Arugula and Fennel Salad with Toasted Hazelnuts and Orange Dressing

Arugula is a splendidly peppery lettuce and it pairs well with the savory fennel.  This salad was quick and easy to make and the orange dressing was delicious.  I added some orange segments to the salad and a little bit of sugar and red wine vinegar to the dressing.  This salad was a wonderful summer recipe and I'm sure I'll be making it again soon.

Enjoy!

Roasted Mahi Mahi with Lemon and Walnut-Browned Butter

I have a weakness for browned butter with fish, actually it's really just a weakness for all things butter.  This recipe intrigued me because I have never had walnuts with fish before.  It was delicious, the tarragon and lemon on the fish combined with the smoky walnut-browned butter was a heavenly combination.  Plus I just really love fish with lemon and butter; doesn't matter what you do, in my book it doesn't get much better than fish paired with a simple lemon-butter sauce.  

Enoy!  

Vanilla Custard Fruit Tart

I love a good fresh fruit tart and they are so easy to make and they turn out so much better than the overly-priced store bought ones.  You only need a few simple ingredients and a tart pan, goodness you could even skip the tart pan and just use a shallow pie tin if you felt so inclined.  The point is, make one, make four for that matter and then share them with friends and/or family, because everyone will be impressed by this simple yet delicious dessert.

Enjoy! 

Baked Pasta with Cream and Parmigiano Reggiano

It has been raining here lately, so I was in the mood for something warm and rich.  What better way to satisfy my craving than with a baked pasta dish.  I added a little bit of freshly grated nutmeg and the pasta turned out wonderful.  It was rich and creamy with a hint of nutty flavor; perfect for lifting up the spirits when the weather is trying to bring you down.  

Enjoy!

Sugar Cookies

I have been wanting to decorate some sugar cookies for some time now, ever since I stumbled across some amazing blogs (see link) with some incredible sugar cookie designs.  The cookies were delicious and I just had to make them into yummy cookie sandwiches by spreading some raspberry jam between the cookies.  

Enjoy!

Cold Shrimp Salad Sandwich with Homemade Aioli

I tried a shrimp salad sandwich for the first time a couple of years ago and it was delicious.  I have been wanting to make one since, and I finally got around to it.  The dressing for the shrimp salad was aioli based, which I had also never tried before.  For those of you who don't know aioli is garlic mayonnaise and it is amazing!  After one bite an obsession had begun, but for some reason this garlicy deliciousness is hard to find, so I decided to make it from scratch.  I had been avoiding it for some time because I was worried about the difficulty of making mayonnaise but it was surprisingly easy and definitely worth it!  So, go get yourself some shrimp and whip up some aioli for a quick and delicious meal.  

Enjoy!

French Beef and Pork Pies

 

For some time now I have been craving meat pies.  Strange thing to crave, I know, but I fell in love with them when I went to London.  So, I finally got around to making some and they were delicious.  Now, if only I could get some black currant juice I would be one happy lady.

Enjoy! 

Final Answer

Final question of my last final of the semester:

Calculate the total fluorescence generated per second in the two photon

excitation volume created using a high NA objective lens. 

The parameters are:

Concentration C = 1 μM Fluorescein

Excitation wavelength = 800 nm

2P action cross-section σ2p = 34 GM

Femtosecond laser intensity = 1 mW

Laser repetition rate = 80 MHz

Laser pulse width = 100 fs

Lens NA (water immersion) = 1.2, n = 1.33

Other info: The lens back aperture is overfilled so there is a fully diffraction-limited focus and you can assume that the focal volume (PSF) is a 3D Gaussian function. The action cross-section includes the quantum yield so you don’t need to consider it in the calculation. Remember that the intensity you use in the calculation will have dimensions of photons per area per second and the value is that of the center of the PSF, in other words I(0,0,0). This intensity should be normalized to the area at z = 0 for the one photon PSF and then squared. I(0,0,0)2 will be multiplied by the focal volume equation to calculate the total number of excitations per second. You can neglect any attenuation of the light as it passes through the focus.

Final Answer: 9.5 x 10⁶ excitations/s

I'm done with my first year of graduate school!!!!

Bacon Mushroom Quiche

Mmmmm....until today I had not quite realized my love for quiche, especially a bacon mushroom quiche.  I added some chopped red, yellow and orange bell peppers to the quiche, along with some chopped onion and fresh thyme.  The link takes you to a recipe for a spinach bacon quiche -I didn't have spinach, but I had lots of mushrooms.  I also didn't have swiss cheese, but I did have cheddar, gruyère, parmesan and mozzarella so I used a blend of all four cheeses.  It turned out delicious, so rummage through you're fridge and see what kind of mouthwatering quiche you can come up with!

Enjoy!      

