I’m glad you all agree with me: My dad is freaking sweet! Funny how I used to think he was Hitler’s spawn. It’s enormous how a little maturity can change the relationship between you and a parent. I’d like to say we’re *almost* like equals now…we discuss more, and instead of my dad being just an authoritative figure, I truly think of him as one of my best friends as well.
But sometimes, my dad ain’t so sweet. And thank God that he knows exactly when to use the reverse psychology on me.
You see, a few days ago, I received the greatest shock of my life: I got a C+ on my essay on the evolution debates.
Why? Not for stylistic issues, or mechanics, but because my opinion was too strong. It’s more like a screed than an academic paper, my professor scribbled in bright red ink. But I thought strong arguments was the purpose of an argumentative essay!
Don’t worry, I did not charge up at my professor screaming and kicking. In fact, I was too stunned to say or do anything. I staggered out in a daze, almost certain that this was all a horrible nightmare.
I, Sophia Lee, got a C+. And not just in any subject; it was in my best freaking subject, writing. I, who have never gotten less than an A in any essays, who wrote up 90-page papers when I was just a freshman, whose essays were read out loud during class as model essays numerous times…I got a freaking C+?!!
This wasn’t just a slap in the face. It was a total bulldoze, crush, trample, smash, squash, crush, mow-down, rip-apart…Okay, you get the idea. Anyway, that was how I felt that hideous, outrageous C+ did to my flabbergasted face. I didn’t even have the mental coherence to go grocery-shopping (Okay, that was a lie).
But that night, my dad happened to call. I didn’t feel like talking to anyone, so I refused to answer the call. Five seconds later, I felt bad and called back.
“Sophia, darling!” My dad boomed in his joyful, jolly voice.
I instantly regretted calling. “Hi,” I moaned glumly, thinking, I hate happy people.
My dad immediately caught notice of my deflated tone. “What’s wrong?”
I couldn’t help it. I started crying. “I got a C+ on my evolution essay~” I wailed.
And you know what my dad did? He laughed. Laughed. Yes, he dared laugh outright into my face! “Hahaha,” he guffawed. Then his voice got muffled as he told my mom really loudly that his daughter got her first C.
“Hahaha!” my mother chortled.
And here’s the strangest thing. I couldn’t help bursting out in laughter, too! I tried to pretend to be pissed off, but inside, I felt as if all the distress inside of me were blown away with their laughter. How silly I was! My parents were absolutely right to be laughing, because I was seriously being ridiculous with one single grade.
“Finally you’ve found a professor that won’t pump your ego but whip you good!” my dad exclaimed gleefully.
Ummm…Okay, daddy, you can stop now, I get your point.
Anyway. Sometimes, when life hits you in the face with a splash of salty water, you just need to spit it back out and laugh. There are so many freaking things we worry about that in the larger and deeper context, is so frivolous. How foolish and pathetic it would be to waste all our precious emotions and time over such meaningless things!
Besides, another thing I realized: you don’t learn anything if life is all sooth course and calm waves. It’s during a storm that you are alert, that you experience and learn something new.
So what did I learn from this C+?
1) I need to tone down a little in my opinions when writing an academic paper.
2) I won’t waste more than 5 minutes on anything that isn’t worthy of time and emotions.
3) When being laughed at, laugh together.
Likewise, with food, it’s best not to get too serious. Flavors and ingredients are there for us to play around, to have fun, to experiment with.
And with a great base like POM Wonderful juice, the canvas is wide and open to anything! I really, really like this stuff! I don’t like to drink it straight up because I’m not a huge juice fan, but I am loving how versatile it is in cooking!
Poor college students that we are, Mimi and I decide to cook instead of eat out. But just because we were saving up on cash doesn’t mean we had to save up on flavor! I had another great experiment with POM Wonderful juice, and this is the masterpiece I came up with!
