Life is in the Details

Zucchini and Hazelnut Salad

I made this for vegetable salad for lunch today (from Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi) and the simple ingredient list came together to be much better than I expected, after all this IS just zucchini (something I usually use in things but not in an identifiable way... zucchini fritters, zucchini frittata, zucchini chocolate chip bread), not something I crave, but something that I know is good for me and plentiful in the summer so I do my part to lessen the overflow.

 

Here pan-grilled zucchinis, toasted hazelnuts, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, basil, shavings of Parmigiano Reggiano, and a finishing drizzle of hazelnut oil come together to create a quick, the-sum-is-greater-than-the-parts vegetable salad that was satisfying with every bite (though that's because I made sure to get a little of almost everything each time). I cut the recipe down to make use of the one lone zucchini I had in the fridge and ended up eating the entire plateful for my lunch. I will definitely be making this again.

Now to find what to do with all that hazelnut oil I bought since this recipe used only a drizzle on my scaled-down version (but, oh it was so good)!

 

Back to School

The kids are off to their first day of school! A second grader and a sixth grader! Wow! How did that happen?!

Mike and I are doing our first day ritual too: enjoying a few minutes together on the front porch after getting them off to their respective places.

First Annual DC Funky Fresh Foodie Fest

I had two favorites at at the first Annual DC Funky Fresh Foodie Fest. The vegetarian offering from Takorean was #1 (Caramelized Tofu Tako with Napa & Romaine Slaw, Cilantro, Sriracha, & Lime Crema). It was the first thing I had when I arrived and it was the last thing I had before we left the festival. I wanted this "tako" to be my event bookends. I would gladly eat these every day for the next month (or two, who am I kidding?). It won't be long before I make something like this in my own kitchen!

There was live music too. We got there two hours before the real event opened to the general public so we had the chance to walk around before it got crowded, which is the perfect way to go for us since our kids came with us.

 

Upon entry we received one each of the Izze sparkling fruit juice flavors. The kids really liked these and asked if I could buy some for special occasions (since I don't stock soda in the house), to which I obliged. They are fruit juice after all.

 

We each received these really cool mini-pilsners. I think I just may drink my morning smoothie out of it for the next week or so because I *love* it!

The sandwich duos at Rolling Ficelle: "The Davis" Chicken Salad Sandwich with House made Lemon Aioli, Almonds, Avocado & Romaine Lettuce for Mike and a ratatouille sandwich (for me). I was hoping for a mashed chickpea sandwich, since that's what they listed on the event website but this is what they ended up having as their veggie offering.

Mike's BBQ Sammie at the BBQ Bus: Smoky Pulled Pork Slider topped with house-pickles red onions & smoky sweet BBQ Sauce #5. I skipped the BBQ bus because I'm not a huge food bean chili and there were so many others I wanted to try that I was going to save this for towards the end if I was still hungry (spoiler alert: I wasn't). Mike thought his sandwich was just okay.

The boys loved their Red Velvet cupcakes from Curbside Cupcakes and I adored the Dulche de Leche. Wow! Seriously good. The cupcake was light, fluffy, moist, and flavorful. The icing was just right. Such a nice caramel-y toastiness that wasn't too sweet. So many cupcake icing are cloyingly sweet and, thankfully this was just right. We took two more cupcakes home with us: a strawberry delight and a chocolate delight. We're saving these for tomorrow as there's just so much food goodness you can handle in one afternoon. I can't even imagine eating dinner tonight as all the little bites add up to more than enough. We made many new friends and spread much goodwill upon leaving as we handed out extra food and drink cards after we had reached our maximum. It pained me to hand over the Tapas Truck one as the corn fritters were ethereal and that cilantro sauce divine... But we had all eaten enough and didn't want to overstuff.

Pleasant Pops' Strawberry Ginger Lemonade popsicle was the BEST (and I wouldn't have expected that since I was worried that the ginger flavor wouldn't work well or would overpower the strawberry but iwas pleasantly surprised)! Their Peach Hibscus was pretty dynamite too and a flavor that I would certainly crave on a hot day. We didn't care for the pineapple basil, which is the one I though I might like the most. That's why I love events like this... You can taste a little of everything and really be surprised!

