In the kitchen with Mel- Ginger bread house (Guest staring my 5 year old cousin, Xavier)

My 5 yr old cousin came over today, bringing with him a build your own ginger bread house from Ikea and 5 packets of lollies. I was up for the challenge and so I volunteered to become a construction worker, architect and exterior designer. I was of the impression that building a ginger bread house would be easy, I was sadly

mistaken. After demolishing one wall I enlisted the help of a professional (shall not be named). He took over my roles of architect and construction worker and managed to assemble the various panels into an approximate house shape. At this stage the house resembled a derelict housing commission, house.

My cousin Xavier

Reconstructed wall

After waiting for the mortar, icing, to dry I let my cousin loose to decorate the house in anyway he saw fit. Using our supply of sour straps, M&M, and two different kinds of party mix (Which had all been previously separated into colours) we created our magnificent creation.

It even had a flower garden.

For those wishing to attempt a ginger bread house, all I say is make sure you have a lot of patience and a cute little kid to help you out and if all else fails just get fat eating the lollies.

All I want for Christmas is...

Hey all, I'm back and to honour this momentous occasion I have found my top 5 gifts for the enterprising scientist. If anyone wants to buy buy me one or all of the listed gifts , please do :)

Gift number 1: Chemistry Cocktail Set

Found at: thinkgeek.com

For all those who want to play with alcohol and citric acid mixes these holidays.

Gift number 2: A Periodic Table table

Found at: boingboing.net

Finally, a practical periodic table

Gift Number 3: Petri Dish Giant Plush Microbes

Found at: Thinkgeek.com

Because who doesn't want to cuddle with some Flesh Eating Virus's

Gift number 4: Chemistry Cookie Cutters

Found at: sciencelabcookiecutters.com

Scientifically proven to be absolutely delicious

Gift Number 5: Lab coat Bling

Found at: etsy.com

The key to being cool whilst wearing a lab coat

Yet Another Chemistry Joke :)

And for todays chem joke...
What do you do with a dead chemists? Barium

In the Kitchen with Mel- Spaghetti Carbonara

Looking for a quick and easy idea for lunch or dinner? well check out my recipe for Spaghetti Carbonara, probably takes less time than cooking 2 minute noodles (almost) :)
Ingredients:

• Crushed Garlic
• 1 onion
• 2 rashes of bacon
• 1 and 1/2 handfuls of spaghetti (however you can use whatever pasta you feel like)
• Cream cheese
• Grated cheese
  
• Oil
• Salt
  
• Pepper

(no exact mesurements as I just used what was at hand)
Method

• Put a pot of water on the stove to boil, once this has boiled add the pasta and cook to your liking (do this as you do the other steps)
  
• Dice the onion and the bacon
• Put some oil into another pot and put it on the stove at high,
  
• Place approximately 1tbs of garlic into the pot of oil
• Place diced onion into the oil and cook until the onion is translucent
• Place the bacon in with the onion and cook through
• take the pasta off the stove and strain
• put the cooked pasta into the pot with the onion, garlic and bacon.
• Stir through the pasta
• Add approximately 2 tbs of cream cheese and stir through
• Finally add about a handful of grated cheese and stir through until melted.
• Season with salt and pepper and ENJOY :)

Science Week Joke-Day 8 & International Year of Chemistry Joke

For your delight and pleasure we have a double header today... two jokes for the price of one! The First is for the final day of Science Week :(
Q: What is the fastest way to determine the sex of a chromosome?
A: Pull down its genes.
Second is for the International Year of Chemistry

Two atoms are walking down the street.

Says one atom to the other, "Hey! I think I lost an electron!"

The other says, "Are you sure??"

"Yes, I'm positive!"

Science Week - Day 7

Joke for day 7... not the last joke, even though a week is only meant to last 7 days :)
Why did the bear dissolve in water??
Because it was polar!

Science Week Joke-Day 5 & 6

Once again Uni has caught up to me so here are 2 jokes to make up for it...

There were two elderly men talking. The first says "I guess you are never too old." The second asks "Whys that?" The first replies, "Well yesterday a pretty college girl said she'd be intersted in dating me, but to be honest i don't know why she'd want to." The second replied "Well women these days don't mind being the ones to ask the man..." The first replies "No, that's not it." So the other man says "Maybe you remind her of her father?" The first replies "No, it's not that either it's just she also mention something about carbon 14..."

Susan was in Chemistry, Susan is no more. For what she thought was H2O was H2SO4 :)

Science Week Joke- Day 4

Here is you science joke for day four of the Australian Science Week
'Do you want to hear a joke about potassium?' 'K'

Science Week Joke- Day 2 & 3

So I know I promised a joke a day for 'Science Week' but Uni has caught up with me and I forgot yesterday...So therefore I will give you 2 jokes today

1. My name is Bond, Covalent Bond!
2. My name is Bond, Ionic Bond; Taken, Not shared!

If you don't understand I highly suggest you watch a James Bond movie...oh and learn some chemistry :)

Science Week Chemistry Joke-Day 1

In Australia this week, from the 13th of August to the 21st of August, is Science Week. All around the country there are special scientific events taking place. As I have previously mentioned it is also the Intenational Year of Chemistry and therefore I will be posting one chemistry joke per week. However as this week is so scientific I will try to post 1 chemistry/science related joke per day... ENJOY
So, a neutron walked into a bar and said "I’d like a beer, please."

After the bartender gave him one, he said "How much will that be?"

"For you?" said the bartender "No charge."

