Things I like that I used to dislike

Over the course of the past few years, I have changed my position from not favorable to favorable on a number of things, most notably:

Tomatoes
I used to hate tomatoes. Not tomato-based products - I have always loved marinara, salsa and ketchup - but a slice of tomato on a burger was enough to make me gag. I think much of this has to with the fact that 1) I was very unadventurous when it came to food until I began working in restaurants (not that tomatoes are adventurous, but I wasn't eating any place that was serving fresh tomatoes) and 2) the few tomatoes I had been exposed to were disgusting, thick, light pink, not-in-season slices of nastiness.

My feelings toward tomatoes began to change when I quit eating Pace salsa (which I now think is gross, to be honest) and started eating chunkier salsas where you could actually see the vegetables. But it was my summer in the Upper Peninsula living with Aunt Missy (to whom I owe a great, GREAT deal of my food appreciation and current passion for cooking) that really changed my mind about tomatoes. Aunt Missy made the best BLTs. She made them with really good, thick-cut bacon, crisp iceberg lettuce (iceberg lettuce DOES have a place in the food community, and that place is on a sandwich), and deliciously fresh, juicy, in-season tomatoes. Because of Aunt Missy, the BLT is now my favorite sandwich, and I like tomatoes enough to grow them in my backyard (see the next thing I used to dislike, gardening, below). FYI - Aunt Missy is also the reason I started making my own pesto.

Gardening
I thought gardening was a lame, old lady hobby. My gardening consisted of growing one pot of mint and that was only so I could make mojitos.

Once I got together with Noe, however, I started getting slightly more into it. Noe's mom was really into flowers and plants and Noe definitely picked that up from her. He had really cool houseplants, and he and I worked on the front flower beds and the big deck flower pots at the old house.

Then we moved to Connecticut and not only did I inherit an awesome front flower bed (complete with a Japanese Maple) but I inherited a back garden patch as well. Since I am in to food and fresh, local food has slowly but surely been becoming the "in" thing, I decided to give it a try.

Well, those of you who have read the blog know that this experiment ranks as a success. I have in the past week alone eaten cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes, beans and countless herbs that I have grown myself. They are not as pretty as the vegetables in the store (some of my cucumbers look downright alien) but I think they taste better. The garden is here to stay.

Knitting
Another thing that I thought was strictly for old ladies and people with too much time on their hands. Really, I thought pretty much all "crafty" hobbies were hopelessly lame. Even pictures of celebrities knitting on movie sets couldn't sway me.

When my mom starting knitting I was sort of horrified. Except that she turned out to be really good at it. Seriously, she graduated from fun-fur scarves to sweaters within like, months.

Mom tried to teach me several times, but I did not have the patience or the temperament for it. Plus, it took too long to make any noticeable progress.

One day though, I got really bored and started looking through Mom's copy of Stitch & Bitch (the cool knitter's bible) and found a pattern for a simple scarf knit on huge needles with chunky yarn. Apparently you could make this scarf in a time frame that could be measured in hours rather than days. My interest piqued, I bought some yarn and taught myself (from the pictures in the book) how to cast on and knit a basic garter stitch. Two hours later, I had my black and white scarf.

This scarf is by no means pretty, and if you look closely, the squares of black and white are totally different sizes because I was too lazy to really count rows. But it was a stepping stone on the way to much better scarves. As for other projects, well, I am still trying to build up enough patience for those. We'll see this winter.

Gwyneth Paltrow
For some inexplicable reason, I used to hate Gwyneth. The mere sight of her on a poster was enough to make me not want to see a movie. I didn't want to buy magazines with her on the cover. I have no idea why I was so anti-Gwyneth; perhaps because - even though I loved Shakespeare in Love - I thought she stole an Oscar that belonged to Cate Blanchett?

