What a difference.

I haven't done much cooking since that baby of ours came into the picture but each time I do it feels SO good; I do love a good meal preparation. Tonight I got a chance to fry a bit in our new kitchen. I don't fry things too often but there are a few dishes that call for this method and tonight we had one of them - buffalo chicken. The difference is that we have a gas stove in our new place and ohmygoodgolly it's fun! The frying went so well; no scorching, burning, or oil that wasn't hot enough. It's so nice to have the temperatures adjust so quickly! It'll be a bummer if/when the next place we live doesn't have a gas stove, though the smell of the gas scares me a bit each and every time.

In other exciting news, we have some possible bagels on tomorrow morning's agenda; yippee skippee!
xoxo, natty ♥

With bated breath...

Our country awaits some Big News.
I'm not well-equipped to handle this anxiety so...

I eat casserole.
Happy Election Day to You!
xoxo, natty ♥

Dinner tonight, dinner tomorrow.

We made some easy-sloppy {from a can} enchiladas tonight. They were yummy and went very nicely with the football that had been on all day.
Since we had our extra hour, though, I tried to get ahead of things a bit. In our first CSA delivery I got a big bag of greens {chard, kale, etc.} as well as a large bunch of turnip greens. These poor verdant things had been languishing since then which is almost three weeks ago. Yikes.  Lucky for me these are some hardy leaves and they hold up quite well.

This last week I got a handful of sweet potatoes.

What to do?

Sweet potato and chard/greens gratin, that's what!

With some extra time and a dish that holds well overnight, I was able to get tomorrow night's dinner all ready to go, it just needs to be baked for a bit.

I LOVE when I can get things taken care of like this though it's certainly not as often as I'd like.

Did you have a nice weekend? I'm really saying a prayer and thinking some good thoughts for the folks up the east coast and being grateful for how we weathered the storm.
xoxo, natty ♥

Cleaning out our fridge, one loaf of banana bread at at time.

The end of our time in this apartment is rapidly approaching {wahhhhhh} and I'm scrambling to use up as much food as possible. I'm tackling three distinct areas 1} the cupboard/pantry {this is about a 3 on the 1 to "oh s%#*" freaking out scale since we can schlep most of this} 2} the refrigerator {about a 7 since I am not so cheap as to haul around a little cooler full of ketchup across the country} and 3} the freezer {oh.s@*&.}.
I'll probably just end up buying new condiments when we get to DC but I certainly am cheap enough to not throw out brown bananas; what DO I do with them? I freeze them.

Frozen Brown Bananas.

Then I can make banana bread.

Plus flour. Does it always charm you too how Trader Joe's name reconfigures itself when he's giving you different things? Trader Giuseppe for pasta!

They are a bit slimy when thawing but I can get over that.

Plus buttermilk {you can substitute with a ratio of one cup regular milk to one teaspoon white [NO OTHER VARIETY] vinegar}.

The recipe {the link is above} is quick and easy though the bake time is about an hour.

Plus chocolate chips.

I always add chocolate chips.

Plus sugar, butter, eggs, baking soda and a bit of vanilla. And love.

And I never add in nuts.
This week I only eked out one batch of two loaves but I am expecting three plus another cobbler before the next seven days are over.

Ta-yum!

Today I'm spending the afternoon in San Francisco; happy weekend to you!
xoxo, natty ♥

Disappointment and a "Eureka!" moment.

Before I officially write anything pertaining to the title of this post : I'm trying to figure out tonight's Mad Men episode. Does anyone have any insight? The main thing I can figure out on my own is that there were tons of doors; opening ones and closing ones...are there endings and new beginnings for some characters? But why end the season like that?! Everything is so up in the air! And there wasn't enough of Betty. There never is.

Also, what I write tonight can be kind of boring if you're not into running. I do also talk about kitchen cleaning which I guess isn't too scintillating either. Don't say I didn't warn you! 

Moving on. I'm disappointed. I'm feeling this way because of my legs. The left one, to be specific. As I've mentioned, I'm nursing an injury which I picked up during my marathon in Tucson that happened on December 11th. That was six months ago. It's an IT band injury and said band is essentially this long muscly thing that runs the side of your thighs. When it's aggravated or your thigh or glute {read : butt} muscles are weak and you still try to do things {running} then things flare up. 

