Currently viewing the tag: "MyLife"
Things have been a bit slow on the blog lately, but I have a good excuse! This Friday, I’m leaving to spend two months in California working in hospitals at Stanford and San Francisco. I’ve been spending my “blogging time” savoring as many moments as I can with Pat before we’re apart for two months.
This weekend, we headed to Chicago so I could run the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon. More on that later. On the way home, we stopped at Culver’s for some well-deserved custard (1). So, so good. There was a classic car meetup in town and there were many old jalopies to admire in the parking lot.
Two of Pat’s friends from his study abroad days in South Africa were in town. We checked out Forequarter (2), the new restaurant from Underground Food Collective. It was fantastic. Even simple things like an heirloom tomato appetizer were done so thoughtfully. They also had great craft cocktails with fun ingredients like rhubarb! It was so nice to catch up with old friends.
Pat surprised me with a scone from our favorite breakfast spot, Lazy Jane’s. Their scones are legendary and are so popular they have to limit the number people buy. (3)
Pat also made these awesome pancakes (4) with blueberries, chocolate chips, pecans and nutmeg. What can I say, I’m spoiled!
My cookbook giveaway ends Thursday! Make sure to leave a comment on this post to enter!
Lately, backyard movie nights have been all over the blogosphere. I was inspired to put together my own fête, with the help of Pat and my friend Julie. It was much simpler than I had anticipated, because Julie has this awesome almost windowless wall that faces her even awesomer backyard. I rented a projector from the school’s library and got a DVD from Redbox, which made the total cost for this activity $1.27. I still cannot get over how great the projection looked. We watched Moneyball, with Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill. It’s the story of how a baseball team used statistics and algorithms to create a successful team. It was a great choice, as it had sports for the guys and for the ladies….Brad Pitt!
I used this template from One Charming Party to make popcorn boxes for the snack table. Someone at school had thrown away a stack of bright yellow file folders, which I rescued and ran through the printer.
I created my own template in photoshop for the film snack labels. Here is what they looked like:
I have them in both PDF and JPEG. The PDF has them repeated so you have a four filmstrips that you can cut up as you’d like. The JPEG is a single label.
.PDF Film Strip Labels
.JPEG Film Strip Labels
Here was the menu. I’ll post links as I get the recipes up:
- Sweet and Spicy Bacon Popcorn
- Oreo Cookie Bark
- White Truffle and Cracked Pepper Popcorn
- Caprese Couscous Salad
All of the recipes were very simple to make. I made all four the day of the movie and it only took me an afternoon!
The night went off so well we have plans to do it again soon – we might even make it a weekly thing.
Here are the links to the film strip labels again:
.PDF Film Strip Labels
.JPEG Film Strip Labels
A serious heatwave hit the Midwest last week. Temperatures were in the nineties to the low hundreds with no relief of heat even during the night! The temps made it pretty hard to function. We don’t have air conditioning, so Pat and I made an effort to look on the bright side.
I tried to pretend that my bathroom was a spa. After all, when it is 100 degrees indoors, your bathroom comes with heated towels, warmed lotion, and toasty tile floors! We also took the opportunity to go out to eat and use up a couple of gift certificates. It also made being at the hospital more enjoyable, because I knew the alternative was sitting at home not wanting to move. We couldn’t run the faucet long enough to get the water cold, so all of our drinking water was lukewarm. All the better to dissolve Crystal Light in, right?
Now that the temps have settled down (highs in the high 80′s to low 90′s, whoo!), it’s nice to enjoy being outside again. It’s nice to feel a cool breeze when you sleep. It’s nice to not have to wake up to run at 5:00am so you can workout before it’s 100 degrees out. It’s nice to really appreciate the summer weather I was taking for granted before.
P.S. – Did you see this video? It actually happened in Wisconsin. Thankfully no one got seriously injured!!!
Image via
This update is actually the past two weekends! We had a lot of adventures, from dog sitting to hosting couchsurfers to fitness activities. Click on the above picture to see a larger version.
This past two weekends we:
1. Watered the garden of a neighbor who is on vacation for the week. This is her backyard. For the moment, I am pretending it is my backyard and that we have a huge lakehouse!
2-5. Did a 30 mile bike ride today and with a stop for an angus burger with bacon at the Paoli Bread and Brat House. It was awesome!
6. Hosted a German girl and her Chicagoan friend on Friday night. Saturday morning I took them to the farmer’s market and to tour our beautiful state capitol. They found us through Couchsurfing.
7. Finished the silverware for our wedding, as seen in this post.
8-10. Made time to enjoy our morning coffee by the lake, complete with baby ducks.
