by Sam Tackeff | Nov 25, 2014 | Meat
I’ve officially started my winter training plan. Given that I don’t actually train during race season, I was surprised that I even had the initiative to consider a training plan as the weather is getting cold. This year I dabbled in triathlon and marathon running, but next year I’d like to do better! I’m sure I’m going to dread getting out in the cold (and will have to spend a good amount of training in the gym), but it always feels good to have a plan! I got in a great baseline workout on the trainer tonight, wearing a heartrate monitor for the first time in forever. After cycling 300 miles in September, I clearly haven’t spent enough time on the bike since. It was a serious sweat session.
I got home late, and was thankful that my meal planning had taken all the stress out of what I was going to eat – all I had to do was execute. In the pan went my pork tenderloin from my Walden Local Meat share, seasoned with salt, pepper, and allspice. I stuck a few sweet potatoes in the microwave, and when the pork was almost done, tossed some shredded Brussels sprouts into the pan to steam and soak up all the pan drippings.
by Sam Tackeff | Jan 30, 2013 | Meat, Photography, Poultry, Quick and Easy
In the past few weeks, my writing practice has seen several false starts. I’ll get motivated to sit down and craft something delightful, and then I’ll stare blankly at my screen. My mind has been so overloaded this month that I’ve been having trouble tuning things out and focusing. This can be infuriating. I have, however, been enjoying the medium of photography, committing myself to share at least one photo a day, usually here on instagram, out of the dozens that I snap on my walks. This is my favorite shot this week– it’s a bit of trickery. I took the photo of trees reflecting on the water of the semi-frozen Charles River, and flipped it upside down. I love how the flecks of ice look like stars.
I’d like to assure you that despite my lack of creative output, I’ve been eating well this month. Mostly. Of course there have been a few trips to Anna’s for Mexican, a couple of sushi orders, and my favorite yesterday: burgers and shakes at the Met Bar. But, I’ve spent a good amount of time at home making worthwhile meals. Here are a few of them.
One cold afternoon, I played around with Mark Bittman’s recipe for Crispy Pork Bits with Jerk Seasoning from How to Cook Everything, which slow cooks pork pieces in the oven seasoned with lots of allspice, nutmeg, coriander and lime, and makes the house smell celebratory. I tossed in a few handfuls of green beans in the last half hour of roasting.
And then there was this chicken dish, which I’ll call tomato braised curry chicken. It’s the ultimate cheater meal – I’ll season chicken thighs with curry powder and salt, and sear them for a few minutes in a little bit of coconut oil. When cooked through, I’ll pour over a jar of Rao’s marinara, bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer, cover, and let cook for about half an hour so that the chicken-y juices infuse the sauce. You can serve it over rice, or spaghetti squash, or eat it just plain in a bowl, like I do.
One night we had my childhood favorite, franks and beans, and big salads. I used to use Pearl hot dogs and the sickly sweet Campbell’s with the little pieces of salt pork like my grandfather liked, but these days I tend to use Applegate Organic hotdogs that I pick up at Trader Joes, and some sort of hippy brand of beans when I’m not making my own with Rancho Gordo’s.
There was this delightful winter lunch – a perfect steak from the butcher shop, which came in my Meat Club subscription, otherwise I’d likely never leave with something so fancy! I seasoned it with salt, pepper, and cumin, and served it with a little Moroccan carrot salad, with a cumin and preserved lemon vinaigrette, and a little handful of cured olives.
Another perfect lunch came in the form of a second childhood favorite: liver and peas. I cooked the (goat’s liver!) with a little bit of bacon, tossed in some frozen peas, and then doused it all with a good squeezing of lemon.
A quick dinner came together one night in the form of garlicky pork tenderloin, roasted green beans, and a dollop of guacamole. I like it when my meals have not one, but two shades of green. I usually parcook the green beans and then let them finish in the roasting pan with the pork.
Finally, one of my favorite meals, which we ate twice: roasted chicken thighs with potatoes, tomatoes, lemon and thyme. I love making variations on this, a fairly typically Turkish or Greek meal. I’ll season the chicken thighs with salt, pepper, and thyme, and then sear them skin side down in some melted butter. Then flip them over, and nestle them on top of a few par-cooked potatoes (in the microwave is just fine) and raw tomatoes cut into wedges. Into the oven for about an hour at 375, and the skin comes out crispy. You can also roast a few lemon wedges in there, and then squeeze out the juice onto your chicken.
And now for some wonderful news: when I returned home from a long walk this afternoon, I found a box from Le Creuset on my doorstep! My beloved 7.25 quart Dijon Dutch Oven, which had died of some fluke chipping, had been replaced! They even sent me the same color! Expect to see a good amount of braising and roasting in the coming weeks from my kitchen.
by Sam Tackeff | Dec 2, 2012 | Quick and Easy
It’s cold.
I thought I’d be used to it again, or at least tolerant by now. I was deluding myself.
One observation of the season is the ritual progression of coats. I started out with the fleece, quickly moved up to my cheerful red peacoat, and then to my more stylish puffy coat, then to my “prepared for a trek to the Arctic” puffier coat, and today I had the fleece under the puffiest puffy coat and I was still cold. Ah, New England. I remember the days where I used to wear my flip flops past first snow. What has become of me?Oh yes, I’ve become weak.
What, you ask, have I been busying myself with in this frigid weather?
School! Boston Startup School. I alluded to this a few weeks ago before I dropped of the face of the earth – it’s a six week program to sharpen your skills, network with fantastic people, and make deep connections with the Boston startup scene. It has been busy.
