Super sorta sushi supper

Delicious weekend. Perfect for lent. Anyone looking for a little sea food inspiration?

 

These babies are delicious. However, I must say, they are a tad bit messy to eat. I would suggest deconstructing them into a salad. For practical purposes. However, when I'm looking for something wild and crazy on a Friday night, I'll risk the messy hands and roll me up some riceless sorta-sushi rolls.

 

Start with a toasted nori roll. Head to a chinese grocer for some super fantastic deals. Also, if you are out of chintzy chinese paper decorations, you can stock up! Pile in some mixed greens. I opt for spring greens, spinich, or arrruuuugula.

    

TJ's sells a frozen pepper medly. I speed defrost them.... aka toss them in the skillet with some tamari till they are warm and your kitchen smells nice and salty. Then I take grated carrots and warm them in the microwave with tamari and wasabi powder. You could use them raw, but in the wrap I think they work a bit better slightly tenderized. Top with some shrimpies, for the protein, and the cholesterol.  

Yum yum yum.

Roll em up. I usually dip them in my standby: rice vin, toasted sesame oil, tamari and mirin. slurp slurp delish.

Relax this weekend. My Rx: sleep, sushi-ish rolls and sun salutations :) btw. Mt Dew is not part of my weekend recommendations, but sometimes a girls gotta do what a girls gotta dew.

FAT 10 on Tuesday

Alrighty, as I veg out and watch millionaire matchmaker, I'll humor you with my 10 on tuesday ramblings. However, this is a food blog.... so I will also share with you the most fantastic creation my genius mind has ever spurted out. Not that I'm full of myself or anything.  Fat Tuesday calls for a Fatty fat recipe.

Holy Land Peanut Butter Honey Surprise (is almost lent you know, make sure you don't give up PB, you'll regret it!...also not really a surprise as the only ingredients are in the name...whatev)


PROCEDURE:
1. Buy all natural (peanuts only) PB- no, not skippy.
2. Dump out the nasty oil on the top (those sewer rats need their healthy fats too, you however probably get enough without this extra grease layer)
3. Squeeze Squeeze Squeeze honey into the jar.
4. Stir like a woman with much stronger biceps than you were actually born with, aka vigorously
5. Lick the spoon
6. Refrigerate
7. Enjoy your sweet delicious spread on whatever is calling PB-Honey's name.

This is healthy folks! You'll probably use the same amount of PB you normally do, but the addition of honey makes it extra freakin fantastic, AND get this...lower in calories. I mean, relatively. We aren't talking fake diet cardboard semi-consumable food here. This is real food/ Real honest to goodness delight for our tastebuds,  made slightly less gluttonous, every bit helps.

Fat Tuesday, live it up. And by live it up, I mean, eat a cupcake.



1. If you could open any type of store/place of business (money is no obstacle), what would you open?
Probably and antique store. I would work in the trinkets department.


2. If all jobs paid equally, what occupation would you want? Why?
I guess at this point, I better still say doctor. I haven't tried it yet, and I've spent a lot of time trying to get there. I'll give it a try before I switch to and archeologist who teaches trumpet and piano lessons to Egyptian children on the side.

 
3. If you could be any animal in the world, what would you pick? Why?
This is very hard! Forever-a housecat. For a day, an brontosaurs. Yes this would involve time travel, but the question already borders on the impossible, so I think it's ok.

4. If offered one “service” free of charge, which would you choose? (chauffeur, maid, personal shopper, chef, etc.)
I would have a cleaning lady. Yes, I would want a lady. Yes, I realize this might not be the most expected answer from my flaming liberal butt. I don't think generations of grandmother's elbow grease genes are possessed in adequate quantities in males. Probably something on the X chromosome, or genetic skewing or something. The chaos in my life is clearly demonstrated by the messiness of my apartment. I hate this. I am so much calmer when the space is de-cluttered and the floors are sparkly. If this could happen for me during times of stress I think I would generally be a better person to be around. Oh cleaning lady, come to me with your bucket of lysol and your old toothbrush ready for scrubbing grout!

5. What is one habit, no matter how hard you try, you just can’t seem to break?
Freaking out. I don't handle stress that well. Maybe externally I'm calm, but inside my stomach is doing backflips with a net full of butterflies.

6. What is one thing that no matter how many you own, you still love to buy all the time?
hmmm. Orignially I would say candles, but clearly when they burn out you don't own them anymore. So that's a reasonable purchase. I would say songs. I love buying songs. One dollar at a time, that's nothin. Clearly I never took an accounting class.

