Ugh- more reasons not to get a PhD

I had a very helpful phone call with one of my committee members today. She didn't help me find a clear argument, but she let me know that I'm not totally off track, I am looking at "interesting" material, and gave me some useful ways of re-thinking about my chapter. Looking at it now, it needs a full overhaul. It'll be better for it, but this is not just a few revisions but major, major re-working. All stuff that needs to be done, but man, I'm tired and don't want to do it.

My body is also clearly reflecting my stress levels. I started clenching my jaw and biting/grinding my teeth (when awake, not asleep) about a year and half ago. Sometimes it's better, sometimes it's worse. Right now? My whole neck and jaw are pretty tense. This summer I started breaking out in itchy eczema bumps all over my arms. ( I was convinced it was scabbies, herpes (thanks for that suggestion, sis), folliculitis, bed bugs, fleas, and god only knows what else). They were down for a while, but it's creeping back. Time to see the dermatologist and dentist again.

I know my challenges are small considering the daily life stress people around the world face. It's a pretty whiny/privileged stress that "thinking makes my teeth hurt!" boo fucking hoo. But there it is anyway.

So if you ever thought about going to grad school - save your body and your sanity, don't go.

My dissertation is missing something....

Today I met with a diss writing group at the UofA. It's a group of good looking, smart, terrified dissertators. We exchange a piece of writing, any writing, every week. The need to submit writing is really frustrating, especially with the way I write (in big chunks), but after a very productive summer (140 pages productive), I have 3 chapters of material to submit.

So I submitted a chapter on representations of murderous women in ballads. It's a crunchy social historical chapter that is heavy on the descriptive, textual analysis, and consideration of the woman's voice (can the early modern woman mediated via a male-authored text, speak?). They liked it, I think, but they all had one question:

So, what's your argument?

Uh.

I should be able to answer this.

I have an answer, I swear!

I mean, I'm making a correction to the historiography...

And I think it has something to do with deviance...

And expectations of early modern women...

And negative examples or something like that...

Fuck.

I have 140 pages.

I have an argument, I know I do!

But I have no idea what it is.

And how this connects to my image stuff?

Uh... Can I call you back? There's a spot under my bed that's calling me....

Long Run Sunday!

Yesterday I did my first long run yesterday. 8.5 miles! Woot. I'm doing a hybrid of gradually adding distance and this plan from RW that starts you at longer distances and then increases your speed at those distances. I made my goal of between 10-11 minute miles with walk breaks of 1.5 min at mile 3 and mile 6.

I left at 6 and it was round 90 with 50% humidity. At least the sun was down :) I averaged a 10:36 mile. My first mile was 13 min b/c I was on trails and got held up by this:

It's a Javelina. I nearly ran right into it. And munching on the cactus, it was relatively unconcerned that it was right in the way of my running path. So the first mile was a little slow...

I tried margarita + sodium cliff blocks 1/2 way through the run and had no real problems. I got some cramping on the lower left side of my abdomen. Can't tell if it was the bloks or the breathing, but it slowed the pace on miles 7 and part of 8. 

Overall I felt really pretty good and like I could for a long time at a 10:30-11 min mile pace. Not bad for the first long run :) I'd like to run the half at a 10 mi mile pace, but I'd also be happy doing it at an 11 min pace. Not a bad start.

Wagons West, Grand Tetons, Part 1 - Camp

Last week I spent five days in the Bridger-Teton wilderness with my mother in law and a big group of alums from her alma matter. The trip was organized from her undergrad college and included a range of folks from age 5 to 74. We spent four days in the wilderness doing a mix of hiking, wagon riding, and horseback riding. Half the group would ride in the morning while the other half rode in the wagon or hiked behind (guess where I was), and then we switched after lunch. The Wranglers were friendly, professional, and great cooks. By far one of the highlights was spending time with some of the country's last cowboys and hearing their stories.

I'm going to divide this into 2 or 3 posts in order to showcase my pics :) If you know my other gmail alias you can find the full pics on my picasa page. 

