The Cure For Everything Is Salt …
… tears, sweat, and the sea. (Dinesen)
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Melissa Clark, This Calzone’s for You!
29 May 2012
I’m a huge Melissa Clark fan. Her articles and dining videos on The New York Times and her food blog make me want to cook more, more often. The long holiday weekend gave me the opportunity to refresh my homemade pizza dough supply (Annie’s Eats pizza dough recipe is still my go-to) and to take Melissa Clark’s calzone recipe for a spin.
I won’t lie, the making of my calzone was comical. Distracted by the sudden desire to clean out the grain pantry while waiting for the dough to rest, I made a bunch of silly mistakes like not flouring the cutting board sufficiently and not prepping all my of ingredients in advance of assembling the dish. Then, I nearly burned the calzone because I became engrossed in a new book, How Your Brain Works. I was in the section that explains why multitasking doesn’t work. The irony of this isn’t lost to me.
Still, the calzone wasn’t bad. I’d stuffed it with fresh ricotta, slivered garlic, sautéed sausage and green pepper, and pizza sauce. Served with a side of arugula tossed with lemon, olive oil, and grated parmesan, the calzone made a Sunday lunch worthy of a nap.
Mesclun and Honey Mustard Vinaigrette
27 May 2012
I left the baby greens in the ground a couple of days too long. They grew so quickly, and having never planted them before I wasn’t quite sure how to harvest them until I read the National Garden Bureau’s article on planting and harvesting mesclun.
Yesterday morning I harvested the yield of eight mesclun seedlings—enough for two large salads. Some of the leaves were bitter from the extra growing time, but they would still be delicious paired with a hearty vinaigrette.
If you haven’ started to make your own salad dressings, please give it a try. It’s fast, easy, and much fresher and cheaper than even the organic bottled dressings from the store. The ratio is simple: three to four parts of oil (olive, hazelnut, etc.) to one part acid (white wine or red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, citrus juice, or a combination). Start with the vinegar and a pinch of salt, eight good cranks of pepper from a mill, whisk in the oil until everything is emulsified, dip a leaf of your salad into the dressing to taste, and adjust as necessary to balance. You can embellish from there. Last night’s dressing:
- 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 cloves of garlic, pounded into a puree
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon honey
- Pinch of salt and some cranks of pepper
We ate the greens for dinner with slices of grilled chicken breast.
Caesar Salad #781
23 May 2012
Waterleaf, 425 Fawell Blvd, CHC Building, Glen Ellyn, IL 60137, noon-ish.
@ScrumptPantry, Your Pasta is Boss!
21 May 2012
Picked up a package of The Scrumptious Pantry rigatoni from Urban Orchard and made it for dinner tonight (fast skillet bolognese sauce, fresh basil from the garden, ricotta, yum!). How to describe it except to say it was the heartiest pasta I’ve ever had–it had great flavor and tooth, held the sauce really well, and was filling with only two ounces to the bowl. To quote Lee Greene, the company’s founder:
The Scrumptious Pantry is food the way it is supposed to taste. Because what you eat should taste of the terroir in which it is grown. You should taste the care and passion which the local farmers puts into growing their organic crop. And – last but not least – it should taste like your Grandmother’s unadulterated recipes brought up to date.
My grandmother’s pasta recipes involved ketchup, but I get the point.
The Four Ts and the Only Grill Guide You’ll Ever Need
20 May 2012
Grilling season! I was refinishing our patio furniture on our deck this morning at 9:30 a.m., and already the air was filling with that wonderful scent of charring meat. I bought by first grill—a gas-powered Weber Genesis Silver—eight years ago, and it remains one of the smartest purchases I’ve ever made. We grill year-round, but the summer we fire the grill up almost every night. While some people immediately become one with their grill, I had no such look. It took awhile for me to get good at the four Ts of grilling:
- Temperature. You should know how hot your grill is, and you can save yourself a lot of over- or undercooked meals by using your meat thermometer, just like you would for a roast in the oven. Duh.
- Timing. The grill does not the forgive, it lives to consume your very expensive cut of meat in heat and flame.
- Technique. Indirect or direct grilling? It depends on the cut of the meat and the thickness. Some cuts of meat (for instance, a two-inch bacon-wrapped filet mignon), start at high direct and finish and medium indirect.
- Tending. Opening the grill to check your food often is counter-productive. On the other hand, the sudden spike in the temperature gauge and the billowing smoke may be a sign that food is on fire.
