Pretty little clucker.

(Roasted Chicken, a la Thomas Keller) 

So it's been a little while since I last wrote on here. Life gets in the way as they say. Long story short, I've been through another week of tests, and thankfully have gotten out with all A's so far. It's not the easiest by any means, but I feel like if I keep up what I'm doing, there isn't really any reason I shouldn't finish out the semester with all A's. Just have to stay sane.

I've also had a birthday about a week ago, and that was nice. It's definitely such a different experience when you get a bit older. For me it was just nice to get out of Augusta, and spend some quality time in Savannah with my parents and Beth. Lovely food, good times, all around a great birthday.

Speaking of birthdays, one of the best things about them is getting presents, right? Well this year I got a sweet, sweet bounty of Amazon gift cards, as well as some new TOMs and J.Crew gear (yet to be ordered) and cold, hard cash-ola. So far, I've gotten the pups some new toys on Amazon. They're called Goughnuts, and so far, they've been spectacular. For such small dogs, they have quite the ability to destroy toys. So far Beth and I have tried every single "tough" toy out there. The heavy duty Nylabones, black Kong extremes, everything. Without fail, Camilla has proceeded to make short work out of all of them. The only thing so far that has somewhat held up is a deer antler that we got at Tailspin. So I went on a search for toys that would hold up to much more powerful chewers, and the Goughnut kept coming up as very highly recommended. So we got a couple of those, and of course, the dogs don't really enjoy them that much. Bindi did get a few minutes of play out of one, and it definitely did the job of holding up. So hopefully, we can get them to enjoy them more in the future.

In addition to that, I actually ordered a guitar. I've always wanted to learn how to play the guitar, and I basically figured, why not? Beth had a very valid point though; I'm not exactly sure when I'm going to find the time to play. However, I just figured if I had any downtime, it'd be something cool to learn, and something I've always wanted to do.

So there it is, the past few weeks in a nutshell.

Back to present, I know previously I mentioned putting up more meals I cook, from start to finish. I really wanted to today, considering I had a relatively easy day. But I kind of lost track of time a little bit, and didn't really have the time to get as many pictures in as I wanted to. So, I'll do what I did last time and describe the process.

Ask Beth; for some reason I'd really been hankering for some roasted chicken lately. I figured if I had some extra time this weekend, I'd take on the task of doing it myself. Roasting a chicken is actually something that I really enjoy, and is one of my favorite foods. To me, it's the very definition of "comfort food." Not to mention, it's also one of Thomas Keller's favorites. /swoon

ANYWAYs...it was time to do the grocery shopping for the week, so I went ahead and picked up a chicken at the store today. Unfortunately, we do our grocery shopping at a local Kroger, so it's not exactly the best selection of produce. It IS definitely a step up from shopping at Wal-mart in the 'boro, but I just wish there was a better selection of meats and seafood. There are other markets we could go to, but we were in a little bit of a hurry to get back so Beth could study some more, so for today, Kroger chicken had to do. I tried to find a nice cage-free bird, and found one on sale. I picked up a broiler that was about 3 and a half pounds, so it'd be a nice roasting size. FYI, a "broiler" refers to the age/size of the chicken. I believe the range is around 3-4 pounds for a broiler, with a "fryer" being smaller than that, and a "spring" chicken and cornish hen being smaller than that. Larger would be a full-sized, or stewing hen.

So after picking up the chicken, we had to figure out what sides to serve with it. I had picked up some nice small red marble potatoes last week, so I knew I'd like those roasted with the chicken. For some greenery, Beth requested some sauteed cabbage, so that took care of that. I'd also been craving some mushrooms lately, so I picked up some button mushrooms as well. The broccoli you see was actually a last minute addition on my part, because...well, I really like broccoli. So now that the menu was ready to roll, it was time to get the groceries home and get cooking.

