I'm ready for some retirement living

So the other day I came home to find this advertising card, personally addressed to me:



As you can see, I am being offered the opportunity to check out a local retirement community for a whole weekend--for free!

I guess it could be a mass mailout, but really, I am the only person I know who received one of these. I would bet money I'm the only thirtysomething who has gotten one. I have interrogated the various jokers in my life (well, OK, mostly just one) to ask if they are responsible for signing me up for this invite. So far all have denied responsibility. ("I swear I didn't do it, but I wish I could take credit for it!")

As it happens, my lovely friend D's octogenarian parents are residents in this retirement home. The other day at D's birthday celebration I told her and her sister about my invitation. After they picked themselves up off the floor from laughing, they encouraged me to cash in my invitation for my 3-day mini vacation. I told them that I am seriously thinking about doing it, but warned them that afterwards their parents and I would definitely be BFFs.

It's a mystery. I have no idea why I received this, but I must say the idea of spending 3 days being waited on hand and foot by the Chateau staff, with all the time in the world to hole up in my guest suite and knit and read books and most importantly NOT MARK PAPERS sounds pretty good at this point in the semester.

jook

This is jook, pronounced similar to "choke" but not quite. This was the Chinese comfort food of my childhood; it is made with rice and broth, topped with sesame oil, chopped green onions, and shiitake mushrooms. Sometimes my mom would put cooked chicken in it, or dried fish, or preserved crunchy turnip bits. I had never made it myself before but I made some tonight and it turned out pretty much as I remembered it from my childhood. I don't know why I've never made it before; it was so easy.

Basic jook recipe:

1 cup short-grain rice
10 cups stock of your choice (I used 8 cups chicken stock and 2 cups water)

Combine in a big pot; bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer. Simmer for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Top with a splash of sesame oil, chopped green onions, and reconstituted dried shiitake mushrooms, diced with tough stems removed.

Some people add soy sauce, but I recommend you taste it first, because I found it salty enough as it was. Other people like to add chilli sauce.

Enjoy!

lentil soup with roasted kale

I highly recommend this roasted kale recipe. The temperature here dropped very quickly and very harshly this past weekend, so I harvested the last surviving remnants of the kale from the garden--it was the perfect way to use it rather than let it go to waste. It made a crispy, tasty topping for lentil soup.

um

WTF?

dear grade grubbers

Please stop it. Your grade is not a starting point for negotiations. I know that 66% is "only 2% away from 68%" and that it is a C+ but "it's only 2% away from a B-." I KNOW THAT. I did put some--no, quite a bit--of thought into marking your essay. Did you read the comments I wrote on it? Did you read the big paragraph I wrote at the end, summing up those comments? There is a reason you are "2% away from 70%." There is a reason you are "2% away from a B-." It's because your essay is a C+ essay. That's why.