Summer Running and Summer Salads

John and I are about to take some time off for the wedding. Ever since my area exam I've been working what I think of as regular hours on my dissertation in order to take a long period of time off this summer. My brain feels something like this Rameau tornado:

Some day I'll write a real post about my dissertation research, but you know, not right now. Suffice to say I'm ready for a break. 

In the mean time, John and I have been running a lot of miles and making a lot of salads out of Appetite for Reduction. I wanted to save the salad recipes for the summer when veggies are fresh and haven't traveled as far. So far, the salads in this book are blowing my mind. Every one of them is so good and has a dressing so delicious I could eat it with a spoon.

Above: Goddess Niçoise, with green beans, cherry tomatoes, potatoes, and a delicious green dressing with chives, cilantro, and miso, among other ingredients. 

Below: Edamame Sushi Roll Salad. Holy crap, this is good. We served it with dressing on the side, and as suggested, a dish with soy sauce and a little wasabi. I dipped each bite in both and it tasted so much like sushi! The salad itself has edamame and brown rice sprinkled on lettuce, with carrots, cucumbers, avocado, and sesame seeds. And the dressing tastes a lot like the ginger dressing common in Japanese restaurants. I wanted to lick the bowl.

And, since blogging transitions are for chumps, here's some running stuff. 

This summer, I've been following the 10k training plan from Run Less, Run Faster. The point was to sort of shake things up, since I feel like I'm not really running up to my potential in races and I was getting kind of bored with my routine. I wanted to be challenged, and I'm getting my wish. Every work out has very specific time goals based on previous race times, and every single one has been HARD. But hard in a good way. I don't think I'm hurting myself and I've noticed a lot of improvement in the five weeks or so that I've been using the plan. Every run has a very definite purpose now, and it's more mentally engaging than what I was used to. 

Since I'm running a half marathon in October, I'm just using the 10k plan now to get in shape to do the half marathon plan. And it's a pretty tough 10k plan compared to what I've done. Last week's longest run was 10 miles, meant to be run at a 9:38-per-mile pace. I've been able to run most of the runs at the proscribed time, but I've taken breaks that are not part of the plan. Even though every run is specifically timed, I've tried to maintain flexibility in my attitude, since I'm just sort of training to train at this point. I just want to get used to running this way, internalizing different paces. It can be mentally grueling and difficult for a perfectionist such as myself if I take the times too literally. All the sudden a 10:00-per-mile average pace for a 9 mile run can feel like a failure because it wasn't the proscribed time. That's crazy talk and it's ultimately not helping.

In order to combat that rigidity, I decided that for my 10 mile run last week I would ditch my usual route and try a new part of town, complete with a woodsy trail system I'd never visited called Medway Forest. I ran from home to Huron College, the Anglican college affiliated with Western. There's an entrance to the trail system just behind the college. I hoped to approximate a route, based on the map and John's previous experience, that included about 2 miles on the trail system. But it's virtually impossible to know exactly how far the trail goes just by looking at the map, so I knew the route I mapped was just a guess. On top of that, trails tend to slow me down. The whole run provided a much needed refresher from the Run Less, Run Faster method. 

What was meant to be 2 miles turned out to be more like 3. Even though the trails on the map look like they kind of dead end, they are mostly connected by smaller, unofficial trails, some very rocky and some pleasantly wide and run-able. I got out my phone a couple of times to look myself up on the GPS (and snap a photo), but I knew to keep the river to my right. I eventually popped out of the trail system on Wonderland, a main drag in town, and kept going for about 5 more miles. 

I have to say, Medway Forest is kind of amazing. It's beautiful, and much bigger than it looks on the map, and the trees are tall like the ones at the Pinery. I truly felt like I was miles away from London, which was another mental escape. I definitely want to incorporate it again, maybe with the GPS watch so that I know how far I've really run.

