My first visit to Minnesota was in 1991 when I went on a bike tour with a crazy bunch of high school and college aged folks. It was a ten-day tour through the southeastern portion of the state. I barely made it into the Twin Cities, but from that moment, I was in love. Maybe [...]
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Nothing Lost, Nothing Gained
I actually expected to gain this week. With the race on the weekend, I took the liberty of eating pasta, pie, and well, everything else, or at least it seemed that way.
Graham Heaven
I’ve been doing a slow but steady purge of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) from our house. A large part of that reduction was eliminating soda from my diet. I’m far from perfect on this, and even though some items still live in my pantry and creep into my daily diet (I might have a little thing or Wheat Thin Fiber Select crackers and Baked Lays), I feel really great about making that adjustment. More importantly, I don’t want Sophie to grow up on a steady diet of HFCS.
Twenties
This was a challenging week food and exercise-wise, so I’m surprised and happy to see that my body’s still shedding unnecessary weight. It was my highest mileage week to date (21 miles over four days) and also the highest calorie-wise. I blame the graham crackers.
Apple Crumble Nom.
This is the recipe. I didn’t use puff pastry, and instead made a batch of pie dough from a Martha Stewart recipe, halving the butter. Because half a cup of butter is enough for a pie, right? I’m sure there are more buttery pies out there, but it tasted fine to me.
Blind baking ensured the crust didn’t get soggy on the bottom. I highly recommend this technique.
Happy Fourth of July, everyone!
Because I’ll try (almost) anything once
Life’s an adventure, right? Let’s add this recipe to the Tried Once and Never Again (especially since a good bar of bittersweet chocolate was sacrificed in the process). Brownies should taste like brownies, even if they’re low-fat or reduced calorie. Something came over me — a brownie fever — and it had been so long [...]
Suits, Cake, and Me Time
April 3, 2008 was the last day I wore this suit, and not comfortably. It fits. Nicely. I never thought I’d get back into this suit. Okay, maybe not never, but I feared it might be eaten by moths by the time it happened. the same moths, by the way, who have been munching on a few of my J.Crew cashmere sweaters. Let’s just say I’m not feeling very charitable toward bugs at the moment.
It turned out I needed to lose 14 pounds. That’s it! Why didn’t I do this sooner?
Quinoa Salad with Spinach, Tomatoes and Feta
I can’t tell you if I’ve ever eaten quinoa before. It’s possible I’ve had it in something and didn’t know it, but I know I’ve certainly never made it myself. I’m starting to get a little bored with the food I’m keeping in my regular rotation. I mean, how many turkey burgers and spinach salads [...]
Facebook, flaxseed, and trying to bake a little goodness into my life
Like millions of people, I have a Facebook account. I’m a little embarrassed to say that I check it fairly regularly, usually when I’m bored at work or trapped on the couch with the baby while she’s eating. In short, this is often. I’m linked to hundreds of people, some very good friends, some who [...]
It’s a Recipe! Italian Turkey Burgers
I knew the only way I’d be able to make this new healthier lifestyle work was to be prepared. This meant not leaving for work without having thoughtfully packed a lunch, otherwise I’d be too tempted to wander to the fast food court across campus. It would be the same with dinner. If I didn’t [...]
Moving on outweighs the costs
Two weeks ago, I dropped my kitchen scale, one of my most valued tools in the kitchen, and it seems to be broken. At the time, I was in a terribly good mood, which is the only reason at the time it didn’t seem like such a big deal. “I’ll look at it,” Scott told [...]
You say tomato, I say make this sauce. Now.
I feel a bit cheated that I only found out about this recipe today. Many people have talked about this sauce on their blogs (too many to list here), and if it weren’t for them, I never would have found this recipe. I was skeptical that one could make a flavorful tomato sauce without the [...]
Not a Recipe (Twice-Baked Mash)
I’m convinced that Thanksgiving by itself is not the reason so many people find they’ve gained a few pounds after the day is over. It’s the leftovers. In our case, we ate Thanksgiving leftovers in some form for four days straight. After Day Two we ran out of stuffing and gravy, but we had a [...]
Thank God I saved the leftovers
The cafe in town occasionally serves this chicken coconut curry soup that is TO DIE FOR. I have been trying to find a recipe that comes close and have failed so far. This post is not about that recipe. To my knowledge, there is not a single restaurant in town that serves French Onion Soup. [...]
When life gives you lemons, make these
Going to Pat’s house is like having a own culinary library at my finger at my disposal. She subscribes to numerous cooking and home mags. I love looking through the ones that I would never buy myself but have gorgeous pictures and occasionally, recipes I think are worth trying. This recipe is for the famed [...]
The post where I lose all of my vegetarian readers
With Thanksgiving coming up and kids present for this year’s dinner (it’s an every other year thing) we’ve been planning our menu for the past week. It’s pretty basic Thanksgiving fare: Turkey, (garlic) mashed potatoes, corn, peas, cranberry sauce (homemade, boo yah), dinner rolls, sweet potatoes, cranberry jello, and pie (pumpkin and apple this year). [...]
Comfort me with frozen pastry
I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned this before, but our range is a piece of shit. I’d date it at almost 20 years old, a hand-me-down Westinghouse something or other that Scott’s had in this house for years. Electric, uneven heat, door that won’t stay closed on the oven. Keeping it shut while baking [...]
Big Tuna
Last month I spent an obscene amount of money on groceries, given the incoming salary. The local IGA runs a good deal on produce, and I just can’t resist a good deal. We’re trying to stock healthier options in the house, so I loaded up on fruits and veggies. Tonight’s low-key dinner consisted of a [...]
Fourth of July Cheese
Every few months it seems I’m replacing the damn power supply for my Powerbook. Yeah, it’s old but it’s what I’ve got and there’s no money to replace it. I’m starting to wonder, as I purchased yet another one today on eBay, if the problem’s with my machine. Is it frying them? I don’t know [...]
Just like in the Bush, but with subtle notes of plastic
Here’s a tip: when baking bread in the oven — bread that’s been rising for hours — you may want to remove the saran wrap from the bread before popping it in the oven. Just a thought. Ever start a recipe, get halfway through and just KNOW in your deepest darkest place that it’s not [...]
Chips and change
I’d been getting outrageously high electric bills for the past four months. I have electric heat in my tiny closet-less apartment, so a high bill in the winter would not normally seem unusual. However, I haven’t run the heat in my place for over a year. Just call it my summer home, or the place [...]
Suomalainen pannukakku
Finnish pancake that got a little burnt. Since this is the only one I’ve ever had, I can’t comment on whether it was any good. I guess it’s time to pay a visit to the Suomi Bakery, a Finnish breakfast favorite in Houghton. I’ve never been, but I hear the food is good. And they [...]
