Make sure you chew your food fifty times.

Jennifer had to make another emergency trip to the barn this week because her horse was choking again. Not surprisingly since it practically inhales it’s food. Her friend Liz came up on Friday to perform some dental wizardry on the horse so hopefully he’ll chew his food a little better before swallowing.

I have been exceptionally busy in the lab this past week trying to get some great results for my conference in Toronto next week. As well as crafting an updated resume for the career night that kick starts the conference. It gives students a chance to mingle with government and industry leaders in the natural sciences over wine and hors d'oeuvres.

I have also started my guitar lessons this past week. I have been wanting to take my guitar playing to the next level so the lessons will run over ten weeks introducing me to some more advanced playing techniques. First order of business is changing the strings which I’ll be doing after I finish this blog.

I made tempura cod and chips this evening. The batter was delicious and browned nicely but it stuck to everything. Unfortunately the fish broke apart in my overzealous efforts to dislodge it from the steel mesh of the deep fryer basket. It ended up being more like fish hash ‘n chips. It still tasted good with my homemade tartar sauce. I also made gnocchi this week which was fairly labour intensive. It may not have been as pretty as the gnocchi you get at an Italian restaurant but we both agreed it was very good.

We are looking forward to seeing Jen’s Mom this week who is stopping in for a few days. It seems that whenever one of Jen’s family or friends stops by I am either leaving for a conference or tied-up with lab work. Oh well. It will all be done soon.

No, not garubula

Well I taught my first class of the semester today. Thirty-seven first year students. It was actually a breeze. Still wouldn’t want to be a full time teacher though. As I will be teaching roughly 140 students this semester I apologized to them beforehand as it is unlikely I will remember all of their names.

We had some unfortunate car trouble this week and needed to replace our alternator to the tune of $500.35. The car is almost 12 years old now so I guess these things are to be expected. I plan on getting a few more years out of it yet though.

In other news, I made duck l’orange the other night. My orange sauce was almost good enough to eat on its own but I don’t think I would ever buy a whole duck again. it is a greasy bird with less meat on its bones than a chicken. I was treated to Jennifer’s cooking today. She had the day off today and prepared a “golden fruit chutney” which had dried apricots, golden raisins and pineapple in it. She also made a homemade chicken curry and biscuits. It was all delicious. Tomorrow evening I plan on making parmesan and Swiss cheese polenta as well as chicken wings with a savoury chocolate barbeque sauce. Which brings me to a rather amusing exchange I had with a cashier today about an ingredient I was buying that she wasn’t familiar with:

Cashier: What is this?

Me: Arugula.

Cashier: I have never heard of arubula.

Me: No, not arubula. AruGULa, with a “g”.

Cashier (asking the cashier to her left): Oh, with a “g”. Cindy have you ever heard of garubula.

Me: No, not garubula. Arugula! A-R-U-G-U-L-A. Arugula.

Anyway I got my arugula.

R.I.P. Jenn’s Bike

While Jennifer’s bike may have been old and slightly rusted it was the only one she had. Unfortunately we awoke to find it stolen the other day. Our bike lock had broken earlier and we had yet to replace it. It is strange they wouldn’t have taken my bike, which was also unlocked. as it was the much nicer bike of the two. We are going to go and look at new bikes for her today. Being that summer is winding down, we are hoping the prices are dropping on them. Invest in a new bike lock that isn’t going to fall apart as well. In the meantime my bike has been brought into the spare bedroom. Apparently Cooper likes having the bike inside as he nuzzled his muzzle against the greasy chain.

I made slow-cooker rabbit cacciatore the other night. It was alright but I found that the rabbit tasted just like a gamier chicken. The hardest part was cutting out the various muscle groups from the rabbit torso. It required watching several “How to” videos online. I also fried up the heart, liver, and kidneys in some butter as a lunchtime snack. The heart was tough and chewy, the liver was a little rubbery but the kidneys were delicious. This week I am making duck although I haven’t settled on a recipe yet.

But the biggest news of the week is that I am going to be an uncle as Penny told me she is pregnant with twins! I wish I could have been a fly on the wall when the doctor told them twins ;)