Slice of Pink

Champagne Cocktails: Fluted Ruby

1 sugar cube
2 tbsp pomegranate juice
Chilled Champagne

Place a sugar cube in a champagne flute and add two tablespoons of pomegranate juice. Fill the flute the rest of the way with chilled Champagne and stir gently.

Champagne Cocktails: Diamond Fizz

I've given you this recipe before, but it's very much worth repeating.

I discovered it on my birthday trip to Las Vegas and ordered it based solely on the name. I can assure you, it lives up to the name and would be a perfect New Year's Eve cocktail.

4 oz gin
Juice of 1/2 lemons
2 tsp powdered sugar
Chilled Champagne

Shake gin, juice of lemon, and powdered sugar with ice and strain into a highball glass over two ice cubes. Fill with chilled champagne, stir, and serve.

Champagne Cocktails: Bellini

I always drink Bellini's at Harry's restaurant in Santa Barbara. Peaches and champagne? Perfection.

2 oz peach nectar
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 oz peach schnapps
3 oz chilled, dry Champagne
1/2 cup crushed ice

Mix the peach nectar, lemon juice and schnapps in a chilled glass. Add half a cup (or more) of crushed ice, stir, and add the champagne.

Champagne Cocktails: Kir Royale

I was introduced to the Kir Royale in Paris on my honeymoon and enjoyed the cocktail again this year at the adorable Crown and Crumpet in San Francisco. It's a popular French cocktail, absolutely delicious, and simple to make.

1 part creme de cassis
5 parts Champagne

Pour creme de cassis into a glass and gently pour champagne on top.

Feel very Parisian.

Bubbly

I'm back to my wine lessons, focusing this week on Champagne. What better time to learn about Champagne than the week that ends with a new beginning and millions of glasses raised in toasts to a new year. Here are a few things you ought to know about Champagne:

+ Champagne is produced exclusively within the Champagne region of France. Which means that any bubbly produced elsewhere is actually sparkling wine--not Champagne.

+ Champagne is produced using the Méthode Champenoise, a second fermentation process during which yeast and rock sugar are added.

+ Champagne should be served cold, between 45 and 48° F.

+ Still need to pick up some bottles for New Year's Eve? Here are 11 Champagnes worth seeking out.

Champagne is, of course, delicious alone, but all week I'll be posting some fabulous champagne (or sparkling wine) recipes for your New Year's celebration. Cheers!

Wine Lessons, Week 3

Uh-oh! I'm slightly behind in my studies (this is what happens without a professor setting deadlines). It's all good, though, because I'll just extend the lessons through December. Which, of course, just means more wine!

+ Marta Stewart has a list of Wines to Buy By the Dozen. When you can get a discount for buying in quantity, go for your "house" wine, a mixed case, or rare finds.

+ If you don't plan to serve white wines right away, keep them at room temperature. Before serving, chill for about an hour in the refrigerator.

+ I'm loving these fantastic wine maps from Wine Spectator.

Wine Lessons, Week 2

Did you know that nearly ninety percent of American wine is produced in California? If California were its own country it would be the fourth largest wine producer!

And, in fact, lots of it is produced right here in my backyard. We have bright sun and cool nights to make the grapes happy.

Here's a great list of California's Best!

31 Days to Mastery

As part of my 31 Before 31 Project, I need to spend a month learning about something new. I need to get on this project pronto, and need your help deciding what that something should be. It would be nice if the learning consisted of something other than book learning--visits to a museum, time spent in the kitchen, or outdoor activities maybe?

One more guideline: it can't be TOO complicated. I want to conquer the subject in a month, but it's not like I am gonna quit my day job to do it (or lose any sleep). I need a topic I can master in about 30 hours. In other words, learning classical piano or advanced calculus is out.

Bonus points if the topic is something you guys would actually like to hear about.

Go.

I Can Teach You: How to Make a Diamond Fizz

4 oz gin
juice of 1/2 lemons
2 tsp powdered sugar
chilled Champagne

Shake gin, juice of lemon, and powdered sugar with ice and strain into a highball glass over two ice cubes. Fill with chilled champagne, stir, and serve.

I Can Teach You: How To Make the Best-Ever Sangria

{One morning I found an email in my box from David Shedd, Publisher and Senior Editor of Eastern Slopes. Like me, he majored in Art History and, like me, he enjoys a good sangria. He sent along a recipe for "Laurie's Most Awesome Sangria," which he says you absolutely must make with Almaden Mountain Burgundy from a box.}

Brandy - 2 shots (Christan Bros or E and J)
Orange Curaco - 2 shots (Orange Triple Sec works)
Sangria Wine - 2 cups
Splash OJ (maybe 2 shots)
Pinaeapple Juice - 6 oz can
Cranberry Juice - 1 cup
Sour mix - 1 shot
Few drops of Bitters

Serve over ice with fresh oranges or other fruit.

