My venus flytrap that I brought to work is blooming. But unfortunately I think it’s one of those last ditch efforts by the plant to produce progeny before it dies. The plant knows it’s dying so it uses up the last of its energy to bolt and create the flowers. And my “mother of thousands” doesn’t look like it’ll be a mother any time soon. Perhaps I should get some plastic plants.
Who’s that weirdo on the end???
Happy Snowshoers?
Oh yeah, that was me.
For some reason, I couldn’t get the rest of them to display much enthusiasm. Though my P.I. did raise his hand.
Copied from Mike’s post at ThisMoment:
On Saturday Jules and I wanted to go on a hike so we drove north in search of a trailhead. We passed by one little lake that only had some fishermen and no signs of trails. Even though I thought Lake Berryessa would have more boat-happy people, we made our way over there.
As it turns out, we were the only ones in the parking lot. In fact, when we got there we didn’t see anyone on the lake at all. No boats, no people. So we decided to walk along the edge of the lake for a while. The water level looked low, but with the recent rains, some of the plants that had started to grow near the water line had become submerged. You can’t really tell from my photo, but there were bubbles forming on the leaves of the plants. Oxygen creation in action?
We continued to hike around and watch the water fowl. Eventually we made our way to a small hilltop overlooking the lake and I gave Jules her birthday present: a small blue bag from Tiffany & Co. I let her unwrap it until she got to the ring case and I promptly snatched it back. I sheepishly got on one knee, opened the ring case and blurted out “willyoumarryme?” at such a rate that Jules didn’t even hear what I said. But she assumed correctly and said yes. At that point I looked at the ring case and noticed I was holding it upside down. Why would the bigger half be on top? That doesn’t make any sense.
After she said yes I proceeded to try and put the ring on her finger. Failure! The ring was too small. So we had to pack it up for later.
After a little while we decided to leave the lake and check out a dam that we saw on the map. The dam itself ended up being fenced off but we got a pretty good view from the parking area. Apparently it has one of the largest spillways of any dam. They actually referred to it on the sign as the “glory hole.” Perhaps they didn’t know?
After the dam we returned back to Yountville to prepare for dinner at Ad Hoc!
It always irritates me when I see feedback that doesn’t really pertain to the quality of the product they are reviewing or the service they received, like, “I love these earrings. Great quality. However, these earrings are smaller than I would have liked, but they are true to size”. And then mark 3 stars out of 5 because the earrings were smaller than they would have liked, even though they knew the exact size before they purchased them. That’s really not the fault of the product, and I don’t think that they should mark a product down for something like that. If they didn’t like them that small, they should have paid attention, and purchased the larger size. There was nothing wrong with the product itself, as they noted.
PS. I bought a pair of earrings from Blue Nile. I like them.
Today I was testing out a protocol for isolating DNA from a strawberry for class tomorrow. It worked beautifully. That white slimy stuff on the stick is the DNA. As well as the bubbly wispy strands floating in the clear portion of the solution. Materials used: strawberries, dishwashing liquid, water, salt and cold 95% ethanol (well, -20C actually).
Protocol taken from The Tech Museum
Each strawberry yields around 25 mls of strawberry extract- enough for 25 students.
For 3 strawberries:
~1/2 tsp salt (2.5 g)
~1/3 cup H2O (80 ml)
~1 tbs liquid detergent (15 ml)
~Chill ethanol (rubbing alc should be fine; no need to break out the Everclear) in freezer
1. Mix salt, water, and detergent together in a bowl to make the extraction liquid. This is double what you need in case you mess up. (~1 tbsp/strawberry).
