For our 2 year anniversary Ben and I spent a couple of days in Fredericksburg, TX. It was so much fun We stayed at a little one bedroom cottage B&B and enjoyed the quaint German inspired main street.

  

I’m not a huge shopper so what I was really looking forward to was the food. Mmmmmm. German sausage. Wiener snitzle. Saur Krout. Hot potato salad. Beer. It was all there.

We didn’t do very much research ahead of time although we knew that the restaurant “Der Linderbaum” was a winner.

On our second day we took a trip to Enchanted Rock. We spent time hiking around the base of the main rock and then climbed up to the top where we took advantage of the scenery.

Today is the last day of my Christmas vacation and tomorrow I’ll go back to San Antonio. This last two weeks has been a wonderful time of rejuvenation and reflection. I have some pretty big plans for my future … we’ll see what happens!

(oh and P.S. everything got crossed off of my ambitious list except exercising every day — oh well!)

So I’m sure you can guess what Santa brought me for Christmas this year

Well, if you need a bigger hint…

I’m beyond excited (YAAAAAAY!!!).  I have wanted a good camera for quite a while and the timing couldn’t be better. Why such an investment? — besides the superior picture quality — I’m going to begin dabbling in food styling and photography!  This isn’t a top of the line model – ahem – but as I am a beginner I plan to spend the big bucks on lenses and not worry about upgrading the body until I know this is a hobby/possible future career that will stick.

I haven’t used a camera like this in quite some time. In high school I took a B&W film photography class at ACC where I used my great grandfathers 35mm Minolta. It was so much fun I absolutely loved every bit of it. But that was close to 6 years ago and I haven’t used anything but a point and shoot since.

I plan on using all manual settings with this camera.  There has been quite a learning curve but luckily much of what I remembered from my class still applies. Its slowly coming back!

Here are a few of the pictures that I have taken so far.

out of season strawberries

potatoes au gratin

scrumptious leek

leeks and shallots

Meagan sent me the recipe for the Potatoes Au Gratin and it was amaaaaazing. I made it for the in-laws Christmas dinner and everyone loved it.  I thinks its going to become an annual Christmas tradition!

So where did the whole food photography – food styling idea come from?

Well, even from a young age the presentation of food has been very important to me. My family — especially my mother — often teased me when I would be so pleased with the way a plate of served food turned out visually that I wouldn’t want to eat it!  So to satisfy my hunger and preserve the image, I started to take pictures of my food.  It seemed like something weird and quirky until I discovered that there are thousands of people all over the world who do the same thing!

Starting a photo blog about my foodie exploits seemed only natural. And when I worked my HEB corporate rotation I got to see first hand the inner workings of recipe development and food styling. Its so fascinating!  Just thinking about it brings out a childlike excitement in me.

I’m not sure how exactly to begin … but I think I might start by submitting photos to the monthly challenges of the Still Life With food photography blog.  That way I can practice and get critiqued from fellow food photographers

Tags: dslr, food styling, leeks, potatoes

The White Chocolate Bark was a great hit at the Christmas party Erin and I kept some extra pieces to nibble on here and there.

<Pictures of the party to come>

Tomorrow is my last day of rotations before the Christmas break. It always seems that the last month of the year goes by the quickest.

With only two weeks vacation I have some pretty lofty ambitions:

• Some form of exercise every day (ok, maybe every other day)
• Get the main Curly Pear site up and running
• Polish up my resume
• Self reflection – I need some direction on where to start career wise once the internship is over
• Experimental COOKING!
• Begin experimenting with semi-professional food styling/photography
• Spend time with my precious sister before she goes back to Oz

Ok, so I’m not sure that I’ll be able to check everything off of my list in two weeks time. Obviously I’m going to need to prioritize.  But being the semi-type A personality that I am, a comprehensive list is needed.

Whats been going on food-wise?

I’ve felt kind of boring the last few days and so I’ll just focus on dinner. We weren’t able to eat together at home tonight and so I whipped up a small salad accompanied by Asian noodles for dinner.

