Of cabbages and kings

Hi hello~ It's been ages, you guys!

Since the last post (over two years ago! I am so ashamed of myself), I have finished two and a half years of medical school. That's right, I'm back in the northern hemisphere and halfway through my third-year clinical rotations.

Which means I really shouldn't be blogging right now. Shhhh.

But can I just say, it's true what they say about med school: every year is better than the last.

The workload increases every year, for sure, and there is less time to study more material, which is utterly overwhelming. But I am learning so much, every single day. Most of that learning comes from the best teachers out there -- real patients who are nice enough to take the time to talk to a medical student -- with guidance from some awesome doctors doling out wisdom.



So... If you are ever in a teaching hospital and a student asks to talk to you, please say yes. It may seem like a waste of time to have to answer the same questions twice, but students have more time and fewer responsibilities than a resident or attending, so we can focus better on you as an individual patient. Besides, just by talking to a medical student, you are contributing to his/her education.

That makes you a teacher! Of medical students!

YES.

I am actually serious. Say yes to medical students. You just may see us a few years later, looking exhausted and harried, but proudly sporting the long white coat in place of the short one.

Anyway. When I'm not at the hospital, I'm usually passed out at home. I know. I am properly ashamed. I'm in NEW ORLEANS, for goodness' sake. But I have been squeezing in a bit of exploration whenever I could!




And of course, Mardi Gras! This year it fell smack in the middle of exam week, but my roommates and I managed to see a few parades and get lots and lots (and lots) of beads.




We also ate so much king cake, you guys. Apparently it's a thing here -- people bring king cake to share at work.

So I found a recipe and made king cake to bring to the hospital.

I mean, what else is a girl to do?

Pay it forward in 2011

Guys, guys. I'm moving to Australia at the end of the year! Starting in January I will be attending medical school for two years in Brisbane, at the University of Queensland, then in New Orleans for the following two at the Ochsner Clinical School! Can you tell that I'm excited??

Now that I have a plan for next year, I'm thinking of what to do for the rest of this one. My current thoughts include spending some quality time in Korea and learning to cook Korean food, and maybe visiting some friends in Europe on my way back to the States, before heading Down Under. I'll think through the details once the more pressing priorities are out of the way.

But to backtrack a bit now. At the start of this year, I made an announcement on Facebook:

Pay it Forward in 2011: I will send something handmade (most likely food, in my case) to the first 5 people who leave a comment here. They must post this in turn, and send something they make to the first 5 people who comment on their status. The rules are that it must be handmade by you and it must be sent to your 5 people sometime in 2011.

Now that we're about halfway through the year, I figured I should get cracking on my offerings before my life gets any more hectic with exams, papers, and Big Life Decisions (see above), and such like.

My original plan was to bake something special for each person, but I was struck with a new idea upon espying a small bead shop near campus. I used to love making bead jewelry in middle school, and thought it would be fun to try my hand at it again.

So, a bit about my four(!) Pay it Forward recipients...

For Joanne: a necklace
I met Joanne through another friend while we were living in Boston. She is an incurable Hello Kitty addict, but I actually associate her more with sunshine, laughter, and bright colors. She is also your go-to girl for fun, pretty jewelry, whose extensive (and ever-growing) collection makes her (awesome!) husband Atom shake his head in mock despair. So, sorry Atom, but I'll be adding to that collection.



For Raba: a set of knitting stitch markers
Raba comprises one-third of The Brain. She and Jodi are my buddies for knitting, quilting, baking, cooking, chick flicks, Chinese takeout, Lord of the Rings, VeggieTales, history classes with a certain professor wearing a mustard-yellow sweater... and so, so much more. I can't think about Williams without remembering the hours we spent giggling over cheeseburgers and buffalo fries at the Snack Bar, and the innumerable movie nights with takeout from Chopsticks. Lately Raba has been incredibly busy with classes and work, but I hope these stitch markers will remind her to take a break once in a while and relax with a movie and some knitting!



