Settling in satisfactorily

To assuage the guilt of such a long absence, here are a bunch of pictures from life in Nottingham!

Sian and Kris were our first dinner guests! Dave and I had been watching lots of Treme on HBO, so we ended up spending all day cooking gumbo, buttermilk biscuits and cornbread muffins (oh, yes, yum).

My bit of the UK had a pretty decent 95% solar eclipse, and I got in on the action (here's half way through, via a pin hole camera). Some had eclipse glasses, some medics brought out x-ray film, and physicists had lots of fun kit to view the event with. I was lucky and tried a bunch. Mainly, it was super cool to see just how many hundreds of people spilled outside to "watch"

Start with an eclipse, end with a sunset...

My first musical gig in Nottingham, playing 3rd oboe in Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms: a damn good piece for orchestra and choir that I had done while in Cardiff. The music was satisfying and I hopefully made a few contacts for future gigs. It won't be as easy to find musical opportunities in Nottingham as it was in Cardiff, but I'm still optimistic.

I traveled southwest to Bristol to give a lecture; the train station featured Holland-ic levels of bicycles and, um, a steam engine train? This was my first guest lecture at this level, as there aren't many obvious teaching opportunities for me. I stressed, but it went very well: I had fantastic social media analogies to explain brain network structure that seemed to work well 

Seeing as I was most of the way there,  I headed back to Cardiff after the Bristol course, where spring was waiting to greet me.

I got to see some lovely familiar faces in Cardiff; here's the end of the night out... thanks especially to Kevin, my ex-boss and continuing friend, who hosted me :)

Nottingham has lovely people too! Here is Sian, demonstrating her epic unicycle skills just out of frame.

And Ben with his crazy bouncy stilt legs. I *did give them a try, although I needed a lot of ground support...

And Matt, going a little crazy towards the end of his PhD, with unintentional coordination between copies of his thesis and his socks.

So yes, lots of fun things bubbling along in the background! In science news, I had a paper accepted (finally! we first submitted in July 2014!) and it's causing a bit of a stir. It was picked up by perhaps the biggest Neuroscience blogger in the UK, who writes for Discover Magazine. I was initially freaking out, because he got something wrong and wrote something misleading, and the take-home message was already getting misinterpreted across social media. But I used twitter, talked to the blogger, made corrections, and hopefully things are more accurately represented now. I'm even starting to enjoy the little bit of buzz that the paper has garnered! Totally new territory, reinforcing my science-love for the twitter (@BrightMG, anyone?).

Here's the blog post:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/neuroskeptic/2015/04/18/is-fmri-noise-really-noise/

It's also an open access paper, if anyone wants to chance a reading!
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811915002669

Sunshine BBQ

Nothing too special, just reporting some actual summer weather in Wales. And sunshine means... BBQ! Dave documented my glee (and ferocious beer drinking). I figure it's pretty rare to have these kinds of shots of me posted here, so I'll share the, er, moment. The food was pretty good, too :)

But Dave, can we please just EAT!?

Yeah, I don't know.

Logging culinary adventures

Dave and I have created an online repository for all of our cooking experiments, which you are invited to peruse at your leisure. It isn't really meant to be a blog, per se, but rather an electronic alternative to a recipe book. Most of our recipes are coming from the internet, and it is a way to have access to our own experiences and recipes from a kitchen anywhere in the world. We also have a fun DSLR camera and enjoy photographing the delicious fruits of our labor.

Finally, we use the kitchen as a bit of a laboratory. Like America's Test Kitchen, we really enjoy thinking about the small changes and tweaks that might improve (or catastrophically ruin) a dish. The science of it all, I suppose. We also quickly forget the lessons learned with each dinner, and are constantly asking ourselves "What Was it We Did?" Hopefully this will help.

So, if you are so inclined, feel free to track our progress at whatwasitwedid.blogspot.com

omg yum

Knowing that I am dangerously close to being that person on facebook that instagrams every salad they make... here is a picture of my super awesome loaf of bread from this evening!

