Seared Cod with Spring Veggies and Lemon-Mustard Vinaigrette

Soooo....over 2 years since my last post.  In that time, I've completed my 2nd and 3rd year of med school, I've taken the first part of my national board exams (with round two coming up next month), and I have been preparing to apply for a residency in pediatrics!  By this time next year, I'll be a doctor and starting the next leg of the journey.  Crazy how time flies!

I recently got the opportunity to try Blue Apron for free for 1 week.  Blue Apron is a service that sends you all the fresh materials you need to make delicious meals, right to your door in a refrigerated and insulated box, perfectly portioned and ready to cook.  It costs $60 per week and you receive 3 different meals, each of which serve 2 people, so that means I have lunch for the next day!  I figured I'd try it out since it was free, and why not fire up the blog again?

The first recipe I made was the Seared Cod with Spring Vegetables and Lemon-Mustard Vinaigrette.  You can see below how everything is portioned out so that you use all of what you're given and there is no waste.  All you need are pans, cooking utensils, salt & pepper, and olive oil.  Everything else is provided!

Each recipe comes with a detailed card that lists the ingredients you need, nutritional information, and directions with pictures on the back.

 The first step is prep!  I chopped up the asparagus, potatoes, radishes, and lemon.  I've never cut radishes before - they were actually kind of fun to slice!

Next I blanched the asparagus by boiling them for 2 minutes and then immediately transferring them to a bowl of ice water.  I then boiled the potatoes for 10 minutes while I worked on assembling the vinaigrette.

The vinaigrette consists of the juice of a lemon, 1 tbsp dijon mustard, and 2 tbsp minced shallots, all whisked together while adding 2 tbsp olive oil.  It smelled amazing!

Next up was the cod!  I patted the cod dry and seasoned with salt and pepper while heating up some oil in a pan on medium-high heat.  After searing the fillets on one side for 3 minutes, I added some of the butter and flipped them to cook for another 2 minutes.

While the cod was cooking, I assembled the veggies!  I put the radishes, asparagus, and potatoes in a bowl and added capers and tarragon.  I then poured the vinaigrette on top and mixed it.  It looked so fresh and colorful, and smelled wonderful!

Finally it was time to eat!  The vegetables were amazing, and this recipe is something I can definitely see myself making in the future.  Quick, easy, fresh, healthy, and tasty!  The cod tasted pretty good, but it would have been better with a sauce or marinade of some kind.  But the real star of the show was the veggies!  I saved half of the veggies in the fridge for tomorrow, and I'm hoping that the flavor will get even better.

My next meal is seared steak with mashed potatoes!  We'll see how that goes!

"Skinny" Chocolate Chip Buttermilk Scones

Yet another Pinterest find!  I love finding exciting and delectable recipes for things, and it's an added bonus when they're healthy or "skinnified" (made with substitutions to lower the calories).  I had been wanting to try these scones for the longest time, and I finally made them the morning after my last exam of my first year of med school, right before my parents came to pick me up.  I dropped off half of them to my sister (who shares my love of Pinterest and recipe hunting) and the rest were for my mom, but we all ended up devouring them.  I made another batch last Friday and made sure to take pictures this time!

Warm chocolate chip scones fresh out of the oven

The original recipe can be found here.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup cold buttermilk *
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp chilled butter, diced
3/4 cup chocolate chips
cooking spray
1 large egg white, lightly beaten
1 1/2 tbsp sugar

*if you don't want to buy a full quart of buttermilk just for one batch of scones, you can make a buttermilk substitute using milk and either vinegar or lemon juice.  Just put a tablespoon of either white vinegar or lemon juice in a cup measure, and fill up the rest of the measuring cup with the milk of your choice.  Let it sit for about 5 minutes, then measure out what you need.  The lemon and vinegar adds acidity and curdles the milk slightly, which is what buttermilk is!  I made my first batch slightly healthier by using skim milk and lemon juice, but I used buttermilk when I made them at home.  I didn't notice any difference in the taste or texture, so it obviously worked! :)

Wet and dry ingredients, about to be mixed!

Preheat your oven to 375 F and spray a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray.  Combine the wet ingredients (the first four ingredients) in a bowl and whisk it together to dissolve the sugar.  Combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt) in a large bowl.  Cut the chilled butter into the flour mixture, using a pastry cutter or a fork, until you have pea-sized pieces of butter throughout.  Mix in the chocolate chips, then add the wet ingredients and mix just until everything is combined.

