I’m changing it up a bit, trying out a new template. Let me know what you think.
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Ch-ch-ch-changes
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Cupcake
I don’t feel like I need to explain myself here. It is what it is. So much for that workout this morning, ‘eh.
This last one would have been a lovely shot had the store not had to smoosh the icing so that the cupcake could fit into the packaging. Boo.
Sizzlin’ Samosas
I must be on an Indian-food kick or something …
A college roommate of mine, Bina, was/is a great cook. All sorts of Indian flavors and aromas came from our apartment kitchen. Her menu was mainly Indian, but she also taught me how to make a kickin’ mac & cheese, too. Bina was a local (actually all of my roommates that year were from Chicago. I was the only out-of-towner) so when her parents came to visit or when she returned from a trip home she’d stock the kitchen with jars (and I’m talking spaghetti-sauce jar sizes) full of spices. Jars with no names or labels on them. Having been in the kitchen a few years now, I’m see now that those jars of spices were of cumin seeds, coriander, and turmeric (well the turmeric wasn’t difficult to spot back then, either), but back then Bina would just throw the spices into the pan in a “I-know-what-I’m-doing” kind of way. I bring this all up because Bina had a knack for making homemade samosas. Bina is a vegetarian, and so were the samosas. A crispy outer shell with a spicy, warm potato/pea filling on the inside. I was happy to partake in her cooking adventures.
Flash forward to this weekend. Two days in a row I’ve gone to the MM deli counter to get me a turkey samosa with cilantro chutney. Those suckers are g-o-o-d. But they are obviously deep-fried and I can’t be including that kind of goodness in my diet all that often. So, I went to the Web in search of a samosa recipe that I didn’t have to fry. (I have made samosas before … though back then I used a Moosewood recipe. This time I was in search of something meaty).
I found a few recipes that used Phyllo dough and then found one site that suggested, for oven-baked, to try Puff Pastry. So I did.
The results … were okay. I did a major Top Chef kind of error and forgot to taste the filling. Had I tasted I would have known that I forgot to season it enough (it certainly could have used a little more kick. I was using ground chicken. I wonder if I had uised lamb or beef if it wouldn’t have needed as much but oh well). Anyway … ground chicken, onion, peas, seasoned with fresh garlic and ginger; cumin, curry, turmeric and mint (rather than cilantro). All wrapped up in a thawed out puff pastry sheet cut into 12 pieces.
They are good, not great. And they are far smaller than the ones you see in an Indian restaurant or the Whole Foods or MM deli. The husband just downed three of them with a little bit of mango chutney on the side. The look of the samosa within a puff pastry shell reminds me of the very tasty Chinese beef curry turnover. As I have one more puff pastry sheet hanging out in the freezer, I think I’ll have to try that on for size.
Apple & Almond
I have other tasty dinner photos to display, like chicken stir fry, or pork chops, however this is the most fun and a new one. I was looking for my occasional splurge at MM, specifically a red velvet cupcake. However apparently the market didn’t have any cupcakes so instead I settled on this delightful-looking tart.
Fresh Apple and Almond. The apples with a sweet glaze is remisnicent of apple pie, though the buttery almond crust gives this dessert an upper-class attitude. I’m impressed. Since the husband is banning desserts like these I enjoyed my half one night and what would have been his half the next day. Mmmmm…
Lime Biryani
This one is from Women’s Health Magazine. I often find that trying recipes from fitness magazines can be hit or miss. While the recipes strive to be nutritious and healthy, they often fall in taste and/or flavor. This dish, part of the June 2008 issue’s “Summer Salad” spread, was pretty good. Lime Biryani is full of different textures … quinoa, raisins, carrots, chick peas, and toasted almonds, combined with curry seasoning and fresh lime juice and zest. Fun to make (and not too taxing, though I did have to lug the ol Cuisanart out to get the carrots just so). Also, it keeps, and tastes great the next day.
The best part, of course, is that for once, the photo actually matches (more or less) what they showed me in the magazine. Hurrah!
