Category: Eats

Thanks

~ meh ~ 3 Comments

Then, of course, there are the things that just plain make you glad to be alive. Aside from the smell of garlic simmering in olive oil, what and whom am I thankful for?

Things I have been particularly thankful for this weekend include:

  • Living near the in-laws, who provide us with weekly food and dog-sitting and a particularly amazing Thanksgiving dinner (thank you, Bernie and Marsha)
  • The sun (I think I got burned on my run this morning…in late November.  Yesssssss)
  • Breaking Bad, for getting me through my 2 hour ride on the trainer Thanksgiving morning
  • Paul, for running out to CVS when, 30 minutes into the above-mentioned ride on the trainer, I experienced a minor meltdown because I realized that a.) the batteries on our Wii controller had died, b.) there is no other way to move onto the next episode without a Wii controller, c.) we were out of AA batteries, and d.) we don’t have cable
  • The group that swims at the early morning practice, for really attempting to race backwards freestyle at 6am just because I told them to…even though I am pretty sure they knew it was solely for my own entertainment
  • And, of course, for all the people in my life, near and far. Wish I could see you all every day.

Happy Thanksgiving weekend.

Side-note (but not totally off topic), great article by Mark Bittman in last week’s NYT that, in the midst of all the bad news about food today, finds the good (and a shout out to Alix who is one of those that has started a small farm in the past 5 years. Woot.)

YES YOU CAN!

~ meh ~ 1 Comment

And…we did.  Another exciting Friday night at our house.

I came home from work a few weeks ago to veggies, jars, and vinegar on the counter, samurai movies on TV…

…and Paul having a great time.

When he was in Costa Rica this past July the mother of the house where he was staying made this special chili (I’m blanking on the name…basically some sort of pickled onions and peppers) to put on their gallo pinto.  Paul was obsessed.   So, of course, it was the first thing he tried to can.

A little history: Paul had attempted to make kimchi when we lived in San Francisco, and it was one of the more disgusting experiments I’ve ever had the opportunity to witness.  So I was/am skeptical.

ANYWAY!  How does it work?

First, get a magazine or book like above (I found that at Meijer) devoted to the art of canning and preserves.  You will also need a big pot:

Some mason jars (which you can reuse):

Metal screw bands (which you can also reuse) and lids (which need to be new):

A jar funnel:

And a special pair of tongs to pick up the jars (note: all of this stuff, except for the lids, came in a canning kit I found at the local hardware store.)

Wash the jars and the lids, fill the big pot with water and bring it to a boil.

Fill the jars with whatever it is you’re canning (in this case, chopped carrots, onions, a few types of peppers, and vinegar…jams are a lot more complicated than just slicing and pouring), screw on the lids nice and tight and use the tongs to place the cans into the big pot of boiling water.

And let the jars sterilize:

After about 5-10 minutes (depending on the size of the jar), take them out of the pot and let them cool off for a few hours.  This is where all the excitement happens: you can hear the jars suctioning shut as they cool.  Paaar-tay.

After that, they’re done!

…and, in this case, ready to sit for a while while they ferment.   Ta da!  Some sort of chili to put on beans.

Update to follow on how it tastes.

Best discovery this year

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I have to thank Mindy Kaling for reuniting me with an old friend.

My diet in SF consisted of 4 basic staples:

  • Pho (ideally from Sai’s, but I wasn’t too picky)
  • Some kind of noodle from King of Thai Noodlehouse 2
  • Burritos (and an occasional taco) from La Taq
  • Vietnamese sandwiches (or Banh Mi)

While I have found (some sort of) placeholder for pho, Thai, and burritos here in Kentucky, I haven’t had a Vietnamese sandwich in over a year and a half.  Until this weekend.

Following these simple instructions (namely what to pickle the carrots in) I was taken back to my post-swim Saturday mornings in the city.  The basics:

  • Sliced carrots–throw them in a tupperware for a few hours wiht some rice vinegar, half teaspoon of sugar, and a dash of salt (the last time we made them we only pickled them for like an hour…the longer the better, but an hour or two works fine).  You can also throw some onions in there too if you’d like.
  • Sliced cucumber (no pickling necessary)
  • Chopped cilantro (if you like cilantro…which I do…I personally feel as though this is a crucial ingredient to the sammie, but again, this is YOUR banh mi, so you do what you want)
  • Thinly sliced fresh jalapenos
  • Mayo
  • Sriracha
  • A loaf of soft baguette
  • Fresh rotisserie chicken (just pull the meat off and tear it into pieces.)

It may not be Saigon Sandwich or Les Croissants, but it’s not too far off.  And it could not be easier.  Ingredients are simple, they last for a while and make great leftovers, and it takes about 3 minutes to prepare.  And the whole part about heating up the chicken and letting it sit in aluminum foil is absolutely true. Oh my god so good.

