Do you cook?

As I rushed (why am I always 5-10 minutes later than I intend to be?) to take my usual seat next to A, she turned to ask, "Hey T, do you cook?"

My first thought was, I sure do! But I guess if you get down to the nitty-gritty of it, I still need my mom to make some staples for me that I can then incorporate into meals. Why, you ask? Well, I refuse to touch raw meat. I just...cannot. It doesn't help that we just finished the food-borne pathogens module in Microbio. I'm sure I'll get over it soon, but to quote TV-version Syrio Forel, "Not today."

But I digress. This week I worked on some pasta dishes.

Top with even more parmesan cheese if so desired!

Pesto sauce*
1 clove garlic
1/8 cup pine nuts (I usually add a little more, or throw in some walnuts too)
1/2 cup loosely packed basil leaves (dry works fine too, be sure to adjust measurement)
1/4 cup loosely packed Italian parsley (can substitute spinach or cilantro, too)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Salt as needed (I usually skip)

Blend in a food processor and that's it! I'll usually make double the recipe and keep the rest in the fridge.

My mom had made the chicken for me when she visited a few weeks ago. Basically, chicken breasts that she marinated with various spices like red and black crushed pepper, and baked. I heated them up in the pan and then combined the pasta, chicken, and sauce.

*Recipe taken from my awesome Williams-Sonoma Baking Book.

Since I had a lot of pasta left over, I also made some with meat sauce.

Meat sauce*
1/2 pound ground beef (or turkey)
1 can tomato sauce
2 tablespoons red pepper paste
Garlic
Salt
Black and red dry pepper
Oregano or Italian seasoning

Toss with pasta and done!

*Mom's recipe!

But lest you think I'm some kind of chef-in-training, I am also guilty of doing things that show exactly how much common sense (or as my brother loves to points out, "street smarts") I am blessed with. I had a few frozen meatballs in a tiny little plastic tupperware that I thought I could just stick in the microwave. FOR FIVE MINUTES. There was smoke coming out the microwave, the food, the container, everything. My little tupperware sure lost its brave battle.

 

I'll have to think of a better title later

Wow, sometimes I have to remind myself that I have a blog. When I started this, I had the goal of posting at least on a weekly basis. That has since dwindled down to monthly, yikes! New goal: biweekly? Baby steps.

Studying Microbio with my favorite mug by my side.

Yours truly made hummus from scratch.

HuGE Valentine's Week at school. Aka the best college to be part of :) LOVE these chocolate roses.

This week, I got to see college friend S who is in med school on the East Coast. It was so great catching up and seeing her. I think I hadn't seen her in person for at least 1.5 years. :) And I also learned you can tie individual challah rolls with a surgical knot (ha!). See below for beautiful result...not that I can take the credit, though.

Homemade brownies and challah bread. Thanks for such a great night!

Block 2 has actually been a little more stressful than I anticipated, especially with the added clinic responsibility. I really love some of the classes, but others have been a little more challenging and I've had to devote more time to study those and adjust my way of thinking. But I think I'm getting better and the material is much more clinically relevant so I actually feel like I am in med school and can go through cases. However, to combat that stress, I brought back some books (YA fiction, of course!) from home when I went for the long weekend and am trying to read at least a chapter every couple of days or so. 

Yummy yummy in my tummy

So back in October, my mom came up for the weekend and this happened:

It sure lasted me a while. This week I used up the last bit of meat to make a red pepper paste-garlic-turkey-bulgur concoction:

Typical dinner at Chez T

And these crescent rolls are ridiculously easy to make. Just put a mixture of thyme seeds and olive oil and bake for 20 minutes until golden-brown. Super fast and easy. You can also do a parmesan-oregano spread instead or even Nutella and chocolate chips (see friend's blog here for recipe). :)

I like YA fiction and I cannot lie

Every year I look back and list the books I've read throughout the months. I usually average 23 books per year, but of course this year it's going to be half that number. I did not read a single book between mid-July and mid-December, sigh. Here are some thoughts:

1-4) The Caster Chronicles by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

I read these because I was intrigued by the trailer for Beautiful Creatures and like to read books before I see the story on the big screen. The story is much more rich and you are the one creating the imagery in your mind. The movie was okay. Not too bad, but I think it didn't do too well so I don't expect the other books to be made into films. I really really enjoyed reading this series. It had a nice blend of fantasy, romance, and mystery. I initially thought the beautiful creatures are the witches, or "casters," but it actually refers to humans. (BTW, that wasn't a spoiler, don't worry.) Pretty easy and fast read and you get hooked.

