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!

Winter break and other things

Sorry for taking such a long break from the blog! I've been very busy with Thanksgiving break, taking Step 2 CS (standardized patient part of the medical licensing exams), Christmas break, and having my little brother, Christopher, visit with us.
I also have some good news. I passed Step 2 CS!! Justin and I will be going out tomorrow for dinner to celebrate.
Sadly, I don't have any new recipes to post yet so instead enjoy some pictures from the past couple of months.

Doggie Saturday!

Banana Bread

Last week Justin came down with the weirdest case of either food poisoning or a GI bug. Either way after trying to eat normal food for about 5 days, he caved and decided to stick to the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast). So of course I went about buying a ton of bananas, bread, rice, and apples for some homemade applesauce. And of course he never ended up eating half of the bananas. I ate a couple, but after a week of smelling nothing but bananas I got sick of them. Yesterday I noticed they were getting a little weird looking and pretty mushy, which is why I decided they were perfect for banana bread!

Normally banana bread is a treat for us because I always forget to buy bananas and if I do buy them I inevitably forget to use them before they grow mold. Which happens incredibly fast in New Orleans. I haven't quite figured out why things grow mold twice as fast here. Anyway, I had finally caught the bananas in their elusive perfect banana bread state. 

I decided to try a new recipe from Martha Stewart. She had just made them on a recent show (with Hugh Jackman!) and it looked amazing. They did not disappoint. It was so great to have a nice slice of banana bread for breakfast and I'm looking forward to eating it the rest of the week.

Banana Bread

From Martha Stewart

1/2 cup of butter at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup mashed bananas (about 3 bananas)

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 ˚F. Grease a 9x5x3 in loaf pan.

Cream the butter and sugar in an electric mixer with the paddle attachment. Add the eggs and beat until they are just mixed in.

In a medium bowl mix together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Add it to the butter mixture. Mix until combined. Add bananas, sour cream, and vanilla. Mix until just combined. Fold in the nuts.

Pour into the pan and bake for 1 hour. Let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then take the bread out to cool the rest of the way on a rack.

Doggie Saturday!

Bailey's Irish Cream Ice Cream with Brownies

It just started getting cold in New Orleans, but that didn't stop me from making a batch of Bailey's Irish Cream ice cream. It's just the right level of booze to prevent it from being overpowering. It's a fine balance too between getting the level of flavor and putting so much in your ice cream that it won't freeze. I also try to make sure it's not too boozey because Justin can't really handle much alcohol in his system.
I figured the best way to sample the Bailey's was to pair it with some delicious homemade brownies. I've been trying to make brownies from scratch for years, but most of the time they'd turn out dry or too fudgey. This past spring though I stumbled upon a recipe on Joy The Baker that seemed to delicious not to try. Justin took one bite of the brownies and decided they were his favorite dessert ever. It's become my go to recipe for brownies now.

Fudge Brownies with Walnuts
Adapted from Joy The Baker

1 2/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup butter
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp espresso
1/2 cup walnuts
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 ˚F. Grease a 9 in square baking pan.
Combine the butter and cocoa in a double boiler. Stir until the butter is melted and incorporated with the cocoa.
In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar together. Add the vanilla extract and stir until combined. Slowly stir in the chocolate mixture. Be careful to pour it in all at once because the eggs will be sensitive to the high heat.
Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and espresso. Stir until just combined. Fold in the nuts and chocolate chips. Pour the batter into the pan.
Bake for 16-23 minutes.
Cool in pan for 30 minutes before serving.

Doggie Saturday!

So I know this blog is supposed to be mostly about my adventures with cooking and baking. But I couldn't resist making at least one day a week dedicated to Oscar and Sammie. They are such a big part of our lives and they are just so cute!

I took this picture last week when Justin was getting the bath ready for them. Taking baths is probably their least favorite thing to do in the whole world. Normally they go hide in their respective crates, but for some reason this time they decided they were safer together in Sammie's crate. It's probably one of my favorite pictures of them ever.

