11 posts tagged “food”
1. Melted chipotle cheddar cheese
2. St. Louis-style pizza sauce and provel cheese
(Will update throughout the week)
The week wasn't quite as bad as I thought it was going to be, just very, very busy, and replete with long days. I have friends now who work - with their real lives and spouses and kids who always snicker a little bit when I say a day is long. Who am I to complain, I'm sure they wonder, about a day that "starts" at 8AM and ends at 4PM, with an hour for lunch and a comparatively short commute. Except for that my day rarely ends at 4PM. For every hour we spend in class, they tell us, we should be spending two hours studying. It's an impossibility they fail to consider, when there are only 24 hours in a day, but we make it up on the weekends. Enough complaining - my life's not that hard, and there's not that much to it.
It really was a pretty good week. Brown cows on Wednesday night, and dinner on Thursday. I made chicken fingers, saffron rice, and broccoli, with pavlovas with fruit salad and ice cream for dessert. The pavlovas were very pretty, for something made on the fly. I had planned to make a really good mac and cheese, but it didn't really work out as planned, and I had it tonight for dinner instead.
Friday, I went to dinner with some classmates, and then out for pie. It was, as usual, a good time. I'm enjoying getting to know Susan and her husband better - they're always great fun and good for a laugh. And, I'm ever-appreciative of a good slice of lemon meringue pie.
Yesterday, I finally got to see Alyssa. I hadn't seen her since she left for Paris, so more than a year now. We had dinner at this nice little vegetarian restaurant in Evanston, a good choice on my part as she is vegan. I got a fairly decent quiche - as a rule, I like my eggs a little "drier" than this restaurant seemed to be serving them, but it wasn't bad at all. She got tofu fried rice and a vegan cappuccino brownie, which was alright, but I can't seem to wrap myself around the idea of vegan chocolate, no matter how hard I try. At any rate, the conversation was great, and it was so good to see her. She's one of the people from Mizzou that I really, really miss. I got a little bit of studying done once I got home, but it was overall a pretty chill night.
And today, of course, was almost nothing but studying. I've managed to get totally caught up in biochem, which wasn't such a tall order as much as it was time-consuming. And now it's onto neural transmission for neuroscience - a truly thrilling venture.
Yesterday, after my exam, I decided that I needed to get out of my apartment and off campus for a little bit. I wanted to go to services - I've only been once since I've been back, and I've really missed that part of my week. But, it was forecasted to snow again and I detest driving on 41 on anything less than optimal conditions.
Bill and I decided to go grocery shopping. I needed mushrooms for my pasta, and more breakfast cereal, and he needed food. The boy has been eating, quite literally, gruel, because he ran out of food on Wednesday and we haven't had any time to do anything but study. In fact, we still don't, with four more exams this week, but we have to eat, too. So, I went to dig out my car.
We have just had a ridiculous amount of snow this week. On Tuesday night, it was doing this really gross slushy, sleety thing, which naturally froze, and then was immediately covered by the massive amount of snow we received on Wednesday. So, upon digging out my car (which had also been plowed in, and drifted in the front), I removed almost all of the snow, but that ice layer was impenetrable. We ended up taking his car.
I hate grocery shopping by myself - it's one of those things that, in my world, requires other people. I cook some really just bizarre things sometimes, and it's useful to have someone else around to say, "No, Melissa. You are the only person in the world that would ever think that was good." If I can't get anyone else to go with me, or if I go alone while on my way home from somewhere else, I'm on my phone (if it's late enough). So, we went, and it was quite the event - really, lots of fun. And after that, I studied for a few hours and went to watch "Pride and Prejudice" with Britt and Chloe, and slept in this morning!
I now have everything I need so that I don't have to leave campus, even if I want to. I might try to wander to a Caribou later in the day, if I can garner the energy to finish breaking up the ice under my car. Or I might just stay here. It's supposed to get very cold again tonight - I can't wait until spring!
What's your favorite thing to drink when it's cold outside?
My perennial favorite is Bailey's and cocoa, but I was introduced this weekend to something that might overtake it - hot apple cider with Goldschlager. Indeed.
When I wake up in the morning, I will be a medical student.
Shiiiiiiit.
I see my first standardized patient on Wednesday.
Things have been pretty good. Orientation was full of warnings not to sleep with your professors. Seriously, we had the talk in three different sessions. They're all 65-year old men. You don't have to tell me twice.
I have already met some great people and made some amazing friends, whom I have been out with several times now. On Friday, I had a group of them over for dinner, when I made:
- Pan-seared chile lime orange roughy
- Saffron rice
- Steamed summer vegetables
- Peach sangria
- Homemade watermelon popsicles.
Anyway, just a quick update. I have to get some sleep.
I have my first official problem with WeightWatchers, which I enrolled in today (and went to my first meeting).
I am making my own little cookbook just to have some different recipes on-hand, and as I was searching the entries for "oils", I stumbled across something truly disturbing:
Opossum, cooked, 1 oz. has a WeightWatchers point value of 2. That's right. Opossum.
