Vacation – All I Ever Wanted!

Back in November, I snuck out of the lab for a whole 10 days on vacation. In a long and complicated story, Husband and I decided to go on a family vacation (yes, I know… I see my mother in law at least once a month, sometimes multiple weekends in a row, and I still thought it would be enjoyable to travel with her). Because of limitations of his mother, we decided a cruise would be the best option at satisfying all involved… but then, at the last minute, she wasn’t able to attend. So, off we went with my own parents, who love to travel as well.

We specifically picked the cruise because it left out of Baltimore, meaning an easy drive and no flights necessary. Husband came down from Philly, I came up from D.C., and my parents came southeast from Harrisburg, and we were on our way! (Click on links of city names for more pictures from each location!)

After two days at sea consisting of lots of relaxing, reading, games of UNO and Scrabble, and a somewhat ridiculous amount of alcohol, we arrived in the first port: San Juan, Puerto Rico. We spent our time in San Juan exploring Old San Juan and Fort San Cristóbal… and of course, stopped for an afternoon drink. (Alcohol consumption is an absolutely essential part of vacationing according to my parents.)

Our next port of call was St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. St. Thomas is one of my favorite islands in the Caribbean (after Aruba, where I used to spend time every January before graduate school sucked all the fun out of life, and Grand Cayman, because of the scuba diving). We spent the morning at our favorite beach, Magen’s Bay. The day was mostly overcast and the waves were gigantic compared to previous visits, due to the tropical storm brewing further north. I had been hoping to go scuba diving over on St. John that day, but all the beaches and water were closed due to the waves! After a morning on the beach, we went to my favorite little synagogue ever, St. Thomas Synagogue (insert witty joke from my father regarding naming synagogues after saints). It is a tiny little building atop a big hill (aptly named Synagogue Hill) and comes complete with a sand floor. Perfect!

Next up, we visited Samana, Dominican Republic. It was the first time for all of us going to the DR, but instead of exploring, we were all ready for a nice, relaxing beach day. It was a gorgeous, sunny day, and we spent it swimming, snorkeling (the off-the-beach snorkeling had a better reef than some of my deep scuba dives!), and my father and I took out an ocean kayak and paddled our way up and down the coast for a few hours.

Last but not least, we found ourselves in Labadee, Haiti. The day was absolutely beautiful, but the sand was covered with coral and broken shells, which made it a bit tricky getting in and out of the water!

On the way back to Baltimore, our vacation was extended by a day, courtesy of Tropical Storm Ida. The Coast Guard closed the Chesapeake Bay, so we were unable to enter until it was reopened a day later. There are certainly worse things in life than getting an extra unexpected day of vacation… though Husband may disagree, as the rough waters made him rather seasick!

Hmm… I’m ready for another vacation! Where to next, Husband?!

WANT

I don’t typically discuss purchases (or things I would like to purchase), but I cannot stop lusting over these brand new, just released camera bags by Kelly Moore.  I have been looking for what seems like ages for a camera bag that meets my particular set of requirements: styleish – aka, doesn’t scream “I’M A CAMERA BAG!”, something which actually holds my camera body unlike the Shootsac, something with the option to wear across my body messenger-style for when I am actually taking pictures, and extra room so that it can be my only bag and not require a purse as well.  I have considered the Built NY bag, but well… it looks like a giant lunchbox.   I’ve been eyeing up the Jill-E line, but I never loved the look or the straps (I find that if I wear a bag just over the shoulder, it tends to slip down if I am trying to move around).  And I know I am not the only one who has had problems finding a functional, yet stylish, camera bag (so maybe this will help some of you, too!).  Considering the amount of time which I travel since we are in a long-distance marriage, a camera bag has been moving further and further up on my list of serious wants, since I typically wind up literally throwing my camera into my suitcase, and only traveling with my cheapest lens, lest something happen with my very unsecure packing method.

And then, this weekend, Kelly Moore opened up her bag shop and it’s like she could read my mind!  It fits both the camera and multiple lenses, plus other random accessories (both photography related and personal), has outside pockets for easy access, is water resistant, and can be worn either over-the-shoulder or messenger style.  And it doesn’t look like a camera bag!  (I, personally, am lusting after the grey color – goes with everything so I can take it anywhere).

Since it was literally just released, I cannot vouch for it personally, but for those of us looking for a stylish “non-camera bag” camera bag, it seems like the ideal choice!  Unfortunately for me, I do not expect that I will be picking one up any time soon, given my limited graduate student income and Husband’s massive medical school loans.  We just received very generous Hanukkah checks from my parents, who instructed us to use on something fun and enjoyable and not for paying off loans, but Husband has already decided that all the money will go straight into savings because he is boring and practical and otherwise known as Dr. Debt from his medical school endeavors. :(  (Had I known about this bag before this weekend, I would have just asked my parents for it directly rather than the check, thus bypassing our savings account altogether!)

I do, however, think it will make a delightful gift-to-self whenever I finally get a first author paper, no?  Teehee.

Mourning

I intended to (finally) write about my recent vacation (escape from the lab! woo!) this evening, but instead managed to find a secret streaming internet station showing the Steelers game.

The game in which the Steelers kissed their season goodbye.  Bye bye, defending Superbowl champions.

Clearly, I am now too depressed and mopey to think about things like vacation pictures.  Instead, I am going to look at the pictures my parents took of the six Lombardi trophies they saw on display when they were at Heinz Field for the Pitt homecoming game and try to make myself feel better.

