Should I give up or should I just keep chasing pavements? --Adele

I've been running for about two full months now, having started at the end of January. The first week was pretty awesome. I was exhausted, but I felt good. I had tons of energy, and was startled by the amount of time I could give over to the pursuit of... whatever it was I was pursuing. Previous hours spent looking at Facebook, blogging, or whatever-ing were now spent at the gym. And with good reason, winter in Chicago is brutal with a capital B. So I was happy to get endorphins at a time when I normally consume every sweet in site and turn into a mini Jabba the Hutt. Tasty.

Yet after that first week I didn't really get any kind of "high" like I was anticipating. I wasn't as sore, which is a plus, don't get me wrong, but running is hard. Hard like, I always feel like I'm going to fall off the treadmill (this did happen). Hard like, I really hate this. Hard like, omg am I even older than I anticipated, I can hardly run a mile!

Last week I ran two miles straight every day that I ran. And I feel better than I did before, as long as I keep my pace. This week I was supposed to up it to three. But then Spring Break happened, my running buddies all went home, and I can't seem to get out of bed in the morning to save my life, and I just kinda stopped. This morning I went to the gym, but only for a shower. I'm hoping this week off will jump start the feelings I had when I first started and keep me going strong until the date of the Shuffle (April 10, eek!). I know I can do this, it's just keeping motivated is really hard. And when I feel like crap all the time even though I've been going to bed at about 10:30 every night for the last three weeks (high school all over again!) and not eating sweets at all, minus one day, for my birthday, where I had a piece of cake. And yesterday, where I had a mini cupcake, but that was to support the kids, all right??

So we'll see. A small break. Maybe it's a sign. If I start feeling better I'll know I have made the right choice. Here's to next Monday and new beginnings.

Meanwhile, here's a picture of something I cannot have:

PS, or, How I feel about today

Tricks and Treats

M: so how are you going to eat birthday cake during lent

me: omg, nina asked me the same thing

i usually make an exception for my birthday

if it's just one time

M: ah

that's what jesus did, too, i think

because his birthday fell in the middle of the 40 days

me: ...

M: so he got drunk and ate

Yes, it's true. I used to be one of those sad children who had to bring bagels in to class for a birthday treat because my birthday ALWAYS falls within Lent. This year I'm giving up sweets, even though my roommate laughed at me, saying I could give up something else if I wanted, but seriously guys, my sweet tooth is the size of Texas. I need to cut back. So we begin.

Last night I went out with a friend to celebrate the end of her last job. We went to Margie's and it was magical. In fact, M and I had already visited the location nearer to us on Monday, in anticipation of this Lent thing. Margie's has MASSIVE amounts of ice cream and home made hot fudge, and candy, and basically it's like Willa Wonka's sweet shop plopped down in the middle of Chicago. And last night I discovered you can get "swiss fudge" which means they swirl marshmallow fluff into your fudge before they serve it to you and pretty much what all this means is that it was a terrible place to spend Ash Wednesday.

But I'll be back, Margie. With a vengeance! 39 days to go.

On the tricks side of this post we have a few contenders.

1) M sent me this video today and it is not only disturbing but made me down right hate America...

http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/the-heart-attack-grill-24471051

2) Chartwells, provider of food for my Alma Mater and current employer, has often incurred the wrath of not only me but many colleagues. Students recently organized and won a "living wage campaign" because Chartwells workers were not being paid living wages and had no health insurance, despite working full time at the University, some of them for several years. The students rallied with the workers and helped them unionize, and things are fine now, health insurance and the whole nine yards.

