The (work email) system is down...

The email system at work just went down, while our IT folks are away at a conference, of course. The first place my brain went upon our email crashing was here:

Strong Bad Email: Techno/The System Is Down

Have a great Monday! May it be full of safety and happiness, and devoid of unwanted gluten!

Heavy-Hearted

Marathon Monday should have been a day to celebrate. Thankfully, my people in Boston were safe, but my heart goes out to all of those who weren't as lucky. 

Currently

I haven't blogged in a while, so I decided to steal this idea from my friend Jane, who stole it from Eat Live Run. This will help get you caught up with why I haven't been blogging. Although I really should be, because there have been some major developments. My boyfriend's doctor recommended he try a gluten-free diet, so my entire household has been gluten-free! It has been really interesting to see the daily adjustment to gluten-free living, since I haven't been in those shoes in nearly 5 years. 

I'm currently...

Watching... The West Wing. Not sure how I avoided this show for so long, but it is fantastic. Good dialogue, good plot, a young Rob Lowe... everything reality TV lacks. 

Eating... Leftover and discounted Easter candy. Expect to see me 20-30 pounds heavier soon.

Planning... What to do with my life. I got a job offer that seems like a really good (although temporary) career move. It would require me to move to far, far away. It would make my boyfriend and I live apart for another year (after only one year of cohabiting). But my sense of adventure is calling strong and I get the impression that my coworkers there really want to help me make it to the next step in my career. 

Reading... 168 Hours. Jane recommended it to me and I am very slowly reading it. Thinking in terms of weeks and not days has been a helpful mental shift, but I am still having a hard time accomplishing all of the things I need to accomplish. Blogging today is my break from grading papers and never-ending research projects!

Inspired by... Spring? Once it gets a little warmer, I hope to start running again. It is too cold to run in Minnesota in the winter, and I am too poor to join a gym. 

Excited about... Normally I'd say the end of the semester, but that is when my benefits run out, so I'll be looking for affordable health insurance (HA! hahaha like that exists). I'm excited about getting job interviews and an offer, and excited about making a decision so I can start feeling out what the next year will look like. Spring is a time of great possibility! 

Go Get Some Warm Fuzzies!

I wanted to share this with you because it is designed to make you feel good, unlike so much of what is on the internet: www.emergencycompliment.com

Here's an example of one of my favorite compliments:

So, yeah, Disney... if you want an inspirational story about a Julie Andrews-esque woman who was a first generation college student who got a PhD and lives fabulously with a gluten allergy, drop me a comment! 

Chocolate Chip Cookies (in a Cup!)

The windchill has hovered around -35 all day here, which is (a) almost cold enough for frost to show up on the windows in hell, and (b) that's right, cold enough to motivate me to bake. 

I was originally wanted to make a healthy version of chocolate chip cookies with Greek yogurt, because I thought I had Greek yogurt in my fridge. This would help warm the house and produce something warm for me to give to my boyfriend when he came home. Closer inspection revealed, however, that the only Greek yogurt I had was pineapple flavored. I was not willing to leave though house, though, so I decided to make the full-butter, full-sugar Nestle Toll House cookies that my mom used to make for me. 

I used this recipe (seen below), but substituted Cup 4 Cup gluten free flour. My cookies turned out gooey and buttery and satisfying, but I call shenanigans on their claim that this recipe makes 5 dozen cookies. I only got 3 dozen and I don't think mine are THAT big. 

Original NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
• 1 cup chopped nuts

PREHEAT oven to 375° F.

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets. 

BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. 

PAN COOKIE VARIATION: Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan. Prepare dough as above. Spread into prepared pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in pan on wire rack. Makes 4 dozen bars. 

SLICE AND BAKE COOKIE VARIATION:
PREPARE dough as above. Divide in half; wrap in waxed paper. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm. Shape each half into 15-inch log; wrap in wax paper. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.* Preheat oven to 375° F. Cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices; place on ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Makes about 5 dozen cookies. 

* May be stored in refrigerator for up to 1 week or in freezer for up to 8 weeks. 

As I was pulling the last dozen out of my oven, my friend Jane told me about this recipe for a microwavable cookie in a cup. I haven't tried this, but this could have saved me effort and dishes. 

Here's the recipe I am stealing from Jane and Melissa at No. 2 Pencil:

Chocolate Chip Cookie in a Cup

1 Tablespoon Butter
1 Tablespoon Granulated White Sugar
1 Tablespoon of firmly packed Dark Brown Sugar
3 Drops of Vanilla Extract
Small Pinch of Kosher Salt
1 Egg Yolk (discard the egg white)
Scant 1/4 of All Purpose Flour
2 Tablespoons of Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

Start by melting your butter in the microwave. Add sugars, vanilla and salt. Stir to combine. Separate your egg and add the yolk only to your cup. Stir to combine. Add flour, then stir again. Add the chocolate chips, and give a final stir. Cook in microwave 40-60 seconds, start checking for doneness at 40 seconds. Mine takes 50 seconds. 

