I'm still here!

My poor blog, I feel like I've been neglecting you. It's not that I haven't been cooking. I just haven't had time to write posts.

This new teaching job is eating up all my free time. I've been staying at school until 5 or 6 each night, then doing more planning at home. Plus, I'm still working weekends at Kitchen Conservatory. I'm exhausted.

Still, I am actually enjoying my new job. It's a lot of work, but it's pretty fun. For the most part, I like my students. They are good kids. And, I've been impressed by their work. I had my European Literature class write a "This I Believe" essay in the voice of a character from Beowulf. The content of their essay had to reflect the character's personality, and their writing had to reflect the language of the poem. They blew me away with what they wrote. Really amazing stuff!

Yesterday, I arrived at school at 6:00 in the morning for a pep rally that was being broadcast on the local news. Check it out! Like I said...good kids.

Anyway, I bought a butternut squash at the local farmers' market recently and used it to make butternut squash macaroni & cheese, a recipe I found on A Veggie Venture and have had bookmarked since last year. The squash adds just a hint of sweetness to the pasta; it's so good I was even eating if for breakfast (with a sunny-side up egg on top!).

I also made an apple-caramel flip with the first Jonathans of the year. I simply rolled some pie dough out into a circle, coated half with graham cracker crumbs, topped with peeled & sliced apples, added caramel bits, dusted with cinnamon, dotted with butter, & folded the crust over, brushed it with egg wash, sprinkled with sugar, then baked until golden brown. Yum!

Today, I'm making a plum cake (check back on Tuesday for the recipe) & I'm seriously considering a souffle for lunch. Hopefully, now that I've been teaching at the new school for 6 weeks (I can hardly believe it's been that long already!), I have a handle on the planning and scheduling and can focus more time at home on cooking and blogging. It is, after all, my favorite season (food, weather, and otherwise) of the year!