Happy New Year

If you hadnt noticed 2011 and 2012 posts landed on the TRI web-site...
After contemplating creating a new blog for 2013 I decided that the posts will continue on the TRI web-site.
So check it out there.

Going to Europe!

No, not me... My friend Jay.  He leaves in 15 days and is going for 6 weeks.
My biggest take away from this... I want his job.  And he should be so happy to not have my job.
http://jaygoestoeurope.blogspot.com/

Of course, we shouldn't forget - Mommy is going to Europe - Germany to be exact in the not so distant future as well.  Hey maybe we can get her to create a blog of her own... Nah - we'll just post her gazillion pictures here.

oops recap

my goal is to make a monthly recap out here but have kind of lost track of that..
i have been posting lots more on the triathlon site since the triathlon has been my main focus these days...
http://www.anewtriangle.blogspot.com/

i suppose the bermuda blog will get some attention soon too but that's about a month away

Change in Plans

So Sunday was going to be a drive to Greenville to check out Falls Park.  I had seen it written up in the USAir mag on one of my many flights.  I never think to go to G'ville to visit, to check it out...  So I decided this might be a good thing to check out with my mom's visit.
However life sure can throw some curve balls at you.
Last week at this time, I was preparing for my mom's visit.  Clean the house, get food in the fridge.  She was busy packing up her stuff and getting ready for the ride down.
Now, I am sitting in her back room getting ready to head out in the cold to go get a bagel and check out the inlet.

LYNX Blue Line

On weekends when Spencer is not working, we try to head on out for a walk somewhere.  Usually we end up at McMullen Greenway.  It is a good walk for the purpose of walking.  But last week we did more of a walk for the purpose of site seeing.  And we took the light rail into town.

http://www.charmeck.org/Departments/CATS/LYNX/home.htm
My mom and I have done this in the past.  I keep saying I am going to do it more often but never get around to it.  Spencer had never taken the light rail before so it turned out to be a good diversion from the norm.
We got on at the 485 station and rode all the way to 7th Street.  That's kind of like the whole line.  A good little ride with some people watching and scenery.

Surprised to determine that the last light rail ride was actually 2008 - wow time sure does get away from me...    http://edblholidaygreeting.blogspot.com/2008/04/tourist-in-city.html

And yes, the fruit does go on the grill

I bought a packet of chicken last week.  Enough chicken to eat chicken for the better part of the week.  So I decided that was an easy place to start for cooking for my mom and I during her visit.  Friday being a work day we didnt go all that crazy with the fixins.  Grilled chicken.  Grilled pineapple.  Lettuce.  Strawberries.  It was tasty.  Although I must admit I did snack on a bunch of her travel snacks after the fact.  Could have avoided that.

Ham Soup

Remember at Easter I made a ham.  Well instead of torturing myself through the leftovers - not a big ham fan - I boiled down the bones, made some broth and froze it.  I also froze the leftover ham.  And then I bought some multi coloured beans and anticipated making some soup in the future.

Now why not split pea you ask???  >>>ACK<<<  I have never been a fan of split pea soup.  I like peas but there is just something about it. 

So I soaked these multi beans and proceeded with some sort of soup.

AGAIN - not too sure what I did with it.  I did add onions and carrots and yellow peppers (and maybe some organic fire roasted tomatoes) but not much else in the line of veggies.  The leftover ham had a sweet quality to it which I though enhanced the flavor of the soup.  I gave some away to friends.  I think it was well received.

Fish Cakes

I know I said I would try to remember what I do to the food before I cook it or while I cook it so I can duplicate.  Easier said than done...

This was frozen cod, thawed and then partially cooked in the microwave.
I mixed it with chopped onions and peppers and egg.
Let's see some whole wheat flour and perhaps corn meal (I just bought both of those so I think they are getting frequent use in  the ktichen). 
I wish I could recall what else I put in there to hold it all together.
Google some recipes I know that's where I get most of my direction.

They seemed kind of runny once I got the patties together.  So I coated them with bread crumbs and then baked them.  Yes, baked them.  I dont like frying.  No, not for the health aspect but more from the burn aspect.  To get a good sear on a fried food such as a fish cake you really need to have hot oil and I just dont want to be splattered with hot oil.  So baking it is instead.

