Home in the SoDak

I came home this past Friday for the Memorial Day weekend and am having a fabulous time with my family and friends here in Yankton.  It's been exactly three years since I was home and Briana was not... she was in St. Louis in the summer of 2010 with her FSAP buddies while I spend a lot of time at home after going to Denmark for a few weeks at the beginning of the summer.

Mom picked me up at the Sioux Falls on Friday, we went to the casino in Larchwood, IA (no we weren't big winners, sadly), and finally had a quick but super yummy dinner at Chae's in Vermillion.  They were nice enough to serve us even at 8:50pm (ten minutes before they were set to close).

Yesterday (Saturday), Mom and I went to the Judi's Dance Studio recital.  I hadn't been to a recital since my senior year in 2008!  We had a great time just sitting in the balcony and watching :-) The dancers and tumblers did an absolutely wonderful job.  Congrats to Rob and Timera on an awesome first recital!  Mom and I then picked up Dad and headed to the Pancreatic Cancer (Pan Can) Pub Crawl that benefitted the Lori Groetken Foundation.  It was great to see so many people coming together to share stories (and a few tears too) for such a great cause very close to my family's hearts.  

lettuce

Mom was nice enough to save (and share) some of her Mother's Day present! Very yummy :-)

It is a tough job being the world's cutest dog 24/7

I promise-- they do love each other.

My First Solo Bundt

Too bad it wasn't a squeeze play (please look up 'squeeze play' for your own sports edification if you do not know what I'm talking about).

I think this is the first cake I've made in a bundt pan by myself.  I have no idea if it counts as a 'bundt cake' but I'll go with it.  I was in need of using up some baking supplies and greek yogurt before we move out in a month (!) so I googled banana recipes and found this one.  Side note: who knew you could buy ripe bananas at Kroger and for a reduced price, no less?!?  Ok, now I know and may take advantage of this in the future.

http://bakingbites.com/2013/04/ultra-moist-banana-bundt-cake-with-greek-yogurt/

Here's the link to the recipe.  Other than using 4 bananas instead of 3 and adding mini semi sweet baking chips, I followed the recipe to a 't,' which is an usual occurrence for me. Oh yeah, and it's the moistest banana cake I've ever eaten.  Must be that Greek yogurt!!

My First Scientific Conference

This past Thursday and Friday, I visited Houston for the first time!  Although I did not have a chance to do much site-seeing, I had a wonderful time :-)  My PI (the primary investigator of the lab I'm working in... aka my boss), a postdoctoral fellow in the lab, and I attended the 19th annual Texas Forum for Reproductive Sciences at Texas Children's Pavilion for Women at the huge medical center complex in Houston.  In the week leading up to the conference, I made my first every poster, which displayed a bit of background on my project, a few current hypotheses in the lab, and the first bit of my own data from work in the lab.

We drove down to Houston in some pretty heavy rain on Thursday morning and arrived around noon, just in time to grab some lunch (italian sub and diet coke... brought me back to my Blimpie days!) and check in.  We listened to a great keynote lecture by Dr. Doug Stocco from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center about his lab's discovery and characterization of StAR protein, which is necessary for the transfer of cholesterol in the mitochondria in cells and subsequent steroid production.  Next, 6 platform presenters spoke about their work for about 15 minutes each and we had the chance to speak with grad students and post docs one-on-one during the the poster session.

Mala and I outside The Armadillo Palace! thanks to Alina for sharing this picture with me :-)

At 7pm, we headed to The Armadillo Palace.  We ate wonderful BBQ and pecan pie and did a bit of mingling with others at the conference. It was a very nice, Texan evening.  

Friday morning's festivities kept us busy... breakfast, poster session, platform presentations.  The best part about Friday was that the Mahendroo lab finally had the opportunity to present our work! 

