Determination and Grit Despite Myself

Oh, boy. The next two months promise to be one non-stop rollercoaster of paper-submitting, grant-writing, poster-making, and travel. As a graduate student, I have never had so many things on my plate at one time, and I am wondering if I am going to make it. I know deep down inside that OF COURSE I am going to make it; it's what I do. I'm a survivor. But when and where did all this self-doubt creep in? Is it because I feel like my work is never good enough? Is it because in science, we must leave room for skepticism? Is it because there is so much riding on the outcome (funding, papers, my eventual graduation) of the next two months?

When I was younger, I was very confident about my abilities. I felt like there wasn't anything in the world that I couldn't accomplish if I decided I wanted to do it. Perhaps I was overly confident in my youth, but I would not mind finding a bit of youthful confidence and energy to propel me through my work these days. It's an interesting dynamic: I am starting my fifth year of graduate school, and I actually have SKILLS now. I can examine fly locomotor behavior (oh, you didn't know I work in a fruit fly lab? Yes, it's true! And I love working with flies.), measure gene expression, look at protein levels, clone a gene, critique other people's work, and I'm learning how to write my own papers. Wouldn't it be appropriate for me to have more confidence now that I have acquired a decent set of scientific skills? That's not to say that I don't have a lot more to learn. I probably have another two years of graduate school ahead of me before I can add those three little letters to the end of my name. But I do have the determination and the grit to survive not only this season of paper-submitting and grant-writing, but also the challenges that lay ahead of me after that. I will succeed. Even if I fall many times along the way.

Some New Things I've Learned Recently

I've learned several interesting things in the past few months, what with all the science and the running and the cooking and the eating. I thought I would share them with you, dear reader. Perhaps you will be inspired to share with me something that you have learned recently!

1) Writing scientific papers requires an immense amount of trust between graduate student and advisor. Sometimes I feel like it takes more trust than I am capable of having in another person.

2) Just because you can walk right after a half-marathon doesn't mean you won't be hobbling in pain several hours later!

3) Electronic music guru Armin van Buuren is awesome! I love this CD set.

4) I don't like roasted cauliflower!

5) I adore fresh peaches, fuzzy skin and all.

6) Decaffeinated mandarin orange green tea is the best after-dinner treat. I think it's even better than dessert, but I'll happily accept tea and dessert!

7) Lunar Gazpacho is heavenly. Have you tried it yet?

Faux French, So Good

It all started with the bread. On a late-night Friday run to Wild Oats to pick up milk for breakfast, I was perusing the bakery breads, trying to decide if I wanted to splurge. I found several small, beautiful loaves of bread marked as “Organic Peasant Rye Petit.” They were so cute and smelled so delicious that I had to take one home. It was only after I bought the bread that I realized I needed an appropriate soup to go with my bread. A peasant bread needs a peasant soup, or at least a nice soup filled with vegetables and savory herbs. I flipped through my binder of old Vegetarian Times recipes and came across a recipe for Provencal Chili, which is described as a “light, brothy chili that’s based on a classic French ratatouille.” Sounded perfect!

It turns out that the real star of this chili is eggplant. I’m a little intimidated by eggplant; I blame it on lack of experience. My mother doesn’t do much with eggplant to my knowledge, so I didn’t acquire eggplant expertise in her kitchen. I think I have cooked with eggplant exactly one other time in my life; it was with my friend Nicole and we were making a casserole that called for eggplant. The casserole was delicious, and working with eggplant didn’t seem too difficult. So I thought I would give this soupy chili a shot and see what happened…