The taste is divine, the crust is delightful, and a slice was delicious enough to have as my dessert this evening; it is a triumphant success! This is my fourth loaf in a recent spate of bread baking, and after a few hiccups, I think the recipe is starting to be perfected. It is a no-knead, long-fermentation bread... after barely combining the usual water/flour/yeast/salt, there is no further effort. The yeast is left to bubble away for days and days in the fridge, slowly but surely lining up a gluten structure and developing in flavor. I bake the loaf inside a dutch oven with the lid on, to imitate a steam-injection oven and hopefully imitate the lovely crusts that professional bakers manage to produce. (Try it yourself! My main source is here.)  There are more tweaks to try out: how long should the ferment last? how can I shape the loaf without scalding myself on the pre-heated dutch oven? how much whole wheat flour could be added before it affects texture? But for now, hot damn, I made one fine loaf of bread.

(Note, however, that while no kneading is required, this method seems to get flour everywhere in my kitchen and all over me. I'm in denial until tomorrow!)

Simply because I stumbled across these photos as I was writing this, I thought I could show off a bit more baking from Blenheim Road. Here are a few pics from a bagel-making adventure... now these take a LOT of work. But it is worth it, to get good bagels 3500 miles from New York!

The night before, make the dough. After one rise, shape it into rings and let it rise again.

Boil bagels, in water with a bit of malt barley syrup (or honey), to get that classic chewy bagel crust.

Then bake to brown them, and coat in toppings! Maybe I need to make these again soon.

Bringing a bit of Wales to my New York Christmas

An absolute nightmare to get off the baking tray, but when else do YOU get to eat the DRAGON?

After a long hiatus...

Yes, it has been ages since my last entry, and I have already decided that it would be impossible to recount everything from the last, erm, half year (give or take) in a single post. So rather than tell you about my exploits in Lyon (played an oboe there) or Portugal (drove there for more oboe playing), or list the numerous characters in my new Cardiff life, or describe the happiness that is Dave "temporarily" living with me while he writes up his thesis, I will just jump to the present. If my blogging momentum pushes onwards, I will perhaps revisit all these events. For now...

Dave and I like cooking. We like borderline pretentious cooking techniques. Dave *really likes eating (I don't mind it too much, either). For Christmas this year, I gave Dave a bag, that contained a card, that contained a message, that presented him with a private, personalized cooking lesson with a French chef in Bristol.

We were in different countries for the holiday, but after we both returned to our flat in Cardiff we arranged a phone call with the chef (Iza... pronounced Eeee-zah) to plan our menu. I think I initially pictured a day of buttery pastry skills, folding layers upon layers of delicious butter (with maybe a dash of flour for appearances' sake) into croissants and profiteroles oozing with infused cream.

Instead, we went in a completely different direction... there is one area of cooking that we never do. Ever. In a pinch, I will eat lamb. When pressed, Dave will eat cous cous. But we never seem to venture into the scary, slimy, smelly world of Fish. There are several possible explanations: a good fishmonger is hard to find, and most grocery stores sell frozen slabs of cod, or smoked mackerel, or herring. If you want more interesting fish, they come with eyes and tails. And don't even get me started on bones.

So we asked Iza for a fish theme, and she presented us with menu suggestions and we eventually settled upon stuffed calamari, baked macquerel filet with grain mustard and sauerkraut, and
pan-fried sea-bass with lemon caper sauce. Finally, Dave quickly zoomed in on the classic cheese souffle as our starter/dessert.

We took a short train ride to Bristol one gorgeous (chilly) Satuday, with a bag full of empty tupperware ready to carry home leftovers and a bottle of wine to drink during the class. Bristol is a surprise: everyone describes it as "very hilly" but for some reason I was really taken aback by how hilly the city was! (Yes, Dave kept rolling his eyes). The center of Bristol houses a university campus, and this translated into lots of independent cafes and music shops and a laid back attitude... something I haven't really experienced in the UK thus far. A fun city, <1 hour from Cardiff, with a good university... if only they had some biomedical engineering going on for Dave to sign up for! Ah well, I'm sure we'll be back.


River barges housing bars etc.



