Transferring Heat in the Kitchen

Let’s get back to basics, shall we?

I’ve been reading the novel Lessons in Chemistry after receiving it for Christmas, and it’s inspired—potentially—my next 12 columns. The book itself is great and checks all the boxes for me (strong female character, a little romance, a little humor), but it really reminded me how much I loved chemistry and food science in college. The truth is, cooking basically IS chemistry, and a little understanding of what’s going on will go a long way in your kitchen.

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and the results are in

Apparently, I have a much greater grasp on the concepts in Chemistry than I thought….

Yours truly scored the HIGHEST grade in all three sections of Chem 2 with an 88%! (The fact that an 88% is the HIGH grade should tell you something…)

I went into the final with a 101%, but since it’s 40% of the actual grade and no one even gets close to a 100% on it, keeping that perfect score was going to be impossible.

And speaking of impossible chemistry finals… I tied for the HIGHEST score of 153/210 possible points, which equates to a 74%! Again, a measley 74% doesn’t seem high, until you realize the national average is only 55%. Seriously.

In the words of my Chem professor in an email after the exam, I’m “bad ass.” Guess my dads’ parents’ smarts (they were both PhDs in chemistry) found their way into my brain. Sweet! (Good thing, since I have Biochemistry and Organic next…)

A huge thank you is due to Doreen, the chem tutor at ECC, who works incredibly hard to help us all understand the intricacies of chemistry. Doreen, if you’re reading this, THANK YOU!

And don’t get me wrong–I worked my butt off. Like, it’s all but gone. (Not really, but wouldn’t that be great?)

There were plenty of super smart people in my class (like Eric, who totally gets the concepts but can’t do the math, and Sarah–who actually went to high school with Carolyn–who is a whiz on the calculator, and even Bob, who is more drunk than sober, but still manages to “get it” instantly) who did not, or could not, spend as much time as I did studying.

So, I’m a pretty happy camper. With two 4.0 semesters under my belt, the pressure is ON to continue this trend (for lots of reasons, the least of which being my OCD-tendencies) once I get to Buff State, but that may not be a realistic (or even worthwhile) goal. We shall see.

But for now, I’m pretty impressed with myself. After all, in these past two semesters I pretty much tackled some of my biggest fears in life: going back to school (I didn’t know if I could do it) and CHEMISTRY (I thanked my lucky stars I didn’t have to take it the first time around).

This writer-turned-science major surprised herself, if not anyone else.

three for three

Long time no blog! It’s the last week of school before my (only, thank goodness) final, what can I say?
Here I am, at Orchard Perk here in the OP village:

And. Can you guess what I’m doing?

Yup, you got it. Chemistry. Exam is in T-minus three days… Over the past two semesters, I’ve learned I have REMOVE myself from the house to get any studying done. Otherwise, I’d find something to bake, or kill the dog and cats.
So, yesterday it was Panera. The day before was Starbucks.
What do you think, folks? Should I make it four and go to Taste tomorrow? (Or the Starbucks in Target…I’m almost out of eye makeup remover.)