For those who are interested (others disregard, it's bound to get geeky up in here!):
I worked really hard for a few weeks on immunohistochemistry experiments, generating tissue for two separate projects. One, my dual immunofluorescence examination of the colocalization of VAT and CHT in limbic regions recipient of ascending mesopontine cholinergic innervation, had to have all the tissue processed in one big batch, which made for some particularly long days. But after a couple of weekends off and a few shortened week days, I'm back to business. I've started cleaning up/ organizing my files, and cross-referencing/cataloging the physical micrographs, image files, actual tissue, lab notes, sampling notes, and excel analysis files. It's a little daunting, because I've put off dealing with a lot of the unfinished projects, which generated a lot of data, but is hard to classify. But, I inventoried two lab notebooks last night, and I'll probably spend a day or two this week burning secondary back-up CDs.
Then, maybe, I can be done with this project. Finally.
I moved forward with my dual fluorescence project today, when a really nice grad student showed me the post-processing steps to use on my image stacks. I still need to spend some time playing with the masking procedure to identify objects as sets of voxels, but I think this will be a good way to do this project. I'm really grateful to the professor who's helping me do these experiments (and letting me use his imaging system), and to the student who helped me today.
My tract-tracing project is moving a little bit farther as well. I got an analyzable case, and I have the slides prepared, and took some low magnification shots of a far-red fluorescent dye called Alexa-647, that labeled the vesicular acetylcholine transporter (VAT). I had to paste these together in Photoshop, as the 2x image wasn't big enough to cover the entire section.
So tomorrow evening, I'll start sampling 20x triple fluorescence images. This is A--- 488 for green fluorescent latex microspheres, A--- 568 for CTxB, and A--- 647 for VAT. So far, on a quick scan, I haven't seen much colocalization of the tracers, and I haven't found anything yet that had all three labels. But I looked at very rostral sections, where inputs to the AVN aren't very heavy.
So... maybe six months? I'll bet eight ;)
On that front, I'm going to send resumes/CVs/coverletters to whatever jobs interest me, and see where that takes me. It's a strange way for me to do a job search, I'm used to taking whatever comes up first because I need the money, and not-so-secretly hate being without a job. So wish me luck with all of that, and hopefully I'll love my next career move.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Poached fished with ginger and vegetables
Shoot, I just realized I didn't take a picture. Well, my Asian food never really looks appetizing anyway, so you'll just have to picture it for yourself.
I bought a couple of bass the week before last; they were gutted, but still had bones and scales/skin. I foolishly thought that I would save a lot of money by doing this at home, but neglected to properly weight the fact that I don't know how to de-bone a fish. They still had dorsal fins. Ew.
Okay, I really do wish that I'd taken pictures now.
They'd been defrosting for a few days, since I pretty rarely cook these days, but I pulled them out, rinsed them out, and made a first attempt to saw through the bones with a long slender knife, that I think is supposed to be used for filleting. Of course, I was kind of cutting in the wrong direction, but soon stopped. The fish was just a bit too smelly for me to feel safe cooking it, so I tossed it back in the freezer to wait for trash day, and went to the store. I picked up some more bass, this time already prepared for cooking, though still with skin, and some veggies, ginger, and lots of other random things that we needed.
So, about an hour later, I put the groceries away, and pulled out some shrimp stock I made, and froze, back in May. Melted that in the pan, then diluted it, and tried to skim off some of the stuff that was suspended in the liquid.
Poached fish with ginger and vegetables
1 1/2 cups shrimp or fish stock
1 tsp freshly grated ginger
1 lb bass fillets, with skin on
Heat stock in a large, shallow pan to quick simmer, add water if necessary. Stir in ginger, then place fillets, skin side up, and cover for 4-5 minutes. Reduce heat if necessary to poach fish. Remove fish from pan with tongs/spatula. After all pieces are out of the pot, you can add the remaining fillets, and finish them up. Take a fork, and scrape the skin/scales off of the topside each fillet. Try to get it all in one piece, I think it reduces the number of scales that you end up eating unwittingly. Throw it out - I don't know if I want to compost this, b/c of the smell, and I don't know anything else to do with it.
Pour the stock out through cheesecloth and a fine mesh wire strainer, to get the liquid. Don't (as I did!) forget to put a bowl or some kind of container underneath the strainer, so that you can actually get the part you want, rather than sending it down the drain. Luckily, I only did this with half , and my shrimp stock was stronger than I really wanted it to be [which is a whole nother story involving leaving the stove on while D & I both went out for 3 hours.] Dad, I think this means I can no longer make fun of you for doing the same with the great stock debacle of '92 or '93.
Okay, so I diluted the stock some more, in a big Pyrex measuring cup. Rinsed out the pan, and reheated it on mediumish heat.
If you happen to have a handy electric rice maker, now is a good time to start the rice.
And I can't believe I actually use one of these. I have a strong conviction that many gadgets don't really make things easier than doing it by hand. I don't ever make microwave popcorn, though I do use the microwave to heat up coffee/water, melt butter, and bake potatoes. I resisted a food processor for a long time, but for some things, it's worth taking it out for. I used to make fun of people who had rice cookers. Rice is not hard. You boil some water, add some rice, cover it & reduce heat, then check it a couple of times. Voila. But the beauty of the rice cooker is that you don't have to boil the water first, then add the rice. Just put both in, and turn it on. It's pretty much the only step worth eliminating. And, you don't have to check it at all - it switches itself into "Keep Warm" mode.
