Full Professor Celebration

My advisor was promoted to Full Professor this week! So I baked.

For those of you not planning a career in the professoriate, becoming a full professor takes a loooong time. Generally, here is the timeline: If one is lucky-enough to find a tenure-track Assistant Professor position at a university, the first 6-7 years of one's career is spent working one's ass off, researching, publishing, teaching, researching, publishing, teaching, etc. If all goes well, you'll be promoted to Associate Professor with which comes your first substantial pay increase.

The next 5-10 years are spent, again, working one's ass off researching and publishing, and, to a lesser extent, teaching. To be promoted to Full Professor, your university surveys many of the scholars in your field to see if you and your research are nationall and internationally known. Yes, that's right: internationally known. So, it seems like (the process is still very mysterious) the next promotion hinges on whether your university concludes that your work is good enough and you're famous enoughto be promoted. Talk about stressful.

I figured, after what was probably 15 years of working balls-to-the-wall, my advisor deserved a party to celebrate her achievement. So in our research group this week, my labmates and I each cooked up a little something special for her. I made Lemon Cream Tartlets topped with whipped cream and a rasberry.

I like mini-sized things, plus, I don't have a large tart pan, so I just used muffin tins to make these tarts. I adapted a recipe from the cookbook Tartine. The cookbook is named after a bakery in San Francisco, which apparently serves the most heavenly pastries. I'm going to try croissants for a Brunch (supper) Club I'm hosting next week. I'll be sure to post the results of that adventure.