Holy Whole Foods, Batman!

So I made the error of stopping at Whole Foods on my way home from the gym the other night in search of vegetable chips. Alas, those did not seem to exist, but as the store was in the midst of closing up, I was able to meander for goodies without the mad crush of weekend shoppers and was able to replenish the honey container.
One find was the habanero green chili pork sausage that was at the deli. And when I say habanero, I mean it! After poked the sausage to make sure it was grilled to perfection, the juices from the outside were plenty fiery. Definitely did not disappoint.
Then, of course, I wound up wandering to the cheese section. (This might be a good time to mention that I was already hungry before I got to the gym so now I was grocery shopping while hungry, thirty and electrolyte-depleted. Whoops.) Happily the cheese mongers had already left for the day - sometimes I find them to be just a smidge condescending and/or pushy when all I want to do is browse. Well, there was a little basket of what I like to call "trial cheeses" that I love to rustle through to see what little gems I can bring home to try. Well, this time I hit the jackpot. There was a "Legendary Goat Gouda" and with a name like that, how can you resist? It is delicious - a somewhat hard, off-white cheese in a green rind. It is nutty and smells almost like a manchego. Very good snacking cheese. The second one I grabbed was the "Long Clawson White Stilton with Lemon" because, well, I am a sucker for anything citrus. It is more of a dessert cheese, semi-soft and slightly stinky, but much milder and sweet with chunks of candied lemon. Definitely not a savory selection, but a nice way to end a meal and satisfy the sweet taste bud. And since I was refilling the honey jar, I had to grab a wedge of very ripe brie (yes! the runnier the better...) to have with the honey.
One thing that I tried at my friend's house that I will share with is this delicious little appetizer/snack. Get some triscuits, brie and honey. Melt a little chunk of brie onto the triscuit in the toaster oven and serve with a dollop of honey. Also top with a walnut or almond if you are so inclined.

Kona and the Brown Palace

So I have completed graduate school and just have a couple loose ends to wrap up.
Yay!
Last week, my friend left for a European adventure and left her adorable Bichon frisee, Kona, with us for some dogsitting. He is very cute and a little whiney, but the cuddles make up for it. Unfortunately, the stinker has pooped in the house twice. The first time I forgave him because he was clearly unused to being here; the second time I was much sterner and I am afeared that our relationship has become somewhat strained. The fact that Kona and my laptop do not both fit in my lap appears to be somewhat disconcerting to the little guy.
So in the last week, I have had a plethora of food and drink and a decent amount of sleep. Life is much better post-grad school!
Highlights include popping open my bottle of Krug after my Oral exam with Jess and Beau. Yummers is the only word for it.
On Sunday, I went to Sunday Champagne Brunch at the Brown Palace with classmates and family and it was phenomenal. In short - prime rib, blintzes, oysters, key lime pie and dark chocolate pots de creme were some of my highlights. If you wish to escape brevity, an epic discussion of this meal can be found on the Twin City Breakfast Club blog. Not sure when it will be posted, but it was truly the best breakfast experience I've had and likely in the top 5 meals I've ever had. Awww yeah.
Today, I went over to T and L's for some grilled pizzas and strawberry-rhubarb pie. Oh and I had to give little Mara a sushi play set:She calls the handroll an ice cream cone, the tuna is tomato and the salmon is watermelon. I am confident that when we all go out for sushi, Mara will be the cutest little white toddler in the place. That's multiculturalism, folks! (Is it wrong that I am secretly hoping Mara will become the anti-twinkie? What would that be, anyhow?)
At any rate, you can't go wrong with prosciotto and arugula or carmelized onion and balsamic on pizzas. Mmmm.
That is not to say that I have been going all out for meals, either. I have been balancing out the fancy with things like tater tots and the like.
I also used the time last week to make some homemade garlic and lemon hummus. It never ceases to amaze me how easy it is to whip up a batch in the food processor! We decided today that the grilled pizza dough brushed with garlic infused olive oil may be the perfect base for some homemade hummus.
That's just a whirlwind highlight of the past couple weeks. There has been much wine and cheese as well. At some point, smoked homemade sausages will be made so stay tuned. Life is much happier when one has time to cook.

Final Four Fever

I made it back to the gym today after a prolonged 2.5 week absence. This sucks because the reasons that kept me from going have become an ongoing painful drama and also prior to my absence, I was getting back into pretty tip-top form. Oh well. Anyhow, my gym has a basketball court area which is pretty cool. Sometimes non-basketball playing folks invade the parquet and do lunges and other exercises in the space, but I've never dared.
I noticed 2 things today: basketball court usage has significantly increased in the last couple of months and the number of men of the Caucasian persuasion playing the roundball has also increased, effectively changing the demographics of folks on the court. I have dubbed the former "The March Madness Effect" and the latter "The Tyler Hansbrough Effect." Clearly I was not focusing on my workout nearly enough today. This has not stopping me from sipping G2 for rehydration, however. Mmmm.

Oatmeal Cookie Blizzard Hermits

Today turned into a serious snow day. When I left the house at 6:00 am there was a slight dusting and just enough moisture on the roads for car tires to make that wet pavement sound. When I left school at 11:00 there was a couple inches accumulated and the powder continues. Since I am stuck hardcore studying for the next few days (panic is creeping in), I thought it would be a nice break to make a quick batch of something. Since all this studying and weather is precluding me from getting good workouts in, I decided to try for something somewhat healthier. Oatmeal cookies it is!
I have 2 light recipes for oatmeal raisin cookies - one with applesauce (from Nick Malgieri's "Perfect Light Desserts") and one without (from Cook's Illustrated "Best Light Recipes"). Since all I have onhand is granny smith applesauce and I also did not want to break out the stand mixer, I went the Cook's Illustrated route. They almost always come through anyways. And then went ahead and threw in some chocolate chips. Nutrition content appropriately sabotaged...check. These cookies were just ok, though. Baked up looking pretty good in the oven, but flattening out rather disappointingly as they cooled. (I was a little concerned with the softness of the dough). A little sweet for my taste. So neither thick and chewy nor thin and crunchy. I am not so sure about this recipe, but it will get one more day in court (likely in the distant future as I have 4 bananas browning nicely for a jumbo batch of Banana Oatmeal Power Cookies...after Comps, that is).
Also, I learned today too that a jar of blackstrap molasses will evaporate even with the lid on, thus foiling one's original plans of making hermits.

