Honeymooning in Asheville Part 3

When we planned our trip, we hoped to find something fun in Asheville to do on the Fourth of July. Had it not rained, we would have had no problem. Asheville has the usual fireworks, but they also have a street fair and a kiddie parade. But since all of that was rained out, we had no plans. I was kind of worried that everything would be closed, Canada-style, since federal holidays in Canada mean that everything you might want is closed. I checked with the grocery store to make sure they were open so we could cook for ourselves if everything was closed. Of course, this is America, and the grocery store near the house was open 24 hours, just like a regular day. 

Anyways, we decided to call up some friends of ours who live in the area, and who we pretty much never get to see. They are the family of John's roommate who passed away suddenly while they were both grad students at UT Knoxville, and we've been fortunate to stay in touch with them over the years.  We drove about 90 minutes to their house where his former roommate's parents, their children and grandchildren had gathered for the holiday. It was a lovely evening and I'm grateful that we go to see them. 

I'm not so happy to say that the drive from the lake house back to the main road, and then back to Asheville, made me more motion sick than I've been in years. I'm still feeling the effects of it a few weeks later, which is partly why I'm posting these recaps in large batches. 

Anyways, I spent a lot of July 5th lying in bed, waiting for the room to stop spinning and trying to choke down some saltines and sprite. Delicious. 

After a couple hours and a walk around the neighborhood to get my balance back in order, we headed downtown for biscuit sandwiches, tea (for me) and espresso (for John) at City Bakery.

We decided to try a few breweries inside Asheville and then take a break in case I got sick. Happily, I was able to hang out (but not quite participate) at several breweries that afternoon and I felt a lot better by the evening, as is typically the case with bad bouts of my motion sickness.

We stopped by Wedge before it opened, but I snapped a picture from the outside: 

In the mean time, we went to French Broad brewing: 

We both liked their IPA and golden ales, and we were impressed with their not-too-sweet Scotch Ale, especially since neither of us normally go for scotch ale.

Next we headed to Green Man, where we had probably the weirdest flight. 

My stomach wasn't up for tasting all these beers, but John thoroughly enjoyed them. I really liked the porch, especially since it, too, was dog friendly. I saw a terrier that had coloring more similar to Toby's than any dog I've ever seen.

I have to say, I saw some very good dog owners in Asheville. Places that encourage guests to bring their dogs seem like they could be chaotic, since dog owners range so widely. And let's face it, everything thinks their dog is good. Many times a dog has lept at me while I'm on a run, and the owner will casually shout, "Oh, he's fine. He doesn't bite." I'm left thinking that the person is crazy and their dog is out of control. But the dogs I saw in Asheville were mostly calm and well-mannered, especially in public places like brewery patios.

After a nap, we went back out for cocktails,

....and then we walked around in our rain gear while waiting for dinner....

...at Chai and Pani, an Indian place that specializes in what they call Indian street food. This place was casual and, to me, reasonably priced. And the food was some of the best we had.

John whistled along with the song playing in the background.

The final dish we ordered was a sort of green mango salad with peanuts, cilantro, and a sort of house-made cornflake topping. It was spicy and refreshing, the best possible end to the meal. In a way I'm sorry we didn't go back there, but every place we went for dinner made me feel that way.

We made a stop after dinner for a box of chocolates at a store that had a beautiful, edible aquarium display.

Then we went back to Wedge so John could find his happy place. This is him saying, "I have all the beers!"

Behind him here you can see a food truck, along with people drinking beer outside and playing bean bag toss. The rain finally let up and we enjoyed sitting outside. And, by this point, I could almost talk normally. It was a great end to what started as a very rough day.

Honeymooning in Asheville Part 1

Once John and I had a few days to recuperate in Bloomington, we drove about 7 hours south to Asheville, NC for our honeymoon. We chose Asheville for a few reasons: 

• John fries like an egg in the sun, so a beach vacation seemed like a bad idea. 
• We didn't want to fly so that our schedules could be especially flexible, and because it was cheaper. 
• Asheville is close enough to Bloomington, and has lots to recommend it: beautiful scenery, outdoorsy activities, good food, and more breweries than we could count.

So we made a reservation at an Air B&B place (more on that in a minute) and stayed Tuesday through Sunday. All the funds for the trip were included in the generous wedding gift I received from my brother, and it was fun to pretend for a week that we had high paying jobs. I think John and I have been poor long enough that we're very easy to please when it comes to vacations. We get to eat out - every night! And we can pay for parking!

Our first stop was Wicked Weed, a brewery with fantastic food. 

My favorite beer upstairs was the Cool Cumber. It's based on a gin cocktail with basil and cucumber, and it was cool and refreshing. For my tastes, their peach habanero was kind of meh, but I liked the idea. On the whole, though, most of their beers were pretty good. We eventually made it downstairs to try their more limited release beers. 

