Fluff Truffles

I bought these lovelies as a last-minute present from the recent Fluff Festival. They are so good that I called up the Holiday Inn - Bunker Hill hotel for the recipe. Credit goes to Patrick Moore, Executive Chef.

1 cup Fluff
1/2 cup crushed graham crackers
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips, melted
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips, melted
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
coarse salt

1. Mix together the Fluff, graham crackers, and mini chocolate chips.
2. Shape the Fluff mixture into little balls. Freeze until hard.
3. Meanwhile, mix together the melted chocolate and peanut butter (PB).
4. Coat truffles with a layer of the chocolate/PB mixture, and set on rack to drain excess chocolate. Transfer to parchment paper, and freeze. 
5. Repeat with a second layer of chocolate/PB. Sprinkle truffles with coarse salt. Freeze.
6. Store in refrigerator.

July busyness

The middle of July heralded the start of summer (cue the Vivaldi on accordion!), as Boston's giant snow pile finally melted. Before and after that momentous event, however, the boys were occupied with chess and sports as these photos and video attest:

Chess simul with GM Larry Christiansen

First tournament

Beating the heat with speed skating

LOL on the Charles

I got some bonding time with the boys as well, together as well as individually. We went kayaking on the Charles River (above), but I couldn't get them interested in the Fourth of July fireworks (Minecraft and "Avatar: the Last Airbender" prevailed instead). I had to tend to Nikita's pain after tooth extractions (a whole set of adult teeth!) and Ivan's constant searches for markers and old T-shirts (to make soccer uniforms). I will cherish, however, my evening walks with Nikita and requests from Ivan for a good-night kiss and hug.

BSJ 2.0

July was a productive month for me. I taught a half-day workshop at HMS, and attended meetings about the fall semester. Back at the house, we finally had the insurance claims on our cars settled, and I weeded the front yard and started decluttering the basement - thank goodness for herbicide and Goodwill! I also participated in some fun swaps and mail tag through LEP, got some cooking done (Cook's Illustrated's Sicilian pizza, Nigella Lawson's dense chocolate cake), and finally finished a Child Surprise Jacket for Nikita (right; he requested the same colors I made for his baby one!).

And there was so much to read! Online, I read articles about privilege, grief, how opinions can be wrong, and a potentially superior way of choosing host cities for the Olympics (now that Boston is thankfully off the hook). I enjoyed a number of books for work (Engaging Ideas, Experimental Design for Biologists) and pleasure (Frankenstein, Old Filth). None of these books were used to complete Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge or reach 82 books on the pseudo BBC list. Although I keep learning about more authors to read, I am getting better at abandoning books (I will not try Harper Lee's "new" book) and will keep my first meme in mind:

June: piano, sports, and DC

The month of June started off with us dealing with our cars. Based on the police report, the car that hit us was new; both the driver and passenger (who was the insurance holder) were under the influence of something, and the driver was a few days short of 21 years old. Yup, a real mess.

Budding pianists

Meanwhile, the boys were preparing for their end-of-the-year events. They both played well at their piano recital (above; video links here and here). Nikita performed in both a German play at school and a Russian play with his literature group (he arrives at 5:40 of this link; the graduating class made an excellent parody of the group, starting at 16:45 of this link). At the school's final assembly, Nikita received prizes for not only placing first in his grade in the Math Kangaroo competition, but also getting the most consecutive correct answers. Meanwhile, Ivan continued to learn inline skating, but also became obsessed with his Bayern Munchen soccer suit. He wore it nearly every day at school, and at the school's sports festival, I realized he's not the only fan in his class:

Sponsor of the second grade?

As soon as school ended, we headed down to Washington, DC for Nikita's chess tournament. While Nikita played, Ivan and I took advantage of the lovely weather to sightsee: Smithsonian Natural History museum, Washington monument, Lincoln memorial, and Arlington National Cemetery. After the tournament, Nikita joined us for the Air & Space museum and Jefferson monument. Here are some photos:

Patriotic popsicle on the National Mall

Requisite photo with Soviet missile

Second requisite site

Since MIT ends their semester in May, I should have taken advantage of the boys absence at home. Instead, I felt listless because of a sore throat that lasted all month (due to allergies?). I did go onto campus periodically to grade frosh and graduate student exams (post-M&M swims are excellent!), and was amused/inspired by articles on writing literary fiction, giving up one's dream, and bonding through baking.

