Home Cookin'

It has been a long time. Too long in fact. I know I promised that I would write a post several weeks ago, but unfortunately student teaching has eaten up essentially all of my free time. Now, though, as the whole experience draws to a close, I will surely miss it dearly. The students that I worked with were some of the most interesting people I have ever met, and helping to teach them something, seeing them progress over the course of the semester, and occasionally, getting to witness first-hand their own individual "ah-ha!" moments - the moment when it becomes clear that whatever subject they were struggling with, were confused by, or just could not comprehend finally clicked in their brains, and the light bulb went off - was the most rewarding experience of my entire life so far. Today, as I sit back and type, drinking some sweet tea and pondering the day's events, I experienced a moment of lucidity, enlightenment, if you will, about my life, about where I am headed, and about what the future holds for me. When I started college, I was a Pre-Med student, a Biology Major. It was not in the cards for me. I switched not once, but twice before landing at Temple University and getting to work with their wonderful history department, honing and expanding my knowledge of the past, which I hoped to one day pass on to others in some way. Now, all of the pieces seem to have fallen into place, everything is beginning to work together, and all of the struggles, and hardships, the stress, the tears, the laughs and smiles, all come together in one instant and the thought crosses my mind. I love teaching, I love history, I love teaching kids about history. I made the right choice.

Another thing I love very dearly: Food. Today I cooked some of it for myself. One of the few dishes I can now make on my own that does not send people running to the hills.

Breakfast: A Nutri-grain Bar.
Lunch: A Blueberry Bagel, Granny Smith Apple, and Water.

Dinner: Linguini with Sun Dried Tomatoes - -

Here's how that works, if anyone ever wants to try the recipe. Boil 3/4 of a pack of Linguini pasta and set it aside.

Next, take a handful of sun-dried tomatoes, and chop them up nice and thin. Also, take some fresh basil, three or four big leaves of it, and chop that up as well.

While you're making the pasta, pour some olive oil into a big pan you can saute with. Mince some garlic, three or four cloves will do the trick, and toss it in the olive oil. Let it cook on medium heat until you can smell the garlic cooking, but don't burn it, or it will taste gross.

After you can smell the garlic, toss in the tomatoes you cut, and stir it around a bit before you take it off the heat. Once the pan is off the heat, throw in the linguini, basil, and top if off with a package of feta cheese (I think they usually come in four ounce packs, but throw the whole thing in there, because feta is delicious). If you want to add something extra (I recommend it), you can also cut up some prosciutto and toss it in there as well. Once everything is in the pan, mix it up and serve. Delicious, and one of my favorite recipes that I've been tinkering with.