Really delicious sandwiches from Pepe (mobile sandwiches from José Andrés) are pictured belowe. We traded some of our extra tickets to get more Spanish Grilled Cheeses from Pepe and are going to try to recreate these at home. 8 thumbs up... We ALL loved these! I only wish I had tried the gazpacho. Oh well, there's always next time!

The Spanish Grilled Cheese (2 of the ones in the photo below are these) had the following listed as their ingredients: Membrillo Paste, Manchego Cheese, Valdeon Cheese (Bleu), Murcia Cheese, Goat Cheese.

So. Very. Satisfying.

The bread was the perfect amount of toastiness with a good bread to cheese ratio. The portion size was cute and petite. Loved it.

These were some seriously amazing corn fritters from Tapas Truck with a cilantro mojo sauce.

DC Empanadas was supposed to have an El Greco veg empanada but instead had aIndian-spiced one. It was tasty and had a good amount of filling so that tou didnt feel like you were only eating fried dough and the Indian spices packed a nice kick but I really was looking forward to the Greek one with spinach and feta. With this truck it was another case of unmatched expectations.

I forgot to photograph the empanadas? How could that be?! Sorry about that!

The chickpea and eggplant from Fojol Bros was fragrant and complex, and the chickpeas were cooked perfectly. There were no big chunks of eggplants, but instead the eggplants Became a creamy backdrop for the spices and chickpeas. Here's where I wish I could have borrowed a stomach from someone because I would have wanted to have another one of these and some of their Palak Paneer but I am only so big. If I was 5' 7" instead of 5' 2" I think I could've fit it in. <sigh>

The kids had a great time playing the games like oversized Jenga and huge connect 4.

I never made it to DC Slice, though Ryan happily munched on a familiar slice of cheese pizza from them. I was very proud of Ryan for being open-minded and trying some new foods in this forum.

What a fun event for us all and one we hope becomes a yearly food fest that we can enjoy for many years to come.

 

 

The early bird gets the corn

Ryan and I made a trip to the farmers market this morning to get some peaches, corn, and cantaloupe. The sun was out and the aroma of ripe melon was in the air. Ryan enjoyed a taste of our area's first Honeycrisps of the season.

I love summertime!

Geeking out with sticky tabs

This kind of geekiness makes me giddy.

Yes, I just labelled all the wine tastings I want to do in the wine book I'm currently reading with sticky tabs (I <3 sticky tabs!!!!) and lined up the tabs for all of the same wine styles on the same parts of the page. In the mood for a Sauvignon Blanc tasting? That'd be all the tabs second from the top! Take your pick: old world vs. new world, grassiness, cool climate vs. moderate climate, etc. it's all right there! Eek!! I have a big smile on. It could be because organization makes me so darn happy. It could also be the really good wine consumed at dinner.

Back to Friday Pizza Night (and Wine Tasting)

The bottles for tonight's wine tasting are a-chilling! :D On deck: tasting for spice with two Gewürztraminers, one American (Beringer 2000) and one from the Alsace region (Trimbach 2008).

Pizza night is in the works (after two weeks off and I've been SO craving pizza) and I'm going to be topping my pizza with garlicky sautéed mushrooms, artichoke pesto, a tomato from my garden, chickpeas (Yes, I have leftovers that I'm using up!! This will be a pizza first for me.) and a little goat cheese. After it comes out of the oven I'll put fresh basil on it.

UPDATE: These wines were both excellent and ones we'd definitely buy/drink again!