As for the vacation pictures?  Maybe I’ll be feeling it tomorrow.  Or maybe I’ll still be mourning the fact that three days before my mega-Chrismukkah party, with all the food preparation to do, my no-longer-produced size built-in microwave started sparking and filled with smoke.  Perfect timing.  Or the fact that my foot, which had been healing well, suddenly started bleeding all over this evening.  I think I may have accidentally ripped out one of the deeper stitches.

FML.

I think this calls for sleeping in tomorrow.  Don’t tell my PI.

Holiday Cards

Since I am stuck on the couch, foot up, following surgery*, I figured I may as well use the time to get some work done on my holiday cards… especially considering that Hanukkah is just a week a way (I know, I can’t believe it either). 

Every year, I hand make my holiday cards.  I used to do intricate, hand-cut cards, but once Husband and I became engaged, and our holiday card list for our combined family and friends stretched to over 60, I just didn’t have the time anymore.  Instead, I now screen print my holiday cards using my Gocco. 

Husband and I are Jewish, but we have many friends and some family who are not, so I always go for a generic holiday/Chrismukkah/non-denominational themed cards so as not to offend anyone.

  
2007 Holiday Cards

2008 Holiday Cards

What’s in store for this year?  Well, I’m not entirely sure yet, but Husband suggested a theme which highlights each of our respective cities.  I’m not sure if it’s a fun highlight, or depressing to send everyone a card saying “hey! look! we live in different cities!”, but it’s the first time he’s ever expressed an opinion one way or another about cards, so I think I’m going to go with it.

Since I seem to have so much more contact with many of my blog friends than my real life friends, it only seemed fair to include you on my holiday card list.  So, if you would like to be added to my holiday card list, send me an email (see that “Contact” link up there on the menu bar?  Click away!) with your address, and a card you will receive.

*Outpatient foot surgery, but I have direct orders to keep my foot up and stay off my feet, lest I rip out my deep stitches.  Details to follow.

Cannoli-oli-oli (Daring Bakers)

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

I had mixed feelings about this months DB’s challenge.  On one hand, I looooove cannoli (every time we are in an Italian restaurant or pastry shop, my father and I have to share a cannoli).  On the other hand, I detest frying in my current kitchen.  Don’t get me wrong; I have no fears about frying (Husband’s friends nicknamed me Latke Julie, after all)… but the kitchen in our condo faces the inside of the building, so there are no windows and no proper ventilation system to the outside.  As I know well from my yearly latke-fest, the scent of frying oil lingers in my condo for DAYS, and it takes over the whole place – even my clothes in my closet reek of oil.  It is truly disgusting.

But, since I have already missed my maximum number of passes for DB challenges, I forged ahead.  As I have mentioned before, I have zero room for “kitchen stuff”, so I passed on ordering actual cannoli forms which would require storage somewhere.  Instead, I put my thinking cap on and forraged, eventually cutting apart the handle of an old Swiffer which I needed to replace anyway.  Worked like a charm!

As far as the cannoli, they were delicious, but oh-so-rich.  I went for a banana filling – sliced bananas stuffed in the cannoli, and added banana extract to the filling mixture.  DELICIOUS.  Since I didn’t make enough to feed the entire lab, I wound up eating two and threw away the rest.  My waistline thanks me.  And my condo will be thankful if no more Daring Bakers/Daring Cooks challenges require frying!

Cannoli Shells

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon unsweetened baking cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup wine
• egg white from one large egg
• 2 quarts vegetable oil, for frying

Directions:

1. Using an electric mixer, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, and salt.  Stir in the oil and vinegar, and just enough wine to make a soft dough.  Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and well blended.  Shape the dough into a ball.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours to overnight.
2. Lightly flour a large cutting or pastry board and roll the dough until very thin, no more than 1/8” thick.  Cut out 3 to 5 inch circles (I used the rim of a glass as I don’t have round cookie cutters).  Roll the cut circle into an oval.
3. Oil the outside of the cannoli forms.  Roll the dough oval from the long side around each form and dab a little egg white on the dough where the edges overlap.  Press well to seal.  Set aside to allow the egg white to dry.
4. In a deep, heavy saucepan, poor 3” of oil.  Heat the oil to 375F with a candy thermometer.
5. Carefully lower a few cannoli tubes into the hot oil.  Do not crowd the pan.  Fry the shells until golden, about 2 minutes, turning them so they will brown evenly.
6. Lift a cannoli form with a slotted spoon out of the oil.  Using tongs, grasp the cannoli form at one end.  Very carefully, remove the cannoli form with the open sides straight up and down so that the oil flows back into the pan.  Place the form on paper towels to drain.  While still hot, grasp the form with a potholder and pull the cannoli off the form with a pair of tongs.  Let the shells cool completely on the paper towels.  Place shells on cooking rack until ready to fill.
7. Repeat making and frying the shells with the remaining dough.  If reusing canoli forms, allow them to cool before re-wrapping with dough.

Cannoli Filling

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds ricotta cheese, drained
• 1 2/3 cups confectioner’s sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon banana extract
• banana slices
• melted chocolate, for shells

Directions:

1. Line a strainer with cheesecloth.  Place the ricotta in the strainer over a bowl and cover with plastic wrap and a towel.  Weigh it down with a heavy can and let the ricotta drain in the refrigerator overnight.
2. In a bowl with an electric mixer, beat the ricotta until smooth and creamy.  Beat in the confectioner’s sugar, vanilla, and banana extracts until smooth.  Chill until firm.
3. Melt chocolate over a double burner.  Dip ends of cannoli in chocolate.
4. Place sliced bananas in the center of the cooled cannoli.  Add filling mixture to a ziploc bag, snip off the corner, and squirt into the tube (or use a pastry bag if you have one).  Drizzle melted chocolate over the cannoli.  ENJOY!