This run was so encouraging. Running the trail portion at a slower-than-proscribed pace made the rest of the run feel amazing. I ended up taking 1:42:xx to run about 10 miles, and I'm pretty pleased with that, since I did some walking and maneuvering on the trail. I didn't feel like I'd been hit by a truck at the end of the run, and while I'm sure the cooler weather helped with that, I think it also means the new running plan is paying off. And that just gave me more motivation to get back into the plan this week! Of course, traveling for the wedding will mean some slight alterations in the plan, and at some point I have to actually switch from the 10k plan to the half marathon plan. But I'm enjoying all the fast running. Pushing myself has been so rewarding thus far.

Almost Here

Kind of a lot of things are about to happen. I'll present them in a convenient (lazy) list format. But first, here are some things that happened recently: 

1. We went to Gen Pop, a dance party/fundraiser that my friend Matthew organizes. It benefits an LGBT youth group in London. This month, Gen Pop took place on Good Friday,* so they hid Eggs filled with chocolate and condoms all around the venue for guests to find. I found three!

2. John and I have continued to work our way through the Appetite for Reduction. Here's the caesar salad with smokey, roasted egg plant on top (how does she make the dressing taste so good?!):

We also made this chipotle chili with sweet potatoes and brussels sprouts. I know it sounds like an odd combination of things, but this chili was delicious! It's great with any kind of corn bread, obviously.

3. On Holy Saturday, we had an Easter brunch at our house with friends from school. I took this picture of the table before everyone arrived, so it's an incomplete representation of what we ate. Not shown: crepes, eggs, crumpets, and lots of Bailey's in coffee. I also started to make a drink composed of Bailey's, a splash of cream, and a splash of whiskey. I know, I know, there is whiskey in Bailey's. But a touch of it on the top of the drink kind of turned the rest of the flavors up to eleven. I call it: the Irish Russian. Like a black Russian, but with Bailey's and whiskey, instead of vodka.

Side note: after brunch, we went to see The Quartet. Music student friends, have you seen this movie? It's charming. Several of the characters reminded me of voice professors at Indiana. 

4. For lunch this week, John and I made this salad with chickpeas, lentils, tahini, and feta from Smitten Kitchen. Two thumbs way up. I made a second batch of it today. Tomorrow we're going to brunch at Matthew's house and I'm bringing blackberry gin fizzes (also from Smitten Kitchen) to drink. I'll test the recipe and report back.**

5. It's April, and yet this was our weather this week: snow, as fast and hard as snow can fall for about 15 minutes. It was a total white out while I waited for the bus. Fifteen minutes later, it was bright and sunny. As one of my friends posted on facebook last week, "Go home Spring. You're drunk." 

6. Back to our original topic: lots of exciting things are about to take place. My area exam (a defense of my dissertation proposal) will take place between May 6th and 10th, but that means a lot of writing and editing in the next week. I only have time now to write this blog post because I've spent a lot of the day trying to determine exactly when Newton's theories gained traction in France (the actual content of my dissertation proposal is the subject of another post, one that I hope to write after my proposal is eventually accepted and the problems have been hammered out). Once I've submitted it to the committee, I'll have lots of time to grade final exams, make delicious foods, and do research for my RA-ship (for which I actually get paid by the hour - hooray!). But until then, I have a lot of Rameau work waiting for me. So by extension, my ABD status is also almost here. 

Incidentally if you're looking for a somewhat satirical explanation of what it's like to be a PhD student in the humanities, may I recommend this detailed analogy between the PhD process and the plot to all three Lord of the Rings movies. It was eerily familiar.

7. Other things that are almost here: our wedding (in late June), and the greyhound we plan to adopt in August. We're going to look into adopting one from GRA Canada, a greyhound rescue just outside London. Some of the dogs they currently have aren't quite ready for adoption, but will be within a few months. That means that one of the dogs on this list could be our future dog! Not that I look at the list all the time or anything. I totally don't know the names of any of the adoptable dogs. And I also definitely don't have a potential list of names for our dog based on historic music theorists/Enlightenment philosophes.***

*I would try to give a deep, quasi-theological interpretation of attending a gay dance party on Good Friday (perhaps about "dying" to prejudice or fear of others), but you know....it's not that kind of blog. 

