I’m not so good with technology

And I keep just saving my posts and not publishing them. Whoops. So instead of posting all my old posts at once, how about I summarize and combine into one amazing post?

Recipes: One of my coworkers keeps asking for recipes whenever I cook something, the problem is, cooking isn’t an exact science. I know the basics, but it’s all about how I feel that day or what I have on hand. So I made a vegetarian chili this weekend and it really was a combination of what I had on hand, what was on sale, and the few essentials. I can give you the run down, but there is no set in stone recipe. I get that many people do need recipes. Either they struggle with eye-balling amounts, or they just don’t trust their instincts yet. There are tons of books, shows, websites, apps, etc for these people. One of the best things about culinary school, is that they really do boil it down (really crappy pun intended) to the method, not the exact amounts.

Living Alone: Why does everyone assume that because I’m a single female, living alone, that I am worried about my life? I live in a decent area with a variety of neighbors. Plus a dog who would kill whatever person decides to attack me. Should we all live in fear? No. I had my apartment broken into years ago and I moved on. It does shake you up a bit and makes you rethink your living arrangements, but it gets better. The other thing I hear a lot is, are you sad you aren’t married yet? The answer is always no. If I got married before, I probably would not be following my dreams right now. Plus Guinness does not do well with sharing.

Running: I’ve been slacking a ton on working out at all. I finally dug deep and found my old exercise dvds and I’ve been doing some of the quick 15 minute segments. It’s nothing great, but it’s keeping the desert pounds off. I think I need to find a race to do so I have to train and keep focused. I found an awesome 6.66 miler (around Halloween, of course). I’m just not sure how quickly I can build up my base again, because I’ve gone out for a run twice since I moved here, TWICE. That’s 2 times, in 1 month. I feel like I’m starting at the old run 1 minute, walk 5. I know I have more in me than that, but this is a giant step forward for me. 1 month to 6.66 miles? I need some serious motivation.

Finally, some desert porn, don’t mind the crappy quality, they are from my phone (which I’m not supposed to have on me in the kitchen or dinning room, so shhhh)

More pics to come as I sneak more pictures! Those poached pears were life changing and I wish I could eat one a day for one of my servings of fruit.

And finally, the most important news in my life lately:

When I moved, I “lost” my blender, considering it wasn’t mine to begin with. I’ve been living without my smoothies for awhile and it’s been rough. Really rough. I feel in love with the Ninja blender and knew that I wanted one for myself. I’ve been creeping all the stores and found one on sale for $20 off! Amazing, right? Wrong! I also used my store card to get an additional 5% off. Now that’s amazing. Reunited and it feels so good! I’ve made sure to blend something every day since I picked up the new roomie.

 

Best new purchase you’ve made in awhile?

Totally my new blender. The Ninja is amazing because it was blades all the way up, plus a great motor, so nothing gets stuck and left as a giant chunk. And it’s affordable for the average guy, unlike the vitamix blenders.

Do you take food porn pictures?

I used to take a lot more, but now I’m more about the flavors and completely forget about the pictures until I’m half way through eating. But these deserts are amazing. I feel the need to bring in my DSLR and frame the pictures.

It's good to be back!

I had to take a forced break from blogging. I've missed each and every one of you so much!

I was struggling with my running, so I turned to my ex trainer for advice. He is one of the most patient beings I have ever encountered and he was the first person to take the time to help me learn to run again. So I knew I could ask him for advice. After a long chat over coffee, we came to two conclusions (of which I already knew of):
1) I'm an all or nothing person.
                 So even though I knew that I needed to step back on my exercise because my IBS was making me really weak, I went extreme and said no running and nothing fitness related. The most exercise I was getting was rolling over on my bed and complaining about the effort.

2) I don't do well with comparing myself to others.
                 Some people thrive on it and use that to fuel their own fires. I use it as an excuse to stop, because if I'm not the best, it doesn't matter. I need to stop making running a competitive sport and get back to the point where it was something for me to challenge myself with.

