College Post-College

The End

2010-01-02T10:34:00.000-08:00

I wanted to publish my final blog post from a plane over the Caribbean, on my way to Costa Rica (where I am now), but I was too busy sleeping. This past year has been the longest, busiest, most exhausting one I can remember, and I’m glad that it´s finally over. My year ended in the same place that it began, a biological field station in north-eastern Costa Rica. Last year, I was working as a TA for a monkey class, forcing students to learn the basics of habitat assessment and plant identification. This year, I am playing in the kitchen with the women who cook for the students to learn some traditional Costa Rican and Nicaraguan recipes in preparation for a course on Costa Rican/Latin American food that I will be teaching here next summer (Tropical Cuisine: Costa Rica).

I have spent most of my adult life scheming to find ways to escape on extended trips to the tropics, usually as a teaching assistant for a course or as a field/research assistant on a research project. It has all been wonderful, but I have always been working for someone else. I never got around to creating my own project or class that would take me there. Thanks to Parkland, I am finally headed to the tropics for a class that I have created (along with Jane Valentine, Director of the Dietary Program) instead of tagging along as an assistant to someone else. I knew that I wanted to pursue a career involving food and nutrition, but that´s a big field. Taking classes at Parkland allowed me to narrow things down. In addition to taking classes, I was able to explore an interest in nutrition communication by creating a cooking show and writing a newspaper column. I plan to pursue this interest further in graduate schoolso I can keep writing, teaching, and maybe even making more cooking shows. Right now, though, I am ready for my nap.

Back to School

2009-10-25T08:50:00.000-07:00

I apologize for the lapse in posts. This summer has been both crazy and dull. Crazy, because I have had a lot to do and prepare for, but dull, because none of it was that remarkable. I have spent the past several months trying to coordinate a Dietary Manager internship at Carle Arbours. Months and months ago, they agreed to accept me for a summer internship, but by the time we worked out the details, it was September. Normally, it wouldn’t take this long, but I am the first dietary student from Parkland to do an internship, so we had a few red tape-type issues to work through. Future internships should be no problem. (I repeat: Don’t panic, this is an anomalous event.) The delays made my internship a late start class, so technically, I haven’t been a student during the time I haven’t been posting…. (I thought it was worth a shot.)

I took a food writing class in Chicago over the summer, (so I was a student, just not a Parkland student). It was a great experience, but I am tired of going to Chicago every week. This fall will be both my last semester at Parkland and my last quarter of culinary school at Kendall College in Chicago. I have enjoyed them both, but I will be glad to finish. I am looking forward to spending my entire week in one city, and to having some time off from being a student.

2009-08-27T21:57:00.000-07:00

Prospectus News is back online, and I have not one, but three columns to share. In Where is Margaritaville, Anyway?, my recent trip to Mexico has me wondering about what often passes for Mexican food here in the U.S., and prompts me to satisfy my craving for real Mexican food at El Charro over on Green St. (If you haven’t been, you’re missing out.)

I share some of the summer fruit recipes we presented in the first farmer’s market episode of Look Who’s Cooking in Have Your Fruit and Eat it, Too.

And in Market Week, I take a tour of the farmer’s markets in the C-U area that are open during the week.

It is great to have the paper back online. The Prospectus staff is a talented, hard-working bunch of people, and many of their stories get picked up on local and national college newsfeeds online. (The photos are pretty amazing, too.) Student newspapers are a great resource for students interested in journalism or photography, but the school benefits, too. Parkland is lucky to have these guys writing and photographing the news for them. (And I’m lucky on both counts.)

Market Fresh!

2009-07-31T06:26:00.000-07:00

In addition to working with me on What’s in Your Pantry? for PCTV, Jane Valentine (Director of Dietetics Programs at Parkland) has also been producing a show called Look Who’s Cooking. This features chefs from local restaurants and outstanding home cooks from the C-U area. This past week, I got to cook for an episode featuring Market at the Square in Urbana. First we toured the market, where I got to interview some of the growers about their farms and the super-fresh produce they were selling. Blue Moon Farms even had real vine-ripened, heirloom tomatoes from their greenhouse, and there were peaches from southern Illinois. I didn’t even know that you could grow peaches here!

We took a nice basket-full of produce back to the kitchen at Parkland on Mattis to demonstrate some simple and tasty ways to make good use of the abundance of summer produce. I cooked up lots of yummy peach desserts, a roasted beet salad, zucchini chili, and lots of other great zucchini and summer squash dishes. You should be able to see them on PCTV within the next couple of weeks while some of that great produce is still available.

(I confess that these veggies are from a friend's garden and not the Farmer's Market, but fresh local produce is fresh local produce! For some great photos from Market at the Square, check out their blog.)

