Longest bike ride of my life thus far!

Today Alicia and I biked from the apartment out to Dexter and back, going through downtown Ann Arbor and along Huron River Drive. For good reason, this road is widely known as the most scenic bike route around, and there were tons of bikes on the road today. (I learned that there are many ways to acknowledge fellow cyclists on the road: the head nod, the low left-hand wave, the left- or right-hand finger raise, or some combination of the above. I think I prefer the head nod and left-hand finger raise – it’s hard to miss and doesn’t throw off your balance.)

I had planned to do a 25-30 mile ride today, in keeping with my training schedule for One Helluva Ride. I’ve been slowly increasing my weekly mileage, and trying to increase my long rides by 5-10 miles each week. Last week we biked ~22 miles round trip, and prior to this weekend, my longest bike ride ever was 26.2 miles. (It is notable that I biked a marathon in the same time it took the women’s Olympic marathon team to run theirs. Tried not to feel demoralized… Failed…) I’d never ridden on Huron River Drive, mostly because it’s a few miles from the apartment just to get there, and I was never game for a longer ride. Until today…

The key to making this ride a success was the Dexter Bakery. A convenient and delicious destination (and having some kind of destination makes biking so much more fun), it marked the halfway point of our ride. We got some really delicious raspberry-and-cream-cheese filled muffins (which were sort of like cornbread meets cake), the perfect fuel to get us home (except for the cream cheese part, which neither of us ate).

When all was said and done, we’d ridden 28.8 miles, and happily made it home (I was only concerned for a brief stretch that I wouldn’t make it up a hill)! I stretched a bunch, and am planning to do so again later this afternoon to avoid the pain and suffering of hip flexors and quads less than 1/4 their usual length…

Led astray…

Mark Bittman is one of the few people outside my close friends and family that I trust almost unquestioningly. His How to Cook Everything and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian are my go to cookbooks, and his column in the New York Times inspires me on a pretty regular basis. (The 101 Simple Salads article was a particularly notable hit!) When I got an invitation to a barbecue earlier this week, I immediately thought of baked beans, and remembered a recipe I’d tried a while back from the aforementioned How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. The recipe is vegan, and includes kombu, the seaweed used to make dashi, the delicious broth in lots of Japanese soups. What I did not recall about the recipe, however, is that the cooking time is not correct.

Last night I put the beans (a mix of small kidneys and cranberry beans, both slightly larger than the called for navy beans, which should have been a red flag) into the crock pot. I left them for a bit, until they got as big as the crock pot and wouldn’t fit anymore. At that point I sautéed the onion and tomatoes, added the mustard and molasses, and combined everything with some water in a larger baking dish. I baked the beans for an hour, and then put them in the fridge for the night. I got up this morning (just before 6am; thank you, Walter) and put the beans back in the oven for another hour and a little bit. When it was time to leave I put them back in the fridge for the day and headed to school. At this point they had cooked for several hours in the crock pot and two hours in the oven. I anticipated 1-1.5 hours left to soft, creamy baked beans. I came home after my seminar and put them back in the oven. Two and a half hours later it was time for my barbecue and the beans were still vaguely crunchy! They cooked for a total of 4 hours in the oven (compared to the 3 hours described in the recipe) as well as in the crock pot and still weren’t done! I put them in the fridge, went to the barbecue (after picking up some ready-made salads at the grocery store), and had a great time. After I came home, I turned the oven back on, put the beans in, and went on a bike ride. (Don’t worry, Alicia was home with the oven on.) When I got back, they were just about done – they only cooked for 5+ hours and were finally ready. Without further ado:

Baked Beans
adapted from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman

1/4 cup neutral oil, like grapeseed or corn
2 medium onions, chopped
1 large can diced tomatoes, mostly drained
1 5-inch piece kombu
1 pound dried beans
1/2 cup molasses
2 tablespoons prepared mustard
salt and pepper to taste

Soak the beans overnight or get them started in a slow cooker for a few hours.

