Chocolate Chocolate Cookies

It's late at night and suddenly you've got a serious sweet tooth - what do you do?  Bake of course!  But as you sit down to find a suitable recipe you realize you're out of a key ingredient - vanilla.  Oh no!  What will you do?!?!?  

This is the situation Tim and I found ourselves in the other night. We were both jonesin' for some sugar and had chocolate cookies on the brain. Then I remembered we were out of vanilla and had forgotten to restock while we were at the store. Not wanting to walk to Winco (or lose our parking spot) what were we supposed to do?  And then it dawned on us: we've got almond and peppermint extract - wouldn't those work just as well?  Turns out - they will!  Tim was the man in charge (no really - he did everything, I sat on the couch and read my kindle). Now we've got a delicious bag of almond chocolate chocolate chip cookies on the counter!  These are seriously amazing!  I'm thinking hazelnut or peppermint extract would be amazing here.  

So the next time you get the urge to bake and discover you're missing a few key ingredients - get creative!  What's the worst that could happen?

Home-Made Brownies

Ladies and Gentlemen - presenting Master Baker Tim!

That's right - Tim made homemade brownies all by himself last night. I didn't help at all. And let me tell you, those brownies are delicious. I'd even consider making these instead of boxed brownies. I mean, boxed brownies are amazing, but these were so chocolatey. I knowing that we made them ourselves (or Tim's self) is so awesome. I've only attempted brownies from scratch once before and it went ok. This is by far a better recipe. Give it a try!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x9 inch baking pan.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the oil, sugar, and vanilla. Beat in eggs. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt; gradually stir into the egg mixture until well blended. Stir in walnuts, if desired. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the brownie begins to pull away from edges of pan. Let cool on a wire rack before cutting into squares.

Updates

I know there are some people, namely my parents, who don't use facebook (and this is by no means a call for those people to start using it). In that regard I decided it would be worth while to post pictures of our new living room on the blog as well.

The other great update besides the couch I am currently sitting on? Tim will be here in a matter of days! That's right ladies and gentlemen: no longer am I counting down the weeks, I am currently counting down the days and prematurely counting down the hours, minutes and seconds. I am so excited for him to finally get here and LIVE here! It's been a rough 2 months and we've had our extreme highs and lows (more lows than highs...) but we're finally at the end. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Tim defends his thesis tomorrow at 1pm Central Time. So everyone keep him in your thoughts. I know he'll do an amazing job. I'll be waiting for Master Carlson to call me with the good news! Then he'll get on the road to Eau Claire to pick up Josie's better half and finally embark on the Oregon Trail (you knew it was coming eventually). He and Dan should be here sometime on Friday. I can hardly wait.

I'm pretty sure this is shaping up to be the longest week of my life.

On the plus side: I get Thursday and Friday off this week. While that sounds amazing, it came at a price: I offered up my services on Saturday to go into the office and help finish the finalist presentation for a major RFP we've been working on. Since I've had some experience in the business, I was an obvious choice to help out. Unfortunately what was supposed to be a 2-3 hour gig turned into a 12+ hour ordeal. I got into work at 2pm on Saturday and didn't get home until 2:30am Sunday. Despite the long hours and insane amount of work I did have a lot of fun! By 11pm I was rolling around on the floor laughing because I was so overtired. Jeff, the tech manager, and I spent a good hour comparing the pronunciation of various cities from our home states. We also worked on Jeff's pronunciation of Wis-con-sin (instead of Wis-cawn-sin). He made quite a bit of progress. Although he did scoff at Rib "Mountain"... All in all it wasn't the worst way to spend a Saturday evening. And the presentation went very well, so let's hope we get this one so all of our work was not in vain.

So now that I'm a shoe-in for resident of the year, it's time to crack out one more class review (YAY TKIs) and figure out where the heck we stand on Plavix as I head into Prior Authorization land. Good times, good times.

This little lady is gonna hit the hay and get some shut eye because 6am comes way too early these days.

G'night!

Heading to the Weekend

Well another week of work has come and gone. Which is fine by me. The weekends get to be an issue too though. Without much to do I tend to get lazy and bored. I love getting together with people and hanging out anytime, but I'd rather do things with Tim. And he's not here. I keep thinking about all the stuff we can do on a regular basis. Happy hour downtown. Saturday markets. Trips to the coast, Mt. Hood, Multnomah Falls. The list goes on and on. I don't want to do any of it without him. I need to just curl into a ball and sleep until he gets out here - which I hope is soon.

I've lost motivation for the day. Brain shut off about an hour ago, so I feel pretty useless right now. I need to get out of here, head home and recharge. I think this calls for a "real" meal tonight. I want to actually cook. Usually I'm a huge fan of home-cooked meals, but lately the effort just doesn't seem worth it. Especially without anyone to share it with. Sure, I could invite people over - but I have no furniture. After dinner, what will we do? So that's out of the question until the couch gets here. Another thing that I hope arrives soon. I'm ridiculously excited about the furniture! I've never really owned anything before and now I own a car, and a bed, and some dressers, AND a couch, chair, ottoman and 3 tables! It's crazy! It's like this small step towards adulthood.

