Easy Spicy Beef Soup

1. Combine about 1 pound stew beef, 1 small can of tomato sauce, 1 large can of diced tomatoes in a pot. Heat on medium.

2. Add 1/2 medium onion (diced) and several chopped baby carrots.

3. Add a small dash of soy sauce (about 1 Tbs.).

4. Add a generous dash of Mexican hot sauce (about 2-3 Tbs.).

5. Stir regularly; heat until the beef is thoroughly cooked.

This is what I have on the stovetop right now. Hope it turns out well!

Mango-Avocado Salsa Chicken

I made this (with assistance from Dad) for my parents for motzei Shabbos dinner. Serves 3 (with a side). Could serve 4 with more chicken/sides.

Mango-Avocado Salsa:

1) Obtain 1 mango, 1 red pepper, 3/4 cup chopped red onion. Cut up into little pieces. Mix in a large bowl.

2) Stir in 1 tbs. sugar, 1 tbs. olive oil, and 2 tbs. white wine vinegar.

3) Cut up 1 avocado into small pieces; fold into mango mixture; add 1 tsp. salt.

Chicken:

1) Preheat oven to 375˚ F. Slice two boneless, skinless chicken breasts into small hand-sized portions.

2) Put 1 lightly beaten egg in a pie plate (or regular plate). Cover chicken pieces in egg.

3) Place about 1 cup corn flake crumbs in a separate plate. Cover eggy chicken in crumbs.

4) Bake chicken 30 minutes.

Serve chicken with salsa as a topping and/or side with tortilla chips.

Baked Apples and Brown Sugar Sauce

I was asked to prepare a parve (non-dairy) dessert for Brandeis's Tu B'Shevat seder. Since Tu B'Shevat is the new year of the trees, I initially decided to make an apple crisp, using non-dairy margarine instead of butter in the topping.

After peeling and chopping the apples, and sprinkling them with sugar, I realized I was out of margarine. So, I decided that instead of making a crumbly apple crisp topping, I would make a brown sugar sauce to pour over the apples. The sauce had cooked very nicely and helped keep the apples from drying out. It was very difficult for me (and the seder coordinator) to only take tiny taste samples.

Here's the recipe. The preparation of the apples, and some of the ingredients of the topping, come from an Ocean-Spray cranberry apple crisp recipe (which has been a resounding hit with my friends on multiple occasions):

1. Preheat oven to 375˚F. Grease a 9" square pan (I don't have a 9x9 pan, so I use a 9" pie plate or 9x13x2 pan).

2. Peel, core and slice about 5 medium apples* into 1" sections. Layer in pan. Sprinkle 1/3 cup granulated sugar over the apple pieces.

3. Prepare the sauce: use about 1/2 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1 egg (if you cook kosher, remember to make sure the egg is blood free), 1 tsp cinnamon, and 1 tsp vanilla. Mix in a small bowl until everything is well-blended. The sauce should be slightly thinner than brownie batter.

4. Pour sauce over the apples. Bake 45 minutes in a normal oven, or about 35-40 minutes in an apartment-sized oven.

The apples taste best hot, but are also yummy cool.

* I used Gala apples, because they were the best variety at Brandeis's convenience store. When I get cooking apples at a grocery store, I usually get Pink Lady apples or something similar.

Dress Shopping

With my brother's wedding coming up in a few months, I was asked by my future sister-in-law to be her maid of honor at the church ceremony. Since my brother is Christian and his fiancee is Hindu, they are having a large, colorful Hindu wedding followed by a small church ceremony. The colors for the church wedding are pine green and ivory.

Having seen pictures of standard bridesmaid dresses, I initially wondered a) where would I find a dark green bridesmaid dress and b) did I have enough time to get it delivered. Many bridal stores have a 16-20 week waiting period, not counting alterations. Being 5' 2", I anticipated major hemming if I got anything that wasn't designed to be very short on a normal-height woman. Not able to wait 16 weeks (the wedding's in March) my mom and I temporarily fumed, then marched into Saks with a close friend of my mom.

We entered the evening dress section and, to our surprise, found several dresses in green. I tried on about 8 or 9 dresses. The final pick was a long green, stretchy, slightly slinky synthetic one-shoulder dress. It looked a lot like a Grecian goddess dress dyed green with a slit that hit just above the knee. And, obviously, without leather sandals (I found black satin heels the same day). I'm planning on also wearing this dress at my school's junior/senior formal, whenever that is. While it is a relief to be "done," there are still details to figure out - hair, nails, jewelry. But it can wait, because I've got the dress.

