Yule Log and other holiday treats...

It's Daring Baker time again!

This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux.
They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand


Since this dessert was all frozen, it presented some unique challenges. My refrigerator and freezer are... well... tempermental. Really, they're just old. And I have trouble with custards, so my creme brulee did not turn out very well. But all in all, this dessert was DELICIOUS.


There are SIX yummy layers to this frozen masterpiece. From the bottom up, we have the almond dacquoise biscuit, the cinnamon-milk ganache insert, dark chocolate mousse, the praline feuillete (crisp) insert, (more mousse), the frozen vanilla creme brulee, (more mousse) and the dark chocolate icing.


What a fun holiday challenge! And let me tell you, after a piece of this, your chocolate craving is taken care of for a while. Ah.....

Be sure to check out the other Daring Bakers!

But, since I couldn't leave well enough alone, and since I finished this challenge halfway through the month, I went on and made other holiday treats. Like lots and lots of fruitcake...

And tons...and tons of cookies...And now, after the Tummy and I have done nothing but eat and eat and eat, we are ready to put the New Year's Resolutions to the test and not over-indulge like this any more. Oh, but it was fun while it lasted...

Caramel Cake

It's that time of the month again. That's right, it's Daring Bakers Post Day.

This month, our challenge was hosted by Dolores, assisted by Alex and Jenny and Natalie. They chose a Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting by Shuna Fish Lydon. You can find the recipe here.
My picture turned out pretty awful, but the cake was pretty good. I was a little concerned about how sweet this would be after reading other people's reactions. Since the challenge was just making the cake and the frosting, I figured, why not add stuff that's NOT sweet. So, I layered the cake and put a layer of 80% cocoa dark chocolate ganache in the center. Then I toasted some pecans and sprinkled the over the ganache in the middle and over the entire cake. All of my official tasters agreed that the ganache filling and the pecans helped to cut the sweetness. Overall, this was not their favorite cake, because of how sweet it was, but I didn't have any leftovers I couldn't get rid of.

Challenge completed. What's next?

Wait wait!!! I dare to bake!

It's still Wednesday, right? I've had a marathon day and just got home. And then I realized that it's daring bakers' posting day. So, fortunately, I already have the challenge done. This month, we made pizza! The challenge was hosted by Rosa of Rosa's Yummy Yum Yums and you can find the dough recipe we used there.

I made six pizzas and invited the Composer and Shrek the Medic over to eat with the Tummy and I. It's helpful to have a couple of big guys around when there's a lot of pizza to eat. The dough turned out pretty well, I thought. I'm not a huge thin crust fan, but it got rave reviews.

It was a little too wet to toss effectively, though Shrek got a good one in.


I ended up rolling it out, which worked pretty well. Then, I topped two of them with tomato sauce, mozzarella and bacon. Shrek and the Tummy both preferred these, labeling them the "Manly" Pizza.

The Composer and I opted for the Goat cheese and veggie pizza.

I found this recipe online, but I don't really have a good source for it. I lost the page. It's been a chaotic month.

Goat Cheese and Veggie Pizza
2 already baked thin pizza crusts
1/4 cup olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 cups (packed) baby spinach leaves (1 1/2 to 2 ounces)
1 1/2 cups thickly sliced mushrooms (5 to 6 ounces)
1/2 cup drained roasted red peppers from jar, cut into thin strips
1/2 cup paper-thin red onion slices
8 large fresh basil leaves, cut into thin strips
1 5-ounce package soft fresh goat cheese, coarsely crumbled

Preparation

Preheat oven to 425°F. Place pizza crust on large baking sheet. Mix olive oil and minced garlic in small bowl. Using pastry brush, brush 2 tablespoons garlic oil evenly over crust. Top with spinach leaves, then sprinkle with sliced mushrooms, roasted red peppers, red onion slices, fresh basil, and crumbled goat cheese. Drizzle pizza evenly with remaining garlic oil.

Bake pizza until crust is crisp and cheese begins to brown, about 18 minutes. Transfer pizza to board. Cut into wedges and serve warm.