For Haydee: a bookmark
Haydee is my math buddy. We became friends while struggling through math problem sets together for three years at Williams (she studied abroad junior year). The janitors in the math building grew quite accustomed to walking in on us in empty classrooms at 6am, exhausted and covered in chalk dust but (usually) triumphant. We made for an excellent team, with Haydee thinking up novel approaches to problems, and me picking through the details to find weak points in her proofs. Haydee is well on her way to becoming a professional mathematician now, having just finished her first year of math grad school!



For Jake: a cake
Jake is another brilliant mathematician I know from Williams, all set to graduate with Honors (High Honors?) come June, and head off to math grad school in the fall. I first met Jake at the start of my senior year (his freshman year), chatting about the math and chemistry departments. He was later pressured into joining the marching band, which I think he ended up enjoying much more than he had expected. Since he was the only guy to reply to my Pay it Forward announcement, he got a cake! He wisely chose the lemon + blueberry combination (my specialty!) over chocolate, so that's what he got.



Yes, in a bright pink box, because that's what the Safeway bakery lady gave me when I asked for a cake box.

A salute to the parents

It's Mother's Day today. But it's also May 8, which is 어버이 날 (Parents' Day) in Korea.



It's customary for children to give carnations to their parents on 어버이 날, and I remember making paper carnations at school like these kids, for my parents and grandparents.

I haven't done that since we moved to the States sixteen years ago, though, and I haven't seen either of my parents in May since I graduated from high school seven years ago. I suppose it's an inevitable part of growing up, but it feels odd to realize it.

My mom still treats me like a kid for the most part when I'm home, but she did have a mild freak-out moment during my spring break when she realized that she got married at my age... and had me a year later. In other words, she is now old enough to be a grandmother!

Don't worry, Mom, you look much younger than your age. And I'm certainly not planning on getting married or having kids anytime soon, even if quite a few of my friends have jumped on that bandwagon recently.

So! A happy Mother's/Parents' Day to all you mothers/parents out there! You all are amazing people.

엄마, 아빠, 고맙습니다! 사랑해요~~! ^^

Don't you? 'Course you do!

Spring! It's the loveliest time of the year, if only for the longer daylight hours.



And spring means spending Sunday afternoons poisoning pigeons in the park with my sweetheart.

Wait, what sweetheart?

Disclaimer: I harbor no particular love for pigeons, but I don't actually condone killing them.



Okay, so that wasn't about pigeons, but swallows are cool birds because they carry things. I had just wanted to share some media that greatly influenced my college years, and fowl just happened to star(?) in both. And you know keeping a blog is all about sharing information nobody cares to have.

In that spirit, here's another song we used to sing a lot in college, about a duck.

Er, I mean, a llama.

And a duck.



Right. So, guys, it's spring! The birds are tweeting outside my window at 4am, the squirrels are frolicking, the flowers are blooming, the pollen is flying...



My condolences to those of you who suffer from allergies, by the way. My allergist informed me last year that I have been suffering from hay fever all my life. Ohhhkay, but do pardon me if I blithely ignore what he said, because as far as I can tell, I am not suffering from hay fever, nor did I before.

I did almost fall out of my chair laughing when he told me that I was also allergic to animal dander, though, because at the time I was a mouse wench spending most of my waking hours in the animal facility. It's possible (probable?) that I developed an allergy from working there for two years, but what can you do?

Well, that's neither here nor there, and my supposed allergies aside, it really is spring, and all this daylight is making me very, very happy.



A while ago there was a post on Sweetapolita about a delightful cake that was the very embodiment of sunshine and spring. I haven't had the time or patience to attempt the layer cake yet, but it's in the queue.

I settled for a lemon-blueberry bundt cake in the meantime, and it's quite tasty, despite the sub-par photos. My trusty dusty Pentax has its limits.

9,131 days

Hey, um, so, I just finished living the first quarter-century of my life.

I'm officially old, guys.

My birthday falls on Arbor Day (식목일) in Korea, so my dad used to tell me that people were planting trees to celebrate my birthday. It's kind of embarrassing to admit, but I believed it when I was little because I thought I was special.



I really used to be that cute... so what went wrong?

I'm from a huge family, where my dad is the second eldest of seven children, and my mom is the eldest of seven. So for quite a few years I was the only grandchild on my mom's side, and the youngest of three on my dad's. Having a lot of unmarried aunts and uncles meant that I had no shortage of babysitters, and was completely accustomed to being the center of everyone's attention.