Spending my entire day in school has shifted my cooking schedule, so I’ve been making many meals in advance to make sure that we are well fed. I roast vegetables every week, and I always try to hard boil a dozen eggs. When I’m in the mood, I’ll bake them in the oven, but this week they went in a pot on the stove. After they were cooked, I rinsed them in cool water, dried them off, put them back into their carton, and made sure to label them! Usually they last me until the next weekend.
This week I also roasted some carrots for lunches, and steamed a pot of cauliflower which I blitzed into cauliflower mash with a large knob of butter, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.
Our dinners have been mostly simple: chicken thighs with sautéed broccoli, a pot of chili that lasts a few days as needed.
One night I roasted sausages from the butcher shop and served them with some broccoli that I steamed and finished off in the sausage pan-drippings.
Another meal was a bowl of ground beef seasoned with cumin and chili powder, sautéed spinach, salsa and avocado. Devon’s favorite meal is refried beans with all the fixins’, so he got the same dinner plus some bonus beans nestled in two grilled tortillas. I typically like serving us both the same food, but I don’t mind tweaking like this for our preferences.
Another night we had pork tenderloin seasoned with herbes de Provence, mashed sweet potato, cranberry sauce and some out of season asparagus. While I used to have panic attacks about eating out of season vegetables, I now do so unapologetically if it means something green other than leafy greens and root veg in this northern climate.
And sometimes, fatigue wins out.
Yesterday, there were these green beans which I roasted with olive oil, salt, thyme and lemon slices at 400 for about 35 minutes. I wish I could tell you I ate a rounded meal, but they ended up in a bowl with some leftover ground turkey, and a large spoonful of yogurt. It was a little weird.
Dessert was in order, and included a run to Target which involved picking up not one, but two pints of Ben and Jerry’s: Coffee Heath Bar Crunch, and the curiously good Strawberry Shortcake Greek Frozen Yogurt. Yes, I know, it isn’t health food.
Here’s one last picture for you – Boston Harbor, taken from the Waterfront by the ICA. That water is not warm.
Hope you all have a lovely Monday!
by Sam Tackeff | Oct 6, 2012 | Challenge
Part 1 of the challenge complete! This was the last day of my strict challenge (Whole30), and tomorrow I’ll be following along with the rest of the folks at the gym for a slightly more relaxed challenge for the next few months. I’ll still be focused on whole, unprocessed (or minimally processed!) foods, but there likely will be a few more healthy desserts around here, because I miss my chocolate.
How’d this month go?
First off, I attempted to eat at meal times and cut out snacking. This worked out quite well. I learned that by adding a little bit of extra protein and fat to each meal, I really did find myself satiated enough to tide me over to the next meal without finding myself hungry.
This was largely helped by the blood sugar regulation from cutting out refined sugars and sweeteners of any kind. Even honey and maple syrup. Near the end of the month I had a couple of LÄRABARs which I learned are technically verboten, but I didn’t over do it. You’ll also notice that I largely cut out desserts. This was helpful retraining myself to get out of the habit of needing something sweet after every meal. I’m guessing that I’ll be much more mindful of this in the future. While I missed out over the holidays on one of my favorite desserts ever (pumpkin chocolate chip cake!), I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to let the daily dessert habit go.
Although the first few weeks I felt fine (with no noticeable change positive or negative), the last few weeks I’ve been feeling great! I’ve been doing awesome things in the gym, eating lots of delicious meals, and feeling bouncy and peppy in general.
Most of all, I had a lot of fun cooking. So many great meals at home! My tummy and my wallet are thanking me.
And, I finally made it through an entire jar of almond butter. It lasted me the whole month, and I ate the last scoops on a ripe banana.
For lunch, I had what can only be described as a “clean out the fridge meal”, but one which tasted much better than it looks. In the bowl is leftover shredded beef shanks, a cup of frozen artichoke hearts from Trader Joe’s, and an egg.
In the late afternoon, I headed out to do some grocery shopping. A few things at Formaggio, Whole Foods, and a trip out to M.F. Dulock to pick up my weekly meat allotment. (Three stores again, Sam? Yes, I’m in love with grocery shopping.)
Here are the cases this week. Gorgeous:
I picked up some lamb shanks, a small portion of lamb liver, some all-beef Romanian sausage, a little Eye-of-Round roast, some ground beef (ground to order!), and a gorgeous pork tenderloin. I’ve been trying to get a little of each animal in the case each week, and going for variety.
For dinner, I put together a fall dinner of roasted pork tenderloin, acorn squash, and a fennel and apple slaw.
I chopped an acorn squash, tossed it with some coconut oil, salt, cumin and chile, and roasted it at 450 for 20 minutes, and then 20 more minutes at 400 – while the pork was also in the oven. The pork tenderloin I seasoned with Nom Nom Paleo’s Magic Mushroom Powder from her iPad app, and some rosemary (yep, exactly how I seasoned the lamb yesterday). I seared the tenderloin on all sides the stove top (about 3 minutes), and popped it in the hot 400 degree oven for 15 minutes. I then took it out and let it rest for 10 minutes, lightly covered with the lid.
Right as I put the pork in the oven, I added a little lamb liver to the pan to roast along side it. (Chef’s treat!)
While the pork was cooking, I made a quick fennel apple slaw. I toasted a tiny handful of walnuts, and I thinly sliced a bulb of fennel, and a gala apple, and tossed them all together with the juice of half a lemon of lemon to keep the apples from browning. I then made a quick dressing: juice from the other half of the, a tablespoon of cider vinegar, a teaspoon of mustard, and 3 tablespoons of olive oil. I seasoned it with salt and pepper, and tossed it all together, letting it sit out on the counter about 20 minutes to mellow before serving.
My dinner:
