After the sudden onset of camping madness coupled with my friend's skill in the bbq culinary arts, I've been scouring the web in search of recipes to try for my next grilling expedition.

The wonders of stumbleupon also presented to me a fine example of preparing beef (particularly tough cuts) for roasting or grilling. This involved salting the heck out of the meat for up to an hour. The reasons behind this are threefold. First, the salt breaks down the proteins thus making even tough cuts more tender. Two, the salt draws water out of the meat to the surface, mixes with the salt and then, through osmosis, goes back down to flavour the meat. Three, well, there is no three. Before roasting, the meat is washed off and, in my case, flavoured further with a spice rub.

I also used the drippings to make a gravy to go along with the roast beef and mashed potatoes. The ends were quite crusty but the center was nice and pink. Not over-cooked and still quite moist.

All in all, quite a successful first try at making a roast dinner. It passed the wife test and I shall be making this at again home as well as during future camping trips perhaps with different rubs.

Tonight's dinner brought to you by this and this.

My sophomore students have to write an essay about two general problems that university students will encounter after they graduate. One is about finding a job, keeping a job, and finding a new job. The other is finding a good spouse, avoiding divorce, and raising a good family.

This one particular student chose a particularly interesting source to use in his essay.

How do you choose a good/right spouse?

Look for the characteristics that ALLAH lays out for the human being - then choose a woman whose character most closely comes to that which ALLAH desires in a human being and you will be happy.
The Muslim Observer (2009)

Labels: teaching

As any teacher in Japan will tell you, students sleeping in class is commonplace. How they are dealt with depends on the individual teacher and the student could be given a smack upside the head or be simply left alone to his dreamtime musings.

Near the end of my communication class today, one student (who is usually reasonably attentive) fell into a very deep slumber. So deep that I could take a photo, with flash, about a foot from his face, put it in a PowerPoint file and then tell everyone quite loudly what the homework for the week was, and still remain completely dead to the world.

Next, I told everyone that they could leave and to do so quietly. My student remained firmly entrenched in his slumber well after the next class arrived and awoke to find himself surrounded by unfamiliar students and a new teacher.

Am I evil?

Labels: random