Hi, friends. Happy Tuesday!
It was a big day for me at work, and I’m so happy to report that it was a success. For many weeks, I’ve been organizing a mock grant review hosted by the postdoc association for the medical and veterinary schools here at Texas A & M. Actually, I’m one member of a team of people who have been working together. There were a lot of moving parts to this operation, and I’ve been acting like the center of a wheel, holding all the spokes together. My team has been great, and I think our mock grant review went really well today. Our faculty panel did an amazing job, and I’m so grateful to the postdocs who volunteered their grants for our mock review, which was rigorously conducted by the faculty panel. They had a lot to say about the grants, and I think their willingness to be critical and share their thoughts was an integral part of our review.
Organizing the grant review was more work than I anticipated, but I’m very proud and pleased with how it turned out. It was worth the effort. On the research front today, I also got a few moments of my boss’s time, and he, in his brilliance, noticed something awesome in my data that I had completely overlooked. Doh! He was nice enough not to thump me over the head, but I’m hoping one of these days I’ll get the hang of this research thing. Sigh. On the bright side, he noticed something awesome in my data! So despite my data blindness, I’m feeling encouraged about research again.
Now I’m relaxing, but I have a few things on my mind I wanted to discuss with you, sweet readers. Enough with the science talk! Let’s talk about food.
* Has anyone tried any of the sourdough recipes in the March 2011 issue of Vegetarian Times? I’d like to make the blueberry sourdough pancakes, but I’m really annoyed at the idea of throwing out half the starter six or seven times during the course of its fermentation. Anybody have any suggestions? I realize I could just keep it. Then I’d have many, many batches of sourdough starter…which would make many, many, MANY pancakes! Hmm. All of a sudden, I feel more hungry than annoyed…
* Dried apricots! Buy them. They are awesome. I’m becoming quite the dried fruit fiend, between the dried cherries, the dried apricots, and the prunes hanging out in my fridge. Which reminds me: what’s your favorite recipe that calls for prunes? Please share—I’d like to make a dent in my prune supply.
* Right now I’ve got butter softening to make a batch of these cookies, but tonight, I’m trying them with a flax “egg.” You’ve heard of this, right? Mix ground flax seed with water, let it sit, and it becomes gooey, like an egg white. I’ve never baked with flax eggs, and I’m craving cookies like mad, so I thought I would experiment. (Oops. There’s science again, raising its curious little head!)
I hope you are having a good week, wherever you are. I’m happy you stopped by.
4 comments:
I haven't had a chance to read the new Vegetarian Times yet, and I've never made a sourdough started, so now I'm doubly excited!
I just realized you go to A&M. Two of my dear friends from Nacogdoches are starting their doctorates at A&M in English in the fall. Small world for a big state! ;)
Chrissy, I've never made a sourdough starter either! I've just got to find a good time to start it--you have to split and feed it every 12 hours for 3 days, so it's a little bit of a project.
Yes, I am an adopted Aggie! Because it's a big state school, A & M is really different than the schools where I was a student. But I have to say, I've enjoyed my time here so far. I went to a talk in the English department last month, and they were all so nice and friendly to me. I hope your friends find the same thing to be true!
how exciting! glad something may have been uncovered in your data :) want to take a look at mine? lol.
have you tried the more expensive apricots at whole foods? i can't recall their name, but holy moly they're fantastic.
i also love prunes... i've tried these recently from elina: http://www.russianbites.com/walnut-stuffed-prunes-in-a-sweet-cream
http://www.russianbites.com/beet-salad-with-walnuts-and-prunes-svyokla-s-orehami-i-chernoslivom
sorry for the long post!
Shannon, thank you for the recipe recommendations! No need to apologize for the long post :-) Those walnut-stuffed prunes sound perfect. I love sweetened sour cream--probably a little too much. Hee hee!
I have not tried those apricots! But I'm going to Austin this weekend, and the first place we're going to visit is the Whole Foods flagship store. So I will look for these famed apricots! Thanks for the foodie tip :-) You are terrific!
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