We randomly came across a morning market... please note the epic weather we are having!



University tower at the top of the hill. Well, the top of one of the smaller hills. The poor undergrads have residences on the top of a bigger one!



All smiles, post class/feast


Early evening stroll, looking down towards the river (at least it would be downhill to the train station!)


Dave the engineer and the bridge he wanted to see (I admit it is a good bridge)

The class was held in Iza's flat, on the top floor of a tall Georgian rowhouse. Aprons donned, the fish were presented, eyes and tails intact. Those we would learn to fillet and de-bone, although the scaling and gutting were done before purchase. While Dave and I have learned a lot from scientifically-minded cookbooks and youtube video explanations, there are some things that are so easily picked up through osmosis when in the physical presence of a trained chef. As Dave says, he was able to hear how Iza wielded the knife along the spine of the fish, and see how much force she needed to carve out the fillet. We got to poke parts of the pan-fried bream, feeling the difference between not-done, could be called "done" now, and over-done.

The stuffed calamari brought it's own lessons: first, the head/tentacles and attached internal globby bits are pulled out from the fleshy sack (the mantle). Sometimes, the eyes burst, or ink goes everywhere. Creepy on its own, but when you are wrist deep in a random sludge of squid guts, these things pass. The tentacles are cut off from the eyes bit and set aside for cooking. The long clear "quill" is drawn out. Then you squeeze your fingers down the mantle, open side down, pushing out all the remaining inedible mucousy organ slime. The fins are tugged and the skin is peeled away. Everything is washed and meticulously dried before using a piping bag to pump in a stuffing of mashed butternut squash, chorizo, spanish paprika, garlic, and herbs. It loos super impressive, without being actually very difficult... an excellent showpiece for a dinner party. I'll just try to remember not to recount how the squid gets cleaned while we're eating!

We did not take any pictures during the class--like I said, wrist deep in fish sludge. We traveled back to Cardiff with a backpack full of stuffed calamari and 1.5 whole fish that we didn't get end up using. On Sunday, we recreated the mackerel and bream dishes, with slight alterations to the menu based on what was in the house. And I think the class worked... we did a damn fine job.



win!

Trees grow on money

I have just thrown £150+ into creating a kitchen jungle:

Not visible in this picture: almost 300 Liters of soil and a raised bed structure that needs assembly, plus a few hand tools and such.  Soon all these little guys will be placed in their respective corners of the flat, getting to know the lovely mini-tree that Lara bequeathed to me during the mass exodus from Oxford that occurred this week (more to come on that).  The potting soil will be placed in an outdoor bed and vegetable seedlings will be transplanted there.  I definitely feel a sudden shift in the place, adding plants really makes it feel like a home :)  I hope they like it here as much as I like having them.

Sprouts!

Update on my foray into vegetable gardening:


I have bought some little peat pellet thingies that expand almost 4x when you first add water but are surrounded on the sides by thin mesh to keep their shape.  Seeds get dropped into the center of each pellet, and you just poke around with a finger until it's covered and pretty looking.  I found all vegetable seeds at Homebase that suggested you could still sow them in August: Carrots, Beets, Spinach, and Rocket (Arugula).  The little peat babies get coddled under plastic and brought indoors at night.

Et voila, 2/4 of my seeds have already popped up with sprouts in just a couple of days!  The carrots and spinach are just late bloomers, I have faith they will emerge when they are good and ready.  The beet sprouts are a beautiful red color, and the rocket is quite leafy.

So I am very energized and enthusiastic for more planting and eventually transplanting into a proper outdoor autumn vegetable patch, albeit in raised containers.  For now, the seedlings will stay cozy in their peat pellets, basking in Cardiff sunshine.

You should visit my kitchen.

It is a warm and inviting place, full of happy things and enticing smells.

