All I have to do is turn in grades tomorrow and then I'm officially done with this semester. I think my grades are lower on average this time around, but that's fine with me. I had a large number of students in my Math 097 class who stopped showing up after the second midterm (almost every one of them failed).
There's a really cold storm system that's moving through the valley here. The west side of town got snow (two inches in the city, 4 inches just outside of it), but none over where I live or on campus. It would be a little surreal to see it snow on the strip (as if the strip isn't already surreal). But snow there would almost certainly lead to about a dozen car accidents as already bad drivers start gawking out their windows at the falling snow.
I made my first batch of chicken satay tonight for a faculty potluck on Wednesday. They are just a touch salty, but I think the sauce should soften that up a bit. It was the first time I used fresh lemongrass, and I think I like it. I don't like that it's a 20 minute drive to the closest place to get it, as there are no Asian markets on my side of town. The marinade included soy sauce, ginger, garlic, fish sauce, lime juice, and lemongrass. I got the peanut sauce recipe directly from Aileen, which was both easy and tastes about right. I've got a miso-based sauce that is okay. I'm not completely pleased by it, but I'm not sure what I can do to fix it. I'll just put it out there and see what happens.
The potluck is at 1:00, but I need to be on campus by 11. This means that I've got to keep the food warm for 2 hours. I think I have a plan that will work. It involves four bricks, the oven, and a towel. When I heat up the satay on Wednesday morning, I'll also heat up the bricks, and then lay them across the bottom of my cooler on top of a towel. I think if I keep the oven temperature below 200, there should be zero risk of fire or anything like that, right? The cooler and the stored heat in the bricks should keep warm for at least a couple hours, which is about how much time I need. I must remember to buy bricks tomorrow.