Flour your surface and your hands, and knead the dough four times.  Then place the dough on the baking sheet and form a circle 9 inches in diameter.  Cut the dough into 12 wedges.

Lightly beat the egg white and brush it over the dough.  Sprinkle the top with sugar.  Bake for 18-20 minutes, watching for the tops to turn golden brown.

While they're still hot, separate the scones from each other and place them on a cooling rack.  Enjoy the chocolatey goodness!! 

Saga of a broken ankle

It's been a while since I've written anything in this blog!  I have a lot to write about, so I should start from where I left off...

Yep, that's my ankle in the ED, four times normal size!  On March 1, I was running down a steep hill for the bus to school when I rolled my right ankle and fell on top of it.  I heard a crack, but my joints are always cracking so I didn't think too much of it, and I thought I just sprained my ankle.  Luckily there was another woman up the street who came to help me, and I was able to stand and walk slowly and carefully.  I walked in pain to the bus stop and waited for the next bus to school.  I figured I would just walk to the ED from school, since it's connected, but once I got into the building, I couldn't walk anymore.  Just as I was asking the woman at the security desk to call a transport, one of my friends walked by and took me down to the ED in a wheelchair!

My ED attending happened to be one of my facilitators from our biostat course in the beginning of the year!  He was awesome and continued to come back and check on me.  I got x-rays taken and he was looking at them as soon as they were in the system.  He came to tell me that I broke my ankle, breaking a good chunk off the fibula (one of the two bones in the lower leg, the tip of which is the lateral malleolus, which is that bony protrusion on the ankle -- the part in the above picture that is huge!).  I had to wait for an orthopedic consult to get a better look at the x-ray and see if I needed surgery.  I'm just glad I had cute toes...everyone was complimenting me on them!

Cast material being prepared

An ortho resident came to see me and reviewed my x-rays, telling me I had a Weber A fracture, which thankfully doesn't require surgery.  I asked if he could explain the x-ray to me, since I couldn't pick out the break.  He started explaining it to me in extremely simplified terms, but then I told him that I was a medical student, and he was surprised!  He explained the x-ray to me in more detail, and we chatted about first year classes (I was in microbio at the time) while he laid out the materials to put my leg in a splint.  Apparently microbio is extremely easy at the med school he attended, and he didn't believe me when I said it was the hardest class at Pitt.  Another resident (a Pitt Med alum!) came to help him splint my leg, and she backed me up about the microbio :)  Ha!  After four hours in the ER, I was discharged with a fashionable open splint, a pair of crutches, and instructions to schedule a follow-up with an orthopedic surgeon the following week.

My open splint.  I was sad it was not pink.

Since I couldn't get around very well on crutches to leave the hospital, one of my friends wheeled me back to the med school, where we got a room to study.  I guess word of my injury spread quickly, because so many people came to visit!  That made me feel a lot better.  That evening, my friend drove me home and helped me get to my apartment.  It took me forever to get down the hall to my apartment because I had zero endurance on crutches.  But I finally made it!  I am so thankful for my amazing friends!  I don't know what I would have done without all their help and support that day!

Since I broke my right ankle, driving was completely out of the question.  I was also not allowed to put any weight on my right leg, and I couldn't go very far on the crutches, so I had no idea how I was going to get to my doctor's appointment or get to school every day.  Also, my laundry room requires going down a flight of stairs, and I didn't want to impose on my friends to do laundry or get groceries for me.  My mom offered to come out and stay with me, and for a while I thought I was going to be able to manage on my own, but by the end of the day, I asked her to come.

My two transportation methods

We had our big microbiology exam exactly a week later, so I was extremely thankful that my mom was able to come and help me while I studied.  I have such an amazing mommy!

Waiting to get fitted for my boot

Two days before my exam, I had a follow-up appointment with an orthopedic surgeon.  He checked out my ankle and told me I could not bear weight for another 6-8 weeks.  That meant my mom would be staying with me for a while longer.  I was SO happy to get that splint cut off!  I had it on for 5 days and my leg just wanted to breathe and move!  I was fitted for a pneumatic walking boot, which I was allowed to take off for showering and while sitting.  