Commander's Palace Brunch

Justin took me out to Commander's Palace to celebrate that I passed Step 2. It's one of my favorite places to go for brunch and it definitely didn't disappoint. I had the turtle soup as an appetizer, huckleberry pancakes with candied pecans, white chocolate, and syrup, and then the bread pudding soufflé as dessert. The waitress even wrote "Congratulations" around the soufflé! It made me feel really special.


Justin ended up having a crab quiche as an appetizer, the "sportsman's breakfast" which was duck topped with an egg on top of a sweet potato griddle cake, and then a creole cheesecake for dessert. He wasn't a big fan of the sportsman's breakfast because he felt like there was too little duck and too much egg. The crab quiche was so delicious though. I would definitely get that again. Anyway here are the pictures!

Red wine chocolate cake

Sorry it's been so long since I've updated! About three weeks ago I found out I passed step 2 of my medical boards and it's been super busy since then. I was also presenting for journal club last week so I was busy preparing for that.
After I found out that I passed I had some people over to sample a red wine chocolate cake. I also made a buttermilk version, but I think the red wine one was much better. It had much more flavor to it and had just the right level of chocolate flavor. I've been toying with the idea of making it for my relatives over Christmas but since we have a lot of younger cousins I'm not sure how well it would work. It really is a lovely cake but definitely too potent for children.
Justin also took me out to Commander's palace to celebrate! I took lots of pictures so the next blog post will be about that. I also just got a gift card to Melting Pot from my god-mother so I'll post pictures after we go there! I'm super excited to go back to Melting Pot since we haven't been in forever (and Justin proposed to me at one!). Anyway, on to the recipe:

Red Wine Chocolate Cake
Taken from Smitten Kitchen

For the cake:
6 tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg and 1 large egg yolk at room temperature
3/4 cup red wine (I used cabernet)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup + 1 tbsp flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon

For the topping:
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 325˚F.
Line the bottom of a 8-inch round cake pan with parchment and butter and flour the rest of the pan.
In a large bowl, cream the butter until smooth. Add in the sugars and beat until they are fluffy. Add in the egg mixture and beat well.
Add in the red wine and vanilla and combine. The batter will look a little weird- this is normal.
Sift in the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt into the wet ingredient bowl. Mix until it is just combined and then use a rubber spatula to fold it until it is all combined.
Pour batter into baking pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes (or 25-30 minutes if using a 9-inch pan).
Cool in the pan on a baking rack for 10 minutes. Flip it out of the pan onto the baking rack. Cool until it is room temperature.
Optional: sift some powdered sugar over the cake.

For the topping: Whip the mascarpone, cream, sugar, and vanilla together until soft peaks form. Serve on the side of each cake slice.

Pumpkin muffins!

One of the things I miss about living in St. Louis is that we don't really have seasons here. We just have hot and less hot. Part of the fun of the changing seasons was the different foods and flavors that came with it. Pumpkin is probably hands down my favorite fall flavor. When I was little I used to be able to eat an entire pumpkin pie by myself and it wouldn't really be a Thanksgiving if I didn't.
Another of my favorite things from St. Louis was the Bread Company (Panera). Their pumpkin muffins were always something I loved to eat every fall. Sadly I haven't been able to have a good pumpkin muffin for a long time. I was really excited when one of my friends suggested a pumpkin muffin recipe from Smitten Kitchen. I decided to give it a try this weekend when my craving for pumpkin had reached its peak this weekend. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it tasted really close to the Panera pumpkin muffins. I think next time I make it I'll try topping it with a little bit of sifted powdered sugar to make it that much closer to the real thing.


