Thursday, January 28, 2010

un-bleched!

well, the workout did the trick. hey, look at me, two workout posts in a row! no, really, it did do the trick. I even made a new sticker for my calendar (I can't believe none of you have written me for one yet - it's so pretty, har har, knee slap).


see? right there, in the 28th box, is a pink heart with an S in it. S stands for strength. pink heart because it made me feel so much better about myself.

so, today, I did the 20 minutes of cardio. I'm not sure it was higher intensity than my usual, but I did the best I could. that meant 1 mile of jogging at 6mph, 1.0 incline (10 minutes), followed by 2 minutes of walking at 3mph, three sets of 1 minute run, 1 minute jog, then 2 minutes of jogging for the finish. all of that added up to 1.78 miles at 1.0 incline.

I recommend the strength program. it was short enough to couple with the cardio for a reasonable overall workout time (during work). I liked the moves - there was nothing really complicated, and little that made me feel really self-conscious in the gym (although there was only one other person there, so maybe that was why I felt so 'free'). oh, wait, the stability ball push-ups? ai-yi-yi! I nearly went flying during each set. I only did 5 per set...well, it gives me something to strive for.

the blech continued

no, I didn't go home and work out. instead, I went home and made dinner, hung out with John and Henry, and fell asleep with Obama on the tv.

so, crappy night of sleep, and I was CRABBY this morning! but I am going to turn it all around with a good work-out. on Kate's excellent advice, I went to Fitnessista's website, and found her "Intro to Iron Pumping" work-out plan. it's supposed to be coupled with 20 minutes of cardio (maybe higher intensity than usual cardio workouts), and there are three sessions, to be done on non-consecutive days, designed to work out 'synergistic' muscle sets.

I'm impressed by the Fitnessista's well-maintained website, but like Kate, I find it hard to relate to the raw-food fascination. there are a lot of raw foods I can't eat because I'm allergic to them. cooked, they're fine...but ingest them raw, and I stand the chance to go into some kind of air-choking shock (usually, they just make me really itchy). oh well, I suppose I'll never be crazy healthy. anyway, what I like about her website is all of the information she's got packed in. thanks, Kate!

I'm enough of a weight-lifting neophyte that I don't know what the exercise names really mean. Fitnessista has all of the items on her list linked to explanations. This is my list - I had to make drawings to help me remember.


see all those red faces on my calendar? next month is going to be a lot less angry looking.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

frustration

I suppose that being a mother means that I can't always 'decide' what to do with my time. I was so excited to go to the gym today, but couldn't due to work & Henry (well, specifically, I don't want to leave John at home with Henry by himself any longer than I need to - it's not that he's an unfit parent; no, it's that he would kill me if I went to the gym, rather than come home right now). so sigh, I'm going to do my best to get a really good strength work-out in at home. hey, maybe this is a great opportunity for me to begin working on a workout that I feel good doing at home. I like to do yoga, but am generally too un-energetic for that.

look! an entry all about exercise!

on Monday, I ran a whole mile at once! it was a landmark! 6mph, and incline set to 1.0. after that mile, I did intervals of two minute jogs to one minute runs. I was beat after only 30 minutes (2.6 miles, I think), but still proud that I ran an entire mile at once. it used to be that I could not run for ages, then whip three out from the get-go. life is so different now!

my goal is to add to the one-mile-all-at-once every other day. that's my plan to stretch my actual jogging ability. otherwise, I will be doing intervals.

oh, and of course I will be working out with Jamie! I love those days, even though I sometimes want to throw up during the work outs.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

"forbidden fruit makes many jams"

that's what I saw on a church sign today, as I was driving to my in-laws' house. Henry and I are sick, and they're taking care of us.

well, if forbidden fruit makes jams, then forbidden rice makes boss drool. that's what my boss was making lusty sounds about yesterday. ok, well, maybe it was the fish on top of the rice, but really, the cool thing about my lunch yesterday was the rice.


see? look at the rice, it's cool looking because it's purple. plus, the black rice is supposed to have many nutritive benefits. I think that mainly Koreans eat their rice this way, but maybe I say that because it happens to be a Korean brand? The package directions say to mix one part black rice into two parts white rice. I did it that way, and it was delicious. oh by the way, the black rice is called, forbidden rice. I'm not sure why.