11. Met up with Benji for a drink at Nostrano and admired his self-portrait someone made for him.
12-14. Had my first experience with dog-sitting. Mo and Bella are two high-energy dogs who were happy to take me for a run twice a day!
15. Our orchids are growing like crazy! The little $9 orchid that I got in August from Trader Joe’s now has three separate stems and so many flowers we had to get extra stakes to help support them!
According to my phone….
1. This weekend brought lots of beautiful sunsets and time enjoying the outdoors. Now that exams are done, I can catch my breath a little!
2. We met up with friends to catch a great band at the Memorial Union Terrace
2. This weekend also brought lots of bike rides, including the Tour de Food and some B-cycling of course!
3. We used a Groupon to the Melting Pot. Yummm, fondue.
4. We live in a very liberal…creative….neighborhood. Pat spotted this gal on our way home from the Melting Pot. Note the hulu hoop.
This past weekend, Pt and I joined some friends to do a bike ride to support a local food co-op. The idea was a 35 mile bike ride in the beautiful Wisconsin countryside with numerous stops along the way at local farms for snacks.
I should have been suspicious that the price tag for such an event was only $25. It was a beautiful day and I had a blast spending it with friends, but the ride was a bit of a bust. For starters, the route was not marked, so we had to rely on a printed out google map to navigate ourselves. I’m taking it as a small victory that we only got lost…twice.
Our route had four farms on it. As we rolled into the first stop, most of us had skipped breakfast, so we were starving. Visions of free range eggs and organic bacon danced in our heads. Imagine our surprise when we were offered grapes!
The next farm was even worse. They informed us that they had run out of iced tea – and ice – and offered us some lukewarm water. By the time we made it to the third stop, we were starving. There, we were treated to organic popcorn and you-pick organic strawberries. This was definitely a step up, but I would have given my pinky finger for a granola bar or some gatorade! In the end, we decided to bypass the last farm and make a beeline for the “huge after party with local beer tasting”.
There, we enjoyed a spaghetti lunch with grass fed beef – which was delicious. The “beer tasting” turned out to be a taste of beer. Each of us was handed a dixie cup of a local Wisconsin brew.
I’m still not sure that I got my $25 worth, but it was a fun day with friends and a great way to see some of the Wisconsin countryside!
This has been a busy week. Yesterday, I had a four hour exam that I need to pass to officially start my fourth year of medical school. It consisted of fake patients who had concerns that we had to diagnose and treat. There was a whole range of topics covered, everything from gynecology to trauma surgery. It was pretty draining and it didn’t make things better that this morning I have to take a big exam for my psych rotation. I have a few DIY posts in the works that I’m hoping to finish up this weekend! In the meantime, enjoy these pictures from the Burberry Resort 2013 Collection! I’m really digging the classic neutrals and earth tones. I want one of each!
Photos via Wit & Delight via Style
Today is a big day in Wisconsin. There is a recall election for our governor for the first time in Wisconsin history. Pat and I waited in line for the polls to open at 7:00 this morning. There was already a line out the door! Based on other people’s statuses on Facebook more people have voted by 9:00am in this election than by 8:00pm for the primary. No matter what your political leanings are, I hope everyone in Wisconsin gets out to do their civic duty today.
Highlights from this weekend:
- Healthy and delicious ricotta oat bran pancakes (recipe below)
- Time in our backyard park
- Greek yogurt ice cream with fresh blackberries
- Blooming tea
- Our porch garden
- Studying for my psychiatry shelf exam and Step 2 board certification exam
- Spending time with my love
Ricotta Oat Bran Pancakes
Adapted from Chatelaine
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
- 1/3 cup oat bran
- 1/8 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- Pinch salt
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup light ricotta
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 2 tbsp safflower or other oil + 1 tbsp, divided
- Stir flour with oat bran, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl until mixed.
- Whisk eggs in a medium-sized bowl. Whisk in ricotta, milk, vanilla and 2T oil. Make a well in flour mixture. Pour in egg mixture and stir just until blended.
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Lightly brush with remaining oil as needed. When hot, scoop desired amount of batter into pan. Repeat for each pancake. Cook until bubbles form on the top, 2 to 3 min. Flip and cook until golden brown, about 2 more min. Reduce heat if pancakes are browning too quickly. Remove and cover to keep warm. Repeat with remaining batter. Serve with syrup.
Makes 2 very large or 4 regular-sized pancakes
These pancakes are a favorite at our place. They are healthy and packed with protein – and most importantly – delicious!
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