Gasthof Zur Gemutlichkeit

Last night I had the wonderful opportunity to accompany a med school friend to a presentation about Global Health.  Not only was the information that was presented very informative, inspiring and motivational - but the food was awesome!!  I've never really eaten 'real' German food before.  We went to a place called Gasthof Zur Gemutlichkeit in NE Minneapolis.  It was phenomenal - everything from the various types of German beer, to the cheers (Ziggy Zaggy, Ziggy, Zaggy, Oi Oi Oi!), to the waitresses in German Uniform, to the Rouladen and Weinerschnitzel to the checkered tablecloths - it was all fabulous!

I'll give you a run down of what I tried.

Rouladen - Marinated beef rolled with mushrooms, onions and bacon - DELICIOUS!  This one was my favorite!  I'm normally not a mushroom kind of girl, but I may just start trying more mushrooms because it was sooooo good!

Weinerschnitzel - Breaded Veal Cutlet - Now I'm glad that I tried this BEFORE I knew what it was because I'm one of those name people, where if it's something that I think sound gross (baby cow :( ) I will not eat it.  However, it was very tasty!

Jagerschnitzel - Pan fried pork loin in mushroom sauce - I ate a bite of my friend's and wasn't terribly impressed.  It reminded me of country fried steak and I'm not a huge fan of that either.  I'm glad I got to try it though!

Mash potatoes and gravy - Now this is something I'm very familiar with - yummy!

Spatzle - homemade pasta - which were HUGE noodles - and awesome!  We covered them with the gravy from the potatoes

Red Sauerkraut - I did not try this but it was available in the buffet. 

They also had Caesar salad and some delicious bread and this awesome dessert that I still can't figure out what was in it - sometimes it tasted like apple and other times I thought I was eating chocolate - perhaps it had both...hmm..

Spatzle and Rouladen

You should check this place out and if you are in the area you should REALLY go there!  I brought some food home for the husband and he loved it just as much. My hubby and I have definitely decided it's a destination for our parents some visit!  http://www.gasthofzg.com/

Whew!

This weekend was a whirlwind.  Let me give you a quick recap - I will try have a more interesting post tomorrow, right now I'm wiped!

Friday night I saw The Help - AMAZING!!  but the book is always better!

Saturday Morning I studied - yes! Mission Accomplished!

Saturday noon I got my hair did - always a treat!

Saturday night I went to a wedding - EPIC Night with med school friends! Congrats Kristen and Bryan!

Sunday Morning we all ate breakfast at Baker's Square - my new favorite 'Perkins'!

Sunday afternoon I went to the State Fair and got to see my godson - wonderful!

Sunday evening my hubby and I had date night - Chinese food and the last Harry Potter movie (finally!)

Monday morning - work, which was awesome. I'm serious, it was actually fun (and time and a half doesn't hurt!)

Monday noonish - grocery shopping. I finally have food in my house again!

Monday afternoon - Got to walk Lake Nakomis!  Another cross of my Summer to do list!!  Wooohoo! 

Monday evening - Another walk, this time with my hubby!! And some quality FB time as well as catching up with all my blogs! =)

I hope you had a wonderful weekend - and maybe got to relax a little more than I did....wait, who am I kidding, I love this stuff!!!

SKOL Vikings!

It's Football Season in MN - and everywhere else there is NFL ;)  Which, to me, means lots of great food, wonderful friends, delicious beer and chilly fall days =) My beautiful sister, my brother, my uncle and myself were fortunate enough to receive tickets, that my Grandma won at a benefit, for the first (pre-season) Vikings vs. the Cowboys Game on Saturday night.  It was a blast!!

Skyler (my sister) and I laughed a lot because we felt like we were watching the cheerleaders' awesome moves more than the game, haha.  We had phenomenal seats - 9th row behind the end zone!!  We lost, but the atmosphere was so fun!  Also, the fans did 'the wave' 9x around the stadium!!  That must be some sort of record?!?!  Another great thing about living in the TC, there's access to all these sporting events and it doesn't take 7+ hours to drive there one way...

I'm looking forward to actual season opener - Sept. 11th.  We will be celebrating at a college buddy's house!  This year we are going to take turns hosting Sunday games. I can't wait =) Do you have any football traditions?

