Avocados and Guac!

Friends:

I am not sure if you know about my love of all things avocado but my love for these beautiful green sources of heart healthy fat runs deep, almost as deep as my love for scallops, red wine, good cheese and my friends and family of course. Avocado in anything makes it so much better. Sushi, better with avocado, salad, so much better with avocado, a sandwich yep same thing. And then there is the mother of all things avocado - guacamole! In my very first apartment in Georgetown, when I first graduated from college one of my best friends and fellow foodie Thea came to visit from Michigan and taught me how to make my very own guacamole. We walked up to Dean and Deluca in Georgetown to obtain the needed ingredients. I have been making guacamole regularly ever since then. Last week, after a 90 minute soul drenching hot yoga class, Molly and I were in the very same Dean and Deluca when she had a craving for some guac. I was honored to share the technique I learned from miss Thea years earlier. Well, tonight I whipped up my old standard.

Here is my recipe:
2-4 avocados depending on how much of the green goodness you want to make
2-4 cloves of garlic, peeled and diced
1 small onion diced
2 medium tomatoes diced
Juice of 1 lime
1 bunch cilantro chopped
1-2 jalapenos seeded and diced
1-2 tsp salt to taste

Throw it all into a bowl, use a potato masher to squish it up, grab your favorite chips and enjoy. Maybe if you are feeling nice you will have some left for your favorite family members.

Imported From Detroit

If you watched the Super Bowl on Sunday you may have seen this commercial about Detroit. Detroit sure has had some rough times in the past few years and things for many are still tough but I loved that Chrysler decided to feature Detroit as its selling point! Maybe someday Detroit will return to its glory - the glory my beloved Grandmother used to tell me about, a city where people walked around downtown, where the city center was a destination not a place to be avoided.

Birthday love!

To celebrate last night we had some friends over for two of my favorite things: wine and cheese! It was so nice to celebrate with good friends and I couldn't have asked for a better way to celebrate! Here are some of the pictures!

Cake Love Cupcakes!

29 years ago today!

Wedding Preview

Although we are still at least a year away from our wedding and some key things have not been decided, most importantly where the wedding will take place, and when the big event will take place, I have wasted no time organizing, planning and compiling a folder of ideas. I might have the details figured out well before we actually set up the structure of the event. Lucky for me, I have a mother with many talents, some of her best are in the kitchen. When I was a child I wasn't much interested in backing or cooking but I sure did love me some Texas Sheet Cake, some apple pie and of course some chocolate chip cookies. This year for Christmas Kevin and I got my mom a new fancy Kitchen Aid mixer to replace her 30 year old one. I know she was so glad to have a well working machine again but I sure do have fond memories of licking the beaters of that old guy. I am pretty sure that to this day eating spoonfuls of cookie dough is my favorite part of baking. Well, now that my mom's kitchen is fully equipped I plan on putting her right to work helping me with wedding favors. I am not sure she knows this yet but she will have her hands full, baking and jaring the summer before our wedding. Here are some cute samples of favors. I cannot wait to design our own labels for Sal's tasty creations but I know our guests will be super glad they didn't get a boring tin of Jordan almonds. I cannot wait to actually see all of my ideas become actual items once the fun starts! Thanks Mom!

Thanks Green Wedding Shoes for the great ideas and pictures!

Notes from the ER

I started a month of shifts in the emergency department today. As I rode the train into work this morning, I looked around me at all of the people heading to work, and wondered who of the millions of people sharing a perfectly fine morning commute, would find their way into the ER and into my care. Kevin calls this a baseline of badness which exists every day. Every day someone out there is going to have a heart attack. Every day someone is going to cut their finger and need stitches, some one is going to bang their head at the gym and need stitches, someone is going to break a bone in their foot playing soccer. Although, I am 100% sure that I have no aspirations to be an ER doc, it is sort of fun to play one for a month. The thing about the ER is that you take care of everyone: old, young, rich, poor. It had been a while since I had the majority of the responsibility for caring for patients, coming up with my own evaluation, making my own diagnosis, ordering my own tests and I was worried for the first five minutes that I might have forgotten everything but somewhere tucked in the depths of my brain are millions of facts about random illnesses, and the experience of seeing hundreds of patients before today and somehow it all comes back. No mater how many months ago it was that I last took care of cute little two year old or how many months it has been since I last saw a big bad eye infection. It is amazing how our memories work, one look at a patient and all of this knowledge pops into my head. I might have forgotten the dose of Augmentin to use or the first line choice of IV antibiotics for pneumonia but those are the things you can easily look up. The best way to examine a two year old, all the tricks learned along the way about how to look in their ears with out making them scream, those things are the more important stuff that you cannot easily look up on a smart phone. My first shift in the ER while exhausting and dehydrating was fun. It was fun to not know what was coming in the door, to be surprised at what the patient's real agenda was for coming to the ER. And I left, feet tired, needing a drink of water and a trip to the bathroom for the first time since the morning, but I felt I helped patients, stitches were placed and removed, pregnancy was averted, mothers were calmed, antibiotics were started and we sent them on their way reassured that they would get better. While I do not wish anyone a trip to the ER, I hope that if you go you have a good experience. Martha Stewart recently blogged about her own trip to the ER check it out here.

Beef Stew

Nothing tastes better on a cold night than a piping hot bowl of soup. Tonight I made a different version of beef stew. It was tasty and hearty and the perfect way to end the day. Here is the recipe.

1 lb grass fed stew meat cut into 1 inch cubes
2 tbs olive oil
1 medium onion diced
3 cloves garlic, peeled and diced
4-5 large carrots
1- 28 oz can of whole tomatoes
1 box of beef broth (less sodium if you can find it and watch out for MSG)
1 bag frozen peas
4-5 medium yellow potatoes in 1 inch chunks
1 tbs caraway seeds
1 tbs paprika
1 tbs chili powder
Salt and pepper to taste

In a heavy stock pot, heat the oil and then add the beef cubes in a single layer. Toss in plenty of salt and pepper with the beef. Cook until browned on all sides about 10 minutes. While the beef is browning chop up your veggies. Add the garlic, onions and carrots, caraway seeds, paprika and chili powder to the beef once it is browned. Simmer until the veggies are starting to soften about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes with their juices and mash them up a bit with some tongs as you add them. Add the beef broth and potatoes and bring the whole thing to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and continue cooking, stirring occasionally for about 2 hours or until the potatoes and beef are very tender. Add the peas (defrosted) about 10 minutes before serving. Tastes great with a nice hunk of rye bread and a dark beer. I am sure this would work very well in a slow cooker too, I just do not have one.

Stay warm!