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!