Preheat the oven to 300F. Heat the oil over medium-high heat and add the onions. Stir until the onions are soft and golden. Add the tomatoes and stir until they smell good – another few minutes.

Add the kombu, molasses, and mustard, mixing well. Combine with the beans in an ovenproof pot or casserole or a cake pan, and add enough water to cover. Cover with a lid or foil and bake for 2 hours. Stir and add water if necessary to cover the beans, and put them back in the oven until the beans are completely cooked, another 1-2 hours (this will vary a lot with the size of the beans).

Sprinkle with salt and pepper, stir well to help break up the kombu, then taste and add more molasses or mustard as necessary. Turn the oven up to 400F, and bake uncovered for 30 minutes so that the beans are creamy and the liquid has thickened. If they still taste crunchy, simply add a little more water, cover, and bake at 350F until they are done.

120 miles!

I’ve biked just over 120 miles as part of my training for One Helluva Ride in July. Today, I biked a 10 mile interval workout with the end point at the Farmer’s Market. This was lovely, and the morning ride was much cooler than later in the day. I picked up green onions, asparagus, spinach, and some greenhouse tomatoes, and saw the woman who runs my winter CSA picking up strawberries to freeze – yum!

I’d checked the weather report before I left, and while it said 100% change of thunderstorms around 11am, it was only 30% at 8am (when I left the house). This seemed like good odds to me. Lesson here: do not gamble. As I left the market the thunder began, and by the time I was at the bridge over the river, large droplets began dampening by jersey (and shorts, and helmet, and bike, and bag)… I made it home before the downpour began (see below), but just barely. Drying off now…

Schedules and things I don’t want to do

In general, I’m pretty organized and disciplined. (Stop laughing, all of you…) I make schedules and to-do lists and put reminders into my phone. In spite of this, and perhaps, at least a little bit, because of it, I am also singularly good at putting off things I really don’t want to do.* Most of you, I’m sure, have to-do lists that look like mine and you know that there are always a million things to do. Usually 999,999 of them get completed within a reasonable time frame, but that last one can get dragged along for quite a long time before you realize that it is the one thing that you only really allotted 2 hours for each week, and then you somehow filled those up with other projects that really, truly, needed that extra 30 minutes each to stay on track.

I’ve realized that often this happens with projects that I’m not sure how best to get done, or where I need help but am hesitant to ask for it. Sometimes it happens when someone else has dropped the ball and I’m overwhelmed at the possibility of picking up all the slack. Sometimes it’s both of those things plus some other stuff. Whatever the situation is, it invariably leaves me feeling vaguely irritable. Sadly, there is no way to get rid of the irritable feeling without doing something. Generally that something is work… on the abandoned project… until it’s done…

Here it goes…

*I know that at least some of the commas in this sentence have to be wrong, but I don’t know which ones. To those of you who care, I am so sorry… And please, let this apology carry through the entirety of this post which is filled with a unique combination of appropriate and inappropriate commas.

The data arrived!

I think I’ve already told everyone I’ve talked to in the last 24 hours or so, but I’m still pretty excited. I mailed my completed application for the Add Health restricted data set in early February, with hopes that it would take 4-6 weeks to process, maybe 8 weeks if things got difficult. Instead, it took a solid 3.5 months, arriving yesterday afternoon. This, I have learned, is why we build time into dissertation schedules.

Now that it’s arrived, it’s time to really get to work. This is a little scary, as it seems like I’ve been working. I’ve been pushing my way through the programming for the computational model that comprises the final 1/3 of my dissertation, and have thankfully realized in the last few weeks that I’m actually almost done with it. There are still some parameters to set and experiments to run, but most of the really frustrating stuff is done. After a minor crisis of confidence as others in my program are publishing papers and moving along their paths, I realized that I’m moving along too! Fingers crossed, I will have a draft of (ironically, as it's likely to be the 1st one done) the 3rd paper of my dissertation within the next few weeks. And if all goes well with the data, the rest of it can a follow along soon.

