My Arch Nemesis

O yes, I dread this machine. I hate it. With a passion. I'd even take a run on the treadmill over this!

I was in desperate need of a good sweat session so I listened to a friend's suggestion to do intervals to keep things interesting. Plan was an easy 10 minute warm up followed by 6 sets of 3 minutes hard, 2 minutes recovery and a 10 minute cool down. I ended up only doing 4 sets because I didn't feel like eating a late dinner ;p Followed it up with my toe taps (per PT's instructions to strengthen the achilles), some bended knee calf stretches and foam rolling (to loosen up my freakishly tight soleus muscle). Feeling good!!

I've had this turkey sammich craving for a couple weeks now and I finally grabbed some Boar's Head Low Sodium Turkey Breast and sammich fixins at the Gigante on Sunday. I toasted some Flax & Grain bread with some pepperjack cheese and then smeared it with Spicy Apple Mustard (obsessed!) before piling on some turkey, cucumber and avocado.
I was hoping to get some red in there, but I couldn't find any roasted red peppers in the house. Could have sworn I had a jar stashed somewhere! Grr. On the side, a mix of 'tropical fruit' and pineapple from Whole Foods.
I don't know why, but fresh (not canned - yuck) pineapple always makes me happy...it's up there with watermelon! I think this was also my first papaya experience. Usually I stay away from papaya because I don't really like mushy fruit. This was actually pretty tasty. Not too sweet and not offensively mushy. Yum.

So I'm going to work backwards to Christmas since I've been a terrible blogger :[

I checked the mail as soon as I got home on Saturday and sure enough there was Jamie's package of goodies! He said he was sending over this crazy Korean instant coffee he's been drinking but I didn't expect this:
A giant sack of 100 individual coffee packs! Jeebus!
I must say this definitely came at an appropriate time. We're in temporary office space right now and there's no coffee machine! I brought a couple packets into work today and tested it out. Nuked a mug of water, poured the contents of the packet in and stirred. Poof instant coffee. I mean, it's on the weak side (mostly creamer with a hint of sweet), but I'll take caffeine in any form in the morning. I may save the rest of the bag for Jamie's return.

Christmas brought some fun new things to my home, including this guy:
O yes, a measuring cup man. He's super bendy and has suction cup feet. Cannot wait to use this...or at least prop him up in the kitchen. Hello stress man!

Before there was Christmas, there was Christmas Eve! In my family, we do the big hurrah on Christmas Eve at my uncle's house in Long Island. Usually it's a big gathering (my dad is one of 7 and I have at least 19 first cousins, some who have sprouted a ton of children of their own) with tons of food. This year was a bit tame since a few family members were out of town. That didn't stop the food from flowing! There was a mix of Italian and Filipino food, catered and made by family members. My mom brought some roast beef, I made a fennel and mixed green salad and my sister made a ton of cookies. Unfortunately I once again forgot to bust out the camera :( I did rock the camera phone though ;)
The heaviest cake known to man. I'm still trying to figure out why it was so heavy - we're talking at least 5 pounds...and it wasn't even that big of a cake! Poor brother-in-law had to wait in a line of like 100 people to pick it up! It was yellow and chocolate cake layered with raspberry and chocolate mousse. Maybe it was the layer of chocolate mousse? It was pretty dense...hm...

Every year there's also a huge, gorgeous tree:
Perfect shape, right? Makes me a little sad my tree is dead and shedding needles :( I got a package on Tuesday night from Jamie's uncle filled with ornaments to add to the tree. I was so psyched to make it look less naked, but when I went to put one on the needles just fell to the ground :( I think it's time to take it down *sigh*

More news in the world of plants - Red is dead. Well, not totally dead. The leaves are still green, but the redness has gone brown. Even with water, plant food and sunshine (well, as much sunshine as we've gotten lately)! Eleven whole days...I think that's a bit of an accomplishment for me! Woo!

How was everyone's Christmas? Any fun New Years plans? I'm keeping it low key - something I've come to appreciate as I grow older ;p A certain someone is celebrating NYE/his birthday in Okinawa this year...hopefully we'll get a travel report? *hint, hint*

Back to cooking and blogging

And it feels sooo goood! :)

Howdy strangers! I feel like it's been weeks since I last blogged and even longer since I made a decent meal at home!

Jamie's mom came over for dinner tonight and we whipped up some Grilled Salmon with Orzo Salad. I took a mini-break from a crazy week at work to get my FoodGawker fix and came across this recipe on We [Heart] Food. It looked simple enough for Jamie to jump in on in case I got stuck at work late AND it looked light and delicious. Sold!
When I got home, Jamie was already hard at work chopping up the cucumber and tomatoes for the orzo. I got the water boiling and started chopping up some dill on the nifty cutting board my dad made out of a leftover chunk of kitchen counter (corian?)
Jamie picked up a 1.5 lb salmon fillet from Whole Foods that we were able to cut into 4 equal pieces. Check out how rich that color is!
I decided to sprinkle on some garlic powder since I thought it could use a little extra flavoring.