(I think I may have made a bit too much food for the
2 of us)

First thing first, I had to get the chicken going, since that would take at least 45-50 minutes, plus 10-15 minutes of rest time before serving. I actually don't have a roasting pan or anything like that, so I had to improvise a bit. I figured that the cast-iron skillet that I do have would be the perfect size for holding the chicken. Now, the only thing I had to figure out was how to get the chicken elevated a bit, so that it would roast evenly, and allow browning on all sides. I know that the potatoes would also take a while to cook, so I figured I'd roast them underneath the chicken for several reasons. One, the more things in one pan, the less I have to end up cleaning later. But more importantly, I know they would take about the same time of time as the chicken, and the drippings from the chicken would flavor the potatoes. I could use the doneness of the potatoes as somewhat of a "second opinion" for when my chicken would be finished cooking as well. Simultaneously, the potatoes would make a lovely "rack" for the chicken to sit on while roasting. Perfect. I also thought about bulking it out a bit, so instead of just potatoes on the bottom, I quartered two onions and halved a head of garlic, and put that under as well. It is pretty important at this point to point out that after washing them, I dried the potatoes VERY well. This is important to ensure that there is as little steam as possible created, keeping the exterior of the chicken nice and crispy. 

I didn't season the potatoes and onions, because I know that the chicken would be pretty heavily seasoned, and would drip down onto them, giving them some natural salt. I was also a little bit concerned about drawing out moisture from them, and creating steam, so I just kept them completely unseasoned. You can always season later, but it's very hard to "unseason" once you've done so. I also bought one of those "poultry blend" packs of fresh herbs that had some rosemary, sage, and thyme in it. I picked a sprig of rosemary, and about 4 sprigs of thyme, as well as 2 stems of sage and set those aside to mince for later. The rest I just beat with the back of my knife to get the oils releasing, and decided I'd stuff those into the cavity of the chicken. 

Now I dealt with the bird itself. After taking rinsing the bird well, and removing any extra fat, I dried it very, VERY well with paper towels. I made a little seasoning blend of kosher salt, black peper, garlic powder, and dried sage, rosemary, and thyme as well. Keep in mind, you're going to be working with raw chicken, so I make the blend up ahead of time, and keep it in a small container separate from everything else, so you can put your hands in it, and season your bird without worrying about cross contaminating your entire spice cabinet. You can just get rid of any excess seasoning mix you have left over, and throw your container in the dishwasher. I usually use like a small bowl, or small tupperware container; anything like that works. So after drying the bird off, I liberally seasoned the cavity, and all surfaces of the chicken with my seasoning. I stuffed the cavity with the aforementioned herbs, and then I oiled the bird lightly with EVOO, and gently massaged everything in. I like to oil the bird to promote even transfer of heat all across the surface. The oil acts as a nice conductor, and things always tend to come out nice and evenly brown when doing this. Bird prepped, ready to go. In the oven breast side DOWN at 450 on broil setting. 

Now, I'm going to take a little sidestep to explain why I prepped the chicken in this fashion. Let's think about what a "successful" roasted chicken consists of. Crispy skin, well seasoned and flavorful, and moist and juicy. Seasoning inside and out takes care of the well-seasoned part. Oiling the chicken and cooking at high temperature ensure the skin is crispy. But where most people have trouble, and where the hardest part about roasting a chicken comes in, is cooking it long enough at a high enough temperature to ensure the bird is cooked through and crispy, but not leave the breast completely dry and overcooked. Unfortunately, all chickens are not created equally; the white meat will always cook faster, and thus, dry out faster, than dark meat. But if your technique is off, you could have lovely moist white meat, and not so lovely salmonella-laden undercooked dark meat. 

So for me, one key is to truss your chicken. This props the legs up against the smallest part of the breast, and protects it from cooking too fast, and drying out. However, today, I didn't have any kitchen twine. So, I cooked the chicken breast side down, to ensure that the dark meat would cook faster, and my white meat would be protected from the hottest part of the oven (the top broiler, since I'm on broil setting), so as not to get over cooked. And also, if you think about it, gravity will naturally bring the juices downward, towards the breast in this case, which would keep it nice and moist. So, there's a tip for chicken roasting, or any large birds for that matter. 

Soo...chicken's finally in the oven, let's get to the sides. Cabbage would naturally be next, since it takes the longest to cook, and it holds well, so I decided to start there. Nothing really special that I did to it, I just kept it nice and simple. I cut into very large "ribbons" and also minced half an onion, to allow for some flavor enhancement. Very simple process; I just heated about a tbsp of EVOO in a wok, and added the onion and let that roll on med-high heat for about 1-2 minutes, just until translucent. I do not season anything at this point. Next, I add my cabbage, and give it a quick toss to make sure the onions are not stuck at the bottom, and allow the cabbage to have contact with the bottom of the pan. Once again, I do NOT season yet, I want to allow some caramelization. After about 4 minutes, I give the cabbage another toss, and check for slight coloring. Perfect at this point, so I add about a tbsp of hot sauce, and a tsp of liquid smoke. Beth does not eat pork, and the last time I made this, I found myself wanting the smokiness of bacon to go with the cabbage, so I figured I'd give liquid smoke a try. After about 3 more minutes, almost all of my cabbage has a bit of caramelization, but some green and firmness still exists. At this point, I season with salt and black pepper, add about a half a cup for chicken stock, and loosely cover. Turn the heat down to a simmer, and get ready to do something else. 

