Hello? Is anybody still there?

My longest hiatus ever I think. But obviously I have a multitude of reasons for my absence. All of which you care deeply about so here we go.

1) I finished my externship at the University of Rochester. I cried a LOT on my last day of work because I’m an obnoxiously sentimental person, and because my co-workers were fun and amazing. I will miss them.

2) I moved out of my adorable apartment in Rochester.

3) But before that happened I ate some amazing food. I’m actually mad at myself that I only discovered Village Bakery the day before I left the ROC. Excellent iced coffee, egg sandwiches, and this yogurt and granola thing.

That egg sandwich by the way? Eggs (duh), pesto, arugula, and goat cheese on multigrain. You may be seeing a re-creation here.

I also treated the GS to dinner at The Revelry, another amazing Rochester spot. It’s probably a good thing I didn’t discover this one until the day before I left or my bank account would look even sadder than it already does.

We started with buffalo frog legs! Adventurous! Delicious! They tasted like chicken!

Then I had the blackened red fish and the GS had the scallops. Both were excellent. They have a good draught list, too. You should probably drive to Rochester and go there.

4) So after leaving Rochester I essentially lived out of a U-Haul for a few days. Kelly and Aaron bought a house in Baltimore and have graciously asked me to help with their mortgage be their tenant, but they didn’t close on the house until a few days later. I’m sure you’re wondering, why would you drive the U-Haul down before you could move in? And the answer would be- do you really think I drove a 15 foot truck from Rochester to Baltimore? No. The GS did that part, and I needed to reserve him on a weekend.

5) After I moved in to the house in Baltimore (OMG wait till you see my new stomping grounds), I GRADUATED. It’s about damn time. Aaron made me some mailing labels the other day that say “Dr. Erin McDermott” on them. I giggled.

My favorite photo from graduation is obviously this one.

Oh and the reason I couldn’t blog during any of this, aside from the fact that I’ve been a crazy nomad lady, is that we didn’t have Wifi until recently. So here I am!

And now that I’ve thoroughly bored you with my life events, a recipe. I owe you one.

Drunken Mussels

2 lbs mussels

3 cloves garlic

zest of 1 lemon

pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

1 bunch chives

about 2 cups of white wine

2 tbs butter

loaf of crusty bread (not optional)

First you have to pick through the mussels. If the shell is already open, toss it. This was really hard for me because it felt like wasting food, but I didn’t especially want to find out what it felt like to have food poisoning.

Rinse them and set aside.

Cook the minced garlic in butter for 2-3 minutes or until slightly browned. Add the crushed red pepper and lemon zest, and cook for another minute. Add the white wine and let it come to a boil. You want to make sure it cooks for a little bit here so you lose that alcohol taste. Or maybe you didn’t buy a $6 bottle of Pinot Grigio and you would like your mussels to taste like the wine you used. Your preference.

Add the mussels and put a lid on the pot. This takes literally one minute. Once the shells open, they’re done. Toss in the chopped chives, and serve with bread

I also roasted some asparagus to go with this meal. Super easy and light.

This looks fancy and it isn’t! You can do it!

Also, I’ll be training for my new job for the next 3 months which means traveling all over the country every week. So there’s a pretty good possibility that you’ll be seeing more restaurant food posts than original recipes from yours truly. And more Kindle posts! Stay with me, please?