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Monday, August 8, 2011

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.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Gorgonzola Pasta


Hey everyone, I hope that you had a great week!  I can't believe that it's already August!  This last month has brought a lot of change and I'm starting to settle into my new routine.  I've been working at my new job for a month now and I'm loving it.  It's totally different from graduate school and my postdoctoral position, but in many great ways.  I'll tell you more about that next week!


You also know that I've moved in with boyfriend and that I've been getting used to living with a boy (eeewww!  Boys!) and learning his finicky palate.  Boys and girls definitely have different likes and dislikes when it comes to food!  I'm working on finding that happy medium between our two menus.  The main issue being that boyfriend loves all things pasta and I love fitting into my pants.

Another big change happened last week with this loss of our family dog, Zoe.  I realize that this was a bigger change for my parents, who lived with Zoe, but she was still my buddy.  But if you scroll down, you'll notice some pretty little ladies.  I want you to meet Bella and Izzie! 


They joined the Wilde parent household this week to try and fill that big hole left behind from Zoe.  According to my parents, they are crazy.  All I know is that they are super adorable and I want to go home and play with them.




Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Raspberry Truffles

I want to thank everyone for their kind words and sharing some of their own memories of their furry friends.  Our furry best buddies really bring us lots of love and great times.  While Zoe isn't around anymore, at least I have years of wonderful memories. 


As a little bit of a distraction, I made us all some candy.  This week I decided to keep it simple, no boiling sugar, no pulling taffy and no whipping anything.  It's a good old melt and scoop kind of recipe.  Oh, and it's delicious.  Definitely something you can use to distract yourself.
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