7. Out of all the game shows (past and present), which would you want to be a participant on and play?
hmm. I actually really hate game shoes. I'd try out for the bachelorette, because, I don't know. This is also a totally irrational answer.

8. If you could play the lead role in any movie that’s already been made, which movie would you pick?
I'd love to be Kat on 10 things I hate about you, because Heath Ledger is dreamy. I'd also like to be Judy Garland, pretty much role when she was young and warbley.


9. Name 5 things on your bucket list (things you want to do before you die).
-Go to egypt
-Have a family
-Be content
-Wine and cheese tasting across Italy
-See a whale in the ocean

10. Which one of your birthdays was the best? What did you do that day?
Not gonna lie, my birthday stinks just a little. It tends to get absorbed by the glory that is Christmas. In any case, 2 years ago, my best friends Jen and Jess came over to my apt. We baked Christmas cookies, fudge and spiced nuts. We then hit up Dixies for some salsa (dancing, not dipping. although sometimes there's dipping in dancing!)  It was a lovely night with my favorite ladies!

Le Love

Happy Valentines day loved ones! Obviously, I'm blogging at 9:20 on Vday while watching keeping up with the kardashians...aka flying solo. I did however, prepare a fantabulous recipe for your tasting pleasure. Straight out of Italy. Well, gluten free Italy. Or, my Italian inspired rendition of gluten free Italy. Whatever. Trust me you will love it. And your hips will love it too, and they don't lie.


Task One: 45 min of roasting a split and de-seeded spaghetti squash cut side down at 350.

Really, just cook it till its done. I like to leave mine a titch crunchy. I know i'll be microwaving the leftovers, so a bit al dente works perfectly. Do not try to throw spaghetti squash strands at the wall to test for done-ness. Instead, act like a civilized person and dig the fork in. If it peels back easily, you are close. Then taste for your preference. And by all means, keep that pinky (pinkie?) up, this is valentines day!

Once you feel the squash is on it's home stretch, start your sauce. I sauteed chopped onions and garlic first. Then I sprinkled dried thyme, basil and a smidge of tarrgon to the mix. Followed with generous glugs of tomato sauce, and top with handfuls of spinach and balsamic. I swear, I sweat balsamic vinager. It works on EVERYTHING. Well maybe not cereal, yet...

Next up, plating. Make sure you do a fantastic job. You know, to impress yourself! It ok Self, you've already won me over. Anyways. Pile in some spaghetti (squash) strands, top with your semi homemade sauce and garnish with the love of my life. KRAFT Parmesan cheese. Holy yum. This take on spagetti is seriously fantastic. I really just want the sauce and cheese anyways. You won't miss the pasta, I promise. The squash makes the flavor of the sauce absolutely pop. So make sure you spend your time there. I might try to add red wine next time. I have plenty of leftovers to experiment with. Don't worry mom, the canister of cheese definitely accompanied me to my table and was applied much more liberally at many pauses throughout the meal. This picture was totally staged to make me "seem" like a normal human.

Happy Valentines day loves. When all else fails. Put on lipstick, drink red wine, and just BE fabulous:)

10 on tuesday

1. Fill in the blank. Sometimes I wish my life was more ______.
certain. Match day is giving me a stress ulcer. Note: A real medical stress ulcer is a big deal. It happens when to patients in the ICU on ventilators or in some sort of organ failure. Stress ulcers are not, contrary to what we may colloquially say:  "oh my gosh, I'm so stressed I gave myself an ulcer"  Did you know that?

2. How do you cure the hiccups?
I always hiccup once after I take my first sip of pop from a straw. It's the carbonation burst I think. In general, hiccups don't need to be "cured". Just let your diaphragm settle down. Or take out a knife and aim for either the phrenic or vagal nerve to stop the reflex arc, your choice.

3. What are three of your favorite indulgences?
-ice cream
-candles
-cheap tops from forever 21
-***letting my mom do my laundry while I heal my stress ulcer of the semester :)

4. Where is the most exotic place you would like to travel to? The most mundane?
- Most exotic - Egypt. I NEED to see the pyramids. If all goes as planned I'm shipping out shortly to ecuador and peru. Galapagos + Machu Piccu here I come :)
- Most mundane -Inver Grove Heights, laundry, HBO and little brother time fills the soul :)

5. Does having your time planned out stress you or relax you?
I'm very unpredictable when it comes to planning my time. Meaning, sometimes I insit on having every second planned and freak out if I don't know exactly what time something is starting etc. But, sometimes, my alternate personality takes over and I become and angry monster when you try to pin me down. Like, jesus martha, I'll get to it when I do, sometime...I'm busy sitting on my butt now, leave me alone! This is not rational behavior. I recognize this. However, I'm not yet ready to change it :)