Oh, my, was it wonderful. Delicious chunks of eggplant and zucchini bathed in a wonderful herby broth with accents of white beans, tomatoes, and onions. Those herbes de Provence are really good stuff—and I didn’t even know what I was doing! I tossed together a homemade batch of herbes de Provence and hoped for the best. My hopes were met by the Cooking Gods! I’m so glad I didn’t run out and purchase a commercially made herbes de Provence blend because my homemade version was wonderful (and now that I’m done bragging, you know how completely immodest I am!). Mostly I was just trying to be thrifty because I already own most of the herbs that make up herbes de Provence. Furthermore, I had bought a cute little jar from Cost Plus World Market to be used especially for homemade herb/spice blends, and I wanted to put it to good use. (I also use these jars for my salt and “hippie sugar.” “Hippie sugar,” as Tom-the-guy-I-met-at-The-Celtic-Knot explained, is any sort of raw, unprocessed sugar such as raw cane sugar. Hippie sugar is very tasty but doesn’t always work well for baking because its huge rough crystals. It works well when dissolved into coffee or tea.)

So dinner was white bean soup provencal and peasant rye bread. Dessert was a new creation of mine that I feel compelled to share with the world because it is just so delicious: Raspberry Cookie Pudding. Inspired by Mollie Katzen’s Tiramisu in a Cup (also delicious) in her beautiful Sunlight Café cookbook, I made a few substitutions and voila! Raspberry Cookie Pudding, a creamy, slightly decadent, cold summer dessert.


White Bean Soup Provencal
Adapted from Provencal Chili, Vegetarian Times, January 2006
Serves many! (I will provide a more exact number of servings after I finish off this batch.)

1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
2 medium Vidalia onions, chopped
1 large purple eggplant (~ 1 lb), peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces*
3 small zucchini, ends cut off and discarded (or saved to make soup stock!), quartered lengthwise and then cut into ~1-inch-length pieces
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 14.5-oz. cans Great Northern white beans, drained and lightly rinsed
1 28-oz. can of diced tomatoes
2 tbsp. herbes de Provence**
1 tsp. salt
Vegetable broth and/or water (several cups)
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
For serving: Delicious bakery bread

1) Add olive oil to a large skillet and heat over medium heat. Add onions to the skillet and sauté for several minutes to soften onions, stirring often.
2) While onions are cooking, prep the eggplant and zucchini (peeling and/or chopping as instructed above if you haven’t already prepped them).
3) When the onions are done, scrape them into a large soup pot along with all of the rest of the ingredients. Add enough vegetable broth and/or water to cover ingredients. Bring the contents of the soup pot to a boil, and then lower the heat to a simmer. Cover and cook for ~30 minutes or so until the eggplant is tender. Stir the soup every ten minutes or so during the simmering time.
4) Taste the soup (be careful here; it’s really hot! Blow on a spoonful of chili first to cool it down before tasting.) and add more salt and/or pepper as desired.
5) Ladle the soup into bowls and serve with hunks of delicious peasant bread. Of course like any soup or chili, you can top it with some cheese or any other goodies you like. The original recipe suggests topping it with grated Gruyere cheese for a nice French twist.

*For some excellent eggplant advice, I highly recommend the guidelines given by Crescent Dragonwagon in Passionate Vegetarian.

**To make a homemade herbes de Provence, I tossed together the following: 2 tsp. each of fennel seed, marjoram, sage, basil, oregano, and thyme and ½ tsp. of rosemary. I’m not a huge fan of rosemary, but if you are, feel free to add up to 2 tsp. of rosemary to your blend.

Raspberry Cookie Pudding
Inspired by Tiramisu in a Cup from Sunlight Café by Mollie Katzen
Makes 4 moderate servings or 2 very generous servings

This is a wonderful make-ahead dessert. The flavors mingle and marry during refrigeration, so feel free to make this pudding a day or two ahead of time. It’s also very good when made on the day you plan to serve it.

