I’m always ecstatic (really, I get that excited) when I see the board menu bar in our dining halls. That one special little section of the dining hall where I am finally given the opportunity to cook, actually more like assemble, my dinner. Luckily for me, my favorite of the board menus is the most recurrent – the panzanella bar.

Panzanella is a Tuscan bread salad that traditionally contains tomatoes, basil, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and, yes, stale bread. The dining halls put their own spin on it by also providing us with arugula, olives, and pickled onions. When the panzanella has been prepared appropriately, the slightly dense, crusty bread is mollified by the absorption of some of the oil, vinegar, and juices from the vegetables; however, it still gives the salad some texture by retaining a bit of its chewiness.

I find it to be a lovely, well-balanced salad, but am always slightly put off by the bags of pre-cubed, mass-market bread, and also miss an integral part of my meat-loving, quotidian diet: protein. Read how I improve upon the panzanella after the jump.

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Ewww.

You’ve all seen them. Walking through the basement of Dunster on the way to your D-hall, in the entryways of freshman houses, and of course, in good old Winthrop. They are everywhere—those crumbled up, smooshed, brown spindly things that are clearly dead cockroaches.

Gross.

Noice is as freaked out by them as you are… so here are some helpful hints if you are disgusted enough to try a little at-home extermination. Read the rest of this entry »