Walter’s Day Out, or Gratuitous Dog Photos

Today was by far the warmest day so far this year – my computer still says it’s 79F and it’s 7:30pm. It was also sunny, making it the perfect day to meet up with Ashley and Ferdinand for a walk in the Arb. I was a littler nervous about how Walt would respond to Ferdinand, given his frequent difficulty with larger boy dogs, and Ferdinand is nothing if not a gigantic boy dog, but my fears proved unfounded and they got along swimmingly. We walked and had a lovely time, and when Walt got hot and a little tired, he just relaxed in the shade.

And then rolled in the grass trying to rid himself of the just-bathed smell he had from yesterday.

Back at Ashley’s, she pointed out the gigantic rawhide bone with which she simply couldn’t interest Ferdinand. After a few sniffs, Walter went to town on it. It was only slightly too big, having been intended for a dog slightly over 4 times his weight…

Here is Ferdinand after noticing that Walter is chewing his bone, perhaps realizing for the first that it is an exciting and delicious treat.

And then, here is Ferdinand enjoying his bone after Walter was distracted by a treat.

Thankfully it was time to head home, as Ferdinand growled a little at Walter and then Walt just sat and whined pathetically while he watched Ferdinand enjoy the bone… It was a great time, and I just might have to get Walt the most gigantic rawhide the world has ever seen…

Malawi gay couple get maximum sentence of 14 years

From the BBC :

A judge in Malawi has imposed a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison with hard labour on a gay couple convicted of gross indecency and unnatural acts.

The judge apparently wanted to make them an example after they were arrested for holding an engagement ceremony in their home.  This is terrifying, and falls closely on the heels of the proposed death sentence for homosexuality in Uganda.  

What I fail to see is how the two men were harming anyone by affirming their commitment to one another.  When I read these articles, I end up back in the same circle of logic and anger that the social conservatives in the US regularly provoke in me, wondering how a government (or anyone, really) who claims to have the best interest of it’s people at heart can truly believe that a) people will change their sexual orientation if they believe they will be harshly punished for it and b) that allowing people to live openly in consensual adult relationships will threaten the moral fabric of society. 

I also worry about the message this sends to LGBTQ youth around the world.  Thankfully, I’m not the only one worrying about this.  If you’re feeling a little down after reading this short post, check out this short PSA of Harry Potter telling queer kids to be proud of who they are. 

Just embrace the nerdiness…

This summer I’m participating the Preparing Future Faculty Seminar run by the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching here on campus. It’s been great so far. We’ve discussed lots of different issues facing new faculty, particularly as they relating to teaching, and I’m really enjoying myself. In addition to having a little knitting time during the week (Yay for a foolproof method to stop fidgeting!), I’ve worked on my teaching philosophy statement and am starting to work on my very own course syllabus. As in, for a course I would teach by myself…

I don’t know if this happens to other people* but sometimes I just get overwhelmed with the sheer magnitude of my nerdiness and really have to revel in it (or get vaguely sad about the kinds of things I find exciting). This happened last week when I created the embedded poll about what I’ll be doing on my last few days in Vienna and the surrounds. It happened again this week when I started working on my course syllabus. I realized that I could design the course I’d always wished I could take. I know that ultimately there will be institutional barriers and instructional limitations, and that even tomorrow my feedback team might tell me that no human being could cover all of this in a single semester, but for now, I’m excited about it. It combines all of the exciting aspects of looking at a course catalogue without the limitations of what other people are interested in. I mean, I hope there will be enough students interested in complex systems (what I’d particularly like to teach) to support a class, but that doesn’t matter right now. All that matters is that I really wants to take my class!