However, I have begun to warm to Gwyneth over the past two years or so. First of all, the woman can actually act. Second of all, she has AMAZING style. (Seriously, if I were tall and skinny and had legs that were 10 feet long, I would dress just like her.) Third, once I started watching all those Gwyneth movies I had been ignoring, I found that she has been in some great flicks - most notably Emma and Sliding Doors. (Honestly, I don't know why I waited so long to watch Sliding Doors. If you haven't seen it, rent it.) Now instead of studiously ignoring Gwyneth projects, I am counting down days to the premiere of her PBS series with Mario Batali where they eat their way through Spain. Yum.

John Steinbeck
I don't know what Steinbeck book you had to read in middle/high school, but if it was The Pearl then maybe you hated Steinbeck, too. My distaste for The Pearl was pretty much enough to convince me I wanted nothing to do with the rest of Steinbeck's literary repertoire (plus, I read the last few pages of Of Mice and Men and it sounded really sad).

Later on in high school and college, when forced to read Mice and The Grapes of Wrath, I started to grow lukewarm towards Steinbeck. He wasn't so bad. I'm not sure what convinced me to buy East of Eden. It could have been that I had just taken that bible as literature class (which was incredibly cool, by the way) and Eden is more or less a modern-ish retelling of the book of Genesis. Or...it could have been that I just liked the name. (Anyone ever notice how these guys - Steinbeck, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, etc - wrote the best titles?)

Anyway, Eden was a literary life-changing book for me. It immediately earned a place among my all-time favorites. I have re-read it twice and can pretty much open it to any page and start from there. I am not sure why I like it so much; it is certainly not a happy book, and it contains one of the most truly evil women ever to grace the pages of fiction. But it is storytelling at it's best and most epic. Plus, it made me like Steinbeck which in turn made me read Cannery Row, which is a delightful little book itself.

Spinning yarns about blogs...or spinning blogs about yarns?

There is a lot to write about, and I will get to it...tomorrow. Right now, quite frankly, I am exhausted.

However, I just discovered that my Aunt - who has spins her own yarn and has a fiber arts studio - also has a blog. She showcases items from the store as well as other events and happenings. If you are into knitting, yarn, the Upper Peninsula, fiber arts, or just kind of offbeat funky stuff, you should check it out!

http://woolderness.blogspot.com/

Five a Day the Color Way

In an attempt to actually eat healthier, I have decided to eat the daily recommended serving of fruits and vegetables. I believe that the recommended amount is five a day. I started this experiment on Monday, so I am two days in.

Now, I would say for the past year or two I have probably eaten 1-2 servings on weekdays and maybe one on weekends if we happened to go out to dinner and I ordered a salad. Needless to say, there is room for improvement.

(I sort of figured that Clementine season - during which I eat six to eight Clementines a day - does not count because they are all the same thing. Also, they do not fill me up so I still eat all the garbage I would normally eat in addition to the six to eight Clementines.)

My menu for the past two days has consisted of one of each of the following items:

• Banana
  
• Tangerine
  
• Cucumber (actually, only half a cucumber, sliced up)
  
• Red or Green pepper
  
• Apple

What I have found is that these foods actually do fill me up. In addition to this list, all I eat during the day is a can of tuna fish.

Dinner is a slightly different story, although I am trying to improve in that arena as well (there is a reason I am eating all my fruits and veggies during the day, and that is because I want to fully enjoy my dinner). The problem is I really like to cook, and I like to cook things that involve oil, cheese, wine, decadent sauces, breading...you get the idea. But I am no longer eating the leftovers for lunch. I figure that might have been what was killing me calorie-wise.

Unfortunately, my decision to up my fruit and veggie intake coincides with my decision to give up coffee for Lent, and after two weeks in I am still not adjusted to the lack of morning caffeine. The apple does not really provide the same satisfaction. It's not just the caffeine, either - I really like the taste of coffee...even crappy work coffee.

Also, I have not been so great about cutting out caloric beverages. Although I am not a big juice or soda drinker, I DO like wine...and beer...and gin. However, I am attempting to enjoy these things in smaller quantities (only two beers at trivia night instead of three and a half!).

This is all part of my grand scheme to get back in shape before I run the half marathon in Indianapolis on May 3rd...which reminds me, I did five miles on the treadmill yesterday! (I'm not going to lie, though - it was tough.)

