Coming home to Bryn Mawr

I'm writing this post on the Amtrak train back to Maryland after spending a wonderful 32 hours at Bryn Mawr with dear friends.

  The adventure began on Friday evening, in the wake of this beautiful sunset following an afternoon thunderstorm. I'd never taken an Amtrak train before, so it was all new to me. Compared to the wide openness of Texas, the Northeast is so compact making it easy to travel up and down.

 

After a rather bumpy, but relatively short train ride, I arrived at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, where I caught a local SEPTA train that would take me out to Bryn Mawr. And surprisingly, SEPTA was on time for once! I guess the train god knew I did not want to waste any of the short amount of time I had.


The whole weekend went by so fast, but I know I loved and cherished every minute of it!
Surrounded by friends, on our gorgeous campus, in perfect weather, I truly could not have asked for a more lovely weekend!
Bryn Mawr is beautiful in all seasons, and it did not disappoint this weekend. All the Gothic architecture looked magnificent against the cloudless, blue sky and next to all the trees awash in healthy green leaves.
Perhaps Athena had a hand in making the weekend wonderful!

I made a chocolate tart with a chocolate chip cookie crust!!!
With rainbow sprinkles! 
It was very delicious!
So much chocolate ganache!
I am really starting to enjoy baking and cooking.
The baking process is so relaxing.
And the results are so good to eat and share!

Lots of food, a run, and a racoon !

I'm sorry, I thought I would keep up with this blog better than I have been these past few days, so I apologize. For the most part I have been doing lots of research out in the field and lots of cooking in the kitchen.

Let's start with the best part first: food. Almost like having desert first!
 

Monday night I had some chicken which I cooked on the stove top, then topped with some vegetables and pasta sauce, then a finishing touch of cheese which melted on top. The vegetables I used were carrots, green peppers, and onions!

I had a healthy pre-lunch to my lunch on Tuesday. There was an ethics in science seminar during lunch, so we were served pizza. I wanted something more substantial and more healthy than pizza. So I made a sandwich with Provolone cheese, bologna, and green peppers on toasted whole grain bread! 

Diner on Tuesday night was more chicken and roasted vegetables, but I made them differently. I grilled the chicken and stir fried the vegetables. There was no sauce, which made it surprisingly good. I usually just put sauce on it, but plain is not bad, in fact it's pretty good!




And tonight, I continued the trend of lots of vegetables.  I had some green pepper, onions, mushrooms, and carrots, all chopped up. I put those in one frying pan and some pasta in a pot. Just before the vegetables were done, I added some salsa and marina sauce. I've found that salsa and marina sauce are great together, they make an awesome pasta sauce together, a slightly spicy mixture.

I went for a lovely 7 mile run yesterday. I went through trails around SERC and on Muddy Creek before winding back into SERC then into the woods on the Contees Watershed trail past the ruins. On the last mile I ran through a field on SERC property, there was these darling Black-Eyed Susans, the perfect end to a perfect run!



Today I was out in the field all day, it was very warm and there's no shade out in the marsh. I didn't stop for lunch until around 2pm because I had to take photosynthetic rates via LiCor using a light curve before it got to hot for the plants to be at their prime productivity levels. During lunch, I saw a raccoon slinking around the deck. It's very strange to see one during the daytime, yet it had stiff movements, and was most likely rabid. So I stayed quite far away!

SERC is fantastic place! Everyday I have new and amazing experiences! These are once in a lifetime experiences that I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to be a part of. 

Live it up like it's the weekend!

It is only the weekend once a week.
So when it is the weekend, it's a time to have lots of fun as well as relaxing.

My previous post was all about the PA Dutch Amish Market in Annapolis, which I went to Saturday morning. Then in the afternoon, a group of us went kayaking on the river. We kayaked over to a boat moored in the middle of the river, then meandered over to GCrew, my field research site, where I gave my roommate a tour. At GCrew, we left the kayaks tied to a rope on the docks, in order to get back into them, we had to jump down. I managed to flip my kayak not just once, but twice as I flipped it over again when I tried to get back into it. Thankfully the water was shallow, but the bottom was very muddy!

Diner was interesting to say the least. We had just gone grocery shopping, the only thing I bought was cereal because I'd forgotten it last time. So when we got back from the store, I had cereal and sliced cherries for diner. Then my roommate made lentil soup. It had a bowl and it was great! I like sop to have only a little bit of broth, so it was fabulous that there was lots of vegetables.

Saturday night was the night of the Supermoon!The moon was 13.5 percent closer to Earth than usual on Saturday night, an event that happens only once every two years.
At SERC it was really big and low in the sky during the early evening hours as we drove back from the grocery store; however, I didn't snap a picture of it then. After dark, we went down to the dock to see the moon reflecting and sparkling off the water. This picture really does not give the moon's majestic beauty justice, but it's a little glimpse at how beautiful it was last night!

After returning from the dock, I decided to do a bit of late night baking. My goal for this weekend was to make lemon bars, so that's what I did late on Saturday night. They turned out quite good! Very lemony, just how I like them! Perhaps next time I will experiment with a graham cracker crust, or with a lime filling instead of lemon.