Again, it's been a while. That would be because I haven't had a chance to slow down enough to write! This creates the risk of a flood from the thoughts to the page of a rambling, potentially random bunch of observations and updates. I'll do my best to avoid such a brain dump here--but there's so much!
The April 6th news of Glenn Beck's TV show ending restored my faith--and when I did a quick search just now to confirm the date it gave me a laugh. On the first page of results, there were articles from the Jewish Funds for Justice, MoveOn.org, and a Latino blogger all rejoicing that Fox finally pulled that plug. That's a lot of diversity! (I also read yet another "fact check" article demonstrating another outright falsehood Beck pronounced as truth on his show, here.)
For us, April is a double birthday month; having celebrated my own, we celebrated my son's 17th last week as well. I guess I'm old enough to have a 17 year old child, although I don't feel like it. Where do the years go?
Easter is this Sunday; a few years ago I realized that Easter is my very favorite--bar none--holiday of the year. I love absolutely everything about it! It's pure joy to me, from the theme to the hymns to the traditional ending of our church service by singing the Halleluja chorus from Messiah. It's a joyous service for an uplifting and hopeful time of year!
Finally, I've well exceeded my own expectations for my exercise plan. I can't believe that for February, March and thus far in April I've run and walked 22, 22, and 27 miles. But more importantly, through patience (not my strong suit), I have slowly built up to longer distances and now am seeing my pace starting to increase! The other day, I was back on the Marine Corps Marathon website again and actually thinking I could do it this time! (A bit of history: in 2007 I started training for the MCM and registered for it; I was beginning to increase my distances and feeling really good--then, I ended up in the hospital because of asthma for the first time ever. In the end, I was in for 4 days in April, May and again in JUNE that year, missed weeks of work and couldn't even be outside much at all until September. I basically missed all of the activities of the summer. We tried to golf once in late September and I had so little energy I only played something like holes 1, 2, 4, 8, and 18. It was just wonderful to be outdoors though. Needless to say, I didn't make the marathon, which is held the last week of October.)
So, the feeling that I might be healthy enough again is amazing! (I should say or do something now to avoid a jinx or hex, shouldn't I? All I can think of is "knock wood.") Done. Next on the agenda: do some research on how many miles you should get out of a pair of running shoes. It's not something I've ever had to consider, but I'll admit that I'm proud to say that I'm above 100 miles on these shoes, so I'm curious!
Hope you didn't get whiplash from the quick changing of subjects, and I'm hoping to get some more time to post soon to avoid future overload. Off to bed now~
Have a comment? Advice? Random observation? I'd love to hear it. Click "COMMENTS" just below.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Some Progress to Report
I'm still here--not dead or anything--just too busy to write for the last month. (It's pure coincidence that my last entry was exactly a month ago.) So, here's an update on my progress: for February, walked 21.44 miles, did 6 hours of Jazzercise. To date in March: walked 22.29 miles, did 5 hours of Jazzercise and one hour of hot yoga...and logged it all on ActiveTrainer.com. In addition, I've logged all of my food daily since February 17 on FitDay.com and lost 6.5 lbs! (since 2/10) What's more, I'm pretty much on target toward my goal!
I was feeling great, except for the past 3 days when I've been having a sinus problem...which is why I'm here, now, writing. I took a sick day due to the headaches and dizziness; just now about to start an antibiotic (thank heavens for modern medicine). With that exception, though, I am really feeling hugely different--stronger, more energetic, more positive--all-around healthier.
As I focus on this (admittedly important) goal, it IS a bit harder to push on the several other goals I have in mind...but they're NEXT! With the new, healthier me, they should be even more attainable. (Recognize the little pep talk to myself there? I think it works--do you?)
Have a comment? Advice? Random observation? I'd love to hear it. Click "COMMENTS" just below.
PS: The poor Christmas tree is down...I'm not saying when it finally happened, but my dear husband undecorated it and my son carried it out, bless them!!
I was feeling great, except for the past 3 days when I've been having a sinus problem...which is why I'm here, now, writing. I took a sick day due to the headaches and dizziness; just now about to start an antibiotic (thank heavens for modern medicine). With that exception, though, I am really feeling hugely different--stronger, more energetic, more positive--all-around healthier.
As I focus on this (admittedly important) goal, it IS a bit harder to push on the several other goals I have in mind...but they're NEXT! With the new, healthier me, they should be even more attainable. (Recognize the little pep talk to myself there? I think it works--do you?)
Have a comment? Advice? Random observation? I'd love to hear it. Click "COMMENTS" just below.
