One Thing

In dedication to my friend Stephanie's Blog: 

One thing I learned today: I am a moderator, not an abstainer 

One thing I'm grateful for: Wine 

Supper Club: Baraka Cafe

The supper club ladies used to meet up roughly bi-weekly at one of our house and took turns hosting at our various abodes. We even had a blog of our exploits!

Sadly one by one members moved away

First, Fiona moved to New York(?) or some other state, and then back to Ireland!

Then Rachel Moved to California and then to Kansas city....

Then Sarah- our resident tiny -awesome-Japanese supper club-ee moved to California!

Then Laura moved back to California! (Whats up with that California?!)

There are still some of us in the area- but even smaller moves, like me moving from Cambridge to Gloucester have made supper club less feasible. But a few of us decided to get together nonetheless this Tuesday! Instead of our usual cooking escapades, we decided to meet up at a local restaurant, Baraka Cafe in Central Square, Cambridge.

The place was very tiny, cozy and cute! Jen had been there before and recommended we meet early, as it fills up fast!

Baraka Cafe "offers traditional Algerian-Tunisian and North African cuisine in a cozy space reminiscent of eating in the chef's home kitchen in the Mediterranean." None of which I was familiar with so it was all new and exciting! I decided to be that obnoxious person in the restaruant with a camera.

The 4 of us split a couple of appetizers and entrees.

For Appetizers we got:

Special of the night: Dates with Cheese

They were quite good! Just plain old dates with African cheese, which tastes a bit like ricotta cheese.

M'Chermlat El Sanaria :: spicy carrots in m'chermla sauce with oregano, raisins & onion jam
Very good! I wish there had been more if.

Zaatar Coca :: traditional Bedouin galette of sage, thyme, sesame seeds, lemon juice, caramelized onions on hand-stretched grilled Berber bread
I was not a huge fan of this item, it was a bit to hard and not too exciting. It could have used something for dipping.

and we didn't order this.. but they brought it anyway so we ate it

Karentika :: Oran famous savory chickpea custard with harissa tapenade
We were all quite happy with this order mess up- it was one of the better apps we got!

This was my tasting plate of chickpea custard, bread and carrots.

For Entrees we got:

Melfouf la Kasbah :: grilled marinated varieties of white & red meat with tchektchouka & pommes frites drizzled with h'rissa vinaigrette ::
A very interesting combination! I really liked the salad it came with and the french fries-- the meat was good too, though split 4 ways it was pretty small portions.

M'Katef :: New Zealand baby lamb chops delicately marinated in ras-el-hanout served with "ehbah essoufra," an Arabian almond tartlet layered in sweet saffron shallots, mint sauce & leeks spinach t'biykha ::
The leeks and spinach were the best part in my opinion, the lamb chop was a bit too fatty.

For Drinks we split a pitcher of their famous Rose Petal infused Lemonade. It was AMAZING. I could have drank the whole pitcher... but I am glad I did not.

All of the food was very good, but the portions were modest and we all left feeling satisfied but not stuffed.

We headed to Green Street Grill for a drink.

I first had a Malbec which was much too earthy for my taste, followed by a glass of Syrah, which was sweeter and more to my liking.

We all split a piece of pumpkin cake with mascarpone.

The fact that we were out and about led to much less drinking than our group usually does, which is probably for the best! I slept over Phoebe's in Fenway anyway to avoid my excessively long commute home. All in all, another very successful supper club night!

How do you like to spend your girls nights??

Goal setting for October

Last night I went to crossfit at Ironspider Crossfit in Salem. We did:

Strength:
Deadlifts: 115# 5 sets of 3 reps
Skill:
Handstand wall walk ups
WOD:
5 rounds of:
15 hand release push ups
10 kettlebell swings (20#)
5 back squats (45#)
Time: 12:27 minutes
Tonight my plan is to try out hot yoga for the first time… I am not sure if it is actually Bikram or not- but we shall see! I am hoping I will make it- it is variable if I will make it based on which train I can get on after work and if it actually runs on time.
In a quest to be more healthy I am setting a few goals.
Nutrition:

• Only drink alcoholic beverages 1 time a week (bye, bye wine with dinner…)

• Practice more mindful eating. Think, “Am I hungry?”
Activity:

• Goal to walk at least 4 miles a day

• Work out at least 4 days a week.

