31 January 2009

Modifications

Alas, my running regimen has hit a snag. My shins have been giving me big problems. It's not shin splints - I'm fine after the run. It's during the run where they start to hurt. I can't get past a minute or so. My doctor said to hold up on the running until my physical at the end of the month. In the meantime, I've gone back to one of my old stand-bys for my work out - The Firm. The workouts are good, easy to learn, and they push you hard if you let them. When I'm done I feel like I'm in a time warp and I've just walked out of dance class - limp, limber, and sweating profusely. I love it.

I start my job at J.Jill tomorrow - woohoo! I love love love their clothes and you get a great discount for working there. Which is good, because the clothes can be expensive. If you aren't aware of their line, check them out here. This always seems to happen to me, but I had just finished training and I had to tell them I was going to be out of town and couldn't work next week. I leave next Saturday for New Orleans. I have a conference down there and I'm really excited to see my friends from Louisiana. My friend Heather from Alexandria is going to drive down on Saturday and we are going out Saturday night. My hotel is right in the French Quarter so it should be fun. I haven;t been to New Orleans in awhile. Not New Orleans proper anyway. I was there last year for a night. I was lying out of the airport there and my flight was really early so my friends let me stay at their house for the night. Not exactly a night out on the town. I'm thinking I might need a new outfit for the trip...

22 January 2009

Thursday Recipe

This week it's breakfast. Who doesn't want something warm and toasty on a cold winter's morning? This is a baked french toast that I make when we do breakfast at the office. The prep is easy and you can set it the night before and leave it in the fridge. Just pop the pan in the oven in the morning. Voila!

Ingredients

Butter for greasing baking dish
3 cups half-and-half or whole milk
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
12 (3/4-inch-thick) diagonally cut baguette slices from a day-old baguette

Accompaniment: maple syrup, confectioners sugar, or jam

Directions

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 425°F. Generously butter a 13- by 9-inch baking dish.

Whisk together half-and-half, eggs, vanilla, salt, and 2 tablespoons sugar. Arrange baguette slices in 1 layer in dish and pour custard over bread. Turn bread slices over once or twice to coat and let stand at room temperature 30 minutes. Sprinkle top evenly with remaining tablespoon sugar and bake until custard is set and top is golden brown, 30 to 35 minutes.

**Notes - obviously I don't need to tell you all not to preheat the oven if you are going to refrigerate overnight, but wanted to throw it in there just in case

21 January 2009

16 Random Facts About Me

Andrea over at Sgt. and Mrs. Hub tagged any of her readers who were interested in participating...so here goes:

1. I love Lip Gloss. I have about 20 different kinds - pots, tubes, Dior, philosophy, flavored, unflavored. I can't help it, I love it.

2. I am addicted to gossip websites. Not the crazy ones, but the more tasteful of the gossip sites: LaineyGossip.com and crazydaysandnights.net are my two favorites.

3. I sing in the car - loudly.

4. I'm a wee bit of a hypchondriac.

5. I'm also a tiny bit obsessive/compulsive. I have the same routine every morning, I feel off if I do it out of order. I like everything to be put away in its place.

6. I hate house cleaning. I would love to be able to afford someone to come in twice a month to clean my apartment.

7. I work a second job at J.Jill to save money. It used to be Target, but the hours and the stress were too much.

8. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people don't read or pay attention when you send them specific instructions on something. Grrr.

9. My current favorite tv shows are The Biggest Loser and NCIS. Unfortunately they both happen to be on at the same time!

10. I really like blogging.

11. I would love to afford to be able to adopt a child someday.

12. I love cooking - especially Italian food. I also love baking.

13. Which means I like kitchen gadgets. I just bought a candy thermometer - I am going to attempt to make my own marshmallows in the near future.

14. I love perfume - currently in my repertoire are Amazing Grace, Burberry, Armani Code, Chanel #5, and Carolina Herrera. My everyday scent is the Amazing Grace, my all time favorite perfume.

15. I really like to travel, but I hate to fly. I would drive everywhere if I could, or take the train.

16. I'm still really shy, especially in social situations, and I hate using the phone. Calling people I don't know still makes me uncomfortable.

So - spill it, what are 16 random fact about you? Consider yourself tagged if you want to be...