Monte Cristo with POM-fruit compote
Monte Cristo:
- 4 slices Cinnamon-Raisin bread
- dijon mustard
- 6 slices smoked ham
- brie
- mixed greens
- 1 whole egg
- 1/4 cup egg whites
- milk
- vanilla
- cinnamon
- salt
POM-fruit compote:
- 1 peach, stoned and chopped
- 1/2 apple, chopped
- 1/4 cup raisins
- 1/2 bottle POM Wonderful juice
- honey
- drizzle balsamic vinegar
- water
- pinch dried rosemary, crushed
- grated lime zest
For the sandwich, just divide up the fillings between two slices of bread. Beat the egg, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt together. Dip the sandwiches into the egg-batter and let them soak up the liquid.
Meanwhile, heat up a small saucepan. Toss in all the fruits, juice, and honey. Drizzle in balsamic vinegar and honey to taste. Add a bit of water to thin it out if you like. Sprinkle in the rosemary.
Bring to a boil, then let simmer until thick and reduced. Grate in the lime zest, set aside.
Heat up a giant skillet. Spray it with vegetable oil, or use butter if you’ve got it. Place the sandwiches gently on top and cook both sides until nice and crispy, and the cheese inside is melted and gooey.
Serve each sandwich up topped with the POM-fruit compote. 
dth="420" border="0" /> Ooh la la~ Apparently the Monte Cristo was popularized in Southern California. How appropriate! 
I think the pictures say it all. I’m sorry I didn’t take much pictures, but I was starving and this thing smelled so. freaking. good. And it tasted even better! 
Perfect sweet and savory combo! The thick, melted, creamy brie cheese, the smokiness of the ham, the sweetness of the cinnamon-raisin bread, topped with the sweet-and-sour POM-fruit compote…Totally hit the spot! 
In the words of Mimi: “Mmm! Mmm! MmmMmm…” And nothing else, because that just about sums it up, folks!
Note: To make the perfect french toast, do a mix of whole eggs and egg whites. The egg whites make it crispy, while the bit of yolk adds a touch of richness and creaminess and fluffiness. The best of both worlds!
Question of the day: What are some of the more “frivolous” things you care too much about? School? Other people’s opinions? Popularity? Your car? And even – gasp—food?
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I like your parents!!!
Sophia, you’re a genius, take it easy!
Glad you’re taking this all in stride. I’d definitely be upset, but it’s a growth opportunity. Could you go to your prof and ask him how you could improve?
Definitely other peoples opinions of myself. I find i will often inconvenience myself before letting someone else have the opportunity to think poorly about me. Also food and how it relates to that. Like, what others might think when im eating something or whether or not they will sun me if it get ‘fat’
Man… i am retarted sometimes.
Haha, your Dad is so cool. That’s the thing about college. It teaches you that everyone makes unexpected grades at some point. But it’s what you do with those grades that matters. It looks like you handled it perfectly!
Your meals are so gourmet! That sandwich looks restaurant worthy to me!
I’ve never thought of dipping a sandwich into an egg mixture. I think I’m gonna try it with a PB&J sandwich. Your food loooks yummy!!
Also as a person who constantly gets Cs, don’t worry about it, it’s all good.
Ok, that totally reminds me of the time when I got a B+ because my writing was “too intellectual.” I kid you know! It was a European women’s history class and we were supposed to write a paper in a “feminine” way — with “flowing thoughts” (aka run on sentences) and plagiarizing (citation is masculine). Talk about stereotypes!
awww chin up. i remmber when i got a c+ in a class…. downer!
I care too much about my appearance sometimes and not nearly enough other times
awww this post was great. i felt so inspired reading it. thanks for sharing your thoughts – it really means a lot reading this kind of heart felt stuff!
-muffy
LOL!!! Life’s lessons, huh? Love Monte cristo’s!!!
Great realizations. You have wonderful parents.
Your Dad is too funny. I often have to just stop and laugh at myself. In the past few years I’ve realized that there’s only a couple things in life that really deserve complete seriousness. With most things, life always goes on!
I love this post! You write beautifully about the dynamic between you and your family! Yay for the people that keep us grounded…
My superficial obsession is my closet. I love clothes. I cried when I got tomato sauce on one of my white shirts and it wouldn’t come out. It was maybe $20 on sale. I have probably 5 shirts similar to it. But I still got upset.
