What makes Hershey's so Great?

As Sandy and I found out on our recent trip to Hershey, PA: Its the Milk Chocolate!


We went down to see the Hershey's Candy Lane, which is basically what the Hershey Park becomes around the holidays. The roller coasters were closed, but we were able to ride some of the smaller rides. I can't wait to go back in summer, the roller coasters look awesome. It was pretty fun, and a lot of the candy was really reduced after Christmas. The tour (complete with singing cows) is a fun little ride that you get to see how all the chocolate is made.














Above are some pictures from the tour. Some bags of candy going along conveyor belt, and some Hershey's Kisses. And below is one of my favorite pics. Once we saw this Twizzlers guy, we immediately thought of Sandy's Grandma Peterson. For those of you who don't know her: saying she loves Twizzlers is an understatement.

New Year--More Blogging

One of my New Year's Resolution was to blog more so here I go.

As I mentioned before, I am working in endocrinology and high risk pregnancy. I am learning a ton about diabetes. The dietitian I am with right now is VERY knowledable and has really taught me a lot. Yesterday we visited a women in labor and delivery who had been in the hospital on bed rest for 73 days. She is from Florida and was on vacation in PA. She had a spontaneous rupture of her aniotic sac and was admitted to Geisinger. She is hundreds of miles from friends and family and all she can do is lay in hospital bed. I can't even image how boring that would be. They will be inducing her on Saturday so she only has 4 more days to go.

Last night Wes and I had dinner with Don and Joan, the owners of the farm Wes works with. Even though I had only met Don once and only for a few minutes, it was not awkward at all. They are both really nice and fun to talk with. It was interesting hearing about all the places they have lived and the things they have done.

I am getting pretty sick of this weather (ok so just this week has been bad). So far there hasn't been much snow but there has been some freezing rain which sucks worse than snow. It's almost impossible to scrape your windsheild and the roads can be pretty slick. Wes was not even joking when he said people in PA freak out about a little bad weather. The schools were closed today and it wasn't even that bad, a little freezing rain from last night and then it just rained until around 2 pm. At Geisinger, you better plan on at least half of your patients cancelling because of the weather. Its kind of funny to me and Wes.

Just incase I havn't bored you enough, here are some recipes I have been meaning to share.

ROASTED BUTTERNUT SQUASH AND ROSEMARY GARLIC LASAGNA
This was really good and takes some time to prepare but definitely worth it. I mashed the butternut squash a little bit even though the recipe doesn't say so and the heavy cream could be optional.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Roasted-Butternut-Squash-Rosemary-and-Garlic-Lasagne-13479

APPLE WALNUT SALAD WITH CRANBERRY VINAIGRETTE
I added more cranberries to the dressing (at least double the amount) and sprinkled my salad with a little goat cheese
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Apple-Walnut-Salad-with-Cranberry-Vinaigrette-844

HERSHEY'S "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE CAKE
This made really delicate, moist cupcakes...no frosting even needed. Don't wory if your batter is really runny; mine was like water.
http://www.hersheys.com/recipes/recipes/detail.asp?id=184

GRILLED BLACK BEAN AND RICE STUFFED PEPPERS
EASY! I made these a day ahead and then Wes just popped them in the oven.
http://www.eatbetteramerica.com/recipes/dinner/beans-rice-grains/grilled-black-bean--and-rice-stuffed-peppers.aspx

CAULIFLOWER AND RED LENTIL CURRY
I did not have the cumin seeds or fresh ginger and I used green lentils not red when I made this and it still turned out really good. Wes loves cilantro so I added extra.
http://health.discovery.com/national-body-challenge/recipe-individual.html?action=showRecipeDetail&recipeId=1866

Our Little Sputnik

Wes definitely surprised me this Christmas with a hamster. I think he was just sick of me bugging him about wanting a dog/cat/bunny/hamster and he finally gave in. So the day after Chirstmas we set off to PetCo and picked out this little guy. He is a dwarf hamster and we named him Sputnik aka Spud. We've had him for about a week now and he is so cute. Look at his cute little white tail!









Now here is a little info to fill you in on what I have been up to. I have been on vacation from the internship for the past 2 weeks and I have just been lounging around and being lazy. Don't get me wrong, it has been relaxing but I would have preferred to keep working and finish the program 2 weeks earlier. I start back at Geisinger doing endocronology and high risk pregnancy and then onto oncology and rehab. This month is packed full of projects and assignments. I just hope I don't procrastinate everything as usual. I have been learning a ton and I can't wait to start working and building my career. I don't really know what I want to do when I'm done but I am kind of leaning towards working in a hispital as a clinical dietitian but who knows were I will actually end up.

Happy Holidays

Its been a while so I thought I would write a quick post. Things are going well, we finally got an actual snow storm. There was a bit of freezing rain, which was interesting to see, but we learned something about Pennsylvanians and snow. Basically, people around here are terrified of snow. The forecast called for a few inches and everyone freaked out. They cancel school around here if there is like an inch of snow in the forecast, even if it doesn't actually snow. Also, people are really afraid to drive in it. So this week Sandy and I got to feel like hardened veterans who were unphased by a little snow.



Our Thanksgiving went well, we cooked a pretty good meal. It was nice to have an excuse to sit around all day eating and talking to our far-off families.

I am still stressing about grad school. I really want to get into a good program. A big relief has been looking into post-graduate certificates. Which is basically where you go take some classes without being accepted into grad school. So if I don't get into any programs I am going to (hopefully) start taking some classes that I can later apply towards a degree. The hardest part is not having a strong agricultural background. I know if I can just get taking classes at a good university I will be able to prove to people that I am a high caliber student and would be a great graduate student. I just feel that it is worth working really hard to get into a top program, because then I can get my PhD at a top school and then work at a top school.