Then I made a dessert pizza with the last two. I sorta tweaked this recipe that I found on the same pizza web page:

Cherry Cheese Dessert Pizza

2 pizza doughs
8 ounces Cream Cheese
1/2 cup Sugar
2 large Eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla
42 ounces Dark Morello Cherries

Directions:

Roll out the pizza dough and put on a 16 inch pizza pan. Bake 15 minutes at 350 degrees F. Blend the cream cheese, sugar, eggs, and vanilla together until well blended. Pour into the pie crust and bake an additional 10 minutes. Cool until cold and top with the cherry pie filling. Top with whipped cream, if desired.

I think the dessert pizza was my favorite to eat, but I really enjoyed making all of them. It was a lot of fun to get the chance to be creative with toppings. Check out my big sister's fabulous pizzas over at Shazam in the Kitchen and all the other Daring Bakers. What a great group to belong to!

Eclairs!

I just realized I'd forgotten to post about the August Daring Baker's Challenge! See, they've been baked and eaten so long ago that it slipped my mind. With the school year starting, I decided to get them out of the way early. So as soon as we packed up Medium Dude and brought him back to his mom, I bought my butter and cream and chocolate and I made...... ECLAIRS!



Our hosts this month were Tony Tahhan and MeetaK, and we made Chocolate Éclairs by Pierre Hermé. I used the Pate a choux recipe and the chocolate glaze from here, but I decided I didn't want to do chocolate and chocolate, so I made a coconut pastry cream. I found that recipe here.

The first batch of eclairs came out a wee bit underdone. They looked fine coming out of the oven, but after I let them cool for a minute, they looked like this:


So I started over. The next batch worked much better, but if I did them again, I would be sure to make them a little smaller. They were a little bit messy to eat and probably more eclair than anyone should eat in a single sitting.The Tummy and I thoroughly enjoyed this challenge! Can't wait for September's! Be sure to check out the other daring bakers. Their eclairs look amazing.

I dare to Shish Kebab?

Whew..... What a long afternoon it's been. I worked on the August DB challenge, which I'll post about just as soon as I'm allowed. But I also made a lovely dinner for the Tummy and myself and a good friend of ours, the Composer. The Composer likes to hang out while I do daring baker challenges. I think it's because he's a bit sadistic and likes to see me struggle, but he might just like to be here when I have fresh baked goods.

This weekend, the Tummy and I delivered Medium Dude back to the midwest. We had a lovely visit with Mary, and I even got to have a birthday breakfast with my grandma! But now, we're back to the big city and I even brought a new recipe with me, so I had to try it out. When Mary made me such a yummy birthday dinner, I asked for the recipe. It turned out that she gave me another recipe when she xeroxed it that happened to be on the same page.

Lamb Shish Kebabs!

Unfortunately, the grocery store I went to this morning didn't have any lamb pieces (other than chops). So, I made beef shish kebabs. They ended up delicious! And they were easy enough that I could make them after baking all afternoon.

Beef Shish Kebabs
based on the Weight Watchers New Complete Cookbook

1 onion, chopped
2 Tbsp lemon juice
6-7 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbsp finely chopped fresh dill
1 Tbsp dried oregano
1 Tbsp paprika
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 pound beef stew meat
1 onion, cut into wedges
1 red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 small zucchini, halved lengthwise and cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces

Combine the first 7 ingredients in a food processor and puree.

Put the meat into a plastic zip-top bag and add marinade. Seal the bag, removing as much air as possible, and mush it around until the meat is coated. Refrigerate at least 3 hours or overnight, turning occasionally.

Remove meat from refrigerator an hour before cooking. Soak 5 bamboo skewers in water about 45 minutes so they don't burn in the broiler.

Preheat broiler. Thread meat, onion, bell pepper and zucchini onto skewers. Broil 5 minutes on either side.

Corrupting the youth....

Mwahahahaha.... I'm so proud of myself.

My step-son, Medium-Dude, is a little bit of a picky eater. He's not terrible about it, but we do have a few issues with green veggies and with foods he hasn't tried before. Not a real adventurous guy. The thing is, the Tummy and I love to try out new recipes. And there's no way I'm eating hot dogs for a month just because we have a ten-year-old. Gross.

But sometimes I take his visit as an opportunity to sneak new foods (and new ideas) past his radar. So far this visit, I've impressed on him how cool it is to be environmentally friendly. When he complains about walking to/from the subway, I remind him that it's not easy being green, but it's cool. I know I'm successful when I hear him quote me to the tummy later.

