TNT

I used to have this awesome class in middle school called TNT, which stood for "Think New Thoughts, Try New Things."  I just feel like that's a good title for this entry, which is mostly about all the new thoughts and new things that seem to be exploding into my life right now.

1.  I shot a gun for the first time last weekend.  Actually, I shot three of them.  I was terrified at first, but after a few tries I started to really like it.  Turns out I'm a pretty decent shot, so keep that in mind next time you decide to challenge me to a western-style shoot-out.

2.  I rode a horse for the first time on Thursday.  Also, terrified at first, but liked it by the end.  It was kind of comedic that after about five minutes on the trail the guide told me I wasn't kicking my horse hard enough because he wasn't keeping up, and so I kicked him a little harder.  It must have startled him, because he reared back and started galloping up the trail.  I thought I would die.  Don't worry, though; I still had a death grip on the saddle horn, so there was no way in heck he was getting me out of the saddle.  Hearing the commotion, the guide turned back and asked what was wrong, and when I told her, she said, "He's never done that before..."  I believe her, too, because the rest of the trail I kicked him just as hard and he mostly just ignored me, and sometimes shook his head and snorted when I tried to get him to go.  I was sore for three days afterwards from kicking him for a solid hour.  (The horse in the picture was not the horse I rode.  The one I rode was about twice that size haha)

3.  I spent Thursday through Saturday this last week in Park City.  It was the perfect blend of alone time and social time.  It was the perfect blend of quiet time and excitement.  In short, it was the best vacation I could have possibly taken right now.  I really needed to be away from Provo and get a break from my routine, and the slow pace up there really did the trick.

4.  I got my hair cut.  There is something about a major change in appearance that makes you feel like a brand new person.

5.  I don't know if it was being outside of the desolation of Provo or my new coif, but I got several compliments from strangers on how I looked during my mini-vacation.  One of the best ones was the guy taking my order for breakfast on Saturday calling one of his friends from the back to come to the counter and look at how beautiful I was.  Pretty sure I blushed all morning after that.

6.  I am overhauling the way I treat my body, as of yesterday.  Today marked Day 2 of South Beach Diet, Phase I.   Twelve more days to go, and I'll get to move on to Phase II.  I just decided that since my mom has had a lot of success with it, and I am on my way to having the same health problems she had (type 2 diabetes and high risk for heart disease), I needed to do it too.  It seems like just the plan I needed to finally teach myself how to eat in a way that benefits my health.  Hopefully I will be as successful as my mom has been!

Those seem like the major things right now.  I just feel like I'm finally on my way to the life I want for myself.  It's a good feeling.

Why I Relay

This picture is of my Granny and I not too long after I returned from my mission.  It’s not such a great picture of either one of us, but it’s the only one I have.  It looks like she’s asleep but she’s actually about to say something smart to my dad or whoever was taking the picture.

I still miss her, and thought about her a lot today.  I know that she didn’t technically die of cancer, but it took away one of the things that she valued the most: her independence.  She is one of the many reasons that I participate in Relay for Life.

I had participated in it a little bit when I lived at home because my parents are Survivor Co-Chairs for Relay for Life in Mason County, but this is the first year I have signed up for my own team and have participated personally on the Team Development committee.  In case you’re curious, here’s some of the stuff that Relay is:

It is a place for the community to rally together in support of those among us who have been touched by cancer.  Relay for Life is not a race.  Each team member on teams of 8-15 people take turns walking and/or running around a track all night, symbolic of the fact that cancer doesn’t sleep or take a break.

It is a place for cancer survivors (those who have been diagnosed with cancer, whether they are undergoing treatment or are in remission) to be CELEBRATEd, support one another, and feel the love and support of their communities.  Survivors are guests of honor who receive a medal during the opening ceremonies, and start the relay by walking the first lap, all in matching purple t-shirts.

It is a place to REMEMBER those who have passed on.  For a small donation, luminaries are dedicated to those who have died of cancer.  As the sun sets over a Relay for Life event, the luminaries are lit up around the track and in the stands to light the way for the participants.

