Two Stories

For the final Plant Morphology lab today, the prof had each of the three of us in the class prepare a food with algae in it, as a way of engaging the subject matter, I guess. So I got all set to make these pork-kelp roll things, rehydrating an entire package of kelp and buying two pounds of pork. So at about 1 last night I was up cutting up pork and spicing it before rolling it up in kelp strips. Turned out I used less than a half pound of pork and about a foot of kelp blade, when I rehydrated about 6 feet of the stuff. So now I have five feet of kelp at my disposal. But our story takes a tragic turn when I wake up this morning to go take a test at 8. My kelp wraps needed to cook for at least three hours in boiling water, so I put the heat on low and dropped them in a pot of water on the stove. When I came back four hours later, a strange smell seeping out into the yard under our front door gave me brief warning that all was not well. Opening the door removed all doubt. Apparently the water in the pot had boiled off long before my return and the things not only burned, but apparently caught on fire, because when I arrived they were already little charcoal lumps in the bottom of the pan. And I can't forget about it, because burnt kelp smells sort of like a crematorium, at least I'm guessing so. So our apartment smells like dead people and we can't air it out because all of the windows are frozen shut.
This post is already too long, so I'll save my second story for tomorrow. The question of the day is, what to do with five feet of spare kelp? The more creative the answer, the better of a friend you are!