Archive for December, 2009
Baby it’s cold outside (part 2):
After a 40 minute workout on the treadmill, I had two realizations:
- I have a lot of training to do before I can finish the half marathon in June
- I was HUNGRY
I busted out my other cali bowl and starting cutting up veggies to make my chunky guacamole.
Finishing up mashing the guac.
For dinner I mixed a few tortilla chips, with romaine lettuce, leftover veggie chili, and some extra sharp cheddar cheese.
Super filling. Just wished I heated up the chili before I put it on the salad. It was a little too cold
And now I’m settling in for an excellent night watching the newest Real World taking place in DC. I realize I’m now too old to participate in the show, but that doesn’t mean I still can’t enjoy all the craziness. The cast seems interesting, and hopefully it will be another entertaining season!
Baby its cold outside
Brrr! I’m back in Syracuse, and I’m feeling it! It was snowing as I drove into the city and it snowed through most of the night. I decided today would be the perfect day to lock myself in the apartment, and have some quality Sarah time.
Excellent opportunity to enjoy the new TV. 21 inch upgrade from my last one! I officially caught up on my DVR.
“Santa” (aka Mom and Dad) also made sure my wine rack was fully stocked. Haven’t had a glass yet, but I plan on opening up a bottle with dinner.
When it’s cold outside, I always crave hot foods. I was super hungry for lunch and didn’t feel like cooking something that would take a long time. Veggie chili it was.
I had a seasoning packet from Whole Foods in the pantry.
Although the recipe didn’t call for onions, I tend to put them in everything.
Mixing up the sauce in one of my new Cali bowls.
Added a 28 oz of diced tomatoes, a can of chickpeas, and a can of kidney beans. The recipe suggested 2 cans of kidney beans but I LOVE chickpeas.
Finished product. The chickpeas and onions totally made the chili. It gave it a little different taste, texture and color.
Yum!
Balanced the hot and spicy with a mini whole wheat pita.
For dessert, I had my last pomegran plus waffle.
Instead of syrup, flavored the waffle with cashew butter and strawberry jam. Best decision all afternoon!
Another one bites the dust
One exciting bit of news from Christmas that I didn’t mention in my last post, was a phone call I got from Kelly at 8 am. SHE’S ENGAGED!!! It’s so exciting!!! I kind of had an idea, so my cell phone didn’t leave my side from the moment I woke up 
For those of you who are counting, that brings the 2010 friend wedding count up to 6 and I’ll be a bridesmaid in 3. It’s going to be a busy year Kelly, Jason, Emily, Vicki and I got together for a celebratory breakfast the Sunday after Christmas.
The happy couple
Jackie’s on Rt 29. Excellent place for brunch.
Another pic of Jason and Kelly
I somehow managed to get through the entire meal without taking a single picture of my food. Oops! Must have been all the excitement
Emily got a little misty with all the wedding talk
Congratulations Kelly! I’m so happy for you and Jason. Love you guys!!!
Merry little Christmas
Merry (late) christmas everyone! I haven’t had a chance to write about christmas and the days following until now. I’m back in Syracuse. Back in my apartment. Almost back to reality. Luckily I have a few days of freedom left
Christmas day in the Fryc house was a little different from usual. We held off on having the big Christmas celebration with the grandma, aunts, uncles and cousins until the following Sunday. Instead we had a small celebration at home, and then went to my cousin Wendy’s house for some tasty food and drinks at night.
For Christmas lunch we started things off with a salad chuck full of chickpeas (my fave bean).
I also had a piece of dad’s lasagna. Mmmm… He even made an extra one for me to take back to Syracuse
Look who decided to get friendly during lunch. Bella is quite the little chow hound 
Jeff taking a post-meal nap with Bella.
Bella napping with my dad.
God, she can be so cute!
My mom enjoying her new snuggie. Bella got one too!
My mom got Bella a new Christmas t-shirt, and I got her the elf ears. She wasn’t a big fan of that hat. It only lasted for about 5 minutes.
Didn’t get many pictures over at Wendy’s (battery went dead), but here’s one of my brother in his new hat. The boy sure loves his eggnog.
All and all, we had an excellent Christmas day. It’s always great to spend time with the family, and even if I’m 25 years old, I still love presents
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The day after Christmas has become some what of an annual shopping trip for Emily and I. Emily is always super organized (she had her Christmas 2010 spreadsheet done weeks before Christmas and she’s just about done with NEXT year’s shopping). I, on the other hand, was not quite as prepared as years past. This year Emily’s mom and Merilee joined us for shopping at Hallmark, Walmart and Joanne’s to stock up on holiday cards and wrapping materials. I did very well at the Hallmark store (as you’ll see in future posts) . We finished the day off with a lovely lunch at the Recovery Room. I love shopping, and I love friends!