Book challenges (Ladies & Literature, BookRiot) helped me chip away at my "To Read" list. I especially enjoyed The Fishermen, Of Mice and Men, and Brave New World (Michael York is a fabulous narrator), but was very disappointed by The Perfection of the Paper Clip. I end this post with a fabulous quote on love, from the collection When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple:

Love is just a matter of the right recipe: a cup and a half of infatuation, a pinch of matching class status, two tablespoons of compatible politics and three generous cups of good sex. Mix. Sprinkle liberally with the ability to communicate and fold into a well-greased and floured apartment. You bake it for at least six months without slamming the door and pray you have love in the morning. And it works - when you've got the right ingredients. - Jess Wells, "Two Willow Chairs"

May: more birthdays and letters

Snoopy and Napoleon

I start this post with Nikita because May is his birthday month. He loved our gift, The Maze Runner, and later celebrated with his classmates with pizza and a movie, "Avengers: Age of Ultron." I came out of the movie wanting a Gung Fu Scratch t-shirt and thinking the Scarlet Witch should have her own film, but especially enjoyed the post-movie conversation with the boys over pizza.

The birthday was only one highlight of many this month. Nikita placed third at a fencing tournament in Rhode Island, went to a local chess tournament unsupervised, and got one of his ideas (a game-making club) accepted for the school's after-school program. Meanwhile, Ivan had two end-of-the-year cello recitals, learned how to rollerblade from Igor (below), and made a new friend at my program's Memorial weekend BBQ. They devised a new rule for penalty kicks during soccer (two goalies!); I witnessed the development a new idea for toys (programmable mood braces) and laughed over a colleague's adventures in urban gardening (how does one know when to harvest root vegetables?).

Passing on skills.

I knew it was the end of the semester because I accomplished a lot of reading (most memorable were Being Mortal and The Adventures of Amir Hamza) and baking. The best new recipe was for Hoosier sugar cream pie; my favorite podcast was Alex Baldwin's "Here's the Thing." With all the baking I had been doing the past few months, it was no wonder my annual physical revealed a weight gain.

I also became very active with the League of Extraordinary Penpals. The group inspired me to make my own envelopes and my first pocket letter. Check out the results:

Courtesy of The New Yorker

First pocket letter

Despite the lack of snow (finally!), I still got flashbacks of what the roads were like and was subjected to random delays on public transit. I ended up taking a cab to my physical, but got treated to a vigorous poetry recital the driver, who claimed to work for the Haight Ashbury Literary Journal. Unfortunately, I cannot find the poem online, but it was composed by the journal's founder. And the last weekend (packed with a fencing tournament, two birthday parties, a play date at our house, and a cello recital) was marred by a hit-and-run of both our cars and our neighbor's. Amazingly, Igor found the car parked on the next street, with the driver and passenger passed out on the dashboard.

I end this post with Mother's Day. Ivan made me a lovely card and strawberry jam, and we had a nice dinner at the Village Smokehouse (below). One of these days, I will warn the boys about catcalling (yes, from that Playboy), but for now, what I will remember most this month are my car conversations with Nikita about math and Ivan exchanging mail with me.

Dinner with my favorite boys

April: Legos, baking, and new groups

April started off well with a prank about artisanal spam, but quickly turned sour with Galina getting sick (again) during the first week. Because of it, Ivan and I had to stay home while Igor and Nikita went to Philadelphia for a chess tournament (one of many this month) and the Art of the Brick exhibit at the Franklin Institute. Here are a few of the photos Nikita took:

Do you have some gum gum?

Imitating art...

And music.

Staying home turned out to be a good thing because Ivan caught Galina's stomach bug. Although the bug passed through his system in time for his birthday, he was still wary of the lasagna he requested, but successfully kept down half a box of Fruit Loops and learned how to separate eggs for his lemon meringue pie. He loved his presents, which included a ukelele from my parents, a punching bag and an amirgurumi Moomin from us (as for me, I want a Snotty Oliver yarn bowl). He was also thrilled that there was no new snow; indeed, most of the snow had melted by his birthday. Later in the month, he celebrated his birthday with his classmates, playing soccer at a YMCA. Here are some photos:

With Ivan-separated eggs. 

Left to right: Flat Stanley (guest), ukelele, Moomin

More proof that I have sons.

Not enough for a soccer team, but plenty for a birthday.

April saw the longest stretch of 60+ days since October, but of course, the warm days coincided with biggest pile of student assignments since November. Not to mention taxes! Despite starting them the last week of March, figuring out the cost benefit analysis forced me to file the taxes on the last day and celebrate Easter a week late. But Easter was worthwhile: I roasted lamb, baked a bunch (12 loaves of Igor's kulich, 24 crescent rolls, 50+ peeps), and discovered the superiority of British Cadbury eggs. On top of the baking for Ivan's birthday and Easter, I made snickerdoodles (now my 3rd favorite cookie) and flan (because I had so many leftover egg yolks), but I didn't get to bake these scrumptious-looking chocolate-caramel cookies. With all the time in the kitchen, I really appreciated a new podcast called Home of the Brave and audiobooks (Fahrenheit 451, A Primate's Memoir); the only "print" book I read was Olive Kitteridge.

