by Sam Tackeff | Sep 22, 2012 | Challenge
I’m not sure how it happened already, but it seems that Fall has arrived. While New Englanders are already bracing themselves for what is likely to be a horrendous winter, I’m just so thrilled that my favorite season is here. Fall foliage, creative layering, mulled apple cider, pumpkin chocolate chip cake (though, not for a while yet for me), pumpkins, warm blankets and lingering in bed in the morning.. I love it all.
Fall also feels like renewal to me. For someone who loved school, I was always excited to be back in action come September. Even though I’m no longer a student, I always feel the urge to pick up new books and read all season long. Things happen in the fall.
Physically, I’m much more suited to fall. You don’t get overheated or sweaty, and you don’t freeze. In New England, there could be snow tomorrow, or 85 degree weather for the next two months, so I’ve learned not to take any good day for granted. And today was a glorious day. Temperature in the low 70’s, and it felt like summer, but this tree had eagerly shifted outfits. I’m so looking forward to the next few months.
This morning I had a late start, or at least, as late as my adult brain would allow me to go. Gone are the days where I could sleep in until noon. This is not a bad thing. After a few hours with a book, we headed out to Needham to pick up my race packet for tomorrow!
We opted for a brunch at Whole Foods, and each parted ways at the salad bar to find our own meal. I made a big colorful salad, with eggs, tomatoes, roasted peppers, squash, onions, carrots, cabbage, a little bit of sweet potato, a spoonful of cashews, oil and vinegar. On the side I treated myself to “dessert” – a Coconut Cream Pie LÄRABAR. The ingredients in these bars are great – dates, unsweetened coconut, almonds, cashews and coconut oil, and they taste delicious! (Dates however are super sweet, and this definitely was a treat for me, given that I’ve now had them two days in a row. Danger!)
After brunch, we finished up our errands with a trip to Pinkberry. Which I abstained from. Devon tried out their seasonal chocolate hazelnut flavor, and I had this delicious iced tea from the Starbucks next door. We sat outside for a while, people watching, chatting, and upgrading Devon’s phone to iOS 6. I’m likely going to switch to the iPhone 5 next month, and am looking forward to everything except for the switch from the awesome Google navigation to the travesty that is the current Apple dot thing. Even with the new turn by turn… y’all don’t know what you are missing.
In the late afternoon I headed out for my daily walk. An hour around the neighborhood listening to a podcast before returning home to make dinner. I finally found a good little route with walkable hills! My legs miss those Noe Valley walkabouts, and I’ve been yearning for steep inclines lately!
For dinner, I took out two lamb shoulder chops from the butcher, which I seasoned with salt, pepper and cumin. I then started on some cabbage – I chopped up a small 1/2 head of green cabbage which went on the stove with some of my homemade chicken stock, salt and pepper. I let it wilt down for about 10 minutes, seasoned it with some cumin and lime juice, and took it off the heat.
Then, I quickly fried up my chops. 3 minutes on each side for mine, and a few extra minutes for Devon’s.
I set them aside to rest, and fried up a single fresh pork sausage, and a tomato for myself. Here’s my dinner plate:
After dinner we watched Top Chef Masters (go Chris!) and Kenneth Brannaugh in Wallender. I can’t say enough about every single show from the BBC these days, and PBS for airing several incredible seasons of Masterpiece in a row.
Dessert, because I reckoned I hadn’t eaten enough today – a chopped up apple with a spoonful of coconut butter and a spoonful of almond butter.
Now, to bed, so I can get sleep before the race!
by Sam Tackeff | Sep 22, 2012 | Breakfast, Lunch
When you are no longer of the age that a sleepover is a common occurrence, it becomes rare that you have breakfast guests on a weekday unless you have regular traveling visitors. Making breakfast for a friend is one of the great pleasures in life. (Brunch, even with the same foods, is a different beast entirely.) In our house, I regret, breakfast is usually a singular activity, so I was thrilled to get a visit from my friend Caroline. She got an egg, tea, and melon, and for me coffee, two eggs and a tomato, and a banana sliced with almond butter.
Today was the first day that I’ve been out of the house for lunch for weeks, and I was excited to play hooky and see the city with Caroline. We spent the afternoon wandering around the Boston Common and the Public Gardens, checking out the farmers market in Copley, strolling down Charles Street. This stately fur ball was seen in front of Savenor’s, dutifully waiting for his human friend. And maybe a marrow bone.
After discovering that Caroline’s desired chai hot chocolate was still not at being sold at the chocolate shop, despite the fact that fall is almost here, we headed off to Brookine to pick up her friend’s wedding dress, and forage for lunch. To be honest, I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to eat. We debated Cutty’s (even though I’m not enamored with it), sushi, Anna’s (she’s from Texas, so that was out). I learned that Caroline had never been to Flour, so I decided that a trip to the South End was in order.