We arrived in Jackson Hole on Tuesday. Jackson has never been on my radar but it's too bad because it was really beautiful. It's also beautiful in that yuppie, Vail, CO, super touristy sort of way... but really pretty nonetheless.

They're really big on these antler arches. One of the Elk Refuge feed lots is right outside of Jackson and in the winter they collect the dropped antlers and make these arches. 

Wednesday morning we got rustled up in a van and headed out to the Cow Patty Base camp. My biggest concern about this whole thing was the lack of bathroom... but in addition to the wagons and full chuck wagon/kitchen, they had a mobile porta potty.

The wagons slept 4 to a wagon and the tents were 2 people (+1 kid). 

 Our first thought was wagon = padded sleeping area = more comfortable. What we didn't anticipate is wagon = holes = drafty = fucking freezing when temps drop below freezing at night. Everyone spent the first night shivering and cold. By the second night we figured out that doubling up the sleeping bags was a good fix. Of course the wranglers kept telling us that the solution was to sleep naked - but I think that was just a ploy. (to some extent they were right, layers of cotton aren't good insulators, but the new insulating tech fabrics insulate just fine).

We joined up with an alum from C's college years and an '02 grad who was my age. Together we formed the rockin' Single Ladies Wagon.

Our wagon!

C and I were picked as part of the morning group, which meant we rode in the afternoons. The wagons would go out about 2 hours, stop for lunch, and then we'd switch with the horses. On the one hand, being in the morning group meant doing the easier, kid-oriented, afternoon rides. On the other hand, it also meant I got to hang out with the 3 professional historians on the trip! An Emeritas Carleton prof (started in Tudor England and then became a historian of the West), and 2 UCSD profs (Early modern Spain and Ancient Byzantine (she works' on gender and eunuchs). After several months of little-to-no-historian contact, this was like winning the lottery. We had some fantastic conversations about research, pedagogy, and working one's way through the archives in Franco's Spain.

Morning Wagon 

Tomorrow I'll talk more about the scenery, but for now, here's a view from our wagon:

One of the things that really struck me was a newfound respect for the pioneers of the American West, and the desperation people must have felt to get out of the East. On the one hand, the West was abundant with game and offered more meat than most East coast urban residents could have believed. The fresh air at 8K ft is invigorating, and the views are breath taking. But wagons are bumpy, cold, finicky beasts, and that's with a modern suspension and tires. My family waited until the 1970s to come west, but I have a newfound respect for the men, women, and children who braved the journey earlier.

Photos later this week

I'm still editing photos from my time in the Tetons and will hold off the narrative until I can post it fully illustrated.

In the meantime, b/c clearly I'm not procrastinating enough on my dissertation, I've started a sister-blog to this one that will be dedicated to my half marathon training. I give you:

gokellyrun

gokellyrun will be running-focused and serve primarily as a training log (also links to my Daily Mile account). I'll also review running-related stuff like my quest for the perfect sports bra, experiments with nutrition, cooking-related stuff, and what I learn from running in the Southwest. I figured this was a reasonable way to keep tabs on the running part of my life w/o boring my readers to death.

In non-procrastination related news, I'm making good progress on editing the two chapters I've spent the last several months trying to write. They are much more cohesive than my first "section". The editing (adding citations,  cleaning up prose) is time consuming, but I think my semi-finished product will be better. Once I'm done with this I "only" have 2 more analytical chapters to go! Oh, and apply for jobs. Eek!

I'm also knitting and crocheting like a fiend, but b/c much of what I'm working on is gifts for my nephew-to-be, I'm keeping it a secret until the future 'rents open the gifts.

Eek

I'm back from the Tetons and had a fabulous time. I'll post pics later this week. But in bigger news, I registered for the Tempe-Scottsdale Woman's Half Marathon on November 6. I paid the registration, bought the tech shirt, looks like I'm really doing this!