Anyway... I'm very excited because when I asked Medium-dude what I should make for dinner, he answered, "CHEESY RICE!" See, and that would not be exciting except that what he meant was Sage Risotto with fresh mozzarella and prosciutto! It's one of my favorite Cooking Light recipes. Unfortunately, the blogger will not let me put up a picture. But here is the recipe:

Sage Risotto with Fresh Mozzarella and Prosciutto
Cooking Light
2 (14oz) cans low-fat, low-sodium chicken broth
1 Tbsp butter
1 cup diced leeks
2 cloves garlic (minced)
1 1/4 cups arborio rice
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 - 2 Tbsp fresh sage (chopped)
1 cup diced fresh mozzarella cheese
2 oz prosciutto (chopped)
black pepper to taste

Heat chicken broth until it just starts to simmer, and then turn it off.

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook leeks and garlic for about 5 minutes, or until soft.

Add rice and salt and cook for one more minute, stirring.

Add wine, and cook, stirring, until it is absorbed. Then add 1/2 cup hot chicken broth and stir until absorbed. Continue to add the broth about 1/2 cup at a time, waiting after each addition until it is absorbed and stirring frequently.

When all the broth has been absorbed, add sage and cook for about 2 more minutes.

Remove from heat. Stir in mozzarella. Sprinkle chopped prosciutto and black pepper on top.

Makes 4 servings.

I dare to bake!

Hooray! It's here! Finally! I have been waiting nearly two weeks for this day. I AM A DARING BAKER!!!! Mwahahahaha.....


See, for months, I've been salivating over my sister's lovely baked goods. She's been bugging me to join the Daring Bakers, but these people are so darn skilled! And I do not bake much. I cook. I love to cook. But baking... well... I'm not so artistic. And when I got this month's recipe, I panicked. I mean, I nearly cried. It looked so hard! But I did it. And I did it well, if I do say so myself. See:



The recipe this month was a Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream, from Great Cakes, by Carol Walters. The recipe can be found at Mele Cotte. I made mine a little bit different because I didn't use filberts. I used almonds. And I used a raspberry glaze instead of an apricot glaze. I used dark rum wherever the recipe called for alcohol. And when I finally sliced it and had a piece, it was delicious! It was so yummy that I wanted to run down the street with it, handing people pieces of cake and then saying, "I MADE THIS MYSELF!!!!" But I didn't do that, because then my beautiful cake would be all gone much too fast.

This cake took a long time to make, but it came out beautifully, and it was fun. Thanks, Chris, for picking such a wonderful first challenge for me. And I have to send out a big thank you to my sister Mary who took all of my many many phone calls over the course of the day that I made this. Without her, I would not have dared to bake, and I'm so glad I did. Check out her cake, and the other daring bakers.

Archimedes

So it's been a very busy week! My step-son, Medium-Dude, is in town. He visits every summer for about a month and hangs out in the big city with us. He lives the rest of the year in the midwest with his mom. He's ten, and he's a great kid with lots of energy.

Since the Tummy's at work all day, and I have the summer off, Medium and I hang out during the day. Last week, we went to Brooklyn Museum and saw the mummies. (There's even a cat mummy!) We went to the Prospect Park Zoo and the Lefferts House and then wandered around Prospect Park all day. We went to Coney Island and swam and rode the Cyclone. And, my favorite trip so far, we went to the NY Hall of Science in Queens.

Now, I am a self-professed math geek, but it's rare that my geekiness really comes out like it does at that museum. They have such cool stuff! And I just have to share something. Archimedes is just the coolest guy ever. I mean, wow. They have, in the math section in the Hall of Science, a model that Archimedes thought up. He didn't build it (I don't think). But he thought of it and realized that it could be built. It's a balance with a cylinder on one side and a cone and sphere on the other side. The cone and the sphere are each the same height as the cylinder. And the diameter of the cylinder, base of the cone and the sphere are all the same. And it balances. Of course it does, because a cylinder has a volume of pi*r*r*h and a cone has a volume of one-third*pi*r*r*h and a sphere has a volume of four-thirds*pi*r*r*r which, since 2r = h, is two-thirds*pi*r*r*h. (I'd use better math symbols, but it won't let me post them.)

So, I can understand it using algebra and some formulae I already know, but how did Archimedes do it in his head???? Without the algebra, because it wasn't around at the time. In fact, he's the one who came up with the formula for the volume of a sphere, because the volumes of a cylinder and cone were already known. It just blew my mind.