Anyway, I've never been great at healthy eating, so this is a fairly new experience for me (FYI -I am not counting senior year of high school where I existed on green peppers and chicken sandwiches - on white bread with butter - as "eating healthy".) I'll let you know how it works out.

On other Progress Report news, my ugly yellow scarf is almost finished. The only reason that it is taking so long is because I have really lost interest in making scarves. But I promised myself I would finish it before I started a real project.

Inne the Know

Well, it's been a bit of a busy weekend. Let's start with a progress report:

Miles run: 4 on Saturday, 0 on Sunday - my shins were killing me. I am DEFINTELY out of shape.

Scarf length knit: Only two rows. Haven't watched a lot of TV. I expect to get a foot or two done when I go downstairs to watch Dexter (on CBS! I have dying to watch this show but we never had Showtime). Once the scarf is done, I am biting the bullet and buying double-pointed needles. It's time to move on.

Problems encountered with hobbies today: None. Starting putting the yarn/needles/etc back in the tub and putting the lid on so Ralph can not eat any more works-in-progress.

Red Wings Report (new addition to the progress report): ANOTHER LOSS. I believe this is six in a row. I have scoured my brain and can say in good conscience that I do not think I personally have done anything to jinx the team. I checked with Kristen today and believe her to be in the clear as well. This leaves only one option: The Wings are playing BADLY. And why was Jimmy Howard not in goal against COLUMBUS? Why did we just throw him in against DALLAS? (Sorry about all the capitals but I feel strongly about my team.)

All right. On to the good stuff. As I said, it's been a busy weekend!

Noe and I kicked off the weekend with a Friday night dinner at the Daniel Packer Inne in Mystic. I've had a hard time with restaurants out here. I know I am a restaurant snob...but I really do try to be fair in my assesments. Yet 90% of the time I have ended up dissapointed, or if not dissapointed certainly not enthusiastic. This has been particularly true of the fine dining establishments.

I never really gave the Daniel Packer much consideration, mainly due to the fact that our realtor pointed it out as a "nice place" and I was - to put it diplomatically - less than fond of our realtor (that's another blog for another day). But when Chad Stoner raved about it over a few beers the night we happened to catch him in Groton, I figured it might be worth a try.

I have to say, I was impressed right out of the gate. The wine list was at least more interesting (if not terribly extensive) than other area restaurants we've tried, our server was polite, quick, and knowledgeable (trust me, good service has been a rarity around here) and...instead of just butter, our server brought out a whole head of roasted garlic with toasted baguette. (You've heard the phrase "You had me at hello?" Bringing me free roasted garlic with my bread is more or less my food equivalent.)

Things got a little rocky after that.

A stuffed portabello mushroom appetizer proved to have too much cheese - there was no other substance to add texture and the meaty flavor of the 'shroom itself was completely overpowered. A mixed green salad with a champagne-strawberry viniagrette (from the nightly specials menu) was DRENCHED in dressing. There was a pool of it in the bottom of the bowl. The candied walnuts the menu promised were not whole nuts but appeared to have been ground in a nut grinder and there was barely a sprinkling.(To be fair, the clam chowder that Noe had for this course was delicious, if not dynamic.)

Needless to say, my hope started to deflate a little. Was I going to have another subpar dining experience? Then the entrees arrived.

Upon my first cursory glance at the menu, I was immediately drawn to a filet with two sauces, one being a roquefort sauce. Delicious, I thought. Like my favorite dish at the Earle.

Warning bells went off in my brain. I ate that filet with roquefort all four years I worked at the Earle and was never dissapointed. I ordered it when I went there with Noe's group for holiday parties. I didn't love any entree in Ann Arbor the way I loved that filet.

Why then, would I even consider ordering a steak with roquefort sauce anywhere else? Was I trying to sabotage my dining experience? I knew it wasn't going to be the same, and I could only be dissapointed. Common sense won out and I ordered Scallops Nantucket, made with local Stonington sea scallops.