Boston Recommendations

Later this month, I will be heading up to Boston for the AACR Molecular Targets & Cancer Therapeutics meeting.  It’s been quite a while since I’ve been to Boston – the last time was the summer between graduating high school and starting college!  I’ll be in the Back Bay area, so if anyone has any suggestions for things to do in the evening (or during less interesting sessions!) or places I should eat, let me know!

Also, if anyone else is either attending the conference or a permanent resident of Boston, send me an email if you are interested in perhaps trying to meet up while I am there!

French Macarons (Daring Bakers’ Challenge)

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

So, here’s the thing. I don’t really get the macaron craze. Cute little bakeries and pastry shops all over D.C. seem to sell them for an arm and a leg, much like the cupcake craze, and, much like cupcakes, I have no desire to pay an exorbitant price for them. And also much like cupcakes, I don’t even particularly like macarons. But the recipe sounded like a challenge, so I was in.

This was the very first thing I tackled after 3 weeks sick on the couch with swine flu and pneumonia. In retrospect, it probably wasn’t such a good plan; I was still feeling sick and had zero patience. To say I half-assed this recipe would be generous; really, at best, I quarter-assed this. All month, the Daring Bakers’ forum has been full of failed attempts… apparently, macarons are quite the tricky little beasts. And there I was, still not yet fully recovered, throwing my hands in the air and saying.. what the hell? Let’s give this a try.

All sorts of tips and tricks were shared in the forums in order to get this recipe to work. In my illness-induced annoyance state, I ignored all of them. Age your egg whites on the counter for three days, they said! I let mine sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before whipping them up. Be sure to sift your almond flour and sugar together three times so it is smooth! In my matchbox-sized kitchen, there is no room for non-essentials like sifters or mesh sieves, so not only did I not sift mine three times… I didn’t sift mine at all! Oh yes, there were LUMPS. And I narrowed my eyes and glared and told my macarons to suck it up and deal.

And deal they did. Much to my surprise, after reading about failure after failure, mine worked just fine. On the first try. With not-yet room temperature egg whites, non-sifted almond flour, and an oven that is notoriously off by quite a bit (but I don’t own an over thermometer, so I don’t know what that ‘bit’ is). MY biggest problem? Piping them out. I don’t own actual pastry bags (see reference to non-essential items for matchbox-sized kitchen) so I went with the good old snip off a corner of a ziploc bag. Nevermind that I even had circles drawn out underneath my parchment paper, I absolutely, positively, could not get that batter out in a circle… let alone in a same sized oval. Of course, this didn’t affect the quality of the cookie itself, but made sandwiching them up a bit difficult. Knowing my stomach was not yet up to par, I made these with my Husband’s tastes in mind – a simple dark chocolate ganache filling. I was thrilled that they turned out well; he was thrilled to eat them. All in all, a win-win situation!

See that ruffley edge along the base? Those are called macaron “feet” and are the defining characteristic of a macaron. Yeah, I didn’t know that either.

French Macarons

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 2 cups almond flour
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 5 egg whites, room temperature (-ish)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 200F.
2. Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl.
3. Beat the egg whites using a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
4. Sift (HA. suckers!) a third of the almond flour into the meringue and fold gently to combine. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Do not overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.
5. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (or, for the truly frustrating experience, snip the end off a ziplog bag). Pipe one-inch sized mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
6. Bake the macarons for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375F. Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and back for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.
7. Cool on a rack before filling.

Quarantined

My extended absence can be summed up with two words: swine flu.  Those of you who follow me on Twitter caught the real-time play-by-play of my past two weeks: the 104+ fever, the aches, the chills followed by sweating like a pig (very appropriate for the swine flu), the coughing, the vomiting, the vomiting, the even more vomiting, and finally, the very slow road to recovery which started on Friday.I have spent the past two weeks stuck on the couch (aside from two Tuesday’s ago, when I had to go into lab, and this past Monday, when I spent Yom Kippur not in synagogue, but at the doctor’s office discovering that my flu turned into secondary pneumonia), too tired, worn out, and miserable to do anything aside from follow Twitter from my iPhone.  I am totally behind on e-mails, all but my very favorite blogs, the 2043 papers my PI sent to me telling me to read immediately to discuss upon my return (sorry Boss, but I have not looked at a single one), and apparently the drastic change in seasons – before I fell ill, it was warm and summery; rumor has it that it is now in the 60s and the leaves are already starting to change color.

I will be making my triumphant return to society this week (I am only feeling about 50% right now, but I am pretty sure if I don’t show up in lab meeting first thing Monday morning, my PI will drag me off the couch kicking and screaming) and slowly returning to the blogiverse.  Don’t worry, I’ll wash my hands well before leaving comments on any of your blogs.

