Life ~ Food & Friends~

Mmm...sushi...
I don't know what it is, but I am going through a major "sushi" craze. 

Last weekend, we got together with some frineds, and I was assigned to make something Japanese.
I decided to make some sushi, but real sushi quality tuna has been pretty expensive nowa days.
So I made sushi without raw fish...

From the top:

{Spam Musubi} / You might be thinking "what?! Spam for sushi? What is that stuff made out of anyways?" but, trust me they are actually pretty good. My kids LOVE this. All you need to do is slice the spam, grill both sides on a frying pan until they are a little crispy, put them on top of the moulded rice and wrap them with Nori (seaweed) strips.  That's it!

{Inari-sushi}/ Basically, the tan looking thing you are looking at is a fryed tofu pouch.  It has a sweet flavor; kind of like teriyaki, but different.  Typically it is stuffed with sushi rice, but my mom always added minced cucumber and sesami and that's what I do to.

{Maki-sushi}/ Usually I use real tuna for this, but this time I rolled imitation crab meat, avocado, cucumber, and eggs.  I also made the ones with imitation crab mixed with salt and pepper, and Japanese mayo.

There were French, Mexican (they were very yummy by the way), and Japanese food at the table that night.  Also the company of the friends, love, and laughter.

Oh, that is life.  

How can I ask for more? :)

A GLOBAL WARMING REFUGE AT EQUATORIAL ISLANDS

Some islands in the bulls'-eye of climate change may dodge the worst thanks to heretofore unknown dynamics between deep currents, upwelling, and rising temperatures.
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Gilbert Island archipelago in the Pacific island nation of Kiribati. Credit: NASA/Aqua Satellite.

  
A new paper in Nature Climate Change reports on an unexpected refuge of cooler water around the equatorial Gilbert Islands—one of three archipelagos of the Pacific island nation of Kiribati (say: KEER-uh-bus).
  
This is good news at a time when when scientists predict that rising ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific will wreak havoc (coral bleaching, coral disease) on coral reef ecosystems by the end of the century. 
  
The new study shows that climate change could cause ocean currents to operate in a surprising way to mitigate warming near a handful of islands on the equator... which may then become isolated refuges for corals and fish.
    

The three archipelagos of the Pacific island nation of Kiribati straddle the Equator. Map based on: TUBS via Wikimedia Commons.

  
The dynamics of this cooler-water refuge include:
  

1. Equatorial trade winds pushing a surface current, the Equatorial Countercurrent, from east to west
2. A swift Equatorial Undercurrent flowing below the Equatorial Countercurrent in the opposite direction, west to east, at 100-200 meters (328-656 feet)

Where the Equatorial Undercurrent encounters an island, its flow is deflected upward on the island's western flank, carrying its cooler nutrient-rich water to the sunlit surface and creating localized areas of greater ocean productivity.

You can see the dynamics of this in the map and graph below showing chlorophyll levels—a marker of phytoplankton and hence marine productivity—across the equatorial Pacific. The red in the map view indicates highest chlorophyll / phytoplankton / marine productivity.

Credit: Kristopher B. Karnauskas and Anne L. Cohen. Nature Climate Change. DOI:10.1038/nclimate1499.

    
Clearly, the most productive waters occur in the eastern tropical Pacific, where the Equatorial Undercurrent drives up against the Galapagos Islands to create huge upwelling.
  
Chlorophyll quantities then dwindle rapidly as you move west... until the anomalous red signature marking the outlines of the Gilbert Islands of Kiribati seen inside the white-dotted rectangle. The islands are not shown in the map view, just their chlorophyll signatures.
  
Co-author Anne Cohen at WHOI says:
  

"Global models predict significant temperature increases in the central tropical Pacific over the next few decades, but in truth conditions can be highly variable across and around a coral reef island. To predict what the coral reef will experience in global climate change, we have to use high-resolution models, not global models."

Coral reef of the equatorial Pacific. Credit: USFWS.

The models predict:
  

• That as air temperatures rise and equatorial trade winds weaken, the Pacific surface current will also weaken by 15 percent by the end of the century.
• But the then-weaker surface current will also impose less friction and drag on the EUC, so this deeper current will actually strengthen by 14 percent.

 
The high-resolution models developed by  Kristopher Karnauskas, also at WHOI, and Cohen, suggest the amount of upwelling will actually increase by about 50 percent around the Gilbert Islands, to reduce the rate of warming waters there by about 0.7°C (1.25°F) per century.
  
From the paper:

In the central Pacific, home to one of the largest marine protected areas and fishery regions in the global tropics, sea surface temperatures are projected to increase by 2.8 °C by the end of this century. Of critical concern is that marine protected areas may not provide refuge from the anticipated rate of large-scale warming, which could exceed the evolutionary capacity of coral and their symbionts to adapt. Combining high-resolution satellite measurements, an ensemble of global climate models and an eddy-resolving regional ocean circulation model, we show that warming and productivity decline around select Pacific islands will be mitigated by enhanced upwelling associated with a strengthening of the equatorial undercurrent. Enhanced topographic upwelling will act as a negative feedback, locally mitigating the surface warming. At the Gilbert Islands, the rate of warming will be reduced by 0.7±0.3 °C or 25 ± 9% per century, or an overall cooling effect comparable to the local anomaly for a typical El Niño, by the end of this century. As the equatorial undercurrent is dynamically constrained to the Equator, only a handful of coral reefs stand to benefit from this equatorial island effect. Nevertheless, those that do face a lower rate of warming, conferring a significant advantage over neighbouring reef systems. If realized, these predictions help to identify potential refuges for coral reef communities from anticipated climate changes of the twenty-first century.

