I hope I have time to walk around with a camera because it’s so frustrating to write this all down but not really having the words to capture what I’m seeing. But that seems to be the resonating theme for me here: It is something that you can learn SO much about a place before arriving and that knowledge has nothing on the actual experience of it. No matter how prepared I was, no matter how much research I did, no matter how good of a traveler I might be, nothing could accurately describe the experience here, and I’m assuming that tomorrow’s day at work will be no different.

As for tomorrow, I’ll be on the labor and delivery floor unless things change (which is also common here…you have to go with the flow or you’re bound to be frustrated). I naively thought it was an error in my information packet that 27,000 babies are born here each year. It was not a typo: I’m told 80-100 deliveries per day.

Click here if you’d like to read more about the hospital.

Remember the brave and fallen this Monday.

As many businesses, schools and other institutions are closed Memorial Day, it’s also a popular day for cookouts and picnics. Given the gallon-sized bag of radishes my parents recently delivered and my goal of serving stress-free, make-ahead sides to accompany whatever lands on our grill this weekend, I offer two options below.

Avocado radish salad (from Domestic Divas)

• 1 ripe avocado, peeled, pit removed, and sliced
• 1 cup radishes, trimmed and sliced
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• Freshly ground pepper

This recipe serves two, so double or triple as needed.

Roasted vegetable dip (from Eat Better America)

• 1 medium zucchini, sliced (2 cups)
• 1 medium yellow summer squash, sliced (1 1/2 cups)
• 1 medium red bell pepper, sliced
• 1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled
• Olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne)

Heat oven to 400°. Toss zucchini, yellow squash, bell pepper, onion and garlic with olive oil in a jelly roll pan. Sprinkle with salt and red pepper. Bake about 30 minutes, turning vegetables once, until vegetables are tender and lightly browned.

Place vegetables in blender or food processor. Cover and blend on high speed about a minute, stopping blender occasionally to scrape sides, until smooth. Serve warm, or refrigerate at least two hours until chilled. Serve with baked pita chips (see below) and vegetable dippers. Makes seven servings.

Baked pita crisps

• 1 1/2 pita breads (6 inches in diameter)
• 2 teaspoons canola oil or butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon dried basil leaves
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Heat oven to 375°. Split each pita bread around edge with knife to make two rounds. Lightly brush oil over pita rounds. Sprinkle with basil and cheese. Cut each round into eight wedges. Place in single layer on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake uncovered six to eight minutes or until light brown and crisp. Cool slightly (chips will continue to crisp as they cool). Serve warm or cool. Store in tightly covered container up to three weeks at room temperature.

My plane landed in Entebbe and I can’t think of any airport arrival more breathtaking. We walked down the stairs onto the tarmac in the middle of the green hills dotted with terra cotta roofs. After immigrations and customs, I found James, the driver sent to pick up students, and we headed to Kampala. On a two lane road, you have three or four modes of transportation in one lane each way and congestion is an understatement – cars and trucks, bota botas (motorcycle drivers that rent the extra one or two seats), bicyclists and pedestrians all in one lane and the shoulder. The colors and smells overwhelmed me. Tiny eight-foot by eight-foot rooms with a roof line both sides of the road and house the businesses of tailors, sandals being fashioned from old tires, airtime card sales, chipati bread  (tasty local take-away sandwich), Rolexes, auto oil sales – you name it. If you can sell it, there is a small building for it. There are also lots of brick buildings being built that are two or three stories and, if you look into the city centers, taller 20-30 story shiny buildings live among the banks and ground level vendors.

The road from Entebbe blends into the road to Kampala – it was hard to tell where Entebbe ended and Kampala began. After dropping off my suitcase at NUFU House on Makerere’s campus, James took me to the medical school offices on Mulago Hospital grounds. NUFU is a five-bedroom house on university grounds. We each have a room with a desk and bed with mosquito net. We share three bathrooms, and the NUFU caretaker/office manager Margaret serves toast, coffee and fresh mango or watermelon juice every morning for breakfast. Depending on the day, samosas, banana bread or boiled eggs are also served. It’s a nice way to get to know my house mates.

I was able to take in a little bit of Kampala on Saturday and tagged along with a housemate to a coffee shop that ended up not having wifi but did have the most wonderful coffees and smoothies. We had lunch out and it was the most amazing Indian food I’ve ever had. After that we trekked to the Baha’i Temple and I learned a lot about their faith It’s a very beautiful and peaceful belief system. There is one temple on each continent and the African Temple is here. On the walk home, we stocked up on water and some fruits and veggies – jack fruit is the strangest fruit I’ve come across and it’s a delicious flavor blend of slight banana and mango. Saturday was certainly a day of acclimation and soaking in the city.

Children 10 and under are FREE with a paid adult.

For most shows, gates open at 6 p.m., music starts at 7 p.m.

Parking
Free Parking is available after 6 p.m. at the parking meters on Walnut Street and Locust Street. City Hall parking lot is also available after 6 p.m. and is located on Robert D. Ray Drive between Locust Street and Grand Avenue, just one block North of the Amphitheater.

