Category: food

Manifest (Your) Destiny

Graduation years are a turbulent time. At first, all you can focus on is that big light at the end of the tunnel. Finish writing my thesis. Pass my classes. Defend. Graduate. Success. This is my life for the next 2.5 months. Eventually, you’ll be able to look past the light and see all of the options that lie ahead of you. Darn. Options means choices. We’ve reached that point in our life once more when everyone only asks you that one dreaded question: What are you going to do after you graduate? Guess I have to start thinking about this again. As if I had that much control over my destiny.

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Another early morning in South Africa. The sun is struggling to rise, as are we. Today is Kruger Day.  After days of hard work and animal relocating with Andre (the Indiana Jones of Africa), a day spent marveling at beauties of the wild is just what we need. 
Our caravan creeps slowly towards the gates. Other students get out to stretch their legs. I try to get a few extra minutes of sleep. We’ll be spending the day driving through the park. You don’t get out. Inside the vans, with our cameras, snacks, and guides, we’re in our temporary habitats. Everything else belongs to the animals.

Dr. Stokes, our experienced leader and resident Mammalogy guru, has been through the parks many times. Each experience provided a different glimpse into the vast diversity the park has to offer. To make things even more interesting, he issues a contest. The student to correctly predict the first mammal we encounter in the park gets a Magnum bar. And this was before Magnum bars were available in the US!

I must have that ice cream bar.


What mammal will we see first? I focus very hard on this question. I think about all of the different possibilities. The others will guess more obvious choices. Impala due to sheer numbers. Giraffes, due to height visibility. I close my eyes and open myself to the answer. 


Rhinoceros.

Greater Kudo Capture

A bold move on my part as often this member of the Big 5 is not often seen at all. My fellow competitors mock my choice, but I gather all the positive energy I can muster and focus on my goal. 


We see not one but a group of White Rhinos just inside the park. 


Sweet, sweet, Belgian chocolaty victory.

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I once manifested multiple Rhinoceroses, how difficult can this future thing be? I’m still a few weeks away from knowing whether my plans for after graduate school may involve four months in a Mars analog habitat. I need to be focused on finishing processing samples and writing my thesis, but I can’t help but try and peek out past the end of this tunnel at my future. 

Stuff your Face Saturday

It’s been nearly a week since I started this blog and I have yet to talk about food! I’ve been cooking it. I’ve been thinking about it. And I’ve certainly been eating it!

I’ve been meaning to give my crock pot some love, and make some (not)refried beans, so might as well take everyone along for the ride.

This is an excellent recipe that could be converted to meet the requirements of space travel. Dry beans can be stored for 10-30 years while all of the other ingredients can be stored as dry spices. Imagine some smooth, spicy beans after an 8 month trip to Mars!

Ingredients (minus jalapeno) 

I am only making a half serving compared tot he website recipe. The first time I didn’t leave enough room in the crock pot to let the beans expand! Rookie mistake. The beans take about 4-5 hours on HIGH.

Remember to leave room for the beans to expand!

Come back later to see the final product!
EDIT: Here it is, folks! I’ve already realized that I foolishly did not think to add that extra New Mexico kick! Next time I will be adding Hatch’s famous green chilis! I wonder how long they’d last in space….

Finished product. Now if you’ll excuse me, I must stuff my face!
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