3.30.2011

Cook. Bake. Devour.




This past week during spring break our coaches challenged us to a competition. However, it wasn’t just a scrimmage or a shoot out. It was IRON CHEF: The Stanford Water Polo Edition. One of our coaches, Kyle Utsumi, was in charge of the “secret ingredient.” For those of you unfamiliar with the show Iron Chef, the competition hinges on the contestant’s ability to make dishes that include a special ingredient in a creative and tasty way.

Our team was broken into four small groups and we were each given a set budget. Then, early Wednesday morning we received full instructions and, most importantly, the secret ingredient: Pineapple! Our team, aka Kaley, Alyssa Lo, Victoria, Lexie, and I, started gathering ideas. Tor (Victoria Kennedy) and I knew our team was going to bake a cake. Victoria is the ultimate baker, and I love cake so it was a win-win situation. But could we do the standard pineapple upside down cake? No, we took it up a level and decided to make a homemade carrot pineapple cake. Yes, that means that we would have to shred a pound of carrots by hand and learn how to use an industrial size mixer as we were using my house kitchen (as shown in the pictures below).

Next up was our entrée. What are simple and taste delicious? Pineapple chicken kabobs. What goes best with kabobs? Pineapple fried rice. After this all got decided, it was one mad-house rush in the grocery store, frantic baking and set up, practice, and then back to the kitchen for the final touches and cooking.

Counting down the minutes to when we had to present the dishes, we suddenly realized we needed names for all the dishes. Calling upon Lexie Ross’s artistic (see pineapple boat below) and vocabulary/metaphor skills, we came up with a few good names. KaBob Marleys (courtesy of Lexie and Kaley’s kabob professional assembly line), Suk-han (Alyssa’s middle name and creation) fried rice, and the Pineapple Surprise (Victoria and I: “Surprise it actually has carrots!”). Okay, so maybe not most cohesive names, but what matters most is taste right?

We arrived at the competition site, ready to battle our opponents with taste, creativity, and literally the fruits of our labor. Convinced our dishes were the best, we ambitiously decided to be judged first. While the cake was a hit, our KaBobs Marleys could not beat out the famous shrimp wrapped in pineapple and bacon. Apparently, we missed the other secret ingredient: bacon.

Other key dishes included tasty tacos with pineapple salsa, pineapple bowls filled with chocolate dipped fruit and ice cream, and a cherry-pineapple crisp. Overall, it was quite the production and everything I tasted was wonderful. I included pictures below along with the recipe for the pineapple-carrot cake from Ina Garten’s kitchen, or the Barefoot Contessa (she is one of my favorite on the Food network!). For now, bon appétit!

Ingredients:

For the cake:
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 1/3 cups vegetable oil
• 3 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, divided
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 pound carrots, grated
• 1/2 cup diced fresh pineapple

For the frosting:
• 3/4 pound cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/2 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 pound confectioners' sugar, sifted

For the decoration:
• 1/2 cup diced fresh pineapple

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Butter 2 (8-inch) round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans.

For the cake:

Beat the sugar, oil, and eggs together in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light yellow. Add the vanilla. In another bowl, sift together 2 1/2 cups flour, the cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Toss the raisins and walnuts with 1 tablespoon flour. Fold in the carrots and pineapple. Add to the batter and mix well.

Divide the batter equally between the 2 pans. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool completely in the pans set over a wire rack.

For the frosting:

Mix the cream cheese, butter and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until just combined. Add the sugar and mix until smooth.

Place 1 layer, flat-side up, on a flat plate or cake pedestal. With a knife or offset spatula, spread the top with frosting. Place the second layer on top, rounded side up, and spread the frosting evenly on the top and sides of the cake.  Decorate with diced pineapple.

3.24.2011

Kids Do The Darndest Things




As I walk into the classroom, I can barely hear my teacher above all the noise. True to form, though, she has that amazing teacher ability to be heard above all else. I barely catch her telling the class to take out our planners, math notebooks, pens and pencils, and then put our backpacks on the hooks in the back of the classroom. We will have three minutes of music to perform these tasks.

I can imagine some of you at home are cocking your heads and furrowing your brows thinking, “This sounds a little juvenile for Stanford, maybe that “list” article had more truth to it than we thought…” Well, you would be wrong. This is my classroom at EPACS, East Palo Alto Charter School. Once a week, every girl on our team heads over to tutor for an hour with her specific class. The women’s water polo team has been tutoring at EPACS for about ten years now, and this year, I’m helping out with fourth graders. Now, back to my morning.

