Hi,
the season has begun and I have 'cycle-butt'. I'm proud to say that a winter of Yoga classes has made a difference and I proved it on Wednesday of this week when I went out for a first cycle ride of the year. Usually I dread getting back on the saddle. It hurts. My tushie is not ready for the hard seat and my glutious maximus is unprepared for the muscle usage. Walking the next day normally is a painful chore, but not this week. I didn't hurt for a moment after the ride or even the next day. Yeah Yoga!
I cycled with my friend Jim (a fellow dance-rat). He's a long time cycle guy who is in great cycling shape. I'm not that much of a die-hard so I don't even look at my bike until the temperatures are well into the 60's. Jim and I cycled up the Delaware canal path, 5.5 miles from our house to Washington Crossing. At Washington Crossing we took a break, sat in the park, watched the river and got a history lesson from my friend Kim who happens to be the curator of the Washington Crossing site. Kim also has access to the bathroom key which is a huge plus. It's nice to have friends with keys.
We got back on the trail and peddled back down to Yardley, making our whole trip 11 miles of pain-free bicycling. Not bad for a first ride and definitely worth the effort. The canal path is a true gift for cyclists. The ducks and geese may think they own the canal but at least they share the space with us lowly trekkers. On a glorious day like last Wednesday, there is nothing better than going for a ride, especially with friends. Jim and I were able to solve the worlds problems on our bike. Straighten out the political and economic mess of the planet and bird watch at the same time. Life is good.
I plan to add a weekly cycle to my game. Everyone is welcome to join in. The more the merrier. Since my butt is up for it I plan to keep the momentum going and hopefully, stretch the envelope and distance out. Maybe by the end of the season I'll be able to get to Allentown and back.... it's a 60 mile ride one-way... okay, maybe that's a bit of a stretch for my middle-aged legs but a girl can dream can't she? I figure if I aim high then I won't loose my humility. Boasting about 11 miles will sound childish if I can add to the stretch of road. I expect to be able to get to New Hope and back (30 miles round trip) is another month or so. New Hope is a great destination because there is food & drink there. It's always nice to have a town to stop in and stretch out for a bit while you quench a thirst and indulge in an ice cream cone. It's part of the event.
Here is to a road less traveled, no flat tires and a softer feeling bike seat. Peddle on!
xox
m
Day Lily!
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Friday, March 23, 2012
calendar girl
Hi,
I have finally hit the big time, I'm a calendar girl. My picture is now part of the 2012 line up in the West Coast Swing Dance Calendar..... what do you mean you don't have a copy?
My friend Julie is the creative genius behind this production. She is a driving force in the West Coast Swing dance community in Toronto and southern Ontario. Julie also is a huge supporter and fund raiser for CAMH (Centre of Addiction for Mental Health in Toronto). The woman is a real 'doer' when it comes to supporting her cause for mental health awareness and facility availability. Julie produced this 'dance calendar' to high light the dance community and it's events around Toronto, Southern Ontario and the major dance events held in the USA. Did you know you could swing dance somewhere in North America every day of the week? Lessons, events, special productions, it's all there on her list.... and my picture!
I'm "Miss June", appropriately since my birthday is in June and the photo was taken in June at last years' "Liberty Swing" event in New Brunswick, New Jersey (not in the Canadian province of the same name... totally confusing on both sides of the border when you talk about "New Brunswick"). I have to admit I'm not alone in this photo. It's of a whole bunch of Canadian dancers who came down for the swing party/competition. I just happen to be front and center in the shot. Hey, it's my first time on a calendar so I'm making the most of it.
Julie was kind enough to send me a copy but if anyone wants one of their own (even though the first quarter of the year is almost over) I know she'd be thrilled to sell you one... I may even be able to get you a preferred rate at this point, with an autograph and maybe a dance lesson thrown in for good measure. She teaches every Tuesday at the Dovercourt... no partner required, let me know if you want further info.
Even if I'm not Betty Grable I'm very happy to make it into my first calendar. I just hope I don't get cut in the 2013 edition. The competition is pretty stiff out there. Look out Victoria Secret models, I'm on the move.
xox
m
I have finally hit the big time, I'm a calendar girl. My picture is now part of the 2012 line up in the West Coast Swing Dance Calendar..... what do you mean you don't have a copy?
