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.
by Sam Tackeff | Sep 18, 2012 | Challenge
Today’s Happiness Booster: The Email Opt-Out. In the spirit of the new year (Rosh Hashanah!), I’m going to be focusing on one new happiness booster each day. These are the little things that I try to identify and implement – consistently making my bed, going to sleep with the sink empty of dishes, 10 minutes of exercise, etc. – that when performed every day, add up. Today, I focused on the email opt-out.
A few months ago I started using unroll.me, a site which actually automates the process of clearing and archiving your inbox. It archives mail into a daily roll up, and lets you choose whether you want future mail from the sender or to unsubscribe. While this was convenient, I realized that I needed to do it myself for prime satisfaction. So each email, I’ve started taking 2 seconds to ask myself: Keep? Or Unsubscribe. I’m reaping the benefits already.
* * *
Breakfast this morning was a leftover slice of roast beef tenderloin, and a sliced tomato from Volante Farms.
I then headed out to a morning meeting with a friend at Formaggio Kitchen. George Howell coffee, black. I’m getting quite used to coffee with nothing in it, but it certainly doesn’t hurt that this is some of the best coffee in the city.
Resisting the urge to buy everything, I left with eggs from Silverbrook Farm. Farm fresh eggs are my vice. Lately I’ve tried Chip-In, Eric’s, Red Fire Farm, trying to determine which I like best. I admit it, I was swayed by the blue box.
Late in the afternoon, I set about doing some prep cooking, to help reduce time spent actually cooking during the week. This entire prep took just shy of 45 minutes, but it’s a definite head-start to the week! [Yep, 4 different things, 45 minutes.]
I started out with a batch of homemade olive oil mayo. It has a whole egg, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and a tiny bit of mustard. A minute with my stick blender and done!
I then set about making some Coconut Chile Beef from Melissa Clark‘s ‘Cook This Now‘. Love, love, love this cookbook. Beef, coconut milk, chile, and lots of lime, cooked down into a sweet, tart, and savory sauce. The prep takes 12 minutes, and then you put it in the oven to braise for a few hours.
Because I always aim to maximize the work my oven does, I quickly chopped up the last of my Volante Farms eggplant and popped it in the oven as well to roast for an hour.
And then, on a roll, I decided to quickly brown the ground pork I had with some Italian Seasoning. I’ll use this with eggs for breakfast, or on leafy greens, or to add some depth to soup. I might also add some sauce and serve it on spaghetti squash. We’ll see. It helps to have it on hand.
Finally, I made myself a quick lunch before sitting down to work at the computer for several hours! Chicken soup with homemade stock, the last of the roasted chicken, a large handful of kale, and a good squeeze of lemon.
As if all that cooking wasn’t enough, tonight was our very first benchmark workout of the challenge at my gym! The challenge is 8 weeks, so we’ll likely do this at the end again to see how far we’ve improved.
The WOD: (Workout of the Day)
It’s split up into two parts – a strength workout, and then a workout set.
Strength: Back Squats – 6 sets of 3 @ 80% of your 1 rep max*, rest 2:00 between sets*If you don’t have a max, take the time to get one. I didn’t have a max, so I worked to get one today. I ended up hitting 85 lbs. for 3, and then 95 I managed to eek in 2 lifts. (85 is 20 pounds heavier than last time, so I’m feeling pretty good). 95 next time!
Benchmark WOD 1: “Fran”
21-15-9 reps for time:
Thrusters 95/65
Pull-ups
The prescribed weight for Fran for women is 65, but I’m still working up to full capacity. I eeked things out in 9:40, using 45 pounds. And I wanted to puke. But, that’s 10 pounds heavier than I did it last time. As for the pullups, well, jumping for me. This looks easy. It is not! I’m looking forward to what two months more of progress will bring me to.
When I got back home, I walked to the store to pick up a few vegetables, and set to work making a crunchy salmon salad. I was happy to have leftover grilled salmon on hand from last night, so it came together quickly. I’ll definitely be making this again soon with some of my frozen Copper River salmon – although you could also make it with a high quality wild canned salmon.
Just like tuna, but with salmon! I served it with a half an avocado, and two small tomatoes.
Crunchy salmon salad
serves 2 with leftovers for lunch
This recipe has a lot of mayo – but I make mine fresh, with good olive oil and a fresh egg, and it makes all the difference. You can reduce the amount you use to your taste, but it tastes better with more. Note, you can (and probably should) make this an hour or so before you eat it, and let the flavors meld in the fridge.
2 cups leftover cooked salmon (preferably wild)
2 hard boiled eggs
1 shallot
juice of a lemon
salt
1 red bell pepper
1 cucumber
1/4 cup homemade mayo
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
1/4 teaspoon dried dill
salt and pepper to taste
Mince your shallot, and place in a small bowl, adding a pinch of salt and the juice of a lemon. Let sit while you prep the rest of the salad. This tempers the shallot so it won’t have such a bite! In a large bowl, flake your salmon with the two hard boiled eggs.