Cheers!

I Can Teach You: “How to Read Chinese”

{Today's Pink U Professor is Madam Procrastinatia, blogger extraordinaire, fitness motivator, fellow Bar-studier, and one of the Fab Five. She is going to teach us how to read Chinese.}

...Well, not exactly. However, as a foremost expert on the study of Chinese language* I thought that I would share with you some of vast knowledge of the subject. By “vast knowledge” I mean I got a burned copy of Rosetta stone, a couple of books, and lived in China for almost 4 months. Ok, so I’m not exactly fluent, but I can read and say basic things like “Where is the department store?”, sometimes even without accidentally insulting someone’s mother or mispronouncing to instead say “Take me to the idiot?” [Yes, that actually happened to me.] Point is, before I began to study Chinese, I was always interested in the characters but totally mystified as to how a person could learn the system. As I learned a bit more, I was totally enthralled, and I thought that you all might be interested in a couple of facts too:

• Because Chinese characters (han zi) developed during the days of using brushes and ink to write, they are understood as a combination of strokes that comprise the character. The order in which the strokes are written or painted is important, and generally follows a left-to-right, top-to-bottom, in-to-out order. In fact, even a moderately educated person could look at a character you wrote and discern whether your stroke order is correct!

• There are two main writing systems for Chinese characters, Traditional and Simplified. Traditional characters are those that developed through the centuries and typically involve more strokes than do Simplified characters, which were introduced after the Communist takeover, in the late 1950’s. Mainland China uses Simplified characters, while Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau use Traditional. With few exceptions, those who use one system can understand when reading the other.

• Each character stands for one sound and one discrete meaning, but not necessarily a whole word. So sometimes to make words you have to combine a few characters, for example:

• Characters can go from simple to very complicated, with more complicated ones comprised of the more simple characters. Radicals are building block characters that are frequently used. Examples:

• So, based on those radicals above, it makes sense that:

• So when a Chinese reader comes across a new character, how would they know what it means or how to say it? When you have a character like the ones above that are comprised of other characters, much of the time the meaning is indicated by a radical, usually on the left or sometimes the top of the character, while the sound to pronounce will be on the right. In these examples, 包 (bao) is used for the sound.

• So, can you read this sentence? (Hint: 有 = has)

“There’s a fire in the forest – run!” Yeaaaah, Chinese grammar, not like English – but that’s another post!

* in my household

I Can Teach You: How to Use Chopsticks

{The fabulous RA is back to teach us how to use chopsticks!}

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As part of Janet's series based on her question: "What can you teach?", I am going to teach you how to use chopsticks. If you already know how to use them, I can probably make it easier on you. Those following along at home will need:

A pair of chopsticks
I will be demonstrating with a nice pair from my parents, but go ahead and raid your local take-out place for some wooden ones.

Some easy-to-grab food
When I ran an activity about chopsticks in college (for real --- it counted as an educational program), I used popcorn as a training food because it's light, sturdy, and has lots of handy nooks and crannies to grab. For today's demo, I will be using strawberries, because that's what I was eating for breakfast.

So, let's get started! First, place the bottom chopstick in your writing hand in the crook of your thumb and resting on your ring finger. The skinny tip should point in the same direction as your fingers. I'm making a shadow-puppet bunny to show you that the index and middle fingers are free to move about.

Handy Tip #1: You want to have more distance between the skinny tip of the chopstick and your ring finger than there is between your ring finger and the fat end. It's like a fulcrum, so the longer the distance, the less effort you have to exert for more force. For this pair of chopsticks, I go a little more than halfway, but depending on the length, I'm as far as 2/3 along the chopstick.

Next, place the second chopstick between your thumb, middle, and index fingers, similar to how you might hold a pen to write with it. Do your best to make the chopsticks parallel and that both ends line up.

Now, let's get those chopsticks together! Using your thumb, index, and middle fingers, move the top chopstick downward so that it meets the bottom one.

Handy Tip #2: The bottom chopstick does not move! It just hangs out, and the top one does all the work. So, let's practice opening and closing the chopsticks for a bit.

...

Watch the scissor action! Keep that bottom one still!

...

Got it? Okay, turn to your practice food item. First, figure out how to grab your food. Everything has an easy and a hard way to grab it; sometimes it takes some experience, but a lot of times, it's common sense. Let's take my breakfast strawberries:

On the left, we have the easy way: I'm taking advantage of a natural indentation in the fruit, and the force of my chopsticks is helping me hang on to it. On the right, we have the oh-so-much-harder way: I'm pushing into the strawberry from the outside in, and the slick skin is not helping. This is when most people develop hand cramps.

