Happy Birthday to ME

This has been a fun week for Jesse and me. Last Monday was my birthday! I'm pretty lucky because it fell on Memorial Day, the only holiday I've had off since Christmas. Jesse still needed to study, so I went to yoga in the morning. It was a 90-minute hot yoga class and I hated it. I'll be sticking to air-conditioned yoga. Later that day we went shopping at North Park Mall, one my favorite activities. I got a new pair of shorts and a top from Anthro with some birthday money. Keri also sent me these adorable Anthro earrings! I've already worn them 3 times :)

For dinner we went to Grimaldi's, which is the delicious pizza chain that's well-known in New York. I didn't even know there were other locations, but there are! It's the real deal. Pizza is one of my top 5 favorite foods. Yum. 

Jesse also made me a birthday cake (with very little instruction on the frosting :) and made an "A" with the candles.

This week was also my last week of rotations for my internship and my 4th week at the VA. I'm SO happy that I don't have to drive to the VA any longer. The VA stinks and south Dallas is GHETTO. And there are lots of ugly, stray dogs (not in the hospital of course, just on the way). One of them ran straight from the sidewalk into my car! I swerved to try not to hit it, but I did. I don't think it was hurt though, because as I was contemplating getting out of my car to see if it was hurt, I looked out my rear-view mirror and the dumb thing was running down the DART tracks across the street. I felt better that I didn't seriously hurt it. Stupid dog. Anyway, now I only have 3 WEEKS left of my internship and I'm staffing in Cardiology and the NICU at Presby Dallas. A 7-minute drive and free lunch will be so nice for the next 3 weeks.

Another highlight of my week was seeing Troy Aikman on the Katy Trail (a running/biking trail in Dallas). We (Troy and I) were running in opposite directions and as he passed I kept staring until my head had almost turned 180 degrees. Then I almost ran into this couple walking since I wasn't watching where I was going. So I stopped and said, "Sorry, but that's Troy Aikman, running. Troy Aikman, he's running!" They looked at me like I was really weird. Oh well.

Finally, today is mine and Jesse's 1-year Anniversary. To celebrate, I tried to re-create a delicious, creamy risotto that we had at a little Italian restaurant on Coronado Island on our honeymoon. We didn't know what risotto was and we tried to ask the waiter, (who didn't speak English very well) but he just kept saying, "It's a creamy risotto" in a thick, Italian accent. It was  really good, and I didn't do it justice today, but I'll keep practicing. I'm bound to have it down by the 10th or 15th Anniversary!

Yay for a fun week!

Holy Hail!

Last week during the crazy storms, we had some serious hail. We both have some pretty good dents on our cars. Kind of a bummer, but we're counting our blessings. We looked at the google earth images of Joplin MO the other night and I couldn't believe how much damage that storm did. Our prayers to the people of Joplin and to the Jones family (Jake and Matt Jones are friends of Jesse's from BYU - their family is in Joplin). 

That's pretty big hail!

On a lighter note, JESSE GOT A BUZZ! A hair cut, that is. And I got to do it! There's something so satisfying about cutting all of someone's hair off. Jesse spends the entire day at the library these days studying for the first board exam and has no professors or preceptors to impress, so why not? Plus it's getting hot here! And if Brad can do it, so can Jesse! Who wore it better? We'll leave that up to our followers...all four of you:) My vote is for Jesse, of course.

Houston

On Mother's Day weekend, Jesse and I drove to HOUSTON!!! We left Friday afternoon. The first 30 minutes of the trip were excellent...and then the plastic skid plate just under the front bumper of our car partially fell off and started dragging on the road. Luckily, the nearest gas station was only a couple of miles away. We bought some duct tape. The car was dirty. It didn't really stick. We stopped twenty-something miles later. Tried the tape again. But the car was still dirty. It still didn't stick. So an hour after we pulled onto the freeway, we were barely outside of the Dallas Metroplex. 
I should have taken a picture, but I didn't think Jesse would appreciate it. 


Anyway, we got to Houston and headed to Hayley & Jeff's wedding open house. We'd eaten breakfast, nibs, a Dairy Queen dipped cone, and chocolate-covered raisins. At the open house, there were more desserts, including red velvet cake balls, cheese cake, and peanut butter m&m's...yum. The open house was from 7 to 10, and as "kin" (commonly used term in Texas for "as close as family because we grew up in a tiny, rural town together") to the Mattsons, we stayed almost the entire time. 
I took pictures...with Cynthia's camera. Don't have them, sorry.


Anyway, Jesse was already annoyed about the car falling apart, and then I starved him all night. Poor guy needed some real food. At 10:30 PM we pulled into a little pizza place called Luigi's. We each ordered a slice, but then they said it was easier for them to just make a medium for us to share. We finished it in 10 minutes. 
I would have taken a picture, but I was too busy eating 4 slices of pizza. 


On SATURDAY, Jesse and I hung out with Rand and Cynthia. We shopped at a fancy mall (I got navy Sperry's!:), got BBQ for lunch, and then went to an international festival in downtown Houston. That night we met up with Hayley and Jeff and we all went to a ballet showcase at an outdoor theater with free grass seating. 

International Festival - lots of greasy food and sweaty people,  including us

Grass seats at the outdoor theater - Jesse is SO happy to be at the ballet

Not the best BBQ in Texas, but I guess it beats a meal of licorice and chocolate.

Jesse took the car to a tire shop and they took the skip plate off, so our ride home wasn't nearly as annoying as the ride down. Plus, we stopped for BBQ!

I love new shoes, nice weather, BBQ, Houston, the Mattsons and the Rosenbaughs, ballets, duct tape, picnics, people-watching, road trips with Jesse, and FUN WEEKENDS!!!!

We're back...for now

I apologize for not blogging...since 2010. It's already March. I don't know where our January and February went. Jesse has already taken two tests this semester and has another one on Friday. I've had a bunch of rotations, including four in-patient (cancer, heart stuff, stomach stuff, and diabetes), two weeks of outpatient counseling, two weeks of employee wellness at Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, and right now I'm at the Food Bank. Needless to say, we've kept ourselves busy with homework and studying, but we've also had little fun. 

Last Tuesday, we celebrated Jesse's 26th birthday. I got him tickets to the Jazz game (at the American Airlines Center) on the 23rd (the day after his birthday), which worked out quite nicely. You might be asking yourself..."How did you afford tickets to the Mavs/Jazz game at the AA Center on a medical student/intern stipend budget?" I'll tell you. I gave blood through Carter Blood at work, and I got a two-for-one ticket coupon to a Maverick's game (i.e. I partially purchased the tickets with a pint of my blood). If that isn't love, I'm not sure what is. :) The proof is in the ticket.

We were really excited to go to the game. Can you see it in our faces?

On Jesse's actual birthday (February 22nd), I made his requested dinner (Beef Tourtiere - a.k.a. meat pie). Based on his request, I've come to the conclusion that I make too much "girl food", but I feel like I've made huge improvements since we've gotten married. I make meals. Actual meals. I think I could count on one hand the number of times I cooked with fresh (or frozen) meat during senior year at BYU. If Keri and I got out a pan to make quesadillas, it was a good day. I'm telling you, I've made improvements. Here's the meat pie. Yum :)  

I went a little crazy with the slits in the crust. 

I also made Jesse the standard birthday cake - yellow cake with chocolate frosting. I even topped it with all 26 of the candles it deserved. I even used a fancy, imported butter from the fancy grocery store across the street. Oh, Central Market, how I love thee.

Happy Birthday to Jesse!

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!!!