I am now done with finals! WOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
However, I still have to take one more licensure exam for teaching on Monday,
so I’m not completely done with test taking. But my finals for all my classes
are behind me and the fall semester is over.
People
always want to know how my semester is going and if it was a good semester. I
think this is such a hard question to answer and I usually flounder, saying,
“Oh yeah it’s been good, but I’m glad it’s over.” Which is true. None of the seven
semesters that I’ve had in college so far have been particularly terrible or
impossible. I’ve had some rough and stressful weeks in the middle of semesters,
for sure, but no entire semester that was complete misery. Or complete joy. And
I typically am always glad they’re over. As much as you may adore one class,
finals makes you hate life just enough to be ready to get all classes out of
your life forever.
So how was
my semester? Here’s a little review:
·
I took fewer credits than I usually do, which meant
less time in class and less time doing homework.
·
Of the classes I took, I detested 2, loved 2,
and the 2 others were decent, but frustrating.
·
I had an absolutely fantastic teaching field
experience in a classroom for students with autism.
·
I worked two part-time jobs, which ate up a significant
amount of my time not spent in class and doing homework.
·
I only have one grade that’s been turned in so
far, but my current GPA is a 4.0
 |
| You know your cooking blog is taking over your life when… |
To celebrate this semester, I decided to go
shopping this afternoon and wandered into Bed, Bath, and Beyond and immediately
hit up the kitchen section. In addition to buying some toys that I’ve been
eyeing, I purchased some cute little custard cups so that I could make Moosewood’s
Bittersweet Chocolate Baked Custard. The book’s subtitle for this recipe is
“easy super-comfort food”. Sounds like a great way to end the semester to me.
Custard
is pretty simple, only 5 ingredients, and easy to customize. In addition to the
chocolate kind, Moosewood has recipes for Maple and Maple-Peach. I
already had chocolate chips, so that’s the one I went with. I also very luckily
had the exact right amount of milk and eggs left (technically the recipe calls
for four and my fourth egg broke in the carton, so I was only able to use
three). You’re also supposed to make six cups of custard, but the set I bought
was only four. I just filled them super full.
 |
| Post-baking water bath |
You
bake custards in their own little cups, but you also place each cup in a larger
baking pan, which is filled halfway full with water. Apparently this is called
a “water bath” and is necessary because they are so delicate. The water acts as
an insulator to help the custards maintain a fluffy and not rubbery texture.
They take a very long time to bake, but again this is the water bath, which slows
the process. The slow cook time is actually the exact correct amount of time
needed to fill your apartment up with the most heavenly chocolate smell.
 |
| Perfectly baked custardy goodness! |
You’re
meant to bake the custards until the centers are set. It’s kind of hard to
check on this; Moosewood says they shouldn’t jiggle when you shake them.
But I don’t really know how you’re supposed to shake them when they’re fresh
out of a 350-degree oven. I kind of shimmied the pan and decided they were set
enough. I let them cool a bit and then dug in! They were absolute chocolaty bliss!
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