Memories of Homemade Pudding and Pie

The warm summer months are here and it seems as if everyone is scattering across the country to take a vacation or visit relatives and friends. Many of my summers were filled with trips back to visit family in Iowa. My dad had two sisters (Aunt Wilma and Aunt Millie) and both of them loved to cook. One thing these two country cooks could do better than no other, was whip up some homemade pudding and even a pie or two. In fact, pudding or pie was served twice a day. Once at dinner (lunch) and the other at supper (dinner.)

Well, my kitchen skills aren't very great (something I inherited from my mom) and so I never really tried making homemade pudding, until the other day. I had some overripe bananas that I didn't want to go to waste, so I decided to make a banana cream pie. I quickly went online and looked up what would have to be (based on my skills) simple pie recipes. I soon realized that the filling for the pie was actually just a pudding (ok....yes I'm sure some of you are saying "duh"). This got me to thinking..."what is the science behind this delicious, creaming treat?"

Another Great Day on Arizona Midday

Me and Destry getting ready for some "LEMON-ology" on Arizona Midday.

My Friend Kristy Morcom and "Ferdinand the Bull Snake" from the Wildlife World Zoo in the lobby of KPNX Channel 12.

I started the day a bit frazzled thinking of all the things I had planned for today's segment on Arizona Midday. In fact, I had a dream last night that Destry had called me to tell me that I was late and missed my segment (not sure what that dream was all about.) After running to the supermarket and a local dollar store to grab all of my supplies and props, I ran home to cut lemons, make solutions and bake some mini-lemon pies. I was out the door by 12:20pm (only 20 minutes behind schedule) and raced downtown to the our local NBC studio (KPNX Channel 12).

TGIF!
I made it down town in record time, but soon realized that my segment was 2nd and I had A LOT of prep work to do. Thankfully, today is Friday and Coffee Talk (which usually runs a bit longer) was up first. As I set up I listened to Destry and the girls (including my good friend Jennifer Kaplan) chat about the hot topics of the week. Soon they were done and I was up next. My lab was complete and I was ready to roll just in the nick of time.

I love the time I get to spend on television and even more, I love the fact that I can use Miss Science as a platform to educate viewers about how much fun STEM (especially the SCIENCE part) can be! Next week we start our camps at Arizona State University-Polytechnic and then it's off to Channel 3 on July 6th for the Science of Bubbles!

Keeping Cool With Some Yummy Science!

As the temperatures climb higher and higher and summer sets in, here's how you can make your own delicious treat to cool off. And it's scientific too!

Materials:

• 1/2 cup milk (whole or 2% works best)
• 1/2 cup heavy cream (optional)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 TBS sugar
• 4 cups crushed ice
• 4 TBS salt
• 2 quart-size plastic bags
• 1 gallon-size freezer bag
• gloves or mittens to keep your hands warm
• towels (this can get a bit watery and messy)
• masking or duct tape
• Scissors

Procedure:

1. In one of the quart-size plastic bags mix the milk, vanilla and sugar (mix until sugar dissolves.)
2. Release as much air from the bag as you can. (You don't want the bag to pop while mixing!)
3. Close the bag and seal the top with tape.
4. Put the bag of ingredients into the other quart-size bag, remove the air and seal the top with tape. 
5. Set your mixture bag inside of the gallon-size bag and fill with ice.
6. Sprinkle salt on top of the ice, squeeze out the air and seal the bag with tape. 
7. Put your gloves or mittens on. It's going to get COLD!
8. For 5 minutes shake, knead and gently squeeze the bag moving he mixture around. 
9. Once you feel the mixture begin to solidify continue for 1-2 minutes.
10. Cut the tape from the baggies and carefully remove the ice cream. 
11. Dig In!!!

What's the Science?