New boot!

I took my microbio exam that Friday and then we were on our way home for spring break!  It was going to be a week of relaxing at home and not doing anything related to med school.  I needed a break!  I got to see my nephew's karate tournament, so that was really fun!  We also had fun taking pictures of all the awesome bruising going on around my ankle...

My rainbow of bruises...

Spring break was over as quickly as it started, and it was time to head back to Pittsburgh for our neuroscience course.  I was very much looking forward to neuro, since I majored in neuroscience in undergrad, but I knew it was still going to be challenging!

One of the upsides of going back to school was that we got permission to bring our dog with us!  My building doesn't allow dogs, but we got special permission to have him there until the end of March, just because my dad travels a lot and we didn't want to have my dog in a kennel for that long.  He liked to lay by me while I studied!

Puppy guards me while I study with my feet elevated

Two weeks passed and it was time to take my dog home.  My mom still had to come back with me, since I still had a few more weeks of non-weight bearing, but we saved him a lot of kennel time for having him with us for a couple weeks.  We went home for a long weekend, but then it was back to school!

By that point, I had built up enough upper body strength to be able to get around rather well at school.  I had another follow-up appointment 7 weeks after the break, when I was allowed to put as much weight on my right leg as tolerated while in the boot, and I also had to start physical therapy.  PT was very hard at first, and at my second appointment, almost 9 weeks after I broke my ankle, I took my first steps without the boot and without crutches.  Since I was non-weight bearing for so long, the muscles in my right leg had atrophied so much that my knee and ankle were not supported well.  I had to slowly increase the amount of time wearing a sneaker on my right foot and walking around, from 1 hour on Friday, to 2 hours on Saturday, to 3 hours on Sunday, etc.  After 5 weeks of physical therapy and lots of different stretches and exercises, I was able to walk pretty well without crutches! (And a day after my last PT appointment, I was DONE with my first year of med school!!!!)

Fast forward a few weeks to today: it's been almost 3 months since I broke my ankle, and although I am mostly recovered, I'm not out of the woods yet!  I don't have a full range of motion in my ankle, so it takes me a while to go up and down stairs and inclines.  Now that I'm home for a bit, I've been walking my dog with my mom to build endurance, about a mile every day, but it's often painful to walk on uneven ground like grass.  I still have a bit of a limp, but it has definitely gotten better since I started walking at home!  I have another follow-up appointment in a month and I'm hoping I'll be cleared to start jogging, because I have a 5K to run in the fall!

So that's been my life for the last 3 months!  I'll be going back to Pittsburgh next month for the same program I did last summer, so for now I'm just relaxing at home and enjoying my freedom from med school.  I'll be doing a lot of cooking, so expect some yummy updates!  :)

Cilantro Lime Chicken

If you are a fan of Chipotle burrito bowls (aka naked burritos), then you will LOVE this!  This is a great slowcooker meal that takes almost no time to prepare, and it made my apartment smell amazing!  Best of all, I know exactly what went into it!

Here is the original recipe.  I made it fresh, but you can prepare everything ahead of time and just freeze it in a large freezer bag, then thaw overnight and throw it in the crockpot!

Ingredients:

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts

Juice from 2 limes

1 bunch (pkg) fresh cilantro, chopped

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1 16oz bag of frozen corn

1 16oz can of black beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 red onion

1 tsp cumin

salt and pepper to taste

Throw everything into the crockpot and cook on low for 7-8 hours or on high for 4 hours.  I chose to prep in the morning and cook on low, but I found that 7 hours was plenty of time.  I also mixed everything around occasionally to let all of the chicken have a turn soaking up some flavor.  The lime, corn, and chicken produce quite a bit of liquid, so don't worry about the chicken getting dry.  When there was about an hour left, I shredded the chicken into large chunks.  I served it with some steamed brown rice (should have saved some cilantro and lime juice to kick up the rice!) but I'm sure this would be great with tortilla chips or however you like to eat Mexican food!  It's meant to serve 6, but I made it stretch to 8-9 servings because some of my chicken breasts were rather large!

I highly recommend this recipe!  I'm very excited about eating this throughout this hectic week of catching up on microbio! :)  Enjoy!