Blackberry Buttermilk Cake

When I first saw this in Gourmet as a raspberry buttermilk cake, I made it. And it was good, but nothing that totally knocked my socks off. Quick, easy, and a perfect everyday cake. By this point, my blackberries were a week old, I was getting tired of baking with them (something I never thought would be possible), and I didn’t want anything heavy or extravagant, because I would not be bringing the resulting recipe into the lab after the previous whining over not baking enough. I decided to try the buttermilk cake again, replacing the raspberries with blackberries, for something a little lighter to have around for a weekend when Husband was visiting. And you know what? It was so much tastier. When it comes to just eating, raspberries are my favorite, hands down. But when it comes to baking, I think the verdict is in – blackberries make EVERYHING better! This cake is ridiculously simple to make, so give it a whirl! (Interesting tidbit of note: unlike the raspberries, my blackberries were so fat, they all sank straight to the bottom of the cake!). This wraps up Blackberry Extravaganza week - I hope you enjoyed it and found a recipe or two to add to your collections!

Blackberry Buttermilk Cake
adapted from Gourmet June 2009

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 2/3 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup fresh blackberries

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan.
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Beat together butter and 2/3 cup sugar at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in vanilla and egg.
3. At low speed, mix in flour and buttermilk until just combined. Spoon batter into cake pan, smoothing top. Scatter blackberries over top and sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar.
4. Bake until cake is golden and a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool an additional 10 to 15 minutes more.

all the blackberries hiding on the bottom of the cake

Blackberry Peach Galette

If there is one thing you make from my Blackberry Extravaganza week, make this. Really. Make this. Now. It was amazing. A-MA-ZING. It was so amazing, in fact, that it apparently turned one particular labmate into a greedy monster who stormed up to me and verbally berated me for not bringing in more, droning on and on about how it was so unfair that I didn’t consider the number of people in the lab and that some people took larger slices and not everyone would get a “big enough” slice and it just wasn’t fair next time, could I just get my act together and bring in MORE? I just sort of sat there with my jaw hanging open, because after I brought in blackberry pie bars, berry oatmeal crumble bars, blackberry scones, and then a blackberry peach galette, I get yelled at for not baking ENOUGH? Sorry, but my Ph.D. stipend is very small, and it does not pay for me to provide your breakfast buffet! I suspect it will be a very long time before I bake for the lab again – isn’t it a shame when one rotten apple spoils everything for the whole bunch?

I really love galettes so much more than pies – I’m not sure why, but the whole rustic look really appeals to me. Plus, I love that they are filled with fruit slices rather than a soupy fruit filling and the crust tends to be thicker, so galettes can be picked up and eaten with your hands, rather than requiring a fork and a plate (perfect for consumption during lab meetings). I went with blackberry and peach because I picked both at the farm, and the flavors complimented each other together perfectly. Obviously, you can use any fruit in a galette, but I loved these together so much I would be hesitant to change it up next time; personally, I can’t imagine another combination that I would personally enjoy more!

Blackberry Peach Galette
adapted from Our Best Bites

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 11 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons ice water
• 3 large, ripe peaches, pitted and sliced
• 1 cup blackberries
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 1/2 tablespoons butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Add flour and salt to a medium bowl. Cut cold butter into small chunks and throw on top of flour. Cut the butter into the flour using a pastry blender under mixture resembles small crumbs the size of peas. Add ice water one tablespoon at a time while stirring the dough mixture with a fork. Bring dough together and put into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate.
3. Sprinkle flour and sugar over fruit. Stir.
4. Roll out pastry dough on a floured surface to at least 12” in diameter. There will be enough dough for one large and one small galette. Transfer dough to baking sheet.
5. Dump fruit mixture in the middle of dough and dot with 1 –2 tablespoons butter.
6. Pull up edges of dough and pleat. Dip fingers in water and moisten between the pleats to seal. Brush dough with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar.
7. Bake for 50-60 minutes. When done, the fruit will be bubbling and the crust will be golden brown in color. Remove from the oven and cool for 10-15 minutes on a wire rack. Eat all for yourself and do not share because it is just too delicious.

Blackberry Scones

Next up in the blackberry baking adventures came some blackberry scones. I wasn’t quite sure how these would turn out, since there aren’t a plethora of blackberry scone recipes out there, the way there are for say, cranberry scones. I thought that perhaps there is a reason for that – maybe the blackberries are just too juicy to work in a scone. When I mixed the dough, it came out SO thick and SO heavy that I realized there was just no possible way that I was ever going to be able to stretch the dough out and cut it into circles. I’m not sure what exactly went wrong – maybe the blackberries were just too much – but boy oh boy was it dense. Rather than just give up, I decided to just squash all the dough into my springform pan and pop it in the oven and see what happened. Lo and behold, after baking for quite a while – scones! These were especially tasty with the blackberry jam that already happened to be be leftover in the lab from a previous scone smorgasbord brought in by our PI!

Blackberry Scones
adapted from America’s Test Kitchen

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons chilled, unsalted butter, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
• 3/4 cups blackberries
• 1 cup heavy cream

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425F.
2. Add flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse six times. Distribute butter over dry ingredients. Cover and pulse 12 times, each pulse lasting 1 second. Add blackberries and pulse one more time.
3. Transfer dough to a large bowl and stir in cream with a rubber spatula until dough begins to form, about 30 seconds.
4. Transfer dough to countertop and knead by hand until it just comes together in a rough, sticky ball.
5. Press dough into a 9-inch springform pan, scoring the dough into 8 wedges with a knife.
6. Bake dough in springform pan until tops are light brown and dough is cooked through, 20 to 25 minutes. Cut through immediately before cooling, then cool on wire rack for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Berry Oatmeal Crumble Bars

