That said, life is pretty good otherwise. We're finally almost unpacked (so close I can taste it), and home is getting to be comfy to live in again, with clean clothes on their hangars and such. Between Kevin watching Kavi and sharing Nilofer's babysitter, I've had some time to write -- wrote a new short story a few days ago, and then revised the YA fantasy story yesterday. Kevin's been making dinner all week, which is splendid -- rack of lamb with cherry sauce and grilled asparagus; beef/carrot/potato stew; jambalaya. *And* cleaning up afterwards. It's so much easier having a clean kitchen in the morning when it just means wiping down the counters and emptying the dishwasher, rather than gathering up all the dishes and washing them first. Love it! And I think my first class went well.
We did a ton the first class -- talked writing business some, answered their questions about agents, did an identity exercise and writing that hopefully helped develop their character-building skills, and even started another exercise, on language (repetition, alliteration, etc.), reading a bit of a Just So story for inspiration. I sent them home with that one to write because we had totally run out of time. I felt a bit bad that I kept them ten minutes past time, but I'm just trying to adjust to this ten-week quarter schedule they're on at Northwestern -- it feels like so little time to teach a whole course! Luckily, it's a small class, so all of the students will get to hand in three stories for critique, which is nice. Hopefully we can still get a lot done, even in just ten weeks. Nine, now. Eep.
Plan for today -- take it easy, rest up, drink fluids, get better. Kevin's starting up work again too now, and has to go in for most of the day, so I'll be on Kavi/Ellie duty. If I feel up to it, I'll unpack a bit more, but if not -- well, that's okay too. If it's not too cold, maybe we'll all go for a walk. Quiet Friday; should be nice.
-- Oh, here's a cooking question? When Kev made the jambalaya, the rice was perfect. He turned off the heat, I think while it was even still a bit al dente. But when I finally got a moment to eat dinner, the rice had gotten really overcooked, soaking up lots of liquid. I don't really mind that, but it bothers Kevin. If anyone has any tips on preventing that from happening, when you add rice to a broth (for jambalaya, avgolemono, etc.), please pass them along!
(Hmm...googling tells me that one option is to cook the rice separately, then put it in the bowls and spoon the soup over it. But a) then the rice doesn't pick up all the nice broth flavors, and b) I don't want to have to make fresh rice separately for every meal of leftover jambalaya and c) if I just make enough rice that I can store it separately and use it later, it'll dry out, and I don't know whether reheating will give a good texture. Confusing.)
We often make rice with broth to give it flavor. We have more broth than we need usually because I boil up the chicken carcass from the once a week or so chicken. You can even make it substituting 2/3 broth and still get good flavor. So that would solve your flavor issue in adding separately cooked rice.
I would think that reheating the rice in soup/jambalaya would be fine. Rice is pretty durable.
Actually, I’ve made rice in broth too (just using Swanson’s chicken broth), and I agree, that adds flavor pretty well. Maybe we’ll just do that from now on, pour the soup/stew/etc. over the rice for serving. Hmm…
I make lots of dishes that use rice. Cook it in broth then freeze it in zip seal bags sized for two. The microwave makes short work of reheating or immersing the bag in boiling water works, too.