Bed and Breakfast in Full Effect

We’ve got a steady stream of visitors coming until mid-month. But I’ll try and keep it together.

In the meantime, tV reminds me that if you were wondering about the Harper administration’s agenda for higher education, their initial big idea is a plan to make Canada the first country ever to pull out of the U.S. Fulbright program. Which is a really stupid idea and will cut close to home. The Graduate Program in Communication Studies has had more than its share of Fulbright scholars, so we’ll definitely feel the hurt. I can’t wait to see what they cook up for SSHRC. At least they’re polling low. Hopefully the liberals will get it together before the conservatives and do too too much damage.

—

I can’t quite get it together to do a proper foody blog post about my birthday dinner, but I have discovered a new method for cooking risotto which I must share. The basic concept: don’t stir the rice. It’s a lot less work and a little less glutinous. Basic proportions: 1 and 1/4 cup arborio rice to 3 cups of stock. I go with 3 and 1/2 just to make sure it doesn’t get dry. Obviously the amounts will vary depending on your altitude, your stove, your horoscope, etc. Cook your ingredients, add the rice, stir a couple times, add stock, bring to boil, then set on low for half an hour. Awesome and considerably easier. Here’s the version we made for my birthday. Also the Royal Cake from Première Moisson is possibly the best chocolate cake ever. Except that I’m not sure if there is any cake, technically speaking. There is a lot of chocolate.

Earlier in the day, wandering around the Jean Talon market with our guests, I tasted a popsicle made of some fruit I’d never heard of before. From South America. Cool.

—

It turns out to be a huge pain in the butt to record phone calls in this day and age if you’re not satisfied with the random delays imposed by Skype and other VOIP options, which is a problem for some interviewing I’ve got coming later in the week. Tomorrow, I’ll try a big experiment and hopefully it’ll all work out. If not, I’m in a bit of a pickle.