Note all the essential ingredients to a happy kitchen:

1. Pot with stuff simmering.  Who cares what, anything that simmers along is likely to end up lovely.
2. Fancy stirring devices in cheerful colors
3. A large bowl that makes even massive portions look reasonable
4. Random paper towel ready to absorb all of my many little accidents (I am no graceful Nigella)
5. Wine.  Oops, the glass is empty.  That means the dinner will definitely have that extra je ne sais quoi
6. Big knives looking impressive in a knife block.
7. Little knife I actually used.
8. Fresh herbs in pots, actually looking perky now that I interpreted their depressing wilting as a desperate cry for attention/water
9. A nice view with sunshine (er, it's Wales... indirect sun tempered by lots of, um, clouds)
10. Good tunes.  You can't see this, but I'm rocking out to the radio recorded Cambridge folk festival played far too loudly on my trusty speakers.

So in this environment dinner was guaranteed to be a success.  When I stopped dancing around the kitchen long enough to pour, chop, or stir, I managed to concoct:

Spicy turkish couscous with tomatoes, beans, capers, lemon, and fresh cilantro and parsley.  Possibly the best thing ever, I promise, although I was a little heavy handed with the cayenne and needed water rather than more of that wine :)

So you see, if you visit me you get fed.  Better yet, you will be invited to join me in cooking in this ever-so-inviting kitchen!

Let me know when flights are booked...

Savoury pies

Do we have savory pies in America?  Google has informed me that chicken pot pie is a common US recipe, but I don't think I've ever had it.  And then I moved to the UK, where I was introduced to the glory that is a homemade savoury pie.  It is a crisp golden and flaky crust surrounding a hearty stew of tender earthy goodness.  Amazing.  I had my first piece in Bracknell, served fresh from the oven of Dave's mum.  It was heaven.  And then this weekend, after having her culinary wisdom transmitted via mobile phone, Dave and I attempted our first pie.

Bacon and butter and onion and leek and shredded chicken and stock and shortcrust pastry.  And I was the happiest (most gluttonous) person on the planet for a few exquisite mouthfuls.  Eye candy follows.

Yum!  Already dreaming up little individual pies with obscure flavor combinations... moroccan? turkish?  Still, there is something particularly lovely about an English classic!

A flat at last!

After having places vanish an hour before viewing, after having the perfect place be dirty and broken, after finding toilets in separate rooms without sinks to wash your hands, after being asked for massive rent prices for the tiniest of apartments, I have finally found my future home in Cardiff... I left the bond fee at the agency today, next week I sign a contract and give the full deposit, and July 18th or so I move in!

What is this magical property that rescued me from weeks of trolling Craigslist and agency websites?  It is large, it is full of light, it is ticking all the boxes and in a rather posh location... it is also, however, currently a pile of rubble.  After being vacant for two years, the flat is being entirely refurbished.  It takes a lot of vision, and optimism, to see the result through the debris.  But I kinda fell in love with the idea of the place, with it's windows and gardens and original tile floors... I have faith that a brand new kitchen can't be that bad, and the lovely ceiling of the mostly finished living room helps me visualize the loveliness that could potentially emerge.

The lovely preserved/repaired bay window facing the street, with stained glass in the upper pains.  Not double glazed, but pretty enough for me not to begrudge them my increased heating bill.  The floor could almost be salvaged, but some gaps in the wood means they're putting in carpet (alas).  TV is going.  Blinds and curtain rod installed.

The bedroom with it's door direct to the walled back garden.

The inside of the bedroom (needs imagination to see past the debris!).  It will get a new bed, new wardrobe, and more carpet.

A rather quirky feature, this little annex/pantry room is attached to the kitchen, connected the rear and side gardens, and is meant to hold the washing machine.  It will eventually provide perfect secure bike storage with easy access through my gardens to the street!

The kitchen.  Well, none of this is staying.  It will get a new sink and new stove along the window wall facing the rear garden.  The opposite wall will have a long counter with cabinets.  Cabinets are wood, counters black, everything brand new.  I have a tough time picturing the final product, but fingers crossed!  They are saving the lovely tiled floor rather than covering it up like the previous owners.

The bathroom is large, albeit a little odd.  A sink (the agents want it black, the builders want it white...) a tub a toilet a bidet and a shower.  Oh my.

