Asian breakfast and Turkey Coffee

Waking up early is the next best thing... To a full night of sleep. If you are going to lose sleep, the way to do it is to lose sleep to a productive morning and good breakfast. And that's just what I did last Wednesday. Because it was early, I dispensed with the tea and tried my hand at some Turkish Coffee. Suffice it to say, it is not my forte. I think I have the measurements slightly off. I don't know why, it says very clear: 5-6 gms to 65 mL of water. I don't know what that is in American. The first cup was too weak, so I drank it and made another. It was better, but not there yet (I have since made a third cup and it went even better. By cup 4 we should be in business.






But it is fun to make in it's classy copper Cezve. In case you were wondering, my Turkish Coffee fascination was a Christmas gift from my brother. I made breakfast, then lunch (more on this) and coffee.





Then I studied until it was time for a little morning swim workout before class. 1000 meters in just over 19 coffee fueled minutes! That's not really fast, but it's pretty good for me.





And, for lunch I tried my hand at some sushi. I am not a sushi chef... As I found out. I made up a batch of jasmine rice and let it cool a little.






I spread it over some seaweed and put in julienned carrot and celery and cream cheese and avocado. I rolled it on a sushi bamboo mat (thanks world market). With a little soy sauce, it was amazing. But, more importantly, it was easy.

My cup of tea

This morning I had plans to go for a ride... It was 26 degrees when I woke up. So we decided a weather delay was in order. No riding unless it is above freezing. This is a big change from my 50-degree-rule of a year ago. The main reason I can make that change: Pearl Izumi soft shell gloves. It was still a cold, cold ride.
We started out with an espresso at a local coffee shoppe. It was not well made. That was a shame. But it was warm, caffeinated, and large. Awesome. Then we started the ride with a few hills that warmed us up quick. 20 miles and roughly an hour later I was back in my kitchen eating some steel cut oats. In case you haven't discovered the all purpose rice maker, it is amazing. Here are (not rice but) steal cut oats:
1 C steel cut oats
2.5 C water. Just estimate something a little over a 2:1 ratio
1 apple
Sprinkle with some cinnamon
Handful of raisins.
Put them into the rice maker, PROP OPEN THE LID (a butter knife laid across the top works well) and turn it on. It will be ready when you finish your ride.


An organic Pai Mu Tan white tea. I love this tea. It is a delicate, slightly sweet chinese white tea. It doesn't have the smokey or vegetable water flavors of some of the other green or white teas. I don't know quite how to describe. It is not a florid palate with hints of currants and blackberries and a tanniny finish. It is just a fine, exceptionally delicate cup of tea. It does not stand up well to other flavors so I generally drink it alone. And I never serve it to anyone who is going to put milk and sugar in it.


And, yes, that is my cup of tea.
And I'm ready for my next ride this afternoon!

Eating with chopsticks

Eating is one of my all consuming passions. Quite literally, I will eat anything. You could say I eat to live. I also track my calories with the help of Livestrong.com. Thanks Lance. It is down right nearly impossible to stay on track, and this is from someone who doesn't really eat out or hit up fast food. But today, I have a few extra calories left thanks to my bike, a Scott CR1! I took it out for about 25 miles today. Burning it up some wicked hills... The hills weren't too bad, but when you look dow at the top of a 5% grade and your speed is still well above 20, that is a good day. We woundup averagin about 196 watts according to the cycle ops wattage calculator.
So I came home and ate and studied then had a delicious dinner of rice and buckwheat with cranberries, chx sausage, tofu, and clementine wedges. Awesome.




1 C rice
3/4 C Buckwheat
1/2 Cranberries (fresh, chopped and spinkled with sugar and put aside)
1/2 C Tofu
1/4 C onion
1 orange, sliced into small chunks drizzled with soy sauce
2 chicken sausage links
Turmeric, Cumin, Cayenne,
A dash of Coriander, paprika, and garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste


Mix the turmeric and rice with 3C of water and begin cooking. Add the buckwheat when the rice is nearly done. Mix in all of the other ingredients into the warm rice mixture. Serve with greens or alone and go to town with your chopsitcks.
Serves 4. Roughly 500 calories.

For some reason people are very antivaccine RIGHT now

Vaccines have NEVER been proven to work. Even today there are wards of Children suffering from polio on Iron Lungs in secret underground hospital wards. Even the basements were not secure enough, so secret wards were built. Only doctors who could be “trusted” have been allowed to be in those wards. You see, Hospitals SELL Polio vaccines. There is money to be made there, real money. So Hospital administrators got together one day and decided to “eliminate” polio. Why does no one know about this? These kids are sedated too much to have any real memories of their time in these secret wards, and their families are summarily executed without trial for the crime of simply knowing too much. Jenny McCarthy, there is a target on your head… and now mine. We must live our lives in constant fear and vigilance. Our message must be heard!

Flukes

This morning I was wearing a white coat and had a stethoscope dangling around my neck and I was interviewing patients. Just like a real doctor. I got to see a really interesting case of obstructive jaundice. A jaundiced patient is pale and yellow. Photos do not do it justice. It is a truly strange and unlifelike waxiness. Amazing.
And this afternoon, I get to see my own doctor. Which will be interesting... to see patients in the morning and be on in the afternoon.

2 Years... is then call me doc.

What I learned in medical skewl today…

At the end of most days, I think about that and it is really not much. Everytime I feel like I am starting to put together the pieces and make real progress towards becoming a doctor, I have my illusions shattered by some “easy” problem. Of course, if I ever get too despondant, I always seem to nail some hard problem. Little by little they are filling my brain with information. Sometimes I barely notice (like two days before a test). But it is happening, slowly. It is amazing to watch the people above me, 3^rd and 4^th years, residents, attendings, they each seem to know so much. It seems that to ascend to their heights is not practical… but then, I would have thought the same thing of where I now am two years ago.

Cancell(ara)isms

Nope, no Fabian Cancellara going on here because my race was cancelled today. Cancelled. I actually would have been happy about it, except that I showed up! I mean who wants to do a crit in the rain. But, even more than that, who wants to show up for a CANCELLED CRIT in the rain.

I may have been a touch flippant in my response, observe:

You are probably getting a ton of these e-mails saying what the heck? I showed up with my bike dripping rain water to race, and there was no race. Fortunately, with the magic of modern technology, I was able to look it up on my phone and see that the race was cancelled. Another magical piece of modern technology would have enabled you to SEND OUT AN EMAIL TO ALL OF YOUR RIDERS. So, with that in mind, a critique for next year: if you cancel, alert everyone. And, when am I going to get my refund!

-Me