Business as Usual

We haven't done anything of note in the last couple weeks, and as such I don't have much on which to update you. Mostly, I've been diligently doing my statistics homework and attending seminars, and struggling through labwork as usual. As I understand it, one of Brandon's projects at work finally wrapped up, so he breathed a sigh of relief this weekend. Hopefully this means next week will be less stressful for him.

This week we marathoned our way through Game of Thrones, which I insisted on watching after Peter Dinklage got the Emmy for it. A worthwhile watch, if you can stomach it; but don't expect a satisfying ending. I'll be reading the books soon. It should be an exercise in frustration, if the show is any indication. But as long as I get to enjoy more of Tyrion Lannister's antics (and picture them in Peter Dinklage's voice, of course), I'm happy.

So, what have we been up to lately? Let's browse the latest photos on my camera and see if I can piece together a story for you.

Ah, yes. A few weeks ago Brandon and I caught a nasty cold. I made a gigantic pot of chicken stock for us to drink, and gave Brandon a blanket to throw over his shoulders when he sat at his computer, with hilarious results:

Hm. Not exactly what I had in mind.

We've been playing with Myelin more frequently. She requires more attention now that she's an Only Rat. She's actually adjusting quite well. She likes to nap in my lap while I work on homework and browse Facebook.

We used the chicken from the chicken stock to make a gigantic chicken pot pie. It lasted almost a week. Brandon was pretty impressed with this feat. When I looked back and realized that it was 100% from scratch, including the crust, the broth and the mashed potatoes, I felt pretty accomplished.

My mentor goes to China about once every couple months. He has another lab there that he has to oversee, so he's constantly traveling. Whenever he goes, he brings back treats for everyone in the lab. This time he brought back moon cakes, which are filled with red bean paste, probably my very favorite Asian dessert. They were very pretty so I took a picture:

I'm sorry if the letters are sideways or upside down. I honestly don't know the difference.

I put mine in the microwave for a few seconds and it was scrumptious. 

This week is Rosh Hashannah. Brandon and I will be attending the evening services at the local synagogue, but we can't make it in the morning to hear the shofar. It's just too much of a hassle: I have seminar, he has work. This won't be the first year I've missed the shofar. It's alright, we'll have apples and honey at home. That's enough for me.

Luckily, Yom Kippur is next Saturday, so I can go to whichever services I please, fast all day and do a full break-fast. I'll likely buy bagels and have my friends over for dinner. It's always nice to be surrounded by people you care about on the High Holy Days.

That's all for now! Lots of love.

Fogo de Chao

In April, my dad came to visit and treated Brandon and I to a fancy dinner on our 3-year dating anniversary. The restaurant he took us to is called Fogo de Chao. It's a Brazillian steakhouse. It was amazing, and it's exactly the sort of thing Brandon and I would never be able to afford on our own, except, apparently, during restaurant week.

My friend Rasika from lab told me about restaurant week when it was already about half over. So, Brandon and I looked up the menus of some of the restaurants participating, and decided finally that our money was best spent going back to Fogo de Chao. Christine came along too, and we had a blast.

I had just that week lost barely enough weight that I could squeeze back into my skinny jeans, so I wore them. And yes, those are high heels. Very high, actually. This is a rare event for me, especially since I injured my back.

We didn't get a ton of photos of the actual dinner (we were too busy enjoying it). But here's a blurry Brandon:

Having been there once before, we knew the drill, and we were able to take more advantage of the experience than before. The waiters apparently come over to your table in a specific order, starting with the simplest cuts of meat (chicken and sausage) and ending with the finest (NY strip steak, filet mignon). We advised Christine of this, and we all turned down the first several meats in favor of waiting for the finer cuts of beef. It worked like a charm, and we all got seconds of the filet mignon.

I caught Christine texting at the table.

Deer in headlights.