An Evening Out

I can't say med school is all work and no play.  Tuesday evening the hubby and I had the pleasure of going out with some friends to Psycho Suzi's Motor Lounge in NE Minneapolis. The Hawaiian atmosphere was perfect for the hot humid night we had in the TC.  We started the evening with some great drinks (mine was in a tiki cup!) and wonderful conversation. 

Then, we headed to the deck for dinner. The hubby and I ordered Suzi's Supreme Deep Dish Pizza and another group of our friends ordered a chicken pizza with a white sauce - both were AMAZING!!! 

 

 Our only disappointment was our friend Jess's ridiculously small Caesar salad and our other friend's request for a beer refill that took 3 reminders - it was super busy there though. I'd still recommend it.  We had a blast - but maybe it was just our company ;)

To Market, to Market - to by a bunch of cucumbers!

The Minneapolis Farmer's Market has been quoted to be the largest in the midwest. Now, I don't know if that's true, but it sure is big!  I think there are 5 (very long) permanent red tents that make way for a large selection of locally grown (and some imported) fruits and veggies. Then there are more tents that are set up by the vendors themselves.    This past Sunday was my first official trip when the market was going on.  I have been to the location before, but only to park for the Twins' game since Target Field was so close!  Oops!  Honestly, I didn't see this sign there that day! My trip was awesome. Although I could have done without the heat, I came home with a bunch of cucumbers, tomatoes and strawberries.  I could have bought a ton more, but I didn't know exactly what I was going to do with everything. My friend Jessica Malone joined me - well, actually SHE drove ME.  The farmer's market is on my list of places to go again (at least a few more times) before they close up in late September.  And, of course, Jess and I have major plans to tackle some canning with all our produce, too.  I am enjoying the TC, but apartment living doesn't leave much room for a garden and I do love to can.  At least I have a ton of options from the Farmer's Market this year and they are all pretty affordable.

Weekend Re-Cap

I had the best weekend.  Friday evening the hubby and I went to Teresa's Mexican Restaurant in Mendota Heights.  I thought it was delicious.  I had tres Marias and the cheese sauce was awesome.  I also indulged in a daiquiri (which was so big I couldn't finish) and I thought it was delicious.  The hubby thought it was too syrupy though, so I guess it's really a hit or miss depending on your taste buds.  Then we went home and I slept  - and slept - and slept.  I think I fell asleep around 8pm and woke up around 4:30am Saturday morning.  It was much needed though and I wish I could go back to sleep right now.  There was a huge storm all Friday night/early Saturday morning and the skies did not look like they were going to clear up for my tubing adventure.  Instead, the girls and I headed to Rochester anyway, met up with my sister-in-law and went to a burger joint called Newts.  Again, delicious food!  I was quite spoiled this weekend because I got to indulge in a lot of delicious cuisine.  On our way back from Rochester we stopped at the Cannon River Winery in Cannon Falls, MN.  It just so happened to be their wine and art fair this weekend too!! Lucky us!  We paid $5 and got to try 3 different types of wine.  My favorite was Winter Ice - and then I looked at the price of the bottle $45!  I think I'll stick to my barefoot wine for now ;)  It was tasty and light too - the perfect dessert wine.  We hustled back so some of the girls could go to the HP-72 movie. Who knew that movies were going to be getting abbreviations like that.  To me, it seems like a listing of some sort of gene that I'd study in school ;).  The other girls and myself went to Jen's apartment and swam and gussied ourselves up for a night on the town at Toby Keith's I Love this Bar and Grill.  It was a fun night filled with lots of laughter and old stories :)  Sunday brought on another heat wave and a much needed trip to another local ice cream shop.  My friend Jess LOVES ice cream and so I do, so I know exactly who to call when I want an ice cream fix.  This time we ventured Izzy's Ice Cream Shop  in St. Paul.  It was delicious!  They even have black licorice ice cream, which is my mother-in-law's favorite, so I can't wait to bring her there.  They make their own waffle cones and they have what they call the "Izzy Scoop" which is a watermelon ball size scoop of ice cream (of your choice of flavor) on top of your regular scoop of ice cream that you already chose. It's like a sample of a new flavor ;)  Sunday afternoon we had friends come over for swimming and pizza and then at 8pm I had a softball game in St. Louis Park.  Overall, awesome weekend - hoping this week flies by because Saturday is a wedding in Rochester and Sunday I'm going to attempt to tube..again!  Wishing you a great week!

