Things that are stupid

I am usually in the car when I think of something that either makes me mad or I just plain don't understand. I have been compiling these things that annoy me for a while now and I would like to share them with the world. Please feel free to agree, disagree or add to the list.

1. Dirty people at whole foods. I mean, sometimes I can't tell if you're homeless or really just a rich hippie. I realized this pretty much covers about everyone living in the city of San Francisco. Give it a break. You smell like old cheese mixed with dirt, and that's just gross. Try the seaweed butter soap on aisle 3. Pleeeease.

2. Whyyyyy are there always 50 gazillion people dressed in blue working at the Apple store but you still have to make an appointment with a "Genius" for more than 4 hours later.

3. Another way Apple annoys me (can you tell I'm a PC user with an iPhone?) When you restore your phone but your apps don't come back so you have to sit there downloading every.single.app again. That's just rude.

4.When your credit card company a) cancels your card without telling you because your account has been "compromised" so that you get denied in front of 15 people at Starbucks of all places and b) they wont tell you who compromised your card so that you don't purchase things from them online anymore. Annoying, no?
5. If any of you are from where I went to high school and have been home recently, you have noticed the absurdity that is the Memorial police force (or patrollers or whatever you want to call them). They drive around in gas-guzzling TAHOES!!!! (which I would gladly take as a graduation gift). Seriously?! I thought cop cars were supposed to be ugly and fast. Is this just Memorial or are your neighborhoods wasting their money in the same ways?

Ok, that's all the ranting I have for now. It's just been a little stressful around here lately but I'm good now. Thanks for listening.

-stressfreegerms

S'mores Cookies

I promise I'll talk about Napa soon. Right now, I am being overloaded with forms to sign, contracts to go over and drug tests to pee for. So, I am going to take a break from my heavy duty blog writing until all of these are done. For now, I thought I'd share with you a recipe I made a long time ago. I remember it being a pretty big hit when I made it for the Super Bowl this year. Note: I did make it for a bunch of med school frat boys so that's probably unlike most of your audiences.

I have to admit, these were pretty good.

 Since Lent is over, I am sure most of you can eat sweets again like me. So, preheat your oven and make these! I made the actual cookie part from scratch like the recipe told me to, but to cut out A LOT of time and effort, I think you could just get pre-made cookie dough and add marshmallows to it. Your choice.

Also, I obviously got this recipe from Pinterest, so look there if you want better pictures/more recipes.

Ingredients:
11 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
½ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 ½ cups flour
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup mini marshmallows

3 regular sized Hershey’s bars, broken into pieces
1-2 packages graham crackers, broken into squares

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line baking pans with parchment paper. You'll need a couple of pans because this recipe makes a lot of cookies.

Lay out graham crackers side by side on the pans as close as possible (they should be touching).

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, sea salt and cinnamon to combine. Set aside.
In another bowl, cream butter with white and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixer and combine on low speed.

Fold in the chocolate chips and marshmallows. You may chill this batter overnight or get crackin' right away.

Place tablespoons of dough on graham crackers about 1 – 1 ½ inches apart. Press down slightly with fingertips.

Bake for 5 minutes then remove from oven to press Hershey’s bar pieces on to the top.

Bake for 5 – 7 more minutes or until dough is beginning to turn golden brown at the edges. Enjoy!

-summerloveandgerms

Cruisn' USA

Who else had Nintendo 64? This was the only game console I grew up with because my parents would not allow us to play video games until whenever the 64 version came out. Therefore, I was deprived from the classic mario and donkey kong games but I did have this:

Cruisin'

If you didn't play this game, I don't know what your parents problems were, because its the greatest. You can probably just go to the nearest movie theatre and play it in their videogame section. So go now.

I was particularly fond of the route in that youtube video for some reason. So, when we were planning our trip to San Francisco/Napa, I desperately wanted to go up north to see the Redwood Forest. And it looked EXACTLY the same as I pictured it would. Nintendo, you are amazing. Behold:

Our trip up to the Redwoods was actually a bit of a trek. We flew into SF, rented a car (an intense Chrysler  300) and drove (what should have been) about 5 hours up north. Last minute, we decided to take a more scenic route up the pacific highway. This gave us some breathtaking views. With its ridiculously windy course up the mountains it probably added on about 2.5 hours but we both agreed it was well worth it.

Hugging the tree.

Inside of a huge tree.

We drove all the way up to Eureka because our plan was to drive even farther north in the morning to go to the actual Redwood National Park. Note: don't go to Eureka unless you'd like to feel like you've traveling about 20 years into the past. Weird weird place. By that time, we were exhausted with driving and had seen so much of the forest already we didn't feel it was necessary to go to the actual park. We drove through the "Avenue of the Giants" park on the way back and even drove our car through one of the oldest and biggest trees!