For the Raspberry Sauce:
~1 cup frozen raspberries, thawed
Honey to taste

¼ cup semisweet chocolate chips
¾ cup lowfat ricotta cheese
1 tbsp. brown sugar
12 vanilla sandwich cookies, preferably trans-fat free (I like the Wild Oats storebrand Vanilla Sandwich Cremes)

1) To make the Raspberry Sauce, puree the raspberries in a food processor with a bit of honey (1-2 tbsp.). Taste, add more honey if needed, and puree again. Repeat tasting/adding honey/pureeing until the raspberries are sweet enough to you. I like my raspberries lightly sweetened so that they are still a little tart; a tart Raspberry Sauce goes well with the rich sweetness of the cookies.
2) Coarsely chop the chocolate chips. Place in a bowl.
3) In a separate bowl, mix the ricotta cheese with the brown sugar.
4) Dessert assembly time! Pick your dessert serving dish: dessert ramekins, deep soup bowls (my choice), or even cereal bowls—whatever you have on hand. You’ll need two of them. Spread a spoonful of ricotta cheese on the bottom of each dish. Layer three cookies on top of the cheese and top the cookies with generous spoonfuls of Raspberry Sauce, using the back of your spoon to spread the Sauce. Layer more cheese and top the cheese with a tablespoonful of chocolate chips. Repeat the cookie-Raspberry Sauce-ricotta cheese-chocolate chip layering, ending with chocolate chips. Sprinkle any leftover chocolate chips on top.
5) Wrap dishes with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator until serving time. Serve cold, preferably by splitting a bowlful with your sweetheart. I’m single—any takers? :-)

Maple-Nut Granola

I really love brownies. Rich, dense, chocolatey brownies. I've been craving homemade brownies for several days now, but I've been so swamped with work that I haven't had a chance to bake. In lieu of brownies, I came up with a new variation on my beloved Addictive Peanut Butter Granola, Maple-Nut Granola. This granola, which prominently features maple syrup and walnuts, is just as delicious as its peanut butter predecessor, but it's a little more mature. There is no chocolate in this version, just the subtle goodness of oats, maple syrup, and walnuts. And it smells amazing while it's baking in the oven!

I recommend eating this granola as a cereal with milk poured on top. I feel it's not quite sweet enough to stand up to a tart plain yogurt, but it might be good mixed with banana slices and lightly sweetened plain yogurt.

Maple-Nut Granola

4-6 servings

2 1/4 cups oats

1/2 cup flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1/6 cup vegetable oil (half of a 1/3 cup measurement)

1/3 cup pure maple syrup, Grade A or B (Grade A is a lighter maple syrup, while Grade B is a darker, more robust maple syrup. I like both kinds.)

1/2 walnuts, chopped

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2) Mix together the oats, flour, and baking soda in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the vanilla extract.

3) Add the vegetable oil, maple syrup, walnuts, and mix until moistened. The mixture will be a bit chunky and fairly dry.

4) Spoon the granola into a square 8-inch cake pan.

5) Bake the granola at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, and then dig in! Before storing, allow granola to cool completely in the pan and then store it at room temperature in a tightly sealed container. This granola will keep for at least a week.

Greek Sammiches with Roasted Potatoes and Carrots

Inspiration is a funny thing. It arrives, unannounced, and proceeds to surprise and delight you. It leaves you feeling energized and ecstatic about life. Let other people rhapsodize about love; I will write sonnets about inspiration. And love itself can be an inspiration: who isn’t inspired to be her best by a new love interest?

My inspiration for these Greek Sammiches (much more fun to say than “sandwiches,” don’t you think?) came from two sources. The September 2007 issue of Vegetarian Times has a 5-ingredient recipe for Greek Paninis; I thought it sounded delicious. French bread or rolls are topped with store-bought hummus, frozen spinach that has been thawed, feta cheese, and roasted red peppers. The sandwiches are then toasted, panini-style, in a countertop grill or on the stovetop. I was going to follow the recipe to try these sandwiches, but then I remembered two things: 1) store-bought hummus is expensive and 2) I’m not wild about jarred roasted red peppers. So I used the recipe as inspiration to come up with my own version of a quick Greek sammich.