  

A bathymetric view of the Phoenix Islands group of the Pacific islands nation of Kiribati. Credit: Phoenix Islands Protected Area.

    
As an interesting aside, in 2006 Kiribati created the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) to the east of the Gilbert Islands. In 2008 they doubled its size to make it the world's largest marine protected area. (Since then the Chagos Marine Reserve in the Indian Ocean has surpassed PIPA in size.)

At 410,500 square kilometers (158,453 square miles), about the size of California, PIPA preserves one of the Earth's last intact oceanic coral archipelago ecosystems, complete with eight coral atolls, two submerged reef systems, underwater sea mounts, and abundant marine and bird life.
 
This is a truly phenomenal accomplishment. 
  
But if the Gilbert Islands are destined to become one of the few places where coral reef biodiversity is able to hang on in the coming century, then maybe we should begin thinking about giving those waters stronger protections too.

 

An atoll of Kiribati. Via Flickr.

The paper:
   

• Kristopher B. Karnauskas & Anne L. Cohen. Equatorial refuge amid tropical warming. Nature Climate Change (2012) DOI:10.1038/nclimate1499

  

French Themed Bridal Shower

Well, seeing as though my sister-in-law's wedding was this past weekend, I figured it was about time for me to finally post these pictures from her french-themed bridal shower.  Her shower was many months ago, but with so much going on lately, I just never got around to sharing these with all of you.  We won't have the wedding pictures back for a couple weeks, so I'll fill you in on how the girls did as the flower girls and the whole wonderful experience once I have some pictures to share.  All I can tell you right now is that is was amazing and my sister-in-law, Abigail, was simply stunning. 

I know I talk about my mom a lot here on the blog, but my mother-in-law, Vicki, is quite the creative soul herself.  She makes art dolls and has a fabulously decked out studio in their home.  She also knows how to throw a really great party.  So she went all out when it came to her daughters bridal shower.  Abby and Bryan left yesterday to spend two weeks touring around France on their honeymoon, so the entire bridal shower was centered around their honeymoon destination.

Are you ready for a lot pictures? Here goes.......

Our family loves to eat, so the shower was definitely centered around delicious french-themed food prepared by my mother-in-law with some help from her sisters.

 Everyone went home with one of these amazing ornaments.  They were all a little different and they were wrapped up so pretty.

Lots of fresh flowers all around.

 How fun is this donut cake that my mother-in-law put together?  So cute!

There were so many yummy sweets to try, but my girls always love their berries, so they couldn't get enough of these delicious strawberries.

These were the different labels for the food at the shower.  I loved these fresh roses.  So pretty and romantic.

 Pretty party favors for everyone to take home.

This was a funny, joke sort of thing.  My mother-in-law and sister-in-law loved watching all the details from the royal wedding, so my mother-in-law put the bride and grooms heads on William and Kate's bodies.  It was pretty funny!!

The Bride

Finally we played some games.  We weren't going to do the 'Toilet Paper Bride' game, but my sister-in-law really wanted to do it, so we made sure to include this one.  My two little ladies just loved being brides as dress-up is their favorite activity.  I was in charge of a fun game where I asked the groom a bunch of questions prior to the shower and then we saw how well my sister-in-law knew him. 

Overall we had lots of laughs, delicious food and the coming together of two families.  The same went for the wedding this past weekend.  I can't wait to share the details of the day with you all......it was a truly spectacular downtown Chicago wedding.  

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  

Check back on tomorrow for our big May Giveaway Day!!

Swish Leaves Game With Tight Left Hammy

Nick Swisher left today's game with a tight left hamstring and will go for a precautionary MRI. Hopefully it's nothing too serious.

Garcia to the Pen, Phelps to the Rotation

From Bryan Hoch:

Freddy Garcia has been dispatched to the Yankees' bullpen, with rookie David Phelps first in line to take the veteran right-hander's place in the rotation.

Garcia was battered by the Tigers for six runs in 1 2/3 innings on Saturday in a 7-5 Yankees loss, the second straight start Garcia only recorded five outs, and the change did not come as a shock to the hurler.

"When you're pitching [poorly] out of the rotation, what do you expect?" Garcia said. "When you don't do your job, what are they supposed to do? That's what happened. They're honest. I didn't pitch the way I was supposed to pitch. It's reality."

...

"I'll be OK, man. I know," Garcia said. "I've been playing this game for a long time, and a lot of things happened to me before, and I always came off on the top. It's not going to be different. So, we'll see what happens."

With his 12.51 ERA this was a move the Yankees pretty much had to make.

Game 20: Yankees vs. Tigers

REGULAR SEASON GAME 20
YANKEES vs Tigers
First Pitch: 4:05 PM | TV: YES | Radio: WCBS
Here are the lineups:

YANKEES (11-8)
Derek Jeter DH
Nick Swisher RF
Robinson Cano 2B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Curtis Granderson CF
Andruw Jones LF
Russell Martin C
Eduardo Nunez SS

Starting Pitcher: RHP Freddy Garcia (0-1, 9.75 ERA, 1.92 WHIP)

TIGERS (10-10)
Austin Jackson CF
Brennan Boesch RF
Miguel Cabrera 3B
Prince Fielder 1B
Andy Dirks LF
Brad Eldred DH
Alex Avila C
Jhonny Peralta SS
Ramon Santiago 2B

Starting Pitcher: LHP Drew Smyly (0-0, 1.13 ERA, 1.38 WHIP)

Blossoming Landscape

As we drive through the valley this time of year, we never tire of the blossoming landscape.
Their presence is fleeting so you must try and commit as many scenes to memory before the landscape springs to green.

Have a wonderful weekend!