So now I am back on the Banh Mi train.   Like every day.

For more on how to find, make, and love the Banh Mi, go here.

Blobtoberfest

~ meh ~ 6 Comments

The really upsetting part about the above picture is that a person I had met a few times who coincidentally works with one of my friends saw this picture on my friend’s phone at work and was like, “Oh wait, I know that girl, she works at the triathlon shop, right?”

October = sloth.  Time off from training combined with approaching holidays and travel over the past few weeks has resulted in…tighter pants and a real knack for convincing myself that I’d really be better off staying on the couch with my pumpkin beer “recovering” (from what, I don’t know) than getting up and going for a run.

Enter: Operation New Leaf.

A number of my friends (namely triathletes) are taking major steps to improve their diet and nutrition as the new season approaches.  So I decided that in the spirit of turning things around and making healthier choices next season I am going to start early and do the same…sort of.

Here is our office:

OK, that’s a blueprint of the Dunder Mifflin office, but it’s not SO far off.   We even have a Michael, Stanley, and Phyllis that work here.

Our office has these:

Everywhere.  All year long.  Not just for Halloween.  (And this is a small bowl…but I didn’t want people thinking I was a weirdo taking pictures of the office candy.)

Here is me:

I love sugar.    Here is how our office is set up:

The orange line denotes the path from the front door to my desk, the green line is the bathroom to my desk, and the pink dashed line is my alternative route.  The angry tornadoes are, obviously, baskets of processed sugar.  This is the challenge I face every day-after-sedentary-day. And pretty much every day I lose.

So my major, revolutionary, dietary life change?  I’m not going gluten free…or sugar free…or even candy free…just NO MORE CRAP AT WORK.  Today was my first day.  I made it.

Baby steps to the elevator.

Beet it

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…and they’re arriving.  Our garden finally started producing vegetables during the month that Paul was in Costa Rica.  Unfortunately, Paul was gone during that month, and I don’t like beets.  So I gave this one to Marsha.

We also have baby watermelons, gallons of tomatoes, peppers, carrots (which Paul thought was parsley, so he picked it too early), cabbage, broccoli (which went bad because I wasn’t sure how to pick it), colonel mint, and strawberries.  The blueberry and raspberry plants are also growing OK, but probably won’t produce any fruit until next year.

RIP corn, lavender, the blackberry plant that Spike ate, and Paul’s edamame that he planted on bald spots IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LAWN (a landscaper unexpectedly cleaned up our back yard last week and mowed over them.  That’s what you get.)

Recipes to follow.

Happy Labor Day!

~ meh ~ 1 Comment

Late, I know.

Lexington has been making an effort to do more community events, and the Friday of Labor Day weekend was a good one.  Welcome to the Fest of Ales.

Look at all those beer pourers.  For $25 you got a mini glass and 20 tickets (about 7 beers, if you used them all…which no one did) to try out a whole bunch of different brews.  The whole town was out, it was great.  And people wore great shirts.

Unfortunately, the Fest underestimated how many people would partake (and how many of their pourers would adopt a “one for you, one for me” policy) and ran out of beer a little early.  So a group of us headed to a bar for one more drink.

It was there that I witnessed one of the more amazing mobile apps currently on the market: Roqbot.  For a fee, it lets you re-arrange the order of the queue on the jukebox in a bar.  So obviously Paul’s friend who had the app started playing “Who Let the Dogs Out” every other song.  He is already responsible for having the app banned in 3 bars in town.

Anyway, it was there that things degenerated pretty quickly.

We left before it got too ugly.

The previous week I had told a friend that I would join her on a bike ride Saturday morning with the Bluegrass Cycling Club.  BCC was offering a 10 mile (family ride), 30 mile, and 56 mile option.  My friend and I were doing the 56 mile ride (even though I hadn’t been on my bike since Steelhead, it got a little jacked up on the trip home and I just got it tuned up last week).

Paul was going to do the 30 mile option, since he hadn’t ridden his bike in like 5 months, but after some mild harassment he gave into the 56 miler too.  So we pulled our not-unhungover selves out of bed at 7:30 and headed out to the country.

The weather was gorgeous.

…but then it got hot.  Really hot.  And the shade disappeared.

We were getting baked.  Paul started to suffer.  The last 15 miles weren’t pretty.  The rest of the weekend was recovery.

Oh, and I came in from my run today and decided to turn on the local news while I stretched and this was on TV.

Apparently I’ve been away from local TV for too long, I had NO IDEA stuff like this was seriously still on.  The soundtrack was amazing.