Not the First Day of School

For the first time since the day I started kindergarten, this fall I did not head back to school.  And it feels weird.  And a little bit empty. I don't miss the 5 am alarm clock.  I don't miss the ache of my feet after 10 hours in heels, most of it standing.  I don't miss the inevitable month long hoarse throat as a result of talking almost non-stop.  I know I won't miss giving up my weekday evenings, Saturday mornings, and Sunday afternoons to planning and endless essay grading.  But I miss teaching.  I miss the excitement of meeting a new class.  I miss the challenge of planning lessons to make even Huckleberry Finn somewhat interesting.  I really miss the unpredictable nature of life in the classroom and the absolute guarantee of coming home with a comical story (or two or three or ten...).  And I miss the friends I made in the last two years as a part of the wonderful staff at Fraser High School.  So in honor of my friends and colleagues starting off another awesome year, I decided to pull out a shower gift from one of my bridesmaids and a fellow Fraser English teacher: Fraser's Finest 2007 cookbook. 

While working at Fraser, I heard people talk about its recipes constantly and even occasionally enjoyed them at a staff pot luck or two, but as it had been put together before I came to Fraser, I did not have a copy of my own.  Until now.

Now this cookbook has a wide variety of recipes, but Tuesday was a cool, cloudy, drizzly, fallish feeling day, and I was hoping for some good old-fashioned comfort food.  I opted for a recipe for stuffed shells that included onions, garlic, egg, breadcrumbs, parsley, and mozzarella cheese in the filling.  Getting the filling into the shells was... challenging...  Is there a trick I don't know about?  Please share if you know one because I made a mess!  The recipe called for a jar of sauce to be dumped over the stuffed shells and a baking time of 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

The verdict: the filling was delicious.  I think I picked the wrong sauce though.  This sauce was too chunky.  I would have preferred one of a more liquidy nature to keep the shells on the edges of the baking dish from drying out.

Incidentally, I love my Crate and Barrel Cambridge baking dish with rack!

If you or your kids recently headed back to school, have an excellent year!