Tastes of the season

While in Peru/Bolivia on vacation, I had lots of time to feel like a "real person" with a "real life" and contemplate all the things/activities that I feel like sometimes I miss out on due to the hours and stress of residency. Cooking is one of those activities that has definitely fallen by the wayside during the past 2 1/2 years. While I will never be any JB Kit or claim proficiency in the kitchen, there is something satisfying about throwing together random ingredients and ending up with a meal! While I love to eat and, when I have enough time to plan, grocery shop, and have people over, also like to cook, I don't love to cook and, when tired or stressed, tend to spend my waking hours doing other things. The last thing I (very impatient by nature) want to do when I come home, sometimes well past the 5:00 hour when I would (if I had my choice) like to eat, is wait for my food. Because I love attending (and maximize) free lunches and dinners, am not very picky, and adore rescuing leftovers (including others' leftovers :)), there's not often a lot of incentive or opportunity to decide to make new and fancy dishes.

However, while in the salt flat in Bolivia, I started reading the Julie and Julia book about the girl, Julie Powell, who decides to master Julia Child's art of French Cooking, and was quite inspired. You will not catch me making any fancy french dishes with names I can't pronounce, but I (with Mindy as my witness) resolved to start cooking regularly. Or, well, cooking at all, which is more than I had been doing in a long, long time.

It has been fun! I had to photograph what was one of my first creations, and which I had already (just 2 weeks out from Peru) been missing...

Ceviche!

It was Char who spurred me to actually make it (incentive = her eating it with me), and it was both simple and very tasty!! My biggest challenge was peeling the limes in order to get them into my juicer (which is one of my favorite kitchen appliances and has been very underutilized lately!) so that I could make the yummy marinade. [I have since learned that there is some fancy device which squeezes the heck out of limes and obviates the need for peeling (and a juicer), but, alas, I do not have such an applicance in my simple kitchen.]

If you ever want to make what is, in my opinion, one of the tastiest dishes ever (and surprisingly very easy, even for the cooking-impaired), here is a recipe for the Peruvian specialty:

Ceviche

2 lbs white fish (i.e. tilapia/sea bass-- I think I used halibut)

1 1/2 c fresh lime juice (approx 5 limes)

additional limes for garnish

1 yellow pepper

1/2 c celery

2 garlic cloves, chopped

2 large red onions

3 Tbsp cilantro

boiled corn

lettuce

salt/pepper

1. Place fish in bowl, add 1.5 cups lime juice to marinate, refrigerate x 2-4 hrs

2. Drain juice, add pepper, celery, cilantro, onions, garlic, salt/pepper, and serve over lettuce leaves with additional limes on top.

Amidst other random creations, the next major project I undertook was this past weekend when we decided to have a potluck for Kristin and my November birthdays. I kind of wanted to do something Thankgiving-y beacuse I am on call on Thursday, and I adore Thanksgiving food; luckily, Kristin both put up with the idea and even offered to host the party :). [Actually, being on call for Thanksgiving for Labor and Delivery is probably the best place one could be if one had to work that day. Last week, one of the nurses asked me, ""Oooh! You're on for Thanksgiving, too? We're having a potluck! Are you working AM or PM?" It was with some regret I had to reply, "Both! I'm on for a 24-hr shift;" however, I realized that this means that I get to be a part of not one, but two, yummy potlucks! I hear L and D Thanksgiving feasts are so great that people from other floors all over the hospital come to Davis 3 to steal food :)]

Anyway, back to the potluck. I decided to try my hand at the first turkey I have ever made. I decided to use a small (7-8 lb) one, because, if I screwed it up, I would only screw up a small bird. As I always am when cooking for other people, I was very nervous (because I think everything tastes fine and will eat it anyway, lest it go to waste, it is very hard for me to discern what really tastes like garbage and what doesn't). I told Kristin that we should probably have "back-up birds" and she smartly had picked up some emergency rotisserie chickens. However, it turned out fine! I didn't brine the turkey over the preceding night (that would have taken way too much planning!), but did rub lots of butter under the skin (thanks, Kyla), season it with salt/pepper/garlic powder, and used one of those oven bag thingies which, I now know, is a must!

While I was made fun of by Phi, who asked me to go with him, Jeremy and Brenden to some ski-show but whose offer I had to decline because of the turkey roasting in the oven, I am glad I stayed to "babysit my bird," because I feel that watching the pop-up thingie and the meat thermometer to figure out when to take the bird out was perhaps the most important step of the endeavor! I am just glad I didn't toast the thing to blackness and, as far as I know, everyone who ate it is still alive and, I hope, gastroenteritis-free (The words of a ceramic spoon-holder I've contemplated buying that reads "People have eaten my cooking and gone on to lead perfectly normal lives," came to mind :)). I also made stuffing, which is, hands down, my favorite Thanksgiving food, and will definitely make it more often from now on. Like Christmas music, which, in my opinion, is fair game at any time of the year, stuffing never goes out of season :)

We had tons of wonderful food, including Thanksgiving tamales, mashed potatoes, cranberry jelly, pumpkin bread, cheese puffs, pumpkin and pecan pies, and a stellar raspberry "diva cake" from Rick's dessert diner. We then played a hilarious game of "Time's Up." It was a great time, and I think I'm still full :)

Enjoy the pictures, courtesy of Darina :)

The diva cake! (Thanks, Kelvin!)

with Kristin (whose real birthday is today!! Happy birthday!)

Can you appreciate how TALL this cake is? There were about 17 layers of raspberry...

Amy, Kim, Darina, and me

Ashby, Jose, and Char who eked out the victory in a rousing game of "Time's Up"

The gang


And in the spirit of giving thanks, while it has nothing to do with food, I wanted to share that I am so thankful for last weekend, which was one of the most gratifying experiences that I have had in a long time. There (when is there not?!) is a long saga of a story, but, in short, a continuity OB patient of mine who I'd been waiting to deliver for weeks, finally went into labor just before Kristin, Caesar, Mike, Helena, and I were to head to San Francisco to see the musical Wicked. I of course agonized about the decision, but said hi to her, went to the show (which was unbelievable. Loved it!), ate dinner at an awesome pizza place (Zachary's) in Berkeley, and made it back with plenty of time to make the rest of her labor course and delivery. It couldn't have worked out better.

(oh, it was!)

me, Kristin, and Helena


I have so much to be thankful for... Happy Thanksgiving this week to everyone!