Layouts, Dumplings and Whiskey

Sorry about the grand delay in posts - it turns out that grad school became the epitome of time-consuming and things are only ramping up. But a quick update since I need a study break.
We had our Winter League tourney last Sunday in typical Colorado fashion - a beautiful 70 degree day. Team 5 (apparently the most unspirited team, being the only one that was 1 standard deviation below the rest of the teams in spirit score and thus losing the 3 way tie for #1 seed) did fairly well without the bulk of it's players. Apparently our club players all decided to take to the slopes (also in typical Colorado weekend fashion). We managed to pull out a win in the 1st round and a somewhat competitive showing in the semis, but being tired proved to be detrimental against the #1 seed who had a 1st round bye. Oh well. I did invent a new term: the "lady-cup sandwich." I love zone. But highlights of this season include 2 semi-layout scores both in a rough and tumble fashion. If I wind up flashing the sideline, I better come up with the disc. Overall, I got enough play time this winter between league and indoor pick-up that I am psyched for Spring. Woo!
And I did have Chinese New Year again this year - feast of the dumplings. I was pretty happy with how all of them turned out. A traditional pork dumpling (panfried and boiled), a vegetarian chive, egg and beancurd (panfried), mom's healthy turkey and zucchini dumpling (boiled), a scallop and shrimp with sake (steamed) and my latest CO invention: buffalo with waterchestnut, shiitake and cilantro (panfried). That one was a huge hit and I will have to make more. Sorry, no food porn. Rounded out the meal with the obligatory Chinese stuffing (Holzen favorite) and a delicious chocolate whipped cream cake that the Hales brought. Everyone was sated and a good time was had by all.
Finally, yesterday being the Saturday for drinking before St. Patrick's day, we went down to the liquor store after some serious indoor pickup for the fixings for Iriah car bombs. While perusing the selection as I am wont to do, I found and subsequently purchased the following item:

Leopold Brother's Rocky Mountain Peach Whiskey. It is delicious. If dessert wine and port had a party in a barrel and invited the Western slope peaches, this would be the end result. Wicked yummy. Pretty sweet for a whiskey and really this one should be thought of as liquid dessert. The website has a recipe for Peach Whiskey Iced Tea. That sounds like a good idea.
So those are a few of the highlights from the last few months. I know there are more, but it's time to get back to the books. I guarantee that come May, I will likely have all sorts of time on my hands and hopefully a lot more kitchen adventures to report.

Peaches et al

So the peaches from the Western slope are definitely the most amazing delicious perfumey yummy peaches in the history of the world. They are like candy. So I decided to support my local Rotary Club and get a 25 lb box of them. Which meant putting about 15 lbs of them into the chest freezer. What to do with all those peaches? I tried to make freezer peach jam. And failed, miserably. It is more of a peach sauce as the pectin never solidified. Oh well. So in the spirit of making lemonade and turning frowns upside down and whatnot, I have been having vanilla ice cream with my peach "jam". It's quite lovely.
I do have pictures of a perfectly lovely peach crisp that I made as well, but no idea where it is so it will have to post later.
Other than that, just been a lot of school type activities. It would be lovely if they added PE class to grad school. I would truly appreciate it. After not working out much at all for the last week what with clinics and classwork and prep work and midterms, I felt like crap today. Lo and behold, a trip to the gym at 8:30 pm for some cardio and some weights and everything is great again. I want Grad School Gym class. Bring it.
And along those lines, I finally went to PT last week for my persistent lower right back pain. It's been ever-present since a ill-advised layout 2 Springs ago and has only gotten exacerbated with more collisions and so on and so forth. Turns out I have sacral torsion and now I have these core/back exercises to do and I have to stretch my Piriformis (10 times each leg, 5 times a day). I am horrible at compliance. Plus I think I tweaked my left hammy. Well, at least I have some more appointments at PT. Here's to hoping that by Spring, I will be a lean mean Ultimate machine!
And finally, a shout out to the Nobel winners, especially the HIV discoverers and my personal favorite, the GFP discoverers. Jellyfish...tasty and helpful!

Royal Arch

Went for a hike today with Pickle and a few of David's friends from CT. Took a few trails off at the edge of Boulder in the Flatirons and the hike was probably a 4 miler, likely 1500 ft elevation change, one way. It was a very long day. But also very rewarding. For a pack of guys who had just arrived at altitude the day before, the boys did quite well. Nothing like trial by fire, I guess, and thankfully no altitude sickness. But the Royal Arch is well worth the hike for the view out, for sure. I didn't get too close to the edge of the rocks because of that whole fear of heights thing, but it was cool to see little specks of Denver way out in the distance. Definitely made up for the pizza the night before at BeauJo's. It's called Mountain Pie and it is an awful lot like Chicago deep dish, but with the toppings in the middle and a less cheese on top which is a-ok with me. And some honey to eat with the crust. Mmmm. Between hanging out with friends in Golden on Friday, tourney on Saturday and BeauJo's Sunday, we managed to have pizza 3 days in a row. Too much for me, but at least they were all different style pizzas.