Handy Tip #3: Always go for the easy way of grabbing things. I know it sounds obvious, but it will make things so much faster and easier. For example, go for sushi from the side, not from the top, so you are less likely to squish out all the goodness.

With a little practice, you can become a chopsticks master! However, if all else fails:

Handy Tip #4: It's okay to shovel food into your mouth. I'm serious! If you have a bowl of rice, and say, an order of beef and broccoli, put some beef and sauce over your rice, put your bowl up to your mouth, and use the chopsticks to push the food into your mouth. This is completely acceptable, and really, the only way to eat rice with chopsticks.

Good luck! I'm confident that you will move from popcorn to real food in no time at all.

I Can Teach You: How to Find a Star in Nature

{Meet your professor, Leah, who is an ecofriendly biologist traveler and one of my long-time blog friends!}

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I'm a naturalist in the lovely state of Minnesota.  I grew up in a few different states (Iowa, Nebraska, Washington, and Oregon) and somehow ended up out here.  Right now, I teach kids about nature during fieldtrips and summer camps.  Bar none, looking for stars is my favorite little activity to do outdoors.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a cottonwood.  This is what serves as a majestic tree for those of us who don't have regular access to towering redwoods.  Cottonwoods love to grow in damp ground, so you can often see lots of them around lakes, marshes, and rivers.  Pioneers used to plant this quick-growing tree around their houses to create a windbreak and help insulate their house from strong winter winds. 

These have always been my favorite tree.  Even thought their cottony seeds upset my allergies and seem to get everywhere, I still love this solid, huge tree.  another downside is that cottonwoods produce low-quality wood, so they don't make good furniture or fuel (but do make decent pallets).  Now, the leaves are pretty.  It's certainly in old tree worthy of respect.  In fact, it's even the state tree of Nebraska, Wyoming, and Kansas.  But I have one even cooler reason for loving a cottonwood . . .

there's a star hidden inside.

Yup.  Inside each and every cottonwood branch, provided the wood is mostly dried out, you can find a little star.  Here's how you look for it:

1.  Find a cottonwood.  Look for deep, craggy bark (like in the picture above).  The leaves are alternate on the main stem, and the leaves are diamond shaped. This picture shows a cottonwood in early spring when the seeds are still inside their little cases.

2. Once you've located a cottonwood, look around the base.  You're trying to find a wrinkly, knotty looking branch like this. 

3.  Find the little eighth-inch sections of really wrinkly bark.  See, this part!

4.  Snap the branch.  As long as the wood is not green, you should find a nice little star.  Some work better than others, so be persistent if it doesn't work the first time. I assure you, this is a real branch with a real star. I know it looks fake; that's how cool the stars are!

Apologies to those west coasters which might have a tough time locating this tree.  Tell you what: you are always welcome in Minnesota.  My little town has killer margarita deals at the local Mexican place, so let's go get cocktails and then explore the woods together, okay?

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Okay! A good margarita and finding stars sounds fabulous to me!

I Can Teach You: How to Make Honey Granola Breakfast Bars

Class is now in session. I am your instructor for today, Sarah from Sensibly Sassy. Haven't we all been learning some wonderful new things her at Pink University? Today I am going to give you a little home economics lesson! This recipe is one of my very favorites! So without further ado, put on your aprons and go wash your hands, we are making some honey granola breakfast bars.

For this recipe you will need the following ingredients:
2 C oats
1 C flour
3/4 C brown sugar (packed)
3/4 C raisins or dried cranberries etc.
1/2 C flax seeds
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 C vegetable oil (Olive oil works just fine too)
1/2 C honey
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
Preheat oven to 350 F
Grease a 9" x 13" pan.

First you are going to stir together oats, flour, sugar, raisins, flax seeds, cinnamon and salt.

Next stir in oil, honey, eggs and vanillaPat out mixture to bottom greased pan.

Bake 30-35 minutes until light golden on the edges. Cool completely.Cut into bars and enjoy!

Now wasn't that easy?...and delicious? Now please clean your work station, clean up counts towards your grade!

I Can Teach You: How to Eat on $85 a Month

{Your professor today is Katie, one of the fabulous five, who never ceases to amaze me with all the awesome stuff she's done. She's incredibly kind and modest, so you only find out about her complete and utter amazingness one detail at a time.}

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When Janet asked me to write a post for Pink University I thought and thought and thought...and came up empty! Like Janet, I am studying for the California Bar Exam. Everything useful has drained out of my brain and pooled on the sidewalk (it’s about 500 degrees in Davis right now). Whatever was in my head before bar study has been replaced by awfully boring facts, like how many days a defendant has to file an answer after someone has served her with a complaint (21!).

So I am piggybacking on an idea from another friend and guest Pink University blogger, Mary, who told you about how not to buy anything for a year. In this post, I can teach you how to eat on $85 a month – something I did for a year.