*Actually, I know a few other people this happens to, I just don’t know how universal the experience really is…

One Helluva Ride…

If you’ve met me even once, or read more than one post on this blog, I’m willing to bet that you know I work best when I have a goal. The more concrete, the better, and the more likely I can break it down into subgoals that I can cross off of a list as I accomplish them, even better yet. Those of you who have known me a little longer will know that I am a wee bit competitive. I have channeled this in recent years to be competitive with myself, rather than with others (mostly in order to stay sane – med school does not go well if you really try to compete with everyone), but I remain oddly intrinsically motivated to constantly one-up myself. Imagine my delight then, when, upon completion of ActiveU – the university’s valiant attempt to motivate students, staff, and faculty to move during the winter – I received my last reminder e-mail with links to various training calendars! If there is anything I love more than a goal, it is a calendar! I perused the list, drawn immediately to the walking and biking calendars. Having already trained for a walking event (The Breast Cancer 3 Day Walk with mom) once before, I thought I might give biking a chance. I printed off the beginning and intermediate calendars and headed home.

Looking at both of those training plans, I wasn’t quite sure where to start. I certainly felt up to biking more than 2-3 miles each day, but I have also never gone on a bike ride where my average speed was 20 miles per hour – the stated goal of the beginning calendar. I was more interested in the longer distances emphasized by the intermediate calendar than the faster speeds set forth as goals for the beginning calendar. Then, Alicia mentioned the possibility of training for The Ride Through Hell (, MI) – One Helluva Ride organized by the Ann Arbor Bicycle Touring Society. The ride is July 10, and offers routes that are 15, 30, 39, 64, 77, and 100 miles long. Alicia biked the 39 mile route last year, and I opted out (since the shorter routes had a different starting point and I wouldn’t have been able to ride with her at all). Looking at my calendars, I’ve decided to do either the 64 or 77 mile ride. In previous years, only the 77 and 100 mile rides actually went through Hell (the others only get sort of close), and I thought I’d kind of like to hit that mark if possible. However, this year apparently due to road conditions none of the routes will actually go through the town. Alicia has also just pointed out that we can register for the 77 mile ride, and, if necessary, on the day of the ride we can request the 64 mile map. This seems like a good plan, and I think that planning for the 77 mile ride will push my training that much more.

Things I have already done in preparation:

• started increasing my mileage gradually from my usual commute
• joined bikejournal.com to track my rides
• spent countless time trying to figure out how to create a widget that would put my mileage on the blog, to no avail*
• ordered an awesome Helluva Ride jersey

*There seems to be consensus that this is not easy to do with Bike Journal. However, it is the most popular tracking site, apparently in part because they almost never change their format at all, so you can track for long periods of time without losing information or learning a new system every few months. Also, because so many people are on it, and they rank their riders based on distance, it fuels a little friendly competition/pride in increasing mileage. I'll keep trying...

Prague or Budapest?

I’m heading to Vienna in July for the International AIDS Conference and have arranged to get there a little early and stay a little late. Since the flight is so expensive, and the hostels are not, it seemed foolish to get there without doing a little traveling on my own. I’ll arrive July 16, and head straight to Salzburg. I’m anticipating getting there by early afternoon, staying the night, and see the sights on the 17th before heading back to Vienna that evening. The conference starts the morning of the 18th, and runs through the 23rd. I’m planning to see Vienna during times when there aren’t conference events, and I think that over the course of the five days, I should have plenty of time. Once the conference ends, the dilemma begins. Ruti said I must see Prague. Mom said that Budapest was one of the highlights of her travels. Both are within easy train rides of Vienna, though Budapest is slightly closer. Here’s your chance folks… Send me your vote!

And then there was dumb… (or, an ode to the beauty and wonder that is AAA)

Last night had everything going for it.  I had plans to see a concert with Alicia and even though I didn’t know the band, she generally has good taste and I enjoy live shows.  I also had plans to meet Ferdinand, the newest member of a friend’s family, a 104 lbs Ridgeback/Mastiff mix.  A carefully choreographed drive around downtown allowed all of these things to happen, and they were lovely. 

