Sushi Time

 If there is one weakness I have, it’s sushi. I can’t get enough of it! On Sunday I realized the intensity of Sunday football at work. Lunch was oddly quite lucrative. Once work had been completed, Jeff and I headed over to Raleigh to see my crazy friend Daniel.  I was more than thrilled when Daniel recommended sushi for dinner.  Having worked in the past at Spring Street Café in Sylva, we would have sushi night every Wednesday. It always amazed me how creative our chefs got with these rolls.  When I mean creative I mean dessert rolls with strawberries and mango with balsamic reduction.  Trout was even incorporated in a roll known as the Appalachian roll. Um good idea, yes? One thing I have heard in the past from people who go to sushi restaurants is the concern for the low sanitation score. For those who are unfamiliar with sanitation scores, every restaurant receives a grade based on cleanliness and safe food practices. The highest is 102, at sushi restaurants this score might be lower based on the fact that raw food is served and has to be thoroughly documented in regards to temperatures. I promise I have never gotten sick from sushi.

A nice cold beer to get started with, I suppose this one will do. Very crisp, very refreshing after a busy day at work. 

 Sushi Nine, located in Raleigh, shows both school spirit for NC State as well as eastern elegance for patrons consisting of the college crowd as well as Raleigh locals. As for the rolls, just a heads up, I was very hungry after work and almost devoured this whole thing before I remembered to take a picture. I had the Hurricane roll and the Sunset roll. Both were very basic in my opinion and nothing too crazy. The hurricane roll consisted of spicy tuna, tempura flakes with slices of avocado and just a drop of rooster sauce. What can I say, I’m a sucker for avocado.  

 As for the Sunset roll, I have never tried raw salmon with lemon, but to my surprise this was a complimentary combination. Using a classic California roll consisting of crab, cucumber and avocado on the inside of the roll wrapped with salmon and lemon on the outside, this truly lived up to its namesake. 

 In other news, I did follow through with one of my projects. I just got finished making homemade chocolate peanut butter bars, like Mama Pea's. The good news, really easy to make:

• ½ cup of unsalted butter, melted
• ½ cup finely ground oats
• ½ cup crushed corn flakes
• ½ cup peanut butter
• 1 cup powdered sugar

Combine all these ingredients together. It will look peanut buttery and crunchy. Spread the mixture on an 8 x 8 shallow pan. Next melt 2/3 cup of chocolate chips and 2 Tablespoons of peanut butter in a double boiler. Spread the melted chocolate on the peanut butter mixture.

Now the bad news, waiting. Place the pan in the refrigerator for an hour and a half. 

 I’ll give updates tomorrow.

“Sitting, Waiting, Wishing”-Jack Johnson

Just a Little More Time

By that I mean studying. There is a part of me that wants to hurry up and get my credits to be an RD but I want to pass. The end of October looks good. I’ll keep hold of the Inman study guide and I might even write a few blogs regarding nutrition information of sorts. If anything I’m tired of test anxiety getting in the way.  But I am pleased to say that Jeff did pass his exam yesterday!!!! I’m so proud!!!

In other news, Jeff picked up this little ditty at the library the other day. 

 For those who are not familiar with this, Tupelo Honey Café is one of those wonderful little finds in the mountains of Asheville. On the weekends the place is packed for brunch. One of my favorite memories when Jeff and I were first dating, we made a trip to Asheville from Sylva on a wintery day in January.  We had planned to leave early that evening but an unexpected snow storm prohibited us from leaving. So we got a room in a newly built hostel in downtown Asheville, had dinner and drinks at the Lexington Avenue Brewing Company (aka the LAB) and the next morning as the snow had become more manageable, Jeff and I walked over to Tupelo Honey where we consumed a brunch feast of freshly brewed coffee, homemade grits, roasted vegetables, locally made sausage and biscuits with honey. Confession this was over 2 years ago but oddly enough I remember thinking how lucky we were to be able to get in for brunch without having to wait in line! 