After I graduated from college, I joined Lutheran Volunteer Corps and moved to Washington, D.C. to work at a nonprofit organization. I’m not Lutheran (I’m a bad, bad Buddhist), but those friendly Lutherans accepted me anyway – Faith-wise, I only needed to participate in monthly community faith nights in my “intentional living” house filled to the brim with four other LVC girls. This meant we cooked up dinner, drank cheap wine if we had it, and watched movies like Dogma together.

Part of our intentional living household also meant that we were each given $85 a month for personal expenses and $85 a month for food. Now, anyone who has visited or lived in D.C. knows that our nation’s capital is NOT cheap. And without a car, limited Metro passes and two-armed personal carrying capacities, we were mostly restricted to smallish intercity grocery stores.

After a lot of trial and error in cooking healthy, edible meals for five people on a budget in D.C. (we pooled our food stipends every month), here are a five easy things I can teach you about eating well on a limited budget:

1. GO VEGGIE! Meat is expensive and hard to budget on a smaller food income. Our house made the decision at the beginning to use our food budget for vegetarian food. For the omnivores in the house, happy hours around the city and nonprofit office parties provided the occasional meatballs and grilled shrimp.
2. GO LOW. On the food chain, that is. We ate lots of beans and rice cooked every way imaginable—Caribbean Black Beans and Rice and Festive Black Bean Chili were favorite recipes (featured on this fabulous blog about cooking LVC-style from the LVC Cookbook). The key to many of our recipes was an inexpensive base ingredient, cheaply available year round, with seasonal add-ins when our budget allowed.
3. PLAN AHEAD. We did the majority of our shopping one day a week. As a group, we’d create a shopping list with meals planned out ahead of time (everyone cooked one dinner a week during weekdays for the house). This planning really helped us stay within our budget.
4. CO-OP. We didn’t do this, but I’d love to try this someday, and I hope LVC houses have dinner co-ops like these now. When I was in D.C., the Lutherans had several houses full of volunteers. There were also Jesuit volunteers, Catholic volunteers, Mennonite volunteers, and I think AVODAH came to D.C. shortly after I left.
5. STEAL. Bloggers like the folks at 30 Bucks a Week post frequently and have great ideas about how to eat healthy on the cheap. The 30 Bucks couple in New York put up lovely food photos, recipes and stories about feeding two on $30 a week. Also, they scan in and post their weekly receipts – talk about accountability!

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This post is going to help me immeasurably in the coming months of unemployment. Do you have any tips for eating on the cheap?

I Can Teach You: How to Spend $0 on Clothes, Shoes, Purses and Accessories for 365 Days

{Today's Pink U professor is Mary, who is, by far, one of the most chic people I know. She seriously looks like she stepped right out of a J. Crew catalog. In fact, if she showed up at J. Crew headquarters tomorrow, I'd bet they would let her be a model. But, since she's also whip-smart, she's gonna be a lawyer instead.}

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Hello! Janet has invited me to take a break from studying for the bar (she really didn’t have to try very hard, I take lots of breaks with no invitation at all) and teach you all something I know how to do. I have decided to teach you all how to stop shopping! If you are like me, you love going to the mall, boutiques, and especially online, looking for deals on items you may or may not need. This January I decided to give up shopping for a year. No clothes, no shoes, no purses, no jewelry.* I have almost 6 months under my belt and I’m feeling fine, even though my boyfriend predicted I wouldn’t last a month. So, if you too would like to deprive yourself of the sweet joy of shopping, here are my secrets...

1.) Clean out and organize your closet. That way you can see all of your options and you won’t wear the same three favorite things over and over thereby growing tired of them thereby breaking down and going to the mall. I suggest organizing by item – all skirts in one place, all pants in one place, all tops in one place, all sweaters and jackets in one place – and hanging up all tops in color order. This probably sounds a little obsessive but it really helps.

2.) Unsubscribe from any emails you get from stores. These emails with their 20% discounts and direct links to things you want are just daring you to keep your resolution. But keep getting the catalogues you like (see #5).

3.) Make sure you own (or have a friend (in your size who is willing to share) who owns) the BASICS. Your basics depend on what you do on a day to day and night to night basis, but for example these would include good jeans, little black dress, comfortable sandals, etc. You need to have the basics for every season too, not just the season you are starting this adventure in.

4.) Allow yourself “cheats.” Build them into the resolution. In my case, my resolution is to not spend any of my OWN money on clothes, shoes, etc. That doesn’t mean on my birthday my sister can’t buy me a cute top, or my parents can’t get me a giftcard, or my boyfriend can’t buy me an overpriced headband of the color and style I have been searching for forever. Another “cheat” I have built in, that I have found to be very valuable: I am allowed to buy the makings for jewelry, such as beads, earring posts, etc., and make them into jewelry myself. That way, it’s spending money on a fun hobby rather than spending money on cheap junk at Forever 21 (which I am in no way above doing under normal circumstances). I also have allowed myself to buy used jewelry, but I’ve only exercised that right once on some retro chains with giant fake pearls for a whopping $2 at this awesome antique fair in Sacramento.