Fall Semester Goals - Revisited

In terms of academic goals, I've found that staying on top of my written work has not been very difficult — I already had developed a "system" for budgeting time for doing readings, research, and writing papers. What was difficult was budgeting time for studying Organic Chemistry and Biology. I realized, perhaps a little too late, that studying the week before an Orgo exam was not effective. In order to really get the material, I had to practice it until I had dreams about reaction mechanisms. It is rather similar to learning a foreign language — you don't learn just by hearing, but by writing and speaking everyday, until the rhythms of the language become natural.

Organic Chemistry has been a difficult class, probably the most difficult class I've had since AP Biology in high school, but not necessarily a "scary" class. While many of the nurses I work with respond to the phrase "I'm taking Orgo" as if I said "I eat cactus for breakfast," and describe Orgo as a sort of necessary evil, I've found the material quite interesting. While I can't find a direct connection between Orgo and nursing (other than the pictures of pharmaceutical compounds in some of our exams), I've decided that Orgo being a requirement for some nursing schools is enough of an "ulterior" motivation. When I need a "boost" while studying, I try to imagine getting a first set of scrubs for nursing school. It helps.

So does cooking. While emotional eating is not recognized as a positive habit to develop, I've found that when I'm in a studying/working rut, stabbing dough with a spoon is surprisingly cathartic. Grocery shopping, which I know most adults view as a chore, is relaxing for me. The half hour walk to the grocery store is a good time to just plug in to my iPod, and after being on a meal plan for two years, it's a lot of fun to decide what will be in my kitchen. While most of my non-"quickie" cooking has been desserts (pumpkin pie, brownies, cookies, apple crisp), I've found that that's the kind of cooking I can get excited about. It's a good thing I spend so much time walking to class/work. Otherwise I think this kind of cooking would have serious consequences.

Perhaps I should start venturing more into entrees. I've already done mushroom quiche and vegetarian chili. Today I made fried polenta with cumin and pepper, which was very yummy, but perhaps not something I should make on a regular basis. So, my next unofficial cooking goal: practicing recipes that don't involve copious amounts of sugar or butter/oil that aren't chili.

Fall Semester Goals

Fall classes have started yet again, and before the hard work starts, it made sense to figure out some goals for the semester:

Academic Goals:

1. Stay on top of the material/readings/writing in all 5 classes and the weekly Chemistry lab.

2. Not let the Organic Chemistry lecture/lab turn into a scary class.

3. Figure out a rough plan for spring and summer 2010.

4. Apply for the Health, Science and Social Policy minor.

5. Decide whether I want to do a Biology major.

Other Goals:

1. Practice cooking things other than eggs, pasta and sandwiches.

2. Finish decorating my room and keep it clean.

3. Budget time for: socializing on/off campus, personal downtime (writing/watching trashy TV/reading), and, obviously, sleep.

Music, Memory and Silence

I have found that part of the experience of listening to certain albums is remembering things that happened when I began listening to a particular album and where I was physically and emotionally. Having first listened to Paul Simon on long car trips as a child, listening to his music brings up memories of those car rides. Likewise, Rubber Soul reminds me of listening to it with my brother, before he went to college. We are nine years apart so this is an older memory for me.

I have managed to associate "Sous Les Etoiles," the French translation of "Under the Stars," with long walks through the corridors of Massachusetts General Hospital the summer before my junior year, because that was when the song was stuck in my head. The vague glitter of the ceiling cemented the connection.

Likewise, when I hear "Heaven Have Mercy" I can picture myself pulling into North Station, the train stop between the commuter rail from my school and the train line that took me to work. The third volume of the Grey's Anatomy soundtrack is part of my memory of walking back to the dorm late at night from the commuter train, as well as walking to art class and painting (we were allowed to listen to our iPods while painting). Snow, quiet, cold, and oil paint, all bound by at times romantic and at other times angst-ridden indie rock/pop lyrics.

Ironically, the music I associate with my conversion immersion is the soundtrack to the movie Amazing Grace (which is about fighting slavery, but has Christian religious undertones). I had been listening to the album quite often that March, and the quiet, yet stirring instrumentals quickly stuck in my head. I remember thinking about one of them, "Triumph," while I was in the shower next to the mikveh, while reminiscing about the people who had supported me in the year and a half of study and prayer leading up to that moment. It was an important moment of reflection that felt almost as significant as the immersion itself, which happened quietly, with no music going through my head. Only focused silence.