Desserts of December 2014

Posted on December 28, 2014 by chatty

I was surprised to make it out of Thanksgiving without gaining any pounds on the scale. It’s not like I’ve done an overabundant amount of exercise. I’ve just been trying to maintain, more or less. Even my best motivational attempts at getting a group of like-minded friends together to run once a week around the neighborhood didn’t pan out (didn’t help that on the first morning of our alleged start, it was 20 degrees and I found myself texting the group at 7AM that there was no way I was going out. Maybe next time I don’t do that).

Anyway, we’ll see what December brings. I’ve not paid attention to the scale the last few weeks (I know, I know, I shouldn’t pay attention to it anyway, but I can’t help it. It’s who I am). So let’s see if, after a month of drinks and dinners and desserts and, of course, you gotta bake (and eat) those Santa cookies, I’m anywhere close to where I’m supposed to be.

Nutella Latte from Tutta Bella. Salad and pizza preceded this. And maybe some Chianti.

Some 12th Man, Ninja, and Winter-themed cookies. Santa chose one of each, I believe.

Bacon-wrapped dates stuffed with almonds. A nice appetizer for Christmas made by yours truly. Husband was hoping the bacon would be wrapped around something else. So, I’ll have to think of something for New Year’s Eve.

Salami, Cream Cheese and Onion. “There’s onion in these,” the kid explained to me. That’s why she didn’t want to try it.

Gingerbread cake with chocolate chips; cream cheese frosting. They call this thing, where you don’t frost the sides, “Naked” (I did a similar one for Thanksgiving). This three-layers was provided by Husband’s aunt.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins. Just because. I think maybe Kid and I were bored. I wanted to do muffins that grow out of the cup like that. All you do is fill them to the very top. Neato.

A fancy coconutty tapioca type dessert from Joule (It’s called the Joule box. Order it)

Another Joule dessert: milk chocolate mousse with sesame cake and miso caramel. Brilliant.

Little Cheeseburger from Five Guys, after seeing “Big Hero 6”

Oh December, we had such fun (so much so I’m going to give myself a few more days to enjoy)…

WODs of November 2014

Posted on December 28, 2014 by chatty

Life has been busy, and I haven’t even been cooking much. I have been doing my usual exercise thing, more or less, though. I’ve been doing this Crossfit thing for over 2 years now, and I’m now debating what’s next for me. I’m certainly stronger, but my body shape is … weird. In a good way, I guess. Sort of related, am I the only one to notice that the people who design women’s shirts for the Gap don’t believe you should have any upper body strength or something? Just wondering.

Here is November’s workouts. In a few days, I’ll probably post Decembers. Sorry so late.

Only me and one other guy, Scott, opted for the 5K run. My time is a minute or more slower than the previous test. So, most of my benchmarks are worse. Do what you will with that information.

Again, a slower benchmark. But this time it’s because I stupidly tried to do Fran at 65#. Stupid.

Hmm. Though I can’t remember this one, the presence of DUs leads me to believe it wasn’t an easy one for me.

In the original crossfit open version of this, the weight increased with each increase of reps. Such a bad a idea. I don’t remember this one much, but it looks like I was just slightly lower than some of the strong guys in this class. This was the day I then went on a plane to visit my buddies in Chicago (see previous post). Not a great workout to do right before jumping on a plane.

Yeah.

One of my coaches, Jess, has been great at giving me cues to improve my DUs, and it’s sorta kinda beginning to pay off. I still have trouble, but have been stringing more together lately. The most recent observation she made was to slow down my hands since my feet can’t keep up. You’d think maybe I would have figured that one out myself. I didn’t.

Seems like I didn’t take many photos here. I was also out for a number of days, in my (weak defense).

Chicago! (My kind of town)

Posted on November 30, 2014 by chatty

So, Disneyland was my second trip of the month. My first was a weekend in Chicago to help celebrate Bel’s birthday. Despite a comfy bed and an exhausting night (maybe staying up until 2 a.m. isn’t an issue when I was a college student in Chicago, but it’s a different thing 20 years later), I was up early enough our first full day for a quick morning run. So, these are my running pics. We stayed at theWit, on State and Lake (which looks WAY different than I remember, even from 10 years ago when I was in grad school), so found a quick loop to do that didn’t kill me, but burned did just enough to let me have a more than enjoyable breakfast at Glazed and Infused, a crazy (good) doughnut spot that happened to be along this run route.

That’s what we always called it. I don’t even know the official name. This is where House of Blues is, where we may or may not have spent a long night drinking

So gaudy. Thanks, Donald, thanks

Water Tower. The only time to get a shot of this is early in the morning when no one else is awake

Now when I see this I think of “Divergent” Not happy thoughts, mind you.

Now known as Macy’s. Across the street from our hotel. Miss you.

Chicago Theater, just because.

Why go running early in the morning? So I can come here later in the morning.

My kind of town

Great memories, this city.

