End of Semester Celebrations

Well, the semester is officially over! It was certainly an intense one, but Mark and I both made it through. He passed his comps (big deal!) and finished some major final projects, and I survived my teaching overload. Besides finishing the work of the end of the semester, I've been celebrating the holidays with friends. First, my friend Angela organized another trip to the Swan House in Findlay. People around here think it's the best tea house in the area, and the price is reasonable, too!

We had the ladies at a neighboring table take this pic of us.

And here's the lovely tray of food.

That was last Saturday. This week was finals week, and I hosted my own tea party on Tuesday. I tried out several new recipes, which were all well-received, and there was a good turn out. Here's some pics of that event.

Self-serve tea & hot chocolate

Cucumber sandwiches...

...and cheese & crackers (so simple, but such a hit!)

Chocolate peppermint sandwich cookies (center) and coconut lime bars (right)

Spicy chocolate chip cookies and pumpkin spice chai short bread (left);
cranberry banana bread w/honey butter (center)

A few of my guests!

So, amid the stress of finishing another semester, there's been some great chances to spend time with friends and refocus on things that really matter. Now, we're getting ready to head home to ABQ on Sunday night, and I can hardly wait to spend the holidays with family and friends there!

IWCA Conference

Last week I got to fly out to San Diego with a friend to present at the IWCA Conference. Other than attending sessions and presenting, we got to do a little exploring (and, of course, eating) in San Diego. I hadn't been to that area since I was a kid, so it felt like a new adventure. My dad recommended some good places to eat, and the weather was perfect. The highlight of the trip, though, was getting to see my good friends Matt & Meg and their kids. They drove over an hour from where they now live in CA to spend some time with me! It was great to catch up with them and the kids. Here are a few pics from the trip.

The view of downtown San Diego from our hotel room.

At the convention hotel with Angela.

The train station between our hotel and the convention hotel.

On the bay!

The main hotel building.

This ship was directly across the street from our hotel.

We ate here on our first night--one of Dad's recommendations.

Very tasty bread and clam chowder.

The crab stuffed mushroom--Dad's favorite thing on the menu.

At Seaport Village--an outdoor shopping/dining area.

View of a cruise ship at the doc (from the hotel elevator)

A seafood bucket from Marion's at Seaport Village.

Mmm...fudge!

More beautiful views from the hotel elevator.

Meg and the kids at Seaport village.

The whole family...boy, it's hard to get everyone to look at the camera!

One of the ships on the bay at sunset.

Spicy shrimp pasta in Little Italy. Yum!

Breakfast on our last morning, overlooking the bay.

At the moment, Mark's away at PASIC, and after alternating weeks of being out of town, we're both ready to get back to our regular routine!

Baked Taquitos

It seems like it's been a really long time since I've posted a recipe, so I thought I'd share one that has recently become part of our regular rotation. I tried a version of this recipe for the first time quite a while ago, but now that I've perfected it, we're eating it more and more! I started with these two recipes from Our Best Bites, then kind of merged them together to make our version.

Preheat oven to 425. Spray a baking sheet with non-stick spray and/or line with foil.

In a medium bowl, combine:
1-2 Tbs. pureed chipotles in adobo (I prefer to puree the whole can, then freeze the leftovers)
2 oz. cream cheese (the low-fat kind works well)
1 Tbs. lime juice
Cumin, garlic powder, oregano, chili powder, salt, and pepper to taste.

Add 1 1/2 cups cooked chicken (shredded or diced), then stir in 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese (any kind you like).

Meanwhile, heat corn tortillas in the microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Spoon filling into tortillas, roll tightly, and place seam side down on baking sheet. Spray with cooking spray and sprinkle lightly with kosher salt.

Bake for 15-25 minutes or till lightly browned and crispy. Serve with guacamole and/or sour cream.

Depending on your filling-to-tortilla ratio, this makes 8-12 taquitos.

As you can imagine, the recipe is pretty flexible. For those of you lucky enough to live in the land of green chile, you could easily swap that for the chipotles in adobo. I imagine leftover turkey or steak would work well in place of the chicken. Give it a try!

Our New Toys

This week has been another busy one, but with a couple of exciting moments! First, we bought a new car! We've been shopping around for a while now, and we happened to find one we thought was too good to pass up. We're now the proud drivers of this lovely 2007 Toyota RAV4.