Quinoa, btw, is quite interesting to work with. Cooks much much quicker than brown rice (15 minutes), and has so many more healthy benefits to it than plain white rice. The texture is also interesting … sorta pops in your mouth.
NROL
Riding home on the Connector provides an opportune time to update the blog. Thanks, Connector!
Just got back from the gym. I think this could be a nice once-a-week routine … going to the gym after work, walking to the Connector bus stop and taking the bus home. It’s a 15-minute walk from the office to the gym, workout, then a 15-minute walk from the gym to the bus stop, all while carrying a hefty laptop backpack. I’ve tried this twice now and I’m liking it, even if I am a morning workout kind of person.
Anyway. Today’s workout nearly wraps up “Stage 1” from “The New Rules of Lifting for Women“. Stage 1 offers 2wo workouts which you alternate, each workout is done 8 times, and you increase your weights 4 times total per workout.
Here are my starting and ending weights (i.e. where I started with workout 1 and where I’ve ended with workout 8:
Workout A:
- Squat: 27.5# / 40#
- Push-Up: 15 BW / 12 BW, using medicine ball under one hand
- Seated Row 75# / 90#
- Step-Ups 12.5# / 20#
- Prone Jackknife 8 / 15
Workout B:
- Barbell Deadlift: 50# / 80#
- DB Shoulder Press: 20# / 27.5#
- Wide Grip Lat Pull Down: 75# / 90#
- DB Lunge: 15# / 20#
- Swiss Ball Crunch: 15 / 30 with arms extended overhead
Often times I would finish the workout and would feel the need to continue exercising. On those days I either did intervals or extra core after the workout. When I did intervals I mainly stayed on the erg but occasionally on the elliptical trainer. On the erg I would do 3 or 4 sets of a tabata row (4 minute pieces, 20″ on, 10″ off, resting 2 minutes in between each piece). Most recently I just did a 1-minute on, 2 minute-off interval, where I upped the intensity with each piece. The gym, by the way, recently increase the number of ergs. Oh boy I got to use a brand new one! Those are the best because no one’s messed with the chains too much yet. When I added extra core I would do 60″ planks; stability ball pass overs; medicine ball side rotations, anything I felt like doing.
Some things I learned … I do not like barbell dead lifts. Either I do them wrong or they are really hard. Or a combo of both … Prone jackknives are hard but fun, and the trick is to look at the floor near your hands, and not down at the ball … and, for some reason, if a book instructs me to increase my weights each week, I will. Why I don’t listen to the husband who has been telling me this for I don’t know how many years, we’ll never know. Trust me that it is a HUGE deal in the household that I would have the gall to follow a book’s instruction and not the husband.
I say I am nearly adone because all that is left in Stage one is the “AMRAP” where you do the exercises with the weights you used from your first workouts, but you do them to exhaustion, basically. And then I graduate to Stage 2, which I haven’t reviewed fully yet, but I believe I’ll be doing some form of a barbell deadlift. Oh boy.
In all, am enjoying this. Upping the weights so frequently makes it kind of interesting, and I am kicking myself for not doing that on my own.
Oh yes, THANKS, Kate, for recommending the book! And to Sis, for getting it for me for my birthday!
Berry Tasty Berry Crisp
Do you remember this sad sight? Well, I mentioned my poor pie crust making skills to the mother-in-law (she had given me a beautiful pie plate for my birthday). She responded, admitting to her own meager pie-crust beginnings, wherein she admitted to approaching her mother-in-law for her recipe. Then, she offered to hand down Grandma’s recipe to me, which I gladly accepted.
When I saw her at brunch yesterday, she gave me the recipe. I had pictured an age-old 3×5 recipe card, stained with shortening and specks of flour, displaying the signs of having been referred to over and over again. But rather than that she handed me a book, Great Pies and Tarts, by Carole Walter. In the book a page was flagged with a pie crust recipe from the 1930s. Brilliant! I had envisioned this family recipe, perhaps a secret one, being handed to me to care for and such and instead I received a new book from Borders. Apparently the original book the mother-in-law was looking for by Walter was no longer being published, but this one had the pie crust recipes which is really what mattered.
