Life at 545

After 2+ years, I'm feeling the urge to fire up the old blogging muscles once more. "Life at 787" is a thing of the past: We sold the house just a few months after my last post. After an interim period in a rental condo (with a palindrome unit number), we are once more homeowners in a condo with a palindrome building number. What can I say? It's a thing with us.

Knowing our lease would be up at the end of March, we started house-hunting back in November, thinking the process would be slow due to the season. Much to our surprise, we found a place that checked (almost) all the boxes very quickly and made an offer. The sellers were in a rush and so we closed quickly, too! Because of the quick close, we were able to take our time with the move. We made a few improvements (new paint and carpet) and officially moved in three weeks ago.

Unpacking is... a process. We've reached the stage where we just don't know what to do with the remaining boxes. Where do people store board games, anyhow? And why are the boxes so darned big? I conquered the spices last night, so there is hope.

Since we'll be here for a while, we are having fun putting together the spaces the way we want to. The second bedroom has been a particular challenge. It's not huge (9 x 12) and we want get more use out of it than just as a guest room. We have hit upon the solution of installing a murphy bed for guests, which leaves enough room (when folded away) for a cozy reading chair and folding treadmill. Since the murphy bed just arrived in pieces and the treadmill and chair are still only wishlist items, I will have to keep you posted on how this all works out!

Results (Day 30)

Anyone hoping for some good old fashioned before-and-after photos is going to be sorely disappointed by this post. Likewise anyone looking for hard numbers on pounds or inches lost-- I stopped weighing myself years ago and only measure once in a great while.

Here's what I can tell you: The Whole 30 makes me feel awesome. Let me count the ways for you:

• Sleep. This is probably my #1 favorite benefit. I sleep like a baby and don't wake up in the middle of the night fretting about work stuff. I do still have work thoughts during snoozing time, but I take that as a sign to get up (at which point I am well rested). 
• My clothes, pants in particular, are looser. Items that were verging on tight are now comfortable. Jeans that took a wearing to feel right after being washed are now great straight from the drying rack. I was at a healthy size before undergoing the Whole 30, but I definitely feel trimmer now.
• Skin. My face looks clearer and more even in tone. Minor breakouts clear quickly.
• Energy. My energy levels have been great! I am meeting or exceeding my daily step goal and have had lots of gusto to attack projects on weekends and even weekday evenings. 
• Mood. I am usually a fairly positive and even-keeled person, but winter can get the best of us all. During the Whole 30 I have felt very upbeat and resilient. 

Some of these results may also be attributable to my increased activity level; that's what I get for changing two variables at once. Regardless, I'm happy with the outcome of all my habit changes and want to set myself up to maintain them going forward. Stay tuned for my ideas on that in the next post.

Habits and the Whole 30 (day 27)

It just so happens that, this month, I've gotten really into the work of Gretchen Rubin, a writer who focuses on habits and happiness. I read one of her books a few weeks ago and am now binge-listening to her podcast Happier, which she hosts with her sister (which is a big part of why I love it). A Whole 30, and the new year in general, is an opportune time to think about our habits and how well they serve us.

Her concept of the four tendencies, which describes how people respond to inner and outer expectations, resonates really strongly with me. I'm a classic upholder, which means I find it relatively easy to meet both internal and external expectations. When I decide to do something, I generally don't have difficulty sticking to it. (My mother might say I have questioner tendencies, which I certainly did as a younger person, but I have drifted away from them.)

I also seem to lean towards being an abstainer, which means I am comfortable with an all-or-nothing strategy versus trying to moderate myself.

These tendencies go a long way towards explaining why the Whole 30 hasn't been too much of a struggle for me. I committed to myself that I'm doing it, so I'm doing it. The plan comprises a set of rules I can follow, which takes everyday decision making out of my hands. I don't have to ask myself each day whether I will have cheese or chocolate or not; I just know those items to be off limits for now.

In tandem with my Whole 30, I've adopted a new daily walking habit this month. I resuscitated my Jawbone UP24 fitness tracker and set a goal of 6,000 steps a day. I realize the goal is low compared to the commonly recommended 10,000 steps, but I wanted to set a bar that I knew I could meet consistently. To ensure I meet the goal, I've started taking a short walk nearly every day before lunch. During this walk, I usually listen to a Happier podcast (self-reinforcing habits)! This strategy has worked really well for me-- I've met the goal each day, and my daily average step count is actually closer to 7,500. The lunchtime walk has the added benefit of giving me a chance to clear my head in the middle of the work day. In February, I will increase my daily goal to 7,000. 

