Double dinner sunday

Keeping in tune with my resolutions for the year, I made a beef dish for myself on Sunday along with a vegetarian option for elle. Both I thought turned out pretty good, however you'll have to ask elle about the vegetarian one because I was so stuffed after eating mine.

Both came from Giada's amazing book, and neither failed to deliver on everything she talked about with both dishes. The first was tagliatelle with short rib ragu sauce. I've never made a ragu, but pretty impressed by how easy it was. The only downside was the time it took (about 3 hours), but it's the only way to really get the short ribs nice and soft and the sauce good and thick so it sticks to the pasta. Here's some pictures of the process:

Process tomato, onion, carrot, parsley, garlic, 

rosemary, thyme, oregano, and tomato paste.

Pancetta with some olive oil.  YUM.  Fry this for 

3 minutes and get put the pancetta aside.

Flour your short ribs.  Those get browned in your pot.

Add it all together.  Simmer 1.5 hours lid on, 1.5 hours lid off

Remove short ribs from bones (they fall off anyways) 

and shred short ribs, add back in

yumyumyumyumyum.  Rich, fatty, and awesome.

For elle I made a vegetable pasta bake. This smelled just as good as the ragu. Looks like a very very hearty dish, kind of soul-warming if you know what I mean. A great thing about this dish (which Giada mentions), is that you can put it together essentially whenever you want to, then put in the oven about a half hour before you want to serve it. Makes it a good dish if you're having a bunch of people over and doing a few courses. This can be made in the afternoon, then you can spend your time drinking with the guests preparing appetizers.

Making this dish helped me to discover the deliciousness of smoked mozzarella cheese, which I will undoubtedly be using much much much more in the future. This is another easy one. Also, if you want to work on your knife skills, this is the perfect dish to do so with. I had to cut up two zucchini, two squash, an onion and some mushrooms. One mistake I made was leaving this in the oven too long, but it actually hardened the top just a little bit, making for an unexpectedly yummy crunchiness:

Drizzle these with olive oil, salt, and herbs de provence.  Bake for 15 minutes

Top it with cheese and some butter cubes.  

Let that shit sit AS LONG AS YOU NEED TO

This is worth baking only for the smell.

Hopefully I'll have the energy to do this a couple of times.  I was in the kitchen for a good four to five hours making these two, but it was worth it.  I haven't had to make a lunch or dinner yet this week, and it's looking like I won't need to.  

My next project?  Biscotti.  They HAVE to taste better than the ones I buy from the Bucks down the street.  

some science...

All of you who knew me knew this was bound to happen:

I work with a lot of inorganic complexes, meaning they contain metal centers of some sort.  Well, since the world was built the way it was, it commonly means that I get some stuff with really pretty colors.  Here's just one example:

Beautiful color.  I want to bottle this.

The little white chunks you see in the bottom there is sodium metal, which is explosive in the presence of water.  This property also makes it very good at getting rid of small bits of water in organic solvents (small bits means no explosions).  The clear stuff is THF, which is a typical solvent t=hat I use to dissolve a lot the compounds I work with.  Many of the compounds I work with are very sensitive to water, meaning that even a small bit can pretty much ruin whatever I'm trying to do.  This picture helps to avoid that.  By placing the sodium metal into the flask filled with THF, we can eliminate any traces of water that might be present, ensuring we're working with water free chemicals.  The blue color is from benzophenone, which is just another organic chemical.  What's special about it is what happens when it reacts with sodium:

When it makes that thing on right (called a radical for those with some chemistry experience), it turns blue.  If there is water in the THF (water eats up radicals really really well), it won't turn blue, meaning there's too much water for the solvent to be used.

The bad part about working with these things is that they're pretty dangerous.  If someone messes up and gets a significant amount of water in the still, it blows up like a bomb since THF is very flammable.  Yup, that's how I roll.

a room without a view...

Just to give you a little window into my work world, I wanted to show you my desk:

Don't laugh, the periodic table actually helps...