It is a vehicle to FIGHT BACK.  These events happen through donated time, material, and services so the funds raised through Relay for Life go directly to the American Cancer Society.  The money is used to fund cancer research so that we can improve the prevention and treatment of cancer, to buy wigs for the less fortunate who have lost their hair due to cancer treatments, to provide transportation to treatments for patients who need it, and to support outreach programs educating the public on ways to reduce their risk for cancer.  The goal is a world where no one has to hear those terrifying words, “You have cancer,” ever again.  It’s a long way off, but I believe we can get there.

I have seen a lot of facebook status messages going around that say something about how cancer patients don’t wish for money and fame but to be well and see another day, and that 97% of people won’t post it.  Posting a status is better than nothing, but it isn’t a very active way to really show that you are serious about fighting back.  If you have been touched in any way by cancer, please participate in Relay for Life.  If you haven’t been touched by cancer, participate in Relay to celebrate THAT.  Attend your local event and buy food and drink from the vendors, get your face painted, buy raffle tickets, and cheer for the survivors when they make their lap.

I am currently in the fund-raising stages for my Relay participation.  So far I have raised $55 of my $100 goal.  If everyone who reads this post contributed $5, I would more that surpass that goal.  I know that money is tight for a lot of people, but $5 is less than a fast food meal, less than an MP3 album, and much much less than a concert ticket.  You probably won’t even notice it was gone.  I would really appreciate if you would each think about making a small contribution through my personal fund-raising site.  Money does talk, and it is another one of the ways that you can take an active role in supporting and fighting back with people battling cancer in our community.  Your donation is 100% tax-deductible, plus, I will send a personal message to everyone who donates, mention you on twitter, and sing your praises publicly.

Thank you to:

Mom and Dad:  In addition to all of their physical labor for Relay in their own community and donating to their local event, they contributed $25 to my fundraising efforts.

Aunt Lucy and Christopher:  They lived with my grandmother as she was battling cancer, volunteered with Relay for Life in Mason County, and donated $20.


Selena Christensen:  (read her blog) This girl is seriously hilarious.  I look forward to reading her blog whenever she posts because I always giggle at least once.  She was my roommate when I first moved to Provo, and I have very much enjoyed staying on contact with her after she moved.  She just graduated last semester and just started a new internship.  Her $5 donation shows that she is committed to supporting those with cancer through their illness.


Emily Clay:  (read her blog)  This girl is freakin' amazing.  She goes on vacation by herself with nothing but a backpack, and that makes her my hero.  When I "ran" my first 5K last year, she was there waiting around one of the last bends in the course.  I was in a lot of pain and starting to get pretty tired, but seeing her there gave me the motivation I needed to pull it together and accomplish my goal of finishing strong.  With her donation of $10, I am starting to see the finish line of my Relay for Life fundraising goal as well.

[Your name here]

Five Things Friday

I can't believe another week has come and gone already!  This week went by so fast because I only worked four days of it, and those work days were relatively chill.  I could definitely deal with four work days per week instead of five from now on.  Now on to the five positive things I felt like mentioning.

1.  I stood up for myself this week.  Some potentially shady stuff was going down in my lab group, and I spoke up and said that what was happening wasn't okay.  I'm good at expressing my opinions, but when it feels like I'm asking for something (even when it's just acknowledgement) I really struggle.  I am just proud of myself every time I do something that's hard for me.

2.  Woman caves.  Brittainy and I cleaned out our basement and made it into a usable space in our apartment.  It's a cool little hang out.  We have candles out, a basket of blankets, slightly uncomfortable love seat, pictures on the wall, and a TV connected to a laptop for Netflix and DVD consumption.  We christened it Monday night by watching a movie and painting our nails down there.

3.  This watch.  It is like the ToyWatch watch that Sandra Bullock wears on The Blind Side, but it's purple (or pretty much any color you could want) and much cheaper.  I am anxiously awaiting its arrival in my mailbox.

4.  In my reading today, I discovered a whole section in this book I've been reading that is exactly what I'm trying to do with my research.  It could be depressing because someone has already done what I'm doing, and they observed the same things I'm observing, but they used less conclusive techniques.  It will actually give more validity to the papers I publish, plus they made some time-dependent observations that I didn't think to look for, so now I have more ideas for experiments to do.  

5.  This.  Is amazing.  I was showing a lab mate the last video I shared with you on Five Things Friday, and talked about how great the guitar playing was.  Then he challenged, "What I want to see is someone playing Flight of the Bumblebee on guitar."  Challenge accepted.  What follows is my favorite of the videos I found, and has had me on the edge of my seat waiting for Friday to come as the perfect opportunity to share it with you.

