Day 30: Vegetable Lasagna and Problems with Pull-ups

One more day!!

But not every day can be perfect; this morning Leo and I began our walk in the usual fashion: head to the elementary school, walk around the football field, run up Suribachi hill, but then, alas, we could not complete our morning fitness circuit because they took down our pull-up bars to make room for a field hockey field!

I returned home hungry and with my arm muscles beginning to atrophy. I drowned my sorrows in syrup, with pancakes underneath, and a glass of milk.


With school starting tomorrow, in the form of a conference day, my mornings of frittataing, pancaking, and omeleting will be a thing of the past, so I hard-boiled some eggs.


As you can see these eggs were a little too fresh to peel, but OH! the color of that yolk.


While biking home from tennis practice I came up with the most brilliant idea for lunch - a quesadilla. I had a couple tortillas and some cheddar left over from the Mexican lasagna. I topped the tortillas with tomatoes, basil, and peppers...

...and popped it in the old George Foreman.


I had planned to add some crushed red pepper flakes because although I'm not a very good cook these little flakes make it seem like I am. I forgot said flakes but my quesadilla was still delicious. In fact, I've learned this month that fresh cheese adds a lot of flavor to a meal.

It was at least 85 degrees at tennis practice, and I still felt hot and sticky so I decided to make more ice cream. I had a hair appointment to get to and had no intention of leaving my maple mixture in the ice cream maker long enough, but even mushy it was still a cold, refreshing treat that hit the spot. And I'm not the only one who found it enticing.


This afternoon I completed my last big cooking project of the month - vegetable lasagna. I followed a recipe from the Food Network, but was dismayed when it did not call for lasagna noodles. Apparently these foodies intended to replace pasta with thinly sliced zucchini. I have no problem with zucchini, but decided to make some pasta to lay down as well. The recipe also called for eggplant, which I have never been able to cook without it tasting like my bicycle tire, and mushrooms which I couldn't get. Instead I included broccoli and green peppers.


It turned out pretty good, and, as always, the first piece of lasagna was a little messy to serve up.


A few times this month people have commented on how my bread, pancakes, pasta, etc. are brownish in color. I've been using all purpose flour, not whole wheat as you might expect, but it's not bleached and retains some of its original pigment, xanthophyll. Bleaching isn't necessarily harmful, though bleached flour may have less vitamin E. Even non-bleached flour needs to be exposed to aging chemicals so it will gluten-ize well and be more elastic for baking and cooking. Pasta has a yellowish color because the semolina it is made from is never bleached.

Well, one more day! But stay tuned, there will be a few more posts after tomorrow.

Day 29: A Little of This, a Little of That

Nothing exciting today, no culinary adventures or cuisine-related disasters to speak of. In fact I could probably struggle through these last two days with what I have left, but I'm bound and determined to make a vegetarian lasagna, I just didn't get around to it today.

For breakfast I had eggs with Caprese feta, tomatoes and basil, featured below in the least attractive breakfast photo known to man. I also had blueberries and yogurt, an oldie but a goodie.


After tennis practice I had a glass of milk and more Mexican lasagna:

(Do not be alarmed by the blurriness in the lower right-hand corner of the photo above. I discovered later that I zoomed in too closely on that lasagna and wound up with a little Mexican on my lens)

For dinner I had another glass of milk and a salad. Now that our tomatoes are ripe, all the veggies in my salad, save the onions, came from my own garden!


Whenever I run a race I always find that the last mile is the toughest, especially in the long ones. I can't help but think to myself, "I've come so far already, even if I stopped now it's still a huge accomplishment," or "I'm so close, why won't this stupid thing just end already?" I've been experiencing the same emotions the last couple days, but I always finish my races and I will make it to Thursday morning without cheating. And unlike in many races, I will not be so disoriented that I can't find the finish line.

Day 28: Running Down a Dream

Today an entire summer of group runs (all of which I missed due to scheduling problems) culminated in a beautiful morning at group-member Tara's camp on Piseco Lake. She and her family hosted us, designed an 8-mile and 16-mile run (for those training for a half marathon or marathon, respectively), and provided food and a refreshing lake to swim in.

The drive to Piseco is over an hour and I had many miles ahead of me; I decided pancakes and milk would keep me full for a while.


I am only training for a half marathon, but before that goes down in October I'll be participating in the Warrior Dash at Windham Mountain. The Warrior Dash is a 3.23 mile race with 13 hellish obstacles and a serious elevation increase within the first mile. So when Tara mentioned Panther Mountain, an 800-foot climb over 3/4 of a mile I knew I had to change my route. I ran 5 miles to get to Panther Mountain (seen below from a distance), did my best to run up the trail, which like many hiking trails in the Adirondacks is a former stream bed full of rocks, tree trunks, and routes. I then ran 5 miles back to Tara's camp, but I didn't stop there, I ran straight into the lake.


After a refreshing swim I returned to camp for a snack. Not surprisingly, I was too hungry to remember to take a picture first.


My apple and cheese were first in a long line of snacks. Next up: sunflower seeds.


Then cornbread, and another apple.