Carrot salad and Brown Noodles

The noodles come in a package that resembles Ramen Noodles and can be found in the ethnic foods section of the grocery store.

The salad is dressed with my favorite olive oil, red wine vinegar and Mrs. Dash lemon pepper concoction. Alicia says that oil and vinegar is the staple dressing for salads in Argentina. Its absolutely addicting. Especially with green onions. YUM.

For a little snacky-snack, it seems that lately I’ve been carrying these little beauties around in my purse should hunger strike at an inconvenient time and/or place (as it often does).

chocolate chip granola bar

An amazing blend of chewy-chocolaty bliss. I could live on these bars.

I’m so excited because this Saturday is Ben’s birthday (He’s going to be 25!)

To celebrate we are planning on indulging in Indian food at the Clay Pit followed by walking the Zilker Trail of Lights (a long standing bday tradition).

Ben after is 24th birthday last year

There is a lot to look forward to in just the next few weeks. I expect that it will be crazy as always but Christmas is such an inspiring and in some ways rejuvenating time of year that all the hard work is often well-worth the effort.

Tags: chocolate, christmas, granola bar, meatless

I love this time of year Christmas lights all around.  Beautifully lit trees. The aroma of evergreens and cinnamon. And Christmas music … You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch … dum-de-dum…

This week is my last internship rotation before my winter break. I’ll have 2 weeks off to relax and hopefully get some serious writing done!

To get jump started into my Holiday cooking groove I’m going to make my White Chocolate Peppermint Bark for the company potluck on Wednesday

White Chocolate Peppermint Bark

White Chocolate Peppermint Bark

Ingredients:

• 1 bag peppermint candy, unwrapped and crushed
• 1 lb white chocolate, melted
• Cooking spray

Directions:

1. Prepare a flat surface covered with wax paper (cookie trays are usually the best). Spray the top of the wax paper with a fine mist of cooking oil.
2. Melt the white chocolate over a double broiler or in the microwave until smooth and liquid.
3. Using a metal strainer, sift the crushed peppermint powder into the liquid chocolate and stir.
4. Pour the melted chocolate/peppermint mixture over the wax paper and make a thin sheet of chocolate.
5. Sprinkle the remaining crushed peppermint pieces over the chocolate sheet.

Place in refrigerator or let sit at room temperature until solid. Break apart and serve.

I think that I’m also going to make this little beauty for my family’s Christmas party on Sunday. Mmmmm.

Tags: chocolate, christmas, holiday, peppermint

The Colorado Thanksgiving vacation was AWESOME.  Its so good to see distant family – we hadn’t seen these cousins in almost 2 years!  Good times.

Ben and I started the trip by staying in Dallas for a night. We spent time with Becca, Alan and cow-cow (aka Scout).

Becca, Ben and Alan

CowCow

On Sunday evening we prepared for our camping trip at Ray Roberts Lake…

Airing out the tent

It was really beautiful and when we woke up in the morning a heavy fog at set in. Needless to say, the tent was soaking wet

We packed up all of our gear Monday morning and drove the rest of the way to Colorado Springs in 14 hours. Yikes! Ben was a complete zombie towards the end but he insisted that he would drive.

Do you want to know the secret to staying awake while driving for 14 hours? Harry Potter audio books <nerd alert!> Seriously though, it totally works.  For some reason, no matter how peppy,  music just lulls you to sleep.  The sound of someone telling a story really keeps your brain awake!

Breckenridge, CO

The Mountains

It was really beautiful there. We all had a great time together and it was sad to leave.

We arrived back in Austin the Sunday after Thanksgiving. I started a new rotation at a Pediatric Obesity clinic in San Antonio and Kaitlyn arrived from Australia the next weekend.

She likes her Coffee

I’m so happy to see her and get some long overdo Sister-Time She will be in the States for the next month or so.

Almost caught up to this week <whew!>

Last Monday was the San Antonio Dietetic Association Christmas Party.  I volunteered to help out with the set up and clean up. The party was held at Rosie Benner’s house (HEB corporate dietitian) and it really turned out well.

