Poindextrous

An unexciting evening was in order after I, while tricked out in the dorkiest of dork gear in order to handle estradiol powder, nevertheless very nearly gave myself a healthy dose of Exposure To Potentially Carcinogenic And Certainly Endocrinologically Disruptive Substance* because I, ladies and gentlemen, am a butterfingers who shouldn't be allowed near a vortexer.

Solution? Inspired by this guy, I made Asian tacos: sriracha sour cream sauce, gingery lentils with a touch of sesame oil, and a long-marinated Asian red cabbage slaw with red onion, carrot, raw beet greens, Thai chilis, and a healthy dose of cilantro, all on a soft corn tortilla.

Now that, plus some quizbowl question writing, calms the nerves.

Asian cabbage slaw
1/2 red cabbage, thinly sliced and then roughly chopped
1/2 large red onion, chopped
1/2 to 1 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
2 carrots, grated (or chopped, what the heck!)
juice of two limes
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp ketchup (stop judging)
Minced Thai green chilies to taste
2 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup oil (if you're not putting this on top of lentils that have been flavored with sesame oil, you could include a little sesame oil in here; all sesame would be too strong, I think. You could also include minced fresh ginger if you're not putting it on top of lentils that have also been flavored with ginger!)

Mix everything together. Let it sit in the fridge for at least an hour. Eat. Relish.

*I'm pretty sure the medical student I'm working with thinks I'm being unreasonably paranoid about possible estradiol exposure. But when a substance peaks in your blood at 180 to 200 pg/mL, you can't be too paranoid about handling several milligrams of it at a time. Right? Because I'm also pretty sure that while one exposure wouldn't really increase someone's risk of cancer, it could screw with someone's menstrual cycle or cause her to retain water like a camel or cause gynecomastia in a hypothetical male scientist. I'll take paranoia for $500, Alex.