My Nuts Rule

Thanksgiving break has been kick ass.

I started my turkey day with my standard (and killer) weekend breakfast (over-easy eggs, Whole Foods black forest dry rubbed bacon, wilted green of choice - this was spinach) and an iced coffee with grassfed heavy cream.

Sophie and I watched the Macy's parade during breakfast (she loved the Rockettes, and loved the AKC dog show afterwards even more) before it was time for me to get down to business with my Thanksgiving contribution: baked bar nuts.

This is OhSheGlow's recipe, which I've made before. It's become my go-to contribution when I'm not sure what to make and need to bring something to a dinner party. I needed enough nuts for two Thanksgiving dinners, so I started with about four pounds total of raw, unsalted almonds, cashews, walnuts and Brazil nuts.

I spread the nuts out on parchment paper-lined baking sheets and baked them for about 12 minutes at 350 degrees. While they were baking, I started to assemble the sauce.

Butter, maple syrup, dark brown sugar, a little cayenne pepper, lots of fresh rosemary, and kosher salt. Melt all but a couple tablespoons of butter together with the other ingredients and whisk together. When the nuts are done toasting, let them cool for a couple of minutes while melting the rest of the butter.

Pour the nuts into a large bowl and toss with melted butter to coat before adding the rest of the sauce and tossing well with a wooden spoon.

Yeah, these babies are amazing.

After everything is coated well, spread the nuts back out on the parchment paper-lined baking sheets and put back into the oven for another 10 or 12 minutes. At the risk of stating the obvious, whatever you do, DO NOT try to taste them as soon as they come out. Hot sugar is REALLY hot. Don't ask how I know this.

These are delicious while they're still warm, but are just as good later on once they've cooled off. And they are addictive. They're definitely not paleo, but they ARE fabulous. And they provide so many opportunities for people to make "that's what she said" jokes. Which we all know is the real goal at Thanksgiving.

Between my gimp foot and my insane work schedule, I hadn't made it into the gym since Sunday's ill-fated intro to oly class. Yesterday, I strung together a little at-home WOD in my guest room - 5 rounds of 5 jumping pull ups, 10 pushups, 60 second handstand hold.

This took me for-freaking-ever, and not just because Cosmo was concerned and had to scope out the situation.

He doesn't really like seeing his parents upside-down, I guess.

This morning I headed to CFCC for a very welcome class. Today was "Heavy Fran" - 15-12-9 of thrusters (135/95) and strict pull ups (+45 for men, deadhang for women). I can bear weight on my foot without an issue but still can't flex it, so I subbed 85lb push presses for the thrusters. God, this was still hard. 15:52, with light+mini bands.

PhillyGuy and I are planning to put our tree up this weekend, and unfortunately I've got to get into work one of these two days...but for now, I'm going to continue to laze around with my pups by my side and keep plugging away at the Marriage Plot while PhillyGuy and I watch football. Hope everyone had a great holiday!

Chuck Roast Chili

So, work has taken a turn for the dramatic lately. That means I've been billing an awful lot of hours and using up pretty much all of my mental energy at the office. I work, I crossfit, I sleep, and I repeat. It's not so much a BAD life, it's just exhausting, and it doesn't leave me much creativity for ye olde blogge.

This weekend was a really busy one for two reasons - one, I turned 30 (!!!), and two, I threw my mother a bridal shower (!!!). PhillyGirl'sMom gets married in a couple of weeks, and I wanted to get together with our close female family members to celebrate.

The inspiration for my menu was this recipe for short rib chili that I spotted weeks ago on Cooking in Stilettos. I found the recipe a couple of days before I got my cow share, and I was sure I'd have something great in my 50-ish pound of beef to form the basis for a nice upscale chili.

I ended up taking a large (grassfed, super-delicious) chuck roast and slicing it into pieces, which I coated with kosher salt and pepper.