As I near the end of the Whole 30, I've been considering how I want to adjust my eating habits when it is over. Thinking about it through Rubin's lenses has been very helpful. More to come on this in my next post. 

Anticipating the end (Day 23)

Today it was a bit tough to stick to the plan. I took the day off to work on projects around the house, so not only did I have access to off-limits stuff (chocolate!), I also felt that I was doing something to earn a treat. Worse yet, E left for a long work trip to Italy yesterday, so I'm accountable only to myself.

After poking dejectedly around the internet looking for 100% dark chocolate, I finally concluded that a) I was hungry, b) I was thirsty, and c) that I'm a week away from day 30, and I certainly can stick to it for that long. Oh, and also d) if I ordered 100% chocolate online, it probably wouldn't arrive before day 30 anyway.

I wound up eating an extra snack and having a flavored La Croix while I cooked dinner, which seems to have done the trick. Now that I've had a nice bowl of beef stew from my Instant Pot (sans rice flour and wine), I'm satisfied and ready to move on.

A Whole 30 Birthday (Day 13)

One of the only hesitations we had about doing a January Whole 30 is that E's birthday falls mid-month. Normally we celebrate birthdays with a decadent meal out, but that wouldn't be an option on this eating plan. Before we decided to start the Whole 30, we issued an invitation to some friends to have dinner at our place yesterday as part of the festivities. By the time they accepted, we were on board, and so we faced a challenge: What can you make for company that is Whole 30 compliant?

E and I spent a 2 1/2 hour round trip drive to a remote Minnesota town to pick up 2 hams (long story) discussing this very problem. I wanted to be sure it was food that she would enjoy, since it's her birthday, and that I would be comfortable preparing, since I'm the primary chef. E wanted several courses. Sure, why not? Here's what we landed on:

• Walnut-stuffed dates wrapped in prosciutto as an appetizer. I didn't follow a specific recipe, but sourced my cooking instructions (8 minutes at 350) from a different stuffed date recipe online, and that was perfect. We also served olives, cashews and almonds.
• Warm spinach salad with bacon. As it turned out, this was not with bacon, because neither our co-op nor Whole Foods had sugar-free bacon. I improvised and used cracklings from my recent lard rendering adventure as the porky crunch in this recipe. I had served this at a family gathering this summer; it is indeed smashing with bacon!
• Creamy broccoli soup as a starter. This was pretty simple to throw together, but the leeks make it a bit special. An immersion blender saves mess and danger on the last step. 
• Roasted carrots as a side. Carrots tend to shrink up when roasted, so I made lots of extra to make the serving dish look reasonably bountiful. They took longer than the 20 minutes advertised; closer to 40. A stir partway through was helpful to avoid over-browning on one side.
• And the piece de resistance: a stuffed pork loin roast as the main dish! I took a bit of a chance with this one, as I had never attempted to prepare a pork loin roast before (let alone butterfly it and roll it). My trusty Cook's Illustrated Meat Book maddeningly insisted that I would need to brine the roast to keep it moist, which requires sugar. The Whole 30 friendly recipe I linked above turned out tender and delicious even without brining. I used the video linked in the recipe to learn how to butterfly the roast, and it could not have been easier. Like the carrots, it did take a bit more time to reach the right temp than specified in the recipe.
• We were ready to go with raspberries and slivered almonds for dessert, but we were all too stuffed to contemplate eating more.

I knew we had a pork loin roast in the freezer from the pastured half hog we had purchased this fall, so I pulled that out to thaw on Monday. Imagine my surprise at 2:30 pm yesterday when I finally unwrapped the white paper packaging to find... ribs! The butcher had mislabeled the package, leaving me high and dry. I was saved by the kind meat counter staff at Mississippi Market on West 7th, where they were able to cut me a roast to order within a few minutes. 

All told, the dinner party was a success! If I may say so myself, the food was tasty (and not too overwhelming for the chef), and we had a great time talking and laughing with friends. 

