What a multi-tasker...

Okay, so I couldn't resist taking this picture, and then I couldn't resist blogging about it. Jesse is just so adorable. He had to do a complete physical today at the hospital, so last night he was practicing. I secretly caught this picture with my phone while he was simultaneously watching the the Jazz game. Jazz plus heart sounds could be the extent of his multitasking abilities. Glad I could document it.

ex-SUZE-me?

This week my internship rotation was at a DELICIOUS fine dining restaurant in Dallas: Suze Restaurant. I didn't take any pictures of the actual restaurant, but here is the link in case you want to see some: http://www.suzerestaurant.net/index.html 
This week was THE BEST week so far in the internship; it was like a week off. The restaurant isn't open Mondays, so the days I worked were Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday. My director, Kristi, told me I'd probably have to show up at 2:00 PM on Tuesday, but when I called my preceptor there, he told me to show up at 3:30, and then 4:30 on Wednesday. I got a lot done in the mornings (cleaning, dry cleaning, yoga, running, changed my name, got a new drivers license, etc.), except for maybe the most important thing I could have done: find someone to fix our broken washing machine. Oh well. That will happen this week. Anyway, I had a bunch of fun at Suze on Tuesday and Wednesday hanging out with really laid back people (NONE of them were dietitians, of course) and trying a lot of really interesting and fancy foods. 
Here are a couple of pictures of some the food from Suze:

This is a tenderloin steak on top of pureed red potatoes and topped with a foie gras sauce, a basil sauce, and tempura onions. Yum. That's Jeffery in the red hat. 

This a delicious, cobbler-like dessert. Gooseberry, pear, and huckleberry slump, with a goat cheese biscuit and truffle-vanilla ice cream. Yum, yum. I got to make the biscuits and the slump.

On Thursday, Jeffery (one of the owners of Suze) got us (Jesse and I) into this event at Fair Park for free where a bunch of restaurants were there giving out free samples. Free dinner!! Shazam.

On Friday I went to a private event that Suze was catering for, and I got to meet some people that traveled to Africa on Mercy Ships doing surgeries and things. They had a presentation and I got to see some of it and I loved it. Right up my alley. Then on Saturday I went to another private event at the Dallas Zoo. Again, a bunch of restaurants (nicer ones) were there giving out samples. Suze was giving out a roasted tomato and curry soup, with bread and a four cheese truffle sauce. I got to help hand out the samples with Amber, another intern, Gilbert Garza (owner of Suze), and another cook there. 

Here we all are. From left to right: Brady, me, Gilbert, and Amber

All of these fancy people were there and they all were dressed in animal prints or as if they were on a safari. They were bidding thousands of dollars on these "paintings" by animals at the zoo (scribbles) or the right to name an animal. They also bid on brunches and dinners provided by the chefs from the restaurants that were there. One of the dinners that Gilbert donated went for $11,000. For an 8-person dinner, that would be like an 11,458% markup on the cost of food. Yikes. All of the money was donated to the zoo because it's privately owned. Maybe one day I'll have enough money to be invited to a private event at a private zoo, and I can wear an exotic animal to a zoo with exotic animals, and where I can bid on "art" created by the animals, and eat free food made from the exotic animals (or their relatives). Hopefully not, actually :)


Also, Jeffery was nice enough to share a few recipes from Suze with me. Here is their Gourmet Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe:


6 oz. unsalted butter (1 and 1/2 sticks)
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup sugar
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
2 t vanilla
2 cups + 2 T all-purpose flour
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking soda
2 cups chocolate chips, or anything your heart desires


Directions: Cream the butter and sugars. Whisk in egg, yolk, and vanilla. Add mixed dry ingredients and stir until just combined (thought that only mattered in quick breads?) Stir in the chips. Take scant 1/4 cup of dough and form a rough ball. Pull the ball apart and turn the torn sides up. Gently push the two pieces back together so the cookie ends up with a jagged top. (I didn't try this, but I might next time). 
Bake 13 minutes (or longer, until edges are golden brown) at 325 degrees.


I made these and we took them to dinner at the Garza's (not the restaurant owner, some med school friends). Everyone said they liked them, but maybe they were just being nice. Honestly, I think my mom's Cowboy Cookie recipe trumps, but I like to shake things up every once in a while. "Variety is the spice of life" --Dove chocolate wrapper. hahahaha. 