5.) Find inspiration to remix what you already own. I have two things that I do. First, I receive the JCrew catalogue in the mail. My “style” is highly JCrew influenced. So I look through the catalogue and tear out the pages of outfits they’ve put together that I like and pieces of which resemble pieces that I already own. I staple all these pages together so I have a little booklet of ideas of how to mix my clothes up. I have little to no imagination when it comes to mixing “unexpected” (as the catalogues and magazines say) things together, so this helps keep me from getting bored. Second, I go to Kendi Everyday and look at what this adorable blogger wears (and read what she says) and get ideas from her wardrobe (since it is similar to mine, or to what I aspire mine to be).

6.) Once you wear something, hang it back on the hanger backwards, so that you will be reminded to wear something else next time you reach for it. If at the end of your year of no shopping you have hangers you haven’t turned around, get rid of that stuff. If you didn’t wear it when you weren’t allowed to distract yourself with new things, you are never going to wear it. (I got this tip from a friend).

7.) Utilize a tailor! I have transformed many things that I NEVER wore (because of fit or style) into things I wear all the time. Yes, it costs money, but this is one of my “cheats.”

8.) Accessorize! Wear lots of different accessories every day – this will help keep your outfits from getting stale.

*There is an exception to the no jewelry resolution.

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For those of you NOT giving up shopping, check out J. Crew's new sister store Madewell.

I Can Teach You: How to Hold a Baby So She Will Stop Crying (Usually)

{Today's professor is one of my dearest friends, Jen, who you might remember from here, here, here, and here. She's my up-for-anything friend and it's probably a good thing that we only became friends during our adulthood. Had we become friends before any modicum of responsibility set in we might have been writing this from jail. Or else we'd somehow be retired already and sipping cocktails on a tropical island. It might have gone either way.}

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This “how to” is for Aunt Janet and Uncle Will. When I first became an aunt I was terrified when my niece cried. Here is the method I use first when I am holding a fussy baby. It only works for babies three or four months or younger, but really, that is when they fuss the worst. Their tummies are a disaster for the first few months. When they are older than that, you can usually make them giggle or distract them to stop crying. The disclaimer to this is that I am in no way “a baby person.” Yes, I have two of my own and a couple of handfuls of nieces and nephews, but I was clueless about babies for most of my life. I will always choose a glass of wine with grown-ups over a session of tea party, and I still believe that my wardrobe should be more extensive than my one-year-old’s. That said, if you kindly offer to hold a baby, and then they start screaming the minute mom or dad is out of sight, try this:

If you are left-handed, use your left arm. If you are right-handed, use your right arm. Bend your arm at the elbow so that your palm is facing your stomach. Turn your hand so that your palm is facing the ceiling. Now, place the baby tummy-side down on your forearm. Their head should be directed toward your hand. They will turn their cheek out and let their limbs fall on either side of your arm. Pat their back, and they will usually calm down. At our house, we call it Lizard on a Limb. It sounds like it takes some balance, but babies are so light when they are small that it feels pretty natural.

Of course, the great thing about it not being your baby is that you can always find mom or dad and give the baby back to them. That works, too.

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I have seen the Lizard on a Limb in action and I can attest: it totally works!

I Can Teach You: Living with Cystic Fibrosis

{It's another day at Pink U and I am thrilled to introduce you to today's professor, Katharine. She's absolutely adorable and amazingly brave. I just know you are going to love her.}

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Hi Slice of Pink readers! My name is Katharine and I blog over at FromAtoPink, where I talk about what it’s like living with cystic fibrosis.

Janet's was the very first blog I ever read. After stumbling upon one of her always clever posts, I was hooked. And immediately read every archived post she’d ever written. When Janet asked me to write a guest post, there was no hesitation. Below is a little piece of my journey, and my hope is that it gives a face to the disease, rather than just a list of symptoms.

Each CF patient’s story is a little different; here’s my version.

I was diagnosed late, at 16 – most CF patients are diagnosed by the age of three. After being sick with a cough and numerous bouts of pneumonia for almost three years, my doctors were ready to throw up their hands. Asthma? No. Allergies? Nope. COPD? Not that, either. It was then that I was taken to Johns Hopkins, as a sort of last resort, for a sweat test.

After a couple hours at the hospital I was sent home with my parents to wait for the results. I don’t know how many excruciating hours later, but we got a call – I had tested positive for cystic fibrosis.