Notice the complete lack of a window.  The closest window is three desks down, just in the right place so I can't see out the window whether I'm at my desk or doing chemistry at my bench and hood.  Thank god the view from the window is so great:

Paradise

Anybody else out there with awful desks/views?  The only thing I'm lucky about is that my desk is huge.  I never have to worry about space.  But that's about it.

my resolutions

I think a lucky seven is good:

1) Get back in shape - I was in great shape before the wedding, but it's kind of gone down hill from there.  This is a popular one.  For me, it's really just about convincing myself I have the energy when I get back from work to go work out.

2) Find a place to live in for more than a year - I'm tired of moving.  As much of a fan as I am of my current streak (which looks to make it to a full 10 years), I hope to move only one more time. It's gonna have to be a cheaper, two bedroom apartment though.  Elle and I need space to grow into, and one bedrooms are simply too small for a married couple who are starting to accumulate "grown-up" furniture like couches and bookcases.  That and I want an office type area, especially if we stay here once I get my Ph.D.

3) Make it to Europe - I don't think this is gonna happen (see my last post), but I'm gonna try.  Even if it's some "easy" place like London.

4) Read somewhere between 10 and 20 books - I have a stack of literature that I really want to get through (The Blank Slate, Guns Germs and Steel, A Random Walk Down Wall Street, Capitalism and Freedom included).  They help keep me centered too; reading too much chemistry literature puts me in a bad mood and makes me antisocial.  I'll take any good fiction suggestions as well.  I tend to not like fiction, but I've really been enjoying New Yorker fiction pieces.  

5) Cook more red meat - This is a tough one since Elle doesn't eat it, but I need to move in that direction as an aspiring cook.  I have enough pasta and chicken dishes mastered that I can whip something up really quick for Elle that she can eat.  I'm salivating at the thought of things like braised short ribs, pot roast, and pulled pork.  YUM!

6) Publish the equivalent of one full first author paper -  I say the equivalent because two small "communications" usually equals one full paper.  I'd say I could do one full and one communication, but the review process takes FOREVER for some of the journals we publish in.

7) Get outside more - There's been times in the last few months where I've gone into work in the morning when's it dark outside and left at night when it was dark outside.  Lab sucks because I ALWAYS need to be inside and my desk is in the corner of our lab with NO WINDOW.  I'm gonna do whatever I can to get at least a little bit of fresh air every day.  

I think this is plenty for 365 days worth.  

Holiday Glory

As promised, here's my holiday style post:

This year was a little different from previous years since I'm married now.  Instead of Elle and I going our separate ways and being apart for four or five days, I split time in Cleveland and Memphis (since she was in Cleveland for Turkey Day).  I didn't feel right not going home since my mother's bday is on Christmas day.  So, I flew home first thing on the 23rd and spent the day with my mom.  A few highlights:

-This is how I started out.  We only left 40 minutes late, which makes me very lucky, but it was definitely a bad omen for the rest of the Christmas travelers:

- My sister bought me a Calvin Klein giftcard a year ago not realizing that you could only spend it at the outlets.  Well, outlets aren't that convenient without a car living in Chicago.  Since I arrived in Cleveland at like 8:30 AM, my mom and I drove straight to Aurora Farms and i used that gift card like SNAP.  It was good, I got a bunch of good undershirts and a black skinny tie that I badly needed.  It was practically xmas before xmas. 

- As you may know, we have a variety of wildlife populating our back yard. Well, it wasn't deer this time, it was gigantic squirrels.  These things were HUGE thanks to their winter stashing:

You can't see it very well, but that thing was enormous.

- For my mom's birthday, we gave her the royal treatment on the 23rd.  We picked her up in a limo, went out for steaks and drinks for dinner, and topped it off with the Rockettes show downtown.  It was AWESOME.  Even better, an ice storm moved in during dinner and since we had the limo all night, we didn't have to worry about any of it.  I dressed up super fancy since I'll take any excuse to:

Happy birthday Mom!

- That night I decided to sleep at my sister's place because my brother had been staying there.  All us kids got to hang out and drink a little more.  I passed out on the couch for the night, but luckily woke up to this:

Why do I love Anne Curry so much?  I don't know, I just do.

