Back to the marsh-y homeland

This post is a few weeks late.
But better late than never!

I was back at SERC on November 2nd. It was a gorgeous crisp fall day! I set out in the early hours of the morning and spent most of the drive there in the dark. The sun had been up for just a wee bit by the time I got to SERC. Here's the sunrise over the long-term tree project! Beautiful!

 The Phragmites looked stunning in the early morning sunlight, even their dead stalked looked pretty in the fall weather!

The panels were off the chambers. They are taken off at the end of the growing season, usually at the end of October. It was much easier to access the plants within the chambers without the panels on! I didn't spend hours taking panels on and off, I just came took height measurements and was done.

Well I wasn't quite done because I lingered in the marsh for a while after I was done with the scientific research part, just appreciating the beauty of the marsh. The marsh in the fall is very different than the marsh in the summer! Yet fabulous in its own special way! I can't wait to see the marsh in other seasons. I'll be back at SERC in January, so I'll see it in the dead of winter then.

It's not goodbye, it's only until next time

Last Thursday, I presented my summer finding during a seminar in front of many members of the scientific community at SERC. My seminar presenation was entitled "Physiological and morphological effects of anthropogenic climate change on Phragmites australis" I'll admit I was nervous in the days preceding the presentation, but two days before I had fabulous epiphany, which brought it all together. Once I had that epiphany, I knew what I needed to do, and did it. A successful seminar, if I may say so myself! That seminar was the summation of 13 weeks at SERC. It was thoroughly enjoyed summer filled with adventures and learning in so many dimensions with some really great people!
I loved every moment of it!

I left SERC Friday evening. Because SERC is an official government research site owned by the Smithsonian there was paperwork needed to leave. I filled out so much paperwork just to come here, that of course, I needed paperwork to be allowed to leave. There was paperwork which required several administrative signatures as well as the PI (Principal Investigator) of my lab. I also had to return my keys, all four of them. And my government issued ID, which came with so many perks.  Alas every good thing must come to an end. But its not goodbye, I'll be back at SERC some time in the near future. It's only goodbye until next time!

SERC Shoutout

I may have left SERC for the summer, but I will be back soon. I couldn't leave that place for too long! Anyways I just wanted to use this post to make a shout out to the Shorelines blog, its the official SERC blog. I found this yesterday while I was traveling back to Bryn Mawr. Here is the link. It's an article called "Franken-Phrag: Tales of a Super Invader" and its written by one if my fellow interns, Katie.
This article discusses the three intern Phragmites projects from this summer, one of which is mine! Of course, there is a lot more work being done at SERC on Phragmites, but these projects cover a decent selection.So enjoy reading all about Phragmites!

Chicken, Rice, and Vegetable Bake

Earlier in the week, I stood in front of my fridge staring at the contents wondering what I could do with the food I had. I wanted to use as much of it as possible. I amongst other things I had chicken breast, rice, onions, green peppers, and cream of mushroom soup. My next criteria for cooking that night was that whatever I made needed to be as simple as possible because I needed to dedicate myself to my seminar PowerPoint presentation. After looking at several sites online, I came across one entitled "One Dish Chicken and Rice Bake" Skimming the recipe, it sounded easy enough, basically throw it all in a pan and bake it for an hour. Excellent!
So that's what I did!
I even had some green beans, broccoli, and carrots to throw in there too.  Doesn't it look great? I also rubbed the chicken in lemon juice, black pepper, and some other spices.
Then popped it in the oven for an hour. After an hour the chicken was still pink in the very middle, so I put it in 20 more minutes.

Here's the recipe:

What You'll Need
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) Campbell's® Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup

1 cup water
3/4 cup uncooked regular long-grain white rice
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 1/4 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

How to Make It

1) Stir the soup, water, rice, paprika and black pepper in a 2-quart shallow baking dish. Top with the chicken and vegetables. Season with additional paprika and black pepper. Cover the baking dish with foil.

2) Bake at 375°F. for 1 hour or until the chicken is cooked through and the rice is tender.  Let stand for 10 minutes. Stir the rice before serving.

It turned out great! The rice was creamy with the mushroom soup, and I loved the amount of vegetables I stuffed in there with the chicken. However, the success of this meal was bittersweet because it was my last big cooking adventure of the summer. Being at SERC and being forced to cook for myself  for almost every meal has been a great experience! It truly has! I wouldn't trade it for the world!

