Category Archives: General

FAREWELL TO A BEWITCHING KITCHEN…

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kitchenDrum roll, please…..

WE SOLD OUR HOME IN OKLAHOMA! 

365 days after we bought our home in Kansas it finally happened:  we sold our house in Oklahoma! Can you imagine the odds on that? 365 exact days!  😉  During the past year we made ten trips back and forth – a total of 6,200 miles – most of them with three dogs tagging along.  But, now it’s a page turned in our lives.  Not without some drama, though.   As my friend Marcia pointed out,  “Drama follows you, Sally.”  Oh, well.  Next life I’ll try for a spot in Hollywood. If you are interested to know more, read on…   but beware, no recipes in this post.

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We scheduled the closing of the sale for 4pm on Friday, May 31st.  Still, lots of things were left to do to completely empty and clean the house for its new owners, so we drove to Norman a couple of days beforehand. That Wednesday, May 29, both Kansas and Oklahoma were under a full-blown tornado watch for most of the afternoon and evening. We hit the road around 1pm, driving with one eye on the highway and another on Intellicast radar.   We made it home with 8 minutes to spare before the storm hit.  Driving through Moore was a sobering experience that recalled May 1999.   The area of destruction is narrow, but it is complete.  Imagine a gigantic lawnmower passing through and turning homes and trees into small sticks and dirt. Unless you see it you can’t comprehend the violence of a tornado of that magnitude.

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We were excited to arrive home, not only because we made it before the t-storm, but because we wanted to see the new roof installed last week. Our house suffered hail damage from one of the many storms earlier this year, so we had to take care of that and replace the roof before selling the property. What we did not expect was to arrive in our master bathroom to find broken, exploded glass everywhere!

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The roofers had broken the skylight, never said a word about it to their boss, and simply left.  Drama? You think?  😉  A few phone calls were exchanged, four guys came up and cleaned the mess next morning.

Next day (Thursday) we worked hard, making three piles in the garage: one to donate, one to dispose, and one to move back to Kansas with us.  A trip to Habitat for Humanity for the first pile, and a trip to the “Transfer Station” for the second.   Have you ever visited a Transfer Station?  It’s what we call “the dump”. Basically, one stop before a landfill.  A place where folks dump trash, it’s moved around into HUGE piles by a skillful worker driving a front-end loader, and it’s then dispensed into gigantic trucks that do the final trip to the landfill.  If you have a pickup truck and a utility bill to prove local residency you can dump your trash. They weigh the truck when you arrive, then weigh it again when you leave. You pay per pound of trash left behind.  Clever, don’t you think? I know it is not a food blog-worthy subject, but the truth is, it’s a part of life we tend to forget. We live in a “pseud0-clean,”  protected environment, in which the meat comes nicely packaged so you don’t think about the animal behind it.  We also don’t think about the trash we produce once the garbage leaves our front door.  Well, it’s not pretty, it’s nasty,  and a lot of people work very, very hard to deal with it.   I made a little video for those interested.

You can watch it here.

It is only 35 seconds long, and only in the end can you see the worker dumping a load in the truck for final transportation to a landfill. The truck parks on a lower level, so all you can see is its open top slightly above ground on the side of the transfer station. Fortunately for you, smells don’t travel with the images. 😉

Phil and I were anxiously waiting for the Thursday tornadoes to pass. We stayed inside our  garage, tornado shelter open, pickup truck filled with the last load of stuff to dispose. Since we had no TV in the house, we turned the pickup radio and listened closely to it.   Another little video for you here, those from the area will recognize the voice of  Gary England, the meteorologist who doesn’t “believe” in global warming.  Yeah, right.

So the Thursday tornadoes came and went, touching down 5 miles or so away from us.  We quickly drove to the dump. Quickly? We wished.  Unfortunately, you can’t turn on the truck radio without the headlights too, and they unexpectedly drained the battery, leaving us with a big problem: a truck full of trash, a dead  battery, and no way get out of the garage.  Drama?  You think? A frantic phone call to our dear (and tremendously helpful) neighbors ensued, followed by a quick jump of the battery, and off we went, arriving at the dump shortly before it closed for the day.  End of drama?  Not quite.  Right when I was  standing next to the 15ft-high pile of trash in that wonderful location, a strong gust of twisting wind (back-end of the tornado storm) hit the place, and literally sprayed me with… how should I put it?  Hummmm…. let’s go for “dump juice”. The most disgusting episode of my existence.