So, what's a Whole 30, anyway? Day 11

I realized after I posted the other day that I didn't really properly explain what a Whole 30 is or credit it's creators. The Whole 30 program is a 30-day nutritional program based on unprocessed or minimally processed foods and excluding foods that can commonly impact your health. It's a fairly strict version of the "paleo" style of eating that we normally follow. The idea is that eliminating these foods from your diet for a period of time and reintroducing them in a controlled way can help you better understand your body's reaction to them. There is a ton more information on the website linked above.

So, what does one avoid on a Whole 30, and how is that different from my normal way of eating? Here goes:

• Do not consume added sugar of any kind, real or artificial. 

I don't each much sugar to begin with-- mostly in the form of dark chocolate (I like the 85% stuff), about a bar a week. I had stepped up my sugar intake over the holidays with all the tempting treats, but this one isn't too difficult for me to give up.

• Do not consume alcohol in any form, not even for cooking. 

E and I generally keep to moderate intake on the weekends, a few glasses of wine or the equivalent. But, I will say I look forward to the ritual of uncorking a bottle at the end of a long week. The Whole 30 encourages me to find other ways to unwind and reward myself.

• Do not eat grains. 

I have been avoiding gluten for a few years now, but do eat rice, corn, and other gluten-free grain products on occasion. Again, over the holidays, this was probably more common than I'd like to admit. Now that gluten-free treats are widely available, I can and ought to try harder to limit them to infrequent indulgences rather than a weekly treat (chocolate chip cookie at Seward Co-op, I'm looking at you!).

• Do not eat legumes. 

Even though I'm a former vegetarian, legumes have not been a big part of my diet in a long time. At most, I have an occasional scoop of hummus or some black beans on a stuffed arepa. So, it's not too hard to give them up for a month.

• Do not eat dairy. 

One word for you: cheese. I do love this stuff. As a long-time paleo/primal enthusiast, I regularly eat dairy, but keep it to the high fat stuff (butter, cheese, cream). The fact that E and I had a weekly cheese plate dinner night should tell you how I love dairy. There is lactose intolerance in my family, but I have luckily avoided the worst symptoms. I have noticed that it affects my skin, so I'm willing to give it up for 30 days. I'm not expecting this to be a permanent change, but, as with grains, I should probably reduce how often I enjoy these foods. Ghee is allowed on the Whole 30, so I get a bit of a butter fix that way.

• Do not consume carrageenan, MSG or sulfites. 

Not too hard for me-- just more intense label reading than usual.

• Do not try to re-create baked goods, junk foods, or treats* with “approved” ingredients. 

Also not a problem. I don't miss sweets much on this plan.
So, there we have it! Most of the Whole 30 requirements are not a far cry from my normal eating habits. Mainly, I miss chocolate, wine, and cheese. Anything is doable for 30 days, however, and I know I can enjoy these items again in a few short weeks.

Hey there, blogaverse! (A January Whole 30)

It's been a while since I've used this space (Blogger tells me the last post was December 18, 2014), so if you have found this somehow, hi! I'm doing a Whole 30 this month and have found myself casting about for the right place to post about it. Facebook? Nah, don't want to bore everyone. Twitter? Nope, spambots. Instagram? No way, the world does not need more amateur food photography with a #whole30 hashtag. A personal blog hardly anyone knows how to find? Just the ticket!

It's pretty cliche to do a Whole 30 in January, but, let's face it, the cliche exists for a reason. After weeks of indulgent holiday eating and drinking-- E and I started the week before Thanksgiving by hosting her family for an early Christmas-- many of us are craving a healthier path. Cleaning up your act at a time when everyone else is doing the same is quite helpful for moral support!

I had been toying with the idea of doing a Whole 30 after E's birthday later in January. So how did I come to start it on the 4th? It's all thanks to our friend B. We visited her over New Year's in DC, and found out right off the bat that she was planning to start a Whole 30 on January 4th. She is new to the program and paleo eating in general. E and I eat a paleo-style diet normally (although very lax, lately) and completed a Whole 30 a few years ago. We were peppering B with advice and recipes, and in the process got excited enough to want to do it ourselves. What better way to support B than to join her?

Skipping ahead to today, we are embarking on the 2nd full week of the program. We survived the first week just fine, but the meal planning and prep was a bit rushed due to returning from our DC trip on Sunday late afternoon. This week, I spent much of yesterday doing food prep and we have a good game plan for the rest of the week.

