June is Busting Out All Over In Shades of Grey

I'm told that Memorial Day marks the official beginning of summer, but I can't see that here.  June is busting out all over... in shades of gray.  I hear gray rain pounding on my gray roof, and looking out the window, greenish grey trees reach up to a blackish gray horizon.  Not that the rain is entirely unwelcome.  It isn't a cold, bitter, endless rain like those of late fall and winter, but instead is mild and earthy.  And of course it is accompanied by the extended hours of daylight that still tell me that it is sort of getting to be summer.  Sort of. 

I see magazine covers that hold a promise of a hot beach body, great grilling, and fun in the outdoors.  They seem absurd, I don't want any of those things.  I want a blanket, not a bikini.  I want tea and and broth and cream.  I want to knit and watch the X-Files.

Pho is for Fail

No pictures to accompany this one, just a general tale of desperation and woe.  I tried to make homemade pho.  It seemed so simple!  A jug of beef broth, some rice noodles, and roast beef.  There you go.  My downfall was in the other ingredients, which were a "chile" and fresh ginger, which you cook a little before adding the broth.  My problem is I'm not entirely sure what the hell Asian recipes mean whent ehy call for a "chile," but I know that my grocery store does not have these mysterious chiles in the produce section.  I usually use jalapeno, but I have found this does confer enough spiciness.  So I decided to test out a serrano pepper.

That was mistake.  The pepper's red hot spiciness expanded into the whole dish, making it a steaming tureen of sweaty, cough inducing, devil-broth.

I ate it anyway, but I am afraid of the leftovers.

Delicious Things On My Camera

This lovely concoction is called a "Quick Classic Berry Tart." It's a simple recipe, basically a tart shell filled with vanilla custard, topped with berries, glazed with jam. There isn't really anything quick about it though...unless you have tart shells and custard lying around. This was the first time I had made this particular custard recipe, and it thickened up so fast that it frightened me. To be fair, I was watching a trailer for Batman porn, so maybe I was distracted. And maybe I was frightened by the fact that Batman porn exists more than the custard. But the end result was fantastic, all crunch and cream and fruitiness. It soothed my fears.

I made a Coconut Cake over spring break. It's a pretty standard cake recipe, except with coconut milk instead of regular milk. It was a bundt, so it automatically looked beautiful without even trying. AND it was tasty, and not super sweet so you could eat A LOT of it in one sitting. I did.



These are jello shots attempt 2. They were not disgusting, but not something I would eat. I don't think I like jello in the first place, so when you add gross alcohol (aka the cheapest vodka at the liquor store) I'm not really a fan. But all said, they were not inedible or vomit inducing. Thus I declare them a win.

LabORatory

The OR are capitalized so that you will say it with a British accent. LabORatory. Well, I will be working in a laboratory much more frequently starting next quarter. I will soon be participating in a mutagenesis screen of arabidopsis, locating genes that participate in growth and differentiation of cells.
That probably sounds like nothing to most people, but to me it sounds like AWESOME. It's a great opportunity to get experience, and the prof said I came at very high recommendation from my cell bio prof. That made me feel good. I also get my name on the paper when it gets published! I'm so very excited.