Scenes from The Happiest Place on Earth

Posted on November 29, 2014 by chatty

Happy holidays from Disneyland

So … this happened. Here are a few photos. Thing is, I wish I had more to share, but I was sort of in the moment. We had a really fun time. We didn’t tell the kid about the D-word until the night before. Heck, I didn’t even tell her she’d be seeing her cousins until we were about to enter the security line at the airport. And truth be told, she was more excited about that than anything. But then again, I’m not sure she knew what exactly Disneyland was until we went through the gates.

Tink was cute and sassy. Played to the crowd, whether you were a six-year-old or a thirteen-year-old. Possibly my favorite character

Cinderella was all business. But the kiddo did get a curtsy in, which was super cute.

Ariel was sweet, too. Say “Mermaids!” I had hoped that the kid would be more inquisitive with the princesses, but I think she was just a bit overwhelmed

Definitely overwhelmed here. We had to stategize to make sure we had tickets to see the hottest queen and princess in the land. Totally worth it! And not too long a wait. Star Tours was way worse.

Olaf hangs out with you while you wait your turn to visit the Queen of Arrendale.

Frozen and decorated for the holidays. I returned to the Magic Kingdom after dark to ride Space Mountain. A different place

So. Yeah. Probably won’t be able to top this trip for a while.

Thanksgiving Desserts 2014

Posted on November 28, 2014 by chatty

Pumpkin Pie!!!!

I made a pumpkin pie because I always do. It’s my thing: pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce. Seriously, you can’t find an easier job (unless your job is to have your wife make the easy pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce.)

This year’s pumpkin pie was the easy one that was essentially the recipe you find on the side of the can, with the most difficult part being making the crust. There’s always this weird part in the process where I suddenly panic that the pie pan/crust is too large for the amount of filling, then I throw it in the anyway and somehow it always works out. I wish my AllRecipes app could let me leave a note to myself for next year that says, “chill out, it’ll all work out” but it doesn’t. So, memo to self to ask the app makers to create a memo section.

The kid and I did this first one together, and by 4 p.m. on Wednesday the pie was already cooling, and I felt like doing something more. The kid had been talking about carrot cake for quite some time so I decided, what the heck, I really want to bring something else. The kid did not feel like helping this time.

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This carrot cake is courtesy of AllRecipes (my go-to for these types of things), with a few substitutions. I replaced a 1/2 cup of oil with applesauce. I used a combination of plain greek (2%) yogurt and skim milk/lemon juice as a sub for buttermilk (none at the store, which maybe is what you get for going there on the night before the big day). And left out the coconut flakes due to preference (everyone else’s, I suspected). Also, maybe 1/4 cup of raisins instead of the cup in the recipe. Mainly because of what we had in the house.

It was yum. I used Chef John’s cream cheese frosting, which I couldn’t get quite smooth,but was great nonetheless. In fact, the kid, upon receiving her piece of cake, licked the frosting off, including the middle layer, and left the cake be. She gave it a sideways thumb (unlike the thumbs up she gave that pumpkin pie). I suppose the only reason why it wasn’t a thumbs down was that cream cheese frosting.

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Lastly, the husband’s aunt brought a beautiful pie courtesy of Lisa DuPar catering. Pecan, with a spiced whipped cream. Amazing. I may or may not have gotten up at 5:45 a.m. today to cut myself a slice because I didn’t have any at dinner last night, on account of how full I was yesterday.

A few random food pics of sweet things from yesterday:

My snack before heading over to “Papa and Gaga’s” … Added to the list of pumpkin stuff I tried, and liked. Prior to the eating workout I went for a run. 4 miles = 400 calories = justification for a second slice of dessert

I don’t drink soda much anymore. But it’s hard to pass up a glass of Martinelli’s.

The two-layer cake was surprisingly successful. How do I repeat this every time?

Busy kitchen

PLUS, the Seahawks won! WOOT. Truly thankful, indeed.

Smashing pumpkin (pancake egg sandwich)

Posted on November 5, 2014 by chatty

A few pumpkins watch as I eat, yup, some pumpkin pancakes. Sorry, guys.

The husband makes a terrific egg sandwich that we like to call, the Greg McMuffin. What, you didn’t know the husband’s name is Greg? Who exactly is reading this, anyway?

He recently added to his menu the McGregle Sandwich. Yes, the name needs some work. It’s essentially egg, ham and cheese nestled between two pancakes.

So for dinner one desperate Sunday night I decided to one-up him, and pull out the always popular pumpkin pancakes, and turned them into an egg sandwich, though, now I need a name for ’em.

Egg McCha-gle? No. Egg Pumpkin Pancake Sandwich? Boring. Chattycha’s Most Eggs-cellent Adventure?

A little help here…

Ventoux, woohoo

Posted on November 4, 2014 by chatty

New coffee place up the street. The espresso is good. The treats are nice, too. The place is a couple doors down from crossfit, which is nice, if I ever thought to bring my wallet with me at 5:30 in the morning, and if I had time to enjoy an americano in the morning before heading to work. I do not.