Rather than purchase hummus, I decided to borrow part of a recipe from Express Lane Meals by Rachael Ray. In the recipe for Tuscan Calzones with “The Works” (pp. 118-119), she gives instructions for a delicious spinach filling in which chopped frozen spinach is thawed, drained, and then mashed with white beans and garlic. The spinach-bean filling is then seasoned to taste with salt, pepper, and olive oil. It sounds humble, but it is really good and nutritious.

I have eaten these Greek Sammiches accompanied by cold Lunar Gazpacho or hot Roasted Potatoes and Carrots (recipe below). Both are delicious. Lunar Gazpacho is perfect for hot weather, while the Roasted Potatoes and Carrots are ideal for making on a cool, rainy night.

Greek Sammiches
Estimated Servings: 5-6

10-oz. box of frozen chopped spinach (thawing instructions follow)
14.5-oz. can of white beans, such as Great Northern beans
1 clove of garlic, chopped
Extra-virgin olive oil to taste (a drizzle or so—a tablespoon or less)
Salt and pepper to taste
Nutmeg to taste
A loaf or two of French bread, depending on how many sammiches you want to make
4-oz. container of feta cheese
1 fresh green pepper, sliced into long vertical slices

To prepare the spinach-bean filling:
1) Thaw the spinach by placing it in a fine-meshed sieve and letting it drain into a bowl or the sink for several hours. Alternatively, place the spinach in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave on high for six minutes until it is thawed. Place microwaved spinach in a sieve. Squeeze the extra liquid out of the spinach by pressing it firmly with a wooden spoon while the spinach is still in the sieve. Drain the spinach completely.
2) Place the spinach in a large bowl. Drain the can of white beans and add the beans to the bowl. Mash the beans into the spinach thoroughly. Use your wooden spoon to clean spinach off the masher if it starts to clump too much. Add the garlic, salt, pepper, olive oil, and nutmeg to the spinach-bean filling and stir. Taste the filling and adjust the seasonings by adding more garlic, salt, pepper, olive oil, and/or nutmeg.

To prepare the sammiches:
1) Slice the French bread into sandwich-sized hunks about 6” or so in length. Slice the hunks horizontally to make a wide slit that almost slices the bread in half.
2) Spread one side of the bread with spinach-bean filling. Depending on how much filling you want, you can be more or less generous in your spreading.
3) Spoon some feta cheese on top of the spinach-bean filling. Again, depending on how much feta you like in a sandwich, you can add more or less cheese.
4) Top sammiches with slices of fresh green pepper. Close the sammiches by pressing the tops back into place and serve.

Roasted Potatoes and Carrots
Serves 1 but can be scaled up to serve more

1 red-skinned potato
1 large carrot
Drizzle of olive oil (~1 tbsp.)
Salt and pepper to taste
Cooking spray

1) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2) Wash and dry the potato and carrot. Use a vegetable peeler to remove any bad-looking skin or eyes from the potato. If you prefer a skinless potato, you can peel the whole thing. Otherwise just peel off the ugly stuff. Cut the potato in half and then cut it lengthwise into wedges about half an inch thick.
3) Slice the ends off the carrot. Peel off any bad-looking skin with a vegetable peeler. Chop the carrot into pieces of 2-3” in length. If the top of the carrot is much thicker than the bottom, slice it in half lengthwise.
4) In a small bowl, toss the potato and carrot with olive oil to coat the vegetables. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
5) Spray a baking sheet lightly with cooking spray. Spread the potatoes and carrots on the baking sheet in a single layer. Bake at 375 degrees F for 25-30 minutes, turning the vegetables over halfway through their baking. When the vegetables are done, the potatoes will be golden brown and crispy on the outside. The carrots will be a little shriveled and browned on the sides where they touched the pan.

From the Summer Cooking Wish List: Lunar Gazpacho

Although it has taken me a while to give this soup proper attention, the results were worth the wait! The version I present here is inspired by and takes its name from Crescent Dragonwagon’s Lunar Gazpacho, which she published in Passionate Vegetarian. I liked her version, but I found myself craving something a little smoother, lighter, and sweeter. I have kept what I think is the essence of her soup: plain yogurt, cucumbers, mint, and fruit. I swapped out green grapes for honeydew melon. I replaced the raw almonds with a tablespoon of tahini. I added a dab of honey for sweetness. The final result, as you will find hopefully, is smooth, light, and refreshing. I’m really pleased with it.

