New Job!

Life is a bit crazy right now. I just started another job ... yes, I am now going to school full-time and working two part-time jobs!! It is going to be a very busy spring.

The magnificent entrance to Phipps

I am thrilled to be the new Science Education Intern at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden. I feel so so so lucky to have the opportunity to be working at such an incredible non-profit organization that truly has sustainability as a top priority. My department just moved into one of the greenest buildings in the world. I wish I had a picture of the building I work in, but you will just have to check out the news article and video!

To top it all off, I get to work with the Science Education Department helping to develop and teach school field trip programs and seasonal science camps. I am working part-time during the school year and full-time during the summer months. It is such a perfect fit for my program. Check out some of our camps coming up this summer. I am currently working on developing the Dancin' with the Plants camps. Seriously, I have the best job(s) ever!

One of the many, many beautiful gardens at Phipps

If you would like to follow along with my adventure for the next year (beyond this personal space) you can check out the Science Education Blog. They did very sweet little welcome piece for me this week. I have delightful coworkers and get to work with really fabulous kids. I am really feeling like I have hit my stride in Pittsburgh. Now, I just have to be able to juggle all of my responsibilities through the end of April! Wish me luck...

MPLS love

I had the privilege of spending time with best friends in Minneapolis. One of my very dear friends moved into my house and I was able to be there with her over New Years and her birthday! It was so wonderful being back in the house with her. It brought back lots of wonderful memories of when we lived together a couple summers back. That house still feels like home, especially with Janae there. 

I got to see friends for breakfast, for brunch, for lunch and for dinner. I spent so much time catching up, cooking and knitting. It was such a great trip! My week was filled with sweet adorable things, like this sweet pup and precious babe (my friends are pretty cute too).

One of roommates in Pittsburgh is originally from Saint Paul. It turns out that her father is best friends with a gentleman I used to work with at the University of Minnesota. On New Years Eve, I went over to his house with Kelsey and her family for their annual ravioli making party. It was so much fun. It was wonderful to meet Kelsey and Dana's families. They were incredibly welcoming. It was a loud, exciting, ravioli making and eating extravaganza. We made enough raviolis for each family for the year (nearly 500!!). There was music and laughter and good cheer. It was perfect.

I toasted midnight with two good friends and welcomed the New Year with a happy heart. Can it really be 2013?!

I was so excited to be in town to celebrate Janae's 25th birthday. She is a friend that I am so so so thankful for. She is incredibly kind and giving, so beautiful and smart. She is incredibly considerate of everyone around her and is a rare soul. She had a True American themed birthday party, which meant people came dressed to impress in their American best. Think red, white and blue, "white trash" and camouflage. It was quite a night. So. Much. Fun.

I also got to see some of my very favorite high school students. They are the best. It was so wonderful to catch up with them! They inspire me everyday.

Happy hour with these VISTA friends topped it all off. Steak tartare, local beer and good friends. What more can a girl ask for?!

I am the luckiest.

Home.

Being home over break was wonderful, really wonderful. I went to lots of my mom's yoga classes, started and finished a baby blanket, cooked and ate lots of yummy foods, and watched lots of movies. It was incredibly relaxing and rejuvenating. It was such a treat to have a winter break again and have weeks to be with friends and family!

I spent an afternoon baking cookies with these lovely ladies and my mom and my bubbe. It was lots of fun and the perfect first day home!

My mom and I made tried lots of great recipes! We made chai tea using Elsie's recipe as our inspiration. We made stuffed peppers with lots of delicious veggies and beans, brown rice and quinoa. We made a raw cheesecake with raw cashews and coconut oil as the "cheese" from Roost. We also made raspberry ricotta whole wheat scones from Smitten Kitchen (ours didn't turn out quite as pretty as hers). It was a treat to get to cook with my mama! It was really nice to have time and energy to be able to dedicate to making good, wholesome foods. 

 

We had a sleepover with my cousins where we watched a movie, folded paper cranes, and danced. I love these girls with all of my heart.

Every year for Christmas we celebrate by eating finger foods and sandwiches, wearing our pajamas and playing. The last couple of years we have played Just Dance which is a riot. Bubbe and Papa joined in this year!

I also got to spend lots of quality time with my darling sissies.  I love them and value our time all together so much. We all live in different places so all being home together is fabulous.

I don't have pictures of any of my reunions with friends, but was lucky enough to see lots of friendly faces. I went out for burgers and beers with dear friends, went to a party and played mafia, and went to a brunch at a friend's house. I feel so fortunate to have so many great friends from high school who are either still in the area or returning home for the holidays! I love getting to catch up and reminisce with them.

I am so grateful for the useful, thoughtful gifts I received from family, friends and Santa. I feel thankful for my loved ones sharing their precious time and energy with me. And I am grateful for a healthy and happy new year!

Eggnog and Holiday Celebrations!

I have had the most wonderful holiday season. I began celebrating the joys of this season in Pittsburgh. Between all of the reading and writing I needed to do for school, I snuck away to pack in lots of fun. I am thankful for all of my new friends in Pittsburgh.

A couple friends and I explored my neighborhood by going on a Holiday Cookie Tour. Local businesses had the shopkeeper's favorite cookies for sampling and had holiday specials. It was such a fun event. We looked for these gingerbread cookie signs in the window of shops in the business district.

After the cookie tour, Drew and I were feeling in a festive mood and decided to carve pumpkins... I know, I know. Not very Christmas-y. Except that we carved snow(wo)men, Christmas trees, candy canes and the words NOEL and JOY into the sides of the small, leftover pumpkins from the Fall. We watched Home Alone and drank red wine while we carved pumpkins and it was the perfect end to our mini holiday celebration.

