Monday, January 27, 2014

Cold Snap Snuggling

Our part of North Carolina has been caught in the bottom edge of the POLAR VORTEX for several days (we escaped today, but it's supposed to recapture us tomorrow). I'm told by natives that it used to stay below freezing for several days at a time back in the 80s, but it is very much colder than we had yet experienced here. And it is the first time that we are in a house with huge windows, instead of apartments with neighbors who cranked up the heat so much we had to open  windows.

All this to say, our house is  on the cool and drafty side at the moment. I foresee the installation of more insulation in our crawlspace and attic in the near-ish future.

In the meantime, rather than turn up the heat like most people, we have taken to bundling up inside, because we both grew up in houses that were cool in the winter (me because my parents just kept the thermostat low and told us to put on a sweater, he because the area of the world he grew up in gets chilly (damp 50s) in the winter, but the houses are not heated, and are in fact designed with cooling in  mind) so we'd rather bundle than turn up the heat. Also, SO much cheaper.

But while I put on an extra pair of socks, Penny goes straight for finding either a warm body to curl up with, or burying herself in blankets.

A favorite place seems to be the footrest portion of my husband's recliner, using his legs as a kind of warm pillow.





Lacking that, she'll do her best to nest in a blanket, and then look at us until we cover her the rest of the way, having opposable thumbs and all that.

Of course, this seems to be her favorite position at the moment--held like a baby in Dear Husband's arms, wrapped in a blanket.


Dog knows how to stay warm.


Thursday, January 23, 2014

The Lesser Embarrasment

I am old school when it comes to teaching methods. This means I use whatever physical, does not plug into the wall board I am given. In the classrooms I teach in, I have old school chalkboards, and I bring my own white chalk, because they just give me sidewalk chalk which is terrible.

I am a woman, which means I have a bosom. As it happens, I have a fairly generous bosom for my size.

I grew up with Italian-Americans. I talk with my hands.

Can you see where this is going?

Today in class, I was trying to explain something, while holding a piece of chalk, while wearing a fitted dark green shirt.

I chalked my boob.

Now, I am used to getting chalk on myself. Usually I kinda brush/beat at it until it dissipates. I did that one or two times and then stopped.

It seemed really awkward to be doing that in the front of the classroom to that particular body part. Especially since my classes are 95% young men, and extra-especially since I got several reviews last semester commenting on how I was easy on the eyes (not always that politely), though only a Taliban could accuse me of dressing immodestly.

So, all while trying to explain electric fields, I'm debating if it is more awkward to have a bright white line on my bosom, or to be brushing my bosom for a good minute to get the chalk off (it was a really solid line).

I chose to leave it until after class.

It seemed the less embarrassing thing to do.

~AMPH

Monday, January 20, 2014

Hiking


Today is a federal holiday around here, which means that we both had the day off. The weather was (unseasonably) gorgeous, so we decided to take advantage of it and go hiking.

The original plan was to go to Uwharrie National Forest, which Penny and I had been to before. However, a missed turn meant we ended up closer to Morrow Mountain State Park (mountain is a term used loosely around here. And this comes from a defender of the Appalachians as mountains.) So that is where we went.

The trail we chose was the "Sugarloaf" trail, which my mother informed me after the fact is a famous ski mountain in Vermont. Had I known this, I probably would not have been surprised at what the trail entailed.

It started off fairly normal...



Then it started going downhill.

Literally

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Penny Pictures: A Cuteness interlude

I hope to be able to write a nice, wordy post sometime soon, but in the meantime I thought I would post these pictures of Penny from yesterday.

This first series is of Penny trying to understand what I am saying (or looking like she is). I talk to her as if she were  a small human, because there are days when for a good 10 hour stretch she is the only other living creature I interact with directly. I also just talk to things. And myself.

Of course, she has no idea what I am saying for the most part. She recognizes a few words or short phrases as commands or invitations. "Do you want to go for a ride?" has her running for the garage, while "Crate" has her running for the guest room (long story).  But when I am in the process of trying to teach her something new, cuing it with  a particular intonation, she does this.

