Sunday, January 31, 2010

Epic Fail

I should know better than to think that I (with my limited cooking skills and "I hate cooking" attitude) could replicate a tasty dish from a local resteraunt. But I thought tonight could be the night.

Last weekend Scott and I enjoyed a late breakfast at Amatos. They were featured on the "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives," so we knew it would be worth it. Being the carb-lover that I am, I thoroughly enjoyed the Ricotta Berry pancakes. Both Scott and I have been talking about them ever since (you're surprised to hear that, I know).

Today my dear friend Kate (who is a fantastic cook) suggested that I look up a recipe for them on the Smitten Kitchen website. In a nutshell, Smitten Kitchen is a blog written by the woman who is on the quest to find the "best" recipe for everything. For example, there is a S'mores pie recipe on the blog that is divine...complete with homemade marshmallows. Generally I would consider this website completely out of my league (Martha Stewert endorses/supports this woman, just to give you an idea) but the recipe looked easy. Six ingredients, all items I recognized, and instructions that I thoroughly understood.

I was mentally eating the pancakes as I mixed the batter. Not quite the consistency I was expecting, but maybe they'd bake into what I was expecting, right? Wrong, unless what I was expecting was a mashed potato-like pile of goo with blueberries in it. Such a shame to waste blueberries like that. Turn the heat down, thinking the outside was cooking faster than the inside. No luck. Make the pancakes smaller. Still no success. Turn disgustedly away from the oven and have Scott take over. Still nothing...which I was secretly glad for because I would've been upset if he somehow made it work. Childish, I know. Just being honest here.

Scott, being the kind husband he is, ate a couple, commenting (supposedly) that they "really aren't that bad." Thanks. I dumped the batter in the trash and poured myself a bowl of Frosted Mini-Wheats. Better luck next time...if there is one.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Bucket List

Laugh-out-loud teacher moment of the day:
We just finished reading The Odyssey. Yesterday we read a poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson called "Ulysses." Basically the poem is Ulysses/Odysseus (same person, different language, confusing, I know) as an old man, musing about the boring state of his life now, reminiscing about the "good ol' days," and remarking that he wants to go out on adventures again.

We decided that one theme of the poem is that you should life life to the fullest. Being the stellar teacher that I am (any administrators from Millard West out there reading this? :), I started today with a journal reflecting on yesterday's theme. I asked students to write a paragraph about what things they would like to do, see, buy, be a part of, etc., that would make them feel like they are "living their life to the fullest."

"Write your 'bucket list' for those of you who are familiar with that movie, " I directed.

A hand shoots up. The hand belongs to a slightly immature, sort-of nerdy, really hardworking, polite, I though naive, student that I taught last year as well. "Does it have to be school appropriate?" he asks.

"Yes...." and I tried so hard to maintain a straight face and move on, but I just couldn't. Of course we all knew what he meant. Laughter ensures...and he doesn't even seem to be embarrassed by it!

In my attempt to regain order I said, "You can put down that you'd like to get married. You can say that you'd like to have kids. We can fill in the gaps from there."

On tap for tomorrow's journal: using Latin roots in sentences. That should be a boring, tame choice, right?