first cooking entry... sorta

every time i bake something, i forget to take pictures of the process and only capture the end product... maybe next week i'll get it right... until then, here is our final product pizza. this is THE pizza i used to always make senior year. poor berlian got stuck eating it at least once-a-week...


the original picture on the stove. hana and i decided that this wasn't the optimal lighting though. pioneer woman suggests natural lighting... so what do we do?



carry the pizza out to the backyard... i guess this does make it look better, except for it is kind of awkward to have a pizza in the backyard....

like i said: awkward.

my dad's pizza was NO competition. it only got eaten after mine disappeared: fail.

things i WON'T be using this year

these past few months i've found myself collecting things for the new apartment. naturally, the majority of the things i bought were for my kitchen. as a result, i have an extensive collection of wonderful things that have to collect dust for a year: super depressing. so i've opted for the next best thing: i set-up the items for a photoshoot (thanks for the idea, leigh anne! well, she just wanted to see pics of the stuff i bought today, but i got a little carried away) - unfortunately, this post makes me look like i don't have a life. well, in all honesty, i don't. or at least not tonight. then again, what do you expect out of a 22 year old living at home post-grad? that's right: pity me. and now onto the tour of what would've been in my kitchen!

these are the crown jewels of the new kitchen collection and what started me on all the madness. nothing says beautiful like brand-new, sparkling kitchenaid appliances. i may or may not have blown my first paycheck back in april on these lovelies. no regrets.

so technically the blender doesn't belong in this post because we are actually using it this year, but only because my mom doesn't have a duplicate. it will be moving to galvy next year though!

mom picked me up a few knives, a knife sharpner, and cookie scoops only days before the big deferment news. sad.

today at the mall, mom drug me into williams-sonoma against my will (okay, totally untrue. everyone knows i have an unnatural, magnetic attraction to that store) - anyway, they just so happened to be having a sale, and i couldn't pass up beautiful new towels and spatulas. please take note of the red stripes in the towels that compliment the red standmixer. yes, i really should've gotten a MRS. degree. that would've solved the problem of not having my own kitchen, AND i could have just registered for all this stuff instead of buying it. dang, hindsight is 20/20.

last but not least, i bought all this bakeware on amazon. it is from chicago metallic's commercial line - they are made of aluminum & are NOT non-stick. they're supposed to provide more uniform heat distribution. i would love to confirm whether or not this is true, but i guess you'll just have to wait until next year for the results. i'm sure everyone is interested.

to top it all off, i just realized that i made the exact same purchases today as my 48 year old mother: ann taylor loft & williams-sonoma. before i know it, i'm going to be complaining of menopausal symptoms. i'm not sure that this scholarship is worth my rapidly deteriorating mental state...

my future. or lack thereof.

hana at dinner: "i don't think sarah is ever going to go to med school. i think she is going to open a bakery and babysit kids forever. i don't know, i just can't see her doing ANYTHING in medicine."

half that sounds okay. bakery would be fun, minus that i would be 400 pounds by the end of the first year because i simply cannot serve something without trying it first. too paranoid about it being gross. as far as babysitting, NOT A CHANCE.

but i think i'll stick with the whole med school plan. baking as a hobby is better. i have no artistic abilities, so cake decorating is out. that, and if forced to bake for a living, i might end up hating it which would be majorly depressing since it is my stress reliever. besides, after watching BOSTONMED, i'm even moreeee excited about maybe doing OB/GYN. the resident on there is totally my idol. and while i'm on the subject, i don't think i picked ob/gyn; i think ob/gyn picked me. when i was younger, my mom told me delivering babies would be the best job. i said that was the LAST kind of doctor i would want to be. definitely ironic seeing as i snuck away from my rotations to labor and delivery any chance i got last summer... not only that, but i have had SEVERAL people tell me i look like a "gyno"... no one seems to have a concrete definition of exactly what that means, but it seems to be the trendy thing to tell me... so moral of the story: wait 5-7 years to get knocked up so that i can be the one to deliver your baby :)

in other news, i now have TWO jobs! for the girl who never had a "real job" before this semester, i'd say that is pretty good (i don't count summer internships as real jobs...) -- anyway, i am taking over my friend emilie's job as a receptionist at a clinic... nice escape from the munchkins - anddd thanks to emilie's awesome rec, i didn't have to even apply to the job. i was pretty much hired before they even met me, sweeeet. thanks emilie!!! who knew maas = networking later in life :) -- and yes, this was definitely the most flattering picture of us i could find.