Next up, mushrooms. I quartered a package of white button mushrooms for this (there really was nothing more interesting in the store that wasn't overpriced), and reserved about a teaspoon of minced onion from when I prepped for the cabbage. I also minced 6 cloves of garlic, and will use about 1/3 of it now. The rest will be for the broccoli.  Key to mushrooms is also letting them develop caramelization before doing anything. The key to this is the same as the cabbage: moderately high heat, do not touch it, and do not season it. Allow the heat to do it's job; this is a chemical reaction going on, and it takes consistent heat on the surface area, with no agitation to allow the sugars to reach a temperature high enough to caramelize. I've gone over this before, but you do not season, because salt causes moisture to escape, and thus you'll end up steaming your vegetable instead of getting a nice browning. So I let my mushrooms get a nice brown color on one side, I add my onion and garlic and saute until the onion is translucent. Then I season the mixture with salt and pepper. After sauteing this for about 6-7 minutes, I add some of the minced poultry herbs that I had separated earlier when prepping for the chicken. I turned the heat down to low, and add about a tsp of butter, and tsp of chicken stock, and take the mushrooms completely off the heat. 

At this point, it's been about 15 minutes since the chicken has been in the oven. I check it quickly, to make sure nothing's burning or is too out of control, and at this point, it's a beautiful light brown. Not quite there, but that's good, considering we're not even close to finished cooking. So at this point, I change the setting to "bake" meaning the bottom coil in the oven is the one heated, and turn the temperature down to 400. I want to maintain high heat, but at this point, I want an ambient heat all around the bird, instead of more direct heat from the broiler. I rotate the chicken in the oven, slide it back in, and keep it going. 

At this point, I'm basically at a wait and see mode for the chicken. The broccoli cooks very quickly, and at this point, I have both the mushrooms and cabbage 90% of the way done, so that everything can come up together simultaneously when the chicken is ready. 

So time lapse another 30 minutes...I check on the chicken and see that it's basically completely nice and dark brown and crispy on top. I pull it out, and flip it over, breast side up. Since this side has not really had any exposure to direct heat, it doesn't have any color to it, but I can tell it's very juicy. So what I do is crank the heat up to 500, set the oven back to "broil" and let that side get some color. I figure by the time I finish my vegetables, the chicken will be ready to pull out. When I flip the chicken to get color on the breast side, I make sure and rest it on the lip of the pan, so that all that beautifully browned, crispy skin doesn't steam and get ruined. So I prop the chicken up, slide it in the jacked up oven, and get to work finishing my sides. 

Basically, I only have to cook my broccoli, and heat up my cabbage and mushrooms. So in the wok, I saute the remaining 2/3 of my garlic in a mixture of 1 tbsp EVOO and 1 tsp of dark sesame oil. I want it screaming hot, because this dish goes quickly. After the garlic begins to toast lightly, I add my broccoli, and toss it a few times. I let it cook for about 1 minute, then I season with salt and a couple of turns of black pepper. After about another minute, I deglaze with 1 tbsp of chicken stock. Done. 

Soo...chicken's nice and brown all around at this point. I pull it out of the oven, and set it on a cutting board, cover it with foil, and let her rest. At this point, I pour off all of the fat and juices, and am left with beautifully roasted potatoes and onions. I tried one of the potatoes at this point, to check for seasoning, and actually, I guess enough of the seasoning from the chicken permeated them to the point where they were just perfectly seasoned. All I did was add the remaining minced herbs I had, and tossed them around. 

So at this point, all of my vegetables are completely done, the chicken has had about 12 minutes to rest, and it's time to carve. To the cook goes the spoils, so I cut off a wing and try it...

Magnificent. 