The cookbook, by the way, is so much fun to read. Especially as we approach another dessert-less week (remember, the husband and I are cutting back on the processed foods/desserts). I read it like a coffee table book or a magazine. Flip through it, find a fun recipe, read the the story behind it, salivate salivate salivate.
So, after a day of doing this it should come to no surprise that I felt the need to experiment in the kitchen a bit tonight. I had some frozen berries I had thawed (intended to have them for lunch but didn’t) and a dream of a berry crisp. I found a three-berry crisp recipe from Walter and just sort of went with it.
In a small ramekin, I sprinkled the thawed berries (raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries) with some sugar and corn starch. Crumbled on top, a mixture of whole wheat flour, melted butter, sugar, baking powder and cinnamon. Then some chocolate chips on top. Baked at 350 degrees for 30 minutes (until the berries were bubbly).
Fun and sweet. And tart. I probably could have used a little bit more sugar in the berries, though the chocolate chips were a sweet surprise in each bite.
So long for a dessert-less week. On the other hand, this was a cheaper, homemade alternative. Hard to beat that.
Cake
I attended a super-fun baby shower over the weekend. It was held at Mike’s house in The ‘Quah, as I like to call it, hosted by Marissa and Carol, and featuring mum-to-be MJ. MJ’s mom took tons of photos, sent them out this morning and of course the only photo I look for is the one of the cake. Marissa has cake-baking in her blood (seriously, her mom is a professional baker), so I ALWAYS look forward to tasting whatever treats she brings. (I remember one work potluck she showed up with this awesome mocha-swirly decadent cheesecake. It put my sad pumpkin-chocolate-chip muffins to shame. Shame, I tell you!)
Details on the cake … yellow cake with raspberry jam and fresh raspberries in the center. The icing was a light and airy whipped topping (“stabilized whipped cream”, as Marissa put it), that I’ve always loved but never knew how to make. Now I know to look for BetterCream or PastryPride. On the top of the two-layer cake were these very cute mini-cakes, shaped like those wooden toy blocks that everyone played with as a tot. These little blocks were a chocolate cake with Nutella, and had whipped cream as the filling.
Now, I didn’t taste the chocolate cake, but the yellow cake was amazing. I was most impressed with the presentation. Some day, maybe, just maybe I could move out of my Muffins 101 level and become an advanced-placement cake baker, too.
Now that I’ve spent 242 words on the cake, I can also say that I had a great time at the shower. Pink was the theme for the day (you assume correctly if you think MJ is expecting a little baby girl), and we all oohed and aahed over the adorable pink outfits that MJ kept unwrapping. M & C did a fantastic job with coordinating everything, from the invites, to the decorations, to the goodie bag treats and the fun ‘catered’ lunch boxes with the girly cursive and pink themes. Loved it. Just made me smile.
Leftovers
One night we had a rotisseire chicken and with the leftovers I made a simple chicken salad. Eggless mayo (some day, I can tell you how it came about that we have eggless mayo in our refridgerator), celery, grapes and of course chicken chunks. I used a leftover flour tortilla (the husband had prepared quesadillas a few nights earlier), and served it with some leftover brown rice on the side. It’s always nice to go the extra step and enjoy leftovers with a slight twist.
yum
Health kick
The household is on a health kick (at least during the work week). The husband has been cutting down on carbs and upping the salad/vegetable ante. I’m still eating some carbs, but not as much as before. Here are a couple of Japanese-inspired meals that we had this week.
First, marinated seared tuna, alongside some California rolls. The Calif rolls were store-bought, but the tuna is a husband specialty:
A nice, light dinner is all you need, though many of us are accustomed to having a heavy meal late in the day.
Here, the husband whipped up the remaining buckwheat soba noodles we had in the house, and combined it with some stir fry vegetables. It was simply cooked in chicken broth. Again, nice a simple.