After making the blackberry pie bars, I decided to tackle the remaining pile of freshly picked blackberries with my personal favorite berry recipe, berry crumble bars. I’ve tried these with all sorts of berries – blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and combinations of all of the above – and they have all turned out delicious. The crunchy oatmeal topping, the sweet jam-like filling… these are the perfect summery treat! (And I think my lab agreed.) Of course, between the blackberry pie bars and these blackberry crumble bars, I still had roughly 2/3 of my initial blackberry pile remaining in my refrigerator…

Berry Oatmeal Crumble Bars

Ingredients:

• 3 cups fresh berries of choices
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup butter, softened and cut into large chunks
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. To prepare filling, stir together berries and lemon juice in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat until fruit is tender, about 15 minutes.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together sugar and cornstarch. Stir into fruit mixture. Continue cooking until mixture comes to a boil. Boil for 1-2 minutes until thick. Remove from heat.
3. Preheat oven to 350F and lightly grease a 9”x13” baking pan.
4. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, oats, brown sugar, butter, baking soda, salt, and vanilla extract. Cut ingredients together with pastry blender or two knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside 1 1/2 cups of mixture in a medium bowl.
5. Pour remaining crumb mixture into the bottom of the dish, spread evenly, and pat down. Place filling in dollops over crust and carefully spread to cover entire surface.
6. Squeeze reserved crumb mixture into large clumps with fingers and sprinkle evenly over the top of the fruit filling.
7. Bake until golden brown, about 30 to 35 minutes. Cool completely before slicing.

Blackberry Pie Bars

The blackberry picking adventure confirmed the fact that I am absolutely useless at estimating anything with the U.S. measurement system.  Want to eyeball 50mL?  No problem.  Need to weigh out approximately 180g of guanidine hydrochloride?  I’m your girl.  Looking for three cups of blackberries?  <chirping crickets>  I just kept picking and picking while we were there to try to ensure that I would have enough to bake a recipe or two, but I just wasn’t sure that I had enough.

When I returned home, I looked through my collection of recipes in Evernote.  Since I was bringing this in to the lab, I wanted to avoid any kind of pies and cakes – anything which involves forks and plates.  Food to share in lab is far easier if it can be picked up with the hands on the way out the door to a seminar or to drop by and ask the PIs a question.  When I stumbled across the concept of putting blackberry pies into a bar form, I was sold.  The only potential problem?  The recipe calls for six cups of blackberries, which seemed like a LOT… and I wasn’t sure that I had enough from my day of berry picking.  Before I started mixing together any other ingredients, I pulled out my measuring cups and started doling out blackberries, one cup at a time.  However, the six cups required for the blackberry pie bars barely made a dent in the box of blackberries I bought home.  I never intended to be baking for a full week… it was just a U.S. volumetric estimation FAIL.  But a very, very yummy fail at that, since I couldn’t let all those blackberries go to waste, could I?  These were a fantastic hit, but very rich, so cut the bars small!  Stay tuned the rest of the week for what I made with the massive heap of leftover blackberries…

Blackberry Pie Bars
adapted from Joy the Baker

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour (crust)
• 1 1/2 cups sugar (crust)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups chilled unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups sugar (filling)
• 1 cup sour cream
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (filling)
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• pinch salt
• 6 cups fresh blackberries

Directions;

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.  Grease a 9 x 13-inch baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.
2. To make the crust, combine the sugar, flour, salt, and butter in an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.  Beat the ingredients on medium speed until the mixture looks dry and crumbly.
3. Reserve 1 1/2 cups of the crust mixture to use as a topping.  Press the remaining mixture into the bottom of the pan with fingertips.  Bake the crust for 12 – 15 minutes until golden brown.
4. While crust is cooling, prepare the filling.  Whisk the eggs in a large bowl and add the sugar, sour cream, flour, lemon juice, and salt.  Fold in the blackberries.
5. Spread the mixture over the crust.  Sprinkle the crust mixture over the filling.
6. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, until the top is lightly browned.  Cool for 1 hour before slicing and serving.

Berrypicking!

Last weekend, I was home visiting my family in Harrisburg for Labor Day, and my mother had picked up some delightful blackberries from her local farmer’s market.  This reminded me that I never posted about my own berrypicking trip – and the several recipes that resulted.  Since blackberry season is rapidly diminishing, but there are still some floating around out there, I thought I’d dedicate this week as Blackberry Week, and get all my berry-related posts resulting from the berry picking trip out all at once.  Kind of like one last tribute to summer (weather appropriate, seeing as how it snuck back up to 86 degrees today), before all the berries disappear off the shelves for another 10 months!

 
Every year, our lab piles up in a car or two and drives out to a pick-your-own farm in Maryland where we pick the fruit of the season.  In the past, I was never able to go, because I always had to babysit the old, crappy, protein-eating AKTAprime.  This year, however, courtesy of a far more cooperative AKTAexplorer, I am able to leave my purifications unattended, and was able to participate for the first time.  And I had a blast!  The general routine is eat one, pick two, eat one pick two, until you are so stuffed full of berries that you can barely move…. and then you roll yourself down the orchard to the peach trees and eat/pick peaches.  And the prices are unbelievable – I came home with 5.5 pounds of blackberries, 8 humongous peaches, 4 tomatoes the size of my head, and a dozen hand-cut zinnias for under $20.  Yes, please!

