Random December things

Week leading to the big day:  Working on the presentation. A two-screen system really helped me, I could have several files opened at once and keep track of several things.

My audience while rehearsing, in order of decreasing size, Napoleon Buggle Bear, Tommy Blue Bear, Mike Gummy Bear Tiger, and Bandit Bear Monkey.

December 16, after the big day: my labmate Paula and I at J. Clyde.

December 17: Tom baked a wonderful loaf and made some french onion soup

December 18: went to my department's holiday party, and then came home and baked cookies for the out-of-town BFFs. This year, we did white chocolate chips and coconut cookies and butterscotch oatmeal cookies. I also made a batch of pecan pralines.

Oh what fun it is to...

be Ph.inishe.D :)

I had my defense yesterday, and my parents were able to participate via Skype. It's amazing what technology can do.
We celebrated starting at 4:30 pm at the J. Clyde with Paula, then Tom joined, and gradually our friends joined in the fun too. We had such a blast!
Today has been a day on the couch even though I have so much stuff to do. Main reason: we got home at around 2 am (we were responsible to walk home from the bar). At 5 am I woke up and heard running water. I remembered in my half-asleep state that neither the dishwasher nor the washer was running, and wondered if we had left the tap on in the kitchen. Oh no, we didn't. The water inlet hose/pipe that connects to the freezer for the ice maker broke, and there was at least an inch of water in our flooded kitchen! Years of dealing with this stuff in Student Housing had me react - turn the water off and then call someone (in that case, I shouted from the kitchen to wake up Tom, who called the landlord). We used about a dozen bath towels, which didn't even make a dent in mopping the water. Fortunately the landlord came within 20 minutes of the call and brought his wet vac. Two hours later, no more standing water and we went back to bed.

Fortunately, we have a washer and a dryer in the house, so today Tom was washing towels, while I was recuperating (I may have had one too many beers). Fortunately, there's a stump in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room. Otherwise our living room would have been flooded and our electronics would have been fried. Fortunately, I woke up when I did - this would have been a disaster if it had happened when we were at work or out of town. Fortunately, our landlord lives next door and he had a wet vac (and he also came to fix the pipe in the afternoon). While it was bad, it could have been worse, a lot worse.

Sunday Deals

A few months ago, I received $10 in Groupon bucks for a referral, and a couple of weeks ago, I used the credit to get a $20 Old Navy Groupon. I had a few items on my wishlist (jeans, shirts, scarves, shoes, etc..), so I figure I would use this Groupon.
Today I went to Old Navy and noticed that some of their layering tees were on sale for $4 and $5 each! So I bought 5 shirts, paid $1.99 and saved a little over $70. It was a good Sunday. A good example of how patience pays off :)

Tasty Tuesday

It's been a while since I posted pictures from the kitchen:
I'm gradually replacing our reusable containers to glass or BPA-free plastics and I had been looking for easy to-go containers for yogurt cups (yogurt, add fruit of choice, add honey if desired; is cheaper, more healthy since you control more of the ingredients, and less waste as opposed to individual small yogurt containers). I couldn't find something that I liked, until I checked Babies R Us when I was picking diapers and other things for gifts and found baby food containers. So now, we can pack our own yogurt cups. We've also used them for breakfast: grits!! I like mine with cheese, T with jam. Pack an apple and out the door.

Sparkpeople inspired: I like inspired, since I don't always follow the recipes exactly. I guess that's me rebelling against the constraints of science experiments where you have to be exact all the time. Plus, I don't always have all the ingredients. I made their salmon burgers accompanied with roasted carrots, potatoes, and asparagus (dressed with olive oil, salt and pepper), and served with a lime wedge and a dill pickle.

No photos for these two:
Pad Thai noodles (recipe said to use tofu, but we had leftover pork from Thanksgiving - see below -; I didn't have tamarind paste, so I used extra lime juice and extra peanut butter)
Slow cooker chicken marinara - I added 2 chopped carrots and 1 red pepper to the recipe since they were not going to last much longer, and didn't have zucchini. The first night we had it with whole grain penne pasta, second day with toast, and third day with Ramen noodles. As weird as it sounds, most Mauritians love Ramen noodles (which we call Apollo), and we cook the noodles with a bunch of veggies, leftover chicken, shrimps, eggs, etc...