A Simple Thank You

I'd like to start out with the announcement that this blog has surpassed 2,000 views!!!

I had no idea when I started this side project at the beginning of the summer that so many people would actually read it! I am truly amazed! This summer has changed my life in the best way possible. And I'm so glad to have taken y'all on parts of this wonderful adventure with me. I told myself I would not write an emotional post on here until I had less than a week left. And although its true that I do have less than a week at SERC (5 days to be exact, my how time flies), I'm not quite ready to write that post. I have so much planned for this week and so much I want to accomplish before I leave that I'd like to write my super emotional post at a later date. But I do want to say thank you to everyone who reads this blog. I've heard from so many people recently that they read my blog, but most importantly that they truly love reading it and hearing what I have been up to. So thank you, so very very much, the fact that people actually like to read what I have to say is priceless.
Words cannot express my gratitude. Thank you.

Calzone/Loaf Success

So earlier in the week, I re-attempted to make a calzone. If you recall last time I had some trouble with stuffing and forming the calzone. This time when I started, I knew I wanted a loaf to start with, but I wanted a legit looking loaf rather than just the malformed loaf as I made by accident last time.

So I rolled out my dough into along wide rectangle. I filled it with ham, mozzarella, green peppers, and onions. Then I rolled it all up log style. And sprinkled some more mozzarella on top. Then baked it for just over 20 minutes, until it was golden brown and the kitchen smelled really good. It turned out just how I wanted it to this time. Its not a calzone, even though that's how its called in the recipe. What I made is an actual loaf, so that when you slice it, you get pieces of every ingredient that I put in there. It was scrumptious, and big enough to last me several lunches and diners, which is convenient for those days when I'm too exhausted from work to cook.

Lemon Blueberry Coffeecake and Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Icing

This weekend, I made a lemon blueberry coffee cake with the lemon cream cheese icing that was supposed to go with the lemon blueberry yogurt cookies. Can you tell I've had lemon-blueberry cravings recently? Lemon is my favourite flavour. I just love the tart sweetness of lemons! And blueberries go great with lemon, especially during the late summer when blueberries are in season. But unfortunately this most recent baking escapade used up all the rest of my summer time blueberries.

I learned a valuable life skill while making this cake. I learned how to grease, flour, and paper a cake pan.  It's true I had to look it up on YouTube, but I know how to do it. And it's actually not hard. I was surprised. In fact this whole baking thing is so much easier than I thought at the beginning of the summer. It's amazing how much I have learnt in the kitchen this summer, in addition to everything I have learnt in the field and in the lab.

Anyways before I rant away this whole blog post (which I could do) I'll get back on topic. Here's the video I used to learn how to grease, flour, and paper a cake pan. It's really great and has quite a few helpful hints!

After preparing the cake pan, I made the batter. The recipe was for a cake of 10 inches and I thought I had a 10 inch cake pan, until I started to pour the batter and realized it was an 8 inch cake pan. So in addition to making an 8 inch cake, I also made a dozen cupcakes.



 Here's the recipe for both:

Lemon Blueberry Coffeecake

Ingredients
1/2 cups blueberries, preferably fresh
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened and cut into 1 tablespoon pieces
1 1/2 cups sour cream (I used low fat and it worked great)
3 eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest (about one lemon)

To make the cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (180 C). Lightly grease and flour a 10-inch round springform pan, or a 9×13-inch cake pan; set aside.

In a small bowl, toss the blueberries with the 2 tablespoons of flour; set aside.

In a large bowl, or the bowl of a standing mixer, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter, a few pieces at a time, until incorporated. Next add about half of the sour cream, and mix until the dough comes together. Add the remaining sour cream, eggs, vanilla, and zest and beat on medium speed until smooth, light in color, and fluffy. Scrape the bowl, making sure there are no streaks of flour or other ingredients remaining. Gently stir in the blueberries until just incorporated (do not over-mix).

Spread the cake batter in the prepared pan.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the cake springs back to your touch, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Allow to cool for at least an hour before adding the icing. 

As a side note, I didn't have any sour cream, so after looking online I put in 1 and 1/2 cups of plain yogurt and an extra teaspoon of baking powder in instead.
I put the recipe for the icing in the post right before this one. I added double the amount of lemon juice the recipe called for in the icing, and also added that same amount to the cake batter before baking. Can you tell I love lemon yet?