Our Halloween Weekend

All I really wanted was to see my little nieces and nephews dressed up for Halloween, but I had a really great Halloween weekend nonetheless!

FRIDAY

The festivities started on Friday when Jesse and I went to a new restaurant: Gloria's. Here's the thing, we have tried A BAZILLION tex-mex/mexican restaurants in the metroplex because I'm determined to find the best mexican food, but we were in for a treat (and a trick) when we went to Gloria's. The treat was that the chips and salsa was the BEST I've had yet here, and the trick was that it was actually Salvadorian food! Quail was on the menu...eww. All I could think about was those cute little birds scuttling around BYU campus. No thanks on the quail, but the rest of our food was pretty good. 

After dinner we went the Symphony. We had BOX SEATS (donated from some Doctor who works at Jesse's school and donated them to some lucky student--Jesse). They projected Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho and the DSO played the music along with it. I am ridiculously whimpy when it comes to scary movies, so I had to cover my eyes sometimes. Again, thank you to the box-seat donors. It was incredibly fun though. 

We asked the usher to take a picture.

I wore my pearls. We try to be fancy.

SATURDAY

Jesse and I shopped for and assembled our costumes on Saturday after Yoga and a little run on the Katy Trail. I am a yogi. I love it. Anyway, here's what we came up with:

That's right! You guessed it! We are the Fruit of the Loom Grapes! You can't really tell, but we wore Fruit of the Loom whitey-tighties over our sweats. It was pretty sweet! I won Best Girl's Costume at the party, but Jesse didn't even make the top 3 for the boy's costume contest. Hahaha. "I guess everybody just likes me. But I can't help it that I'm popular." --Gretchen, Mean Girls. Not really, though. Seriously though, not popular. I haven't gone to book club once. I need to start attending med school wives' events before I'm cast out forever. Haha. 

We played plenty of fun games at the party, including the one where you eat a doughnut off a string. Jesse was a champ. He won his round, but Jen was a VERY close second. Look how excited he was...

We took the grapes off shortly after we arrived so that we could fit into the house.

Nice try, Jenny. We love you.

It's all about the strategy.

SUNDAY

My family has a delicious Halloween tradition -- we eat chili in those adorable little pumpkin bread bowls from Great Harvest. It's not pumpkin bread, just white bread dyed orange like a pumpkin with a little green tiny roll on top. I couldn't find that anywhere in Dallas, but we had Chili in normal bread bowls anyway and it was delicious. We invited Jenny and Mat over. 

Here's the family chili recipe. Sorry if it's a secret, Grandma. It's just too delicious. I can't not share it.

Grandma Coles Chili

 

1/2 LB Hamburger

1/2 Onion

 

1 LG can Chili Beans - (2 1/2 Cups, short fat can)

1/2 LG can Tomato Juice (tall can)

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp pepper ( I put in a little less )

1 tsp salt

1/4 C sugar

2 carrots

Brown Hamburger and onion, drain fat and rinse. Add rest of the ingredients and simmer at least 2 hour.

YUM!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

The TEXAS State Fair!!!

I'm sorry to all of my followers (Keri and Mom:) for not posting in over a month. I will try to be more diligent in my blogging.

Last week, Jesse and I went to the Texas State Fair with our friends, the Breadys. I'm not sure I've ever seen so many calories in one place. Texans love to fry EVERYTHING. Here are some of the fried things we saw:

• Fried Peanut Butter, Jelly, and Banana Sandwich
• Fried Cookie Dough
• Fried Snickers
• Fried Frito Pie
• Fried Beer
• Fried Pop-tarts
• Fried Butter...that's right. Butter.
• Fried Margaritas.
• Fried Oreos
• Fried Twinkies
• Fried Peaches & Cream
• Fried Peanut Butter Cup Macaroons 
• Corny Dogs (they call them "Corny dogs" in Texas. I get so irritated every time I hear it. I just want to tell everyone, "It's called a CORN DOG.")
• Curly Fries
• Funnel Cake

It was nice to go with the Breadys because we could try some of the fried wonders, but each just have a bite. We tried the fried PB&J. We each got a quarter of the sandwich. It was actually pretty delicious. We also split the cookie dough with them, and Jesse and I tried the fried snickers while the Bradys went on some insane ride.