5) A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin

I admit, I put off reading this one because I am stubborn and was waiting for the paperback to come out so that my entire set would look the same (I have paperbacks of the first four books). But the publishing date kept getting pushed back...and back...and back. So I caved. I'm sure I actually would have held on to my resolve and waited for the paperback had I not been starting med school in a few months. Since these books are usually 1000+ pages, it's a huge commitment, and I really did want to finish (whatever's been published of) this series ASAP. It was one of my least favorites of the five, but perhaps I'm biased because the book is Dany-heavy and she is one of my least favorite characters. Sorry Khaleesi fans. (Side note: I know the show refers to her as Khaleesi a lot, too much for my taste in fact, but really that's a title, not her name. She is Dany. Please.)

Tell me this asymmetry does not give you heart palpitations.

6) The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

What a charming book. Don't expect a happy ending since the central premise revolves around two teenage cancer patients, but it's really sweet. Can't wait to see the movie!

7) Stiff by Mary Roach

A book about what happens to bodies after people donate them. Each chapter is dedicated to a different thing - anatomy lab, crash testing, forensic testing, etc. Not that morbid, believe me. And eyeopening.

8) This Won't Hurt a Bit (and Other White Lies They Tell You) by Michelle Au

Ha! Dr. Au has her own blog (the underwear drawer) and is the brilliance behind the scutmonkey comics. This is sort of an autobiography and I just love her tone and honest musings about third year, internship, residency, and how to balance work life with family life. She explicitly states things you know we are all thinking so it's very validating.

9-10) The City of Ember/The People of Sparks by Jeanne Du Prau

The first book in this series was gifted to me by one of my undergrads that I supervised at my old lab (cue the aww!). She apparently asked an employee at Barnes and Noble about something that would be appropriate for a Harry Potter fan (she knows me too well :) and this is what was recommended. I really liked it! It has the post-apocolyptic/dystopian future vibe that is so prevalent in lit these days, but the main characters are 11 or 12 years old so things are told from a more innocent/less jaded perspective which is refreshing and interesting when you realize what they are referring to through their descriptions. I didn't like the second book as much. It felt less character-driven and more plot-driven, but I still read through it. I started the third book as well, but I'm not sure if the same characters are going to show up since most of the storylines were tied up during the second book and the setting suddenly changed in the third. I stopped after the first chapter to switch over to Divergent (see: below), and now it's the end of break so I probably won't get to this for a while.

11-13) The Divergent Trilogy by Veronica Roth

I admit I wasn't too intrigued when I first heard about this series. I think I saw it on a BuzzFeed post or something and thought it looked mildly interesting so I wiki-ed it and didn't think I wanted to read it. Saw the trailer last month and thought, hmm, it does look good. And then one of my friends read the entire series in the middle of finals week because it was just that good. So of course I had to read it. I did spend the bulk of my reading time on this series and didn't get to read as many other books as I thought (I had 8 set aside, and got through 4 which is better than nothing!), but I don't care! It was so so good. I know a lot of people are disappointed with the way things ended, and I can definitely see why. There are a bunch of questions that are still open or the answer wasn't satisfying/didn't fit, but I'm not regretting reading it. I definitely cannot sit down and write a short story let alone a trilogy so you have to give credit where it's due. The books are definitely page-turners and they're easy. I don't think it's fair to compare to Harry Potter or The Hunger Games. They are all different. And at this point in my life, I'm reading more for entertainment than analysis (see: # of YA lit on this post) so I'm happy! Guess I will be seeing plenty of Shailene Woodley next (yikes!) this year at the movies.

Things I did over Winter break

Movies seen: 4
Books read: 4
Number of times went out with friends: too many to count

What a relaxing, glorious 16 days this has been. This was the first break that was truly a vacation - nothing to study, no presentations coming up, no clinic since I went back home for two weeks, no waking up with alarms. I cannot believe I go back tomorrow. I wish I had a timeturner. It's going to be back to the grind starting Monday, with more difficult classes (I presume), more responsibilities at clinic, and who knows what else.

Movies seen:
Catching Fire (again!), Frozen, The Desolation of Smaug, and 12 Years a Slave

Other fun stuff:

Annual Cooking Baking Pahtay. This was from last year because we ate all the cookies this year before I remembered to take a picture, ha!