I also had some miso soup with my lunch. I felt very sophisticated in my cube on Monday, really.


one thing that wasn't good about Monday's food choices was breakfast. don't get me wrong, I ate healthily, but I chose wrong. I put cottage cheese together with blueberries and granola. hey, they were all in the same bar, plus I always see cottage cheese with fruit in grocery stores. why the granola? it just looked aesthetically pleasing, see? pretty, right?


pretty gross! I didn't like it at all, but of course, I choked it down...after separating all of the ingredients and eating them separately.

by the way, I'm time warping back to the weekend for this post. It's been a while since I've posted, so I'm re-capping in the interest of divulging my true eating habits. John, Henry, and I went to H-Mart, a Korean grocery store (tiny mall) in Elkins Park, PA. there are other locations, but I haven't been to any of them. I LOVE going to Asian grocery stores, and H-Mart is great because it doesn't smell like an Asian grocery store! why do I love going to Asian grocery stores? maybe because I'd never find this at my local Thriftway. I didn't purchase a box of these, but considered it for a moment. they're seafood sausages which I think are to be eaten on the go?


Plus, H-Mart has a food court on the second level, where Henry discovered escalators, and I discovered that chicken and joy DO go together. I wasn't sure, but now I am.


oh yeah, and H-Mart features a "Paris Baguette" bakery. I stopped in and picked up some treats. I wasn't sure of what everything was, but I'm game that way. There was a chocolate croissant in the box too, but John snapped that up before I could manage the photo. yes, that is a hot dog wrapped in croissant pastry. that was for Henry, and he pretty much ate the hot dog out of the croissant.


Before going food shopping, we went food eating, of course. John was in the mood for a bowl of noodles, so we went to get some Pho (Vietnamese beef broth & rice noodle delight) in South Phila.

I'm sorry for taking such a graphic photo, I know there are those of you who can't "do noodles." I swear, they are so good! but of course, I'm still trying to be good (I only at a bite of each pastry, I swear), so I mostly drank my broth.


The pho restaurant we frequent is actually Henry's favorite dining establishment (aside from Sulimay's). here is he is, enjoying his meal. he prefers rice over noodles, and like me, loves a good broth. mostly he eats hoisin sauce. he uses a spoon to eat it. this kid would probably be happy if I bought him a salt lick for his birthday. hey, I could shape it like a cake.

Monday, January 25, 2010

I have lots to say, but I'll shorten it to this for now

my boss was drooling over my lunch today, and it made me uncomfortable. it was kind of a heavy breathing type of, "oh that looks good" comment that was repeated at least two or three times! I took photos of it, so I'll post them once I'm home, tonight. xo, e.

hm...

I'm not the only person who thinks of putting a shot of espresso into my green monster (a.k.a. greenie), am I? AM I?

Sunday, January 24, 2010

I have to get onto a soap box for just a mo'

as you know, I'm generally up early, weekend or not. now that I'm old, most mornings I listen to public radio (I used to listen to music). on Sunday mornings, there's a show called, Speaking of Faith. ok - I'm going to get super TMI, but there you go, that's what a blog is all about! I'm not Christian, nor do I follow any path of spirituality that worships a God that's been written about in the Bible, or the Koran, or wherever. which is not to say that I don't have faith, or that I'm not spiritual, or that I judge anyone who is. I believe in an entity's right to believe what they want to believe, and I hope that one day no one will have to believe that their way is the only way. phew - I love listening to Speaking of Faith because it introduces all sorts of topics and puts them into context of the human condition, metaphysical questions, seemingly non-religious topics, and etc. this morning, Krista Tippett is speaking to Katy Payne. Katy Payne discovered that whale songs change, and that those changes are the evolution of whale culture. today, she's discussing her life, elephants (she also discovered that elephants communicate in a frequency that humans can't hear because they're too low, the frequency is called, infrasound), and how she chooses to be spiritual. you should really listen to the podcast when you have the time because the way she characterizes elephants, her beliefs, human social systems, & etc. is so moving, sad, hopeful, inspirational, and entertaining.