Still laughing with your story!! I love all your pic with the…ness…great to spice up my English vocabulary
Cheers!
Gera
Too cute!! Sometimes laughter really is the best medicine. The monte cristo looks amazing! Love the compote.
Fruit compote on a sandwich – genius idea.
your blog always cheers me up. you always have a story. a solution. a postive note! you help me on my down days
and I thank you so much for that!!
silly things I stress and fear about is house cleaning.. eating pasta.. eating out with freinds… liquid calories.. etc.
bleh. stupid. stupid. silly things.
In college I freaked out about my grades. I was THAT premed girl and I started having these freak outs about the idea of med school and being in school the rest of my life, then one day I woke up and thought “wait, I don’t HAVE to go to med school!” It was like a weight was lifted off of my shoulders.
The extremely frivolous thing I freak out about now? Clothes. I will stand in front of my closet forever every morning trying to decide what I want to wear and what it says about me. Oy.
You have such a great attitude about this whole thing–you certainly did learn something from this experience. I could learn a thing or two from YOU.
I care way too much about academics and how other perceive me.
omg. i just read like a couple of my past blog posts and YOU ARE SOO RIGHT. no wonder no one reads my blog. well i’m a pretty banal person. i spice it up every once in awhile. LOL. yeah, we gotta do something special! =D
We learn something from everything!!
I had a run-in with one of my profs on the first day of class last year. He thought I didn’t care about his class (which, to be honest, I DID think was a joke at first), and I thought he was a pompous jerk. By the end of the year, we’d grown to respect and quite like each other and I chose one of my classes this year deliberately because he’s the prof! So who knows, you might develop a good relationship with this prof over the next couple months
Thanks for the egg tip with the French toast- I never knew that! Makes sense though.
I LOVED this post! How utterly awesome of you to realise that in the grand scheme of things, this C+ really does not matter. And that you also happened to learn from your mistakes!
By the way, my opinion is that a person with a strong opinion of things is one of the best people out there – passionate, wordly and best to have a conversation with! =D
I love that your parents were able to turn your mood around by laughing at you, and I love that you joined in! Your parents just sound like the coolest!
And that Monte Cristo, Oh. My. Goodness. That thing looks amazing! How creative. That’s my husband’s absolute fave sandwich. I need to try and make a version at home like that.
I feel like father’s like ours are a dying breed. You don’t hear to many kids say their dad calls them “darling” . My dad calls me precious girl. There is nothing like it. Delicous recipe as well.
kasha
http://grubandstuff.blogspot.com
One of the most frivolous things I care about is clothes and hair bows for my daughter. I love dressing here more than I do dressing myself. She even likes to wear necklaces and bracelets! Then, she plays football with her dad and tries to take the football to bed with her…sigh.
Whoa, I’m loving all the sweet and savory combinations in your monte cristo! I’ve never had it before, but it looks absolutely amazing!
I definitely care too much about school and other people’s opinions. Right now, on the second day of school, I’m freaking out. I don’t have an advisor yet. Do I know where I’m going in grad school? Am I taking the right classes? Why didn’t I think of this before school started? etc. Thanks for the reminder that this is just frivolous stuff! I need to take a step back, and realize that this insignificant compared to other issues. I will laugh along with you
And about other people’s opinion, that really gets me too. I have this professor I did research with as an undergrad and I’m just so darn intimidated by him (probably because he’s so brilliant). I avoided him for a while, but decided to meet up with him for some grad school advice. Who cares if he thinks I’m stupid? I’m a student, I’m supposed to be the dumber one =P
Oh, and thank you Sophia for the other reminder–eating by trusting the intuition God gave us. I seriously don’t know what I would do without you, my dear!
Grades aren’t everything in life. Sure, you should always try to do the best you can. But grades can be so subjective. Don’t take the” C+” too hard. Another professor very well might have given you an “A” on that. It’s more important that you actually did the work, learned something from it, and are motivated to keep getting better and better at no matter what you do. Chin up!