Caesar Salad

I really love caesar salad, but I absolutely hate the store bought dressing.  Fortunately for me, homemade caesar dressing is not that complicated to make.  When you taste the homemade garlic croutons and the delicious dressing you'll definitely think the little amount of work was well worth it.  

Enjoy!   

Turkey Pasta Salad

As, I mentioned in my last post, I have a lot of leftovers from this last weekends dinner party.  One of the reasons that I have this abundance of food is due to the fact that our neighbor caught a wild turkey and gave it to me to cook up.  One thing led to another and before I knew it I had invited 16 people over to share in the deliciousness of wild turkey.  This led to a panicked state in which I was worried that there would not be enough food to feed everyone, which in turn led to me making too much food.  So, in keeping with the tradition of Thanksgiving leftovers I made turkey pasta salad with what was left of the wild turkey. 

Leftover turkey (or chicken) chopped

1 lb cooked pasta (like campanelle or farfalle) 

1 Cup Mayonaise

1/2 Cup Sour cream

1 Cup grapes (red or green) cut lengthwise

1 Cup nuts (like slivered almonds or pecans)

2 Tbsp Lemon juice

1/3 Cup chopped green onions

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix everything together, chill and serve.  You may need to double the ingredients depending on how much leftover turkey there is, also you can add chopped apples and/or celery for some extra flavor.  I usually add way more grapes than 1 cup, because they are delicious; and sometimes I leave the pasta out and make yummy sandwiches with croissants or some other tasty bread.

Enjoy! 

BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Broccoli Slaw

On Sunday I made a huge meal and, as I usually do, cooked too much food.  So, in an attempt to be creative with the leftovers I made some BBQ pulled pork sandwiches and broccoli slaw.  Basically, I put the leftover pork roast in a pan with some BBQ sauce and a can of soda pop -sounds weird I know, but the acid helps to make the pork extra tender and juicy.  I usually use diet coke or any other cola product that is in the house.  For the broccoli slaw I used the following ingredients: 1/4 cup vinegar, 1 cup mayonnaise, 1/3 cup sugar, some chopped up bacon, chopped onion, sunflower seeds,  raisins (or craisins or any other kind of dried fruit) and of course shredded broccoli.  Mix it all together and eat it because it is delicious!  I should mention that these measurements may not be that accurate, because I kind of made this recipe up and have never actually measured anything, but taste as you go and you'll be just fine!

Enjoy!

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble Pie

Yum, yum, yum -have I ever mentioned that I love strawberry rhubarb pie? Probably not, because until recently I had never had this wicked little combination.  It was love at first bite, so I decided to try to make one for myself.  I added hazelnuts to the crumb topping and some lemon zest to the filling and the pie turned out wonderful -a great way to celebrate mothers day!

Enjoy!

Black Bean Burgers

First thing is first, make some black beans and make lots of them.  Then freeze some of the black beans because you'll have a lot of them.  Next, make all kinds of things with the delicious homemade black beans, like burritos or black bean burgers.  I made some black bean burgers smothered in guacamole for dinner and they were yummy! I tweaked the recipe a bit by adding cumin and diced green chilies.  Give them a try next time you fire up the grill.  By the way, you can also make refried beans using the same recipe, just use pinto beans instead of black.

Enjoy!

Fish and Chips

Tonight I made fish and chips and it was tasty.  I followed this recipe and made some homemade tartar sauce.  The fish had a crispy fluffy golden crust and it was a perfect dinner to eat outside in the sun.

Enjoy!

Zinc Finger Nuclease

This week I had to write up a mock research proposal.  I decided to write about zinc finger nucleases.  I thought the topic was pretty interesting, so I've included a little blurb from my proposal:  Through coupling zinc fingers with a DNA nuclease (zinc finger nuclease), a site-specific genomic sequence can be permanently disrupted by the insertion of a double-stranded break.  Engineered zinc finger nucleases are beginning to make significant contributions to functional genomics, synthetic biology, and clinical medicine. Zinc finger nucleases have been shown to successfully manipulate genomes of higher organisms, such as zebra fish, sea urchin, and various types of mammalian cells. Recently, Perez et al. mutated the human gene CCR5, which serves as a co-receptor for entry of HIV-1 into CD4+ T Cells. The mutation successfully produced an HIV-resistant cell population. The ability to modify the genome of a living cell facilitates study of gene function and allows targeted therapeutic interventions in genomes. It is clear that zinc finger nucleases have the potential to play a significant role in biomedical applications; and a new way to investigate fundamental principles of protein-DNA recognition and gene-regulation. 

Lamb Tikka Masala

This weekend I felt like grilling up so lamb, so I made this recipe and grilled the lamb instead of baking it to add some extra flavor.  It was delicious -serve it with some grilled naan and sprinkle it with some fresh lemon juice for some extra tang.

Enjoy!