#sweetteascience

[sweetteascience]

Happy new year from #SweetTeaScience! Always lovely to spend time during the breaks together. We promise we're brainstorming for new posts! #BestiesNYE (at Camp Richardson Beach)

[sweetteascience]

What a year for #SweetTeaScience! Rachel and I have loved writing again on the blog and sharing about our lives and journey. I love that our top nine reflect that work/life balance we strive for! We have lots of fun adventures planned for the new year and will continue our weekly posts! . . . #2018BestNine #STSblog #womeninSTEM #ScienceLifestyle #STEMblog #STEMblogger https://www.instagram.com/p/BsD7NrShdVa/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=endh4vr63ze

[chelseainjapan]

sweetteascience Hey Rachel! I’m studying kanji right now and the character for “marsh” is composed of two elements that mean “seduction” and “water”. I thought you might find that interesting next time you’re working in the seduction water.

[mindblowingscience]

luna-mothra replied to your post “I really want to stay in a STEM program. Science is my best friend....”

please follow sweetteascience!! they do great stuff with women in stem & encouraging girls in the sciences! :)

I recommend them too. They run a great blog.

Follow sweetteascience. :)

[markscherz]

Science Q's: 9, 39, 49, 56, 62.

9. Any chemical burns or lab related accidents?

Nope. I’ve broken stuff, but never hurt myself or anyone else. Once I was in a lab and the idiots next to me set light to the fuel pump of their bunsen burner though. That was a scary moment. Could have blown the whole lab up.

39 answered here!

49. Do you like proofs or cold hard Mathematics?

The very first day of Higher Level Mathematics (I did International Baccalaureate) in 11th grade, the teacher asked us to do a proof. I could not do it. The proof in question? 1+1 = 2. I passionately hate proofs. While I understand their application in hardcore mathematics, I think that to the average person who wants to implement mathematics to resolve problems, they are unnecessary complications. I have had graduate level courses where they taught mainly by doing proofs on the board, and it was utterly unhelpful in understanding the problem at hand. My brain does not handle mathematics in that way, and is not able to be creative in that direction. A personal failing that I am afraid I have neither the motivation nor the interest to overcome.

62. What would you do a TED talk on?

Speciation, extinction, communication, numbers, and who gives a shit about little brown frogs in the rainforest.

56 answered here!

[smilesandvials]

sweetteascience replied to your post:I’m probably way underselling my tutoring price...

I have a BS and MS. Last year I was charging $20/hr. Now that I’ve talked to people and reevaluated, I don’t think I’ll accept less than $50/hr. Don’t be afraid to charge more! ~M

I charge $10/hr because a) Not yet graduated b) This is what all the tutors that are contracted through the College are paid. I just happen to be free lancin’ it. c) About to go to grad school, and I consider this valuable teaching experience. I’m not hurting for money yet because I have more regular grading employment, and a job lined up for summer before graduate school stipend kicks in. d) I used to tutor math but I haven’t tutored high school chemistry since high school and I don’t know what my student’s results would look like yet (math went well though!) I know it’s fairly low but hey, more than I get paid for grading.

[merswine]

I Lobe Coelacanths

What's that, just around the corner in an Indonesian fish market? Who's that paddling through the water column with an almost quadripedal gait? It's the coelashirt, just the thing to clothe your lobed fins. Featuring a handsome Latimeria chalumnae, attractively framed by  "living fossil" plants Ginkgo and Wollemia. 

Okay, folks, I'm just saying, you need this in your life. I unwisely splurged, but I don't regret it. They're like 18 shirts away from their goal. SCIENCE SIDE CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN.

[merswine]

Gather round, ducklings. For I bring you the secret of the cheap burritos.

I know a lot of you are in college/grad school/real life, and need to eat, and for as few monies as possible. Therefore, I bring you my burrito recipe. It's so simple and easy that you'll feel stupid for not having realized it yourself. 

Here's your ingredients. All of this cost me..... $24? It depends on what you already have at home. Tortillas are necessary, and really, you can buy any ingredients you want in your burritos. You want pork? Treat yourself.  Beans? Treat yourself! Steak? TREAT YOSELF. Turducken? TREAT. YO. SELF.

For this round, I've collected up chicken, mexican rice, refried black beans (with lime), enchilada sauce, and avocados. I do recommend salsa or enchilada sauce to keep it a little goopy after you microwave. Use spices, too! I like cilantro, so I dump that in. Cumin and chipotle are good ones too, or adobo, if you're into that.

First, do your prep work. DON'T FRET: this is super easy. Usually it's just cooking your meat, and in this case, your rice. You want your burritos to be "edible" when you roll them up. Otherwise, you're depending on the microwave to properly cook it, and that's not cool.

I prepared the rice as the box said. The chicken, I just tossed in a pan on medium/low heat with a splash of olive oil and some spices. I keep turning it until it's got that nice golden brown color.

Take your chickies and cut them up. I find it's best to chop your meats fairly tiny to blend it all together, which makes your meat stretch farther, and means you're eating less meat, which can be healthier, too!

Ensure you've got proper supervision.

Here's an example of what I chop my chicken like. I really just kind of use the knife to pull it apart, but that's my preference.

If you're interested in avocados, but are new to them, DON'T WORRY. They are super easy. Look for avocados that are mostly firm, but you can squish just a little bit. Take your knive and cut in on the half as far as you can get. Rotate the avocado around the knife, and then twist the two halves apart. From here you can scoop it out with a spoon, or cut it smaller and peel the skin off. It's SO EASY.

Start mixing most of your ingredients together. Here's my refried beans and avocado.

Plus a handful of cheese and a dollop of enchilada sauce.

Add the chicken and the spices, and get mixin!

Finally, I've got all my ingredients together! I cut two of the avocados into slices, and put one into the bean/chicken mixture. Usually, I just have all my ingredients in the blue bowl, in one big mushy mess, but I'm getting ~fancy~ this time.

Time to ROLL UP:

Here's how I roll up my burritos, and it works well for me. Usually, my first few burritos are kinda mushy, but they get better 2-3 in. I also kind of squish it around once it's rolled to make sure that the filling is evenly spread. 

Finally, the secret. Take your rolled up burritos and put them on a baking sheet or a plate, or if they're rolled really well (and dry), just put them in freezer bags, and stick em in the freezer.  ~Watch a shitty movie for an hour~ Transfer your burritos to bags, if you need to. When you want to eat them, microwave for 2 minutes or so, until fully warm. You know, just like store-bought. And look, I just made 15 semi-fancy burritos for $25! If you use just beans and rice, you can make that even cheaper. GO FORTH AND EAT