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.

The sacrifices we make for medicine

Yesterday I willingly gave up my $90 pair of adidas hiking shoes to learn how to put an IV in.


A couple classmates and I went climbing out in Portland (wonderful rock by the way!) and there my classmate who is in Search and Rescue for the army volunteered to teach me how to do an IV... in the wilderness. It was awesome and absolutely not sterile. I succeeded in my second poke, but my friend gave up 20 cc's of blood for the cause. Hey, you can't always get it right the first time. Those 20 cc's ended up running down my leg and pooling to my shoe because his arm was resting on my leg.

You live and you learn!!

first exam + life

i got results from my first exam, which I used to gauge how much effort I will have to put into the school year, and the good news is that I can still do well and enjoy my life!

two weekends ago the Physician's Assistants (PAs) held a kick-ball tournament to raise money for some sort of thing that they do, and I participated. I am proud to have caught one ball out, but my kicking abilities are rough. I was really happy to see how well our classmates got along though!

The weather in Portland for the last three weeks has been amazing... and I've gone to the park so many times. I really wish I could somehow transfer my old life into Portland because it's such a great city (just wait for a couple months until I start complaining about the rain).

anatomy + beer

yesterday a couple friends and I got together to watch an upper limb anatomy dissection on DVD and drink PBR every time the presenter would say selected word(s). I believe the first segment's selected words were "acromion" and "muscle." We moved from there to "branch" and then "tendon." In the end it got pretty crazy. I think the whole event lasted two hours, and I feel like I surprisingly learned more than I expected to.

Med school is awesome.

School

I've been meaning to write for the last couple days, but I haven't had time to get around to it.

Life has gotten hectic again, and I remember how much I loved this lifestyle in LA. There are a lot of activities I'm interested in, and I'm slowly finding my niche in terms of things to do/volunteer work/socializing/friends.

the pace is ridiculous but it's pretty amazing stuff we're learning, so I can't complain. I feel like I'm getting my money's worth.