Some artsy lemon zest
My microplane is kinda wee but I love it. I'd like a regular sized flat microplane one day, but not right now. This one gets the job done!

Heated up the grill pan and cooked the salmon according to the directions (are you amazed? I sure am!)
Mixed up the orzo salad, threw some mixed greens on a plate (you know I needed to) and voila! Dinner!
Aside from the burning smell that always happens when the grill pan is used, I think dinner was a success! I'm definitely keeping this recipe on hand. It was light, simple and flavorful! I might add some more veggies to the orzo salad next time...artichokes, hearts of palm, corn (just kidding!). Betcha the salmon would be even better on an actual grill ;)

Tonight's dinner was exactly the sort of meal I was looking for, especially after a long weekend of eating out and eating heavy foods. When I last wrote, we were prepping for a wedding weekend in New Jersey for a good friend of mine/old roommate from college. I was running around a lot last week for both jobs so Friday night, I was not really into cooking a meal. We ended up at Fresh Med in Cleveland Park.
We've ordered from Fresh Med a ton of times (delivery is WAAAY slow) and have enjoyed pretty much everything we've tried. This time around we both went with platters - Jamie got the Mixed Platter (Chicken taouk, ground beef kafta, and lamb shish kabab, served with hommos, house salad, and rice) and I got the Chicken Platter (Grilled tender cubes of marinated, boneless chicken, served with hommos, house salad, and rice). I must say, the food is SO much better when it's eaten immediately and not after an hour or so of traveling.

Early Saturday morning we hopped on a train to my parents' house in New Jersey where we ran a few errands with my mom and ended up at the Phil-am Colonia lunch buffet. Um, Filipino lunch buffet is nothing but trouble. Here was my first plate:
Clockwise from the rice: Fried Dilis (translation, deep fried itty bitty fishies that taste delicious w/rice), Lumpia Shanghai (not the best I've had), Pancit Palabok (I only had a bite b/c it had no flavor. I might be partial to my mom's), Caldereta (beef stew that I NEED a recipe for), Pakbet (this is what my squash dish tasted like!), and Lechon Kawali (um, no plate is complete w/out some roasted pork).

I went back for more of the Pakbet because I realized I really do love it...the bagoong (fermented shrimp paste used in Filipino cooking) adds a nice briny taste to the dish, more than my fish sauce/squash/kale experiment. Who knew? I used to think that stuff was stinky and gross. Now I just think it's stinky, but delicious!

The other repeat on my plate? Caldereta. My gramma used to make a beef stew all the time when I was little. Beef stew had a very distinct flavor and look in my mind. I once tried to make a beef stew because I was craving it and failed miserably. Why? Because apparently this is a 'special' beef stew and there are tons of different versions, some that include vinegar and some that even use cheese (random, I know). I'm determined to find the perfect recipe. Anyone out there have one?

Jamie's dessert was a simple banana...
Of the mini variety.

We didn't have too much time to digest since wedding festivities began at 6:30 Saturday evening. My parents dropped us off (hi, high school moment!) and the eating and dancing madness began! This was my very first Indian wedding and I must say, SO. MUCH. FUN.

The cocktail hour was free of alcohol but loaded with fun food. My favorite of the night:
Not really sure what it was, but it was this crispy shell with a filling that looked like beef but wasn't, pomegranate, a yogurt sauce and some other sauces. It was such a great refreshing, slightly spicy flavor explosion!

I also loved the dosa filled with potatoes
As I said, there was a ton of dancing and I even jumped in on the stick dancing! Woo! We all scarfed down the main courses pretty quickly so I forgot to take pictures. Plus it was pretty spicy so I was a bit overwhelmed. Once I find out exactly what we ate I'll be sure to post!

Sunday was Baraat and the wedding ceremony. We all jumped in on the groom's side since we figured we could go either way ;) That meant we dance/walked/cheered between a van blasting music and the groom on a horse. Not lying - this is the most fun I've ever had at a wedding before. Also, please note I'm wearing A COLOR. Huge deal for me. I felt a little out of place even with a non-black dress! So many fun and happy colors at this wedding!
Dinner was a bit of a blur, probably because I had a couple of these
and was reunited with the AU crowd, minus Jamie who had to leave after an hour to catch a train back to DC.
I do remember the food was delicious and not as spicy as Saturday and the cake was gorgeous
AND I've never seen so many people on the dance floor at one time before! Awesome time!! Congrats to the bride and groom :)