Rosie had set up a Spanish themed dinner with Palleas as the main course and then tapas, machengo cheese with membrillo, aguas frescas, crab almendrado, flan, and a host of other goodies for appetizers.

Machengo Cheese with Membrillo

This was my first time to have pallea and it was a real treat

the biggest skillet i've ever seen

my plate

And of course, dinner would not be complete without a little bit of Spanish wine!

Martin Codax Albarino

I would post the recipe for the Spanish Paella but its SO LOOOONG and it feeds 30 people.  If you are interested in the recipe then comment on this post with your email address and I will send it to you

Instead, here is an awesome recipe for Tomato Bread.  Its a prefect appetizer for almost any type of main course and quite addicting – I couldn’t help going back for more!

Tomato Bread

• 2 Loaves french bread, sliced lengthwise in half
• 1/2 Cup extra virgin olive oil
• 6 Garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 5 Fresh Roma tomatoes, peeled and crushed

1)  Heat oven to High Broil. Line a baking sheet with foil andn spray with non-stick cooking spray

2) Place the bread on the baking sheet and brush with the olive oil. Broil on the middle oven rack for 4-5 minutes or until golden. Remove from oven and set aside.

3) Combine the tomato and garlic in a food processor bowl and process for 5 seconds into a chunky mixture. Lightly brush the toasted bread with the tomato sauce. Slice the bread and serve.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Makes: 24 servings

A break from school! And what are the Brookshire’s going to do?  Road trip of course

We are headed to Colorado Springs to have Thanksgiving with Ben’s cousins Angela, Rachel and Daniel and his Aunt Martha.

Its pretty much going to be awesome.

We left Austin “early” (8:30am) yesterday and stopped in Dallas to see our good friends Alan and Becca.

Tonight is camping at Lake Ray Roberts (north of Denton, TX) and then tomorrow we will drive 14hours to Colorado Springs (WoooHooooo!)

Highlight: hanging out with Becca and Alan  and Becca’s dog Scout (aka CowCow).

Bummer: the car we are driving doesn’t have an AUX input/output thing so we couldn’t listen to Harry Potter on audio or any music.

(last night I convinced Ben to buy an FM transmitter for our iphone … hopefully it works!)

More updates and PICTURES to come!

Well, my clinical rotation is anyway. I tell you what, 6 weeks of clinical almost broke me. It was stressful beyond belief and I almost lost faith in humanity.

OK, maybe I’m being a little dramatic. But seriously, I was more stressed out over that last month and a half than I have even been in a long while.  The big thing that I came away with is how the people you work with really do make a huge difference in the experience that you have. It just seemed like the overall attitude and environment at that hospital was very negative – and that negativity had a huge impact on my experience there.

Highlight: Free lunch every day

Drawback #1: Usually I just got a sandwich.  I mean, who wants to eat hospital food every day?

Turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread and Sun Chips

Drawback #2: I mutilated my big toe on the last week of the rotation.  Aftercare required me to hobble and wear giant shoes with my nice dress up clothes.

Heavy door meets Kristin's toe - soaking in alcohol/water

Drawback #3: I had 0 time for anything that I loved.  Including cooking and blogging.

The good news is that ITS OVER!!!! October 30th was my last day

Oh, and the toe is healing nicely.  The nail will probably fall off (considering half of it was pulled up in the accident) and it still hurts a little with closed-toe shoes but all-in-all its doing well.

HEB

Last week was sort of a vacation.  I was scheduled for my HEB headquarters rotation with the Supermarket Dietitian, Rosalinda Benner. And let me tell you what, it was AWESOME. For me, it really turned out to be a healing and inspirational time where I was able to reconnect with my love for food!

The whole week was filled with cooking in the HEB test kitchen, taste testing for new HEB products, recipe building for HEB’s “My Texas Life” magazine, and eating food – lots of food.

Seriously, I kept thinking the whole time “this is it! I love this!” Here are a couple of the things that we made:

The Feta Cheese & Eggplant Tomato Stacker

White chocolate Peppermint bark

Tuscan Kale Soup

We also made this yummy Peach Short Cake that turned out really well. I think I’ll save the step-by-step recipe for a later post.

