Orange Vinaigrette Salad

So I've been meaning to tell you all about my new job.  Well, it has been a learning experience, to say the least.  I know, that might sound like a strange thing to say, especially as someone who just spent the last eleven years as a student.  Don't worry, this all can be explained.

While I was interviewing, I had to make the decision between working in process chemistry and medicinal chemistry.  There is one major difference between the two job, biology.  As a process chemist, you spend your day doing chemistry.  You're trying to make something in a faster, better, cheaper manner than it has been made before.  You need to know a lot about chemistry and how to be extremely efficient.  While I love chemistry, I thought that I would like to work in medicinal chemistry and keep learning.

As a medicinal chemist, you spend your day doing some chemistry, but also thinking a lot about biology.  Medicinal chemists are working very early in the drug discovery pipeline, trying to design the new drugs.  They have to look at proteins and amino acids, think about cell permeability and toxicity, and these are all things that are new to me. 

A synthetic chemist, right out of academia, doesn't know much about these things.  I took biochemistry in 2001 and haven't looked at an amino acid since then.  I was thrown in, head first, into the deep end of medicinal chemistry.  I've been reading tons of papers and books to try and acclimate myself to this new field.  Let me tell you, there are A LOT of acronyms!  I've got a lot to learn, but it's just what I wanted.

Chilled Asparagus Salad

Boulder, Colorado is many things. It is crazy beautiful (I have included pictures as proof). There are too many things to do. The weather is fantastic year-round. It is the gateway to the Rockies. Boulder has so much going for it.

The one thing that Boulder has going against it? Boulder is very far from Home. I can tell you exactly how far it is… Two full days in a car, driving through endless corn fields, then endless nothingness (aka Nebraska. Sorry Nebraska, you know you’re empty). Buffalo, New York to Boulder, Colorado is a twenty-four hour drive, through seven states, gaining thousands of feet in altitude. If you want to fly back home to Buffalo it takes at least five hours. Along the way you lose two hours by way of the time zone change.

It is because of this distance that I took very few trips home during my time there. And because of this, I am so glad for the friends that I made in Colorado. The people of Colorado are unbelievably friendly, kind people. My friends in the west are exactly that.

Last Christmas I found myself an orphan. Staying in Colorado for the holidays to work, dog watch and teach a ridiculous number of group X classes. My fabulous Colorado friends would not hear of me spending the holiday by myself. I cannot thank them enough for their kindness of inviting me into the fold with their family.

What a fantastic Christmas dinner! Craziness, happiness, good food and good conversation. From this dinner I learned several things. 1. I have very little in common with a republican from Montana :) 2. I betray my nerdiness by stating that I’ve seen all of the Star Trek movies. (It’s true. And I’ve had several conversations about what the titles of all of them are.) 3. Jello is still delicious and 4. Even eight-year-olds like this asparagus dish.

My many thanks and lots of love goes to my friends in Colorado. I also send you this recipe, enjoy.

Spanish Chicken with Mustard-Green Onion Sauce

As a child, I thought that raw chicken looked like so much fun. It was all slimy and wiggly. It also looked pretty tasty in my younger self’s opinion. I imagine that it would have a similar texture to chewing gum, which, as a child, sounded pretty interesting. Chicken chewing gum. Perhaps I’ll work on that idea for another post. Luckily for me I never decided to taste test the raw chicken and have thus lived to adulthood.



Over the years I have discovered many better ways for eating chicken. I am a huge fan of coating it is Buffalo sauce and eating it in many forms (as I exemplified in my recent two week visit home). It is also quite excellent right from Wegmans. Buying one of those whole roasted chickens from the grocery store is a fantastic plan when you have no plan. However, after eating a lot of chicken, I have discovered my favorite recipe. It’s quick and easy, the only thing holding you back from making it now is probably a lack of one of the spices.

This dish consists of a spice rub, a mustard-green onion sauce and chicken. The sauce is a simple vinaigrette which is also wonderful on salads. Sometimes I make it just to pour over lettuce. The spice rub is a combination of six spices, three of which you probably already own. Since this is such a simple dish, this post will also be a simple one. So here it is, my go to meal, Spanish Chicken.

Spanish Chicken with Mustard-Green Onion Sauce
From Bobby Flays Restaurant – Bolo

Mustard-Green Onion Sauce
½ cup white wine vinegar
3 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Pepper
½ thinly sliced scallions
3 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

Spice Rub
1 ½ tbsp Paprika (Spanish if you have it)
½ tbsp cumin
½ tbsp ground mustard seeds
1 tsp fennel
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp kosher salt

4 Chicken breasts

To make the sauce, whisk together the vinegar and mustard, slowly add in oil until emulsified (combined). I used my fancy salad dressing blender, but you can do this by hand. Season with salt and pepper then add scallions.

To make the rub, combine all the spices and mix thoroughly. You can use the seeds; just grind in a coffee grinder!

Heat your grill to medium (I used a grill pan since I live in an apartment; I imagine that using an outdoor grill would only produce even better results!).

Brush a little olive oil on both sides of the chicken and rub each side with the spice rub. (You should use all of your rub) Place on the grill and cook for 5-6 minutes before flipping. Cook for another 7 minutes or until cooked through.

Spoon some of your sauce onto a plate (and on your salad!), then place the chicken on top. Enjoy!