**Brunch, two weekends in a row. I know what you're thinking, and you're right - my life is hard.

***Yes, I do. 

Gym Christmas Day 3

Gym Christmas Day 3!

Work out: 4 mile run in 39:37, with very minimal foot pain (woohoo!). 5-10 minutes more of my usual stretching and foam rolling. I tacked on another .25 miles at the end to blow off some steam after a woman nearly hit me with her car and then yelled some profanity at me. Love that holiday cheer. 

While we're on the topic, I've been nearly hit at this intersection before. But the worst time I've been yelled at in the cross walk was in Bloomington, crossing Indiana Ave. in front of the Sample Gates. I had my left leg in a walking splint from an ankle sprain, so I was moving slowly. Too slowly for the car at the stop sign, who yelled out his window, "GAWD, can you walk any slower?!" Now I wish I had lobbed my heavy splint onto the hood of his car. But I hobbled on instead. 

Anyways. Happier things. 

GYMGO Card: I crossed off another Grab Bag square, lower left corner, and the free space. I either need to "socialcize" or get in the pool to make more progress on the card. Tuesday is swimming day!

Photo and food I've eaten: this spinach salad with cranberry goat cheese, raisins, sunflower seeds, and a simple dressing (oil + balsamic).  

On to an afternoon free from road rage!

Summer Foods, 2012

Since this used to pass for a poor man's excuse for a food blog, I thought I'd post a few recipes that we've enjoyed this summer.

First up: Caprese Salad. 

We didn't use a recipe for these, so I'll talk you through what happened.
I thinly sliced two large tomatoes, and a big ball of mozzarella. We actually had 4 tomatoes total, and I wanted to make the mozz go a little further. So I mixed up a couple big hunks of goat cheese with the juice of half a lemon, and the leaves from about 3 sprigs of our lemon basil plant. Lemon basil is amazing! It has a sweet, lemony taste and aroma, and it went perfectly with these. After that was mixed up, I spread it on every-other tomato, so the stack alternates: tomato, basil, mozzarella, tomato with goat cheese spread, larger regular basil leaf, and then I started the process again. The mozzarella ball was definitely enough for each of these stacks, and the goat cheese added a little flavor. We each ate two, and we also made some herbed dropped biscuits.


Next: Chocolate Chia Pudding with Peanut Butter Crunch Balls.

I've been using a recipe from Hell Yeah It's Vegan for the basic chocolate pudding recipe. It's just chia seeds, cocoa powder, almond milk, sweetener, and vanilla. It's ready in 30 minutes, though it's also good if you let it set a bit longer. We had this for dessert after sushi night, and I love to serve it in these Japanese rice bowls my mom gave me. When I was a kid, she always used the bowls to serve pudding or jello, and it's really a great size bowl for each portion.
After I had the hang of this version, I did a google search for a peanut butter-chocolate version, and I found one here. Then I had the idea to add the peanut butter crunch balls that recently appeared on Oh She Glows, and they are a perfect topping. They're super easy to make, and I just stored the extra ones in the freezer (though they didn't last long!). Chia pudding is my new favorite way to combine omega 3s and 6s with dessert (see a description of chia seeds' nutritional info here).



Next: Gnocchi with Zucchini, Sweet Corn, and Goat Cheese.

The Kitchn's Facebook page shared this last week, and we immediately decided to make it. Everything in it is summery, starchy goodness. Since the goat cheese doesn't come in until the end, it melts and coats everything a light, flavorful sauce. Here's a fun fact: I don't like parsley. Ever. This is only a real (white girl) problem when a recipe calls for it, but we usually sub some other herb. After those caprese salads, we had a lot of basil on hand, so I just julienned it and added it to this, for some more herby flavor. This meal was really easy and will probably show up again on our weekly menu.





This week we decided to make the BBQ Chickpea Burgers, also from Oh She Glows. 

