Food Today

For lunch today I made the kids pb&j (with homemade strawberry jam) which they love, but for myself I wanted something different so I made a little caprese salad.  I had some fresh mozzarella on hand so I diced some up along with a vine ripened tomato and I even got to chiffonade a leaf of basil from my very own plant!  It’s getting quite big and this is the first time I’ve used anything I’ve grown.  It was a very exciting moment for me.  I drizzled it all with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled it with salt and pepper.  Such a perfect summer lunch.

We never managed to get the cherries picked the other day so this afternoon, while the kids were sleeping, I dragged the ladder out to the backyard and picked everything I could reach that hadn’t already been eaten by the birds.  There were still quite a few left untouched so we have a big bowl full of perfectly ripe cherries on our kitchen table waiting to be gobbled up.

Despite getting everything I could reach on an eight-foot ladder and pulling branches down into my reach there are still loads of cherries that are far too high for us to reach without a cherry picker.  It was nice to pick so many cherries, though, and if I had more I don’t quite know what I’d do with all of them.  As it is I’m not quite sure what to do.  ODD think I should try making jam out of them but we’ll see.  I’m thinking more along the lines of homemade cherry chocolate ice cream.

After finishing with the cherries I checked out the rest of my plants.  I noticed a couple of pea pods were beginning to bulge so I had to pick them and give them a try.  Fresh garden peas are the best.

The resident year is coming to a close and all the third year residents are leaving moving in the next week or two so they can begin their jobs as real, live doctors.  To celebrate they have a resident graduation dinner each summer and this year it was tonight.  We dropped out kids off at a friends and went to Tiburon.  We’d never been there and heard it was expensive but really good.  Luckily we weren’t paying for it and still got to enjoy an excellent meal outside in some nice shade.

The brought out a house lemonade with mint (the best way to have lemonade in my opinion) in a bottle with mint leaves and lemons still in it.

I didn’t get pics of the appetizers but we had bread with some yummy kind of butter, crab cakes, pork something or other with brie, and scallops.  Then our salad was brought out.  I especially loved the pumpkin seeds on top.

I didn’t manage to get any pics of the palate cleanser either but it was a scoop of lemon eiss and raspberry eiss.  Then our main course was brought out.  ODD ordered the beef tenderloin and I had the halibut.  Oh, wow.  It. Was. Awesome.

They gave us a little time to digest before bringing out dessert and took the time to recognize those who are moving on.  They also recognized the chief resident and gave him a gift.  I got to meet some of the attendings I hadn’t met before and visited with the other residents and their spouses.

Dessert was brought out after all of that and it was so delicious.  ODD ordered the chocolate mousse with berries while I had the creme brulee.  I haven’t had creme brulee for quite a while and wasn’t disappointed.  It was perfect and the addition of the berries was really nice.

We spent a little more time visiting before heading back home and picking up our kids.  It’s strange to think we’re not that far away from the end.  It seems like we’ve been on this road for so long it will likely never end no matter what everyone says.  It occurs to me ODD is now a second year resident and in only a year he will be deciding what kind of job he wants (private office of hospital) or possibly be looking at a fellowship.  It’s hard to believe it’s really that close but seeing people he’s worked closely with actually moving on to real jobs helps me believe it might actually happen for us someday.

I think ODD was still talking when this was taken.