Quick Weeknight Dinner for 2 with Campbell's Skillet Sauces

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Back in November, I changed jobs and transitioned from working about 30-35 hours a week from my home to working 40+ hours a week at an office about 1 hour away from my home. That meant that between the added commute and extra work hours, I suddenly had about 20 less hours a week for household chores, cooking and (as you've probably noticed) blogging.

As you might imagine, this also means that dinner isn't always on the table promptly at 6... or 7... or even sometimes 8! I've definitely started to look for shortcuts and simpler meals for weeknights. So when I heard about the new Campbell's® Skillet Sauces for two that promised an easy #Dinnerin15, I was eager to try them out!

Before heading to my local Albertsons, I checked out the Campbell's Kitchen website and saw that they suggest serving the skillet creation over rice or pasta. So, when I got to Albertsons, that was the first aisle I looked in. Low and behold, there they were between the rice and pasta and near other pre-packaged sauces and gravies:

You can check out my whole shopping trip on Google+.
There are 6 flavors in all - Fire Roasted Tomato, Scampi, Thai Green Curry, Creamy Chipotle, Marsala and Toasted Sesame. I was in a pasta mood, so I went with the scampi skillet sauce pouch so I could do shrimp scampi over whole wheat spaghetti. According to the directions, all you need in addition to the sauce packet is 1 tbsp. of oil, 1 lb. of protein and 15 minutes prep/cooking time. Given my excitement over the possibility of having dinner on the table in about 1/3 the time it usual takes, I also grabbed a bottle of wine so I could turn it into date night!

The cooking process for the sauce and shrimp was as simple as the 3 easy steps that were promised. Heat oil, cook protein, add sauce. And all of that could easily be accomplished in 15 minutes. Since I had to boil water for pasta, though (and don't have an induction burner), it took an official total of 24 minutes. But that was still a HUGE time saver, cutting my usual dinner making time by about half and allowing me to set up a little dinner date for 2 at the table (instead of on the couch...):


Prepared exactly according to the package directions, the scampi looked creamy and wonderful:



And it was good, but also very rich. I thought it needed a little more balance, so I added some more parsley, fresh ground pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice for Shrimp Scampi a la Valley Writer:



My husband and I both agreed it was very good--and we would definitely have it again. The portions were ample, easily feeding 2 hungry adults whose main meal is dinner. (For smaller eaters, you could probably stretch this to 3 meals.) The only thing I would (will) do differently next time is to add some marinated artichoke hearts or other veggies for a more complete meal.

If you're interested in trying out Campbell's Skillet Sauces, pop over to their Facebook page and grab a $1 off coupon by the end of January. They also have coupons on display in-store through January, but all of them were gone when I went shopping - so plan ahead!

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a shopper insights study for Collective Bias® and Campbell's. All opinions expressed are my own. #cbias #Social Fabric 

Daily Pump Trap: 2/19/13 edition

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Good morning! Between February 14 and February 18, there were 23 new positions posted on the C&EN Jobs. Of these, 6 (26%) are academically connected and 1 (4%) is from a staffing agency.

Arden Hills, MN: Land O' Lakes desires a B.S. chemist (3+ years in food testing) to be an analytical laboratory testing supervisor.

Hoffman Estates, IL: Tate and Lyle (the makers of Splenda) are looking for a Ph.D. research scientist. Here's their description of the desired qualifications:

The successful candidate will have a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry, a strong desire to apply their expertise toward developing food ingredients that deliver health benefits and 3-5 years of industrial experience. 

A background in ingredient design for foods is desirable. Deep experience in biochemistry and medicinal chemistry is required.  Experience in any of the areas of ingredient design from the following list is desirable: enzyme modification of ingredients, physical processing of ingredients (spray drying, drum drying agglomeration, blending etc), natural products extraction, separations technology as applied to product design, fermentation to produce ingredients, or formulation of complex ingredient systems.

Does this person exist outside of Tate and Lyle and Cargill? I am curious.

Westbrook, ME: Sappi Fine Paper wishes to hire a carbohydrate chemist for a postdoctoral fellowship: "will involve technology development as it relates to polysaccharides (e.g. starch, cellulose) and proteins.  The project work will include the modification of these polysaccharide- based polymers for use in a range of potential product applications."