One last thing before we go get stuff to make cookies to take on our picnic in Bryant Park tonight. I received an award! From my sister, the amazing Mary at Shazam in the Kitchen. It was so sweet of her to think of my little ole blog. And I love her too! (because she's the only one who read and understood my whole Archimedes thing.

Del Posto

It's been a very eventful few weeks, but I did want to take a few minutes to update and give the Tummy credit for taking me out to an incredible anniversary dinner. We celebrated our third anniversary on July 9th, and I wasn't expecting that we'd do anything particularly special. So I was pretty floored when he told me he'd made reservations at Del Posto. I'd heard of it. Of course, I heard of it. I'm a foodie! It was mentioned in Mario Batali's Chefography. As the day grew near, we were both excited. We looked through the menu online and talked about what we were going to order.

The day of our actual anniversary, however, I was not in a great mood. In fact, I was in a terrible mood. And the Tummy was late getting out of work and that didn't help. Once we got there, though, I relaxed almost immediately. The restaurant was beautiful and HUGE by NYC standards. We were shown immediately to a nice table and brought drinks and menus. While we were deciding, they brought us a plate of hors d'oeuvres. There were small cups of honey-wheat soup and some kind of pate and these really amazing little risotto balls that has a crispy rice crust and then were dusted with gold leaf. Then, we both ordered their five course special and the real eating began....

For the antipasti, I had this amazing lobster salad with a horse radish panna cotta, and the Tummy had the salmoln special of the day. Then, we had two small pasta courses. The first was spaghetti with crab and jalapeno, and the second was orecchiette with lamb sausage. Both were just perfect. And then things got really wonderful. For our secondi, the Tummy got pork loin and I had grilled squab. If you've never eaten squab, you should. Immediately. It turns out that pigeons are not actually rats with wings. They are actually wonderful little succulent meals. I can't look at them the same way again. And then dessert.... The Tummy got himself a chocolate souffle and a scoop of hazelnut gelato while I got a chocolate and ricotta tortino with a pistachio crust and a scoop of gelato. And they brought us a little tray of tiny cookies which were also amazing.

Overall, it was an unbelievable experience. The staff was friendly and helpful and knowledgable and the food was delicious. We both left full, and we're big people with hearty appetites. (He's not nicknamed the Tummy for nothing.) And they handed us a small box of truffles and thanked us as we left. Two very enthusiastic thumbs up. Yummmmmmmmy!

To get good food...

I love living in Brooklyn. I love all the different kinds of people, all the activities, all the different stuff going on. I love the public transportation, not having to own a car, and being around all these people. However, for a midwestern girl, there are certain aspects of city life that can be tricky to negotiate. Case in point: GROCERY SHOPPING.

Ick! I hate grocery stores. I always forget stuff or can't find it. I end up planning my meals for the week, looking at all the recipes, making a list, re-writing the list in the order that you would find the items in the store, and then going shopping. And I'm a ball of anxiety the whole time I'm in the store. I break everything down to its unit price per ounce so that I get the best deal. I can't help it! (Yeah... I know it's obsessive-cumpulsive.) And then, you have to figure out how to get the groceries home on the subway (or pay for a cab). You need to carry all the stuff up the four flights of stairs to your apartment and then put it away. Blech. Trust me; anyone who drives to the grocery store, you don't know know how lucky you are until you've schlepped a gallon of milk and a bag of potatoes home on public transportation.

But now these are all problems of the past!!! Now, grocery day is my favorite day of the week! All thanks to a fantastic little service called Fresh Direct. Now, I do all of my shopping online, send in the order, and the happy Fresh Direct guys drop it off at my apartment during a two-hour window that I select. And their produce is beautiful, the meat is lovely, and the prices are competitive. Ahhhh.... New York City.... a foodie paradise.....

A caveat: there are some who feel that Fresh Direct is not eco-friendly enough. They use a lot of packaging materials. This is true. Personally, I'm enough of a foodie that (since the groceries are so fantastic) I make sure I re-use or recycle any materials I can and then I don't sweat the rest of it.

Casserole

Ah.... vacation.

I'm really not very good at being on vacation. I don't know quite what to do with myself. I can't sleep past 8:00 (especially because the Tummy is incapable of leaving for work without waking me to talk to me). I've been reading some, and I've been cleaning. Really, I've been digging out my apartment. Layers of clutter. Gross.