- Christmas Eve was much more tame.  My brother and his kids came over for dinner, which was my mother's amazing lasagna.  Highlights of the night?  First, my brother brought along Kona, his awesome black lab, who I hung out with all night.  Second, Braeden, my nephew.  This kid is pretty bright for a two year old.  He was placing pieces of lasagna into this water bottle like it was no problem.  The kid is two!  Should his motor skills be this advanced?

Gross, but okay since it's a kid.

- Christmas Day started out not so great.  I got to the airport at 6am for my flight, and it ended up being delayed for about two hours.  Sitting in the airport on Christmas morning is not cool.  I caught up on some reading and listened to music.  Once I got to Memphis it was AWESOME.  Elle's whole family gave me the greatest away from home Christmas I could imagine, complete with hot toddy's and lots of presents.  I was pretty tired all day, so no pictures from that day.

- Day after Christmas was cool.  Went to an NA meeting with Elle's sister, which was pretty powerful.  Really gives you good insight into everything addicts go through.  Honestly, I don't think I could do it.  

- Volunteered to make dinner that night.  It turned into an all afternoon/night affair, but went over well.  I got a new book from my mom, so I cooked almost straight from it.  Here's the hits:

1. Tyler Florence's garlic bread recipe is AWESOME.  Take a loaf of bread, cut strips into it without cutting all the way through.  Food process a stick of butter, six cloves garlic, half bunch basil, and quarter cup of parmesean cheese until well blended.  Spread it through the bread, then bake at 325 for 30 minutes.  This stuff was just unreal.  And way too easy.

2. Rosemary-Garlic Mozzarella Balls with Roasted Cherry Tomato Dipping Sauce - Like really really really really really good cheese sticks.  Alexgood was a lot of help with these.

3. Veal Piccata with Lemon, Capers, and Parsley-Butter Sauce - I overcooked the veal just a little bit, but I thought it was a success overall.  The hardest part?  Cooking for 8 instead of 2.

4. I also made some amaretto brownies, but the pan I cooked them in wasn't big enough so I ended up with a really dry top that we pretty much picked off in one piece.  They were still pretty good, but pictures were not flattering at all.  I'll make them again someday.

- Another great part about Memphis: the dogs.  I don't have any pictures of Monty, but Moe is pretty much the greatest dog ever.  If I had the time and space to properly train one, I'd get a pit bull right away.  How can you not love this beautiful sweet dog?

Sitting pretty.

When I show up in Germantown, the first thing this dog wants to do is play rope toy with me.  And it does not stop until I leave.  This is 10 minutes before we left for the airport ride home. And it's like 6 in the morning.  Limitless energy.  

All in all, it was a good holiday.  Wasn't as relaxing as I might have hoped, but I think that had to do more with the traveling than the people.  Getting on a plane every two days is exhausting, but it was all worth it.  

the catch up game

After a fair amount of wifely nagging, I'm back on the blog wagon.  I'll start with the 25 random things post, and then follow up with my Christmas.  Here goes (this feels like one of those old school chain letters, but whatever):

1) I do actually have glasses, although I rarely wear them.  If I am wearing them, it probably means I'm writing a lot at work or not getting much sleep.

2) Over the course of seven years, I played football, baseball, soccer (three different positions, including goalie), hockey, volleyball, track, and cross country.  Cross country was by far what I was best at (hence why I still actually enjoy running long distances), and the last thing I discovered.  All the previous sports were really just me trying to find something I really liked.  

3) Up until the age of 21, I was an altar boy, cantor (read the readings), and eucharistic minister in various Catholic churches.

4) I contemplated becoming a priest in grade school.  Seriously for about two years.  

5) I'm an atheist.

6) I have hearing loss in both ears: moderate to severe in my left and moderate in my right.  At one point it was deteriorating so bad they thought I was going to go deaf, but it stopped getting worse.  I have hearing aids, but rarely wear them.  I don't HAVE to have them, but they actually help, especially in crowded places.  

7) I graduated 7th in my high school class.  Yeah, I was a nerd, and as a consequence had no friends leaving high school.  Let's just say I never miss my high school days.  They sucked.