With a single click on her laptop, my teacher starts playing Cali Swag District’s “Teach Me How To Dougie” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnPJmDc0b_M).

Again, a little background: This song is hugely popular with my age group mainly because it’s one of those songs that doubles as a dance tutorial. Honestly, “The Dougie” is probably one of the more popular “songs that come with a dance move” because it leaves a lot of room for personal interpretation. For example, ask Cassie to Dougie the next time you see her and it won’t look like the music video, I guarantee it. Anyway, like I said, the song is popular with my age group, but due to some choice lyrics (don’t worry loyal followers, I’ve attached the clean version!) I couldn’t exactly imagine my fourth graders having this song on their iPods or anything. Well, now it’s my turn to be wrong.

I truly believe I missed one of those golden opportunities for fame (or at least an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres show) by not having a video camera on hand to record what happened next. As if on cue, the whole class stopped what they were doing – Christian and Jose stopped rough housing, Maria and Anna stopped whispering – and began to Dougie. And you know what, they did look like the music video. Let me be absolutely clear. I am purely referring to their dancing abilities. My fourth graders were smoother, more confident, more coordinated, and more wildly impressive than any dougie I had ever seen before. Believe it or not, as a connoisseur of dance, I’ve seen quite a few.

Jaw dropped in shock and jealousy at their incredible swag, I was more upset than a 1st grader deprived of recess when the three minutes stopped and the kids were quietly sitting with their materials at the ready. Time to learn – proportions were on the agenda. Another harrowing test of my math abilities sans scientific calculator.

3.12.2011

Stanford's Reputation - A Response




I hope everyone has been enjoying all the fun stories included on this blog. As much as I would like to continue this entry with a fun story or something similar, I would like to take some time to address a recent article that was published in the Stanford Daily and has now become news nationwide. The article is titled “ Stanford Athletes had Access to ‘ Easy’ Courses,” and much like the title suggests, this article attempted to prove that a list of courses available in the Athletic Academic Resource Center (AARC) at Stanford is a list of easy A classes that student athletes could take to fill their course schedule each quarter. To clarify something right off the bat, this list, which is available each quarter, is essentially a compilation of a large variety of courses offered in the current quarter, which both fulfill GER requirements and meet during the hours that most athletes take classes. The classes are organized based on the time of day they meet, which is a very important criteria that student athletes must consider when organizing their class schedules. My own first impression of this list when I first looked at it as a freshman was that it was a helpful resource to get a feeling for the academic breadth of classes that the university offers and to find classes that fulfill GERs. And by the way, this same information is available to every student at Stanford via Courserank, a website used by numerous colleges nationwide that ranks courses based on popularity, grade distribution, and average weekly hours dedicated to the course.

Now that you have the background, I can give you my own personal reaction to this story. The biggest issue that I have with this article is its effect on the reputation of Stanford as both a top tier athletic and academic university. So many people regard Stanford as a great example of a place where students can excel both academically and athletically. Unfortunately, this article, although not fact-based, soils this reputation. Since it has been publically released and is now presented on several news websites including Fox Sports and ESPN, there is no way to take back what the article says, no way to remove it from the public eye. The article opens the door to a wide variety of people nationwide to question what they had always thought about Stanford student athletes as being the real deal.

In light of all of this, I must now take some time to try to restore the reputation of Stanford’s athletic department, an athletic department that I have always been and continue to be honored to represent. It would be hard to miss the 15 consecutive Director’s Cups lining the Hall of Fame Room in Arillaga, a true testament to the athletic achievement. And for the student portion of Stanford student-athletes, look at the number of academic accolades that we receive each season, including Academic All- Americans, Conference All-Academics and the NCAA Elite 88 recognition, all earned by true student athletes that populate a variety of majors here at Stanford. Other recent news about the Stanford athletics program that was not included in the article is that the only two major Division I NCAA football programs whose athletic departments are without a major NCAA violation are Penn State and Stanford. We take our responsibility to Stanford, our teammates and our supporters seriously, but I guess doing things the right way just isn’t news-worthy.