Perfectly salty, crispy, meaty, slightly fatty, nutty, and sweet chicken. Absolutely perfect. I don't usually like to brag on my food, but this particular iteration of roasted chicken just really came out great. 

Next time I do this, I'll take pictures of how-to carve a chicken. Basically, I start with taking off the drumsticks and the wings. Then I take the thighs off...and eat the chicken oysters, haha. Then I come down both sides of the breastbone, then make a horizontal cut into the chicken towards the middle of it. Essentially, I've made a giant "wedge" out of the breast, then I slice this into manageable pieces to serve the white meat. 

Voila. 

The plate above had a few of the potatoes, a pile of cabbage, then a few florets of brocoli in a pile in the middle of the plate. I then placed a thigh and wing atop this, and dropped a few mushrooms around. I spooned a scant tbsp of the drippings over the whole thing, and enjoyed. 

Bottom line, don't be intimidated by cooking a whole bird, it's really not very difficult, it just takes patience, and due diligence making sure you take the necessary steps to ensure success. But the end result is well worth it. 

Until next time. 

Home sweet downtown/ Beef, it's what's for dinner.

I'm feeling pretty good about this test tomorrow; I feel like I've studied to the point where I'm getting tired of looking at the material, which is usually a good sign. So the dogs started whining, and I ran them out and realized, we don't have any pictures of our (very) humble abode yet. So here's a first. Nothing as charming (or sketchy) as d-town Augusta at night.

Earlier this evening, I decided to take a break from studying by cooking myself some dinner. Now before I sound like too much of an ass by not making Beth dinner, I have to point out that she doesn't eat beef, so I couldn't. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. And she wanted Subway. : / Anyways, I got a sweet deal on filet from Kroger the other day, and had some veg left in the fridge that I knew I needed to use up. So I threw some dinner together, and I must say it was quite tasty! I know I'm definitely in the minority of folks that cooks to relieve stress, but I also must say that this was quite therapeutic for me. After not being in a professional kitchen for so long, it definitely feels nice to know that I'm not completely rusty.

So basically, I just had some leftover red onion that I slice up ahead of time for sandwiches and whatnot, so I used those as a flavor base for some collard greens that I had. I'd been really hankering for some Tuscan style roasted potatoes, which are basically roasted until they have a nice crispy exterior, and fluffy interior, and generally with garlic and some fresh herbs. I'm actually on somewhat of a diet, so I didn't want to fry anything. Also...I have a kitchen that's literally from the 70's, so anytime I do anything, it completely smokes up the house, so I've been getting creative with my cooking methods lately. So instead of frying my potatoes, I wedged them out into large steakhouse fries (roughly 1/8ths of the potato) and then I preheat a sheetpan in the oven on about 400 until it's nice and toasty. At this point, I also used the last bit of the red onion (literally like a tablespoon) and finely diced that, and then slivered 3 cloves of garlic. Aluminum foil works wonders over the pan too, especially since I don't have a dishwasher. When it's nice and hot, I go ahead and throw some EVOO down until the smoking point, but not too much, just enough to give the potatoes something to transfer the heat, and then start laying the potatoes down *very* carefully. This is probably one of those times where Beth would make fun of me for trying to be too "restaurant-y" and doing something inherently risky just because I think I can, but it really is necessary to get a nice crispy exterior. At this point, everything's completely unseasoned, and I just let those go for about 10 minutes and check on them every now and again to make sure we're not browning up too much. After I get good browning on both sides, I turn the heat down to 325 and then add my red onion and garlic, turning the potatoes, and coating the in the onion/garlic mixture. I let that ride for another 10 minutes or so, or until everything gets nice and fragrant. You could add some fresh herbs here (rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano are nice) but I didn't have any because it's winter time and I'm cheap. So after that, I tossed everything around again, and by this time, the onions and garlic were starting to be slightly caramelized. At this point, I season with some kosher salt and a couple of turns of black pepper. I also wanted some herbaceousness (?) so I sprinkled on some dry thyme, which is all I have, and kinda/sorta deglazed with a couple of teaspoons of lemon juice. Let everything heat through for another 10 mins, and voila! Big key is not to add the herbs when things are too hot, as not to burn them. Same goes for the garlic and onions.

As for the carrots...really not much to say. I just like the combo of curry and carrots, so I basically glazed some baby carrots in kosher salt, granulated sugar, and curry powder.

