Crock Pot Goodness

I've been trying my hand at cooking lately.

[insert joke here]

My first meal was a crock pot Beef Stroganoff, which I have to say was simply Amazing. And so incredibly easy! Here's the recipe:
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Beef Stronganoff

Ingredients:

• 1 lb cubed beef, browned
• 1 can (10.75oz) condensed Cream of Mushroom soup
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1tbs worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 beef broth
• 4 oz cream cheese, cubed
• sour cream to taste (start with one heaping spoonful)
• egg noodles

Directions:
In a slow cooker combine the beef, soup, onion, worcestershire, and beef broth. Cook on low setting for 8 hours or high setting for 4-5 hours. Stir in room temperature cream cheese and sour cream just before serving. Serve over egg noodles.

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I doubled all ingredients because my slow cooker is a 5 quart sized monster. I also was fairly generous with the sour cream because that's how we roll. The doubled ingredients made at least 8 normal-sized servings.

Enjoy!!

Better than Cock Soup.....it's Dick in a Can!

Tonight we had a going away dinner for one of our classmates Danetra.

[Short version: money's tight, loans are scarce, and Danetra is taking off a semester to look at alternative options.]

When shopping at Kirk's for the dinner, we purchased this interesting item: Heinz "Taste of Home Delightful Spotted Dick Pudding".

This small can of cake-like substance inspired many interesting quotes for the evening:

"I think its time to eat some dick."

"Will someone pull out my dick?"

"Where's the icing on my dick? There's icing in the picture. I want icing on my dick."

"Um, I think my dick needs to be microwaved."

"Maybe your dick oozes the icing after being warmed up?"

"Yup, hot dick tastes much better."

"This dick has a really weird aftertaste."

Blame it on the moon....

Another physio exam down, another weekend of fun begins!

Completely irrelevant but still awesome pic of Mystic Dragon Capri Sun. Really yummy (tastes pretty much like Pacific Cooler)...

Took this awesome pic after a long day of particularly yucky dissection. Would make a great movie poster...

Kip riding "Gums"

Friday night we convened once again for our Cocktails at Sunset House. It was an interesting evening complete with random medical discussions and sacrilegious statements. To add to our motley crew, our physiology professor, Dr. Roy, and his wife joined us for libations and a little pipe smoking.

(Sherlock Holmes style, not Cheech and Chong Style. C'mon.)

A few highlights from the conversations:

Coconut IV bags: We mentioned our experience with coconut water to Dr. Roy. Travis brought up having seen a documentary on using coconuts as IV fluids when in survivor situations. Our token med student at the table jumped in right away discounting the possibility of creating the proper vacuum with a coconut unless you cut the top off, while others of us argued that a vacuum wasn't needed to administer fluids and I just sat there wondering how you would pierce the husk of the damn coconut in the first place and just how sanitary is coconut water when we've seen what it can do to your intestinal constitution?

Dr. Roy (on life in South Africa): We didn't want a new government! It's the rest of the world who forced it on us! And now we've got lots of crime and corruption. For heaven's sake, we now have a 500 Trillion Zimbabwe Dollar note that won't even buy a loaf a bread.

Mike (not sure where this came from but it was damn funny): I don't feel any guilt. Fuck him and his apple.

Mike and I up front; in back: Kip, Travis, and Paul.

Saturday night was the monthly Full Moon party. It seems each month there is a theme associated; this month's was a "Foam Moon Party" (catchy play on words, huh? I wonder how proud the guy who thought that one up was...). Something inspired Robin, Kip and I to check out some of the local clothing stores (boredom) and upon finding that they pretty much sell the same ghetto clothing that you would find at Rave or Wet Seal or in St. Kitts, we somehow came to the conclusion that we were going to do a GC version of Pimps N Hoes that night.

Seriously folks. I think there's something in the water here.

Anyhow, at a store called Crave Kip found an awesome 'shirt set' that sported satin trim on the collar and french cuffs, as well as a matching satin tie and pocket kerchief. The shirt is a deep maroon color, and the satin details are a funky pattern with yellows and peaches and some maroon. It was quite the pimptastic shirt.

Our next stop was a sketch shoe store on Eastern Ave that apparently sells way more clothes than shoes. It reminded me a lot of Karabana's in St. Kitts. They even had those awesome stretch pants with printed on pockets/belt loops/stitching to make them appear to be jeans when really they are just a horrible pair of plain ol' stretch pants.

At the 'shoe' store, I found my top for the evening, a tight-fitting rouched cotton halter with a plunging neckline. Robin found a cute little dress in an awesome teal color. And Kip found his pimptastic baby pink sunglasses and tiger striped pinky ring.

I shit you not.

Kip inspecting his Super Heroes mood ring.

We made one more stop, to a little boutique in a building that seems to be either falling apart around it or in progress of being built where I found the perfect chunky necklace to complete my outfit. By this point we were all starving, so we headed to Yoshi for some fantastic sushi.