I'll probably post running/training updates as I go along, and I would appreciate any first timer's advice in the comments. Let me know if you've run and had a good experience with a training program. At this point I'm running between 20-30 miles a week, 4.5-5 miles a run, sometimes walking the distance if it's too hot. My 10K pace is about 9 min 15 sec, but my average running pace is much slower b/c of the heat. I feel fine on my runs but haven't been out on longer runs b/c it just gets too hot.

Yippie Ki Yay, Mother@&%#er

In a few hours I depart for Jackson Hole and a 5 day horseback and covered wagon trip to the Grand Tetons. The trip is organized by my in-law's alumni association. My MIL was very excited about the adventure and is bringing me along as her companion. I have my backpack packed, I sewed a couple of stuff sacks and a sleeping bag liner last night, and I think I'm ready to do. This will be the longest I've been "off-grid" in... I don't even know how long. I'm looking forward to the hiking, riding, and general communing with nature. Plus the networking.

Although I keep thinking it'll be something like this:

I'm probably in for fewer adventures the the Frisco Kid.

See y'all when I get back.

It's not you, it's me. I've changed.

I think I'm divorcing a chapter from my dissertation. Or, at the bare minimum, initiating a legal separation. You see, I think what I really have is two dissertations. It's not a bad problem to have. It means I have a whole lot of material that I will be able to spin off into articles and the like. It also means that I should have a relatively easy time of culling from the diss in order ot make a more manageable "book-length" narrative. But it's also left me feeling overwhelmed and rather schizophrenic while trying to write the damn thing. (did you notice the sheer number of cooking posts? And there's another one coming after this post...)

I've written plenty. I have a 110 page "image section" that will be divided into 2-3 chapters and expanded, likely to 130 or 140 pages. I have the world's worst and largest background chapter on the history of print in England from THE beginning until THE end, or 1695, which ever comes first. I think it's 50 pages of awful. I have about 15 pages of a background to ballads and the ballad trade, maybe 15 pages of a shitty intro. Now I'm 25,844 words into a "chapter" on women and crime, and I still have a final section to write. None of this counts the footnotes or appendices. 

Originally, I had plans to write a chapter on men and crime in ballads, in addition to a chapter on crime illustrations, and finish up with a chapter on ballads in the 18th century. I've realized that I don't really have anything new to say about men and crime (unlike the chapter on women and crime that I am writing), and it doesn't really add to my argument other than to show that I've done the research slog with the material. I can always add it back in if my diss committee wants it, and I've already done the research prep, but I'm not going to waste time writing 20, 30, 50 pages that don't add anything and no one is going to want to read. 

I guess like any break up, it's sort of sad and liberating. You think about all of the things that might have been, but also all of the really hard work it would have taken to get there. 

Dissertations do weird things to one's mind. I can't stop thinking about prostitutes. A colleague says she regularly has "microcosmical testicles" (so cool, right?) on the brain.  I woke up this morning with an image of being trapped in the Malkovich-world of Being John Malkovich, but the only word people used was "gender", instead of "Malkovich".

And now, the song that's been running in the background while I've been working on a section about prostitutes. Clearly I have something wrong with me:

Fat Camp
Tags: SOUTH
PARKmore...

Crème Fraiche

Last week I decided to make a French tarte au chocolat. Yes, I was a bad blogger and didn't take any pictures and haven't posted the recipe - but I'll do so next time because there will be a next time.

Anyhoo, the recipe called for crème fraiche. I hate the pasteurized crème fraiche they sell in the grocery stores here so I decided to make my own.  It's super simple - just watch!

Here's what you do:
Put 1Tbl unpasteurized buttermilk per 8 oz of heavy cream in a container. Use and empty jam jar if you have it.

Put a paper towel over the mixture, put a rubber band around the neck to secure. Put somewhere at room temperature. Because I have an inquisitive cat, aka Inquisitive Food Whore, I put mine in the cupboard.

Leave 8-24 hours or until thickens. Put in fridge. And:

I left mine at room temp and it was a little more on the sour cream side of things. Next time, I'll leave it alone for 36 hours to basically make sour cream, or only age it for 12 hours to make the nuttier, sweeter crème fraiche.