They are only slightly complicated to make, and they are SO GOOD. The carrots and spices give every burger a ton of flavor, and the pumpkin and sunflower seeds add a good texture. We used cilantro instead of parsley, and I used the same bbq sauce from the recipe as a condiment. The recipe for fries in that same post is also a pretty good one, though we had to stop ourselves from finishing what would have been a 1/2 lb. of potatoes...each. The burger recipe made 8 burgers, so we had a lot of leftovers - something John and I both love.



We also recently made: Summer Sweet Corn Tacos, from Vegan Pandamonium.

These are super easy and tasty tacos. We cooked the sweet corn, but it actually calls for raw corn, which would take even less time. Throw the corn in a bowl with a can of beans, some spices, and a chopped tomato, and you're basically done. We made a slightly larger batch of the corn/bean mixture, and had this for a couple nights in a row. It's a great weeknight, summery meal. 

And finally, I improved a simple dessert when I had an INTENSE OMG CRAVING FOR CHOCOLATE RIGHT FREAKING NOW! the other night.
As a joke, someone at our engagement party gave John a box of graham crackers (I should say, a neighborhood inside joke from way before my time), but he doesn't like them anymore. So I've been slowly eating the whole box, spreading each one with peanut butter. Then it occurred to me that I could make a very simple chocolate sauce and pour that on top - because how could that be bad, right? I make this very simple chocolate sauce from time to time and put it on frozen strawberries: about 2 tbs chocolate chips and a couple splashes of almond milk. You melt it with the heat on very low, stirring constantly. If it's too thin, add more chocolate, or turn the heat off and let it sit for a minute or two, and it will thicken up. I spooned that chocolate onto these little graham-pb sandwiches, and then put the whole plate in the freezer for about 30 minutes while John and I watched more of Avatar - the Last Airbender (no spoilers, please! I love that show!). That hardened them up and made the whole thing taste more like an ice cream sandwich - I'd highly recommend them!

July Foods and the Room Switch

July of 2011 was the only part of the summer that we spent in Ontario. I thought it would be fun to do an end-of-the sitcom, "what have we learned?" kind of post.
1. July is the only "hot" month in Ontario. So eat something cold.
By that I mean we had a week of temps in the high-80s to mid-90s and a fair bit of humidity. Our central air fought bravely, but it was stuffy in our apartment for a while. Our solution to this was to keep the oven and stove off as much as possible and expand "Salad Night" into "Dinner."



A caprese-style salad with mozzarella, heirloom tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, kalamata olives, and arugula.














We also made potato salad for lunches with this recipe and an amazing strawberry pesto pasta salad that I didn't photograph, despite its beauty.





















Other salad favorites this month: Greek barley salad and this delicious, extremely simple chickpea salad. Those chickpeas are going to be on the menu again soon, and would be perfect to take to school or on a car trip.

When my parents were here, we decided to show off the fabulous Asian grocery store we've recently fallen in love with, United Market. We bought these red bean ice cream bars as a sort of experiment, and John and I LOVE them! They're so creamy (and full of sugar). It's a totally different context for beans and it's delicious.



















The same company makes a lot of other flavors and now I want to try all of them.


2. When it's hot, get out of the apartment and go to the beach.
This one shouldn't take a lot of 'splainin. The beach is awesome and breezy. It's currently John's favorite place to take a nap.





































Even though this July had the hottest day on record in London, ON, I managed to give myself frost bite by leaving an icepack on my hamstring and then falling asleep while watching "Kingdom of David: The Saga of the Isrealites." Please enjoy this picture of the back of my thigh, just above the knee. It stung for a day or two, and then went away, kind of like a sunburn. Giving myself frostbite on what was literally the Hottest Day Ever was one of those moments when I felt grateful for my now 8 years of higher education.


That red shape is from the ice pack wrinkles.














3. Say yes to rearranging your furniture.




















The above photo was our bedroom, and now it's The Den. The ceiling fan in that room was a plus, but it also has eastern facing windows that allowed Mother Nature to wake us up really early every morning. The sun is so strong that I felt like I was getting a tan line from my pjs. It's also a small room, so we bumped into each other as we got dressed, and I whacked my leg on the bed pretty much all the time (because I'm obviously coordinated; see above).

