Gelato Fest 2011

Okay, maybe there wasn't a real "Gelato Fest" going on in Boston (not that I know of, at least), but Talenti gelato was on sale at the local store last week. So being the frugal yet avid ice cream aficionado that I am, I bought a pint a day for 7 consecutive days. Too bad the store only sells 7 flavors of the stuff, otherwise it would have been closer to two a day. I'm pretty sure the lab had this arranged on purpose so I wouldn't arrive to lunch with more than one pint of gelato every day. (For some reason it makes people cranky to see you eating top quality frozen desserts every day, but gelato seems to be a pretty good way to relax when there are lots of experiments being conducted at the lab.)

Talenti Black Cherry

There were actual bits of cherry in the gelato!

Ben & Jerry's Fair Goodness Cake got into the mix somehow, but it was still very good.

Talenti Caramel Cookie Crunch

The crunchy cookie and smooth caramel flavors worked well together.

Talenti Mediterranean Mint

Talenti Double Dark Chocolate

It was like chocolate chip ice cream, but better since it had a dark chocolate base.

Talenti Belgian Milk Chocolate

Talenti Sea Salt Caramel

The sea salt caramel was actually inside the pieces of chocolate. Win!

Talenti Tahitian Vanilla Bean

In other news, the doctor cleared me to resume training, so I broke out a new pair of running shoes that has been patiently awaiting the summer training season. Running will be the primary method for maintaining form this summer since the road bike stayed back in New Orleans. It's truly amazing how quickly the human body can repair itself once a surgeon takes a scalpel to it and throws some stitches in for moral support. After a 2.20-mile litmus test of a run on Tuesday, I decided to venture out on a longer run to test some limits. Fortunately, a colleague was nice enough to escort me on a 5.83-miler through the nicer parts of Boston and Cambridge. Felt like a million bucks afterwards, so I did it again today. The city is absolutely gorgeous at sunset, and I couldn't think of a better city in which to resume training. Last week's Bruins win is just the icing on the cake.

Oh, and I found Frankenberry cereal on sale at a random store in the suburbs today. Yeah, I can go to bed happy.

Frankenberry cereal is pretty good, even in the off-season.

Yup, that's a massive bowl, and it's filled with strawberry goodness.

Until next time, folks.

Final Stages of Post-Surgery Recovery

So it's been a while since I've updated this thing, and I've learned a few important lessons during that time span. First and foremost, listen to your doctor when he/she tells you not to exercise after surgery. I hit the treadmill last week to get some light walking (at an incline of course), and the end result was a very painful incision area. Secondly, keep extra gauze pads if you ever get surgery. It'll pay off when you have a silly lapse in judgement like I did.

Couch surfing after surgery was great, and I made sure to enjoy some home cooking and free ice cream before moving into a dorm for the summer. After living in the dorm for a week, I've decided that home cooked meals are vastly superior to store bought meals.

Shepherd's pie (homemade is so much better than store bought)

This is the best Edy's flavor I've tried to date.

There are actual bits of brownie in the ice cream!

A colleague of mine brought some candy over from Puerto Rico, and it's quite delicious. (It's on lockdown, and I am very hesitant to share this awesome stuff.) Also, my mother left me with some good Brazilian cookies to munch on post-surgery, so they've been a staple for quite a while.

Puerto Rican candies!

These are pretty good for what they are.

Today, after a long day at the lab, I bought some Ben & Jerry's Oatmeal Cookie Crunch. Best part of the day, hands down. I had read mixed reviews about the particular flavor, but this one knocked the ball right out of the park. It was so rich that it felt like I was eating a bunch of oatmeal cookies with some ice cream mixed in. Win!

Ben & Jerry's Oatmeal Cookie Chunk

Close-up of the cookie-infused ice cream

The doctor should be clearing me for some light exercise by next week, so let's hope for the best. Running in Boston should be pretty fun, especially since it's getting dark later at night. In the meantime, I'll be running experiments in the lab.

Post-Surgery Couch Surfing

Hey y'all,

So I went in for a minor medical thing on Monday, and my mother decided to show up with a camera. Great. After the procedure, I spent a couple of days recovering at a family friend's apartment (because going there didn't require me to climb any stairs). I wasn't too keen on staying with them in the beginning, but I got free food and lodging in exchange for one day of babysitting my friend's daughter. That's a pretty good deal in my book!

Babysitting simply entailed me working the microwave (or oven) whenever my friend's daughter got hungry, so it wasn't incredibly strenuous. Oh, and there was an unlimited supply of cartoons on TV, so we both got to spend the day laughing at Bugs Bunny and the rest of the Looney Tunes characters. (We won't tell her mother that we ate gummy bears with lunch.) At the end of the day we even baked cookies, but I'm pretty sure this kid was just using me to work the oven and handle the hot baking sheet. She already knew the recipe like the back of her hand. Psh, kids these days...

Me with an iPod at the ready

The day after surgery...two thumbs up!

This girl was extremely well behaved. Can't they make more of these instead of those whiny brats we see in supermarkets?

