out on parole, and ready to party!

December 18, 2009

pop that cork
i’m not sure what brought on my desire for a private happy hour at 5:30 pm, in my own home. maybe it was . . .

★ being OVER my research month. blah.
★ to celebrate being FINISHED with doin’ time!
★ my way of dealing with the fact that cornish hens are really just cute baby chickens, and we were going to have to EAT them
★ an excuse to open up the bloomin’ sweet ash cheese from hillsborough cheese company (to die for, by the way)


whatever the reason, i popped open this bottle of syrah from our bella stash, and i spent the remainder of the evening cooking — and drinking — away.


the very last doin’ time recipe was staring me in the face: ROASTED CORNISH HENS!!

even when i first thumbed through the book and proposed this project, i knew it would come down to the #$*&#@ cornish hens. fine, it’s not exactly at the level of pate de canard en croute, but i’m not julie powell. for one, i’m much more squeamish. i’m also far lazier.


luckily, as it turned out, this recipe isn’t actually hard at all. the only challenges are finding the cornish hens in the first place (they had them tucked away in a freezer at whole foods – yes these babies were organic), and then getting past the fact that rather than enjoying some exotic game breed, you are just eating chickens in their formative years. plus there’s just a little too much anatomy here for my taste.


but, as you can see, the wine helped.


i mean really, IT HELPED.


at the conclusion of this martha stewart farewell party, i asked josh what he thought of the project:


i think he’ll miss all of the meaty dishes. because i am SO ready to eat a less meat-centric diet. don’t get me wrong: doin’ time with martha was fun, and i learned a lot. but i’m ready to move on.

i already have next year’s project (yes, YEAR — i like to think big when it comes to cooking) all planned out! it’s going to be a lot more flexible, and a lot of fun. details in a later post . . .

let it snow?
AHHHHH! sound the alarm!!!! it looks like a few flakes might fall in NC.


my favorite part about snow here is how crazy everyone gets! businesses all shut down, and it’s all anyone can talk about. luckily, i’m working (heh) from home, so i’ll get to just hunker down and enjoy the coziness. and maybe a run in the snow . . .

speaking of work
i’ve had just about all i can take of this research business. it’s one thing when i’m actually in a lab, surrounded by people and getting to do hands-on experiments. it’s quite another when i’m just sitting here with a pile of articles and expected to write about a topic like i know what i’m talking about (really, how much of an expert can one become in 3 weeks!?).

I’M AN EXTROVERT OVER HERE. i need human contact (and not just on twitter).

despite all my whining, i actually have made some progress over these past 3 weeks — i’ll have a 15 page document with a research proposal on it to hand in to the residency powers-that-be by the middle of next week. but this proposal is in no way, shape, or form ready for the big time of submitting for funding! luckily, i will have many months to get it to that point . . . after all, i don’t start in the lab until july of 2011!

in the meantime, i have renewed excitement about getting back to clinical work, which is really what i like best. and admittedly, i AM nice and rested. yes, it’s been an easy month for me, and i haven’t been working hard or long hours. but maybe since that doesn’t happen so often in residency, that’s okay.

just remind me about all this when i am cursing my call nights in february.

————————————————————————-

12.17.09

workout: none. i wasn’t feeling it, and decided that if there was ever a week to just follow my instincts, this post-marathon week is it.

doin’ time: as above. and now i really am going to have to find a new name for this section!

6 Comments

  • Reply Anonymous March 10, 2019 at 7:27 pm

    snow?! crazyness for the south. does everything really just shut down? i can&#39t even imagine that being from the northeast and all…

    and i can&#39t blame you for wanting to get back to the clinical stuff. it definitely seems the most interesting to me

  • Reply Susan March 10, 2019 at 7:27 pm

    Congrats on finishing doin&#39 time! That&#39s so amazing…can&#39t wait to see what the next project is!

    I love when people go crazy over snow…it makes me laugh, especially since that doesn&#39t really happen in Chicago.

  • Reply Jess March 10, 2019 at 7:27 pm

    Sifting through articles and writing about them is what made me decide against being a professor. Congrats on being done with Doin&#39 Time!

  • Reply Meg March 10, 2019 at 7:27 pm

    Yay! Congrats on finishing Martha Stewart! Can&#39t wait to hear what you have up your sleeve next…
    I thought I would get to leave work early because of the forecasted "wintry mix" but no such luck 🙁

  • Reply Chelsea March 10, 2019 at 7:27 pm

    A great memory from living in the Southwest was waking up, looking out the window, seeing snow stuck to the road, and knowing you were going to get to go back to sleep for another 2 hours (at least).

    Congrats on finishing Doin&#39 Time.

  • Reply Kristine @ purple pinky toes March 10, 2019 at 7:27 pm

    This was a great recap! Not sure if I ever congratulated you on the marathon accomplishment, so if I didn&#39t, CONGRATS! You rock!

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