maybe I just liked it because I'm an ex-biologist, current animal-lover, and non-practicing environmentalist, but I'd really like to hear what you think of it, if you decide to listen to it. what impressed me most was the wisdom and love present in Katy Payne's voice (wow, that sounded totally hippie). she also had great elephant stories, and a very serious message about life. since my parents died, I've been trying to figure out where I am with my life, and how to square my current activities with my ideals (honestly, they're so not on the same page most of time, and as much as it pains me to say that, it's true. but that fact isn't entirely depressing, as I tend to be an impractical dreamer and know that I have to adjust my outlook to bring in the reference of real life). the single idea that Katy discussed that impressed me the most is a tenant of Quaker life: she tries to take just what she needs in life, and tries to pare her life's contents down to what she finds to be essential...(hey! it works as a diet mantra too! oh, that was sad).

I am a bad diet blogger, but LOOK at this!

ok, ok, I know that I need to shape up in more ways than one if I want this blog to be a good read (for you, my very limited, but very cool and awesome audience. John, this doesn't include you; you don't really read this blog, anyway), but just take a look at this gadget that John tipped me off to yesterday!

I'm going to get one for myself today - I'll let you know whether or not it's worth the purchase. I know that everyone (including me) uses their phones these days, but I still love my camera. this device works as promised, it will make my camera rule!

Friday, January 22, 2010

it's been one of those days

...full of annoying events. ugh, sometimes I just want to quit my job - I'm fantasizing about how good it would feel to walk away from the endless emails that I receive.

chocolate green super food is delicious in the greenie. it makes them into brownies. in general, I find it hard to argue against a chocolate-banana smoothie. I've had two in a row (yesterday & today, not two in one morning), and am pretty happy about it.

yesterday I did my normal treadmill routine, but today I'm going to find a way to mix it up a bit. Kate's resolution to do weights was inspiring, but I'm not sure that I'm at the point where I'll be able to make myself stick to that plan...I'll let you know what happens.

I had salad again for lunch today, and did much better than I did yesterday. I didn't put even one drop of dressing on it, so it wasn't too salty (no sweating!). I also didn't put anything fried on it! ha! I did put a tablespoon of poppy seed dressing on it, but I brought that from home (Brianna's brand).

look for two new sidebar features: (1) the lunch bag! I'm going to make it a point to bring lunch daily, and to post what I've decided on, whether or not it's good, etc. (2) exercise journal - again, workouts, how they went, recommended or not, etc.

also look for one upcoming tutorial: tofu

aren't wombats cute?

Thursday, January 21, 2010

regret schmegret

that's what I'm trying to tell myself, now that I've had fried calamari for the second time this week (during lunch). this calamari was from our cafeteria salad bar (it was um, OK - maybe a bit odd because there was something sweet about it, but it wasn't weird enough to keep me from eating it). my entire salad was so salty that I'm sweating right now. I have this odd condition where if I eat something really salty, or sweet, my face sweats. so, now I'm sweating. the weird thing is that I only put a tiny bit of dressing (lite ceasar) in my salad container. could they possibly salt everything in the bar?

check out this yummy blog/magazine. it's related to apartment therapy, which I'm sort of addicted to. I submitted my house to the website, thinking they might ask for more considered photos, or something, but they just posted it as was...you can still find the entry here.

