Monday, September 12, 2011

Quick and Easy--Queso con carne!

I've got another quick and easy for you this week, queso con carne! Now, this is not the healthiest of dinners, I admit. It's not something we often, but it is definitely yummy! Ingredients below include; Marvella or really, off-brand Velveeta, a can of white queso, a package of hot pork sausage, and then I chopped up half an onion and a whole green pepper. I had an extra pack of peppers out in case I thought I needed more, but I didn't end up using them.
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Throw down that meat! Seasoned with salt&pepper, and garlic powder (hmm, I think we are addicted to that stuff!).
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Once the meat is browned and drained, throw the veggies into another pan to saute. I didn't want them to not cook in the meat, or to get soggy, that's why I cook them a bit separately. After they are browned to my desire, I toss them into the meat.
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Add about half of the velveeta log, and the whole can of white queso. Stir until melted, serve with tortilla chips. :) Yummy, and quick. This recipe takes around 20-30 minutes from prep to finish. 
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Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Human Anatomy -- Blood cells

         ///I wrote this several weeks ago and thought I had posted it!! Oh well, here it is a little late :)

       It's the beginning of the semester, so it's time for our normal nerdy posts, as seen by my chemistry post yesterday. Today I shall be more informative in my post about the blood! Blood is fascinating, did you know it is considered a connective tissue? It also has many, many, small components to it, small interesting components that are vital to our survival.

         So our blood is broken down into two major components, blood cells and plasma. Most of us know we have two different types of blood cells, white blood cells (WBC) and red blood cells (RBC). The more scientific names are leukocytes and erythrocytes, respectively. We only have one type of RBC, but they are very complex cells, and they have no nucleus. They consist of several hundred million hemoglobin molecules per blood cell.

         Each hemoglobin has two alpha globins and two beta globins, in the middle of this mesh of globins is a heme group that has an iron on it, hence hemoglobin. :) RBCs make up about 45% of the components in the blood, plasma makes up about 55% and WBCs and platelet cells make up the remaining 1%.

          Now, WBCs only make up a minute part of our blood, but there are actually several different types of these cells. They are broken down into granulated and agranulated cells.
          The granulated cells are the "phils", Neutrophil, Basophil, and Eosinophils. If you hadn't guessed by their sub-type name, these cells have granules. Neutrophils stain a light violet, Eosinophils granules stain a bright red/pink, and Basophils granules stain a dark purple, and they obscure the nucleus. Their functions are as follows;

  • Neutrophils- Think of these cells as the first responders. They fight bacteria at the sites of acute infection. Meaning something that has just become infected, a scratch or a rash.
  • Eosinophils- These guys attack parasitic worms, they surround the worms and poke holes into it's body until it dies. They also produce anti-histamines.
  • Basophils- These cells are responsible for runny noses, itchy skin and all the symptoms produced by their histamine release. Histamine triggers the inflammatory response.

The agranulated cells, well, they have no granules. :) There are only two of these cells, and they are the "cytes". Both Lymphocytes and Monocytes stain purple. The Lymphocytes' nucleus obscures the cytoplasm and is usually large and round. The Monocyte has a U or horseshoe shaped nucleus with a wirey appearance, like a very thick bundle of string. Their functions are as follows;

  • Lymphocytes-These cells have two sub-types of their own, B cells and T cells. B cells make antibodies, and T cells attack virally infected cells and tumor cells.
  • Monocytes- These cells are the big guns when it comes to infection. They fight bacterial infection at the site of chronic infections. They can leave the blood stream, a process called diapedesis, they become macrophages.
The last type of cell we'll talk about in our blood, is our platelet cells. Now technically, these cells are not really cells, they are cell fragments. Megakaryocyte fragments to be exact. These cells help form blood clots.

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Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Organic Chemistry -- Making Glass 8/29

For our first lab, we "made" some glass. By made, I mean we took a standard glass pipette and we heated it up, and then stretched it out quickly to make a micro pipette, and glass bells. We also made a filter pipette out of the original pipettes.
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This is our standard glass kit for the semester.
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Top and bottom; My two lab partners stretching their pipettes.
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Mine and one of my partners stretched pipettes, both on our first try, both really nice and long! :)
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Broken off into micro pipettes and filter pipette. Mine was the first one, so pretty and straight looking. :3
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The broken ends of our stretched glass, these were the toss away parts.
Then here are a few of the substances we measured.
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Monday, September 5, 2011

Quick and Easy-- Taco Potato Casserole

I only thought to take photos near the end of the process, but what I left out was quite simple. I cut up around 6-8 medium potatoes, and then boiled until soft, but not mashing soft. Once they were drained, we added sour cream, salt&pepper, garlic powder and butter to get the consistency we wanted. Once that was done, we poured it into our baking pan, seen below. 
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We have the standard pack of ground beef, seasoned with a pack of taco seasoning. 
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Pour that down on top of the potato mixture. 
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Yum!
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Now spread on some cheese of choice, this time we used mozzarella cheese.
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Spread until covered, or to your desired thickness. Pop this into the oven, we set it to random temperatures, just needs to melt the cheese! Once the cheese is melted, take out, and serve! It takes about 30-45 depending on how long your potatoes take to cook. :) Quick, easy, YUMMY!

Sunday, September 4, 2011

EOTD: Second week of school 8/29. 8/30 +8/31

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8/29 I wore Princes Zelda from Facebomb Cosmetics, and then Sick from VIE.
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8/30 I wore Mew, Love Bite, and Wicked Kisses from VIE.
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8/31 was just Radar Love by Facebomb Cosmetics. :)
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Saturday, September 3, 2011

Caturday #24

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Charcoal being adorable on the bed. I squished up a piglet for him to snuggle, haha.

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Now he's being a snake cat in the sheets while I was trying to fold them.
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Cupid being sunbathed. 
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There was a lizard on the fence, taunting them.
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Charcoal caught a lizard.
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Some more Cupid. 
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Charcoal messing with his lizard and then slobbering all over it.
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Jesus brought it inside for a little while.
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Charcoal resting after a long afternoon walk.
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All the boys taking a rest break! Topmost is Charcoal, middle is Jesus, bottom is Cupid. :)