Sometimes I screw up…
May I describe my frustration? Thanks, you’re so sweet.
When I started at Tufts I knew the class work would be challenging, but I was excited because I also knew that I would be focusing on things that I really care about and am very interested in. One of the classes that I was most excited about was the Experiencing Massachusetts Agriculture class. This was an experiential farm tours class that allowed students to take a field trip every week to see a different farm and learn directly from the farmer about the challenges and rewards of farming in
I was thrilled by the concept and once I took the class I was thrilled by the reality. I loved seeing local farms, hearing from local growers, being able to purchase local produce, meat, or dairy every week. I attended each and every trip and was never let down.
Then today, two months after out last field trip, I received this email message:
Dear Amy,
Thank you for your participation in last semester’s … course. This fall semester represented a “pilot” of the class, and there were many lessons learned on both sides in how to make the course work more effectively in the future. In reviewing and evaluating your participation in the course, there were areas in which you fell seriously short of the participation criteria in order to receive credit for the course. Either you did not attend sufficient field trips to meet the 80% attendance requirement, or you did not submit sufficient quantity or quality of post-trip reflections on the…course discussion website. In consideration of the potential vagueness of the grading criteria noted in the syllabus, the dean…and I have determined that rather than outright assigning you a “failing” grade for the course, this email is to communicate a couple of options you have to protect your transcript from a failing grade. You can choose from one of the two options:
1. We can remove the course from your transcript and you will receive
no credit for the course. OR
2. You will be assigned an “incomplete” and to make up for the lack
of full participation in the course and to receive credit and a
passing grade, you can write a 10-page paper on the challenges and
opportunities for a new farmer to engage in each of the farm
sectors covered during the field trip course…which would be due no later than January 23rd.
Please let us know as soon as possible and no later than Friday, January 16 which option you prefer. If you have any questions, please be in touch with me…
Thanks”
Fwa?!?!!
I needed to do some research. I went onto the course website and went through the list of field trips:
I went to each discussion page and read not only my post, but the post of every other student. There was no way my quality was lower: I’m the only AFE student who takes writing classes, I’m reflective and deep, and…come on! First I reviewed the prompt for each response: they were uniformly terrible in their clarity. The heading and the directions were often contradictory and there were always multiple questions. I counted each time that I had responded to either the heading or a question from the directions as a correct response.
To be fair, my responses were not fabulous. All were short, once a post was ungrammatical, and once I skipped the mandatory question and moved on to the optional recipe section in which I was more interested (Amy’s Apple Pie, if you’re interested). However, the quality of my writing and the correlation of my response to the given prompt was no lower than that of the rest of the class and frequently better. My responses were more fluent and more on topic than all but two other people in a class of at least 20 students. The problem was that for the last two classes I had no response. None.
That was it: I had written responses to six trips but apparently I only posted my comments on four. My last two online posts were lost to the great interweb, never to be seen by my professor. Fuck. Great responses, and even mediocre ones like mine, mean nothing if you lack the technical ability to post them.
So now I had a choice, fail (unacceptable, I’d probably fail out of school as well as the class ‘cause grad school is like that), drop the class (undesirable, I earned that half-credit through weekly 5:00am wake-ups and hours long journeys to farms), or write a 10-page paper about…something. What on earth was that prompt? It was so vague and useless. So I re-wrote it in my own words and sent it back to my professor with the question, “Does this sound like I’m correctly interpreting the prompt?” Also, “What grade would be a “passing” grade?” and “What are you grading on?”
So, now I’m waiting for a response. I love my professor, but Hell, this is my grade we’re talking about. I know it was my incompetence that lead to my not having a post for either of the final field trips, but a little notification would have been nice. Something like a “Hey Amy, you haven’t posted to either of the last two discussions and, as a result, will fail if you don’t get off your butt and write something in the next week,” email.
And as I wait for a response I’m writing my paper in the hopes that my professor and I can agree on a prompt and a grading scheme. I have until January 16th to decide which option I’m going to take. I figure if I write a singe page each day between now and the 16th then I will have 10 rough pages by the 15th and I can email them to my professor along with a query about whether this seems like the sort of thing that would allow me to pass. Then I can make my decision on what the heck I should do about this mess I’ve gotten myself into.