The thought of being a Supermarket dietitian never actually crossed my mind until this rotation. Its a very interesting field that I am definitely going investigate further. From appearances, it seems to be something that might fit my interests and skills pretty well.  Exciting!

VA Hospital

Currently, I am in my first week of nutrition support at the VA hospital here in San Antonio. This rotation takes all of the knowledge and skills that I built in my clinical rotation and hones in on critically ill patients who can only receive food via a tube feeding or an IV line.

Although it is clinical nutrition in a hospital setting (not my fave) I can already tell that this rotation will go much more smoothly.  Remember that thing I said about negativity bringing me down?  Well, it seems like this place is the polar opposite. Everyone seems very friendly and is able to manage stress in a much more positive way.

**More updates and some actual recipes to come!

Tags: HEB, soup, tomato

Its now the beginning of week 8 of Life As A Dietetic Intern.  In case you are a first time reader, I started a dietetic internship last August that will continue into April of 2010.  After the internship is complete then I will be RD eligible and am able to become a Registered Dietitian

That’s the short-term goal. In the meanwhile I am trying to figure out how to make leading a healthy lifestyle not only practical but livable. Ok, this might easier said than done.  But I believe that it is totally achievable.  And hopefully, my successes and failures can help you to find your own way to health

So whats been going on?

Well, I just finished my rotation at the San Antonio Food Bank.  What an awesome experience   This organization has really provided a wonderful service to the community that it serves.  I worked primarily with the Nutrition Education department.  They are a group of nutritionists and RDs that give in-service presentations about nutrition to whoever they can (HEB, after-school programs, long-term care facilities…).

The SA Food Bank

The food bank also has 6 acres of land dedicated to a community garden that grows an abundance of fresh produce.  The “teaching kitchen” holds a 10 week culinary course that is open to anyone in the community – homeless guy to Harvard grad – and is run by a prestigious executive chef and his staff.

the garden

Passion Flower

Its a wonderful place and I hope that I can visit again someday soon

Tomorrow I will start week 1 of 6 at Christus Santa Rosa Hospital to do my clinical rotation.  I have to admit that I am a little nervous.  Being in a hospital even when you aren’t sick makes your muscles tense up.  I am excited to get started though and feel like this area of nutrition might be where I end up for a short while after the internship is over.  We’ll see!

Right now I must attend to my bean soup, recently re-named “Patience Soup” because its taken 2 HOURS to cook!  I should have read the package ahead of time.  If you don’t soak the beans over night then you have to let them simmer for a whole hour before any of the soup part can begin.

the ingredients for "Patience Soup"

a closer look

I found the package of soup mix at Central Market a few weeks back and have finally found time to make it.  The only extra ingredient that the recipe called for was the onion.  Since we have some men partaking in the meal I decided to “beef” it up with some bison and added the summer squash for myself

Where has the time gone?  Our internship director, Dr. B, keeps insisting that our time as interns will fly-bye in a wink.  I’m starting to think he’s right!

This morning I want to share a little bit of my classroom time with you all.  Last Friday we practiced food demoing Rachel Ray and Julia Child style.  And guess what?  Its loads of fun!  Its not difficult to actually perform the cooking demonstration (unless you have no idea how to cook!) the hard part is remembering to verbalize each step.  I guess a good mindset to have while performing would be “how do I need to describe this so that if someone were only listening (i.e. radio show) they could still recreate this dish?”

We started the class with a demo of a demo.  The lovely Chef Becki was the star and demonstrated how to make “Soyrizo” breakfast tacos.

Chef Becki working hard on our Soyrizo tacos!

The ingredients:

• 1 package Soyrizo (found at HEB)
• onions and bell pepper, chopped
• HEB 7 grain toritillas
• Eggs
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Cheese (optional)
• Salsa (optional but highly recommended)

She started by heating the soyrizo in a pan until crispy.  Then you add the onions and bell pepper.  Cook until tender.  Add in eggs, salt and pepper.  Scramble ingredients together until eggs are at desired consistency.  In a separate pan, heat 1/2 tsp. oil and warm tortillas until soft.  Make tacos by putting cheese, salsa, and Soyrizo eggs into tortilla, wrap.

the tortillas

the eggs

the star of the show - Soyrizo

I have to admit that I am not the biggest fan of soystitutions for meat (i could never make it as a mainstream vegan).  Partially from a worry about the long-term effects of consuming too many soy derivatives and partially because the damn stuff just doesn’t taste all that great 98% of the time.

