Four pears: $1 My baking: Priceless

I really love food, I enjoy the process of making it just as much as eating it.

Friday was the end of a semi stressful week, which included our first lab competency test, our first test in Health Assessment, and our first test in Pharmacology. I say semi stressful because when looking at next month we have seven tests, more lab competency, and since clinicals start this Friday, every Friday for the next 15 months will probably be booked from 5am till 7pm. That will be a bit more stressful.

Friday evening arrived and I really didn’t feel like studying, so I baked. I had recently bought 4 pears for a dollar at a local store (there were about 12hrs from being rotten), I decided these would worked well in a baked good. Even if there was some nasty bacteria or mold in the mushy parts, cooking them in the oven at temps between 425 and 350 is well over the temperature at which surgical equipment is autoclaved at. (121 C for 20min)

I started by trimming off the really nasty parts of the pears, and then diced all four up into irregular shapes. I had quite the pile of pears, so much so that I figured that I could probably do two different things with them. I decided to bake both muffins as well as some loafs of bread.

Unfortunately I have yet to acquire proper baking tins, bowls, pans.. therefore the muffins were mixed in a stove pot, and then cooked in the only muffin tins I had. Tiny ones.They turned out really well despite their small stature. The muffins contained the typical ingredients of butter, eggs, sugar, flour, soda, powder, and milk, but what really made them tasty was cup of diced pear, 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, and ¼ tsp of nutmeg.

They were easy and fun to make. Since they were so small it only took 12min to bake them, and since they are so small I can eat ten of them in one sitting and not feel bad about it. It is like eating ice cream with a small spoon. Always better.

The second tasty treat was indeed tasty. Baking loafs is slightly more complicated than muffins, and I wanted to change things up a bit.

Again for want of a proper mixing bowl I mixed the dry ingredients in a stovetop pot. Once the typically dry ingredients had been mixed together I decided to add a few handfuls of dried cranberries, and followed that up with a few handfuls of chopped walnuts. I mixed in the wet ingredients and placed it all into the pans available to me, a loaf pan, and a cake pan.

The bread turned out great. I wish you could have some. The dried cranberries give it a sweet tang, which is only accented by the unmistakable flavor of walnuts all the while surrounded by the taste of almost overripe organic pears. Not too light, not too dense, one of my best works. It is delicious.

Just a Quick Note

For the past few days I have been a bit down because of a number of little annoying things keep popping up. Some were as ridiculous as me being irritated that it was another 90-degree day with 90% humidity, others were a bit more legitimate such as the uniform store not having my order ready despite a phone call assenting that they did. I have been irritated that my knees wont leave me be, that my teachers are disorganized, that I have no money, and that I don’t really like homework.

But I have realized that in the same way I no longer get stressed for tests, there is no reason for me to get frustrated at much of what is currently going on in my life. It is about a 50/50 mix of things I can have an effect on, the stuff I don’t like, and those that I cannot change. However I can do something for each one of those categories.

I need to focus on what I can take care of, and do that well. I need to let go emotionally of what I cannot change, and then change my perspective regarding what I don’t like. Granted most of this relates to school, however sometimes it is easier for me to think of it in terms of running.

I cannot change the way that God made my body. I cannot change the years of physical abuse I took it through. I would like to be able to wake up each morning and run free and easy. I would like to knock out a 100 mile week like it was nothing. That just isn’t going to happen. I don’t like drills, stretching, and doing the little things. But if I can change my perspective, accepting who I am, and where I am, and begin to embrace what I have historically disliked, then undoubtedly I will see some changes.

Sometimes the big things matter, but more often it is the little things that will make the most authentic, and lasting changes in our lives.

Despite the histrionics that most days consist of, life can be quite simple if we choose to live that way.

PS: today is the most beautiful day in Virginia so far. It 74 and only 46% humidity. All 14 windows and the balcony door are wide open.