My Personal Commandments

There are so many things that excite me about Oprah Winfrey's website, especially under the "Spirit" section.  I find it a little ironic that I am now obsessing over an Oprah website when I was definitely that girl who rolled her eyes when she came home from school and found her mom or grandma watching Oprah.  Everyday...4pm...now it's Dr. Phil.  Still not loving that guy.  Anyway, most of the spirit sections are all about finding yourself, your passion, what you want out of life..etc.  And somewhere among the posts today I found a link to The Happiness Project.  I was hooked. How to make yourself Happy.  Don't we all want that?  Now, I  count myself lucky because I feel pretty happy in life anyway, but I know there is always room for improvement.  So, I read about it and I have to say, that today, I'm starting my personal life commandments (read more!).  I think it's going to be quite a fun project.  I have already picked a few of my favorites:

Dig Deep - my interpretation is that you can do anything you set your mind to, but it may take hard work, dedication and time.  Be patient, work hard and know that it will pay off.  Dig Deep, we have big hearts and we are stronger than we realize :)

Avoid Debt - no one likes money problems.  Live within your means.  I think my hubby and I do this pretty well, but I need to kick a few of my luxury habits like Caribou Coffee and, well, Caribou Coffee.  Once in a while is fine, but whenever I feel a little blue, feel like I deserve a reward, want something refreshing, feel like I need a shot of caffeine....I go there, and quite frankly that's ALL too often!  And, I need to stop going to the vending machines at work.  I still get healthy stuff like pretzels, veggie chips, what have you, but it's costing me money I don't need to spend. 

Stay In Touch - I feel like I do this alright, but I need to continue to work on it.  I spoke with my 13 year old brother for a good 40 minutes last night and that hasn't happened in a LONG time.  It was so fun to catch up about what's new in his life and listen to all his stories (of course they were all sport related)  and I loved every minute of it. 


Stay tuned for more as I come up with them. 

I have to recount my evening last night for you because I got to do 4 of my favorite things. 
1) Hang out with some great friends.  We bummed around different sections of the cities in search of a new ice tea mug for me (success!)
2) We went out to eat - I love, love going out to eat, especially with great friends.
3) We ate pizza!  One of my favorite foods, ever.  If you have never been, you must try Punch Pizza. It's a Neapolitan pizza joint that is only found in and around the TC.  It's awesome pizza! 
4) We went out for ice cream afterwards!  Yummm!! The place is on Grand Avenue and it's called Grand Ole Creamery.  It's an old school, homemade ice cream shop that has very unique flavors and they make their own waffle cones (complete with a malt ball in the bottom to stop the ice cream from coming out).  Highly recommended!! 

Counting down the minutes until my weekend begins. For now, I'll send you off with a hilarious video of the cutest little girl and also a tune that always brightens my day (which we need since it's RAINING in the TC)

Jessica's Daily Affirmations

Jake Owen's Barefoot Blue Jean Night - perfect addition to summer!! 

Happy Tuesday and Day One of My Blog!

I've been inspired lately...to write a blog.  So much of my free time these days is spent online - bad, I know. I need to get better at disconnecting.  It's hard these days.  Plus, it seems as if one of the only effective ways to stay in touch with everyone these days is via Internet.


So, right now in medlife, the hubby is studying for his STEP 1 test and is always on his computer.  The big day is coming up on June 20th.  I know he'll pass and I have faith he will do quite well actually.  I got lucky and am lucky to say that I have a super smart, handy and handsome husband.   I don't want any readers to get the idea that we don't get to spend any time together though.  He is very good at time management these days and we go for a walk almost every night (yay exercise).  If you know me personally you probably know that I'm not the biggest fan of exercising, but I'm actually really enjoying our walks and they get easier everday (except for last night when it was actually quite tiring - wonder if it was the greasy pizza we ate :-/).  Well, I've been reading blogs, slowly putting our apartment together (still not done since the move) and studying to take the MCAT.  I'd like to take myself out of the category of med school spouse and be put into med school student at some point.  I'm fortunate that I have lots of support from my family and friends and think I'll eventually get there.  I'm easily distracted though and that creates a problem.  Like today, I did a little research about free things to do in the twin cities.  My sisters are coming to visit and I can't wait to show them around and hopefully find some fun stuff to do with them. I already have a mini list going, now I just have to convince them they are a good idea. If you live in the twin cities area, I recommend checking out this website for awesome FREE concerts and movies in the park all summer long:

http://minneapolis.about.com/od/eventsfestivals/a/freemusic2008.htm