Thanksgiving Is On

To all of you who were worried that I'd be spending Thanksgiving on my own, worry no more.  My option count went from zero to three.  Roommate A decided not to go to NYC, so the two of us will be attending a dinner at someone's place.  They are taking care of basic Thanksgiving food, so I can bring whatever I want.  I was thinking of baking something, but I'm not so sure anymore because I still am not comfortable with my oven.   Any ideas for something easy and impressive?

I'm Baaaaaaack

I'm back from SfN.  My talk went well, and I had a good time.  Very exhausting, as usual.  I got my photo taken with Brenda Milner (of Scoville and Milner, 1957, who first described the patient H.M.).  Cool!  As soon as I get the photo from my friend W, I'll post it.

Today was very cold in Cambridge.  The high was something like 37 F.  I remember getting anxious when the *low* was in the 30s in California.  Hehe.  My fingers were icicles by the time I got to lab this morning.  One cool thing (pun intended, oh so funny) is that when I bought ice cream at the grocery store and walked home with it, it was still frozen when I got home.  Woohoo!

Found out that my plan to spend Thanksgiving with my roommate is no more.  She's now going to NYC, so for now I might be on my own.  Unless I can find some Bostonian to latch onto.  Well, if I'm alone, I am thinking about starting my day by making some Wholesome Banana Chocolate Breakfast Bars (from chocolateandzucchini.com) and then making some Thanksgiving-ish food. We'll see...

Fall Colors

K took this photo last week when he was out here.  Isn't it pretty?  A park on Mass Ave, near Harvard, approaching from the north.  

Leaving for the Society for Neuroscience conference today.  I'm so sad my UCSD Neuro friends won't be there!  BUT, I am very excited for this year's 'Neuro Dialogues with Society' lecture (or something like that).  The featured speaker is Mark Morris, a famous dance choreographer, plus before the talk I'm going to a special presentation about teaching dance to patients with Parkinson's.  

Okay, gotta go pack and make a little showing in the lab.

Just Got My First Matlab Program To Work

Woohoo!  The program was super simple, but it took forever to figure out (for someone who is a matlab novice).  I feel like I've accomplished something today :)

Go-To Recipe: Yellow Rice with Almonds and Raisins

Okay, I wasn't going to make this a food blog, but today I was inspired to share a really quick and tasty recipe.  I call it yellow rice with almonds and raisins, and that pretty much says it all.  I never measure when I make it (except for getting the rice-to-water ratio right), but here is my attempt.  The rice doesn't have to be yellow, but I do it for two reasons.  First, I like the color. Second, I use turmeric to color the rice, and that's supposed to be healthy for you, so why not? The recipe scales very well, so you can make however much you want.  Also, you can play around with substitutions, like pine nuts instead of almonds, or dried cranberries instead of raisins.  But the almond-raisin combo is my favorite.

Here is what you want:

1 cup brown rice (or white)

2 cups water

~0.5 tsp ground turmeric (although I've used more)

~0.25 cup raisins

~0.25 cup sliced toasted almonds 

salt to taste

Make the rice as you normally would, adding the ground turmeric just before or at the same time you add the water.  I saute the uncooked rice in a pan until golden and then add the turmeric and a minute later add the water.  When rice is done, I just throw in the raisins and almonds and salt to taste.  Mix it up, and if you're like me, eat a little and put the rest in tupperware for easy lunch in lab.

I am sure you can play around a ton with this, substituting and/or adding ingredients.  If anyone finds delicious new combinations, let me know :)

SYTYCD

Sorry I've been away for so long; things have been busy around here.

Just thought I'd write a super short entry, letting you all know that I went to the So You Think You Can Dance tour performance a couple days ago!  My friend C got a hold of some tickets and persuaded me to go.  So there I was, with lots of screaming girls, watching some pretty cool dance performances.  Didn't get home till ~midnight -- wow!