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.

A journey of a thousand miles...

So...here we go. I have no idea why I decided to start a blog, nor do I really even know what it's going to be about. I guess there's the whole 'food' thing I could go with. Or the chronicles of a nursing student on a path to greater things angle. Probably somewhere between the two. In the end, I know I've felt for a long time now that I need something of an outlet to write. Not that I think I'm a great writer by any means, but it's something I feel like I don't do enough of anymore.
Somewhere between 'growing up' and living this thing called life, I feel like you can forget what it is that makes you...well, you. So, I'd say this is a probably futile attempt to hold onto that, or maybe even find what that really is.

So yeah. Convoluted ranting is my forte.