6. What are your favourite fabrics to wear?
The touch, the feel of cotton...dobedobedo, the fabric of our lives!

7. Do you sleep through the night?
Well I do sometimes. Unless A) I drank too much crystal light, B) I have a nightmare. Medical school gives me crazy wonky nightmares. Like, during anatomy I had a reoccurring dream that a spleen with a gigantic curly splenic artery was in my bed. I kept rolling to the other side and it would follow me, with all its bloody splenic nastiness. ahhhh

 

That was it, but it went on forever!!! Or this week, I dreamed I was at the gym in some hotel and the treadmill was broken. I turned around to get off and the room turned into a trauma bay with about 15 babies on the floor with bleeding head wounds. It was horrible. I need a vacation.  I'm in endocrinology now. Let's just pray I don't start dreaming about hypogonadism. You can google pictures of that on your own time.

8. When you were younger, what did you think you would be doing at this age? How close is that to what you are doing?
I thought I'd be a an archeologist. You could get mightily philosophical and say that medicine is discovering each patients history of disease and uncovering their hidden and buried facts. But really, not so much.  I envisioned myself in the desert digging up the next King Tut. I'm not even close to that. Although I do have a cat, and dig sandy treasures out of his box on a regular basis. I also, like many 8 year olds, thought for sure I'd be married with babies by now. Oh well.



9. What has surprised you most about growing up?
I couldn't agree with Lisa more. I don't feel grown up. I guess I'm surprised by how little I know about life sometimes. I can tell you exactly how antipsychotics affect your pituitary. However, my headlight is out, and I'm really not sure how one goes about fixing that. Better call my dad...

10. Are you good at keeping secrets?
Um. In a professional sense I keep confidentiality extremely well. On a personal level I am pretty good, unless I need to tell a secret, then I use my judgment. People tell me all kinds of things, and I don't tend to share what I'm told. But I can't think of many times when people actually ask me to keep secrets. Thankfully that's been on a steady decline since junior high.

A moment to...

Wow! I have been totally MIA. I have an excuse though. I took another set of boards and went on..wait let me count...6 interviews since my last post. Then I started in the emergency room. Which. meh. no comment. I only have 3 shifts left though. woot woot. unfortch they are night time shifts, but oh well. That...may...decrease the number of primary care visits you see in the ED, so it might actually be a bit slower. I'll keep you posted! I figured I'd give my brain a rest by filling out Lisa and Abby's January recap. 

Current Books:
-I should be reading my emergency medicine packet. I, however, am not. senioritis? I am almost done with The Shack. It has interesting concepts, but very poorly written... enough on that.

Current Music:
-Well, I have been trying to increase my mileage on the "dreadmill", so I'm currently trying to find fantastic running songs. I'm currently LOVING empire state of mind.

Current Shame-Inducing Guilty Pleasure:
-Way to many hot fudge sundaes this month...oops. And goat cheese...but a girl has got to get some calcium, so its not all bad.

Current Colors:
-Colors huh. Well I'm wearing a lot of brown when I venture into the read world. Otherwise I wear pretty periwinkle blue scrubs daily, usually with pink socks. Do you think patients take you less seriously with pink socks on? never thought about that.

Current obsessions:
Truthfully I'm obsessed with graduating and matching. Lightheartedly I'm obsessed with sushi inspired salads. Mixed greens, edamame, tomatoes, mushrooms, cucs, green pepper and toasted nori. Wasabi, rice vin, tamari, sesame oil and mirin for the dressing. slurp, delish. See-free recipe-still a food blog.


Current Drink:
I second Abby's love for citrus. Ice water with lemon-yumyumyum. I have not bought wine in along time but recently tried a cheapo sangoviese from TJs and its delish. Oh, and I've been guzzling la croix sparkling water too, must be all those salty salads :)

Current Song:
Well-repeat: Empire state of mind.

Current Movie:
I just watched 500 days of summer...ridiculously good.

Current TV Shows:
The crazy real housewives as always. I've also been watching the bachelor. I got hooked by this guy...



Because, seriously, he looks like Jon. Then I couldn't help but watch Gillian because she was just so spunky.

 

And everyone knows she made a huge mistake by sending Jake home. So you see, now they've got me in their web.













 Ahhh. The wings of love.

Current Needs:I need match day to be over. I need to know whats going to happen for the next 4-5  years of my life. AHHH. torture.

