internet yoga

Have I mentioned lately how much I am over getting old? I mean in some respects it's nice to have an excuse to want to go to bed at 10:00 and wear sensible shoes and deliberately seek out a high fiber diet and do all the other things I've been doing for the better part of a decade while my friends mocked me while eating white bread at midnight wearing stilettos. But for the most part, I'm over it. I'm tired of having to subsist on a mean and meager 2000 calories a day to keep from exploding like the Hindenburg. I'm tired of hoisting increasingly sagging boobs into increasingly strained undergarments. And I'm tired of the constant stream of minor injuries that have been interfering with my two favorite activities: running and sleeping. Last month it was my knee, likely the result of old shoes. That said, it still took me three solid weeks to recover from that one--three weeks after I replaced my running shoes. This week it's been my back/hip, which has really turned me into a cranky old lady. Seriously, the only silver lining would be to end up with a walker that I could shake while I yelled at those damn kids. What I did to my back is beyond me, since I have yet to break a six mile long run building up from the last injury--and very seldom do I do more three or four. But it wakes me up at night and in fact seems extra aggravated by our bed.

To alleviate some of strain on my old and battered body I've been seeking out alternative ways of keeping active (I mean as active as a lazy, slightly agoraphobic old person with few friends, an unreliable car, and no job can truly be). And this is how I've stumbled upon internet yoga. I've never been in love with yoga. I'm neither strong nor flexible enough for it to be truly relaxing (most of what I think when I'm supposed to be concentrating on my breath is fuck, fuck, fuckity ouch!) and I find nothing natural or centering about "downward dog." Running is intuitive and simple--one simply goes until one can go no more; yoga is messy and requires turning oneself into a human curly fry (and to some degree requires a level of smugness about one's wholeness with the universe that I just can't quite pull off.) But I do enjoy this (and only this) video. I find the woman's voice soothing and she makes the whole process nice and repetitive (not unlike running) so that even if I mess up the first time, I'm sure to catch it on the third or fourth. She also breaks all the poses down into individual components so that I don't have to be even twistier to keep one eye on the TV while the teacher goes about her business "flowing" through the poses like I know what the hell she's talking about. In short, it's been nice to stretch a bit. My favorites are the cat and the tree, but I also enjoy the pigeon and the extended child pose. Before you know it, I'll have ditched the internet to join forces with the legions of old ladies who fill up the library parking spaces descending upon the Saturday morning classes. Or maybe I'll just start speed dialing the police to complain about my neighbors. Namaste.

another food post

Today is Steve's birthday (happy birthday Steve!). In some ways I think I enjoy his birthday more than my own. For example, I didn't bother making myself a birthday cake (even though I LOVE cake) because it seemed silly and a little wasteful to make a whole cake for just the two of us. But by his birthday, we realized the folly of this thinking: that his coworkers will eat anything (ANYTHING) that sits in the departmental office long enough. As evidence of this I can personally attest to the truly disgusting, cold, congealed take out that was left over from some departmental function that I, myself have eaten...because it was there. So out with the old plan (the two of us eating with exponentially increasing self loathing equally increasingly stale cake until one of us finally dumps some portion of it in the garbage) and in with the new: birthday cake for everyone! Some of you have eaten my cakes--I decided to abandon mixes once I realized it's nearly as easy to make them from scratch and much, much more delicious--so you know that as often as not, they turn out pretty well. Last year, when we were still on the Old Plan but with the scale-tipping addition of my sister (no love handle pun intended--really) I made this:

It was an orange chocolate cake with a lovely ganache (recipe available here: http://smittenkitchen.com/2006/09/this-cake-has-a-hole-in-it/) Sure her ganache was a little ganachier than the one I ended up making, but pain that this was to make, it tasted amazing. It was also perfect for my Stephen (aka Dr. Poopjoke) since it required the purchase of a bundt pan, which was almost immediately rechristened the butt pan.

