Recrudescence

Oh, hey. I know, I know: "You don't call, you don't write," and so on and so forth. There's a good excuse. I spent the last year, roughly, on a whirlwind introduction to clinical medicine with a grade 5 learning curve. And then, in case you haven't heard, there was a hurricane. In the interests of spending less time on the Internet, I ditched both Facebook and this blog just after finishing the semester. While Facebook still doesn't hold that much appeal, I missed posting what I cook. And believe me, I've kept cooking. There were so many things I didn't photograph, like the mastiha semifreddo I finally got around to making, or the souffle roll. But here's a small sample that did get captured:

Buckwheat chocolate budino with red wine caramel and plum
and dark chocolate discs

Vegetarian French onion soup

Red lentil-crusted tofu with a saffron coconut sauce and pea
shoots, over a bed of spiced pearl couscous

Parmesan creme brulee with mostarda and a Parmesan crisp

Individual goat cheese and peach cheesecakes

The finished product, with a lime-mint sauce

Flourless chocolate cake with redcurrant sauce, slivered
almonds, and glacee currants

Strawberry creme tart. Andy did the knifework for the top!

 We also got guinea pigs!

This is Creta.

This is Malta.

They've since grown up.

And so, a little more than a year after my abrupt hiatus, I give you Christmas dinner:

Cod poached in homemade wild mushroom broth. The spice
secret: a touch of turmeric in addition to the thyme, garlic,
caramelized onions, and bay leaf. I swear it works!

Fennel and Napa cabbage slaw, initially intended to be
fennel and endive slaw. There's a homemade orange aioli
(thanks to my mother-in-law), almonds, and olive relish with
orange supremes on the side.

Butternut squash macaroni and cheese, garnished with
spiced squash seeds and kale chips.

A simple arugula salad with pomegranate seeds, walnuts,
and a citrus and olive oil dressing.

In my defense, this was the worst plating of the lot, and I'm
not sure why I photographed this one. It's buckwheat chocolate
cake with homemade cranberry sauce, creme anglaise, and a
masterfully made salted almond brittle, thanks to my mother-in-law
once again. There are also candied orange peels on top.

I wish I could write about what this last year has been like, but too much has happened to even begin to encompass in a novel, much less a blog post. The only thing I can say--and perhaps the most important thing--is thank you to, in no particular order, and with many individuals in overlapping categories: my friends, my family, my classmates, Andy, my patients, my attendings, my residents, the guy at NY <3 Bagels who knows my order by heart, the guy at the farmer's market who knows not to trim my beet greens, and that one security guard who never makes me swipe my ID. The people at NYU and Bellevue who banded together in ways I never thought I'd see under incredibly stressful conditions. The people at Johns Hopkins who welcomed me last-minute when I needed to leave New York for a little bit. And the 26th St. gym, for keeping Andy and myself from getting type II diabetes thanks to the rich desserts and piles of fruit candy consumed during those weeks and weeks of 18-hour days. All of you have given me the privilege of a future in medicine.