 My next project will be to create Tupelo Honey’s signature Sweet Potato Pancakes.  Some time ago, before I even moved to the mountains, Rachel Ray had featured this on $40 a day and I mean why not feature this wonderful idea? I mean it’s a pancake, with sweet potato, which means it’s packed with vitamin A and a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg.

Happy Sunday Everyone!

“Howlin’ for You” –Black Keys

How does Your Garden Grow?

For quite some time I have been interested in starting a gardening project of sorts. So when Jeff and I moved to Raleigh and leased an apartment with an amazing porch, we decided to fill some of the space with a hanging window box and a few pots/old containers of seeds. 

 Assembling the hanging box was very easy. We purchased the materials from Walmart and Home Depot. You can find these box and the bedding materials in the gardening department of both these stores. But when it comes to the seeds, I would say that Home Depot has a better array of seeds. 

 We purchased the basil at the farmers market a few weeks ago, so far it has fared well.  In the hanging box we have also included rosemary, a tomato plant and some lettuce. I cannot even begin to start with how happy I am about the lettuce. It makes more since for Jeff and I to grow lettuce at home for salads than to go to the store and buy a box of organic each time. Yeah, I do spend more money on organic lettuce because of two reasons: it tastes better and lasts longer. End of story.

The lettuce has been split into two different places. One in the hanging box and the other in, ironically enough, an old lettuce container we up-cycled.  It feels like Christmas morning every morning I go out to check the plants. I’m just so happy to see it grow and how tall it’s getting. Jeff and I will be having fresh lettuce for dinner and lunch in no time. 

A little lemon tree is also in the process of developing on our porch. Jeff’s dad went to Texas this summer and brought back some lemon seeds in addition to a chili plant. They have both found refuge with us. The tree is growing at a slow pace. Our chili plant is in the hanging box and it too is growing not as fast as I would have intended. But then again we have had rain the past two nights and will continue on for the next few days. 

Come on babies, grow for Mommy.

Much ado about Nothing

I had to work the dinner shift last night, oddly enough it seemed like a typical night, somewhat busy, people being very particular about certain food, gorging on the abnormal concoctions of meal add-ons, when all of a sudden a headache approached out of nowhere. I thought ok no big deal just keep working, drink some water and it will go away. No such luck. It kept getting worse. Then on top of that I felt very weak and queasy.  My first thought was “oh no migraine” so I had to leave work early during the dinner rush (not good=very busy time) then my manager said that if I was sick I shouldn’t work the lunch shift for the next day. So I had today off. This could either be a good thing or a bad thing. Regardless, I’m not too frazzled about it. After a night of rest and some leftover pho, I do feel way better.

 I did get some review in today as well as some grocery shopping time in. Currently Jeff is slaving away in the kitchen working on an amazing chicken dish. 

 

Oh yeah baby :)

After a few hours of reviewing the Inman study guide on food science it was decided to make a few stops to a few of our favorite places. For the record, yes Jeff and I are food dorks. And we are not ashamed. Our first mission was going to our local European market. Many wonderful Russian, Greek, Hungarian, Bulgarian delicacies. I picked up some Hungarian smoked sausage and a milk chocolate ladybug. Mmmm sausage good, I’ll try the ladybug after dinner tonight.

Next stop was somewhat unexpected. Jeff and I have been talking about getting a cat or dog or perhaps even both when the time is right. So we stopped by the Wake County Animal Shelter to do some looking for a potential best friend. Jeff has his eye on a hound dog for some time now. He has now been adopted. Good and sad at the same time. He would have been such a good dog. We picked up a few kittys too. Oh they were so cute :) 

Aldi, also known as the best grocery store ever, was our next stop for some wine to stock up on. I mean at $4.99 a bottle where can we go wrong? This was truly one of those excursions where we went to pick up one or two things and we leave with 10 items. Guilty. I’m thinking about making some homemade peanut butter cups with the help of a recipe from Mama Pea herself. 

 Our wine rack looks so complete!