Show Schedule
5/26: Hairball
6/1: The Nadas
6/12: Jimmy Cliff
6/20: Bruce Hornsby & The Noisemakers
7/1: BoDeans
7/5: Yonder Mountain String Band
7/12: Ingrid Michaelson
7/26: Grace Potter & The Nocturnals
8/12: Matisyahu
8/21: Andrew Bird

You can learn about these and many other topics thanks to members of DMU’s physician assistant Class of 2012. Right now they are wrapping up their rotations and preparing to present their master’s projects, which they’ll do next Tuesday through Friday, May 29-June 1.

The range of topics reflect our PA students’ diverse interests and growing areas of expertise. Check them out next week: The presentations, which will be held in Lecture Hall 1 in DMU’s Academic Center, are free and open to the public.

Congratulations to the PA Class of 2012 for a job well done, and more great contributions ahead!

“A tasting is a culinary global tour, so get your passports ready,” Pete told us.

Noodles salads - gorgeous enough to gorge upon.

No kidding: We noshed on Noodles’ featured salads – spinach and strawberries, chili lime chicken (“deconstructed spring rolls,” Christina noted) and backyard barbecue chicken. Oh, my, were they delicious – fresh, flavorful, colorful and loaded with tasty textures. We could not pick a favorite. So if you give Noodles a try, go with friends, order all three and enjoy!

Pete and Christina also treated us to some wake-up-your-tastebuds tomato basil bisque and potstickers to start our meal and then, after the salads, some citrus-y pad Thai with shrimp and to-die-for penne rosa with parmesan-crusted chicken. By that time I was adequately sated so could resist licking any dishes. I also managed to hold off devouring the sweet treats they sent with us back to the office.

You may think I’m giving Noodles a shameless plug because I’m basking in the glow of a great lunch and staring fondly at the cookies I brought back to the office. That might be partly true. But I also like Noodles & Company because of their healthy options and commitment to community, as I mentioned in last Friday’s post. In addition, today I learned Noodles will customize your selections (more veggies than pasta? meatless or spicy? Just ask). The vegetables and other ingredients are chopped fresh the day they’re served, including the corn in our barbecue chicken salad that Pete shucked, boiled and cut off the cob himself. The restaurant has no freezers, heat lamps, microwaves or can openers, and you can tell.

Thanks to Pete, Christina and the Noodles crew for a luscious lunch and for today’s recipe, which combines all the great ingredients of a backyard barbecue in a fun and flavorful way.

Backyard barbecue chicken salad (recipe for the home chef)
Serves 4 regular salads or 6-8 small sides

• 12 oz. bag of mixed lettuce
• 8 oz. shredded mixed cabbage, red and green
• ¾ cup cole slaw dressing
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked, shredded, cooled (see below)
• ½  cup of your favorite BBQ sauce
• ¾ cup tomatoes, diced
• ¾ cup corn
• 1/8 cup red cabbage

To prepare the chicken, place the chicken breasts in a pot that’s just about large enough to fit them in one layer. Add enough water to completely cover the chicken by at least a half inch to an inch. Bring the pot to a boil, then reduce heat to a bare simmer so that only an occasional bubble breaks the surface. At this point, partly cover the pot, cook for about 10 minutes, then turn off the heat, leaving the chicken to finish cooking in the hot water for 10-15 more minutes. Remove chicken, allow it to cool and then shred it.

To prepare the salad, combine the shredded chicken and BBQ sauce in a bowl. In a larger bowl, mix the lettuce, cabbage (keeping 1/8 cup of red cabbage aside for garnish) and cole slaw dressing. Place the BBQ chicken, corn and tomatoes on top of the mixed greens. Top with the 1/8 cup of red cabbage to garnish.

The festivities take place over a three-day period starting on Thursday, May 24 with the COM Scholarship Golf Outing and class parties. On Friday, the campus will be abuzz with registration and a picnic on the grounds concluding with a reception and banquet at the new Veterans Memorial Convention Center. We’ll wrap the weekend up with the grand finale – the commencement ceremony on Saturday at Hy-Vee Hall in downtown Des Moines.

For the full schedule of events, click here.

We look forward to welcoming you back on campus next week!

Keep picnic guests happy and healthy.

What’s the best way to take perishable foods to a picnic site or family get-together? Let’s begin by thinking about the ending: leftovers. Often we plan how to take food to a gathering safely, but after a long day of fun and sun, we don’t have a safe plan for getting the leftovers home, and it’s the leftovers that can pose a larger health risk of food-borne illness. The best advice is to plan enough food for the event so there will not be any left over.

Picnic basket or cooler? The USDA and food safety experts remind us that some foods can go in the picnic basket and don’t need to be kept in a cooler. These include fruits, vegetables, hard cheese, canned meat or fish, chips, bread, crackers, peanut butter, jelly, mustard and pickles.

When you know how much food needs to be kept cold, be sure to use an insulated cooler filled with enough ice or frozen gel packs to keep the food at 40 °F. If you don’t have a good kitchen thermometer, buy one and use it often. Be sure to pack food directly from the refrigerator or freezer into the cooler.

Image courtesy of Seattle King County Public Health

The danger zone temperatures – 40 °F and 140 °F
The dangerous bacteria grow and multiply rapidly in the food safety danger zone of 40 and 140 degrees °F. Food transported without ice and out of a cooler does not stay safe long. Finally, don’t put the cooler in the trunk; carry it inside the air-conditioned car. At the picnic, keep the cooler in the shade. Keep the lid closed and avoid repeated openings.

Here’s wishing you a safe and enjoyable picnic season.