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!

Grills Gone Wild

Last week I didn't mention that John and I bought a grill from our friend Emilie.

And it. is. awesome.



















We had little charcoal grill, but we haven't used it much. The new-to-us grill is gas, and we've used it almost every day since we got it.

Here are some of the results.
Portobello burgers with grilled sweet potatoes (based on this preparation), asparagus, and zucchini.

















The mushroom burgers were marinated in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and garlic. We topped them with goat cheese and lettuce. Amazing!




Next up: Asian-style Grilled Tofu with an enormous salad.

















We grilled these cuts of tofu on foil so that they didn't stick to the grill and then go up in flames. They stuck a little bit when the marinade caramelized (it was made of hoisin sauce, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and lime juice), but they came up ok. The marinade was delicious, if a little higher in sodium than I prefer. I had one of the leftover slices on a hamburger bun for lunch the next day. They're pretty tasty.
















By the end of the week we were ready for something non-grilled, so we made pizza with sauce I read about on Dave and Carla's food blog.

















This recipe makes a ton of sauce, so we've made several versions of the same pizza over the past few days: zucchini, red peppers, mushrooms, and goat cheese with some fresh herbs. It might be my new favorite combination of toppings. Apparently the sauce is a copy cat from a pizza place called Palermo's (I'm guessing that's the right place, but if it's not, let me know!). It's a sweet, flavorful sauce, and I'm glad we have so much of it. We even froze some to use again, probably next month during our comps.

And finally, totally unrelated to grilling and pizza, I saw a blog post this week (similar to this one) about torching some bananas with sugar on them as an oatmeal topping that mimics creme brulee. Since John and I have a torch, I felt like I had to try it.








It doesn't involve the grill, but it does require a flame.









They were a little too sweet for my taste, but, what can I say? I can't resist the chance to light my breakfast on fire.



In other news, the weather felt a lot more like spring this week. The purple wildflowers are coming up in our neighbors' yard.





You can see downtown just behind those trees.










Compare with this somewhat similar angle.






Things really have improved.











Though it snowed like crazy for a couple hours today, it didn't stick. Maybe that's how we can tell it's really spring?

Welcome Back, Winter

One week ago: I went running in shorts and a t-shirt. It was a little cool for that, admittedly, but for running, it was comfortable.
Then, on Wednesday, this happened.




















Almost all the snow had melted! We could see the grass! The snow mountain that shields our parking spot from the sun had disappeared! Of course, that's not as much snow as we used to have. On Wednesday we got about 3-4" of the heavy, wet kind of snow you get this time of year. It would melt easily in a day or two, if the temperature would just climb above freezing. We'll have to wait until next week for that.

Our semesters at Western are shorter than they were in Indiana - 12 weeks, vs. 15. The semester feels shorter to begin with, but it's a weird sensation for the weather to be this wintry and to know we only have 3 weeks of school left (AGH!). At least we don't have that feeling like, "It's summer weather! Who cares about school, let's go outside and play in the sunshine!"

Enough about the snow. Let's talk quesadillas!


















John found this recipe on the New York times last week and we both immediately wanted to make it. A 1/4 cup lack beans, a 1/4 roasted red pepper (per serving), and an ounce of goat cheese. Delicious!


















The recipe makes a single serving, but it's easy to adapt to whatever ingredients and number of servings you'd like. We made it again the next night and added some mushrooms, plus some grated mozzarella/provolone cheese, since we were running low on the goat cheese. As long as you've already made or bought the roasted red pepper, these babies only take 5 or 6 minutes to throw together. Perfect for a school night.

Here's a link to the New York Times recipe!

Poached Pear and Goat Cheese Tart

John and I bought some frozen puff pastry dough this week, thinking we would try to do a dry run of Christmas dinner. But then we kind of lost our umph, and I saw a recipe for this tart one of my favorite blogs. Like a lot of things I try, this didn't seem to go as planned at first. I don't have a tart pan, and I wasn't planning on using the walnut crust that he suggested (though it sounds really good). I was a little nervous that this tart would just be a complete, doughy mess and that we would eat it out of bowls, but it was great!


















Poaching the pears in sugar, water, and wine was sort of fun. It reminded me of poaching pears for a salad at the Viking Cooking School class we took with John's mom a couple years ago.























With a little forethought, I probably would have had a side salad with this, with roasted walnuts or something. But this was kind of a "hey, we could make THIS tonight!" decision. The recipe calls for two cups of wine, and that left us each with a glass.























Instead of running all over the pan in a mess, the sauce sat nicely on top the pears. I raised the edges of the puff pastry slightly, and made a little wall out of pairs around the perimeter. It would present nicer in a circular tart pan but I feel like it looked alright, considering.

Good Lord, this was delicious. John commented that you could really taste each individual food - the pears, the buttery pastry, the white wine and goat cheese.
Still, it was actually way too rich for dinner, but you know, we suffered through. I'd recommend cutting the puff pastry and making little individual servings as an appetizer. I feel like it there would be a few different options, depending on your preference. We may try something similar with a mixture of sauteed mushrooms, olives, and more goat cheese as a filling for the other puff pastry sheet (but we may wait until we're with family for the holidays to try that, so that we have people to share it with). As a main course, it was pretty heavy. But it would be great as an hors d'oeuvre or a side.


Poached Pear and Goat Cheese Tart
adapted from Closet Cooking

Ingredients:
2 pears (peeled and cut in half and cored)
2 cups sugar
2 cups white wine
1 cup water
4 black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
4 ounces goat cheese (room temperature)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon thyme (chopped) (I used dried)
1 large egg yolk
1 sheet of puff pastry, thawed and unrolled into a rectangle

Directions:
1. Place the pears in a large sauce pan with cut side down followed by the sugar, wine, water, peppercorns, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer covered until the pears are fork-tender, about 10-30 minutes (the simmer time varies depending on how ripe the pears are).
2. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature in the liquid (of course I got impatient and let them finish cooling on the cutting board).
3. Slice the pears thinly.
4. Mix the goat cheese, sour cream, honey, thyme and egg yolk inf a food processor until smooth.
5. Spread the filling out over the puff pastry and top with the sliced pears, in any arrangement that pleases you.*
6. Bake in a preheated 350F oven until the filling is set, about 20 minutes.**

*This is where I built a little wall of pears around the perimeter of the dough. You could get by without doing this, but it did seem to help keep things in place. **I initially tried 15 minutes, and then added at least 5-6 more minutes to let the crust finish cooking. This time will vary a lot depending on your oven.