Here's a sampling of the food I couldn't eat:




Local, organic dairy farmers Karen and Dan Casler from the Casler Family Farm in Little Falls joined us for some running and biking.


And with farmers comes fresh, local food.


Thank you Karen, Dan, and your three sons for feeding me and everybody!

Although I had plenty to eat at Piseco, by the time I got home my stomach was rumbling again, so I went Round 2 with my Mexican Lasagna.


It's a good thing I didn't have a bigger plate because I could have eaten twice as much. After eating, I found myself in need of one of three things: ibuprofen, ice cream, or a glass of wine.

I try not to take ibuprofen unless absolutely necessary, and although I had the means to make ice cream I didn't have the energy, so I opened a new bottle of wine.


Eclipse is produced by Heron Hill Winery. I give it a 5 out of 10, but I've heard 14-year-old girls go crazy for it.

Later on, my boyfriend and his friend were in a real pinch. They had just made a huge meal of pork loin, long hots, and noodles, and now they needed ice cream. But neither of them wanted to go to the ice cream shop and place an order, so I agreed to ride along and order for them. With the closest ice cream shop closed we had to go to Mrs. Shake, proprietors of homemade pumpkin ice cream. As if just entering this establishment wasn't enough, I had to order, and could not eat, two large banana splits made with pumpkin ice cream and topped with hot fudge, caramel, and strawberries. Maybe I'm just a masochist.

I opted for more maple ice cream, this time replacing the honey with maple syrup. It tasted better but was still mushy. I think I need to leave it in the ice cream maker longer, but to my credit it was forming a solid mass around the center spinner.

Day 27: Mexican Lasagna

I find that I can only have so many sweet breakfasts before I start to crave something savory when I wake up in the morning. With eggs restocked from the Foodshed, I had all the necessary ingredients for one of my favorite new breakfasts: an omelet (or frittomelet, due to my sloppy spatula skills) with tomato, basil, and feta. This time I used a Caprese feta I bought from Jones Family Farm last week.


After tennis it was time to continue restocking. I drove to Mountain View Dairy in Richfield Springs to buy another gallon of raw milk and some cheddar cheese. While there I saw a man riding a plow being pulled by two horses, which would have made for a great picture if I had my camera. Fortunately I did not because I've learned that most Amish are not keen on having their photos taken.

On my way home I stopped at Ingles Maple Products and bought hard and soft maple candy, my new "goo" for long runs, as I intend to stay chemical free during training and races after the month is over.


My last stop was Grandma's Fruit and Vegetable Stand on Main Street in Mohawk, which is supplied by the Triple Family Farm on Route 5 in Schuyler. I bought all the produce below for only $7.


With all my shopping done, I put my food away, let my dogs out, mowed the lawn, and was dead on my feet. I had one hour before I had to be at a birthday party (Happy 1st, Benson!) and had no time to waste laying around trying to fall asleep. To speed things up I needed to imbibe something soporific. While running errands I had picked up a couple bottles of wine.


Chocolate Lab is produced by Pleasant Valley Wine Company in Hammondsport, NY. It occurred to me in my kitchen, not at the liquor store, that this chocolate. I have not had chocolate all month because there are no local cocoa plants. However, the label describes a hint of chocolate, and since this bottle was already paid for I opted to call this a flavoring.

For dinner I decided to adjust another recipe. When I was in high school my mother used to make a Mexican dish that probably came from a Campbell's ad, since it specifically calls for Campbell's condensed tomato soup. This is a quick, easy, delicious, albeit processed meal. Here's the gist: combine 1 pound cooked ground beef, 1 can condensed tomato soup, 1 cup salsa, 1/2 cup milk, 6-8 ripped tortillas, 1/2 cup cheddar. Mix in a casserole dish and top with another 1/2 cup cheddar. Bake on 400 for 30 minutes. When I stopped eating meat I replaced the beef with black beans and it is still one of my favorites. Since I do not know the name for this recipe that is scribbled on a piece of scrap paper in my cookbook, I call it Mexican Lasagna.

Besides its utter deliciousness, I wanted to make this dish to finish up my homemade peach salsa. Since the salsa contains corn and black beans I left the beans out of the recipe. I had cheddar from Mountain View, which left two ingredients unaccounted for.

My tortilla recipe instructed me to let my dough sit for 1 and 1/2 hours. No thank you, I have a birthday party to get back to. I think the reasoning behind letting a non-yeast dough rise is to let it dry out. I had to incorporate more flour, and the dough still wasn't easy to work with, but since I was just going to rip these puppies up anyway, appearances were inconsequential.


For the soup, I combined two whole, peeled tomatoes, milk, butter, salt, pepper, and baking soda in a blender. I didn't take a picture because it looked kind of gross - nice and smooth, but a weird shade of pink.

Here's the finished product!


It could have used more salsa and beans, but I used all the salsa I had and would have had to plan farther ahead for more beans.


And if anyone knows how to get rid of this shadow, please tell me in Comments. It's not my head, I think it's from where the flash sticks up.

Day 26: Maple Ice Cream and Tom Petty

Another morning of dog walking and tennis. I had french toast batter to finish and was still out of eggs, so I combined the obvious choice with a glass of milk for breakfast.


While biking home from tennis practice Autumn called, and Mrs. Shake answered the phone. That's right, our local ice cream shop was advertising homemade pumpkin ice cream. It's been unseasonably cool lately, and with today being the first day in a week the temperature has topped 70, pumpkin ice cream would be the ideal treat. But, even though it's homemade, and even though I could ask where they get their milk from, I'd just end up striking out on the sugar, so I kept biking home.

For lunch I finished my garlic and tomato pizza, but I was still hungry so I sliced an heirloom tomato and melted smoked swiss over top.


Even though my hunger pains had finally subsided, I couldn't shake that wretched Mrs. Shake. I had to try to make ice cream again. I threw recipes to the wind and poured milk, maple sugar, honey, and vanilla into the ice cream maker (Shout-out Amy, not sure I gave proper recognition the first time I used it). It came out looking like mashed potatoes...


And tasting like maple sorbet. But it worked and would keep me from having Shake-n brain syndrome through my last few days.

The ice cream made me cold, so for the first time this summer I took my lawn chair out, set it up in the sun and fell asleep. When I woke up it was time to pick up my groceries from the Foodshed, and I found myself happily resupplied with eggs, flour, and yogurt. I also picked up some cheese, sunflower seeds, and roasted garlic.

Upon arriving home I fed my dogs, quickly warmed up some roasted potatoes...


and I was off to see Tom Petty at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. We arrived late and caught enough of Crosby, Stills, and Nash to find out that Stills and Nash can still harmonize, but Crosby, not so much. Tom Petty was awesome, and since that's a god-given fact, it requires no further discussion. I snacked on apples and cheese in the car and had half a piece of cornbread when we got home.

Slight Delay

Day 26 may not be up until tomorrow morning. Going to a Tom Petty concert, and not sure what time I'll be home. One thing you can be sure of: I will be craving concert food and beer.

Day 25: Voulez Vous Coucher Avec French Toast Ce Soir

Here is my list of syrup holding breakfasts from most to least favorite:
1. Waffles
2. French Toast
3. Pancakes

I surprised myself with how much I've enjoyed pancakes the past couple weeks, so I decided it was time to try french toast. Besides, I'm out of flour until tomorrow so I can't make pancakes anyway.

Not too bad. My homemade bread is very dense and didn't soak up the batter as well as store-bought, so these were not as good as the pancakes, but still pretty tasty. Which means my list of syrup holding favorites needs to be amended when it comes to eating local. Now I just need to make waffles to invite further revelations.

For some reason all I brought to the Farmers' Market for lunch today was an apple and some cheese.


It wasn't enough, and left me feeling empty. I wanted to be bad. I wanted to cheat. I wanted something new and different. As I sat there smelling kettle corn and kabobs and staring at whoopie pies, I devised a plan. There was a way to break my diet without cheating. For this month my food must come from within 100 miles, which means buffalo from Clayville is perfectly acceptable, even though I do not usually eat meat. (As explained earlier, my meat intake is accidental, I eat around it in some dishes, but probably consume some, I've probably had soup made with chicken broth, and my friend Jimmy made a delectable brisket for his birthday that I was goaded into trying, and was then glad I did).

I bought one piece of Pepperjack Bison Jerky from American Buffalo in Clayville. I couldn't find a website for this farm, so the link leads to an interesting article about a rare white buffalo born on the ranch in 2007. My intentions were to eat half the jerky and give the other half to my boyfriend. I ate half, then ate the other half later with an apple. And although I can count the amount of times I've intentionally eaten meat in the past three years on one hand, my stomach feels fine. As I sat there masticating my jerky, I pictured happy buffalo grazing around, frolicking and drinking out of streams. I am not opposed to meat-eating, but I think if an animal is going to be eaten it should be treated humanely while it's alive and fed a natural diet. Call me crazy, but I could taste that this one was.


I figured if I'm going to start buying meat, why not go all out? My next stop was Promise Land Farm; my neighbor at the farmers' market, M.L., says they have THE best burgers, that each burger tastes like filet mignon. The proprietor of Promise Land explained to her that the burgers probably have some filet mignon in them. The burgers are made by using the whole cow, not just one cut or the cheap cut usually used for ground beef.


I bought a 1 pound four pack of burgers for $4.50 to bring home to Dick. I will not eat a whole one, but will likely try a bite when Dick cooks his.


Lastly, I made a purchase for the future. All month long the Amish whoopie pies have been staring me down. They're directly across from my booth and priced affordably, 1 for $1 or 5 for $4. I've had some whoopie pies in the past that have a marshmallow filling and I find them mundane. These whoopie pies taste like they're filled with cake frosting, and I've heard they're even better frozen. I bought 5 and stuck them in the icebox.

(Don't worry, I didn't break down and eat two. I gave one to Dick, and for photography's sake, left the duplicate chocolate-peanut butter pie in the freezer.)

For dinner I made a salad and finished my pasta with alfredo sauce.


After dinner I took the last of my hard cider and warmed it up with some mulling spices. It turns out this is not as good as regular mulled cider, and as a friend, I cannot recommend that you try it.