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That, my friends, was drama.   Irony of ironies, Phil was spared of the filthy encounter, at the time he was standing up in the pickup truck bed.  Yes, he laughed.  But he stopped quickly because the blood in his veins kind of froze a little when our eyes met.  Arriving home, I took three showers. In a row.

Friday, the big day arrived.  We worked every single minute of the day, Phil trimmed trees, I cleaned the house, we did everything  to make the place as welcoming as possible.  The truck was full to capacity, ready to be covered with a heavy tarp as storms were predicted (AGAIN!)  for the end of the afternoon.

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That afternoon the deal  was signed, sealed, delivered!  We went to our neighbor’s home and sat  watching TV  waiting for a safe time to go out for a celebration dinner.  We chose a restaurant about 2 miles from home, a traditional spot in Norman called “Legends,” which brought fond memories of our time in town.   As we left our neighbor’s home we noticed that new storms were forming southeast of us, but they seemed harmless.  Well, harmless they were not.   The storms intensified as we happily chatted and enjoyed dinner.  By the time the sirens sounded and we frantically paid the bill, Norman was in the center of a huge tornado storm.  We decided to drive home because it was just 2 miles, but those miles seemed like 20.  The rain was falling in all possible directions, as if a circular shower was turned on in full blast by perverse powers.  It would be impossible to see a tornado approaching, impossible to judge the direction it would be coming from.  Drama? You bet! 😉

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But, it all ended on a happy note.  Above is the last photo taken close to our former home.  The new owners had already moved in, so we had to be discreet. We hope they will be as happy as we were living in that wonderful home, and enjoy everything it has to offer, particularly the original Bewitching Kitchen.

ONE YEAR AGO: In My Kitchen. June 2012

TWO YEARS AGO: Goodbye L.A.

THREE YEARS AGO: 7-6-5 Pork Tenderloin

OKLAHOMA TORNADO VICTIMS

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We never imagined a  tornado could be stronger than the one we witnessed on May 3rd, 1999.  We were wrong.  The devastation is impossible to describe.  We have a hard time watching the news, it is heart-breaking.

If you want to help, here is a list of ways to do so, taken from NBC News.

American Red Cross
The Red Cross has set up shelters in various communities. You can donate to the Red Cross Disaster Relief fund here, and the organization also suggests giving blood at your local hospital or blood bank.

If you want to send a $10 donation to the Disaster Relief fund via text message, you can do so by texting the word REDCROSS to 90999. As in the case with other donations via mobile, the donation will show up on your wireless bill, or be deducted from your balance if you have a prepaid phone. You need to be 18 or older, or have parental permission, to donate this way. (If you change your mind, text the word STOP to 90999.) Phone: 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767); for Spanish speakers, 1-800-257-7575; for TDD, 1-800-220-4095.

Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief
This organization says donations will “go straight to help those in need providing tree removal services, laundry services and meals to victims of disasters.”

It is requesting monetary donations (It says clothing is NOT needed). For more information, and to donate, visit Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief’s website.

You can send checks to: BGCO, Attn: Disaster Relief, 3800 N. May Ave., Oklahoma City, OK., 73112.

Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is organizing disaster response units to serve hard-hit areas in central Oklahoma, including Moore, where it is sending mobile kitchens that can serve meals to 2,500 people a day, and to South Oklahoma City.

Supporters can donate online via the organization’s website, SalvationArmyUSA.org. You can also text the word STORM to 80888 to make a $10 donation via cellphone.

If you want to send a check, the Salvation Army asks that you put the words “Oklahoma Tornado Relief” on the check, and mail it to: The Salvation Army, P.O. Box 12600, Oklahoma City, OK., 73157. Phone:  1-800-SAL-ARMY (1-800-725-2769).