The basement room opens up to a second patio and, as you can see above, it only had five beers on tap. But they were the best. The bourbon barrel stout in the photo below was by far the best thing I drank all week. And because we were in America, where things are cheap, it was only about $5. The beer was so good that I started to think it would be fun to wear John's summer vacay hat.

Before dinner, we bought raincoats (again, more on that to come) and poked around the stores downtown while we waited for a table for dinner.

We learned right away that Asheville is very dog friendly. Those coasters were only the first of many indications.

For dinner the first night, we decided to try Curate, the tapas place we'd heard so much about. 

All the things we heard were true. It was probably the best dinner we had all week, well worth the wait for seats at the counter. I didn't photograph all the food, but each thing seemed better than the last.

White, pickled asparagus with a homemade whipped mayo.

Breaded and fried eggplant with local honey and rosemary (how is this so good?).

Goat cheese stuffed pimentos.

Some kind of custardy cream with fruit on the bottom and caramel on top. 

Here's the reading alcove at our B&B, just outside our room. 

And the view from the front door. 

This was the first time we've used Air B&B and I was so glad we did. The room was very affordable; our five-night stay was less than $400, and it had pretty much everything I could want. The room and private, attached bathroom were clean and well stocked. It's part of a "Model Community" home, in that the mother-daughter team that own and rent it also live with other renters, and they have various types of agreements about rent and responsibilities. Everyone we spoke with in the house was accommodating and polite. With downtown only about a half mile away, we were well located by all the places we hoped to go, as well as a couple grocery stores an bakeries. The house felt completely safe and welcoming, friendly as well as private. I would definitely stay there again.

More to come!

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. 

The First Week of "Spring."

Happy Spring! Break out the light jackets! Open the windows! Breath in that fresh, spring air! 

J/k, lol, it's still winter in Canada. Until, like, May. 

We've come up with a couple of coping mechanisms. New recipes, such as....

Blueberry Banana Whole Wheat Muffins from Daily Garnish

These were kind of an impulse baking decision. After I got home from singing for Palm Sunday, I decided a mini-brunch would be nice, so I made these muffins and some scrambled eggs. We had all the ingredients on hand, and muffins are usually simple to put together. These have a really nice texture:  a bit crispy on the outside, but soft inside. They'll be great for breakfast tomorrow, too. 

Forty Clove Chickpeas and Broccoli, from Appetite for Reduction, part of our on-going attempt to cook through this cookbook. 

Just like Isa Chandra says, this recipe ain't pretty. It's not worthy to serve to guests. But it's ridiculously easy (put broccoli, garlic, and chickpeas on a pan and roast), and remarkably flavorful. We'll definitely return to it for weeknights. 

Our friend Katie celebrated a birthday last week while we were in Toronto, so we had her over belatedly for some birthday beer and a little snack assortment on this lovely new (bridal shower present) tray! Everything looks delicious and classy on this tray. 

And finally, we made the roasted tomatoes and cipollini onions from the Smitten Kitchen cookbook. Like the broccoli recipe above, this was very simple. Tomatoes and onions roast in the oven for an hour or so. You pour them with their juices over some toasted bread, rubbed with a garlic clove, with some white beans, and then garnish with some slivered basil. Also, bonus, this is vegan! Definitely one of the richest vegan meals I've made.

Y'all, this is crazy good. The onions break down into something like butter, and the tomatoes brown and then just sort of burst. It felt really rich, and it was incredibly filling. Like a lot of the recipes in her book, in my opinion, this is great for a weekend evening. Some of them are fairly indulgent, some (though not all) take slightly more time than I would allow on the average weeknight to make dinner. But they're usually great with some wine, and a nice alternative to eating out.


Second, I coped with the extension of winter by going where few Canadians have gone before: 

Not just a Target (since most people in London, especially, have been to Target in Michigan). 

But a Target in Canada. 

Canadian Target! Finally. 

It seems like a regular Target in a lot of ways, but with one new feature I've never seen in Target: the cart escalator. You put your cart on it, and it takes it upstairs! Maybe this is common in Targets in metropolitan areas? 

                                     

Seeing all the familiar Target brands and layout in Canada was sort of surreal, since it's a place that I so strongly associate with America. It was also crazier than the mall on Christmas Eve. I could barely walk through it. Canadian Target will be more fun to peruse after the novelty wears off and everyone in town isn't inside it.

I snapped a couple of photos of these items in the underwear section. Two things every bride needs. 

I purchased neither, though that tank top would probably work well for our pre-wedding 5K fun run. 

Mom's Visit

John took a trip to Little Rock and Memphis this past week for the Society of American Music conference. So I thought it would be fun to ask my mom to come up and keep me company. Sunday was her birthday, so we celebrated in (relaxed) style. I only managed to take pictures of things that happened on Sunday, but on Friday and Saturday we went to Zen Gardens and Bungalow for dinner, and I got to introduce Mom to the magical wonder of Bulk Barn.
On Sunday, we went to Morrissey House for breakfast. I've eaten there many times, but somehow never for breakfast, and it didn't disappoint. I had the huevos rancheros with potatoes. A++.

