Culinary Weekend!

I had another nice week of teaching and learning. I feel like I'm getting back in the swing of scholarship, and teaching is easier this semester because I have sample papers from my former class. Things that took me a week to explain, they got in one day this time. Yay!

Before I knew it, it was Friday. I discovered my bananas were over ripe. On top of it, my roomie Todd (the one who drives me everywhere) was in a sad mood because of a lower-than-expected score on a paper. He loves banana bread, so much so that one family member gives him a loaf of it each year for Christmas. I found a recipe and made us a loaf to share, a surprise which cheered him up quite a bit. I also treated myself to some strawberries at the grocery store. For breakfast, on Saturday and Sunday, I sliced them and ate them with vanilla yogurt. It was so delicious! Then I kicked it up a notch, dipping berries in melted semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Dipping berries is so easy. Just wash the berries. Then make sure they're completely dry and not too cold. Put some chocolate chips (I did about 3/4 cup) in a glass bowl and microwave for 30 seconds. Stir. Microwave 30 more seconds and stir. Dip about 12 berries and set them on waxed paper. Chill them in the fridge until the chocolate sets. I had some left over, so I sliced a banana, put some peanut butter on the slices, then spread chocolate over the peanut butter and chilled that, too. YUM!!!

To end the weekend yumminess, I make turkey noodle soup. We have frozen thanksgiving turkey leftovers in the freezer that should be eaten now or never. Something's not quite right on the recipe card I have. Last time, I had to play around quite a bit, adjusting the water level, spice level and corn starch to get it the right flavor and thickness. By that point, I'd added a little of this, a tad of that, and didn't know what to put on the card. This time, though, it came out great with a lot less trouble. It might not taste just lock Mom's, but it's pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. I mentioned something about experimenting with the next batch. Todd didn't like that. He told me it's so good as it is that he thinks messing with it would be a bad idea: "So please don't. Make it just like this." I laughed and told him, "It's always nice to have someone appreciate your cooking."