So there we have it.  Or there we can almost see it.  I love that it has personality.  It has charm.  It has all the things I need in a place.  I hope hope hope that the final result is lovely, having met the builders I think they really take pride in doing a nice job and I am very optimistic.  And come July, you are all invited to come see my new home in Cardiff!

A month for family

The last month or so has been a surprising mix of the terrible, the hard, the wonderful, and the relaxed.  I finally left my job at the NIH... I have had "going away parties" on numerous occasions for each extended trip I took over to Oxford, but this was the big last goodbye.  Dr. Bright packed up all her earthly belongings, put them in the brave little minivan, and headed precariously home to New York.  In the end, I think that I will sincerely miss my lab at the NIH; despite some tough times, I came to really appreciate the people and the place more than I expected, and I left Bethesda on very good terms, with an NIH sweatshirt, a card signed by all my colleagues, and a rather large gift certificate for John Lewis (a UK department store).

At the same time, my family was coping with a tragedy.  My grandmother suffered a hemorrhagic stroke, spent a few challenging days in the hospital, and was eventually brought home to Lake George for home hospice care.  About the time I arrived in Indiana, she was coming home.  My mom was amazing.  My whole family was amazing.  Somehow, a tragic event was almost beautiful, and my grandma passed away in her own bedroom with all her children holding hands around her.

After the funeral, I drove the little mini cooper up to my brother's house in Ann Arbor, where I proceeded to do very little.  I initially intended to stay for the weekend.  Then I stayed for a week.  Then 10 days.  Whoops!  But I had much needed downtime, and puttered about the garden between walks into town for posh coffee.  Pansies, espresso drinks, cooking with Andy... no surprise I stayed so long :)

Andy completely remade the front porch of his house, and I was fortunate enough to watch it all come together.  With no  help from me (but at least without my clumsiness ruining too much), Andy put up the finished railings.  As a finishing touch, he created a trellis for the north side, in the same style as the trellis on our grandparent's porch that we found in old black and white photographs.

The handyman himself, relaxing on the porch swing he refurbished.

I had been worried about the pansies, since when I left they looked like this.

Andy recently emailed me this updated photo of our pansy project... "resplendent" indeed :)

When I finally started to be bored with my life of leisure, I took the little mini home to Long Island.  For kicks, I opted to drive via Canada instead of Ohio (although they are equally boring stretches of North America), and spend the night in the very, erm, bizarre town of Niagara Falls.  Although the falls are rather impressive, the budget hotel I picked out of my data-roaming-charged-smartphone was in the middle of an off-season theme-park/freak-show/fun-house/wax-museum neighborhood that was rather Norman-Bates creepy without the throngs of whiny eight-year-olds that I assume flood the streets in the summertime.  But, I survived the night, passed through customs, and took fun two-lane twisty roads most of the way back to the NY metropolitan area.  Like the commercial says, "Mini cooper... handles like a go-cart."

The falls.  At night, they are lit up by big spotlights that change colors.

After getting some wanderlust out of my system, I settled into a cozy routine back at Casa Gallogly-Bright.  The newest addition to the family fleet, two banana yellow pedal kayaks, were a highly enjoyable addition to the weeks at home.  Good work mom and dad!  After a little foray up to Montreal (for another post), I hunkered down to pack up my entire life into boxes to be shipped in a container ship over to Cardiff.  I will only post about that process when/if I get all those boxes delivered in 4-6 weeks time!  And, simply because it wouldn't be a blog entry without entirely random pictures, here is one from a trip to the North Fork with Mom and Barbara to see alpacas.  Yes, alpacas. 

Yup, Mom and Barbara and alpacas.  They were both doing their best to convince the other to buy them.  "Never need to cut grass again!"

Equally random pic of my dad, preemptively celebrating our stuffed bell peppers :)

Knitting circle plus beer equals happiness.

My scarf is getting longer, Elizabeth is showing me up with elaborate cabled gloves (although currently glove, singular, and has been so for ages :-p ), beer is in the fridge, chinese food is being delivered, and dvds will be watched.  A good spontaneous evening, all around. So grandma, how am I doing?!