Locally made Fruit n Nut Couscous for the last ESF of the year

In the spirit of the future of media.... This was my Wednesday.

6:00am - Wake up... cough and blow my nose for about an hour, go back to sleep

9:30am - Freak out, realize how much stuff I have to do before my class at 1:30pm, get a text message from Ashton asking me when I'm planning on going to the farmer's market. Reply by saying, "I dunno, i have to go to trader joes too :\ i just have to go and be back on campus before noon." She tells me I can drive her car.... I go back to sleep

10:30am - Freak out a little harder. Make myself some oatmeal and bananas, put on some clothes, and head to campus.

11:10am - Pick up Ashton's keys from the USFtv office.

11:13am - Call Ashton and ask what her license plate number is...

11:22am - Arrive at Trader Joes to buy local items (I received a tip from a girlfriend...to remain nameless...that Trader Joes had all sorts of local food. Even though I knew that I could get some couscous from Lucky's that was from Santa Cruz, I guess I thought I'd be able to pick up everything I needed from one place, and be good to go)

11:28am - Leave Trader Joes with nothing...thouroughly dissapointed(They manufacture and distribute out of Monrovia, CA, that's down south, my Grandma Shirley used to live there)

11:40am - After frantically parallel parking for only the second time in my life(:D) I arrived at the farmers market on Geary, at the Kaiser Permanente.(I highly recommend it, Wednesday's 10am-2pm, it's teeny-tiny but they've got good items, free samples, and live music.)

11:42am - I purchased some parsley for $1 a bunch from the lady representing the Nunez farm in Watsonville, then I moved clockwise to purchase a 1/2 pound bag of trail mix from a man representing Schletewitz Family Farms located at 9394 E. North Ave. in Sanger, CA(They print and stick a label on their bags) as well as well as 3 peaches and 3 apricots for Ashton's fruit salad.

11:48am - Left the farmer's market

11:49am-11:59am - Searched and searched and searched and searched for parking(Mind you, this is the first time someone has actually let me borrow their car during the day with full trust that everything would be okay....thanks Ashton!)

11:59am-12:02pm - Second parallel parking attempt of the day...Succesful! (I just had to hop out about four times to make sure my nose wasn't in the driveway...I kinda want a car in the city now)

12:05pm - Meeting with My, Marci, and Mark(The M&M's :D) about the future of USFtv next year, went well(I'm the Executive Producer next year, I want your cooking personalities ESF)

12:50pm - Down to Lucky's for my couscous! I asked the barista lady at the Pacific Roast Coffee station if I could borrow her cup measurer,(she thought it was kind of weird, but she let me) then I scooped and measured 3 cups of couscous into a little recyclable bag(I meant to bring my own container, but forgot. Ps I also knew to get 3 cups because I read on about.com that I would need 1 cup of dry couscous to make 2.5 cups of wet couscous, and that 1/2 cup of wet couscous is a proper side dish per person, therefore 3 cups of dry couscous would yield 7.5 cups of wet couscous, allowing for 15 sides for our class)

1:09pm - Walked up to Fulton and Clayton while talking to my mom on the phone

1:12pm-1:17pm - Waited for the bus because my mom said I shouldn't be walking so far if I'm sick...(I love my mom)

1:30pm - Dropped my couscous off at home and scuttled to Intro to Video production class(Natalija Vekic is amazing btw, you must take a video class with her if you're interested in film if you haven't already)

1:35pm-5:00pm - Finished editing, screened, and exported my two films, one documentary called Pets are Wonderful Support, and a narrative called Missed Call, for our Film showcase (Which I Emceed on Friday 5/15 at 6:00pm.)

5:15pm - Scrambled down the Mcallister incline while on the phone with Ali(About 45 seconds into the conversation I realized that I had forgotten my parsley and trail mix in the USFtv office)

5:16pm - Scrambled up the Mcallister incline

5:27pm - (You guessed it) Scrambled back down the Mcallister incline and made it home.

5:30pm - Put a pot of water on the stove on high to reach a boil

5:33pm - Went to the neighbor's apartment, borrowed a much bigger pot

5:37pm- Transfered the hot water from pot to pot(carefully transfered, carefully)

5:39pm - Washed hands

5:41pm - Poured the couscous into a large frying pan for some reason(It wasn't on any heat, it was clean...looking back I have no clue why I did that)

5:44pm - Enlisted in roommate Kiernan to help me chop 2.5 cups of dried fruit and nuts while I chopped 1.5 cups of parsley.

5:48pm - Enlisted in roommate Kiernan to do a finer chop of the parsley.

5:50pm - Removed the pot from the heat, poured in the couscous, put a lid over the pot

5:55pm - Checked on the couscous(ps. according to most couscous recipes, you will notice that you usually must pour in the couscous, and then let it sit with a lid on top of the pot for 5 minutes...I guess in must be different when you're cooking such a large quantity.)

5:56pm - Put the lid back on the couscous...

6:05pm - Stirred in the chopped parsley, dried fruit and nuts(Originally I was going to make two batches, one with parsley and one with the fruit and nuts, I realized that wasn't going to happen, so I figured this would just have to work, and would just have to taste good.)

6:06pm - Tasted couscous...thought about it(I needed something else to add that was local, the flavor just wasn't happening, I wanted to make sure I used absolutely nothing but local ingredients, so I didn't even use salt.)

6:07pm - Added two cups of honey(This honey was given to me by my boss at Ace Hardware, I believe she got it homemade from a friend of hers. Ps. I've been working at Ace Hardware in the Financial District since the spring of my freshman year, I have great bosses, and I love it)

6:12pm - Let couscous sit over low flame while I packed my backpack

6:17pm - Gathered everything I thought I needed and left for the last ESF class ever

6:19pm - Half way up the Mcallister incline I realized I forgot Omnivore's Dilema, called Kiernan to run it to me, ended up all the way at the bottom and he gave it to me in the middle of the street.

6:27pm - Made it to class