Birthday Party

I had a little birthday get-together on Sunday to celebrating turning 24.  Such a frankly boring age definitely deserves a delicious potlucked meal.

I tasked my guests with each bringing a dish that was "international."  Everyone went above and beyond the call of duty, bringing delicious and very photogenic food!!

Busy busy busy

So school has started up and I already have two quizzes tomorrow, a lab to read up on, four lunch meetings next week and a headache that can't be put into words.
The good news is, I have had some delicious food to soothe my aching brow!  Tonight, I took a break and whipped up some vegan white chocolate, courtesy of a recipe from the blog Bittersweet.
Saturday is Iron Chef #3: Vet School... this time, the ingredient is chocolate.  Perfect for me, really!  I have to design an appetizer, entree and dessert all incorporating chocolate in some fashion.  I figured this was as good a time as any to learn how to make the cocoa-based mole of Mexico as well as an opportunity to use the cocoa butter languishing in my cellar for some DELICIOUS white chocolate.  I have to say, having not eaten it in about six years, it tastes heavenly to me.  I took Hannah's tip, from the blog, to use real vanilla beans and she's right--the black flecks make it look gorgeously sophisticated!
I also made the swiss chard frittata from Vegan Brunch over the weekend to eat during the week and it turned out quite well--so well, in fact, that I demolished it in a scant three days.  I'd also made a calzone filling of roast butternut squash, onions and garlic sauteed until translucent and floppy and then mixed with a can of chickpeas, a few leaves of fresh sage and red pepper flakes and, finally, pan-seared kale with a liberal helping of fresh-cracked black pepper and sea salt.  Add to all of that a few dots of tomato paste and spoon the whole thing into Trader Joe's pizza dough and it made for some irresistible calzones!
Photos of it all will--hopefully--be forthcoming this weekend after I have some time to breathe.  Until then, though, it's all red blood cells and anesthesia for me.

Calzones

I made these calzones back in January (hence the backdating.)  They were DELICIOUS!  They had roast butternut squash with red onions sauteed until they were just barely limp and pan-seared kale sprinkled with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.  I mixed all of those together, then lightly fried some sage leaves and tore them apart and mixed them in and spooned the filling into rounds of thinly-rolled pizza dough from Trader Joe's.  Finally, I dotted the filling with a few drops of tomato paste from a tube and then sprinkled on some crushed red pepper and oregano.  The verdict? DELICIOUS.

(Almost) back to school!

My time in Bethesda is winding down; I've been working on transferring my semester schedule to Google Calendar and doing all my last-minute shopping for things I can't find (or that are prohibitively expensive) back in Blacksburg. What does that include? Staples like Goya canned beans, big containers of soy yogurt, a variety of tempeh, pizza dough and arrabiata sauce from Trader Joe's are currently nestled in my shopping bags alongside Peppermint Joe-Joe's (also from TJs), mango pickle, urad dal flour from the Indian store, cashew butter and pear sauce.
My most exciting purchase this break might be a gorgeous set of pasta bowls from Crate and Barrel, courtesy of my mom. Thanks, Mom! I told her to hold onto them as a birthday gift but here's a photo to tide me over 'til April:
This semester is definitely going to be a tough one but at least I'm at the halfway point in my classroom schooling. Only three more semesters before I'm in clinics! The schedule is actually set up quite nicely for those of us who aren't in food animal or equine classes. I rarely have class before noon on Mondays for the first month or so. Also, zumba is offered at a far better time this semester and I'm hoping to regularly go to that until it warms up and lightens up enough to run outside after class.
Finally, foodwise, I haven't been up to much. I've been noshing on a steady diet of black bean burgers and sweet potato fries twice a day lately although I did have a lovely post-lunch snack today: the cardamom cream cheese frosting from the carrot cake smeared into the pocket of a pita and eaten with very (oat-)milky cold coffee. Next I think I might try dipping baby carrots in the frosting--hey, it can't be that much worse than ranch dip, right?

Burgers and cake

Having eaten a ton of food in the past few days, I unfortunately forgot that a) I have a camera and b) I have a blog. Just trust me when I say that banana waffles are delicious, as are grilled "Italian" tofu and veggies, Clif bars and anything from Lebanese Taverna.
Onward!

First Post!

I'm a 2nd year vet student at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine and a 23rd year veggie lover. Most of my life is spent cooking + eating or going to class + studying but hopefully I can spare a bit of time to alternately chronicle recipes and photos of delicious food and gag-inducing tales of bovine palpations!