Blast from the semi-distant past

With all the news about wheat prices going through the roof, and small bakeries feeling the financial pinch, it made me awfully glad that the idea J and I had of opening our own bakery/cafe got delayed for the indeterminate future two years ago when we decided to buy our house in Seattle.

At about this time three years ago, I was getting ready to enter baking and pastry school. Quite by chance, as I was browsing my digital photo files for a pix to use in the previous post, I came across the photos I took of the lovely cakes I made in my advanced cakes class during my third term of school. Let's take a peek, shall we?

The first lovely pink, silver and white concoction was my first teeth-gnashing experience with fondant icing. Painting the stripes on was fun, though.

The next example (right) was my Round 2 with fondant. Went much better as I recall, in spite of the fact that the layers on this "crazy" cake came with sharp angles to smoothly fit the fondant over. FYI, in case you think any of these cakes look tasty, think again. These things were nasty. Nasty, nasty, nasty. These cakes were all about the decorating, so we baked our cake layers, used them, scraped off the icing and used them again, and again. Did I mention nasty? The crazy cake was the THIRD incarnation of those cake layers. Once this sucker was graded, I could not wait to get rid of it.

Fortunately, I got to start fresh for this lovely buttercream number (left). (Did I mention we scraped and reused a lot of buttercream frosting, too. Nope, didn't think I had. Again, not tasty. It's all about appearances, people.)

But wait! Ms. Square Cake Layers got tired of her outfit. She needed a makeover...a Chocolate Ganache makeover! What can I say about ganache? How about, "tastes great, is a bitch to pour." Those truffles on tier 1 and 3 were old, recycled ganache, which didn't stop students from another class from eating half of them in the several days the cake sat unattended between classes. Nice!

Ms. Square had one more grading party to go to, and this time she wanted to wear fondant (left). Sigh. But she really did look pretty, didn't she? Too bad that, like her circular forbearer, she was destined for the Dumpster.

Although I wouldn't stick one bite of any of these cakes in my mouth for a million dollars (well, maybe if that million dollars came with a course of antibiotics), I can assure you that some of my work that term was both beautiful and infinitely edible.

Behold...bread!

Spring has sprung!

It's the first full day of spring, and although the weather has been typically Seattle springlike (cool and wet, but not reliably wet, so you never know if you will really need that raincoat when you head out for work in the morning), many happier signs of spring abound.

One of the things I love about spring is the element of change. Every time I take a walk, whether around my garden or around my 'hood, something is blooming, sprouting or opening that wasn't the day before. Never a dull moment.

Even though the weather was bleh on Sunday, we got lots o' planting done at the homestead.

• 30 bareroot coneflowers
• 17 bareroot Nootka roses
• 12 forget-me-nots
• A 4-foot row of edible peas
• A 3-foot row of sweet peas
• 10 bunchberries (groundcover dogwoods)
• 10 Kinnickinnick
• 12 assorted gallon-size perennials from Costco
• 5 Camas (a NW native bulb)
• 1 maidenhair fern
• 1 hosta
• 24 assorted oriental lily bulbs
• 7 assorted dahlia bulbs

Whew!

The weather on Saturday is supposed to be respectable, so I will hopefully get the rest of my ferns (5) and hostas (11) planted, along with my annual fuchsia starts (20), one hellebore and two clematis that are still in their black plastic pots from last year.

Now that I'm starting to plant spring veggies, I need to yank out the last of the fall-winter holdouts. I feel guilty that I didn't eat more kale over the winter, but since it is still in great shape, I have plans to use up about eight cups of the nutritious greens in a fritatta and a turkey chili verde.

I've been entering everything I eat into the free nutrition calculator on Fitday, and it's been very educational to see the results. Given that many foods I eat appear on my menu repeatedly (eggs, sprouted grain bread, turkey breast, broccoli, salad greens, peppers, skim milk, cottage cheese, bananas, apples, avocados, whey protein powder, energy bars, frozen berries, whole grain cereal, nuts, olive oil, yogurt), it's interesting that some days I nearly hit the mark on all of the various important nutrients, and other days I'm way down on a few. Also, some days I seem to hit the 30-40-30 protein-carb-fat ratio effortlessly (within a percentage point or two) and on others I have to struggle to keep the carbs in check.

I figure that once I have a few more weeks of consistent food reportage logged, I can really start tweaking my menus. I'm aiming to have my weight lifting days a bit higher in calories and carbs, and my non-lifting days less on both. Once I start logging one high-mileage walking day on the weekend (for half-marathon training), I can have a higher-carb meal afterwards, too.

Tuesday's workouts:
Morning: Suhaila Salimpour's Bellydance Fitness Fusion Pilates DVD (40 minutes); Darshan's Bellydance Tribal Fusion NYC DVD (drills section, 30 minutes)
Lunch: 4-mile walk

Tuesday's food overview:
1786 calories (33% protein, 32% carbs, 31% fat, 5% alcohol)

Wednesday's workouts:
Morning: Rachel Brice's Yoga, Isolations and Drills DVD (30-minute workout)
After work: NROWLFW "A" workout with kickboxing warmup
Evening: Bellydance choreography class

Wednesday's food overview:
1842 calories (26% protein, 45% carbs, 29% fat)

One down, five to go

Back on New Year's Eve, I posted about the six fitness-related activities I wanted to try in the next six months.