You always make the MOST AMAZING monte christo’s! Seriously, you have such talent. You should consider assembling the beginnings of a cookbook. I am not kidding. You have such strong talent in the kitch!
Oh, I am with you on the grades! It’s such a blow to get something less than an A, and then you have to step back and think: in the grande scheme of my life, how much is this going to matter? Not much! But I am the exact same way as you, pudding!
I need to remember to laugh when/if my daughter gets a C+–good for your dad!!! Fruit compote looks deelish!
The beautiful fact that we grow and learn something new each day means that we are indeed alive!
Your sammy is very creative and I can imagine delicious as well!
Your dad rocks! His pretty sweet…
LOL I had to laugh too when you and your parents laughed! What is life if we can’t laugh at ourselves huh?
My first test at MIT was a physics quiz. I had always done really well in high school, had never gotten a bad grade in my life, etc. But on that first test, I got a 20 out of 100. Did I cry? Did I run out of the room screaming? Did I go to the registrar and immediately tell them of my resignation? No. I laughed. Because with a grade that low – what else can you do? It is just too ridiculous. Laughter is definitely the best medicine!
You took this Monte Cristo to a whole new level with the cinnamon raisin bread AND the brie. I’ve never seen anything like it. And that compote looks fabulous!
sorry chica!
one to grow on
made the jump to wordpress!
I used to be really grade-focused but after coming to college where everyone else is super smart and tries really hard (unlike in high school), I started to be okay with Bs and Cs. Obviously I try my hardest to get a good grade but sometimes my best is just average and that’s perfectly fine. In the grand scheme of things it is such a minor speck of a deal.
I’m trying to think of something cool to make with my Pom too
Oh wow. That monte cristo looks amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love this post!
Awesome blog you have.
You have an amazing dad; it’s something mine would do as well.
I can also relate to your C+. Better to learn in school than during your career. That’s not to say you deserved the C+, because opinions are subjective. Something like that happened to me at work. My ego took a huge tumbling, but it made me a better person (humble) and a better worker. And I am thankful for that.
So hey spit out the salty water and laugh somemore, and keep on doing what you’re doing!
Cheers,
Claire
wow
that is one intense sammy !
That sandwich looks amazing! I have been known to take lots of things too seriously. I’m glad you’re Dad laughed. Correct reaction BurpandSlurp Dad! Sometimes it’s way too easy to take things like that too seriously.
I tend to care about many frivolous things – what I wear, makeup, hair, how my house looks, etc. etc. Then, when things don’t go my way, I get a little freaked out. It may be a control issue, perhaps?
That being said, it was completely refreshing to read about your parents’ response to the C. Just so sweet
This happened to me in freshmen English except I’m pretty sure that it was actually a D-
I was completely shocked. Still got an A in the class.
my parents always have such a great way of putting things in perspective for me too. i get really worked up about other people’s opinions of me, but i’ve been working really hard to let a lot of that anxiety go.
your sandwich looks INCREDIBLE! i’m always so blown away with your amazing food!
Don’t worry about the C. It seems like a huge deal now but I was just saying the other day how I wish I didn’t stress so much not about one bad grade in college and enjoyed it a bit more.
That sandwich looks phenomenal!
thanks for your comment! i really appreciate your support. also, i took what you said to heart and had some delicious homemade zucchini bread that my grandma baked. and you’re right, once i ate it and told her what a great baker she was, she smiled and backed off. glad to know i’m not the only one with a family who loves to feed each other! haha
I love how your parents reaction to your C+ made you feel so much better.
The sandwich looks AMAZING. I love the compote.
I love your parent’s response! I wish my own would have responded that way – they only fed my OCD/Perfectionist behaviors. It wasn’t until I started teaching that I realized how irrelevant grades can be!
So glad your parents could make you laugh!
How creative you put a fruit compote on top of your Monte Cristo – looks great!
i almost failed outa college my first year….but i graduated just fine!!!
this post makes me smile — a good lesson learned.
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