Spicy Thai Noodles and Josh's First Week at Harvard Law

Although the past few days I've been pretty bad about staying on top of my blog, I have actually been very good about staying on top of producing blog-worthy food! It's just been the case that after I get home from work and get done making said blog-worthy food, I am way too tired to sit down and blog. This week I've gone to bed pretty early almost every night (on Monday night I actually went to bed at 8:30 and got the most glorious 10 hours of sleep I've gotten in a long time!), and it has been much needed. It's amazing how tired you can get just sitting at a desk staring at a computer all day.

Anyway, I have some time to punch out a post tonight because I made this tasty meal last night:

1 package rice or egg noodles

1-2 Tbsp. crushed red pepper

1/2 c. sesame oil

6 Tbsp. honey

6 Tbsp. soy sauce

1/2 c. green onions

2 carrots, peeled and shredded

1/2 c. cilantro or fresh basil to taste

3/4 c. crushed peanuts

toasted sesame seeds

The original recipe calls for regular old noodles, but that didn't feel very Thai to me, so I used egg noodles. I would've vastly preferred rice noodles (I love their texture), but I couldn't find any last time I was at the grocery store. I unfortunately did not have any cilantro/basil or peanuts, so I didn't add them. Here's what you do:

In a small saucepan, heat your sesame oil with your crushed red peppers. Be careful to just heat your sesame oil--I let mine get too hot and it started to smell all burn-y, and it was so gross I just threw away my first batch. If you find yourself low on sesame oil (as I did after I threw away my gross batch), you can supplement what sesame oil you do have with some vegetable oil (which is what I did)

Strain out your pepper, saving your oil [Alternatively, I see no reason why you can't just use hot sesame oil and skip this step entirely! I suppose cooking it this way feels more exotic.]

Chop up your scallions, carrots, cilantro or basil, and crush your peanuts (like I said, I only had scallions and carrots--the crushed red peppers here are what I used for above)

Then just combine your cooked noodles, sauce, and other ingredients in a large bowl and toss!

Now, when I made this last night I must admit I was initially disappointed. This was supposed to be so good--people were raving about it on the website I found it on--and I thought that at best it was mediocre. I chose to eat my noodles warm, which is not what the original recipe recommends. I've never eaten cold Thai noodles, and it just didn't sound appetizing. However, I came home from work today half dead from starvation, so I broke open these leftovers and ate them cold--and it was delicious! Significantly better than when they were warm! What was once a "meh" meal is now going in the recipe box :)

In other news, this week was Josh's first week of law school. Technically the week isn't over yet, but his only class tomorrow is Contracts and he's already had that twice this week and has already finished the reading, so there isn't anything new tomorrow. So far, he really enjoys it, although it does stress him out a great deal. I think that he is, however, handling that stress very well so far. He has been staying on top of his homework--which is extremely time consuming--and has done a lot of research this week on his own on how to succeed in law school--we used the last of our Amazon gift card balance on supplemental books for his courses. Once nice thing about schools like Harvard and Yale (and I think Stanford is the only other school that does this, but I'm not sure) is that they don't have traditional grades: you earn either an honors pass, pass, low pass, or fail. I think this reduces some of the stress that Josh would've otherwise been experiencing.

Josh's first day was pretty stressful. His first class was Legislation and Regulation, and it involved the professor cold calling on one--yes, one--arbitrarily chosen student for the entire almost-two-hour class. Yuck. One of Josh's favorite classes so far is Contracts, largely because the subject matter is interesting and he likes the professor of this class, Todd Rakoff--who is also his section adviser--the best so far. In terms of purely content, Josh's favorite class is Civil Procedure simply because it is the most practically useful to him at this point. Josh has expressed some fears of not succeeding to the extent that he would like to in law school, but honestly I'm not worried about him at all. He is so intelligent and I really feel like his mind is wired specifically for this kind of work. And I'm not just saying that because I'm his wife and I see him through rosy-colored lenses, either. I really think anyone who really knows Josh would agree.

At one point I fancied myself a potential law student--I took an upper division Psych and Law class a couple years ago that I really loved, but I soon realized that what I truly loved was the psych in the law and not the law itself :/ I squashed out my law school fantasies then and there.

Watching Josh start law school made me question what I want to be doing with my life and where I want to go academically. I really can't decide what direction I want to go career-wise. Fortunately, the job I have now is virtually the perfect intersection of all the things I'm interested in. My psych background is actually useful, I'm in an education-related field, and I get to dabble in business, which is something that I've wanted to explore more. Today I put in two applications at the place I've been temping at, and my supervisor said she would get in touch with those departments and try to facilitate an interview. Pretty excited about that! I took a picture of where I work with my phone camera today for you all.

You can't see if from this picture, obviously, but behind this building is a great view of the Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge and a nice view of the Bunker Hill monument. I work on the 8th floor, so its obviously easier to see from there.

Glorious cake and what was left of my champagne when I thought to take a picture...

I have had the pleasure of working for three organizations that have provided me free alcohol after work, but only one has provided it during work. Today it was champagne and cake :)