The cake turned out really well! The best cake I've ever made, and one of the best I've ever had. I took it to work with me on Monday and it was demolished very fast by everyone in my lab. There are two main parts to baking: the actual baking and the sharing/collective eating of the baked good. I have so much joy from doing both of these fun activities!

Lemon Blueberry Muffin Tops

Earlier this week, I had a sudden desire to bake something. I'd been thinking about this recipe for blueberry yogurt cookies with lemon cream cheese icing, for a while. However, when the day came to bake them, I decided to put the lemon in them instead of making the cream cheese based icing. So they turned into lemon-blueberry muffin tops. They are technically cookies, but are made with yogurt instead of oil or butter, thus the consistency is more like that of the top of a muffin top, light and spongy. Plus they are healthier than most other cookies because of the lack of butter or oil.

Here's the recipe for lemon blueberry muffin tops! 

Ingredients:
1 cup granulated sugar
1.5 cups plan Greek yogurt
1 large egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking pwpoder
0.5 teaspoon salt
1 cup fresh blueberries
2 teaspoons lemon juice - I made this edit to make the cookies lemony without the icing

To make the cookies:
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease several baking sheets or line with baking paper, and set aside
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the sugar and yogurt, then blend in the egg, vanilla, and lemon juice 
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together, then blend it into the bowl with the yogurt mixture. Gently fold in the blueberries.
4. Drop tablespoonfuls of cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches of space between each cookie. bake for about 10 minutes, until the cookies start to barely brown at the edges. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool on the baking sheet (do not try to remove) for 2 minutes, then move the cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely. Some of the blueberries will burst during baking-this is to be expected and will not affect the taste.

If you want to make them with the lemon cream cheese icing, here's how.
Ingredients:
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
2.75 cups confectioners sugar
0.25 cup lemon juice
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest

To make the icing:
Beat the cream cheese with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Slowly add the confectioners sugar and lemon juice and beat until creamy, about 3 minutes. Stir in the lemon zest. Spread on top of the cooled cookies.

These cookies are best if eaten within 1-2 days. Even though they look like cookies, they taste like muffin tops. These cookies are really good! And a healthy version to a typical desert.

Getting Intimate with the Marsh Mud

On Tuesday, I got stuck in the mud looking for Phragmites roots. I was up to my knees in the smelly marsh mud, and my boots were stuck. Luckily I was out at the GCrew site and Gary was close by to pull me out. But I had to leave my boots, at least for the moment. I returned to the field house to find some equipment to pull my boots out. I found a piece of fiber glass boardwalk, which would spread my weight out. It was low tide and the wooden boardwalk out where I got stuck was more than 4 feet above the soil level. So when I tried to hop onto the piece of fiber glass, I missed, slipping into the mud for the second time in less than half an hour. This time, I got even more muddy, past my hips, as seen in this picture to the right. My legs are muddy, my pants are muddy, my arms are muddy, parts of my shirt are muddy. I was a muddy mess! But as you can see I did not mind getting covered in mud, its part of the job description when working in the marsh. Even though I washed most of it off with water from the rainwater barrel, I still felt bad getting into my government truck after the incident because of the mess and the accompanying rotten egg smell of hydrogen sulfide.

The Calzone that Became a Loaf

Before each grocery shop, I peruse the internet for fun recipes to make. I knew I want to cook bake something savory this week. I found recipe for calzones, so I made sure I got the needed ingredients on my fortnightly shop. On Sunday I decided to make ham and mozzarella calzones, with some green peppers and onions to the mix as well.

Here's the original recipe: 

Ham-Mozzarella Calzone

Ingredients 
2 large eggs
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/4 pound shredded reduced-fat mozzarella cheese
1 13.8-ounce tube refrigerated pizza dough
1/4 pound deli-sliced ham, cut into thin strips
1/4 pound sliced provolone cheese
Directions
Place a baking sheet upside down in the oven and preheat to 400 degrees F. Beat the eggs, parsley and lemon zest in a small bowl. Pour half of the egg mixture into a medium bowl and stir in the mozzarella. Reserve the remaining egg mixture for brushing on the crust.

Turn another baking sheet upside down; line with parchment paper and brush with olive oil. Unroll the dough on the parchment paper and pat into a 9-by-12-inch rectangle. Spread the mozzarella mixture over one half of the dough, leaving a 1-inch border along the edge. Top with the ham, followed by the pickled vegetables and provolone. Fold the other half of the dough over to cover the filling. Crimp and roll the edges to seal, then pierce the top of the dough in a few places with a knife.

