A wonderful Wednesday

As I sat down for dinner tonight, I reflected on my day and realized how stellar of a day I had!  Here are the highlights of my Wednesday:

• My morning started off with my first 4 mile tempo run.  For someone who has been reading and performing swim workouts all of her life, looking at a running training plan seems a bit foreign and somewhat daunting at times.  Surprisingly, the run went well and gave me the energy I needed to get through my day.

• I decided to put a spin on my usual weekday breakfast and topped my oatmeal with dried cranberries and apricots, milk and honey.  I felt like I was back in Ireland, even if it was only for the ten minutes of breakfast.

• I listened to this song while getting ready for my day.  How can you not be in a good mood when Barry White is singing to you as you drink you morning coffee?

 

• I had a great day at work and then went to my Sensation and Perception Psychology class.  I can already tell that this will be one of my favorite classes due to it's highly scientific basis, as well as the fact that we are going to learn about a topic that relates to each and every one of us, the absolutely incredible human brain! Today we learned that not everyone's brain processes stimuli in the same way and this is why we all have a different experience when eating foods.  Some of us LOVE broccoli while others can't stand it.  I have always wondered why certain people have different preferences on taste and now I finally know that we aren't actually tasting the same thing!  Our brains are simply wired in different ways that allows us to interpret stimuli differently.  This is also a bit freaky because it means that not a single person sees the world in the same way that you do, we all have a different experience, even when we are experiencing the same stimulus.  You can never truly know what it is like to be someone else.

• I arrived home from class to find a package at my door. It contained a new swim suit, training paddles and some other training essentials.  I can't wait for pool workouts with paddles, focusing on upper body strength!

New pool equipment

• I made one of the best dinners I have had in a long time: steamed carrots with a touch of freshly grated Parmesan cheese from the local co-op, a lovely organic tomato with salt and pepper, sauteed onions and mushrooms in butter and red wine, served with steak.

Please pardon this sub-par photo, all I had was my point and shoot and terrible, artificial lighting.

• Wednesday is the night of my power yoga class, my favorite 60 minutes of the week.

• IT'S WINE WEDNESDAY!  I have a bottle of tree-free Chardonnay chilling in my fridge for after yoga class.  This, of course, will be consumed with great company, cheese and crackers and humus with fresh veggies.

Yesterday I ran around the entire city of La Crosse searching for a silly black belt to wear to an interview on Friday.  As I was driving home, I realized I had spent a good part of my morning doing virtually nothing as I went from store to store in search of one item.  As some of you probably know, I love to shop; so much that sometimes I think that I have a shopping problem.  Today I realized that my love for shopping has changed. I can barely stand waiting in lines to try on clothes (hence why I order things online and have things shipped right to my door) and would rather not waste a day on clothing.  I enjoy shopping for training gear and athletic apparel, and REI will always have a place in my heart.  I also have a love for GAP.  On a good day, I can handle parking at the mall entrance closest to this store; slinking into my retail haven, otherwise avoiding the mall completely.
Anyways, my love of shopping for clothes has changed to a love of shopping for food.  Hold on. I don't want to give you the impression I'm obsessed with purchasing large quantities of food.  I don't walk into the supermarket ready to load up my shopping cart with hundreds of dollars of pizza rolls, Pepsi and pop-tarts.  What I enjoy is meandering up and down the aisles of the co op, uncovering new brands and discovering completely new foods.  I am far from a picky eater, but lately I have been  intrigued by the variety of foods I have never tried.  Sometimes I get a bit carried away and leave with ingredients for too many recipes.  This meandering that I have been doing has led to some great discoveries, one in particular I would like to share with you.  On Sunday I was in the chip aisle, when the world chocolate caught my attention.  That nine letter word always has a way of doing that.
What on earth? Was there a misprinted label?  What had I found? Well, let me tell you. It might be the greatest snack discovery ever.  I found chips that are dusted with dutch cocoa power, sea salt, and vanilla---and happen to be the perfect combination of sweet and salty.  The chips look like a darker version of blue corn chips, the chocolate flavor is subtle (they are not covered in chocolate) and taste great dipped in salsa.  They are made by the brand Food Should Taste Good; I am anxious to try their other products!  If you visit their website  there is a $1.00 coupon for any of their products.  Now this is what I consider an exciting discovery.

simple yet delicious

After preparing and plating a meal, I often find myself wishing I had more of a variety of color on my plate, both for photography and nutrition purposes.  Experts use the quick rule of thumb that a wider variety of food color typically  provides a more healthy, well balanced meal. This cranberry relish adds a splash of color, tons of nutrients and a huge punch of flavor to any meal.  You can serve it as a side or put it on vanilla yogurt for a snack or a healthy dessert, which my mom and I do quite often.  It is so easy to make, it is almost fool proof. 

Cranberry Relish with a Twist

1 (12 oz) bag fresh cranberries

1 orange, cut into piece (rind and all)

1 apple, cored and cut into pieces

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp ginger

Place all ingredients in a food processor, pulsing until fruit is mixed together.  Do not over process or relish will become a puree rather than a relish :)

One is never enough...