As for the steak, I really like a nice crust on them, and if you have any experience with cooking meat, you know that browning = flavor. Just remember that. You could have a beautifully cooked, perfectly pink steak...but without achieving that nice browning (Maillard reaction for the culinary dorks out there) you will have a beautifully juicy, pink....bland piece of meat. So I seasoned my steak with salt a good 20 minutes before giving it a sear in a cast iron pan. What this does is pull the moisture out of the surface of the steak, and allows for a nice, deep browning. For those that've heard that seasoning too long beforehand will draw all the juices out, and leave your meat dry - the capillary action that the sodium causes that draws moisture out affects the meat at a very shallow level. Basically, you'd have to bury your steak in like 10 pounds of salt for like a week to be able to pull the moisture from the very core of the steak to the surface. If you think about it, when you cure duck legs for confit, or when you cure salmon for lox, you can see that the protein doesn't shrink all that much, and that process uses a LOT more salt than anyone would use to season their steak. So essentially, that is culinary myth #1 debunked on here.

Steak cont'd: very important to have your meat come to room temperature before searing it. This does ensure more even cooking, and since I enjoy my steak in that ever so tiny zone between rare and medium rare, it ensures that the inside of your steak isn't ice cold...which would be disgusting. After some trial and error...and smoky hallways and setting off the smoke alarm, I've realized I don't have to sear on high to achieve a nice browning. Especially with my cast iron skillet, I just pre-heat on medium for around 5 minutes before hand, and then add a scant amount of cooking fat, add the steak, and let it ride on one side until I get a very nice, even, deep browning. My steak tonight was pretty thin (6 oz. cut) so I treated it almost like a large scallop: heavy sear on one side, and just "kiss" it on the other. I ended up with a little bit of uneven cooking, but it was the best way to achieve a nice crust, and not overcook the steak.

So in the end, it was a nice break from studying, and a good dinner. I really enjoyed doing this tonight, and I think in the future, I'll have to go more in depth with step-by-step pictures,  before and after and whatnot. I think it'd be fun to see some pics from the farmer's market or wherever, and document the process from selection of ingredients, and following that to the finished product. But then again...there is this whole nursing school thing in the way, isn't there? But hopefully I can maybe get a weekly thing going. I'm really excited for it to start warming up, and seeing all the awesome spring produce coming in. Beth and I are trying to figure out if we're going to join a local CSA, or if we'll just hit the downtown farmer's market when it opens back up, but either way, I'm looking forward to it.

It's days like these that keep me on my winning streak...

(Proving rock n' roll ain't dead...)

I mentioned Butch Walker a couple of posts back, regarding his tour dates with Ryan Adams. He's been one of my favorite artists for about 6 years now, but much like old friends, sometimes you lose touch for awhile. I'll be honest, I haven't really listened to him as much as I used to, and I completely whiffed on listening to his last album, I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart.

Beth and I have been stuck in the house all day studying for upcoming exams and whatnot, and during my study breaks, I like to unwind by listening to music. I probably use Spotify a little more than I should, but it's a quick and easy way for me to listen to a variety of stuff. I decided to give Butch's last album, The Spade, a shot.

Damn you, Bradley Glenn Walker.

So, about an hour after listening to the album instead of studying, I realized a few things.
1) This shit is awesome.
2) It'd been too long since I'd listened to some Butch.
3) I shouldn't really expect anything else.
4) I literally would've sold a kidney to be able to have been at the aforementioned show with Butch opening for Ryan Adams.

(because this is America.)

I have a hell of a lot of good and bad memories associated with his music, and I think that's what makes an artist great, at least in my opinion. Butch Walker's been the soundtrack to some of the most amazingly happy moments of my life, as well as some of the deepest, darkest, and most miserable. His music brings back memories of seeing him live in ATL after being awake for almost 30 hours straight, and basically hallucinating while driving the whole way down I-16 at 3 a.m. because I was so tired. Thank God for crappy Steak n' Shake coffee. I remember when he played Tiny Dancer in Athens, and Beth's feet hurt so bad we had to sit on some steps in the back of the 40 Watt with some friendly hipster folks; Mike lost needed his inhaler while sleeping on the floor; Walt ended up at a sorority house, and Beth, Mike and I all had a lovely 2 a.m. meal at IHOP on Epps Bridge. A confession - I did that all while wearing girl's jeans. Not on purpose, and I swear it's not as bad as it sounds...uh....but it's true.
I remember crazy nights in the 'boro staying up way too late, drinking way too much, wearing way too much plaid, and watching way too many Youtube videos and DVDs. I remember when Beth gave me a copy of Letters when I was still up in Hyde Park, and how it felt like I was literally the happiest I had ever been.  I remember figuring out the difference between going back, and going home.

