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!!!