Serve warm.

FYI, Jane recommends microwaving for longer than 60 seconds. Next time I feel like baking, I'll try doing it the lazy way. 

Then Class Got WEIRD...

In one of my night classes this week, my lesson plan focused on research methods. As any good scientist knows, before you can really get into the heart and soul of research methods, you have to first make sure that students know about the scientific method. In particular I wanted to draw out the distinction between a theory, a hypothesis, and an operational definition. We started by getting examples of developmental phenomena that students noticed. A student volunteered 'babies suck on their toes' as our starting point. This is something we've observed and something that we might be interested in explaining. 

Phenomenon: Babies put their toes in their mouths.

Step two was to come up with a theory that could explain WHY babies put their toes in their mouths. Some of the suggestions were that toes taste good or that babies are curious. I settled on 'toes taste good' as the example theory we'd use. (Note: it would have been better to choose 'babies are curious' for many reasons...)

Theory: Babies put their toes in their mouths because their toes taste good.

Our next step was to come up with a testable hypothesis based on our theory. While theories can be general, hypotheses have to outline a specific, testable relationship between at least two variables. Someone in class noted that after infancy, people pretty much stop putting their toes in their mouths. 

Hypothesis: Babies put their toes in their mouths because baby toes are delicious. They stop putting their toes in their mouths because toddler toes don't taste as good. 

All things considered, it is actually a decent hypothesis because we now have a specific prediction that we can test. We can design a study to see if baby toes might be more delicious than toddler toes. This hypothesis clearly outlines our independent (IV) and dependent variables (DV): we think that the deliciousness of toes (IV) might be related to how often young kids put their toes in their mouths (DV). 

The next step was to operationalize our variables. We had to come up with a specific way to measure both the deliciousness of toes and how often young kids were putting their toes in their mouths. 

Operationalizing our IV (deliciousness of toes): People could lick different baby and toddler toes and rate how good they tasted. Our raters would not know how old the toes were that they were tasting. (Reminder: we expect that young toes will taste better than older toes.)
Operationalizing our DV (how often young kids put their toes in their mouths): Someone could watch babies and toddlers for a specified period of time and count how many times they put their toes in their mouths. (We could have also measured the duration of how long toes were left in mouths.)

This is how we came to discuss the deliciousness of baby toes in class. We started by picking a phenomenon. Then we tried to explain why we might observe it. Before we could discuss ways to collect data to test our theory, we had to draft a testable hypothesis about how two specific variables might be related to each other. And finally we had to come up with a really clear method for measuring our variables of interest. Our operational definitions had to be clear enough that anyone else who wanted to conduct a replication of our study would be able to do so. Not that we'd recommend that anyone conduct a blind taste test of baby toes. 

Sometimes you commit to a path and things just get weird.

Thanksgiving Update

Hi everyone,

I hope you had lovely Thanksgivings with your family/friends/coworkers/self. For the first time in seven years, I did not host a meal for my friends. Mainly because I don't have any friends here yet, but really because I am in driving distance of my family now. Over the years, my Thanksgivings have morphed into a gluten-free smorgasbord of delicious turkey, vegetarian entree, and sides. However, re-entering the regular world meant that there were fewer options this year. Instead of quinoa-based alternative stuffings and crustless pumpkin pies, I was back in the land of traditional stuffing, dinner rolls, and regular pies. This meant less food, but that is probably better in the long run anyway. Gobs of research suggest that caloric restriction may improve longevity. I did team up with my cousin, a recent culinary school graduate, to make some really tasty roasted asparagus with lemon and dill. The original idea came from here, but I didn't look at the recipe after deciding that this was a good idea. The asparagus was so tasty that it will probably become a more frequent visitor to my plate.  

Roasted Asparagus with Lemon and Dill (another half-baked recipe from your Goddess)
Fresh asparagus, or frozen*
Olive oil
Half of a Lemon, juiced and zested
Dill, chopped finely, or dried*
Salt

Trim asparagus. Lightly coat with olive oil and salt and roast in oven at 350 for about 10 min. Make a sauce by combining olive oil, juice of lemon, zest of lemon, and dill until it tastes good to you. Chef Cousin was pretty adamant that the zest go in, since it would make the flavor stronger and richer. Chef Cousin also shook his head in quiet disgust when he noticed how old my dried dill was. Clearly, Chef Cousin was the brains of this operation. After 10 min, turn asparagus and add sauce, then roast for another 10 min. I think our asparagus took about 20-25 min total to roast. 

This dish is best enjoyed eating straight from the scalding hot baking sheet and pretending you're my uncles. 

*same sh*t, different pile :P