N'awlins

Justin and I watch the show No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain, and his trip to New Orleans highlighted this restaurant. Open since 1840 and still owned by the same family, we feasted on Oysters Rockafeller, Escargots a la Bordelaise, Crab mous Armandine, and the special Pompano dish with lump crab meat. And wine. And an amazing coffee-brandy drink called Cafe Brulot Diabolique at the end that was lit on fire before serving. We splurged, and it was worth it.

One of the historic rooms in Antoine's

Another room in Antoine's with past years' memoribilia from Mardi Gras past

Past Mardi Gras Queens

2nd largest above ground wine cellar, inside Antoine's. It stretches one whole block, connecting the main restaurant and the bistro/bar a street over. My dream...  :D

Another private dining room at Antoine's

This is somewhere in the French Quarter....

This home along St. Charles Ave had tons of beads still haning from the trees. Apartently there are multiple Mardi Gras parades, but the one along the St. Charles route is one of the biggest.

We visited the Lafayette Cemetary No. 1. Very interesting. Tons of old marble and granite.

Above ground mausoleum.

We had lunch at this bistro in between conference courses - fabulous. Justin had shrimp and grits and an orange brandy drink, I had a muffaletta sandwich with a rich cappucino. The courtyard had quaint landscaping and iron table and chairs. Cute!

Street band

Another street band - the girl playing the wash board was great.

Hurricanes at the original Pat O'Briens. Tasted like fruit punch with rum.

Enjoying our vacation. I mean conference to learn....

My co-worker Jessica, who joined Justin and I in many of our culinary and liquor endeavors.

Bourbon Street

Met up with an old classmate, Kellie. So good to see her!

Made my own Mardi Gras - Hey, it's N'awlins after all!

Minted White Chocolate Cupcakes

I love cupcakes. Everything about them. They are the perfect size, and can take you back to your childhood days of bringing treats to school on your birthday and colored sprinkles. I personally tend toward selections that have a richer taste than powerered sugar frosting, and my last selection was this:

Minted White Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes 12 regular sized cupcakes

5 Tbsp of fresh mint leaves

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter, lightly softened

2 eggs

1 1/4 cup self-rising flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

6 oz white chocolate, chopped

confectioner's sugar, for dusting

To start, preheat your oven to 350. I have recently discovered that my timer on my over for the preheat is completely off. I have an additional thermometer that hangs in the back, telling me the REAL temp. We've lived in this apartment for 3 1/2 years and I'm now getting the oven temperature right, I'm so ashamed. Anyway, line your muffin tin with papers. Put the mint into a heat-safe bowl, and pour boiling water over the mint and let stand for 30 seconds. Drain off the water (I used it to make tea, yum) and pat the mint dry. Put the mint and suger into a food processor, blend until finely chopped.
Beat the sugar-mint mix, butter, eggs, flour, and baking powder until light and creamy. Stir in 1/2 oz of the chocolate then divide the batter between the papers. Scatter the remaining chocolate of the batter.
Bake for 20 minutes, or until the cakes have risen and just firm to the touch. Let the cakes cool on a wire rack and lightly dust with sugar once cool.

Now I thought these cupcakes had a texture more like biscuts. Note no moisture in the recipe.. hmm. I might try them next time with just a 1/2 cup of milk or 1/4 cup oil. We'll see. Despite the texture, they were fabulous. The hint of mint and white chocolate are a nice little change up from chocolate, but only occasionally. Let's not get too crazy!

Koi Cupcakes

I'm bringing treats to work tomorrow - my coworkers have been on me for bringing in cake, so I borrowed an idea from a book I found. I gave the 1st edition of the book my friend, and as I was flipping through the 2nd at Border's I came across this idea. They are just yellow cup cakes and blue frosting, but the decoration makes them so cute!! I bought two bags of circus peanuts last week for me to make these, but some how in the last week the first two bags disappeared... and Justin doesn't like them.
They were a complete cinch to make, one circus peanut on top with an edge taken off for the face, then an other peanut sliced in half for top and bottom, then each cut at a diagonal for the fins. The eyes are peanut butter M&M's, the mouth a Cheerio. They don't look quite as good as the picture in the book, but I'm pretty sure those stay-at-home moms who created the book have more time to dink around and practice these sorts of things. I think if I made these again in the future, more frosting is needed to shove the decorations to help them stay, and maybe only every other cupcake is a fish, the others bubbles or waves? I don't know, we'll have to see!

Week wrap-up

This last week went by very quickly. School is back in session, so Tuesdays for residency go by fast. We taught the students this week about neuro screens, which consists of testing sensation, muscle strength by nerve innervation groups, and reflexes. It is crazy to think back 3 years and imagine myself in that same lab. The PT1's are off to a great start. It's nice to see their enthusiasm and desire to learn, even in some of the simplest of skills.

Other news, I got my Subaru Forester 2.5x!!! I have been needing a new car, mine seemed to find one more thing each day to fall apart. From the suspension, to the electronic sensors, to the cruise control, and lastly the handle to the driver door - it was time. I have been wanting a Forester forever, but can't seem to find too many used ones for sale. Hmm... popular, reliable car maybe?? I was looking for a bit older (just to not have as high of car payments) but Justin wanted me safe. Love him! Even after coming home from the dealership that night he says, "I would have paid a lot more to know you're driving a safe car." Do I deserve this man? :) Anyway, it's beautiful, rides smooth, excellent fuel economy, and I can just start to imagine the adventures Justin and I will have.

