After the rain.

This morning after CrossFit, I made myself a big breakfast of banana and nut butter, eggs with zucchini and pancetta, and a steaming mug of gingerbread coffee. And I sat down to read my gorgeous copy of Nigel Slater’s new Kitchen Diaries II. I’m in love!

Before we get too ahead of ourselves, let’s talk about morning workouts.

After blowing off yesterday’s workout because of the weather, this morning my mission was to head out to CrossFit whether I wanted to or not. And when I woke up to yet another wet dreary day, I sure didn’t want to. But I went anyway. 

Today’s workout was “Kelly” 5 rounds for time: 400 meter run, 30 Box Jumps (literally just jumping on a box), and 30 Wall Balls (squatting and then throwing a weighted ball many feet above you into the air to hit a line on the wall). The prescribed workout for women was using a 20 inch box for box jumps, and a 14 pound ball for wall balls. I came to class today exhausted, so I decided to scale things. I did step-ups on an 18 inch box, and used a 10 pound wall ball. There was a 35 minute time cap, it was raining, and people were miserable.  I made it through three rounds, a run and step ups.

My favorite moment of the workout was when I passed a fellow gym-mate in the rain as I was dying, and he yelled out, “This is terrible! Great job!!” Nothing like a little bit of commiseration to get through a hard workout. Although I didn’t get to five rounds, at the end, I managed to finish up my final set of wall balls after the clock finished, making it 4 rounds, done.

In the late afternoon, I had a snack of roasted carrots and parsnips, and headed out for a walk.

I’ve been taking many different routes in the past few months trying to explore new places. Today’s walk took me down to the Charles, walking through puddles in the street waiting for the sun to peek out at me. It was beautiful. Here are some of my favorite shots of the afternoon.

Puddle jumping.

New paint jobs.

Preparing for winter.

And this gorgeous pathway.

When I came home, I put together a quick dinner: pork stir fry with pineapple and cashews. I seasoned the pork with salt and pepper, added some chopped ginger, a stir fry sauce of five spice powder, chile flakes, coconut aminos, fish sauce, and some vinegar. Then I added a few cups of pineapple until they were warm, and tossed in some raw cashews. Simple and sweet!

I had mine over a big bowl of cauliflower. No dessert tonight, but we’ve been watching backlogged episodes of Doctor Who because I apparently missed the fact that the *new season* has been airing. Thank goodness for BBC America and On Demand.

Dinosaur wallpaper, Jackson Galaxy, just another Saturday.

Saturdays are usually errand days around our house. My plan was to wake up and head into CrossFit, but I woke up at 6:00 a.m. and had my doubts. At 7:15 I contemplated making coffee but lay staring at the ceiling. At 7:45 it was pouring out and grey, and by 8:00 I had already covered my head with the pillow and that was the end of that.

Instead, I woke up late, and reluctantly walked the two miles to the bank with a podcast in order to make my gym-pact for the week. It was overcast but no longer raining, and the trees were bright enough to perk me right up.

Devon met me at the bank, and we proceeded to do some semi-complicated banking while learning about how the teller was the accidental fourth child, even though her mother had been about to tie her tubes. For some reason, we inspire complete strangers to tell us the most amazing stories.

My favorite of these tell-all’s was when the 20-something teller in San Francisco mentioned to us that she had recently gotten the dinosaur tattoo on her cleavage, and was excited to have a child in the future so that it would be wallpaper when he breastfeeds.

When we got home, I put together a lunch of leftover roast cauliflower with lemon, and some Za’atar chicken thighs.

Za’atar is a wonderful spice blend from the Middle East. There is no one za’atar recipe, each family has their own special mixes, and the herbs and spices vary widely in different regions and cultures. Most za’atar blends I like have a lot of thyme and oregano, some cumin, and sesame seeds. You’ll also see it with lemony red sumac, sage or mint.

I love sprinkling it on eggs, in salad dressing, baked onto pita, or liberally coating chicken thighs with the stuff before frying them up. While I’ve made my own in the past, I picked up this particular za’atar blend at Sofra, Ana Sortun’s wonderful Middle Eastern cafe in Watertown. They sell it for $4, which, frankly is a little steep for something I can make myself, but I really do enjoy the blend.

In the late afternoon, I was hungry again, and made myself a bowl of pumpkin eggs with pumpkin pie spice, topped with almond and coconut butter. This is one of my favorite fall treats, but admittedly tastes a heck of a lot better with a large dose of maple syrup in it. (Soon!)

By eight, we were both hungry for dinner, but I hadn’t quite gotten my act together. Leftovers to the rescue! I cooked up some fresh chorizo, with cumin, cinnamon, and a good dose of chile from M.F. Dulock, added the last bit of meaty tomato sauce and carrots from our beef stew, served it all over a bowl of steamed cauliflower, and pretended that we were in Spain.

After dinner, we turned on the tv and watched the most amazing show on televisionJackson Galaxy: The Cat DaddyYou might be skeptical, but this guy is a genius.

No seriously. It’s on Animal Planet, and features a tattooed gentleman who is a guitar player by night, cat behaviorist by day. He goes around with a guitar case filled with cat toys. Pretty much every episode features slightly deranged pet owners who make excuses for their pets’ bad behavior. And then Jackson comes in and does his thing, and the cats turn into well-behaved, happy animals, and their owners become slightly more likeable at the end. Enjoyable, every single episode.

(Photo via Jackson’s Instagram)

A beef stew for a cold fall day.

Waking up to the whistle and hiss of old metal heaters in our house just starting to kick in, I’ve been thankful these past few nights for my L.L. Bean comforter. Summer has left us, and we are on to crisper weather and shorter days. Fall necessitates comfort, warm sticky stews, roasted root vegetables, bowls of mashed potatoes, spice breads, and poached fruit.

Around this time of year I start thinking of cooking traditions again, after exploring out and about all summer long, I long to be home in the kitchen, the oven filled with roasting vegetables, or the rising batter of my favorite pumpkin chocolate chip cake. One of my favorite fall dinners is my mom’s Osso Bucco (braised veal shank). When she cooked it, the house would smell delicious for hours, and the reward would be a big meaty treat in each of our bowls. We’d impolitely gnaw down to the bone, and loudly suck out the wobbly marrow.

When chilly air hits us, this is the first thing I want to make. It’s a wonderful project for a Sunday afternoon, requires minimal effort and leaves plenty of time to curl up with a good book while you wait for supper. This stew is largely put together with bits and pieces in my kitchen, but that’s sort of the beauty of it – you can make it how you want. I use lots of carrots, but adding potatoes would be good too. Finding quality pastured veal is difficult, so usually I’ll substitute beef shanks, but you could even make this with stew meat and you’d be rewarded at the end.

To start, I turned the oven to 350 F. These are cross-cut beef shanks I picked up at M.F. Dulock, which I seasoned with salt and pepper. I then heated up my big skillet over medium heat, and cooked some onions in a little schmaltz (chicken fat!) with some La Quercia pancetta.

Then seared off the shanks, a few minutes on each side.

I then took out the meat, added a large chopped carrot, deglazed the pan with some stock and tomato sauce (I used Rao’s Marinara), nestled the meat back in, added a handful of whole garlic cloves, seasoned it all with some dried porcini mushrooms, rosemary and bay leaves, salt and pepper, covered it, and let it cook for a few hours.

After two hours, I added some thickly cut carrots, and cooked it until they were tender, about one more hour. Devon got his served over a big bowl of mashed potatoes.

I got mine with an extra serving of carrots. To finish off the dish, I added the winning combination of parsley and lemon zest, a sort of deconstructed gremolata.

beef shank stew
serves 2 – 4

1 tablespoon good fat (I used schmaltz, you could use butter or olive oil)
1 small onion
1 ounce pancetta, chopped
2-4 large beef shanks (1 per person, 3/4 – 1 lb. each)
1 large chopped carrot
several whole cloves garlic
1 cup tomato sauce
a few cups homemade chicken stock
water (or one part water, one part red wine)
a few dried porcini mushrooms
a bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon. dried rosemary (or a sprig of fresh)
3 large carrots, chopped into coins

for the gremolata:
zest of a lemon
a small handful of parsley, chopped

Start by turning on your oven to 350 degrees. Season your beef shanks with salt and pepper, and set aside. Heat up the fat in a large heavy bottomed skillet or large dutch oven over medium heat. Chop up your onion and add to the pan with a good pinch of salt. Cook for a few minutes and add the pancetta, and a few grinds of fresh pepper from a mill if you have one. Stir about for a few minutes as you chop your carrots, and set them aside.

Raise the heat to medium-high, push aside the onions and pancetta, and place the shanks in the middle of the pan, searing them off a minute or two on each side to brown them. Then, take the meat out, and set aside. If you have four shanks, do this in batches to avoid crowding the meat to get a good sear.

Lower the heat back to medium, add the carrots to the pan, and cook for a few minutes until just slightly softened. Add the stock to the pan to deglaze all the sticky brown bits, stir, and add the tomato sauce. Put your beef shanks back in the pot, add the garlic cloves, and add a few cups of water just to make sure the shanks are almost covered.

Stir in a few dried porcinis, a bay leaf, and a 1/2 teaspoon of dried rosemary, or preferably a sprig of the fresh stuff. Bring to a simmer, cover, and pop in the oven for two hours. After two hours, add the carrot coins or other vegetables you’d like (potatoes would be good), and cook for another hour until the carrots are tender. Serve as is, or over a heaping portion of mashed potatoes. Top with a generous zesting of lemon, and some chopped parsley.

The next day, add some extra cooked meat you have on hand, or use the meaty broth to poach a few eggs in. Here’s mine on day two with some crumbled pork sausage.

Sending off a friend.

I think it comes with the territory, living on either coast – you spent more time sending away friends than you care to. I certainly understand the wanderlust, but it’s always sad when you have that last coffee with a friend before they head off to new things. I find it regretful that illustrious written correspondences are a thing of the past, and now we seem to only have the internet. The internet doesn’t make up for the days when it’s raining and chilly, and you both exhale as you walk into the cafe together and share warm comfort and the details of your day.

I made the trip in the pouring rain to 3 Little Figs in Somerville to say a bittersweet goodbye to Emily yesterday. She’ll be making her way out to San Francisco next week, and I’ll miss her.

3 Little Figs is remarkably cute. It was the perfect escape from the rain and grey that has settled over the city. The cafe is filled with more smiling friends having conversations over coffee and treats than silent folks with computers (although there were still some of these, though they shut off their wi-fi on weekends).

After discussing our futures, good people from Tiburon, and the merits of media mail, I sent her off into the rain, and headed over to M.F. Dulock to console myself and pick up my weekly pastured meat fix. The case was brimming with good stuff this week. Every time I go I’ve purchased something new.

I left with pork stir fry, ground beef, boneless beef shanks, a fresh ham steak, and some homemade chorizo. Before heading back, I made stops at Formaggio (for fresh eggs and black olives), Trader Joe’s (Sardines, coconut milk, a coffee sample, and a few goodies for Devon), and Whole Foods (all the vegetables growing in fall). Yes, I could have shopped in one place, but food shopping is my favorite activity ever.

When I got home, I made myself breakfast, a few eggs simply cooked with nothing on them.

In the afternoon, lunch was sardines. Yes, sardines, again. Two days in a row if you are counting. This time I made a salad of sardines and black olives, over several fistfuls of baby greens, with a few good squeezes of lemon.

To warm myself up, I spent all afternoon roasting things as I worked. There were carrots and parsnips in coconut oil with rosemary, a sliced acorn squash with cumin, salt and chile, and cauliflower florets with a handful of garlic cloves.

For the second round of the oven, I roasted zucchini with garlic, and a whole butternut squash.

For dinner I fried up some chicken thighs with salt, pepper, and a little bit of garlic powder.

Devon got his with a Caesar salad and some acorn squash. I made mine into a big salad with a few of each of the vegetables I roasted today.

For dessert, I snacked on a banana bread LÄRABAR. After dinner, we sat around and watched Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves because we were both too lazy to turn the channel.

Hey Hey, 10k.

Lately this middle of the night thinking has been getting me into trouble. Last week, before running my very first 5k, my aunt suggested that I should run the Tufts 10k – she had run it a few years back, and loved the camaraderie (all women!) and the very flat course.

10k? 6.2 miles? Me? Ludicrous. Insane. 

And then I woke up in the middle of the night yesterday and thought to myself… Can I do it? I bet I can do it. But… can I really do it? This went on for about two hours, until I had sufficiently sleep deprived myself by the morning to become irrational enough to attempt this feat.

I set myself a goal. I’d run it slowly and comfortably, with a target of 75 minutes, about a 12 minute mile pace, including regular walk breaks. If I finished in that amount of time, and didn’t feel like death at the end, I’d sign up immediately for the race. My idea was, if I can do it well, I can shave 8-10 or more minutes off my time on race day, based solely on the energy of the crowd, and I’d have a time I was happy with.

My second goal was to see if I could run without music or a podcast. I’d never done this before, and was half-convinced that I’d not be able to make it listening to the sound of my own footsteps.

So I set about running. The race course is beautiful – you start at the common, run down Beacon towards the Mass. Ave. bridge, head over the river, run down Mem. Drive one way, and then the other, come back over the bridge and then down Comm. Ave. back to the park. I altered the course slightly to avoid crossing too many major streets, but this is what it looks like on the map.

I ran, and ran, and ran. Slowly. 

The first mile I could feel the banana and nut butter from breakfast. I breathed through the stitch, and slowed down some more.

My splits were 11:42, 12:20, 13:01, 13:56, 13:12, and 12:59, although each of these included a few minute long walk breaks, and a few stops at streetlights to avoid getting run over by a car. I made it to mile 5 without music, at which point I put on a podcast because I was a little bit bored with the “Can I do it?… I guess I can do it? … I’m doing it!” loop in my head. At the end I finished not in my goal of 75 minutes, but in 80.

So that was it I thought, I’ll just wait until I get faster. Maybe the end of the fall. 

And then I thought about it.

I just ran 6.2 miles. That’s about 3.1 miles more than I was doing before.

My body isn’t distraught. My legs feel…fine.

Why the hell wouldn’t I run in this race? Because I don’t think I’ll run it fast enough?

Bad excuse, Sam.

This is how people miss out in life, assuring themselves that they’ll do it at some point in the future. Why not do it now, when I already know that I can do it?

So… the moral of the story is, I’m now registered to run my first official 10k race. In 9 days. It was nice knowing you.

After tackling my adventure, I grabbed myself an iced tea at Starbucks (right by the Make Way For Ducklings!) before heading back home. This tea might be the worst vice I have going on right now.

Lunch was a salad of my favorite Trader Joe’s product: sardines in olive oil! I made a huge plate of spinach, sardines, bell pepper, carrots, avocado and homemade mayo, with a good squeeze of lemon.

For dinner, a friend mentioned that I had eaten beef the past three meals in a row. I wouldn’t notice these things if not for the blog (I had to go back and check), so I went to the store and picked up some Dover Sole. I love fish but forget how easy it is to make. I cooked this simply in some olive oil, with a sprinkle of salt and pepper, and some Turkish fish seasoning from Formaggio Kitchen, which as far as I know contains sumac, rosemary, peppercorns, and some other mystery spices. It goes great on pretty much everything.

Because it was late, sides came from the Whole Foods salad bar – mashed potatoes for Devon, and butternut squash and Italian zucchini for me. Here’s my dinner:

Because I was still hungry, I inhaled a spoonful of coconut butter as my “dessert”. Virtuous, I know. After dinner we watched the final episode of Top Chef Masters, where my very favorite contestant won the show. Well, well deserved! I was thrilled!

Have you done something ludicrous lately?