You say frittata, I say...frittata

My friend Rachel sent me a frittata recipe, which I will share with you now, for lo! it is glorious.

1. It's delicious.

2. It's really easy to make.

3. It creates LEFTOVERS.

Admittedly I haven't figured out how best to deal with leftover frittata - the recipe suggests eating it in a sandwich, which I've done, but it really seems kind of suboptimal - but hey, it's one less meal I have to make, so there's that.

Frittata for one, a la Rachel

olive oil
1/2 small onion
4 eggs (I've also used three)
1/3 cup of milk. I never measure liquid ingredients if I can help it, because that's just one more cup to watch; this recipe is pretty forgiving of that.
salt
minced fresh thyme
goat cheese

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cook onion until lightly caramelized (on the stove, in case that's not clear. The oven is for later.) Set the onions aside.

Whisk together eggs and milk. Pour egg mixture into frying pan and cook till half set. Sprinkle top with onions, thyme, goat cheese - this is just the combination I've used; I daresay lots of things could go on there. I tried bleu cheese, which went pretty well, and ham and cheddar and apples might be nice. I can't decide if onions would go with that...

Anyway, once you've decked the frittata top, put it in the onion and cook. The recipe says 20 - 25 minutes, though I've found it takes more like 10-15. Probably my frittatas are more than half cooked when they go in the oven.

Carnival!

I'm taking a course on American Sacred Space, broadly defined, and my term-end assignment is to design an undergrad course which interacts in some way with the theme of sacred space. So here's what I'm thinking: what could be cooler than a class on the spirit of carnival in America? Not carnival in the elephant ears and Ferris wheels sense (though I might devote one class period to it. Oh, I know! Field trip!), but carnival as a time when social norms are temporarily overturned.

Naturally, I'd want to start out with an overview of what carnival means. Hopefully including Venice, because Venice is so cool and this will give me an excuse to read about it.

(You guys, I have time to read nothing but classwork this term. And Pilgrim's Progress on the side. It's super sad.)

I think going back all the way to Saturnalia might be a little too inclusive, but on the other hand if there's a really nice article I should read about it, I will not say no.

But moving on! Clearly there should be a class period devoted to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. (This is also an opportunity to introduce the idea of American regional cultures, which I think ought to be more prominent in American history. I read the most interesting book about it this summer, Colin Woodard's American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America, which probably overgeneralizes some but was nonetheless quite interesting.)

Also masquerade balls, which were quite popular in New York - and eventually became drag balls for the city's burgeoning gay culture. You could do fascinating things with that, all the more because the biggest and best drag ball was in Harlem - concurrent with the Harlem Renaissance.

Moving back in time: I'd want to do Barnum & Bailey's Circus, obviously, and probably a separate class devoted to freak shows, which are interesting in themselves and also a good time to discuss historical perspective, given that the general modern reaction to freak shows seems to be "SO GROSS." Clearly we'd want to unpack that, and also discuss applying moral judgment to history. On the one hand, it's inevitable and proper that we will judge; but on the other, disgust precludes understanding.

But this is a longer topic for another time.

Coney Island! Coney Island is so interesting, you guys. Possibly a follow-up with Disneyland? I'm not sure Disney actually fits. Certainly it would be instructive to compare Coney Island and Disney, though.

I might need a few more topics, perhaps. But I'd wrap it up with gay pride parades, which are like the old spirit of carnival in that they temporarily overturn social norms...but unlike traditional carnival in that they have a revolutionary character: they aim to make this overturn permanent.

And I think that would be a good cap on the course, because there is this theme of queerness that runs through Carnival: cross-dressing, bearded ladies...

Any thoughts? Articles/books I really ought to read on any of these topics - or topics I haven't thought of yet that I absolutely must pursue?