Traditional BJs date with college friend R who is also in med school. Yeah, we go for the pizookies. :)

Three future docs

Block 1 Reflections

Block 1 is over! It really was a 20-week marathon...and I passed every class above average, bam! I figured I should write my thoughts about each since it's still fresh in my mind:

Physiology - I seriously thought this would be my easiest class, oh you know since I have a degree in it and all. It started out pretty easy, but once we got into the organ systems, things got super detailed and I was spending more time on this than I anticipated. I also went ahead and royally bombed the renal quiz. I mean hardcore failed it. Seriously. Which is sad since I felt like I had the best grasp on renal material in comparison to the heart or pulmonary sections. The problem was that the quiz was one case only and I missed a key physical exam finding (bad!) so I came up with the wrong diagnosis (very bad!) and my explanations therefore were tailored to this completely wrong conclusion. Oh well. It was sort of a wake up call in the sense that I don't think I was studying physio the way I should have. I was focusing too much on details and not considering the big picture or what physical exam findings would indicate. So in a way this was a good thing in that I really really really studied for the next module and reviewed very thoroughly for the final. I still ended up getting the lowest grade in this class among all of my block 1 classes, but oh well. The irony is not lost on me.

Anatomy - what a wonderful class. I feel sorry for other med students who have to study anatomy without our instructors. I mean they are seriously wonderful and stay waaaaay after class or come in just to review material with you if you need it. At first, I was annoyed that we had to do dissections and figured prosected bodies would make life and learning so much easier. But looking back I understand the importance of doing these things on your own and taking care of and learning from your person. Dorothy was such a great teacher. (Obviously her name isn't Dorothy. Maybe it is, but I don't know. My group thought she looked like a Dorothy so we named her that.) We wrote little notes for her and left her flowers after our final.

Histology - oh dear. This was my least favorite class (sorry!). Slides, slides, and more slides. What is there to say except that I coasted through the first 15 weeks of this class (like barely missed a question) and then missed A LOT of questions on the last couple of quizzes. So just like for physio, I rage studied for this final and did super well. Yay!

Biochemistry - it's biochem. What more is there to say? This year, the curriculum was adjusted slightly so that the genetics portion of Block 1 was switched with the Metabolism portion from Block 2. I think this was fine. Although the metabolism section was heavy and done in a very short amount of time, the clinical correlates really made the material stick for me, so I was happy with it.

Doctoring - I can do a full physical exam. Which is basically what I've been bragging to my friends back home and they probably want me to shut up and stop repeating that statement. But I can do a full physical exam. Oh yes. I can.

Overall - I do think I overstudy, but I also think that that is part of my personality. I like to be very thorough. It was the same in high school and undergrad. If a teacher said not to worry about a certain topic because it wouldn't be tested, I still studied it for my personal knowledge. There were quizzes where I triaged certain topics but I still studied everything (just not as thoroughly as I would like).

I am a little worried about Block 2 in the sense that this will be uncharted territory for me. I had already taken most of the classes offered in Block 1 but EVERYTHING in Block 2 will be new material: Pharmacology, Pathology, Microbiology, Immunology, Endocrine/Reproduction/Nutrition/Genetics (well maybe I know a little bit of ENRG after all). Just have to take it one day at a time and adjust things if necessary.

Goodies for finals from my Big Sib!

Dinner and a Movie...with a side of influenza

I saw Ender's Game a few days ago. (Confession: I actually have not read the books. I know. I know. Embarrassing. I hadn't even heard of the series.). I really liked it. At first, all I could think about was Hugo Cabret since the lead character was in that movie, ha! But the plot was captivating and intriguing. I hear the books delve into ethical considerations a lot more, so I think I'll read the first one over winter break. Don't know how far along I'll get in the series though - it's apparently 12+ books. That's a lot of commitment at this point. Sad. But true.

My lab group and I also went to dinner at this Mexican restaurant I've been wanting to try. But if you ever want a twist on dinner, you should do what one of our class presidents organized for us: Progressive Dinners! You go to someone's house for the Appetizer course, then the group plus the Appetizer host head over the Main Course house, and then the group and Main Course host end up at the final house for Dessert. Your group gets bigger at each point since you're bringing along the previous course's host so it's super-fun and tasty. My classmates are so talented. :)

Unfortunately, though, I am now sick. What was the point of that mandatory flu shot, again? Ugh. Luckily, it was a light weekend so I didn't have much to study. Unfortunately, it was a light weekend and I didn't have a lot to study...so I could have been doing other things. :( I even had to cancel my clinic shift.

Five days till Catching Fire comes out! Ten days till I'm home for Thanksgiving! Cannot freaking wait.