Better Late than Never, I guess...

A comment from my reader and the end of the semester have combined to get my off my duff to write something this evening. A year ago, I thought the full course load and research assistant duties in my PhD program had pushed me about as far as I could go in 15 weeks, but this year adding a teaching load to that has been even more demanding.

Anyway, with that out of the way, I am on the downhill slope in this adventure. One more required class and a dissertation. How hard can that be...?

So, a dinner. My parents came to Syracuse a while back so my Dad could be a guest speaker in my HR class (he talked about occupational safety) and while they were here he and I made Osso Bucco, or braised veal shanks. This was the kind of meal I really missed preparing in Japan because these bone in cuts of meat are difficult if not impossible to find. Anyway, this was a pretty standard recipe for the dish, and the most interesting thing I did was to modify the gremolata (which usually is made with parsley, pine nuts, lemon zest, and olive oil) by nixing the pine nuts in favor of some chopped up garbanzo beans since my mom can't eat nuts.

We made some garlic mashed potatoes to go along with the veal and downed more zinfandel than maybe we should have...But, a fun night with a spectacular meal.