Ironically enough, today is a cool, cloudy day, a day on which you wouldn’t mind using your oven. Lunar Gazpacho can be served on a day like today, no problem, but I bet it will be even better on a hot summer’s day.

Lunar Gazpacho
Adapted from Lunar Gazpacho, pp. 175-176,
in Passionate Vegetarian by Crescent Dragonwagon
Makes ~3-4 generous servings

1 long (12 inches or so) seedless cucumber
½ honeydew melon
1 cup water
1 cup lowfat plain yogurt (I like Brown Cow brand)
A handful of fresh mint leaves, rinsed clean
1 tbsp. tahini
1 tbsp. honey

1) Prepare the cucumber by slicing off the ends and then peeling it. Cut it into 2-3” chunks and place in a blender* or food processor.
2) Prepare the honeydew melon by cutting out the inner seeds and white membrane and then slicing the fruit off the peel. Cut into 2-3” chunks and add it to the cucumbers in the blender.
3) Add the water, yogurt, mint leaves, tahini, and honey to the blender. Puree this mixture until it is smooth.
4) Serve immediately or chill in the refrigerator to serve later. If you like your food to look pretty, you can garnish it with a whole mint leaf or two. Serve in large cups or small bowls.

*Depending on the volume capacity of your blender or food processor, you may need to do this in batches. You can puree ingredients separately, such as the water with the cucumber and then the yogurt with the remaining ingredients, and stir everything together well in a large mixing bowl.

The Grocery Dilemma

I’m a dedicated home cook. I always bring a lunch to work. I only eat out about once a week. All of this home cooking requires a steady stream of groceries, and sometimes that gets difficult for a carless pedestrian like myself. Oh, sure, I could get a bike or one of those dorky grocery carts, but thus far I have not acquired a set of wheels in any form. I am blessed with a wonderful natural foods store, Wild Oats, and a good basic grocery store, Jewel Osco, located six blocks from my apartment. These stores are within easy walking distance, but I still have to pay attention to how much food I am buying at one time in order to get it all home by foot. I usually pick up groceries two or three times a week, depending on how much cooking I am doing. One benefit to this system is that I can pick up fresh produce in small quantities and enjoy it at peak flavor and freshness. The downside is that I feel like I am constantly running out of staple ingredients and it’s very hard for me to stock up on good pantry items like canned tomatoes and beans.

I have had the best of intentions to make more dishes off of my Summer Cooking Wish List. I’ve made so little progress with that list it’s pathetic: there are only nine things on the list! And one of them is fresh fruit! But I’ve been busy and a bit disorganized, so the Wish List has remained more of a fantasy than a reality. For the past several weeks, the reality has been that I have managed to eat mostly home-cooked meals by cobbling together a meal from whatever I happen to have in the kitchen, even if it meant dipping into ingredients that I had earmarked for specific cooking projects. Earlier this week I bought most of the ingredients to make Lunar Gazpacho, but I forgot one critical ingredient: plain yogurt. It was on my grocery list, but I had listed it under the Wild Oats section rather than the Jewel section, so when I stopped at Jewel on my way home from work, I didn’t see yogurt on my list. To further complicate matters, I needed some sort of a salad to accompany my pasta for lunch on Friday, and I was tired of lettuce-and-carrot salads, so I made a salad with honeydew melon, seedless cucumber, and green leaf lettuce. The salad was delicious, very light and refreshing. Unfortunately, the melon and cucumber were supposed to be used in Lunar Gazpacho, so now I have to backtrack and buy another cucumber in addition to plain yogurt before I can try out my Lunar Gazpacho. But fear not: I will complete the Summer Cooking Wish List before the end of summer and I will make Lunar Gazpacho before this weekend ends!