Runners lung, button pushing

I love that clear feeling you get when you run, when your nose gets sensitive from, well, I don't know what. When I ran into Trader Joe's today, I could smell every person, whether it was normal person smell, cologne/perfume, if they were smokers, old people, or someone who had very young kids (little ones have that baby smell, even of their parents don't use baby powdery products).

I have this pet peeve about cross walk buttons. Whenever I see someone repeatedly hitting it, clank, clank, taptaptap, bang bang bang, I imagine throttling them. Since I know that they are brainless, and telling them that pushing the button more won't make the light change any faster, all I can do is wish them death caused by their ignorance. I think that most people spend their day going through motions, completely thought free. Like animals. They eat, shit, sleep, and never think 'it looks like rain', 'it's gorgeous today', 'I wonder why I've hit this button 50 times and am looking blankly at the sign waiting for it to change'.

The skies above Glendale have been moody all day. Short breaks of sunlight and brilliant blueness come out every couple hours from behind dark grey expectant clouds. It feels like it should pour any minute. And during my half hour jog, it seemed like every 20th car wasn't paying attention. They were on cell phones, running lights, not going when the light changed, stopping well inside the pedestrian walk. People were honking at the idjuts who were off on another planet. Don't know if it's the weather, but I've run that route many times and it was never so filled with space cadets.

Be careful out there on the roads.

Thing a day - Pumpkin Stuffed Shells

Still perfecting the Ricotta Squash Stuffed Shells. Now that my Sage is making a comeback, it's so much better w/ squash than the dried stuff.

This time around the recipe looked like:

1 box large shells, slightly undercooked so they are still a bit stiff. Drain and add 2 T olive oil to keep them from sticking.

Saute in 1 T olive oil until soft but not brown:
3 shallots
1/2 onion
2 t fresh sage
2 t fresh thyme

In a large bowl mix:
shallot mixture
2 eggs
1 large butternut roasted and mashed equal to 4+ c (Any winter squash works, I love this recipe w/ fine grained Kabocha)
2 c lowfat ricotta
1/2 c cream cheese

Cheese sauce
Make roux:
2 T butter
2 T flour (I tried Whole Wheat this time for a slightly nutty flavor)

Whisk in:
2 c milk (whole, lowfat, whatever)

Stir until bubbly and thickened.
Add:
1 c asiago
1/2 parmesean
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 t white pepper

Stir over low heat until cheese is integrated.

oil a large casserole pan (I use 2 9x9" so I can freeze one for later) with olive oil. Stuff shells with butternut mix, add to pan to form a single overlapping layer. Slather on cheese sauce and bake 350 for 30-40 min. Cool 5 min before serving.

Photos forthcoming

Thing a day - Handwarmers

Had a clothing swap a couple weeks ago, and I was left with the hundreds of unclaimed items. Found an xs wool sweater that had been felted by accident, so it was now an extra extra small. Cut the sleeves off, snipped thumb holes, and blanket stitched the edges. They go all the way to my elbows, they are now the longest pair I have, perfect for computer work during days like today, when it's just a bit overcast, but not cold enough to warrant a sweater.

Thing a day - Vietnamese Ribs again

Same recipe from Chubby Hubby with same modifications. I was planning to tweak the recipe further, but they were so good I stuck with what I did the first time around.

Food and Wine Recipe - Horribly Wrong

In the 'Last Bite' section of Feb 2008 Food & Wine is what I thought was a lovely little recipe for 'Chocolate-Caramel Sandwich Cookies'. I've made a lot of recipes from my 3 year subscription of Food&Wine, and they have consistently needed tweaking. Not enough salt, leavening, flavor, they all seem to be not tested well, or just some misc. recipe that some chichi restaurant handed them and they went with it w/out even inspecting it for errors.

This has got to be the worst offender yet. I will not print the recipe as it needs too many fixes to warrant a rewrite. But I will list what went wrong.

They were suppose to be a 'reimagined oreo cookie' by Rachel Thebault, with a caramel filling instead of whipped lard. What it Was, was a mess.

The cookie dough-
- was so soft and gooey that it had to be frozen on the plastic wrap (that you had to roll it on to keep it from sticking to everything) every few minutes in order to peel off the cut out cookies.

- recipe called for 20 minute bake at 350. Any more than 12 and they burned.

- even baked properly, they were greasy and pretty flavorless. The entire batch of cookie dough had only 1/2 c. of cocoa powder, and you could barely taste it. They were visually deceptive, because they looked richly dark brown, but had little flavor.

