oats

Oat Crumbs

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I am writing from my dining table! We are connected! Let’s just say it was not easy and we are not the biggest fans of Comcast right now.  (Lucky for me, my AMAZING husband took the brunt of the annoyance).

Weird morning.  I was up until nearly 4am with insomnia and didn’t get moving again until about 10:30 so although it’s just past noon I feel like I am just getting my day started.  Considering the lack of sleep and weird hours I am feeling pretty good, just having a hard time focusing.  Time for a TO DO list!

  • Sign up for the Charlottesville Fall Classic 10K
  • Call the Food Bank and make appointment to come in and volunteer (September is National Hunger Month)
  • Change address with bank
  • Go to BodyAttack at Gold’s
  • Reply to e-mails
  • Get a job (just a few more days and then I will hit the job trail…)

I really wanted hot oats this morning.  With blueberries and walnuts.  But, alas, when I opened the oat container there was merely crumbs left. 🙁 (this means that we have eaten a pound of oats since we moved in last Tuesday!) So I settled on fruitful yogurt. Wednesday’s yogurt turned out pretty well, at least for a first batch.

I made the mistake of following the directions and stirring it when it came out of the water-bath.  Before stirring the whey was separated and the top was smooth and glassy, just like I like it.  Next time, no stirring!  And there will be a next time…

I topped a cup of yogurt with some defrosted peach slices, blueberries, strawberries, the oat crumbs, and flax seed.  At the last minute I threw on a pinch of unsweetened coconut flakes for good measure (and good fat ;)).

Looks a bit like melted cheese but it tasted like paradise!  The coconut really made this bowl although a sprinkle of cinnamon and ginger would have taken it even higher.  Next time.

We started our tasting tour of Charlottesville last night.  C’ville is a super “foodie” town with LOADS of restaurants, many of which pride themselves on localism and partner with area farms for everything from their meat to the hops for beer.  Tate and I have been so busy with the move, not to mention enjoying having OUR OWN kitchen after 8 months, that we hadn’t really been out to eat yet.

Last night we met friends at South Street Brewery.  This spot is just off of the downtown mall and it took us less than 15 minutes to walk there from home.  I am not in love with our immediate neighborhood but the location within the city is perfect.  We can easily walk or bike to all the hot spots in 10-15 minutes!

I drank the Harvest Hops and ate the Ahi Tuna.  Both were worth returning for!  Especially on a Tuesday when pints are only $2.50 instead of the usual $4.  The tuna was two skewers of perfectly seared fish on top of a mountain of spring mix, shredded cabbage, and sauteed super-garlicy mushrooms and covered with a ginger dressing.  Should have taken a picture.  I am still getting the hang of this blogging thing ;).

To run or not to run?  One thing I am growing to LOVE about C’ville is what a huge running community it is.  There are ALWAYS people out running and it inspires me to want to be out running with them!  So although I have a class planned at the gym for this evening I might head out for a quick jog.  Plus, I still have two runs this week to accomplish my Mission Get Moving for the week.

On to the TO DO list!

Happy Friday!

A Place For Mother

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Shortly after I woke up I got Hungry.   Dinner was at 6:30 last night and nearly 15 hours later I was ready to EAT.   When I peered into the fridge I saw Tate had left me the bottom of his bowl of oats to work with.   He headed to work before I woke and it appears he overestimated his breakfast needs this morning.  Lucky for me, Tate eats his oats super plain so I had a blank canvas with which to work.  I added peaches from the freezer, walnuts (and a rogue almond), flax seeds, cinnamon, ground ginger, a sprinkle of salt, and another few spoons of raw oats (there was barely half a serving left).  The result was delicious and I promptly scarfed it down.  I also ate the last bits from the yogurt container with more cinnamon, I love how cinnamon brings out the natural sweetness in plain yogurt.

Time to go grocery shopping!  When we are out of eggs, yogurt, and veg around here a trip to the store is eminent.  At the Harvest Fest on Saturday we learned about this grocery company, Relay Foods, where you shop online and have your loot delivered to your house (additional fees) or to a weekly drop-off spot.  The company has paired with many grocery stores (Whole Foods, Rebecca’s Natural Foods, etc.), local bakeries, and, this is the best part, farms.  For the most part the products are priced the same as if you were to buy them in-store.  Their trucks run on bio-diesel and they seem to be making every effort to be a green company.  When I learned about this company I really wanted to love it.  Time efficient, energy efficient, cost efficient, what’s not to like?  Problem is I really like grocery shopping!  The other problem is that, as far as I can tell, you can’t read the labels.  I think we will give it a try though, you get your first home delivery for free and we also received a $5 off coupon at the fest so we can’t go wrong, I will just order products that I know are free from junky additives.

So we saw Ralph Nader speak at UVA last night.  I was all ready to be inspired and I suppose I was but it is a mild sense of inspiration.  I felt like he was all over the place a little bit and not the most charismatic speaker ever.  I have a lot of respect for him and his determination and outspokenness but overall it was the 14th century Chinese proverb he opened with that resonated with me and not his own words.

“To know and not do is not to know” -Loa Tzu

One area of my life where this rings true is putting my money where my mouth is.  I believe in organic and yet I often still cheap out when I am faced with two choices at the store.  I wrote out my dirty dozen and clean fifteen crib sheet last month and have gotten better at referring to it and choosing to pay more (not ALWAYS the case but usually) or not purchase.

I want to bring your attention to grapes in particular.  Imported grapes are on the dirty dozen but U.S. grown are not, so it stands to reason that imported wine is also really high in pesticides.  DRINK LOCAL!  This is also an environmental choice, wine bottles are heavy and take a lot of fuel to travel from Argentina, Italy, or France.  Just another reason I am excited to live in Charlottesville, wine country!  I am thinking this weekend may call for an excursion in that direction…

The house is coming along, it has gotten to the fun decorating point rather than the OVERWHELMING stages of last week.

It has been fun to unpack some of our goodies that were stored away since December ’08, like this wall hanging we bought on our Asian honeymoon in 2007

And wedding pictures, of course

And a salad bowl I bought while living in Peru

Tate and I were on the hunt for a hutch since we decided to buy the house (our kitchen is rather small and we needed more cabinet space), and low and behold, we found one in my papa’s shed!  It was a bit rough when we spotted it but after some sanding and painting I think it looks pretty good!

And it fit perfectly!

We are looking for a wine rack to fit in the bottom.

I finally have a home for my mother!

My kombucha mother!  This little lady has traveled with my since we left my sister’s in Portland mid-July.  I thought I may have killed her by leaving her in the hot moving truck but the women at the Fermentation Station at the Harvest Festival reassured my that it is quite resilient (like all mothers!) and should be fine.  Today I will brew!

Have an amazing Tuesday!