Super easy- try it!

Brownies, Brownies, Brownies

I'm insane. If you know me, you already knew that but dissertating makes it so much worse.

Yesterday I saw this recipe posted over on cookie madness. Oooooo.... Aztec brownie..... Figuring they would go great with the coffee porter Luke made and we're cracking this weekend, I whipped up a batch.

Despite the "cakey" warning ( I'm a fudgy brownie girl), I followed the recipe exactly and used Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder . After letting them cool I took a bite. Now, I should have thought about the cakiness and that the recipe only called for 2 Tbl of cocoa powder.... B/c the spices were nice but the cocoa was bland. Like a cheap supermarket oils based chocolate cake. Totally not worth the calories.

Not to be set back, I decided to whip up another batch using the fail-safe Hershey's best brownies recipe, but this time using my beloved special dark . Normally, these are a rich,buttery, fudgy brownie with a flaky crust.  This is what I got:

Again, I got  milder chocolate flavor in these cookies. I'd describe the texture on the cakier side of brownies. Sort of a dense cake, but not really fugdy.  Good, but not what I was looking for.

Not to be set back, I decided to whip up a third batch of brownies, because, damn it, if I'm going to eat butter, chocolate and sugar, I want it to taste like butter, chocolate and sugar.

After some procrastinating-from-writing-my-dissertation-googling... I (re)discovered that Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa is Dutch processed. You see, natural cocoa is slightly acidic. It's what gives it the slightly bitter, rich chocolate flavor. Dutch processed cocoa is processed with an alkali in order to rend it neutral. As a result, they both cook differently. Joy of Baking has a really good description here. I've used dutch processed cocoa in cakes and cookies with no problem, but in brownies it significantly changed the texture and flavor. Seeing as I was already 2 batches of brownies deep, what was the harm in making a third? This time, same Best Brownies recipe but with natural (non-alkalinized) Hershey's cocoa powder.

Voila:

That's what I'm talking about. Just so you know, these two batched were baked in the same, pan, same oven, same amount of time. The only difference was the cocoa powder. I have no idea why the right side did that weird thing, but you can see the thick, fudgy layer of brownie with the crispy, glossy top.  This batch wasn't going to win any beauty contests (my other batches of this recipe have been prettier), but they tasted the chocolaty-ist of the group. Plus, they were eventually frosted and frosting covers a lot of ills. It's like the photoshop of the baking world. These were about 1/2 the height of the dutch processed batch. 

For a side-by-side comparison:

Finally, the taste test.

We both felt the Spice Islands Brownies tasted like a spice cake that had a bit of chocolate added to it. Good, but not really chocolaty, and these are really like a chocolate cake, not a brownie. The Hershey's best with dutch processed cocoa were very good. More like a dense cake or a light brownie. The chocolate flavor was more intense than the Spice Islands (2 Tbl in SI, 1/3 c. cocoa in the Hershey's recipe). They aren't what I look for in a brownie on the whole, but if I need a cakey version I'll make this recipe. The Best Brownies with natural cocoa powder were the best. Sort of like a flourless chocolate cake.

The spice combo - cayenne, nutmeg, cinnamon, and almond - was well-blended and tasty in each brownie. Not something I'd make regularly, but definitely something I'd bring to a party or make when I wanted something different. I'd also consider adding a bit of orange zest (sort of like Green and Black's Maya Gold Chocolate).

What I found most interesting was the big difference between cocoa powders in the 2 versions of the Hershey's recipe. In retrospect, the natural cocoa powder brownies could have used an extra 4 min or so (bringing the cooking time to 28-30 min, maybe even 35 depending on the oven) rather than 24. But the texture and taste difference between the two was significant. In the future, I'm going to stick to natural cocoa powder in brownie recipes - but if you like 'em cakey, use Dutch processed.