Reflection Time

February 13.  A year ago today, I received an email saying I was accepted to my top choice medical school, where I am currently nose-deep in microbiology!  This last year has undoubtedly been the most difficult and stressful year of my life so far, but I am amazed at how much I have accomplished and learned in just 12 months.

In April, I wrote my honors thesis and graduated from college amidst the 150+ bomb threats that plagued my school.  I learned to cook more than just the basics, and I started this blog, which already has a couple thousand views!  Over the summer, I was responsible for 14 teenage girls in a month-long program.  I definitely underestimated how stressful the job would be and how very little sleep I would get, but it was still an amazing experience, and I'm looking forward to returning next summer (this time in charge of more stuff! Oh boy...)

And then medical school...

I've met hundreds of new people this year, 140+ in my class alone, and I feel like I entered into a huge family.  I love my class and all the friends I've made, and I can't imagine being anywhere else.  As hard as school is and as much as I complain about all the studying I have to do, I am very thankful to be at this great school, surrounded by such amazing people!

I learned pretty much every major organ, muscle, nerve, and blood vessel in the human body.  I learned biochemistry, genetics, and cell bio/pathology in 3 months.  I made it through immunology alive.  I learned how to take a patient's medical history.  I perfected the steps of a normal physical exam.  I still can't see the fundus of the eye, but I'm getting there!  I took my first history and physical on a REAL patient.  And I realized that I really like pediatrics, even though I've never been a fan of screaming babies.

I've changed so much in the last 6 months alone.  When we did the Meyers-Briggs personality test before matriculation, I was a strong introvert.  My personality since starting medical school has changed so much that many of my classmates can't believe that I didn't score as an extrovert!  I went out of my comfort zone to join an a cappella group, and I love it!!

Also in the last year, I got two new nephews who I can't wait to squeeze when I see them next! :)

With that amazing year behind me, I'll have to work extra hard to make this next year even more amazing!  Things I'm looking forward to:

• Neuroscience! Finally something I have a background in!
• Getting fit!
• Training for a 5K with my mommy :)
• Learning to ride a bike (that's right! I don't know how...yet!)
• Being a counselor again this summer
• Starting my 2nd year of medical school!

So here's to an even BETTER year, and what better way to start out than by cuddling newborn babies tomorrow? :)

White Cheddar Spinach Turkey Burgers

I know I haven't posted in a while, but I also haven't tried out a new recipe since the ginger chicken last month. Immunology kinda took over my life for a while, but I'm back to cooking some healthy and delicious food!  Check out this mouth-watering burger:

It definitely tasted as good as it looked!  And by using 99% lean ground turkey, veggies, and just a bit of cheese, it's a very healthy alternative to a regular burger.  The original recipe (here) was for a chicken burger, but I had a bunch of turkey in my freezer, so I made the swap!  I tweaked some other parts of the recipe, too: the onions didn't look too good at the store, so I used a shallot instead, and left out the green onion and cayenne pepper.

Makes: 7 burgers

Ingredients:

1 pack (about 1.5 lbs) of 99% lean ground turkey

Fresh baby spinach (as much or as little as you like!)

1 large shallot, minced

1 large clove of garlic, minced

3 oz grated sharp white cheddar cheese

2 tsp balsamic vinegar

2 tsp low sodium soy sauce

1 tsp lemon juice

Bread crumbs (optional)

Parsley, salt, and pepper to taste

Mince the garlic and shallot and cook over low heat until browned and sweating (adding a little salt helps).  Add the spinach and cook until wilted.  Once the mixture is cooked, remove it from the heat and allow it to cool.  The original recipe recommends putting the mixture through a food processor, but I don't mind the larger chunks of the aromatics or full pieces of spinach (plus I don't have a food processor).  In a bowl, mix the turkey, cheese, vinegar, soy sauce, and lemon juice together.  Add the onion/garlic/spinach mixture once it's cool.  Add salt, pepper, and parsley to taste.  If the meat is sticking to your hands, add breadcrumbs until it is not sticky anymore.  I barely had to add any.  Form the mixture into 7 patties and broil for 8 minutes on each side or until cooked through.  To keep the meal healthy, serve on a whole wheat sandwich thin with some more fresh spinach!

It smelled wonderful!

