Holiday odds and ends

I just got the go-ahead that I am volunteering at the Science in the Kitchen gala at OMSI on Saturday, January 18th. I'm pretty excited and love their event logo. So cool.

Sara and Drew are in town right now and are staying at our house this week and while we're gone. We're meeting for sushi tonight. Tomorrow is a packing day after work and then we head to Ken's folks' place in New Hampshire on Saturday morning. As an interesting twist, Kinley will be going with us. He'll love it and will get to run in the snow with all their dogs (n=10ish). We'll be bringing our snowshoes so we can walk through the snowy woods. We're looking forward to seeing his family and relaxing with them.

In the meantime, Ken's swamped at work and is trying to finish things everywhere before we leave. He has learned a new skill at work, which he loves and is right up his alley. What is it, you ask? He is rappelling down buildings as a means of inspecting them. Here he is in Seattle inspecting a 20-something story building overlooking Puget Sound from 2 weeks ago. He loves it.


I'm still loving work and have had more meetings in the past 1.5 weeks than I had in 6 months in the lab. I pulled out my old organizer from college that I haven't used since. New calendar inserts and I'm back in the swing of things. I'm pretty good with the organization stuff. Add science and creativeness to the mix and I'm a happy person. I've also met a ton of people, which I also enjoy. So the whole work front is going great.

When we get back from NH, we'll be heading to Mt. Bachelor in middle Oregon for some New Year's Eve skiing with friends. 30 of them. In two houses. Should be a blast. We haven't been skiing in quite some time.

I think that's all that's new from the Western front. We're doing well and keeping our chins above water. I'm getting used to the early morning wakeups, although I still don't like them. As a result, I went to bed at 10 last night. The second time in a week. Call me Grandma.

Vacation, Weekend and Work

The rest of my vacation (Days 4 and 5) were spent running errands, holiday shopping and finishing the things that I wanted to do but just never got to. I went to Ikea for one. Odd to go the giant store during the holidays but it's totally empty (on account of it being 2pm on a Thursday). It was also a bit weird being off from work, but still having house chores. Kind of a disconnect -- I can make a mess in the kitchen, but I have to clean it, too. Nothing different than normal life but still odd for vacation mentality. In all, it was an awesome week and I will do my best to take time off between every job, if I have the means to do so. The weekend was spent with Santacon, a Festivus party at a friend's house, Ken's football, baking bread and more chores.

And nerves.

Nerves because my new job was about to start. Nerves that Ken was gone all week in Seattle and that I'd be minding the homestead. Which also meant I'd have to wake up on my own (I do like to sleep, especially in the morning).

But everything worked out. I LOVE my new job. Love it. I heard the big picture on Monday, met everyone in the department and got settled in my office. In the past two days, I've looked a bit at website design, figured out how to work the giant Mac, worked on my first project/exhibit and learned how to splice together digital movies to create DVDs. All in the name of science and teaching. Pretty cool. Creativity, tech and science. I love it. And the people with whom I work are wonderful. In the big picture orientation, I asked if they kept a portfolio of events or stats on the number of people they've reached. They had both. As for the stats -- Here is your math question for today: How many people has my department (3 people) reached in the past year (July 1, 2006- June 30, 2007)?





Do you have your number?








Scroll down.










Almost there.











Was it 268,068 people? If so, congratulations. You've guessed right. I was shocked by the number and so excited. I don't think even 68 people read my last research paper. This is going to be a good year.

Santacon 2007

More on the last of my awesome vacation later, but here's a picture of some friends and I at Santacon yesterday. I'm the one in the sweet yellow glasses. A buddy of ours took a fridge-suitable picture of Ken and I from the beginning of the day. I'll post that when I get it. There were ~800 santas roaming the streets of Portland; we were 639 and 640 in the count.

Day 3: The Quest for Citric Acid. Plus a Day of Cheese, Bread, Meat, Sidecars and Santa

It was a fun day. For once I woke at 7:30 am. A personal record. At least in recent memory. I drank my coffee and started my bread. A sweet potato sourdough, if you will. I've been working the sponge dough since Sunday, feeding it twice since. Today was the day. I started the bread. It should be ready to bake off tomorrow, but more on that later.

After the coffee and the bread, I did some chores (dishes, laundry, bathroom cleaning, house vacuuming) before tackling the 12 lbs of pancetta I had to tie. I have blisters on two fingers, but I now have four beautiful logs of meat curing in the basement.

I also ran some errands for presents of assorted sorts and did some grocery shopping to find citric acid. Citric acid you say? Yes. It's in every soda pop, bread and chinese toy imaginable, but finding a source of pure powder has been difficult. Why do I need it? Who uses it? Answer: It's ridiculous and nobody, respectively.

More embarrassing answer (and the one I told my father earlier today): I need it to make mozzarella cheese and baguettes. Seriously. I understand that anybody can buy either of these two grocery staples without making them for less than $5 combined. But what's the fun in that? Especially when you're on a cheese sabbatical. Short answer: I found it. It's cheap, I made my baguettes and they looked ridiculous but tasted good. Mozzarella is tomorrow -- conveniently timed for when Ken is away on a business trip.

The other part of my day was spent looking for a Santa suit (with no luck; they were sold out) for Santacon, a 400+ person drinkfest comprising of all sorts of people dressed in Santa suits. Ken went last year while I made bacon. But this year, I think I'll join. Afterwards is a party at a friend's house for Festivus. Should be a fun weekend before I start my new job.

