We also enjoyed some bean burritos with a bit of Spanish rice (Mark’s fav). But the highlight of our food had to be the quick and delicious Peperonata Shrimp. A recipe from Cuisine that turned out like sweet and sour shrimp. First you coat the 2 lb of shrimp with flour and cook them for 3 minutes in a sate pan with a bit of olive oil. Putting the shrimp aside, put 1.5 cup diced leeks and 2 cloves minced garlic in the pan till brown. Add .5 cup chicken broth, 1/3 c. white vinegar, 2 T sugar, 2T lemon juice to the pan and simmer down for 5 minutes. After adding some salt, add 2 cups of thinly sliced roasted bells and the shrimp- after a quick warm-up you have an amazing meal (we served over rice).
I also learned the benefit of keeping mushrooms in a paper bag in the fridge instead of the original plastic wrap that they come in. This way they stay good for 2+ weeks, just shrinking a bit in size.
On Oct 26 there was a convocation for instructors at MATC. After an introduction by the president of the college and faculty awards (It was wonderful to see the Administrative Assistants from Arts and Sciences win an award- they are always so helpful.), I headed to my first Math faculty meeting. After a brief lunch with my mentor, Pam, I headed to a meeting about how to handle/prevent academic misconduct and then my final meeting of the day about the attempt to add a class about nanotechnology- I just found it odd that the only prerec for the nanotech class was chemistry when it seems that the class would be aimed at engineers. Overall it was an exciting day of discussion and I earned a higher respect for technical colleges.
On Oct 29th we started early with digging up bulbs that won’t over winter from our garden. Then we headed out to pick up pumpkins from a local pumpkin patch with Burr and Natalie. Following them back to their place we met up with Matt Lavine and made some new friends while we sliced and diced our new pumpkin friends.
On the gaming side of things, Mark submitted a game with his prototype partner, Brett, in to Hippodice. The name of the game is in German, but I call it the Elves and Shoemaker game. Mark has brought it out a couple of times for our Tuesday game nights and it plays very well. We will know in 2 weeks if it makes it through the first round of the competition!
We also went through some great movies this week. We watched our first of the Blue planet series- An amazing production by the BBC about the Ocean desert and the Deep- we are hooked. I have always been fascinated by the creatures found in the deep, they are unlike any creature we know and live in such a harsh environment- amazing. We also watched 4400, a current series on TV about abducties coming back years later with “changes” After only watching the first 4 episodes, we can’t wait until the next set come out. Our last show from netflix was a NOVA special “The magnetic storm” I had watched this one ages ago and was again fascinated with the information. I also enjoyed the roll that supercomputers are playing in our ability to see what is happening in the world around us.
On the side I have been updating our scrapbook. I have finished Oct 2003-Aug 2004 and look forward to working my way up to Germany. While scrapbooking is a long process, it is nice to reflect on all of the trips and adventures that we have had- we definitely keep busy.
Lastly we had a wonderful evening on Nov 5th. Initially we headed to the East side of town to attend Nick’s party. When we arrived, we were told that we were actually one week early… To salvage the evening we head to a bowling alley where Mark showed off his impressive bowling skills. After sore fingers and feeling some hunger pains, we headed to Perkins for a nice desert of vanilla shake (for Mark) and mixed berry pie (for me). A very fun and inspirational date night!
