Living Life in Edmonton

It was another beautiful fall weekend. And having had a quiz on Friday afternoon, I was able to enjoy some time off. Yoga, running, research (not my favourite thing but it’s a thing that I do), cooking, hanging out with friends, movie, dinner at the new hipster restaurant, and down time. I couldn’t have imagined a better weekend before winter and the heaviest portion of repro block hit.

I am discovering that Edmonton is a fairly nice place, as the photo shows (yes there’s a filter on the photo but it was quite pretty when I stopped during our run along the river valley. It’s also become more and more of a home to me. During my undergrad, my mentality was: SCHOOL SCHOOL SCHOOL SCHOOL SCHOOL. And the only time I took a break was when I went home to my parents.

I am learning to take the time to enjoy the place that I’m living in. For example, we visited Meat, the new trendy restaurant just off of Whyte Ave, went for a wonderful 15km run along the river valley, passing by the zoo and some wonderfully cute dogs in the off-leash areas, and we are going to 2 concerts this coming week.

And there was no better way to end this wonderful weekend than to do a bunch of cooking. Thanks to Ally’s farm zucchini and spaghetti squash, and Meagan’s leftover wine, I had a nice meal starting with zucchini brownie and white wine lemon chicken.

ZUCCHINI BROWNIES

I won’t take credit for making up a recipe for this. This recipe came from one of my favourite food blogs: Two Peas And Their Pod

WHITE WINE LEMON CHICKEN

• 2 tbsp butter
• 1/2 medium sized onion- diced
• lemon zest of 1 lemon
• 4 chicken thighs
• 1/4 cup white wine
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat saucepan over medium heat, melt butter
2. Cook onion and lemon zest until onion start to brown
3. Place chicken thigh skin side down, cook until brown then flip over and cook until brown
4. Add white wine and lemon juice
5. Cover and simmer for 10-15 min
6. Salt and pepper to taste

Another one down, 5 more to go

GI block is done. 1 out of 6 in year 2 is done. 5 more blocks to go: repro, MSK, neuro, psyc and oncology. Even though it still seems like we have a long way to go, the buzz is here. The year 3 buzz. Everyone is talking. The “OMG I have to decide on what I want to do so I can plan my electives/the rest of my life” buzz is around.

It may seem scary, thinking about the fact that what we will picking for our electives will or might influence the rest of our lives. Then I remember, I’m 23, I’m still plenty young. And yes, we have a lot of school to do, and a future where CaRMs will tell us where to go, but that’s no reason to fret all the day everyday. And yeah, doing well in school is important, but it’s also important to remember there’s life beyond school.

This past weekend was a good reminder that life exists outside of school. I felt like I didn’t see daylight all of last week and then all of a sudden I was out and about and free and had no obligations to school. Except for research. I had to do some of my research project today, but that’s a minor detail.

This past weekend was also, apparently, crumble weekend. Crumble is kind of the thing that you can have any time of the year, but something about the fall season makes it real good. Probably the fact that the ingredients are fresh. On Saturday, I made a raspberry peach apple crumble. Today, I made an apple rhubarb crumble. It was delightful to bake again. And the smell of the crumble flowing through the kitchen, seeping into every corner of the house is definitely one of the joys of the autumn season.

(The is not my favorite picture, I’ve not been so great at taking pictures lately)

WHATEVER-YOU-WANT-IT-TO-BE GINGER CRUMBLE

• Fruit:
• 4 cups of fruit**- small slices
• 2-3 tbsp flour (just enough to coat the fruit)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tbsp grated ginger
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• Topping:
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup butter (soft)
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 cup oats
• some spices if you’d like

1. Combine fruit ingredients, put mixture in a 9″x9″ pan
2. Combine all the topping ingredients with a fork
3. Place topping on top of fruit
4. Bake at 375F for 30 min
5. Have a lovely autumn:)

**Fruits that can be used: granny smith apple, pink lady apple, rhubarb (combined with other stuff), peach (when it’s still kinda hard), pear (also when it’s still kinda hard), raspberry (only in addition to others), strawberries, mixed berries, mango… the possibilities are endless!