IT band issues can cause a variety of different pains owing to what a large and powerful muscle it is. In my case, the pain has manifested itself in my knee. The little tendon or whatever it is that connects the IT bank to the knee {those of you who are knowledgeable in this subject matter I DO apologize for butchering my explanation} gets yanked on too hard when I run with my tired/annoyed IT band. And since my left leg is weaker than my right when I run my left thigh muscle tends to lean inward instead of not leaning which is what it's supposed to do. And that's what pulls on that little tendon thingy which is connected to the IT band. And it makes it hurt. 
Badly. Sharply. But only after six minutes of solid running on bad days and on good days, I haven't gone beyond three miles {a little under 30 minutes} so I don't know how long it could hold out pain-free but not much longer I'm guessing. At this point I'm wondering - this does get better, right?

Anyway. My course of action has been pretty lame considering that I had an unfortunately busy spring. I did {and continue to do} a ton of leg lifts and core exercises with copious foam rolling and stretching but I seriously can't stand biking-as-exercise so I haven't been doing any of that and cycling could help strengthen my thigh muscles this helping the issue.

The only real aerobic business I'm involved with is trying to run and my routine is much like it would be for a beginner runner {which is hard for someone who's been running for half of her life injury-free [getting hurt was bound to happen I suppose]} : run for a minute, walk for a minute...do so until 20 minutes have elapsed. 
After a few weeks of this then I got fed-up with not really running the way I like to. That's my main problem, I think; I love to just run. I love to feel powerful in the sense that I can run 10 miles if I want. So I started to do the one minute on/one minute off thing for five minutes as a wam-up and then just run flat out for up to twenty minutes. Then it was twenty minutes or until I reached two miles. Then it was three miles. 

Things were going well. I would get a twinge of pain here and there but not the pain that sets in after six to seven minutes and makes it so that I must stop {that's how bad it is}. My main problem was consistency. It was the last few weeks of school and I was frantically trying to finish up everything so I got in my measly three miles only once a week rather than three to four times.

Last week {Thursday I think} I was able to get out again. And the sharp pain across my knee set in a few minutes into my run. I was furious. How can my body fail me? I've been trying to do some strength work AND I had been up to three miles just the week before!

The following day I tried again. I actually made it much further than the day before. How confusing! One day I can hardly run three minutes and the next I can make it three miles? It did hurt at the end of my run and I think it's because, out of fear of pain, I wasn't lifting my legs up very high and I was keeping my stride somewhat clipped. For the last half a mile I let loose and ran like I felt my body wanted to and that brought on the major sharp pains.

Today I went back to one minute on/on minute off for twenty total. I did run for twelve solid minutes at the end so that I could make it to an even three miles and my stride even felt normal {not held-back}. But I can't relax; what if my next run is like last Thursday's?

I know that the best course of action for me would be to go up from one minute intervals to two minute intervals but I just want to run and am feeling so impatient. Ugh.

On a lighter note and to explain my "Eureka!", I really got somewhere today, kitchen-wise. Sometime in April I made tofu {for the first time!} in one of our stainless steel pans and somehow managed to preserve every bit of that experience. Along the inner sides of the pan the splatters from the oil I used were sealed on. There were black and brown scorch marks on the inside bottom of the pan. Layer after layer of my white vinegar and baking soda paste did practically nothing so I resigned myself to just having ruined the pan's looks.

I finally poked around online and read about Bar Keeper's Friend which I already had in my closet but had never used. I bought it because it's sold at Target in the natural cleaning section and I'm a sucker for that kind of thing.

I made a paste of it with the white vinegar today and the pan looks brand new!

Magic! Actually it's the Oxalic acid that did the job. Simmering a concoction of white vinegar and water can also help as can doing the same with a tomato based dish {it's the acid again} but I wiped off all of the staining when I wiped off this paste and I was amazed. And really scaly-handed; this stuff isn't super toxic but it does do a number on your skin if you let it.

It's the little things that really get me going.
Good Sunday evening to you!
xoxo, natty ♥

How investing in really good knives can enhance your kitchen experience.