United Way of Central Oklahoma
A disaster relief fund is being activated as of May 21 so that individuals can specifically donated to tornado relief-and-recovery efforts, the organization says on its site.

United Way of Central Oklahoma’s Disaster Relief Fund is open.  Donations may be made online here. Checks, with a notation of “May Tornado Relief” can also be sent to the United Way of Central Oklahoma, P.O. Box 837, Oklahoma City, OK , 73101.

Feeding America
Through its network of more than 200 food banks, Feeding America, whose mission is to “feed America’s hungry through a nationwide network of member food banks,” says it will deliver truckloads of food, water and supplies to communities in need, in Oklahoma, and will also “set up additional emergency food and supply distribution sites as they are needed.” You can donate online here. Phone: 1-800-910-5524.

Operation USA
The international relief group, based in Los Angeles, says it is “readying essential material aid — emergency, shelter and cleaning supplies” to help Oklahoma’s community health organizations and schools recover.

You can donate online here. You can also give a $10 donation by texting the word AID to 50555. Checks should be sent to: Operation USA, 7421 Beverly Blvd., PH, Los Angeles, CA 90036 Phone: 1-800-678-7255.
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A SMALL TRIBUTE TO A BIG MAN

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Our great friend Bill Usinger died from a  heart attack  two weeks ago, on a Saturday afternoon. He was one of Phil’s very best friends, with a history together dating back to the days of graduate school, when they spent countless hours each week working to make monoclonal antibodies. Antibodies we still use in our lab today, by the way. Here’s something Phil wrote about Bill…

“I was preparing for a lecture last week when I received a cryptic, one sentence email from a colleague stating her sympathy at the loss of Bill.  After a few frantic messages I found out what happened from one of his colleagues at Trellis Biosciences in San Francisco.  I was so stunned that I had no rational response.  Bill was my best friend.  We knew each other for 31 years,  from the time that we worked side-by-side in Bob Mishell’s lab at UC Berkeley.  Over the decades we stayed close: we bummed around the Bay Area while each eating about a 1000 oysters, went to Niner games, watched the fire demolish the East Bay together in ‘91, side-by-side, close up at the Claremont Hotel.  It was an incredible, devastating inferno.   We manufactured and sold my invention, the Clonemaster, as part  of his company, Immusine.  I gave him my Niner tickets when I left the Bay Area, he gave seminars wherever I was located (we’d already planned a visit for him to K-State, my new place).  We scuba-dived in Monterey and we watched “Amadeus” together.  We ran, we rode bikes, we went to parties. We walked for a day through the streets of Paris, ate 4 dozen oysters and spent the evening drinking Bordeaux and eating foie gras.  I got to know his kids Brett and Brittany and their swimming conquests.  We shared a love of golf, and we played many times together in the East Bay and then in Oklahoma with Brett and my wife Sally.  He hit a long ball;  he liked to tee it high and watch it fly.   Over the past few years I was excited to have new scientific ventures with Bill through his work at Trellis, raising human monoclonals to Gram-positive bacterial pathogens.  Me and Sally loved him, me from 30 years of knowing such a wonderful guy;  her from 15 years of acquaintance with a man she respected and admired.  We often wished that we lived closer to him.

Bill was the sweetest person.  He always had a smile and never spoke a negative thought.  He was sincere and authentic, a person who listened when I talked  and had charming details to relate about his own life and his family.  For example, he used to collect antique mechanical banks, in which small metal dogs jumped through hoops, bronze owls turned their heads, and iron muskets discharged, all to deposit a coin in a slot.  He loved those banks, some of which were ridiculously valuable, but he sold them all when he started his own family. 