Do you have any goals you are working on? What keeps you motivated?

This weeks planned activities include:
Crossfit Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and Yoga on Tuesday.

Wine Wednesday

I love having weekdays off, they seem so much more special and deserving of productivity than weekend days off. 

I currently have Wednesdays off, which is quite a nice little mid-week break, and a great time to get random errands and projects done.

My To-do list for today included:

·      Walk Leo

·      Yoga

·      Shower

·      Sand wood

·      Put up decorations

·      Pack lunch

·      Blog -- in progress :)

You may be aware that I have a slight addiction to Pinterest. There was some quote that says something to the matter of The irony of pinterest: the website where you pin inspirational pictures of workouts and ideal bodies, next to decadent, calorie laden foods.  

I could not find the exact quote I was looking for, but this one has similar sentiments.

The sentiments of the quotes are for the most part is true, but I have found it quite useful for compiling ideas I want for the wedding (including pinning possible bridesmaids dresses, food, and other general inspiration .... um I told you I was addicted already, give me a break).  I have also used it a lot for finding recipes, and some crafts. 

Today I started working on my very own Giant Jenga set (Inspired by pinterest of course)... I haven't finished my set yet so this one will act as my inspiration picture. I ran out of sand paper while sanding, so I will have to pick up on this project next time I have time (to be continued...)

After putting off my Giant Jenga making, I then set off to decorate the house.

For those of you that do not know, Jordan and I were planning to move to California so that he could more actively pursue his screen writing career, but alas we put off our plans after getting engaged and choosing to get married on the east coast (that coupled with the job market and me not being able to fine a job on the west coast.) 

So, for the time being we are living with his parents up in Gloucester, MA which is quite nice, and not paying rent is helpful for saving up some money, though the commute is a bit of a pain. We technically live in a little "cottage" off of his parents house, so we do not have room for a Christmas tree or many decorations inside of the house, so instead, I decorated the trees outside.

Alina (Jordan's Madre) had a couple of big shatter-resistant ornaments for the outside, but she sent me to get more when I made a trip to Home Depot (for my Jenga supplies...) I bought the 100 piece Martha Stewart shatter-resistant ornament set.

At the time of decorating, I started to think I made a terrible decision on the purchase! Not because they were a bad quality or anything, but simply because 100 + ornaments are really annoying to put up on your own, especially when spread across 7 outdoor trees! 

In the end, I think they came out pretty good (though I was not able to get any good pictures via my phone unfortunately.) 

After tree decorating, it was time for a late lunch of an antipasto-salad with: baby spinach, iceberg lettuce, roasted potatoes, carrots and onions, american cheese and deli ham and topped with Trader Joe's fat free balsamic vinaigrette.

Yes, it is in a mixing bowl... again, let's reserve judgement. Thanks.

Leo snugged up with me during lunch time, and then we went on a nice 3 mile wog (that's walk/ jog) along the ocean and through the woods.

After returning from the puppy wog, I felt really lazy and tired, so decided to scrap the yoga and just shower.  Furthermore, it is in fact #WineWednesday so I felt that I should honor it. We oddly are out of wine so I made due with a glass of this weird Sangria drink that Jordan's sister left behind.

 It is a very sweet wine drink with fruit juice in it. I had to water it down a lot. Nice fruity flavor, though clearly not for the wine snob. 

And now I have finished off as much as my list as I am going to today- and so- I bid you adieu!  

Supper Club and Polenta Pizza

Some of my friends and I have form a "Sanity Supper Club" in which we meet once a week/ every other week at someones house and cook meals and have an awesome girls night.

I hosted this weeks dinner: and I made Polenta Pizza and had a salad bar!

This was admittedly the first time I cooked with polenta, so for the sake of not totally screwing it up I used Trader Joe's organic pre-made polenta in a tube.

