We Who Are About to Try (to Stay Calm and Confident While Confronting an Out-of-Line Employee Tomorrow) Salute You

Ugh. I don't really want to talk about it.

So instead I'll talk about the Asian-ish soup I invented (well, I'm probably not the first to think of it, but you know what I mean) for dinner, using some leftover ingredients from the homemade wonton soup I made Albert for his birthday about ten days ago (mostly following this recipe, although my wontons ended up in a range of probably-not-what-Jaden-Hair-intended shapes), plus some leeks left over from a soup I'd made maybe the weekend before that.

Asian-Inspired Leftover Soup

-four(?) leaves of bok choy, green leaves and white stems cut apart from each other, stems sliced
-two leeks, sliced crosswise and washed (white and whitish parts only; green tops discarded)
-a tablespoon of butter (less would be fine, and this isn't an Asian ingredient, but I don't think we have any peanut or even canola oil at the moment)
-a drop of sesame oil
-four(?) cups chicken broth
-black pepper to taste
-some leftover wonton skins, sliced into noodle-shapes (so I sliced them lengthwise, maybe into thirds, and then maybe again crosswise)
-two eggs

1) Melt butter and drop of sesame oil in medium saucepan and throw in bok choy stems (let the leaves be for now) and leeks. Fry until leeks are soft and translucent and the bok choy stems look headed in that direction as well (but they don't have to be there).

2) Pour in chicken broth. Season soup with pepper (now or later, whenever, I'm not picky). Bring to boil, then simmer until vegetables are tender.

3) Put in bok choy leaves. Simmer until they seem softish, then put in wonton skins. Try to make it so that the skins don't clump together into, like, two megawontons...but I was not successful in doing so, so if that doesn't work, I won't judge.

4) Crack eggs into soup and scramble with some implement that won't do your pot too much damage (I used a butter knife, but worked to not scrape the pan itself...I also messed around with the second egg, separating it in the shell and letting the whites just drop into the broth, then cooking the yolk in the broth for a bit before I tried scrambling it, but my culinary reasons for doing so, to the extent that I even had them, were questionable).

5) Cook for another minute or so. Ladle some into a bowl. Decide that it's probably low-calorie, even with the butter, and eat a lot of it. As if its not being low-calorie would have stopped you. Optional, and probably not culturally authentic, but still tasty: eat homemade banana pudding for dessert.

Four-Quick-Takes Friday Night: Anticlimactic Edition

One: So I had an unexpected snow day today. The MA South Coast was getting it worse than we did here on Aquidneck Island, so things looked okay when I started out from home (chalking up the reduced traffic, once I hit Massachusetts, to the fact that I was running late, Friday being a day when it's possible for me to go from one end of it to the other without meaningfully interacting with anyone, and HR and my dean not really caring if I'm somewhat late as long as I still put in the 7.5 hours). Then I got to campus and found that the plows had pushed snow across all the parking lot entrances and that the lots themselves were empty. I pulled over and called the college's main line, and sure enough, somehow I'd missed the website update, and everything was closed. I turned around in a nearby neighborhood (unplowed, but needing to be plowed) and went home.

Two: One of the things I did today: played a fair amount of Just Dance for Wii. Who's got two thumbs and can four-star for at least three of the four characters on "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)"? This girl. It's going to be a while before I five-star, though...if ever. Longer than it took me to double-A at DDR, I'll bet. (Or did I ever triple-A? Is there such a thing? A little shocking that I don't remember anymore.)

I'm also pretty good at the odd-but-delightful "We No Speak Americano," which song I have liked ever since I saw this (my first introduction to the song...and to hand dance):



I think I speak for most of us when I say, yeah-h-h-h-h!

Three: So...I may or may not have also watched the entirety of Season 1 of Downton Abbey (you may want to say to yourself, "Finally"), even though that would be over seven hours of television, which would be more television in one day than I'd have watched in...oops, wait, in only something like a month. Not that I watched seven hours all in one day last month, but Megan and I did get through The Forsyte Saga at a pretty good clip back in February.

So what I'm saying is, please, no spoilers about future seasons. Except for one episode I saw with Carrie and Ife and only partly remember, this is as far as I've gotten. I'm about to watch Season 2 with Megan, since she's borrowing it from a friend. Apparently our theme as housemates has become, "If It's Not a British Period Drama, It Need Not Apply."

Four: I'm over a week past, if you can believe it, the four-month mark here in Rhode Island. I miss everyone...and I'm starting to miss my cookbooks. Luckily, I look to be getting a little of both soon: my mom (and maybe my dad) will come later this month to visit and should be bringing more of my belongings with them.

And I'm going to stop there, because I'm out of things I care about saying and I want to get in bed before midnight.

But I do miss you guys, and am sorry I'm not a better blogger these days. I keep having brilliant ideas for posts, but, among other problems, no time to actually write them.