my personal training session was cancelled today, because my trainer, Jamie, is feeling stressed and overwhelmed. I'm sending good vibes out to her (dump that ruinous ex-boyfriend vibes, and your life might get better vibes, to be exact). I've ignored blogging about exercise, but not on purpose, mostly because I went through 4 days without exercising! but I got back on track yesterday with a 3 mile, 37 minute treadmill session. I followed it up with stretching and abs. ugh, it's hard to do anything after lugging my body through a treadmill workout. my legs aren't strong enough! today, I'm planning to do the same. I'd really like to get back to being able to run at least a half-hour. I'm still alternating walking and jogging (1.0 incline, walking 3-3.5mph, jogging 6mph). I get jealous of John who can just walk up to the treadmill and whip out a half-hour (>6.5mph) run, even if he hasn't done anything in a year. not fair.

ok, I suppose I should do something else now.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

crying animals

what tugs on those heartstrings more than a crying animal? I was thinking about Koko, the gorilla, who cried when her cat died. I think that Koko is over 30 years old now.

on a happier note, thanks for proclaiming yourself a follower, Jenn! how does it feel to be in such an elite club?

loooong weekend

my weekend wasn't as exciting as some peoples' : ) but it was pretty fun. but first, let me backtrack a bit and discuss last Friday's breakfast. it was the perfect example of why it's best for me to avoid the cafeteria at work.


that's an egg-white omlette, filled with brocolli, and accompanied by deep-fried tater tots...I suppose it could have been worse - I did forego the cheese in the omlette, and although those tots were deeply satisfying, I managed to keep from stuffing them all down (into the 'ole pie hole). but still, I went there only to get either a piece of toast, or two scrambled eggs, and ended up coming back to my desk with a mess of food. I heard the voice of Kate saying, hey, it's Friday.

I got a bit blue (no reason) on Saturday, but cheered up once friends came over. they came in the late afternoon, and rather than getting take-out/delivery, I whipped up a satisfying dinner that I'd recommend to anyone who wants to eat something healthy, quickly. the bonus is that it's very easily assembled. I'm notorious for losing track of dinner once I've had even a sip of a drink, so simple is crucial for the likes of me.


that's asparagus and whole-wheat penne, tossed with extra-virgin olive-oil, garlic, and lemon. directions are written out next, so skip to the next photo to avoid boredom. to make: boil a large pot of water, and salt well. as the water is boiling, wash asparagus and cut into lengths about the size of the penne (to be fancy make the cuts on a bias). take a moment to finely mince a large piece of garlic. put the garlic aside for finishing the pasta. once the water comes to a full boil, cook asparagus for a few minutes, until just tender, but not soft. use a hand seive to pull the asparagus out of the water (put aside) - that way, you can boil the penne in the same pot. yes, put the penne on to boil next. once the penne is finished cooking, drain as usual. then, using the same pot, if you like (which I did, less to clean up!), heat about two tablespoons of olive oil and gently sautee garlic until lightly golden. turn heat off, add salt and pepper to taste, juice of the lemon (squeeze it straight into the pot), and toss the pasta and asparagus in the mixture. top with parmigiano & enjoy! oh, and if you want to be extra fancy, you should zest the lemon and toss that in as well (I didn't have the patience for fancy touches on Saturday night).


yup, that's Velveeta. I also made a "cheese" dip on Saturday. this was my first experience with Velveeta and I nearly didn't make it because I didn't know that it would be unrefrigerated in the grocery store, so finding it was like looking for lost treasure. boy, was I surprised when I unwrapped it and saw it up close. I had NO idea that it would be kind of soft, like a rubber brick! I cut the cheese into cubes and microwaved it, then stirred in pickled jalapenos and Crystal hot sauce (that brand of hot sauce is NEON RED! and tasty, not so hot though). I tasted it, but was not tempted to go for repeat bites once I finished microwaving it for my guests, ha ha. it was gratifying that Tifanee dug into it and proclaimed Velveeta to be an old friend. Laurie, on the other hand, avoided it altogether. when I was first pregnant, but before I knew I was, I suddenly became obsessed with cheese dip one day, while I was house-sitting for my brother. John was looking around the kitchen, and found a jar of cheeze whiz and a freezer full of soft pretzels. I couldn't believe how delicious it was! I should have known right there that I was knocked up. maybe I shouldn't have gotten all funny that night. but hey, it was also our wedding anniversary!