The solution he came up with to both of those problems was to stay away from blogs. (hushed gasps are heard across blogger and wordpress) Most of the blogs belong to healthy individuals and many (I'm looking at you SR) can go run 20 miles on a whim. I struggle with at least doing three miles at a time. Also, my average pace is slow even for a snail. I'm pretty sure walkers are going faster than me (no, really, I've actually encountered that). So I'm sitting here, not running because I have no strength and then I'm sitting more, because, why bother at this point, and I'm reading these blogs of people doing 10 miles at a 7 min/mile pace and it's frustrating. So again, why bother?

I had to get back in touch with Alisa. And how Alisa runs. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

I'm finally back in my groove, I'm not running as much as I should (that's all IBS related now), but I'm not so down and out. And also, as hard as it is, I'm trying to just be thankful that I can run. When I was 16, I was told my arthritis in my knee was so bad that I would probably never run. I hadn't run since I was probably 14 years old. That's over 10 years. This is HUGE for me. Some days I wake up and still can't believe that I am able to run. I'm tearing up just thinking about how amazing that is.


But to the more important part, I got the text today from my wonderful PT. He said, he thinks I've made enough mental and emotional gains in the past two weeks to start blogging again (let's not tell him how I cheated occasionally, shhhh). But in that time off I've really thought about how to shape this lovely blog of mine. So instead of a random blog of food and running, I had to decide: a running blog that cooks or a cooking blog that runs? Based on what you just read, I hope you realize I picked that latter. And so I'm bringing back some yummy recipes!

Today was Bastille Day! For those that slept through world history class (don't try to pretend you didn't), it is the day in which the French people stormed the Bastille, which was the big prison in Paris, to gain ammunition. It was the highpoint of the French Revolution. Think of it as the same as our 4th of July. Of course, I had to create a French feast to go along with this wonderful day. And I brought along my friends wine and bread.

This is the mushroom and shallot quiche. Along with the beans and fennel.

Quiche
(I don't have a set recipe for quiche, since my mom has made it since I was born, but this is a good estimate)

2 frozen pie shells (yes I used frozen and yes I am proud of it)
6 eggs
1 cup half and half
1 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
salt and white pepper to taste
16 oz shredded Swiss cheese

1. Beat eggs and half and half until well blended. Stir in nutmeg, white pepper, and salt.
2. Split Swiss cheese equally between two shells.
3. Pour egg mixture into pie shells.
4. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes and then turn down temperature to 325 and bake for about 30 minutes.
5. Quiche is done when lightly browned on top, but will still have some "jiggle" in the middle (think, pudding).

 So that's the basic recipe. Today I switched things up a bit and did TWO different flavored quiches, just by adding in a few ingredients. In both versions, add into quiche in step 2, on top of the cheese.

In one quiche, I sauteed two thinly sliced shallots with one pound finely diced portabello mushrooms. Once all the liquid was cooked off and everything was softened, I stirred in one large clove of garlic, finely diced, and cooked for about thirty seconds. Let cool for a bit before adding to the quiche.

In the other quiche, I tossed 8oz of pancetta, about 6 thin asparagus spears, finely chopped and a good handful of sun-dried tomatoes diced.

Roasted Lemony Green Beans

1 pound green beans, trimmed
2 lemons, sliced into wedges
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

1. Toss ingredients together on baking sheet. (Go easy on the salt, because lemon and salt tend to activate the same part of your tongue, so it could be a bit much)
2. Roast at 400 for about 15 minutes, stir half way through.
3. Just before serving, use tongs to give the lemons a bit of a squeeze, then mix well with green beans.

Roasted Fennel (so it's a take off of my new favorite winter recipe, fennel is French, leave me alone!)

2 fennel bulbs, trimmed, cut lengthwise into 1-inch-wide wedges
1 large onion, root end left intact, then cut lengthwise into 1/2-inch-wide wedges
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1. Combine fennel and onion with oil and toss to coat. 

