2 Awesome Things

A couple things happened today that totes made my day.

1. I ran into MM on my way to work.

It's tough both being residents and sometimes having completely opposite schedules. BUT, when we're lucky, and those shifts happen to be opposite on a weekend, because I get to go into work an hour later, MM and I will run into each other by the elevator in our building, and we have a quick hug/kiss/howareyou in the hall.

Michelle Au talked about this public rendez-vous between her and her husband doc in her book This Won't Hurt A Bit.

Fun read. Buy it here.

Who would have thought an extra five minutes could be so crucial??

2. An attending doctor got distracted by my ring.

I was casually talking to a consultant today, and mid-sentence, he points to my left hand and exclaims, "Whoa-ho!! Look at THAT!" I blush and thank him, adding that my wonderful fiance picked it out himself.

Attending: Well it's beautiful!
Me: Thank you!
Senior resident: Yes, and her fiance is a resident too.
Attending: Well does he rob banks on the side??
Me: Not that I'm aware!

So good job, MM! This baby is getting attention from everybody!!

Yay! What little things make your day?

Venue Hunt: Thank Goodness for Google Maps

Because MM and I didn't have a strong preference for a particular day for our wedding, we figured we would start by finding a venue we liked, and scheduling the wedding around that.

Not being very familiar with wedding venues around Chicago, I've turned to the Interwebz to help start my search. From a variety of sites (I'll go into this later), I've managed to put together a decent sized list of places to choose from. But we can't very well drive around to all 10+ places, can we?? I was looking for a way to narrow down our list in attempt to save time, gas money, and consequently, our sanity.

Enter Google Maps.

That little orange man is a God send.

I typed in the name and location of one of my prospective venues into maps.google.com, and clicked "Street View". Lo and behold, this is what pops up across from said venue:

In case anybody forgets a wedding present?

Say whaaaa?? Call me a snoot, but I'd rather not gaze out the window of venue on my wedding day and see a Home Depot. Just sayin. Cross that one off the list!

Oh, and it gets better. Next venue I type in, and scroll around to see what's across the street:

Cue all the "Wedding = Life over" jokes, guys

O_O. UM, NO. Weddings + Dead people = NO THANKS.

So the hunt continues!! Any other helpful recommendations for wedding venue searching?

Things I did today

1. My first dictation summary. ("The, ummm...patient...um....had......")

2. My first chest compressions in a code. And the guy had ROSC AKA came back to life!! I am told this doesn't happen very often.

3. Made beer can chicken.

Things I didn't do today:

1. Wedding planning.

That's okay, I have time, right??

Wedding Planning: First things first!

Okay, so that last post was decidedly un-wedding-y.  On a brighter note, MM and I have decided on the length of our engagement!

As soon as we got engaged, we got barraged with the typical series of questions: "When is the big day??" "What are your wedding colors??" "Are you going to hire David Tutera??"

(Okay, so that last one was really only one particular wedding-show-obsessed friend.)

Well, with our crazy medical resident schedules, and having to request a full year's worth of vacations about a year in advance, we aren't able to tack down one particular day just yet. But we have an approximation!

2 years!

O_O <-- that is the usual look we get after we say this. But 2 years makes sense to us. It gives me enough time to plan a wedding during residency, and gives all of MM's family some time to relax after a busy wedding season next year (FOUR total!!)!

Is a two year engagement really that crazy??

Intern Year: My first death pronouncement.

Sleep inertia: it's that feeling of haze and sluggishness that lasts for up to thirty minutes after being awoken from sleep.

It's exactly what I feel during my first week of intern year, one night at 3:00 AM on the phone with my senior resident.

"Hello?" I try not to sound too groggy.

"Have you ever done a death pronouncement before?" My senior resident also sounds very sleepy.

"No..."

"Well we're going to do one. Meet me on the third floor."

In the hospital, when someone dies, a doctor needs to examine the patient, make sure they have indeed passed away, then pronounce the death and call the family and the patient's primary doctor. A very emotionally grueling role, one that can be made even more agonizing if the room is filled with sobbing/yelling/crying family members.

For better or for worse, this patient is alone. She was already on hospice, meaning it was already decided by her and her family that her care would focus primarily on comfort, rather than curing or treating her illness. It was only a matter of time.