I just made one burger and froze two raw patties for later, and I plan to use the rest for making meatballs, which are much more versatile and microwave-friendly for taking to school.  Should still be just as tasty! :)

Slow Cooker Ginger Chicken

I haven't posted in a while because the last couple weeks have been a whirlwind!  We got back to school on January 2, had 7 days of pathology lecture and workshops, then had our exam this past Friday!  The huge upside to having the exam on Friday is that we have a completely FREE weekend with nothing to study for!  We start Immunology tomorrow, and from what the upperclassmen say, it will be a handful. So I broke out my new Crock Pot for the first time, and I'll be eating for a week!

Ignore the thyme!!!! That's for another recipe...oops!

I chose a relatively simple recipe for the first use: Gingery Chicken from the Slow Cooker Revolution cookbook by America's Test Kitchen.  I plan on eating it throughout the week with brown rice or sweet potato.  I'm off to my friend's house for dinner tonight, but I tasted this and it is quite delicious!  No knife needed, the chicken just shreds!  The prep was easy, except for grating the ginger.  Ginger is a great flavor, but grating it is such a hassle!!

I changed the recipe a bit to make it healthier.  The original recipe calls for skin-on, bone-in chicken breasts, but I used boneless skinless.  I also used olive oil instead of canola oil.

Onion, ginger, garlic

Ingredients:
5-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts*
Olive oil
1/2 large onion, minced (or 1 med-small onion)
3 tbs ginger, grated
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 tbs sugar
3 tbs low-sodium soy sauce

*(The chicken breasts I had were huge, so I cut them in half horizontally.  This also allowed them to cook through faster.)

Season the chicken with salt and pepper.  Heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet, and brown the chicken breasts.  Remove them from the pan and place them on a plate to the side.  Add the onion, ginger, and garlic to the pan and saute until the onion is translucent (this mixture smells amazing!!).  Add the flour, mixing for about a minute.  Slowly add the chicken broth while stirring, and you'll be left with a thick mixture.  Add this to the slow cooker, then stir in the sugar and soy sauce.  Place the chicken in the slow cooker, and set it on low for 4 hours.  Mix everything around every hour so that each piece of chicken has time in the sauce.  Serve!

Also, I started a little project on New Years Day - a picture a day!  I've been documenting it on a separate blog: 2013-365.  I usually try to post something interesting or unique about each day, considering much of my time is spent in class and studying, so hopefully I can keep that up!! :)

Baked potato chips (again!!)

One of my new kitchen gadgets from Christmas was a mandoline.  I got to try it out over break when I made baked potato chips (original post) for a New Year's Eve appetizer feast!  I had to leave for Pittsburgh early on the 1st, so I stayed in with my parents for a quiet New Year's celebration.

Using the mandoline!

Perfect slices

Baking to a crisp!

Healthy homemade potato chips!

Our New Year's Eve feast: honey-lime shrimp, the chips, cheese and crackers, hummus, and chips for our leftover Mexican chicken/Spanish rice/black bean fiesta!  Yum!

OMG CHICKEN!

Chicken is easy to make, but it gets boring quickly.  I have a ton of chicken recipes pinned on Pinterest and several packs of chicken sitting in my freezer, so I need to start actually making these recipes!  Some pinner called this "OMG chicken," but it's just a much healthier version of Hellman's Parmesan crusted chicken, using fat free plain Greek yogurt instead of the mayo.  While the chicken cooked, I made a quick veggie stir-fry with mushrooms, yellow squash, orange bell pepper, and grape tomatoes.  Yum!

Did you know that a serving of chicken is about the size of a deck of cards and weighs 3-4oz?  I usually cut chicken breasts in half (butterflying them like this, but cutting the whole way through to make 2 pieces).  I'm still left with more than a serving of chicken (4-6oz depending on the size), but it's a lot more manageable and cooks more evenly.


Here's the easy recipe for "OMG Chicken"!

Ingredients:
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, each butterflied in half
1/2 cup fat free plain Greek yogurt
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
Sprinkle of Italian breadcrumbs

Mix the yogurt and cheese together and slather the mixture over the chicken.  Sprinkle some breadcrumbs over the top and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.  How easy was that?

Puppy in the Snow!

Since I've been home, there have been two or three small snowfalls.  Each was just a couple inches and melted soon after, but we took my dog out to play in the snow the other night.  He loves catching snowballs!