PS: The poor Christmas tree is down...I'm not saying when it finally happened, but my dear husband undecorated it and my son carried it out, bless them!!
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Priorities
Have had some busy times recently, and a shift of priorities. I have set my mind on getting back into a healthy mode of life and lose the extra weight I've carried for almost 3 years, and this time I'm not letting anything distract me or get in my way. It seems almost silly to have to say this. Who in their right mind would let distractions get in the way of a healthy life? (At least that seems to be the sensible perspective, when you step back and regain a little.) (Oh, and it's also a big reason I haven't posted much recently.)
But it almost seems more normal around here to ignore healthy ways than to put them first on the list. I certainly see it in the people closest to me. When there's work to be done, the first thing to skip is going to the gym, taking a walk or an exercise class. Of course the next thing to go is the healthy diet--worked late? too tired to cook? Just eat out and enjoy the fat-laden, ultra large portions (complete with bread and all the fixin's) we find in most U.S. restaurants today. Before you know it, you're so far down that path it's hard to see where you took the wrong turn.
Well, I have a confession to make--but it comes with an affirmation. More than once during the past month, things have gone undone because my health is more important than that. For example, at one house (the one where I spend less time), my Christmas tree is still up. (The horror!) I have spent 2 weekends there during which I should have taken it down, but after the really mandatory housework, cooking and grocery shopping, I went to exercise classes, took walks, and even did 45 minutes of yoga on the floor right in front of it. I prepared healthy meals instead of prepackaged stuff, while that poor tree continued to wither.
I don't care. I am really just sick of feeling crappy and letting my good health slip away while the mundane, repetitious busywork of life is allowed to take over. It won't be holding me back any more. I'm moving forward--leaving unvacuumed carpets and pine needles in my wake if necessary--but I'm going to take this weight off, regain my health, and get back to being alive!
Have a comment? Advice? Random observation? I'd love to hear it. Click "COMMENTS" just below.
But it almost seems more normal around here to ignore healthy ways than to put them first on the list. I certainly see it in the people closest to me. When there's work to be done, the first thing to skip is going to the gym, taking a walk or an exercise class. Of course the next thing to go is the healthy diet--worked late? too tired to cook? Just eat out and enjoy the fat-laden, ultra large portions (complete with bread and all the fixin's) we find in most U.S. restaurants today. Before you know it, you're so far down that path it's hard to see where you took the wrong turn.
Well, I have a confession to make--but it comes with an affirmation. More than once during the past month, things have gone undone because my health is more important than that. For example, at one house (the one where I spend less time), my Christmas tree is still up. (The horror!) I have spent 2 weekends there during which I should have taken it down, but after the really mandatory housework, cooking and grocery shopping, I went to exercise classes, took walks, and even did 45 minutes of yoga on the floor right in front of it. I prepared healthy meals instead of prepackaged stuff, while that poor tree continued to wither.
I don't care. I am really just sick of feeling crappy and letting my good health slip away while the mundane, repetitious busywork of life is allowed to take over. It won't be holding me back any more. I'm moving forward--leaving unvacuumed carpets and pine needles in my wake if necessary--but I'm going to take this weight off, regain my health, and get back to being alive!
Have a comment? Advice? Random observation? I'd love to hear it. Click "COMMENTS" just below.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Tradition Revived--Cappelletti in Brodo
One quest for my adulthood has been to find a recipe for, and make, my grandmother's cappelleti. I remember going to her house as a child around Christmas time, hearing her tell about how she, Aunt Anne and Aunt Mae had spent time together and made the Cappelletti....mmmm, always music to my ears! Now, I wish I had been able to spend time with them, cooking--how much I would have learned! I also recall asking friends and other relatives, searching old cookbooks, and even obtaining a recipe from a German lady's old cookbook in the late 80's--but it just wasn't "it."
Finally, through the "magic" of the internet (and learning Italian), I began to follow various Italian blogs (many cooking-related) and my quest has come to an end. Pippi, who lives and cooks a bit north of Pisa near the sea, has a wonderful blog full of delicious recipes! I immediately looked through her archives for Cappelletti, and when I read her recipe, it seemed right. I made it, and it was perfect!! Just like my grandma's! Pippi's recipe is here, but I thought I'd translate it:
Ingredients for the filling:
7 oz ground pork
7 oz ground beef
5 oz prosciutto crudo, (raw ham)
1 slice/round of mortadella (sausage bologna)
2-3 eggs
an onion
parmigiano reggiano cheese, a good bit
breadcrumbs
butter or oil
salt, pepper to taste
nutmeg--few dashes
Procedure: (as Pippi wrote it)
First, brown the finely chopped onion in a large pan with the butter or oil, after which you put in the ground meat and brown it well. Add the prosciutto and mortadella, also both minced. Season it all. [salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste] Once cooked, put breadcrumbs in to dry out the mixture and add the parmigiano. When it is cooled down, add the eggs and fix the salt, pepper and nutmeg.