Mer and I. I was looking pretty sleepy after all the shopping.
Emily and Mer
O holy night
Merry Christmas eve everyone! Tonight we had the traditional Polish Wigilia dinner at the Fryc house with Mom, Dad, Jeff, Grandma Fryc, Uncle Tom, and I. What’s Wigilia you ask? I’ll let wikipedia tell you:
“Wigilia (pronounced: vee-GHEE-lee-uh) is the traditional Christmas Eve vigil supper in Poland, held on December 24. The term is also often extended to the whole day of the Christmas Eve, extending further into the midnight Mass held at Roman Catholic churches all over Poland and large Polish comunities worldwide at midnight preceding the Christmas Day.”
Jeff having a beer before dinner.
Grandma Fryc relaxing in the living room.
First we exchanged opaltek. According to wikipedia:
“Family members begin the celebration with a prayer and breaking of the Christmas wafer (opłatek – symbolizing the bread eaten daily — our day-to-day common life) and wishing each other good fortune in the upcoming new year. (After the prayer, usually done by the man of the house, the opłatek is broken and pieces are given to everyone attending the table. From there, everyone breaks off a piece of their opłatek, and shares it with everyone else, wishing luck and joy in the upcoming year, for Christ has been born. This wish is usually finalized by a kiss on the cheek.)”
Some of the details on one of the wafers.
Mom and Jeff.
Jeff and I. Turns out, its hard to break off the oplatek and and take a picture.
The best part of the the night (besides presents) is always the food! Dad did an amazing job and made the entire meal. I don’t think Poland is known for it’s fantastic cuisine, but you would be surprised. I’m a big fan of all the traditional dishes served on Christmas eve.
The first course was a mushroom soup.
The mushroom soup is always my second favorite part of dinner…
…because the pierogi is always my favorite! None of that Mrs. T’s fake stuff. Only homemade pockets of awesome are served on Christmas eve
Serving fish is also part of Wigilia dinner (no meat because of Catholic tradition). Dad made Pacific cod. I’m not a huge fish lover, but this actually tasted pretty good.
Kapusta (or cabbage).
Potatoes served with onions. YUM.
My full plate. Let’s just say I was a very full Sarah afterwards.
For dessert, I had a slice of babka bread (sweet yeast cake).
After a lovely carbolicious meal, I am so full I can barely move! Time to watch a movie with mom
C is for cookie
Although I love to cook and bake, I don’t always have the spare time to test out new recipes. Unfortunately, school tends to take up a lot of my time. My goal for the two weeks I have off for winter break is to test out at least 3 recipes that I’ve seen on some of my favorite blogs. One recipe that I’ve read about on both Carrots ‘N’ Cake and We are not Martha is for Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies. Yum! They looked super tasty in the pictures on both blogs, and I was just looking for an excuse to give the recipe a try. Luckily, I planned on spending the day with Richard today, and it seemed like the perfect holiday treat to bring over to his house. Click on Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies to see the recipe I used based on the We are not Martha post.
Candy Canes
Jeff helping me out with the chopping and crushing.
Almost finished…
Still working…
Whisking flour and salt
Mixing the butter. I love my mom’s Kitchen Aid Mixer!
I spooned out the dough before spreading it. Actually worked out quite well.
Chocolate in the melting stage…
Almost finished…
YUM. I LOVE white chocolate.
Finished and all packaged to head over to Richard’s!
The cookies took a little longer than expected to cool, and I got a late start heading over to Richard’s. When I finally got to Rome (1.5 hours later than I originally thought), I was so so so excited to finally see him. We spent the day catching up and eating super tasty food. I completely forgot to take pictures of just about everything I ate, but Richard’s mom made some of the best Pepperoni bread I’ve ever head for lunch. She even prepared some without pepperoni for me which was excellent. I’m not a big fan of beef (haven’t had it since I was 16), and I always appreciate when people are awesome about the whole not adding meat thing. For dinner we headed over to one of my favorite central NY restaurants, Teddy’s. I may or may not have had one of the GIANT onion rings and then a tasty “Vermont Country” salad with chicken fresh lettuce, grilled asparagus, beets, goat cheese and candied pecans, topped with balsamic dressing.