I would like to end with a quote taken from another Daily article posted on the Daily’s website the afternoon that the initial article was published: “ ‘ Stanford athletes work hard in the classroom, hard in athletics, and are good people. Don’t let anything bring you down.’ ”

http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/NCAA-trouble-is-a-UConn-firstList-of- unpunished-schools-now-4-54247260

http://www.stanforddaily.com/2011/03/09/1046687/

http://www.stanforddaily.com/2011/03/09/perspective-on-the-list/

3.11.2011

Bending it like Bender




On the Stanford campus I have come to find a new home, a place full of comfort and solitude. When the day is done, practices and classes are finished I often look forward to spending my evenings there where I can relax and just think. Where might this place be? None other than the library, but not just anywhere in the library, in particular the Bender Room. What makes this room so special is that not many people know where it is, because it takes effort to get to it. When you enter the library you must weave your way making different left and right turns down different hallways until you arrive at an elevator, and once there you have to take it all the way to the 5th floor, that’s right the very top floor in the library. Once you arrive on the top floor there is a wooden door leading its way into the brightly lit room filled with windows and comfortable couches and chairs throughout. On most weeknights you can find my purple bike parked out in front of Green library I have made it a weekly routine. On some nights I even treat myself to a free mocha or a vanilla chi latte at the café located just outside this library, thanks to the occasional Twitter Word of the Day put out by the café in which you just have to whisper a certain word to the cashier to get a free drink. For example:

Stop by any Coupa Cafe today for a Small Mocha. Whisper "Mark Linsey" @mlinsey and get one for FREE! Plz-RT 8-)

I have even mastered the ability to sneak my drink into the library so that I can happily enjoy it while doing my work. As Kelsey previously mentioned, what better way to spend our day off than doing homework in the library. On Monday Kaley and I spent our usual afternoon in the library and sure enough 15 minutes into studying Annika showed up. Then 10 minutes later, Kate, Kelsey, and Melissa entered the room. We continued our studying and then sure enough both the team captains made their way to the Bender Room, Kimbo and Kim. It is safe to say we had a very studious afternoon with the women’s water polo team taking over the library. More importantly we were able to get all the K’s on the team in the library hence (Kaitlyn, Kaley, Kelsey, Kate, Kimbo, Kim). Lately I have been thinking about mixing it up and exploring the massive library and finding a new spot to study (once I do I will be sure to let you know) but for now if you wish to find me on a week night try the Bender Room first.




3.10.2011

R&R




Coming out of a tournament by continuing a winning streak (knock on wood!) of 15-0, we girls were lucky enough to get TWO DAYS of a little rest and relaxation. But, like many of my other teammates, I was at a loss as to how to fill up my enormous amounts of free time. So, what exactly IS a day in the life of a Stanford Water Polo player…without water polo…like?


After waking up after sunrise (for once) on Monday morning, I was in such a fantastic mood that even going to chemistry class couldn’t bring me down! From there, I met up with fellow teammate Kate Baldoni for our favorite lunchtime meal—the famous Southwestern Salad from Tressider. I’m pretty sure we both finished our gigantic, overflowing meals in record time. Yum! While we ate, we watched the masses congregate in front of Dinkelspiel Auditorium for the chance to get to see James Franco, fresh from the Oscars, here at Stanford talking about his new short film. Check out the picture below!!


After our lunch date and a quick stop by the bookstore, I headed back to class where I met up with Melissa. When class ended, it seemed only natural to do what we would have done any other day of the week at this time—head to the pool! Kate met up with us on our way over, and seeing as Mel didn’t ride her bike (…where is that thing, anyway? ) we caravanned to Avery, and this time instead of another intense work out, we treated ourselves to a nice relaxing and well deserved jacuzzi session.


Now, however much we all would have enjoyed continuing to relax, it is finals week in a few days! Time to do some work. So what do we do? Head to my all time favorite study spot—The Bender Room in Green Library. The view overlooking Stanford Campus is absolutely amazing. Much to our surprise, some of our teammates were already there— and more kept coming! Kaitlyn will give you the details on that later.


With a few hours gone, it was time to get some food again. A little unknown fact about Kate and me is that some would say we have recently become addicted to white chocolate, and Stern Dining always delivers. To our disappointment, however, there were no white chocolate chips to be found inside the dining hall—but Kate wouldn’t take no for an answer! We walked up to one of the extremely helpful cooks, and asked if we could trouble them for some white chocolate chips, expecting we would get a small handful each, at most. Instead, the cook walks out with a Venti-sized Starbuck’s cup filled almost to the top of our weakness. We immediately looked at each other, and back at the cup. Our love of Stern Dining had officially been reaffirmed.

All in all, the day was a success…now it’s back to the grind!

3.07.2011

Rites and Rituals... the art of the French Press




After an exciting and successful weekend at the Irvine Tournament, we stepped off the bus around 11:45 pm in the dark parking lot outside of the Avery Aquatic Center. “Great job,” JT said, “We’ll see you at weights in the morning.”