When my senior resident and I reach the room, she is laying in bed, her eyes closed and mouth wide open. My senior nods at me, encouraging me to start the exam. He had coached me on our way to her room, First you have to check her responsiveness. Say her name, touch her arm. Next, listen to her heart and lungs. You shouldn't hear anything. Check her pulse. You shouldn't feel anything. Open her eyes and check her pupils. And that's it. Write a note, then start making calls.

It was eerie. In medical school, they teach you to listen for heart beats, listen for breath sounds. With all our work with cadavers in anatomy class, it never really prepared me for the silence I hear when I place my stethoscope on this woman's chest. My senior helps me by opening her eyes so I can check her pupils. I have never been one who advocates that Oh, the soul is in the eyes, but as I stare into the blackness of her pupils with my penlight, I see nothing but emptiness staring back.

I did not know this woman, but there is still something gut wrenching about having to declare her "Deceased". As though if I didn't put it into writing, it could somehow be reversed. I sign my note.

My senior, who thankfully took the duty of making the phone calls to her family and doctor, mouths something to me as he is dialing. "Don't forget the paperwork."

I feel zombie-like as I take the sheet of paper from the nurse, and again reiterate the details. Time of death: 0300.

As I check boxes, I wonder how this experience could be different if it had happened during the day. Maybe under the cloak of night, death seems a twinge more macabre. I finish signing my name. No, I decide, it probably makes no difference.

I go back to my call room. Lie in the bed with the hospital sheets and hospital blankets, the same sheets and blankets that cover the patients' beds. They used to smell sterile. Now they smell a little like death. I fall asleep anyway.

Two hours later, when I wake up, I am a little less groggy. And, what do you know, my sheets smell sterile again.

The One with the Proposal (Part 2)

So we had gotten to the morning of our third day in Vegas. We had one more night, and I had been told that I had to pack up allllll my things and that I was being "sent" somewhere that morning.

It turns out that "somehwhere" was the Bellagio salon! MM had booked me a surprise manicure!! (Collective "awww"....NOW!) You can see where my crazy girl-brain was going with all this. Even my manicurist asked "...so is he going to propose??" ("I don't want to jinx it." I had replied.)

So I come out of my manicure with some pretty french tips, and I am ready to find out what this whole packing business was about. MM meets me in the lobby, and asks me to accompany him to our new room.

...And by room, I mean PENTHOUSE SUITE.

This photo absolutely does not do it justice, but I didn't want to bore you with real estate.

Yes, it had a living and dining area, wet bar, 2 and a HALF BATHROOMS, a sauna in the shower, and a bidet! (If you've never tried a bidet, it's....interesting.) AND to top it all off, from the 30th floor, we had the perfect view of the Bellagio fountains. ZOMG, I was over the moon.

How awesome is this view??

MM has the biggest grin on his face, and says "I think Vegas should be full of surprises."

After I have sufficiently played in every room (yes, I am that person that opens every drawer. Is that weird?), MM suggests that we have dinner in the room tonight, because of our fantabulous view. "But we should still dress up," he adds, maybe when he sees my crestfallen face at the idea of just eating in our PJs. What can I say, I am a girl who likes getting dolled up.

Our fancy duds weren't completely out of place, though--where else does room service provide you with a tablecloth, fresh flowers, and a bread basket?? Oh, and the steaks were restaurant quality as well. Highly recommended for your next penthouse stay ;)

All dressed up

A shoddy picture of our delicious room service fare

So as we ate dinner, we enjoyed the beautiful Bellagio fountain shows, scheduled for every fifteen minutes until midnight.

*Sigh* I love these fountains

Well, about halfway through dinner, the fountains broke. MM and I waited patiently for them to restart, but even upon finishing our meals, still no shows. MM called down to the front desk to inquire, and was given the flimsy answer of: "Oh, it's pretty windy. There might be another show in fifteen minutes." Another thirty minutes pass. No show. I am starting to get frustrated that we can't enjoy our view to its fullest potential, when MM just sighs and says, "Well, let's just do something else, then, but let's enjoy the view down the strip at least, for a little bit longer. Come join me at the window."

So I get up, and I face the window, with MM behind me. "So this has been a really great three and a half years with you," he starts. And my mind just starts swimming. My girl-brain thinks of something appropriate to do or say, and it comes up with Finding Nemo. Yes, you read correctly. During my proposal, I started rambling about a PIXAR MOVIE. I stammer about the crabs in Finding Nemo for a couple minutes before MM gives me a look that says "Can I finish please??"