This proved to be an excellent choice. The scallops were plump and juicy and not at all overcooked, baked in a casserole dish with herbed butter, bread crumbs, and topped with cheddar cheese. Unlike the portobello appetizer, the cheese on this dish was complementary rather than overpowering. I can say with complete honesty that I have never tasted a better scallop dish than this one.

Noe went with a meat option - a sirloin that started in a saute pan and finished on a grill. The grill flavor was amazing and partnered well with the sauteed wild mushrooms and Jack Daniels demi-glace. Both entrees were served with whipped potatoes and presented beautifully.

Dessert - we had to try it - was tiramisu, something I also hold to an Earle standard (shout out here to Richard Brandon, who made the best tiramisu I have ever personally tasted and have tried to replicate ever since). This tiramisu was more dense than other varities I've tried, and instead of being dusted with cocoa was topped with a semi-hard chocolate coating...but it still had amazing chocolatey-espresso flavor and layers of deliciously sweetened mascarpone cheese. (MUCH better than Olio's version, which is more like flan.)

All in all, I had a very good experience at the Daniel Packer. I'm going to chalk the drenched salad up to the fact that it was a special and try something from the regular menu next time. I have no issues at all with the entrees or the service - this may be the best waitress we've had in Connecticut.

Wow. When I get going on food I really go on and on, don't I? This is a long blog. I guess I'll save my blog about the New London Winter Film Festival - which the rest of our weekend centered around - for tomorrow!

Progress Report

Miles run today: 1.5 (hey it was at lunch - it's sort of a miracle I did any at all)

Scarf length knit: None yet. This gets done while I watch TV.

Problems encountered with hobbies today: 1 - see photograph. Ralph managed to chew all the way through the piece of yarn connecting the scarf and the ball. Not overly traumatic, but forces me to have to integrate new yarn sooner than planned.

Let's Give 'Em Something to Blog About

I had to give up a lot of things when I came to Connecticut - indoor soccer team, my best friend, Sidetrack burgers, and Bell's Oberon all come to mind.

I also had to give up my tennis lessons. In Ypsilanti, I was extremely spoiled in the sense that the township had hired Ryan Rooney and Gary DeGuzman to teach the six week tennis courses, and they subsequently decided to independently host pay-as-you-go, $15-per-session Tuesday night and Saturday morning clinics all summer.

Here in Connecticut, I guess the only people who actually need tennis lessons are middle-aged housewives, because the clubs only teach them on WEEKDAY MORNINGS. And they definitely do NOT cost fifteen bucks.

I complain all the time that I have nothing to do here (meaning Connnecticut). While this is somewhat true, it's not entirely true. I recently realized that I have inexplicably given up hobbies that I could very easily be doing here - even more easily since I have no friends now.

Take running, for example. Yeah, I never LIKED it, but I DID it. I ran three half-marathons between October 2006 and June 2007 (Detroit, Nashville, Indianapolis). Why am I not going out for a run every night? It's not like I have a soccer game or tennis lesson to go to.

Or knitting. I had my movers move an entire Rubbermaid storage tub of yarn and knitting needles from Michigan to Connecticut, and what have I completed since we've gotten here? Nothing. Not even a scarf. Not even a potholder. So much for this being the winter I learned to knit socks.

See the writing blog below. I should have written a freakin' novel by now. I have no excuse not to bang out a few pages every night - it's not like I'm going out. At the very least, I should be a prolific blogger.

Pretty much the only hobby I have kept up with since I have moved is wine tasting, and I am pretty sure that when you are doing that by yourself in your own home a bottle at a time that they just call it "drinking too much."

(I don't actually drink a bottle of wine a night, just for the record.)

I have decided that it is time to change some of these things. Yet instead of checking things off one thing at a time like a normal person, I signed up for a half-marathon, knit three feet of a scarf, and blogged two rather lengthy entries all in one evening...and drank half a bottle of Australian Chardonnay (NO, it was not Yellow Tail, and YES, I have an excuse - it's Valentine's Day).

At least this should give me something to blog about, right? (Y'all better read it!)