seattle!

this past weekend I took a trip up to Seattle with some of my classmates to visit a friend and also explore a new city.

Overall it was a fun trip, some highlights:

- having some brownies and then playing in the park swings, and falling off.
- chilling at some bar/lounges
- walking around aimlessly in the freezing cold
- 2:30 am nachos
- World-record breaking Thriller dance party at 11 a.m. in the morning (we were only there for 10 minutes, but it was an awesome choreographed dance)
- Pike Place
- Fantastic Brie sandwich
- Throwing around nerf football
- Seattle City Center Fountain blasting in conjunction to Beethoven's 9th symphony
- Wandering around the city by myself for hours
- Pool (not swimming)
- 2:00 am nachos, brownies, and cards
- "You know what's cool? Spaceships."

new blog

hi folks,

i think i'm going to start a new blog - i don't want this one to always revolve around food.

the website is: pudgyfreeanudgy.blogspot.com


in other news, i went through all my old music today and it brought back a lot of great memories.

It's so easy to forget the past when living in the present, so I'm glad I have little reminders like music, photos, postcards, tidbits, etc. of good times.

Groundworks Organics CSA

today was our first pick-up of our fall CSA program (Community Supported Agriculture).

For 22 bucks, I think we got a great selection and deal of organic vegetables.

So for dinner I became inspired and made:

- roasted rainbow beet salad with herb goat cheese and a raspberry basil vinaigrette
- roasted acorn squash stuffed with curried pumpkin cous-cous, potatoes, and almonds
- roasted broccoli and carrots
- pumpkin chocolate chip bread

I guess I was just in a roasting mood.

I need to hurry up and finish medical school so I can open a restaurant.

concert goings and whatnot

I don't think I blogged about the MusicFest NorthWest concert series when it was happening, but it was pretty dang awesome. Many of the venues in Portland got together and hosted a bunch of local and non-local famous bands to play - fun times.

This past wednesday I went to see Stars! That was great, their new cd is pretty dang pleasant to listen to. I really need to start limiting myself though, or I may get carried away.

Oh! I also went to this independently (for lack of better description) written and produced play at some small theater in SE Portland called Vladamir Vladamir. It was about a Ukrainian magician and parallel universes - that was funny too, and free! because one of my classmates is in the stage crew. Yay for free activities.

Other happenings that have began are Thursday night dinners and poker - both which I look forward to every week. I missed cooking so regularly when I was traveling and it's nice to get together with the guys and play some poker, drink some beers, and chat about nonsense.

I'm trying hard.

med school = fun?

i don't think I would have imagined med school being so much fun last year, but it hasn't been destroying my life (yet.)

i've been keeping up with my exercise, cooking, exploring, etc. I don't feel like my life has changed to much, except that I smell like cadaver almost every day.

last night I went to this pretty amazing restaurant, Navarre (why i'm posting the blog... I think more of these places should exist). They're a locally supported restaurant which has its food delivered from local farms. The only things that are not local there are the delicious, fruity olive oil, the plethora of wines, and some of the proteins.

the best thing about this place is how you can order dinner. Essentially I told our waitress to please bring out food for us, a nice bottle of wine for us to share, and to surprise us with dessert.

the meal was fantastic! and an outline follows:

- fresh baked french loaf with really crusty outsides (served with the fruity olive oil)
- pickled vegetables
- green salad with tomatoes and a simple vinaigrette
- octopus and potato salad
- crab cakes (with real crab! amazing.)
- tomato and dill salad
- 1st glass of red wine
- halibut with tomatillo sauce
- steamed trout with what tasted like chinese 5 spice, but was sicilian spices
- broccoli and lentils
- sauteed peppers and chanterelle mushrooms
- mixed beans with lobster mushrooms (not lobsters and mushrooms, but lobster mushrooms)
- 2nd glass of red wine
- plums poached in red wine
- chocolate mousse

the serving sizes were such as those of tapas. i was thrilled by the fresh food, because it was prepared in front of us and each thing was made every time it was ordered.

also, the meal went by at a nice eating pace and I did not feel rushed. It was a wonderful Saturday night meal to end the week and chat with friends.

back to studying for exam 2.