Simple Foods

A fantastic mid-winter week of simple/healthy meals:

~Roasted butternut squash, potato, leek soup with gruyere toast
~Smothered sirloin burgers with mushrooms
~Roasted tilapia with olives, garlic, and tomatoes (and a nice pinot noir)
~Double dark chocolate cupcakes

Yummy! This is the type of food I wish that I always had the time to make!

I am not you, and you are not me

I am reading a fantastic book right now titled Another Day in the Frontal Lobe by Dr. Katrina Firlik. So freaking amazing!!!! Obviously I am a little obsessed with medicine at this point in my life, but I think many of these medical non-fiction books should be required reading for all Americans so they can really understand the weird world of being a doctor. I know that I have had my fair share of rude, distant, arrogant doctors and while I believe this attitude is inappropriate (to say the least), it helps remembering the immense pressure doctors are under. Another really fantastic book that explores this idea is How Doctors Think by Dr. Jerome Groopman. Now, I am not at all saying that it is acceptable for doctors to act disrespectfully and in abuse of their power, but this pressure can maybe explain why nice people can sometimes become mean, stressed-out doctors. (And then there are the mean, arrogant people who become doctors...and nobody can help them!!) All of this understanding people from the stance opposite of me has helped me to see (or try to see) the world with this unbiased, open, collective viewpoint. Granted, when someone cuts me off on the freeway it is a little hard to have this understanding attitude, but I can say it does cool the stress off a tad. Resolution #10 for the New Year: try applying this attitude in the most stressful of situations!