Politics

This video is an oldie but a goodie from the early days of flash animation. Way back in the days of yesteryear when Bush II had just stolen the election and wormed his way into the White House. It's about 10 years old, but whenever I think about the current "debate" on the debt ceiling and the future shape of our country, I can't help but think of Bush's explanation of how his tax cuts are going to work (w/in the first 15 seconds).

To say I find the current election-minded politicking in the House to be repugnant would be putting it a bit too lightly. But I'll save the political rant and just leave you with some laughs about the "good old days".

A little help from my friend

Clearly Oona is helping me write- now if I could only teach her how to make coffee....

Well, I know you can't work in fast food all your life...

Alternative title:" ... I'd even cut my penis off for you!"

90s flashbacks anyone? On Monday, L and I got our ska on down at the Rialto Theater. If you haven't seen them, RBF is a fantastic band to see live. All mohawks, bow ties, suspenders and Chucks. As with most bands who have been playing together for years, their performance and choreography was spot on. They bring an enormous amount of energy and just make playing music look like so much fun. Streetlight Manifesto (website sucks, music doesn't) is sort of a aughts answer to ska (or according to Wikipedia, post punk NJ ska): power punk with a heavy brass section. They have a more jazzy influences than RBF, but also a more aggressively driving lead guitar. All in all, they were fantastic and I hope we'll catch them again. I particularly liked their cover of Bad Religion's "Skyscraper" (better live):

Not heavy on the brass, but an enjoyable cover nonetheless. 

The opening band was a new-to-us group, Rodeo Ruby Love. Also in the ska-ish vein, they' have 3 albums out (according to their myspace page) and they have a nice sound. I always appreciate a female vocalist with a ska band (Save Ferris anyone), and I though their song "A small house in the city" was particularly good. 

I'm really impressed with the music scene here in Tucson. We've gone to a number of shows and they've all been good performances and reasonably priced. This Sunday: the Rev. Horton Heat. We plan on hitting up the Hotel Congress for pre-concert drinks because, baby, it's martini time!

Heat

It's getting hot out here. After 2 weeks in the 110 range, the monsoons have started and we've dropped to a paltry 100. Funny how after 110, 101 seems downright comfortable. Unfortunately, our a/c has been struggling to keep up. Getting the temp down too 82 at night is about the best we can do.

Part of the problem is that we are losing air through the swamp cooler ( will be fixed soon). The other problem is that the east and south sides of our house are covered in windows. 120" x 72" of windows. It's a veritable greenhouse. At 7:30 am we measured a temp of 95 through double paned tinted glass.

Problem: block the heat without spending hundreds of $$ on a house we are renting.

Solution: cardboard + duct tape + tinfoil.




Yee haw! That's us: klassy with a k. Despite the ghetto fabulous look, it did drop the temp in that part of he house by 8 degrees. We've ordered bamboo shades to purddy it up a bit.



Plus the tinfoil blocks both alien mind probes AND government brain scanners!

6th Wedding Anniversary

Yup, 6 years ago this weekend L and I were married in a lovely ceremony in NJ. Since then we've moved to two different cities, survived grad school, L finished his PhD and I'm close(ish), started post-grad school life, and adopted one fuzzy, crazy, talkative, and lovely cat.

We planned to go camping and so had our  fancy Syrah with bacon-wrapped steak, asparagus and homemade hollandaise at home.

For our anniversary we went to the Sonoita and Elgin wine regions of AZ. Wine? Az? No freakin' way. Surely you jest. Well jest I do not (and don't call me Shirely!).

