butternut squash and chickpea salad.

I realized that my jar of tahini tastes absolutely terrible so the tahini dressing for the salad became an almond butter dressing.

I watched a baby sleep for two hours today and it seriously felt like 20 seconds.

I went to Rigolo for brunch and realized there was a reason that the last time I went, I decided I would never go again.

I learned that just merely outlining a 50-minute lecture takes about three hours. God, I hope at least one student is paying attention.

I looked at my pictures from Seattle and felt homesick, even though I've never lived there. Perhaps I was just missing the feeling of being at home with girls who will eat cake, frosting, and melted cheese for breakfast.

I went to the gym, because the lady at a salon in Korea told me my scalp is just like my mother's, and in order to avoid going completely bald from stress I need to drink more water and exercise more. Still working on both of those.

I outlined tomorrow's lecture. Did I mention that already? Yes, yes I did. Because that's pretty much ALL I have been doing when I haven't been sleeping (poorly), eating (quickly), or staring at the baby.

If only I were the type of person who could structure her time efficiently...

leftover pumpkin oatmeal pancakes

Sorry, I ate these already, so no picture. I had a huge batch of steel cut oats sitting in my fridge, and the thought of eating hot oatmeal on an 80-degree day was just too much to handle. So I decided to use them to make pancakes. I had added a cup of pumpkin puree to my steel cut oats so I wanted something that would remind me of pumpkin chocolate chip cake. Unfortunately, Trader Joe's has been out of chocolate chips for the last two weeks. So I decided to substitue...frozen corn. Yup! The corn was so sweet and the pancakes turned out delicious! So here is the recipe so that I don't forget and can make these next week because I'm sure I'll have barely made a dent in those damn oats.

Dry:

0.5 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp baking soda
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Wet:

1 cup cooked steel-cut oatmeal (mine had pumpkin puree mixed in, but it is fine without)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp agave nectar
2 tbsp pumpkin butter
2 tbsp sour cream
0.5 cup frozen corn (or chocolate chips)

Mix together dry ingredients in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together wet ingredients, then combine with dry. Butter a griddle pan and cook like you would cook normal pancakes, but watch the heat because the batter is more "goopy" than regular pancake batter and the pancakes brown a little faster.

Banana Layer Cake with Mascarpone Frosting

Picture from Food and Wine website (which is acting screwy right now, so I'm copying the recipe here instead of linking to it.)

It was Kevin's birthday on Monday, so today I baked him a cake. I would have had it ready by Monday except the bananas weren't ripe until yesterday, and then I forgot all my butter was in the freezer, and I would have been awake until 3am baking this thing, which I am too old (but not as old as Kevin, ha ha!) to do...

The cake part? Absolutely delicious. The frosting? Blech. Seriously, do yourself a favor and make this cake, but use cream cheese frosting instead. The sweetness of the bananas and the cake (I might actually cut down the sugar to half a cup the next time I make this) really need the tang that only cream cheese can provide. We ended up scraping off the top layer of frosting and eating our slices with a side of peanut butter, which was heavenly.


Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
Scant 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup mashed ripe banana (1 1/2 large), plus 2 large bananas, thinly sliced
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk
3 large egg whites

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325°. Butter a 9-inch round cake pan and line it with parchment paper; butter the parchment paper. Dust the pan all over with flour, tapping out any excess. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour with the baking powder, baking soda and salt.
2. In a large bowl, using a handheld electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the egg yolks and vanilla extract. Add the mashed bananas and beat the mixture until smooth. Add half of the dry ingredients and beat at low speed until the batter is moistened. Beat in half of the buttermilk, then add the remaining dry ingredients and the remaining buttermilk.
3. In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites at medium-high speed until firm peaks form. Beat one-fourth of the egg whites into the batter at low speed. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the rest of the whites until no streaks remain. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake the cake for about 40 minutes, until the top is golden and springy and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean; the top will be very slightly cracked. Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then invert the cake onto a rack to cool completely. Peel off the parchment paper.
4. Using a large serrated knife, cut the cake horizontally into 3 layers. Place the top layer, cut side up on a cake plate and spread with frosting. Arrange half of the bananas in a single layer on the frosting. Top with the middle cake layer. Cover the layer with more frosting and top with the remaining bananas. Cover with the bottom cake layer, cut side down, and frost the top. Refrigerate the cake for at least 30 minutes before serving. (We skipped that part!)

Seriously...

Originally uploaded by starchmouse.

...make this granola. Switch out the vegetable oil with extra virgin coconut oil. Douse it with cold milk and sprinkle on some pomegranate, and you have the best breakfast ever.

Things I am currently loving....

Originally uploaded by starchmouse.

Getting a random email or text message from a college friend, saying they are in town, then meeting up with them here or here.

Roasting pumpkins.

Hot tea with milk and agave nectar.

The yogurt shallot dip at Lavash on Irving.

Barbecue and babies.

Nippy fall weather.

Wii Fit.

Dexter on DVD.

The fact that people actually look at my pictures on flickr. One of my photos is on Schmap!

Truffle oil from my trip to Italy.

Google Reader

Split pea soup.

Things I could currently do without:

Narcissistic, self-absorbed, and/or passive-aggressive people.

Bug bites.

Low back pain.

Watching my IRA shrink and shrink and shrink.

Having to wait an extra eight months for the new Harry Potter movie.