He continues with what I can only assume is a very romantic speech about our relationship (because I was so overwhelmed I can't remember a single thing after the Finding Nemo bit).....and as I am still facing the window, I see his reflection in the plate glass window take a step back, then get down on one knee.

I turn, and he is holding up the most gorgeous ring I could have ever imagined. "Will you marry me?" And after several seconds of bawling (yes, not just crying, but BAWLING) and fanning myself, I manage to make out "YES!!"

And this is our obligatory immediately-post-proposal picture (with champagne we had promptly ordered from room service):

Deliriously happy

Obligatory night-of ring pic

And we both lived happily ever after!




....o wait, isn't there something that comes before?? Up next: wedding planning!

The One with the Proposal

Let me start from the beginning. The beginning was about 3 years ago. MM and I had been dating for a few months at this point, and we wanted to take a vacation during our school break. We had decided on Las Vegas, seeing as how it fit nicely within our budget. It was wonderful--we stayed in Paris, watched the Beatles Cirque du Soleil show LOVE, and in front of the Bellagio fountains, MM told me he loved me for the first time. (Okay, everybody gag....NOW!)

MM in front of the Bellagio Fountains during one of the nightly shows

So when it came time to plan our vacation this year, again with a tight budget, we decided to do Las Vegas again! I was thrilled--there was so much more of Vegas I hadn't seen! So many places I had yet to stay! So many shows I had yet to watch! (And so on and so forth.)

We had found a FANTASTIC deal for the MGM Grand ($69/night, thanks to Vegas.com), which I was perfectly happy with. MM suggested that we stay for three nights, and that he would plan the first and third nights, and I could plan the second. MM decided on In-and-Out Burger and the Jabbawockeez for the first night, and I had suggested Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill and Cirque du Soleil's Zumanity for the second night. MM refused to tell me what he had planned for the third night, which should have been my first hint....

So fast forward a few months: MM and I arrive at the Las Vegas airport. I am telling him we need to figure out how to get to the MGM Grand, and ask him if there is a shuttle. MM says he will figure it out. We come down the escalators, and lo and behold, there is a suited gentleman with a sign with MM's name on it.

I am confused. "Is this the shuttle driver?" I ask, as the man takes our suitcases and leads us outside. MM has a cryptic smile on his face.

Outside, my confusion is replaced with surprise as I see where the driver is headed.

"You got us a LIMO?!?!" I shriek. (I'm sure the driver is just listening to our conversation, bemused.)

MM smiles and motions for me to get in. So I do. And I marvel at all the little amenities inside said limo, disregarding all the little signs that say "Bellagio" on it...Then we pull into the Bellagio driveway. Once again, I am confused.

"Wait, are we still going to the MGM Grand?" (I'm sure at this point, the driver thinks I am mentally handicapped.)

"No, silly. I decided to upgrade us to the Bellagio!" And upgrade us, he did. As soon as we arrived, a bellhop was there to pick up our suitcases. Yet another suited gentleman hands MM an envelope: "Your itinerary for the stay, sir."

We are ushered past the checkout lines and through an unmarked door. Inside, is a private concierge desk, and a spread of pastries, wine, and beverages like I have never seen at a hotel check-in. Still unsure of what is going on, I sit on the couch in this VIP room in a half-daze as MM checks us in.

MM tells me, "I talked to my cousin, and he got us this VIP service. Unfortunately, I couldn't get us an upgrade for our room, so we're just in a standard."

Are you kidding me?? I don't need an upgrade, I'm in the Bellagio, baby!!!! This is what I am thinking, but I am still in shock, so I just mumble my understanding and follow him up to our "standard" room. Which was still pretty damn nice.

So we spend our time enjoying the Bellagio pool during the day, and entertaining ourselves on the strip at night.

Jabbawockeez stage

Us at Mesa Grill

After our delicious dinner at Mesa Grill, MM gives me a serious look. "Okay, so tomorrow morning, I want you to pack up all your things, and I am sending you somewhere."

I try to get more out of him than this, but he is tight lipped. I am suspicious, but the next morning, I do as he asks and pack up my entire suitcase...

....and the next part will have to wait for the next post!

Ohmygod We're Back Again

(Anybody else think of a particular boy band in Halloween costumes??)

Apologies, world, I once again disappeared off thee interwebz for an obscene period of time.  BUT, I have two (arguably) good reasons:

1. I graduated!! Woohoo, now I'm officially a Doc!

2. This one deserves a whole other post, but let's just say it starts with a "Will you..." and ends with a "YES!"

Oh, and it also involves one of these!

