May 12, 2009

Ugh, this week! It is just one disaster after another, but tomorrow evening I will be DONE with law school, and all that will remain is figuring out my job situation (a whole long story for another day), finishing up all my law journal editing duties, and getting myself moved out of here. In 2 weeks and 3 days, I'll be leaving this apartment that's been home for almost 3 years. Yeesh!

This morning I took my third of four exams. Which required an all-nighter fueled by the evil but amazing greasy Chinese food that I love, from Empire. This place has been one of the staples of my law school experience. I am getting so sappy about dumb stuff like that now that I'm leaving!
So, the damage: scallion pancake, cold sesame noodles, and veggie mooshu with brown rice and tons of plum sauce. So good, so bad, let us never speak of this again!

That is the thing about this kind of food. There is a kind of guilt and psychosis about it. It always accompanies other poor choices, which makes it feel like a really poor choice.







Shockingly, I woke up this morning after a tiny catnap and was reasonably with it, and kept studying until my 10 am exam, which was not nearly as disastrous as expected.

Before I ran out the door to print out my notes and get to the exam, I made some toast with canola margarine and a blended mocha. I am totally addicted to these mochas. Just my style, not too sweet. I use unsweetened chocolate soy milk which makes it chocolatey but not sugary.




During the test I noshed on a cut-up pink lady and a vanilla soy yogurt, then ran to the deli across the street and got one of their fantastic veggie burgers to eat in the park with 2 friends from class. Along with champagne in insulated coffee mugs. So classy! But it did keep the champagne chilly even in the sun and we didn't get ticketed for drinking in public, so all worked out. I didn't have my camera, which is unfortunate because there was the cutest little Canada goose family with 2 goslings walking around by our picnic table. Totally adorable.

When I got back home, I found out I was supposed to take another (self-scheduled) exam by today at the latest. For serious, I am not this irresponsible -- my roommate and I looked at the emails that the registrar said had the info about the deadline, and saw nothing. So, I got permission to take it tomorrow, a day earlier than I'd planned. Oh, sigh. I am really struggling to finish.

Tried to take a nap but I wasn't tired so I threw some soup on the stove and cracked open a beer. I bought this veggie soup mix (lentils, yellow and green peas, tiny alphabet pasta) sometime in the past 8 months when I was feeling sick and it lasts forever because a little goes a long way.







In a little saucepan I sauteed maybe 1/3 cup of finely chopped red onion and half of a very large green pepper also chopped pretty fine. When they were smelling amazing and the onions were just about cooked through (5 mins or so) I added 1/4 cup of the veggie soup mix and 1 cup of water. I had planned to do 1/2 cup of mix and 2 cups of water, as I usually do, but I guess I forgot. My brain was really fried. But it turned out to be just the right amount, anyway.

I also added about 1/2 tsp of minced garlic, 1/4 tsp of crushed red pepper and 1/2 tsp of dried thyme. Brought it almost to a boil then simmered, partly covered, for about an hour.




When I came back to it, the lentils and stuff had absorbed most of the water, so I thinned it out with some veggie broth I had open in the fridge, maybe 1/4 of a cup or so. Heated that through and it was done. Delish. Just put it in a bowl, top with a little fresh ground black pepper and a swig of balsamic vinegar. Adding vinegar at the end is my favorite flourish with this kind of soup. It adds sweetness and depth to a very mild and comfort-y soup.






After that I watched a couple more episodes of Noah's Arc (Wilson Cruz has arrived! And he is amazing!) and finally fell asleep. When I woke up at 9, my roommate and his girlfriend had just gone to bed. Let me tell you how incredibly cool and adventurous we are around here.

I was feeling snacky and kind of wanted to go out and get pizza or something, but since my fridge overfloweth and I didn't want to change out of PJs, instead I heated up some of those polenta leftovers on the George Forman grill.





I put some zucchini slices under the broiler too, but they took so long I had eaten the polenta by the time they came out. The zucchini was good, caramely on the top and soft all the way through, but nothing to write home about.

Lots of food today, but at least most of it was not crazy finals stress eating food. And now I'm not sure whether I should be goiing back to bed or trying to study for the exam I''m totally unprepared for tomorrow. I'm pretty pissed off that I have to do it a day earlier than I wanted to, but also excited to be finished a day earlier!

I am definitely going to have to cook something magical on Thursday in honor of being totally done. I'm planning at some point this month in getting in on this celebration of my favorite food blog, so maybe that will happen Thurs when the ladies come over for the Grey's season finale. I think tomorrow I'll probably be having either leftovers or something quick from the grocery or take-out since my exam is from 10 am to 6 pm. Almost done with law school!