Pumpkin Muffins


Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

1 1/2 cup flour
1 15 oz can of pumpkin
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp all spice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
For topping: 1 tbsp sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon


Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Put muffin cups into the muffin pan.
Place the pumpkin, oil, eggs, spices, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk until combined. Add in the flour and whisk until it is just combined.
In a small bowl mix together the cinnamon and sugar.
Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.
Sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar mixture on top of the muffins.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a knife/skewer comes out clean.
Cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then transfer the muffins to a cooling rack.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Justin started nightfloat on Labor and Delivery last night which has left me pretty bored during the nights. This weekend I was trying to figure out what I could make that he could take with him, not need to be refrigerated, and could be eaten quickly. I decided on some muffins because those seem to hold up well and are less prone to being squished in a lunch box.

I've been craving lemons lately so I decided to try my hand at lemon poppy seed muffins. They've always been my favorite muffin, but I've never actually made them before. A while back I found a recipe for them from a cookbook my mom got me for either my birthday or Christmas. I had all the ingredients so I figured I might as well make them for breakfast!

I did a little twist on the lemon poppyseed muffins and added jam in the middle. Justin has been craving blueberry jam all week and this was the easiest/non-messy way of incorporating jam into his nightfloat lunch box. Since I was experimenting I decided to only make some of the muffins this way. It turned out to be amazing and I'd recommend filling all of the muffins with jam. We used raspberry jam (for mine) and blueberry jam (for Justin's). I used the different colored muffin cups to help me remember which ones had which jams in them.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

2/3 cup sugar

grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 stick butter melted and cooled
2 Tbsp poppy seeds
Raspberry or blueberry jam/preserves

For the lemon glaze: 1 cup powdered sugar and 2-3 Tbsp lemon juice

Preheat oven to 400 ˚F. Line a 12 mold muffin tray with muffin cups (color coding if you are using different types of jam).
In a small bowl mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl, mix together the sugar and lemon zest with your fingers. Make sure all of the lemon zest is incorporated and the sugar smells like lemons. Mix in the flour mixture.
In a medium bowl whisk together the eggs, sour cream, vanilla, butter, and lemon juice. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients bowl and fold together quickly. Mix in the poppy seeds.
Fill the muffin cups halfway with batter. Then put 1-2 tsp of jam in the middle of the muffins. Cover them with more batter.
Bake for 15-18 minutes or until a knife/toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Let them cool in the pan for about 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack. Make sure they are cool before topping them with glaze.

To make the glaze: Sift the powdered sugar into a small bowl. Mix in 1 1/2 Tbsp of lemon juice. Then keep adding small amounts of lemon juice until the glaze can drizzle off the edge of the spoon. Pour glaze over the muffins.

Guilty Pleasures

It was another rainy day in New Orleans. I was super productive this morning so I figured it was okay for me to veg out on TV for the rest of the afternoon. I ended up spending a huge amount of time watching Mad Men on Netflix. It's probably one of my guiltiest pleasures (next to watching Frasier marathons on Hallmark). It makes me want to channel my own inner Joan and dress in fantastic outfits that highlight my curves. Unfortunately we don't have the funds for me to revamp my entire wardrobe so I guess I'll have to wait until I become an amazing Pathologist.
Of course I had to pair it with another one of my guilty pleasures- baking chocolate chip cookies. I found a recipe last week for what seemed like the best cookie idea ever. The recipe was for chocolate chip stuffed cookies by What's Gaby Cooking. You basically take chocolate chip cookie dough and make a small little pocket. You fill the pocket with chocolate chips and then cover it with another piece of dough. It ends up melting a small little pocket of chocolate chips in the middle of the cookie. My husband described it as a "chocolate surprise". It is probably one of the best chocolate cookie recipes I've made in a while!