I got things ready for some friends to come over tonight -- the bread and cheese I made, plus the recent spread of smoked/unsmoked pepperoni and spanish chorizo. I made sidecars, my favorite drink recently, and we watched some tube and relaxed. Now I'm ready to hit Day 4. I am still excited. It has been a wonderful week.

Sidenote: the cheese turned out, albeit much softer than I imagined. I mixed some of the plain queso blanco with honey and cayenne. It was good but the pancetta and roasted garlic demolished the plain or the doctored plain.

Welcome Jonathan and Ella

C4 and C5 arrived yesterday! Congratulations to the entire Church family!

Day 2: Paperwork and Animal Fights

On the second day of my week of nothing awesomeness, I slept until 11:15 and then made a cup of coffee. I decided to brave the piles of recipes and clippings that were starting to overrun my bookcase -- so I delved into that around noon. At 4:30, I was still up to my elbows in cooking paperwork and out of sheet protectors so I finished up putting everything together and will slide in the last of the pages when I venture out of the house to get groceries/supplies/social interaction.

Took Kinley to the park for some mud wrestling with other dogs and then cleaned the basement when I got back. Ken went to pickup dodgeball after work, so I made a lasagna while he was gone with the ricotta cheese I made the day before. I also used my homemade garlic sausage, some homemade andouille and used the tomato sauce I harvested from the garden. The only thing I didn't make were the noodles. That was pretty cool. As things were cooking, I watched a little tube while having a glass of wine when I heard animals screaming.

Mute the TV.

Screaming continues. Kinley is on the floor next to me and Hughes is beside me. Check. OK, not our animals. Screaming continues.

I went to the back door and opened it (screen door still closed) to hear the screaming even louder. Something was losing a fight. And it was in pain. Screaming and now moaning continue. I sent this to my friend who was on gmail at the time:

8:45 PM me: I just heard an animal die outside in the backyard (or next door). Screaming fight and then whimpering moans until it stopped. I'm too afraid to go outside and check it out though. And Ken's not home. I feel helpless and weak.

I went back downstairs, got the flashlight and went outside on the porch. The maglite revealed no critters, dead or alive. And I was still too chicken to walk down the deck stairs into the yard, so I went back to the couch, poured myself a big glass of wine and hugged Kinley. Ken got home and I rattled off the tale above. Outside he went with the flashlight. I followed behind. Here's the story I told my friend who was still on gmail

9:21 PM me: Oooh, Ken just got home and we checked it out. There's a raccoon in our backyard. Up in a tree. Above Ken's head as he had the flashlight

We never saw the dead/hurting animal. I figure he skulked off to die in private. But that raccoon with his beady yellow eyes and ringed tail was still there. Up in the pine tree above the rose bushes.

We finished dinner (it was excellent) and went to bed. Day 3 continues tomorrow. I will take out the trash then, when it is daytime and raccoons are asleep.

Day 1: Cheese Sabbatical

My last day of work was Friday.

I spent all weekend playing in a dodgeball tournament and now I have a full week of doing nothing/anything/everything until I start my new job. I am excited. For my first day of nothing awesomeness, I slept until 11:15 while my body attempted to heal itself. Then I drank my morning coffee while heating up milk to make my first batch of cheese.

Yes, I am on a cheese sabbatical.

I'm starting with a queso blanco, a white cheese that I love and seemed pretty easy. I went to the library and picked a couple books on making cheese. I've read them over the past week and was excited to try things out. Especially since I found a goat milk dealer. But more on that later. The books recommended starting with a cottage cheese or a cream cheese, but the queso blanco interested me and also seemed pretty easy. Plus, I could save the whey to make a ricotta, which was also supposed to be pretty easy. Done.

I made two batches of the queso blanco* -- a plain version and one with roasted garlic and pancetta. They are both hanging in the basement fridge. I used the whey from the cheeses to make a ricotta.** Wow, tell me again why people buy it? An 8 year old can make ricotta. And would love doing it.

As the curds were draining, I made dinner and a big batch of egg nog for the holidays. Then cleaned up the mounds of pots and drank a glass of wine. The tuaca is doing great; we added the cinnamon stick and simple syrup last night. I drank a small glass tonight to make sure it wasn't poison. Hmmm, it just might be... I'll have to keep Ken away from it. In other news, Kinley really likes whey. The books said that pets love it. It is true, although he'd probably eat just about anything that I gave him so I don't quite have a negative control.

*Queso Blanco
1 gallon milk
1/4 cup cider vinegar
(1/4 cup roasted garlic and 1/4 cup cooked and diced pancetta)

Heat milk to 175-180 and hold it there for 10 minutes. Remove from heat, add vinegar and stir briefly. Allow curds to form while milk acidifies. Strain through cheesecloth. Once most of the whey had drained, I opened the cheesecloth pouch and added the desired goodies and mixed it into the warm curd. Then closed up shop and hung the bagged cheese for a couple hours. Save whey for making ricotta**. Yield: 1 big mound of cheese.

**Ricotta
1.5 gallons whey from aforementioned cheese
2 cups whole milk (optional)
1/4 cup cider vinegar

Heat whey to 200 degrees, add milk when close to temperature. Add vinegar and watch albumin and curds form before your eyes. Strain through cheesecloth. Yield 1-2 cups ricotta.