I'm about to head to our school's graduation but spent the morning getting some things {sangria & salsa} ready for my cousin's celebration this afternoon {his big day was last week, remember?}. I got the sangria all ready and the fruit and wine are now gettin' it on in the fridge.

Preparing.

Ready to sit for a bit!

Ignore the poor lighting and crust in my freezer; I have three of these bad boys {OJ, strawberries & lime slices} turning into pretty ice "rounds" to float about in the sangria.

I have salsa ingredients doing the same thing and then I just need to blend the heck outta them when I get home from the ceremony.
But, in the process, I did this.

It totally doesn't even hurt me which is kind of weird. I'm expecting a big sting the next time I wash my hands. Which will be soon, actually, since I chopped up a jalapeño and I still need to put in my contact lenses; ouch!!!
Happy day today to all graduates!!
xoxo, natty ♥

In which I explain that picture from Wednesday.

This one:

and not this one:

...just to clarify.
I've been thinking about periodically talking about my favorite things. Not to promote amassing stuff {see : yesterday's "rant"} but because I'd like to document, in some way, the things around me that I love. I think I'll go by geographic regions and probably this will be limited to things around the home because, well, I'm a homebody.
Anyway, that handy dandy little green plastic square is my favorite thing in our sink.
I don't know if there's an official name and I'm pooped from teaching teenagers for over four hours today so let's just call it The Scraper. My dear mother-in-law gave this to me over Christmas {ha ha I hope she wasn't giving me a hint!} though I think I have one lurking around my grandmother's house. I LOVE it. The Scraper lives in this little suction cup sponge-holder thing in our sink and it can be used to scrape off just about any dang thing from dishes. It's fabulous for last night's baked on casserole and I no longer use my poor finger nails and end up with little scrapes underneath them; ouch!
It even has a cheery little flower etched into it!
Do you have any kitchen items that make life easier? I sure do love my coffee pot which grinds the beans for me {luxury!} and my counter top mixer I got for my first Christmas out of college {thanks to my grammy <3} but this scraper dude is what I'm majorly loving on these days.
Oh, also, in knee news {I adore all alliteration!}...I went to physical therapy for the first time today and LOVED it! My lady {lady = physical therapist} was super nice and told me SO much about my legs and stance and what my silly knees do when I run {they turn in - those stinkers!}. She and I talked a lot and here's the plan :

• despite what my general medicine doctor lady said, I can cross train to my heart's content! Yea! I certainly have gotten used to my more sedentary life style but I'm ready to get back to normal.

• My knee issue has to due with weak hip and thigh muscles on the left side of my body {I'm right handed and legged}.

• Running a marathon that included about six miles of intense downhill and was on the uneven side of a highway aggravated some little ligaments that weren't super strong to begin with thanks to those weak muscles.

• Apart from cross training {to keep up fitness} {biking and swimming - non impact creating stuff as well as yoga to help lengthen things} I have a bunch of strengthening exercises to do and I'll go back in a few weeks. My new friend told me that she wants to see "buns of steel" then. That means that those muscles are stronger which will help my sad knee ligaments. Then maybe I can start running.

Honestly, I am a bit bummed. But it's not like this is a shock because I've been dealing with it for about two months. What I am is SO super happy to know what's going on and to be able to get active. I think I'm going to rejoin our YMCA which is funny to me because I dropped that membership when we moved to our apartment since the exercise room here is nice but there sure ain't no pool and knowing me, I need to mix up biking and swimming to keep from getting really, REALLY bored...wish me luck!
Oh...happy Thursday! Do the weeks just FLY by for you too?
 xoxo, natty ♥

Life is just a bowl of lemons.