Sunday's cook-up included:

• egg bake
• broth
• roasted sweet potatoes
• red cabbage slaw
• roasted root vegetables
• mini-meatloaves

We had egg bake for breakfast and mini-meatloaves and some leftover purple potatoes (love that potatoes are allowed in the Whole 30 now!) and green beans in our lunches today. Tonight we'll eat seasoned baked chicken wings with some of the leftover veggies from yesterday, because I have an appointment and not enough time to prep a full meal. It's a lot easier to eat this way with a full larder!

So, phantom readers, are any of you making any healthy changes this January? Tell me all about them in the comments.

What Will I Do?

I think I've mentioned here that E started a new job this month, one that will require traveling about 25% of the time. She and others keep inquiring what on earth I will possibly do while she is gone. I have a few ideas to keep myself out of trouble:

• Work, sleep, eat. That is, keep myself alive and productive as normal. In the eating arena, I will probably have to cook less while she is away, because leftovers will go twice as far. I'm going to try to freeze some stuff so that I have easy meals ready to go.
• Play the piano. I honestly can't remember the last time I did this regularly. In addition to being short on time, I am bizarrely self-conscious about other people hearing me practice. When she is away, I will be able to plunk around with no fear, at least until open-window season.
• Watch movies. Probably half or more of our Netflix queue includes esoteric movies not to E's taste, from Bollywood to documentaries to obscure indie flicks. I'm sure I can manage to knock a few off the list.
• See friends. I'm not the greatest about making plans to hang out with friends one-on-one. Even though I know I could do so anytime, I never seem to think of it until E is going out of town. Dinner or coffee with a friend complements the alone time nicely.
• Get away. One of the facts of life about me working in the public sector and E working in the private sector is that I have more vacation time than she does, by far. I usually feel guilty about taking time off when she is working, but if she is out of town, I might as well use the time to visit family or take a break. I'm already daydreaming about a wintertime North Shore getaway, in which I will sit by a fireplace and stare at Lake Superior for a few days. 

Things I'm Not Writing About

I really have no idea how I used to keep up a near-daily online journal (ahem... blog). I've honestly been struggling this month to find topics to write about. In the old days, I used to share a lot about amusing work anecdotes and also talk about friendships and family relationships. These days, my work is much more engrossing, but I certainly don't want to rehash it at the end of the day, and not much of it would be appropriate (never mind interesting) to share. This blog is not nearly as well-hidden as my earlier venues and my boundaries are much better developed than they used to be, so family & friends are mostly out as subjects, too.

The Holidailies prompt from yesterday asked: Today is National Chocolate Covered Anything Day. What's the very best chocolate-covered thing you've ever had (or alternatively, what's the worst)? Now, this is a topic I can work with!

This year I participated in a friend's candy and cookie making party. Each year, she gets about half a dozen people together to make an assortment of holiday goodies; everyone chips in and everyone brings a batch home. The candy that amazed me the most was sponge candy. I had tasted some from a previous year and marveled at the light, crunchy texture and sweet/salty taste. Amazingly, the only ingredients are sugar and corn syrup, with the sponge effect accomplished through a timely addition of vinegar and baking soda. Once the candy has hardened and been broken up, the big pieces are dredged in melted chocolate and allowed to cool. The rich chocolate offsets the slight bitterness from the baking soda. And lo, sponge candy is therefore the best chocolate-covered thing I've ever had, at least in recent memory.

Catching up

This week has gone by in a blur-- things at work are going fast and furious, and when I get home, I just put on my "lounging clothes" (who are we kidding, they're pajamas), eat a little dinner, and watch some Portlandia on Netflix.

Last night was the annual holiday party for my professional organization, which works to advance women in my industry. I had bought my ticket a month ago, and very much needed a glass of wine by then, so I went and had a great time. I used to be very active in the group and served on the board for several years, but I haven't had as much time to be involved lately. It was lovely to catch up with old friends and marvel over how the organization has grown and strengthened over time. I don't think of myself as an outspoken recruiter, but I realized on my way home that at least 3 current and past board members, all former interns at my office, are involved (at least in part) due to my encouragement.

Tonight, I've had some delightful quiet time to recharge. E is out with friends, and left me home with the dog and half a pint of ice cream, among other goodies. Having watched two strange movies (The One I Love and Happy Christmas), my plan now is to read in bed a bit (I picked up the holiday issue of Lucky Peach) and get a good night's sleep.