That is, until this one came along.



Good thing he was adorable, eh? :)

Almost all my aunts and uncles are married and have kids now, and I have seventeen(!) younger cousins to keep track of, the youngest of whom was born just a few months ago. Plus my oldest cousin, who is like a sister to me, is getting married this summer, so I guess I'll have nieces and nephews soon, too?!

Being the "cousins in America" means there is a lot expected of my brother and me, so it can be kind of stressful to have so many people to visit whenever we go to Korea. But at the same time, it is amazing to feel so welcomed every time we go back. :)



My mom cooked me a delicious Korean birthday breakfast while I was home for spring break, and my dad sent me an awesome package full of Korean food, so I was all set for this birthday already. I just couldn't pass up such a good excuse for baking a cake. :)

Mega-doofy. Times infinity!

Do you remember Arthur? It is actually still airing, and you can even watch old episodes on YouTube!

This was an amazing discovery for me, since most of the other PBS shows I used to watch (and love!) and learn English from have long since been retired.

My favorite, Wishbone, was culled ages ago, though I think some stations may still be airing reruns. (Which would be awesome if that were true.) I do believe Joe has the dubious honor of being my first-ever celebrity(?) crush. At the tender age of, what, nine? But you know what, not trying to pick fights or anything, but Joe was loads better than Troy or Edward. Just sayin'.

ANYWAY. I digress. A lot. (Why didn't you stop me?)



Professor Pacelli of the Williams Math/Stats Department, also known as Allie of Zucchero Dolce, is hosting Sugar High Friday for October. This month's theme: layer cakes.

Yes, the deadline is today, what of it. I had exams to study for, okay?

Note that this is my first attempt at a layer cake -- the mouse cake doesn't really count -- so, uh, please keep the mockery to a minimum?

Okay?

Promise?

Well, but you are allowed to laugh.

Because, how could you not?

I couldn't possibly begrudge you that.

It would be too mean.



Yeahhh.

Really, go on. Laugh. It's good for you.

I didn't realize just how much the cake was tilting until I started to frost it. Of course, I could have just leveled it with frosting, but my conscience wouldn't allow it.

Besides, I am still laughing.

"I want to eat this dish is a hard grunge"

Happy 추석, everybody!

추석 (the romanization is "Chuseok") is like Korean Thanksgiving, celebrated on August 15 of the lunar calendar. It's the second most important holiday in Korea, after the lunar New Year, and the whole extended family gathers to pay respects to the ancestors and eat great food and generally enjoy each other's company.



Well, I'm here in DC and my brother is in Massachusetts, not in Korea, tragically enough. So we spent about an hour conference-calling relatives in Korea last night.

It was really good to hear everyone's voices, especially when one of our baby cousins insisted on talking on the phone, too, and then couldn't think of anything to say. So cute! It was good fun, but it also made miss Korea a lot, not to mention Korean food. I especially miss 송편 ("songpyeon"), which is a special rice cake often eaten on 추석.



Mmmmmm. I looooove me some Korean rice cakes. The reminder prompted me to set my Facebook status this morning to: 추석이라 그런지 송편 먹고싶다~~ ^^

Now, before y'all go reaching for your Korean-English dictionaries, it means: Maybe it's because it's Thanksgiving, but I'm craving 송편.

When my former math prof copy-pasted it into Google translator, however, he got: I want to eat this dish is a hard grunge.

I... what?

Anyone ever play the Babelfish game, from back when Google didn't have a translator yet? You take a well-known quote (or song lyrics, or an idiom, etc.), translate it into another language with Babelfish. Translate the translation into another language, and so on, and eventually back to English, and then see if anyone can figure out what the original quote was. There are, of course, many variations on this.



ANYWAY, since I couldn't have 송편 but still wanted something a little out of the ordinary, I made a zebra cake. That's what I logged on to say in the first place, I just got a little distracted.

Becca is amazing

Just, you know, stating the obvious, because the world needs a reminder every so often.