So I lied about the food photos

I seems I am taking more pics of food these days and posting than I am training for the next triathlon in a few weeks... 

i think that is all the food shots for now

one last picture

this one is for joanne.. she keeps talking about this cake and i feel bad as i was not as impressed and am not sure what changes i will do going forward to be impressed... 
it is a yellow cake with lemon curd, a filling of ricotta cheese and cream cheese - gosh i cant recall now what that chees mixture was - and raspberries...
it was slippery
so some cool whip covered up the flaws
and it tasted good
but i think it could have been better

More versions of fruit

I had been concentrating on ways to eat just fruit.  And squash came into the mix.  This was healthy except for the amount of olive oil I think I used in the roasting process. 

This mix was squash and zuchini with apples and green beans.  I forget what else ended up in the mix but MAN was it tasty.

realised i still had some food photos to post

Most diets harp all the time low carb low carb low carb... And it always involves some sort of quiche with veggies. But I decided I was just too tired with the veggie combo. I had enough of spinach and mushrooms and brocoli. So I decided to try to switch it up some. The comobination I came to was strawberries, bananas, and almonds. It was tasty.

Happy Mothers Day

This year my mom wasnt in town for Mothers Day.  I know she was last year.  Cant recall if that is the usual visit or not.  I think it is always sometime in May.  Today, Spencer and I took the light rail into town and walked around.  He had not been on the light rail before so it was fun.  Well as fun as low key mass transportation can be.  Definitely not s subway or T experience.
We got off at 7th Street and meandered up and down the streets - Tryon, Church, College - and took in some of the newer buildings and museums.  As always I brought my camera but havent downloaded them just yet.  I will soon.  I am interested to see the comparison of the buildings being built and the end product.
It made for a long day.
Now off to bed as it is another one of those crazy early weeks.

would you believe there is still more?

i need to go to bed
maybe i will get around to more tomorrow

Fruit Fast

Maybe I have blogged about this on the triathlon site.  I guess I should start a food site.  This really doesnt do justice to recapturing each year in a few brief blogs.  This is an extensive summary of my nutritional intake over the course of the winter.  And as always I get obsessed with the concept of a fruit fast.  You heard me correctly.  Eating fruit and only fruit for a certain number of days.  If you break it down, lots qualifies as fruit.  And when you challenge yourself to eat only fruit you find ways to be creative.

This is a concoction that I stumbled across last year.  You see I don't own a juicer but one of the easiest ways to consume fruit is in juice variety.  I also think the pulp helps with fiber intake.  So I have resorted to peeling my fruit and pureeing the heck out of it in the blender.  This beautiful pink ensemble is grapefruits, raspberries, vanilla, cinamon. 

I have alos used oranges, strawberries, cantaloupe.

I stay away from bananas.

no pics but...

In my bean/legume quest I did also venture to make my own hummus.  And using that as a guide I made black bean dip a week later.  Both came out good.  I will try them again.
The next attempt will be a multi-bean soup with ham from Easter.  It is in the freezer calling my name.  I hesitate because if it comes out tasting too much like split pea soup I will be upset.
I will keep you posted.

Lentils

Definitely going backwards through the pictures.  I started with lentils in my bean/legume quest.  They are tiny.  I suspected as I got back on this dried bean band-wagon I should start with something easy.  So lentils it was.  PLUS - when in doubt you can pretty much soak/cook to death and they still taste yummy.  So I made lentils.  Around the same time my friend, Tara, posted a recipe for meatballs.  Can't say that I have ever made meatballs.  Well I can buy the frozen variety and throw them in the corckpot with jelly and chili sauce but to actually ball them up from raw meat?  Can't say I have ever done that.  But now meatloaf, I can do.  And so I did.  It made for a good few days of foods.  Almost healthy if that old persons harris teeter (as I like to call it) hadn't gone and had meatloaf mix in the butcher area.  Oh well, low fat turkey breast probably wouldnt have been as tasty.

Did somone say soup?

