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.

Some foods

As promised, I've been documenting the good things I've been eating. Some I've made myself and some I've bought at a variety of restaurants. 

This is a panini, brought to you by my good friend George Foreman. At least his grill. It's got caramelized onions, peppers, pesto, turkey, sharp cheddar, arugula and apples.

White cheddar and kale mac and cheese. This was mostly Sarah but I helped/saved it so I'm claiming it as my own. Plus, the croutons were my idea. Win!

Here's a Korean BBQ/tator tot mash up from the food trunks one night. 

There is food at every meeting in pod school. The practice management club was catered by my new favorite fast food joint, Pollo Tropical. Chicken, beans and rice, salad, plantain. 

Roommie breakfast frittata. Basically every vegetable in our fridge ended up in there.

Sushi from Rice Asian House. It's really good and the shrimp was WAY too big for me to eat in one bite. (I usually have Joe eat the ends)

Toasted coconut ice cream from Kilwin's. Well worth the $4 for a tiny scoop.

Toasted ravioli I made from my pinterest board. They turned out really well and were actually better the next day, straight from the fridge.

Here's a cute little organic restaurant we like called Julio's. It's hit or miss for me, but I LOVE their hummus platter. (No pic. We always eat it before I remember to snap a pic.)

This is the quinoa with avo.

My sandwich was homemade crusty bread with all sorts of veggies. And bean sprouts. I don't know why I've never thought of that.

Sometimes you just have to go with a favorite. Luau salad from Cheesecake Factory. Much better in the restaurant than take out, but I'm just bitter that I had to park halfway around the mall to pick it up.

Clam linguine and kale salad. Jeni and Sarah learned how to make it at a Groupon cooking class and it's incredibly good.   

Sarah in the foreground, Jeni in the back. Starting the linguine.

My first (and possibly last) time eating oxtails. It's an actual tail with muscle and fat and cartilage all around the vertebra. It's a little strange since I don't like sinew. Or working for my food.

Truffle oil mac and cheese from the food trucks. Very good. 

Yock-a-mein soup from the Creole stand at Green Yellow farmer's market. 

Crawfish etouffee from the same stand. Oh my.

Just a stirfry. It was stir-Friday.

My First Time

As many of you know, I only became a citizen in March. This November was the first time I could do that voting thing everyone talks about. The news showed people in early voting lines waiting for hours to get in, camping out on the sidewalks.

I got my sticker!

Kids had the day off school so there would be enough rooms for voters. Voting is a big thing in Florida, since we're usually throwing around our electoral votes until the last second.

People shoved literature in my hands as I walked to the voting area. It was worse than Vegas.

All in all, I parked, voted, and got back to my car in about fifteen minutes. Not bad at all! I think I'll do this again next time.

Free Menchie's

A brand new Menchie's store opened by me and celebrated by giving away free fro-yo in the smallest cups possible. Lucky for me, they had RED VELVET!

This is really my favorite non-fruity flavor.

Tons of toppings.

They had this bucket with random toppings and a paintbrush in it. I'm still not sure what it was supposed to be about.

Yay! Sarah and I with out overflowing cups!

<insert boob joke here>