The caramel
- a 9" square pan is too small to cut out enough caramel to fill the cookies. It had to be a much larger pan. The caramel came out very thick.

- evil evil recipe writers. You said to oil the pan, put wax paper in it, then pour the caramel in to cool. Didn't say to oil the proper side of the wax paper, and I trusted you. From previous shoddy recipes I should have known not to. I now have a big chunk of pretty flavorless oily caramel (there was absolutely no salt in the recipe) with wax paper glued to one side. I tried freezing it, reheating it, cutting out shapes and peeling it off, all to no avail. If only I had a horrible evil neighbor I could pawn these off on, and pretend I was an incompetent cook as I smiled while they ate the cookies with a delicate slice of wax paper sandwiched between flavorless caramel and bland cookie.

I'm canceling my subscription. I'm tired of tempting looking recipes that are flops over and over again. I paid a lot of money for those stupid magazines, and I've never once cut out a recipe and added it to my book of favorites.

Sure there are ideas in there that I use as a base, but I am not going to continue buying the magazine knowing that all the recipes are in need of tweaking and research. I have plenty of great books I can use for that purpose.

Thing a day - Vietnamese

Well, you ask a cook to do a Thing a Day, and most of the time you'll get food.

Originally seen on the David Lebovitz blog, the recipe is braised pork ribs done in a Vietnamese style. As per David's recommendations, I added fresh ginger, and some red pepper flakes. Oh man these are good. Rich color, slip right off the bone, and even better the next day. Plenty of goopy sauce to add to brown rice.

Best to chill the whole batch to skim off some of the fat. I picked my ribs up at Smart n' Final. An inexpensive way to get a whole slab.

The slowest part of the recipe is waiting for the sugar to caramelize to just the right color.

And boy did the house smell of fish sauce, even when I closed the kitchen door and opened the windows. Not a bad smell, just pungent. Easy cleanup too, since all the cooking was done in 1 pot, from the caramelizing, to the braising. I used one of my Grandmothers huge old enameled cast iron pots.









Ribs just added Ribs almost done

Thank you to me

Thank you for

- being a neatnik, in a good way. I like having a clean house to live, work and play in

- washing all the dishes every day, even the sticky greasy ones. I know it's a horrible neverending chore, especially with no dishwasher

- scrubbing down the huge kitchen sink so it's not greasy, even the faucet and around the edges

- cleaning the stovetop

- cleaning the kitchen counters and getting all the espresso stains of of them

- cleaning and sterilizing the chopping block

- sweeping and mopping the kitchen floor

- shaking out the rugs whenever they need it

- dusting everything that needs it

- treating and cleaning the laundry and putting it away

- vacuuming upstairs

downstairs

the stairs

- cooking wonderful meals that tast good and are good for me

- trying to get to your piles of little projects, I know you are so creative you have to start 2 for every 1 you already have

- keeping the bathroom clean

- washing the bathroom sink

- changing and cleaning the sheets and towels before they really need it

- keeping your socks and clothes in the hamper and not strewn

- keeping your shoes in one place

- moral support when I need it

- starting an exercise and diet regime again. I feel so much better (and sleep better) when eat and exercise well

- being creative and resourceful, whether it's sewing a button back on or making gifts and food and art, I love that you are endlessly producing ideas

- keeping the plants watered and cared for

- sweeping and cleaning the porches

- keeping yourself clean and polished. You're flossing, wearing moisturizer and all those little things that will keep you looking and smelling healthy and attractive for years to come

- caring about your family and friends. You may be stubborn and aloof, but I know you just feel isolated sometimes and don't know how to express yourself

Diet and Exercise

It's almost a month before I head to HI to see mom. Now that she's recovered from cancer, the drugs, radiation and congenital heart failure, she wants to start walking and getting her strength back. She finds it much easier to exercise daily if she has a partner, so I'll be walking w/ her every day.

I did bootcamp and South Beach in fall 2007 for 2 months, lost 17lbs, then gained half of it back over the holidays. The first 2 weeks of South Beach, with no fruit, was so miserable that I don't want to try it again. While perusing the web I found this workout and diet schedule by Tim Ferriss. Even if the final numbers look outrageously high (I'm guessing his body put on a lot of water weight, it's not physically possible to gain that much muscle in so short a time), I'd be thrilled to do half that well. Doing weights twice a week is certainly managable.

So I picked a few multi-joint exercises and did them. I've never done a deadlift before, they always looked off balance and I was worried I'd hurt my back. They felt odd, but I didn't kronk anything. And my hamstrings were sore for days afterwards.

