Summer of New Things

I'm hoping to making this summer a good one.  I'm only working part time at my job and searching for a fulltime teaching position.  Finding a job for the fall is really starting to worry me.  The one position I thought I'd have a much easier time getting (because I student taught there) was filled, I didn't even get an opportunity to interview there.  I'm really frustrated by that but I can't let it hold me back.

Before J and I moved in with my parents (which is another reason I would like a job ASAP) we talked about making a list of things that we want to do over the course of the summer.  The two of us still haven't made our list, but this is my list:

-Get a job (too obvious?)

-Kayaking (South of my house are a bunch of places we can kayak on rivers)

-Run a 5k

-Run a 10k (maybe more towards the fall though, I'm really not up to pushing myself because last time thats how I hurt myself)

-Hike/Camping (I live in an area with great trails...how did I never get into this?)

-Beach days! (Plural pleeease)

-Start making a serious plan for what J and I will do come September if I don't have a job

-Do some sewing (not sure what I want to make but its something I'd like to do)

-Stay after work to sunbathe or swim (I do not want to end the summer pale yet again, I read the sun can help eczema)

-Learn how to jar foods

-Go picking! (strawberry season is basically over, but blue berries and raspberries anyone?)

-Picnic

-Outdoor concert with J
-Trip to NYC

-Post more!  (I really can't seem to keep up on blogging)

There are more that I can't think of right now, perhaps I will edit later on.  Hopefully I'll get to cross many of these off my list!

What do you want to do this summer?

Home Sweet Home

The move is officially complete.  J and I are all moved in with my parents and boy can you tell by the mounds of boxes throughout the house.  I really owe my parents big time for allowing us to live here for the time being.  While it is nice to be home I will admit that it is an odd experience.  After having lived away for home for the past few years it is hard to get used to tip toeing when I get home from going out with the girls so that I don't wake up the dogs who will bark and wake my parents up.

On another note I had my first official interview for a teaching job this past friday!  It went alright, but I won't hear anything until tomorrow about whether or not they want me back for a demo lesson.  What is even more stressful is that they won't tell me what grade level I'm interviewing for until tomorrow either!  So basically I have two days to prep...yikes!!  Its really frustrating, exciting, nerve-wrecking...the list goes on.  We'll see how it goes.  I hope I at least get calls for other interviews soon.  It is so frustrating waiting!

Hello Again.

Finally back (hopefully) after a very long hiatus.  Initially when I created this blog I wanted it to be a record of my student teaching and while I posted a handful of times during my student teaching, I never realized how much work up keep of a blog would be.  That has held especially true for me this semester.  My intention was to continuing posting this semester, but between work, school and worrying about finding a teaching position I'm always too exhausted to post.  With my graduation just around the corner (4 weeks from today!) I'm hoping that the extra time I will now have will give me the opportunity to post more.  Be expecting more cooking and job search stories!

Its definitely going to be a peculiar transition in the next couple of weeks.  J and I are moving in with my parents temporarily after I graduate.  The idea is that living with them will give me the opportunity to find a teaching position and give the two of us time to search for an apartment.  Since J's job is close to my parents' house and I'm looking for jobs all over picking out an apartment before I have a job could mean an extremely long commute.  After seeing how tired J is after his current commute (1-1.5 hrs) every day I don't think I could handle that type of a commute for an entire year.  Now we just have to hope I get a teaching position (cross your fingers please!).

Alright now back to the mound of assignments I have due in the next 3 weeks...

Sesame Chicken and Tofu

Nom Nom I think its time for another food post.

Today J and I went for our normal shopping for groceries for the week and we couldn't decide what we wanted for dinner.  J was indecisive and I wasn't really hungry at the time so I wasn't really hungry for anything.  J said to me that we should make the sesame chicken recipe that we tried a couple weeks ago.  I was up for anything so I agreed and boy am I happy that we did!

 Now if you don't know me then let me start off by saying that I love the Food Network Magazine.  I've only started reading it in the past few months but I love going to Barnes and Noble and finding a new one on the stands.  When I get home I read it once or twice through before I rip out the pages of recipes I like and put them in my binder full of recipes that I've found that I either want to try or I've tried and they are keepers.  A couple of weeks ago I pulled out this recipe for a healthier version of sesame chicken.  It was absolutely delicious, of course not exactly like take out, but a pretty darn good replacement for it!

Today J and I decided to change it up a bit and it was still delicious.  We opted for no snow peas this time around and added an entire block of firm tofu .  Also, J and I tend to eat white rice over brown rice (I know, I know... we need to fix that) and I didn't really see the point of adding sesame seeds.  Let me tell you this was soooo good!  We had barely any leftovers (we doubled the recipe from last time to account for the tofu and a little bit larger portion of chicken) and the tofu added the perfect texture to the meal.  To be honest, I never was into tofu until I met J and he showed me what good tofu is supposed to taste like, so I highly recommend that even if you've only had tofu once before and didn't like it that you try it again in this recipe.  You can find the recipe for this great dish at the Food Network Magazine website (if you click it will send you right to the recipe).

Mmm looks like its dinner time!

Don't forget the rice!

So delicious!

Enjoy!

Well Hello Again

Geez, it has been ages since I've posted on here.  I really thought that I would have the time to do more posting on here during my student teaching, but due to planning, coursework and the journal I'm required to keep about my teaching experience I haven't had any time.

