liquidjill

It was another wonderful, crazy, action packed weekend topped off by a delicious brunch in the city and a Sunday night of live Brazilian music, dancing and tons of laughs with a bunch of friends.

To think, I almost didn’t go out last night.  The Brazilian bar was in Williamsburg and the G hasn’t been running weekends in what seems like months. The result of these factors was me having to take 2 buses to get to the bar. After quite a bit of deliberation I finally decided to tough it out and go. I’m so happy I did!

I think it’s almost always like that when I’m sitting comfortably at home, contemplating a quiet evening. If I can just get together the gumption to walk out the door, I’m almost always happy that I did. It’s kind of similar to the payoff with working out, only I’m way more motivated to go to the gym than to go to the bar, go figure.

It’s only a little over a week until I finally get to go snowboarding for the first time in ages (like years!) and I’m over the moon. Tonight I’m breaking out all the old gear and having an official assessment of what I’ve got and what I need. The contacts lenses are ordered and paid for so aside from a possible set of hand warmers and maybe a new pair of gloves I should be New Hampshire ready by weeks end. I worry that my legs might not hold out for the 4 days but hey, if I can make it through these insane spin classes 3 times a week, I think I can handle a couple of days on the board. We shall see, I may be in some serious pain come the end of next week. No worries though, I can’t wait!

Once I’m on the mountain, with the sound of the snow moving under my board I won’t care about a single other thing. The world just shrinks to the sound and the feel of that snow and the wind in my ears. Really there is nothing like it in the world. Wish me luck, I hope I can still ride switch!

What a treat it is to come home from an incredibly difficult hour long spin class (so hard I almost threw in the towel tonight) to a warm comfy apartment, a delicious dinner and woman’s half pipe Olympic finals. Though the day was super long and kind of arduous, I’m sticking to my training regime and feeling good about it!

It’s funny how you never know how well a workout is gonna go. On my most tired days I often find 3rd and 4th winds and on days when I feel most strong I find myself struggling to complete a class. What I can say is that attitude makes a tremendous difference. When I go in telling myself I feel strong, even when I don’t, I always do better.

I’m planning a snowboarding trip to New Hampshire in a couple of weeks (!!!) and all the pieces to make it happen are in motion. I even got fitted for the dreaded contact lenses yesterday. Since I don’t have too much in the way of good vision or depth perception, contacts are key for me on the slopes.

The good news is that I was able to get them in and out fairly easily and without too many tears or cursings of the vision fates, a feat which used to be a really big problem. My lenses are due in by Wednesday of next week which gives me plenty of time to get better used to them before my trip.

There is nothing in the world quite like spending an entire day on the mountain, and it has really been to long. I also can’t explain how much I’m looking forward to a delicious cold beer while soaking an achy body in a hot tub.Ahh the joys of winter sports, they almost make the winter worth all this freezing cold… Almost.

The days are getting longer though, not too much longer now. A perfect occasion to get in an end of the season trip.

This morning I woke up with a crazily stiff neck, which bugged me all day long at work. Its days like today that I really could do without having to stare into a computer screen for 8 hours. To cope I took an Aleve, tried not to look to my left and counted the minutes until yoga this evening. Sure enough, after an hour and a half of hot stretching and bending tonight I felt a million times better. Although my neck is still a tad sore I have full mobility again, yay! Yoga truly does feel like the cure to all ills sometimes.

I think this all started last night in spin class. I was tired going in and really pushed myself to make it the entire hour. I think I might have pushed just a little too much, as I am sometimes wont to do. Luckily, tomorrow is my day off (from training) so I’ll have a little time to recoup and let my body heal.  It can be super challenging for me to not push myself when I do anything athletic, I think this is probably something that I should address before the Century ride.

I have an exciting night planned tomorrow that’ll definitely involve some good company, and some woman’s Olympic half pipe, what more to ask from an evening?! Plus, on a similar note, tomorrow I have my appointment to finally get fitted for new contacts. Although you wont see me wearing them in pictures, or out and about around town, they do have one very specific and oh so important purpose. Snowboarding! Once I have the contacts I’ll have no more excuses and can finally, after such a long time get my ride back on.

Today it snowed big beautiful flakes all day long as I worked and though it’s hard to see much from where I sit, the huge pillowy crystals were impossible to miss as they floated down onto the streets of Chelsea. I have to say that even with my stiff neck the snow brought a smile to my face. Who could help but think of snowboarding, and hot chocolate, and general mountain adventures when the world is coated in a fresh layer of wonderful snow?

Well, it’s about time for me to enjoy a cup of tea and get to bed, big day tomorrow!

P.S. The pic is Barrett Christy, old school Olympic snowboarder, huge hero of mine and… I ride her signature board!

It was a fun filled action packed and surprisingly awesome weekend, which accounts for the complete lack of updates on my part. What can I say, it was a little enlightening too.