Mild interest since I am standing in the kitchen, and there is therefore the possibility of food.


Did you say something? Am I supposed to know this?


Thursday, January 16, 2014

Teaching, the first week

Thursday is my most tiring day of the week. Physically, I have to travel farther to teach, and this semester I have an unusually high chalkboard in one of the classrooms (I am just over 5 feet tall, and this one is at least 6 inches higher than standard, so I can reach about 2/3 of it if I strain). But more than that, I have two groups of lively and engaged students.

Please note that I encourage this kind of behavior. But it does keep me on my toes and force me to think on my feet, fast and well. Students ask questions I had never considered, or had never thought of in that way. And since I have garnered a bit of a reputation as a good TA, I have expectations to uphold!

Its exhilarating while I'm up there. I love teaching, I love my subject, and I love my students. I can't wait for the day when this is what I do, and not just a means to an end. There are honestly few other things that make me feel that alive and happy.

But it is also draining. I put a lot of effort in before I walk into the classroom, but that isn't tiring. And I don't mind the grading. But pouring that much enthusiasm, and I can't be anything but enthusiastic with physics, is tiring.

This is going to be a good semester.

~AMPH

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

New Years Resolution Update

As I mentioned about 2 weeks ago, my New Year's resolution was to keep a neater, tidier kitchen. The first step in that was organizing my pantry so everything had a designated location, it was easier to find things and to know when I was running out of an item. That has so far gone swimmingly. I have to dig around a lot less, and my husband can find the things he wants--small trash bags, large trash bags, snacks, what have you, without asking me, who may or may not be anywhere near the pantry.

The second part of my plan was to take care of dishes more quickly (not instantly, because some of them are better off soaking overnight and some of them are 300 degrees), and generally reduce clutter in my kitchen. While it is not perfect, partly because there is no good place to put mail, my purse, etc, that isn't the kitchen island corner, it is certainly better than it has ever been. I have a lot more working space, and Dear Husband seems to be less twitchy every time he walks in.

The third goal was to be more prepared for weeknight dinners. During the semester, actively cooking on Tuesdays and Thursdays is difficult. I get home around 6 (which is late for me) which means dinner cannot be produced from scratch before 7:30 or so, which is just too late when you go to bed a little after 9. So my goal is to either have something prepared Monday night so Tuesday I can take it straight from the fridge to the oven and not have to cook, or make a huge batch of something on the weekend that I can use as leftovers. This is also so far going pretty well. Monday I put together a baked ziti, but did not bake it. When I can home yesterday, it went into the oven and we had a hot homemade dinner without my having to actively do anything other than check it.

Of course, it's easy to keep a resolution for 2 weeks. But I am hopeful that I will be able to keep it up because it actually does seem to make my life easier. We shall see.

~AMPH

Monday, January 13, 2014

Comtesse au Chocolat

Yesterday, I set out to make Julia Child's "Marquis au Chocolat" cake. It looked insanely delicious, even in black and white, and everything she demonstrated seemed well within my capabilities, even if not quite as adroitly as she.

Everything was going swimmingly. I made the chocolate spongecake, safely de-panned it and cooled it without disaster. Then I listened more carefully to her instructions for the first layer of icing, and realized that I did not have NEARLY enough butter to finish the recipe. The first layer of butter cream called for half a pound alone.

So I decided to improvise, and I whipped up a batch of think ganache, at about 3.5 parts heavy cream to 5 parts semi-sweet chocolate. After it cooled and thickened a bit, I smoothed it over the cake.

It is decadent. It is delicious. It is chocolatey and satisfying in a small slice. It is shiney.


It's a single layer, which I actually think I like better than the taller cakes I'm used to. And the icing is not thick, but what it lacks in bulk it makes up for in lusciousness.


Yes, it gleams that much in real life. Over all it's kind of like a cake, a brownie, and a truffle in one package. It hits all the right notes, without being over the top like some 'death by chocolate' cakes.


This is kinda what it would look like if you can wait to cut into it.

