Pumpkin pie and new services

I've been so busy lately! I've pretty much gone from one hard service to another. I started out on surgical pathology (mostly lungs, kidneys, and prostates), then moved onto breast, and now I'm on pediatric pathology/large GI resections (colon cancer type cases). It's been exhausting to say the least. I haven't had a lot of time to cook, but at least this weekend I was able to make a pumpkin pie! I really wish I could post a recipe. Unfortunately, I always just add spices until it tastes good. I promise the next time I make it I will do my best to measure the spices I use!

Meatloaf cupcakes

This weekend was so nice and cool that I got the urge to make something a little hearty. I've made meatloaf before, but never tried to freeze it. I decided to make them in a cupcake pan that way I could easily thaw them based on how much I want to eat. It worked surprisingly well. I've played around with thawing them out the day before versus the day of and didn't see much of a difference. Here is the recipe:

Meatloaf cupcakes


1/2 cup of breadcrumbs
1/4 cup of whole milk
1.5 lb ground beef
1/2 white onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 large egg
1/4 cup of ketchup, plus more for topping cupcakes





Fit muffin tin with metallic muffin cups. Preheat oven to 400˚F. Mix together breadcrumbs and milk until it forms a paste. In a large bowl, combine beef, onion, garlic, egg, and ketchup. Mix until combined. Add in breadcrumbs and stir being careful not to over mix. Divide meat mixture amongst the cupcakes. Cook in oven for 10 minutes. Brush extra ketchup on the muffins you plan on eating. Cook for additional 10 minutes (or until they look cooked through).
 Let the one's you plan on freezing cool and then place them in a ziplock bag for storage. You can freeze them just like that. If you are reheating them you can either: take them out of the muffin cups and microwave for about 1.5 minutes or wrap in a foil tent and reheat in the oven for approximately 15 minutes (don't forget to brush with ketchup!).

Pork Schnitzel

I decided that I should probably post some of the recipes I used for the food I ended up freezing. So far what I have successfully frozen and used include: chili, cornbread, and pork schnitzel. The cornbread was definitely the most successful. I already knew that freezing baked goods was easy and would yield tasty results. I do that with 90% of my cookie recipes because cookies taste better warm and it prevents me form eating 5 cookies at once.

I got this pork schnitzel recipe from my mom. I make no claims to this being authentic or accurate schnitzel. I'm pretty sure she adapted this recipe from some professor's wives in Germany (as you do when you travel a lot with your professor husband). Either way this recipe freezes well and tastes pretty amazing. I adapted it a little by adding mustard to the egg mixture. Onto the pork schnitzel recipe (sadly no pictures because I finished them this week):

Pork Schnitzel
1 lb pork cutlets sliced thin and pounded extra thin
1 cup flour
2 eggs
2 tbsp spicy mustard (or whatever mustard you like)
1 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup parmesan
3 tbsp olive oil/canola oil
3 lemons for squeezing on the cooked pork (Really you need 1/2 a lemon per 2 pork cutlets)

Whisk egg and mustard together. Use water to loosen the mixture if it is too thick. Next mix bread crumbs and parmesan together on a large plate. Pour flour out onto plate.

Dredge pork through flour until coated. Shake off excess flour. Place pork into egg mixture and coat. Dredge through bread crumb mixture. Pat on bread crumbs until the pork is coated. If you are freezing this is a good time to freeze the pork in bulk or separate into individual serving sizes. I used the small ziplock bags for this.

If you are going to cook the pork, then heat up enough olive oil/canola oil to coat the bottom of a sauté pan. Place pork into oil. Turn when it starts to look golden brown around the edges. Cook on opposite side for 1-2 minutes until golden brown.
Serve with lemons and enjoy!

This weekend I'm going to be try freezing a meatloaf recipe. I might also try making this cayenne rubbed chicken with avocados. It looks really delicious, but I might get lazy and just put sliced avocados on the chicken. Or I might forgo dinner and make myself guacamole. Clearly this is a cry for help and I need to either have a roommate or my husband to persuade me to make actual meals.

Residency

I'm about 4 weeks into residency. It has taken a lot of adjusting! The first week was definitely the hardest because I was starting on a very difficult service (gynecology pathology). I really enjoyed it, but it involved really long hours. I just switched to cytology and the difference is so crazy. I feel like everything is much more laid back. I have time to read and even eat lunch. I'm hoping I'll do more cooking during this rotation! I cooked some during gyn path but it mostly consisted of cooking in bulk and freezing it.

Taco night!

Today is my last day in New Orleans before I head up to St. Louis for residency. Thankfully, Justin was able to get the day off from wards so we could spend some quality time before I leave. A couple of days ago we were talking about when we first moved down here and just reminiscing in general. That's when he told me that he really missed how we used to do taco night once a week. I kind of stopped making beef tacos because I didn't really like how the little flavor packets tasted and I preferred doing fish tacos. So I took it as a challenge and decided to do a sort of last hurrah taco night dinner before I left. This time I used my own mix of spices instead of a taco seasoning packet. It did not disappoint! Here is the recipe I used:

Taco night beef tacos
1/2 white onion diced
5 cloves of garlic (Justin loves garlic so I normally go pretty heavy on the garlic)
1 pound of lean ground beef
4 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp turmeric (normally used in curry dishes but I like how it tastes)
1/2 can of tomato paste




Sauté the onion until soft. Add garlic and sauté for 1 minute. Add the ground beef and seasonings. Cook beef until brown. Add tomato paste and cook for another 3 minutes.
Serve with whatever taco toppings you enjoy. We serve with cilantro, sour cream, cheese, tomatoes, lime, and some peppers.

First house!

Life has been pretty crazy! We bought our first house at the end of May and then had a short time to unpack and make it liveable for me. Now we are back in New Orleans and Justin has started intern year orientation. I will be leaving in a week to go back so I can start orientation. I haven't been doing as much baking because all of my baking stuff is in the new house. I'm hoping I'll have some free-time to bake after I start intern year, but I make no promises! In the meantime, here is a picture of us in front of our new house.

Residency and LDRs

I really stink at updating this blog. Sorry everyone! Since I last posted a lot has happened. I finished up medical school and my research year. I got my top choice for residency, which is super exciting but also a little crazy. Justin will be doing his intern year here in New Orleans and then coming up to the same hospital as me for the rest of residency. Obviously doing a LDR for a year during intern year is not ideal, but I'm hopeful that it will go by fast.

We also bought a house! We figured it would be a good idea to get a house since we will probably be in one place for about 5 years. I'm really excited to move in. We close May 29th and hopefully we can start moving stuff in right away. It's going to be a little crazy trying to get everything done before Justin starts in the middle of June. I'll try to post some pictures of the house once we get settled. My goal is to post a recipe by the end of the week. I've been baking and cooking a lot, but I've gotten really bad about taking pictures of what I make. Instead I'll leave you with a picture of us from our trip to Europe!