Music Advent, Day 12 (1992)
It's hard to believe I didn't have a Walkman until 1992, but it must be true. This marvelous electronic device came into my life for my birthday that year, and the cassette I received along with it was En Vogue's Funky Divas. Three of the singles from that album made it onto the Billboard Top 100: "My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)", "Giving Him Something He Can Feel", and "Free Your Mind".

Christmassy

After dragging through last week feeling sick, over the weekend I finally mustered some energy for the holiday spirit! We got a Christmas tree on Sunday and decorated it tonight, and that makes such a difference. We always get a live one, so the smell wafts through the house. There's something I just love about a dark room (since we're mainly home in the early morning and evening) with tree lights twinkling off to one side. A silver lining to no longer having any cats is that we will be able to wrap gifts and put them under the tree without fear that all the ribbons will be chewed and later vomited up.

On Sunday we also made good progress on our gift shopping, accomplished through a mix of online purchases and local stops. For once I actually feel we are in pretty solid shape when it comes to our shopping progress, although I still haven't bought a single stocking stuffer. In my family, everyone buys small stocking stuffers for everyone else. Inevitably, I leave it to the last minute and wind up (unimaginatively) buying fancy chocolate bars for everyone. Not that those go uneaten, but I feel I ought to be a bit more creative. With luck and about a month to go-- we are doing our holiday gathering after New Year's Day-- I hope to do a little better this year.

Music Advent, Day 8 (1988)
There's a clear choice today: Kokomo by the Beach Boys. Between 1984 and 1987, my family lived in an actual town called Kokomo, Indiana. Far from the tropical paradise depicted in the song, it is basically a dreary factory town. Not too long after we moved to Wisconsin, this song came out and seemed so odd. Eight-year-old me: Here's a song that's sort of about a town I feel a little wistful about! And yet the town is decidedly unlike the song! Will my new friends think I'm cool because I'm from the town in the song? Etc.

A Leisurely Saturday

I was really looking forward to today after a hectic few weeks of finishing performance reviews, traveling for Thanksgiving, and doing it all while not feeling super great. The day is turning out to be just what I needed:

6:40 am: Wake up. Cough (ugh). Feed dog. Make coffee and get comfy on the couch, catching up on social media and reading a book.

8:30 am: Make and eat some scrambled eggs. More couch time. Clean out the fridge of past-good food. Say a sad goodbye to the leftover gluten-free stuffing and pie that I didn't get around to eating. More reading.

12 noon: Eat some leftover chili. Hatch a plan to do some errands and grocery shopping; make a meal plan and grocery list.

12:30 pm: REI, fancy coffee stop, grocery store, and another stop for a Christmas gift.

3:00 pm: Slow stroll with the dog. More couch time (!!!) to do some online Christmas shopping.

Next up will be wine and nibbles time, which will also take place on the couch. Later on, probably dinner while watching a movie. On the couch. Are you sensing a theme here? This is pretty much my dream Saturday.

Note that it does not involve other people, aside from my spouse. These days my job requires me to engage with people for probably 75% of my day, whereas the proportion was the inverse of that less than 2 years ago. Having to use so much social energy at work means I basically want to hibernate on the weekends. Poor E, she is an extrovert and would like to see people on weekends. We have social plans tomorrow and then every Friday and Saturday night until the new year, so I put the kibosh on any get-togethers tonight. She will have to make do with me and the dog.

Nope

Well, I sure blew it yesterday in the "posting every day" department, huh? I got home from work and had a major case of the Nopes. Nope, don't wanna make dinner (hooray for leftovers). Nope, don't wanna make something for my work potluck (well, I made some pumpkin bread). And nope, don't want to write a blog post.

What I did instead was drink a few glasses of wine and watch The Taste, one of my guilty pleasure tv shows. Last night was the season premiere, in which all the contestants vie for a spot on the show via a blind taste test. If selected for more than one of the judge's teams, roles are reversed, and the judges must make the case for the contestant to choose their team. Poor Nigella Lawson, no one ever wants to be on her team.