Credit for this awesome photo goes to MM's sister!

Stay tuned!

P.S. (You're welcome.)

Exercising sucks too.

Long gone are the days when I actually enjoyed going to the gym. In high school, I'd go for an hour to two hours at a time and be delightfully happy.

Now I'm lucky if I can motivate my lazy ass to get off the couch and onto the treadmill for 35 minutes. And it's not a very enthralling 35 minutes either. It starts out painfully, thinking "OMGI'mGoingToDie" for the first 5 minutes before I hit my stride. Then towards the end of 3.1 miles, I start thinking "OMGWhenIsThisGoingToEnd".

(Why 3.1 miles? I tell myself I have to run a 5k before I'm allowed to stop. I don't know why, but I listen better to myself when I make up rules like that.)

Weight training is not any better. I can't make myself do multiple reps, multiple sets of stupid free weights or machines. *YAWN* BOOOOORING.

I would post my exercise log on this blog to give myself some public accountability, but I'm probably too lazy to even do that. *SIGH* Sloth is definitely my deadliest sin of choice.

I will admit though, I do feel very productive after my workout. It's a pretty great feeling of accomplishment after I've run a few miles, and worked on my abs ("Beach muscles" MM calls them, because they're useless and he doesn't care about them). Too bad I can't fast forward through the 45 minutes it takes to get there.

Any tips for motivation out there?

My future bed

We received an Ethan Allen catalog in the mail recently (what's up with people thinking we have money to spend??), and I think I found my future bed.

I always thought I wanted a canopy bed.

From Pottery Barn

Something whimsical about the four post bed. Maybe I secretly want to be a princess.

BUT in the Ethan Allen catalog, I saw the most beauuuuuutiful sleigh bed:

From Ethan Allen

 LOVES. I may give up my four post dreams for this bed...

A shoe story

A few weeks ago, I got it in my head that I needed nude wedges. Armed with a vague idea of what I wanted, I wandered the shoe aisle of TJ Maxx (LOVE the deals). After trying on several shoes that were cute but not what I was looking for, I thought I found a pair that worked.

They were only $24.99, and they seemed comfortable enough in the store. There was still this nagging feeling inside my head, though, that they weren't. quite. right. I didn't even know what I was looking for really--so again, with a vague idea in my head, I started browsing the internet. After visiting my usual haunts --Aldo, Nine West, Endless, Zappos-- I came up empty. On a whim, I clicked on Piperlime. Then, I found THE PAIR.

May I introduce the Dolce Vita Sancia in natural. It was perfect. The exact nude color I was envisioning, a wedge, and oh-so-high. And it was on sale! ....for $129. *screeeeeeech*

That is my entire month's budget for groceries. BAM. Perspective. Distraught (oh yes, first world problems), I tried to love the shoes I had already bought. They are high, reasonably comfortable with the soft suede straps......but I still couldn't help thinking about the Sancia. It was my DREAM shoe. The TJ shoe was not enough wedge, too 'bone' colored. Frustrated, I tried looking for less expensive alternatives. Instead, I just found lookalikes that were even more expensive (True Religion's Sue, DVF's Opal).

Until today. Browsing through Forever 21 (don't make fun of me; I try to avoid the teenybopper stuff), I saw a very promising perspective. The color was perfect, and it was a sky high wedge. It didn't have a price tag, but when I came up to the counter--$24.50!! Score!!!! Back to the store for you, TJ shoes!!!

The picture is not great, but the color is exactly what I was looking for, AND it was a wedge. It doesn't have the awesome bandage detail of the Sancia, but at a fraction of the cost, I can't complain. LOVES.

I think I really just wanted to replace my all time favorite summer shoes:

These splash wedges were bought for me by my mom back when I was in high school. Yes, they are a decade old, but they were so comfortable I could run in them, and still high and cute. Despite being battered and gross (as evidenced by the picture), I've been reluctant to throw them out of the back of the closet. Probably out of nostalgia. But now, with the new shoes, out with the old!!!

Moral of the story: yay shoes.

Dieting sucks.

I haven't talked a lot about dieting, because I don't like to do it. I hate dieting--I hate the idea of altering your nutritional intake so drastically just to lose ten pounds and have them all come back when you start eating normally again. It's dumb.

However, in my attempt to be healthier, and let's be honest here, look smoking hot when I am laying out in my bathing suit in Vegas (more on that later), I have decided to start watching what I eat. *GASP* Shocking, I know. No formal diet, though, no crazy (and expensive) juice cleanses (although Gilt is having a sale right now), just more awareness of what goes in my belly.

