Monday, March 29, 2010
It actually does happen!
Have you ever been to a restaurant, and maybe somewhere up near the front, there is a bowl where you can drop in your business card and enter to win a free meal? I have never done such a thing, mainly because I do not have a business card, but also I don't usually think that I would actually win such a free meal even if I did enter. Well luckily my friend Victoria took that chance and she ended up winning dinner for 10 at Chipoltle. So last night, our small group feasted on healthy Mexican food for free! Thanks Victoria, and thanks Chipoltle!
Monday, March 15, 2010
Favorite things
On another blog I read (the Mouro Family), Laura the mom asked her 5 oldest kids to name their 10 favorite things. It was fun to read them, and I started thinking about 10 of my favorite things. Here they are, in no particular order:
1. Frozen yogurt
2. Any hot drink (tea, coffee, hot chocolate, etc.)
3. Diet coke
4. Cozy things (pajamas, blankets, socks)
5. Running
6. Big furry dogs
7. Semester break
8. Hanging out with friends
9. Ben
10. Ally
Okay, okay, I have more than 10 favorites!!! I can't help it! So here are my bonus favorites:
1. Playing music (ringing handbells, playing oboe, and singing), especially if I'm part of an ensemble
2. Seeing family over the holidays
3. Advent/Christmas
4. Scented candles
What are some of your favorite things? Leave me a comment!
1. Frozen yogurt
2. Any hot drink (tea, coffee, hot chocolate, etc.)
3. Diet coke
4. Cozy things (pajamas, blankets, socks)
5. Running
6. Big furry dogs
7. Semester break
8. Hanging out with friends
9. Ben
10. Ally
Okay, okay, I have more than 10 favorites!!! I can't help it! So here are my bonus favorites:
1. Playing music (ringing handbells, playing oboe, and singing), especially if I'm part of an ensemble
2. Seeing family over the holidays
3. Advent/Christmas
4. Scented candles
What are some of your favorite things? Leave me a comment!
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Changing tastes
On my bus ride to and from school, I usually do some kind of light reading. Lately, I have been catching up on my backlog of Runner's World magazines. In several of the issues, there is this one page for a hotel ad, and it features a picture of someone cooking an omelet. This omelet picture always catches my eye and I find myself staring at it and salivating, either because I'm really hungry at the time or because all the ingredients look so fresh and tasty. So today I decided to do something about it: I made a large omelet for dinner. It had tomatoes, red onions, cheese, bell pepper, broccoli, and sausage. It was darn good. Ben and I ate it up, and Ally seemed to enjoy the bits and pieces we gave to her.
Okay, so this sounds pretty normal; nothing too weird and crazy about an omelet. However, it was only a couple years ago that I would have turned my nose up at an omelet. Now I am not a picky eater, but throughout most of my life, there were 4 foods that I absolutely would not touch. They were:
1. Eggs in any form
2. Mushrooms
3. Avacados
4. Canned beets
I didn't like eggs or mushrooms because they tended to smell funny when cooked and they had sort of a rubbery texture, and I didn't like the taste of beets or avacados. But over the last few years, I have had several of these foods prepared in different ways and I am now accepting of them.
1. Eggs: if you put a lot of stuff on them, they don't taste, smell, or feel so "eggy." I particularly like cheese on my eggs. Also, we only buy the free range eggs, and I think they taste a lot better and don't have that rubbery texture or weird sulfur smell when cooked.
2. Mushrooms: I have to credit my friend Jim Hynes for turning me back towards liking mushrooms. We were at his house about 6 years ago for dinner and he made Boeuf Bourguignon, which of course had mushrooms in it. I remember thinking when I was eating it, "Oh boy, there sure are a lot of mushrooms in this sauce, but I don't want to seem rude by picking them out, so I'll just suck it up and eat them." What do you know, the sauce actually made them taste okay. After that, I was like, "Hmm, maybe if I cook the mushrooms with a lot of other stuff, they won't be so mushroomy." This theory worked. We now use mushrooms in a lot of our stir-frys. We like portabellos and the exotic mushroom blends (shittake, oyster) the best. I will be honest though, I am not a fan of canned mushrooms, as they are a bit too rubbery, and sometimes those button mushrooms still smell weird when cooked.
3. Avacaodoes: Guacamole. It's my new favorite condiment.
I still can't stomach those canned bright red beets though. I tried them again about 2 years ago, and I still think they taste really gross. Ah well, 3 out of 4 isn't bad.
