home brewing

me: are you excited?
he: for what?
me: cider!
he: oh, yeah.  Are you excited?
me: for what?
he: to play pretend.
me: pretend what?
he: pretend we know what we're doing

After seeing a Slow Food Austin talk by the Argus Cidery dudes, we decided to try to brew hard cider to give as Christmas gifts.  It seemed like it was going to be mostly easy, and after two trips to Austin Homebrew Supply, we came home with about $50 worth of supplies and way more confusion than when we first walked in the door.  Hopefully this works and we don't end up giving our families a lot of vinegar.  I'll update later when we know if it worked or not.  And no, the irony of being pregnant and brewing alcoholic beverages isn't lost on me.

cider supplies, including airlocks, campden tablets, and a bunch of other stuff

Bottles that are (still) awaiting cider.  Colby and Dustin "made" them in a weekend.  Anything for the cause, eh?

Sanitizing everything

The game plan

sulfated cider ready for fermentation

Colby putting the cider in its home for the next couple of weeks.  (And yes, this is going to be the nursery, but it's not like we're using it right now.)

Ciders with their airlocks and yeast. Look at that yeast bloom in the upper right corner!

It bubbled!  Success!

Spring Break Part I

This past weekend was awesome.  Kyle flew in from Tucson for part of Spring break and I took a few days off from paper writing to visit New Orleans.  Colby hates cities and didn't want to spend 18 hours in a car for 36 hours in a city, so he stayed home and watched the babydog.  Kyle and I, on the other hand, took the opportunity to explore creole cooking and meet up with my college friend Traci.

We left on Friday mourning (not a typo) at 7:30 AM and made it to Sulphur, LA by lunch time.  We found a Wendy's because we just wanted something fast and cheap.  This might have been a mistake because it was overrun with a large group of middle school kids, most of whom were girls.  At the register the cashier asked me if I was part of the middle school group... I apparently still look 12 (I'm 25!).  We ended up in New Orleans at around 5:00 PM at the Bywater Bed & Breakfast.  As per usual, the sight of a man and woman together implies marriage or togetherness and so the innkeeper asked if we actually wanted two separate beds.  Yes, yes we did.

We went out the first night and went to Luke, a brasserie-style restaurant.  One of my motivations to go to New Orleans in the first place is my major crush on John Besh.  This restaurant did not disappoint.  We started by sharing the pate of Louisiana rabbit and duck livers topped with a muscato gelee, which was served with whole grain mustard, fennel relish, something that was pickled that we never did figure out, and sweet pickles.

The muscato gelee wasn't so much to our liking, but once you get around that, it was awesome.  The pate was incredibly rich and the whole grain mustard and fennel relish helped to cut through it and made it a wonderful appetizer.  This was really way too much for two people, but it was definitely a really great choice.

Kyle ordered drum meuniere, which was served with roasted vegetables.  I don't remember if I tried it.  I think I did.  It didn't matter, though, because in terms of this dinner, I totally won.  

I ordered the moules et frites.  These were Prince Edward Island mussels steamed with garlic, thyme, butter, and wine and served with fries.  The fries were delicious, but this was all about the mussels.  So. freaking. good.  Once I ate a layer or so off, I was able to get to the delicious sauce in the bottom of the vessel.  Dipping the mussels in it was divine.  Dipping the fries in it was even better.  Dipping the bread in it?  I don't even have words to describe how delicious.  This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

Afterward, we wandered around the French Quarter for a bit, but mostly we stayed on Bourbon Street.  Bourbon Street has been described like Sixth Street, but longer and filthier.  I knew this in the back of my head, but I just wasn't prepared.  Bourbon Street-style drinking involves things called "hand grenades" and "hurricanes" and some other concoction that's served in a fish bowl.  The bars don't have to close at 2 AM, unlike everywhere else I've ever lived and patrons are allowed to wander out of the bars as long as they have "to go" vessels (i.e. not glass bottles).  Not that anyone cares whether or not there are glass bottles.  Kyle and I walked up and down and eventually got to Tropical Isle and we each had a hand grenade.  I have no idea what's in it, but holy crap it had a lot of alcohol.

UGH

After finishing ~3/4 of our drinks, we found ourselves at Pat O'Brien, home of the hurricane and a dueling piano bar.  I love dueling piano bars more than is reasonable for someone my age.  I think part of it has to do with watching old people get crazy drunk... and then singing.  The place was packed and we were seated next to a gay couple from Houston.  I decided that I needed something slightly less alcoholic than the hand grenade, so I opted for a beer.  Kyle wanted to try the signature hurricane.  After making it through about half of the beer and half of the hurricane, the couple decided that we looked thirsty and ordered us one.  At that point I knew I was in trouble.  The next morning was rough, but well worth the night before.  But this is a story for another post.

Twenty years of classes: check.

Greetings from Lucid Lynx. In my first act of celebration of the temporary reprieve of grad student Lent, I decided to upgrade my operating system. I was a little bit terrified that things weren't going to work with ooimpress or ssh or something else that would mean that I would fail both my class and my second year defense. Fortunately, the only thing that seems to be awry is Java, which is sort of a tricky beast.

Grad student Lent has been put on hiatus until Monday when more deprivation is slated to occur. On Wednesday I gave my talk, Hobby-Eberly Telescope Chemical Abundances of Stars in the Halo (CASH) Project: Spectroscopic Analyses of the First ~80 Stars. (You can take a look at the talk here, if you're so inclined.) I think that my committee mostly liked my talk. About 10 minutes after I finished the talk, I had class and right after that was over, I was handed a 27.5 hour take home exam. It wasn't so bad, but it was noteworthy as it was the most interesting exam I've ever had. Oh, and also, it's the last written exam that I'll ever take. I'm done with classes for the rest of my life. At least, I'm done with classes that count for credit.

So I decided that I was going to take tonight off and not do anything related to school and now... I'm bored. How crazy am I? I just don't know what to do with myself when I'm not studying/making a talk/measuring abundances in the atmospheres of the oldest stars of the Milky Way galaxy thereby unraveling the mysteries of the early universe.

So as boredom set in, I went to the fridge to see what was there and found a pint of strawberries that were on the precipice of being trash... I mean, they were really ripe and I had intended to let them ripen. It had nothing to do with forgetting them in the bottom of the fruit bin. Nope. So I decided that I was going to make a strawberry-lemon agua fresca... and then I noticed that I had vodka in my freezer.

strawberry lemon vodka fresca (see what I did there?) (Adapted from the agua fresca recipe in Gourmet)

1 pint ripe strawberries, washed and hulled
2 c cold water
1 c ice
juice from 1/2 large lemon
1-4 Tbs sugar (this is to taste)
vodka

Blend strawberries, water, ice, and lemon juice in a blender til it's super liquid-y. Taste and see if you think you need sugar. (I started with 1/4 cup and it was wayy too much.) Blend briefly to incorporate the sugar. Pass through a fine mesh strainer and squeeze the juice of the solid bits. Take six ounces of the juice + 1 shot vodka, add ice, a lemon slice and resist the urge to crack open Stellar Photospheres out of boredom because Grad Student Lent starts again on Monday.