Even though I didn't get to read much, I loved the books I "read," learned of the new LitHub website, and joined the Ladies & Literature group on Goodreads. I also got taken out for dinner by one of my classes, enjoyed an evening of Herbie Hancock & Chick Corea with Ivan and a former colleague, and got back into letter writing by joining the League of Extraordinary Penpals - the Facebook group is super active! But perhaps what really kept me sane this month were the kickass moves of Agents of SHIELD:

March: the end of winter?

March found us still dealing with snow. We had snow showers as late as the 28th, prompting this exchange with Igor:

Me: I thought the snow was supposed to end.
Igor: Mmm, sometime in the next 12 months?

In some way, it was gratifying to learn that we beat the record for the snowiest winter; FiveThirtyEight had a nice graph showing how nasty the season was. Photos of winter in Yellowstone and this awesome dance mashup were welcome distractions from the dirty snowpiles. Periodic thaws allowed me to wield the ice cutter (and reveal gifts from small animals), but the arrival of crocuses on MIT at the end of March gave me hope that winter was coming to an end.

As usual, the gradual start of spring didn't affect the boys too much. Nikita started off the month coming back from a chess tournament in California. He loved the SF area (no surprise!), and did well on the first day but crashed on the second, prompting Igor to help him increase his stamina with sessions with my hypnotherapist and jumping jacks. Ivan had a cello recital (where I learned to always bring a can of Cabot whipped cream), enjoyed a trip to the Museum of Science, and got elected as a class official. The last event was a nice resolution to Ivan's difficulty at the beginning of the school year (being moved to a different class, away from his best friend), but I was really surprised that he volunteered for the position.

As for me, I had the usual pile of lectures and assignments, but remained inspired by articles about being one of the few and teaching people to be human, as well as images about uninspiring plot structure and the differences between movie and real scientists. In honor of Women's History Month, I learned about Harry Potter from Hermione's perspective, consent as a cup of tea, and awesome TED talks by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Monica Lewinsky. I was sad to learn that not all Girl Scout cookies are equal, but heartened by these displays of love.


Northern Lights Cowl

Away from the computer, I finished a cowl (right) and started a jacket for Nikita, received more cards via Postcrossing, and finished Shahnameh (it helped to read 25 pages every night) and the best series of books I've read in a while - Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels (my reviews are here for the first, second, and third books; I can't wait until the last book comes out in September). I also bought new glasses and an iPod for Facetime, audiobooks, and podcasts (my favorite was Act 2 of this episode of This American Life). The iPod was a great addition to the time I spent in the kitchen. I spoiled the boys by using homemade fluff on S'mores pie, and discovered that beef stew and chocolate chip cookies is comfort food squared. Perhaps the most memorable meal, however, was the reunion lunch at Durgin Park with my Oxford tutor (below). I contacted her a few months ago, and she was in town helping her son move - while her daughter was spending her Junior year in Oxford!

A bit of Oxford in Boston

Book Riot 2015 Read Harder Challenge

About a month ago, I decided to join Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge. Thankfully, I was able to apply a number of books I already read this year. So, I'm done!

A book written by someone when they were under the age of 25: The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes, 8 Jul

A book written by someone when they were over the age of 65: The Children Act by Ian McEwan, 14 Feb

A collection of short stories: Dragons at Crumbling Castle by Terry Pratchett, 25 May

A book published by an indie press: Alexandrian Summer by Yitzhak Gormezano Goren, 4 June

A book by or about someone that identifies as LGBTQ: The Gallery by John Horne Burns, 21 May

A book by a person whose gender is different from your own: Seize the Day by Saul Bellow, 1 Jun

A book that takes place in Asia: The Adventures of Amir Hamza by Ghalib Lakhnavi, 22 May

A book by an author from Africa: The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma, 30 June

A book that is by or about someone from an indigenous culture (Native Americans, Aboriginals, etc.): Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington, 20 June

A microhistory: Mad for God: Bartolome Sanchez, the Secret Messiah of Cardenete by Sara Tilghman Nalle, 5 Jul

A YA novel: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, 15 Feb

A sci-fi novel: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, 18 Apr

A romance novel: Censoring an Iranian Love Story by Shahriar Mandanipour, 4 Feb

A National Book Award, Man Booker Prize or Pulitzer Prize winner from the last decade: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, 28 Apr

A book that is a retelling of a classic story: The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White, 3 Jul

An audiobook: A Primate's Memoir by Robert Sapolsky, 11 Apr

A collection of poetry: Three Chinese Poets by Vikram Seth, 12 Jun

A book that someone else has recommended to you: Dancing at the Rascal Fair by Ivan Doig, 30 May