This kind of news is always hard to swallow, but especially at 16. Suddenly I was faced with hours of daily treatments, a handful of pills to swallow, and follow-up appointments with my doctors to figure out my future as a CF patient.

Luckily, I have a more mild case. I don’t have any of the digestive issues (meaning I don’t have to take enzymes with every meal and am able to gain weight) and my lung function has remained at relatively healthy levels (with a few dips here and there). But cystic fibrosis can be unpredictable, so the “what ifs” are always hanging over my head.

The hardest part for me has been managing my disease on my own. Incorporating up to two hours a day of chest therapy and medication into my life, after 16 years of nothing at all, has been difficult. Not to mention all the other implications this has on my future.

Daily treatments:
- some form of chest therapy (either the VEST or Acapella) 15-30 minutes, twice a day*
- Pulmozyme (via nebulizer) once per day (5-10 minutes)
- Zithromycin one pill Mon., Wed., Fri.
- Advair one puff, twice a day
- Hypertonic Saline (via nebulizer) once per day (30 minutes)
- Albuterol (as needed)
*Chest therapy is done in order to move the mucus out of my lungs. This is VERY important in preventing infection. And this is probably what I’m worst at doing on a daily basis.

This is a pretty light load in comparison to other CF’ers and could also change depending on how I’m doing health-wise.

I also visit the adult CF clinic at Hopkins every three months. If my lung function takes a significant dip without reason, I’ll go more frequently until I get it back up.

Speaking of lung function, you’re probably wondering what I’m talking about. The number my doctors care most about is my FEV1, which is how much air I can push out of my lungs in a certain amount of time (at least, that’s the non-medical way of putting it). A person without CF would fall somewhere in the 85-95% range. I am currently between 70% and 75%. My goal is to get it into the 80s and keep it there. I’ve had it as low as 50% at which point I was hospitalized for a couple of days, hooked up to IVs and sent home to continue them for two weeks. Not fun. So I’d like to keep that from happening again.

The 10 years since my diagnosis have been hard. And I’m still a long way from fully dealing with what it means to have this disease. Completing the daily treatments I have to do continues to be a struggle, even though they will add years to my life.

I started my blogs in hopes that it will help hold me accountable. Because when it comes down to it, I’m the only one that can keep myself healthy. I can decide to take my medication or not. I can do my chest therapy twice a day, or I can half-ass it. I can go to the gym, or I can sit at home and watch TV.

CF is a tricky disease. We carry bacteria that are only harmful to other CF patients, meaning that support groups (aside from ones online) are nonexistent. If I find out someone has CF, I have to keep my distance. It can be very lonely.

Luckily I have an amazing boyfriend, wonderful family, and fabulous friends who support me in whatever way I need. Whether that’s a shoulder to cry on, letting me vent my frustrations, or gathering people to participate in a fundraiser. But they can only do so much. Like I said before, the rest is up to me.

The other reason I wanted to make CF the focus of my blog is because it’s such an unknown disease. And awareness is key in finding a cure.

The first memory I have where I realized how little people knew about this disease was at a Martina McBride concert. It was a benefit for CF, and the first one I’d attended since my diagnosis. Seated next to me was a mother and her young son. At one point he turned to her and asked, “Mommy, what’s cystic fibrosis?” To which she replied, “I’m not sure, I think it’s a muscular disease.”

It’s because of experiences like that that I want to educate people about CF. Especially because my belief is that people would be much more willing to support a cause that they understand. One where they know where their money is going (research), who it’s going to help (CF patients), and what it’s for (to make CF stand for “cure found”).

I am so thankful for people like Janet who allow me to share my story – with each person that learns more about cystic fibrosis, the chance of finding a cure increases. So thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for taking the time to read this. If you have any questions please feel free to email me at FromAtoPink at gmail dot com.

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A huge thank you to Katharine for sharing her story. And, hey! There are many ways that you can help find a cure for CF! It's good to give.

I Can Teach You: How to Perfectly Poach an Egg

{Day three of Pink University! Today's professor, Janet, and I are kindred spirits, not only because we share a name, but because we both love violet-flavored things. It's not often you find a friend who shares your peculiar obsession with violet candies.}

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Janet here! Yup, another Janet. What are the chances? Slice of Pink Janet and I just had to meet due to our shared name and love of blogging and cute tea houses, and I’ve never been so happy to be named after The Rocky Horror Picture Show and a Fairport Convention song. Seriously. Anyway, you can call me Green Janet, not to be confused with Slice of Pink Janet!

Onward. Today, I’m here to teach you how to perfectly poach an egg. I love poached eggs. That runny, bright yellow-orange, farm-fresh yolk, spilling all over toast, or asparagus, or a bed of oat bran, butter and sea salt. I know some people are grossed out by the thought of a runny yolk, but I say they’re missing out.