20 January 2009

Snow!



We had snow today, here in North Carolina. Apparently we get a substantial snow fall every few years. We ended up with a total of about 4 inches. At 2 inches pretty much everything shuts down with the exception of my place of employment. The parking lot was basically a skating rink when I left the office shortly after 5 today. No salt, no sand, nothing. Just ice. Fortunately I was able to enjoy the beauty of the snow for a bit when I got home tonight. The pictures are from my balcony.

16 January 2009

Thursday Recipe on Friday

Since I posted about my visit with Mum yesterday, this week's recipe got pushed to today. Being in the South now, there are some foods that are distinctly theirs and Red Velvet Cake is one of them. If you've ever seen the movie Steel Magnolias you've seen Red Velvet Cake. It's the groom's cake made in the shape of an armadillo - the one with grey icing. Well, the recipe I have doesn't call for grey icing. Most Red Velvet Cake recipes call for cream cheese frosting, but this one that I found from Bobby Flay deviates from that with a vanilla frosting. So yummy!

Cake Ingredients:
3 3/4 cups AP Flour
3 tablespoons Dutch processed cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cups vegetable oil
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon red food coloring
1 1/2 cups buttermilk, at room temperature
Frosting, recipe follows

For the cake:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour 2 (9-inch) cake pans and line each pan with a round of parchment paper.

Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a small bowl

Cream the butter, sugar and oil in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl and beat until incorporated. Beat in the vanilla, vinegar and food coloring.

Add the flour mixture to the batter in 3 batches alternating with the buttermilk, mixing well after each addition. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans and bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Cool on a baking rack for 15 minutes before removing the cake from the pans. Let cool completely before frosting. Slice each cake into 2 layers and frost.

Frosting Ingredients:
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1/2 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
7 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups superfine sugar

Combine the cream, milk, vanilla bean and seeds in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Remove the vanilla bean and discard. Add the flour and cook, whisking constantly, until thickened to a paste, about 2 minutes. Scrape into a bowl, cover and refrigerate until very cold, at least 2 hours.

Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and beat until the mixture is very fluffy and the sugar is totally dissolved, about 6 minutes. Add the cold paste, a few tablespoons at a time to the butter mixture and whip until light and fluffy.


**Notes - this recipe also does well as cupcakes!

15 January 2009

Hangin' with Mom

My mom was here in Durham for a visit. We had a really good time. She helped me finish setting up my apartment. We hung pictures and she helped me pick out some items to decorate the apartment. So we spent some time at Target and Michael's and Pier 1. She had never been to Pier 1 before. I was kind of in awe. We went out to dinner and relaxed and I took her on a tour of Duke. I also introduced her to the fabulous tv show Top Chef. She hadn't seen that before either. It was nice to just be. Whenever she had visited before I was moving to somewhere new and the time we had together was a blitz of decorating and putting things together and hanging curtains and basically everything you do when you set up a house. Time like that wasn't really a vacation for Mum, so it was a nice three days with no real set agenda. She loved the Duke campus. What can I say, I work at one of the most beautiful campuses in the country. The Gothic architecture of the West Campus and the beauty of the Duke Chapel are unparalleled. Mom figured out how to take a picture with her new camera so she has a shot of the Chapel on her phone. She even purchased a Duke t-shirt. Other than Fairfield (my undergrad institution), I don't think she's ever owned any shirts or sweats from my other schools. Duke must have made an impression.

She also got to meet Katia. Last time she came through Durham, I hadn't gotten Katie from the SPCA yet. I think Jack actually remembered her from all of our travels because my big scaredy cat went right up to her and let her pet him. It took Kate a little longer to warm up to her, but eventually her nosy side got the best of her and she wanted to check Mama out. Unfortunately Mom was heading back north into a bitter cold snap and threat of snow. There are some days when I really miss being up north, but today was not one of them!

10 January 2009

New Shoes

Good News! I won $100 in the Rhode Island Lottery Raffle. The bad news? I already spent it. It was money well spent though, I can tell you that. I bought a new pair of sneakers. Let me tell you, it's like running on air.


