WoYoPracMo Jan 8 & 9

Two Classes to Warm Up the Day Saturday

WoYoPracMo Jan 7 Post

Something

Just about Snapped!

Last night as we walked into the kitchen after yoga, we were greeted with the most delicious smell. Pork Loin roasting in the crockpot on a bed of (by then) caramelized onions! Oh. My. Gosh.

I told Liz it was just so so tempting.

"Me too," she said. "I've always been a big fan of roast pork."

That made me feel better. She's been a veggie for more than a year.

I lifted the meat and onions into a container for the refrigerator. Liz tipped up the crock to pour in the pot liquor.

Neither of us licked our fingers.

yiiiikes!

Roasted Vegetable Stock

VegStock1
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

This is my favorite recipe. It's from the new Joy of Cooking (although there might be an even newer one than the one I have).

400 degree oven. Lightly oil a roaster. Drop in whole mushrooms, cut up turnips, carrots, garlic, onion. Cut them all big. Smash the garlic. Roast for an hour. The veggies should be browning around the edges.

Put the veggies in a crockpot. Deglaze the roaster with a little water. Pour that into the stockpot. Fill up with water. Add celery tops, red pepper flakes and some herbs. I put some dried thyme in a teaball and dropped it in (I don't have any fresh herbs right now), along with a couple of bay leaves

Simmer for an hour. Strain and refrigerate/freeze.

WoYoPracMo Jan 6 Post

Restorative Class-FAIL!

Fish Decision Deferred

I haven't decided whether or not my 6-week foray into vegetarianism will include fish. As of 6:45 last night I had decided it would not. I pulled some frozen flounder that was lurking in the bottom of the freezer and put it in the oven to bake. Intention: big salads with a nice fillet on the side or top. We all like salads with salmon fillets but there was no fresh salmon to be found at Harris Teeter. By 6:46 the decision was reversed with yogiLiz showed up to take me to a restorative yoga class. I ran out the door throwing instructions for dinner completion over my shoulder.

Today at lunch I thought I'd have the leftover fish and a salad. It was gone, taken by Mensa Boy to work in HIS lunch! I'm quite delighted that he enjoyed it well enough to do that.

So I'm still fish-less. And undecided.

The Initiatives

I said the other day that I would write out some resolutions. But I prefer to call them initiatives. Why? Mainly because everyone calls them resolutions and I hate to be average. Also because the word "resolutions" makes me think of the usual stuff like lose weight and de-clutter, which usually lasts about a week and then are forgotten. I don't need to lose weight and I de-clutter all the time (it seems to be a never-ending process). But also because the word "initiative" just sounds important and somewhat inflexible and, most of all, self-driven.

So. The 2010 Initiatives

1. And this is the biggest: Go vegetarian until February 14. At least until then. I came up with that date because, for as long as I can remember, my mom has gotten rid of sugary-snacks on January 1. Why? To lose weight. I don't know how she actually did with that...I guess we should ask her. But she has always said "On January 1 we are all going on diets and there will be no more cookies and fudge and candy and all that around."

So I've been around "THE BIG ANNUAL FOOD CHANGE" a lot. And I do it myself still. I continue that tradition by purging the house of sugar on January 1. This year I figured if I was going to be doing that, I might as well give vegetarianism a go too.

I started thinking about it in early December. My yogabuddy Liz is a veggie and we love to cook together. We've played with our food, and I've enjoyed working on new vegetarian entrees that would pass muster with my guys. So I figured why not do it full-time for 6 weeks?

In a nutshell, I'm not going vegetarian because of the animals. Yes, I do feel badly about them and how we do terrible things to them in the name of mass food production. But I still see the value of meat...and firmly believe that God intended us to be omnivores. No, I'm going vegetarian to flex my culinary muscles. Can I keep it up even when there don't seem to a lot of quick choices in the house? Some days when I'm tired I like to just zap a pound of burger, boil up a pot of macaroni and toss it all together with some tomatoes. We'll see. (by the way, when I was thinking about doing this, I asked Mensa Boy if he wanted to think about it too. "No." He said. Didn't even pause)

2. No refined sugar until Valentine's Day. That goes back to #1, I know. But it's a little harder. Rather than just stopping with all sugar until V-Day, I've decided just to forgo REFINED sugar. This will also flex my cooking brain. I will have sweet, but it has to be sweetened with honey, molasses, fruit, agave or what have you. Only natural sweeteners. Tricky, huh? I think that will allow me to make it all the way until V-Day. I never have before. I've gotten close...

3. Waste Not. This is also about food. And water. I end up throwing away eggplants that I bought and forgot. Or half a head of cabbage or leftover meatloaf. It's ridiculous. And water...that's just crazy. I think we run about 3 gallons of water in the kitchen before it gets hot. And I think that's a pretty conservative estimate.

