Local soups? Yes, please!!

I sent an email out about this, but then I realized, hey, I have a blog!

If you don't already know about the Soup Guy in Lemont, please read on! I recently learned about him, and Scott and I have been enjoying his soups for a couple of months now. I thought you all might be interested in knowing about this local State College secret. :)

He uses as many local ingredients as possible (we had a potato-leek stew with leeks he'd picked from Central PA), and makes the soup fresh every Thursday morning. Also, they use glass mason jars, which you return the next week, so their packaging is sustainable!

Each week Chef Tom Everly, and his wife, Judy, send out an email with the two soups for the week. They try to fulfill as many requests as they can, so feel free to suggest something. To get on the list, just email (teverly707@comcast.net) and you'll get the weekly email. To order, you just respond to the email anytime before Wednesday at noon (so they have time to prepare enough ingredients for all the soups), and you pick up the soups on Thursday form 12-6 (or Friday if you need to).

Here's a sampling of the soups we've gotten in the past several weeks (he always lists two: usually has one vegan/vegetarian and one with meat, and at least one is gluten free): 

* Cream of Emerald Isle - Cream and everything "green"; celery, broccoli, spinach, parsley, cucumbers (GF) (Cucumbers?! This was surprisingly good!!)

* Mulligatawny - this one has Chicken today (GF)

* Jambalaja with wine, chicken, smoked pork sausage, kielbasa & rice with tomatoes

* Sopa de Frijoles Negros - Black beans, Pork, Chipotle, Chili Powder, cumin with a little white wine

* Borscht – vegan, GF                              

* Stifa’do – Spanish Lamb Stew with Black beans, pork, chicken stock and a little white wine – spicy

* Potato Leek & Cannellini with Soy milk, vegan & GF                                       

* Soup Nazi Chili - No cream, Gluten free & Vegan (yes, this is the soup from the Seinfeld show)

I think the price of soups are approximately 5.40 for a pint, 10.80 for a quart and 43.20 for a gallon. A quart is plenty for a dinner-sized bowl of soup for both Scott and I, and all the soups have been quite hearty (full of veggies) and delicious!

I really want to continue to support them in their local-soup-making efforts, but unfortunately we'll be moving soon. :( I really do hope you try it - they're fantastic, and such an adventure!!

We need a new language for evolution (by Andrew Moore)

I really liked this article by Andrew Moore. It is succinct, and gives a few wonderful examples (which I've copied below) of how evolutionary biologists can work to change the language we use to avoid the perpetuation of misconceptions about evolution. We use words that imply intention and direction, perhaps because they are easy to understand, and perhaps because we don't know better words, but they are incorrect.

Mutations, in and of themselves are purposeless. As I'll paraphrase from Dr. Moore, we can only make statements of purpose after the fact, which only muddies the waters for those trying to understand evolution.

So please take a look at the table below for suggestions on how to correctly refer to evolutionary processes. I know that I am going to start to thinking very carefully about the language I use.

The final countdown....

Two weeks until my dissertation is due to my committee, and four weeks until my defense! I'm actually feeling pretty good about it right now (we'll see how I feel in another week). I have to give a lot of the credit to Scott who, over the past few weeks has taken over a majority of the childcare in our house, allowing me to keep up my 10-12hr work days.

I'm so motivated, that I'm actually not burnt out from working so much, but working "regular" days on the weekends are starting to make me feel a little disoriented. Not bad, just disoriented.

Things like this make me ashamed of Nebraska

There are so many wonderful things about Nebraska. I really enjoyed my time there, but Nebraska, c'mon, really? That you choose to make this decision for women and it results in cases like this...  is heartbreaking.

Are we equals?

I'll be out of touch (or barely in touch) until after my thesis is submitted and defended. Until then, follow the link for a video with a question for you to ponder: Are we equals?.