Also, he has never actually seen a guitar because he was born blind.  When he was 12 his grandfather bought him a guitar, and he practiced every day for 14 hours or so.  I love stories of people who improve themselves beyond what others expect of them through hard work.

Have a great weekend!

Granny's Cheese Bread

In my family every year we woke on Christmas morning to a loaf of this bread that my grandmother made for everyone in our family.  This is probably the most perfect bread ever.  The slices are swirled with butter, parmesan cheese, and freshly ground black pepper.  The inside of the slices is soft and pillowy, and the crust is golden with just the right amount of crunch.  I have searched the internet high and low for a recipe for this bread, and found only recipes for stuff like this:

I love Little Caesars fine foods as far as take-out is concerned, but it's a far cry from Italian Holiday at Home.  Also, I can eat this without cooking it, which is the beauty of Little Caesars, but I don't need a recipe.

My brother got a copy of my grandmother's hand-written recipe card for the REAL DEAL cheese bread that we all ate every Christmas.  The only problem with the recipe is that it was hopelessly vague/illegible.  Granny never needed a recipe for anything, so his transcription of it was riddled with question marks.  My project of the day was to "translate" her recipe and write instructions that the uninitiated could follow.

I preface all of this by saying that I am not a baker.  One of my unspoken goals of 2011 was to learn how to make bread.  I have attempted this with varied results.  But since I've made a lot of mistakes, if anything that makes me more qualified to instruct others on what to do.  Or not do.  So I proudly present to you the Chemist's Guide to Granny's Cheese Bread:

Ingredients:

2 Packages dry active yeast

1/2 cup warm water (run tap until it's as hot as you can stand it)

3-1/2 cups lukewarm milk (I took that amount of milk and zapped it in the micro for 90 seconds.

1 egg

1/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons salt

1/8 cup vegetable oil

10-12 cups flour

3-4 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1–1-1/2 cups grated parmesan cheese

freshly ground black pepper

Dissolve yeast and sugar in water.  Lightly beat in the egg.  Add milk and salt.  Don't be afraid.  Yes, I know that there is a lot of liquid in the bowl.  Have faith.  Start adding flour one cup at a time, incorporating almost all of the previous addition before adding more.  When it gets into a dough-like mass that is difficult to stir with a spatula, turn the dough out onto a floured board (or clean countertop) and continue incorporating flour throughout the kneading process.  

A word on kneading.  I have done some reading on kneading, and I have decided that this is where I have been going wrong 99% of the time when I attempt bread.  First of all, the method is to turn the dough a quarter turn, pull away from you, fold towards you, and press forward with the heel of your hand, then repeat.  The quarter turn should always be in the SAME direction.  Did you know that?  THE SAME DIRECTION.  I also have a hard time knowing when it's done.  You press your fingers in and it bounces back, yes.  But that is something I can question.  I like the "windowpane" test best.  You tear off a little piece of dough and stretch it thin enough to see light from something like a window shining through it.  If it tears before you get it that thin, you need to keep kneading, otherwise you're good.  I have a great fear of over-kneading, and have therefore neglected to knead my previous doughs sufficiently, resulting in dense loaves.

The 1/8 cup of vegetable oil was 1/4 cup on my grandmother's recipe, and it was a source of debate in my family as we discussed the recipe.  Her instructions (after dissolving the yeast) read "stir in remaining ingredients except for flour."  When I told my brother that I made it today, he asked me, "So, what did you do with the oil?"  Well, Mark, I used it to grease the bowl.  I dutifully used the quarter cup today, but it was a little overkill.  You could definitely get away with 1/8 cup, maybe even less if you cover the bowl with a damp towel while it rises.  Just pour the oil into the bowl, put the beautiful round dough ball in it pretty-side down, then turn it over.  That should coat the whole surface of it with oil, which will prevent drying.

Now you wait about half an hour for the dough to double in size.  I mean, like half an hour if you live in humid Kentucky and keep your house oppressively hot like my grandmother did.  You can simulate Kentucky by putting a pan of water in your oven and turning it on warm for about two minutes, then turning it off, inserting the dough, and then closing the door.  You know it's done rising when it's double the size it was before OR when you stick your fingers in the dough the impression remains.