The other thing I’m going to do is make Triscuit sandwiches. Many of you know what a massive salt addict I am. I could easily eat my way through a box of Triscuits in a sitting. To allow myself the comfort of junk food while making my snacking somewhat healthier I create sandwiches from Triscuits. A cracker topped with a dollop of hummus, some feta, and a Kalamata olive. Or a spinach leaf, a bit of cheddar, and a half a cherry tomato. A wedge of apple topped with some Swiss. Roasted garlic spread and an artichoke heart.
The possibilities are endless. I make one of each combination I can think of (which, no matter how creative I’m feeling is still fewer than the number of Triscuits I would have devoured by themselves) and then set them out on a platter next to a glass of wine. Each time I have to stop and consider what to write next I have something to nibble or sip. It makes life infinitely less frustrating when you’re writing something you would not have had to if you had been smart enough to do things right the first time around, but have snacks to distract you.
Posted by KeysAmy on January 6th, 2009 under Incidental | 1 Comment »Sunday Football Food
I am in Pittsburgh with my family for the week: this is the land of Steelers fans and we are at the end of the regular football season.
Steelers fans are a rare breed of person. They love their team. They have ferocious pride in their players and their coach, but at the same time they never believe that their team has a chance of winning. When the Steelers win, fans view it as this wonderful miracle that has occurred despite the bumbling of their team. When the team loses the fans shake their heads and say, “Ah! We always fall apart when it counts!” no matter how insignificant the game.
For a Steelers’ fan raised far away from this land of sports history and fandom, watching my team play at a bar full of local Pittsburgh Steelers fans is…well…it’s terrifying. These people are insane! They spit and scream and beat up others for not supporting the right team. It’s a level of intensity I’m not used to after spending eight years in
So, we’re watching the game at home today. It’s a good game. We’re playing the Browns, who are in the same conference as us. And they’re really bad this year, so we’ll probably do okay, but even if we don’t, we’re still going to the play-offs and they’re not (although don’t try telling that to a real Steelers fan. They know the truth which is that this game counts). So, this will be a fun day of football. And as such, I need to make some damn good bar food.
Three years ago (not coincidentally, this was right around the time that the Steelers were hitting all the road games during the 2005 playoffs) I got really obsessed with wings. I can do a darn good BBQ wing, and Sam’s mom has a traditional wing recipe that blows all the competition out of the water, but what I like is a Buffalo-style wing.
Here’s what I do: First I take the wings and cut them up so that they are half “drumettes” and half “wings.” The easiest way to do this is with poultry sheers, but a sharp knife works just fine. Then I pat the pieces dry and season them with salt, pepper, and just a little garlic powder. I heat some sort of flavorless oil in a heavy skillet (canola or vegetable oil are good) and I fry the wings at a high temperature until they are just brown. You have to do this at a high temperature or the wings will cook through before they are browned and will end up dry and overcooked. When the wings are browned set them aside to drain off the extra oil.
While I’m waiting for the wings to drain I pre-heat the oven to 325 and I mix up my sauce. I have yet to come up with a perfect wing sauce, but I have found a way to adjust an existing sauce to make it perfect. I take one cup of WingTime medium buffalo sauce, add in a whole stick of melted butter (hey, when you’re making junk food why even pretend it’s anything but bad for you?), a teaspoon or so of Tabasco, and a tablespoon of lime juice. If the butter you used was unsalted you might want to add in a little salt too.
Put a layer of the sauce on the bottom of a shallow, rimmed oven pan. Arrange the chicken parts in the pan so they form a single later. Evenly cover the wings with the rest of the sauce. Pop them in the oven for 20 minutes, flip them over to make sure the sauce is absolutely everywhere and cook for another 20 minutes. While you’re baking the wings you might want to mix up some sort of dipping sauce for them. Most people are partial to blue cheese or ranch, both of which can be purchased pre-made from the store or whipped up from a basic cookbook recipe, but a yogurt or sour cream based sauce can be good too.