My Weber came with a two-page printed quick guide that’s now available online. This guide has never steered me wrong—the times, temperature, and recommendations for indirect vs. direct grilling are spot-on. I still refer to this guide almost every time I fire up the grill. Three other lessons I learned the hard way:
- Preheat your grill. Turn all the burners to high, and wait for the temperature to reach 500 degrees. Then, adjust the burners and temperature to the proper setting. However, preheat doesn’t mean “turn your grill on and forget about it for an hour.” That way lies peril.
- Oil your grill. I use a silicone brush or a paper towel, and I oil just before I put the food on the grill. Oiling earlier than that is pointless.
- Clean your grill. The reference above to the grill fire? Happens whenever I make lamb chops without first cleaning the slide-out bottom tray.
Our Chicago springs and summers go by so fast—here’s to as much warm and sunny as we can get!
The Non-Diet on Which I Lost 30 Pounds
19 May 2012
It’s not a diet as much as it’s a daily eating plan, courtesy of my nutritionist:
- Three servings of a lean protein (three to six ounces each)
- One serving of dairy (six ounces)
- One serving of grains (1/2 cup of cooked rice or a slice of bread)
- Two servings of legumes (1/2 cup of beans would be a serving)
- One serving of nuts or seeds (think, a small handful)
- Two protein shakes
- Ten servings of oils (1 tsp per serving)
- Three servings of fruit (one apple or three apricots would equal a serving)
- One serving (approximately 1/2 cup) of a starchy vegetable like squash, potatoes, or carrots
- Unlimited amounts of vegetables like lettuce, green pepers, asparagus, cucumbers, leafy greens, mushrooms, and zucchini
It’s actually a lot of food, and most days I don’t get all of my servings. I try to get the lean proteins, the shakes, the fruits and veggies in (the beans, not so much). I didn’t give up my two martinis each night, and I occasionally indulge (as my nutritionist says, indulgence is a good part of life, as long as you’re doing it every day). And the weight came off–and has stayed off.
I’ve got friends who swear by the point system at Weight Watchers, and I know people who’ve managed to take off weight simply by tracking their calories with apps like Lose It!. What matters most, I think, is that we pay attention to what we’re eating and we try to take in the most nutritious foods possible with every meal. Whatever your goal, and however you’ve decided, to reach it, good luck and be good to yourself!
The Fine Form of Forlorn Hope
18 May 2012
Winemaker Matthew Rorick was at In Fine Spirits last night for a tasting of four of his wines: the Sihaya, the Mil Amores, the Suspiro del Moro, and a vintage of Dexter Lake. As good as the wines were the stories that he told about the names they had chosen for them–the desert springtime, a thousand loves, a sigh of the Moors. Forlorn Hope itself has a great story:
Taken from the Dutch ‘verloren hoop’, meaning ‘lost troop’, Forlorn Hope was the name given to the band of soldiers who volunteered to lead the charge directly into enemy defenses. The chance of success for the Forlorn Hope was always slim, but the glory and rewards granted to survivors ensured no shortage of applicants.
Great name, great pour, and I’m glad to have scooped up a couple of bottles from In Fine Spirits’ cache of otherwise sold-out wines.
The New Rules of Lifting
17 May 2012
Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove, the authors of The New Rules of Lifting, built their book around six basic movements that the human body should master: squat, bend (deadlift), lunge, push, pull, and twist. I can honestly say this book has changed the way I work out for better.
I learned about the book about five months ago, when I was looking for a way to change up my workouts. After three years of adhering fairly strictly to a five-day split, I felt that my returns were diminishing as my injuries were mounting (rotator cuff, knee, elbows … aging is a bitch!). I considered doing Cross-Fit, but I decided to give the New Rules program a try first, and it was exactly the change I needed.
Twenty rules in all, but here are the first five to get you started:
- The best muscle-building exercises are the ones that use your muscles the way they’re designed to work.
- Exercises that use a lot of muscles in coordinated action are better than those that force muscles to work in isolation.
- To build size, you must build strength.
- To build size and strength, you must train hard but less frequently, with plenty of recovery time between workouts.
- The goal of each workout is to set a record.
The rise of bootcamp programs, TRX training, piloxing, Cross-Fitm and zumba indicates to me that general sensibilities about fitness are trending toward functional strength, mobility, and flexibility–a really positive evolution in our quest to get and stay healthy. With the focus on compound movements, large muscle groups, and systematic cycles for workouts, The New Rules of Lifting offers an awesome framework for people who want weights at the center of their workout. Press this!