Slide the calzone with the parchment paper onto the hot baking sheet; bake 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and brush with the remaining egg mixture, then continue to bake until the crust is golden, 5 to 10 more minutes. Let rest 5 minutes, then cut into wedges. 

I didn't use parsley on top. I'm not a big fan of parsley, I see it more as a garnish than an actual part of the meal. And a problem arose when I tried to close my calzone. I realized when adding my sliced green pepper and onion, I had not taken into account the fact that my calzone might not close with that added volume. And that's when my calzone became a loaf! After struggling with it for 10 minutes, I formed it into a loaf. It was going to taste the same no matter what shape it was in. After coming out of the oven and cooling. I dove right in! I was famished, it was a late diner. It was delicious! It really was! Pizza dough, ham, mozzarella, green peppers, and onions can be translated to scrumptious! And it was big enough to last me two diners and two lunches. Yippie for efficient cooking!

Monster Magic Cookie Bars

This weekend, my baking project was Monster Magic Cookie Bars. I found the recipe by just googling fun desserts to make. These bars are really easy to make and scrumptious to eat! They are made with a graham cracker crust, sweetened condensed milk, oats, white chocolate chips, dark chocolate chips, and M&Ms.

A friend asked me to post the recipes for the foods that I make, which is actually a really good idea, and not one that I had thought of. So here you go for anyone who wants to make these delicious treats:

 

Monster Magic Cookie Bars

 

Ingredients

• 9 full graham crackers
• 4 tbsp. butter
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• approximately 3/4 c. oats
• approximately 3/4 c. M&Ms
• approximately 3/4 c. chocolate chips

Instructions

1. In a zip top bag, crush the graham crackers using a rolling pin.
2. Once crushed, add the 4 tbsp. butter to the bag.
3. Place in the microwave and heat up for about 30 seconds.
4. Remove from microwave, let out the air and make sure the bag is sealed (maybe let it cool for a second or two!), and “mush” the butter and graham crackers together until fully incorporated.
5. Press the graham cracker crumbs into a well-greased and parchment lined 9×13 baking dish.
6. Evenly pour the sweetened condensed milk over the graham cracker layer.
7. Sprinkle the oats, M&Ms, and chocolate chips evenly over the sweetened condensed milk and gently press in a little.
8. Bake at 350º for 30 minutes or until browned and pulling away from the edges.
9. Let cool and serve. 

 

I followed the recipe, and they turned out great. Although I must say adding the white chocolate chips as well as the dark chocolate ones were my little touch, a small adjustment to make them even more delicious! I made them late Friday night, and by Sunday morning they were all gone, the whole pan full!

Shark Week: Cake and Disappointment

Every year in the month of August, the Discovery Chanel has a whole week filled with shark related shows, called Shark Week! This year is their 26th year. And being at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center we made sure to catch the first night of Shark Week. We even celebrated with an ocean related cake. It's a green fish in the ocean. And the cake was dyed red on the inside, too! Making it even more exciting!

Shark Week began with a two hour documentary about Megalodon, an investigation into whether or not a giant shark thought to be extinct still inhabits our waters. Even a few minutes in, the show was questionable. Beginning with a video of a boat being too perfectly attacked by a 67-foot shark, no survivors, yet the camera with all the dramatic footage survived. Quite questionable to me! Surrounded by future scientists, we began to express our criticisms at their poor science. The documentary continued with weak evidence and scientists who were not reputable. Then at the end of the show, two long hours later, a quick block of text appeared on the screen revealing that the whole documentary was dramatized. This fake documentary was simply an attention grabber for the network, which is very disappointing. That information put a damper on the rest of Shark Week. I, along with many others, am disenchanted with the poor choices of the Discovery Chanel. The Discovery Chanel used to pride itself as a network for science and education, it has now shown its true colors and is not a network I trust any more for reliable information. Although this mock-umentary was successful in attracting viewers, the network's plans backfired when many people boycotted the rest of Shark Week, myself included. The Discovery Chanel is trying to rebrand itself as another drama and character driven network, a move that will and has pushed away many viewers who watched the network for reliable information about the fascinating aspects of our world. I sincerely hope the Discovery Chanel realizes and amends (sooner rather than later) the grave mistake it has made.

