Tales from the Microbial Laboratory

Caldeirada

This morning Stanley and I dragged ourselves out the door early and went for a walk on Sullivans Island - strong rip currents had been predicted and an astronomical high tide was in the making.  It's been interesting for a few years to watch this barrier island change - move as they are known to do - with a sandbar that used to be one that you would swim out to at low tide now proving to be a tiny strip of land in it's own right.  This morning Stanley and I got caught in the middle of it - with the higher than usual tides rushing across the lower areas as I waded through a foot and a half of seawater while Stanley tried to jump over the ribbons of approaching foam.  The wind was cool but the water still felt surprisingly warm.  The island was quieter than normal - it was a beautiful morning.

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But it's a day to remind myself that I need to finish packing up this house (and soon) - now, a few hours later - the wine glasses and margarita glasses and martini glasses are packed away and in storage - as is a rather large lamp and all of the miscellaneous glass carboys that I've collected over the years for God-only-knows-what-reason.  Blankets that won't make it into the Airstream have been placed in airtight bags.  I took a full car load to my storage unit - and returned to a place that is looking less lived-in each day.  My kitchen is down to three wine glasses, one drinking glass - and just the pots and pans that have made the cut into the Airstream.  Oh, yeah, I still have the KitchenAid mixer - I'm not ready to part with it yet (although I'm not sure that why - since I haven't been using it much - but I did think that today might be a nice day to make bread - for the Caldeirada below).      

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So - it's a cloudy day and there's a cool breeze and it's a day to have something going in the kitchen, something to smell, and something to warm you.  Below is a recipe that a graduate student in the lab, Ben, passed on to me awhile back. It is how Margarita, his former Dutch boss' Portuguese wife in Holland, fixed Caldeirada and taught him the recipe (except there were no quantities). The present state of the recipe is how it evolved in Ben's kitchen over the last several years. You can find plenty of other variations on the dish on-line - it's often referred to as Portugeuse fish stew I think. This dish is traditionally something made along the coast to cook with whatever is caught that day - Stanley and I didn't catch anything on or walk (nor did we try to) - although we did manage to swing by the grocery store afterwards and pick up a nice piece of halibut.  The bay leaves came from the bay tree out in the garden - and I also added a bright red hot pepper from the garden.  It's cooking now, and the house smells like sweet peppers.

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Ingredients

0.5 cup EVOO
0.5 cup white wine (dry chardonnay or pinot grigio)
lotsa garlic (~tablespoon of minced but the more the
merrier)
1 medium/large onion (white, yellow, or vidalia work)
tomato (normally one but you can take out or add more based on desired final
consitency)
3 bell peppers (I do 2 orange and 1 yellow but you can vary this as well)
bay leaves (equal to # of fish or chicken breast)
~1 lb meat (normally fish but can be chicken also)
smidgin of curry (or more than a smidgin)
salt and pepper
potato (yukon golds are good, sweet potatoes work well too)

In a decent size pot (like you would cook chili in) add EVOO, wine (these two should cover the bottom nicely), garlic, onion (cut in half and slice), tomato (wedges), sliced bell peppers, bay leaves and curry. Mix. Salt and pepper this mixture to taste (if using chicken, salt more). Add fish or chicken cut in small (1 inch) cubes and stir. Thinly slice potato (the thickness will determine cooking time) and lay in a single layer on top of mixture. Bring to boil on medium heat then cover and heat at medium to medium low for 20 min.  Check potato layer doneness, if not done, check meat. if meat is done and potatoes aren't, stir potatoes under and continue to cook. Normally I just stir under after 20 min and then cook for 10 more minutes. Serve in bowl. Will make enough for 3-4.

Additional comments: If using fish, smaller pieces may be more prone to disintegrating when boiled so take into consideration - I tend to add the fish after the potatoes are almost done. Also, if you want to increase recipe, just increase all accordingly, don't worry about having relatively less potatoes. You might have to cook longer as it takes longer to get to temperature.

'You can have my husband, but please don't mess with my man...'

You've just gotta love the blues.  After work today I listened to South Carolina blues woman Wanda Johnson sing a few songs, backed up by Shrimp City Slim - down at the Mills House on Meeting Street.  The place was packed (hey, it was a free show) - the drinks were flowing - and Wanda was great (as always).  I saw her for the first time several years ago, as part of the Lowcountry Blues Bash.  It's the last few days of performances, but I'm sure glad that I got to sit for awhile and listen to Wanda sing before it's all over for '07.  From what I've heard about Wanda, she writes most of the lyrics to the songs she sings - and all I can say is that she must have a mighty fine man...