Once you’ve gotten your wings out of the oven just arrange them on a plate, squirt a little more lime juice over the top, and serve with a side of WingTime sauce and whatever other sauce you’ve chosen. Grab a beer and turn on the TV, it’s game time!
Posted by KeysAmy on December 28th, 2008 under Cooking Adventure, New Recipe | Comment now »An Ode to Vegetarians
Although I am a huge fan of vegetables, I am not a vegetarian. Like most idealistic college students I toyed with vegetarianism on and off for years. Unlike most, I prepared casseroles and frittatas rather than subsisting off fruity pebbles and macaroni and cheese. Even with these delectable options my longest period without meat lasted less than a year and came to an abrupt halt early in the morning May 2005.
I was living in a house with five others and all of us were on an anti-meat kick, which is why I was surprised to smell the irresistible scent of bacon drifting upstairs from the kitchen that morning. I was in my best friend’s room (my room was a tiny, un-insulated loft with, so I spent a lot of time in other people’s rooms) and I looked at him to see if he smelled it too. It was clear from the look of longing on his face that he did.
We bolted down our rickety stairs and were amazed to find another of our roommates, the most staunch vegetarian in our house, standing in before a sizzling pan with a mountain of bacon stacked on a plate beside him. It turned out that he was using the oil for a bio-diesel experiment and didn’t want the bacon at all. I ate enough delicious, salty, crispy bacon that day to more than make up for my previous abstinence and I’ve never regretted giving up a life without bacon.
Despite my love affair with meat, vegetarian food—the good stuff, not the fruity pebbles—still rings my bell. Vegetarians are a creative lot. My friend Tim, for example, makes a mean dish out of shiitake mushrooms and nutritional yeast. Sure, it might not sound like much, but I could eat it everyday of the week (or mix it into my stir fry as a meat substitute). It’s that good.
Vegetarian food also tends to be more healthful than food based around meat (once again, I’m talking about the good stuff, nothing from a box). Vegetarian diets tend to be high in phytochemicals, antioxidants, and fiber; they also tend to be low in saturated fats. With the exception of Omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin B12, it’s very simple to have a vegetarian diet that includes all the vitamins and minerals your body needs. As for those two tough guys, just stock up on walnuts and take a supplement if you’re hard core enough to go vegan (B12 is found in animal products such as milk, cheese, eggs, and butter).
In honor of my vegetarian friends, today I give you some delicious recipes for winter vegetables. I would also like to point out that any of these recipes would make a fine addition to a Thanksgiving feast.
· Oven roasted root vegetables
· Sautéed Brussels sprouts with pecans
Posted by KeysAmy on November 20th, 2008 under Thoughts on Foods, Holliday Planner, New Recipe | 3 Comments »A historic moment; a historic speech.
Last night Barack Hussien Obama became president elect of the United States of America. Here is a copy of his acceptance speech; a speech that our children will learn in school.
If there is anyone out there who still doubts that
It’s the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that difference.
It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states; we are and always will be the United States of America.
It’s the answer that led those who’ve been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day. It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.
A little bit earlier this evening, I received an extraordinarily gracious call from Senator McCain. Senator McCain fought long and hard in this campaign, and he’s fought even longer and harder for the country that he loves. He has endured sacrifices for
I want to thank my partner in this journey, a man who campaigned from his heart and spoke for the men and women he grew up with on the streets of Scranton, and rode with on the train home to Delaware, the vice president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden.
And I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the last 16 years, the rock of our family, the love of my life, the nation’s next first lady, Michelle Obama.
Sasha and Malia, I love you both more than you can imagine, and you have earned the new puppy that’s coming with us to the White House.
And while she’s no longer with us, I know my grandmother is watching, along with the family that made me who I am. I miss them tonight, and know that my debt to them is beyond measure.
To my sister Maya, my sister Auma, all my other brothers and sisters, thank you so much for all the support that you’ve given to me. I am grateful to them.
And to my campaign manager, David Plouffe, the unsung hero of this campaign who built the best political campaign I think in the history of the
But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to. It belongs to you. It belongs to you.