To celebrate being all done, we went out to Banjo Night at the Elk's Lodge for one of their Christmas shows. It was really wonderful. Friends, family, beer, popcorn and live banjo music. Really, is there anything better?

I had to bid farewell to lovely cousin. We tried to spend lots of quality time together before I left. She got a job in New York City (!!!) and is moving before I return to Pittsburgh. I am insanely thankful for all of her help in my transition to Pittsburgh. From giving me a place to stay,  introducing me to lots of new friendly faces and places, giving me lots of great advice, and being a dear friend, I couldn't ever thank her enough. Pittsburgh won't be the same without her, but I am so so so excited for her next adventure. I am hoping to spend my spring break in NYC with her. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Ari. I am so grateful for you and your friendship. I love you!

A few weeks ago, a couple friends were hosting a holiday party to celebrate being almost done with our first semester of graduate school and all of the holidays we were going to be apart for!

Drew and I wanted to try something new so we made eggnog! I had never even tried eggnog until I made it. We followed a recipe from Esquire pretty closely. We substituted brandy for cognac.This recipe was very boozy. I wouldn't bring this to a family gathering (you know, unless your family was into that sort of thing), but it was embraced by friends at the holiday party! Below is the recipe we made, but next time I would only use 1/2 pint of each alcohol (or add more creamy ingredients).\

Eggnog

Ingredients:

• 12 eggs
• 3/4 cup superfine sugar
• 1 pint brandy
• 1/2 pint dark rum
• 1 pint whole milk
• 1/2 pint heavy cream (we used whipping)
• nutmeg

 

Instructions:
Separate the whites from the yolks. Put whites aside.

 Pretty flower of yolks

Beat the yolks until smooth and slowly add the granulated sugar. Mix until the sugar is entirely dissolved (this is why you use superfine sugar!).

Slowly pour in the brandy, stirring the whole time. Do the same with the dark rum. Esquire says "Pouring the liquor into the yolks has the effect of cooking them more lovingly than any stove could."  Drew made sure that I very lovingly poured the booze into the sugary eggs.

Next, stir in the milk and cream. We did not whip our cream, but the recipe said that you could for a richer taste.

Beat the egg whites until they peak without toppling. We didn't have a hand mixer, so Drew and I had to hand beat the eggs. It was a team-building exercise, that is for sure. We had to take turns viciously beating the eggs with a whisk (it is a good think I lovingly pour the booze earlier!). We relayed beating the eggs for quite a while before the eggs thickened enough to stand without toppling. We weren't sure that the eggs would ever thicken enough.

 VICTORY!

Next, add the whites to the boozy eggs. We just scooped the whites into the mixture and stirred. It had a strange texture until we added all of the whites.

Sprinkle nutmeg to your taste. We only had ground, but freshly grated would be best!
 
This made a lot of eggnog. It will last in the fridge for a several days if kept in an airtight glass container (like the jars below).

 This was a very fun and successful first attempt! We were really happy with how it turned out, but we would make it slightly different next time. We are hoping to try another recipe at some point. We read that the very best eggnog is aged for at least a week.... but that takes patience....

I am very thankful to be home with my family now. I will be here for another couple days before I head to Minneapolis. Many adventures ahead!

DIY Compost Bin

My roommate Drew decided to build a compost bin in our backyard for his final project for his agroecology lab. I volunteered to help build it and take pictures to document his project. I thought it would be fun to share our DIY compost bin!

We built this whole project for free by getting pallets from a shop down the street and finding nails and wire in our garage. You could build a similar bin for very little money too! All of the words and images below are from Drew's final project presentation.

Building a Backyard Compost Bin

SELECT A SPOT

Choose a place for your compost bin that is out of the way yet accessible, is relatively level and has good drainage, and gets some sunlight.

 

PREPARE AREA

 

Clear any debris and, if possible, turn top six inches of soil. This will help give worms and other organisms better access to your compost pile.

 

GATHER MATERIALS

For the simplest of bins, you will only need four pallets and some heavy wire. To create mine I also used a hammer and some small nails. If you want to put a door on the front of yours, hinges, a latch and a drill would likely be handy.

PLACE BACK & SIDE PALLETS

I chose to place the shorter sides of the pallets on the ground to create a taller bin that occupied less space. Put the rear pallet in place and butt the two side pallets against it.

ATTACH PALLETS

You can do this several ways, but I found the simplest and most effective method was lashing the pallets together with heavy wire at the top and bottom of each corner. I found nails and screws to be more difficult to use because of the odd angles of the joints and the likelihood of hitting the nails that were already in the pallets.

CONSTRUCT FRONT

 

You can choose to leave the front open, construct a door or a half-door, or do as I did and build a partial wall. Whatever your choice, just be sure it allows you some way to access your compost pile, as you will need to turn it regularly. 

 

I pulled a number of boards off the fourth pallet and used them to create the front of my bin. I fastened them with small nails, spacing them approximately an inch apart and running from the ground to about halfway up the bin.

START COMPOSTING!

Your compost should be a mixture of carbon-rich “brown” material (dead leaves, wood chips, straw, etc.) and nitrogen-rich “green” material (fruit and vegetable scraps, grass clippings, manure, etc). The ideal C:N ratio for your compost pile is 30:1.

A NOTE ABOUT PALLETS

Pallets are a great material for building compost bins because they are a good size (a pile should be at least 3’ by 3’ by 3’ to heat sufficiently), they are easy to find, and they can often be had for little or no cost. I found mine by asking a local business if they were getting rid of any. They were happy to get rid of a few and didn't charge me for them. I was able to build my bin in just a couple hours for no cost at all.

HAPPY COMPOSTING!