I can't believe I'm finished the first placement of my student teaching internship.  It feels like I entered the classroom just the other day.  My time in the second grade was truly amazing.  I have my highs and my lows but ultimately the entire experience showed me how much I would love to be teaching in the younger grades.  The kids are just so amazing and it is just a truly rewarding experience to know that you are really setting up students for future success in school.  My students made me so sad to leave, on my last day they made me this compliment quilt

which is something they do for the star student each week.  They each make a 5x5 piece of paper with a compliment about that person and a picture.  Then we attach them all together to make the quilt.  Here are some of my favorites:

.

I almost received a handful of pictures and cards before I left from some of my favorite students.  Boy oh boy this is making me miss them right now.

Ah they were such a great group of kids!

Anyway I just finished my first week in the sixth grade and the kids and the classroom environment are totally different.  I'm having a hard time in making the transition from one grade to another.  I don't mind the sixth grade, but I would've rather stayed in the second grade and finished with my class.  Oh well, I can't dwell on it too much.  My first lesson is on Monday and it is weird because teaching one lesson means that I am teaching 4 classes! Yikes!  I'm interested to see whether the students will take to me or not.  Also...instead of having 22 names to remember I now have roughly 120 students whose names I have to remember.  Wish me luck with that.

On a side note, J made us fish and chips last night.  It was sooooo good!! When I was younger you couldn't get me to go near any fish other than salmon.  Fish sticks made me feel sick and I couldn't be near the smell of tartar sauce.  Now, however, my taste buds have clearly changed and I am more than happy to eat or try any type of fish and smother it with tartar sauce.  

Cod was on sale at our local Stop and Shop so we picked some up and right by the fish was McCormicks Beer Batter (which we used beer instead of water in) and yum yum yum....  The fish tasted like it was from a restaurant.  The only flaw to our meal was that we didn't have fries and instead we had actual potato chips which wasn't bad but wasn't great.  Here are some pictures of J's awesome fish.

Nom Nom.  I highly suggest trying making your own fish and chips at home.

p.s. The only bad part about making fish and chips at home is that our apartment still smells like fish today...I've been cleaning to hopefully remove whatever is left of the smell.

New Recipe: Sweet Potato Gnocchi

So the other day I finally had the opportunity to make the recipe I saw on The Foodie Scientist.  I had really been wanting to try it because J and I are both suckers for sweet potatoes.  Except usually we prefer them with brown sugar and butter (real healthy I know).  I thought that this recipe sounded delicious and worth a shot.

Gnocchi dough

I finally had a whole day on Friday to make these, believe me when they say you need 2.5-3 hours to make these they mean it.  The process of making the dough is not complicated, but you do have to be able to cook the potatoes for an hour and have time to make all the individual gnocchi which takes a decent amount of time.

Individual gnocchi before ridges are formed.

 I'm not a big fan of sage and to be honest I didn't feel like searching for chestnuts at the grocery store so my final product was only cooked in butter sauce and covered with some Parmesan.  Next time (because I froze half of the batch to see how they would cook up after being frozen) I will definitely try a different sauce.  While the gnocchi had a great texture, they weren't as flavorful as I was expecting them to be so maybe next time I'll pair them with some pesto sauce or some type of cream sauce.

They smelled delicious while they were cooking...mmm.

Finished product, may not look like a lot but it was filling.

I would absolutely make this again, but maybe with J's help because it was definitely tiring.  Oh and ps wear an apron!  Unless you have a huge counter space (which I do not ), you will most likely end up like this at the end of making the gnocchi.

Flour everywhere!

For me, an entire batch made roughly 165 gnocchi.

I'm off to run some errands.  Enjoy the beautiful day!

Lions and Tigers and Bears...oh my!

Today was one of those awesome days where J and I both have off from work, me a long weekend from school and J the first day off in almost a week.  The weather was PERFECT, not too hot, not too cool and a perfect end of the summer breeze.  Can you guess how we decided to spend it?  I'll give you one guess...

That's my name right there...sssssee?

Okay maybe one more guess...

I'm a year old but I'm still itsy bitsy.

Okay if you haven't figured it out, we went to the zoo!  I haven't been the Philadelphia Zoo since my cousins were little if not longer...they are both still relatively little @ 13 and 15 (i think...ha ha such a bad cousin here).  And let me tell you, being at the zoo I reverted to my 7 year old self...I couldn't wait to see the 3 month old giraffe and the elephants (which are sadly no longer at the zoo due to their inability to raise funding to create a larger and more updated habitat).

Even though J and I have been together for almost 4 years, it is one of the places that I went to as a child that I've never taken him to (along with the Camden Aquarium).  There are still so many places that I have yet to take him.  Its also fun when we go visit his family in California and he's the one showing me around.  It is one of the things I love most about our relationship, that he's from one coast and I'm from another, we get to do so many new and exciting things.

Anyway...back to the zoo. There were so many awesome exhibits that looked to be new and revamped.  Currently there is a Lego exhibit going on that is kind of cool (although I'd prefer to see real animals if I'm going to be at the zoo) where near a dozen or so animal exhibits there would be a Lego creation of the animal. Pretty nifty.

It took 1,100 hours to make.

Also, there were so many baby animals: orangutan, giraffe, turtles, kangaroo, and many more that we weren't even able to see because they were that new to the zoo.  You can't help but be in awe of the adorableness of these babies. 

This little one is around 3 months old.

I highly recommend taking a trip to the Philadelphia Zoo if you have the opportunity or live in the area.  Even on a crowded day like today (believe me with the nice weather and it being Labor Day Weekend there was a pretty large crowd), the zoo never felt overwhelming and it was a nice relaxing stroll.  I can't wait to take my own kids there one day...

Later Gators!