Pre-Birthday Weekend

My birthday is on Friday, but this past weekend I got an early birthday present - Sarah came to visit!!!

To clarify, she came to visit in 2011, not 1984.

We went shopping and ate Mexican food at one of Sarah's favorite restaurants.

The big event of the weekend was the Fiesta Mission 10K.  We got up early Saturday morning to head down to Mission Park.  The run was on a great path past two of the historic missions. Sarah told me about the colonial architecture, I was too out of breath to respond.

The Before

The only downside of the course was it went over two suspension bridges.  Running across them was like jumping on a trampoline with five other people.  Sometimes I took a step and just went straight up in the air.  I developed a blister the size of a silver dollar on my arch (I took a picture, but decided to spare you - you are welcome).  All in all, it was a great run and I made it to the finish line nearly 10 minutes faster than I expected!  Afterwards, we felt like super heroes.

Or Angels.

Later in the day we had a cookout with my KU anthro friends who are down here now.  Before the party, Sarah and Veronica helped me make Gina's Super Moist Carrot Cake into cupcakes.

Veronica and Sarah tag team the carrots

We had 11 adults and 7 kids coming over so I doubled the recipe and ended up with 36 cupcakes!!! Luckily the extras were devoured today at work.

So Good.

We bought a new grill for the occasion and Geoff christened it with burgers, hot dogs, and veggie kabobs while the kids chased each other through, and with, the sprinkler.

Sunday morning we had Sarah's favorite breakfast tacos before she had to fly home.  All in all, a fantastic weekend!

Tomorrow's Scientists

When I was a kid, my parent's took/sent me to all sorts of science camps and fairs.  I still have clear memories of many of them, in particular the marine biology camp I went to in North Carolina where we dissected day old fish from the market.  Didn't smell great in the un-air conditioned lab we were working in.

Having been so inspired by these camps as a kid, I jump at the chance to volunteer at any sort of event where kids (particularly girls) get a chance to learn about science.  If they get a chance to do hands-on activities, all the better.  

Over the past year, I have helped host visitors from PA Junior Scientists and Upward Bound in the anthropology department at Penn State, spent a (long!) day talking about science and doing mini-experiments in biology classes as State College High, and helped Girl Scouts earn science badges.  My favorite activities, though, were when Laurel and I showed students how to extract DNA using household chemicals. They end up with a snot-looking mass of DNA that they can take home.  We've done that project with Penn State science camps for high school and middle school girls and everybody loves it.  We even taught it to a group of middle school science teachers so hopefully it is spreading through central PA.

Primate Skulls are fun!!

Last weekend, I was invited by a co-worker to help out at the Girl's Inc Rock-It into Science event here in San Antonio.  We had stations about nutrition, lab work (mostly pipetting), and I worked at the skeleton exhibit.  I talked about how keratin makes up antlers, hair, fingernails, hooves, and the covering of turtle shells (so pretty much I told them about evolution by replacing "evolution" with "adaptation").  It was so much fun, the four hours flew by and I was still talking to people while others were packing up around me.  Unfortunately, being outside in south Texas for four hours meant that by the time I got home, I was exhausted and extra freckled!

Pipetting in a Parking Lot!

Everything Old is New Again

As Geoff, who has weathered three moves with me in the four and a half years we have been together, will tell you - I don't like to throw things away.  This extends to clothes that are, perhaps, okay definitely, no longer in style.  At some point during high school I bought two long, light-weight hippie-looking skirts.  They remained in my wardrobe for years and made appearances with tank tops when the temperature became too hot bear.

This picture is three years old, but I got excited and cut up skirt before taking a new picture!

I'm anticipating that too hot to bear will be an accurate description of south Texas starting in just a month or so, it is already in the 80s every day!  So I wanted to give new life to these skirts to make them fit in better with my current style.  Oddly, the blue skirt was lined with the same fabric which allowed me to cut out four panels for an A-line skirt and preserve the embroidery which is really the only thing that made this skirt worth saving.

You know the saying measure twice, cut once?  I learned it while building things in my grandad's garage, but it applies to sewing as well.  My first attempt at this skirt was nearly six inches too large around the waist!

The red skirt is a little more straight forward - just a single layer of fabric.  I liked the detail at the bottom so rather than just hemming the skirt shorter, I cut off the top and added new elastic.  Simple gathered skirt!  The hardest part was getting the elastic through the casing.

I had set a goal for myself to remake things from the thrift store - but how much more budget-friendly is it to remake things you already own!!

Bike Shorts

...that's what Scotsmen where under their kilts.  Or at least, that is what the ones competing at the San Antonio Highland Games were wearing.  We got half-priced tickets through Groupon and headed up to Helotes this afternoon in time for lunch.

Scotch eggs (hardboiled eggs wrapped in sausage and fried) and Cornish pasties were a pretty drastic change from the last week of veganism.  There were, of course the requisite bagpipers and drummers.

But the real reason we were there was to see the events referred to as "Scottish Heavy Athletics."  After watching for a while, we mostly figured out the rules, but if you are curious, you can read them here.

The first event we watched was the hammer throw.  The hammer weighs 16 pounds and has to be thrown without moving the feet.  Some of the men wear shoes with long metal bars coming out of the toe to dig into the ground so they don't rotate.  Throwing the weight requires spinning the weight around the head and then releasing it over the shoulder.  There are no bonus points for looking like a ballerina on release.

 

The next one we watched was the self-explanatory "Weight Over the Bar."  (By the way, all of these guys are wearing shirts reading "plaid to the bone.")