Here's to many more steps to come! Which reminds me, I should find a liquor store soon...

A Place to Sit

This past weekend was one of the best I've had since I got here. And that's because Tim was here. After some annoying and frustrating plane issues, I picked him up at the airport around 2pm and we headed to Beaverton so I could take my MPJE for Oregon. After that it was time for errands and the like since we had a car and I had a strong man to carry things. Dinner was at Ken's Artisan Pizza on SE 28th. We got the one with pancetta and it was delicious. Only problem - we were so hungry that it didn't last long. So a quick walk later and 15 minutes in line lead to a Voodoo Dozen! After catching the MAX back home we collapsed on the bed and fell asleep almost instantly.

Saturday morning was furniture shopping. We'd checked some of it out the night before at Ashley Home Furniture and made some initial decisions. So now we've got a couch, chair, ottoman, and set of 3 tables on the way in 2-6 weeks. We got the chair and ottoman in sage green (they're mine) and the sofa in a deep brown (more Tim's). So comfy! I can't wait for them to get here. The rest of Saturday we explored the markets and the waterfront. Hit up the Brewfest for a bit. And had dinner at a sushi-go-around where we randomly ran into Sara! What are the chances???

Sunday was all about getting the apartment in shape, running to Target and Winco for organizers and groceries. I made turkey burgers and sweet potato fries for dinner and we watched most of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (but don't spoil the ending because we didn't finish it!).

Then came the worst part of the weekend - getting on the train and taking Tim to the airport. Extremely hard moment(s). Thankfully I've only got a few more weeks to wait until he's here.

Monday was tough and just writing this is even difficult, but I'm making it one day at a time.

Coasting

I know it's been a few days since I posted, but I've been busy with residency work swinging into gear and studying for my Oregon MPJE (not looking forward to that). Days are pretty routine: wake up, shower, breakfast, catch the train, get to work, work, work, work, leave, catch the train home, dinner, errands, studying. Mundane I know - I need to work on spicing it up a little.

This past weekend was extremely fun though. I went with some residents from Vancouver and from OHSU to Cannon Beach on the Oregon Coast. It was a pretty nice day out on the beach (at least when the sun was out). The views are gorgeous. We spent the day relaxing, drinking a few beers, and just having a good time exploring. Dinner was pretty good too - the clam chowder at Mo's is definitely worth checking out. At the end of the day I was exhausted though. We didn't really do that much either... I did manage to get sunburnt though - only on my shins - thanks to my inability to apply sunscreen properly.

I'm still working on getting the apartment squared away as far as unpacking goes. Need to take a trip to get some organization items to finish that up though. Maybe once I get my zipcard so I actually have a vehicle I can use that will get done.

On other notes I get paid on Friday which is super exciting. Also I'm looking into orthodontists in the area to finally fix this messed up mouth of mine (keep your comments to yourself). I also could use a massage, a pedicure, etc. Maybe in the next weeks here.

On a super exciting note: Tim is coming to visit next weekend! I'm so excited I can hardly contain myself. This is seriously the longest we've ever been apart and it's only been 3 weeks now. I miss him terribly though so I'm so glad he can come out and visit, even if only for a weekend. Then after that it'll only be ~4 weeks until he moves out here for good!

Well - back to the grind of reading RCTs, if only researchers knew how to do these right...

Picture Taking Improvements

I know it's been way too long since I've posted, but there haven't been a ton of new things going on, and I'm not evne sure who reads this anymore. Regardless, I thought I'd touch on a few things that deserve updates:

1. There are exactly 18 days standing between me and graduation. 18 days! I can hardly believe it. On that note, there are 10 "working" days until the end of this block. I've had a good time at the clinic, but with the nice weather and graduation approaching I'm finding it hard to pay attention and truly care anymore. To top things off I've got all my projects done. I'd be so nice to be able to stay home for the next 2 weeks and study for the boards, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. Oh well.

2. Tim and I have been dating for 4 months now and loving every minute of it! I've also been better about taking pictures which is much appreciated by family and friends. Check out my pictures on Picasa to see more!

3. It's official - I'm moving to Portland, OR this summer. I got a Residency Position with RegenceRx which is part of Blue Cross Blue Schield out there. I'll be there for a year and I'm both excited and nervous beyond all belief! Tim's moving out with me - which is amazing (did I mention that he's amazing?) and we're actually taking a mini-vacation out there to look at apartments right after graduation. Moving across the country is a lot more work (read money) than I thought it would be. Just FYI. Hopefully we'll get it all figured out in time. If anyone has any suggestions feel free to share - please!

Other than the above, things are chugging along as per usual. Now, back to rotation "work" - blah!