Somewhere in February I decided I would stop buying canned beans/legumes and try to reconstitute them from scratch.  I had some success with it at a younger age and then I lost the knack and prepared some really nasty meals with hard/dry/tough beans.  This winter I was more successful.  I even threw some in my soup.

I think this was navy white beans with chicken and spinach.  Would have been wise of me to save the recipe.  This isn't the largest pot I own.  I inheritted a big yellow pot from my dad.  This 5qt deal makes plenty.  I could practically wash the dog in the other one.

I also made some brocoli soup.  This was towards the end of February.  I was getting ready to head out on my first trip of the season.  I had a whole lot of brocoli in the fridge and some other veggies.  I decided to cook them down, puree and call it soup.  This I remember as being YUMMY even without any cream or cheese ingredient like you normally see in brocoli soup.

I also made a tomato soup.  That one did not warrant any pictures.  I have made it before.  I think of it as being healthier than the canned variety.  Ironically it is also sweeter.  It calls for orange juice.  I DO have this recipe.  It is in one of my Silver Palate cookbooks.  To give it some protein I added some black beans.  Overall I would call it belly-fill.  Tasty but doesnt really leave you wanting more or overly full.  I say all this because I found some of it leftover in the fridge at work yesterday.  I hadn't missed it or been tempted to finish it.  It's a once a winter type of soup.

Mac N Cheese

Was it the Superbowl that we watched at Robert & Catherine's?  I remember I talked to Beto.  And he said bring macaroni.  And then clarified the macaroni and cheese.  So I scrambled on line and found a really good recipe.  Again - dont remember it - just google it...  It's the one with sour cream in it.  How could it be bad.

Stuffed Mushrooms

I remember these were good.  I dont remember why I cooked them.  Maybe I brought them to someone's house for something?  Damn - what was in them?  I think it was a type of cheese.

and then there are all these food pictures

i have been cooking a lot over the winter and taking lots of picutes of what i have been cooking
if only i had thought to write down the recipes as well

Just found more snow pics... thinking I am going backwards through the file.

It was a nice quiet morning.  The little guy got up early that day.  And it was so quiet and peaceful.  The hush in the snow.

Then we went to Raffaldini

There was that girls day out for wine tasting

I took pictures there as well.  Oh and they were on the camera.  This stop was at Shelton.

No biking in the snow...

Pansies in the Snow

Too bad they overheated and dried out just this past weekend...  But they looked so good in the midst of the snowstorm...

Oh look at that..

I am filtering through the pictures that so easily were transferred from the camera...
Let's see what that last few months included...

Updated Beach Blog with Charleston trip...

Last of the travel...

Today begins the last of my travel for work.  Most of the ramblings (or as Tara calls them - rantings) will be on the beach... because by Friday evening that is my objective - the beach...  In the interim I am here for work. 
So this afternoon MGV dropped me off at Hertz to pick up my rental car.  We both chuckled as Andrew wa there already.  He was on the phone, eating his lunch.  She got fed up with Andrew months ago.  I am a die hard as I like the corporate discount and the Continental miles...  Today he told his buddy (I cant imagine it was work related) on the phone to hold on.  Proceeded to act like he was pulling up my reservation to tell me they had no cars.  HUH!?  Oh and we tried to call you but there wasn't a number on file.  BULLSHIT (profanity is for Neil's benefit) They called me the last time I rented to double check everything is OK.  You mean to tell me my info is not on a old file somewhere?  What about teh email confirmation?  That comes via email.. you couldn't try to reach me by email?  They were going to try to get me a car within the next few hours....  So I walked out and walked back to the office.  Oh I should thank Andrew on the triahtlon blog for helping me get a small workout in this evening...
MGV put me in touch with Enterprise and they put me in a sportin' Hyundai Tiburon (doesnt that mean shark? ugh)...  I will be doing some additional research and I beleive I will be using Enterprise from now on.  Not as convenient but I am just fed up...
Did you know for every good experience people tell 2 or 3 people... But in a bad experience they tell 11 to 12.... this is my attempt to apply that theory.
Made it here in good time.  Ironically the hotel has me named as "Guest of the day"  Name on a plaque in the lobby and candy in my room.  And I made it in time for the Carrabas Manager Reception.... 
Work will be nice... hanging with KP even better....