After finding a fortuitous two hour visitor parking spot in the South End (when does that ever happen?), we headed over to Flour. It is here I should note that this particular occasion at Flour made me really appreciate a) the fact that my current food restrictions are not life threatening illnesses that so many of my friends have to deal with, and b) the fact that there are some supremely lovely people in the world.
At 3 o’clock, there was no line, so I felt a little more comfortable attempting to order food that was restriction-friendly. I opted for the lamb salad (without the delicious tomato chutney or goat cheese, alas), and immediately the folks behind the counter were more than accommodating, and full of suggestions. Could I eat carrots? Avocado? Tomatoes? Suddenly what I assumed was going to be a slightly boring salad became exciting again. The oil was a blend that I was wary of, so they gave me a side of olive oil and vinegar, and I ordered an espresso and made sure to give a good tip.
After our lunch, we walked the South End, and headed over to Formaggio on Shawmut. Because I’m a regular at the Huron location, I felt that it was high time that I check out the other location in the city. The shop was full of all the same goodies on a smaller scale, and all around a good place to check out if you are in the area. I learned however that they didn’t have George Howell Coffee! Instead, I picked up some medjool dates, and we headed over to the South End Buttery for tea. (It’s been so long since I last visited!)
The iced tea here is delicious – I believe it’s iced earl grey.
After our lovely afternoon, Caroline dropped me off at home, and left to Providence.
I headed out to Trader Joe’s to pick up some fixin’s for dinner. Usually I make a meal for us to share, but I’ve been making sure not to impose too much lately with my food choices. We each got our own meals – Devon got hot dogs and beans, and I had a complementary fresh gazpacho, topped with fresh pork sausage from M.F. Dulock’s. The same, but different!
by Sam Tackeff | Sep 21, 2012 | Challenge, Photography
Today’s Happiness Booster: Evening Walks. I remember when I was a teenager spending the summer in France, we used to go for evening walks. Usually before dinner, or in between dinner and dessert, we’d head out as a group, sometimes just the kids, sometimes the whole lot of us, and stroll through the neighborhood. There was always a lot of smiling, laughing, waving to people eating in their gardens or doing the same as us.
This is a practice that I’ve been longing to make a habit of, but it hasn’t been until recently that I’ve been doing it. You get rewarded at that time of day, the blue hour*, when twilight hits and the sun has set and things all of a sudden become magical. (*Also, love this blue hour.)
I took these tonight, on my phone, as the light was fading on my evening walk.
Today was an odd sort of day, trying to fit a few different things into my schedule that I hadn’t planned for. I decided at the last minute to go to the gym because I’m committed twice a week, and although I usually go on Friday or Sunday, I wanted to give myself enough rest for my little road race this weekend.
I had half a cup of coffee, and headed to the gym on an empty stomach, because of my last minute judgement. Although having some food is better than none, if I don’t leave several hours between eating and my workout, it becomes uncomfortable and “an issue”. I’ll leave it at that.
Today’s workout was called “Tarpit“.
AMRAP 20 (As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes):
200m Run
16 Lunges
8 Push-ups
4 Pull-ups (Jumping pullups for me!)
If this looks painful, well, it was. I got in an honorable 5 rounds plus a run. (Three rock stars in my class got 9 + change. Crazy!) To reward ourselves, we did 8 sets of 20 seconds of situps + 10 seconds of rest in between. I did a less than honorable 52 situps. Eek!
Before heading home, I stretched for a good 15 minutes, and swung by the Needham library to flip through a cookbook of mine that is stuck in a box. They have this fantastic statue outside that I just love.
When I got home, I set about making a simple soup of leftovers that turned out better than expected. Butternut squash, roast beef, a few handfuls of baby spinach, and the last bit of homemade beef stock I made last week. I seasoned it simply with salt and pepper and a little bit of Turkish urfa biber (a deep oily red pepper flake).
Later in the afternoon, snack was an entire half pint of raspberries, and some iced tea with coconut milk. I had a heck of a time trying to photograph the milky tea, the camera just didn’t want to do it. It was good, I promise.
In the early evening I headed off to M.F. Dulock again in Somerville to pick up some pasture raised and freshly butchered meat for the next few days. Having a great source of high quality, humanely raised meat is so important to me – leaving my meat c.s.a. in the Bay was really hard, and I just can’t say enough about having access to this stuff. I picked up some beef shanks, beef stir fry meat, fresh pork sausages, lamb shoulder chops and goat! Variety is the spice of life!
After my evening walk, I set about making dinner. First I gathered vegetables to make my salad. 
I chopped up the tomato and cucumber, and tossed them in a bowl with a little bit of salt and thyme, and let them sit while I prepped everything else. This allows the juices to puddle at the bottom, and all you really need is a little bit of vinegar and a spoonful of olive oil to finish it off.
The goat meat I had picked up at the butcher had already been seasoned – salt, pepper, garlic, onions and parsley – pretty much exactly what I do to my ground meat to make Turkish köfte – convenient!