I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We didn’t start with much money or many endorsements. Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of
Now, I know you didn’t do this just to win an election, and I know you didn’t do it for me. You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime: two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century. Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of
There’s new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet, alliances to repair. The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term, but
There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won’t agree with every decision or policy I make as president, and we know the government can’t solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation the only way it’s been done in
What began 21 months ago in the depths of winter cannot end on this autumn night. This victory alone is not the change we seek; it is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It can’t happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice. So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other.
Let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything, it’s that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while
As
And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.
To those who would tear the world down: we will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security: we support you. And to all those who have wondered if America’s beacon still burns as bright: tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals — democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.
That’s the true genius of
This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that’s on my mind tonight’s about a woman who cast her ballot in
She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn’t vote for two reasons, because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin. And tonight, I think about all that she’s seen throughout her century in America: the heartache and the hope, the struggle and the progress, the times we were told that we can’t, and the people who pressed on with that American creed, yes we can.
At a time when women’s voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.
When there was despair in the Dust Bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs, a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.
When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.
She was there for the buses in
A man touched down on the Moon, a wall came down in
This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment. This is our time — to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope; and where we are met with cynicism and doubt and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.
The Problem of Too Many Apples…
If you had asked me a week ago if it were possible to posses too many apples I would have answered with an unequivocal “no.” This week I know better.
The trouble started at school. One of my favorite classes in the AFE program at Tufts is our Experiencing Massachusetts Agriculture class. Every week we take a field trip to a farm, land grant university program, or other agricultural location and learn first hand about how our food is grown. Last week we took a trip to the UMass agricultural research and extension center in Belchertown
When you are a student at a well respected institution of higher learning it is expected of you to hold yourself to a certain standard. This standard is one of abject poverty. Tufts is a fantastic school, but boy is it pricey, and so is rent in the
As I sat in my kitchen that evening, admiring more apples than I could eat on my own, I was confident that my roommate would be able to help me in disposing of this windfall. Ha! Two hours later he arrived home, rosy cheeked with cold and bright eyed with triumph.
“Just wait till you see how many apples I picked!”
What does one do with so many apples? Well, first you give two to each of your professors. Then you send some home with your roommate’s girlfriend. You eat an apple with your lunch every day and an apple with peanut butter as a snack every evening. You bake a Tart. You bake a Crisp. You Bake Apples. You start wondering how many apple desserts you can stomach.
As for savory apple meals, I can think of many. Recently my current roommate concocted a wonderful meal from apples and red cabbage, I’d ask him for the recipe but he seems to be in a coma. No doubt it’s apple induced. My old roommate Sarah (she of the delicious Spring Rolls) came up with a great recipe for Apple and Spinach Salad with Feta. Before I lived with a vegetarian I was a big fan of Roast Pork Loin with Apple. Now I mix diced tart apples into my Tarragon Chicken Salad and leave out the celery and tarragon; the results are surprisingly good.
I’ve now cooked every apple dish that I can imagine and yet there are still more apples. I think they multiply at night. I’ll make an Apple Pie tonight and if there are still more I’ll just have to throw an apple fest at my house this weekend and give away what we don’t bake that day.
| S | S | M | T | W | T | F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Dec | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| 31 | ||||||
What I'm Reading:
My Links:
Five Sites I Couldn't Live Without:
Food blogs and Local Foodies:
- 100 Mile Diet
- 101 Cookbooks
- 10 Signs Like This
- Delicious Days
- Cricket Bread
- Eat Local Challenge
- Low Mileage Food
- Orangette
- Roots & Grubs
- LaLaLa Blog
- Sin Noticias de Stew
- Tea And Cookies
Eco & Gardening Blogs:
- Deliberate Every Day
- Earth Friendly Gardening
- No Impact Man
- Organic Schmorganic
- Pocket Farm
- Slowly She Turned
- I Heart Small Farms
- Alix in Wonderland
Buddy Blogs:
- Adam's Travels
- Emily's Knitting Madness
- Laura's Thoughts on Life
- Megan & Rose
- Not the Motorcycle Diaries
