Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Ever Hopeful

Today I realized something. As stressed out as I may get, and as crazy as some parts of my life seem, deep down, I remain an optimist. Phew - I'm glad! Tonights gray and stormy skies that threatened winter storm helped me reach this conclusion. As I sat eating my dinner, looking out the window, I felt an unexpected sense of joy, hope, excitement. I wondered why on earth I would feel this way, since the view outside my window appeared to be a drab drizzly March evening in Michigan. After a few Minutes, I realized that upon paying closer attention, the view outside my window was much more than drab and dull. The trees looked different. The tips of all the branches were swollen (not quite buds yet, but almost). The grass was just a little bit greener than it was even two weeks ago. I love early spring for this reason. It's full of hope, full of anticipation.


So, tonight, embracing the spirit of spring, I decided to do a bit of spring cleaning. No, I did not pull out the vacuum or scrub the bathroom tiles. Tonight was spring cleaning for my freezer. After a little bit of rummaging, I found a bag of frozen rhubarb from last summer. Perfect! I decided to make a double batch of rhubarb muffins. These muffins are only very slightly sweet and they make a wonderful breakfast. The rhubarb gives the muffins a little zing - the kind you feel in the back of your mouth (think sour patch kids). Happy spring, friends!

Friday, March 18, 2011

Reunited and it Tastes So Good


I'm back from my seminar induced hiatus - and I'm so glad to be reunited with my kitchen. Somehow this past month I've managed to subsist mostly on free food provided by my department and by friends. There was very little cooking (other than toast and oatmeal) going on in my kitchen. The seminar is done now and it went splendidly. The faculty posed some tough questions, but I was able to engage them and actually provide coherent answers. I guess this means I've learned something in graduate school! It was a great feeling to be able to engage in conversation with faculty who specialize in everything from Gestational Diabetes to Nutritional Immunology.