Laurie brought these to share and they are amazingly delicious. I was eating very well, for a Saturday, but couldn't stop myself from downing about three of these.


I made whole-wheat bread on Sunday. I think it's going to take a few tries to perfect it, but I did end up with two loaves (yeah, lazy on the final pictures). the crumb isn't the best, but it certainly passes for bread. I found the recipe in the book, Baking With Julia, and made only one alteration to the recipe: I skipped the malt extract because I didn't have it. I'm going to buy it before my next attempt. since it makes two loaves, my plan is to bake it every other week, and do something else in between. up next will be croissants. that'll probably end up a disaster, but hey, why not try?


found an extreme party-maker at Williams-Sonoma on Monday...it would be a good wedding gift, right? our friend's sister, Mary, brought one of these to the beach house we rented last August, and it was great!





this stuff is on sale for half-price at Whole Foods. it's ok...I'm not exactly sure what I think just yet. it makes the green monsters kind of powdery (one scoop). since it was 50% off, I got two flavors, berry and chocolate. I've only tried the berry so far.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Saturday, January 16, 2010

dinner for breakfast

you may not be able to tell, but I'm Chinese (my parents moved to the US from Taiwan), and being so means that I can stomach most foods in the wee hours of the day. as usual, I was up early (ah, peace). today, I began with a good read, donated to me by the owner of my neighborhood diner, Lucretia.


it inspired me to bake bread, but I'm saving that activity for tomorrow. I don't eat tons of bread, but Henry does, and I thought it would be nice to bake bread weekly. instead, I decided to cook the bacon that had been languishing in my fridge since before Thanksgiving (yeah, well bacon doesn't go bad, right?).


my plan was to chop it up to use in one of my all-time favorite recipes Fu Mei Chiao's Fried Rice (that's my mom's name, pronounced foo may). the recipe calls for left-over rice, bacon, eggs, scallion, salt, and soy sauce. that's all! no veggies - they just make the rice too moist. this isn't "healthy" food per se, but it's definitely comfort food, and it's important to get comfort in for balance, which leads to health.


sadly, Henry is mildly allergic to eggs, so I had to substitute tofu, but I made the tofu look like eggs by adding a bit of tumeric and mashing it as I lightly fried it (a hippie trick I learned in days of yore). not a bad imitation


and after the cooking was done, this is how it looked. my breakfast was four pieces of bacon (I couln't help it) and a half cup of fried rice...

yesterday I had a training session with Jamie. now my abs are SORE! it feels good, though. I managed to work out each work day this week. I'd really like to keep it up, especially since I think my desk job is the main culprit in my less-than-healthy lifestyle (stop mentioning the bacon!).
o&o, e

Friday, January 15, 2010

pant pant pant

the spin / tone class was torture. even though the spin portion was only a half-hour, it was a half-hour of cardio hell. it was very fast-paced, and there was little recovery time. lifting weights after that was nearly impossible. even though I used 5lb dumb-bells, I could barely do three of anything in a row. let's not even discuss the planks, or the push-ups. I had to split before we got to abs (dinner date on the horizon), but I was still breathing HARD on the way to the car. my breathing was barely back to normal as I was picking Henry up from school, and I certainly hadn't stopped being red in the face, or sweating.

welcome!