The Goal: Low end of normal for my height by Vegas-time (4 weeks).
The Progress: 3 lbs left according to my bathroom scale (which MM says is off by 10 lbs--THANKS FOR NOTHING, HONEY. So maybe 13 lbs.)

This is what I have learned so far from this harrowing experience.

1. Holy shit serving sizes are small. As part of my "awareness", I have started loosely keeping track of calories. One of my biggest weaknesses is portion sizes, and one the easiest ways for me to control this is to limit myself to one serving (unless it's some ridiculous increment) per sitting. This has made me realize how small some serving sizes are--yeah, cereal is only 120 calories...for HALF A CUP. Do you know how small half a cup is?? I guarantee you, I used to eat like three servings of cereal for breakfast.

2. You don't have to eat what your boyfriend eats. When cooking for two, it's so easy to prepare a meal, then just split it down the middle for the both of us. One steak for me, one steak for him. Then I realized, do I really need a 16 oz steak? Two huge spoonfuls of mashed potatoes? No, probably not. He has more height to distribute all that food, and I need to realize our plates SHOULD be uneven. And it's okay to have leftovers. That's why they invented tupperware. This leads to...

3. You don't have to eat WHEN your boyfriend eats. MM likes to have his "wind down" beer at the end of the night. Sometimes this is accompanied by "wind down" snacks as well. I can never resist eating when he's eating. Even when I'm not hungry!! This needs to stop. Especially when he comes home with late night tacos from Big Star. Mmmmm....but honestly, who's hungry when they're awoken after an hour of sleep? Not me. Did I still eat two tacos? Yes. *for shame*

4. If it's not in the house, you won't eat it. Up until maybe a month ago, I wasn't buying chips or crackers when I went grocery shopping. Did I miss it? Maybe a little when I was having a sandwich, but honestly, we did fine without having those things in the house. Then I caved, bought a bag of chips, and it was downhill from there. Last grocery trip, I tried to be better, and came home with a bag of pretzels. Still not great, but at least they don't have the grease of a bag of Lays. My only exception to this is probably chocolate. I tried to keep it out of the house, but then my craving went crazy and I ended up buying 3 bags of chocolate chips and immediately making a batch of chocolate chip cookies. Note to self: keep small amounts of chocolate in house at all times.

So that's it for now. With my loose calorie counting, I figured out I was consuming about 1800 calories on an average day. To lose a pound a week, you need to cut 500 calories a day, so I've been trying (again, only loosely counting) to keep it around 1200 per day. Combined with the running, hopefully I will be able to reach my goal!

Anybody have any helpful weight loss strategies to share?

Is every Human Resources employee out to make our lives miserable?

I think so.

What's wrong? You look upset.

I have always said that I have an "angry neutral face". So when I'm not actively smiling, or frowning, or making any sort of conscious expression, my "neutral" face, tends to be angry. I can't help it! I'm not necessarily having a bad day, or angry with anyone, I just have an "angry neutral face".

This has resulted in friends coming up to me asking, "Are you okay? You look angry." O_o??! What??? Then I have to smile, reassure them that no, I am not off to shoot out an office building or beat someone up.

Well, now I realized this is a condition that affects many women, and it has a name. It's called Chronic Bitchface.

From BuzzFeed

Now, we look for the cure.

Spring cupcakes (Another baking FAIL)

The day after Easter, I decided to go out and indulge in all the discounted Easter goodies. I went out with the intention of getting a Cadbury creme egg (my guilty pleasure), but to my dismay, they had all sold out. WHYYYYYYYY.

I did bring home some jelly beans and some peeps, and I thought I would try my hand at some spring cupcakes. (They are listed at Food Network as Easter cupcakes, but we will ignore that, and pretend that we're not too cheap to buy full priced Easter treats.)

I used a white cake and lemon frosting recipe from i am baker, which sounded pretty spring-y to me. I decided to tint the frosting pastel green, and omit the green coconut, because I'll be honest, I am not super fond of shredded coconut on my sweets.

Baking FAIL # 1: I tried to read the recipe off the computer, and remember it while I was running around in the kitchen. This resulted in the omission of 1/4 cup of sugar. My white cake cupcakes were more like white muffins.