Sadly, Chartwells' shenanigans run much deeper. As I found out first hand, ordering from them can be ... an experience. With a capital "E", no less! They have questionable descriptions for their food menus, for example:

The Bronzeville: Ribs, Fried Chicken, and Watermelon (seriously?!)
The Pilsen: Fajitas, Rice and Beans
The Wentworth Avenue: Dim Sum and Chinese food

Why don't they just call it "soul food", "taco bar", or "asian cuisine"? In trying to be "cute", they're just being offensive. My supervisor sent off this email tonight (yes, after 5 pm sh*t does hit the fan over here):

"This is absurd and demeaning!! It sounds like the Jim Crow menu. This is wrong on sooo many levels (e.g. so they don’t eat tacos, chicken, and ribs in Lincoln Park??). Should we (Steans & Egan) continue to order from Chartwells and sit by while they spend our money and spit in our face at the same time? Do we refuse to purchase from them until they change names for their menu options? Do we bring this to the larger university administration’s attention and demand that they make Chartwells change this non-sense?

What is the proper course of action here? Do we even care? What say the rest of the village on this one?"

Well village, let's talk about this :)

Sunshine and blue skies (an early spring tease)

Hello everyone (or maybe just one)!

Snow and gray skies have kept me indoors and out of commission for a while. I haven't stopped cooking but I have become a bit lazy, and reverting to my old mainstay of pasta with sausage a few too many times than I would care to admit. In addition to being less than creative, I am also at work which is not an ideal blogging environment, but still appreciate use of a full keyboard, and will make this post a list format as opposed to my usual rambling text (which I know everyone, not just one of you, will appreciate :) )

Things that are great:

1) This shrimp bisque from Bell'Allimento. I love Bell'Alimento, the writing style is after my own heart and her food looks delicious. This was my first attempt at something of hers and it was fabulous. This soup kept us warm and snug during the Snowpocolypse last month.

2) Soul Vegetarian Restaurant on 75th St: I've had some eating qualms for a while, starting back in the fall when I took my Food and Social Justice class that was taught by one of my bosses, who also happens to be a vegan. While I could never hope to be vegan (I heart cheese wayyyy too much), I have started to consider dabbling in vegetarianism, if only accidentally (ie, I sometimes forget to eat meat or just don't have it in the house). Yet this restaurant, which catered our staff retreat last Wednesday, totally blew my mind. There were "eggs" (tofu scramble) "sausage patties" (I am guessing this was seitan and some kind of bean mixture) and the best biscuits I have ever had. Lest you forget, I've worked at two bakeries. Hands down best biscuits. And all of this was completely vegan and completely amazing and tasted completely like it was supposed to, like real eggs and sausage and buttermilk-y, crumbly biscuits. Nom.

3) Serious Eats: I love love love this website. I can get lost for hours here. For the Super Bowl this year I made their Spinach Dip, M caramelized some onions for a dip of her own, and we anticipated making some delicious wings... except that I left the wings at home. Next on deck, maybe tonight if I get my life together, are these little babies.

4) The smell of basil. It is just wonderful.

5) Sunshine! Even if it still cold, just waking up to sun and being able to go home from work and have it still be sunny is an amazing thing.

Hope you're all having a great week, happy Wednesday, and stay tuned for more rambles!

Sometimes I feel this way

Courtesy of XKCD

This Saturday I made Margarita Mac and Cheese from "What Megan's Making," a blog I've been following for longer than I've even had a blog, thanks to my trusty Google Reader. (J looks at my Google Reader sometimes and shakes his head sadly, as if there is no hope for me and my endless stream of recipes... he's probably right.) Unfortunately, despite the lovely pictures on Miss Megan's blog, my Mac and Cheese was far less delicious. First of all, I am pretty sure I cooked the pasta too long. Secondly, I didn't have a casserole dish and so I had to use a square-ish brownie pan. Thirdly, my "diced" tomatoes from Aldi, while a mere 59 cents per can, were not exactly "diced" and more like chunked, which overpowered the pasta, which were small. It came out of the oven looking more like a casserole, which is fine, and the mozzarella was yummy, but not the best experience when making my first baked mac n' cheese... I just wanted it to look as nice as Megan's! Maybe next time.