After eating one of these decadent caramels, you will find yourself reaching for another, and another and.....another. At least that is what happened to me....I believe that this is one sign of absolute culinary success (and also a lack of Laura's self control, but I'm going to stick with the culinary success idea for now). A few years ago my Mother made homemade caramels for the holidays and they have now become a tradition. In our family, we try to eat a well balanced diet, thanks to my Mom. We also believe in creating and indulging in mouth watering desserts. These caramels most definitely fall into the latter category. The recipe is from the late 1960's Better Homes and Garden Cookbook my mom keeps on her cookbook shelf. Actually, it is not a cookbook shelf, it is a cookbook cabinet. In my opinion, it could actually be considered a small cookbook library, so if you ever want to spend an afternoon browsing through cookbooks, contact my Mother. After paging through this lovely vintage cookbook, my mom ran upstairs and came back with a second version of this cookbook that she had tucked away for me years ago. She also has one for my sister. If you are lucky, she may even have one for you.

This year, our holiday caramels were topped with tempered chocolate and a dash of coarse kosher salt. Once again, this was none other than my Mom's idea. This may sound like an odd combination to some of you but the sweet and salty mix hits the spot.  Tempering is a method used when melting chocolate that helps the chocolate maintain a nice appearance for a few days after melting.  It prevents the chocolate from forming that chalky looking, snowflake like texture due to the specific melting process used when tempering.  This may sound like a scary process, but I promise, it's rather simple.  All you need to do is place half of the chocolate you want to melt  in a double boiler (a glass bowl rested on top of a sauce pan filled with water) and heat slowly until it is melted.  Remove the chocolate from the heat and add  the remaining half of un-melted chocolate, continuing to stir like crazy until it has achieved a consistent texture throughout. You may be thinking that this seems like a bunch of silly nonsense---but it will make your chocolate shiny and beautiful!
It's not the holiday season anymore, but don't let that stop you from making a batch of these sensational caramels. I'm sure they would be wonderful anytime of the year. I might make some today just to double check.

Caramels
1 cup butter or margarine
1 pound (2 1/4 cups) brown sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 15-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Melt butter in heavy 3-quart saucepan. Add sugar and salt; stir thoroughly. Stir in corn syrup; mix well. Gradually add milk. stirring constantly. Cook and stir over medium heat to firm ball state (245 degrees) 12-15 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla. Pour into buttered 9x9x2-inch pan. Cool and cut into squares.

Baking, it's good for your soul

I arrived home from a long workout at the Y this afternoon feeling absolutely exhausted from a 70 minute workout on the bike and a 2,000 yard pool session.  I have been working on my graduate school applications non stop the past few days, I could probably recite my statement of purpose to you from memory.  My point?  I felt a need to spend some time in the kitchen, something that always helps me relax and unwind.  I have been wanting to tackle homemade bread for a while now, but it is something that requires a great deal of time.  I haven't had a chunk of time where I have been around my apartment for the long period of time required for the bread making process, but this afternoon provided the perfect opportunity.  The recipe I used was from the Williams Sonoma Essentials of Baking cookbook that my Mom gave both my sister and I four years ago for Christmas.  This was my very first cookbook and is a wonderful resource to have in any kitchen. I paged through it last night and decided to make Oatmeal-Molasses Bread.  After I began the process, I was not able to leave all afternoon, but let me tell you, it was totally-completely-absolutely-one hundred percent worth it.  I don't know what words to use to describe this bread, so I will stick with out of this world. I just cut into the first loaf and enjoyed a slice that was still slightly warm from the oven.  This bread is moist, dense, and melts in your mouth.  I would be lying if I said I had plans on eating anything other than this bread all weekend. I took a few pictures this afternoon but now that the bread is out of the oven, it is dark outside and I just cannot bare to take a picture of it in anything other than natural day light. I feel as though I would be letting this bread down if I posted a less than beautiful picture of the finished product and heaven forbid, I don't want to do that.

Mixing in the flour

After kneading for 6 minutes-my arms were tired!

The bread, ready to rise in the oiled bowl.

Oatmeal-Molasses Bread (from Williams Sonoma, Essentials of Baking, page 49)
2 1/3 cups water
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats, plus extra for topping the loaves
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/3 cup unsulfured molasses
2 packages active dry yeast
5-6 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for kneading
2 teaspoons sea salt

In a small saucepan, bring the water to a boil.  Put the oats into a heatproof bowl, and pour the water over the oats.  Add the butter and molasses, and let the mixture cool to warm (105-115 degrees).  In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm oat mixture and let stand for five minutes.  Using a wooden spoon, stir in 3 cups of the flour and the salt, mixing well.  Add the remaining flour as needed to make a soft dough. Using a plastic pastry scraper, scrape the dough out of the bowl onto a floured work surface.  Knead until it is smooth and elastic, dusting the work surface with only enough flour to keep the dough from sticking, 5-7 minutes.  Form the dough into a ball and transfer it to a lightly oiled bowl.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm, darft-free spot until it double in bulk, about 1 hour.
Butter two 9-by-5 inch loaf pans.  Punch down the dough and, using the pastry scraper, scrape it out onto a clean work surface.  Cut it in half with a sharp knife or bench scraper.
For each half, evenly flatten the dough with the heel of your hand.  Roll the top third down onto itself and seal it by pushing it gently with the heel of your hand.  Continue rolling and sealing the dough until you have an oval log.  Place the logs, seam side down, in the prepared laof pans.  Press on them to flatten them evenly into the pans.  Cover loosely with a kitchen towel and let them rise in a warm, draft-free spot until they double in size, about 45-60 mintues.
Position a rack in the middle of the oven, and preheat to 375 degrees.  Mist the tops of the loaves with water.  Sprinkle the tops with a generous handful of oats.  Bake until they are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped on top, 40-45 minutes.  Carefully remove the loaves from the pans and let cool completely on wire racks before slicing.

