Poster Session

Last week my department had their annual retreat, which included a poster session. It wasn't required for me, but my PI encouraged me to do it, and he was totally right. It was great experience, and now I get to put it on my vita. It was, however, a huge amount of work.

That's two computers, three notebooks and an accordion folder. And yes, they were all necessary.

I printed off and laid out the slides the day before. Brandon took an artsy picture.

Rasika was presenting at the poster session, too. 

And here is my poster! 

I took a lot away from this experience. I got to bounce some ideas off of professors from our department, my knowledge of the material was tested, and it forced me to organize my thesis and the work I've done thus far. All of this was hugely beneficial. Plus, for a brief moment, I felt really accomplished. Now, of course, it's back to the grind and regular old panic mode. But then, I wouldn't accomplish so much if I wasn't panicking all the time ^_^

Just for Funsies

One day, I was sitting around the house, doing my own thing, when I suddenly realized that Brandon had disappeared outside for more than 10 minutes. I looked out the front door and saw him on the porch with the camera and the tripod. Apparently the sky was really pretty, and he felt the need to photograph it...

... which I thought was pretty cool.

Happy Friday!

Pies in Jars!

I'm embarrassed to say, my mom got a Stumbleupon account. While she was stumbling around the internet, she came across this awesome article, and gave me the link.

I bought some jars a few months back, and recently I finally got an opportunity to try this out. I figured out right away that I didn't have to cut the crust to fit perfectly into the jar in one piece (plus, that would be a hilarious geometric anomaly - think about it for a minute), so I just took small pieces of the dough and pushed them together inside the jar until it was covered completely. 

Then we filled them with fruit.

We made six. I put four in the freezer for later, and baked two. One of the big concerns with this method is temperature. The jars are heat-treated, because they're used for canning. If you make the pie and put it directly in the oven, it's fine. But if you want to freeze it for later use, you have to let it come to room temperature before putting it in the oven - the concern here being that if you bring it up to temp too quickly, the jar will crack.

Also be sure not to place the glass jars directly on a metal baking sheet, as this may also cause the jars to crack.

After they came out of the oven, I let them cool slightly, then put the lid on and put them in the fridge. This is the other point at which temperature is a concern: if you want the jars to seal, you have to let them come down slightly, as the oven is much hotter than boiling water. I was pleasantly surprised when it worked, and the jars sealed safely! Now I'm wondering if the pies can be safely shipped. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? I might just try it as an experiment, so be on the lookout for tiny care packages. ^_^

Here they are after opening:

Brandon's strawberry pie.

My apple pie. 

These pies are the perfect serving size, and they're so cute! We have four more in the freezer for later. That'll make for a nice treat after a long day. ^_^

Rat Bath!

Sometimes, the rats need a bath.

Bye!

Random Treats

A while back, I had my first honest-to-goodness full, exhausting, crazy 8 hour day in lab. And it was on a Sunday, of all things.

In any case, I came home exhausted and hungry. Brandon went out and got me some of my favorite foods.

This is supposed to be my surprised face.

 That's a grocery store tuna roll, a very hearty salad with avocado and leftover aioli dressing, a margarita (with a tiny umbrella!) and some chocolate brownies. 

I used the leftover tuna sushi for our lunches for the next day, along with the fried sesame tofu that we had made the day before.

I need to use my other bento more often so you guys can see it. 

<3

Sesame Fried Tofu

At Waterstreet Coffee Joint in Kalamazoo (where I worked for a short time, and hung out for like, most of undergrad), they have this delicious tofu dish - it's marinated in sesame oil, then breaded and fried with sesame seeds. I've tried to recreate this dish a couple times. I think we're getting pretty close.

First, we marinated the tofu in sesame oil and soy sauce for several hours.

The first change to the recipe next time is definitely gonna be: less soy sauce, more sesame oil. We're going for a subtle flavor on this, and this batch was definitely too salty. Also, great tip: after you're done marinating the tofu, just run the marinade through a strainer (to get any chunks of tofu out) and it's still great as a dumpling dipping sauce! Sesame oil is way too expensive to just waste, so definitely repurpose wherever possible 

Next we tried a few different mixes for the breading. Some were flour-based, some were corn starch based. Some had cornmeal, some had brown sugar. They all had sesame seeds.