I see that Kate has jumped into the world of reading cookbooks. I say, "RIGHT ON!" Kate, if you ever feel like you've run out of satsfying material (unlikely, as there are a billion cookbooks and other food-related reads), let me know - if you promise to return it, I'll lend you one of my favorites:


here's a real-life sausage feast:


they were from Brooklyn, were delicious, and very interesting. besides a normal pork banger type of sausage, there were cheeseburger sausages and taco sausages! mmmmmmm.


sausage-bearer Chris (ok ok, stifle it).


Beth, wife of sausage-bearer and co-proprietor of artisan cheese and beer shop named, Eastern District, in Green Point, brooklyn.

o&o, e

Thursday, January 14, 2010

fighting the urge!

Laura came by yesterday to ask me if I needed anything from the cafeteria, and I had to quash the urge to supplement the lunch I brought from home. the thing I miss the most about going to the cafeteria every day (sometimes twice a day), is checking out our 'library.' there's a bookshelf near the atm where people can drop reading materials off for others to pick up and enjoy. I love taking a look to see what's turned up.


I actually paid for this book, but since I'm on the subject of other people's cast off literature, I thought I'd share a choice photo from this awesome instruction manual.


or two - should I make this for my sweetie?


I think he could pull it off. ok, now back to business:


I microwaved an Amy's burrito for lunch yesterday. I inhaled it. yesterday's workout was a 3 mile jog/walk. this time it took 37 minutes - I tacked on a couple more minutes of running, and stepped the resting pace up to 3.3mph (yeah, a whopper of an increase!). my arse was dragging yesterday and I was tempted to flatten the incline to zero, but I made it through.

there's supposed to be a spin/tone class today. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't get cancelled, and that I don't end up working late.


a little potato love to peace out on. o&o, e


Wednesday, January 13, 2010

look at our kitchen junk drawer -aaaagh!


I'll have to deal with this some day, I suppose.

on weekends, we try to get to our neighborhood diner at least once. it's one of those great places where breakfast prices are completely reasonable, and everyone knows each other. John and I live in the 'hood, but we're not OF the hood, so not everyone talks to us, but Henry was born into Fishtown and the regulars treat him as their own. Joe gives him advice, Ann takes him into the kitchen to see Daniel, Lucretia tries her hardest to make him smile... John and I love it because we get a chance to eat in peace! this weekend I was good and got a bowl of oatmeal.


I split it with John, then had one piece of dry rye toast and one egg, cooked over medium. mmmm.


by the way, this is what happened to that magnet! it cracks me up every day (you know I'm easy).


if you've been trying to figure out how to get more carrots into your diet (I know, a common, burning question), here's a great recipe from this month's Country Living magazine (courtesy of my mother-in-law). I made it yesterday, and it's yummy if you like limes, honey (I used local raw), and scallions. try not to over-cook the carrots like I did. if it's too hard to read the photo, I'll write it out later.

today's monster is pineapple again.

not looking forward to work today...end of year Rx data has been released, which means insanity for me...

o&o, e

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

refrigerator tetris




it's hard to tell from this photo, but most of our refrigerator is currently dedicated to beer (lord chesterfield), which means that it's getting difficult to find room for food.

today I walked/ran 50 minutes - 4 miles. I meant to do a strength workout, but the pull of cardio was too strong. if only I could do yoga & run every day. that would be the best!

o&o, e

of course he did

is anyone surprised about mark maguire (sp)?

I've finally made a greenie with raw, fresh spinach - soooo good! and it's a prettier shade of green than the cooked version. today's has 3/4 cup pineapple in addition to the regular recipe.