Justin has been starting to get a bit more creative in the kitchen these days. He has been taking a few venison tenderloins and curing them. He is starting to experiment with different salt/sugar and spice ratios to have a different flavor of the meats. And they are so delicious and tender! A couple crackers and some nice cheese... And it is pretty cool knowing where the deer was from, that my dad prepared them, and all the work was done without mass production. Justin has been quite proud of his culinary accomplishments, and I'm happy to say that I am enjoying the end result!

This morning for breakfast we had Eggs Benedict with whole wheat English muffins and pancetta instead ham. AMAZING!! Just after finishing, I saw my dad's FB post about eating 10 eggs for breakfast. Justin and I didn't even come close. But our stomachs are quite content with all the buttery lemon sauce and salty pancetta and eggs. Nap time!

Today's agenda is cupcakes. I have a bit of laundry and prep work to do for this week, but it's time for me to get the baking back on schedule. I mistakenly promised my coworkers a cake 2 weeks ago and fell through, thank you busy schedule! So now every day at lunch their asking when the cake is coming. Ok, so no cake today, but cupcakes are on the way. Blog post with pics to come soon.

Chicago

I made a long weekend trip to Chicago this last weekend. I stayed with my good friend Renee and her new fiance, Peter. It was a great escape from the daily routine. Saturday I putzed around a small shopping square not too far from their place and then rode the L into the city a bit further for some more shopping. I noticed a crazy amount of second hand stores - I think Chicago has more second-hand stores per capita then Starbucks in New York. I could tell they have some great buys, but I just don't have the patience to sort through everything. I found a cute little book shop that I bought a knitting book with directions on how to knit little flowers, I'm pumped that you can make them without crochet!! I will now be donning scarves, coffee wraps, baby hats, etc with little cute flowers! I also came across Justin's dream - Gene's sausage shop. This German delicatessen had TONS of selections of, well, sausage, hams, pates, brisquets, cold cuts, you name it. It also had a bunch of other products from Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Finland, and England. I found Justin a book, From Nose to Tail, written by Fergus Henderson. We have been watching Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations, and he hails this guy. Henderson is know for offal, or use of the parts of animals most through out. Not that I'm excited to try many of these dishes, but Justin enjoys reading about them. He was definitely surprised and pleased with his souvenier when I got back.

Among some other sites we had to stop at, the famous bean was one of them. After taking a few pics, we rushed across the street to grab some hot lattes and mochas to warm back up. Unfortunately my brain lapsed and I didn't turn off my flash, so the pics didn't turn out. Guess I have to go back!

I finally finished her scarf!! This was a very long-lasting project, but finally came to completion. Next time I will read the pattern the whole way through before committing to it! Here is Renee showing off the final product.

Renee and I have a tradition of making funfetti cupcakes whenever we get together. In the past we have always just put funfetti frosting on the top, but since I found this fun cupcake decorating book and gave it to her for Christmas, we decided to put our decorating skills to the test and make our cupcakes look like owls. They were fun to make, and actually didn't take that much effort. All we needed was oreos, M&M's (see note below), chocolate frosting, and chocolate covered sunflower seeds. The ears are one half of the orea, the ears are also peice of oreo, then the eyes and nose are the M&M's and sunflower seeds. We initially thought they would be too cute to eat, but then we changed our minds. Yum!

So about the M&M's, the grocery store by their place is primarily hispanic, but also carry a lot of other foreign products. They had M&M's, but they were labeled in a plastic container as "M&M's without the M". Nice.

O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum

O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum

wie treu sind deine Blatter!

Du grunst nicht nur

zur Sommerzeit,

Nein auch im Winter, wenn es schneit.

O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum

wie treu sind deine Blatter!

My family tradition is to decorate the tree with my dad's East German ornaments. During his time in the Army, he spent quite a bit of time in Berlin, when the wall was still up separating East from West. He started collecting and bringing home these handcrafted wooden ornaments, and now the tree has to be ceiling height to fit them all on!

I have many childhood memories of my sister, brother, and I pulling the ornaments from their boxes and nest of tissue paper and laying them all out onto the coffee table to get them in order for donning the tree. My siblings and I also had a few favorites, especially the cage with a rabbit inside. The door actually opens and their is a tiny wooden rabbit that you can take out.

.

Another personal favorite is the tree with all the presents underneath. I recall having to find a very sturdy branch to hang this one because of the weight.

And there are so many more! Nutcrackers and nordic skiers, trains and bedwarmers, stars and cottages, birds and angels. To me, this is Christmas.

My parents also have quite the nutcracker collection. I believe these are also East German, but not all of them. My mom and aunt have searched the country wide for specially stores that carry these, but they are hard to find. Although the 'cracker' put really moves, I can still hear my mom saying, "Careful with that!" whenever Megan, Derek, or I would start moving the jaw up and down.

My parent's new fireplace

My parents recently opted to rid of their real wood fireplace and put in a new gas fireplace. Last week when I went home to do some Christmas baking with my mom, Izzy and Hondo didn't stray to far from it's warmth!! They typically try to lounge in the sunniest of spots, so this doesn't suprise me at all. Here are a couple pics...

(and I'm still trying to figure out all the cool settings on my camera...)