The ones with the brown sugar gave a much crunchier consistency because the sugar caramelized when it hit the oil, but the sweet flavor definitely helped balance out the soy sauce in the marinade. The corn meal breading was too grainy for tofu. Again, tofu has a subtle texture. I found that the cornmeal overpowered that. From what I tasted, I'm gonna say that the Waterstreet tofu definitely has some brown sugar in the breading, but not as much as we used. It was probably also a cornstarch based breading, rather than flour.

The frying oil was olive oil with a dash of sesame oil. I think canola could work just as well for the base. But you definitely need that sesame flavor either way.

The pan got awfully full of sesame seeds as we went along.

There was one crucial step we skipped: a second layer to the breading. The Waterstreet tofu cubes have a breading that pulls away from the tofu, like a skin. Ours didn't do that. This means they probably used an egg wash (or an egg-substitute, as I'm fairly certain it's a vegan dish - can anyone verify that?) and then a second layer of breading. So we definitely need to do that next time. It will likely change the consistency, as well.

At the grocery store, I wanted to get medium tofu, but Brandon insisted on hard, and in the end he was proven correct. The consistency of the final product was perfect. Oddly enough, this is a dish I prefer cold. Hot off the grill they're just too strong. But the tofu firms up in the refrigerator, and the sesame flavor really comes out when you eat it that way. It also helped to calm the saltiness of the soy sauce, but we plan to fix that next time. 

It went perfectly with some tamago furikake (egg-flavored rice seasoning) on sticky rice!

(Also, I baked Brandon a strawberry rhubarb pie this week.)

Bye!

Hill Country Hike & Picnic

We're trying to work some more active hobbies into our repertoire. A while back, we went on a hike and took a picnic with us! PHOTO TIME!

Cacti!

We'd decided to go find adventure in the Hill Country State Natural Area.

View Larger Map

The park is about an hour and a half west of San Antonio.

Parts of the hike were pretty steep.

For a route we decided on the northwest side of the park - trails 3A to 4.

pwd_mp_p4507_115.pdf [tpwd.state.tx.us]

Translation: from Equine camp (!?) up to the scenic overlook. Apparently people bring their horses here, but on a holiday weekend the park was almost deserted.

Steep hikes: make for good photos.

The hills were small, but still very lovely. We had a nice view for most of the hike.

Windy-Manda!

Inspecting the plant life. (seemed like some type of thin Aloe)

Scenic overlook?

 Fresh air on a ridge.

Brandon's note: Before I left Michigan, one of my Ann Arbor co-workers gave me a book he owned: 60 Hikes within 60 Miles - San Antonio and Austin from when he used to live in SA several years ago. Today's hike was actually covered in the book as Hike 18 - Hill Country Creek and Canyon trek.

Christine had to pause to call her family to wish them a Happy Easter (the hike was actually ON Easter Sunday.)

Brandon is a pretty skilled photographer.

Picnic tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime!

We had worked up a pretty ridiculous appetite. 

Next, we drove out to a small lake to cool off, but we were disappointed by what we found. This was the part where we reminded ourselves that, being from Michigan, New Jersey and Washington, we're probably a bit spoiled when it comes to beaches. Still, this man-made lake was pretty clearly just a quarry they filled with water. Everyone drove their cars directly down to the water (what?!) and there was no sand, just rocks. We didn't stay for long. 

 

Instead we decided to go home, find a Jim's (the Texas equivalent of Denny's) and grab some burgers. ^_^

Fiesta Food Festival

A few weeks ago, San Antonio celebrated Fiesta, which is apparently a yearly holiday here. There were lots of events downtown throughout the week, and Brandon even got some time off from work to celebrate. We decided to attend the food festival with Rasika and Rory.

This is the festival BEFORE it got crowded.

I thought this was a nice photo of Rasika.

We all got a serving of the French beignettes. They were delicious and super-cheap.

Not all of the food was Mexican, but the vast majority was. There was a lot of variety and everything was delicious.

There were people in crazy costumes!

The guys at the crab cake booth were having a good time.

Each section of the festival had a different name. 

This last picture is a bit hilarious/complicated to explain. It looks like we're just having a really great time, but actually the person taking this photo was a VERY inebriated man, who snatched the camera out of my hand and offered to take a photo. Brandon and I were both convinced he was going to steal it, so those smiles on our faces are actually nervous smiles, and I'm whispering to Brandon "Keep an eye on him."

But let's pretend we were actually just having a riotously good time and we really were just smiling like that the whole time. And anyway, we got our camera back, so it all worked out.