In my head the plan was to roll out the polenta like dough, but it isn't as roll-able as I thought it would be. Since I wasn't sure how it would turn out I made some individual polenta pizza by cutting the loaf of polenta into circles

Individual polenta circles for individual pizzas

I also tried mashing some up, mostly using the heal of my hand, to press them together, which worked pretty well to create a larger 'crust' 

For the large Polenta Pizza I used: 

Sauteed red onion

portobello onion

spinach

fresh roasted red peppers 

Marinara sauce, (Trader Joes) jazzed up with some yellow onion and pizza seasoning

Mozzarella Cheese 

Goat Cheese

For the individual polenta pizzas I made a huge array using various toppings such as:

the ones listed above

fresh tomato

basil leaves

mozzarella

pesto sauce

The Pizza was served with the salad bar including:

romaine

baby spinach

red peppers

green peppers

mushrooms

tomatoes

carrots

peas

corn

salsa

hummus

raisins

dried cranberries

walnuts

cage free hard boiled eggs

goat cheese

And of course we celebrated with some wine (for the antioxidants of course)

Red red wine… : Antioxidant Series

Alcohol gets very mixed reviews in the health profession. In my opinion, like food, everything is ok in MODERATION.

Red wine in particular has the benefit of being a good source of antioxidants, specifically, resveratrol (RSV). Like AVNs in oats, resveratrol is an phytoalexin, which is important to the grape plant as a form of protection from UV rays, infection, injury, and fungal attack.

RSV is found in grape skin, mulberries and peanuts. Red wine uses the grape skin during fermentation, whereas white wine does not, thus red wine is much higher in RSV and gets more press.

RSV acts as an antioxidant, and helps to activate or inactivate various important proteins in your body. Your body is constantly making new new cells to replace old or damaged ones, RSV plays a role in stabilizing the proteins that help to regulate this activity. This extra stability helps to prevent cancer by stopping mutation, and also has a positive effect on aging.

RSVs also help to prevent cancer in others ways, such as inhibiting cyclooxygenase (COX), which increases cell proliferation (we do not want a lot of proliferation), and limits immune surveillance.

In a nut shell: COX is bad, and RSV stops COX. RSV helps prevent cancer, which is good!

RSV is also thought to contribute to the "French Paradox" of the french eating a relatively high saturated fat diet, yet having low rates of cardiovascular disease. Perhaps it is all that red wine they are drinking that is acting as an antioxidant and protecting their cells!? maybe?

…More research is needed!

Note: The Negative effects of excessive alcohol consumption seriously outweigh any of the positives. Alcohol can ruin you physical health, mental health, and social health. If you are going to drink, drink in moderation, (a maximum of 1 drink a day for females, 2 drinks a day for males.)

Tis the Season to be Gourdy :)

Last FridayLast Friday I went to a splendid gourd and wine dinner at the Aspesi Abode.

Our Dinner was complete with a spaghetti squash, acorn squash and green beans.

Spaghetti squash is pretty amazing. It was simply baked in the oven for maybe an hour, and then topped with tomato sauce and cheese. The squash just peels out in strands like spaghetti! It just kept coming out, like an endless spaghetti maker.


The acorn squash was our "dessert" gourd prepared with butter and brown sugar.



There was also "Wine and Beer!" (just like rent.)

We tried the Harpoon Ginger Wheat Beer... It was VERY gingery, a little too gingery for my liking, but decent.


Throughout the dinner we also got to enjoy the lovely gingerbread house that L. had made.


It was a very enjoyable and seasonal meal :)

Girls Night

A couple of weeks ago, on one of the first unpleasant snowfalls, the girls and I had a nice little girls night in. Jessica, Erika, and I met at Megan's house where she cooked us a lovely dinner of homemade pizza.

She makes delicious pizza dough, I've had a pizza by her where she mixed some rosemary and Italian spices into the dough. It was devine.

This pizza was made with white dough (she attempted whole wheat but the flour was bad), it was topped with tomatoes and some greenery (not gonna lie... it was a couple weeks ago I may not remember it.)

Since Megan informed me that she was making Pizza I realized it was the perfect time to try out the Pizza Wine J. got me!

"An Affair between wine and pizza!" (sold in Boston only at Tropical Foods!)