But today wasn't so much about the blues as it was about pie.  Key Lime pie.  Tomorrow is my mother's 72nd birthday, and since Key Lime pie is her favorite dessert, I couldn't resist ordering her one of Sublime Pies and Cakes' award-winning pies.  Sublime doesn't ship just yet, but when I arrived there at 10 am this morning to pick up the pie, the Pie Queen herself was there - and my pie was frozen, vacuum-wrapped, and I was given precise instructions on how to ship the pie to my mother.  First, I had to get the $4.99 styrofoam cooler from Publix, and while I was there, I needed to get 5 lbs of dry ice (I got a little over 8 lbs).  The pie, which was in a cardboard box, went into the cooler first, then I added the dry ice, and then some packing material.  Now, finding someone to ship the pie was a bit more challenging - I stopped by the UPS Store next to the Publix, and it ends up that they don't have Saturday delivery to my parent's zip code in Virginia.  Hmmmm.  Luckily FedEx would deliver it overnight - but first the styrofoam cooler had to be packed into a cardboard box.  All I can say is that tomorrow at some point in the morning, my mother is going to receive a very large box that contains a normal-sized pie.  I'm guessing that when my mom takes her first bite of her award-winning birthday pie, she'll have to ask my father 'I wonder how much it cost to do this' and she'll shake her head like she's thinking her daughter is a nutcase.  But I'm also guessing that she'll love the pie. 

But I couldn't resist - the pies are beyond delicious - and the Pie Queen herself was about as nice a person as I've come across in awhile (so go and order a pie, 843-225-LIME).  In fact, I became a fan of her little store and bought another pie on the spot - one that I took back to the lab where we renamed it New Guy Pie in honor of the postdoctoral fellow's first day.  I am so thrilled that the New Guy is here - and was even more thrilled that he was anxious to get things going - and I had to laugh when he said that folks where he was working, back in Maryland, told him that he'd get sick of academic life real fast because everyone in his new lab would be nerdy and arrogant.  Okay, well, maybe a little nerdy and arrogant (okay again, some might say alot nerdy) - but I had to laugh since Katherine was off with her husband to a poetry event in West Virginia and Maria spent the day with her hair in a gazillion braids in preparation for an 80's party she was going to later (where I'm guessing she'd convince folks to do the salsa) and Ben was pondering whether his broccoli seedlings were surviving the cold and I had just spent the entire morning figuring out how to mail a pie.  I think the New Guy, who claims to be a jazz musician and sculptor, will fit in just fine. 

So on the way to hear Wanda sing, I stopped off at LimeBlue and gave Jeff a piece of New Guy Pie and petted his dog Janie.  Jeff told me about something he had heard on one of the morning shows, where they were interviewing a guy who was talking about what would happen if oil-degrading microorganisms were released into the world's oil reserves/reservoirs.  This guy seemed to think that microorganisms were going to biodegrade all of the world's oil, disrupting an already disrupted power base, reeking havoc on the planet.  Jeff couldn't remember if the microorganisms were native ones or if they were genetically-engineered - but he thought it sounded silly and I'd have to agree.  In theory it's a fantastic tale of microbial might, in reality it'd be a hard sell.  Plus, I've heard that 10% of oil gets damaged already in the refining and transport process - in other words, microbes are there already.  But if they were close to 'eating up' oil - all 3,000 plus compounds found in oil - then there'd be far less of the stuff contaminating the planet as it is.  I'm sure thought that a few folks heard this guy and were terrified and pondering the evil microorganism and it's erradication.   Heck, don't they know that if microorganisms weren't around, oil wouldn't have been made to begin with?  Any anyway, I'd personally like to engineer a microorganism that degrades plastic - I think we need to get rid of 90% of the stuff.

Anyway...just so no Key Lime pie-eating microbes take over in the next 24 hours, my mom should be enjoying a fine piece of pie tomorrow afternoon for her birthday.            

Traditions

MOM'S CINNAMON ROLLS

2Pkgs. or 2 T. dry yeast
1 T. sugar
1 c.lukewarm water
1 c. milk
1/2 c. sugar
6 T margarine or butter
3 eggs beaten
1 tsp. salt
6 to 7 c. flour
butter, melted
brown sugar
cinnamon
nuts. opt
Dissolve yeast and 1 T sugar in lukewarm
water. Scald milk; add butter, sugar and salt.
Cool to lukewarm. Add 2 cups flour to make
a batter. Add yeast and beaten eggs. Beat
well.  Add remaining flour to make a soft dough.
Knead lightly and place in greased bowl.
Let rise until double in bulk. Roll out and
spread with melted butter. Sprinkle with
brown sugar and cinnamon as desired.
Roll up as a jelly roll. Cut in one inch slices;
put cut side on greased pan.
Let rise about 30 minutes. Bake for 20 minutes
at 375. When cool, frost.