I formed the meat into little balls, and fried it in some tasty lard in my cast iron. Goat is a very lean meat, so a little bit of extra fat was welcome here.
I was surprised at how much they really crisped up in the pan. I made Devon a salad with a little bit of Caesar dressing, sliced up an avocado to share, and made up our plates. This is his, mine had just cucumber and tomato salad without leafy greens for no good reason other than the fact that I had put away the greens before making my own plate and forgot.
And wait! Dessert! Before my walk, I managed to cut up a melon and put it in the fridge. I ate several cupfuls mindlessly while watching “Breaking Amish”. And to think I had seriously contemplated giving up fall TV…
by Sam Tackeff | Sep 19, 2012 | Photography
Today’s Happiness Booster: Photography Practice. This afternoon I was talking to my good friend Sondy about my desire to improve my photography. I have this phenomenal camera that I don’t know how to use, and find myself frustrated when photos turn out better on my phone than they do on the Nikon. I know that there are a few things that I really need to do – read my manual, take a class, but most importantly, spend more time shooting. So she sent me on assignment to Fresh Pond, in Cambridge. It’s one of my absolute favorite places in the city.
Here are a few of my shots from the evening.
I have to do more of that.
As for today, I started out with a very small cup of coffee. And a few spoonfuls of unsweetened Sunbutter. I don’t think I like it very much, it’s a little bit bitter, but I’ll see how it works for cooking.
After my snack, I headed out on my run. This was my last planned run before my race on Sunday! I walked the mile down to the Charles to do this loop – it’s a nice 5k, but not my favorite in the neighborhood, because the paths aren’t as kept as other parts of the river, and you really need to watch out for tripping hazards.
After my run, I hit up Starbucks for some iced tea. I took a picture of myself sweaty, with tea, but decided I’d spare you for this blog.
I was starving by the time I returned, so I put together this big plate – leftover roast beef, roasted eggplant with parsley, a chopped orange bell pepper and a dollop of homemade mayo to dip. My lunches tend to be simple, but I try for lots of colors and textures. This was so good!
In the early evening, I went to Fresh Pond to take photos at sunset, and ate my snack – an apple and a handful of almonds.
I came back to start dinner. My plan was to roast a spaghetti squash, and serve it with a quick meat sauce – the pork I had cooked a few days ago with Italian seasoning, and some Rao’s Marinara.
And then I realized that the spaghetti squash that I was so excited about… was a butternut squash. This almost caused a meltdown, but I was determined to be positive about the mix-up. So I renamed it “butternut squash “faux-cchi”, topped with meat sauce”. And you know what? It was surprisingly good! I cooked the squash in the microwave for 10 minutes (gasp!), put together the meat and sauce and simmered it, and cooked Devon a little pot of farfalle. I then spooned out the squash in gnocchi size, and ladled on my sauce. Here was my dinner.
by Sam Tackeff | Sep 19, 2012 | Challenge
This morning started with a cup of coffee and Saveur magazine. The rose was from Rosh Hashanah dinner, and has been making me smile every time I sit at the table.
I was interested to read Tea’s post on morning rituals, and have been equally interested in the comments that have been popping up. My morning ritual is usually centered around waking up and wandering into the kitchen, making myself a cup of tea or a single cup of coffee, and reading until I finish half the cup or the beverage gets too cold to drink anymore. I have a few mugs, but I found my favorite, so I bought two. I rarely finish the whole cup, and then I move onto breakfast. Do you have morning rituals? I’d love to hear about them.
Breakfast was a quick omelet, two eggs with some spinach and leftover Italian ground pork tipped in while it set.
Lunch was leftover salmon salad with a side of chopped carrots and celery to dip. Having sit in the fridge overnight, it tasted even better than the previous meal.
In the early evening, I set about my walk – a few loops around the library listening to a podcast and praying that it wouldn’t downpour. I dropped off a few cookbooks that I had taken out, and picked up Boswell’s The Life of Johnson, which I get to read when I finish my overdue library book.
I also took a quick trip to Costco before they closed. I had been considering renewing my lapsed membership, but a loop around the store proved that I couldn’t actually find a single product that I buy for my household, so I saved myself fifty bucks and walked away.
For dinner, I reheated this coconut chile beef that I cooked yesterday.
I decided to add the last few cups of cauliflower couscous into mine before putting into my bowl, so admittedly it looks quite unappealing here, but it was good! After making this recipe half a dozen times, I think I like it best with chicken thighs. I’ll post a recipe when perfected.
And before I forget,
Today’s Happiness Booster: Tackling a few small nagging tasks. I’m sure you have a few of these – maybe it’s a project you’ve set aside, but today I committed to getting a few things done that just weren’t getting themselves done, namely, plugging in a light over the stove (still in progress, I have to drill holes through the cabinets), and working to finish up a way-overdue library book. They might officially hate me at the library.