Here’s how I do it:

Step 1: Heat a small pot of water to just below boiling. You want small bubbles to be just rising to the surface, but not a rolling boil.

Step 2: When the water is close to reaching that point, take your eggs out of the fridge. Crack an egg into a small ramekin or other small container. I’ve found a 1/3 measuring cup works perfectly.

Step 3: When the water has reached the just-below-boiling point, turn off the heat.

Step 4: Add a dash of vinegar to the pot – I use rice or white wine vinegar.

Step 5: Slowly lower the egg in its vessel into the water. Twist it gently out into the water.

Step 6: Cover the pot.

Step 7: Set your kitchen timer for 3 minutes.

After 3 minutes is up, remove the lid and check the egg. If the whites look clear or not fully cooked, return the lid to the pot and cook for one more minute. If the white look cooked, remove the egg from the pot with a slotted spoon or spatula. Place atop a clean kitchen towel to remove water, and gently blot or wrap.

If you like your eggs runny, 3 minutes is perfect. If you want them a little more medium-set, let sit for at least another minute in the water, or longer on the counter before serving. You can also make a few eggs at once, depending on the size of your pot.

Gently slide the egg from the towel onto its final, delicious resting place, and enjoy! As mentioned, I like mine atop oat bran with a little butter and sea salt, on toast, or on these zucchini pancakes (simply grate ½ a zucchini, a little onion, and add a little beaten egg, salt, and a few tbsp of flour. Pan fry in a little bit of butter and/or olive oil. Voila! Note that these two were a little thick to cook all the way through, and I made three pancakes out of the same amount of “batter” the following day.

Bon appétit!

We Can Teach You

I am beyond excited to announce a new guest post series on Slice of Pink.

As you probably know, I am studying for the California Bar Exam this summer, a real nightmare of an exam requiring endless hours of studying and memorizing, studying and memorizing. Since I will not be having any fun adventures for the next two months, I am officially instituting Pink University. Inspired by these I Can Teach You badges, I asked some bloggers and friends what they could teach us. And, you know? They had some fantastic responses.

This summer, while I learn the mind-numbing intricacies of parol evidence and joint liability and who can sue who for what where, you are going to get a far lovelier education in a random assortment of fabulous and wonderful things.

You are going to learn new skills and get lessons in etiquette, language, and style. You are going to learn how to make the perfect gin fizz and how to hit a baseball. You are going to learn the difference between lie/lay and how to use chopsticks. You'll do artsy projects and become aware about things happening in the world around us. You are going to make a cake with booze.

Your professors include some of the world's finest bloggers, Slice of Pink readers, and favorite friends. They specialize in the fabulous, the fantastic, and the phenomenal (really, you should see their amazing resumes!) and they have each agreed to teach us something (maybe you have something to teach, too?).

Those of you who stick with us will graduate and receive your very own Slice of Pink diploma, which I will be sending out promptly after I take the bar, eat a lot of booze cake, sleep for several days, pack up my apartment, and move to the beach.

Ready to get educated, pink-style? We've got a lot to learn (with even more coming soon)! Enroll in the comments and I'll process your application quickly--no prerequisites required, no tuition fees which, let's face it, is a pretty damn good deal considering how awesome a Bachelor in Pink is going to look on your resume.

Five {Interesting} Things About Art History

In June, I listed some things I can teach you, including the fact that I can teach you "some interesting things about art history." Although I have talked a great deal about being drunk in college, I haven't talked much about actually attending class in college. But I did occasionally attend class, even earning myself a degree in the History of Art and Architecture.

Facts about the history of art and architecture are useful in two instances: visiting museums and sounding semi-intelligent at gallery openings when you are really there to drink the free wine.

Presenting: Five {Interesting} Things About Art History!

Are you excited or WHAT?

These are quality cocktail conversation starters, people. Get ready.

1. Pablo Picasso's full name: Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso. You can memorize that or simply say "did you know that Pablo Picasso had 23 words in his name?"

(Bonus fact: his first word was "lapiz," the Spanish word for "pencil.")

2. In 1911, when the Mona Lisa disappeared off a wall in the Louvre, Picasso was a key suspect. He didn't have the Mona Lisa, but he did have two stolen Louvre sculptures in his possession.

3. Salvador Dali arrived to give a lecture at London exhibition wearing a diving suit and diving helmet. Nobody could hear him. Eventually he began to asphyxiate in the suit, which had an airtight seal. The audience, thinking it was just a performance, applauded wildly until somebody finally popped open the helmet.

4. Vincent Van Gogh wrote over 800 letters in his lifetime.

5. When the sculpture, Bird in Space, was brought to the United States, the customs inspector refused to grant the duty exemption to the sculpture, insisting that it was not art (because, clearly, it looks nothing like a bird) and would therefore have to be taxed as a hunk of raw material.