Thanksgiving:
We went to our friend's place for a potluck meal(s) and watched the Packers play. Tom and I brought:

Cajun stuffing (cornbread stuffing with andouille sausage). I adapted my usual recipe for the slow cooker. It didn't have that crunch that you get from baking, but it was still yummy. It couldn't all fit in the slow cooker, so I baked whatever couldn't fit in the oven and stored it for future use.
We made a yummy sweet potato casserole that was topped with walnuts and brown sugar rather than marshmallows (no pictures).
We brought a baked brie - lessons learned: do not shop in a hurry (bought pie crust instead of puff pastry! d'oh!); do not attempt to modify this recipe (topped the brie with brown sugar and walnuts, and waited for the sugar to melt at 350 deg F, which didn't happen and we got to the party late); do not put this under the broiler (I looked at someone to say hi, and the moment that I looked away, the nuts got charred!). I scrapped the burnt nuts and people still ate a lot of it. Next time, I'm following the recipe.

 Tom made a tequila lime roasted pork loin, which was fantastic!

 

We also brought these goodies: baked croissants but stuffed with cream cheese, jalapenos, and bacon. Thanks Pinterest!  Basically a jalapeno popper in a croissant! It was glorious, especially since all the jalapenos came from the garden!

Other kitchen happenings:

Last week, Ms. Paula came back from a 10 day trip to Europe. I had a bunch of apples that were not going to last for very long (and I had pie crust from Thanksgiving) so I baked my first apple pie for her. I still need to work on my pastry decoration. I made it one morning before going to lab - it didn't take that long once the apples are peeled and sliced. Bake while getting ready. Allow to cool while listening to tales of Europe! What a Friday! :)

It has gotten much cooler and this past weekend, I decided that our jalapenos were not going to get any bigger. I harvested all of them and pickled them following this recipe, omitting the bay leaves, using regular black peppercorns, using chopped garlic instead of crushed, and replacing apple cider vinegar with white vinegar. Cooled, labelled, and in the fridge. We have yet to try them.

Shopping Saturday

I sent my dissertation to my committee yesterday afternoon, and so today I'm taking a break, sorta. I went on a 3 hour shopping trip, and found some good deals.
1.Target: Tom had Uncharted 3 on his Xmas wishlist. It was on sale for $49.99. I had a coupon, get a $10 Target gift card when you spend $50. Maybe we will use the gift card for Xmas decorations or just groceries.
2. Academy Sports: I got some super comfy snow boots for Wisconsin. They were on sale too.
3. CVS: I had $5 in ECB to use by Monday. While making apple pie yesterday for Paula (more on this on Tuesday), I noticed that I had less than 1/2 cup of sugar left. So last night I checked the CVS ad, and saw that sugar was on sale, plus I had a coupon (saved $1.65 on 4 lbs). I also noticed that contact solution was $8.99, and you got $8.99 in ECB (making it free). Total spent out of pocket at CVS: $7.95. I received $9.99 in ECB ($1 ECB for my green bag tag).

So yes, this was a good start. Next, watch football, book airline tickets, clean the house.
Hope you're having a great weekend!

Oh December, you are here?!!

It's been a busy past couple of weeks.
Thanksgiving came and went, and it was delicious! We went to our friend Colm's house and brought along a few goodies (pictures on the next Tasty Tuesday).
My second paper is officially accepted in Tuberculosis.
My thesis is written - I'm waiting to hear back from my mentor for comments before submitting it to my graduate committee tomorrow.
Our Christmas Tree is up (more on this on another post).
The garden is taking a beating because of the cold weather.

While Thanskgiving is over, it's never too late to reflect on what I am grateful for:
Wonderful, loving, and supportive parents
My relentless cheerleaders, Payal and Tom
Amazing friends, including soon to be in-laws
Stability and security that allows us to afford what we need
Thanksgiving leftovers (last night was the first night that I cooked since Thursday)

Here is the list for December:
Worried about the defense in two weeks
Reading not much else but science papers
Creating imaginary projects around the house
Loving the cooler weather
Hating - not really hating, but my plants are not doing too well
Wondering if I'll be able to finish my Christmas shopping in the weekend right after the defense
Craving root vegetables and Brussels sprouts
Hoping that my computer doesn't crash in the next two weeks
Watching not much
Listening to my labmate's tales of Europe. She just got back from a 10-day vacation
Cooking um nothing, but hopefully, root vegetables
Looking forward to my vacation!

And just like that...

And just like that, things fall into place.

