by Sam Tackeff | Jul 21, 2014 | Meat
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Yeesh, y’all. Another weekend passes by without a weekly meal plan. I swear, I have an excuse: my very first triathlon which took up most of my weekend! Race recap forthcoming! Fortunately, I have a list for emergency dinners that I’m always fond of here, and I’m always trying to add to it! Tonight’s dinner is filed under emergency quick and easy.
Pork chops + asparagus. Season boneless pork chops on both sides with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. You’ll likely want one or two per person. [We spilt three, just over a pound] In a large skillet, heat a few glugs of olive oil on medium high. Put the pork chops in the pan, and let them sit for 6 minutes without touching them. Resist the urge to fidget and touch them, they’ll be just fine without interference! After six minutes flip the chops, and move them to one side of the pan. Add in a large handful of cleaned asparagus (usually I trim the stalks in one fell swoop while the elastic band is still holding them together.) Cook the pork chops for another six minutes, while flipping the asparagus with tongs or a fork. Test the pork for doneness, then remove the chops from the pan to a plate. (Usually I like them just slightly under my preference, and I’ll let them rest for 5-10 minutes to reach full doneness.) While the chops rest, turn up the heat and cook the asparagus through, tossing gently. Serve as is, pure meat and veg, or round things out with a side of refried beans.
Here’s me crossing the finish line!
Recovery was a long nap yesterday afternoon, and a long walk today after work.
Here’s the best flower I encountered:
Happy Monday!
by Sam Tackeff | Nov 11, 2012 | Uncategorized
Despite my best intentions, I didn’t get to CrossFit until the very end of the week. I was hoping to make it to the 9 a.m. class, but was thwarted by the Newton Chilly Half – I couldn’t find a way to get around the runners!
Instead of getting to class at 9:20, and being forced to do lots of burpees, I headed over to the Charles River Center, strapped on my Garmin, turned on my RunKeeper, Pandora, and set about trying to beat my 5k time from 8 weeks ago. I’ve been exhausted for the past 7 days straight, but I still managed to pull out a 31:40 run, which was an improvement on the same course!
After my run, I headed over to the gym to get some strength training in. Things were quiet because most people were watching gym-mates compete at the Garage Games Finals at Crossfit Southie. I went for one of the workouts I missed this week:
Skill: Power Clean & Push Jerk – worked to 2 reps @75#
WOD: “Max”
12-9-6 reps of:
Power Snatch (115/80)
Thruster (115/80)
Although the prescribed weight for women is 80, I went with 55, and it nearly killed me. My Snatch form is horrific, and I spent the whole time just muscling up the weight. (For non-gym folks, this means that instead of using intelligent form and force, I slowly pulled the entire weight and tried to push it with no momentum over my head. Ouch.) After watching me suffer for the 20:21 it took me to get through this, Coach D-Payne was super kind to help me out on technique. Keep the bar close! Drive those hips! DROP INTO A SQUAT! After some serious practice, watching video of myself on Coach’s Eye, and much appreciated patience, my form was significantly improved.
When I got home, I made myself a banana pancake with almond butter and maple syrup, a cup of coffee, and read a few chapters of Shucked, which I’m very much enjoying.
I had a significant amount of work to do today, but maximized my productivity by batch cooking for the week. I started out by roasting carrots with olive oil, salt and cumin.
Then I chopped up two heads of cauliflower, and steamed them with a half dozen cloves of garlic for a half hour until tender. I then drained the pot, added salt, pepper, and a generous spoonful of schmaltz (chicken fat!) and pureed it with my immersion blender. I transferred it to a pyrex and put it in the fridge. The “Mashed Faux-tatoes” will last me several days, and reheats well.
I also roasted some delicata squash with salt, pepper, and coconut oil.
And fried a few fresh sausages for my lunches. One’s a fresh pepperoni, and the other is hunter’s sausage with bacon, both from M.F. Dulock.
For dinner, I fried up some pork chops, served them with some of the mashed cauliflower, and a side of collard greens cooked with bacon and cider vinegar.
Now if I could only get some rest before this long week ahead of me! Happy cooking!
by Sam Tackeff | Oct 17, 2012 | Meat
I’m going a little bit blind guys. Actually, I’ve been quite blind for most of my life, but pretty much every one of the hundreds of photos I took were blurry yesterday. Forgive me.
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The morning started like nearly every morning around here, with a nice dose of caffeine. This time I headed out for my daily treat, to get some George Howell from Formaggio, dark roast. Black, even though I’d much prefer it with cream. I also miss dipping those little turbinado sugar cubes in the warm coffee until they soak through, and pop them into my mouth. I’m probably better off having kicked that habit.
For lunch, I came home and decided to dose myself with greens. I sauteed large strips of kale until the stems were tender.
I then topped them with leftover chili, which, as promised had become even better after a night in the fridge.
After lunch, I treated myself to dessert – a cappuccino LÄRABAR. I can’t say that this was my favorite flavor, something about the whole coffee bean flecks seemed off and a little bitter.
Before dinner, I took a 45 minute walk around the neighborhood, and treated myself to some squash topped with sunshine sauce.
I then set to work on our dinner: Sous Vide Pork Chops. I seasoned the pork chops with salt, pepper, and mushroom powder.
And then vacuum sealed them with my Foodsaver. I just have a regular one, but if you were in the market for a hunting themed vacuum sealer, they make this horrific and amazing version called the GameSaver in “Mossy Oak“. (You should really click the link.)
While I certainly envy those with a Sous Vide Supreme, I’ve been making do with the next best thing – an Igloo Cooler filled with hot water. My cooler drops only 5-10 degrees over 2 hours, so it does the trick at keeping the meat at a fairly stable temperature.
I filled it with water around 140 degrees, and dunked the pork chops in the bath for two hours, making sure to check that the temperature was between 135 and 140.
After two hours the pork chops were perfectly cooked, but had a pallid unappealing color.
So I heated up some lard and seared off the pork chops for about a minute on each side as I finished up our side dish: red cabbage with prosciutto and cider vinegar.
Mmm…. beautiful!
I served my plate with the small chop, the bone off of Devon’s larger chop, and a side of guacamole.