2. Mix all spices in small bowl to blend. Sprinkle spice mixture over vegetables and toss to coat. Sprinkle with salt and generous amount of pepper. 

3. Roast at 450 until vegetables are tender and browned, turning once, about 45 minutes. (that's the original, I did it at 450 for about 30 minutes, then finished at 400 with everything else, about 15 minutes. It worked perfect this time)

Enjoy!

More bacon than the pan can handle.

I realized I haven't done much on the culinary side on this lovely blog. I just don't think about it. I cook dinner almost every night, but I don't take pictures, because I'm starving when I finish cooking. I have a "get in my belly moment" as soon as it's all done!

So tonight I'm sharing a new one: Bacon Wrapped Chicken!

I borrowed the basic recipe idea from somewhere, but I can't remember. I'm guessing Martha Stewart, because she gives me all the best ideas. So without delay:

Totally started eating, then realized I should take a pic!

Bacon Wrapped Chicken

4 chicken breasts, cut into long tenders (about 3 strips per breast)
1 tablespoon chopped rosemary
24 sage leaves (or 2 per strip)
12 pieces of bacon (or enough for amount of strips)

1. Mix rosemary with salt and pepper to taste, and sprinkle on chicken strips. (Go easy on the salt, bacon is nice and salty already)
2. Place a sage leaf on each side of tender and wrap a piece of bacon around the tender.
3. Place half of tenders in a preheated pan.
4. Cook until bacon is browned, about 6 minutes. Flip and cook until fully cooked, about 6 more minutes.
5. Place first batch in a warm oven while others cook through.

A plateful of delicious if you ask me!

I served these with a saffron linguini that I mixed with some Kalamata olive oil and parsley. I also changed countries and made a simple onion-avocado "slaw/salad" which was the two chopped up and I made a quick dressing of lime juice, cilantro, pepper, and olive oil. It was a delicious and filling meal.

CULINARY TIP ALERT: If your limes (or lemons) aren't juicy enough, stick them in the microwave for a couple of seconds. Works wonders!

But not too filling. I still had room for raspberries, with some chocolate sauce and a few scoops of coconut water sorbet, raspberry flavored.

Time for bed to get up and run before the triple digit heat kicks in!

BFD and tornado sirens!

BFD does not stand for:

Big Furry Dinosaur

Beautiful Friendly Dog

But it does stand for:

Breakfast for Dinner

And that's what I consumed tonight. There are a lot of big changes at work right now, so when I get home, I'm too exhausted to make it up the stairs. The big wigs were in today finalizing some plans (both to the business side of things AND the actual building), so I ran around working about 5 times harder than usual. My head hurts and English is hard. I needed easy food that was also comforting. And what's more comforting than blueberry waffles? Nothing. Maybe chocolate chip pancakes, but we're trying to be healthy here. Plus it's the first day of summer, time for berries!

I threw together a quick batch of these babies with Canadian bacon on the side and a nice big helping of "homemade" strawberry syrup. Yum!

Make sure to oil up your iron really well. Otherwise you end up with a waffle like this!

Blueberry Waffles:

1 cup AP flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 oat flour
1 TBLS baking powder
1 TBLS sugar
2 TBLS flax meal (also labeled as ground flax seeds)
1 TSP salt

3 eggs
4 TBLS grapeseed oil
1 TBLS honey
1 TBLS vanilla
zest of one lemon

1 cup blueberries

1. Sift together all dry ingredients in one bowl.
2. Whisk up eggs in another bowl. Combine all other wet ingredients into the bowl. Slowly whisk dry into wet. Once JUST combined, stir in blueberries.
3. Follow directions with your waffle iron to make waffles. (Made about 6 Belgian ones for us)

Fresh off the iron!

Strawberry Syrup: This is one of those things I make, but don't have a recipe for. It's too easy to have something formal. I'll try my hardest.