Picnic Season

2009-07-05T22:04:00.000-07:00

Here is, somewhat belatedly, a link to my most recent column in the Prospectus, Picnics on Ice: a few easy steps to ensure food safety during summer-time picnics and grilling. (Although I must confess that we did not drag an ice-filled cooler up to the top of that temple last month.)

Distance Learning

2009-06-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

I am spending a couple of weeks in southern Mexico right now. My husband studies monkeys, and since there are no monkeys roaming free in central Illinois, we make regular trips to the tropics. (Once upon a time, I was going to be a tropical botanist, but now I have moved on to the world of food and nutrition.) This summer we are in Mexico to discuss plans for some future research projects with a friend who currently manages several long-term research projects throughout southern Mexico, many of them at archaeological sites. The archaeological sites are often surrounded by large areas of forest populated with all kinds of wildlife, including monkeys. Because these sites are an important reminder of the rich cultural heritage of Mexico, they are very well cared for and protected. This means that the forests and their inhabitants are protected, as well.

We were taking a lunch break on top of one of the tallest pyramids at the ancient Mayan city of Calakmul these two spider monkeys came up to check us out. What does this have to do with Parkland? Nothing, except that if I weren´t taking an online class this summer, I couldn´t be here in Mexico right now. Technically, I am still in school, but because I can turn in my work online, I am able to be almost anywhere, even an ancient Mayan temple. (Although, I did have to go into town to find an internet café.)

This is a long-distance view of the temple where we ate lunch in the treetops.

But They Make It Look So Easy...

2009-06-14T20:44:00.000-07:00

All last week we were filming a series of cooking shows for PCTV. I wanted to write about it as it was happening, but I was just too exhausted. Making a TV show is hard work, especially when the entire crew is made up of only three people. I was doing the cooking and talking, Mike Coulter (from PCTV) was the entire film crew, and Jane Valentine (the Dietetic Technician program director) was providing nutritional information and some much needed advice about plate presentation (as well as helping with prep work and dishwashing).

We are calling the show What’s in Your Pantry, because each episode of the show highlights a common pantry ingredient, like pasta or canned beans. The idea is to present a few recipes that combine the main ingredient with other pantry staples to create an inexpensive, simple, healthy, and tasty meal. We are also trying to sneak in some nutrition education along the way.

We have filmed six episodes so far, with plans for filming more later this summer. They will appear on PCTV and online in the fall. I will post links as soon as they are available. Here is a photo of a slice of tasty chocolate cake from the first episode on beans. That’s right, beans. One can of garbanzo beans (drained and rinsed) + 3eggs + ¾ cup of sugar + ½ teaspoon baking powder + 1 teaspoon of vanilla + 1 ½ cups of melted chocolate chips, whirled together in a blender and baked for 45 minutes at 350° F = surprisingly dense, chocolate-y goodness.

Mindless Eating

2009-06-04T11:59:00.000-07:00

This week's edition of the Prospectus is now available online. Please check out my column on "Mindless Eating", where I write about some of the surprising reasons why we overeat, as well as some simple ways to trick ourselves into eating less.

Starting Over

2009-05-31T09:23:00.000-07:00

I didn’t play team sports growing up. I ran track and took ballet classes, but my only team effort was quizbowl, so I am getting a big kick out of watching the Parkland Challenge competition on PCTV. Watching an adult stumble her way through asking questions to eight high school kids armed with buzzers evokes fond memories and feelings of nostalgia in a way that no televised sports event ever could.

When I went to college, I didn’t try out for quizbowl. I don’t even know if we had a team. I was so busy working to earn enough money to pay my rent and buy groceries that I never bothered to consider extra-curricular activities. I know that I missed out on a lot of great opportunities and experiences, but it just wasn’t a realistic option for me. College should be about exploring new ideas and directions, but for me, it was just something that I had to live through so that I could get on with my life. I lived through it, but I came out with no sense of what I wanted to do or where I was going.

After I graduated, I drifted around, worked in a zoo, traveled; I even spent some time in gradschool, but I was still wandering aimlessly. I realized that my life wasn’t going anywhere, so I decided to start over. My first step was enrolling at Parkland. Finally, over 10 years after graduating from college, I am taking advantage of everything college has to offer. I am taking different classes to see what interests me most and getting involved in extracurricular activities that allow me to explore those interests.

During my first semester, I took a Hospitality Industry course, which automatically made me a member of the HPI club. They cater a number of events for Parkland and host several of their own. I can’t remember having so much fun in school. It confirmed my growing interest in the culinary world. Since then, I have started taking classes in the Dietetic Technician program, where my interest is developing a passion for teaching about food and nutrition. To explore this new-found passion, I have been given opportunities at Parkland to write a column for the Prospectus about food and nutrition and to create a TV show for PCTV about making simple, healthy meals from low-cost pantry ingredients. I feel like I have already gotten more out of one year at Parkland than my original four years in college. I can’t wait to see what happens next.