Strawberry Cream Cake!

My mother is quite the woman...the best hostess and cook and baker and funny lady and most lovely and godly woman I've ever encountered and I've always wanted (and still want) to be just like her. :)

In hopes to show her an ounce of the grace and loveliness of what's she taught me (still working on that... ;) ) , starting last year I began inviting my parents over for a special Mother's Day dinner to honor her. Cooking for her is sort of weird being that she's done it for me all of my life and does it so well---it takes me much more thought, planning, time and all-out effort to orchestrate a fancy meal for such a talented lady but it is worth all of that and more for her.

This year I made a Martha Stewart dinner (like last year, too, actually) with Almond-Crusted Chicken, Orzo with Peas and Mint, and Strawberry Cream Cake! The chicken and the orzo were both pretty good. I felt they could've used a bit more flavor (nothing a little garlic or onion powder or butter probably couldn't help), but I would be willing to make either of the dishes again in the future sometime. As for the dessert, I've always wanted to make some sort of layered cake...I've owned round baking pans for almost 3 years now and have never attempted. This year, I finally found a recipe that sounded easy enough to experiment with my pans, super yummy, seasonally appropriate (mmm strawberries), and something I just knew my mom would love! The made-from-scratch cake, whipped cream, and juicy fresh strawberries ended up being the perfect end tp a sweet, special day honoring the sweetest, most special mother ever! :)

Mother's Day Flowers

For the past couple years, I've taken an early morning trip the day before Mother's day to Norfolk Wholesale Florist for Mother's Day flower arrangement inspiration and supplies. I buy several bunches of flowers to put them all together in special arrangements for the sweet ladies in our lives. I made an extra bouqet for one of Robert's grandmas, "Grandnini." Grandnini was in the hospital during Mother's Day weekend and we went to visit and brought her these flowers to cheer her up. :) This year I found pretty pink roses, daisies, irises, carnations, and some baby's breath and purple filler-type flowers--very bright and very springy--just the way I like it!

Orchid Conservatory

At the end of April, ODU's Orchid Conservatory arranged hundreds upons hundreds of their orchid plants that were in bloom. The green house is such a sweet-smelling, warm, and happy place. :) I had never taken advantage of the conservatory until this winter when some friends and I stopped in. It's the perfect place to stop in on the way to and from getting coffee in the winter! :)

While there are many plants in the conservatory you could find and purchase at Home Depot or Lowe's, there are SO many from different states, countries, and continents. Some plants look like spiders, slippers, daffodils, or fancy, dressed up blooms complete with sparkles and frilly ruffles. Here are a few of my favorites!

Robert took me to the circus and didn't leave me there!

It had been at least 15ish years since I'd been to the circus...for Robert, it had been longer! After we saw the elephant parade when the circus came to town, I wanted to go so badly. I suppose Robert read my mind when he asked if I wanted to go the Sunday afternoon when Ringling Brothers were in town! It was the best break for me at the beginning of the height of my end-of-semester work. :)

Several things were the same from what we could remember--elephants, confetti, tigers, tight rope walkers, motorcycles on highwires, strong men and bendy people. Some acts were the same with a few tweaks--we never remembered an attempt at a quadruple somersault on the trapeze and we could only remember about 5 motorcyles in the ball of steel--not like 10. :)

simple wonders

i love stepping onto my patio in the mornings to water my all of my little plants and to witness the simple wonders of new life; it never ceases to amaze me. i love starting out the day being reminded of Who has His hand in everything--even the small things.

Plasmodium falciparum

What you see here in these pictures are Malaria and mosquitoes on sugar cookies. Yes, I said MALARIA and, yes, I said SUGAR COOKIES. Malaria... as in the terrible, deadly disease one can contract after being bitten by a mosquito (Anopheles spp.) infected with the parasite Plasmodium falciparum...

Last week, I made these cookies and brought them into my Molecular Genetics class last Wednesday for our lunch-buffet. My professor, Dr. Cooper, for this class was my Parasitology professor last fall and just so happens to be a Malaria expert. Also, we had a guest speaker from Notre Dame, who's a friend/colleague of Dr. Cooper and, again, just so happens to be a Malaria expert. He's one of the leading researchers of Plasmodium falciparum, its genetics and specifically how its genetics affects its drug resistance (Dr. Mike Ferdig). Kind of a big deal being that the primary drug used for malaria decades ago has become resistant and there hasn't been a drug as cheap and effective.

While these gentlemen are very familiar with malaria, mosquitoes, and the havoc they can wreak...they were certainly not prepared to see malaria, mosquites, and cookies and experience wreaking havoc on those cookies! It was a great surprise, a fun addition to our Malaria discussion, as well as a perfect way to start winding down the semester! I'm hoping that if my brain didn't cut it for a good grade this semester...that these cookies will help me out.

You'll notice my rendition of the Anopheles species mosquito and an assortment of parasite red blood cell stages: ring stages, both young and mature trophozoites, and schizonts.

As always, I most certainly had amazing assistance and am quite pleased with this project that has brought together my love for cookies and biology. <3

BABY BASIL!!!!!

I'm so very excited to announce to you we have BABIES!!!! Lots of basil plant babies that are working so hard to peep out of the soil to greet the sun and soon flavor our dinners! I haven't posted on all the plants I've planted and seeds I've sown recently, but I planted basil and cilantro seeds about 10 days ago (Sunday the 11th) and I noticed these little green specs (seen in the above picture)popping out on Day 7 (4/28)! This was a lot faster than the seed packet indicated their germination period was (20 days!). After 10 days, the seedlings are coming up strong and I even noticed a few baby cilantro working his way up this morning when I watered all my plants! Hurray!