Okay, so this sounds pretty normal; nothing too weird and crazy about an omelet. However, it was only a couple years ago that I would have turned my nose up at an omelet. Now I am not a picky eater, but throughout most of my life, there were 4 foods that I absolutely would not touch. They were:
1. Eggs in any form
2. Mushrooms
3. Avacados
4. Canned beets
I didn't like eggs or mushrooms because they tended to smell funny when cooked and they had sort of a rubbery texture, and I didn't like the taste of beets or avacados. But over the last few years, I have had several of these foods prepared in different ways and I am now accepting of them.
1. Eggs: if you put a lot of stuff on them, they don't taste, smell, or feel so "eggy." I particularly like cheese on my eggs. Also, we only buy the free range eggs, and I think they taste a lot better and don't have that rubbery texture or weird sulfur smell when cooked.
2. Mushrooms: I have to credit my friend Jim Hynes for turning me back towards liking mushrooms. We were at his house about 6 years ago for dinner and he made Boeuf Bourguignon, which of course had mushrooms in it. I remember thinking when I was eating it, "Oh boy, there sure are a lot of mushrooms in this sauce, but I don't want to seem rude by picking them out, so I'll just suck it up and eat them." What do you know, the sauce actually made them taste okay. After that, I was like, "Hmm, maybe if I cook the mushrooms with a lot of other stuff, they won't be so mushroomy." This theory worked. We now use mushrooms in a lot of our stir-frys. We like portabellos and the exotic mushroom blends (shittake, oyster) the best. I will be honest though, I am not a fan of canned mushrooms, as they are a bit too rubbery, and sometimes those button mushrooms still smell weird when cooked.
3. Avacaodoes: Guacamole. It's my new favorite condiment.
I still can't stomach those canned bright red beets though. I tried them again about 2 years ago, and I still think they taste really gross. Ah well, 3 out of 4 isn't bad.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Frozen solid
In our physiology lab, we store blood and saliva samples in a large freezer, set to -80 degrees C. Have you ever stuck your hand or arm inside a -80 degrees C freezer? I am learning that it is best to 1) know what you're looking for and 2) have a general idea of where it is located in the freezer before you go rooting around because it is FREAKING COLD in there!!!
Winter Olympics Fun
Ben and I spent a good portion of our evenings over the last couple weeks watching the Winter Olympics while doing schoolwork. I have to say that I love the Olympics, both summer and winter. Watching all of the different sports prompted our discussion of which sports would we want to participate in if we could be Winter Olympians? They sort of fell into 2 categories: sports we'd like to do if we devoted the time to train for them and sports we could do if the USOC called us up on a moment's notice and said, "Hey, you're on the Olympic team." Here are our picks:
Sports we would do on a moment's notice:
-Curling (is it really that hard? I don't even think you have to be in shape to do this either.)
-Person 2 or 3 of a 4-man bobsled team (what exactly are they doing in the sled?)
Sports we would do if we devoted several years to training:
-Ben's picks: snowboard cross and snowboard half-pipe (pretty flashy and high-flying)
-Beth's picks: cross-country skiing, either short-track or long-track speed skating, ice dancing, or figure skating (xc skiing and speed skating because the training would probably be similar to distance running or track running, and the ice skating because I have always liked skating. Of course, I'd choose Ben as my ice-dancing or pairs partner!)
Sports that neither of us are really crazy about doing:
-skeleton
-luge
-downhill skiing (they all involve hurling yourself down a steep incline at a lot of miles per hour and risk major injury)
What Winter Olympics sports would you choose?
A side note: I found out that there is a group that does curling in our area. One of the former PhD students from my program (a Canadian) who is a visiting faculty in my department suggested that someone organize a curling outing sometime. If it happens, I will definitely have to check it out and report back.
Sports we would do on a moment's notice:
-Curling (is it really that hard? I don't even think you have to be in shape to do this either.)
-Person 2 or 3 of a 4-man bobsled team (what exactly are they doing in the sled?)
Sports we would do if we devoted several years to training:
-Ben's picks: snowboard cross and snowboard half-pipe (pretty flashy and high-flying)
-Beth's picks: cross-country skiing, either short-track or long-track speed skating, ice dancing, or figure skating (xc skiing and speed skating because the training would probably be similar to distance running or track running, and the ice skating because I have always liked skating. Of course, I'd choose Ben as my ice-dancing or pairs partner!)
Sports that neither of us are really crazy about doing:
-skeleton
-luge
-downhill skiing (they all involve hurling yourself down a steep incline at a lot of miles per hour and risk major injury)
What Winter Olympics sports would you choose?
A side note: I found out that there is a group that does curling in our area. One of the former PhD students from my program (a Canadian) who is a visiting faculty in my department suggested that someone organize a curling outing sometime. If it happens, I will definitely have to check it out and report back.
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