DCAC - Day 1 continued

Yesterday was great! It was jam-packed with super classes. I was in desperate need of a shower by 6pm. The Schwinn Release & Relieve class with Helen Vanderburg was a Just below threshold cycling class that then used foam rollers and a massage ball to help Dacia and muscles to release. I have been wanting to write a blog post about foam rolling (and tennis balls/massage balls) because they are unparalleled in getting some of my tight areas loosened. When you get a runner or cyclist or triathlete on a foam roller working their quads and IT band area you will not believe the groans and grunts and other sounds that you will hear. It definitely sounded like there were some other activities going on in our room! Just that short session at the end of the ride and feeling the difference it made in how legs felt after two tough rides reminded me that I need to get back to using them... *DAILY* and made me realize I want to include these tools in my yoga classes. It's mind-blowing how much of our movement (of lack of range of motion) is related to the health of our feet. Tight areas in our feet cause all sorts of complications in our knees, hips, and lower back because everything is connected! Similarly, tight hip flexors are often the cause of knee pain. Again, everything is connected. Too often problem areas, areas where we experience pain, are looked at in isolation and it's nice to see fitness professionals address this and research being done to further our understanding of anatomy, kinesiology, and biomechanics.

An other session that was fantastic was Shifting is the New Lifting with Jonathan Ross. It explored using the body in all the planes (frontal, sagittal, transverse) and how to utilize mixes of them in our upper body and lower body to create more effective exercises that work your body smarter and more functionally. Most of the exercise utilized body weight as the primary load with a few that used some other tools (kettle bell, medicine ball) and it was amazing how effective they were. This class spoke to the need to not just having male (and some female clients) that just want to lift heavier. It was about how we can make our movements with clients more useful to help them in their daily lives. I am going to look into his book, Abs Revealed, because I was that impressed with what he was saying and his approach.

Nothing much to report from my two classes today so far. I did score some Larabar samples yesterday that I thought I'd share. :D

(Sorry about any typos. I'm posting from my phone.)

DCAC Fitness Conference

I started the morning with a yoga class with Lauren from Yoga I.S. (Yoga Integrated Science) that included some discussion of the origin of yoga and the yamas and niyamas. Then it moved into a flowing yoga practice with variations on sun salutations and a closing meditation. This class was a great way to start the day and kick-off the weekend.

My second class was an indoor cycling class with Keli Roberts that was killer (and I could listen to her Aussie accent all day long)! The focus of the workout was on high intensity training including tough climbs and tabata intervals to increase lactate threshold levels. It was the first time I've used the Schwinn stationary cycles with console and I love being able to view watt output. As any cyclist will tell you, it's how much power you're generating that matters, not only your heart rate. Your heart rate increases when you get scared or are stressed but it doesn't mean you're getting good workout. Power meters help to tell a more complete story and one that you can work to measure and improve over time. So needless to say, I really liked the bike!

I am dripping in sweat right now as I sit here on my lunch break but wanted to give a little update on the day so far.

After lunch I have 3 more classes. First is another cycling class called Release & Relieve. That sounds soothing just what I could use right now! After that it's Creative Yoga Sequences for Core, then ACE's Shifting is the New Lifting to end the first day of the conference.

Happy Friday! Off to finish lunch. :D

Today's Bread

Tomorrow I start my 3-day fitness conference (to keep my yoga, indoor cycling, and personal trainer certifications current) so I'm trying to get a bunch of stuff done today so that tomorrow's dinner will be easier. I have my cycling shorts, yoga mat, and workout clothes packed. Granola bars are wrapped and lunch is almost ready to go.

Tomorrow is usually pizza night but that's being put on hold this week and it's going to be sandwich night instead. Sandwiches are quick and easy, which is just what I'll need when I come home from 11 hours of fitness classes!

I'm making a rye-whole-wheat free-form loaf today, from Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, with which I'll make sandwiches tomorrow.

 

 

Project: Recipe Binder Re-Org

I had 10 years of Cooking Light's and many magazines that were given to me by friends after they read it. I had recipes flagged and page corners folded down, but I rarely looked in them when it came time to meal planning or when I needed some menu inspiration. I went, instead, to my cookbooks and my recipe binder if I was getting in a rut or needing something new.