And now our big, former living room is our big, current bedroom. No apologies for the unmade bed.





















From the perspective of the bed. The curtains are temporary and make it look like a harem.












We are in love with the new arrangement, as all of the air conditioning/heat vents are now free and the air circulates better. We also have tons of room to get dressed and exercise in the space near our dressers. It makes sense to keep our living room in the smallest space, since we use it the least of any room, and we rarely have more than 2 people over at once. It actually makes the apartment feel bigger than before.
That pretty much wraps up July.
During August, John and I are spending several weeks in Chicago so that he can do research. I'll be doing school work, too, but from my aunt's couch, thus allowing me plenty of time for general fun in the city. If you have a recommendation for a Chicago activity/place to eat, please let me know! I hope to have some fun pictures and things to post here from that trip.


Enjoy the rest of the summer!

The Goblet of Knowledge

One of the things that struck me about Western when first arrived was the bars on campus. IU had a strict "dry campus" policy (in quotation marks for a reason), but Western has The Spoke, that's known for having an undergrad crowd, and the Grad Club, which, as its name implies, is for graduate students. The Grad club allows undergrads or whoever to eat and drink there, but grads get a discount on food, and they have a sign that tells undergrads to behave themselves and not pester their TAs while inside.

When you graduate, the Grad Club gives you a free beer (can a Westerner confirm this for me?) in what they call the Goblet of Knowledge, a fancy goblet that they keep on display behind the bar. This week, my friend Emilie defended for her master's degree in music theory, so after our students' final on Thursday, we went to the Grad Club for her drink from The Goblet.























Congrats, Emilie! She's moving on to a degree for the more socially adjusted and going to law school at the University of Toronto.


This week in food, I only have a couple of things to show you. One night this week we repeated the delicious fish tacos from a couple months ago. The other two dishes we made were both real winners.


First, Enormous Salad with curried cashews, pears, and grapes with a dijon dressing.


















Here's the recipe. We were both really happy with it, but we'll probably be moving on to a new salad-of-the-week for next week. The ripe pear was a really interesting flavor with the curried cashews, and the nuts were also prepared with butter and brown sugar. I don't really know how that could have turned out badly. The original recipe also calls for a couple strips of bacon, fried and crumbled. I felt like it would have been a nice addition, but the salad works fine without it.




Next up: Black Beans and Quinoa with Chipotle Raspberry Sauce, from the Post Punk Kitchen.


















Oh. mah. gawd, this is good. I've never had anything quite like it. The adobo from the chipotles and the raspberries go incredibly well together, and I would never have thought to combine them. The almonds add a little crunch, and the broccoli makes it a really complete meal, nutritionally. I will definitely make this again!


This weekend we have some potluck plans for Easter, so I'll have pictures of that to come. Have a great weekend!

April, come she will

After last week's sad, return-to-winter post, I'm happy to say that the first day of April brought warmer temperatures and lots of sunshine. This week we've been cooking with a lot of veggies, and I decided to just highlight a few of the things that went well.


First, Broccoli and Cheese Soup, via Cook Pray Love.

















This soup is creamy, but the emphasis is on the broccoli, so you don't feel like you've just eaten a bowl of cheese dip (not that that would be bad...necessarily). We both really liked it and will probably make it again, especially since broccoli is basically John's favorite food.


Spinach and Chickpea Curry from Vegan with a Vengeance.
















This was the first recipe that we made from VWAV and it was pretty flavorful, but I wasn't thrilled with it. We chose it partially because it said it would make 6-8 servings, when it really makes more like 3-4. I now that's all relative, but it's in the entree section of the book and I feel like it maybe should have made more. Or maybe John and I are just used to bigger serving sizes?
Either way, it's pretty healthy and definitely tastes good. I'm still looking forward to trying more recipes from that book.