Matthew came over for a dinner of gnocchi in tomato broth from the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook (recipe here). For dessert, we each split these cupcakes from Hey, Cupcake, a place very near our house that I've never tried before. Clockwise: chunky monkey (banana chocolate), carrot cake (Mom's favorite), and peanut butter cup (almost too rich to eat, but awesome). 

While I cooked, we followed the IU-Michigan game on my phone. Mom called out  the updates while I finished dinner, and IU just barely pulled out a win! It was very exciting, and a great touch to the birthday dinner. Now they're the Big Ten champs!

                             

 IU basketball, gin and tonics, and cupcakes. A pretty good birthday.

Over the weekend, my friend Gwen asked me to dog sit for her very sweet and well behaved dog, Ollie. Mom and I loved having Ollie to play with. I even got to take him running, which was so much fun. I've always wanted a dog running partner. Running with him was just like I've heard other people say - it was easy to relax and enjoy running because I could see how much fun he was having. I tend to over think running, among other things (I know, you're shocked), and it was fun to see Ollie run just for the sheer fun of it. It helped me relax and just run without thinking too much. The house is a little too quiet now that he's gone. 

                                      

Blow, Ill Wind, Blow Away

My schedule this term is slightly crazy. I pretty much felt like this all week:

It's really not so bad, but I'm still not used to teaching as much as I have to this term. I'll admit, I'm having a tough time finding a balance between teaching and working on my dissertation. But it's good practice, since I'm signing up to do this full time, you know, for my career. I love my students (mostly) and I love my dissertation (mostly), but I'm ready for reading week. 

But I'm also not ready for reading week, because I have to submit a draft of my dissertation proposal by then, and it's far from done. 

After a full day of teaching, office hours, a staff meeting, more teaching, and planning for class on Friday, I came home and did this:  

That's no cupcake. That's bubble bath waiting to go in the tub. After a long week of writing and teaching the kiddos, it was a perfect way to end the week. Also, bonus, I planned all of next week's classes, so I should be able to have more quality time with Rameau (aka, the star of my dissertation) next week. Here's to a more balanced week.

John and our friend Ian took over the kitchen two nights in a row to make Alton Brown's recipe for Coq au Vin, and they were not disappointed. 

                                        

They paired it with a really buttery, delicious Chardonnay that I hope to find again sometime. 

John has said on occasion that he wants to learn how to cook certain meat dishes, and I've encouraged him to find a meat-eating friend and go to it. Knowing I had to come up with something easy for myself that wouldn't take up a lot of kitchen resources, I made this: 

I call it the Lazy Girl's Pizza for One. It's a pita with melted herbed havarti, sauteed mushrooms, and arugula on top. I got to eat the whole thing while they waited for their coqs (heh) to finish cooking, and they were definitely jealous. Even with coq au vin on the way, melted cheese is still tempting. 

We also made some recipes from Appetite for Reduction.
Living in the age of Twitter means that anyone can randomly get in contact with famous people, or at least bug them more directly on the internet. So I decided to tweet to Isa Chandra that we are using her book. And she replied! Here's the email notification:

**Blush**. You guys, we're friends for life now.

This week we made: 

Red Thai Tofu and Pad Thai Salad.


                                       








Y'all, this salad dressing is delightful. It's mostly ground peanuts, a little soy sauce, water, garlic, cilantro, and sriracha. Super easy, lightly spicy, and it really takes the salad up a notch. The rest of it is simple to throw together: grated carrot, red onion, bean sprouts, and cilantro. She suggests bulking it up with the tofu recipe, which was also very straight forward and probably took 30 minutes, start to finish. Ian and John took a break from the first night of coq au vin work to eat this, and they were pretty impressed. That salad will probably become a staple recipe for us.



Mom's Marinara and Tempeh-Bean Balls

Isa Chandra suggests about 10 different variations on the marinara sauce, which is just a simple tomato sauce. We tried the mushroom version, which adds about a pound of sauteed mushrooms to the sauce, once it's mostly done. John and I also added about 1.5 tbs of balsamic vinegar to the sauce and that gave it an amazing flavor. I'm sort of mixed about the bean balls. On the one hand, they are way easier and faster than homemade seitan. But we left them in the oven to stay warm while the rest of the recipe was coming together, and they dried out slightly. Fortunately, that was easy to fix by smothering them in the sauce. This one will make for good leftovers.

Last but hardly least, I made Oh She Glows, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Larabars. 

If you have a food processor, then the active part of this recipe takes about 10 minutes. Then you freeze the mixture for about 15 minutes, and voila! Larabars. With chocolate in them. Just like the real deal, they have about five ingredients: cashews, dates, chocolate chips, vanilla, and salt. They'll be great little snacks to bring to school. 

And now, I'm off to eat dinner and cheer on the Hoosiers as they play Michigan. Let's go Big Red!