Yesterday, we met up with friends to celebrate my birthday and watch Monday Night Football. I don't have any pictures, sadness; but here is the invitation:

It took a real effort on our part to not announce a few surprises. So here is my list of surprises, or rather things that make me happy:

Graduating soon

My second paper is almost published in Tuberculosis

My birthday

The Packers having an awesome season

A postdoc job lined up at UAB to start in January

My sister is coming to visit in January (I haven't seen her since Dec 2006)

My new Packer shirt (thanks Ms. Laurie)

Going to Lambeau Field to watch the Packers play

But the biggest surprise is that Tom and I got engaged! woot woot! It happened after we set up our camp at Cheaha, right after watching the sunset. More to come later.

Recap

Last weekend, we went to Cheaha for an overnight trip and enjoyed some magnificent views along the way and at McDill Point.  We even saw the remains of a crashed plane.

We set up the camp site, and gathered wood. I started the fire this time! Luckily, our camp site was on a south facing ridge, and the wind was blowing from the north, which made the low temps much more bearable. The wind direction changed late Saturday night/early Sunday morning. When we woke up, we  hastily packed our gear and left.

A couple of weeks ago, Diwali came and went. My parents skyped with me early that morning, and showed me how they decorated the house for the festival (think of decorated houses with mini-lights at Christmas). It was gorgeous but made me a bit nostalgic. In true graduate student fashion, I called in a take-out order from the Indian restaurant and was home at 7 pm. Tom had set up mini-lights in the living room, and had candles going too. We opened a bottle of Wisconsin wine and enjoyed a nice feast. After dinner, I went back to lab and stayed there until the early morning hours.

Yesterday, I went to Costco. My strategy for dealing with Hoover, traffic, and Interstate-65, is to go as early as I can. Since Costco opens at 9:30 am on Saturdays, I left the house and was at the store at 9:40. There were already a lot of cars in the parking lot! I did splurge on two items: a 3-pack of 8GB USB flash drives, a 2-pack travel coffee cup, and 6 huge (1.75L) wine bottles. Tom had suggested that we stock up on everything we needed from Costco until next year, to avoid going to Hoover during the holiday season (Costco is next to the mall).
With all the work being done on I-65, I took I-459 back to US Hwy 280, and then to Lakeshore parkway. It was a much longer trip, but it made me very happy. I got to see all the beautiful fall foliage, reminiscent of our Cheaha trip.

After putting groceries away, some house cleaning happened, and later that night our plans fell through. So we watched THE game (the commentators called it the game of the century but I have doubts that the commentators had all their mental faculty, since they called a clear catch/reception as an interception?). I was very nervous, but my Tigers pulled through! GEAUX TIGERS! Let's see what the Packers do today.

The countdown has started: I have 1 week until my birthday, 3 weeks to get my thesis written and proof-read by my mentor, and 5 weeks before my defense. Yikes!
Focus on the prize, to be Ph-inisheD (get it? finished spelled with PhD; thanks Em!), and a month long vacation.

Tasty Tuesdays

What happens when you have:
3 Idaho potatoes, peeled and chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 medium yellow onions, peeled and chopped
1 can of pumpkin
a couple handfuls of sliced mushrooms
2 chicken breasts
green onion for garnish, chopped
1 tb of butter and olive oil mix
salt and pepper
and chicken stock?

Yummy root vegetable soup of some sort. Sorry, no pictures this time :(

It was kind of a one-pot cooking. Put everything (but the green onions and mushrooms) in a large pot and cook until potatoes are soft, and chicken is cooked through. Take out chicken and shred. The rest went to the blender. Saute mushrooms, green onions, and shredded chicken. Add the blended part and adjust for consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste.

That's the only thing I could do after our backpacking trip this weekend to Cheaha. Even though this was shorter (8 miles) than our Jack's River Fall trip (~17 miles), it was the toughest. Lots of steep ascensions and heavier than usual backpacks (you have to pack more stuff when you are camping at 35F/2C). Maybe I was also out of shape. But we made it back safe and sound.

I will eventually post pictures and tell more stories. For now, I eat soup! Yum!

Happy Divali

Today is Divali, one of my favorite Indian festival.When I was at LSU I would always argue with my friends from India about the meaning of this festival. I guess Mauritian Hindus are different from Indian Hindus. To me this festival celebrates the victory of good over evil. It's also known as the festival of light. The story goes that on this night, this fellow called Ram rescued his bride (Sita) from the evil lord and started walking towards his kingdom. Everyone lit oil lamps and lanterns to help him find the way during the night.

This is also the festival when we make a lot of sweets and you share them with relatives and friends to show appreciation and friendship.

The other day, I found this picture of BFF Grace and me at an Indian reception at LSU. I still have many of my Indian outfits, but haven't worn them in the past 3-4 years now. Maybe we'll do something Indian this evening.