My First Time Cooking with Farro

Farro!

I bought a small bag of Trader Joe's Farro a while ago. It sounded interesting and there was a recipe on the bag to cook it up with sausage and apple. I finally decided to give it a try last night since I had extra chicken broth to use.

I filled a pan with chicken broth, dumped the whole bag in once it was boiling (there's directions on the bag on how to cook it in broth). I cooked some asparagus on the stove top (what is with Whole Foods selling GIANT asparagus right now--where is the tender wee asparagus?). Once the farro was done cooking I drained off the extra broth and added in the asparagus and a can of kidney beans (drained) along with some sea salt.

At that point Tyler and I decided it tasted good but needed to be treated like fried rice. The farro cooked up light and fluffy and did not look at all what I expected it to look like. I cracked two eggs into the mixture, stirred around until those were cooked and added the whole thing to a large fry pan with some olive oil. This gave Tyler a chance to show off his flipping skills and admire the new gas flame (we recently converted to gas during the kitchen renovation).

The purpose of this very strange combination was to have a "first course" before going to our local brewery (Jack's Abby). We had one goal in mind: eat something quick and head out and taste the newest local brew. It turned out to be tasty so we got a growler and also sampled a summer beer (had citrus and spices). Once home we each had our individual leftovers from earlier in the week. I ran out to the gym to torture myself on the arc trainer for 1/2 hour before watching The Office finale.

That's just a typical night in our house. Also, Tyler was able to finish up the tile work on the wall (I'll post some more photos this weekend for those of you that follow me on Google+.

Chicken with Cabbage and Tomatoes

Yesterday I went grocery shopping during lunch. I forgot my entire bag of groceries in my office.

So I had to improvise. Instead of an Asian chicken soup with cabbage (left over from St. Patty's) I decided to do a Scandinavian dish. Here's what I made up and it came out great!

1. Cut up 3 boneless chicken breasts
2. Put 1/4 cup of flour in a ziplock bag with a 1/2 teaspoon of seasoning salt and 1/2 t of celery seed). cut chicken into small chunks (like the size of a boneless chicken leg). Coat with flour mixture.
3. Put a little canola oil in the bottom of a cast iron skillet.
4. Brown the chicken on both sides, set aside
5. Pre-heat oven to 350F. Chop green cabbage (I filled a cereal bowl with chopped cabbage to measure).
6. Saute cabbage in olive oil, season with salt & pepper
7. Add a can of chopped tomatoes (we do the organic ones sold in bulk at BJs so it's a 17.5 oz can I think). These are regular chopped tomatoes with no added flavoring.
8. Add chicken chunks back to pan. Stir and top with Trader Joe's shredded cheese (I do the one that is the mozzarella/cheddar/jack cheese combo).
9. Bake for 45 minutes. Covered with foil.
10. Remove foil for last 5 minutes and add a little more of the cheese.
11. Serve!

You can also add caraway seeds to the flour mixture. :)

Enjoy!

Hope Springs Eternal

Transitions

This has been a transition week for me thus far. We decided to spend a 3 day weekend in Maine after our last trip was postponed due to weather. We were determined to get one last snowmobile weekend in. We were like those Rabid Fans that they used to talk about at MathWorks user conferences. :)

We made it up the 1 mile to the house (I snowshoed, Tyler walked on top of the snow). We packed for a 3 day weekend in 2 small coolers and 2 small backpacks. Try this yourself if you ever want to feel like some sort of Packing Goddess. We were able to snowmobile for a good 3 hour run. Tyler makes fun of me because I really love using hand signals. When you pass other riders you signal how many riders behind you. When I got to lead it was: 1. When Tyler led my hand signal was closed fist to indicate 0 behind me. Everyone waved and everyone was so kind.

Yesterday evening I made a tough choice regarding a friend of mine. I decided to take a bit of a "break." Hanging out with this friend was stressing me out. We seemed constantly out of synch. It got to the point where I stopped spending time with this friend (or making time to hang with them). It got to the point where we would argue about the most simple of topics. For the life of me, I could not figure out this relationship.

So I asked them to take a break and maybe sit down for tea or something in April once we've had a few weeks apart. This was not an easy request. In recent weeks I'd been asking myself: "What is it about this friendship that bothers me?" or "Why do none of my other friends seem so determined to push back and disagree with me?"

Have any of you ever had this type of thing happen to you? I'm 36 years old and at my age if I tend to make a new friend I keep them around for...life. Is there anyone in your life that you just had to say "you're driving me bonkers."

If only life were as simple as an old postcard:

What to Pack?

It's heading into my busy time of year again for work travel. With us also going to Maine every other weekend year round I've turned into quite the packing expert.

Here's my Maine list (based on winter):

-Check snow levels (right now, great with 4-8" on the way)
-Fill large plastic bag with snowpants, gloves, ear band (warm), gators, wool socks
-Grab snow boots and pack them in the back seat
-Extra shovel (gotta dig out a parking space)

In a cooler (because once up in Maine it's hard to hit the grocery store):

-Enough food for two dinners (Trader Joe's makes this easy)
-(that would be two meat items that can be grilled or cooked stove top (we don't have a traditional oven in Dixmont).
-Veggies
-Bread for sandwiches or wraps
-English muffins
-6 eggs
-creamer
-beer (a must)
-wine to share with neighbors (we love our neighbors)
-Cheese for sandwiches, lunch meat if we're doing deli sandwiches
-fruits that pack well like apples
-Chips & salsa
-Crackers and some sort of smoked fish (cocktail hour is important in Maine)