They encourage you to play with your food at Yoshi.

After hanging out at the house for a bit, playing a round of Kings with Travis, we were suitably tanked and headed over to CJs.

The Reason for the Season.

PimpTastic.

If any of you are Foam Virgins, as I was, you will be mightily impressed by the giant inverted phallus spewing out suds all over people dancing in the sand. Yes, suds soaked sand.

Travis reliving his childhood.

This would be so much more creepy if it weren't for the giant suds tumor on his face.

Travis and Robin with Kip doing something abnormal.

Kip trying to hit on underage chicks outside of the women's restroom.

I'm pretty sure his drink was full when he ran in that time...

I have no idea.

I wasn't keen on getting a MRSA infection, so Kip had to dance me into the foam.

Midnight brings with it Last Call here on GC (which just seems sooooo unfair at a Full Moon party), so we decided to clean off our suds with a little midnight dip in the Caribbean. Because that makes total sense.

Somehow Kip managed to keep the sunglasses but lose the ring. Despite the fact that these Full Moon parties seem to invite Trouble (you know who you are), overall it was a great night out with friends. Can't wait till next month!

Note To Self:

Do not use a flimsy paper towel as a makeshift funnel for pouring cherry koolaid into a water jug.
PS - Also do not pour said cherry (red) koolaid powder into jug via flimsy paper towel funnel over white counters.

Perhaps avoid cherry red koolaid full stop.

(sorry....no pics.)

It doesn't matter if it was hard or easy....it was the LEAST stressful exam I've ever taken and I'm pretty sure I just played a game of Bingo.

Today brought with it our first Physio exam. Our professor is from South Africa, and apparently they do things a bit differently there....

Multiple choice questions (or MCQs as he says) are written the same way, with 5 options listed under the question. In his version, however, there are possibly 1 to 4 correct answers for each question. Instead of circling one answer, you enter the appropriate letters for each correct answer in squares at the bottom of the question. When grading the prof will put a slash across the boxes marking off the appropriate amount of boxes for how many correct answers are there.
(okay, I realize you might need a degree in quantum physics to understand that last paragraph, so I've created visual aids:)

No peeking....answer first!

Oh c'mon, I totally got a useful undergrad degree!

The green line is indicative that there are three correct answers in the question. Basically that's three options for partial points in one question. The last two options are disregarded completely.

(as opposed to one out of five being right and losing all points if you guess wrong.)

Alright, so hopefully you guys get the picture. Basically our exam was like playing Bingo.

(yes dad, it went alright.)

Friday night we caught the free buffet dinner at Triple Crown Pub (um, yeah. we're students.) and then headed out for cocktails. We started what will be our new Friday evening routine: cocktails at Sunset House at sunset. It's a relatively nice resorty place located on the water just past Georgetown from Seven Mile Beach. There isn't really a beach there, per se, but the restaurant/bar is this huge deck overlooking the ocean where you can catch great sunset views (assuming the clouds aren't out).

Kip started out the evening right by pretty much demanding (in his very charming and goofy way) a fruity drink complete with a little umbrella and a pineapple wedge. Our waitress took it all like a pro, letting him down by telling him they had no umbrellas or pineapple. Then she came back with this:

Complete with umbrella and pineapple mango....seems she was telling the truth about the pineapple.

This was the first in many blatant 'signs' that this chick dropped on a completely oblivious Kip. I'm pretty sure she could have slapped his ass and called him Sally and he still wouldn't have a clue. It's actually pretty cute.

Warning: Do not allow your children to climb on any of the sea walls.



I had my first Liquid Cocaine shot, which was pretty awesome.
Then I had my second and third.



Kip made the mistake of telling Hottie Waitress to surprise him. We all thought this was a BlowJob shot from the outward appearance. That is, until Kip started fishing clumpy stuff out of it...something called a Cement Mixer? (Bailey's and lime juice)

Some other blatant signs completely lost on Kip:

*During a round of Liquid Cocaine's for the table, she served him a shot of whiskey in secret:[Scene: everyone throws back their shot]
Kip: Whew! I don't know what ya'll were drinking, but that was whiskey.
Us: Noooo. It's a liquid cocaine. Tastes like cinnamon.
Kip: Nope, I'm pretty sure that was whiskey. Not cinnamon.
Us: You're crazy. [Saskia takes a whiff from empty shot glass, crinkles nose] Oh.....Yeah.

*"That mango is my personal mango given to me by one of my coworkers."

*"Do you want to eat the rest of my mango later?"

The after party landed at our apartment, where we had the bright idea to mix Absinthe and Fireworks.

(sorry Mommy and Daddy, but you did tell me not to be the mom.......)

Opening the fireworks we bought at the bookstore, we found this awesome Warning:

Hee hee.....flaming balls.

Kip lighting the fuse.....

Pretty sparklers......

Awesome. And freaking LOUD.

My 'coy' look.

We had some fun playing with camera angles....this was the best of the group.

I gots 'tude.