I bought the same style from Nike that I had when I was running a few years ago. It was a good choice. They fit like a dream. I was having shin pain from my last pair so I knew I was going to have to invest in a new pair. It was either new shoes for work or new running shoes. While I had that internal debate with my self, I won some prize money, argument settled. Woohoo!!!

So I ran for a bit this morning before heading out to do some grocery shopping. Now I am relaxing at home, the kittehs are curled up asleep on my bed and I am listening to the movie "Clue" while catching up on some things on the computer. It was made in the early 80s, but "Clue" never gets old. Madeline Kahn is just brilliant as is the rest of the cast.

I'm off from work now until next Thursday. My mom will be in town the beginning of the week and I can't wait. Usually when she takes a trip to see me it's because I am moving and Mom has come to help. Not much of a break from work for her, so I am happy that we can just do stuff and not have to pack, unpack, and get settled. We're going to a Duke Women's basketball game and I promised her breakfast at A Southern Season, which is yummy. And Mom gets to get away from the frozen north for awhile :)

08 January 2009

Thursday Recipe

This week's recipe is a spin on one of Giada de Laurentiis's recipes. I basically took the method, but substituted my own ingredients. This is a comfort food type dish (for me anyway, growing up with pasta dinner on Sundays). It's one of my favorite pasta dishes and definitely makes you feel all warm inside after eating it.

Pasta with Artichokes and Sun-Dried Tomatoes


Ingredients
1 pound pasta
1/4 cup olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1 can artichokes drained well and chopped
6 oz sun-dried tomatoes
1 cup (about 3 1/2-ounces) grated Asiago
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain pasta reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid.

Meanwhile, warm olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add the artichokes and tomatoes and cook about 2 more minutes. Add the cooked pasta and toss. Add the cheeses, salt, pepper, and the pasta cooking liquid and stir to combine.

Transfer the pasta to a serving plate and serve.

**Notes - I prefer cavatappi (corkscrews) for this particular recipe, but you can use any type of pasta you prefer - penne, fusilli, rigatoni. For the sun-dried tomatoes, 6oz is an estimate, you can use more or less depending on your personal preference. I recommend the sun-dried tomoatoes in water or oil as the other ones tend to be a little too chewy. If you aren't a fan of artichokes, you can substitute spinach or zucchini, whatever you like.

06 January 2009

The Biggest Loser

Want to talk about motivation? Watch this show tonight. This is the time of year when many people make resolutions to eat better, lose weight, go to the gym more, etc. If you want weekly motivation, tune in. Some of the people on this show have just basically given up - no self esteem or self respect. Since those things are lacking, they have given up on having a healthy life style. Others have just let the good habits fall away due to personal issues, having children, job stress or what have you.

It really is a powerful experience to watch the contestants week after week as they get stronger and fitter. Now, granted, they are away from everything and all they have to do is concentrate on being healthy and working out and they have a trainer there to push them every step of the way. I would love to go on this show. If I had weeks of time at my disposal and could afford to not work, I would probably apply. I'd want Jillian to be my trainer. She is hard core. She yells and screams and pushes. Oh to have Jillian Michaels as my personal trainer.



There are few reality shows that are "must see" for me. The Amazing Race is one and The Biggest Loser is the other. I think it's because while the contestants do compete for prizes, they always walk away with more than that. Whether it's a better understanding of how the rest of the world lives and how to survive in a strange land or it's a new appreciation for a new lifestyle that makes you a stronger, better person, the journey is just as exciting as the destination.

The Biggest Loser Season 7 premieres at 8pm on NBC.

01 January 2009

Thursday Recipe

Let's start the new year off with a healthy recipe. This is one of my favorite substitute recipes. You know, the type of food you substitute another for. If you have a craving for French fries, these baked sweet potato fries are a great alternative.

Ingredients
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp paprika
drizzle of olive oil
5 sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/4 inch long strips.

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

2. Line a sheet tray with parchment.

3. In a large bowl toss sweet potatoes with just enough oil to coat. Sprinkle in salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika.

4. Spread sweet potatoes in single layer on prepared baking sheet, being sure not to overcrowd.

5. Bake until sweet potatoes are tender and golden brown, turning occasionally, about 20 minutes.

5. Let cool 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

**Notes- the seasoning measurements are estimates, you can use more or less to your own personal taste and diet**
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