8) Since turning 18, I have not lived in the same place for more than one year.  Chances are I will make it a full 10 years, since elle and don't really like were we live right now.  

9) When I was a kid, my father convinced me that Wendy's hamburgers tasted so good because they were kangaroo meat.

Yeah, I thought I was eating these delicious creatures.

10) I was a fat kid.  Like as in I wore "husky" pants.  Puberty + cross country leaned me out significantly.

11) My mother almost bled to death when I was 13.

12) I have a serious travel bug and no finances to try and satisfy it.  I still have a goal of getting to every continent except Antarctica before 30, but I doubt I'll get anywhere for another 4 years.  It also doesn't help that elle doesn't enjoy traveling nearly as much.

13) I wonder almost weekly if I would have been better off never leaving Hopkins.

14) I rarely dream (like once every few months).  I know we dream every night, but I rarely wake up saying "I had a dream last night."  

15) I love cold weather.  Something about walking around when it's ridiculously cold out, I don't know.  

16) I love cigarettes.  If smoking didn't cause lung cancer among a thousand other things, I'd smoke a pack a day.

17) I've never taken a single illegal drug in my life.  Nope, not even weed.

18) I have a soft spot in my heart for Tegan and Sara, Dido, and Sarah McLachlan (Fumbling Towards Ecstasy will always be an awesome album).  That will come as a surprise to those who know who I usually listen to.

I think this makes me emo before emo was emo.  Or just the reason every girl I knew in high school thought I was gay

God I love The Con

19)  I am a big big fan of the NFL, especially the Browns.  The Browns are by far my favorite team, but I can watch any game at any time (ask elle, she'll tell you)

20) I didn't watch Disney movies as a kid.  Don't remember Bambi, Snow White, any of that stuff.  What I do remember is Inspector Gadget and Looney Tunes.  Oh, and Animaniacs.

21) My dad raced supermodifieds every Saturday during the summer for the first 15 years of my life.  It's some of the best family memories I have

22) I grew up a quarter mile from Lake Erie.  I don't feel right unless I'm living near a real body of water (sorry St. Louis, thank you Baltimore and Chicago)

23) I find cleaning somewhat therapeutic (lucky for Elle.  Please remind her of this)

24) I LOVE video games, but just don't really have time to play.  I used to be a huge Final Fantasy guy

This brings back actual good memories from high school.

25) Since moving to Chicago, I rarely drive.  I don't miss it at all.  

I don't know how much of this is unknown to the readers, but I guess I'll find out. 

Major decisions

As you all may know, I've been dealing with a certain amount of issues with school and my life.  Things, to say the least, have been tough.  However, I have a decision I need to make in the next seven days that makes my life troubles pale in comparison:

I have to pick a new phone

My T-Mobile contract is almost up, and the wife is making me switch to AT&T so we can go on a family plan and save some money (I agreed to it months ago, but I bitch nonetheless). I'm down to two phones, and I'm truly torn.  Now, I know when most of you hear AT&T, you think one thing:

Yup, the iPhone.  It's a great phone, and has surpassed the Razr as the best selling mobile phone.  It's got all the cool Apple based features, apps, and the music player built in.  But I just don't know.  Something about it just doesn't sit well with me.  I really can't explain it.  

So here's the other phone I'm thinking about:

The Blackberry Bold.  I've owned a Blackberry Pearl for the last year and a half, and I've loved it as a phone.  I could get another one since it's so popular and still sold, but I don't want another Pearl for the next two years.  I've moved on.  However, this new Blackberry is definitely sexy and it has all the good Blackberry stuff that goes with it.  And a full keyboard.

Part of the lure of the Blackberry might have to do with the fact that it's a little more grownup than the iPhone.  I'm sure lots of important businessmen have iPhones, but when I imagine myself hustling to my job on LaSalle street in my nicest suit, good shoes, and skinny black tie, I imagine having a Blackberry on my ear (sell my JP Morgan stock now!), not white Apple headphones in my ears (unaware of the pummeling my best mutual fund is taking).  

Now, if AT&T had the Storm, it wouldn't even be a question.  This is why I get to bitch about the Family Plan.  Ugh, this decision is going to SUCK.