Baking FAIL # 2: I did not have any cake flour on hand, so I substituted all-purpose flour using the handy dandy Cook's Thesaurus. They said cakes would be "slightly less delicate and crumbly", but hole tamale, was that an understatement. These are the densest cupcakes I've ever eaten.

Baking FAIL # 3: To compensate for the slightly less sweet cupcakes, I added a little more powdered sugar to my frosting. OMGDIABETESINACAN. One bite of my mega sweet frosting may satisfy a sweet tooth for a decade.

Baking FAIL # 4: When I tried to recreate the uber-cute spring scene from the Food network's cupcake, I realized that either my cupcakes were too small, or these peeps were TOO DAMN BIG.

Look out! It's Peep-zilla!!!

UGH. So I just frosted the rest, and left them blank.

Poor cupcake. You have no outlet in which to express yourself.

MM ate one, and declared it edible, and if you eat it with a proper ratio of frosting to cupcake, I agree it's not too bad. However, my baking ego has been hit hard with this one. I had a whole strawberry shortcake planned out, but now I think I'll just used my berries to make smoothies.

Sigh. Any big baking fails out there to share?

No chip manicure

Way back in February, before MM and I departed on our two week long snowboarding adventure, I decided I needed a sturdy manicure to endure 14 days of what would otherwise be a nail-polish suicide mission. I had a Groupon for a No Chip Manicure at a local salon, so I gave it a whirl.

I loved it as soon as I left the salon! All in all, the process took about 45 minutes. A total of 5 coats of polish were applied + one clear coat, with a round of setting under a UV lamp after each coat. With the final clear gel coat, my nails were rock hard, and I didn't have to worry about immediately chipping the polish by reaching into my purse or holding my keys (that has happened one too many times *shakes fist*).

True to its name, my manicure remained chip-free for about 14 days. This was by no means an easy 14 days either. Lots of lacing up snowboarding boots, grabbing snowboards, and not once did I think twice about messing up my mani. LOVED IT.

This is what it looked like after about 3 weeks:

Definitely grown out, but still mostly chip free, with a couple of dings on a few fingers. Being too lazy/cheap to go back to the salon to remove it, I decided to try to do my polish change at home. BAD NEWS BEARS AHEAD.

At first I tried just scrubbing away with an acetone soaked cottonball. No go. Did not even touch the surface. Then I realized that the polish was starting to peel at the edges, so stupid me thinks 'oh, what a GREAT way to take off polish!' (On a side note, does anybody remember back in the day the kiddie nail polishes that actually were supposed to be peeled off? Oh so satisfying.)

This is what my nails looked like after THAT brilliant idea:

*shudder* Frightening, I know. In a panic, I just cut them, buffed them all down, and covered them with a quick coat of my new favorite cheapy nail polish Wet n Wild Grays Anatomy. It's a pretty opalescent gray with hints of green and purple with the light.

I believe it's pretty similar to the color "Mash Up" from the Sephora by Opi GLEE limited edition line.

Anyhow, it's been two months after my terrible polish removal decision, and my nails are still growing out. The part that had been under the polish is incredibly thin, and brittle, and to prevent daily broken nails, I've been having to keep my nails super short, which makes me sad.

So take heed: if you should decide to get a no-chip, I am 1000% supportive, and I think they're fab. But do NOT attempt to remove them by yourself, lest you want sad, thin nails for a couple months.

(On a funny, semi-related note, I keep joking to MM that I need to start taking pre-natal vitamins so my nails will start growing strong again. He does not find that very amusing.)

My birthday!

Although MM was on call on my birthday (boohoo), I had the opportunity to go out with my girlfriends that night for a nice quiet dinner at Maggiano's. One of my medical school friends is on a gluten free diet (AKA "a wheat allergy"), which through a great bout of irony is more common in Italians, and Maggiano's has a great gluten free menu. I also thought I could have my long noodles, but in all my birthday excitement, I had gnocchi instead. Short potato pasta.

SUPERSTITION FAIL.

The next night, when MM was post-call, he took me out to the Capital Grille, our go-to fancy place. I love love LOVE the Capital Grille. Who cares if it's a chain? I love how on special occasions, they take your picture, and give you a take home card with it that says "Live well and always find cause for celebration". I am sappy like that.

Despite MM urging me to try something new, I couldn't help but get my usual. The filet oscar. OH. EM. GEE. It's delicious. Go to your nearest Capital Grille and have one now if you haven't already.

It's divine. Source

We finished with a heavenly chocolate cake. Also divine, but nothing touches the filet oscar. NOTHING.

