Yeah. Hi! I think I am back.

I think I must apologize to my imaginary readers, because I was gone for several months! Well, University took over me and I had troubles with two subjects that I must repeat next year, but I think I approved everything this term.

I was supposes to make a laboratory practice this semester, or this summer, but I was having doubts about whether I wanted to be a scientist or not. Then I started to read about a sea slug called Elysia chlorotica and now I am obsessed with that wonderful sea creature and I want to investigate it. My research lead me to discover that it was being investigated by a group in an University in U.S.A, and now I really want to go. It's like a need, but it really isn't. It's just that I am so amazed by that sea slug, so curious about it, that I feel I need to investigate it. I will talk to one of my tutors and ask him when I should go to study abroad. I remember him telling us the best time was for a PhD, but investigations don't last for ever and I have at least 3 years left to finish the Magister, and then I can go for a PhD. So I was thinking, go to Maine University and investigate this sea slug as my Magister thesis. So I need to consult that with a tutor. I will take his advice. I also want to ask him help on how to contact the person in charge of the investigation. I want to ask this person, in which area I should start focusing, since the wonderful thing about the sea slug is that it can make photosynthesis, as plants. Should I focus on algae, plants, mollusks?

I am a little worried, since their last publication was made on 2008. Maybe they already dropped that investigation line, and I would be left in a limbo, without knowing what to do, again. I really hope they haven't given up, because there are so many interesting things about this creature. Here is a website about it if you wish to know a little more http://sbe.umaine.edu/symbio/

And that is, really summarized, what has been going on with my life lately. I will come with more food soon.

Mussels pasta sauce

I don't like seafood. It disgust me. I was able to eat shrimp until new years eve last year when I decided to help my mother to clean them for a sauce she was making and they started to disgust me as well. So now I don't eat sea food. Unless it is packed in a nice blanket of rice, dipped in tempura batter and finished in really hot oil to make a crispy shell... yum, I love warm sushi. Anyway, yes, I don't like seafood. I eat some kind of fishes, but after a class I took this semester about the Chilean seas I don't want to eat any kind of meat anymore. I haven't talked about it with my mother, I talked about it with my boyfriend, but he thinks vegetarians are stupid. But it is sad. It is so sad that fishes are taken out of water, killed and processed to make food for our food. Cows, pigs and chickens are fed with fish meal, as well as salmons and trouts. And it makes me sad that they are taking tons of fishes out of water just so they can feed some animals that then will be lost, because we throw away a lot of meat every day.

It made me think. It made me really consider becoming a vegetarian, and I am still thinking about it. Organic food is not easy to find in my city, and more expensive that in other countries. I would eat chickens from a farm with no problem, knowing they were fed with corn, or other seeds, and no fish. I would eat fish if I knew  people was responsible about them and wasn't using fishing methods hat affect other species beside the one they want. But things are not like that. And I love all the marine creatures so much. They are wonderful. I would like people could see how wonderful they are, but I talk to my classmates and they look at me like I am crazy. Most people don't understand my love for them, but they are so special.

Ok, sorry, now to the food. I've been talking about how I don't like seafood and here I am with a seafood dish. The thing is, my mom loves it. And she was going to her first job interview as a psychologist this morning, so I wanted to have something special for her, either to celebrate or comfort her. Gladly, the interview went well and they want her to star working in February. So mussels pasta to congratulate her! I just threw in the pan everything I found. The mussels where canned, so I used the juices from one can to cook everything, poured in some wine, lemon zest, lemon juice and ta-da! Then cooked the pasta and there I had it, smelling like holidays on the beach.

Ingredients:

2 cans mussels in oil (380 gr)

1 small onion, finely diced.

1 medium zucchini, chopped in cubes.

1 medium tomato, cubed.

1 small garlic clove, minced.

1/4 cup white wine

1 lemon (zest and juice)

Salt to taste.

Preparation:

1. Pour the juices from one can of mussels in a pan over medium heat and add finely diced onion. Cook until it becomes translucent.

2. Add the zucchini and cook for about two minutes, then add the tomatoe and garlic and cook for about 5 minutes, or until vegetables become soft, add salt and mix.

3. Add mussels and combine, then add the wine and let the alcohol evaporate (I cooked it for about 3 more minutes).

4. Turn off the heat and add lemon zest and juice. Adjust salt add to any pasta you like (I used spaghetti).

If you like seafood, I hope you try this!