Ferdinand was, as promised, the most loveable 104 lbs you can possibly imagine.  The best adjective I can think of to describe him is lumbering, but will post pictures at some point so that you can judge for yourselves how gigantic and mellow this dog is. 

The concert was also great.  It was a little late for me, but that is sort of par for the course at this point for most things that don’t also cater to little kids or the elderly.  The opener was pretty good, which I consider to be nothing short of a miracle, and the band itself was a lot of fun.  I’d never heard of the Local Natives until the day before the show, but they had some good songs and the crazy hipster clothes (including a huge sweatshirt-material poncho) were fabulous.

And then there was dumb…  I feel a little like I was misled, as I did, in fact, click the lights in the car from completely on to not-entirely-on, but also did not click them to not-entirely-off.  For those of you who have known me for a long time, you may recognize that this feels a bit like a regression to my younger days of locking my keys in the car with the radio on, simultaneously killing the battery and preventing me from getting into the car.  Even for those of you who haven’t, you will recognize this as a departure from my usual responsible self, and understand the outrage I experience when I realize I’ve done something like this, particularly at 11:30pm on a weekday.  After the amazing Ruti came downtown and we attempted to jump my car, we concluded that my jumper cables are not heavy-duty enough for my weak old battery.  We definitely charged the battery a little, but not enough to start the car.  I called AAA around midnight, and by 12:20, there was the happy Brewer’s Towing truck with the crazy jumper cables that could probably be used as a defibrillator, and we were set. 

What a night…

Happy Mother’s Day!

In an homage to mother’s day cards of yesteryear, I offer this message:

Dear mom,

Thanks for being the best mom I ever had.

Love,

Andrea K. K. (in case you weren’t sure which one I was)

Freckles!

Nothing says spring/summer to me like freckles. Being ever so slightly fair of skin, the first sunny day of the year invariably leaves me looking a little pink all over, and with the same distinct freckles that come back every year. Last week, when we had the freakishly warm 80F day, I sat outside for a while. It was lovely, though I got a slight sunburn on my arms and some early seasonal freckles on my face. Welcome spring!

Spring Commencement 2010

I set the alarm for 5:45am this morning, even though it’s Saturday. I knew I would need to take care of the dog, take a quick shower, and get ready to bike down to the stadium this morning to hear the President of the United States give the commencement address I didn’t get when I actually graduated 5 years ago. Unfortunately, as I walked the dog, the lightening and thunder began, and biking seemed like an increasingly less tenable option. A quick text to Ashley, in whose apartment we were planning to leave our bikes, and I confirmed that we could also park the car there and put off braving the rain a bit longer. After some tea and banana bread at Ashley’s (you are amazing Ashley!), we headed out to stand in line to get into Michigan Stadium.

Though I was expecting a TSA-like security nightmare, the lines moved quickly and the Secret Service Police were nice – quick, efficient, and didn’t say much, but nice.

Once through security, we headed toward our seats. Our tickets were for Section 30, Rows 21-68, and we had no idea what to expect inside. Thankfully (as it was still a little before 8am, with commencement starting at 11am), we were able to get great seats in Row 23, which offered a nice view of everything that was going on. In order to entertain the early arrivers, there were a variety of musical acts (of varying quality), pop music over the loud speakers, and puppets making their way around the stadium.

Somehow it didn’t feel like 3 hours just sitting there. (I did get up once to go to the bathroom, which was also a surprisingly quick and easy endeavor.)

While we sat, we noticed the snipers. This gave me an opportunity to use, for what I think was the first time, the full capacity of the zoom lens I have on my camera. There were two teams of them, one on top of each side of the stadium. I couldn’t decide whether they made me feel safer or not.