Slice up tons of strawberries. Throw in a small saucepan with some syrup. Cook on low for awhile. Strawberries will soften and the syrup will taste fruity. Serve on anything! (use as much of either as you want. Like tons of fruit? Use more berries or less syrup. Want to serve a crowd? Throw in more of both. You can even add some honey or sugar and water to stretch it out more.)

Keep dinner in the over set at warm for roommates who want to come home late!

I enjoyed this meal with a nice semi-sweet white wine. A Traminette, to be exact. My favorite type of wine is a Gewurztraminer (trying ordering that after a few glasses...), and the Traminette is a newer varietal of the same family. If you like semi-sweet wines, I suggest trying both. A Gewurtz is really good with Asian food, in case you were wondering.



As I was finishing up this post the emergency warning sirens came on, or as they are known in the midwest, tornado sirens. I quickly turned on the weather report and it said a tornado touched down in the town next to us just a few miles away. I quickly turned off my computer, grabbed my purse, phone, dog, and hoodie and ran downstairs with the roommates. After twenty minutes, the sirens turned off and all was clear.

This was Guinness's first encounter with the sirens at night and not as a practice the first tuesday of the month at 10am. ON top of us being a little spooked and grabbing all of our stuff and flashlights, we were franticly trying to remember all the stuff we needed to remember. Do we light candles? Do I need to grab a can of soup? I grabbed G's leash and put it on. Safety first, right? Yeah, in dog language purse + leash = car ride = fun. Then she heard the sirens. The poor thing is still confused.

So, crisis averted. Just a confused dog. I have my fingers crossed that my work was hit and I don't have to go in tomorrow. HAHAHA.

Pictures from a tornado down the street from me about a year ago (sorry about the crappy phone pictures):

Tornadoes... something I will not miss when I move away. I think I need another waffle. I burnt a lot of calories running around in panic mode.

What kind of Ninja are you?

I've been obsessed with McChris for a long time (only thing I got from a really dumb ex). He's really low key in the music scene, so imagine my surprise when I heard one of his songs on a new Honda commercial! The song is "Hoodie Ninja" and is youtube-able. It made me think about my skills. I would be sucky ninja, but I have skills! Like speed work. And soup. Moving on...

Ninja like this...

I have a 5k on Sunday! I ran the same route on Thanksgiving, so I'm hoping real hard to drop my time down, maybe even a new PR? There's a killer hill at the end. Which is odd, because you never really go down, just up at the end. Hmmmmm... what goes up, doesn't have to ever go down? So what's a girl to do to get a new 5k PR? Speed work. Or as I call them, sprintervals (you get it... sprint... intervals... sprintervals... no? sad face). Guinness and I were just happy it wasn't 96 degrees today! If it's 98 degrees, that's okay, because I'll just ask them to sing to me while I run! (ohhhh, that was a horrible joke. I'm so sorry you had to read that.)

They are totally coming on my next run.

So the skies parted and the rain stopped enough to let me get in my sprintervals. And then I worked on building my ark. Because it rained FOR-EV-ER today. And apparently it will rain the rest of the week. I shall start gathering two of everything later.

I very much like my purple hat!

All morning long I kept telling my coworkers that I wanted soup for dinner. Why? Because it was thundering all night and was raining for over 12 hours straight. Also, it dropped about 40 degrees in those 12 hours. (I'm not complaining, it made for nice running weather, once the rain stopped) It just felt like a soup night. I used some leftover grilled corn and made a spicy corn soup with some garlic bread for dipping. RANDOM FACT: one of my favorite meals is soup and salad. I had my salad about three hours before my soup course today. This girl is happy.

