Pop-up Dinner Party

So, I have this friend  who heard about something called a pop-up dinner party. Since she knows how much I love planning parties, we decided to throw a pop-up dinner party together. What is a pop-up dinner party, you might ask? It's basically a fancy dinner party in a picnic location. 

So, we decided to give it a try and throw a pop-up dinner party at a park on the shore of Cayuga Lake. It was raining earlier that day, but the weather cleared and it turned out to be a wonderful night. 

We wanted to make easily prepared food that could be served at room temperature. So for the starters we had roasted asparagus wrapped in prosciutto served alongside crackers, fruit and an assortment of cheeses. 

I brought my camping stove so I could cook the main course while we ate the starters. We decided to have a clambake, because it's simple, elegant and delicious. For the dessert I wanted to stay simple, so I bought a coconut cake and decorated it with fresh strawberries and mint. 

For the centerpiece I used a piece of driftwood, which I found on the lake shore. I then added the orchid to the driftwood, some flowers from my yard and a few candles. In the end we had a cheap yet beautiful centerpiece for the party.

The outdoor lighting was created by hanging candle holders from a tree.
The location and atmosphere really made the evening perfect! I think that pop-up dinner parties might just be my new favorite thing. I (and hopefully said friend) will definitely be doing this again soon.

First Publication!!

My first paper was recently published in PNAS! It's titled: "Direct substitution and assisted dissociation pathways for turning off transcription by a MerR-family metalloregulator" and you can check it out at the link below.

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/08/27/1208508109.full.pdf+html