Later we got bored with the apartment and wandered down the street to the neighborhood park. This was a pretty good representation of why you don't drive drunk.

My boys pulling a Reservoir Dogs style exit.

All in all another fabulous evening with good friends that did not end in flames.

Mmmm, tastes like salvation....it's Sacrilicious!

On the way to the Ag building this morning we stopped off at a Texaco for coffee and breakfast.

(Note to Dad: I don't usually buy breakfast, however this morning I conveniently left my bagel with peanut butter and jelly on the roof of my car and drove away. But don't worry, I have my passport tucked safely away. Somewhere.)

Kip was already at the checkout when I walked up with my coffee and banana bread. As the cashier rang up our order, I glanced down and saw what Kip had chosen for his morning snack:

And I was all Bible Bar? and then she added another dollar to our bill.

Mmmmm....sounds delicious.



These people are insane.

Apparently this island has a blasphemer's tax. Good to know.

If brother and sister iguanas get busy, the eggs produced are infertile. How do we make humans like that?

Saturday we visited the botanical gardens where the Blue Iguana Sanctuary is located. Some background on the facility/animal can be found here. Basically Blue Iguanas are native to only Grand Cayman (Cyclura lewesi), and they are a morph of another iguana from the Cyclura genus found on Cuba. They are the longest living iguanas, oldest being 69 years old. They used to be plentiful on Grand Cayman until people began to develop the island for human use. Basically we destroyed their habitats and introduced various predatorial species that they could not protect themselves from. They are not good climbers (unlike the Green Iguanas), are creatures of habit (will live in the same one or two trees), and tend to stand still when confronted by a potential threat (versus the Green Iguanas who run at the first sign of Stranger Danger). Between the humans, dogs, cats, snakes, red ants, and rats the population was decimated to about 15 in 2003.
Recovery efforts have increased the population enough to get it off the critically endangered list, but it is still considered an endangered species. The program at the sanctuary is designed to assist these lizards in reproducing successfully and eventually being released into the wild. They have breeding pens that are designed to give the female an acceptable habitat for laying her eggs, and then the caretakers will dig the eggs up and keep them in an incubator until they hatch (about 10 weeks). They have to dig them up because A) fire ants will attack the eggs and B) rats will dig them up and eat them. Without the caretaker's help, maybe 1 or 2 of the ten-twelve eggs will successfully hatch and make it to the surface. With their help, usually all of the eggs survive and move on to be released when they reach a good size.

Once hatched, the babies are moved into the "Head Start" program where they are reared until about a year and a half to two years. When they reach a certain weight and health status, and vet will deem them acceptable for release. This is where the hard part comes in...these guys are really territorial so the caretaker's maintain a chart of where each lizard lives and they try to make sure no close family members live near each other. If close family members (mom/son, brother/sister, etc.) mate, they will produce infertile eggs which is counteractive to the mission. Since the lizards really only produce eggs once a year, it's imperative that they produce healthy, viable eggs each clutch. (how do you like that use of vet speak, Kip?)

Oh, and we learned that Blue Iguanas taste like kerosene and Green Iguanas taste like chicken. Supposedly. That might also be rumor the warden guy was spreading to encourage those desperate enough for food to eat the greens over the blues…

Okay, enough blah blah blah. Onto the pics:

Our guide was a former chef. He used a lot of technical terms like "tastes like kerosene" and "toxitity" and "knocked up".

This was a nest that was currently inhabited by a momma laying eggs. When she finishes she will cover the hole completely masking its location and (hopefully) preventing predators from finding the eggs. Once she's done the babies are on their own.

These are the first step in the Head Start program. Under 1 year olds stay here.

Little Baby

They grow so fast!

And the showdown begins....



Mad Max was freaking awesome. Especially when charging chicks with red toenail polish.

Showing his trademark black feet and spineless dewlap.

Stripeless tail as well. Good lookin boy!

I don't remember this one's name. But I do remember something about him having too small of a penis to properly copulate.

That's gotta suck.




This is an overview of the breeding area. Each iguana has his/her own square, and during breeding season they open the gate between so they can get "knocked up".

Check out his little teeth....just don't underestimate them! Robert Muldoon was telling us he had both of his thumbs broken by the same freaking iguana in the same freaking week.

That iguana also broke his foot and his manhood.

True Story.

I love those spines.

This one takes me back to the days of velociraptors and T-Rex.

A few years ago a pair of wild dogs killed two of the iguanas in the park. This was one of the epitaphs posted above the graves for the lizards. I'm pretty sure the other iguanas leave flowers and candles on the site every year as a memorial. I could still see some wax.

After the tour of the breeding facility Mr. Muldoon took us on a little hike through the rest of the park so we could see some of the animals in the wild. I'm pretty sure I heard a goat bleating in the woods.

This is a dig site for eggs. The mom was sitting just to the side of the hole glaring at the workers. Good thing they work in groups; if there was only one she would have tripped the guy and eaten his eyeballs.