Vines at Callagan Vineyards. You can see the
3 storm systems in the background

In all seriousness, south of Tuscon at about a 5,000 ft elevation are quite good grape growing conditions. The region is arid, but quite fertile in the summer due to the monsoon season. We were expecting something better than our wine-tasting adventure in Cannon Falls, MN, and were really surprised by how good the wines were. Most of the wines are in a CA-style, using Spanish (Tempranillo), Rhone (Granache and Mouvedre), and Italian grapes. We started at Callagan Vineyards (the Los Padres and Buena Suerte were two of our favorites), and then on to Dos Cabezas (all good, none were great), Lighting Ridge (our fav by far - every wine was really excellent), and Kief-Joshua (The Chenin and Sav Blanc were really unique, the zin was a bit boring but the Tempranillo and Syrah were excellent). Overall, many of the wines had a bit of a tang in the finish, but compare solidly with the mid-level, (so good to very good) wines of the CA wine regions. Of all of the, Lightening Ridge was far and away the best. So if you are even in Tucson, it's worth the hour long drive to check out the wines.

From there we headed further south to Patagonia Lake. After some initial concern that it might be closed due to the fires, it fortunately was not. We trucked down some chicken wings and planned on doing some grillin'.. .only to be met with a "no wood, no charcoal" sign. Shit. Raw chicken, no stove = no dinner. We high tailed it back to the nearest town market (10 min away, tiny, tiny little town) and picked up some ice berg lettuce, an apple, pepperoni and some cheese. Not our planned bbq, but not bad nonetheless.

6 good years, nearly 11 "time served", a few more wrinkles,
but not too bad all together

The lake was beautiful and we headed down to the beach with our picnic and our beer. As with campsites in CA, we can't seem to go camping w/o being next to a RV blasting Mexican-techno-dance-music, but fortunately the party next to use turned the tunes down pretty soon after sunset.





The next day we drained the tent (recall those three storm systems? yeah, they dumped right on us), and spent the morning kayaking around the lake. We'll definitely go back, and next time we're going to see if we can 1) make friends to bring with us, 2) get one of the island boat-in campsites, and 3) bring said friends.

It was a great way to spend our anniversary and we got to see some really neat parts of the state. It's strange to drive south and hit "comfortable" temps of the mid-90s (compared to 110 at home), but a great discovery for beating the heat of the summer.

Introducing.... Dr. EF

It's been a while.

I've been busy.

Really, I have!

I traveled for my sister's graduation from medical school. The same school my grandfather, aunt, and father graduated from. My dad and aunt, as alumni, had the privilege of hooding my sister during her graduation. It was beautiful. I cried. There are no words to express how proud of her I am. This means that of the 4 remaining blood family on my father's side, 3 are physicians and I'm a PhD-in-the-works (one of these things is not like the other.....). Puts on Yenta hat: So, eligible peoples out there, I know a very sexy, very smart, young Jewish doctor..... (who hopefully won't kill me for writing that. Puts back on Yenta hat: seriously though, she's single....)

Dad and aunt hooded E.

The Doctors F!

Perhaps even more impressive than my sister's graduation, was my parent's behaviour at my sister's graduation. My parents went through a really messy, long divorce several years ago. As recent as my wedding (2005), things were still.... icy and pretty awful between them. Since then, they've both done a lot of personal work and come to a really good place with one another. A particularly strong shout-out to my stepmom, C, for facilitating a relationship with my mom (really!) and helping my dad come to terms with a lot of things.

Look Ma! No bloodshed!

So proud!

The beautiful, smart, talented, Dr. F.

Yeah, I'm a total poser.

The reception was held at the Tavern restaurant, and for all (two) of those 1776 fans, we drank Franklin's original beer recipe (Poor Richard's Ale), and my dad made a giant poster for my sister to take to her Residency in New Brunswick. It replicates Ben Franklin's famous quote from the film:

Hopkins: Why are we going to New Brunswick?

Franklin: For the whoring and the drinking!

Our 1st rattlesnake !

Photo's a little shaky b/c it's after a long run, but you can see it in the dirt in front of L.

Summer Quiche Makes Everything Better

A few days ago I had some spinach to use up. It's hitting the mid- to high- 90s 'round here, rocking only about 6% humidity. Woo hoo! So I decided cold quiche sounded like a good way to go for dinner for the next few days.

