Garden

A vegetable garden is one of the first things that we wanted to have when moving into a house. We purchased several gardening books over the last two years seemingly just to torture ourselves as we longed for some green space of our own. Now that we finally have that space, the gardening has begun.

We decided to start everything from seed even though we were behind the spring planting curve. We decided on a mix of plants that included tomatoes, squash, peas, some herbs, marigolds, and poppies. The direct sow seeds have done marvelously so far; the indirect not so much. Impatience got the better of us with the glacial progress of the wimpy seedlings that were growing in the house, and decided that since it was unlikely to freeze here in June to go ahead and plant them. They withered up in 24 hours. 

Plan B consisted of buying a few tomato plants from a nearby garden shop, which we have managed to keep alive thus far. I started off thinking about going geek with the garden and meticulously tracking dates, weather, successes and failures, but decided to just let nature take its course and figure it out over time. That and pay attention to the simple directions on seed packets next year. 

Progress

I spent some time the other day thinking about why it has been so long since either one of us has posted anything. Being busy jumped to the top of the list, but specifically for me there were several other reasons. First, the pace of fourth year was a little frantic. I had several rotations where I was only on a service for a week, which based on the volume and the fact that posts would have been low quality kept me from writing about them. In addition to that the application and interview process was stressful, and I was weary about posting my thoughts online. Of course anyone who read before knows by now that our lives have moved forward even as the blog has stayed silent.

Erin transfered to a different department at her hospital, I matched into general surgery here in Memphis, we own a house, and I graduated from medical school. I am going to say there is no time like the present and just skip the details.

There will be a slight shift in the focus of the blog since I have decided that writing about my job could get murky. There are a lot of concerns about privacy and professionalism when writing about medicine and many well-intentioned people have created big problems for themselves. Some get around this by writing anonymously which grants the freedom to write nearly anything they want, but that isn't a path I am interested in at this point since I can't keep up with even one place to post content. Posts about residency will be pretty general and perhaps less interesting, but hopefully still insightful to those who just want to know the basics.

I am going to spend some more time writing about the domestic front and the progress of our first home. There are a lot of things that really excite me about the house on Melrose, and some things that certainly need work.

Time to beat some life back into this old blog, hope everyone enjoys the revival.

PS

Island 49

We don't know much about Arkansas. It is called "The Natural State," is home to the Ozark Mountains and Bill Clinton, and we both see a lot of patients from the Eastern half of the state. After our first anniversary weekend though, we can tell you that it has an amazing natural wonder called Lake Ouachita (WAH-shi-tah).


It is the largest lake in Arkansas, created by the construction of the Blakely Mountain Dam which was completed in 1954 for flood control and power generation. When the area flooded it created hundreds of small islands where the hilltops used to be. The vast majority of the area is a national forest, although there is a small state park as well.

We decided to spend our first anniversary camping. Camping trips over the past year had been foiled several times due to work schedules or weather, but the first weekend of October was looking to be perfect for us to commence our first camping journey together. We had acquired new camping gear over the last year that we were eager to try out and were looking forward to a weekend outdoors. Lake Ouachita seemed like a unique place to camp on the lakeshore.

The trip started out inauspiciously. We arrived at the state park campground and were told that due to it being a busy weekend and the fact that about half of their campsites had been wiped out in a tornado in April, the only campsite available were Class AAA. That means an RV can pull up and set up shop with full water and electrical hookups. Not exactly roughing it. The ranger also mentioned that we could canoe out to one of the islands and camp, but we weren't sure we had prepared enough for that. We took one of the sites left and drove off to see what was in store for us.

To our horror, next door was a camper with large support struts deployed in all directions, a satellite dish setup, outdoor rug and chairs, a tricycle, a Razorbacks spare tire cover, and a dog sitting outside. We were just going to try and make the best of it, but when we rolled the tent out and it only covered one quarter of the allotted space we quickly packed up and rushed back to the ranger's station. That was not the weekend we had envisioned. We decided to take a risk and canoe out to a nearby island and see how we fared.


It turned out to be the best camping experience either of us have ever had. We tossed all of our gear into our rented canoe and paddled into the sunset for 45 minutes, found an island the ranger suggested, and quickly set up camp on the ridge before we ran out of daylight. The island was about a third of a mile long and a quarter mile wide, and we were it's only inhabitants the first night we were there. There was a rock pile for a fire ring constructed by previous guests. Each of the islands is numbered by the Army Corps of Engineers, and ours was number 49.


The weather was ideal; it happened to be a great Fall weekend with highs in the 70s and which cooled to the 40s overnight, and not a cloud in sight. We found that despite our initial reluctance we were prepared for a real wilderness experience. We had brought enough water to drink, and used the lake water for cooking. We had some great backpacking recipes that used dry and dehydrated ingredients in a creative way to create good food. During the day we walked the island, went swimming in the beautiful lake, read, and played a game of Scrabble. We had cell service and checked the score of the doomed Florida/Alabama game a few times. After all, we are Gators.