These trees are amazing and you should really go see them for yourself if you're ever in northern California. Pictures cannot do them justice.

Next up, Napa!
--peacelovetreesgerms

Arugula and Anchovies

I recently found out how much I despise these 2 things at my cooking class adventure with Monica Pope. I have been talking about these classes for a while now. We went about 2 weeks ago and it was so much fun!!

As far as I know, there are two options for her classes at Tafia in Houston. There is a sauce class and a sides class. We went to the sides class. Now, if you think you are going to learn recipes from this adventure, think again. While we did have an awesome time, the only teaching point I got from this night was how to properly cut herbs and onions. Although, since I haven't cooked a thing in over 3 weeks, I probably forgot this already.

The class is above her restaurant and starts around dinner time. The class is full of couples, groups, families and even some singles -- so anyone feels welcome. You split up into 4 groups and each group will make a side dish. I chose to make some sort of vegetable mixture that included artichokes because I wanted to learn how to cook them. We ended up soaking the veggies in anchovies and needless to say, I was not a fan. But honestly everything else was sooo good. I even tried beet salad for the first time. It was mixed with goat cheese (I think) and strawberries.

Murdering the beets.

Beet Salad. Yum.

Learning/trying to chop properly.

With Monica Pope!

Our recipe. Sorry if it's blurry but there's probably no way you could make it anyway.

Other selling points of the class? Free flowing wine all night. She had her assistants bringing us up appetizers like the bacon wrapped dates (if you've been to tafia you know how good these are) and cheeses up to us while we were cooking. Also, Monica's big thing is farm to table. So everything she cooks with is very fresh, organic and bought at a farmer's market. I was surprised to know there's literally a farmer's market every day of the week in Houston. I definitely did not think of Houston as the type of city you could get fresh farmer's market veggies and fruits ever, let alone on any day!

 It was just an all over good time and I suggest everyone go. Monica is also really funny. She just walks around telling you gossip and different stuff she learned on Top Chef Masters. She doesn't really teach you much unless you are doing something waaaay wrong. Then she shows you whats up. Hence how I learned to chop herbs. BTW, I am not sure on the pricing because I received this class as a gift.

--FreshGerms

Travelzoo deal

So last night we fiiiiinally used my travelzoo deal. It was dinner for 2 for 50% off what it would have cost. The restaurant is called Bistro Alex and it's in the new Hotel Sorella located in City Centre of Houston. This area became one of my new favorite places in Houston recently when they built an Anthropologie and a Ruggles Green. I think it's safe to say this is my favorite Ruggles. Get the fish tacos and mac and cheese there and thank me later. City Centre is super close to where my parents live so I go there a lot. But since I'll be moving to Houston myself soon, I am going to try to stay awaaaay from where I grew up and try new places! Okay, back to talking about the restaurant this post is about...

Hotel Sorella

This deal gave us 3 courses and 20% off a bottle of wine.We shared an appetizer of jalapeno shrimp and grits which was amazing. Then we each got to order an entree worth up to $38. So I got the filet. duh. I never ever eat red meat but if I'm going to, I might as well eat it at a place that I know it will be cooked well. And it was. Zach got the duck which is his second favorite food to thai noodles.

Zach's duck with a little quail egg that was so cute!

My filet

Manly drink: bourbon and other intense alcohols plus muddled cherries and oranges.

Bistro Alex. Pretty swanky huh?

We both tried foie gras for the first time even though it literally looked like a mini liver! I don't think I'll be ordering that again. The menu changes so it's not online but I assure everything was awesome. I am by no means a 'foodie' so my pictures and descriptions of this food is (obviously) completely amateur. This post is merely to get you to a) sign up for travelzoo.com emails (they should really pay me for this), b) go to Bistro Alex and c) admire how awesome I am as a gf. Thank you.

houstonlove,

Germ

How to: Make Quinoa

If you do not already know what Quinoa is then you are probably not cool enough to read this blog. JK. But really, you should know what it is and how to cook it. I have found that most people do not know exactly how to cook it though, and I am going to give you a simple trick to make it not taste like sawdust.

Mmmmmm doesn't that look good? Yes, yes it does.

Ready for it?? Cook the quinoa in chicken stock, NOT water. It will change your life (if you life already includes cooking quinoa in water). For those veggies out there (shout out to my roomie), you can use vegetable stock. But don't ask me how that tastes because I'm not weird like that. Also, always use a 2:1 liquid:quinoa ratio.