Byron, IL: Exelon desires chemical technicians for nuclear-related water testing. They wish to hire someone with the following preferred qualifications:

Preferred:
- Bachelor's Or Master's Degree in Chemistry or Chemical Engineering, or equivalent degree
- Two years professional work experience in chemistry
- Navy Nuclear experience as an Engineering Lab Technician (ELT)
- Demonstrates leadership capabilities by motivating and inspiring others to accept challenges and meet or exceed expectations, and consistently achieves results, while acting as a role model for exhibiting appropriate behaviors.

Their offered pay? $30-35/hour, no relocation. 5 openings. I feel like this is a low ball offer, but I dunno.

East Bay Area, CA: An unknown company wishes to hire a B.S. chemist with 5-7 years experience in product development for a position researching water filtration technology. Why they didn't spend their money to leaflet Nalco's sites in Chicago and Houston is beyond me. 

Process Wednesday: reglassing

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Credit: De Dietrich Process Systems

When you have glass-lined steel reactors, one of the things that the chemical engineers seem to worry a lot about is damage to the glass itself. One of the things that can put pinholes into the glass, for example, is static electricity discharge from non-polar solvents like hexanes. Corrosion with certain reagents (which they try desperately to prevent by barring them, wisely) is another source of damage. My favorite (because it's so simple, yet so costly) is dropped tools -- you drop a hammer or a wrench into a glass-lined reactor, you're gonna leave a dent.

As a relatively novice process chemist, I was unaware that glass-lined steel reactors (like old cars) can be sent for refurbishing. De Dietrich Process Systems' sales brochure about it is happy to tell me about the process:

Reglassing is the process by which older or damaged glasslined steel equipment is refurbished to like-new condition. All glass-lined reactors, tanks, columns, and accessories such as covers, agitators and baffles, can be reglassed if the steel substrate is in good or repairable condition.  

The process starts once a vessel has been inspected and approved as a candidate for reglass. Next, the old glass lining is removed by grit blasting. After any steel repairs and modifications are complete, DDPS proceeds with the glassing process. Here we fuse corrosion resistant 3009 glass onto the prepared steel in our computer controlled electric furnaces. Finally external protective coatings are applied via DDPS’ epoxy system. The end product is a high quality, glass-lined steel vessel or accessory. 

Reglassing is ideal for situations when time and cost are a primary issue. The turnaround time is within weeks versus months to fabricate a new vessel and there is nearly a 50% cost savings compared to buying a new vessel. ...All vessels reglassed by DDPS come with the same standard warranty as new vessels, ensuring you are receiving a vessel “as good as new.”

Now that we're going to get that reactor back, when I can start my boiling caustic soda process? (Kidding.)

Bonus Process Wednesday: small-scale agitation parameters

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If you're following Blog Syn #002 (Selective C-H Olefination of Pyridines, by J.Q. Yu et al.), it seems that that agitation is the key to the reaction. From Professor Yu's e-mail:

Put the reaction tube in the middle of hot plate to obtain a stable stirring (500 rpm is enough). Don't let the solid adhere to the tube wall. 

I wonder if, for heterogeneous reactions, there should be a standardization of the parameters for agitation, i.e. size/weight of stir bar, inner/outer diameter of reaction flask, type/size of stirplate, etc.

It'd probably save some people a little bit of grief. 

Against "networking" for networking's sake

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From Willliam Carroll, Jr., the former chair of the board of director of ACS, a very interesting comment on the power of networking in this week's C&EN. It riffs off a recent New York Times article where they reveal that some companies (Ernst and Young, Deloitte) rely on internal referrals for (respectively) 45% and 49% of their non-entry-level placements. This is where Dr. Carroll loses me:

In some ways, this process is disturbing. You may wonder, “Do I really need to know somebody to get a job? What happened to merit?” Although disturbing, it’s also understandable. Deloitte receives 400,000 résumés per year. If a résumé gets just seven seconds of attention, human prescreening of that many résumés would take more than 100 person-days per year. It’s simpler, cheaper, and more reliable to sort by keyword and get referrals. 

