Going back to school!

Just a note that I'm planning to return to college to take a couple of classes, "non-degree seeking." I sent the re-enrollment application last week, and it should be automatic readmittance, but it still takes two weeks to get an answer.

Wheee!

Julie & Julia

Fabulously delightful movie. ( cut for mild spoiler stuff )

The foods in the movie were a marvel to behold, and I now want to eat a block of real honest-to-goodness butter. I love movies like this, or Ratatouille, or Chocolat, or No Reservations, that remind us that even in an age of diets, there is still sometimes room for culinary wonderment.

Afterwards, we hit Borders and bought a copy of Julia Child's cookbook (there are different printings of it out there -- we found a two-volume boxed set for $20, but the version that just came out as one volume is $40). I had to laugh after getting the receipt -- there was a coupon attached so that we could save 20% on Julia Child's cookbook during our next visit!

Fresh, fresh coffee!

I found unroasted coffee beans for sale at my local Giant, and tonight I did my first home-roasting!

Home roasting was standard until about a hundred years ago. The fact that people don't do it now is a tribute to our desire for convenience over quality! Fresh roasted coffee is by far the best, it begins to lose its flavor about a week after roasting, and the stuff you buy in the store was roasted possibly up to a year ago. (when I've purchased freshly roasted coffee, it really is fabulous for several days, then slowly degrades to something resembling Folgers).

It produces a lot of smoke! This apparently is normal, but stinky. House is currently venting. Cats are still glaring at me a little. Hopefully it will be sufficiently aired out before blueeowyn gets home.

I don't get to really taste my coffee until morning. After roasting, it takes several hours to reach peak flavor -- something about CO2 and oils and some such. I'll let y'all know how it turns out!