The Dead Person in the Trash Room

So. Let me preface this post by pointing out that I watch a lot of murderific tv shows. I don't like horror, but I definitely like things that are dark and/or psychological. Mix my viewing habits with stress of starting the new semester, feeling crappy from eating too much sugar this afternoon, and how creepy the trash room is normally, and you'll understand how I came to find a (sort of) dead person in the trash room.  

I live on the sixth floor of my building which means I get to throw my trash down a chute and never have to take cans to the street, a lifelong goal. Unfortunately, the chute is located in a tiny room at the opposite end of the hallway. It smells vaguely like the powder meant to soak up puke in hospitals mixed with warm bleach. Cockroaches climb all six stories and somehow wiggle their way out of the chute and into the room. The light is turned on by a sensor when the door opens. Cockroaches tend to scatter when lights turn on so I usually kick the door in and let it swing before I go in. 

On to the story.

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Our trash was packed with things that smell weird - orange peels, Chipotle leftovers, chicken carcass, dead plants - so I slipped on some flip flops to make a run to the trash room. On the way, I noticed that an apartment down the hall had crap taped to the door. (Our next door neighbors typically have take out menus and 4-7 newspapers piled up so this was nothing new for our floor.) 

Sure enough, a missed delivery from UPS and a take out menu tucked into the door frame. Nothing out of the ordinary except painter's tape holding up a vacancy notice. 

From what you can see, this apartment seems to be abandoned. Who knows. The only people I see in the elevator get off on lower stops. As far as I know more than half the apartments on the sixth floor are empty. Weird. 

Here's where my mind starts working. What if there was someone living there and since no one ever saw them, they died without anyone knowing? People only noticed when rent wasn't paid but no one saw the tenant leave... The property managers could easily walk in and find a decomposing body or worse. Things like this happen ALL THE TIME, according to primetime dramas and my extensive watching of medical examiner shows on Discovery Channel. 

I continued the few feet to the trash room, considering the gruesome scenes the maintenance crew was sure to walk in on. I did my usual ninja kick to the door to clear cockroaches and lizards, only to see a glimpse of a WOMAN"S HEAD, eyes closed, lying on the floor. The light flicked on during the closing swing with only an inch or two of the room showing. 

WHAT THE F***?!?!

Upon closer inspection, the woman was not decomposing or, in fact, dead. I assume she's a model for the stock photo that was slapped on this ritzy pillow that is sold in a box instead of just a plastic sleeve. 

Terrifying.

Burger Fi and Farmer's Market

I'd say it's obvious how much we like the farmer's market. We try something new every time and we're usually happy about it. (Except the cactus fruits. Yuck.) 

There's a new-ish burger place by us that has a Smart Car with flashing lights in the parking lot. It catches our eye but we'd never planned to go. This visit only took us there because the Mexican place we wanted to try wasn't open yet. 

Luckily, we were already parked and were starving enough to give it a go. I'm not a big burger person but this was great.

They have all kinds of  flavored fries and we tried parm and herb. Pretty good, though too powdery for me. We're doing Cajun next time.

I know these drink machines aren't new, but this is the first one I've seen in person. Watching people try to use it is ridiculous.

Living by the biggest mall in Florida (and third biggest in the country) is nice. I rarely go there but when I do I see fun things like 55 y/o men acting like the Lamborghinis on display are theirs. This train conductor just hangs around and waves to kids all day. What a life.

The city of Aventura uses chargeable golf cart things to get around. I guess they're street legal?

Ah, yes. Another find at the farmer's market. The crepe stand offers about thirty varieties and I asked for his most popular. What I got was chicken florentine - chicken, spinach, provolone, and sauce.

See how crispy and warm?

I went for the Elvis dessert crepe as well - chunky peanut butter, bananas, caramel sauce. 

Love food, hate Words with Friends

My love of food and hatred of Words with Friends continues.

I played a word that is actually a pretty impressive score for me. 

Another pinterest recipe. This time for Chicken Marsala. I won't bore you with the story of how long it took to find Marsala at Target, but I don't know anything about wine and I went on a Saturday morning, in Jewish community. I was THE ONLY person there and no one could/would help me. Miami. :( 

So, now we're getting somewhere. The chicken is already cooked and in the oven. This recipe has an optional cream listed. I went for it. 