Bill was a clever researcher,  who was skilled and insightful in the laboratory.  He taught many, many novices (including me) the intricacies of mammalian cell culture. I worked with him in the same sterile hood when we were post-docs, and as we were sitting and manipulating flasks he taught me much of what I know about cellular immunology.  Bill was  stronger than me, physically and mentally.  In most conversations he never disclosed the travails that he went through on the scientific-biotechnology roller coaster.  It raised him up but it also plummeted down, sometimes to the bottom.  He  chose the most risky career path, biotechnology, and he had a lot of fun following it.  But, scientists are not automatically great businessmen.  Business was a new skill that Bill had to learn, and it took some years, some false steps and a few companies to accomplish that.  He never faltered or second-guessed himself during those biotech ups and downs.  He persevered and succeeded.    Before Trellis he was a vice president in charge of human monoclonals at Novartis, one of the biggest pharmaceutical manufacturers.  That was an accomplishment and a responsibility, ultimately a credit to his expertise.  Twice he addressed undergraduate  classes at my institution about how to succeed in a biotechnology career.  His current projects at Trellis, that I was fortunate to participate in, are headed in positive directions from his guidance.  Biotechnology is a crapshoot, but Bill was lucky roller, a winner.

I don’t know much about his death except that it was a heart attack.  It’s an unfathomable loss.  I take solace that he’s not suffering nor experiencing some type of prolonged physical or mental decay as a result of a medical condition or catastrophe.  I’ve seen all that and I’m glad that Bill escaped it when he left this world.  As I view his photos, including this one,  I can’t help but remember Bill’s easy laugh,  his perpetual  optimism and his overwhelming desire to enjoy what he was doing.   That’s why all the pictures show him smiling, he was a happy, wonderful man.“

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Besides his bright, inquisitive blue eyes, the permanent smile on his face and his unshakable optimism, he was the most dedicated father I’ve ever met. His two kids are amazing swimmers, and both are competing to make the US Olympic team in 2016.  Bill awakened each day before 5am to take them to their training, and once they returned he cooked up a batch of  his special pancakes before they left for school. They needed a ton of calories to keep up with the grueling training, and every weekend Bill made  a big batch of those pancakes to freeze.  Once Phil and I witnessed the whole process, so completely internalized in Bill’s memory that he just added the many ingredients while talking with us about everything that was dear to him, science, sports, cooking, the future.  It was almost like being in front of a professional baker…

Bill was a reader (and subscriber) of this blog, and though he never left a comment on the site, he often talked to us about the recipes he tried or wanted to recreate. The first time he made my pizza dough from scratch with his kids he sent me a photo by phone, the three of them in the kitchen, with big smiles and a lot of flour around.  😉

It is  hard to accept that someone so full of life and goals is gone. We won’t see him anymore, we won’t talk.  We won’t be in Colorado together next month at the ASM Annual Meeting, as we had planned. We will not travel to Brazil together when Brett and Britt make the Olympic team.

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WE ARE HOME!

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YES! THEY ARE  FINALLY HOME!

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When we left last week I didn’t anticipate that those six days ahead would pack so much activity! Our talks and meetings at the university could not have been any better. The organizer of my seminar  surprised me by inviting former colleagues and friends I had not seen in a decade or more, so the event was very special.  Phil’s seminar was superb (as usual ;-)). Together our talks covered two of the three lines of research we work on at the moment.  The weather was pretty bad – typical beginning of Fall in the tropics – and the traffic in Sao Paulo something that is hard to describe, and much, much harder to cope with.  All my friends and family who live there and have to deal with it on a daily basis are heroes.

I will have to disappoint those expecting pictures or descriptions of restaurants and meals.  But, I promise to compensate in the near future by sharing with you recipes from a book I received as a gift  about the food of Sao Paulo,  as well as from a cooking magazine my sister introduced me to while we were there.   Stay tuned!  😉

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For those interested in reading Brazilian cooking magazines online, a big thank you for my sister who sent me a great collection of links (the only one missing is Mais Sabor, that doesn’t have online access).

LEAVING ON A JET PLANE…

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americanTonight we leave for Brazil!   Phil and I will be presenting talks at the University of Sao Paulo, my beloved “USP”  where I went to college, did my PhD, and held my first job in academia…   I better do a good job with my presentation, which in typical Sally fashion, I am still tweaking…   😉

Internet connections could be iffy, so I might be unable to answer comments and visit blogs.  See you guys on March 23rd!