Seems pretty straight-forward, but the weight is 56 pounds so occasionally, people completely ate it.

You can tell from the picture this isn't going to end well.

The last event of the day was the iconic caber toss.  Evidently, there is no official weight for the caber, but the one they used was 18 feet long and 125 pounds.  Hard enough to pick up, throwing it end over end - insane.

The run.

I had always assumed that the goal was to throw the caber as far as possible.  The goal is actually to turn it end over end and have it land perfectly perpendicular from your body.

The pull.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, only about 1 in 7 guys managed to even completely flip the caber end over end.

The turn.

It looked like so much fun that I was having flashbacks to my shot put days.  Maybe next year you will see me in the women's division!

Byebye Butter...Our Week of Vegan Eating

Going vegetarian for a month was a way of embracing a more environmentally-conscious way of eating that has resulted in long-lasting changes to our diet.  Although I doubt I would ever go to a fully vegetarian diet, I only cook meat about twice a week.  Veganism, however, is a bit more of a culinary challenge, because I love LOVE eggs, cheese, and butter.  It is a rare vegetarian meal in our house that doesn't contain cheese or eggs.  Seriously, if I had to choose between never having any meat again or cooking all the bacon I wanted but no cheese or eggs, I would give up meat in a heartbeat.

Although a dilettante in the world of veganism, I knew I didn't just want to make my standard recipes with soy cheese, soy milk, and vegan margarine.  I wanted to think about how to get flavor, richness, and protein without animal fats.  So here is what we ate this week.

Otsu with Chipotle-Marinated Tofu

This is a delicious and simple meal that comes together very rapidly (note that you need to swap out brown sugar for the honey to make it vegan).  I'm sure that the tofu is lovely prepared just as described in the recipe, but I marinated it in a mix of about three chipotles in adobo, the juice of half a lemon, three cloves of garlic, and enough soy sauce to loosen everything up.  This gave the tofu lots of flavor but when I dropped it on the grill pan, I started coughing like I'd been hit with pepper spray.  So open your windows first!

Jamaican Veggie Pies

After Geoff's first bite, he asked, "Are all of our dinners this week going to be as good as the first two nights? This isn't sacrificing at all."  The filling of these veggie pies have all the warm spices you would expect from jerk chicken and the coconut milk adds a creaminess that adds to the comfort level.  The texture of the crust was the perfect crispy, flaky contrast for the filling.  However, it was a challenge to work with.  The solid coconut oil is meant to have the same effect as butter in the crust.  You keep it cold while working it into the dough and then it melts as the dough cooks.  I over-chilled the coconut oil and it became rock-solid and difficult to work with.  I wasn't patient and ended up with large chunks in my crust which became gaping holes  when baked.  Don't be like me.

Chana Punjabi 

This is actually something I've made before.  It is easy and quick if you use canned chickpeas.  I like to add in okra so that I don't have to serve a vegetable on the side.  Most times of the year I use frozen okra and just slide it into the sauce with about 10 minutes left.  Quick and easy.

Falafel Sandwiches with Homemade Pita

This is another of my go-to vegetarian recipes so it wasn't much of a stretch for us.  However, I usually smother the falafel in tzatziki and feta, not allowed this week!  Instead I made the tahini sauce called for in the recipe.  Honestly, I didn't really miss the dairy.  When I make falafel, I usually use canned chickpeas because they don't require soaking.  It takes a little more flour to bind the batter, enough to make it look like cookie dough.  Crispy-creamy pucks of falafel on chewy homemade pita, these sandwiches are delicious but messy!

I made the dough for the pitas the night before and left it in the refrigerator to let it develop flavor.  I love making pita, mostly just to watch them puff up on the griddle!  Freshly cooked pita is a real step up from store-bought.

Mushroom Ragout with Spinach Polenta

Obviously, this dish is not vegan as written.  I made the polenta with veggie stock and mixed in a full pound of spinach. I thought about cooling the polenta and then pan-frying it.  The extra bit of crispiness would have been a welcome contrast.  But I was too lazy.

Green Curry with Butternut Squash

The recipe is described as Asian comfort food and I am inclined to agree.  Although it takes a a bit of time to chop all of the vegetables, the spice of the curry paste and the creaminess of the coconut milk (don't use light, it isn't the same here) were a great way to finish the week.  I had a butternut squash on hand so I substituted that for the sweet potato and left out the bamboo shoots.

Vegan Chocolate Mousse

Over the course of the week, I was reminded that I don't really like soy milk (I was drinking Silk, there may be other options that I would like better) because it is too sweet.  In my morning smoothie, unpalatable, but on oatmeal or in this truly decadent mousse, pretty tasty.  Instead of eating it as is, we froze it into vegan fudgesicles!  The texture was great, but the flavor was a little bitter.  I used dark chocolate and didn't sweeten it, Geoff thought it would be better with a little sugar.

I liked them, Geoff wasn't so sure.

We also checked out the Cove which features all local ingredients with a specialty in vegetarian and vegan food. We went on Tuesday and Geoff played at their open mic night!  

I ordered what may be the world's most oxymoronic dish - the vegan bacon cheeseburger. It was surprisingly tasty - the soy bacon was better than turkey bacon, though not as good as real bacon.  But who are we kidding, nothing is.  The faux cheese and faux mayo were quite creamy and the mushroom-seed burger was rich and almost meaty.  This however was the treat of the night:

Watch the Video for Geoff's original "Not a Fool":