Fried PB&J

Fried Cookie Dough

Even though I have some serious motion sickness, we did go on a couple of rides. We rode the Ferris Wheel, of course, and this spinny ride where everyone just stood on the inside perimeter of a short, wide cylinder that spun and rotated. The ride didn't even have any buckles or latches, just a seat-belt strap that looped onto a peg. It didn't seem safe at all, but I figured it's effects were less harmful than the fried snickers I ate.

Cami caught this picture while we were spinning.

Instead of blinking I decided to have crazy eyes.

The Breadys: Cami & Mike. On the Ferris Wheel

The food and the rides at the fair were fun, but the people-watching was almost the best part about it.

That is a REAL mullet.

This is a butter sculpture of an OU and University of Texas football player. Texans love few things more than football and butter. Why not combine them?

This is Big Tex. He's this big inflatable Texan guy, I guess. I just asked Jesse how tall he is. His estimate 150,000 inches. 

The fair was really fun, but our blood lipids are just now normalizing. In the words of Brent Coles, so many aspects of the fair were a "heart attack waiting to happen." Luckily, we survived. 

Happy 100 DAYS!!!

Last night my mom and I were talking on the phone and she reminded me that Jesse and I have been married for 100 days! It's hard to believe that it's been 100 days. Well, now it's 101. The past 100 days have been an adjustment, but fun, but sometimes awkward, but mostly happy, usually extremely loud (expect when Jesse has to study), and really funny. I love being married and I'm glad it's been 100 days, because I finally am able to sleep normally with someone else in my bed, and I'm not nearly as nervous about whether or not Jesse will like what I made for dinner. 

A couple of other ANNIVERSARY shout outs...

Yesterday, September 13th, was Rand and Cynthia Mattson's 30th wedding anniversary. I grew up a few houses away from the Mattsons and they are like second parents to me. Their daughter Whitney is one of my BFs. For graduation, Whitney and I talked our parents into taking us to Hawaii. 

This is Whitney with her parents:

Also, my parents are celebrating their 33rd Anniversary next Wednesday, September 22nd. To celebrate, they're going to VEGAS!!!! My mom says she wants to see a show, maybe Donny Osmond. Hahaha, sorry, Dad. Here are my adorable parents (also in Hawaii)...

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!

Mmmmm....muffins

I love muffins. Who doesn't want a little piece of un-frosted cake to call breakfast? Here are a couple of my favorite muffin recipes. Okay, so they're my only muffin recipes. But they're all the rave right now among our poor fellow med student friends. I guess anything tastes better when you didn't pay for it out of your own debt, but still, they like them.
The bran muffins are actually very healthy, the banana ones....not so much. But both are yummy. The first time I made the banana ones, Jesse took a bite and went "mmmmhhhh" with eyes closed as he sat back into his chair. Made all the dishes worth it.

Bran Muffins:

1/2 cup white flour

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 t. salt

1 t. cinnamon

1 T baking powder

_________________

1 1/2 cups All Bran Cereal

1 1/3 cups milk

1 egg

1/3 cup oil (or 1/3 cup applesauce) (or a mixture...I fill up a 1/3cup measuring cup almost to the top with applesauce, then pour oil over the top until it's full. it's usually about 1 Tablespoon of oil, or less)

Mix dry ingredients (to line) together in small bowl. Put the rest in a medium mixing bowl to soak, 15 minutes or more. Stir wet ingredients thoroughly. It should become paste-lake. If the oil won't mix in, let it soak a little longer.

Stir in dry ingredients just to mix. Spoon into 12 muffin cups. Sprinkle tops with raw sugar (optional). Bake @ 400 for 13 minutes.

Here is the nutritional information for the muffins with all oil....

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 68 g

Amount Per Serving

Calories  174 Calories from Fat  67

% Daily Value*

Total Fat  7.5g 11%

Saturated Fat  1.3g 7%

Trans Fat  0.0g

Cholesterol  18mg 6%

Sodium  133mg 6%

Total Carbohydrates  26.1g 9%

Dietary Fiber  2.8g 11%

Sugars  11.0g

Protein  3.7g

Vitamin A 4% • Vitamin C 3% Calcium 12% • Iron 12%

Nutrition Grade A

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet

Here is the nutritional information with 1/3 c applesauce, and 1 T oil...

