What to do when life gives you a case of lemons? Get Married!

The funniest part about writing this post is that I was that without even thinking I felt my fingers grace the “R” key for “R1 Gynecology (or L&D or OB Clinic) Progress Note".  Sadly, the reflex for writing anything down at this point is for patient documentation. 

Not that this is a bad thing.  I like my job and I’m settled into the fact that this “being a resident” is also my primary role as a human.  Match day is over, which means that there will be 20 new suckers coming our way to relieve us from being the most clueless members of the OB/GYN department, and oh, by the way, I got married in the hubbub of intern year.   Plenty to celebrate.

Spring is here and life is new.  The holidays were hard and the only research I did for the blog was a paper written about intern burnout and mental illness. It’s amazing how much a week of vacation, seeing family and going out of town for a weekend can renew the soul. 

The wedding was a beautiful and intimate affair.  It’s such an incredible blessing to have people that you love surrounding you and as much as I moaned and groaned about the party planning and its complete consumption of any semblance of a life, it was nothing short of perfect.  The food which we hand-picked was awesome thanks to Beyond the Box Catering and Chef Doug Brown.  They made the exact Tex-Mex inspired gourmet that we wanted and there was surplus and beyond.  (PS, I was the naysayer that told everybody that unlike other brides I would pig out at my wedding but with the nerves and the dress constricting all digestion, even I struggled to swallow every bite.)

I purchased a case (200) lemons and a case (245) limes for decorations/floral for the nuptials.  Well, needless to say, they were not all consumed at the wedding and I came home with approximately 70 pounds of fruit.   No scurvy in this house!  Our collagen synthesis is up to speed and we are in a race against the fungus among us to not mold our zingy fruit.  Linus Pauling would be proud.  (PS, did you know that he as the Nobel Prize winner for much vitamin C research consumed 10g of vitamin C a day?)

I can tell you now that there are many great things you can do with so much citrus, also with all new knives, pots, pans and everything glorious.  I made a beautiful chicken dish with a whole chicken cut up into pieces, half a red onion finely diced, four cloves of garlic finely chopped, sesame seeds, fresh cilantro, about a cup of soy sauce, half a cup of brown sugar, the juice of twelve limes and a dash of sesame oil cooked in the oven until golden brown.  The citrus is surprisingly subtle.

Also, I made this lovely pine nut lemon saboyan tart which is much more beautiful and better elucidated by the lovely Carol Blymire of a retired blog “French Laundry at Home”.   This recipe comes from the French Laundry Cookbook; the book is written by the inspiring Thomas Keller based on his four star Napa French restaurant.  Everything looks so delicious yet within an experienced home chef’s reach.  You should ask for it as a gift too.