You are suppose to each exercise to failure, which I've never done, though I've lifted weights for years. What was suppose to be 1 set of 10 reps per exercise became 2 or more sets as I kept upping the amount of weight, trying to get to failure. I can lift way more than I thought. Course, for 3 days after the first workout I was wobbly, sore and shaky. I can see why you are only suppose to do this twice a week. It takes that long for your body to recover between workouts.

The food is easy - slow carbs, legumes, meat, and I throw in the occasional piece of fruit. And a half glass of wine a night. I picked up a few bottles of my favorite reds that I have to vacuvin every night, so they don't turn to vinegar by the time I finish the bottle. Not optimal, but I don't have the ability to drink wine faster than a glass a night, even if I'm not on a 'diet'. I have to have it with dinner, instead of before bed as he does it, since I'm a complete lightweight and end up blitzed and spinning while laying in bed.

Another high point of the diet is that you are Suppose to eat crap once a week. I don't have to hold off for weeks at a time, or have only a few bites as a splurge. Which means I can plan to go crazy for Valentine's day with cheese and chocolate fondues.

I'm already seeing the scale changes, and it's only been 4 days.

Thing a day paused

It's hard to update thing-a-day when one has left their camera elsewhere. My 'things' are piling up, and will be posted when I retrieve the camera.

In the meantime, I'm happy to announce that my friend JennX is in the process of creating one of the most beautiful things on the planet, a baby. She's 10 weeks in, I just found out yesterday.

IMPORTANT: If you are Non Partisan or Independent

If you are Non Partisan or Independent you ARE allowed to vote Democratic. Just ask for a Democratic ballot when you go it to vote. The poll workers may not have any idea what you are talking about, but it's right there on page 5 of your 'California Presidential Primary Election' booklet that we all got in the mail.

If they give you guff, just show them the page.

Happy Voting!

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We voted Dem, I'm terrified that every single republican is anti-abortion and wants to repeal Roe Vs. Wade. On that alone, I wouldn't vote for any of them. We are not about to go back to the dark ages, or, at least not any further after the terrible backwards slide from bush's regime.

Travertine Pendant

Just posted a few travertine pendants on Etsy http://www.dragonarium.etsy.com/ These are the same material that the Getty Museum in west LA is made from. Ivory colored, soft (For a rock) and quickly warms against your skin. I love working with and wearing it.

Thing a day 3 - Created knitters

To sequester myself from the super bowl insanity, I did a knitting workshop for 12 women. A couple were there for review, but most were new knitters. I think creating 12 new knitters in the world definitely counts toward Thing a Day. It's always interesting that some people catch on in 2 minutes and can get the movements down right away (even w/ no previous needlework experience). Then others can go for weeks or months and never pick it up. Some were so excited they stayed up late into the evening knitting their new scarf, and raved about it at work the next day. With such a positive response, I think I'll host it again. I liked even though everyone was excited to learn, it was a low key and relaxed event.

Also baked 3 batches of scones. My classic buttermilk recipe in blueberry lemon and cranberry orange. I love that recipe, and they only take 10 min to bake, so I can whip them out in no time.

Tangerines are peak season right now, so I had a 5lb bowl of of them on the table. The scones were snatched up quickly, but only 1 tangerine was eaten the entire day. Now what am I gonna do w/ 5lbs of fresh tangerines? The skins are too soft and rumply to zest. Guess I could juice them if I can't find takers in the next day or so.

Thing a day 2 - King Cake for Us

I had to resist 'testing' the cakes. You can try gumbo or roasted veggies and it won't be noticable. But after creating and smelling brioche for hours, it was downright torture to not taste it. So I made a second one for us.

It was as I expected, rich, slightly sweet, slightly citrusy, and just moist enough to keep you wanting one more bite. I would definitely make this for parties again, but not for myself. It's too tempting to keep having another slice.

Thing a day 1 - King Cakes for Party

I of course missed the signup window for Thing-a-day, so I'll be doing it myself. Sour grapes to you for only giving me a couple days to sign up.

Today I made 2 King Cakes, first time I've ever attempted them. Brioche dough with lemon zest. The large one is plain, the smaller one is more dense and has a marzipan filling.

This is how the first one looked when it first came out. A very soft dough, I needed the bowl to make it hold it's shape. It was sticky and unwieldy to work.


The second one had more flour, and I altered the liquid a little, making it easier to knead, and stiffer once risen. The glass jars between the two breads are cooling Meyer Lemon Marmalade. We'll see how they set up after being in the jar for a day or so.

Below - The King Cakes with sugar and icing (traditional design of gold, purple and green sugars) and ready to go to the party.