Once the ceremony got started, it was pretty exciting. I adore Mary Sue Coleman, our esteemed president, and was excited that Jennifer Granholm would also speak. Unfortunately, I felt like she veered more toward the partisan and political, and spent most of her speech praising President Obama rather than inspiring the new graduates. I agreed with the things she said, but was hoping for more reflection than I heard. Then came President Obama…

When I was at the inauguration I could see a long series of jumbotrons, but not the president himself. (There were also jumbotrons in the stadium...)

I also found his speech to be an odd choice for a commencement address (text here), but his message to be kind to others, to seek information and learning rather than jumping to insult the other side, and to consider the middle ground was a good one. When all was said and done, I was glad to have attended, and am hoping that someone as interesting will speak at my graduation in a few years.

You can watch the full ceremony here.

Cake!

This picture is actually from a few weeks ago, at Ruti’s birthday celebration, but I was sharing the photos with her today and was so enamored of the cake all over again that I had to share it…

It is also one of the few non-blurry pictures I took at her party. Still working on the indoor action shots…

Oh academe…

As a graduate student, it’s sometimes hard to keep perspective. And by sometimes I mean often, really often. Graduate school is like the end all be all of delayed gratification, particularly if you combine graduate programs into a seemingly unending stint of education. As we slog through coursework, learn to teach, jump through administrative hurdles, we also try to imagine the lives we are hoping to lead. Too frequently these images are dominated by uncertain and overly competitive funding mechanisms, scary tenure clocks, and tragic job markets. Every once in a while, however, we get a glimpse of why people choose this life anyway. In chatting with my LSO stand partner (a tenured faculty member) before the concert, she revealed that she and her family have invitations to a variety of far off and exotic places as a result of their academic affiliations. They have relatively relaxing summers filled with productive time, and opportunities to travel all over the globe. This is the good stuff!

My summer is shaping up to be pretty exciting as well: a teaching assistant position for a week in New York City, the possibility of visiting Vienna for the International AIDS Conference, and a relatively commitment-free time to enjoy Ann Arbor and get a LOT of work done. Given how rough things have been around here lately, it’s nice to get a glimpse of the good stuff…

More signs of spring…

Last time I was at the farmers’ market (a little over a week ago) I nearly left a bit disappointed. While I love kale and chard, I’m tired of only seeing greens and frozen meats, along with the occasional potato and some sprouts. As I was walking back down the main aisle, however, I spied something that seemed miraculous that early in the spring: asparagus! The woman at the stand said that it was two weeks earlier than they’ve ever harvested asparagus, and pointed out that there wasn’t very much. But there was some, and there is almost nothing better than blanched asparagus, salt, pepper, a little Italian seasoning, a little parmesan, and pasta...

Life Sciences Orchestra Spring Concert

I’ve posted about the orchestra before – that it’s a nice mix of students, staff, and faculty, that it’s a wonderful break from the daily work of being a medical/graduate student, that it’s a daring group that enjoys challenging music, and that it’s a great opportunity to see attending physicians and full professors in a context where you can easily call them by their first names.  For me, it’s also been a place to connect with old friends and meet new ones.  My stand partners have become friends and mentors, and there has been a surprising overlap between cellists in my section and knitters I like to chat with about my other nerdy hobby.  In the past few years (and let this be a lesson to all of you – staying at one university for longer than the duration of two degrees is a dangerous choice), I’ve also reconnected with friends from undergrad who either also stayed here for graduate school, or who left, got jobs across the country, and then came back, wooed by our amazing graduate programs and stellar Life Sciences Orchestra. 

All this is to say that we are having a concert on Sunday, and it should be great.  Here are the details:

University of Michigan Life Sciences Orchestra
Hill Auditorium
2pm
Admission free

PROGRAM:
Voyage, for strings - Corigliano
Piano Concerto No. 5 "Emperor" Mov. 1 - Beethoven
Symphony No. 5 - Tchaikovsky

Gratuitous Walter photos…

Dork Barrel Spending*

Thanks everyone!