Who is your favorite artist?

Learning Something New

Being a student, I learn something new everyday (and many new things, in fact) but none of it is nearly this fun and colorful!

{via Gen Pink}

I Can Teach You

I love these I Can Teach You badges from last Friday's Creative Mornings event in NYC.

I think this is a great exercise: thinking about what you can offer to the world.

Here's what I can teach you:

+ Color wheel basics
+ How to wrap a gift the way the White House does it
+ How to make a camera from an empty oatmeal canister
+ The difference between their and there, it's and its
+ Some interesting things about Art History
+ Fair use
+ Darkroom photo developing
+ How a bill becomes a law

What can you teach?

Eating Olive the Olives

A few months ago, Will and I participated in an olive study. This is one of the many weird and interesting things about living next door to a research university: being a research project subject. I’ve always been quick to volunteer for these types of things, not only to help a student or professor with their discoveries, but also because volunteers usually get a gift card or some silly prize for participating.

For the olive study, Will and I were required to taste a variety of black table olives and rate them based on taste, texture, and appearance. The olives ranged from buttery to fishy, firm to spongy, high moisture to low moisture. Of course, at the time they were just rows of olive dishes, all looking practically the same, marked only by a number. So, if you were about to bite into a really disgusting olive, there was no warning whatsoever. Olive #1 might have been a delicious buttery olive, a really enjoyable olive, and then BAM! Olive #2 tastes like fish bait.

The results of the study were released this week and the 38 page report documents all the findings from the study—people generally like domestic olives more than imported olives, for example, although they like Moroccan olives as much as domestic varieties. People like salty olives and dislike rancid or gassy olives (you don’t say).

The report is full of spider web charts and biplots that I don’t understand, but I can tell you this much: after eating twenty varieties of olives over the course of two days, it took several months to finally want to eat an olive again. Salty and buttery or otherwise.

More Cowbell

On Saturday, Will and I cruised down to the grand ol' annual Davis celebration, Picnic Day.

Picnic Day is a very serious thing here in Davis. It is best understood as two simultaneous, yet very different, parties that take over the entire campus and downtown.

First, you have approximately 50,000 people engaged in family friendly activities like cow-milking and doxie racing:

Then, you have an additional 50,000 people who are sozzled. Completely, utterly sloshed. The bars open at 6 AM and many are lucky to make it past noon. People under 30 generally go to Picnic Day, but have a very difficult time remembering Picnic Day.

We joined both parties and then spent the evening in the arboretum, enjoying the gorgeous weather, watching the battle of the bands, drinking Bud Light, and dancing to Thriller.

Y'all should so join us next year!

Bike Riding in a Dress 101

In the recent comment section of this post, Good Girl Gone Blog asked:

How does one ride a bike in a dress?

Shannon added:

I've wondered that myself. You've mentioned the whole dress wearing while biking thing before and I've wondered about gusts of wind and exposed undercarriages. Do you carry modesty clips so your dress won't fly up? Or do you wear shorts underneath? Or do you just throw caution to the wind and give your town a show? Fill us in!

Number 15 on the list of Ways to Know You Have Bicycle Culture: Your entire wardrobe can be classified as ”cycle wear”. Especially those stilettos from Christian Louboutin or your new double-breasted trenchcoast from Tiger of Sweden.

I ride my bike in dresses. I ride my bike for a night out on the town. I've even ridden my bicycle to job interviews, wearing a full suit, nylons, and a pair of heels.

It's not quite as impressive as it sounds. Once you decide to do it, everything just sort of falls into place.

Most of the time the dresses I wear are knee length, which makes biking in them rather simple; any shorter and passersby might get a peek of my panties, any longer and the skirt has a tendency to get tangled in the spokes. I resolve these two issues by wearing leggings under shorter dresses and by holding the hem of longer dresses in my non-steering hand or by strategically folding and tucking just right. I'd recommend starting with knee-length, a-line types and graduating into fitted pencil skirts after some practice.

The hardest part of biking in a dress is actually getting on to the bicycle. The best way to do this, particularly if the dress is more form-fitting than flowing, is to put the bike in the street and stand on the curb. Just a few inches can make a huge difference. Then hop on and start pedaling.

And, you know, pretty panties are always the way to go, but on days that you are bicycling in a dress, a conservative boyshort is probably your best bet.

If you are serious about riding in a dress, Keeping it Awkward has some practical advice including the angle at which your knees should be. There's also a Diva's Guide to Biking. This is some serious business.

I swear, if I had been so in love with bicycling on the day I got married, I would have pedaled in my wedding dress, like these lovelies:

{The couples are: Rebecca & Jeremy, Jennifer & Kevin, and Chap & Maura, who I do not know, but absolutely adore.}