Roll out the pasta (strictly made by hand but with less egg) put a mound of filling a little bit from the edge, fold the pasta over the mound, with a round cookie cutter, cut out the cappelletti one by one.
So, I browned the meat, drained it carefully and seasoned it--
Then, once it was cooled down, it all goes into a food processor and the eggs and cheese are added. To me, a "good bit" was 2 plates full of very finely grated cheese (just to the right, above). This is then combined well with the blade and it will resemble pate.
I forgot to mention: I made the pasta dough before starting the filling so it was resting while I was making the filling. So next, I rolled out the dough (#6 on the Kitchen Aid seemed right).
After achieving several pieces of the right thickness and even ends, I covered them with waxed paper to keep the moisture in while I worked on the others. (I never seem to have those clean tea towels other people use, but waxed paper worked well.) So, then you cut the dough into squares with a pizza cutter and put a teaspoon-ish sized mound of filling on each.
I didn't get any pictures of the folding, but it's not difficult; fold in half and match up the points, seal, and then bring the two corners at the long side together and seal. (Pippi used a cookie cutter, but I wanted to do my grandmother's shape.)
After they're all made, you boil them for just a very few minutes--it doesn't take long at all. I froze the rest in a ziplock freezer bag and they were delicious when I brought them to my siblings after Christmas.
My grandmother served her Cappelletti in chicken broth with raisins, so of course I did too! This was beyond delicious to me, it was tradition revived! My husband and son ate every morsel, too. Thank you Pippi!!
Finally, through the "magic" of the internet (and learning Italian), I began to follow various Italian blogs (many cooking-related) and my quest has come to an end. Pippi, who lives and cooks a bit north of Pisa near the sea, has a wonderful blog full of delicious recipes! I immediately looked through her archives for Cappelletti, and when I read her recipe, it seemed right. I made it, and it was perfect!! Just like my grandma's! Pippi's recipe is here, but I thought I'd translate it:
Ingredients for the filling:
7 oz ground pork
7 oz ground beef
5 oz prosciutto crudo, (raw ham)
1 slice/round of mortadella (sausage bologna)
2-3 eggs
an onion
parmigiano reggiano cheese, a good bit
breadcrumbs
butter or oil
salt, pepper to taste
nutmeg--few dashes
Procedure: (as Pippi wrote it)
First, brown the finely chopped onion in a large pan with the butter or oil, after which you put in the ground meat and brown it well. Add the prosciutto and mortadella, also both minced. Season it all. [salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste] Once cooked, put breadcrumbs in to dry out the mixture and add the parmigiano. When it is cooled down, add the eggs and fix the salt, pepper and nutmeg.
Roll out the pasta (strictly made by hand but with less egg) put a mound of filling a little bit from the edge, fold the pasta over the mound, with a round cookie cutter, cut out the cappelletti one by one.
So, I browned the meat, drained it carefully and seasoned it--
Then, once it was cooled down, it all goes into a food processor and the eggs and cheese are added. To me, a "good bit" was 2 plates full of very finely grated cheese (just to the right, above). This is then combined well with the blade and it will resemble pate.
I forgot to mention: I made the pasta dough before starting the filling so it was resting while I was making the filling. So next, I rolled out the dough (#6 on the Kitchen Aid seemed right).
After achieving several pieces of the right thickness and even ends, I covered them with waxed paper to keep the moisture in while I worked on the others. (I never seem to have those clean tea towels other people use, but waxed paper worked well.) So, then you cut the dough into squares with a pizza cutter and put a teaspoon-ish sized mound of filling on each.
I didn't get any pictures of the folding, but it's not difficult; fold in half and match up the points, seal, and then bring the two corners at the long side together and seal. (Pippi used a cookie cutter, but I wanted to do my grandmother's shape.) After they're all made, you boil them for just a very few minutes--it doesn't take long at all. I froze the rest in a ziplock freezer bag and they were delicious when I brought them to my siblings after Christmas.
My grandmother served her Cappelletti in chicken broth with raisins, so of course I did too! This was beyond delicious to me, it was tradition revived! My husband and son ate every morsel, too. Thank you Pippi!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)