*Comic from www.phdcomics.com, one of my favorite sites to peruse while procrastinating, written by a PhD in electrical engineering…

Last of the CSA

Last summer I purchased a share in the the Locavorious CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Most CSA shares are purchased in the winter, and produce from the farm is distributed throughout the summer and early fall. This one was different, and for that reason was particularly intriguing to me: the share was purchased in the summer, their staff then purchased and froze produce all summer, and it was distributed through the winter. It seemed like a lot of money up front (I think my share was $200), but I wanted to try it. I’d been working toward eating more local food for a few months, and it seemed like the next logical step. After all, if you plan to eat locally in Michigan, you’d better figure out how to save summer food for the winter. It proved to be a fabulous plan, and I enjoyed delicious produce all winter. Now that it’s March, I’ve finally used the last of my frozen produce, just in time for the farmers’ market to start getting good again. I’ll definitely be subscribing next year!

My final creation was soup for one of the last really cold and miserable days (fingers crossed!) we’re having this spring. I used the whole share of kale, which in retrospect may have been a little much, but it’s delicious. The recipe, heavily adapted from a friend's cookbook photocopy...

5c water or stock

6c squash, peeled and cubed (I used much less, and it was frozen puree from my CSA, which was a little stringy, but mostly fine)

5 tablespoons butter/oil

1c diced onion (or however much you want...)

2 cups chopped broccoli (or other vegetable, like carrot)

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon leaf thyme

1 teaspoon basil (Fresh is amazing!)

1 1/2 cups slide mushrooms (or a few rehydrated dry ones)

1 cup chopped kale or spinach (or however much you have, but beware that 2 1/2 cups of kale will result in "Kale with broth" rather than soup...)

1 tsp salt

pepper to taste

Boil the water or stock and add the squash. If you use puree, you obviously need to boil it for less time. If you aren't using puree, after it's soft you'll blend or food process most of it to make it soupy. Heat the butter or oil and saute the onions and broccoli (or carrots, or whatever other vegetables are looking iffy/unused in the fridge/freezer) with garlic, thyme, and basil (if it's not fresh. When the onions begin to brown, add the mushrooms and cook a few minutes more. Add the sauteed vegetables to the pureed squash/broth mixture, along with the kale/spinach, and simmer uncovered. I simmered until the block of kale thawed, which seemed to be a good metric. I chopped the basil and sprinkled it over my serving (and then added the rest to the pot. Enjoy!

I also made soda bread rolls (only a little late for St. Patrick’s Day), which were amazing…

After a little disaster with some beer basil bread last year (aka the beer basil doorstop), I was hesitant, but this was easy and delicious. Yay!

Soda bread (biscuits) - adapted from Bon Appetite

3 1/2c all purpose flour

1 tablespoon caraway (optional)

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2c buttermilk (or 1 1/2 tablespoons of lemon juice plus milk to make 1 1/2 cups - mix and let stand for about 5 minutes before you use it)

Preheat oven to 425F. Lightly flour baking sheet. Mix flour, caraway seeds, baking soda, and salt in large bowl. Add enough buttermilk to form moist clumps that can be gathered into a ball. Turns out that trying to form a ball may be most of the kneading you really need to do. Once I "turned it out" onto a floured surface, I only kneaded once or twice. Split the dough into 10-12 rolls (or put it into a giant ball, but this seems risky to me - see doorstop note above) and cut a 3/4 inch deep X into the top of each one. Bake until golden on top and toothpick comes out clean, about 30 minutes (in my oven - the recipe said 35 min).

1200 miles

I bought my bike in July 2007, just as I was starting at the School of Public Health. I had lofty goals of riding my bike to school (~25 minutes each way) every day until at least early November, and pulling it back out as soon as the weather thawed in spring. That didn’t quite turn into a reality, but I have ridden a lot over the past few years. Riding the bus (and the concurrent reading or chatting it allowed) usurped some of the bike time, and I proved to be much less tough when it comes to riding in cold weather than I thought, but I hit 1200 miles last week anyway! (Apologies that the picture was not taken right on the mileage marker... I didn't have my camera on the bike with me.)