Chocolate Chip Surprise Cookies
Adapted from What's Gaby Cooking
2 sticks of unsalted butter
1 1/2 cup of light brown sugar
2 eggs
2 cups of flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 cups plus 4 tbsp of chocolate chips

Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder in a small bowl.
In a large bowl combine the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping the bowl after each addition. Mix in the vanilla. Gradually add in the flour. Stir in the chocolate chips. Refrigerate the mixture for 1 hour.
Pre-heat oven to 350˚F.
Using a tablespoon scoop out the cookies onto the baking sheet. Using your thumb or the back of the tablespoon indent the ball of cookie. Fill the ball of cookie with chocolate chips and then cover it with a second piece of cookie dough. Make sure to seal the edges so that the chocolate chips can't escape.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges of the cookies are golden brown. Transfer the cookies to the cooling rack.

Eat warm with a cold glass of milk.

Tropical Storm Lee

Well it looks like Justin and I will be spending this Labor Day weekend indoors. Tropical storm Lee decided to put a damper on our weekend by sitting on top of New Orleans for a couple of days. Thankfully we haven't had too much flooding yet. We're just waiting for it all to pass at this point. Hopefully the power won't go out, but we're prepared for pretty much anything.

Of course I did what any normal person would do when faced with the impending doom of a tropical storm. I made M&M cookies. I had plenty of M&Ms on hand and a hungry husband. Normally my experiments in the realm of sugar cookies goes horribly awry. They end up too dry, too under-baked, or too sweet. This time I was pleasantly surprised with the results. Justin was also very pleased with them. He rarely enjoys sweets, but this time he ate 4 cookies before I had even put the second batch in the oven! (Please excuse the super saturated photo- we have no natural lighting at this time).

Tropical Storm M&M Cookies
Adapted from What's Gaby Cooking

2 sticks unsalted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
Half a bag of M&Ms

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Mix flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a small bowl.
Cream together butter and both sugars. Next add the egg and vanilla extract. Beat until combined. Turn mixer down to low and gradually mix in the flour mixture. Stir in the M&Ms.
Chill the dough in the refrigerator for about 2 hours.
Using a tablespoon scrape out the dough and form into balls. Place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Only put 6 balls per baking sheet because they will spread out a lot while baking.
Bake for 12-14 minutes. Take the cookies out when the edges are golden brown and the middle looks slightly undercooked. Leave them on the baking sheet for about 8-10 minutes until they have cooled slightly. Transfer them to a cooling rack or plate.

Zucchini and Pea Risotto

One thing I miss the most about my Dad is his cooking. He always had a knack for making the most amazing Italian dishes. Some of my most favorite memories were sitting in the kitchen with him watching him cook. One of my Dad's favorite dishes to make was risotto. Without fail, he would always make it with pancetta and peas. He knew I hated peas so he'd always serve me mine before he added the peas.
Risotto itself isn't a very healthy dish, especially with pancetta in it so I was excited to find a delicious healthier alternative. Zucchini has just the right texture to pair with the soft arborio rice. I found that this dish went well with a fresh salad and a nice glass of Chardonnay.

Zucchini and Pea Risotto
Adapted from Everyday Food and my Dad's recipe
1 can of low-sodium chicken broth
1 Tbsp butter
1 Zucchini
1/2 white onion chopped finely
3/4 cup Arborio rice
1/4 cup white wine
1/2 cup of peas
1/4 cup of Parmigiano Reggiano

Peal and chop the zucchini into small cubes.
Heat up broth with 1 cup of water in a saucepan on low heat.
Heat up a medium size saucepan on medium heat. Melt the butter. Add the zucchini and season with salt and pepper. Stir the zucchini until it is golden brown. After the zucchini is cooked, transfer to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm.
Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the onion. Cook until translucent and soft. Raise the heat back to medium. Add rice. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until the rice is translucent around the edges. Add the wine and stir until it is absorbed.
Add a ladle of broth to the rice and stir until it is absorbed. Repeat this step until the rice is soft and tender (about 15-20 minutes).

Add the zucchini. Turn off heat. Stir in parmesan. Then mix in some of the remaining broth to help thicken the rice. Serve up the risotto to anyone who doesn't like peas. Add the peas and cook for about 2 minutes. Serve hot with a bit of parmesan on top.