Coast to Coast

The absolute best billboard of the drive back, I sadly did not snap a picture of. But it was for an "indian

trading post" and we had seen a lot of ads for various things there. My favorite was a plainly-painted board that proclaimed "LIVE CACTUS"! Can't get much better than that...

A few other pictures from the journey including a giant cow in Flagstaff, Sunset Crater and lava flow, Meteor Crater (I can totally see why they didn't get what it was at first) and Petrified Forest National Park, AZ. Robyn would be glad to know we ate in some fun diners as well, my favorite was the scorpion sandwich I had in New Mexico...

A few more pictures from our day in the field at NAPC and every Headlines TA's favorite, "Dunky" from the Cincinnati Museum.

More from green, leafy DC full of thunderstorms and lightning bugs at some point...

NAPC2009!!!

I posted some pictures from NAPC on my flickr account. Check them out!

Adventure Time

Well, the spring quarter has come to an end and summer is officially here, which means it's time for adventures!

Mary, Lidya and our newest labmate RJ will be heading off to Australia for some quality time with the Ediacaran fauna.

Erica's already headed off into the sunset, bound for Washington DC to work as a park paleontologist.

Aaron will be back and forth between teaching GEO101 at RCC and his precambrian tubes in Death Valley.

Daniel will be defecting to the Love Lab for the summer, but we forgive him because he'll be going to the Burgess Conference in August.

Kristin's wrapping up her doctorate.

I'll be out in Utah befriending Ordovician clams and snails and filming a documentary about the Ordovician Radiation with my good friend Samantha Mitchell (check her webpage out).

All in all, the summer should be good. We've all decided to update the Droser Lab Blog with tales from the field. I'll hopefully be posting weekly from the Rancher Motel in Delta, UT. Have a happy summer!

Parmesan and Root Vegetable Lasagna

Serves 10

- 6 cups (1/2-inch) cubed peeled butternut squash (about 2 1/2 pounds)
- 2 1/4 cups (1/2-inch) cubed peeled sweet potato (about 1 pound)
- 2 cups coarsely chopped onion, divided
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Cooking spray
- 4 cups 1% low-fat milk
- 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 bay leaf
- 1.5 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1/3 cup)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 1/4 cups (5 ounces) grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
- 9 packaged no-boil lasagna noodles
- 1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

1. Preheat oven to 450°.

2. Combine squash, potato, 1 cup chopped onion, and oil in a roasting pan coated with cooking spray, tossing to coat vegetables. Bake at 450° for 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring once; set aside.

3. Combine remaining 1 cup onion, milk, nutmeg, cinnamon, and bay leaf in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat; bring to a simmer. Remove from heat; let stand 15 minutes. Strain milk mixture through a fine sieve over a bowl; discard solids. Return milk mixture to pan. (NOTE: the magazine noted the importance of cleaning the pan well before refilling it with the milk mixture.) Weigh or lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Add flour, salt, and pepper to milk mixture, stirring with a whisk. Cook over medium heat 10 minutes or until thick, stirring frequently with a whisk. Remove from heat; stir in Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

4. Preheat oven to 375°.

5. Spread 1/2 cup milk mixture in bottom of a 13 x 9–inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Arrange 3 noodles over milk mixture; top with half of squash mixture, 1/2 cup mozzarella, and 1 cup milk mixture. Repeat layer with noodles, squash mixture, mozzarella, and milk mixture. Top with remaining 3 noodles. Spread remaining milk mixture over noodles, and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup mozzarella. Cover with foil coated with cooking spray. Bake at 375° for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 20 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes.

-From Cooking Light

Bead Party!

The women of the earth sciences department enjoyed cooking and sampling traditional food while admiring hundreds of beautiful paper beads made by Ugandan women. The fair trade organization, Beads for Life, allows women to earn enough to feed their families. A wonderful afternoon was enjoyed by all
and you can find someone modeling their
carefully-chosen purchases in a hallway near you!

Droser Lab ON TOUR!

The Great Basin...
#1 SPRING BREAK DESTINATION IN THE US!

Rosemary Nuts

Rosemary Nuts (from The Italian Vegetarian by Jack Bishop)



INGREDIENTS:

• 1 c. raw whole almonds (with skins)
• 1 c. pecans halves
• 1 c. walnut halves
• 1/3 c. pinenuts
• 2 tsp. brown sugar
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. melted butter
• 1 T. (or more) minced fresh rosemary

DIRECTIONS:

1. Spread nuts evenly on baking sheet.
2. Bake nuts for ~10 minutes in oven preheated to 350 degrees F. Once the pinenuts reach a golden-brown color, the nuts are probably done.
3. While nuts bake, chop rosemary and mix with remaining ingredients in a small-medium bowl.
4. Add nuts and stir.
5. Serve hot!

Makes ~4 cups