Prep your vegetables – peel and dice the cucumber, and dice up your red bell pepper. Add to the salmon and egg mixture, and stir to combine. Add about a quarter cup of homemade mayo, and the cayenne, celery seed, and dill. Stir gently, add the lemon and shallot mixture, and stir again. Taste, and season with a little bit more salt if need be.
You can eat this right away, but it tastes a lot better if you give it an hour or so in the fridge. (Well learned lesson from my dad, tuna/salmon/crab salad master.) Serve as is, on lettuce, or a soft bun.
by Sam Tackeff | Sep 17, 2012 | Challenge, Holidays
Happy New Year!
No, I don’t have my months mixed up, tonight is the very first night of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year. Where my Jews at?! Challah back, y’all. Alrighty, that’s out the way.
Today started out the way all good days start. With coffee. Zabar’s. I went a few weeks ago with my mom to New York, and picked up some Blue Bottle Giant Steps, freshly roasted. Once I finished that, I stole one of her (10!) pounds of Zabar’s coffee she picked up. It runs in the family.
I spent my morning devouring Gretchen Rubin’s new book, Happier at Home that Crown sent to me. It may just be my very first give-away on the blog. After two hours of reading in bed, I hopped up to make myself breakfast: warm roasted eggplant and zucchini, topped with a fried egg seasoned with salt and bourbon smoked paprika.
I then set to work on some of my “make the house a home” projects, including clearing off the coffee table in our bedroom, and hauling it into the living room. (The living room I cleared of the metric ton of cardboard two days ago.)
This was a difficult task that required lunch not too long after: leftover cold roast chicken, a chopped tomato sprinkled with salt, and a spoonful of mustard.
That’s some gorgeous light filtering in our ancient windows.
And this is my snack: banana with almond butter. This stuff never gets old.
In the evening we headed over to my aunt and uncle’s house for Rosh Hashana dinner. My aunt took over this year from my grandmother, who has been the queen of the holidays for the past fifty years, and frankly deserved a break.
My aunt is an awesome hostess, who plans perfectly down to the tiniest details: roses, name cards, and little chocolates at each sitting? How cute is that?! (Devon got my chocolates, alas.)
Admittedly, I had been worried about dinner, but I shouldn’t have been. I skipped out on the challah and the kreplach soup (think Chinese wonton soup, minus the pork), but filled my dinner plate with grilled asparagus, roasted parsnips, baby onions, carrots, red peppers, beef tenderloin and salmon! We know how to feast!
After dinner, I had a cup of decaf coffee. I did not partake in the crack-brownies (from Shirley Corriher’s BakeWise), or the luscious lemon mousse, or the sugar dusted strawberries, or this gorgeous carrot cake. Excuse me while I head to bed and weep, just a little bit.
by Sam Tackeff | Sep 15, 2012 | Challenge
Weekends are a glorious thing. My perfect weekend I wake up, sip coffee in bed for hours reading, and do nothing. It doesn’t usually work out this way. After a year of fast-paced weekends, I’ve been taking things back slowly one weekend day at a time. Today, admittedly, I had planned to wake up and head to the track to meet up with folks to run. But when I woke it was raining, and I didn’t feel like driving the 20 minutes groggily avoiding angry drivers only to get soaked. I’m easing into running, I haven’t yet reached the run or die mentality. Will it come?
Instead, I made my coffee and curled up with the new issue of Edible Boston. Edible magazines are put out all over the country, and you can pick them up at fine food establishments for free!
Breakfast came in the form of this Andy Warhol-esque banana. Sweet goodness. Admittedly small, but I was planning a large brunch for myself, and this did the trick.
After leisure-ing as long as I could, I set to work on my resolution to make my house more of a home. Today I tackled a few boxes of clothes that were sitting in the corner of our room. I unpacked them, put away the ones I wanted to keep, and scheduled an appointment to consign some pieces that I don’t wear anymore.
Then I set to work clearing some clutter. The hardest thing to do was get rid of these guys: my trusty bird salt and pepper shakers, who had suffered through a few too many flight attempts off the stove. I’d been hanging on to these for some time, until I remembered one of the useful tricks from Gretchen Rubin’s Happiness Project – take a picture to remember the sentimental item, and then toss.
Lunch today was a simple Mexican pork stir-fry.
Devon had a burrito from Chipotle, but I decided to come home and make my own. I think it was a good choice. I did however pick up some of their guacamole, because it’s delicious, and saved me from having to pick up an avocado at the store.
I seasoned some of the freshly ground pork that I picked up at M.F. Dulock with some salt, pepper, cumin, and Rancho Gordo Chile powder. I then added some of the vegetables I had roasted yesterday, and a juicy-ripe chopped tomato. On the right there is the little piece of lamb liver I picked up, seasoned with some salt and pepper. A treat!
In the afternoon we did a bunch of errands, including two Target runs, and by the time we were home I was exhausted. I decided to put together a superbly easy dinner – Thai Red Curry Chicken Soup with Tomatoes.
