The Best Procrastination Method Known to Man

As a student, one of my favorite past times is to procrastinate. Since I have been a collegiate for the past 5 years, naturally I have developed many procrastination strategies. As of late, I have been incredibly preoccupied catching up on old seasons of my favorite shows and re-reading some of my favorite series. These include Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, The Office, Merlin and Pretty Little Liars. Let's just say it has been a very unproductive week and will continue to be. :)

- Stephanie

Crrrravings!

Crepes.... they can be sweet or savory, and are just as good with a dab of blackberry jam as a huge helping of nutella..... need I say more?

These Deena & Ozzy patent oxfords are perfect for springtime dresses!

$38 at Urban Outfitters

Disney Couture White Rabbit Ring. For those of you who didn't know, Bunny has been my nickname for some time and I just can't resist loving (almost!) everything bunny-related.

Paris..... I miss my baby :(

It's War: Me vs. the Resume and the Curriculum Vitae

What is a girl to do when she needs a job or internship but has no previous experience to list on her resume? Stick her head in the sand and cry?

Unfortunately, that girl is me. And unfortunately, yes is the answer. Alas, until I can scrape up some lab experience from somewhere I will have to settle with internships and bare resumes. What a life.

If I somehow manage to figure out a way to make the CV more appealing, I'll let you know but until then I'll be the girl trying to get her head out of the sand.

- S

Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon

I recently picked up a copy of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking because I (a) wanted to try French cuisine (b) there is no decent French restaurant within 50 miles and (c) who doesn't love Julia Child? Although I should point out that I bought this book before seeing the movie Julie & Julia, which apparently everyone has seen. This is my first (very clumsy and forgetful) attempt at cooking while photographing. Please forgive my many mistakes while cooking this dish.  

Without further ado I give you... beef bourguignon!

Here are (most) of our ingredients. Sorry some of them are hard to see.... and missing. Doh!

First we begin by cutting the rind off the bacon, and slicing the bacon into strips. 

Also please disregard that nerd there... her contact prescription expired (in JULY) and she finally ran out of contacts to wear. 

Elliot likes to take 'artistic' photos. 

Here are the bacon rinds and strips. 

I also began slicing up this beautiful chuck pot roast into 2" cubes. 

In the meantime, place the bacon and rinds into boiling water for 10 mins. This removes the smokey flavor of American bacon... I'm making this dish 100% French in America. 

The meat is all cubed up now. 

Next take the bacon out of the boiling water, dry it thoroughly and place in a casserole dish (aka dutch oven) with heated oil and butter. 

Brown that bacon!

Take the bacon out of the casserole and set aside. 

Next we crank up the heat and sear our meat. 

Oohhh smokey! 

now the other side.... yes I realize some of those pieces aren't nice and brown yet, don't worry I gave them a little extra time. 

Once it's brown on both sides remove and set aside with the bacon. 

In the same pot and oil throw in some diced onions and sliced carrots. 

Saute those for a bit then add the bacon and meat back in. 

Sprinkle a little flour on one side, turn over and sprinkle some more. Then place this uncovered in a 450-degree oven. Did I forget to say preheat your oven? Cook it for 4 minutes, turn the meat over and cook it for 4 more minutes. 

Pull out a young red wine, I have Chianti here. 

Remove the casserole from the oven and add 3 cups of red wine and enough beef stock to barely cover the meat. 

This is my favorite part... can you smell that? Mmmm... 

Add 2T of tomato paste, 1t of parsley (not pictured.. oops!), 1/4 t of thyme and a crumbled bay leaf. 

Cover and stick it in a 325-degree oven for... 2 1/2 hours! 

Look he does dishes too!

While the pot is in the oven, slice up some mushrooms for sauteing. 

Peel some small white onions (these are gold onions... they we the only ones I could find at Ralph's) 

Place them in a pan with hot oil and butter until brown, then add 1/2 c of beef stock, half a bay leaf, thyme and parley. Let it all simmer together for 40-50 minutes. Please use a smaller pan than I did... trust me. 

Here's the bourguignon fresh out of the oven. How delicious does that look?

Sous chef Shima stirring the mushrooms.. what a good roommate she is. 

Saute the mushrooms.. and don't crowd them (like I did), or the won't get nice and brown. 

Add the onions and mushrooms to the pot and simmer for 2-3 minutes. I also added some boiled potatoes at this point, but you can leave them out if you want. 