Caramel Frosting
1/2 c. butter
1 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. milk
2 c. 10x sugar
1 tsp. maple flavoring or
1 tsp. vanilla
Melt butter; add brown sugar and cook
over low heat for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
Add milk and continue to stir until mixture
comes to a boil. Remove from heat and cool.
Add flavouring and 10 x sugar until right consistency.
Beat by hand until smooth.
( I half this frosting recipe and apply a thin layer of frosting)

Makes enough to share.

A New Lab Holiday

Yes, this week we officially* decided to make 2 August 'Feed the Undergraduate Day' in the laboratory.  JD, our hard-working, extremely entertaining summer undergraduate has been craving her favorite comfort foods - so what could we do, but oblige her?  So here I am, at 7 am, with six ramekins filled with homemade chocolate pudding baking away in my oven at 300 degrees.  I've always meant to try Hominy Grill's chocolate pudding (everybody raves about it) - but I recently saw the recipe posted on muse to muse and it's stuck with me - and what dessert is more comforting than chocolate pudding made from scratch with good bittersweet chocolate and real cream?  (Hey, I said it was supposed to be comforting, not healthy!).

So while the pudding was doing what ever pudding does in a hot oven, I wandered the garden with the much happier Ancient Wonder Beagle - and our big discovery was that the glads that I got from Select Seeds (Gladiolus 'Natalie') were blooming...only, I don't think what I have blooming in my yard is 'Natalie' at all, which is described as:

"A glad for those of us that consider most modern types too florid, 'Natalie' has graceful small salmon pink flowers marked with splashes of darker pink. 10/12 cm. Set of 10 bulbs."

Well, what I see is a white glad with splashes of darker pink - and worse even, a glad that I would call florid.  Yes, it's pretty - I can't say glads aren't pretty - but I must say that I shy away (run!) from them for the most part, and 'Natalie' was my attempt to find a glad that I actually liked.  They're popular, I know - but they're just one of those over-commercialized flowers that has lost much of their charm to me.  As for what I have in my garden - I think I'll cut them all today and take them into the lab to adorn our "comfort food" lunch - I'm sure someone will enjoy them.  And, I still want to see what 'Natalie' looks like.  Perhaps next year?

The oven timer is going off - so time to check the chocolate pudding.  As for the rest of you - if you have an undergraduate in your life, perhaps take them to lunch, bake them some chocolate chip cookies, or give them your leftovers - just feed them something.  If they are at all like JD, they'll be grateful.

*Officially decided AKA: a few of us hanging out in the hall outside of the lab and talking

The Sandshaker Lounge

Ever been to Pensacola Beach, Florida - aka the Redneck Riveria?  I lived on the Gulf Coast for three years, working with the US EPA, and one of our favorite hangouts was the Sandshaker Lounge on Pensacola Beach.  They were known for their Bushwackers - a kind of drink I generally don't like all that much, but boy are these pretty irresistible once you start drinking them.  It's sort of like a milkshake with rum.  I was cleaning the house tonight (one of my least favorites activities in the whole world, but I've got visitors showing up tomorrow) and I ran across the recipe - I last made these when we celebrated my graduate student Joy's successful PhD defense (Joy loves rum drinks of all varieties). 

Finding this recipe made me think about the Sandshaker, and all of those happy hours spent there - and so I googled it and discovered that the last few years had been hard on the place. It seems that in 2003, "Operation Sandshaker" netted about 40 people in drug-related federal and state charges - cocaine trafficking.   Operation Sandshaker even made Wikipedia (look here) - that's pretty wild.  Linda, the co-owner (along with her husband), and others were indicted - and it looks like she got a two year prison term.  Evidently the Sandshaker was put on the auction block.  Some developers tried to buy it (imagine...they wanted to knock the place down!) but instead a few Sandshaker regulars bought it for $605,000 and they're back in business.

You've just gotta love - REALLY love - bar regulars as dedicated as these guys.  It's nice to know that the Sandshaker is still alive and well.  It's the perfect beach bar dive - cold beer, a great place to play darts, plenty of sand on the floor - and I'm guessing the (original) Bushwackers are still flowing like mad.  What a relief.

Along the way, I came across the Pensacola Beach Blog - who posted yesterday about Donald Hall being chosen as US Poet Laureate.  Fun find!  This blogger has a ticker going for the cost of war in Iraq - definitely looks interesting.