 
If you are interested in more pictures from the berrypicking adventure, you can check them out here <cue segue into new blog>.  I always have good intentions for posting pictures, and never get around to it.  I always feel like I need to explain things on here because personally, I don’t dig personal blogs that post without pictures or that whole ‘Wordless Wednesday’ thing.  There are photography blogs I love for the photography… and then blogs I enjoy because I like the person writing.  I will confess to being disappointed when I click over to one of my favorite blogs and just find a picture or two.  So now, some of my favorite photographs have a home – drop on by and visit some of my favorite events (my honeymoon, the Inauguration – all the things I meant to write about and never actually did).

Thinking about how I like order in my life and separate divisions in my Google Reader also made me wonder what everyone else prefers.  I know this started with a large group of fellow graduate students and scientists – would you prefer if I had the recipes on a separate blog so you didn’t have to sift through them?  Likewise, I know many food bloggers now drop in on a regular basis; are you entirely disinterested in my battles with imidazole and would rather have somewhere to go to see only the chemistry that goes on in my kitchen?  Would I be better off turning this into two separate blogs, or do you like dropping by for the general mishmash variety show?  Comments and (constructive) criticism welcome… and stay turned tomorrow for the berry extravaganza!

Are you ready for some FOOTBALL?!

As you all know, I bleed black and gold.

So, I am sure it comes as absolutely no surprise whatsoever that I was ridiculously excited for Thursday’s NFL season opener between the Steelers and the Titans.

As it turns out, a particular PI whom I have befriended on Twitter happens to be a Titans fan, which resulted in quite a lot of trash talking throughout the entire day and evening. During the game, this appeared in my Twitter feed:

And, of course, the Steelers always prevail. Which means that, for the next week, the following is located on the laboratory homepage of one particular losing Principal Investigator.

Bow down, BethAnn, bow down… because the Steelers rule the field. (Okay, so maybe ‘ruled the field’ is a bit of an exaggeration. but at least Jeff Reed has a golden toe, which is obviously more than can be said about Rob Bironas on Thursday…)

And, my offer still stands… I’ll let you borrow my Terrible Towel if you need somewhere to dry your Titan-sized tears. I’ll even throw in some homemade baked goods to make up for all the food that PreppyChemist Twittered about that you didn’t get to eat.

Also, is anyone else extremely excited that it is FOOTBALL SEASON?? Thursday night I had a group of friends over to watch the Steelers game, I spent all day Saturday watching college football with PreppyChemist, went to Capitals practice (don't worry, still hate the Capitals and love the Peguins, but hockey is hockey) with PreppyChemist on Sunday morning, and then spent the entire rest of the day Sunday (and still am) sitting on the couch watching NFL games. Fall is here and I couldn't be happier!

Harumph

I have things I’ve been meaning to post about, but instead, in light of my current situation, I leave you with this:

Do you see the giant cavernous slump in 5th year? That is exactly where I am right now. And right at the very lowest point, it should say “All experiments that were working have suddenly inexplicitly stopped despite weeks worth of troubleshooting”.

I have fallen into the Fifth Year Pit of Despair.

Even one of the PIs of the lab recognized the Pit of Despair, acknowledged that no one could possibly be motivated in this situation, and told me to take the rest of the day off and eat ice cream. And who I would I be to argue? (Okay, well, instead of ice cream I had non-dairy, fruit-sweetened Soy Delicious, which is possibly my Favorite Thing Ever, but same idea.)

Anyone have some rope to start dragging me up the giant peak of motivation to lead towards my defense?

***UPDATE***

One of my favorite Twitter followers, @bam294, who always provides a hilarious PI-point of view of situations, sent me this SNL clip to describe my current situation.  Indeed, there was a light at the end of the tunnel… but… alas…. it’s broken.  I guess I just need to “fix it”. (Fast forward to ~2:05.)

Aromatic Noodles with Lime-Peanut Sauce

This is the 8th and final week of Whip It Up.  The end to the “challenge” won’t change things around here – after all, I’ve been posting a recipe per week since November – it just means that I can go back to posting from my archived recipes and pictures, rather than having to cook something new each week.  This week’s theme is “Make Your Own Take Out”, and I knew immediately what I would be making.  I may have actually drooled on my keyboard when I saw this posted over at Amy’s last month, containing my favorite Thai-inspired flavors (peanut and lime) with a mix of some of my favorite vegetables (broccoli, sugar snap peas, snow peas).  It did not disappoint – it was every bit as good as I was imagining, plus super easy and came together very quickly (in other words, a perfect weeknight meal).  It did, however, make quite a lot – eight Julie-sized portions, to be exact.  I was definitely tired of it by the end of the week after eating it every day for lunch and dinner, proving that you can, indeed, have WAY too much of a good thing.  I suspect it will be quite a while before I make it again… or I’ll just have to have friends over for dinner so they can save me from the leftovers.

Aromatic Noodles with Lime-Peanut Sauce
Adapted from The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger

Ingredients:

• 12 ounces whole wheat linguine
• 2 cups broccoli florets
• 2 cups sugar snap peas
• 2 cups snow peas
• 1/2 cup peanuts
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1/2 tablespoon lime zest
• juice from one lime
• 1 scallion, chopped
• 3/4-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
• 2 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Directions:

1. Toast the peanuts in a dry skillet over medium-high heat until fragrant, approximately 5 minutes, stirring frequently.  Set aside to cool.
2. Cook pasta according to package directions.  Drain and rinse under cold running water, set aside.
3. Steam broccoli, snow peas, and sugar snap peas in the microwave until bright green and crisp-tender.
4. Puree the peanut butter, soy sauce, water, vinegar, lime juice, lime zest, scallion, ginger, brown sugar, and red pepper flakes in a food processor blender until smooth.  Coarsely chop the cooled peanuts.
5. Immediately before serving, toss the pasta with the peanut sauce.  Divide into bowls and top each serving with vegetables and a sprinkle of chopped peanuts,