A book that was originally published in another language: My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, 27 Feb

A graphic novel, a graphic memoir or a collection of comics of any kind: The Sculptor by Scout McCloud, 28 Mar

A book that you would consider a guilty pleasure: Mr. Kiss and Tell by Rob Thomas, 23 Jan

A book published before 1850: Shahnameh by Abolqasem Ferdowsi, 19 Mar

A book published this year: Outline by Rachel Cusk, 6 Mar

A self-improvement book: Walden by Henry David Thoreau, 12 Feb

A spelling lesson

DS2: Do you know why I like the word "pie," Mom?
Me: No, why?
DS2: Because it's the only word that doesn't have a letter between i and e.
Me: That's not true. What about the word "die"?
DS2: Die is spelled D-I-H-E because you pronounce it DI-HE.
Me: What about "lie"?
DS2: Lie is spelled L-I-D-E. It's French, and the D is silent.

February: snow and other events

Boston data from NCDC (click for larger version).

I start this month's post with the dominating element: snow. It just kept piling on. As you can see in my chart (above), the storms in late January gave us a good start with 2.5 feet of snow. On February 2, the MBTA was barely working - you know you're in trouble when the head of the MBTA is suggesting that people consider other travel options. The boys' school was closed, and I had a stressful commute the day after:

MBTA lottery today! Forsake the 64 bus for the 66 bus to Harvard Square. Discover that the Red line is experiencing "major delays" after you have paid your fare, and hop onto a crawling 1 bus. Take a brisk walk from Central Square, and you will arrive just in time for your 10 am class - 100 minutes after leaving the house.

More snow - at least a foot at a time - arrived weekly, until we hit nearly 100 inches of snow by the middle of month. 7.5 feet of snow in 23 days resulted in an unprecedented number of school closings and MBTA suspensions - yay for underinvestment! Even school vacation week wasn't immune, as demonstrated by my friend's Facebook status:

Five things NOT being said in New England this [President's Day] weekend:
5. Sorry kids, no electronics today!
4. My back and shoulders feel great from all that shoveling!
3. That Netflix streaming sure was a waste of money!
2. Watch "Frozen" again? Why, sure!
And the Number One:
1. Can it be my turn to take the dog out? Please!

Although the snow was blessedly light and fluffy, Igor and I were running out of places to put it. So, I modified my shoveling technique: scoop, walk 20 yards, bend knees, pivot, throw. It was also getting difficult to differentiate between cars and snowpiles (photo below), and MIT was growing its own mountain. Thankfully, our utilities and roof held, but our water pipe froze the day after President's Day. Yay for wallpaper steamers!

February 9: third major snowstorm in two weeks

Fundamentally, I am surprised that Boston cannot cope with this amount of snow. Even now, three weeks after our last major storm, driving down my street is like a game of Duck-Duck-Goose, except I call it Car-Car-Snowpile - replace car with space saver during the day. I devoured articles on Montreal (which clears snowpiles on the streets AND sidewalks!), hoping that Boston officials were doing the same so that we will learn. But we still have a sense of humor: pairing photos paired Beckett quotes, setting Facebook statuses to fiddle music, and commuting by moose while urging our neighbors not to slash tires.

In between storms, the boys had a piano recital, and enjoyed a school ski trip in 17 F weather. Nikita spent nearly all of school vacation week on Minecraft, but also learned how to make grilled cheese sandwiches. Ivan got optional homework during snow days, but had cavities filled in during school vacation week. Sadly, except for a playdate at the beginning of the month, the boys barely played in the snow - it was too deep!

The weekly snowstorms posed a challenge for cooking - how many roasts can one do? - but we always had bread, milk, and butter. I did a lot of baking, trying out Nancy Drew Blondies and a better S'mores Pie; next time, I should use the Dove Silky Smooth Milk Chocolate recommended by Cook's Illustrated. We celebrated Valentine's Day with roast lamb and Red Velvet Cake (we didn't have to learn how to fall in love with anyone), and National Sticky Bun Day with these delectable carbs:

Thankfully, my classes weren't adversely affected by the snow because there weren't many meetings scheduled. But since the spring (hah!) semester only started this month, I spent lots of time with the written word. I fulfilled this year's Month of Letters Challenge (thanks to my new pens and Postcrossing) and distributed used books (50 cents at the library!) for Bookcrossing. Through social media, I enjoyed learning about allowances, hot dudes reading, Cookie Monster's thoughts on food, and why some folks don't vaccinate brake. My Goodreads account also saw a lot of action; my favorite books were The Children Act, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Roast Chicken and Other Stories, and My Brilliant Friend.

Just as I started this post with snow, I end with my winter-inspired haiku:

Ice melt on sidewalk.
Cinnamon sugar on toast.
Know the difference.