But, I did test it out with the kiddo. They offer Mighty-O donuts, which the kiddo approved. Sure, they’re vegan. But they’re good.

The second time I was there it was mid-morning, with an okay crowd (most of the tables occupied), and I did recognize a few crossfitters, so I’m glad someone is making use of the post-workout espresso option.

That little corner of our neighborhood becomes more and more inviting. Hooray!

Ventoux Roasters. 3404 NE 55th St.

Scenes from Halloween 2014

Posted on November 3, 2014 by chatty

It’s late. I’m tired. You won’t know that it’s late because I schedule my posts out sometimes. And you probably won’t even see this when I post it anyway, and is anyone actually seeing this at all? But, I digress.

While the kiddo’s costume was secured way back in July, everything else came together kinda late, with our last pumpkin being carved a day or two before the big day. I usually try to have it together earlier than that.

On top of that, I didn’t have the energy to make up some story about how the Halloween fairy will come in at night and take away all of the candy and in exchange leave a gift. I just told the girl, “hey, you’re not eating all that candy, so why do’nt you give me most of it, keep a few pieces, and in exchange I’ll buy you a toy”

“Okay.” Wow. that was easy.

Snacks from the kid’s class party. I didn’t do these. A very cool hip mama of a cool hip kid in class did these. But, aren’t they clever?

The kiddo asked if we could make zombie cookies. As it turned out, earlier that week I was at Cost Plus and saw a box of, you guessed it. So, I bought them when they went on sale and we did these, actually finally frosting them the day after Halloween. Fun times.

Jack, from “The Nightmare Before Christmas”. I had considered the logo from “Ghostbusters” but decided it was too complicated.

Max, photobombing Jack

Monster creature.

She’s wearing a hoodie underneath that Elsa costume, because, actually the cold does bother her. Her mother, too

Fun times.

WODs of October 2014

Posted on November 3, 2014 by chatty

I blinked and suddenly it was Halloween. And now all the stores are hawking their holiday wares. It’s like they’re not even trying to hide the fact that they’re starting so early anymore. We’ve all become immune or something.

Workouts continue. Some better than others. Here’s a peek, in no particular order:

I do remember finishing this one and actually saying something like, ‘wow, this was pretty good’. On occasion the workouts we do balances out the heavy squatting we’ve been doing during our “skill set” portion of class. This is an example of that.

This was a Friday, our “de-load” day. I didn’t do HS PUs, but instead just held the HS for 30 sec or something. I see we did DUs here which leads me to believe I did not enjoy this one. If you squint to see the times you’ll notice I was the last one done, by like a couple of minutes.

Instead of the 100m sprints in the rain we did 250m sprints on the erg. If anything, I’m consistent.

Core to the max. We called those skater jumps “apolo ohnos”

This was a good one, with decent rest in between each set.

The pull ups were killing me on this one. A lot of resting, a lot of bands. A lot of counting by 3’s

Yep

Halloween WOD. Our fearless leader Jess dressed up as an 80s aerobics instructor. We ended up combining times as two teams. To win it, i think your best bet is to do the front squats for the minute, and do them quickly, to outpace what you would have gotten were you to d squat cleans. At least, that was my strategy. Unless my legs couldn’t handle it any more.

Oh, look. Doubleunders. And look at that low score next to said DUs. Sheesh. Actually being as this was a while ago I have very little memory of it. See how I can just block these out of my head?

So, after 2+ years of crossfit, I finally found myself doing a 2K. And, it wasn’t as dreadful I had feared. Oh, wait. It was. My time, not great, but I’ll take it … especially if I don’t have to do another one for 2 more years.

Well, then.

People don’t realize how difficult jumping squats or split squats are until they have to do them repeatedly. I won’t forget the workouts from The New Rules of Lifting, which incorporated both into their workouts. Ouch, just ouch. I chose the jumping squats.

I used a dumbbell instead of a kb. 25#, maybe? Yep.

Yes, 3 1/2 min more goodness, with the goal of hitting half of your original 7 minute number. I made it, and I also beat my previous record for 7 min. We later found out that some of the classes didn’t do the 3 1/2 minute portion. The risks that come with attending the first class of the day.

Good month of workouts here.

What’s for dessert?

Posted on October 19, 2014 by chatty

No, kid, you don’t get dessert every night. Why? Because I say so. Because I’m the Mommy. Because I certainly didn’t have dessert every night when I was a kid.

But, you know, I can’t help that I have a horrendous sweet tooth. I’m actually a dessert-first kind of gal. Not something I can admit to you right now, but you’ve probably guessed it. So, here, have a couple of gummy bears and be on your way. Tomorrow, you’ll get that Dum-Dum lollipop. The following day, okay, a cookie. Just one! Okay, just two!!

Okay. But, wait! What do I have here? You want dessert, how about a whip up a little bit of trail mix right before your eyes. Roasted coconut chips … banana chips … walnuts and almonds … some raisins … Voila! Dessert created, right before your eyes.

Yes, this is dessert. Now, on your way!

Chatty Cha

dessert first