I browned them in batches in coconut oil in my brand-new, gorgeous orange Le Creuset dutch oven.

I also browned up - and forgot to take a picture of - an osso bucco style soup bone. After the meat was browned, I put it aside to rest while I cooked one and a half chopped Vidalia onions and a few cloves of crushed garlic in the drippings with a little more coconut oil.

After that, the hard work was done - it was a matter of dumping in fabulous blend of spices, a can of diced tomatoes, a can of crushed tomatoes, a can of tomato paste, a can of chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, and a beer, and adding the meat back in.

I brought it to a boil and then popped the entire thing in the oven, where it simmered for about two and a half or three hours at 325. Once it was ready, I pulled the meat out and shredded it with two forks before adding it back in and giving it a good stir.

THIS IS SO GOOD. The recipe is a combination of the Cooking in Stilettos adaptation of Giada di Laurentiis's recipe and The Clothes Make The Girl's chili recipe. Here's my final sketched out list - the measurements are definitely not exact, since I never measure anything when I make chili, but the proportions are on.

Amazing Paleo Chili:

- 3-4lb chuck roast, sliced into pieces

- Soup bone, osso bucco style, with shank meat

- Kosher salt and pepper

- Fat of choice (I used coconut oil)

- 1.5 Vidalia onions, diced

- 2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed, or 3~tablespoons of minced jarlic

- One 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes

- One 14.5 ounce can of crushed tomatoes

- One 6 ounce can of tomato paste

- One can of chipotle chiles in adobo sauce

- One 12-ounce beer

- Beef broth, as necessary to thin out to your taste

Spices:

- 3 tablespoons chili powder

- 3 tablespoons ground cumin

- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder

- 1 teaspoon cinnamon

- 1 tablespoon oregano

- 1 tablespoon ground allspice, or 5-6 whole allspice berries

- Salt to taste

I love this combination of spices. The can of chipotle chiles gives this a nice kick, and the cinnamon and cocoa powder make it smooth and earthy. This makes a big pot of chili - for me, it served 12 as one of two entree options, with leftovers for a couple of days. In fact, I just finished the last of it tonight, garnished with full fat Fage Total, a handful or two of raw baby spinach, and crumbled bacon.

...so after I made chili, and after I went out with a bunch of friends to celebrate my birthday...

(god, i can't take a good picture...but the fabulous Kristastes does!)...and after I danced at Woody's until almost 2am...

I went to intro to oly on Sunday morning and, within the first 20 minutes, dumped an empty bar from the top of a snatch. Directly onto my right foot. Which was fine, at first, and then started to hurt about half an hour before class was over. And then started to hurt more once I got home. And then more.

Until I ended up spending my Sunday evening in the Penn ER, with a gimp foot and the Marriage Plot.

And then - miraculously out in two hours! - back home and on the couch with some ice. Verdict: bone contusion. Thankfully not broken, but I'm on crutches for a few days.

Needless to say, between the shower and the ER, I had no desire to cook. So I ended the weekend with my favorite takeout salad (Old Towne/Sanna's, right across the street. Lamb kebab salad...SO GOOD).

And that's my life. Last week, between work and running errands to get ready for the shower, I only made it to CFCC twice. This week, between work, my busted foot and the holiday, it's looking like more of the same. I'm starting to get super stir-crazy, not to mention feeling the stress a little more than usual without my normal outlet. I'm crossing my fingers that the stars align better so I can get to class tomorrow.

Hope everyone's doing well - oh, and MAKE THIS CHILI.

Last-Minute Dinner

On Friday of this week, I learned I'd be hosting Mother's Day dinner - my mom lives out of state and I found out at the last minute she'd be coming in.

I figured we'd grill steaks. There would be seven of us, and PhillyGuy makes a mean steak.

On Friday around noon, I learned that it would NOT be seven people. I learned that it would, indeed, be more like SIXTEEN people. Now, I like my family and everything, but I'm not doing steak for sixteen. Cost factor aside, I only have "grown up" seating for eight. Ten, if I drag the kitchen table in to hang out in the same vicinity as my (pub-height) dining room table...twelve if I borrow chairs from someone to add onto the kitchen table. And I only have eight steak knives. So, unless you can cut steak with a butter knife while sitting on the couch, steak is out for this crowd.

Instead, I figured we'd do burgers. I make a delicious hamburger (just soy sauce and brown sugar to season the meat - that's it, and it tastes AMAZING), and that's something you can eat on the couch without the aid of a grown-up knife. A more casual meal will let me keep my kitchen table in the kitchen, where I can use it the way I typically do when we have dinner parties - as a beverage station.

So now I need to fill out the rest of the menu. Here's what I'm thinking:

Appetizers:

Tortilla/pita chips with two kinds of dip (probably hummus and salsa)

Baby carrots and celery

OhSheGlows Canadian Beer Nuts (I make these almost every time we have people over or go somewhere)

Spiedies

Dinner:

Burgers

Hot dogs

Bacon mac & cheese (my mom is making this - I am assuming it's going to be unreal)

Salad (something simple - probably romaine, grape tomatoes, red onion and cucumber with oil, rice vinegar and garlic)

Dessert:

Fruit with homemade whipped cream

Something else (??????????)

Coffee

I'm not sure whether my brother's girlfriend will be bringing a dessert or an appetizer, but as of now I'm thinking I'll just make brownies or blondies quickly if no one brings a dessert. I have everything on hand and blondies, in particular, are really quick to mix up - I can even pull the butter straight from the freezer.

My family is big into appetizers and pre-dinner munching. With that in mind, plus such a heavy side (bacon mac & cheese!?!) with the burgers, I'm pretty sure a salad will be more than enough to fill everything out.

In the meantime, my house needs some real cleaning, and I need to squeeze in a run (or, more realistically, a fairly short but intense run followed by some time on the good ol' recumbent bike). Not to mention some dog park time so that crazy Sophie is less like this:

and more like this:

Happy Saturday everyone!

Dinner Party...

...minus the dinner.

PhillyGuy and I love any excuse to have people over for dinner - friends, my siblings, whatever. We recently invited two couples over for a small, random, spur-of-the-moment dinner.

We might have invited more people, of course, if we'd actually thought about having a dinner party earlier than, say, 24 hours in advance of said dinner party. But we can always count on at least a couple people to have nothing better to do, so it was good stuff.

We had a decent, simple menu in mind. Beer and wine and simple appetizers - pigs in a blanket! Pita chips, hummus and an artichoke dip. Steaks on the grill, whatever veggie we had on hand, and roasted potatoes.

You guys, the REAL reason I wanted to have people over? I wanted to make Jenna's Triple Layer Mint S'more Brownies.

It should come as no surprise that I spent a disproportionate amount of my day preparing the brownies.

and then

and then

the most important ingredient:

I don't know about you, but my peppermint patties exploded in the oven. When I pulled the brownies out, they were peeking through the second layer.

...or maybe THIS is the most important ingredient:

SO TOASTY.

While they were baking and the marshmallows were toasting, I assembled the dips.

And set up the bar.

AND THEN PROMPTLY STOPPED TAKING PICTURES. But I swear...we eventually made steak, and I chopped and roasted potatoes. And we ate and drank and were merry. Especially when it was time for the brownies...which came out EXTREMELY chewy, since I let the marshmallows cool completely before we dug in.

oh well. I love my wine markers...that's the other reason I really love having people over. When else do I get to use these adorable little things?

Chocolate Pretzels for Christmas Eve

In the spirit of getting things done, I was up and at the gym by 9:15 this morning. Not going to lie, I was feeling rather pleased with myself on my walk over - good for me, getting in some sweat-time on Christmas Eve! I was confident I'd have the place more or less to myself, like I did on Thanksgiving morning.