Diversity is an issue, however. Companies recognize that people tend to recommend people like themselves. That’s one reason why many limit the percentage of people hired via referrals and recruit entry-level personnel differently...

So why am I telling you another disturbing story about jobs? Because there’s a take-home lesson: A network is even more important than we thought it was.

I preach the network to groups of grad students and postdocs. I say to them, “Do you know everyone here? Turns out, most of you will have successful careers—some of you will be in C&EN. Here’s a chance to meet stars early, become colleagues, and later brag that you knew them when. Imagine how far you’ll go with each other’s network.”

Dr. Carroll then points out that networking is something he believes is a core function of the American Chemical Society, there are 163,000 members on the ACS Network*, that ACS local sections are a great place to get to know people and get involved and fdafguyfdsfereruirere -- sorry, I fell asleep.

In one sense, I think that Dr. Carroll is right. Networking is more important than ever, and it is very important that your network knows when you are looking for a new position and how best to help move you forward in your career goals. It is important to get to know influential people, work for them and to make a good impression on them. 
That said, shouldn't someone push back against all of this networking mumbo-jumbo? Aren't there legitimate questions of merit to be discussed about These Modern Times and our approach to hiring at all levels? I confess that I really dislike the phrase "It's not what you know, it's who you know", especially as applied to success in the job market. Does any of Dr. Carroll's comment go against that terrible phrase? 
Instead of another paean to "networking", I would like to see people of Dr. Carroll's stature indicate what technical skills and character traits that employers most like to see. We all know that some people have "it" -- what exactly are those traits, and how can we grow them in ourselves? Wouldn't that be a better thing to spend column inches talking about, rather than another suggestion that you "get to know people"? 
*Isn't it time that we declare the ACS Network a failed experiment? How many active users are there on the ACS Network? Does it even reach 1% of membership? In 2008, it was cool to establish new online social networks. It's not 2008 anymore. 

It's See Arr Oh week in the chemblogosphere!

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See Arr Oh and I did a fun podcast over the Pierre-Yan debacle; go over to Just Like Cooking to hear it. SAO did the editing this time, so you won't get any of my                pauses.

Also, an absolutely stunning kerfluffle happened in the comments on Derek Lowe's post on BlogSyn #003. I'll ignore the negative and accentuate the positive, including this wonderful line from "another process chemist" (emphasis mine):

As a process chemist, I'm amazed that this is controversial in the slightest. Our deliverable is the knowledge used to execute the chemistry, which could then be carried out by an operator anywhere in the world.

If I were the skin art sort (I am not), I might think about having this tattooed on me. Well said.

And congratulations once again to Blog Syn; you guys are on the right side of things. 

Daily Pump Trap: 2/21/13 edition

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Good morning! Between February 19 and February 20, there were 5 new positions posted on the C&EN Jobs website. Of these, 4 (80%) are academically connected. 
Hmmm: Of course, the one industrial position posted in the last two days is for a civil engineer. Of course.

Who are they looking for at 3M and Cambrex?: One in my continuing, irregular series of looks at companies on the Chemical Week 75 list, 3M seems to have 72 positions related to being a chemist; most of them, I suspect, are not really aimed at chemists per se. Cambrex seems to have 4 positions related to being a chemist.

A broader look: Monster, Careerbuilder, Indeed and USAjobs.gov show 201, 733, 2421 and 12 positions for the search term "chemist." LinkedIn shows 95 positions for the job title "chemist", with 7 for "research chemist", 22 for "analytical chemist" and 4 for "organic chemist."

Postdoctoral expansion: Here's an ad posted on LinkedIn (with the recruiter's contact information) for a synthetic chemist (emphasis mine):

I am seeking outgoing, driven individuals who would thrive in a collaborative environment.  My client is seeking a PhD synthetic organic chemist with 2-4 years of post-doc work in chemical synthesis.  This is a development position with Fortune 1000 company.... 

[snip] PhD Organic Chemistry with at least 2 years relevant experience in an academic or industrial environment.

I sincerely hope this was the recruiter's doing, and not the Fortune 1000 company; I can't imagine that they're looking for a 4 year postdoc, right?