Today was a festive day at work, with a lunch potluck for our floor and the company-wide holiday party after work. Since I'm in the public sector, this essentially  means that everyone shows up at the same bar at the same time and buys their own drinks. Somehow there is a small budget for dollar-store door prizes. It's always a good time, but after a few hours I developed yet another case of the Nopes. I didn't want to spend 15 minutes saying good bye to everyone, so I just grabbed my coat and left. I'm happy to be back at home, ensconced on the couch in my pajamas.

Music Advent, day 5 (1985)
I remember owning a single-- on vinyl, no less-- of We Built This City by Starship. For some reason it emerged as my favorite song when I was 7 or 8. Little did I know how prescient that was, since the song was also jokey anthem of my graduate program in urban planning.

Reading Lately

I can tell I am finally getting over being sick because I accidentally rode through my stop on the train on the way home today. You might say the lack of attention suggests I am still very much in the realm of illness, but the fact that I was able to make the walk home (1/4 mi farther than usual) without wanting to keel over, and in fact, feeling slightly invigorated, is an excellent sign!

My attention was diverted by the book I was reading, Separated @ Birth. I'm a little obsessed twins-separated-at-birth memoirs lately, having also recently finished Identical Strangers. It's fascinating to think about what it would be like to discover as an adult that you are a twin. Very much of my identity is based on the idea that I am a unique individual. Not in the "special snowflake" sense often attributed to millennials (I'm more of a Gen-Xer, myself), but just the simple fact that there is no one else in the world with my particular dna, personality, upbringing, aptitudes, appearance, and so on. It must be very jarring to discover a stranger who shakes that foundation. Identical Strangers was full of stories of twins who met as adults and found that they have similar mannerisms, drive the same cars, had kids at the same time, smoke the same cigarettes, work in the same fields, and so on. I think these days popular opinion has swung more towards "nurture" in the nature vs. nurture debate, but the experiences of reunited twins has certainly challenged my assumptions.

I've actually been galloping through my reading list over the past few days; being home sick Monday definitely helped. I've read HHhH (a novel about Heydrich's assassination), Not My Father's Son by Alan Cumming, and Yes Please by Amy Poehler. Of the three, I enjoyed Cumming's memoir the most. He had an interesting and bounded story to tell, and shared it with warmth and humor.

Music Advent, day 3 (1983)
Another excellent year for pop music! I was going to share Prince's 1999 in honor of my now-home state of Minnesota, but it turns out that was released in 1982 and still going strong on the charts in 1983. As a runner up, I will instead pick Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) by the Eurythmics. It's so deliciously 80s.

Music Advent

Some of my twitter and Holidailies pals are doing a #musicadvent meme. I haven't found an official-looking set of rules, but I gather I was supposed to post a song from the year of my birth yesterday, from the next year today, and so on. I got a late start, so today you get a twofer.

I scrolled down the Billboard top 100 songs of the year list for 1980, looking for favorites or at least old familiars. Luckily for me (and you), Blondie's Call Me is at the top of the list. Not too shabby, really!

I could have continued with Blondie in 1981, as they seem to have been on quite a roll then. In fact, 1981 had some pretty good songs in general. I'm going to hearken back to my choir nerd roots with a selection from Manhattan Transfer: The Boy from New York City. Manhattan Transfer was THE group to look up to when I joined jazz choir in high school, and frankly I'm surprised that a vocal jazz group cracked the (top half of the) top 100 list.

It's a good thing I had music advent in my back pocket for this post, because not much else really happened today. Work was tiring, since I'm still sick (though on the mend). It's good to be back home in my pj's with a pot of chili simmering on the stove.

Speaking of being sick, are sinuses connected to attention span? Because I keep wandering away from this entry before finishing it. I had better quit while I'm ahead. Until next time!

Placeholder

This is the time of year I rejoin (or attempt to rejoin) the ranks of daily bloggers. Why? To join a little community known as Holidailies, and to add a note of contemplation to this lively time of year.

I'm currently on day 12 of some malady that started as a cold and now seems decidedly worse, so please forgive me if I don't have something terribly witty to offer today. At the very least, I can offer an introduction and some updates since last year.

