A love-post to the avocado

I am devoting this post to a delicious fruit, the avocado. Yes, the avocado is a fruit (technically, a huge berry). Though the avocado has been one of my favorite foods for a long time, it hadn't occurred to me to actually eat it on a relatively frequent basis. But after a brilliant recommendation from a friend, I now buy a few avocados whenever they're on sale. They are delicious, healthy, and fairly easy to eat. Here is a badly-researched bit about this food that I might end up using for my next science/tech article in the paper:

Avocados originate from Mexico. Archeological evidence shows that humans have been consuming them for about 12,000 years! The Aztecs referred to it as the “fertility fruit” (no idea why), and in some Spanish-speaking countries it is called “manzana del invierno,” or “winter apple.”

It is hypothesized that avocados developed through coevolution with now-extinct large mammals (this is referred to as an evolutionary anachronism). Some plants disperse their seeds through endozoochory—basically, animals that eat their fruits then spread the seeds in their feces. Fruits such as avocados or mangos don’t seem to fit this rule—unless you think of a gigantic sloth or humongous elephant, both of which could pass a large seed without a problem. Call me immature, but I find this evolutionary anachronism funny.

The average avocado has:

• 240 calories, about 75% of which are from fat
  
• Sixty-percent more potassium than the average banana
  
• 3g of protein
  
• 1 g of sugar
  
• 13g cholesterol
  
• Vitamins A and C
  
• Folate
  
• Magnesium
  
• Monounsaturated fat
  

(Unfortunately, I don’t have numbers on all of these—I’m just banking on the truth value of the Wikipedia entry :-) )

Avocados have been shown to decrease blood serum cholesterol, LDL, and triglyceride levels, and increase HDL levels. They may also promote skin and hair health (but I wasn’t able to find scientific evidence for this). Some people even use it as a facial mask, which I don’t understand—just eat it! Fresh fruits are way too expensive to waste by smearing on the skin, unless you eat them afterwards (which somehow seems extremely unappealing). It is also sometimes used as a houseplant (!!!).

Hass avocados are the most commonly grown and consumed avocados in the United States (90% of the avocados grown in Southern California, the sort-of avocado capital, are of the Hass variety). They were named for and patented by the man who owned the very first official tree, Rudolph Hass. There are several over varieties, including Gwen, Pinkerton, Reed, Bacon, and others that I won’t go into because the Hass avocado is the only one I know and like.

I hope this was informative...if not, at least spend ~30 seconds looking at pictures of the Gomphothere--I mean, come on, his name is just fun to say!

(Barely reputable) Sources:
Wikipedia
SuperFoodsRX

Slow Cooker Experiment #2: Weird Chicken

For my second experiment with Gretel, I decided to check out a recipe I'd seen online for pineapple chicken. However, I didn't have half the ingredients (and they didn't look so good anyway) so I found other recipes online, looked around at what I had in my room, and ended up throwing the following into the slow cooker:

• Chicken (the precooked kind, from the foil-ey packages)
  
• Pineapple (canned)
  
• Mandarin oranges (canned)
  
• Green bell pepper
  
• Celery
  
• Lemon juice
  
• Agave
  
• Spicy mustard
  
• Onion
  
• Black pepper
  

I have no idea what any of these amounts would be; I just completely eyeballed the whole thing. I also poured in a bit of the juice from the canned fruit. (FYI, the picture is from an experiment a few weeks ago, because I couldn't find a picture that matched the recipe...isn't the gel lovely?)

These all hung out in Gretel for about half an hour on high, until it was time for my ~5 hour lab. I had a nice-ish dinner to go to with some classmates and a teacher about an hour after lab, so my plan was to finish the Southern blot as fast as possible then eat and go to dinner.

There was a twenty-minute break in the lab around two hours before the dinner, so I ran over to my room to turn on Gretel. Oops...instead of turning her off before, I'd set her to low! I mean, everything was fine, just very soggy. At least it wasn't the toaster oven or rice cooker. I self-consciously turned off Gretel, then ran over to lab. When I got back (fyi, the Southern blot worked! Yay!), I poured it on some rice and tried it.

Wow, really, REALLY delicious! The flavors blended together WONDERFULLY. I scarfed it down and had a lovely time at the Honors Institute dinner.

Lessons learned:

• Always double-check cooking appliances before leaving the dorm.
  
• Mustard is a simple, delicious way to add flavor, even to a meal that isn't eaten with the hands.
  
• If the plan is to make a dish entitled “________ Chicken” that is not a soup, one package of pre-cooked chicken is not enough to make a decent amount of food.
  
• Do NOT leave a dish like this on for most of the day, since the chicken will be overcooked (though still very eatable).
  

Conclusion: I am DEFINITELY making this again. I will have to figure out how to do the chicken next time (cooked? raw? whole? breasts?). I'll find an actual name for this recipe that isn't something inane like “Pineapple Chicken.”

Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SOFI!!!!! I LOOOOOVE YOU!!!!!! HAVE FUN DRIVING AFTER MIDNIGHT!!!!