So apparently around here we're preparing for a storm of "historical proportions" that includes "snow squalls" (whatever the heck those are) and I was planning on making some shrimp bisque tonight, but I might have to settle for something a little more quick because I should probably run to the store and stock up on the essentials. We'll see. If a snow day happens in my near future, (keep those fingers crossed) I may be working from home with plenty of time to shrimp it up!

In the meantime, everyone stay safe and warm! I hope this storm of epic proportions blows over relatively quickly and keep on eating warm and healthy food!

Soup (it's what's for dinner)

Surprising no one (except maybe me), the $1.19-for-five servings lentil soup was not a smashing success. While it wasn't the worst soup I've eaten, it was pretty... lentil-y... kinda salty, and not very exciting. I really think that it would have been helped if I added a can of diced tomatoes, ground turkey, really ANYTHING. But mostly tomatoes. Maybe the same kind from when I made that chicken, those were amazing.

Anyway, the soup I made last night? Delicious. It even had garbanzo beans in it, not my fave. But yum! So hearty. Very filling. Nice and eggy. Fiberous (yes I know fiberous is not a real word) pasta. Serious Eats wins again! Thank you for saving my evening.

The wonderful thing about this recipe is that it is ridiculously easy to make. 25 minutes from start to finish, and the hardest part was getting the spinach chopped to put in the soup. You begin with your chicken broth base, add nutmeg, pasta, garbanzos and boil... add spinach and cook for one minute, add eggs and cook for two more minutes. It was really nice and zen to listen to the State of the Union on the radio while shredding spinach and chopping green onions. (Side note on green onions: my favorite "condiment" ever? I think yes.)

You can find the recipe here. Although it didn't cost me $1.19, it is definitely worth going the distance to get good spinach, whole wheat pasta, and reduced sodium broth (all those things just make a good tasting soup feel even better).

Stay warm! Next time I'll be plying you with creamy shrimp bisque which is basically the furthest thing from healthy... so suck it up now, get your greens on, and thank me later.

Happy New Year!

So I'm already way behind on one of my perpetual New Year's Resolutions, which is to write more. Faithful blog reader of mine, I can only beg for forgiveness. Something tells me you're not too beat up about it :)

In talks with with the other Martha, it seems she is resolved to up her repertoire (what an oddly spelled word!) this year by trying a new recipe each week. I've encouraged her to chronicle her journey here but unless we get a new name/url for this little guy, I'm thinking it might not happen. I hope to hear from her soon on her kitchen adventures!

As for me, I'm about to head on a soup kick. I feel like the soup options in my life are pretty bland and boring, so I'm hoping to try out a few new recipes in the next few weeks... First one, starting tonight, will be soup from a lentil package I picked up from Gene's on Sunday because omg hello this store is my absolute dream come true and I'm so depressed it's taken me so long to discover it. M had visited it before with rave reviews, but I'm not gonna lie, I thought it was too fancy and expensive and just never bothered. Newsflash, kids: the soup I'm making tonight will make five servings and cost me a whopping... $1.19. Let's see how it holds up (it is, after all, lentil soup...eek)! Gene's is so wonderful not only because of their inexpensiveness, but also their crazymazing meat selection, and I will definitely be coming back here for special occasion dinners... or just to get their chicken thighs, which at $2.99/lb, are half as cheap as Whole Foods (sorry Tyrone) and I am sure just as quality. Produce selection was definitely not as cheap as Harvest Time, my new Stanley's, but hey, a girl can take having a nice deli mere steps away. Seriously. Amazing discovery, so so happy!

Other soups on deck for the next few weeks: Shrimp Bisque and Italian Egg Drop Soup. It's nice out today but I have a feeling winter's going to stick around a bit longer... like til April or May. Call it my Chicago intuition ;)

In the meantime, stay warm and healthy! Eat that vitamin C. It's a nasty time out there.

love love,
a