I got some feedback from a good friend on the blog. She said that though she loves the recipes, she misses the content and the old school basic purpose of this blog, which was to document my life in NYC. In my effort to share my infatuation with my new apartment, my kitchen and my ability to good decent meals here after a year of not having that luxury, I’ve kind of abandoned the original direction I took in creating this.

I’ve always strived for a healthy lifestyle. Cycling and other physical outdoor sports are a huge part of who I am and have been for as long as I can remember. It made sense to me to incorporate those things into what I write, though admittedly it makes more sense to discuss these things by weaving them into the adventures I have.

So bear with me. The food content will continue, but I think I’ll bring back a little bit of of what inspired all this in the first place too. Not that its really gone anywhere, the content is my life after all. It’s just the editing part that can get kinda tricky. Good news though, I think I’m up for the challenge.

My hour of spin after work was particularly hard tonight, so I think I’ll call it an early one for the sake of missed sleep this weekend. I hope that you’ve had a lovely evening, and that you might find some of the serenity tonight that I am right now as I watch the snow fall outside my window and the the Olympic snowboarders race their way to victory.

Stay tuned for more stories.

Tonight I remembered back on my post about how much I enjoyed the granola I bought that was made here in Brooklyn. Suddenly I decided I should try granola I baked here in Brooklyn myself! Why not?

So, without further ado I set about tossing together all kinds of delicious ingredients and made some of the tastiest granola I think I’ve ever had. So easy too!

I’m having some technical camera issues so I’ll have to add pics to this post later but here’s the recipe:

2 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup sliced almonds

1/2 cup raisins

2 tbsp honey

2 tbsp veggie oil

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Toss the honey in a medium bowl and into the microwave until it’s nice and runny. The add the oil, brown sugar and vanilla (I was generous with both the honey and vanilla since I love them so much). Mix everything well and add the almonds and oats until everything’s kind of coated, though the oats will still seem pretty dry. Spread onto a well greased non-stick cookie sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes stirring the mix 2 or 3 times while it bakes. When everything is nice and golden brown (and your entire house smells AMAZING it’s ready to go. After it cools for about 10 minutes just toss the mix into a bag with the raisins and shake until everything is distributed well. That’s it!

Now I have granola to put into my yogurt for the next week or so and I can feel really good about it knowing I made it myself, and that it’s filled with healthy goodness and love.

Have a great night everyone!

Snow Day!

Finally, New York got a little snow! As icing on the cake my office asked us all to work from home today! That means I can position myself next to the window (the view above) and watch it fall all day long. Plus, when the wind lets up a bit I think I may gear up and do a little romping.

In the meantime I have to tell you about this amazing Split Pea Soup I made yesterday. It was/is delicious! I had never made it before so I got some tips from various places online (thanks allrecipes.com) and constructed my ingredients:

6 slices bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 small onion, chopped
1 leek, thinly sliced
1 large carrot, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
32 ounces veggie broth
1 1/2 cups green split peas
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary

I started the process on Monday night so everything would be ready for the slow cooker on Thursday morning.

I’ll admit I started frying up the bacon before I chopped it which was probably not the best idea. Forgive me as I’m really not used to dealing with meat!

The second half of the batch was chopped properly and was a lot easier to cook (and eat!)

Then I chopped up the garlic and onion.

And the carrot and leek

And tossed everything in with the bacon

This part smelled other-worldly good. Especially once the flavors started to mingle…

I then chopped the beautiful rosemary:

I measured the split peas and threw the pre-softened portion along with the dry stuff all in a tupperware and into the fridge and it was time to hit the sack. In the morning I busted out the slow cooker and filled it full of all the fridge ingredients. All I had to add was the veggie broth and a couple of bay leaves, nothing to it!

The day at work was long, all anyone talked about was the impending snow. All I could think about was my delicious soup! I ran to the organic market near my work during my lunch break and picked up a seven grain roll to accompany my dinner. After work I had a wonderful hot yoga class but all my thoughts in savasana which should have been blank were completely occupied with mouthwatering daydreams of soup! When I got home I sliced a small wedge off my roll, popped it in the toaster and got to work ladeling out some dinner

.

It was a success. The only thing I may change in the future is to add a little cayenne to the batch, I think it could probably use a little kick. I added some to my portion though and it was perfect.

All in all the ideal cold weather treat. And at only about 270 calories a serving I felt completely justified helping myself to a very big bowl. As should you!

I have spoken many times about my love affair with Brooklyn. I don’t know if it’s because my roots are here, or because I grew up idolizing the (original) Dodgers vicariously through my father. I just feel such a kinship with this place. The music it inspires, the food, the smells, the sights the very vibe itself. It all comprises more than enough to balance the chilly evenings and the occasional wait for a train. The longer I live here the more I understand why so much literature and art has been inspired here.