Mostly, though, I've been cooking. I love to cook. And not just because I love to eat. I also happen to love to eat, but I'm just calmer while chopping and mixing and sauteeing. So I've been trying one recipe after another and tonight, I made a casserole.

I have mixed feelings on casseroles. They're like that little girl in the nursery rhyme: when they're good, they're very good, but when they're bad, they're horrid. The word casserole all by itself makes me cringe internally at the thought of a particular awful recurring casserole of my youth. Mary knows which one.

But this casserole is good! Really good! And the Tummy loves it! And it's not that bad for you either. Happy happy happy!

The only downside is that squeezing chicken sausage out of its casing turned my stomach a bit. I'm sure that all of my pioneer-women ancestors are mocking my squeemishness from beyond the grave.

Zucchini, Sausage and Feta Casserole

Lia Huber , Cooking Light, JULY 2007

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups uncooked ziti (short tube-shaped pasta)
8 ounces chicken sausage
Cooking spray
1 teaspoon olive oil
5 cups thinly sliced zucchini (about 1 1/2 pounds)
2 cups vertically sliced onion (about 1)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (2 ounces) crumbled feta cheese
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400°.

Cook pasta in boiling water 5 minutes, omitting salt and fat; drain.

Remove casings from sausage. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add sausage to pan; cook until browned, stirring to crumble. Remove from pan. Heat oil in pan. Add zucchini, onion, salt, pepper, and garlic. Cook 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender and zucchini begins to brown, stirring occasionally.

Combine broth and flour in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add broth mixture to pan; cook 1 minute. Combine zucchini mixture, pasta, sausage, and feta cheese in a large bowl; toss well. Spoon pasta mixture into an 11 x 7-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle evenly with mozzarella cheese. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until bubbly and lightly browned.

Yield

6 servings (serving size: 1 cup)

Nutritional Information

CALORIES 284(27% from fat); FAT 8.6g (sat 4.6g,mono 1.9g,poly 0.6g); IRON 2mg; CHOLESTEROL 35mg; CALCIUM 160mg; CARBOHYDRATE 35.3g; SODIUM 433mg; PROTEIN 16.9g; FIBER 2.6g

Feeling the Love Again!

Ah......

The school year has ended. And as I left the graduation ceremony Friday morning, I skipped down the steps, thrilled to be out at last! I have a lovely new job and I never have to work with those mean, nasty people ever ever again!

Now, as thrilled as I am to leave that building, my students there were lovely and I will miss them terribly. At the graduation ceremony, they gave me this lovely bouquet of flowers, and we all cried as we hugged each other, and I congratulated them. Parents, who I'd gotten to know over the last four years, came up to me and thanked me and took pictures of me with their kids. It was a wonderful, very happy day.

And now I have a full summer ahead of me to read and rest and relax. Ahhhh.....

They just don't like you, kid.

That was the advice I got from a friend of mine today when I was talking about my job. I was trying to puzzle out what exactly the reasoning would be behind my bosses setting up an environment that made me hate going to work. I was pointing out all the reasons why people would be lucky to have me in their employment and trying to comprehend why I now have TWO negative letters in my file after 5 years of glowing reviews and a spotless reputation.

I know it doesn't sound like the most encouraging advice, but it is freeing in a way. They don't like me. Ok. And I said to my friend, "But everybody likes me." Certainly, my bosses always have. And he asked if I honestly expected to go through life batting 100%. Well... yes.

I'm tenured, so there's not a whole lot they can do about not liking me. They can put nasty little memos in my mailbox. They can be snarky with me. But that's about it. I'm leaving in June. I'd leave before the Spring term, but there are kids that would be without a math teacher for half a year, and I don't want to do that. And we discussed passive-aggressive, mildly amusing things to do in retaliation, but that's not really my style.

I have 5 1/2 more months to go. About 110 more days.

A Rocky Start

I recognize that 2008 is only 6 days old, but I'm not wild about it so far.

In the late afternoon on the 2nd, the radiator stopped working. The boiler in my apartment building died. Of course, we didn't know it was dead. With the radiator working, our apartment is generally about 90 degrees. When we awoke the morning of the 3rd, it was about 65 degrees inside and about 13 outside. And there was no hot water.