I missed Richard!
The one, the only, THE AMERICAN FLAG BLANKET!!! One of my favorite parts of the old apartment at 58 Perry.
Richard and I spent part of the afternoon playing with his old school NES and having a glass or two of wine. The perfect combo! We both were HUGE SMB fans back in the day. Although we disagree on our favorites (he’s a #2 guy and I prefer #3), we both have a special spot in our heart devoted to the memories of playing this system way back in the early 90’s. I was so surprised how easily it all came back to me. Maybe the wine helped jog my memory:)
All and all, it was an amazing day. Richard’s family was so welcoming, and Richard was an excellent host. Although it’s not nearly as fun as living with him, our Richard-Sarah reunions are always awesome. I miss you already Beau Beau
Everybody hurts sometimes…
Holy moly I’m one hurting Sarah! After three days of pretty intense work outs focusing on my legs, I’m in P-A-I-N. I was pretty sore yesterday, but I pushed through and did just under an hour on the treadmill and about 10 minutes of lunges, squats, and leg raises. BAD IDEA. I could barely walk today without doing that silly cowboy strut. Needless to say, I decided today needed to be a rest day.
And what better way to spend a rest day then doing some last minute shopping at the mall! If you can’t tell, there was a whole lot of sarcasm behind that statement. I know the mall 4 days before Christmas actually sounds pretty terrible. I’m not a big fan of getting my shopping done at the last minute. I hate the crowds and dealing with the super long lines, but over the past few weeks, I haven’t had much time to be thinking about presents. To make the trip to the mall much more bearable, I invited some friends along
Merilee and Josh joined me for the hectic day. We started off with lunch at P.F. Chang’s before getting our shop on.
). I haven’t seen Richard since Nicola’s wedding…far too long! Richard and I used to be roommates at Colgate and during my first two post college years in Boston. He has since moved to LA to pursue a doctorate at UCLA, and therefore I don’t get to see him as much as I would like. I’m looking forward to tomorrow, which should be a fun filled day of snuggling, gossiping and snacking…3 of my favorite things to do with my Beau Beau 
Are you ready for some football
After 4 months of nonstop studying, I have to admit, I’m LOVING this Christmas break! I know we only get two weeks off, but I’m making the most of my free time by catching up with friends, watching quite a bit of mindless TV and tomorrow I’m going to start reading a book that has nothing to do with medicine! Today was supposed to involve some major catching up with Kelly, Emily, Vicki and I. We planned our third annual trip to the Yankee Candle Village in South Deerfield, MA and Hanley was even going to make the trek out to Western MA to join in the fun. Unfortunately, Massachusetts was hit by a blizzard and our New England friends were snowed in 
Vicki, Kelly and I decided we still needed some “girl time” so we met up for a late lunch at the newest sports bar in town. Although I’ve never been before, the Recovery Room is a very popular Upstate New York chain, and they just opened a location in Amsterdam across from our local hospital. Much like you’re average sports bar, there are a ton of drinks specials, pub food and televisions playing all the Sunday afternoon games. I was actually really surprised at just how many screens the restaurant had. We counted 46! I was also incredibly distracted all throughout lunch because there was so much going on around me. The other patrons were super psyched to be watching their favorite teams, and they made this fact abundantly clear I really enjoyed the restaurant, and I would definitely go again.
Just a few of the 40+ flat screens
Probably the biggest flat screen I’ve ever seen. You can’t tell from this picture, but Kelly informed me it was the largest size flat screen on the market.
VICKI!!!! (still super excited she’s back home).
The menu…
The Soundog machine. Much like the machines at the gym, each table was equipped with a box that allowed you to tune into the commentary from the eight different stations playing in the bar.
The Cardinal Salad. Pecan encrusted chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella. It was so delicious and amazing looking, that I made a rookie food blogger mistake and forgot to take a picture until I was half way done!
The salad tasted as good as it looked!
On the way out I stopped in the bathroom and I snapped this picture. Remember how I said they had a ton of TVs? Yup, they even had flat screens in the ladies room.
After a lovely afternoon with the girls, that also involved watching The Proposal (love that movie), I was super tired. I promised myself, no matter what I would get back on the treadmill today. I really need to work on building my speed and milage. I wasn’t able to run nearly as much as I wanted to this past semester and my endurance really has suffered. I’m happy to report back that I did 40 minutes of speed work and another 20 of strength work for my legs, (which currently feel like jelly.) Fingers crossed I can keep this up for the next 6 months!