Back on Track with Granola

Yesterday marked the end of the "holiday season" in my family.  We spent the weekend in Lake Geneva celebrating with the Straus side of the family.  It was a fun filled weekend that began with a lovely 5 hour car ride through freezing rain and fog, followed by a wild New Year's Eve celebration with my grandparents, Mother, and Kelly.  We popped open the champagne at ten o'clock in our pj's while watching the Philharmonic Orchestra perform on Public Television. We were all in bed by eleven.  Let me tell you, it was a raging party. 
On Saturday we had our belated Christmas get together, filled with Christmas games, brandy slush (mmmhhhmmmm), and yummy food.  The weekend was fun---but I am ready to get into my regular healthy eating routine and schedule back in lax.  I am relieved that the holiday 'grazing' season is over; I feel as if I have eaten my way to China and back.  To kick off the New Year on the right foot, my Mom and I made our very own homemade granola.  The granola we made today was actually our second batch; we made some last week as well.  The first time around, we used gluten-free rolled oats so my sister could enjoy it. The recipe also called for three eggs whites.  Today's recipe did not have any eggs in it and we used regular rolled oats.  (Oats are naturally gluten free, however, many oat fields are directly next to wheat fields and oats are often processed on the same machinery as other food containing gluten. If you have a gluten intolerance like my sister does, you must purchase oats marked 'gluten free' which are simply guaranteed to be grown and processed away from any gluten sources.  These oats happen to cost 4 times as much as regular oats, so if you don't have to buy gluten free---don't).  Granola recipes are fun to play around with; once you find a basic recipe for a starting point, you can customize it by adding your favorite nuts, dried fruit, spices, and seeds.  I love to eat this granola on Greek yogurt but it is also great by itself for a snack.  Store-bought granola often has added sugar in the form of high fructose corn syrup as well as partially hydrogenated oil. These recipes have neither!  Both of the recipes we tried contain ground flax seed, a form of plant derived omega 3 fatty acids, which has a long list of health benefits.  Your kitchen will smell absolutely wonderful while the granola is baking in the oven, an added bonus to making your own granola!
Here are the two recipes we used:

Martha Stewart's Granola from Whole Living:
6 cups old fashioned oats (rolled oats, not quick oats)
1 1/4 cups nuts, such as almonds, pecans, cashews or walnuts, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup seeds, such as sunflower or pumpkin
1/3 cup flax seed meal or wheat germ
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 large egg whites
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup sweetener, such as honey, agave, syrup or molasses (we used a combination of honey and syrup)
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup dried fruit, such as cherries, cranberries, raisins, apricots, fits, dates, etc

Preheat over to 350 degrees.  Combine oats, nuts, seeds, flax and cinnamon in a large bowl.  In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites and the salt until frothy.  Whisk in the sweetener and the oil.  Add wet ingredients to the dry and stir until the oats are evenly coated.  Spread evenly on parchment covered baking sheets.  Bake for 20 minutes and stir with a spatula.  Continue to cook until golden brown, about 10 more minutes.  Let cool on baking sheet and add dried fruit.
**We added the dried fruit as well as raw unsweetened coconut flakes prior to baking and liked the results.  We ended up baking this granola for almost 40 minutes; the key is to watch it closely so it doesn't get over done!

Great Granola (Recipe 2) from Penzeys Spice Company:
Mix 1-2 tsp China Cinnamon with 3 cups old fashioned oatmeal, 1/4  cup wheat germ or flax seed, 1/3 cup honey and 2 TBS olive oil.  Add 1/2 cup chopped nuts and 1/2 cup dried fruit.  Stir and bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes, stirring once. Store in an airtight container.
**We doubled this recipe, 3 cups of granola wouldn't last too long at our house :)
  We also used half honey and half syrup and only baked it for 24 minutes, stirring at the 12 minute mark.

After a side by side comparison of the two granola recipes, I have to say that I like the first one better.  The difference is very subtle. I think the eggs whites help the cinnamon and sweeteners infuse flavor onto the oats and create an overall more flavorful granola.  My Mother, on the other hand, does not think there is a bit of difference between the two recipes and made me do a blind taste test.  The first round of the taste test, I was tricked!  My Mom gave me two samples from the same batch. I was able to identify that it was from the first batch due to the great flavor.  We were laughing so hard that I didn't partake in round two of her games...in conclusion--they are both great recipes but I will make Martha Stewart's again next time!