Enter some minimalism blogs, which I started reading about a year or two ago, and a new mission took root. A mission to reduce the amount of stuff we have. We have too. much. stuff. Not hoarder-type quantity by any means, but the normal we-have-2-kids-and-they've-had-lots-of-birthdays type stuff. And the while-the-kids-were-not-sleeping-we-were-zombies-and-we-were-just-trying-to-keep-our-heads-above-water type stuff.

It got to the point where enough was enough. I don't want my stuff to own me and I don't want to spend my time cleaning around all this stuff OR looking for things when I need them because I can't find which room/bin they are in. The solution was clear. I needed to reduce the amount of stuff we have. So little by little and, literally, one item at a time, I began to get rid of what no longer served me. There's such a sense of relief that comes when ridding your space of things you don't love, use, want, or need anymore.

After being on the get-rid-of-one-thing-a-day routine for maybe about a year, I began going through all of my Cooking Light magazines. I had since stopped my subscription but still had about 10 years of magazines in all sitting on my shelves. I gave myself a wide window of time in which to go through them, and it probably took 3-4 weeks of slowly going through each issue. I tore out the recipes that looked interesting and tried to be honest about only taking ones that I could and would actually make for my family. It ended up being a LOT of pages but I was able to recycle so much more than I kept. The upside is that I now have lots of room on my bookshelf. That breathing space just makes me feel so much better.

That part of the project was a few months ago and the torn-out pages have been stacked in my closet ever since.

I was starting to get annoyed every time I went into my closet (which is every day!) because I would constantly run into "the stack" so I started thinking about why they were still there. I mean I KNOW why they were still there: I had put them there and then not done anything else. But *why* had I left them there? What was stopping me from continuing?

It turns out that the project stalled because I didn't have 3-ring binders (lame) and never wrote them on my shopping list (double lame) and I knew my current category system wasn't going to work because I had changed the way I thought about my whole system since it was created back when I ate meat and therefore had different classifications and processes for how I prepared meals. The 3-ring binders would be easy to acquire but I knew I'd need to give more thought to the actual system and I didn't want to tackle that at the time.

Last week I saw a few large 3-ring binders that had been tossed in the recycling bin and just the sight of them re-ignited my energy for this step of the project, I grabbed those binders, and I plowed through to the finish, putting the binders to good use!

There were some things I had to compromise in the process if I was to continue. Up until now, each of my recipes were kept in clear page protectors, which are perfect for the inevitable splatters and spills that happen during the natural course of cooking. I didn't have enough page protectors at home, nor did I want to buy new ones. So what did I do? I was fierce and did without them. Yep, I punched holes in the magazine pages, and put them in their proper section sans the plastic protector. Most, if not all, of these magazine recipes are ones that I haven't ever cooked before and I made a deal with myself that the ones that I end up loving will graduate to page-protector-housing and ones that I don't love will go straight to the recycling bin. Good stuff!

I currently have the following sections spread over 4 binders (though one of the binders is a super small one, so it will likely be down to 3 in the near future):

• Breakfast/Brunch
• Appetizers, Dips, & Snacks
• Sauces/Rubs/Marinades
• Salads
• Soups
• Grains
• Pasta
• Pizza
• Sandwiches
• Veggies
• Beans/Lentils
• Eggs/Dairy
• Tofu/Tempeh
• Bread
• Dessert
• Smoothies/Beverages
• Energy bars, gels, bites/Granola Bars (yes, strange but true. I have a section for pre-, mid-, and post-workout foods from when I was making my own grub for distance cycling)
• Holiday - a place I can go for when I need to find my favorite recipes that I make once or twice a year when the holiday rolls on by
• Menu Inspiration - articles and notes that are menu driven or where a specific menu is suggested; this helps me when it comes time for entertaining and I completely blank out
• and then there's a special tab for Mike that, for now, I have labeled "Meat for Mike" which makes me laugh... This is my go-to tab for his specific meat-centric favorites (ex. Filet Mignon with Merlot Sauce)

I feel so much better now that all my recipes are in one place, can easily be found, and that I can walk into my closet again without coming face-to-face with an unfinished project!

Posted with Blogsy