The salt in the bag causes the ice to melt. This creates a "brine." Brine is a solution of salt in water. Brine is sometimes used to preserve vegetables, fruit or fish, but in this case we used the brine solution to absorb the heat from the ice cream mix. As the brine solution gradually lowered the temperature from the mix it began to freeze. In order to get the ice cream mixture to freeze, we must drop the temperature below 32 degrees. By adding the salt we are able to lower the freezing temperature to around 27 degrees and VIOLA... you get some yummy ice cream. 

Pucker Up!

 The Science and Business of a Lemonade Stand

This Friday on Arizona Midday I'll be talking about the Science and Business of a Lemonade Stand. Creating a delicious lemonade is a great lesson in acids and bases. The citric acid that comes from lemons is pucker-ific! In order to balance the acidity of lemon juice, a good "lemonologist" must be able to create a formula that offers just the right satisfaction for the palate of various lemonade connoisseurs. To counteract the bitterness of lemon juice, sugar is added to water. Lemons are acidic externally, but alkaline (base) internally. Although sugar has a sweet flavor, it is an acid producer. Due to the high acidic content in lemonade, as tasty and refreshing as lemonade can be it is best to be consumed in moderation.  Other ingredients that "lemonologists" may choose to add to their formula for flavor include, mint, cinnamon and other various spices. During my segment I will also share the science of other refreshing lemon products such as lemon bars, lemon pixi-sticks and lemon bath bombs.


Testing for Acids and Bases
One experiment that I will be sharing includes testing solutions for acids and bases. You can try the following in your own kitchen.

Materials:
1/2 red cabbage
water
pan and stove
strainer
spoon or craft stick
clear cups (9-12 oz.)
sugar
baking soda
citric acid
vinegar
borax
lemon juice

Procedure:

• Cut cabbage into 1" strips and boil it in water until the water turns a bluish/purple. Let cool
• Stain the cabbage from the water, collecting the cabbage water in a separate bowl or large cup. 
• Pour 1 tsp. of sugar into a clear cup and add 4 oz. of water and stir to dissolve the sugar.
• Repeat to make all other solutions (baking soda, vinegar, borax etc...)
• Add 4 TBS of cabbage water to each solution and record any change that you observe.

Red cabbage contains a natural indicator that changes color due to the acidity of a solution. 

 Neutral solutions will create a purplish color.
Alkaline Solutions (base) will appear greenish-yellow.
Acidic Solutions (acid) will react to the indicator solution producing a red to pink color.


Below are pictures from our SciPreneur Scottsdale camp. Students not only worked to create the best lemonade formulas, but they also did some kitchen science while creating lemon bars. We compared two recipes. One called for all-natural ingredients, while the other was a pre-made lemon pie filler.  All though are preservative-free (homemade) lemon bar filling was natural, it was still highly acidic. That being said, it looked 10x better than the can of pie filling that we opened. And when we read the label, there were lots of ingredients that we couldn't even pronounce!

Coloring Sugar Crystals

As the weather warms up and the sun continues to shine, this experiment will have you creating colorful sugar crystals.

Materials: 
Food coloring
4 tsp. sugar
20 tsp. water
Bowl
Sun

Procedure:

• Pour the sugar into a bowl slowly add water and stir until the sugar dissolves.
• Add 2-4 drops of food coloring.
• Place the bowl in a sunny spot for 1-2 days.

What did you observe?
Why do you think it happened?


Sugar is a molecule made of 12 atoms of carbon, 22 atoms of hydrogen and 11 atoms of oxygen. When sugar is added to water the crystals dissolve and create a solution. The heat from the sun will warm the water in your sugar solution enough to allow the water to evaporate. You will be left with only sugar and color. 
 

You can now use your colored sugar to decorate cookies, cupcakes or make to make other sweet treats such as pixi sticks!

The Science of the Supermarket

When I was born my parents didn't take me home from the hospital, instead they took me straight to the supermarket. My childhood was spent running up and down the isles, cruising through the warehouse and eventually getting my first job as a courtesy clerk and working in the stores all through college. The supermarket was a major part of my upbringing. It wasn't until I became a science educator that I realized how full of science the supermarket is!