Well, my soy prejudice was laid to rest after I tried these tacos – they were stinking AMAZING.  Becki said that she had made these same tacos (plus some added spice!) for Hispanic men and they couldn’t taste the difference!  To me, that is the greatest testimony to any substitute dish.

the finished product

After Becki finished her demo, all of us non-chefs were assigned part of a recipe to demo to the rest of the class.  Little did we know that we were actually making a dish!

Here is the line-up of the next Food Network Stars:

Anna demonstrates how to chop an onion

Victoria teaches us how to cook the onion

Sarah diced a potato

Abbey must julianne a carrot

I caramelized the carrots

Erin started a lovely cream sauce

Vik put together a gravy/cream sauce

Monica butterfly cut a chicken and then cooked it

Vanessa made a perfect roux and then gravy

Dr. B shows off his cooking skills and puts everything together

And the finished product?  Seared chicken and gravy with a side of vegetable cream sauce.  Bon a petite!

Mmmm... Chicken and gravy with cream sauce

Considering how many people had no idea what to do, this dish turned out pretty well

Its almost Friday!!!

Which means tomorrow I get to drive back to Austin and see Ben   The week has gone by so fast and now that its almost over I feel a sense of accomplishment.  I guess the real test will come over the next 32 weeks of internship rotations.

In other news, all the craziness has thrown me out of the blogging groove lately and so I thought I would get back to my roots and write about food again!

This morning I had a little extra time before class and so I was able to indulge in a heavier breakfast than my typical banana and almonds.

Being spoiled with a plethora of health food grocery stores in Austin, you can imagine my excitement when I discovered that there is a GIANT Central Market next door to my school! Yay!!!  As I roamed the produce isles I saw sugar plums on display.  Curiosity got the best of me and I bought 3, one of which I finally got to eat this morning

It tasted almost exactly like a purple plum except for a weird stringy web of fibers in the flesh.  It was pretty enjoyable though, maybe I’ll look up a recipe for sugar plum pie.  Mmmm…

the Sugar Plum Fairy paid me a visit

To accompany my sugary friend, I toasted 2 slices of Ezekiel Bread and topped it with almond butter, bananas, wildflower honey, and a dollop of 2% Fage yogurt.

delicious-o

Did you know that “regular” honey goes through a heated processing to remove the honey from the comb?  Unfortunately, the heat destroys all of the beneficial enzymes and other health promoting properties that are found naturally in the honey.  Lame-o.  This brand of honey, however, is unfiltered and uncooked.

wildflower honey

It was definitely the energy boost that I needed to start a long day of lecture.

Lunch was leftover couscous with sauteed sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, pepper, and tomatoes.  Talk about some serious yum.  Especially after the flavors have had time to congeal and sink into the veggies. Sadly, I have no picture   I told you I was out of “the groove”!

The rest of the class day was pretty boring.  We covered food safety which is very important,  but it was more for the people who hadn’t taken the class before (I already have my certification).  Luckily, after all that torture we got out a little early today (yay! for missing traffic!) and so I came back to the house and sat down to some Weeds (season 1) and leftover spaghetti with chickpea salsa that I found in the fridge.

spaghetti and chickpea salsa

I know it doesn’t look very appetizing but I took the picture after I had already eaten more than half of my serving!  The chickpea salsa was a big hit last night.  This recipe is easy-peezy:

• 2 cans chickpeas/garbanzo beans
• 2 English cucumbers (the small ones), sliced
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced
• 1/2 bell pepper, red or yellow
• 1/2 cup red onion, chopped (optional)

Mix ingredients together and dress with red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper to taste.

This salad tastes best when it is chilled.

Enjoy!