We had some left over tomatoes from that recipe and decided to make a big batch of vegetable marinara sauce on Friday. It wasn't the most incredible sauce I've ever had, but it was full of zucchini, mushrooms, garlic, and these cute little baby eggplants!




















Of course, once I chopped them up, they look just like any other eggplant. But they're really cute and they were cheaper than just buying one big guy.

















Last Sunday we both felt like having dessert, but I didn't want to bake a big batch of something and leave it in our house for a couple of days, since I would just eat it all. Then I came upon this recipe on Brie Fit (one of my favorite running-related blogs!) for a single-serve (vegan!) brownie and knew it would be just what we were looking for.















I used 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 white, AP flour. We added just a few chocolate chunks each, and I think these are fairly customizable; I contemplated adding peanut butter chips, and I think you could also add sprinkles. Or, you could just put some chocolate chips right on top when you first take them out of the oven. They would melt and act kind of like a frosting. Even if you just eat these plain, they are delicious. Definitely an A+ recipe, and you can make as few as you like.

Lastly, John and I have been eating salads for dinner on Tuesday nights. We both have minimalism class until 5:15 or so, and when we get home we don't really want to cook anything. It's a good night for leftovers, but it's also good for salad, since it's kind of light and fresh tasting, after a whole day spent inside the music school.
















So we've been experimenting with different salads. If avocados are on on sale, they definitely make it into the salad. We normally also have mushrooms, pecans or walnuts (sometimes toasted or candied), or some other vegetable, and dijon/balsamic dressing. This week we decided to try something I saw on TheKitchn.com about adding pan-seared edamame to salad. It added a lot of flavor and protein. We like to buy big bags of frozen edamame and throw the into foods whenever we feel like it, so they're great to have on hand for salad.
Since it was sort of a mix of spinach, edamame, mushrooms, and cucumber, I decided to try making an Asian-style sesame dressing and I used this recipe as a guide. We threw in a few sesame seeds, since they're so pretty.






So happy that it's Salad Night.










I recently found this blog, Salad Pride, where they post a new salad recipe almost every day. I think John and I will start trying out some of their recipes when the temperatures rise this summer.

In case you haven't seen it, here's a link for pictures of Women Laughing Alone with Salad. Apparently it's something we women are wont to do.

We hope you get to enjoy some spring weather this weekend!

Do you have a favorite salad recipe? If so, please send it my way!

Waldorf Salad

Like I've mentioned before, John recently went through a big Good Eats phase where he watched a couple episodes a day. I'm not as completely in love with the show as he is, but I do enjoy how it inspires him to come up with dinner ideas. Last week, before we went to Fort Wayne, we had a couple of days to plan dinner for and we didn't want to have a lot of leftovers spoiling in the fridge while we were gone. John suggested this waldorf salad, and it seemed like the right amount of food to fill that gap.



















We ate ours with a big pile of spinach underneath. How could apples and mayonnaise be a bad thing??? Actually that combination didn't really grab me at first, but then I realized that Alton Brown's suggestions for additional ingredients are the same ones I would put in chicken salad: grapes/raisins, apples, walnuts, etc. The curry powder is really the ingredient that takes this from good to great.

Alton Brown's Waldorf Salad

Ingredients

• 2 Ginger Gold apples (Fuji will substitute)
• 1 Red Delicious Apple
• 3 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 1 cup prepared mayonnaise
• 1 pinch kosher salt
• Cracked black pepper
• 3/4 cup toasted walnuts, crushed
• 1 cup golden raisins
• 2 teaspoons curry powder
• 1/2 red onion, julienned
• 1 head romaine lettuce, heart only (we each had a big serving of spinach instead)

Directions

Cut apples in half and remove the core with a melon baller or spoon. Chop apples into medium-sized pieces, leaving skin on.

In a bowl, toss apples with the cider vinegar. Fold in mayonnaise thoroughly. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Fold in walnuts, raisins, curry powder, celery, mint and red onion. Adjust seasoning. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour to allow flavors to incorporate. To serve, arrange 2 leaves of romaine lettuce (or a small pile of spinach) per plate and spoon salad on top.