1. The Crust
I love super-butter, flakey pate brise, but I also like fitting into my pants and saving the butter for dessert. A few years ago I started using Cotilde's Easy Olive Tart Crust. It is very simple, gets you lots of fiber and protein from the whole wheat, and basically impossible to screw up. It isn't the same as a shortbread crust, but it's still flakey, doesn't get soggy, and gives a nice olive oil or butter flavor to a quiche. I made my quiche in a 9" round cake pan and was able to do it w/ half a recipe of the dough.

Half a recife from Cotilde:

-4.4 oz/ 125 g whole wheat pastry flour (can use white whole wheat or 50/50 all-purpose and whole wheat)

-.5 teaspoon fine sea salt

-.2 teaspoon dried herbs (I use rosemary or thyme)

- 30 ml (1/8 cup) olive oil (or the oil of your choosing, provided it withstands cooking)

- 60 ml (1/4 cup) cold water

In order to get a stronger butter flavor, I used 1 Tbl olive oil and 1 Tbl melted butter (yes, you read that right, a really good tart crust w/ only 2 Tbl of fat) and added a generous sprinkling of thyme. I kneaded in the bowl, rolled out on a floured cutting board, draped into a well-oiled pan and let rest in the fridge for 30 min.

2. Filling
-1 shallot
-1 clove garlic, minced
-a bunch of spinach (maybe 4 -5 cups?
-nutmeg
-salt and pepper
-3/4 c. grated gruyere and havarti, mixed (just what i had in the fridge)

I sliced up the shallot and garlic, and sauteed them in a pan. Added spices and spinach and cooked until well-wilted. B/c I sauteed rather than steamed no need to squeeze the water out, it just cooks off.

After resting, 30 min, I pulled the crust out of the fridge, lined it with cheese and then spread the spinach on top.

3. Custard
Proportions are Mollie Katzen's from Mastercook:
sloped pie pan: 3 eggs to 1 c. milk
straight pan: 4 eggs to 1.5 c. milk

I used the 4 eggs : 1.5 c. milk, beat them up and poured them over the quiche.

4. Cooking
I cooked this at 325 for 45 min, and then at 350 for 15 (b/c it wasn't cooking- I think my oven runs a bit cold).
I'd recommend cooking at 350 for 30-45 min or until the center is just set.

WTF Friday

WTF Friday is back, but short for this week.

Last week gov. Brewer signed into a bill that gives AZ it's own, official, state firearm: the Cold Single Action Army Revolver. Apparently it's part our "Old West Heritage" (Americanists, you want take a crack at that one). It's us and Utah, sporting the Browning model M1911, who is bring the 19th century back. Never mind that we're honoring an instrument of death, and one that is specifically notorious 'round these parts as the weapon that was used to kill and dispossess the native Navajo nations of this area. Rep. Hale puts it nicely:

 ""If you want to symbolize something and shove that into the faces of the victims, this is it," Hale said. "This gun symbolizing the extinction and extermination of those relatives who were here, to glorify this action and act as if a John Wayne movie is real history is very disturbing.""


 So it will be shocking, I'm sure, when my wtf Friday is from the Bradley Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. This week they announced that AZ is tied with UT and AL for worst gun safety laws in the US. We got a 0. Next year, because they've begun docking points for the first time, we might actually get a -2. California, on the other hand, is listed at 80.

It's not all doom and gloom

Yesterday evening I received wonderful news. I won one of my University's year-long dissertation writing fellowships!

I feel very excited, but also very mixed, about it all. I'm thrilled that I received this award. It means people are willing to invest in my work, I have an income for next year (whew), and it's big for the CV. I also get to present my work next spring at an annual meeting.

On the other hand, I know many of the other people who applied for this award and they're work is just as strong, they are just as passionate, and the needed the $$ just as much as I did. Having been in the reject pool for so long, I know that there are other really qualified applicants out there who aren't getting the recognition they should for the work they do.

But, for my self and my work, this is a huge boost of encouragement and I'm very excited that I get to keep working FT on my diss and don't have to pick up some extra hours at the local gelato shop (although the recipe stealing potential and free gelato was sounding pretty appealing.....)