accomplishments

accomplishment one: today, i got to double-fist the cutest twin baby girls and had to simultaneously feed them bottles. sound easy? think again. but it was so fun and so cute and i totally want twin girls now. but when i say now, i actually mean in like 10 years. i really wanted to take a picture, but for some silly reason, i had to sign a waiver when i started my job that said i couldn't take/post pictures of the kids. lame. so thanks google images for providing this awesome picture. oh, but the one thing that put a damper on the cuteness of the moment? one of the twins decided to spit/sneeze breastmilk all over my face. thanks, i could've done without that. accomplishment two for the day was teaching lindsey how to make peach cobbler. i slacked off and bossed while she sliced and measured and stirred. and then i ate it. and it was AMAZING. congrats, chef boss. lindsey has the picture, so it will be posted once she emails me it. please do yourself a favor and make this cobbler. it only requires 5 ingredients & is SO GOOD. the recipe calls for blackberries, but you can also use blueberries or peaches. if you use peaches like we did, use about 5, and sprinkle them generously with cinnamon. not only do you get a good dessert, but your house will smell amazing. thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/08/the_great_cobbl/

things i WON'T be doing in my year off

as soon as i tell people that i'm starting next august, they immediately ask me what i'm going to do with my year off. yes, that is a reasonable question, but i feel like there is a lot of pressure to say something impressive. and really, i've got nothing to say other than: working, traveling, re-reading HP. and that reply usually gets followed up with a rather blank, unimpressed look and a half-hearted congratulations. so since that approach hasn't garnered much satisfaction, i've decided to compose a list of things that i WON'T be doing:

- playing farmville, frontierville, or any other -ville.
- taking science classes for fun. or reading anything scientific. or learning biochem.
- earning a decent paycheck. yes, i have a bachelor's. no, i don't plan on using it.
- giving back to the community. been there, done that, put it on my resume.
- getting into a serious relationship. yes, people ask me all the time if i have any prospects. seriously? my only male contact is with walmart employees and the mailman. big no.
- going to culinary school. i wish. and people keep suggesting it, but i'm just going to cook my way through pioneer woman's recipes. man, i wish i were her kid. JEAL-OUS.
- moving out. yes i'm 22. yes i should be getting my own place, but why bother when i have free rent, no bills, and a kitchen full of bakeware? another year won't hurt. please don't let that answer fly when i'm 30.
- popping out a kid. people at my work ask me all the time if i have kids. ironic since others confuse me for a junior high kid. but since when did that ever stop anyone. isn't 14 the new 24??

i'm sure this list will continue to grow. stay-tuned.

the routine

since i've been back from pennsylvania, my weekdays have fallen into a predictable routine:

7am: alarm goes off for work
7:15am: snooze alarm goes off
7:19am: i actually drag myself out of bed. yes, this is late. this is also why i established 'no make-up mondays'... which quickly extended to include the whole week. my coworkers are more shocked at my wearing makeup than not. sad, i know.
8:00am: clock-in for work. oh wait, that's a lie. i'm ALWAYS late. i've NEVER clocked in at 8am.
8:00-1pm: yell at kids to stop running. have babies spit-up on me. avoid being assigned to the toddler room (toystory3 depicted it perfectly). get parents for diaper changes. run into high school people. tell kids to share the wii remotes. tell them again to stop running. get poop on my fingers whenever checking for dirty diapers. countdown the minutes until im off. praise the timeclock gods for our machine running 5 minutes fast.
1:oopm: sweet freedom! followed by lunch & surfing the internet.
2-4pm: optional errand. mandatory nap.
4-6pm: optional baking. dinner.
7-12am: surf the internet. read.
12:30am: ask myself why i'm still awake when i have to wake up for work in less than 7 hrs. hence the mandatory naps.