Last week some friends and I got together for happy hour after work {Hi Friends!}. It was great to catch up a bit and eat yummy guacamole. I found out that out of the five of us I am the only one without direct access to a lemon tree {we're blessed to live in California's Bay Area where orchards used to be EVERYWHERE...many homes have relics of bygone days in the form of fruit trees}. Since we live in an apartment we technically don't have access to any form of fruit tree but even amongst my family only a couple of people have the coveted lemon tree. My grandmother and parents have a persimmon tree {yuck!}, a yellow grapefruit {double yuck!!}, an apricot {ok but it's a summer fruit} and a sour orange/tangerine thing. Lemons are fabulous because, well, I just ding dang love them. I like to put lemon on most things that I cook and the stuff that is available for purchase in a bottle is downright chemical tasting. 
Anyhow, one of my friends brought in a bag full of lemons from her yard {Thanks friend!}. They apparently have an excess in their household...the lucky ducks. These are Meyer lemons which have a different flavor {almost...almost a sweetness} compared to the regular lemons found in most grocery stores. The skins are thinner and there's a hint of orange in there somewhere...just a hint. They're glorious actually. I'm thrilled to be able to use these in cooking this week but maybe I'll foray into some lemon inspired baking??

Do you have a love of lemons like I do? Are there any interesting & delicious lemon recipes out in the internet-reader-land?
xoxo, natty ♥

I suppose I should be grateful...

for longer days...but (that's a big 'but'), it's so dang un-spring-like here! It's been in the 50s and low 60s and windy, rainy and cloudy; boo! However, it is still getting lighter and lighter every night, which I adore, and those skies are just gorgeous, if you ask me. 

Pretty skies!

Wisteria and gray sky...

Front yard sycamore trees from the back yard.

We grilled a bit tonight, veggies and sausage. My new best friend is this:

Mr. Mikey got it for his birthday from his parents (thanks!) and this is some quality lemon pepper, not just the stuff from Safeway. I've been putting it on everything, but it's best on grilled asparagus that's been covered in some olive oil...delish! 

I've been enjoying this glass that I bought a few months ago. 

I ♥ garage sales/Goodwill/Salvation Army/etc. and, thanks to the eyes of my aunts and grandmother, I can always find something (that I think is) good. As mentioned, I've been loving on this hilarious glass. It speaks to the part of me who wishes she were alive in the 70s and could have a paneled romper room or den with shag carpet (& a rake for it). Alas, I live my dreams through thrifting. It's not all vicarious past living, though, it's surprising how much Banana Republic and better stuff I can find, though it's more often the funky home decor...
In that same vein, the next post will showcase a few things (mind you, showcase is a bit too fancy a word for this type of thing, but oh well) that I picked up last week. Most of that haul is, as of now, meant to go towards wedding decorations, but one never knows where life takes us. 
I will leave you with one picture of a rummage sale find. I often pick up a stuffie (stuffed animal) that doesn't look too cute or quality, one that is maybe a bit tired and costs no more than $1; it will go to the dog since he just loves ripping them up. I try to pick ones that don't make me feel too bad about letting them be destroyed and this one spoke to me. It was some promotional gig for a nasal spray company.

Don't mind Mike playing soccer with the dog...or the recycling can...

It is was a nose.
xoxo, natty ♥

My how she gets ahead of herself...

This is what I'm reading right now...but really, you should take note of the stack behind the book. I ventured over to the library today. It was the most productive part of my day. Running close to 15 miles in the past two days and over an hour of yoga last night apparently took a toll on me so I was pretty pooped today. I enjoyed the crosswords and chatted with Mr. M's dad (Hi!) and decided it was time to break out the bike for the first time this year. The tires were still nicely inflated and after a winter in the garage ms ruby (my bike from M ☺) needed only a quick wipe down from a towel.  The sun was out and it was warm and beautiful out, so the bike ride was very pleasant.

What I mean by getting ahead of myself (see: Post Title) is that when I get to the library I get so excited about what there is. Even though this is just spring break for me, since it's so late in the season it's feeling a bit too much like summer. Consequently, I checked out more than I could possibly get in this week, but it just felt soooo good. I usually check out a nice stack to kick off summer for me and I just couldn't help myself today.

The main book, the one that I'm starting with, is a book I saw a coworker reading about Mary Winchester. If you grew up in the bay area then you know about the Winchester Mystery House. If not, then just clock on the linked name of the house in the last sentence. My good friend and I growing up were terrified by it but fascinated at the same time (at least I was!). Anyway, once I saw the book I decided that I must che andck it out and so far it's pretty interesting and informative, though please don't worry, I won't give a blow-by-blow account, I'll leave it to you.