Not so much. Seems like everyone in my neighborhood had the same idea. Every single piece of cardio equipment was taken when I strolled in the door. Oh well - whatever. I lifted first, knocking out P90X shoulders, biceps and triceps in about 25-30 minutes before spending 20 minutes on the elliptical. It's amazing - that video takes about 55+ minutes to do, but when you cut out Tony Horton's blabbering, and the 8-10 minutes of "warm up" and "cool down" stretches (most of which I find useless, and I'm sorry, but I just don't need to march in place for 60 seconds before I can do shoulder presses, you know?), you can really shave off some time.

Anyway - more fun things. Last Sunday, I spent a lazy couple of hours making some gifts to hand out to my coworkers, hair stylist, dog walker, etc:

RhodeyGirl's Chocolate Covered Pretzel Rods!

I started with an economy-sized tub of pretzel rods from Costco.

Toppings:

I gave PhillyGuy the job of crushing the peppermints. Word to the wise: while a rolling pin does just fine for crushing oreos, it's not strong enough to kill the peppermints. When I started melting my chocolate, I heard a fierce banging in the other room. I ran in from the kitchen to find PhillyGuy bashing away at the peppermints WITH A HAMMER.

Oh well. Whatever works!

For something so simple to make, these look truly impressive.

They have definitely been added to my holiday repertoire!

On today's agenda: knock out a couple of last minute errands, pick up a new pair of running shoes, and make chocolate cupcakes. You see, I have a tub of homemade peppermint buttercream hanging out in my fridge at the moment. It's due to a little baking FAIL that I'll be discussing with you all later...but I figure there's no better way to salvage peppermint frosting than with chocolate cupcakes on Christmas Eve.

What are your plans today?

Quickie

This has to be a quick post, since I have a very exciting day. Even though I'm a fourth-year associate, I'm still the most junior person in my office...which starts to suck after a while, because there's no one for me to pass off work to. Until now. One of our nearby offices has a first-year associate who (miraculously) wants to do bankruptcy work, and BOY do I have plenty of it. So, he's coming into the city today to hang out, meet Bosslady and I, and -- most importantly -- grab some assignments from me.

I feel like dancing! But instead I need to pull stuff together to give to him. So that means a very quick weekend recap.

I started Saturday with a great nine-miler with Claudia from Sunrise & Cherries. I love meeting new running buddies, and it's a big bonus when we're running the same pace. We hit up the Schuylhill trail and knocked out nine miles on the Art Museum loop in about 1:32, chatting the entire time.

And good thing, too, because I proceeded to spend the next several hours doing this:











And preparing all kinds of appetizers. Here's the initial spread:



Please see cameos by what I've dubbed "OhSheGlows Canadian Hockey Nuts," and pumpkin pie dip inspired by Caitlin. Everyone raved - there was a lot of "Wait, did you actually MAKE this?" which I'm going to go ahead and take as a compliment.

(Please also see cameos by my husband's harmonica, which he uses to entertain the dogs, and my nacho hat, which was a wedding gift from my stepmother. My sister and I each got one. They are heirlooms.)

No pictures of the rest of the eats, though, since I was too busy, you know, eating and setting up and hosting and generally hanging out. I refilled all of the dips several times, and eventually let everyone loose on the chili and meatball sandwiches. Despite my certainty that I'd made an embarassing quantity of food, there were barely any leftovers. I made FOUR PACKAGES of Trader Joe's meatless meatballs, and threw almost four pounds of ground turkey in the chili...and somehow, almost all of it went. My excessiveness has been reinforced.

It should come as no surprise that I spent most of Sunday decked out in my finest:



It was a tossup between my Phillies sweats and my Eagles sweats. Eagles won out only because they're new, and there is NOTHING in the world quite like brand-new super-soft fleece. Apparently, I made the right choice, since the Phils swept even WITHOUT my pants' support.

How was your weekend?