Anyway. Both Becca and I baked a lot for our respective labs last week. The mouse cake was the pièce de résistance, so to speak, but chronologically it was actually the last thing in the queue of treats produced at Hatherly College during the week.

So in the next couple of posts I will simply be playing catch-up. For one thing, it's still a bit too hot to be baking, and anyway, I should be cleaning and packing and generally preparing for the impending move. Plus now that I'm unemployed, I need to be more conservative about spending all my meager savings on baking ingredients. Besides, to whom could I feed it all now?

Last Sunday Becca made a Grand Marnier Orange Cake and a plateful of truffles while we watched the World Cup final. I was too distracted by the game -- which, by the by, was one of the most frustrating soccer matches I have ever watched (Arguing with me? Yellow card! How dare you laugh! Yellow card! Celebrating the first and only goal of the game in double-overtime that will get your country its first-ever World Cup title? Yellow card!!) -- to remember to take a picture of the truffles, but the cake was quite pretty.



I couldn't sample the cake since Becca was bringing it in to work the next day, but I did taste the one that Becca's mother had sent for her birthday, and it was delicious. Becca's coworkers were convinced they could get drunk off the cake, there was that much Grand Marnier in the glaze.

At some point I may ask Becca for the recipe, but then I'd have to purchase a lifetime supply of Grand Marnier just for making this cake. I don't drink, so what else could I do with a whole bottle of orange liqueur besides bake with it? (Does one even drink orange liqueur? I wouldn't know.)

ETA: Becca sent me the recipe for the Grand Marnier cake! See below!

The incredible edible mouse

A couple of weeks ago I came across the Science Cookie Roundup #5, which featured, among other things, a mouse cake.

I wanted to bring something special to the lab on my last day, and had been eyeing the gel electrophoresis cookies as a potential candidate.

But guys. A mouse cake.

As the self-proclaimed Mouse Wench Extraordinaire, I felt that I could not possibly pass up such a challenge.



The mouse cake submitted by Jackie has a cupcake tumor, since she used to study cancer biology. While some of our mice also sport induced tumors, most of them receive heart or skin graft transplants, since my lab studies transplant rejection.

Unfortunately a heart graft is well nigh impossible to represent in cake form -- unless I were to render a surgery-in-progress, complete with all the organs, instruments, sutures, etc., which... well, there's an idea. Perhaps I'll attempt it one day, when I have more surgical and cake-decorating experience under my belt. For this particular mouse cake, however, I settled for a skin graft.

Heat advisory on the east coast

Fact: It is far too hot right now. I can't even fall asleep, which should tell you something if you know me at all. Clearly with the heat index in the triple digits the past (and future) couple of days, the last thing I want to do is switch on the oven.

So I shall take this opportunity to pimp a great recipe from Cooking Light that I tried a few weeks ago. My flatmate Becca had made a red velvet cake earlier in the week, and there was buttermilk left over. Since we hardly ever have buttermilk in the house, I took the chance to use some to make a cake for a birthday in the lab. The cake was such a great hit -- it was gone by lunch time, and I didn't even get to try it! -- that I made another one for Becca and myself. The rest of the buttermilk had to be used up somehow, you know?


Glazed Lemon Buttermilk Cake
Adapted from Cooking Light.

This cake was deliciously lemony and moist, and not too sweet. The sweetness came mostly from the glaze drizzled on the outside.



Cake.
3 Tbsp. grated lemon rind (2 lemons)
4 1/2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice (1 1/2 lemon)
1 1/2 c. + 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar, divided
3 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 c. (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp. lemon extract
3 eggs
1 c. buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Combine zest and lemon juice in a small bowl, and set aside.

Coat a 10-in. Bundt pan with cooking spray; dust with 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar.

Lightly spoon the flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda, stirring well with a whisk.

Place butter in a large bowl; cream with a fork until light and fluffy. Gradually add 1 1/2 c. sugar, lemon mixture, and extract, beating until well blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to sugar mixture and beat, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 45 min. Cool in pan 10 min. on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

Glaze.
1 c. powdered sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice (1/2 lemon)
1 Tbsp. buttermilk

In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar, lemon juice, and buttermilk, stirring until smooth. Drizzle glaze over warm cake.