I also checked out this book:

which is all about "one pot" meals for two to six that you can make in a Dutch oven in about an hour; how cool is that? You layer your veggies and grains and proteins in a certain way and cooking them in a Dutch oven does the magic that cooks it all up perfectly...recipe fun! You can read more about it HERE. Confession: I'd already checkout out this book several months back but never took note of any recipes and ended up turning it in late; fail there, but this time will be different!

Anyway, another relaxing day of break has passed and I think that tomorrow might have to bring some actual work doing (cringe!)...nighty night =)

xoxo, natty ♥


Post Script: YUM!

Snow! I mean "Hail"!

This morning this is what I woke up to:

 
Our neighbor's roof aka the view from our bedroom window. The hail woke me up in the middle of the night but being as bat-blind as I am and considering the late hour, I just assumed it was intense rain and that the white spots on the roof were mere reflections of the water. Morning's light showed me otherwise!

 
 
 

While it wasn't technically snow, it sure looked like it! 

TGIF for sure, man. Last night I saw the school musical which was a production of Aida and was super great. I hadn't known the story and really liked the show. Some friends and I ate at Sweet Tomato's before hand and I thoroughly stuffed myself to the gills enjoyed the all-you-you-can-eat.

Not much else is happening. The next week is going to be killer. I'm taking kiddos on a field trip on Monday to an amazing organization (more to follow), going on a retreat with my homeroom on Wednesday, submitting my application to Santa Clara to FINALLY finish my credential and possibly finishing my taxes before Friday...whew! After that, though, comes the long awaited spring break and then May and then JUNE and then working on the wedding and then school begins and then WE GET MARRIED =)

I'm going into work tomorrow to help schedule the incoming class so I have a short weekend. Mike and I are making pizza with my cousins as a birthday celebration for cousin Ben, hopefully I'll get some good shots of that, and then we're doing our first double digit long run on Sunday in preparation for the Avenue of the Giants half marathon we're doing at the end of this month (yes, we are a tad behind on training...) and then Monday brings that busy week.

Anyway, as I said, this upcoming week's going to kick my booty so I'm going to make the most of this weekend and I hope that you do too y'all!

Farmer's Market Fresh

Yesterday my grandmother and I checked out the farmer's market at the Ferry Building in SF. M and I usually stop in at the start of our runs to use the baño so we don't often just browse; it was quite nice to meander and sample goodies and buy some lovely fresh produce. I ended up walking away with a delectable little hunk of Gruyére, $10 worth of organic white peaches, nectarines and plums, some beautiful chard, a baby head of butter lettuce, several pounds of yellow and green squash and a carton of "real" strawberries (as opposed to fake ones). I think that they're real because they leave on the stem but whatever they're called, they were delicious and we polished off one whole carton on the way home (and then it turns out that in all of their cute-ness I didn't even take any pictures but just devoured them =( ).

From the Port of SF building next to the Ferry, neat SF pier and shipping history. 

People getting their lunch on. 

Pastries and 'kraut = all a girl needs in this world. 

All sorts of crazy and beautiful onions and the most ENORMOUS garlic bulbs I had every seen! No vampires around there, that's for sure.

Pretty colors!

'taters. 

Cruciferous-ness, beauties. 

I really liked their sign. 

Organic donuts! Organic = healthy...healthy donuts! 

For dinner we had some fish that I baked with the squash and that Greek seasoning, I wilted down and crisped the chard with S&P and some nutmeg, and then mac & cheese (the very latter being specifically for my oh-so-sophisticated palate). All in all it was fun and the big city weather was just beautiful, not always an attainable feat on summer days.

I stayed up late writing those postcards and watching Bethenny and we're going to head over to a WG estate sale for kicks. Hopefully I'll get some laundry/cleaning done today (do I ever quit referencing that?) since we're doing our long run tonight in the city and then staying at a hotel as a reward. This is all because I'm leaving for Tahoe mañana and it's so much easier to do long runs together than solo. I actually took yesterday off so tomorrow I'll do like five miles then eight or so in Tahoe on Sunday...hopefully.

Also, here are a couple of things that I want to write about, so this reference is mostly (entirely) a reminder for myself: Fish Head, Tahoe-traveling-food, and Easter in July; more to come!

Happy Friday!