This recipe is definitely a keeper. Since it is not quite the Marquis au Chocolat, but would certainly satisfy any woman's chocolate cravings, I'm dubbing it the Comtesse au Chocolat. It seems fitting.

Cake~Julia Child's "Marquis au Chocolat" sponge cake recipe
Icing~ 180 g heavy cream, heated to simmer and poured over 260 g semi-sweet chocolate chips. Stir until melted, cool until the consistency of thin whipped cream, and ice cake.

Enjoy!

~AMPH


Sunday, January 12, 2014

Foods Falsely Feared: Souffle

There are certain foods that people will avoid making without ever having tried, or even read a recipe. Whether because it has a reputation for taking a long time to make, being particularly difficult in required technique, or just having a general air of requiring years of training to get right, people avoid making them like they will explode if done improperly.

Souffle is probably the best example of this. It is a dish that is beautiful in its simplicity, and demonstrates perfectly culinary aesthete which sits opposite to the over-the-top-must-be-huge-with-every-ingredient-possible-plus-bacon aesthete that seems popular right now. Whether savory or sweet, souffle is easy and pretty quick to make.
Cheese souffle, aka Friday's dinner

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Physics 2: Electric Charge

Once again, I am  teaching Introduction to Electromagnetism this semester, which really means "Basic electrostatics, circuits, and magnetostatics"

While Classical Mechanics, or Physics 1, deals with quantities that we all have direct, visceral experience with--masses, gravity, acceleration, velocity-- electromagnetism, or Physics 2, deals with things that, while technically we have experience with, we don't have a good intuition for. Even if you are a little shaky on the difference between mass and weight, or the difference between velocity and speed, you have an intuition that if something with more mass drops on your head, your head is going to experience more force. You know from driving in a car and stopping short for something that anything not tied down to the car will keep going forward  until it hits something--Newton's 3rd law of motion. If you've ever played pool you've used conservation of momentum.

But if something has a lot of charge, what does that mean? What even qualifies as 'a lot' of charge? Something has mass if it's made of 'stuff'.  What gives somethings charge and other's not? We use refrigerator magnets and electricity every day of our lives, but its actions are for the most part mysterious.

This post is going to try to cover, in a basic, plain-English kind of way, to describe the quantity that is at the heart of all electromagnetism--charge.



Select Field-lines between positive and negative charges. 

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Benefits of Uber-labeling

I am loving my very organized pantry. It is easy to find things. It is easy to know when we are running out of things. 

My husband can find things when my hands are goopy. 

I was making chocolate souffles for dessert last night, because it was cold and my mother gave me a lovely set of ramekins for Christmas, and these two things seemed to call for chocolate souffle. As I started separating the eggs, I asked Dear Husband to grab me out the vanilla.  And he did. He could find it easily because it was right there in the 'extract and flavoring' section. 

Moreover, he seemed happy with this. Add this to the fact that he no longer has to look around for the cereal every morning (it was always in the same spot, but somehow a label makes it easier to find), and he seems willing to help on my organization, even helping to put up a cleaning-implement rack. 

This trend is slowly seeping outward. It is yet to be seen how well it works outside the pantry. 

Thursday, January 2, 2014

My New Year's Resolution

For the most part, I don't do New Year's Resolutions. If you want to change something, I don't see the point in waiting for January 1st to roll around.

This year though, my desire for change and the New Year coincided. So my resolution is to keep a tidier kitchen. I would eventually like to have an overall tidier house, but one room at a time.

So, I started with my pantry.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Homemade Croissants

Croissants are one of life's great simple pleasures. The child of a basic bread recipe and puff pastry, they satisfy pretty much any craving you can have in one delicious package.

Growing up, we had croissants a good deal, but never homemade. They were, as far as I could tell, the one food my mother said was too much trouble to make at home. For the longest time, I took my mother's word for it. She made puff pastry several times a year for heaven sake.

But I recently have been watching episodes of Julia Child's cooking show (the old black and white one). And when I saw an episode on croissants, I figured I should at least try making them. If Julia Child could make them with the kind of pots and pans and electric stove/oven she has on the show, I could surely make them with my 21st century electric stove and high tech kitchen gear.