I participated in the poster session, speaking with conference attendees about my research and preliminary findings on elastin in the mouse cervix throughout pregnancy and in our preterm birth model  {[ Cervical elastin structure changes throughout pregnancy but not between term and preterm ripening]}.  A picture of me in front of my poster is coming soon.

The postdoc from our lab presented his work regarding hyaluronin (HA) synthetases and the role of HA in the cervix. 

All things considered, it was a GREAT first conference and first opportunity to present my work.  The people who attend TFRS are wonderfully friendly and interested in trainee progress in the reproductive sciences.  I am looking forward to attending for 3+ more years  :-)

Oh, and next year, for only the second time in the conference's history, TFRS will not be held in Houston.  Instead, we will head to San Antonio, TX, in April 2014!  

http://www.utmb.edu/tfrs/

Welcome, Spring!

and carbonara for dinner :-)

Quiche-y

We are going through a quiche-obsession phase here at our apartment.  Between Kathryn and I, we've made four quiches in the past week.

The current quiche from the bottom up:

 basic deep-dish pie crust
 baby spinach
 1/8c grated parmesan cheese
 5 slices of bacon
 1/8c grated parmesan cheese
 4 eggs + 1/2c(ish) half and half blended together briefly

375 degree oven for ~35 minutes

MoDTS

MoDTS: Mechanisms of Disease and Translational Science Track

or as it is affectionately known: MoD  (although it's tempting to pronounce it like "mod," we like to pronounce each letter individually)

It is a "med into grad" initiative sponsored by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (the same funders of the wonderful 7 week Summer Scholars in Biology and Biomedical Research experience before my first year at WashU).  

The goal of the track is to introduce us graduate students to the clinical research environment... the place where biomedical scientists hope their bench research can help patients.  We are working to bridge the gap between lab work and clinical trials, translating basic science discoveries into bettering patient outcomes.  That is a goal that is fairly big-picture in nature.  

So this summer we will be very busy students-- learning the basics and laying the ground work for futures in translational research. 

The organizers will pair us with a 'clinical immersion mentor.'  That mentor will be a physician at UTSouthwestern who is currently working on a clinical trial of some sort. We will spend 4 weeks shadowing, attending research group meetings, learning about the institution's review process for acceptance of clinical trials, and helping out where we can.  

We will also take classes including pathology, physiology, and biomedical statistics.  



http://www.utsouthwestern.edu/education/graduate-school/programs/phd-degrees/specialized--supplemental-phd/mechanisms-of-disease/index.html

Sun-Dried Tomatoes: Part 2

not pretty. or quite crispy.

ah the texture!

Day 2 of experimental drying of tomatoes was a bit of a let down.  It turns out that these tomatoes needed 24+ hours for drying.  Maybe it was the high humidity (it rained and was humid on Saturday), maybe they ought to have been warmed up for longer (I did just 3 hours in the oven).  Who knows.  I ran out of patience and was very hungry so I just threw them into the soup in a  semi-dried state.  They still taste good and have a good texture, and that's all that counts. 

The recipe, which I am having a very hard time finding online, is definitely a keeper!  It's from an article in Real Simple titled "A Taste of Umami: 6 Delicious Recipes," and I made a few adjustments to fit my kitchen

Braised Beef with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and White Beans

2 TB olive oil

1.5lb beef chuck, cut into 1.5" pieces

2 medium onions, cut into .5" wedges

1-2 cloves garlic, diced

4 cups chicken broth

salt'n'pepa (the spices, not the singers)

1 cup sundried tomatoes

thyme (which I left out)

2 15.5oz cans of white beans, rinsed (I only added one can)

brown the chuck pieces over medium heat in a few TBs of oil

throw into crockpot (high heat) with the broth, leaving grease in pan

brown onions and garlic in pan, add to crock pot after a few minutes 

add tomatoes

heat in crockpot on high for 1-1.5 hours

add beans and mix.  heat for 5-10 minutes and serve with parmesan cheese!

in my eyes, very few soups/pastas are complete without parmesan :-)