She has the recipe infused in her brain: set up cookie dough + give to adult for baking.

Chicken and vegetables (read: not ice cream)

It was good eats from the moment I got back to my Dad's place:

This helped me get through the week.

 Money shot!

And now I'm off to watch some more episodes of Man v. Food. It's a legendary show, so check it out. By the way, Netflix is awesome when your mobility is limited.

Last Days in New Orleans and Bumming around Boston

The last couple of days in New Orleans were pretty fun and loaded with good eats. The city is jam packed with restaurants and I wanted to try as many as possible before returning home to the Boston suburbs. So, in a futile (yet delicious) attempt to try every New Orleans restaurant, a friend and I went to Franky and Johnny's one night, and then I had Crabby Jack's and Dat Dog the next day (as well as some more Angelo Brocato's to get my gelato fix before leaving for Boston). The day of my flight, a teammate and I went to Surrey's Uptown to order their popular banana pancake. My teammate mentioned that it would be a really big pancake, but I didn't quite believe him. I later found out that for $6.50, this pancake is quite the behemoth! It kept me full until I got home 12 hours later, and a spoon is used as a size reference in a picture below.

Gator nuggets at Franky and Johnnys

Shrimp po boy at Franky and Johnny's

A friend's mother made some very good Vietnamese style noodles.

Alligator sausage from Dat Dog (the bun is the size of my forearm)

Po boy from Crabby Jack's

Crab cake from Crabby Jack's (best crab cake I've ever had)

St. Joseph chocolate almond gelato from Angelo Brocato's

You can actually see a whole almond in the gelato!

Banana pancake from Surrey's Uptown

Money shot

There hasn't been much to do here in Boston, save for enjoying the (essentially) unlimited funding for my ice cream habit and trying my hand at baking. Oh, and food coloring (I put it on everything now). Below is a picture of the banana-less banana bread I baked this week. The banana flavor comes from some Jello Sugar Free Banana Cream pudding. The banana bread wasn't that bad, except for the funky chemical aftertaste (I'm trying to get rid of the giant bag of Splenda on top of the refrigerator).

A friend and I went to grab sushi the other night, and we got a free dish since he's a regular there. I ordered some sushi, but the dish that absolutely blew my mind was the Idaho maki, which is a finely crafted sweet potato tempura roll. Win. A day later, we went to Subway, where we got raspberry cheesecake cookies, and then to the grocery store to pick up Cracker Jack boxes. There are still awesome prizes inside, and I was definitely hit with a bout of nostalgia when I opened the first package.

Pretty win-tastic, but it could use a bit of tweaking.

Legendary flavor

The first thing I did with my new box of food coloring was drop some blue dye into cottage cheese.

Banana-less banana bread!

Red snapper

Tekka maki, Idaho maki, and inari

Assorted sushi that a friend got

Raspberry cheesecake cookie from Subway

Money shot, per usual

Strong nostalgia was strong

Until next time, folks.

Couch Surfing in New Orleans

Hey everyone,

Finals are over, and with that there are some fun updates to share with the world. First and foremost, the team had a meet and greet with Tulane University's president and athletic director the other day. Allie couldn't be there, but the two gentlemen in khakis were quite impressed when they found out that she helped pull us to a victory at Conference Championships and that she was racing at Nationals as we spoke.

Tulane Cycling meeting with Tulane's president and athletic director

After the meeting, I went home, threw on a t-shirt and joined a friend for gelato at Angelo Brocato's. It's just one of those places that you have to revisit before going home for the summer. After finishing my gelato, I had to order a spumone wedge (in Italian, spumoni is plural and spumone is singular). I saw a bag of broken cookies for sale on my way out, so I bought it and munched at the treats on the way to the fly. When all was said and done, I had accidentally [eaten] the whole package. Whoops.

Tartufo gelato

Spumone

Enjoying the spumone

Bag of assorted Italian cookies

It was one of those "you-just-can't-put-down" types of snacks.

Saturday provided some free time for a nice little stroll through the city once I checked out of my dorm. (I'm currently couch surfing at a good friend's house while exploring New Orleans.) So with the camera battery charged and some loose cash, another friend and I walked to a variety of places in the city and had a fun time being touristy. A notable place we visited is called Meltdown Popsicles, and they make the best frozen fruit treats you'll ever taste. They were so good that we had to backtrack to get more. Absolutely worth the walk.

Beautiful abandoned church I found in the city

New Orleans Pharmacy Museum

St. Louis Cathedral

Ceiling of the cathedral

Old burial site (inside the cathedral)

Meltdown Popsicles!

Yes, that's a boom box (and a mime).

Later on in the day we walked over to Whole Foods to pick up some lunch. The chicken and vegetable potstickers at Whole Foods weren't half bad, and they packed a tasty punch that couldn't quite be matched by the insane supply of oats and peanut butter that I've been trying to whittle down since April.

Chicken and vegetable potstickers for the win!

Oh, by the way, happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there. You are the reason I wasn't able to get my fix of eggs and hash browns at the local diner this morning (long wait times). That being said, it's your day, and thank you for carrying us to term.