Finally, a quick report on my dinner. Since I had eaten a late lunch, I really didn’t get hungry for dinner until 9 pm, and I definitely didn’t feel like making a full meal. Instead, I heated up some of my dad’s famous turkey meatballs and some green beans with almonds, olive oil, and garlic that I was able to whip up in about 10 minutes. Quick and tasty!
I’m so excited!
VICKI IS HOME! Yup, she’s back in the states! And for the first time in 9 months I got to see her! After spending the morning hanging around my parent’s house, I did a quick (well as “quick” as I can do a 5k right now), and headed over to Vicki’s house. I burst through her doorway, and gave her the most epic hug ever. I wouldn’t let go I also realized her Mom was in the room and said hello to her as well. I guess I had the blinders on because I was just so happy to finally see Vicki. After a lovely afternoon filled with catching up, gossip, and a trip to Target for coffee and greeting cards, I dropped Vicki back off at her house. We have plans to hang out again tomorrow. TWO Vicki sightings in TWO days!!! Amazing I’m so happy you’re home Vicki. Love you more than cheese!
My first pic of Vicki now that’s she’s back home. Catia wasn’t a big fan of getting her picture taken
Comfortably Numb
I’m done (at least for 2 weeks)! I’ve made it through 12.5% of my med school education! I can’t believe it. I remember starting back in August, and thinking that December seemed so far away. Five exams later, and I’m done with Anatomy and Vicki is back in the USA. I just can’t believe the semester is over with. It hasn’t really hit me yet. I still have that pre-test feeling. I’m numb and that inevitable overwhelming sense of relief hasn’t hit me yet.
The exam was tough to say the least. MCP went well, but then physiology, as Tara said, “felt like it hit me over the head with something really heavy.” I won’t know how I did for a while, but hopefully it went OK. This test was incredibly well written. Most tests allow for some metagaming. After reading the question stem, if I don’t know the correct answer immediately, I can usually eliminate an answer choice or two using the basic strategies we all learned from watching Sesame Street. On the last MCP exam, I got 3 questions right just by looking at the wording and placement of the answer choices. Unfortunately, that was not the case for this exam….
Regardless of how I did on this test, I’m still very happy with where I’m at. My practice of medicine teacher, a local family medicine doctor, told us something during our very first POM class that has stuck with me throughout the weeks. Essentially, he said that it’s not a race to the finish line In fact, there is no finish line. During these first few years of med school, our goal is to learn as much as possible and move as far away from our starting point as we can. As a doctor, you’re always learning and you’ll never know absolutely everything there is to know about medicine. When I look back to my starting line, and I see how far I’ve made it in only 4 short months, I’m shocked. I by no means think I’m anywhere near where I need to be before I earn my MD, but my general knowledge of the human body and the diseases that affect it is has increased so much. After 4 months, I’ve learned about almost every structure in the body, I can do a full physical exam, and I now know more about asbestosis than I ever wanted to know
Anyway, after the exam, we kept up our post-test lunch tradition. Anna, Andrea, Tara, Erica, Rikat, Tom and I headed over to Marshall street to eat at AppeThaizing, a local Thai restaurant.
Not the best photo of the restaurant, but AppeThaizing has a great atmosphere. It’s super colorful, and they went all out decorating for Christmas!
Anna and Tara checking out the menu.
Caught Andrea and Erica by surprise. Erica was loving that candy cane!
Tara ordered some Thai Iced Tea.
So sweet, so good!
Erica and I ordered spring rolls. Sooo good.
For my entree, I ordered “Brown Noodle with chicken.” Essentially, it was Pad See Ew (my favorite Thai dish besides Kao Sarn’s crispy pad thai).
After lunch, I headed back to my apartment to do some cleaning and packing. Throughout the week before the exam, I tend to let my apartment go (dishes pile up in the sink, dust collects all over the furniture etc.), so it really really needed a good scrub down. I got most of the major cleaning done, and I’ll have to finish the rest up when I get back for Near Year’s Eve. Andrea and I did one last dinner at Wegman’s before we needed to head over to the airport so she could catch her 6pm flight. Afterwards I headed back to Madison to finish packing he car. Let’s just say I brought a lot of laundry home and it took more than one trip Just before I hopped in the car to make the drive home, I looked behind me and saw the hospital in the distance. I got a little sappy and snapped this photo. It’s hard to make out, but that’s the view of the hospital from the top of my apartment parking garage. Goodbye Upstate! See you next year!