A little more about quinoa: it contains a ton of amino acids so that means it's a source of complete protein. It's also a good source of dietary fiber, phosphorus, magnesium, and iron. It is gluten-free for all of you celiacs (and fake ones) out there.

I will now share with you my favorite quinoa recipe.

Quinoa with peas

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 cup uncooked quinoa
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1/4 cup chopped onion (I hate onions so I've never added these but go ahead if you want!)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme (I use dry)
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 3/4 cup frozen peas
• 1/2 cup grated Romano cheese
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (optional)

 Directions: 

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the quinoa, and cook 2 minutes until toasted. Pour in the chicken broth, onion, garlic, thyme, and black pepper. Cover, and let come to a boil. Once boiling, stir in the frozen peas. Recover, reduce heat to medium-low, and continue simmering until the quinoa is tender and has absorbed the chicken stock, 15 to 20 minutes.
2. Stir in half of the Romano cheese and the parsley until evenly mixed. Scoop the quinoa into a serving dish, and sprinkle with the remaining Romano cheese to serve.

After making this a dozen times, I have realized you can really add absolutely anything to quinoa and it will taste good. Try zucchini, squash, tomatoes and feta -- that ones good too! I have even made quinoa fried rice.

happycooking,

Germ

Island Life

So, now that I know I am definitely leaving this island, I have been getting a little nostalgic. Galveston will always have a place in my heart. When I was in elementary school I would come down to my friend's beach houses on the weekends and see the signs for UTMB and I knew I wanted to come here for medical school. Seriously, I am not kidding. I think I had my friend's mom drive me by the school when I was in 5th grade. I was such a nerd.

I am always getting asked to recommend restaurants, bars and things to do when people come here on mini-vacations, bachelorette parties and spring break. I am pretty picky when it comes to these things but I feel like with my 4 years here, I have finally decided on my favorite places.

Bars

21 -This is a martini bar that has good music on the weekends you can dance to. It's my favorite because it's the only place that doesn't allow smoking inside. It's also a little fancier so if you're dressed up you won't feel that out of place.

Buckshots - This place is relatively new. It looks super shady on the outside but just trust me. If you want to dance, this is the place for you. There's always two-steppers on the floor but really anything goes. I am the ultimate worst dancer ever but at this place, I could care less! 

Tremont rooftop bar - Just like you would think, this place is on top of the Tremont hotel. You can see all of Galveston while sitting on comfy couches. I love the sangria here. This place closes around 10 or 11 but its worth it to grab your first drink of the night here.

Brunch Places

Sunflower - In my opinion, this is my favorite brunch place on the island. I had heard M&M was good but I tried it and I will always choose Sunflower over everywhere else. Unless you're hungover and then go to...

La Estacion - and order the "Surprise" burrito. This is the definition of a hole in the wall if the definition entails literally having holes in the walls. Someone told me that they use french fries in the burrito when they run out of breakfast potatoes but I have been there a lot and I think french fries are a staple ingredient in this massive burrito. I also love the coffee there for some reason. There's nothing special to it but it is always just so good.Look for the astronaut painted on the door and you'll know you're here.

Dinner Places

Olympia - There are 2 of these. You have to go to the one on Harborside. I was kind of annoyed when I saw a restaurant being built after Ike and then found out it was just another Olympia. But this one is soooo much better than the one on the seawall. This place has the best happy hour hands down. They have different specials every day. For about $10 you can leave with dinner and 2 or 3 drinks down. That's pretty good considering an entree here is around $15.

Awesome patio at Olympia

West End - omg this place is awesome. One of my friends in Houston told me her mom goes here with her local friends. This is a great place to go on a date or go with your family for a nice dinner. You can tell they like to keep this place a secret for the locals on the west end. Get the snapper or grouper. I can't remember which one I got but either way, it will be awesome!

Lunch Places

Mosquito Cafe -For those who have been to Galveston, you know about this place. It is a classic and we go here about once a week. Try their salads and their shrimp tacos!

Tremont Hotel - If anything, just go here to see the hotel. It is beautiful with really high ceiling and glass elevators. I loved that 2 of my very good friends got engaged here. You might think eating in hotels is overrated but it is very casual dining. They have awesome paninis and soups for good prices. 

Cafe Michael Burger - If you feel like getting out of downtown, drive a little further down the seawall to go here. But bring cash. I get the Jamaican turkey burger. Go here on a nice day and sit outside with a drink.

Smooth Tony's - This place will never get old. I love their wraps and will definitely miss them next year. They recently opened a bar on Thursday and Friday nights and it is surprisingly awesome! It's not in the best location for going out but it was just nice to chill and drink some wine. Tony made it look kind of rainforesty and I love that.

islandlove,

Germ