My lovely mother also sent me a birthday package. Included was three (3!!!) bags of homemade chocolate chip cookies, a box of brownies, 2 pairs of shoes (did I ever mention that I take after my mother, and that we LOVE shoes?), and 2 tops. I heart my mom. If I grow up to be exactly like her, I'd be ecstatic.

Oh, and she also included a birthday card. "I forgot to run to the store." she had explained. Witness:

Note the very carefully applied white-out

"It's semi-homemade!" (We also both love the food channel--Sandra Lee anyone?) My mom cracks me up.

All in all, a pretty awesome and delicious birthday. YAY ME!

Back on the [blogging] ball

I'm not going to lie--this was a very hard post to write. Not because it's picture heavy (sorry) or controversial (sorry) but because it's my FIRST POST IN OVER A MONTH.

*hangs head in shame*

Blogging is like exercising. Super easy once you have your routine down, and you are doing it regularly. But stop for a while, and that first run is TORTURE.

So this is my attempt to start. Again. We'll do this chronologically:

Utah
MM and I had so much fun snowboarding out in Salt Lake City (SLC)! We stayed with his wonderful aunt and uncle out in Sandy, UT, and were a short drive from Solitude, where we spent five awesome days snowboarding.

MM and I on the slopes!

Luckily for my rear end, I got a lot better at snowboarding than when we went to Wisconsin, and I even went on some blue runs! (For those of you who aren't familiar, like myself a few months ago, in order of increasing difficulty: green, blue, black diamond, double black diamond etc)

MM and I at the summit at Solitude. How badass am I?? (not really; I am hanging on for dear life.)

Unfortunately for my rear end, my last day of snowboarding was strongly punctuated when I landed HARD on my bum on a flat trail under some flat light, and let me tell you: it HURT. As in, it brought tears to my eyes as soon as it happened --that kind of hurt.

Thankfully MM's aunt let me use a bag of frozen peas to ice it when I got home (don't worry, they were not consumed later), and though my rear end still hurts a little when I run now, I still think the trip was still TOTALLY fun and worth it. I mean, just look at the view!

SOO much fun. And highly recommended.

Florida
After our snowboarding stint in Utah, we flew down to Florida for a few days to spend time with MM's parents. And as fun as our snowy adventures were, holy canoli was I glad to be in warm weather.

Basking in the sun. Pretty much what I did everyday.

While we were there, we ate at Tarpon Bay at the Hyatt Regency in Bonita Springs and had some of the most delicious seafood while seated over the water.

(Photo from google images)

We also celebrated MM's father's birthday while we were down there with a GIANT sushi boat.

Not our boat, but you get the idea. Source

The three of us took the whole thing down like champs. It was pretty epic.

While we were down there, MM's dad also showed me how to shuck oysters!! I took a picture of him shucking, but since I have not asked his permission to plaster his face all over the interwebs, I will refrain from posting it. It was a great experience though! I never knew shucking oysters was so easy. I got the hang of it after about six, and shucked the last six of our dozen like a pro. If my cholesterol weren't already high, I would totally eat oysters all the time...

And that concludes my February vacation! Up next: my birthday and match day!

To Utah!!

Posting will be light for the next week!

See you (hopefully minimally bruised) in a bit!

Chinese New Year: Wontons

Okay, one last flashback from CNY: shrimp and pork wontons. I am not crazy about wonton soup, but after frying my turnip cake, I couldn't very well fry my wontons too, so soup it was.

I improvised this recipe for the most part, and overall it came out pretty tasty!

You will need:
3/4 lb Ground pork
Handful of uncooked shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 bunch of scallions
Sesame oil
Soy sauce
White pepper to taste

That is white pepper on my pork--it's not rotten, I promise

Chop up your shrimp into small pieces, and combine all ingredients in a bowl. I ended up using about a tablespoon of sesame oil, and 3 tablespoons of soy sauce. In retrospect, I would have used a little more soy sauce or added some additional salt because it was a little lacking in flavor.

Set up your wonton making station:

Your meat mixture, your wonton wrappers, and a bowl of water.

To make my wontons, I used the following method: Spoon a teaspoon or so of the meat mixture onto the center of a wonton wrapper. Using your index finger, wet two adjacent edges of the square wrapper with the water, like so:

The wrappers are lightly coated in corn starch, so wetting the edges will form a little "glue". Fold your wonton into a triangle, using the wet edges to seal in the meat securely. Make sure there is no trapped air in your wonton. Next, moisten one tip of the triangle, and press it against the other, forming a little "flower":

Isn't it cute?? Continue until you have used up your meat mixture. If you overstuff some of your wontons, like I did, they may become unsealed when you cook them.

