Can anyone spare some concentration?

Apparently my body is still focused on the MSK/Derm unit...

Because I would rather write words on my arms than study for the Integration exam tomorrow...

And my patellar tendon has sporadically decided to fail me...

My body is falling apart at the tender age of 24. 

I know I should really get back to studying. I've already tried a motivational latte at the Smiling Goat.

And there's always procrastibaking (and procrastiPACKING) to distract me...

*must focus*

The countdown is on - Med 2 will be done in 19 hours and 15 minutes!!

Happy birthday dear rooooooomie!

A lot of times I forget how lucky I am to have awesome roomies. And before you start thinking that this is a suck-up post, I just want to say that I've heard a lot of horror stories about roommates. Like my aunt's roommate who got them evicted from their apartment in downtown San Francisco...or my mom's roommate who claimed a whole room of their apartment to store shoeboxes filled with coupons.

Again...I'm pretty lucky!

Yesterday was an exciting day as we celebrated my roomie Marion's birthday. It was an owl-themed celebration :).

After weighing options for dinner, we decided on The Bicycle Thief which I was excited to try. I had heard so many good things about this restaurant!

I ended up ordering:

Local Rabbit, braised long and slow with a great Valpolicella, gralic, fresh herbs, with seared Polenta.

I love trying new foods but was a bit hesitant in ordering this dish. In the end, I'm glad I did! I've been told that rabbit tastes like chicken which is a fair comparison but the way it was cooked brought out the unique flavour of the rabbit. The polenta and veggies on the side were also delicious.

For dessert I went splits with the birthday girl on: 

Maurizio's Own Cassata, handmade Chocolate gelato layered with Chocolate ganache, Raspberry layer with crushed ladyfingers, Vanilla layer topped with caramel.

 Overall it was a wonderful birthday celebration! I cannot recommend The Bicycle Thief enough - great atmostphere, great service, and amazing food. I can't wait to go there again.

Happy birthday dear roomie! Hope you enjoyed your day :).

A Cupcakey Day!

I love cupcakes. There is actually nothing that I love to make more than cupcakes. They're just so darn cute! It's like a baby cake but I find you can be far more creative when decorating them!

There were 2 occasions that gave me a great excuse to bake today - the very last CBL (cased based learning) of Med 2/ life *fingers crossed* and my roomie's bday! I used the same base vanilla cupcake recipe but chose 2 different themes:

Sesame Street!

Owls!!

These were fairly easy to assemble. I cheated on the icing and resorted to Betty Crocker french vanilla frosting. Other materials I used were:

Large marshmallows (for the eyes)

Chocolate chips (for the eyes of the sesame street characters)

Reeses pieces (for the owl eyes/nose and Elmo's nose)

Food colouring (red, green, blue)

Sprinkles (red and blue...just because I already had them in the pantry)

1 package of Oreos

1 package of Chips Ahoy cookies

And voila! The assembly line!

These were as easy as

1. Frost

2. Dip in Sprinkles

3. Decorate (using extra frosting as 'glue')

For the cookie monster I ended up having to cut a hole for the mouth so that the cookie would actually stay. It was a bit of a disaster before :S.

Cookie nice and secured!

The green guy is supposed to be Oscar the Grouch but I had nothing to make angry eyebrows with. He looks a bit like Kermit the frog as a result. I also decided to give the cookie monster googley eyes for fun! The original idea was taking from this blog.

The owl cupakes were a must for my roomie's bday as it's one of her favourite animals! I was inspired by this blog.

You can use regular chocolate frosting but what I ended up doing was combining all the leftover coloured frosting from the Sesame Street cupcakes and adding cocoa and milk to it until it was the desired colour/consistency.

I'd say the most difficult part of the whole process was actually chopping the oreos in half for the owl ears and Elmo/Oscar's mouths without them breaking. I don't really have any tips for this except that sawing them with a serrated knife didn't work so well. The crossing fingers and praying the cookies wouldn't break into a dozen pieces method seemed to work in the end :P.

Whoooooooo's craving a cuppie cake?!

Happy Mother's Day!!

I know that today there are millions of people who are wishing their moms a Happy Mothers Day. Millions who are saying that their mom is the best...so it may seem redudant that I am joining the countless others in taking a moment to recognize my mom right now.

But the truth is, I don't take nearly enough time to recognize and appreciate her. Far too often I take her love and support for granted.

My mom has always been there for me. She has shown me what it means to be patient, humble, gentle, and love unconditionally. She has a strong love for the Lord which resonates in all she does and not a day goes by where I don't see her sitting in "her chair" in the living room, reading the Bible.

I learned how to bake from my mom and remember how she would always let me lick the batter off of the beaters (she still does to this day!!). 

I also may have gotten my love for coffee (especially lattes) and desserts from her ;).

Latte from the Smiling Goat

Crepes made by my dad for Mothers day

And even though I no longer live at home I know that my mom is always just a phone call away. I can't imagine my life without her and know that she was specially chosen just for me.

Happy Mothers Day to all the moms out there, but especially to my mom. Words can do no justice of the impact you have had on my life!

YHZ --> SFO

I hopped off the plane at SFO with my dream and a cardigan...

Welcome to the land of rolling hills, woah, am I gonna fit in...

 

Headed to the beach here I am for the first time...

Look to my right and I see the San Fran Bay sign...

This is all so crazy, everybody seems so...stylish??

Ok, so the style in San Francisco is not reflected by my sad attempt in the picture above. But when you walk into a three-floor Forever 21 you have to try something on :P.

It was a wonderful trip to the West Coast (for family reasons). It's actually the first place I've been to in the States where I can see myself living.


I fell in love with the beach...

The green spaces (Muir Woods)...

The cute shops and buildings (Carmel by the Sea)...

Not to mention the food!

(and drinks)

Golden Gate Park was absolutely stunning.

And I can't wait to go back one day!!

Now...back to reality...time for OSCE prep!

An off-day

It's been a bit of a long day but there were a few things that kept me smiling throughout it.

Like the beautiful sunrise...

Chocolate (it can make any day better).

Getting this picture:

Happiest dog ever!

The ocean...it can literally take my breath away at times.

Hope your day had little moments that put a smile on your face!