Divide the dough into two parts.  Roll out each part into a longish rectangle. 

 Spread softened butter over the length of the rectangle with your fingers.  Grind pepper evenly over the dough...

...then pour grated parmesan cheese over that.

Roll up the dough to form a long roll of dough.  Coil that up in a seasoned cast iron skillet starting with the outside of the coil.  I spaced mine so that it was in the center of the skillet.

Let that rise again for another hour.  This is what it looks like after rising the second time:

Bake at 325F for about 1 hour.  This is so good right out of the oven, so as soon as it's cool enough to hold onto and cut, do it.  Plus, look how attractive it is!  Bread is high return for... okay, high efforts.  But at least this is a bread you can't buy in any store.

Bread is high return for... okay, high efforts.  But at least this is a bread you can't buy in any store.

Five Things Friday

The Pretty Life Anonymous, a fashion blog that I follow (it's my guilty pleasure, okay?) does this thing called Five Things Friday.  You list five things you love on a Friday.  So, I'm not promising that I'll continue with this, but this particular Friday I'm in the mood to list five things that I loved this week.

1.  Edible house plants.  I love to cook, and I needed some house plants.  So I bought edible ones.  Well, two of them are edible.  One of them decidedly is not (the far left).  The edible ones are basil and rosemary, two of my favorite herbs to use fresh.  Plus, whenever I need a boost I just go over and give them a little whiff.

2.  This photo:

 

I took it on  my way home from work one day right before it poured rain.  I just love the lighting, and the fact that it's big machinery in a field of wild plants.  I'm glad I was aware enough to stop and appreciate it.

3.  Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream.  On Thursdays we have what some roommates have affectionately called "Pizza and Beer's Law" on the third floor of the Chemistry building.  Spectroscopy graduate students (and friends) gather to eat pizzas and talk about nerdy stuff.   This week the pizza was ordered late, and while we were waiting someone realized that we had several large vats of ice cream base and access to large quantities of liquid nitrogen.  So what naturally happened was the making of liquid nitrogen ice cream.  The photo below is three of the regulars stirring the ice cream.  Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble!

4.  My grandmother's cheese bread.  I've been bugging my brother for the recipe since before Christmas, and he just sent it to me a week or so ago.  Now I have both the recipe and the ingredients, and I plan to make my first attempt at it tomorrow.  The recipe's a little cryptic, so I don't know that this will be exactly my grandmother's cheese bread, but I do have at least a loose outline of what it involves, and that's better than what I had before.  Look for a post in the next few days reporting the success or failure of the attempt with revised instructions.

5.  Tedeschi Trucks Band.  Oh Laws I love this band, and I just discovered them today.  It's a husband-wife team that has united a band of 11 ultra-talented musicians to make magic happen in your ear canal.  Susan Tedeschi has a soulful voice (the closest comparison I can think of is Patty Griffin) and "plays the guitar like a 4,000 year old black man."  Derek Trucks plays guitar licks that would make Eric Clapton proud.  My brother (a guitar connoisseur, and the reason I discovered them) said, "Derek Trucks is a machine."  I agree.  Their album Revelator drops on June 7 (you can pre-order it on amazon as I already have), but until then, here's a video of them performing at Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival this year:

Zombie Apocalypse Now

Long hours this week.  Snap.  I sure hope all the work is worth it, but in case it's not, let's brush up on our Zombie Plans.  (I've already written another entry about this, in case you're interested.)  My hobby the past few years has been asking fellow students what ELSE they have considered as careers.  You can tell what my job satisfaction is like depending on how far away my fantasy job is for the day.  Example:  One of my friends struggling with research told me his dream job was Mail Carrier, which I found humorous because that's what my dad does, and he's not exactly skipping his way to work every day.

Lately, my zombie jobs have been a little less undead (is that a double negative?).  Scientific Writing Consultants and Patent Agents very frequently have PhD's in hard sciences.  Circus performers, roadies, and helicopter pilots typically don't.

I've always been a dabbler, and maybe I'll get bored with teaching Chemistry one day and want to move on to greener pastures, and it's good to be prepared.  

Somewhat less related than you might think, this week the CDC released a Zombie Apocalypse preparedness guide, which you should so totally check out.  It's actually a tongue-in-cheek presentation of their standard emergency preparedness protocol.  A government agency has shown signs of a sense of humor.  Isn't that the first horseman of the apocalypse?

