Round-up of the Past Few Weeks

It's been forever since I posted. Graduate school seems to take a lot out of me. I'll really be glad to be done with it! The most exciting thing to happen since school started is that my friends (in alphabetical order) Allison, Ariana, Erika, Kristyn, Rebecca, and Nicole have been coming over to watch Masterpiece Theatre's adaptations of Jane Austen's novels. So far we've seen Persuasion and Northanger Abbey. Tonight we'll watch Mansfield Park, which is not my favorite Austen, so I'm hoping Masterpiece Theatre will make it as good as possible.

Here's a photo of a cupcake I made for the week we watched Persuasion:


Don't worry--those specks are vanilla beans! The cake is a genoise with rum glaze and a whipped cream frosting, adapted from this recipe.

Lastly, here are two recipes I've made that turned out really well. The first is Chicken au Champagne from French Women Don't Get Fat with a side of Frozen Peas from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I love this recipe because it's easy and the chicken stays super moist even after it's been reheated.


The second meal is Spice-Rubbed Turkey Breast with Sweet Potatoes and Sauteed Escarole. The escarole wasn't really that impressive, maybe because I had to substitute turnip greens, but everything else was really tasty. I love sweet potatoes anyway and the turkey was actually juicy.
To finish up, here's a look at the books for the French seminar I'm attending. I told you I like uniformity!