Hmmm. I screwed up the formatting when I changed the picture order. 

This is the final product. I made enough for four but the three of us ate the entire thing. Definitely a crowd favorite.

And here's the response I get to playing "genii."

This shouldn't be a surprise.

Soup Fever

It's finally Christmas break! The end of my first semester was definitely stressful but I made some good food and snapped some funny pics during it all. 

This is what a med school classroom looks like right before an exam. 

My brother still kills me in Words with Friends. Now he's started to give me the definitions of the words he plays. You know, to help me out.

Ah, my first experience with leeks. I really like them but had never cooked with them before. I got these babies at a farmer's market and they were so fresh. 

(I know, next time I'll do a midline cut before chopping. Lesson learned.)

I wasn't sure if the greens were called for in the recipe, so I threw in a few.

I didn't take a finished pic of this potato leek soup because it looked disgusting. I was a little overzealous with the blending and it looked like prison slop from a movie. But it tasted good!

I took a break from a VERY long anatomy lab to eat a snack and get some fresh air. I carefully peeled the plastic off the whole container, only to flip it onto the floor with my ring. Ugh.

You know how birds fly south for the winter? They come to Miami. They're EVERYWHERE!

I was on a soup kick so I opened up my pinterest food board and made a creamy tomato basil. It's mostly a crock pot recipe so I prepped it and left it while I went to biochem review.

Here we are after cooking all afternoon. A bunch of parm ready to go in.

Near the end I put in the cream and parm and fresh basil. That I grew. 

See? So good with the sourdough we got at the farmer's market. 

Can you tell we like the farmer's market?

Jeni caught the soup fever and made this Guinness stew. She threw everything in before we went to bed and ladled it out when we woke up. So good I'm making it for my mom tomorrow.

Tis the season for people to sell their belongings in awkward places.

See what I mean?

Thanksgiving

For years I've been doing Friendsgiving with cool people, always making green beans amandine. This year was no exception. I was invited to my friend Rebeca's house along with some classmates and her Colombian extended family. Sarah came with me and our contributions to the pot luck were beans, rolls and turnovers. I think we earned our keep.

We were estimating 20 people so I did A LOT of beans.

Thirty rolls sounded like enough. Unfortunately, they weren't very good. 

We started making turnovers the night before and ate a dozen between the three roommates.

We went on a boat ride down the Intracoastal! Apparently manatees are pretty common. 

A quick view of what we saw.

There was a lot of dancing after eating was finished.

Rebeca's house from the Intracoastal.

The "after" pic of dinner. Two fried turkeys, one ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, mashed sweet potatoes, green beans, macaroni and cheese, spicy cranberry sauce, rolls. 

Caramel pecan pies, apple pie, pumpkin pie, crustless pumpkin pie, Texas sheet cake, turnovers. 

(Not pictured: the overflowing drink table, vegetable tray, Vietnamese spring rolls.)

This week in pictures

My 14 year-old brother kicks my ass at Words with Friends. His score is usually triple mine and he gives me "advice" like asking what my letters are so he can give me clues as to where to place my next word. 

I'm starting to play dirty. 

The start of my cream of asparagus soup.

It turned out REALLY well. Especially with sourdough. 

Sarah made a pinterest breakfast today. It's got bacon and ham and egg and cheese in the potato. 

I was having a hard time focusing on studying so I made some chocolate covered strawberries. I ate them all while I took a tv break. 

Apparently I dropped chocolate on myself because I woke up with little pieces all in my bed. 

Around Miami

There are very scary spiders that live around my complex. They have red pointers and made giant webs in no time flat.

Just a car that someone wanted a Loony Tunes character on. No big deal.

Saturday mornings are bliss. I get a lot of studying done and no one is on the road because they're all walking to the Kabbalah Center. Tiny heads with yarmulkes walk by my window all morning.

My school is in Little Haiti and seeing women carrying things like massive duffel bags in their heads in nothing new.

A week after seeing the Loony Tunes car, I see this. The bumper says "A Whole New World." Aladdin is not on the car, but Jafar is on the side and the back. 

On the way to school at night I see this tree.  I thought it was just falling apart and had some braces screwed onto it but it lights up!

I have great sunsets out my window. Too bad they happen at 5:30 pm.

There's a tiny nun who walks around campus in the afternoons. Adorable.