Reusable Bags

I’ve been meaning to invest in a good set of reusable bags for quite some time now.  Since I often wind up going a month or more between when my husband is able to come down to D.C., I really have to stock up on a lot of groceries all at once (have I mentioned how difficult it is planning out a grocery list for 4-5 weeks at a time?) since I don’t have a car.  This often means that I wind up coming up with upwards of 12-15 plastic grocery bags, so I’m looking to do some heavy duty grocery schlepping.  I’d like a set that folds up easily so I can keep most of them right in Husband’s car so that we don’t forget them, something which is easy to carry (since he no longer lives here, he does not keep the parking spot across the street, so we often wind up walking several blocks with all our groceries), and something which does not complicate the bagging process.

So far, it seems like the most popular reusable bags include:

Baggu ($22 for 3 bags in a pouch)

RueMe ($29.85 for 3 bags which roll up)

Envirosax ($37.50 for 5 bags in a pouch)
 

Flip and Tumble ($9 per bag which rolls into a ball)

Does anyone have any suggestions?  Things you particularly like or dislike about any of these, or any other brand of bags?

Three Steps Forward, Two Steps Back

Fourth grade was a pretty crappy year for me. My teacher was simultaneously going through a bitter divorce when she learned that her teenage daughter was pregnant. She chose to take out her frustrations on us, yelling, screaming, and teaching us that no matter what went wrong in life, it was all our fault. Not caring enough to take any responsibility for her students, her answer for the somewhat disruptive class clown was to sit him next to me, and tell me I had to control him… and if he misbehaved, it was a bad refection on me. Practically every day, he would lean back on his two chair legs, the teacher would yell at him, and eventually take away his chair and force him to stand for the rest of class. Inevitably, he would wait until I was concentrated hard on reading, walk up behind me, yank the chair out from under me, and dump me on the floor to steal my chair. And, everyday, the teacher would tell me it was my fault for not doing a good job of controlling him, so my punishment was that I had to stand while he had to sit.

The one bright spot in the year was my gifted education. Unlike many places, like my husband’s school district, we did not have one completely separate class for gifted. Instead, those in the gifted program just left their regular classrooms for an hour per day. There were three of us from my classroom in the gifted program, and we were all having an equally miserable year. In an effort to drag out the time until returning back to our regular class, we used to walk down the hallway taking three steps forward, two steps backward, essentially progressing forward one step for every five steps taken.

Three steps forward, two steps back seems like the best description of my research right now. Remember the impossible purification I wrote about a few weeks ago? Well… it turned out to not me so impossible after all. One night, lying in bed unable to sleep, I had an idea… a hunch that I thought just might work. The next morning, I told my PI of my plan, to which he replied, “It won’t work. Don’t bother trying.” This statement came from the same individual who just a week before went on and on at my committee meeting about how I was a better biochemist now and had surpassed his knowledge of purification, so surely I could find a way to purify this protein. Rather than get (too) disgruntled and annoyed, I went with my gut and attempted it anyway, and two days later, smugly shoved a coomassie under his nose showing a dirty start lane and two perfectly purified bands in two separate fractions. Three celebratory steps forward!

After showing that Protein Y had properly refolded (the purification involved denaturing the protein and refolding it on the column) and still bound to Protein X, PI said the worst possible statement. “Next,” he said excitedly, “all you have to do is crosslink the lysines and that will be easy!” You see, it’s like sports. The second an announcer makes some comment like “[Quarterback] has not thrown an interception in 612 passes!” it automatically, no-fail, means that the next pass is going to be intercepted. Always. And this rule applies to PIs as well. The second he opened his mouth and described this step as “easy”, I knew I had it coming.

As it so turns out, the family of crosslinkers that will connect these proteins in the way that we need them to be connected works through linking the primary amines in the side chain of lysines. What this means is that you cannot have any amines in the buffers, because it will wind up crosslinking the buffer component rather than the proteins. And do you know what imidazole contains? Secondary amines. Harumph. So, I called up tech support at Pierce and the conversation went a little something like this.

Disgruntled Julie: Do secondary amines affect the crosslinking?
Tech Support: Yes, you can have tertiary amines, but not primary or secondary.
DJ: Is there anything I can do to get around imiazole in the buffer?
TS: Dialyze out the imidazole!
DJ: I’ve spent three years already trying to do that. Not going to happen.
TS: Have you tried doing it in steps?
DJ: 4 step, 6 step, and 8 step. Protein precipitates.
TS: How about overnight?
DJ: Precipitation.
TS: With glycerol?
DJ: With and without.
TS: How much glycerol?
DJ: 10%, 20%, 30%
TS: Spin column?
DJ: Precipitates.
TS: Desalting column?
DJ: Precipitates.
TS: Well, shit.

Indeed. My sentiments exactly. I finally have both proteins purified, and I cannot crosslink them because I absolutely, positively have not been able to dialyze the imidazole out of the protein.

O n e. T w o. Two giant steps backward.

Rice with Mushrooms, Cuttlefish, and Artichokes (Daring Cooks)

There are very few things in life that I find as satisfactory as the ability to ‘kill two birds with one stone.’  Regardless of what it is, I love the feeling of getting double the results from my effort.  I still remember the exact feeling of the light bulb going off above my head in undergrad when I realized that classes for my political science major could also count as my general curriculum requirements.  In lieu of a language, I could apply classes I was already going to take for my major and count them as culture requirements.  Score!