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 69 g

Amount Per Serving

Calories  133 Calories from Fat  23

% Daily Value*

Total Fat  2.5g 4%

Saturated Fat  0.7g 3%

Trans Fat  0.0g

Cholesterol  18mg 6%

Sodium  133mg 6%

Total Carbohydrates  26.8g 9%

Dietary Fiber  2.8g 11%

Sugars  11.7g

Protein  3.7g

Vitamin A 4% • Vitamin C 3% Calcium 12% • Iron 12%

Nutrition Grade A

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins...

1 cup white flour

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil (I use the same trick with this one...fill up my 1/2 measuring cup almost to the top with applesauce, then just top it off with a little oil. I like to use a little oil, because fats carry flavor)
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt (1/2 cup fat free sour cream also works)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (I use 3 bananas...usually is a little more than a cup)
• 3/4 cup Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, combine the egg, oil, yogurt and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in bananas and chocolate chips. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

This recipe makes just over a dozen...usually 15 or 16. 

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 63 g

Amount Per Serving

Calories  162 Calories from Fat  35

% Daily Value*

Total Fat  3.9g 6%

Saturated Fat  2.0g 10%

Trans Fat  0.0g

Cholesterol  14mg 5%

Sodium  180mg 7%

Total Carbohydrates  29.2g 10%

Dietary Fiber  1.1g 5%

Sugars  16.0g

Protein  3.0g

Vitamin A 1% • Vitamin C 2% Calcium 5% • Iron 6%

Nutrition Grade C-

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet

Try them out! 

Hiccups...

For the past 3 days I have had some serious hiccups. They haven't been constant, but sometimes they last for up to 3 or 4 hours at a time. I'm still not sure what triggers them because they start randomly. Sometimes it's after I eat, sometimes after a DC, but sometimes they just start. At work I walk around with my preceptor, Chef Kelly Cook (Cook is his last name, how coincidental) and we talk to a bunch of different people and whenever they hear me hiccup, they ALWAYS offer their advice about how to get them to go away. So funny. I've heard some pretty random things so I've decided to list them all here if you ever find your diaphragm spasming and need a little help, although I'm sure everyone around you will be anxious to give you their own quick-fix. Here's what I've heard so far, and who I heard it from:

1. Take 11 gulps of water (Rachel, a fellow intern)

2. Take a gas medicine because hiccups are from a gas bubble in your stomach (some lady that works in the hospital, but clearly has no medical knowledge or background)

3. Hold your breath for as long as you can (Chef Kelly)

4. Breathe into a brown paper bag (Chef Kelly....he even found me a paper bag and made me try)

5. Put a wet paper towel over a cup of water and take as many gulps as you can (Emily, and RD at Presby; and Keri...this works pretty well)

6. Drink milk. I don't like drinking milk, but eating ice cream DOES make them go away. Two thumbs up for that. (This toothless cook named Don)

7. Stand on your hands and get a big drink with a straw in it and drink from the straw while standing on your hands (the same girl from #2). Okay, I'm pretty good at standing on my hands, but this is really silly.

8. Flex your stomach  and hold your breath (Jesse)....I think he just wants me to have better abs :)

9. Be dared to hiccup again (Chef Kelly). Today, literally 5 minutes before I was off and after having them almost all day, he said that if I hiccuped again, I could have tomorrow off. I haven't hiccuped yet since.

10. And finally, the solution that seemed to be most consistently effective came from my girl, Debbie. She works in the kitchen. She said, "I tell you what you gone do. You gone go get yo-self a cup, and you gone drink upside down. I show you. My momma taught me and I aint never forget. It work ever time. Go. Get." What a fantastic woman. Drinking upside down worked. Yes, ice cream worked too, but it isn't nearly as accessible as a cup of water and a sink, and it might not be a great idea if you get hiccups often.

So in case you don't know how to drink upside down, I've create a how-to instructional video. Thank you, Debbie.

Marriage...

After a year of dating long-distance, we got married!!! Yahooo......

Here are some wedding pics. I was SOOOO excited to see the little padded envelope in our mailbox from the photographer. The DVD is here...

At the temple...

The ring ceremony

The cake was DELICIOUS. 

Jesse with his dad and brothers.

Shout out to my BYU dietetics peeps.

Aren't my grandparents beautiful?

John and Ella dancing...

Our first dance

Father-daughter/mother-son dance

We are happy :)

Get it, Erica

Tossing the bouquet!

Me and my bridesmaids with our drink of choice :)

Leaving the party.

I love weddings. We think ours was better than Chelsea's.