1 cup (dry weight) rice, prepared
(I used jasmine)
2 tsp oil
1/2 onion, sliced thinly
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup zucchinni, julienned and cut to ~ 1-2 inches
1/2 cup carrot, julienned and cut to same length
1 cup green beans, snapped to same length as above
2 tsp freshly grated ginger
Heat the oil, and add onions, then garlic. Stir-fry for a couple of minutes (3, maybe?) on high, until onions are browning at the edges and crispy. Add the carrots, and a few tablespoons of the stock. cover for 1-2 minutes, maybe turn down the heat a little. Add the peas, and 1/2 C more liquid, to steam the vegetables a little. Recover and cook for a few minutes. Add the zucchini, and recover for 2 more minutes. To the remaining stock, add some rice vinegar, spices, etc, to spice it up a bit.
Add the rest of the stock, ginger, a handful of chopped cilantro leaves and put the fish pieces sans peau back in, cover, and cook 2-3 more minutes. Serve over rice with dry white wine.
We ate outside in the LB Memorial Patio, by candlelight, and with the cats frolicking in the plants :)
It was okay, better than my usual attempts. I think, despite how much I hate it, I need to break out the Wok, and get the oil hotter before I cook the vegetables. At least the Indian is pretty fool-proof, and I have a dishwasher, which makes experimenting with multiple pot cooking possible.
I bought a couple of bass the week before last; they were gutted, but still had bones and scales/skin. I foolishly thought that I would save a lot of money by doing this at home, but neglected to properly weight the fact that I don't know how to de-bone a fish. They still had dorsal fins. Ew.
Okay, I really do wish that I'd taken pictures now.
They'd been defrosting for a few days, since I pretty rarely cook these days, but I pulled them out, rinsed them out, and made a first attempt to saw through the bones with a long slender knife, that I think is supposed to be used for filleting. Of course, I was kind of cutting in the wrong direction, but soon stopped. The fish was just a bit too smelly for me to feel safe cooking it, so I tossed it back in the freezer to wait for trash day, and went to the store. I picked up some more bass, this time already prepared for cooking, though still with skin, and some veggies, ginger, and lots of other random things that we needed.
So, about an hour later, I put the groceries away, and pulled out some shrimp stock I made, and froze, back in May. Melted that in the pan, then diluted it, and tried to skim off some of the stuff that was suspended in the liquid.
Poached fish with ginger and vegetables
1 1/2 cups shrimp or fish stock
1 tsp freshly grated ginger
1 lb bass fillets, with skin on
Heat stock in a large, shallow pan to quick simmer, add water if necessary. Stir in ginger, then place fillets, skin side up, and cover for 4-5 minutes. Reduce heat if necessary to poach fish. Remove fish from pan with tongs/spatula. After all pieces are out of the pot, you can add the remaining fillets, and finish them up. Take a fork, and scrape the skin/scales off of the topside each fillet. Try to get it all in one piece, I think it reduces the number of scales that you end up eating unwittingly. Throw it out - I don't know if I want to compost this, b/c of the smell, and I don't know anything else to do with it.
Pour the stock out through cheesecloth and a fine mesh wire strainer, to get the liquid. Don't (as I did!) forget to put a bowl or some kind of container underneath the strainer, so that you can actually get the part you want, rather than sending it down the drain. Luckily, I only did this with half , and my shrimp stock was stronger than I really wanted it to be [which is a whole nother story involving leaving the stove on while D & I both went out for 3 hours.] Dad, I think this means I can no longer make fun of you for doing the same with the great stock debacle of '92 or '93.
Okay, so I diluted the stock some more, in a big Pyrex measuring cup. Rinsed out the pan, and reheated it on mediumish heat.
If you happen to have a handy electric rice maker, now is a good time to start the rice.
And I can't believe I actually use one of these. I have a strong conviction that many gadgets don't really make things easier than doing it by hand. I don't ever make microwave popcorn, though I do use the microwave to heat up coffee/water, melt butter, and bake potatoes. I resisted a food processor for a long time, but for some things, it's worth taking it out for. I used to make fun of people who had rice cookers. Rice is not hard. You boil some water, add some rice, cover it & reduce heat, then check it a couple of times. Voila. But the beauty of the rice cooker is that you don't have to boil the water first, then add the rice. Just put both in, and turn it on. It's pretty much the only step worth eliminating. And, you don't have to check it at all - it switches itself into "Keep Warm" mode.
1 cup (dry weight) rice, prepared
(I used jasmine)
2 tsp oil
1/2 onion, sliced thinly
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup zucchinni, julienned and cut to ~ 1-2 inches
1/2 cup carrot, julienned and cut to same length
1 cup green beans, snapped to same length as above
2 tsp freshly grated ginger
Heat the oil, and add onions, then garlic. Stir-fry for a couple of minutes (3, maybe?) on high, until onions are browning at the edges and crispy. Add the carrots, and a few tablespoons of the stock. cover for 1-2 minutes, maybe turn down the heat a little. Add the peas, and 1/2 C more liquid, to steam the vegetables a little. Recover and cook for a few minutes. Add the zucchini, and recover for 2 more minutes. To the remaining stock, add some rice vinegar, spices, etc, to spice it up a bit.
Add the rest of the stock, ginger, a handful of chopped cilantro leaves and put the fish pieces sans peau back in, cover, and cook 2-3 more minutes. Serve over rice with dry white wine.
We ate outside in the LB Memorial Patio, by candlelight, and with the cats frolicking in the plants :)
It was okay, better than my usual attempts. I think, despite how much I hate it, I need to break out the Wok, and get the oil hotter before I cook the vegetables. At least the Indian is pretty fool-proof, and I have a dishwasher, which makes experimenting with multiple pot cooking possible.
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