Do NOT, I repeat do NOT stack your wontons like this. The moisture from the meat inside will cause them all to stick to one another, and it will be a big mess, and some of them will definitely come apart while cooking. Instead, place your fresh wontons a single layer on a lightly corn-starched/floured surface.

Bring a pot of water to a boil, then cook the wontons on simmer, uncovered and stirring occasionally. When they are done, they will float to the top. Add to soup, or fry, and you have yourself some wontons!

YUM!

Chinese New Year: Turnip cake

Now that I have recovered from cooking that huge meal on Chinese New Year's Eve, I shall go back and share that long and painful process with you all.

Starting with the turnip cake. I very loosely adapted a recipe from Appetite for China, and set off to H mart to get my ingredients. Of course, being the wonderfully prepared person I am, I forgot the list. So I may have improvised a little.

You will need:
3 1/4 cups rice flour
2 lbs of turnip
Add ins of your choice (I used Chinese sausage, or lop cheong)
Soy sauce (regular or dark)
Salt

First of all, the recipe called for 2 cups of water to combine with the rice flour, then to mix until it became "velvety". I added 2 cups to my flour, and the best consistency I could get was "ricotta cheese". So I ended up adding a little more water (hey, Chinese cooking is an imperfect science, okay?), probably closer to 3 cups, until it became smooth like cake batter.
 
Kuan's recipe also calls for 1 large Chinese turnip, weighing about 2 pounds. I couldn't find that big of a freakin turnip, so I ended up with 5 of these things:

Together, they weighed about 1.8 lbs. Good enough. Peel them suckers and slice them into rectangles about 2 cm wide and deep (see picture below). Next for MM's favorite, the lop cheong:

We made the mistake last time of buying the sweet kind. Do not make that same mistake. Kuan's recipe also called for some mushrooms and dried shrimp, or har mai, which I don't care for, so I left it out. Instead, I had some scallions lying around, so I chopped those up along with the lop cheong.

Next you want to cook the add ins with a little bit of soy sauce for some flavor. Set those aside. In that same wok, add your turnip and stir fry for about 2-3 minutes, adding in more oil if needed.

Then pour in about 1 cup of water, and steam the turnip for about 10-15 minutes until just cooked. My turnip was still a little hard at 15 minutes, so I actually ended up steaming it for about 25 minutes. Whatever.

Next, the recipe calls for adding the hot turnip mixture into the rice flour mixture and "mixing thoroughly until the turnips are well incorporated". WTF? What does well incorporated mean? We will never know because her blog pictures the original raw ingredients, and then a perfectly finished turnip cake, so I had to guess. I'd seen my grandmother make taro cake (wu tao gow) before, and her finished "batter" was smooth without large pieces of taro in it, so I figured the turnip cake would be the same way.

That was about as "incorporated" as I could get it. Still has the consistency of thick ricotta cheese, and still with big chunks of turnip in it. I tried mashing the turnip into the flour mixture, but eventually got tired of that and left it as it. You couldn't really tell there were turnip chunks in the consistency of the final cake, so I imagine this degree of "incorporation" is fine. Anyway.

Mix in your add ins, in my case the lop cheong and scallions, and salt to taste (I added 1 tsp like the recipe called for, but it probably could have used a little more salt). Pour into a 10 inch cake pan, and smooth out the top.

Do NOT, as I did, use a round bottom pot. The middle will be a little undercooked when the edges are finished steaming. Bad Idea.

So steam the cake for about an hour (I steamed it for an hour and twenty minutes, which turned out better since the middle was still a little underdone), and allow the cake to cool before slicing.

The "optional" part, but not really optional, because turnip cake isn't good without it: the frying. After you slice the cake into small rectangles, fry the slices in batches about 3-5 minutes on each side in oil, and serve with (my favorite) hoisin sauce.

You can check out my cake in my CNY post, but Kuan has a better picture in her blog, so let's pretend my cake looked like that:

Source

Then, enjoy!!! My homemade turnip cake turned out pretty decently, and as I mentioned was MM's favorite item on the menu. The texture was still a little off, due to the fact that the middle wasn't quite steamed through after more than an hour. That being said, I still enjoy it, but with all this effort, I think I will just stick to buying it in the future!