Joe Tsao

Here’s how I remember what one needs to make a muffin:
You need:
Fetal Bovine Serum
Extra-Sensory Perception

Recipe:

Flour – 2 cups
Butter – 4TBs (half a stick)
Sugar – 1 cup

Egg – 1
Salt – about 1tbsp
Powder (baking) – 1TB

Sour cream – 5/4cup.

(Above taken from cook’s illustrated. Below taken out of ether)

Vanilla – 1 cap full (the tiny little cap that comes on the extract bottle)
Nutella – 1/4 cup or so
Peach jam – 1/4 cup or so
Coarsely Crushed Walnuts – 1/2 cup
Zest of one tangerine

Topping:
Finely obliterated-with-a-wooden-stick walnuts – 1/8 cup
White sugar –  1TB
Cinnamon – 1TB

Preheat oven 350. Combine flour and softened butter. Add sugar and salt. Add egg, sour cream. Add baking powder. I only had 3/4 cup of sour cream leftover, so I just added milk after that. It doesn’t give as rich and creamy a muffin, but it works. I added milk until batter had consistency of thick pudding. Blend the vanilla in/zest in. Lightly mix in nutella/peach jam/coarse walnuts. Sprinkle on topping. Put in oven. Pour batter into muffin trays. Watch TV until mom shouts “DID YOU BURN THE MUFFINS YET?” Go “Oh CRAP!”

p.s. – try to view my site from your iphone/android or whatever. Cool, huh?

Without an extensive cooking background, I remain jealous of those who just throw ingredients together and are able to make something absolutely delicious. Slowly, however, I am gathering recipes and advice, building a base that will help me out later on. I’m learning to work with InDesign, and am creating a recipe book for recipes that I’ve found/altered/created (currently, its mostly just found), and the science behind making good food. I hope to jot down my experiences with these recipes, and to rate and make further suggestions, updating as I act on these suggestions. Later on, I hope to pdf reference “cookbook” to anyone who wishes to read it.

Avocado Fries

It really can’t get much simpler than this. Use this recipe for shrimp, cucumbers, zucchini, just about anything (I assume. I actually haven’t tried this with anything else). Spend maybe 5 or ten minutes, make a huge mess, and you’ve got yourself a nice, satisfying, not-as-healthy version of a healthy food!  Now the numbers (1c flour, 2 large eggs) etc don’t really matter as long as you get something on the avocados. I did originally sprinkle some pepper on them, but found that it doesn’t seem to complement the avocado’s unique buttery taste that well. Let me know if you have suggestions, cause I’m definitely making this again sometime!

(not my creation. found it on the internet sourceless)

Link here

Toxoplasmosis, a parasitic disease that infects the brain, normally infects cats (but can infect many other warm-blooded animals as well, including humans). About 1/3 of the people in the world are infected, and the CDC estimates that 1/10 of the American population are infected. But don’t worry – normally toxo infections are as harmless to humans as Charmander’s flame attacks are to Squirtle.

The infection is caused by the parasite Toxoplasma gondii. This disease is highly prevalent in rats, and therefore highly prevalent in cats as well. Scientists at Oxford University have found that although normal rats tend to avoid areas with cat scents, those infected by toxo actually are attracted to cat scents, making them the brave! The adventurous! The dead. This makes sense in evolution. By making infected rats more likely to be eaten by cats, Toxo makes itself more easily spread. (In humans, it can be spread through contact with cats or though eating infected raw meat).

Well cue this article by Slate. According to Slate, prevalence of Toxo infection strangely is able to predict winners of elimination matches. In fact, 15 out of the last 16 winners of the first knockout game over the last two world cups were from countries with higher infection rates of Toxo! The article tries to tie infection with behavior, stating that it is know that Toxo increases testosterone in male brains, making them more likely to engage in risky behavior. They have more “aggressive and less inhibited.”

(Image taken from the Slate.com article. Without permission. I hope this is OK)

A report released by Schizophrenia Bulletin, Effects of Toxoplasma on Human Behavior, by Jasroslav Flegr, does find differences in human behavior between those infected and those uninfected. Those infected were found to be more vigilent, likely to “disregard rules and [to be] more expedient, suspicious, jealous, and dogmatic.” They were more likely to have been in traffic accidents, with lower reaction times.

So could infection with parasites make a more ruthless, more fearless sports star? Well, has anyone seen Ron Artest?

I have posted this link on Facebook a week ago, but I’d like to revisit it on my blog.

The link leads to a video of a child with autism. People with mental disorders are frequently seen as just “beings to be dealt with.” Their unexplainable behavior is often dismissed as a malformation that could only be dealt with in the same manner that one accepts the death of a pet; just let it be. This video shows, however, something much deeper and disturbing, something fascinating, something that elevates out understanding of the mentally retarded into our world of torments, needs, and desires. Its definitely worth a watch.