Chemistry + Cooking = Fun!

       Hi my name is Alexandra Gaev and I am majoring in Mathematics. I enjoy baking and cooking because it is a lot of fun and a hands on activity. In my free time I might bake cookies, brownies, banana bread or challah. I also love helping my mom make lasagna because I get to layer the noodles and put tomato sauce and cheese in between each layer. It is also a nice mother daughter activity. I will even volunteer to make my brother a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch if I am bored. Although, on a more serious note, I enjoy baking because it relaxes me. It allows my head to wonder and relax. Baking and cooking is a fun activity my friends and I would do on the weekends when we hangout. I like baking and cooking because I enjoy making different creations. For me it is fun to knead the challah dough, braid the dough, measure the ingredients, mix the ingredients together, and see the final product. I love seeing the end creation because it is a work of art and I get to taste it. I feel like an artist.

      This course is exciting for me because it combines science and cooking which I enjoy. I took chemistry in high school and liked doing word problems and computational problems. I had some difficulty with conceptual questions but I think that now that I am older and have taken more science classes, I will be okay with the material. I feel confident.

       In this course I hope to become a better cook and to understand the chemistry behind cooking. I also want to learn what is happening on a molecular level when you heat, freeze, or boil food.