I actually really enjoyed the pizza wine. It was not what I had expected, it had a slight carbonation to it, it was almost in between wine and a wine spritzer. Nice and light and fruity! Great for a girls night.

Erika, Megan's friend from home, also brought some Berkshire Beer

It is a very flavorful beer-- I honestly do not know enough about beer to describe it as hoppy or wheatie whatever but I like it.

They also make one of my favorite beers: Berkshire's Coffeehouse Porter. Described by Berkshire as "this dark ale combines the taste of real organic coffee with out popular Drayman's Porter." Apparently they have also created a coffee flavored beer on tap, but I have not tried that yet that I know of.

The evening was pretty spectacular. It was very good to catch up with the girlies, and enjoy good food and drinks. Jessica also took the liberty to snap a couple of photos such as of Meg and me,


ain't we lookers?

Girls Night again soon, ok??

Dinner at the Marlborough Manor

I made the attempt to photograph everything I ate today again.
Fridays are always my super fun 11 hour work day at the hospital... most of which includes sitting in front of a computer, reading what other people eat, which unfortunately often leads to eating an excessive amount. To prevent this, I try to not pack too much food, and try to pack healthier foods.

Today (a bit repetitive from yesterday ) started with 2 cups of fruit, about the same mix as yesterday: cantaloupe, apple, pear, orange, grapefruit, strawberries, pluot, Followed by a Lemon L ight and Fit and Some Trader Joes Fiber Cereal:


At work I also had two cups of tea (I believe it was peach ginger), and a lovely piece of chocolate, which seemed to have made it into my mouth before I thought to take a picture of it (whoops!)

I was suppose to be hosting dinner for a couple friends from Douzo, but plans got changed a little bit. I wound up going over to my friend Jenny's (from Douzo) humble abode (The Marlborough Manor...) and her fabulous boyfriend Buddy made us a delicious feast (now i really can't have them over my house because I will never be able to compete with his cooking ability!

We started off with salads - which I "made"- aka- stuck lettuce on a plate.
They were made of spring greens, goat cheese, tomato, croutons, and topped with some Brianna's Zesty French Dressing:




Here's a picture of Jenny Posing with her new Zesty French Dressing (which is advertised to be great on tomatoes! therefore the salad had the addition of tomatoes at the last minute)

Salad was followed by some Italian Bread, baked with seasoned olive oil and mozzarella (?) cheese. We let buddy do the cooking, I really have no idea what I was putting in my mouth half the time, but it was all fabulous, so whatever it was was a great creation! and of course always better when someone else its cooking. :)

The main course was Fettucini, with a homemade sauce made with red wine, fresh tomatoes, scallions, basil, and some light cream.
On the side was a some freshly cooked chard - it was my first time eating chard- but I basically knew it was green and leafy and so it was love at first sight <3. style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4Sx67TVreX_3aYmzOTpJjzvNz0YBitSU1lqol27ed0UJaYpAvB5DuemFqgJQ2u9AROWn-WVKxxlYGX7KSV1q8nXW0_RlSuII1PZEwFdwZGHM5dVgd0iar0x7DN41ETtrDNPkv8qgqzP3w/s320/SDC10058.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318095176637602770" border="0">
Note: Generally this is not how a plate should look, the veggies should take up about half the plate and then try to cut down the amount of carbs. At least the sauce is full of veggies too :)
And here is the master chef enjoying his creations:
Along with cooking us all a lovely meal, Buddy also provided the entertainment with some live guitar playing on a fancy 7 string guitar (show off.. I can't even handle the 6 strings!)
And there may have also been a glass or two of wine along with the meal :)

Nearing the end of the night Jenny got ambitious to bake a cake! So we did (from a box...) So we went to a mixing and a baking.
We then unfortunately realized how long cakes take to bake so I had to leave to catch the train home before it was done cooking, but overall it was delightful time :) I said i needed to rent a buddy for my own personal use, but then I realized that was clearly not true- as I can just go there and steal their foo



I really cannot comment to much on the nutritional content of my day, since I was not terribly involved in the preparation of any of the food today, but I did at least start off the day well, and did not binge eat at work, and dinner did contain a good amount of veggies!

Happy friday :)