The Tummy was not happy. He grumbled about us living in the 'hood while he ate his oatmeal.

I called our landlord when I got to work and left a message saying, "I just wanted to make sure that you knew that we had no heat or hot water this morning. Please call me back." I was cranky with my students, because the temperature in my classroom goes from about 55 degrees to about 110 degrees and back to about 55 by the end of the day. When my landlord called me back, she was all apologies. She very sweetly explained that she had been working all day to fix the problem and found out that she needed to replace the boiler. It would take a few days.

The Tummy suggested we not renew our lease at the end of the month. He does not like not being able to rely on heat and hot water.

Our landlord stopped by later in the evening and gave us a small portable electric heater. It was a very nice gesture, and it did a very nice job heating the square foot of space on all sides of it. The rest of the apartment got steadily colder. I baked snickerdoodles so that I had an excuse to turn the oven on.

The Tummy and I slept in sweats and slippers with 2 quilts and a down comforter on top of us. We cuddled.

Friday morning, it was colder in the apartment. I heated water on the stove to bathe and wash my hair. I grumbled all the way to school. I learned that I become quite grumpy when I can't get warm. I argued with the dean about bathroom passes.

Saturday, the apartment was colder.

The Tummy got up around 9:00 and I stayed in bed under the pile of blankets. Around 10:00, he got back in, because he said it was too cold to stay up. I didn't want to stay in the cold all day, but I felt so gross from not being able to take a real shower for 3 days that I didn't want to go out in public. (And before anybody suggests a cold shower, I'd like to point out that our cold water was about 33 degrees.) So I spent the day in sweats and slippers and a jacket, under an afghan, too cold to do anything but read and watch tv.

Around 7pm, we heard a hiss. The radiator had come back on! WE SURVIVED!!! Tonight, I'm actually sitting comfortably in a t-shirt! Hooray for heat!

Why teachers cry on Sundays and Holidays...

I don't hate my job.

I have to keep saying that aloud to myself. It's true, but it's easy to forget. I don't know any teachers who sleep well on Sunday nights. I don't know any teachers who sleep for pretty much all of Labor Day weekend. And for those of us who go back to work tomorrow... well...

I don't hate my job. I don't hate my job. I don't hate my job.

Once I am in my classroom with my students, it will be easy to remember. I enjoy teenagers. They're fun. I enjoy teaching math. It's fun. The New York City Department of Education... well... they're less fun.

I fully expect to walk into work tomorrow and find a memo in my mailbox that suggests that I make sure that I re-do my bulletin board before the end of the week, because the current bulletin board is from last year. Now, for those of you that are remembering little posters with kittens that said, "Hang In There" on the bulletin boards, that's unacceptable. Every bulletin board needs to have student work on it. (But it should be interesting... they're not really interested in worksheets of math problems) And the work should be graded according to a rubric which also needs to be posted. And it needs to have the name of the class and the name of the teacher and it should be "visually interesting".

That's no problem. I recognize that someone in an office somewhere has decided that updated bulletin boards help students learn. I'm sure that that's true. I'm sure I should focus on the bulletin board instead of on undiagnosed learning disabilities, troubled home lives, pressure to join gangs, spotty educational histories or inconsistent attendance. And I will attempt to do an assignment with my students that can be handed in by Thursday, so that I can grade it late into the night and get to school early on Friday to post it on my bulletin board.

Just a couple of itty-bitty hitches. First, I'm not going to have many students tomorrow. Whenever we have a week that starts on Wednesday, the students and their parents consider it optional. Second, I will probably be asked to cover a class tomorrow for a teacher who is not back from vacation yet. This will make photocopying an assignment.... tricky. Third, our photocopier will not be working tomorrow morning, and probably neither will the printer in the teachers' lounge. They weren't working when we left for break, and I doubt that they've gotten them fixed since.

So.... let me sum up. I need to have a project which can be completed in under an hour, that demonstrates mathematical ability and is visually interesting and can be assigned without giving kids a copy of anything written. I also need a rubric for the project that takes me less than a minute to complete so that I can grade 90 of them (assuming all the kids do the work) preferably in under 2 hours. It would be great, by the way, if the project pertained to sketching sine and cosine curves or solving systems of linear equations, because Regents exams are coming up January 22, and my students aren't ready for them.

I don't hate my job.