repeat.repeat.repeat.

of course, i act like i don't like routine, but in all honesty, i live for routine. i hate change. wow: i'm old and boring. moving on.

since my mom and sister are flying home from pennsylvania today (finally! the female majority will be re-established at my house!), i made fruit pizza (hana's fav). i fully intended on posting the recipe and pics except the pics didn't happen. probably because i was too busy eating the sugar cookie dough. anyone else notice that the prepackaged stuff from the refrigerator section is SO MUCH BETTER than homemade? not necessarily baked, just when raw. anyway, lots more baking ventures planned this week, so be on the look-out! also, lindsey is going to be making the first guest appearance on the blog coming up wednesday (not that she knows this yet)... okay: this entry is long enough. and you're bored to tear. adios.

the coveted first entry

so i fully intended on starting a blog when i graduated in december, but by the time april rolled around, and it still hadn't happened, i decided it was getting a little too late. with med school right around the corner, i figured the blog would be abandoned rather quickly, so i let the idea go.

fast-forward to yesterday, friday, july 24th at 5:29pm. at this point in time, i was enjoying the last few weeks of summer, pondering what day to quit my gig at the Y, and plotting as to whether i could squeeze in another trip before med school orientation. with only days until we were set to close on the condo, i was already excited about unpacking all my red kitchenaid appliances, setting up life in galveston for the next 4 years, and meeting my future nerdy med school bffs. everything had finally come together after months of uncertainty as to which school i'd be attending, where i'd be living, etc...

5:30pm - a mere 30 seconds later, i receive a phonecall from UTMB. five minutes later, i find that i have just accepted a FULL-RIDE to medical school. the catch? i don't start until next year, august 2011. but what about my kitchen appliances? what about the condo i was about to buy? what about my nerdy friends? suddenly my life has taken a completely different turn.

i love how quickly things suddenly changed. i don't know that i have ever made such an impulsive decision in my life. not to mention such a HUGE decision in the matter of 5 minutes. for an insanely indecisive person who methodically reasons through the smallest things (aka: decides, second guesses, and decides again on what kind of cereal to buy), i was rather shocked that i knew the second she made the offer that i was to accept.

so that brings me to the present moment in time. after my initial reaction of "FREEDOM!!!," i was like wow sarah, what did you just agree to? then again, what better time to have a year off? i honestly feel like i've reclaimed a year of my youth (hence the blog title) - i have been running full force at the goal of becoming a doctor for longer than i can remember (seriously - aside from the fleeting dream of being an orca trainer at seaworld when i was 6, it has always been medicine. i ask myself every day why that is)... and i feel like i've been preparing to enter the profession FOREVER. if i wasn't studying, i was volunteering, or involving myself in extracurriculars, or preparing for the MCAT, or filling out applications, or interviewing, or waiting for acceptances, etc etc etc... and now i find myself being offered a chance to take a year and forget about the whole mess?? yes please! don't get me wrong, i'm insanely excited about one day having my own OR, delivering babies, and living the life, but for now i'm going to welcome this little unexpected vacation before plunging headfirst into what is undoubtedly one of the most demanding professions.

now that i have more than explained my reasons for starting this blog, i'll move on. my intentions for this blog are just to post bits & pieces from the upcoming year. i'm hoping to do more traveling as well as more baking (of course)... i wouldn't be surprised if this blog turned into a straight-up baking blog, but we'll see! in the meantime, if you have any suggestions of hobbies/places to travel/recipes/etc, please let me know :)