It’s been a busy couple of days. Last night I had the ladies over for a delicious end-of-semester meal and (gallons) of wine. More on the gallons of wine later. For now, here is what I made for dinner last night. You all should make it immediately.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Double-Dutch-Mac-and-Cheese-with-Chard-352670
I did adapt the recipe slightly, and I will make one other adjustment the next time(s) I make it, but seriously? This was the best Mac and Cheese recipe I’ve ever tasted.
Adaptations: While I used Gouda and Edam, I also added about a cup of Butterkase cheese (following recommendations to use more cheese in the comments); I didn’t reserve any of the Edam, but rather mixed all the cheeses together and had the layer in the middle all three cheeses; I didn’t really measure the nutmeg and the cayenne but rather just went with what tasted right; I also layered crispy bacon crumbles when I layered the cheese and swiss chard in the middle. When I make the recipe again, I will definitely double the amount of swiss chard. I didn’t bother with the bread crumbs; if I make it again I may try them, or I might just put bacon on top as well as in the middle.
Seriously, this is one delicious Mac and Cheese recipe.
So the ladies and I scarfed it down, in addition to eating a delicious salad with persimmons provided by CC and to yummy dessert provided by CF, while consuming the gallons of wine (again, which will come into play as the grand finale of this post), and we talked about lots of things and basically celebrated the end of the semester. It was delightful. And then the ladies went home.
[Time passes while I make poor choices, go to sleep, and wake up with a hang-over]
7 AM – Time to make quiche! For my Joyce and Woolf students! Does this recipe require some effort? Yes. Is it ENTIRELY WORTH IT? Yes!!!!! I mean, I can’t even talk about how good it was. And it’s no mistake that the recipe comes from a restaurant where I’ve had one of the best meals in my entire life.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Ham-Leek-and-Three-Cheese-Quiche-234261
I did the recipe as written, except I used butterkase instead of the fontina, just because I couldn’t strap on another block of cheese when I was shopping. OMFG. This was DIVINE. And yes, I will not be eating “food” as such for the next few days, because frankly, after last night’s dinner and this morning’s breakfast, I probably have consumed the daily calories needed for a small village.
So, when the quiche was in the oven, I went over to the computer, and I discovered that beside it my copy of Barthes’ A Lover’s Discourse was sitting open, turned to the entry for j’taime. Huh, I thought. I don’t recall consulting with Barthes last night. I wonder what that means? Ah well, I am sure it’s nothing.
And then I proctored two exams, and really had delightful conversations with students, and it was all in all an ok day. I’m done with grades for two courses, and I’ll have the other two done tomorrow. Huzzah!
Oh, except. You know those gallons of wine that were consumed? They might have led me, once my ladies left for the night, to do some serious thinking. And that serious thinking might have led me to believe that I needed to consult with Roland Barthes. And then Barthes might have led me to decide that The Dude does not love me, and that perhaps he should just go away now, since he does not love me with a love that’s pure and true. And then I might have thought it would be a good idea to get all of this down in writing, in the form of an email. And then I apparently believed that hitting send was the only way to conclude my reverie. Tra la! Time for bed!
And then I forgot all about it.
Until of course I was reminded of last night’s psychotic break this afternoon, when The Dude alerted me to the email that I had sent. Woops. And then I read over the email and the events of the night before came rushing back, and I was mortified, except for the fact that The Dude responded in a way that was entirely perfect and we seem to have gotten through the freak-out as a result! Indeed, all that I needed to do was to express my actual (drunken, maudlin) feelings and he appears no longer to be freaked out! When you’d think that he would be more freaked out because I’m fucking nuts! So let this be a lesson to you: 1) don’t email people when you are drunk and 2) if you do email people when you are drunk, make sure they are the sort of people who don’t frown on lunatic pronouncements and who will only find you more adorable for having made such a blunder.
And also: although I am still mortified, it turns out I’m a pretty coherent and direct writer when under the influence. Good to know.
You know there is a gmail lab for that – you have to do some simply math and something else that a drunk person probably would not be able to do in order to send the email. You can set it to run when you know you’ll be drinking!
I can’t remember the name of it, but obviously, you are not the only one with this problem!
I am finding this immediately! (Although, given the results of my tomfoolery, I’m actually glad I didn’t have it last night!)
If you really care about your blogge readers–and don’t just exploit us to feed your insatiable ego–you will poste the actual drunken e-mail that you sent.
You aren’t by chance a character in *The Marriage Plot*, are you?
heu: I’m not, but I’m teaching it, and A Lover’s Discourse, next semester, which might account for what I did
CPP: I won’t indulge you in the actual email, even though I am quite proud of what I managed in the state I was in. In lieu of that, here is my friend’s response to it, when I initially wrote to her about it.
“I obviously don’t know anything, but I suspect he’s slightly terrified of you. You’re like Clementine [in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind]. He doesn’t know what to do with you. Maybe?
I quite like this email. You’re a pithy writer when in a drunken blackout. It’s also hysterical that you read Barthes while in a drunken blackout.”
You’ll have to imagine the actual contents of this amazing drunken email
You are just toying with us to satisfy your megalomania. If you really cared, you’d poste the motherfucken e-mail.
Are you surprised that you write clearly, even soberly, while drunk? When I drink alcohol, it acts as a truth serum. I write or say what I think, dispassionately and vividly. Prudence disappears, and, with it, all the inhibitions that cramp up my prose.
Now, there may be a lesson here about which books one should keep far from the computer, just in case wine intervenes. A professor’s library reflects his/her scholarly interests; all scholars should be wary of how the books they study may influence them when their brakes are out-of-order. *Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure*? *Naked Lunch*? The *Textual Companion* to the Oxford Shakespeare?
I thought you were far too old to do something as foolish as drunk e-mailing!
Funny story. It *must* have been *gallons upon gallons* of wine.