This year we know each other even better and Steve finally felt comfortable confiding in me that he doesn't really like frosting in the traditional sense. Ganaches and glazes are fine but butter cream really isn't his thing. In a less perfect union this might have be cause for alarm. Indeed in my younger, singler, more care-free days I largely considered the point of making cake the opportunity to also make large quantities of frosting, sometimes to the exclusion of the actual cake, putting the frosting directly in a tupperware container so that I could eat it on fruit--strawberries, bananas--or sometimes as a meal in itself with a spoon. But Steve and I are meant to be, and I've taken his honesty as a bit of a challenge--to make the most delicious frosting free cake ever! So this year I whipped together this (recipe available at http://www.joyofbaking.com/LemonCranberryPoundCake.html):

Yes, it's a bit like last year's. Indeed, if you substitute the orange for lemon and the chocolate chunks for dried cranberries soaked in brandy, you'd have the general gist of it. But the added bonus of this year's is that it's a pound cake. Yes, this airy, six egg, three cups of sugar, full pound of butter, four and a half lemon confection was so big it nearly spilled out of the butt pan and took a good heave-ho to get out of the oven. (I recently learned--and then promptly forgot--that a pound cake gets its name from the vast magnitude of its ingredients, namely a pound each of butter, sugar, flour, and eggs.) Steve and I had two pieces each and the rest was gone by lunch time. To wit, I must say, good job Steve's coworkers, good job.

Tonight we head to the hibachi to continue Steve's tradition of celebrating his birthday (which also happens to be Pearl Harbor Day) with the consumption of theatrically prepared Japanese food. Some coincidences are too perfect to let pass by.

smells like soup

I'm taking it as a sign of my improving health that all I've been able to think about today is taking an entire extra large pizza with the works and shoving it down my gullet as quickly as possible. Fortunately I've been living with my brain long enough that I know that it seldom has the best interests of my stomach in mind and that doing what it wants would likely send me back to moaning and writhing on the floor (this is also true when it becomes fixated on eating an entire carton of ice cream without breathing). So instead I had a bowl of soup for lunch. I really love soup. And it's really hard to make oneself sick eating soup. My mother can be quite obstinate about acknowledging that it's about the best food ever, but I offer as evidence the following three recipes. They're delicious, easy, and might I say once more, unlikely to induce vomiting.

Hot and Sour Soup

5-7 shiitake mushrooms

5-7 woodear mushrooms (I use fresh but you could probably use dried and re-hydrate them)

1 carton (c. 4 cups) vegetable broth

2 1/4 cups water divided

1 tablespoon minced ginger

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1/4 c. plus 2 tablespoons rice vinegar (or more to taste)

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 cup bamboo shoot slivers

1 package extra firm tofu cut into small cubes

2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 lightly beaten eggs

1/2 c. chopped green onions

1/4 c. minced cilantro

1 teaspoon dark sesame oil

chili oil (optional)

squirt of sriracha (optional)

Combine broth, 2 c. water, garlic and ginger in pot and bring to a boil. Add mushrooms and simmer 5 minutes. Add vinegar, soy sauce, pepper, bamboo and tofu and simmer 5 more minutes. Whisk cornstarch with 1/4 c. water until dissolved, add to soup. Bring to a full boil and then back to a simmer for about 3 minutes or until soup thickens slightly. Stirring constantly, slowly pour eggs into hot soup egg drop soup style. Remove from heat, add onions, cilantro, and oils. Tastes great with sticky rice and a little seasoned nori.

Coconut Curry Chicken Soup (courtesy of cooking light)

4 cups water
3 cups fresh spinach leaves
1/2 pound snow peas, trimmed and cut in half crosswise
1 (5 3/4-ounce) package pad thai noodles (wide rice stick noodles)
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/4 cup thinly sliced shallots
2 teaspoons red curry paste
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
2 garlic cloves, minced
6 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 (13.5-ounce) can light coconut milk
2 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast (about 1 pound)
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
lime wedges

Bring water to boil. Add spinach and peas and blanch about 30 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon and put aside in a bowl. Add noodles to boiling water for about 3 minutes or until just cooked (and it's better if they're still firm). Drain and add to the bowl with the veg. Heat oil in a pot. Add shallots and next 5 ingredients (through garlic) and saute 1 minute. Add broth and coconut milk and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and add chicken, onions, red pepper, sugar and fish sauce. Cook 2 minutes. Turn off heat. Return cooked veg and rice noodles to soup. Stir in cilantro and serve with lime.

Leftover Chicken (or Turkey) Soup

2 teaspoons olive oil

1 cup chopped onion
1 cup diced carrots
1 cup sliced celery
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning
6 cups low-salt chicken broth
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups diced leftover roasted chicken
1/4 cup heavy cream
4 ounces (2 cups) uncooked wide egg noodles

Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add chopped onion, carrots, celery, and garlic clove; sauté 5 minutes. Sprinkle flour, oregano, thyme, and poultry seasoning over vegetables, and cook 1 minute. Stir in broth and salt. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer, partially covered, about 10 minutes. Add roasted chicken, cream, and noodles, and cook 10 minutes or until noodles are tender.

•