Final stop was Big Lots in search of some butchers twine.  I don’t know what it is about this store but I never leave disappointed. I found Bob’s Red Mill products for a very good price!! Unfortunately there wasn’t anything I really needed but none the less I was very pleased to see these products at Big Lots. I was tempted to pick up some granola but I’ve come to the conclusion lately that it’s easier to make granola at home. But who knows, I could change my mind come tomorrow, perhaps.

Take care everyone. Jeff and I are taking prayer/belief requests for the time being before and day of exam.

“Eye of the Tiger”-Survivor

Why Can’t Mornings Last Longer?

Today is one of those days where I wish the morning would never go away. I think it’s one of the little pleasures in life people tend to take for granted. I really wanted to do nothing this morning but for some reason a good ole breakfast seemed to get me out of that funk. My craving this morning consisted of pancakes, crispy apple smoked bacon, coffee and a juice concoction created by Jeff. 

As this bountiful feast was being prepared, I listed to a podcast from Stuff You Should Know. My old roommate from Asheville got me hooked onto these intriguing on-air shows.  Within the Stuff You Should Know podcasts, there’s also Stuff Mom Never Told You (Ashley’s favorite) and Stuff You Missed in History Class. Today’s selected show was Should there be a Fat Tax? Given the field that Jeff and I are in (dietetics) this was somewhat beneficial for us to tone into. Given it was difficult to fully listen in with the pancakes smoking on the griddle and the sound of Jeff’s juicer, we still caught some interesting tid bits. For example, did you know that in recent surveys young people are more willing to have foods higher in saturated fats taxed in comparison to the older population which are less favorable in having these certain foods taxed?  Oxford researchers have also come to the conclusion that a “17.5% Value Added Tax on unhealthy food could save up to 3,200 lives a year” (Silverman, 2012). You can either go on itunes to hear the whole podcast or http://www.howstuffworks.com/fat-tax1.htm for more information.

This brings up an interesting debate/conversation, should we increase the cost of certain fatty foods in hopes of a decline in mortality rates? The first thing I could feel many people saying would be “we have the right to choose which foods we eat.” This is very true. We do have the free will to select whichever foods we choose. Yet, I see it this way, the incidence of disease and various health implications, have escalated dramatically in the past 20 years or so.  At this rate I would assume that these numbers have the possibility of increasing.  During my internship with both WIC and the VA hospital, I counseled many people who fell under two categories. There were those who wanted to change and were making lifestyle changes to do so, then I saw those who would twist my words around or frankly didn’t give a damn but still showed up to meetings because family encouraged them to do so.  The problem that I would hear most often, it’s easier and cheaper to eat junk food and get fast food than it is to eat fresh produce or cook meals at home. So my thought is this, if these fatty food prices did increase would dietitians and medical staff see different results in terms of weight and lipid values or would the habit still be too difficult to break?

I told Jeff that one day I might want to consider teaching at the university level. This would be a very interesting homework, short essay or classroom discussion topic for students to voice their opinions and see where their minds go.

In other news, I have one week until I take the RD exam. Eeeeekkkk!! Ok rule one: don’t stress, it’s just a test. It’s just a test. Ughhhh. I don’t feel as though my anxiety is as bad as it was a few weeks ago yet for the most part I feel tired from studying this material. Everyone who has taken it says it is really hard. Well at least I know that going in.  I will just keep studying for now and see what happens.

I have also been procrastinating on another project. One of Jeff’s friends, who develops web-sites, and I have been discussing the idea of setting up an on-line portfolio of my projects from the internship. I’ve created an outline I just need to finish that and get some work samples for the project. I keep forgetting this so hopefully tomorrow I can send the information out for him to give me a quote! I had heard of this idea during my internship but never really thought more of it. At least not until I stumbled upon a blog from a dietetic intern from Maryland called Mission Dietitian.  Her blog includes her portfolio as well as her resume. Such an awesome idea and cute layout. I can’t wait to get this project up and going!

Well I need to get myself together for work tonight!