Playgrounds

I know it's been a while since I've posted, but the term ends soon, which means I'm barraged by papers. Eleven 1st drafts this past weekend, and will be getting at least 5 more from another class today. Not to mention the 15-minute conferences this week with EACH of my 25 students for my third class.

So, I thought I'd just jot down a story of a relatively relaxing period this past Sunday. We all went out for a family outing to a nearby playground. I graded papers while Igor supervised Nikita playing in the sandbox, driving a wooden car, and sitting in a treehouse (he thought it was like being in a train, so kept making "toot, toot" sounds).

Nikita thoroughly enjoys beings outside now that the weather is warm. And he really likes helping out Igor clean up the yard. This weekend, as quickly as Igor could rake up the dead grass, Nikita picked it up and placed it in a big bucket. He probably liked the texture and lightness of the dead grass. On his own, however, Nikita can also be found to be making a vacuuming sound all around the yard, probably because he saw our neighbors using a leaf blower.

Inside, Nikita is still obsessed with cooking. Makes feeding him stressful, as Nikita will run into the kitchen, slam both doors, and pull out a pot to cook. When he's not in the kitchen, Nikita loves his building blocks (lego or regular). A couple of weeks ago, he kept stacking them higher and higher, but now, he lines them up in a row, and calls that "bigga, bigga". He'll even push them along, like a train. I guess we have to get him a bigger train set eventually.

As for me, I actually got to do some cooking on Sunday. I have to negotiate the use of the kitchen these days because Igor is obsessed with baking (pizza every week, and usually some sort of dessert). For dinner, I made pot roast from Jody Adams' cookbook, In the Hands of a Chef. Came out well, but what chuck roast braised for 3.5 hours wouldn't?

I also made my first souffle ever, for Leite's Culinaria. That was a stressful experience because the recipe was wrong on the baking time (too short) and left out some important details, like how to tell the souffle was done. I had to ransack my cookbook collection, and learned from The New Making of a Cook that a souffle is done when an inserted skewer comes out clean. This meant, of course, that I had to open the oven door and risk the souffle deflating. But, apparently, souffles are hardier than that. Thank goodness the souffle came out well (and risen!). It only needed a glass of chilled white wine to complement the Gruyere cheese.

One day soon, I'm going to have to peruse Madeleine Kamman's opus. Listening to Julia Child's memoir, My Life in France, particularly inspires me to learn the techniques of French cooking. Too bad Child's memoir is not as good as I had hoped (MFK Fisher, she is not), but I'll leave that for another day.