Stop- It's Chemistry Time

I keep confusing myself but I'm pretty sure today is the day for my weekly chem joke!
I told a chemistry joke the other day. There was no reaction. :(

POTTERMORE- Early Entry Success

I got very excited this morning and decided I would look at the Pottermore website and see if I could solve today's magical quill clue, which was the last magical quill clue before early registration closes.
Now I love Harry Potter and have read every book and seen every movie so today's clue was very easy for me to answer (I didn't even need a calculator). As this was my first time trying to get in I didn't realise how easy it would be. So I would now like to inform you that I am one of the lucky million people to be granted early access to this, hopefully, amazing site. I say hopefully because I am yet to see more of the site than the congratulations page.You see there is a slight catch to this early registration, you have to wait for an email informing you when you can actually access the full site, as they can only allow a select number of people on at one time.
I'm hoping that my email will come before the 30th of September, but I don't really mind if it doesn't, I just can't wait to see this amazing world that JK. Rowling has created for us!

Some Chem for the end of the Weekend

I'm pretty sure for most of you, you dread Sundays. That's because the next day is Monday and we must all return to work or school. So to get you into the mood to get back into school or work here is this weeks Chemistry Joke...
Want to hear a joke about Sodium Hypobromite? NaBrO

It's never to late for a Chemistry joke :)

Sorry for the fact that this Joke is 2 days late but I have been partying it up in Melbourne. Well worth the trip if anyone is wondering.
So here it is (in honour of Louise)

"Hey, know any good jokes about sodium?" "Na."

In the Kitchen with Mel- Lemon & Chocolate Tart

So one of my really good friends is getting married at the end of this year and today was her engagement party. She requested that everyone bring a plate of food so I decided to get into the kitchen and cook her something amazing. What I created, even if I do say so myself, was pretty yummy. Here's the ingredients and method so you can try to recreate it yourself.

Ingredients

Base

• 115 g/4 oz plain flour
• 25 g/1 oz cocoa powder
• 75 g/2 & 3/4 oz butter
• 25 g/1 oz ground almonds
• 50 g/1 & 3/4 oz caster sugar
• 1 egg beaten

filling

• 4 eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 200 g/7 oz caster sugar
• 150 ml/ 5 fl oz double cream
• grated rind and juice of 2 lemons

• Block of Dark chocolate, for the chocolate caraque, for decoration
  

Method
Shift the flour and cocoa into a food processor. Add the butter, ground almonds, sugar and egg and process until the mixture forms a ball (this can also be done in a Mix Master or similar, using a dough hook). Gather the dough together and press into a flattened ball. Place in the centre of a 20cm/8 inch, loose based tart tin, and press evenly over the base of the tin with your fingers, then work the excess pastry up the side with your thumbs (allow excess pastry to go over the edge0. Cover (with plastic wrap) and chill for 30 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/Gas mark 6. Remove the base from the fridge and trim off the excess pastry. Prick the bass lightly with a fork, then line the tin with baking paper and fill with baking beans (if you don't have baking beans a heavy bowl or similar can be used). Bake in preheated oven for 12-15 minutes, or until the pastry no longer looks raw. Remove the beans and the pastry and bake for a further 10 minutes, or until the pastry is firm. Reduce the oven temperature to 150ºC/300ºF/Gas mark 2.

To make the filling, whisk the whole eggs, egg yolk and sugar together until smooth (once again can be done by hand or in a mixer). Add cream and whisk again, then stir in the lemon rind and juice. Pour the filling into the pastry case (be careful not to over fill, as I did) and bake for 50 minutes, or until just set. When the tart is cooked leave to cool and then remove from tin. Decorate with chocolate caraque (best done by scraping a knife along the back of a block of chocolate) before serving.
ENJOY

Mel

The End of an Era

So I have just come back from watching the final Harry Potter film ever and I am a tad depressed. For many of us we have grown up with this movie, grown up with the characters and the world of Harry Potter. Although we may be able to watch the film over and over again this does not change the fact that there will be no more adventures of 'Harry Potter the Boy Who Lived.'
However I believe it was a fitting end to the series and that the movie was seriously fantastic. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did.
Much love
Mel

International Year of Chemisty- My Kind of Year

As my mum kindly reminded me this morning, this year is the International Year of Chemistry, so I highly suggest you get your lab coats and safety glasses out and celebrate in style, by laughing at my once weekly chemistry jokes.
Here is the joke for this week:

I have just decided that if I ever discover a new element I will call it Surprise, just so the Periodic Table can have an Element of Surprise :)
Mel

In the Cucina With Mel and Louise- CROSTOLI

Today my friend Louise came over and we decided to get into the kitchen and make a cake. After discovering that we only had one egg in the house, this idea was quickly changed to making Crostoli. For us, Crostoli bring back memories our year 12 Italian class, where these light airy biscuits were a staple study aid, although we had never actually made them ourselves.
For Louise, the making of these biscuits uncovered her love of deep frying, and for me, I learnt to never turn down an apron when working with flour and icing sugar.
The pictures of the Crostoli above are taken by Louise, who is a fantastic photographer and you can follow her blog at www.raspberriesinwinter.blogspot.com
Mel

Hello World, This Is Me!

As the Saddle club once sung, 'Hello World, This is Me' (if you don't know what the Saddle Club is then your life has been sadly deprived of joy and horses)...and taking into life their theme song I use this post to introduce myself to my random, invisible, fellow bloggers.
As you can see in my about me, my name is Mel (although strictly speaking it is Melissa). I live in Australia but would love to live in Italy (because I can sort of speak the language and because I have some amazing friends from there).
The name of my blog comes from the fact I have my black belt in Tae Kwon-Do and am often referred to a girly ninja.
I also am in my first year of Science, hoping to major in Chemistry.
Some of my favourite things include:

• Reading
• Cooking
• Doing Tae kwon-do
• Hanging out with my friends
• And trying to do Chemisty experiments in my kitchen

I hope you enjoy my blog. hopefully I will keep it updated.
Mel