2. Squish strawberries in a plastic bag.
3. Add 3 tbsp (45 ml) extraction liquid. Squish thoroughly.
4. Strain through a cheesecloth.
5. Aliquot ~1ml, or more, into each tube.
6. Slowly add cold ethanol on top. DNA precipitates at the interface.
1. I’m a procrastinator at heart. It’s a tough battle.
2. I can become very fixated on food when I’m hungry. Don’t get in my way.
3. I’ve never met a food type that I wouldn’t at least try once.
4. I’ve been playing violin for 17 years.
5. I started off playing piano when I was 8 and absolutely hated it. Then I switched to violin and was happier.
6. I have eight piercings in my ears. I don’t wear earrings much anymore.
7. I have contacts, but I only wear them on weekends.
8. My hair has been completely blue, purple and red at different points in my life.
9. I kill plants for a living. I like plants.
10. I’ve never owned a pet.
11. I’ve only ridden on a motorcycle once, and it wasn’t with mike.
12. I lived in the Berkeley Co-op system for the entire duration of my undergraduate career.
13. I’ve played at Davies Symphony Hall and in Miami with my community orchestra.
14. In high school, I’ve toured the eastern coast of Australia and New Zealand for a month, playing with a philharmonic group in portland. It was amazing.
15. I like to follow food blogs.
16. I know random weird things.
17. I have a habit of running people I know off the sidewalk. Their gravity trumps mine.
18. I enjoy minimalism, and like occasional pops of bright colors.
19. I don’t have a favorite cuisine.
20. In elementary school, I messed up in a spelling bee. The word was “balloon”.
21. I don’t like clowns.
22. I prefer walking to bicycling
23. I don’t like to drive, but will if I have to.
24. I once got lost in SF, pulled my car into a parking garage, and called for help. I was one block away from my destination.
25. Vanilla ice cream serves as a vehicle for my crushed pistachios.
My friend Evaly did this on Facebook and I thought it was interesting so here I go!
This week, I got it in my head that I wanted to make cheesecake. I didn’t remember what recipe I used before, but this time, I followed Alton Brown’s Sour Cream Cheesecake recipe . The recipe calls for the use of a 9 inch cake pan. I had 4-4.5 inch springform pans. So what was I to do? Not only was I trying a new recipe, I was also attempting to modify it! And I don’t own an electric mixer. But chopsticks and spatulas have not failed me yet, so I was good to go.
While I stayed fairly true to ingredient amounts, I modified the oven time to account for my individual pans and reviewer comments on how the bake times were too short. I paced about nervously like a soccer mom with too much caffeine. I would turn on the oven lights every ten minutes or so, and violently shake the oven so I could see how much the cheesecake jiggled- much like what people do to the vending machines that refuse to relinquish their product. And the verdict always was: Still jiggly! Curses!
Back to more pacing for ten minutes before I would check again. Mike thought I was a bit loopy. The cheesecake was still very jiggly after 1.5 hours. I gave up and found that it set nicely after I turned off the oven. Whew. The end result turned out quite well.
AB Cheesecake Recipe, modified to produce four smaller cheesecakes:
Crust:
* 1 sleeve plus a few Honeymaid graham crackers
* 3/4 unsalted butter (3 oz) plus a lil
* 1 tablespoon sugar
Filling:
* 20 ounces cream cheese
* 1 1/4 cups sour cream
* 1 cup sugar
* 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
* 2 eggs
* 3 yolks
* 1/3 cup heavy cream
Directions
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Line individual pans with foil, and brush with butter. Fill two large pyrex pans with hot hot water (boiling would be better, but I just turned the tap to the hottest possible setting because I’m lazy) and place in oven to preheat.
Combine crumbled graham crackers, melted butter, and 1 tablespoon of sugar. Press mixture into the bottom of each pan. Place remaining crumbs on foil and bake both the crust and the remaining mixture for 10 minutes. Cool. Reserve additional crumb mixture for sides.
Beat sour cream for 10 seconds. Add the cream cheese and cup of sugar and mix for 30 seconds or so. More if you have lumps.
In a separate container, combine vanilla, eggs/yolks and heavy cream in a small bowl. Slowly pour this mixture into the cream cheese mixture while stirring with a spatula. Once completely combined, pour into cooled crusts.
Lower oven temperature to 275 degrees F. Place cheesecakes into the preheated water baths in the oven for 1.5 hours. Open the oven door for a little bit (10 seconds). Turn the oven off, close door and leave cheesecake to set for one more hour. Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and place in the refrigerator to completely cool. ( I admit that Mike and I ate one right away. It was 11pm, and we wanted cheesecake! 
)
When ready to serve, take the remaining graham cracker mixture and press into the sides of the cake.