Why Chemists Make the Best Chefs

I want to start out by saying that I swear that this isn't a food blog.  It's just that when you spend hour upon hour in a chemistry lab stirring and heating things you can't eat, you want to spend the weekend working on things that you CAN eat.  And 99% of the time the kitchen creations turn out much better than what you make in the lab.  Chemists are great cooks.  We are.  I think a lot of lab skills transfer really well to the kitchen, and the process of good chemistry is like the process of good cooking.  

Before we get started, you should know that the Scientific Method that they teach you in high school and in introductory science classes is WRONG.  What really happens in science is you start with a question, have an idea of what might happen (hypothesis), and then experiment.  That's where the method breaks down for me.  First of all, if you have a really good solid hypothesis, you have no business experimenting.  Often, I don't have any clue of what's going to happen when I start an experiment.  Oh, there's a question alright, and that question usually starts a lot like "I wonder what would happen if..."  Probably one of my biggest pet peeves is when our lab assistants ask me, "So...  are you sure that'll work?"  Of course, I'm not sure.  If I were sure, it wouldn't be research!

Now for the noms.  Tonight I made home-made honest to goodness from scratch shells and cheese for the first time ever.  Something you should know here is that no scientist just walks into the lab and starts experimenting.  In science, you learn basic knowledge and skills necessary to succeed, and in cheffery this has been endowed upon you by your mother, Julia Child, or both.  While the basics are certainly essential, to make real progress you also have to be abreast of what's happening NOW.  In science, we call this Recent Literature, and in cheffery this is food blogs and forums.  You don't read all of them necessarily, just the ones that apply to you.  I like Chef John at food wishes because his dishes are tasty, technically solid, and accessible.

So I read on his blog that mac and cheese is good gooey in the middle and crunchy on top, and probably the most helpful hint was that in order to achieve that, you only need 20 minutes in a hot oven since everything is already hot when you start.  Makes sense.

I knew that the gooey cheesy part of traditional mac & cheese is typically a béchamel sauce* with cheese added at the end, which then actually makes it a mornay sauce.  Now you know all sorts of french words to impress your friends.  I happened to have a lovely mornay sauce left over from making hot browns last week.  This has its parallel in research as well - it is financially beneficial to do different experiments with materials you already have.  I revived it in a sauce pan with some slow heating and the addition of some milk.  I chopped up half a package of bacon and fried it in my cast iron skillet because hot brown has bacon in it so I already know it's going to be great with the sauce and because duh everything's better with bacon.  By the way, if you have a cast iron skillet, this is the best thing you will ever do for it - mine is used exclusively for bacon and corn bread.

Hot brown also has tomatoes, but I didn't think those would hold up well as leftovers (and I can't finish a whole pan by myself), so I chopped sun dried tomatoes finely and added those to the noodles, mornay, and bacon.  For the crunchy, all I had was bread, so I just tore up a piece of whole wheat bread and distributed it on top, then sprayed with olive oil before putting it into a 400º oven for 20 minutes.  And done.  I call it Hot Brown Shells and Cheese.

Back to chemistry.  I think part of what makes chemists good at cooking is our ability to identify problems with a method and figure out how to improve them.  We liked this recipe, so if it sounds good as is to you, go ahead with it, you have my blessing.  Next time, I'd leave out the sun dried tomatoes, top the pasta with additional shredded cheddar and serve with fresh tomatoes on the side.  Next time I may change my mind about it again, but that's science for you!

*Mornay sauce is so easy to make.  You start with a roux from equal parts butter and flour.  Melt butter in a sauce pan until it sizzles a bit, then whisk in the flour and cook for a few minutes until it starts to rise and looks kind of sandy.  Cooking the roux kills the raw taste of the flour.  Chef John says for 1 lb of macaroni, you need half a cup of roux (1/4 cup butter, 1/4 cup flour).  Add whatever herbs you want now.  Hot brown sauce has a splash of worcestershire, a pinch of dry mustard, and a half dollop of chicken/turkey base.  Add cold milk (3 cups) one cup at a time to the roux with whisking.  Turn the heat down and let it thicken.  That's the béchamel.  Add a few cups of shredded sharp cheddar, and you've got my hot brown mornay.