Highlights of biking around Ann Arbor and Michigan have included:

• realizing it was actually slightly faster to bike than to take the bus
• biking round trip between St. Clair Shores and Port Huron in one day
• Tour De Troit
• padded shorts

Desert Butterflies

Alicia and I were in Phoenix last week and had a truly wonderful time. Here is a brief summary of the things we did:

Tuesday: Spend all night on a plane. This was not the plan, but our flight was really delayed. We got to fly first class though! (We opted not to take photos so as not to reveal ourselves as “economy” travelers…)

Wednesday*: Desert Botanical Garden, Haji Baba (Middle Eastern Lunch Spot), Tempe Yarn and Fiber, South Mountain Park

Thursday*: Heard Museum, Fry Bread House (Native Lunch Spot), Chicano Museum

Friday*: Grand Canyon, Oak Creek Brewery (Sedona Dinner Spot), Sedona/Oak Creek Canyon

Saturday*: Cactus Bikes, mountain biking in the desert around South Mountain, driving through the Superstition Mountains, Canyon Lake and Tortilla Flats with Jack

Sunday*: brunch (yum!), Tucson (and Bookman’s, which I now love)

Monday: fly home… This was not the plan, but after Delta canceled our flight on Sunday night it was our only option. I left at 6:00am and flew through Salt Lake City, arriving in Detroit just before 3:30pm. Alicia left at 9:30am on a direct flight, and arrived in Detroit just before 4:30pm. It all worked out, but cost us both a working day. Boo…

*During all of this we were hosted by the incomparable Uncle Jack and Aunt Linda. They welcomed us into their lovely home and were the most gracious hosts we could have hoped for. We had a great time sharing dinners with them and availing ourselves of their tour-guiding capabilities. Also, Linda works seasonally at See’s Chocolates, which is another benefit to staying with them…

Thanks again Jack and Linda!

Dr. Mom

Mom’s dissertation is now available online!*

(You can look at a preview there, but if you want to read at the whole beautiful document, leave a comment and arrangements can be made…)

Congratulations mom!!!! So proud to have a doctor in the family…

*Just realized that you need a UM login to see the abstract. If you are at an institution with access to ProQuest you can search Mary Ann Lyon and find her on your own.

Passover and cookies

Apologies for the slight delay in posting, but I’ve been… on vacation! More about that later. For now, cookies!!! A friend hosted a number of us for the first seder of Passover (last Monday). It was lovely, as always, and her matzo ball soup was incredible. Apparently matzo ball lovers fall into two camps: dense or fluffy. I have never met a matzo ball I didn’t like, but our host’s (of the dense variety) are amazing. I volunteered to make dessert. This is can be a rather risky undertaking, as Passover requires that you not use flour – or rather that if your recipe calls for flour that you use matzo (cake) meal. I was initially inspired by another Smitten Kitchen recipe, this one for hazelnut chocolate thumbprint cookies. After I had decided to make them, I saw that my page-a-day calendar featured chocolate macaroons as their recipe for the weekend (likely recognizing the need for flourless desserts…). I realized that with only a few more ingredients, I could make both! The results were delicious, though the group was split on which were better.

The chocolate centers on the thumbprint cookies didn't come out as beautifully as those that inspired me (perhaps because I didn't have quite enough chocolate chips so they look a bit more like nipples than I'd really intended), and they didn't melt quite the same way, but they were delicious. Sort of crumbly like shortbread and very hazelnutty...

I think I overcooked the macaroons a bit, but anything with that much chocolate is delicious, and the bulk food store provides an excellent source of quite good chocolate chips for this sort of thing. They were a little tougher than I would have liked, but were so chocolate-y and coconutty that it didn't matter.