cooking

Life is Good

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It’s another gorgeous day in Charlottesville!

I’ve had a great start to the weekend and am anticipating the rest to be fabulous also.  This morning started with a quick bike ride to the Downtown Farmer’s Market where I drooled over picked up some beautiful produce.

With my pannier weighing in at at least 15 pounds I left the market happy and out of cash.

Next stop was Mcguffey Arts Center for DANCE CLASS!  I used be be identified first and foremost as a dancer.  I spent from age 5 until 27 spending hours upon hours a week in a dance studio, as a student, teacher, choreographer, and company member.  That was up until 2 years ago when I left the country in pursuit of…adventure I suppose.  In any case, I have only taken 2 dance classes in nearly 2 years and had all but buried my former identity under layers “American abroad”, “Personal Trainer”, “West Virginian”, “Chiropractors wife”, “world traveler” and other such identities.

It was time to start dancing again in a serious way.  And this morning was a glorious welcome back.  I took a modern class with Rose Pasquarello Beauchamp, who is a lovely individual and a great teacher.  I was a little nervous going into the class, would my body know what to do?  Did I still have the ability to pick up phrases?  It was a bit of a rusty start but by the end of the 1.5 hour class the two year absence from the studio melted away.

I returned home around 12:30pm and it was time for lunch.

Mary’s crackers and twigs from my Veg Fest loot with homemade herbed yogurt cheese (mix plain yogurt, chopped fresh herbs, salt, and pepper, spoon mix into a colander lined with a clean dish cloth or paper towels, place the colander in a bowl to drain and put the whole thing into the fridge for a few hours.  Tastes like goat cheese but it’s cheaper!).

Butternut and sweet potato sauteed in coconut oil with ginger, garlic, and rosemary.

And a giant salad with homemade sauerkraut on the side.

The sauerkraut is only 3 days old and thus not so fermented yet but it was pretty tasty.

Kombucha for dessert

I am saving my real dessert for Kath and Matt’s “housecooling” party we are going to tonight, I heard somewhere she is busily baking cookies for it.

Speaking of cookies, that’s what I had for dinner last night!  Tate and I walked downtown just before 6pm to check out the First Friday Gallery Stroll.  We checked out a few galleries and munched on grapes, veggies, a few pieces of cheese, some pretzels, and these AMAZING chocolate cookies.  We split one and went back for a second.  Chewy, gooey, and full of chocolate and coconut, I must try to recreate.

We also checked out the wine tasting at the Market Street Wineshop, which is very funky and cool with decent prices.  Each Friday they offer a free tasting flight of 6-8 wines that are on sale.  My favorite last night was the Chardonnay from Excelsior.  I didn’t do any shopping there last night because I didn’t want to carry bottle with me all night but I will definitely make this my wine shopping go-to from now on.

Tate and I were pretty satiated from all of our tastings by the time we met up with our friends Jessica and Tim but they needed dinner so off to Enoteca we went.

Wine and olives were consumed.

I don’t plan on going back to Enoteca, the tables are not very comfortable, my wine was not good, and our server forgot Tim’s order.  Oh, well, nothing lost because there are so many supposedly amazing restaurants in this town.

I am off to run 4 easy miles.  Have a great Saturday!

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Running Makes Me ME

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I opted for the long run this morning and I am glad I did.  It was glorious.  I love running.

Running makes me proud.  Running makes me energized.  Running makes me strong.  Running clears my head.  Running makes me optimistic.  Running makes me inspired.  Running give me a new lease on life.  Running is quality “me” time.  Running makes me brain-storm.

And running makes me hungry 🙂 which is why I am currently chowing down on some lunch.

Leftover soup

And salad topped with baked tofu, pickled lemon, and homemade balsamic vinaigrette

I picked up the pickled lemons on super clearance and this was the first time I tried them

They are super strong but chopped up fine they were a nice addition to the salad.  I am not sure what else I would do with them though.?

I totally winged it on the soup last night but it turned out awesome.  Tate ate a big bowl of it last night but by the time it was done I wasn’t even hungry so this was my first (and second!) bowl.

Pumpkin, Lima Bean, & Herb Soup

  • 1 onion chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic chopped
  • fresh ginger chopped
  • 1 Tbs rosemary and 1 tsp sage (fresh or dried and chopped or ground)
  • 1 Tbs coconut oil
  • 2 cups baby lima beans that have been soaked for 24 hours (or canned)
  • 3-4 cups peeled and chopped fresh pumpkin
  • 1 medium zucchini chopped
  • 1/2 hot pepper finely chopped
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Toss first 5 ingredients into a stockpot and allow to sauté, stirring occasionally.  When the onions are soft add the beans and a few cups of water.  The amount of water you add depends on whether you want your soup more brothy or more hearty.  Bring to simmer.  Add pumpkin, zucchini, and hot pepper.  When the lima beans are nearly cooked begin adding salt and pepper to taste.  The beans and veggies will soak up the salt so you may wish to add salt and fresh ground pepper at the table.  As with all soups, I think this one is better the next day so plan ahead or at least plan on leftovers so you get to taste how it gets better with time.

I am loving Map My Run.  My planned route took me 6.51 miles through new areas of town.  Honestly, the route wasn’t great, about 2/3rds of it were industrial areas and not so lovely.  The first couple miles were perfect though, taking me through downtown and through a gorgeous and quiet residential neighborhood.  I will repeat this part of the route.  My last 1.6 miles were super hilly also but I hung in there and even sprinted a bit towards the end.  The loop took me 1 hour exactly.

Back to resume writing! *(yuck)*