Victim #1: Snowshoeing.

I wanted to be out of the house on Saturday so I couldn't dwell on my cats' demise. So we rented snowshoes at REI and headed up to Snoqualamie Pass. (That's me with our silly golden retriever.)

Let's just say I know what I'm asking Santa (aka my mother-in-law) for this Christmas.

Fun, fun, fun.

Oh, and it's true what they say: If you can walk, you can snowshoe. Plus, it's kind of cool (in a "oh, I stood up too fast" kind of way) that when you take off your snowshoes after tromping around for a few hours, the loss of that extra foot weight make you feel like you're walking on air.

Hitting my stride

Yesterday began Week 2 of my new workout agenda, and while I still feel a bit of next-day soreness, I am spared the mind-numbing ab pain of Week 1.

This is a "BAB" week, with the "B" workouts on Monday and Wednesday. Here's an overview:

• Deadlift (2 sets of 15 reps)
• Superset: Shoulder press (2 sets of 15) and assisted pull-ups (2 sets of 15)
• Superset: Lunges (2 sets of 15 on each leg) and stability ball crunches (2 sets of 8...although I do more)

What was supposed to be one cheat meal last week turned into a smattering of cheat meals and snacks from Thursday evening through the weekend. I kind of rolled with it, since I was grieving, but I'm firmly back on track now.

Monday's workouts:
Lunchtime: 2-mile walk
After work: NROWLFW Stage 1, Workout B, with a nice little punching bag warmup

Monday's food overview:
2062 calories (21% protein, 42% carbs, 31% fat, 6% alcohol)

Farewell, my furry friends

Simon (March 1993 - March 13, 2008)

Samantha (July 2003 - March 13, 2008)

My household hasn't been the happiest for the past few weeks, as we went about our daily lives while trying to decide the ultimate fate of our two beloved cats. Last Thursday, we took them both to our vet to be euthanized.

Samantha has been sick with hyperthyroidism for a few years. Medicine bought her one more good year, but she's been clearly in a state of decline since late last summer.

Simon's problems came on suddenly and shockingly. It seemed as if one day he was hale and hearty as always, the next he had dropped a significant portion of his body weight. Chronic kidney failure was his diagnosis. Although he took to his new low-protein food (he always was a carb-craver), he hated his medication, and did not like it when we gave him subcutaneous injections of fluid. He hated going the vet so much (for that reason--plus the fact that he was indoors only--we stopped taking him in for shots many years ago) that follow-up appointments would have been torture for him.

So we decided to end it before they had a chance to suffer more than we could tell they already were. The vet prepped each cat with a different type of sedative, since they each had such different temperaments. Then the end came peacefully.

I adopted both cats as tiny shelter kittens when J and I were still just dating. Samantha was a friend to all who crossed our threshold. Simon's highly evolved sense of irrational fear meant that he perceived threats where there were none. So while he was a big loving baby with J and I (with the world's loudest purr), he was known for trapping real estate agents in corners and attacking visiting family in stairwells and hallways.

I don't envy anyone who has had to go through this. Five days later, I miss them and expect to see them in their regular spots. But I feel I made the right decision, and I'm glad they never suffered acutely. Most of all, I'm thankful for the nearly 15 years of memories they left me with. (Damn, here go the waterworks again.)

I know all cat owners think their cats are the best cats ever. Sorry to disappoint you, but mine were the best. Totally.

Rest in peace, my fluffies.

Sowing the seeds of love

The combination of J's whimpering of "when are you going to plant lettuces" AND the fact that I actually meant to plant the first spring veggies last weekend AND a sunny window of opportunity in a day of very changeable weather forced me outside after work (at home today and after getting a pot of beef daube simmering on the stove.

One hour of work (and one hour of worrying that gusts of wind would blow my precious seeds away) allowed me to sow:

• Cabbage ("Ruby Ball" and "Derby Day")
• Broccoli ("Small Miracle")
• Swiss chard ("Rainbow")
• Wild Arugula
• Spinach ("Teton")
• Endive (frisee)
• Wild garden mustards
• Cilantro
• Lettuce (a mix)

All seed (except the cilantro) was from Territorial Seeds. While I drool over many seed catalogs, I trust Territorial the most, since their research gardens are, like my garden, in the Pacific Northwest, west of the Cascade Mountains (albeit in Oregon's Willamette Valley, which does have slightly warmer summers than Seattle).

Since this year I am trying to garden according to the phases of the moon and other astrological signs (sounds kooky, I know, but I think there is actually something to it), I have to grab my planting windows when I can, which can be hard this time of year when said windows may be filled with soaking rain. Today was one of the best days of the month for planting, period, and it was in the right moon phase for planting crops that grow mostly above ground. So, whew, I'm glad I managed to get it done!

