Well, I made it through the first two weeks of classes. I can’t believe how quickly time goes when you’re on the quarter system and only have 10 weeks for each class. I ended up with only two classes, but they seem to be keeping me adequately busy, so that’s good. I hope to start volunteering at the African Community Center soon to help keep me busy (plus, I want to do an internship with them next year).
After two weeks, I still don’t love my Spanish class, but it’s pretty much a necessary evil, so I will stick it out. 🙂 I absolutely LOVE my Culture, Gender, and Global Communications class. According to the syllabus, it explores the ways in which culture, gender, and communication intersect and shape a variety of issues from an international and intercultural perspective. We pretty much sit around for four hours and watch videos, listen to guest speakers, and have discussions.
On a completely unrelated note, Nic and I made eggplant parmigiana last night and it was fantastic! We like to try a new recipe every week, so Danette gave me a book called 500 Casseroles, which is where this recipe came from:
Eggplant Parmigiana
2 tbs butter, melted
1/2 cup Parmesan, plus 2 tbs
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2/3 cup evaporated milk (one of the little cans)
2 medium sized eggplants, cut into 1/4 inch slices (we just used one bigger eggplant and got 6 slices out of it)
8 oz plain tomato sauce
Preheat oven to 350. Pour melted butter into an 8-inch square casserole (we used a 9×13 casserole with 3 tbs butter). In a small bowl, combine 2 tbs grated parmesan, flour, salt, and pepper. Pour 1/3 cup evaporated milk into a shallow dish. Dip each eggplant slice in the milk, coating both sides. Then roll each cutlet in the flour mixture. Place the eggplant in a single layer in casserole and bake for 30 minutes.
In another bowl, combine remaining 1/3 cup evaporated milk with 1/2 cup parmesan. Remove eggplant from oven. Pour tomato sauce around the eggplant, then spread the milk and parmesan mixture over each slice. Return to oven for another 20-25 minutes until bubbly.
You can also replace the eggplant with 4 chicken breasts if you’d rather do that. It takes awhile because it has to cook for so long, but otherwise, it’s really easy and yummy!
Jon and Annalisa
Ah! You’re such a good example about jumping in and getting involved with good causes. Did Nic join too? That class sounds really great, and I’m hoping the Spanish classes pick up a bit. How many of them will you have to take?