It should be duly noted that the only place I have ever seen opossums were dead in the middle of (or on the side of) the road. As such, I would like to know: WHO IS EATING THE ROADKILL?
It's apparently not a horrible food for you. It must be relatively low in fat and calories. However, it's still gross. So, if there is someone who reads this blog who regularly eats opossum, I must appeal to you - please stop.
Upcoming Events
- Today: Finishing thesis, creating a PowerPoint presentation, delivering said presentation. Celebrating Kelly's birthday/end of thesis writing at Flat Branch. Sleeping for eight whole hours for the first time in awhile.
- Wednesday: Meeting with Kay about babysitting her 18-month old granddaughter (YAAY!). Driving back to St. Louis to see Billy Joel (YAAAAAY!).
- Thursday: nothing of consequence.
- Friday: Med Chem exam. Probably Hillel if I'm feeling spiritually centered, or else, a nap. Grocery shopping, cupcake baking.
- Saturday: Cupcake baking. Room cleaning. Rolla potluck/party!
- Sunday: Drive back to Columbia to teach. Study for a few hours. Pack and drive to St. Louis.
- Monday: Interview at SLU. Drive back to Columbia so as no to miss another thrilling medical ethics lecture.
- Take a med chem test
- Read the 9/11 Commission Report and take a quiz on it
- Write a 10-page analytical essay on Brave New World for Rural Sociology
- Write a 5-page paper on a drug in the Physician's Desk Reference for Med Chem
- Write about 14 pages worth of journals for Medical Ethics
- Take finals in med chem, med ethics, and history
So today makes the half-way point for Passover, a holiday that I have a real love-hate relationship with. Yes, the story of the Exodus is beautiful. Yes, I probably love matzah ball soup and gefilte fish with sucha a love that most other Jews would find it unhealthy. And yes, I hate the fact that I can leave my box of breakfast food open on the kitchen table for four days (...and counting), and it tastes no different.
My objection to Passover is that it lets us forget for the rest of the year the love that we should have for G-d, who freed us as slaves from Egypt. The concentration of this message into eight days allows us to ignore for the other 357 days our obligation to free others from oppression and strife, both before our eyes and half a world away. This isn't to say that a Mazon food drive doesn't do anyone any good. But ask a Jew about Darfur, about Sierra Leone, about the poverty that starves disadvantaged children in their cities and cripples them for any hope of social mobility, and you'll get a blank stare, perhaps a passing of the buck.
So, my challenge to us all, but especially Jews, is to take this week and use it as a springboard for social justice. Let's stop slavery in our towns, our cities, our country, our world. Call your Congressman, organize a rally, collect money for relief, DO SOMETHING.
So it's been kind of a bad day except for the last hour or so. Actually, it's been a pretty crappy last week or so. And one of the things I like to do when I'm not having the best day is accumulate a list of tangible things that I'm in love with. So here it goes:
1. Prototypes. I'm in love with this band. The sound is best described as French poprocktronica, and it's hot. It's sassy, fun, and I can't understand a thing that they're saying. I also can't find the lyrics anywhere, and I don't speak a sliver of French. I can count to six. Which, believe it or not, actually comes in handy when listening to them.
2. Long underwear. We got 16 inches of snow on Friday morning (see the pictures), and yesterday, I left for the first time since Thursday afternoon to gather supplies. Needless to say, my car is still blocked in and I had to walk to class today. So, I am ever-so-thankful that I have a massive supply of toasty-warm long underwear.
3. That ache that you get when you get a really fantastic workout. I live in an apartment complex. We haven't had any real snow, nothing more than four inches, since I've lived here. I don't own a shovel. I don't have a bag of salt. So, in an attempt to dig my car out (which failed horribly), I used my mop bucket. My hamstrings are so, so sore... but I love the burn!
4.Barack Obama. I'm reading his first book right now. I love him, but I don't want him to waste himself on an ill-advised presidential run. He's such an inspiring leader, though. And dreamy. And a political rockstar. I'm in love.
5. Portabello mushroom sandwiches. This might be because it was my first post-storm fresh meal. Two pieces of toast, some provolone cheese, portabellow mushroom slices (lightly sauteed), and tomato sauce. Throw it in the oven and bake it to melt the cheese. Spectacular.
6. Star Trek: The Original Series. Full of campy goodness, diversity, and really far ahead of its time. They've been showing it at 10PM CST on TVLand, and I've adjusted my viewing schedule because of it. I can catch The Daily Show and Colbert Report at midnight. Admittedly, this feels slightly slanderous.
7. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Probably the most underrated show on television right now, because it's really smart and probably flies over the head of the average viewer. Smart, funny, sexy, and full of the high-quality dialogue you'd expect from a Sorkin show. He's making me fall in love with fictional characters all over again.
8. My new used down comforter. It belonged to my parents. They bought it after they first got married. It's been buried in their cedar chest for years. I took it back to Columbia, fluffed it up, good as new and fabulously warm. And because it's for a bed that's about twice the size of mine, I can wrap my whole self in it. What better to have during a blizzard? What's that? Nothing, you say? Right.
Perhaps more to come later?