This dish has four ingredients: Thai red curry paste, full fat coconut milk, homemade chicken stock, and chopped rotisserie chicken.
I cooked about two tablespoons of the curry paste in the coconut milk for just a few minutes over medium heat until well combined. I then added a few cups of chopped chicken, and about a cup and a half of chicken stock. I let the dish simmer for fifteen minutes, and then added three small chopped tomatoes and their juice. I seasoned with a bit more salt (although the curry paste is salty, so you don’t need much), and that was dinner.
Had I been slightly more prepared, I would have squeezed in some lime and added some chopped cilantro. Alas, I was out, so this is what we got.
by Sam Tackeff | Sep 14, 2012 | Challenge
{Scroll down if you aren’t interested in fitness enthusiasm and only care about food. It’s okay, I understand, sort of.}
I took this picture last weekend at the CrossFit New England Firebreather Festival of one of my fellow Charles River CrossFit members. I’d never been to an event like this before, but it was something like homecoming/tailgating, minus the massive amounts of booze and grilling. Although, I’m not sure why there wasn’t more grilling. B.Good had set up shop, but I find their burgers to be “meh” at best. Where were the delicious grass fed meats?
Seeing members of my own gym and my coaches killing it was a pretty awesome experience, and got me excited to get back into the gym and push my limits.
Inspired by the weekend festivities, I headed into the gym this morning excited to tackle this workout:
9/14/12 WOD (Workout of the Day)
Warmups: With a partner, switch off between 200 m. runs. While the other is running, we did a few minutes each of leg overs, frog steps, and a few other torturous moves. Nothing like working up a huge sweat before you even start the workout.
Strength: Push Press – establish a 5 Rep Max.
WOD: “Trenchcoat”
AMRAP 6: (As many reps as possible in 6 minutes of this combination)
6 Hang Power Clean 115/80 (I’m not quite at the women’s prescribed #80, but getting there!)
6 Ring Dips (I use a band to keep the rings together. It’s still hard.)
Today I chose a heavier weight than I’m used to, and thus made it through just over three rounds and some change before dying. It was fun though!
I’m growing rather fond of lifting in all forms, because I had no idea that a) I could lift heavy things, and b) how well it translates into the real life activities that I do all the time, such as bringing heavy groceries up three flights of stairs, or lifting ikea furniture, or come winter, shoveling massive amounts of snow. (Just kidding on that last one!)
On to the food!
After my workout, I had a sub-optimal post workout snack of a venti black iced tea at Starbucks. So sue me.
Once I had cooled down, I headed over to Volante Farms in Needham to pick up some fresh produce at their farm stand (which is really a small grocery). I ended up with their homegrown eggplant, zucchini, peppers, and a few pounds of tomatoes.
When I got home, I made a batch of roasted vegetables. I chopped up some of the zucchini and eggplant, drizzled them with olive oil, a big pinch of salt and pepper, and roasted them at 450F for about 45 minutes. I’ll eat them over the next couple of days.
In the meantime, I was now starving, so I put together this simple lunch: sauteed zucchini, leftover roast chicken, and Rao’s marinara sauce. You heat them up together on the stove until warm, and eat!
It took me a long time to get through this bowl, and I ate while sitting at my computer getting some work done. Later in the afternoon I chowed down on a snack: a sliced banana with a spoonful of almond butter and a spoonful of coconut butter. After years of not eating bananas because they weren’t seasonal, I admit that I’ve succumb to the tasty fruit a little too often. In San Francisco, I always had delicious local fruit to eat – here, not so much.
In the early evening, I went for a short walk around Fresh Pond, and then headed out on my most exciting field trip of the day: M.F. Dulock!
M.F. Dulock is a local pasture raised butcher shop that just opened last week in Somerville. I was there on opening day, because, a grand opening of a real live butcher is a blessed thing indeed. I left last week with pork chops, beef, ground pork and Italian sausages, and everything was good. Meat that tastes like meat.
The cases are full of whatever has been butchered, and changes up every day. (Yes, those are bacon burgers down there.)
I ended up leaving with some ground pork, beef stew meat, ground beef, and a small amount of lamb liver. You’ll be seeing it around.
When I got home, I took out the ground beef – gorgeous large grind, a healthy amount of fat. So good you could eat the stuff raw. But I had better plans – a beef and carrot stir fry with Asian flavors.
I used this “Emergency Protein” as the basic template for the dish.
I blitzed an onion, ginger and garlic in the food processor, and softened them in the pan in a little bit of lard from Formaggio kitchen. I grated a carrot and added it to the pan, and then added my ground beef. I seasoned it with a few tablespoons of coconut aminos and a dash of fish sauce. When the beef had browned, I added in a cup of shredded cauliflower for bulk (you can’t really taste it).
I doused it all in a dressing of lime juice and fish sauce, added some chopped mint and basil, and served it with tomato wedges.
Ta da!