I've also been using blackberries (does make it seedy) and that's yummy too.


even though Mondays are crazy for me (and yesterday was no exception), I managed to go out to lunch and still get to the gym (after work). I tried to encourage my lunchmate to go healthy for the meal, but didn't argue too hard against the Indian buffet. she was treating, after all! it took every ounce of self-restraint in my body to resist the pull of the samosas. but resist I did, and I even avoided the rice, so I could have a piece of naan. luckily, the aloo gobi (cauliflower and potato) was delicious, so I loaded up on the gobi (cauliflower).

my workout was the treadmill - only a half-hour, since it was getting towards Henry's pick up time. I alternated jogging and walking at an incline of one. jogging = 6mph and walking = 3mph. in a half hour, this means 18 min jogging, and the balance walking (recovering!) = 2.4 miles in a half hour. not great, but getting there slowly is feeling satisfying these days. hey, I can't get any worse!

my goal today is to find out where I can score another recycling bin. ours (we had two) are gone (long story, I'll just say that it's due to user error - John being the user). John won't let me put the recycling in bags because he thinks it looks bad. so we put the recycling on shelves in our back mud room, as if they were still full of stuff. we wash cans and containers out so they look clean. crazy you say? not as crazy as what John does to "put the recycling out." he carries it by the armfull, and sprinkles it around in the neighbors' recycling bins!

o&o, e

Sunday, January 10, 2010

wtf?

so, after sitting around for two days, I decided to go for a run this morning. outside? hell no, it's freezing! I drove to the LA Fitness in Bala Cynwood, only to find out that it's not open yet. OK, so I got here at 6:50am, and sure, it's Sunday, but it's supposed to be open from 5am seven days a week. right now it's me and another man waiting - separately in our cars - oh wait, it looks like he might be leaving...yup just drove away. I'll wait a few more minutes. I wonder what time the Acme opens. Gotta hand it to stip malls: they might looks like blights on the face of the Earth, but they sure can be convenient.

o&o, e

Saturday, January 9, 2010

freaking cool

these images are from the magazine, Old House Journal. someone brings magazines into work and leaves them in the copier area near me. I love old houses, so I grabbed this one when it showed up.


this house took about a decade to build, so the architect and builder, Earl Young, built a playhouse (with a working fireplace) on the grounds for his children to play in while he worked on the big house. he must have been so cool.


check out the curvy roof on this character (called the half house).


and this fireplace? please!!!! I want that in my bedroom.

these inspirational houses are located in Charlevoix, Michigan.

I want to build a house.
o&o, e

pot roast!!!!!

I'm painfully used to getting up early, and every once in a while, I get up around 5:30am on a Saturday. since I was up, I decided to do some cooking.


first, I browned this giant roast. it was on sale - half price - the only one in the pile with a reduced price. should I be afraid of why? once it started smelling good, I put those nagging thoughts away.

as the meat browned, I chopped two large onions, 4 stalks of celery, one large (peeled) potato, and two carrots. I augmented the carrot volume by using those little, milled carrots that the veggie manufacturers try to pass off as babies.

once the vegetables were chopped, I realized that there was no way everything would fit into my crock pot, so I had to bust out my badass, off-name brand, enalmeled cast-iron pot. I heated the pot and 1Tbsp. olive oil and sweated everything in traditional order (onions first, and so on). in the end I threw in a handful of grape tomatoes (because I had them).

I didn't want to waste the pan juices that were left in the pan I used to brown the roast, so I used that pan to cook some of the onions (I reserved a cup of raw onions for this purpose). once these onions were cooked, I added one cup of red wine and scraped up all of the yummy meat stuff off the bottom of the pan. finally, I united the contents of both pans and nestled the meat on top.


I hope it ends up tasting as delicious as it looks.


I put the covered cast-iron pot into my oven at 375F. I'm going out at 10am, but it should get pretty far in three hours. I'm going to keep everything in the closed oven while I'm gone, but with the heat off - my hypothesis is: if I leave the oven door closed, it will retain its heat for some time and continue to cook the roast. I don't expect it to be cooked thoroughly, but I'll see where it is when I get back and continue the cooking in the fired up oven for however long it needs. is that a hare-brained scheme, or sound planning?


this is my stove/oven. it came with my house - isn't awesome? the roast is in there!
o&o, e