Speaking of agriculture: I have been working at the Dancing Hen Farm still. Here are some pictures I took a while ago before everything died. Lately we have been working on re-building the heated greenhouse. Basically, you light a fire in a chamber that is surrounded with gravel. The rocks heat up and prevent everything from freezing overnight. Its been really fun, but a lot of hard work. We moved about 10,000 pounds of rock each using 5 gallon buckets.


Top left is a shot of the farm. Top right is a broccoli plant, I didn't know what they looked like. basically a whole big plant that grows the eating part in the middle. Bottom left is the Twin Bridges, a couple old covered bridges on the way to the farm. And bottom right is the inside of the greenhouse we are rebuilding. Its hard to see, but under the plant trays is the gravel bed that we are re-doing.

No Human Being Would Stack Books Like This!

If you recognize the title of this post, then you may recognize the lion statue and the steps I am standing on. That is a quote from the movie "Ghostbusters" one of my favorites. Which made yesterday's trip to New York City all the more fun when I was able to actually go to the New York Public Library, where the opening scenes of the movie were filmed. Our hunt for a "self-contained free-floating full-torso vaporous apparition" proved less than successful.
This is Sandy eating the first bite of our pizza at Lombardi's, officially recognized as America's first pizzeria. One bite and its easy to see why they have been around all this time. The pizza was simply amazing. Also in Little Italy I got a cupcake from a small shop. It was chocolate and frosted with the filling from a cannoli, and had little pieces of the cannoli cookie sprinkled on top. Best cupcake ever, it was big and the texture and flavor were just amazing.

30 Rockefeller Plaza is pretty famous. Its the main building for NBC, and I think all the shows are filmed there like Conan O'brien and Saturday Night Live, and probably at least some of 30 Rock.
This is Sandy inside Trump Tower. We went in just for fun. It was crazy how much famous stuff is all crammed together. All these photos are taken like minutes walk from each other. I'm not posting pictures, but Times Square, Port Authority, The Empire State Building, Grand Central Station, Central Park, Saks Fifth Avenue, St Patricks Cathedral, and the Diamond District are all right there too. Not to mention huge stores for like every designer in the world. Its mind blowing to go to New York and see all these famous things crammed together. Actually, St. Patricks Cathedral and Saks Fifth Avenue are next door to each other, and Rockefeller plaza is across the street. And boy was it all crowded.

We then jumped on the Subway for a few minutes, and walked more. Our second walk took us to Little Italy, Chinatown, Broadway, Wall Street and Ground Zero. We didn't even walk very much yesterday but saw a TON. We actually came upon Ground Zero by accident. Sandy wanted to go to this big store, and we did, then walked out and looked to the left and realized the big empy space was where the World Trade Center was. It was a little weird to realize how many people were right nearby when the planes hit. Its also strange to me that there are a lot of other big buildings nearby, I can't imagine what it was like to stand in one of those other buildings and look over at the burning towers. It was weird to accidentally come upon the location of what is probably the most historical event of my lifetime.

So yeah, we covered a small section of one of the 5 bouroughs of New York City, and saw more than I can remember. 8 million people live there. Its a bit odd, because its amazingly small in the amount of ground it covers. At the same time, its amazingly huge considering that all that ground is covered in pure city, densely packed buildings, sky scrapers, subways underground. Man made stuff everywhere.

I felt like I was being crowded the whole time I was there. Yet as I was leaving I couldn't wait to go back and explore more, and see more famous stuff that I didn't see yet, and of course eat more awesome food. I think I could visit there a lot and never experience it. It seems to me that in order to really know the New York experience, you would have to live there. If I lived there, I think theres about a 50% chance I'd absolutely love it and a 50% chance I would completely hate it.

Fall is here (sort of?)

Things are pretty well here in PA. I have been enjoying the fall colors as they come in. Its weird because the leaves have been changing color in strange ways. Some areas are completely changed and the leaves have fallen, but the many of the trees around here are still green. I don't have any really good pictures, but I made it into some areas that were in the height of fall and it was pretty amazing. Everything was so golden it made the daylight seem really intense.

I started helping at a small farm that does community supported agriculture(CSA). The owner is really great and being really flexible with me helping on my random days off. A CSA is where people buy "shares" in the farm for the season and get a big box of vegetables delivered every week. In exchange for my help I am gonna get some vegetables too, the ones I brought home this week were really good and fresh. I made some fresh salsa using the onions, garlic, and a variety of peppers I brought home and it was really delicious. It feels good to be involved with something that I would like to study in Grad school.
I will try to take some pictures of the farm next time I'm there, but you can check out the website until then. http://www.dancinghenfarm.com/

The farm is about 45 minutes from us, and it is in a great rural and hilly area. The farm was super quiet, in this tinly little vally with only a few houses and farms. That may change somewhat because there is a lot of this shale about a mile down in that part of the state that gives off natural gas, and a lot of farms have been selling mineral rights. Overall it shouldn't be too bad for the farmers, with new drilling technology they won't need many wells. Once the wells are built it shouldn't affect life too much. It iwill bring money into an area that needs it.

I took a few pictures on my drive home last week, the sunlight wasn't cooperating so I only got two that are worth sharing. Enjoy.

Quick Update

Things are going well here in Danville. We are planning a small trip early in November, currently it looks like we will go spend a day or two in New York City, see some of the sights and hopefully eat at the country's first pizzeria.

We've both been pretty busy lately, Hit the link below to see what I've been up to.

www.paeveningnews.com