Moroccan Chicken Soup

I first made this soup a couple summers ago, and since then I've made it a few times for my family.  It is easy to make (takes about 15 minutes) and is very hearty and filling.  The recipe is from the Best Simple Recipes cookbook by America's Test Kitchen, one of my first cookbooks!  It calls for garam masala, an Indian blend of spices, made up of black pepper, coriander, cumin, cinnamon, and cardamom, among other spices.  Most of these spices are also abundantly used in Moroccan cooking, so I think the recipe calls for using the Indian spice in order to simplify the recipe.  I like that it's mild (I'm a wuss when it comes to spicy things) and it gives the soup a flavor very similar to what I tasted in Morocco. (see the end of this post for some of my pictures from Morocco!)

Ingredients:
Olive oil
1 onion, chopped fine
1 teaspoon garam masala
5 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 14.5oz can of diced tomatos (we use the no salt added version)
2 15.5oz cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 zucchini, cut into half moons
1/2 cup plain couscous
1 rotisserie chicken
Salt and pepper to taste

Using a rotisserie chicken makes the whole process a lot faster, but making the chicken will work just as well.  Discard the skin and shred the chicken into bite size pieces.  You'll only need about 3 cups of chicken for the soup.

In a large Dutch oven or stock pot, cook onion in ~1 tbsp of olive oil over medium-high heat until translucent and lightly browned (takes about 5 minutes).  Add the garam masala and stir, cooking for another 30 seconds.  Add the broth and tomatoes and bring to a simmer.  Add the chickpeas, zucchini, and couscous, cover the pot, and cook for about 8 minutes.  Uncover, stir in about 3 cups of the chicken, and add salt and pepper to taste.  Let it simmer for a few minutes so the chicken can absorb the flavors, then serve with some crusty bread!

Morocco 

Morocco was the last port on my voyage on Semester at Sea, the study abroad program I did in the summer of 2010.  We docked in Casablanca and a group of us took a day trip to Marrakech, which was amazing!!  I had so many amazing dishes throughout the summer, but one of the best was a lamb dish with couscous, chickpeas, vegetables, and stewed dates.  Check it out:

 Soooo delicious.  I may or may not have had more than two helpings... :)

 And this is one of my favorite pictures of the whole trip, in a garden in Marrakech:

Navidades!

I hope you had an excellent Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or whatever holiday you celebrate this season!  I had a fun week full of family and delicious food, and now I'm just enjoying a few quiet days before heading back to school.

I was in class until the 20th, when we had our Cell Path exam and histology practical...adding another completed syllabus to the stack!!  To the right is a picture of all the syllabi and books I've accumulated in the first semester of medical school!  Classes start again on Jan 2, when we'll begin the pathology portion of the Cell Path course.  Then Immunology and Microbiology, all before spring break!  Looks like I have my work cut out for me...

My grandfather (we call him Abuelote) came up from Florida for the week of Christmas, and he got to meet his two newest great-grandchildren!  The two older kids remembered him, so they were happy to see him too.  We had a full house on the 22nd, just like on Thanksgiving!  We exchanged presents with my brother and his family, since they were leaving the next day, and ate a wonderful Italian dinner - turkey sausage and homemade meatballs in Ina's marinara sauce.  We also celebrated Abuelote's 85th birthday with a big chocolate cake!  I also spent a good amount of time playing and cuddling with the kiddos :)

Pork on pork! Mmmmmm

My sister and her family came down for Nochebuena (Christmas Eve) to do presents and dinner.  I got a lot of kitchen stuff, which I am super excited to try out!!  I have a lot of Crockpot recipes pinned on Pinterest, so I'm looking forward to trying them out on the weekends.  Nochebuena dinner is always pork and black beans over white rice - Cuban tradition!  The pork was marinated with a mustard/honey/garlic mixture and covered in BACON.  Oh yes.  Delicious.  My sister made the black beans from scratch, and they were wonderful as always!

Among my kitchen-related gifts were a new cute cupcake apron from my sister, an Ina Garten cookbook autographed by Ina herself (!!!), a mandoline for thinly slicing food (and for making better potato chips), and the Crock Pot.

All the girls got aprons!

Ina Garten touched my cookbook!

Mandoline!

Sooo excited to try some new recipes!