(Note: this picture came from the dealer's listing; I haven't yet had time and sunshine to take my own pics).

As some of you know, Mark arranged to buy some very cool drums from Black Swamp Percussion before he finished the internship there. They finished both drums last week, and we were pleasantly surprised that they arrived at our door on Saturday! Here's Mark opening the packages and showing off the new drums.

Visitors!

Last weekend, Mark's brother Damon and his wife Diana came out to visit us here in BG. Here's a few of the things we did:

Dinner at Wasabi in Detroit on Thursday (after picking them up at the airport):

On Friday, Diana had to work (remotely), Mark had an exam, and I had 3 classes to teach, so Damon came to school with me and sat in on my classes. Between things, he explored campus a bit, taking some pictures he later used to give Mark and I a "quiz" about campus. Between the two of us, we did pretty well!

Hard at work

From Damon's self-guided campus tour

On the way home from school, Damon had a close encounter with the Falcon!

That night, all four of us went down to the Corner Grill, a diner downtown that I've been wanting to try for a while.

The breakfast items were definitely good enough to go back for.

On Saturday, we drove up to Toldeo to have lunch at Steak 'n Shake, then we went downtown in the afternoon for the Black Swamp Arts Festival (which is probably BG's biggest annual event). There, we watched a couple of concerts, browsed some of the booths (paintings, photos, jewelry, etc.), and enjoyed some fair food.

On Saturday night, we watched the Batman and Robin movie from the 90s...it was awful! Then we caught some fireworks from the front lawn of our building--courtesy of BGSU's first home game.

On Sunday, we had a quiet morning at home, then went out to the new Stone's Throw Tavern for lunch. It was a bit noisy, but good enough to go back another time. Then we took D&D to the Dairy Queen for some big blizzards. 

After a few more rounds of cards, it was time to head back up to the airport. The weekend went by really quickly, but it sure was nice to have company! If you're interested in another perspective on the trip, head on over to Damon's blog. If Damon and Diana are reading, thanks again for coming, and know that you're welcome back any time! :-)

Back to School

Tomorrow is the first day of the semester, and today is the day that everyone asks, "How did the summer go by so quickly?!" I think we had a pretty good summer over all, and I accomplished many things from my list, but I'm still surprised by the things I didn't do. (For example, I still haven't perfected a homemade sandwich bread recipe or made soft pretzels, or bagels...hmm...that's an interesting list!)

One of my goals this year, though, is to find ways to be more efficient during my work day and draw clearer boundaries between work and the rest of my life, so I can still find time to do some of those things I tend to push off as "summer things" when I'm feeling too busy to tackle them during the year. On the other hand, I'm teaching an overload this semester (5 classes instead of 4), so we'll see how that goes. :-)

The past two weeks have been busy. Mark's been studying for his upcoming exams, I had four (long) days of placement testing, and we've been out looking at used cars. Next week, of course, will be even more intense. But, I'm certainly still thrilled to be going back to work at a job I enjoy with great colleagues and students, so no complaints here. Now I'm going to enjoy my last hours of summer R&R!

Home Again, Home Again

It's good to be home! Mark and I haven't been away from home for that long before, and it sure does feel good to be back! We were able to leave the Grand Rapids area on Friday around 2pm, so we got home by 6pm, which was much earlier than we originally expected. We are all unpacked, and I've been able to do the grocery shopping. Thankfully, I cleaned this apartment before we left, so I didn't have that chore to do this weekend! We were also able to come home with mostly clean clothes, so I haven't had to do laundry yet, either. It's funny how being away for four weeks can really make you appreciate the small things about your own home. For example, we're really loving our spacious shower (we had a curved curtain rod installed when we moved in). I'm also thrilled to be back in my own kitchen, which is about twice as big as the one we were using in MI. It also has all my stuff in it--which I missed more than I expected. Hooray for small pleasures!

It's amazing to think that our summer is almost over, though. The first day of school is only two weeks from today! In the meantime, Mark has lots of studying to do in order to prepare for a round of big exams shortly after school starts, and I've got two days this week and next week of placement testing with my department (that's extra pay for me, so no complaints there!). I was fairly successful at planning for my fall classes while we were gone, but I do have a bit left to do. I think it can wait till next week! :-)