Internally, I cringed. I would only be getting six hours of sleep. Unlike most college students, sleep isn’t something I take lightly. I knew that after weights, I would definitely need a cup of coffee.

Despite that it’s a quick source of caffeine, coffee has become an integral part of my daily routine. I’m not addict (I can function perfectly well without it), but a connoisseur of the drink that many misuse during finals week or while pulling all- nighters. For me, coffee is a more of a ritual. When I prepare the drink and sit to enjoy it, it’s my time to reflect on the upcoming day while appreciating one of the simple things in life. A cup of coffee. However, I can make a really good cup of coffee, and I’m writing to show you how!

First, you need a French Press. It’s a manual coffeemaker that gets the most flavor out of the ground coffee beans because, like its name, it presses the beans to the bottom of the cup. Unlike an automatic coffeemaker, you have to heat up water separately until it boils. While the water is heating, I warm up milk in a separate cup that I will be drinking the coffee from. I’ve found that when I put in the warm milk first, it tastes better.


While the water is still heating, put about five tablespoons of ground coffee beans into the bottom of the French Press (for about 2-3 cups of coffee). Once the water is boiled, pour it over the coffee grinds until all of them are covered. Depending how much coffee you want (and how watery or thick you like it), add less or more water. For this ratio (5 tablespoons), I fill up the French Press about halfway.

Now, wait five minutes for the coffee to steep.

When five minutes are up, take the top of the French Press and push the plunger all the way down, pressing the grinds to the bottom and separating them from the freshly brewed coffee. Now, pour the coffee into the cup... And enjoy!

3.02.2011

We heart you, Grandma Cleasby! (bloopers and all)




Stanford Women’s Water Polo Fans -- thank you for tuning in for my blog post!! I will warn you now, this is my first blog post ever, in my life, so please cut me some slack as I'm still learning the ropes, so to speak.

I am Vee Dunlevie, sophomore, wearing cap #6. I am from the Stanford area (Atherton specifically) and went to Sacred Heart Prep high school, about ten minutes from Stanford. We are having a great season so far after winning the Stanford Invite, our game against UOP, and the Irvine Tournament and we are all looking forward to taking on the competition in San Diego and Long Beach this upcoming weekend...

Can't make all the games? Well, you're in for a treat... Our team is very lucky to have a number of parents who enjoy taking pictures (my mom included – shout out to Elizabeth!). She takes lots of pictures and enjoys going for the “artsy” angle... she's like the team's very own Annie Liebovitz. For example, look at the great picture of Melissa that she snapped in Michigan!

Another sweet photographer we have is Alyssa and Kaitlyn’s wonderful grandma Velma Cleasby aka Grandma Cleasby. Grandma Cleasby is a dedicated photographer and takes more photos than a veteran Reuters staff member. Her camera is always on the ready and she captures every moment possible – be it flattering or embarrassing. Water polo can certainly be a beautiful sport, but our team will always put the drive to dominate above the desire to look pretty...

So, I would like to take this chance to highlight some of the most entertaining pictures of our team playing the game we love, dominating every day, and always looking…um...athletic….while doing so. :)

3.01.2011

Fight or Flight... my Knockout Mixtape




I've come to find that the perfect pump-up song is a crucial ingredient to successful game preparation. The best songs stick in my head for an entire practice or game, pushing me farther than I ever thought I could go. Biologically speaking, a great pump-up song activates one's sympathetic nervous system, your body’s active “fight or flight” response. Just listening to the right song at the right time can raise your heart rate, facilitate more efficient use of oxygen, help you focus, and get your nervous system and body as a whole ready for going all out. I can confidently say that the games and training sessions where we, as a team, have listened to a catchy song have been our most successful {not to mention, most fun!}.



For example, we listened to “Wop” by J. Dash on repeat in the weight room last Monday. This song had everyone in a fantastic mood and consequently had us moving a lot of weight! Lil’ Wayne aka Weezy aka Weezy F. Baby aka The Carter has numerous legit songs to get us amped for games. I’ve listed some of my favorites below, however it is important to remember that every pump-up song is unique to each player. Make sure you find one that gets YOUR blood pumping!

“Knockout” Lil’ Wayne ft. Nicki Minaj
“Little Secret Fireman” – Lil’ Wayne and Passion Pit – Tim Gunter Mix
“Right Above It” – Lil’ Wayne ft. Drake
“Stuntin’ Like Mufasa” – Lil’ Wayne vs. Lion King
“What We Need" – Lil’ Wayne Ft. Glasses Malone