In all weather:
Hiking pants, sweater, fleece, sunscreen, extra socks

Here's my work trip list:

-tablecloth and bin for raffles (the two things I don't ship)
-Clothes for yoga and gym sneakers (pick out yoga classes near hotel and put in phone)
-Print out of all reservations (I've  had hotels say "I can't find you..." upon arrival)
-Address in phone for hotels, meetings, etc.
-GPS for rental car
-Two dressy outfits. Typically two dresses and one suit jacket and one cardigan
-heels or boots
-jeans (trade show booth is messy)
-tote bag (great to carry clothes to change into, packs flat)
-Phone charger, I don't tend to fly with my laptop any longer
-Nook and charger that plugs in (I use my phone for alarm clock)
-PJ pants, and slippers if room
-I always check my suitcase because I cannot handle small planes with 0 room and last minute checking of bags--I've seen to many bags go missing this way as they are not tracked
-Regular book (always reading regular book for book club and Nook at same time)
-A couple of snacks
-$20-40. I don't travel with a lot of cash on me
-Yelp bookmark stuff near my hotel

And that's it!!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome to my wild world of always having a half unpacked bag sitting on the floor in my TV room!

I'm in love with my Jeep(r) suitcase. I can't believe it took me so long to get a good suitcase:

My advice on how to get through a busy week!

This week is a busy week for work. There's high expectations and a lot of public-facing events. There's a ton of dressing up and being on your feet all day (trade show).

My way of making it through weeks like this is to do something totally not related in my down time. Vacation plan!

This coming July we're heading to California. It'll be our 3rd time there together as a couple and my....I have no idea...I've been there a lot! However, I've never explored the Central Coast. I'm already admitting there's going to be at least 18 bottles of wine in the belly of that plane coming home. :)

Below is the schedule: I'll post links later so you can see some of the great deals I got. Two nights we're staying in a state park that has 126 acres and Ranger led tours (and a breakfast buffet). $300 for two nights (a steal).

July 13: Fly to SF
July 14: Hike Muir Woods. Check out breweries in Berkeley. Stay in Berkeley at this lovely resort.
July 15-16 (stay in Pacific Grove in that state park).
July 17: Cambria to visit Hearst Castle for the first time.
July 18-19: Santa Barbara. Staying around 10 minutes from the wedding and the room comes with a basket of goodies (including homemade banana bread), beach chairs, umbrella, and bikes (for free). 1 block from beach. My family freaked out that the room does not have AC. I've never stayed in a hotel on the CA coast with AC so....I'm okay. Plus, if it's hot I'll just drink something out of a coconut or something and nap in the shade.
July 20: fly out of LAX with boxes of wine bottles. 

Staying 2 nights in this state park:

Ye Old Bucket List

I decided it was time to start keeping track of some sort of Bucket List. It's a short list at this point. This is separate from a travel wish list (that's ever changing and evolving).

Here's list item #1: Go on a National Geographic Expedition to the Galapagos Islands.

#2: Go to a spa/yoga retreat. No, not one where you drink your own pee (as horrifyingly described in Yoga Bitch). Here's some yoga retreats that are in Europe and as far as I can tell...no weird stuff going on.

#3 Learn how to paddle board. This would not work at our lakehouse in Maine except in the wee hours of the morning. There are places in Maine to learn this sport though. Since this is a bucket list item I should say it also includes perfecting the art of paddle boarding and buying my own equipment.

#4 take a week-long cooking class in Tuscany.

The travel wish list, in no particular order is:

-Peru
-Cruise of the Roman Empire (Holland America). 10-day cruise.
-Germany
-New Zealand/ Australia
-Hawaii
-Brazil (Sao Paulo in particular intrigues me).
-France (countryside)
-Ireland & England (we've done Scotland and loved it)
-Scandinavia (all of it, Iceland of course has been amazing but I'd like to see the rest of the countries).

What's your bucket list or travel wish list? Do you already know how to paddle board? You have to admit, my #1 item is pretty darn unique.

Reverb12: Resolution, Day 28.

So this worked for me in 2011. I promised to myself that I would use my new x-country skis. Turned out to be a record breaking snow year. I lost 20 lbs during 2011 and by the time I got to my fall vacation (lots of hiking in Iceland, September 2011) I was below my goal weight.

In 2012 we got NO SNOW. So the ground froze and my well froze. That was not fun. I sat inside and drank and ate a lot. I started traveling again for work (2x/year is my busy travel time). Starting in Feb/March 2012 and I gained back the 20 I lost.

It was sad.

I stopped weighing in.

I stopped being honest about logging.

I'm no longer a size 8.

In fact, I got new pants in a 10 from my husband (and he never buys my clothes so this is a big deal) and the 10s are too tight.

Clothes have always been a motivation for me. I HATE New Years resolutions. I hate the folks that join a gym and take parking spots only to keep paying and stop coming come March. They are annoying and many wear perfume to the gym (gak!) so it's clear they are there to pick up dates and not actually workout. (not all, but most).

So, kicking off 2013 I will tell myself the same thing I told myself in 2011. Not "I'm gonna lose weight". Not "I'm going to lose 20 lbs and fit into the sexy pants." But rather:

"I'm going to ski" (it's 800 calories per hour and works every muscle).

What about you? Sexy pants? Perfume at a new gym to impress the gents? Ski? Yoga? What are you promising to do in 2013. Where I live we get snow November - March so 5-6 months/year.