(Yup.)

I also remember spending gut-wrenching winter nights with too many bottles of red wine, a few too many sleeping pills, and listening to Best Thing You Never Had on a continuous loop until I fell asleep. I remember dying inside listening to Passed Your Place, and sitting in my car for like 10 hours listening to it continuously, after the night I thought I'd seen the one person I love most walk out my life for good. I remember figuring out how it felt to have my heart shattered like romantic roadkill.

(and yup...)

I guess the reason I bring all these personal experiences up is because I realized that Butch's music has been the soundtrack to so many of the most significant moments in my life, it's crazy to me to think that I've just ignored a significant part of my life for such a long time. Which I feel is how I've been with a lot of aspects of my life as of late. I feel like I've been a shitty friend to some that've been nothing but good to me. Why do I always just let things that were once so important to me just drift out of my life? It's honestly not because my feelings have changed. Is it because I have? I know that lately, with changing schools, and basically hanging up the knife bag for good, I've personally struggled tremendously with if this is what I want to do with my life, and if I'l have any regrets about it. I have felt for sometime that although this may be the "right" thing to do, it's never felt that way to me. But I keep telling myself that things that are worthwhile will always be difficult. I remember how much I changed from the beginning of culinary school, to the person I became by the end. Maybe I really have changed more than I know.

Have I changed that much? Or did I try to be something I'm not? Maybe. Maybe we're all like an artist that struggles to not do too much of the same, but not change so much that they lose the core of who they are.

It's so  hard to constantly re-invent yourself. It's so hard to always stay the same.

Right now, I still feel like I'm somewhere in between...

but until I figure out who I'm supposed to be, chances are they'll be some Butch on in the background.

Meet the family!

(Well, hello there!)

I'll have to admit, I've been going a bit overboard with the Instagram pics lately. Honestly, I've always loved these filter styles, and it's one of those amazing feats of technology that I can take photos that look like this on an iPhone.

Anywho...these are the some random shots around the house with the our two little ones. Well...one's little, and the other's rather...medium-sized. For those that haven't had the "pleasure" of meeting our two rambunctious bundles of fur, their names are Bindi and Camilla. Camilla is the elder of our two little ladies. She's a 2 year old Pembroke Welsh Corgi that's...well, full of life. Actually, she's pretty much bats hit crazy 80% of the time, but I love her anyways. She's actually the first pet I've ever owned, so she'll always occupy a special place in my heart. If you've ever met a Corgi, you'd understand that the only people in the world that think they're small is...well everyone else in the world. In their eyes they're definitely top dog, and Camilla's no exception.

Bindi's the younger of the two lasses, and she's a miniature Australian Shepherd. I didn't even know there was such a thing, to be honest. We rescued her from an animal shelter in Dalton, and have loved her every single second we've had her. I actually didn't even plan on getting another dog for awhile after we got Camilla, but Beth's persuasive nature struck again! So after getting home from work at around midnight, I was informed that we'd be making the roughly 6 hour trek from the 'Boro up to Dalton to meet this puppy. All we had seen of her was face picture on an ad in the AJC. But honestly, that's pretty much all it took. She's definitely the more gregarious of the two...and shall we say...um...clumsy. But all the more lovable.

(I love how Camilla doesn't even budge,
but just gives you that "why are you waking me up so early?" look)

I snuck into the kitchen one morning to nab a pic of the sleeping babes, but I accidentally startled them awake. I was trying to capture one of the more hilarious phenomenons in dog ownership I've experienced.   One of the funnier things about PWC's is the fact that they tend to sleep in *extremely* odd positions. Camilla's favorite seems to be on her back, but she does sleep on her side like this from time to time. Thing is, when we adopted Bindi, she usually slept in the more traditional curled up in a ball/fetal position type of way. But after a few weeks of spending time as roommates next to each other like this, I walked in on Bindi and Camilla in the same exact weird Corgi sleeping posture, and I thought it was one of the funniest things I'd ever seen. Ever since then, they've actually begun to completely mirror each other's posture when they're sleeping in their kennels, which has made for some hilarious photo ops.