• I'm a life-long upper-Midwesterner, now living in the Twin Cities with my wife
• Yup, that would make me a lesbian. I am fortunate that this is not really a Big Deal in my everyday life and social circles
• We have an old house (built in 1914) and an old dog (approximately 101 in dog years)
• We used to have two cats, and indeed I have written about them many times. The evil one died about 13 month ago, and I confess I don't miss her too much. The awesome sweet one died this past summer, and I still think about her all the time
• I got a promotion this fall when my boss retired, which means I am working more than ever. Fortunately, I happen to love what I do
• The wife just started a new job (literally, today) which will involve lots of travel, domestic and international!
• Though I am an atheist, I love the Christmas season. I think it's because I grew up as a choir nerd, which made this time of year busy, thrilling, and magical.

With that, I'll sign off for tonight. Looking forward to the virtual exchange of ideas this month!

Long time, no see! And aged eggnog.

I usually dust off this blog around the holidays, so I can participate in Holidailies. This year I thought I'd get an early start. Why? Because now is the perfect time to mix up your eggnog and age it for several weeks before Christmas and New Years.

I first experienced real eggnog (homemade, with booze) when my brother-in-law joined the family. He makes a vodka-based concoction, mixed up in big gallon-sized batches. He has to, because this stuff is way better than the weirdly yellow and thickened stuff you find in the grocery store.

At some point, I stumbled across the idea of making boozy aged eggnog, I think through this Ruhlman article. The first few years, I stuck solidly to the Chow.com best eggnog recipe (except never bothering to add whipped cream or egg whites when serving). Nowadays, I put my own spin on things. Here's my version:

Aged Eggnog

12 egg yolks (from a source you trust)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark rum
3/4 cup brandy
1 liter bourbon whiskey (Jim Beam will do fine)

Milk (dairy or non-dairy), cream or half and half to serve.

Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until well-integrated. Add the rum and brandy and whisk some more until the sugar is dissolved. Add the whiskey and stir some more. Using a funnel, decant the mixture into glass bottles. The empty Jim Beam bottle will work dandy; you'll need one additional bottle around the same size. Store in the fridge for 3 weeks or more, shaking each bottle periodically.

To serve, mix the nog base with your preferred milk/cream in about a 1:1 ratio (you can play with this to taste). The original recipe calls for about 4:1 milk to cream in the nog, so I usually use whole milk and a splash of cream. Coconut milk (canned, no funky ingredients) also works surprisingly well and is very decadent.

The past few years I've experimented with replacing some of the sugar with maple syrup. The maple flavor is awesome with the bourbon! This year I used 1/2 cup maple syrup and 1/3 cup sugar.

This recipe leaves you with lots of leftover egg whites. I freeze them (2-3 to a container) to use in our shepherd's pie recipe. Brother-in-law often makes a Schaum Torte, a light egg white-based cake served with fruit.

If you make aged eggnog the Chow.com way, you're faced with finding room in your fridge for about 3 quarts of nog during the aging process. By leaving the milk/cream out during the aging, you still get the wondrous melding of egg & booze, but more compactly. Enjoy!

Why... hello!

It's been a while since I posted in this space, but here I am again with some of my more recent food musings. E and I recently embarked on a 30-day whole eating challenge. A week of indulging in wine & gluten free desserts in San Francisco followed by a week of lax eating on a family visit followed by yet another week of indulgences for my birthday in August had left me feeling like my pants were all too tight. It was time to do something to get back on track.

We considered the Whole30 format, but ultimately went with something a little less restrictive. I just can't bring myself to care about whether or not the turkey sausage I enjoyed at brunch with my mother-in-law had a smidge of sugar in it or not. My rules were: no grains, no dairy, no desserts (other than fresh fruit), no alcohol. We continued to avoid unhealthy processed oils but probably ate them while eating out. I also did not knowingly ingest soy, but, again, we did eat out a few times and I didn't interrogate our servers. When eating out, I stuck to meats, veggies, eggs. Oh, and contrary to Whole30 rules, we did eat white potatoes when they were provided in our CSA box.

The potatoes relate to something I have learned about myself during dietary experiments over the past few years: I need to eat reasonable amounts of carbohydrates. Very low-carb paleo is awesome for losing weight, but in the long term it is not a great strategy for me. As part of this challenge, I focused on eating nourishing sources of carbs like sweet potatoes, white potatoes, plantains, carrots, beets and fruit.