Current Triumph:
Hmm. Currently all my clean clothes are actually in drawers. Yes mom, it's true. Unless of course you open my closet...yikes.

Current Bane of my ExistenceParking. No med student love at the university. They make us park across the river, then do night shifts in the emergency room. smart. I will not walk 2 miles to my car at 1 am. Especially since apparently now you will get shot outside the hospital...

Current Goal:
Well I'd like to graduate. I'd also like to run a half marathon before I start residency.

Current Indulgence:
Well besides ice cream sundaes that would make any diabetic shiver his timbers...I just bought 5 fancy cheese's and a bottle of red wine at trader joes. WILD weekend! In fact, the Emergency room doc I was with yesterday actually said to me, and I quote... " so do you and your cat, have like, a big date night planned?" nice...

Current Blessing:
Honestly, not having to make up all my shifts in the emergency room. I missed 3 for interviews. We are allowed 2 sick/personal days a rotation. I'm actually USING them. I have not, EVER, taken a day off before. It's time. good gravy.

Current Slang or Saying:
Interesitng. I did type unfortch earlier. I guess I've started shortening words. I was with a 60 something year old neurologist who kept saying, "wow, that's terrif!" Maybe it rubbed off:)

Current Outfit:
Really... Ok you asked for it. The first day in oh, 12 I haven't worn scrubs. I really stepped it up. Red thermal shirt and grey cotton shorts. I look terrif.

Current Excitement
I'm trying to figure out how to get my MN butt to Ecuador. It's exciting. Let's see if it happens. Otherwise, I'm really excited Big Love is back on. Sigh. I have no life.

Current Mood:
I'm in a pretty good mood. I am sitting on my butt in my apt, with DAYS OFF ahead of me. I have not had a day in the last 11, feels nice.

2010

 

Belated Christmas

Better Get my Tuesday post in before I'm an entire week late! Christmas was fantastically relaxing, and I'm stuffed to the brim with gluten free cookies and Reuben dip thanks to my glorious mother.  Heading out for another interview tomorrow (when will these end?), and spent the night vegging and catching up on Glee. Love it.



1. When do you put up and take down your Christmas decorations?
I try to put them up after thanksgiving, but I usually wait til at least December. It takes me a while, because I must do a thorough cleaning before I decorate. Dust and tacky xmas junk is not a good combo for my psyche. I usually leave them up till after new years, but not till epiphany. I'm ready to declutter. I have on occasion left ONLY the snowflakes up until February though!

2. What do you do to simplify the holiday season?
Well lets see. This year I took boards right before Christmas, so I simplified by almost totally ignoring it. I bought presents for the little ones, and my mom...and that's it. sorry everyone!

3. What do you do to remind yourself and your family what the Christmas season is all about?
I think making it a priority to just spend the day with those you love is the best way to remember to always keep love in your heart.

4. How do you spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day?
Christmas Eve is spent with my dad's sisters and assorted cousins. Christmas day is reserved for sitting around in my pjs and playing trivia with my family! And of course, a smorgasbord of appetizers is provided. yum.


5. What is your favorite Christmas tradition?
I love how my mom wraps toiletries up for us in our stockings. We actually don't stick to many steadfast traditions. I do love the pickle rolls on Christmas eve. those are mandatory :)

6. Did you do the whole Santa thing growing up? What do you like/not like about continuing the tradition?
We had Santa, but nothing overly elaborate. One year my Dad rang jingle bells outside. Most memorably, we would go downtown and see Santa, shop and eat fast food by a gigantic fountain. One year, nick absolutely freaked out and bolted off Santa's lap into the towel section of Daytons. HAHA. I had Santa all to myself :)


7. What is your favorite Christmas cookie?
Hands down, my grandma's lemon sugar cookies. I would just lay on the couch with a tin of those babies! yum. no GF substitute however, tear. But I do love my mom's buckeyes, and this year we got wonderful gingerbread cookies from Bittersweet Bakery.

8. How do you take your egg nog?
I've never "taken" it. However, one year at midnight mass a sorry parishioner imbibed a bit too zealously on the creamy stuff and lost his nog in the pew, aisle and potted plant during silent night. Sick. Lost my desire to partake in that sticky sweet vomity traditional beverage. 

9. What is your favorite Christmas carol and why?
Hmmm. Hard one. Probably Do you hear what I hear, I can sing a mean harmony to that one.

10. When was the last time you had a white Christmas?
Well this Christmas was about 16 inches of whiteness! In MN this is usually not a problem.