(Ol' Bindi being a sweetheart)

Kinda embarrassed at the amount of clutter that's on our coffee table there. But, as you can see by the Pathophysiology textbook there, nursing school tends to do that to a couple...well, I guess more to the apartment, but nevertheless. Spring cleaning's gonna be a bitch.

(Corgi's gonna Corg, dawg)

I swear even for a dog, Camilla's pretty photogenic. When you see her like this, it's hard to imagine she can be pure Hell on wheels. But yeah...looks can be deceiving for sure.

(Bindi's B-day, and my beautiful Beth) 

(After a night of studying med term,
this dopey little face definitely makes it hard to be mad)

Hope you enjoyed meeting the little furry ones. They definitely enjoy meeting everyone. And I mean that, they literally try to chase down and lick every person that walks/bikes/drives/runs/scooters/whateverodddowntownaugustathing by on Broad St.

So it's not just me.

So since Beth and I moved to Augusta, we've noticed that drivers here have been...shall we say, not what we've been accustomed to. Now, I realize that every city has its fair share of horrible drivers. For God's sake, my brother lives in south Florida (a.k.a. "where America goes to die" s/o Dr. Gossai), so I'm not exactly not exposed to bad driving. While it's definitely not to the epic proportion of craziness that is trying to "drive" in NYC, driving in Augusta has been somewhat of an experience.

Apparently, my bemoanings are not unfounded.

And by experience I mean bad experience. And by bad experience...I mean awful experience. I didn't mean for this to turn into a rant against Augusta drivers. Like I said earlier, everywhere in the world, bad drivers exist. But for a city as small as the ol' Digust, I feel the proportion of bad drivers is QUITE disproportionate to the general population. The thing is, it's not even normal things like texting or eating while driving, or not paying attention as a light turns green, or texting while driving. While all of these things are inherently dangerous, and definitely not things I condone...it happens. I've been guilty of at least one of these things, if not all. Most people have. But it's not even like that here.

A few days ago on my way home, I was stuck behind a car going literally 11 mph in a 35 zone that was driving down the middle of both lanes on Greene St. I'm not a big road-rager type of dude, but I think it's understandable that I was a bit heated after following this car for 20 minutes, when it should only have taken me 5 minutes to get home. When I finally get the chance to pass this car, I take full advantage of the opportunity. Obviously, I was curious as to what the heck this person could be thinking to pull such a maneuver in the middle of a fairly busy downtown street. I look over to the driver as I pass, and I realize it's 2 thirty-something ladies, and the driver is *not even looking at the road* and is apparently giving a drive-by downtown tour of homes if you will, to the passenger. Um...first of all, my block ain't exactly Pacific Palisades, so I have no idea what they were so intent on looking at. Maybe they've got some awesome gentrification project going on; that'd be swell. But um...how about at least putting up the facade of TRYING to watch where you're going.

And while that may be an isolated incident, I've noticed at least...oh 789 times while driving around Augusta that people have a fundamental problem maintaining their lane. It's gotten so bad, I'm literally afraid to ride beside ANY car for fear that they're going to spontaneously come over that line for no reason at all, and I'M gonna be the one in the ER at University.

I'd be interested to see what the DMV test looks like here. I mean, no offense to any native Augustans, I'm sure y'all aren't all bad. I even thought maybe all these people aren't from here and are pulling the whole, "I have no idea where I am, let's drive 20 mph and look for landmarks" thing. Alas...nope...Richmond and Columbia county plates. So, good drivers of Augusta, don't let your rep hold you down.

How you know you're getting old.

A couple of days ago one of my best friends from CIA who is now a chef in Panama (the country, not the city) lets me know he's going to be in ATL later on next month...and it happens to be right smack dab in the middle of 2 tests and my first week of clinicals.

So...
Butch Walker is opening for Ryan Adams, and Daniel Tosh is having not one, but two (!), shows in Savannah.

All cool stuff I want to do, and I'm stuck in Augusta. Oh well, sacrifices make you stronger.

So here's something I like...

Not to be too heavy-handed with the food politics or anything, but I definitely think it's an amazingly powerful commercial that is both mind-blowingly simplistic, yet relevant. So much for special effects.  Unfortunately, I don't think I'll ever see a Chipotle around the CSRA in my lifetime.

Not a bad song, either.