Kickin' my own butt

I started a new weight lifting routine yesterday, courtesy of my new bible, The New Rules of Lifting for Women: Lift Like a Man, Look Like a Goddess.

You wouldn't think that a workout with only five exercises could leave a person whimpering the next day, yet begging for more. But I'm telling you it can.

The premise of the workout plan is that you work all the muscles in your body three days a week (alternating days). You won't find a bicep curl, calf raise or tricep extension in the bunch. Instead, you do big moves that work multiple muscles.

Here's an overview of the "A" workout from Stage 1:

• Squat (2 sets of 15 reps)
• Superset: Pushups (2 sets of 15 reps) and bent barbell row (2 sets of 15)
• Superset: Lunges (2 sets of 15) and a wicked stability ball ab exercise (2 sets of 8)

Oh, how my abs and chest are complaining this morning. In a good way, of course.

The book offers 6 months of workouts, changing things every several weeks to keep the muscles guessing. I'm also following the nutrition guidance in the book, since building a better body has perhaps more to do with good nutrition than it does with exercise.

Although I'm at a weight I am OK with, I want to build muscle and reduce body fat. I took a big leap of faith yesterday and had J photograph me in a bikini, front, side and back views. Much better than it would have been 48 pounds ago, but there is still work to be done. And having a series of photographs as a visual tracker will be valuable.

Monday's workouts:
Morning: Rachel Brice's Tribal Fusion - Yoga Isolations & Drills for Bellydance (30 minute practice)
After work: NROWLFW Stage 1, Workout A

Monday's food overview (aiming for 30% protein, 40% carbs, 30% fat):
2126 calories (26% protein, 38% carbs, 32% fat, 4% alcohol)

Tuesday's workouts:
Morning: Disc 1 of Sacred Bellydance (90 minutes)
Noon: 4-mile brisk walk

Tuesday's food overview:
1888 calories (31% protein, 26% carbs. 32% fat, 11% alcohol)
Should not have had that pre-dinner cocktail...

I want chickens, yes I do

J and I took a drive to the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe to pick-up our pre-ordered plants from the Snohomish County Conservation District's annual native plant sale (which is has a better selection than the one in my own county). We picked up 25 Nootka roses, 30 coneflowers, five Pacific rhododendrons, 10 kinnickinnick, 10 bunchberry (aka groundcover dogwood) and six ferns. Then, as if that wasn't enough, we paid for five camas bulbs, five native lupine, two evergreen huckleberries and five fir trees (all of these are small plant starts, mind).

And THEN, as if all THAT wasn't enough, we stopped at Flowerworld and bought two conifers (for the large pots on our newly finished front entry porch), a cute lime green conifer for a pot on the back patio (because it needs frost protection), 12 English daisies, 12 forget-me-nots and 24 fuchsia starts. Then we stopped at Molbaks and bought pansies and "feet" for the aforementioned front porch pots.

Where I will put all of these plants, I do not know. Arrgghhh!

But back to the title of this post. Immediately after the native plant sale pick-up, we stopped at a farm supply store next to the fairgrounds to buy some metal fence posts so we can rein in our raspberry bed. I was in no way prepared for the dozens of adorable tiny chicks. A whole room full of huge galvanized metal tubs, outfitted with bedding, heat lamps and water dishes, and filled with adorable baby chicks! Did I say ADORABLE?

Now, J and I a planning to build a small chicken coop at some point, but were hesitant about where we would get the chicks (reputable mail-order businesses require a minimum of a 25-chick order, or 22 more chicks than we need). Now we have that part figured out. So I am dreaming of the day when we can have our own Buff Orpington (above) and Barred Rock (below). And all the fresh eggs we can eat. Yum.


(Photos taken from the fabulous McMurray Hatchery Web site.)

Bellydance goodness

It was with some regret that I let three great bellydance workshops pass me by so far this year, so I was extra excited for today's workshop with Kami Liddle of the Bellydance Superstars. (Photo of Kami below is from the BDSS Web site, fyi.)

About half of the three-hour workshop was movement drills, and I picked up a few bits of very valuable information.

One was the correct muscles to be contracting to tip the pelvis backwards (the gluteus medius, which are, in basic terms, located above the large gluteus maximus muscles but below the lower back). Her attention to good form and posture was excellent, in both example and explanation of why it is so important (so we can all still be dancing when we're 110 years old!).

The other is something she learned from Carolena Nerricio (creator of American Tribal Style Belly Dance (ATS) and director of Fat Chance Belly Dance), which is that it takes eight minutes of drilling a certain movement to create "muscle memory" for that movement. Dancers want muscle memory because once you have it, you can use proper technique while performing without consciously thinking about what muscles to contract. This will definitely change the way I do movement drills at home.

After drills, she taught us an advanced-level combo from a choreography she did for Bellydance Superstars (and one that they are currently performing on tour). I can't say I nailed it perfectly on every run-through, but I kept up pretty darn well. Yay me!