A Game of Croquet

Even with all the hours of work we do outside of the 8:30am to 4:30pm time block, we still have time to relax and have fun. Last Sunday, this fun came in the form of croquet. Across the road from the dorms, there is a garden with a large green area and a pond. That green area, despite being a bit bumpy was a wonderful place to have a casual, but still pretty competitive game of croquet on a Sunday afternoon.

Before I get to our little game of croquet, I want to give some background on the sport because its not very well known. The first documented game of croquet was in the early 1850s, and the first set of rules were established in 1856. There is two theories as to first origin of the game, whether it came from France to Britain or from Ireland. But nevertheless, it is a very European sport. By the 1860s, it was a very popular pastime in England. 

I have two first memories of croquet although I'm not sure which one came first. With the majority of my maternal family living in the UK, I was a frequent visitor becoming very much immersed in the culture. I learned how to play croquet with my grandparents on the back lawn. I remember the game between my sister, Meghan and I becoming quite competitive as we tried to hit the others ball, so we could have the opportunity to knock their ball out of the intimate field of play, i.e. a croquet stroke.

My second memory of croquet is from the film Alice in Wonderland, in which the Queen of Hearts challenges Alice to a game of croquet involving, the cards as wickets, hedgehogs for balls, and flamingos as mallets.I'm including a video of this scene from the film below, to refresh your memories of how ridiculously funny and cute it is!

After that blast from the past, now to our little game at SERC on a Sunday afternoon. Five of us were playing: Mark, Dylan, Jessica, Stephanie, and myself. There was quite a competitive aura in the air. Dylan started out strong and kept it up, taking home the bragging rights as SERC croquet champion of the day. I got a few pictures of the game. On the left is Stephanie starting off. On the right are my little feet with my mallet and ball. I was green of course! Bryn Mawr class color pride! It was a very fun game. 

A New Addition to My Owl Obsession

Bryn Mawr's mascot is the owl, a symbol of Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom. And I don't know any Mawrter who is not obsessed with owls. In fact, the post-doc fall term opening speech last year was entitled YOLO - You Obviously Love Owls; a twist on the term YOLO meaning You Only Live Once. Like many other Mawrters, I have an owl collection, that keeps growing. And on our way back from Bethesda, we stopped in the grocery store. A fall decorations display caught my eye, as I was drawn to this little wooden owl figurine. Isn't he cute? I simply could not leave him in the store, he had to come home with me, and he will look perfect on my window seat or on my desk in the fall.

Bethesda, Maryland

After going to Great Falls Park, Virginia, we made a slight detour on our way back to SERC to stop in Bethesda, Maryland to have diner. In Bethesda is Bethesda Row, which is a few blocks of restaurants and shops. The cutest part was this little side street with lights and plants in bright pots. We decided to get diner at an Indian restaurant. We all love Indian food! That is one of our go-to foods on the rare occasion we go out to eat. I got chicken tikka masala, which you can see on the right. It was good, and there was lots, so I had enough to take some back to SERC  with me to have for lunch the next day.

Then we went to Max Brenner, a new and very popular restaurant in town. Although it's not technically a restaurant despite the seating and tables; its a chocolate bar. One of the first of its kind. And it only opened on July 31st, so we were there on its first weekend, and it was packed. There was a line out the door before we arrived. But when chocolate is involved, its worth the wait! While we waited, we perused the menu, which teased our taste buds.

They really do have everything you can imagine involving chocolate. Byanjana got a white chocolate chai tea. I got chocolate pizza with milk chocolate, white chocolate, and toasted marshmallows. Stephanie got a Mexican spiced hot chocolate. In fact, within our whole group, we all got something different because there was so much to choose from! Chocolate covered strawberries, milkshakes, liquid chocolate beverages, muffins, cookies, chocolate covered caramels, etc. The list is endless! And there's a little shop inside too, just to tempt you even more! 

On the way back to the car, we stopped in a toy store. I found this very big, very fluffy stuffed cat! Of course, I had to pose with the fluffy animal. When we finally made our way back the car, after the rain passed, we realized we were without technology to get home. So we had to rely on the traditional method of reading a paper map to find the route. Even with GPS and smart phones with map apps, knowing how to read a map is important because you never know what will happen.

Great Falls Park and Bethesda were great ways to spend our last weekend together before people on our floor begin to leave in waves.