Ahhh perfection.. almost. 

A nice dinner setting... yes I realize we have that bottle of wine there and no wine glasses. I have no wine glasses, I am a poor, about to be not starving, college student. 

This turned out so well. The meat was crispy and yet so tender you could eat it with only a fork. 

Bon Appetit, 

Stephanie 

When lectures and discussion go wrong.... or when I rush out the door at 8am without any coffee

As any science graduate student (or really any college student) can tell you, it is inevitable that you will encounter a language barrier with a professor at one point or another. What do I mean by language barrier? I mean your professor is from another country, english is definitely not his first language, and while he may actually know english very well, his thick accent prevents you from understanding a word of what he is saying. Case in point, one of my physical biochemistry lecturers has a horribly thick accent. And while under normal conditions I might be able to understand most of what he's saying, at 8 o'clock in the morning, on a Friday, when some other students head is blocking my view and I haven't had any coffee... I just can't understand a damn word. Needless to say it was a frustrating hour of trying to see around some guy's head, read the powerpoint, and understand anything I was supposed to be learning.

To top that off, the discussion for my hormones and behavior class right after was... ah... not the best use of my time. Is it really necessary to keep students in class to explain what we'll be doing in discussion over and over and over again?  I got it the first time. We're working in groups to finish a worksheet and someone randomly presents it. Not exactly a difficult concept.

I hope next Friday goes much better. In the meantime, I'll be googling explanations of x-ray diffraction for the rest of the weekend.

*Just for clarification, I have no distaste for people with accents, in fact my mother has a pretty thick filipino accent and I think it's fascinating that professors can come to the good ol' US of A and be able to speak all these tricky scientific terms that sometimes I have trouble pronouncing.

Happy studying, S.

Happy New Year!!!

It's a brand new year and you know what that means- lots of resolutions to not keep and all that holiday eating to regret! Just kidding! I'm really not sorry about completely cleaning my plate at Lawry's Prime Rib. This holiday season came with lots of surprises (like a brand new Canon Rebel Camera!) and a few not so welcome surprises (see Struggles with Student Email). Here are some Holiday photos for your enjoyment!

How cute is my dog Paris? She's the best dog in the world. I know a lot of owners say that about their dogs, but trust me.... despite her chewing my favorite heels, she is still the best. 

Dogs get Christmas presents too right? This edible bone bag had about six different sized bones and some treats in various shapes that kept our 3 dogs happy for most of the day. 

Happy New Year from the Laker game! It was so close at the very end, but we pulled forward! 

Also, please disregard the odd shade over my eyes from the rim of the hat that doesn't quite fit my unusually small head. 

Love, Stephanie

My 2011 Reading List- the Basics

As a scientist, I find it very difficult to venture into the subjects of literature, politics, philosophy and such, without becoming either very confused or very bored. In an effort to alleviate those confusions, I have decided to attempt to broaden my horizons by reading 50 literature classics in 1 year. It sounds crazy I know, especially since most of the novels I read are short in comparison to novels like The Brothers Karamazov, but I am determined to accomplish this feat. The list of novels I have is a compilation of various '50 great.. ' lists so if anyone would like to recommend some interesting reads I would be very appreciative. Here is my list in no particular order:
1. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
2. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
3. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
4. Emma by Jane Austen
5. The Odyssey by Homer
6. Ramayana by Valmiki
7. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
8. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
9. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor M. Dostoyevsky
10. Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
11. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
12. A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen
13. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
14. Medea by Euripides
15. 1984 by George Orwell
16. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
17. Othello by Shakespeare
18. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
19. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
20. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
21. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
22. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
23. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
24. Candide: or Optimism by Voltaire
25. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
26. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
27. Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
28. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
29. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
30. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
31. Common Sense by Thomas Paine
32. The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene
33. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
34. The Three Theban Plays: Oedipus the King, Oedipus and Colonus, and Antigone by Sophocles
35. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
36. The Call of the Wild by Jack London
37. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
38. Tales from the Arabian Nights by Richard Francis Burton
39. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
40. Allen Quartermain by Henry Rider Haggard
41. The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
42. The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
43. Utopia by Thomas More
44. Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
45. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
46. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
47. The Aspern Papers by Henry James
48. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
49. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
50. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
......... wish me luck!