Spicy Corn Soup

3 ears of corn
2 dried bay leaves
6 pieces of bacon, chopped
1 red onion, diced
4 shallots, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups veggie broth
2-3 tablespoons chilli powder (I used chipotle powder)
1 avocado, chopped

1. Slice kernels of corn off cob. Save the kernels and any liquid that comes off. Place bare cobs in about four cups of water, with bay leaves. Heat to a simmer and let cook at least 20 minutes with lid on.
2. Crisp up bacon in a pan. Drain cooked bacon and reserve 1 tablespoon fat. Cook onion and shallot in bacon fat about 5 minutes, then stir in garlic.
3. Cook about 30 seconds, stir in veggie broth and chilli powder. Let cook for about 10 minutes, then stir in cooking water from cobs (without cobs and bay leaves).
4. Once everything is heated through, stir in corn kernels, let cook about two minutes.
5. Serve topped with chopped avocado and bacon! You can also top it with chopped tomato, but I don't have any...

Check out that thick layer of fat on top. Yummm!

Do you crave food based on weather?

Rainy requires soup, no matter what temperature. And the first weekend about 70 degrees, makes me want bratwursts and beers.

What is the next race on your schedule?

I have my 5k on Sunday and then maybe a 10k in July.

Two Word Tuesday? Maybe?

Every blog seems to have a theme day. The most popular floating around is the what I ate wednesday. I eat too fast to think about taking a picture of my meals, so that's out of the question. But... I've decided to try some out. Today we're doing Two Word Tuesday. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this, but I'll try! (PS - give me feedback.)

1. Turtle Popcorn

I went to a lame chocolate fest, but this was the winner of it all! Think of the best caramel corn, mixed with walnuts and topped with the best chocolate ever!

2. Dang! Delicious!

Butterscotch root beer? Taste like those little orange butterscotch hard candies. Glad I tried it though.

3. Visiting Mars

Mars Cheese Castle in Kenosha, WI. It's the place to get all things Wisconsin (cheese, sausage, beer, wine, cow knick-knacks). I go there once a year with the family. (picture source)

4. Hot Dog

Monday night we did a hot dog bar at my house, lots of different dogs (beef, chicken, vegetarian; also some German sausages and different flavored chicken sausages), lots of different toppings. This went along amazingly. I'm totally doing the dog bar again for my going away party in August!

Toppings like raw tomatoes, sauerkraut, carmalized onions with mustard and beer (top picture) and braised fennel with lots of dark beer and apple cider (bottom picture).

5. Trader Joe's

If TJ was an actual person, I would be married by now! These were the two ingredients in my vinaigrette for my fresh green beans to go with the hot dog bar.

6. Floatable Dessert

Good root beer + (vanilla rum for the adults) + vanilla ice cream (regular and non-dairy) = Such a great dessert after hot dogs!

I failed at the two word part, but if it's in the photo comment, it doesn't count, right? I'm glad we all agree on this!

What was the highlight of your long weekend?

Mars Cheese Castle! It made up for the crappy chocolate fest and rain. So much deliciousness and a great place to people watch. Even though I don't like cheese and can't really have it, there is just so much to pick from, mostly Wisconsin stuff, but some from all over the world.

What's your favorite summer food? 

Bratwursts! There is no way to beet that. Most grilled sausages will get me though. Maybe it's because I can make a whole lot of dirty jokes about them, or maybe it's because they taste delicious.

It's a food thing...

After yesterday's bout with nastiness, I woke up this morning with high hopes. They were quickly diminished. I ended up calling my doctor's office on my break at work this morning. Apparently this was an IBS related thing. IBS is still really new to me, so I have no idea what to expect, what to do, and what triggers it. Thankfully I have an amazing doctor who gets my thought on natural living and wanting to be strong, not fake it. So he told me to get back on probiotics and take a strong dose today and if it doesn't get better, call again tomorrow. I'm already feeling better after less than 12 hours of meds. I wanted to do some speed work, but that's not happening. BUT since I am feeling better, I needed to indulge. I grabbed some of my Lactaid pills, because we're having dairy tonight!

Bacon-Pesto Pizza-ish and Corn on the cob with TWO butters.

So first I bought a pizza dough from Trader Joe's and rolled it out. I don't have pictures of the rolling process, but I have pictures of me comparing the length of my rolling pin to Guinness.