So my plan is to take a look in those crisper drawers every morning. Scope out the contents. Noodle around with that during the day, and then cook from there at night. ALSO...I'm doing a pantry purge right now. I found 4 half-empty bags of various kinds of beans in there. They will all get eaten. Four kinds of rice? To be eaten.

The water situation. The only thing I can think there is to actually run water into the teakettle and bring it to a boil on top of the stove to add to the dishwater. But then I'm using gas on the stove instead of gas in the water heater. My main plan is to get an under-sink point-of-service water heater before the year is out. (note to self: mention this to MB. I think I've forgotten to do that)

4. Yoga every single day. No time limit. Could be 5 minutes, could be two hours. Could be by myself, could be in a class. Could be any kind of yoga. I never understand when people say they don't have time to do yoga. 5 minutes? That's brushing my teeth twice! Gimme a break!

5. Back to the camera. I wish I could say I'll take at least one picture a day. But then I end up at 8:15 p.m. thinking "I need to shoot something, quick!" That's not real. But I will try to photograph more. Kind of a lame statement, I know.

I just realized this embodies all my hobbies and in every one I say I'm going to do more. More cooking, more yoga, more photography. More fun!

That's all. There might be more but I can't remember them right now. I don't think there are more. If so, I'll post again.

WoYoPracMo Jan 5 Post

Side Attraction

WoYoPracMo Jan 4 Post

Meditation & Yoga Nidra

Yoga on Top of the World

crowdersheadstand
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

Well, as close to the top of the world that you can get in Gastonia, NC...

So after we huffed and puffed our way up to the top (Well, actually I was doing all the huffing and puffing. Mensa Boy never opened his mouth for breathing purposes. "Can't you at least pretend you're out of breath?" I asked. "I feel like I'm drowning out all the nature sounds."), I asked him if he'd take some photos of some yoga poses.

"As long as it's a safe spot," he said. (I'm going to assume he was concerned for MY safety!)

So I did a half-moon, which pretty much was awful. The photo is on Flickr but I'm not posting it here. I'm not extended in the middle and my hips aren't stacked. It's an all-around pretty bad pose, actually. (But not nearly as bad as the wheel, where I just looked like I was doing a reverse tabletop. No arch whatsoever. THAT one is NOT on flickr) But in my defense, I was pretty cold and sweaty from the climb...it was about 38 degrees by then...and my human shutter pusher didn't know enough about form to correct me. AND he kept shooting and saying "oops," which had me kind of distracted. OK?

Where was I? Oh yeah, the safe spot. We moved away from the edge, but were actually at the highest point here. A nice, flat spot. Good thing we did move from the edge because see those rocks behind me? I fell backwards on to them during the first try. Nope, no bruises. I managed to control my descent pretty well and got my boots down on the rocks and flicked my hands out to save my wrists. Just landed with a slight "oomph" on my back.

It was a fun morning. We climbed up and back down in about 90 minutes. A little over 3 miles of straight up and down. Then we rewarded ourselves with Olive Garden for lunch (THANKS MOM & DAD!).

Back to work tomorrow. Four days left of this semester and then the second semester will be a DOOZY!

WoYoPracMo Jan 3 Post

Kundalini

Vegan Chocolate Bundt Cake

Vegan Chocolate Bundt
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

We had a wonderful Christmas dinner with friends this year and I was charged with desserts. The crowd included my own sweet-toothed family, two vegans and assorted diabetics. So on my list was a vegan dessert, a sugar-free pumpkin pie and a regular sugared pumpkin pie.

I saw this recipe in the December, 2009 issue of Yoga Journal and knew immediately that I had to try it. I didn't know if this held true in the other family, but I know in ours the standard dessert fare at Thanksgiving and Christmas never includes chocolate. This is simply amazing, considering the rabid choco-holic my mother is, but there you have it.

The bundt turned out as beautifully as the photo in the magazine. This is my own photo, which I'm not absolutely delighted with, but I gave it a shot, anyway (pun fully intended).

And so here is the recipe:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8-or10-inch bundt pan.

1 3/4 C freshly brewed coffee
2/3 C unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 1/2 C granulated sugar
1/3 C Canola oil
1/3 C applesauce (we made ours out of a pink lady apple simmered in a couple of Tablespoons apple cider)
1/4 C cornstarch
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
2 C whole wheat pastry flour or all-purpose white flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp confectioners' sugar

Heat the coffee in a saucepan over medium heat until it comes to a simmer. Turn the heat down to low and whisk in cocoa powder until it has dissolved. Remove the saucepan from the heat and set aside to bring to room temperature.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the granulated sugar, oil, applesauce, and cornstarch until the sugar and cornstarch dissolve, about 2 minutes. Mix in the extracts. Once the chocolate mixture has cooled a bit, stir that in as well.

Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Beat until the batter is relatively smooth.

Pour the batter into a prepared pan and bake for 45 to 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake's center comes out clean.

Remove from oven and let cool in pan for 20 minutes. then invert the cake onto a serving plate and cool completely.

Once the cake is cool, sift the confectioners' sugar over top.

We also enjoyed drizzling chocolate syrup over the cake. And whipped cream or soy whip. I'll make this one over and over, for sure. I think the only thing I'd LOVE to change about it is to change out the granulated sugar for something un-refined, like agave.

Thank you, Yoga Journal!

WoYoPracMo Jan 2 Post

Double the Pleasure, Double the Fun

WoYoPracMo

Hello. As if I don't have enough to do online already, I've joing WoYoPracMo, which is an online community of yogis that have committed to practicing more yoga. Specifically during the month of January. WoYoPracMo stands for "World Yoga Practice Month."

When you join the community, you are given a page on which to write about your progress. Here is a link to my first posting.

I have stuff to write about, but will not do it now. It's already 9:50 p.m! Those of you who know me know that this is more than an hour past my bedtime. So I'll get to it tomorrow. I have actually come up with a few initiatives for 2010. Most people call them RESOLUTIONS. But I don't want to. I want to call them INITIATIVES. And so I will.

Stay tuned.

WoYoPracMo Jan 1 Post

I'll post links each day to my WoYoPracMo blog. Do I get credit for posting here each day then?

It may very well be the only blogging I do some days.

Allow

Half Locust Pose

LocustPrep
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

This is one of Bear's Christmas gifts. He started out afraid of it (mostly, I suspect, because the guys were squeaking it madly and loudly in front of him when they showed it to him at first), but now basically just eschews it. We think it's the rubber smell.

I noticed this morning as I walked by it that it appeared to be in half-locust pose. The pose is perfectly executed because the rubber boobs assist the bird in staying up in a wonderfully straight line.

I'm not sure I feel the need for silicone boobage to assist in my locust pose.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

monkeycup
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

So we stopped at the grocery store today and Yogi Liz said, "Good. I'll pick up a lemon for my detox."

Of course I had to ask about that.

She told me she juices half a lemon, stirs in a Tablespoon or so of molasses and a couple of dashes of cayenne pepper. "It kind of flushes out the liver or something," she said. "But mainly, it warms me up. My hands are less cold for a while."

NATURALLY I had to try it. And what better vehicle to use to stir up said concoction than my new, adorable monkey espresso cup that Mensa Boy gave me for Christmas?

I didn't die. And my hands ARE warmer. Uh huh...

Uh. Ew! What is it?

landsfordshootout3
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

We are thinking maybe a fungus was among us at Landsford Canal State Park. Would anyone like to weigh in?

Entertaining Wrap

ChristmasWrap
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

If there were prizes on Christmas Eve for the most imaginative wrapping, Taylor would have taken it. The rest of us just put wrap on the gifts or tossed them into gift bags and called it a day.

Not my boy. He took the time to illustrate some boxes, either outside on the wrap or inside on the box. Here is Riley holding up a gift he unwrapped from Taylor. I have no idea what "kthxbai" means.

Here is one of mine. I guess "FTW" means "For The Win."


Oh! We are never sure if he spells stuff this way because he doesn't know how to spell, or if it's just bug us. We suspect it's the latter more than the former.

A Merry, Slippery Christmas!

SockSliders
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

The guys got socks from Grandma Goetsch and the first thing Riley (center) did was put them on and slide across the kitchen. I think he might have actually been headed to the bathroom and nearly broke his neck. That's when he announced this wonderful phenomenon. They spent the better part of half an hour sliding up and down the kitchen.
"These are great," Nate said. "My feet are warm, but not sweaty!"

We had a wonderful evening last night. Beginning with Swedish meatballs and culminating with the sock slide. The only sad part of the evening was the Taylor's gift had not arrived. And we hadn't noticed. I ordered him a video capture card for his Playstation in mid-December and it never arrived. But I thought it had. He had ordered a device from Amazon about the same time using his birthday gift certificate from the Bullers. When that came we wrapped it up thinking it was the Christmas present. We finally got a shipping confirmation this morning from the other company. So he'll have another gift day next week.

We are about to head to a friend's house for Christmas dinner. My Vegan Chocolate Bundt cake will be a hit...I'm sure of it.

Merry Christmas everyone! Whether you are shoveling snow in the midwest or building an ark here in the southeast, we wish you a safe and happy day.