The challenge would have lasted through this Tuesday, but we ended up cutting it short when, last Sunday, we unexpectedly had to put one of our cats to sleep. After that experience, frankly, we both wanted a bloody mary. Since then, we've reintroduced some foods that we had been avoiding. For me, this means very dark chocolate, red wine, and a bit of dairy (mainly grass fed butter and goat or sheep cheese).

I think the challenge served its intended purpose as a general reset for sweets and alcohol consumption. I finally learned the lesson that gluten-free baked goods should be a very occasional indulgence. I had developed this attitude of scarcity-- that they were so unusual to find that I should buy and consume them when available. Well, newsflash: gluten-free diets have hit the mainstream and treats are not hard to find. I need to save them for occasions which actually warrant a splurge.

In terms of physical results, I didn't weigh myself before starting, but certainly was feeling like I had put on some pounds. By the end of the challenge, my clothes were fitting better and I was feeling good. I weighed myself this past Tuesday and was very surprised to find that I am the same weight as I was when we went to Puerto Rico last fall, which was probably my lowest ever. I know weight is only a crude measure of health, but it was reassuring to find that I could eat nourishing carbs with nearly every meal and still be at a level where I feel healthy.

Sunday Cook-Off

I've never been a football fan. I can't even fake it on Super Bowl Sunday! I'm feeling like I might be coming down with a cold, so instead of going to a party with E, I'm going to stay home and do a little bulk cooking for the week.

In general, my weekly meal planning strategy is to cook as much as possible Sunday through Wednesday, and then ride the leftovers through the end of the week. This is a good fit for my energy levels: normally by Thursday, I'd be thinking about take-out if I didn't have a good stash of food in the fridge.

One of the easiest and most versatile things to make ahead is make a big beef roast. On a weekday, I would do this in the slow cooker, but since I have a little more time today, I'm doing it in the oven in my beloved Le Creuset dutch oven. This way, I can make a more flavorful roast by browning the meat and then sauteing some onions and garlic before putting it all in the oven. I'm loosely following a recipe from the Perfect Health Diet, although my roast is smaller (3.5 lbs). We usually eat pot roast as-is, but that recipe provides some interesting ideas for preparing leftovers with different flavor profiles. We have potatoes, rosemary, and cabbage in the house, so maybe I'll give the Italian one a shot later this week.

To go with the pot roast tonight, I'm going to make a parsnip and carrot puree. I've never made this particular combo before, but in general I've found that veggie purees are easy to prepare and forgiving as leftovers.

Nearly every weekday, I make scrambled eggs for breakfast for the two of us. I eat mine right away, and E takes hers to work to reheat. I don't mind this task, but once in a while it's nice to take a break from the routine and have something pre-made that doesn't produce dirty dishes. If I'm thinking ahead, I can make a batch of egg muffins on the weekend. I usually improvise the preparation, but here's a basic recipe if you'd like to try them out. Today, I browned half a pound of italian sausage and wilted some spinach to put in each muffin. I used 10 jumbo eggs for 12 muffins, but the cups wound up overflowing a bit. Probably 9 would have been perfect. These silicone-coated muffin cups are wonderful for egg muffins- no sticky mess in your pan, unless you overfill them as I did!

Link roundup!

I thought I'd try something a little bit different for this post. Through Twitter, Facebook, and other bloggers, I find lots of interesting articles and posts out there on the web every day. It finally occurred to me to share these in a more structured way, instead of haphazardly re-tweeting! Here goes attempt numero uno:

A lot of people seem stymied by lunches. Around our house, the meal plan is designed to produce leftovers from dinner to be eaten the following day, so lunch is never trickier than grabbing a box or two from the fridge. On the other hand, I know folks who can't stand eating leftovers day after day. This post from Nom Nom Paleo has lots of great ideas for simple packed lunches.

I keep hearing that it is possible to make multiple batches of broth from the same bones. This has always sounded kind of messy and unpalatable to me, however. Until this post, that is! It never occurred to me that the later batches of broth could actually be stronger/better, but I guess it seems conceivable as described in the post. Since I have a giant bag of chicken bones in the freezer, I will have to give this method a shot and let you all know.

Should obese people be shamed? I'm pretty sure not. As always, the Atlantic is willing to go out on a limb... chainsaw in tow.

Ever curious about what other folks eat? The folks over at Robb Wolf's website are compiling responses and photos from readers (and paleo eaters) around the world. This is actually quite interesting! You may see a future post here along these lines.