Soup Reviews V: Other

Amy's Hearty Spanish Rice and Red Bean -- sweet, crunchy corn, tasty beans, rice with fantastic texture, good flavor and good with Tabasco. A+ and could be drained of water and used for purposes other than soup.





Imagine Potato and Leek -- Pretty good. a little strangeness about the flavor, which is eradicated by a dose of Tony Chachere's. I would eat it again, but not often. I don't know if it's weird or if it's just that potato and leek is a little weird, somewhat specialized. B-

Soup Reviews IV: Vegetable

Amy's (Chunky Vegetable) --

Tomato base, nice gentle-yet-firm tomato-y aromatic flavor. Tasty tomatoes, lima beans, green beans, peas,and corn with good texture, just a little springiness. Onions, carrots, and spinach with no texture, but those veggies rarely have any texture in any canned soups. It's enough for them to be there. A

365, Whole Foods Brand
Nice, sweet, springy corn, pretty good potatoes and tomatoes. Nondescript celery, onions, peas, spinach, and carrots. However, the carrots were impressively large, as though from some really awesome carrots. (The original meaning of "awesome.") Broth was peppery and just the right amount of salty. Otherwise, there wasn't a lot of flavor or excitement. But it was fine. B

Soup Reviews III: Chicken

365 (Whole Foods) Chicken Noodle -- nice, big pieces of chicken, nice noodles, nondescript veggies (carrots and celery), good tasting broth. A

Organics Chicken Noodle -- nice pieces of chicken, okay noodles, okay broth, vegetables? well, sort of. maybe those bland little pieces were vegetables... B-

Imagine Chicken Pot Pie -- interesting creamy soup with very tasty chicken, large dumpling-ish noodles (I suppose that's the "pie") A

Soup Reviews II: Minestrone

365 (Whole Foods Brand) -- not the most flavorful minestrone in the world, but good, and very spicy, sinus cleansing. Fresh-tasting, buoyant carrots, white beans, tomatoes, onions, spinach, pasta, peas in tomato broth. A

Imagine -- Pretty flavorful broth but a little strange, like too sweet or something and confusing in flavor-- not quite tomato-y? The vegetables were fine but not memorable. B

Soup Reviews I: Butternut Squash

Wolfgang Puck -- rich and creamy, good taste. A

Organics -- thin, almost like just broth with a little bit of squash, but presence of actual onions? a little bland, I added Tony Chachere's. C+

Imagine -- Not quite as rich and creamy or tangy as WP, but similar and a little squashier; the squashiest one so far. A-

Someone Knows How To Treat a Lady

The someone is me. I am the someone and I am the lady. I am someone's industrious lady. I treated myself to these these roses, which I myself grew. I also presented myself with a lovely mushroom three-cheese pizza, for which I made tomato sauce and tomato pizza dough.

Conquered Lands, Lands Yet to Conquer

In 2010 I …

1) Earned my MFA, completing a thesis-length novel

2) Held a teaching job at a private nursing college over the summer and was offered employment there for fall.

3) Was offered and accepted a full-time postdoctoral teaching fellowship at LSU

4) At LSU Press helped in the editorial process for several books, such as Ledgers of History, Selected Letters of Robert Penn Warren: Backward Glances and New Visions, 1969-1979,and Abbot Awaits.

4) Gained the interest of an agent in my fiction

5) Completed a semester of full-time college teaching

6) Maintained friendships with a large circle of people

7) Kept two cats healthy and happy

8) Practiced making pizza, chicken kiev, and a few other things

9) Prepared house for sale

10 Won the graduate playwriting award

11) Planted pansies

12) Made a lot of pies and cheesecakes

13) Continued helping judge the book contests at Carolina Wren Press

2011 Goals

1) Revise my novel to the point that I want to resubmit it to the agent

2) Write several first drafts of plays

3) Continue revising and submitting poems to magazines

4) Submit plays to contests

5) Sell house

6) Continue the gainful employment at LSU

7) Seek gainful employment in North Carolina upon relocating

8) Learn to make bistro-style lamb and pork dishes

9) Pursue exercise I enjoy

above cartoon from http://www.nataliedee.com/