After dinner, I decided I wanted to have a drink with dessert. I thought this might be a fun occasion to try cognac. We got the waiter's opinion, and I ordered something he said would be relatively mild (also affordable). Brandon took a series of photos that I think he should sell to the restaurant as stock photos for their website:

Christine with her girly cocktail while I test the cognac.

Christine tried a sip of the cognac, and thought it was disgusting. I loved it.

When we left, we got some photos out in front of the restaurant, where you can see the meat cooking in the front window:

It was nice that restaurant week made this adventure affordable. It was still a bit of a splurge, but definitely worth it. The hilarious point of the evening was Christine's reaction. She has made a habit of making fun of me when we go to nice restaurants because I - apparently - make faces when I eat. I tell her I'm just savoring the food, but she insists on making jokes. Well, Christine enjoyed Fogo de Chao so much, she started doing the same thing. So I got a chance to make fun of her and get my revenge. But really, I can't blame her, the food was SO GOOD.
It was definitely an evening well spent.

So Much Good Food

We didn't really plan it, but this week we went a little crazy with cooking. As a result, our fridge is packed to capacity with amazing, amazing food.

First: fried green tomatoes! I've been wanting to make these since we moved down here, but HEB never carries green tomatoes, and there aren't any good farmer's markets in San Antonio. Eventually we found a great little hipster market that had all kinds of great produce and imported goods. It was pricey, but worth it for the occasional odd ingredient we can't get elsewhere. I grabbed a TON of green tomatoes, and we fried them all up.

I think I was trying to stay out of the picture, but Brandon thought it was too funny not to include.

The breading.

It was a funny faces kind of day.

Satisfaction?

Next, Brandon made hummus from scratch.

 

Prepping the garlic and lemon juice.

I'm not sure where the finished product photo went. Brandon must've taken it with his phone - I'll annoy him for that some time soon. In any case, the consistency was perfect. The flavor was great. The only problem; it was extremely salty. Much, much less salt next time. But otherwise, we've got a perfect hummus recipe now! 

We made fried tofu again and needed a starch to serve it with, so I made an amazing pasta salad with sesame oil and red wine vinegar. It turned out great:

Then, this week they had salmon on sale at HEB, so we grabbed some and served it up with asparagus and quinoa that Brandon's sister had bought and left in our cupboard (great pick, Melissa!) and some white wine. 

Then we shared our crumbs with Myelin. She has no idea how spoiled she is.

That's it for now! Lots of love. ^_^

Sad News

Glia, our youngest rat, died last week. She was very very sick. Her cancer had progressed pretty far. She was having a difficult time breathing. Eventually she stopped eating and we had to feed her with a medicine syringe. I was planning on having her put down this week, and then on Friday she died in my lap. I'm really glad I was with her. We took a bunch of pictures of her last week, because it was clear she was fading. Here are some of the best ones:

I realize that half of these are of her eating. It's because getting her to eat was a big event all last week. She was really starting to shut down. We had to encourage every bite.

Honestly, it was a bit of a relief. She was not living a very comfortable life the last few weeks. I'm glad to know she's not in pain anymore.

So now it's just Myelin. She's our last rat. We won't be getting any more rats, I've decided I'm done with pocket pets for now. After Myelin is gone (which won't be for a while) we'll get a kitten. For now, we're giving her lots of attention, because rats aren't very good at living alone. Luckily, Myelin enjoys human company. She's very social. So I think she'll do okay with being an only rat.

If anyone has ideas for little rat puzzles we can put in the cage to keep her busy and stimulated, please let us know! I'm going to be making little pinatas out of paper towel, filled with snacks. I'll hang them so she can't brace them against something to open them - she's gonna have to get up on two legs and work for those snacks! Although, the last time I tried that, they just pulled the pinatas into the hammock...

Thanks everyone for the condolences on Facebook. I'm gonna try to get back to blogging more regularly. I have a cooking post planned (when don't I?) so hopefully I'll get that up soon. Bye for now!