I went through a similar feeling when the stars aligned properly for the two cooking groups in which I participate.  This week’s Whip It Up up theme is “Favorite Chef” – i.e., make a recipe from your favorite chef.  Well, the chef part was easy for me – Jose Andres.  Those in the D.C. area know him from his outstanding restaurants Jaleo (my favorite), Oyamel, Zaytinya, Cafe Atlantico, and minibar.  The rest of you may know him from his public television show “Made in Spain" or perhaps from his appearance on Iron Chef, where he defeated Bobby Flay in ‘Battle Goat’.  But then came the hard part… what to make?  I don’t own any of his cookbooks, so I scoured the internet.  While there were several recipes that piqued my interest, such as this amazing looking Guacamole in a New Way, I was often lacking access to ingredients or supplies (for example, my ice cream maker for the guacamole is in storage in my parents’ basement along with the rest of my kitchen supplies, waiting until I have a kitchen larger than a shoebox). 

Then, the Daring Cooks’ challenge recipe was announced.  And what was it?  Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish, and artichokes from none other than… Jose Andres.

Cha-ching!

The recipe was chosen by Olga of Olga’s Recipes, and you can view the original recipe here (I made a few changes in my version).  She suggested adding in squid in lieu of cuttlefish, which is what I did, since I was easily able to purchase fresh, cleaned squid at Whole Paycheck Foods.  I was a bit concerned about the squid in the recipe since it is boiled for so long – I have not worked with cuttlefish so perhaps it is perfect for the cuttlefish – but decided to just go ahead and try it as the suggested direct subsitute.  Typically when I deal with squid, if I am boiling it, I do it for no more than 30 seconds.  This recipe has a good 12+ minutes of boiling with the squid.  Indeed, the squid did turn out far chewier than I would have liked.  In retrospect, I should have listened to my gut and pan seared the squid in the beginning, removed it from the pan, and then added it to the boiling mixture for no more than a minute.  I need to be better about trusting my own judgment in the kitchen even when it deviates from a reputable recipe.  Even with the rubbery squid, I still enjoyed this quite a bit, and will certainly experiment with it more in the future.

Rice with Mushrooms, Cuttlefish, and Artichokes
adapted from Jose Andres

Ingredients:

• 6 artichokes, cleaned, chopped into eights
• 1 large portobello mushroom, chopped roughly
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 generous splash white wine
• 1/2 pound squid, mixture of tubes and tentacles
• 3 tablespoons sofregit (recipe below)
• 1 cup Arborio rice
• 3 cups water
• 1/4 teaspoon tumeric

Directions:

1. Cut squid tubes into strips.  Cut apart any large clumps of tentacles.
2. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil in a frying pan and add the squid.  Add bay leaf, artichokes, and mushrooms.
3. Sauté until artichokes are golden in color.
4. Add splash of wine to deglaze the pan.
5. Add sofregit and mix well to distribute the flavors.
6. Add water and bring to boil.  Stir in rice and boil over high heat for 5 minutes.
7. Add tumeric and lower heat to medium.  Boil another 8 minutes. or until rice has softened.
8. Remove from heat and let sit 5 minutes before serving.

  mmm… squid

Sofregit

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 giant tomatoes, or 3 medium sized, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/2 green pepper, chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 portobello mushroom, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• salt to taste
• pinch ground cumin
• pinch oregano

Directions:

Place all ingredients in a frying pan and sauté slowly until all vegetables are soft, approximately 1 hour.

Mushroom & Gruyere Quiche

This week's theme for Whip It Up is appetizers. I struggled quite a bit with this -- while I love to prepare (and eat!) a wide variety of appetizers, now that I'm living on my own, I have no reason to make them. I'm down to cooking once or twice a week and eating leftovers for the rest of the days, and well.... I just can't subside for multiple meals off of something based with spinach, artichoke, and puff pastry. So instead, I decided to make something that works for dinner as well as for appetizers -- a quiche. If I was going to make this as an appetizer, I'd press the rolled pie dough into muffin tins and spoon a bit of the filling into each to make a perfect two-bite sized quiche. But for me for dinner, I just made one big quiche. I use my own hand-rolled pie crusts (I really hate rolling out pie crust so whenever I need one, I'll roll out 6 at a time and leave the rest in my freezer), but I am quite sure that a store-bought pie crust would work just as well for a quiche.

Mushroom & Gruyere Quiche

Ingredients:

• 1/4 pound cremini mushrooms, quartered
• 1/4 pound portobello mushroom caps, diced
• 1/4 pound shitake mushrooms, quartered
• 1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 pie crust
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
• 4 ounces gruyere cheese, shredded

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. In a large bowl, toss mushrooms with onion, olive oil, salt, and pepper, and place on a rimmed baking sheet in a single layer. Roast for 15 minutes, or until cooked and firm. Remove from oven and set aside.
3. Pick pie shell all over with a fork. Prebake for 10 to 15 minutes, until lightly browned.
4. Reduce oven temperature to 350F.
5. Whisk together cream and eggs with thyme. In a large bowl, combine roasted mushrooms and onions with the shredded gruyere. Spread mixture in the bottom of the pie shell in an even layer.
6. Pour cream-egg mixture over the mushrooms, ensuring that all of the mushroom mixture is covered.
7. Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the quiche comes out clean.