I’ve done more writing since moving to Brooklyn than I have in all my adult life. I’ve even felt inspired to write poetry, which was never even a thought before living here.

Today was not an easy day, but I remembered the very simple things when I felt stress. I remembered to breathe and breathe deeply, and to be mindful of the people around me. The relationship of pain and physical stress is an intimate one, it never ceases to amaze me how much of discomfort can be caused by forgetting posture, or to think about the breath.

When things felt difficult I focused, and I decided to choose what would affect me. It wasn’t perfect, but it helped, and it was much better. I know that if I continue to think in this pattern eventually it will come without thinking and make my life much easier. By the end of my day I was so much less exhausted than I often am on these crazy busy Monday’s.

And then I came home to Brooklyn, and the night wasn’t quite as dark as it was a month ago. And though I won’t say I’ll pine for the winter when it’s gone, I must say that I’m starting to feel winters place in the balance of all of this, so much more so than before.

For now though, the cold will be my friend and I’ll find peace in it as well.

I noticed this morning that I had only a tiny bit of almond butter left. Bummer! To get the most out of what I had I decided to make my morning oats in the jar. It resulted in the most almond buttery breakfast I think I’ve ever had, so freakin yummy.

I did some writing and working on my soon to be announced secret project and before I knew it I was hungry for some lunch. Since I might attend some Super Bowl festivities later I wanted to keep things simple and healthy. Also, it’s insanely cold out once again today so I was craving some comfort food. I knew finding balance in healthy and comfort would be tough but I think I totally got it right. Behold – healthy pizza and hot tomato soup lunch!

I toasted the whole wheat flat bread first so it would be extra crunchy when all was said and done, just the way I like it. Then I added some tomato paste, seared tempeh, a sprinkling of fresh Parmesan cheese, hand shredded oyster mushrooms and lots of spices.

This is the random stuff I had lying around the fridge, weird huh?

I think it looked pretty tasty even before I popped it all in the toaster oven.

In it went for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees:

While it was toasting I heated some Amy’s tomato soup to accompany it.

And 10 minutes later I had lunch! Perfect for a chilly February afternoon.

Now for a bit more writing and the big decision of the day. Am I willing to brave the freezing cold once again for a Super Bowl party in the city? We shall see.

What a crazy action packed weekend!

Friday night I met my friend Shosh for dinner in the West Village. We found a cute little spot close to the train which was great because it was cold! Unfortunately the food was not quite what I’ve come to expect from NYC. I suppose it may have had something to do with the price tag but really, my $4 lentil soup was practically lentil-less.

And Shosh’s “seared” tuna?

Needless to say the company was far better than the food! It was nice though to have a somewhat chill evening to just talk.

Yesterday I woke up feeling the need for a little yoga in my life. Since I started training for the Century my spin classes have cut dramatically into my yoga. It was lovely to get back into the poses and sweat for an hour and a half in the hot room.

I spent the afternoon writing and baking a kabocha squash for the week’s snacks. It looks like I might have another exciting announcement coming in the next couple of weeks so stay tuned.

Last night I headed back to the village to meet up with an old friend who was celebrating his birthday. Again it was a relaxed occasion filled with stories and hugs and general good cheer. I remember his birthday last year. What a far cry it was from then. A year ago I was getting ready in my tiny apartment, freezing without heat and starving without a functioning stove.  What a difference a year makes!

Today I have grocery shopping on the agenda along with meal prep for the week. It’s Super Bowl Sunday so I may just have to fit the game in at some point as well. I hope to.

Have a great day!

Dinner tonight was another quick and easy stir fry since I was crazy starving after spin class. I threw in pretty much everything left in the fridge and added lots basil, parsley and cilantro. A dash of soy sauce was really all it needed after that and my healthy dinner was served.

It was another long exhausting day at work so the chances are good I’ll be asleep within the next hour. This would make a lot of sense since tomorrow is Friday and the plan is to hopefully have a little fun!

My parents are at the grocery store right now preparing for Snopocalypse (as it has been dubbed). Apparently, while Virginia is getting two feet of snow (!!!) NYC will get only around 2 inches. Kind of a bummer, kind of a blessing. Trudging through masses of dirty slush for 3 weeks is something I could possibly do without. I would like to see people snowboarding again in Ft. Greene Park though!

On that note I’m gonna do some stretching before I pass out cold. I’ve been really good lately with the before bed affirmations. I know it can sound silly but I’m convinced that they help me sleep better and have fewer nightmares. Here’s another peek at my favorite mantra. Give it a whirl, you never know – you might like it.

May you be well.
May you be happy and peaceful.
May you be free from all danger and suffering.
May you be filled with love and kindness.
May you be trusting in the creative flow of life

Have a good night!