All defended, with wontons to celebrate

Yesterday was my comprehensive exam and dissertation proposal defense. What this means is I spend 2 hours in a room with my amazing committee members (5 experts on adolescence, sexual health, and health communication) and they determine if I am able to move on to the next stage in the PhD process.

A few weeks ago, I took 5 exams, one from each committee member. The exams would come to my email in the morning, and I would have four hours--closed book--to write on the topic and answer the question. The meeting yesterday involved expanding on some of those answers and addressing some additional questions. I then had to present on my proposed research project and discuss. My committee members were great and provided some very useful feedback. After that, I stepped in the hall and they decided whether I "pass." Luckily the verdict came down that I did pass, so I am now officially a PhD candidate, or considered ABD (all but dissertation). It means I am one (actually quite a few) step closer to getting the PhD. One final research project and defense of it and I am done! (That won't happen until the spring, though).

To celebrate, my advisor took me out to lunch. Shawn brought me some flowers, and Shawn and I decided to spend some time cooking. I wanted to celebrate with champagne and a new recipe. We watch The Next Food Network Star, and last week, one of the contestants made wonton nachos I was determined to try. We had a few hiccups along the way (like practically smoking out our house by heating oil in the wrong type of pan) but overall, the wontons came out great. Here is some info on the process (which took 2 hours as opposed to the suggested 30ish minutes).

We had purchased all the ingredients the day before, except the wonton wrappers, which are kind of important. The stores we visit didn't have them. Luckily, while at lunch with my advisor, she mentioned a Chinese specialty store in Chapel Hill and I was able to get wonton wrappers. Shawn and I had considered making them, but after seeing how thin they are, I think that would have taken us an additional two hours.

To make wontons, we first made a filling of pork, onions, garlic and ginger. This then gets spooned into a wrapper. Here Shawn demonstrates the process (his folding skills were much better than mine).

Put filling in center

Fold into triangle, sealing edges with egg wash

Fold top over and bring tails together

This led to a number of wontons (you can see the ones I created on the right--they look a little wonky)

Shawn was a pro by the end

I spent some time overseeing the process

We then cooked them in some oil until blistered

For the nacho part, we added cheese and broiled, but we only did some--there were a lot of wontons.

In addition to the nachos, we made homemade salsa. Below you can see the finished product.

We then had some friends come over to enjoy them as well. We had a great evening, with some very good food.