I come at my dog with a rolling pin and what does she do?

She licks it! Good thing I was done with it.

Apparently she's not done with it, though.

Next is to spread your favorite pesto on the dough. Seriously, just buy pesto in the store if you don't want to make it. I used my basic basil pesto, but this is really good with a spinach pesto. Then top with chopped bacon. I precook the bacon for a few minutes in the microwave to help remove some of the greasiness. The recipe started from me making it with prosciutto, but I had some amazing uncured applewood smoked bacon from TJ's that was going to expire... yesterday.

Don't be afraid to load on the bacon. It shrinks when it cooks.

Throw it in the oven at 375 for 12-15 minutes depending on thickness of bacon and how crispy you like your crust. I like to crank the oven to 450 for the last 2-3 minutes to really get my crisp on!

So while that was doing its thing in the oven, I made some corn! One of the vendors at the farmer's market had some corn. They warned me that it wouldn't be super sweet, but I love corn and don't care! (Seriously, this crazy weather is throwing all the crops for a loop.)

I grew up breaking corn in half before I boil it,  no matter what size pot it goes into. And I will continue this, because it tastes better that way!

For the corn I made TWO, yes I said it, TWO compound butters.

The first was a chili-esque butter:

1/4 cup butter, softened
2 tsp worcestershire sauce
2 tsp ground chipotle peppers
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste (I used a pinch of each)

Stir it all together and put in fridge until ready to serve!

The next is a truffle butter:
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 tsp truffle oil (NOT truffle flavored olive oil)
1 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste (I used a pinch of each)

Same thing with this one: stir and into the fridge it goes!

This just looks like a bowl of butter on a dirty counter!

So while the pizza thing is baking, the corn is cooking, and the butter is chilling... I fed the dog! Like I said before, I make Guinness' food from scratch. So without going into too much detail, here's a picture:

Ground beef, rice, loads of veggies, and the green tint is a food additive full of nutrients just for dogs!

Guinness loves her food. I wish my camera had either video function or a time stamp. Here are some pictures of her eating. It lasts about thirty seconds total.

I add some kibble on top for more nutrients and crunch to clean her teeth. She doesn't like it though.

A Tony the Tiger water bowl and placemat that says good dog? Sign me up!

 

Almost done!

I checked on the pizza. It looks really good and almost ready!

Oh self cleaning oven, please clean yourself now!

It seems Guinness is done with her dinner!

And waiting for handouts. She knows she isn't doing a good thing.

"I swear, I'm just guarding your food from evil intruders!"

So after that we ate it all up pretty quickly, so no pretty pictures of food on my plate. I also served leftover roasted purple asparagus and green beans cooked in white wine with this. They both taste great with the truffle butter on top!



What did you have for dinner tonight?

So... we're skipping spring?

Workout: stretching my arm from my side to the cookies, back to my mouth, and repeat ad nauseum (really)

It's about one billion degrees out right now. At least it feels that way after so many 50 degree-ers. One of the benefits of my job is the crazy hours, I may have had to get up early, but I was done by noon. So I made a quick trip to the store to buy the essentials, like shampoo and soap. Smelly Alisa doesn't make friends.

Guinness agrees, it's too hot to do anything more than laying on the kitchen floor.

I got home and was too hot to even fathom the strength to work out. So instead I officially unpacked my summer clothes and packed away winter. Goodbye snowflake sweaters. I won't miss you at all. And I know I will see you again so soon!

Hello cute skirts! My legs may be blindingly pale right now, but I'm Irish, so nobody can tell if that's my tan or not!

You and your friends are looking mighty gorgeous right now!

I don't know what I'm going to make for dinner. Laziness and the heat are making it hard to want to work. I would much rather chase bugs on the deck with G-homie.

If I decided to do anything more than eat a bag of chips and knock back a few beers, I'll let you know. Hopefully the storms tomorrow hold off enough to let me get in my long run. 6 miles... here I come!