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 | 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 | Nov 8, 2012 | Art
Anne Collier
Open Book #3 (Island Wilderness), 2010
This is my current desktop background, art from the ICA in Boston. I’m smitten with this piece. I’m also exhausted, and all I’d like to do is just sort of jump into that ocean right now.
by Sam Tackeff | Nov 7, 2012 | bento, Lunch
Since I’ve been working mostly from home over the past several months, I haven’t had any reason to pack a lunch, so I was thrilled to pack my very first bento today for Startup School. Although the offices downtown are conveniently located in proximity to lots of good food options, I’m going to still make it a point to bring lunch as often as possible.
On the left is sliced chicken thighs, and on the right, roasted delicata squash and parsnips. And an apple for snack. I suppose I’m missing something green, but this hit the spot.
by Sam Tackeff | Nov 6, 2012 | Restaurants
I’m trying to avoid clicking “refresh” every five seconds on the electoral infographics. The polls are closed, I cast my vote, and there is nothing to do now but wait after this very long day. Four hours in a car, half an hour attempting to get an inspection, another two getting some brake pads, voting, and wishing that I didn’t have to miss my day 2 of Boston Startup School. Yesterday was formidable. I’m still trying to process it all, but I’ll share more soon.
Instead of wasting energy worrying about our nation’s future after this election, I’m worrying about the community in the areas affected by Sandy, people who need our help right now. Give blood this week if you can (there is nation wide need), donate to Red Cross disaster relief, or volunteer your time. Here’s a more comprehensive list via TED of things you can do to help.
If you live in New York, or are visiting in the next few weeks, please go to your favorite restaurants downtown, or in other areas affected by the storm. Learn more about #dineoutnyc, make reservations, and eat to support the hardworking folks in the restaurant industry. After week long closures, losing power and the contents of their walk-ins, they are struggling right now. They need our business!
Here are a few photos that I’ve had sitting on my hard drive for months. In August, my mom and I went on a little trip together, and ended up at Birreria for a blissful meal. This is my mom. She’s one of the most lovely people I know.
For our dinner, she started out with a glass of Prosecco, and we shared a charcuterie plate, some bread, and some of the great spicy olive oil they serve at all of the Eataly restaurants.
We shared a crunchy Insalata di Mela – fennel, cabbage and apple salad with speck, asiago, and lemon vinaigrette. This salad has routinely been a dud – I’ve had a similar one downstairs at La Pizza & Pasta, and while the vegetables are fresh, it’s always lacking acidity.
I had the cotechino, thick rounds of pork sausage, served over mustard-y sauerkraut. A very good dish.
My mom had the quail. A little bit of quail on quail action – cooked absolutely perfectly.
After dinner, we headed downstairs for coffee and desserts. We had panna cotta and baba au rhum, and espressos.
And this is where I admit that I was about to lie to you. This is our gelato from Eataly, pistachio and sour cherry. I was going to present this as dessert, but truthfully, we ate it before we went upstairs for dinner.
And then we headed out into the night. To walk of our meal. And stop at Grom, for a second round of gelato – grapefruit and raspberry, the glutton’s version of hair of the dog. That’s how we roll.
Heal quickly New York.