When Sunday morning greeted us, we were able to eat, pack up our campsite and toss everything back in the canoe, and paddle back to the marina. We laughed throughout the weekend at how awful it would have been had we stayed next to the Clampett's back at the campground. Canoe camping is a really great way to get a wilderness experience without having to hike for hours. The added bonus of the canoe is that it can haul more gear than we could have taken on our backs.


It was hard to believe that it had been a year since our wedding, and we talked often about how much fun that day was. It was nice to reminisce about having all of our friends and family together. We have had a fantastic year together, and hope to make this next one even better. We miss all of you, and certainly hope to see you soon!

dinnerz. updated.

P is on a really weird schedule this month and every 3rd day he is at the med from sun up to sun up the following day. So our "week" of meals usually last 2 weeks with me eating something random (spaghetti, waffles...see what I mean) every 3rd night. Meals this "week" included:

1. Asian Rice & Veggie Bowl
Veggies + Rice + eggs = SO good. super light with brown rice (under veggies), oh and also spicy! I used the leftovers the next day for lunch. I wrapped it up in a tortilla with hoisin/peanut butter sauce...which was genius and even better than the night before. P was pretty jealous.

2. Chicken Pita with Tzatziki sauce
This dish was hands down this weeks winner. I think we both wanted to eat about 5o of these suckers.

3. Shrimp, Leek, & Spinach pasta
I will give this one about a 3 out of a 5. I like pasta, I like shrimp, I like spinach...but put them all together not so good.

4. Indian Meatballs
P made this one on a night I went and ate dinner with a coworker after our shift. Sorry no picture. He did say it was a horrible recipe which I agreed with when I had some for lunch the next day. I blame the recipe though, I think it was trying to be too healthy with lean ground turkey as the base.

5. Tuscan Salmon with Rosemary OrzoAnother good one. I have a love/hate relationship with salmon though. sometimes I am just not in the mood.

BUT I did bake this:
I was channeling my inner joy the baker and it turned out delicious! I may or may not have gone a little overboard with the feta...just saying.

dinnerz.

Meals this week include:

1. Asian Rice & Veggie Bowl
2. Chicken Pita with Tzatziki sauce
3. Shrimp, Leek, & Spinach pasta
4. Indian Meatballs
5. Tuscan Salmon with Rosemary Orzo

What's on your list?

Me & Julia Child's kitchen (Washington, DC)

Stop! Whatever you are making for dinner tonight...make this.

Chicken Chilaquiles (adapted from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast)


Serves: 4 and makes fantastic leftovers

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon EVOO
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 can (28 oz) whole peeled tomatoes in puree
1 small can chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, finely chopped (found in mexican aisle)...I used whole can, why waste?
Salt
1 small roasted chicken, skinned and shredded (about 4 cups)
1/2 cup cilantro + more for garnish
4 cups tortilla chips
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup crumbled feta

Recipe:
1. Combine oil and garlic in large saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the garlic is fragrant and sizzling, 1 to 2 minutes.
2. Add the tomato can (breaking up tomatoes), chipotles and adobo sauce, and 1 cup water. Bring to a boil; season with salt. Reduce the heat and simmer rapidly until lightly thickened, 6 to 8 minutes.
3. Add the chicken and cook, stirring, until hot, about 1 minute. Remove from heat; stir in chopped cilantro.
4. Divide the chips among 4 shallow bowls; top with the chicken mixture and sauce. Garnish with cilantro, sour cream, and feta. Yum.

Week 3

Week 3

Recipe 1: Chicken soup with chickpeas, Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights

Turmeric makes for some radioactive color-like dishes. But apparently it is really good for you, cancer fighting good. Also really yummy to eat.

Recipe 2: Tomato Lasagna, Apples for Jam (Side dish, Green Beans with caramelized shallots, Everyday Food: Great Food Fast)

Eh. Did not care for this dish...and it's 100 leftovers. Next time I will look for a cheesier, meatier version.

Recipe 3: Shrimp Tacos, How to Cook Everything

We LOVE tacos in this household. These passed the excellent taste test. Shrimp was also really easy to make.

Recipe 4: Napa-Valley Basil Burgers, Build a Better Burger

Plain and simple with a hint of basil. Very good indeed.

Recipe 5: Winter Squash Curry, How to Cook Everything

Just made this last night. First time making anything with butternut squash. I don't think I peeled enough of the outer layer off. I will know for next time. They were not kidding when they suggested using a sledge hammer to cut it into pieces...don't fear, I didn't do that!

Week 4 starts today! Yay!