My friend Julie is the creative genius behind this production. She is a driving force in the West Coast Swing dance community in Toronto and southern Ontario. Julie also is a huge supporter and fund raiser for CAMH (Centre of Addiction for Mental Health in Toronto). The woman is a real 'doer' when it comes to supporting her cause for mental health awareness and facility availability. Julie produced this 'dance calendar' to high light the dance community and it's events around Toronto, Southern Ontario and the major dance events held in the USA. Did you know you could swing dance somewhere in North America every day of the week? Lessons, events, special productions, it's all there on her list.... and my picture!
I'm "Miss June", appropriately since my birthday is in June and the photo was taken in June at last years' "Liberty Swing" event in New Brunswick, New Jersey (not in the Canadian province of the same name... totally confusing on both sides of the border when you talk about "New Brunswick"). I have to admit I'm not alone in this photo. It's of a whole bunch of Canadian dancers who came down for the swing party/competition. I just happen to be front and center in the shot. Hey, it's my first time on a calendar so I'm making the most of it.
Julie was kind enough to send me a copy but if anyone wants one of their own (even though the first quarter of the year is almost over) I know she'd be thrilled to sell you one... I may even be able to get you a preferred rate at this point, with an autograph and maybe a dance lesson thrown in for good measure. She teaches every Tuesday at the Dovercourt... no partner required, let me know if you want further info.
Even if I'm not Betty Grable I'm very happy to make it into my first calendar. I just hope I don't get cut in the 2013 edition. The competition is pretty stiff out there. Look out Victoria Secret models, I'm on the move.
xox
m
Monday, March 19, 2012
Haiku for the hungry
The perfect meal
Sushi, divine and decadent
A taste of heaven
Nothing else need be said. It's why I roll my own. The Zen of sushi gives us sustenance and soy sauce. A wasabi rush is blissful in it's pain.
Sushi is never a meal of ambivalence. You either love it or hate it. Those who can't live without it and share the passion, are messianic in their quest to convert others to their diet delights. Its our 'drug of choice' and we need to get everyone else hooked too.
Salmon, tuna, shrimp, crab, vegetable, nori, rice all add up to a gastronomic perfection for the palette and the eye. In it's simplicity, sushi is perfection. A balance of tastes that bring eating to a level of nirvana. One of life's memorable moments is finding the flavor of sushi in your mouth.
In our house it is a weekly event to have home-made sushi and invite guests to share it with us. It is a labor of love that I never object to. I only wish I could travel to Japan and learn better technique from a master, but alas, sushi is strictly a male-only cuisine discipline. I have to suffer with my own attempts at perfection. I try and replicate the cleanness of the tastes I love. Not the heavy sauced versions that seem to be appearing in North America. I would rather let the fresh ingredients sing loud and proud themselves. It's never anything very fancy but our sushi is always appreciated by guests and they are quite complementary... even if the rolls are not as perfect as I'd like them to be.
The experiment of sushi making is a joy. Boiling rice to it's inner soul and adding vinegar & sugar is the creation of sushi-life. A sharp knife through fresh fish is a moment of artist measure. Bringing it all together on the rolling mat is akin to Yoga. What you bring to your mat is what you attain in the end.
I'm now hungry. Sushi time.
xox
m
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Tick-Tock
Hi,
where does the time go? What do I get done in an hour, a day, a month, a year? Am I measured by my accomplishments, their successes or failures? Or is my time my own to pass as I see fit? Why am I pondering the concept of 'time' today? The clocks moved ahead one hour last night. We all 'lost an hour'. Did I really lose anything other than a little sleep. I don't sleep very much to begin with so it wasn't much of a loss in my books, but time shifted. Can it do that?
The speed of time is fascinating to me. A week of school seemed to drag on forever. A week of vacation flew by. Same week, same number of days and hours, but the change in activity changed the time. As we age, and we are all doing it no matter how much plastic surgery Joan Rivers has, we realize that time is a finite thing in our lives and should not be wasted. I think the best use of time is to make sure we use it with no regrets. Choose to take a year off from school, okay but realize you will never get that time back, use it wisely. Take time to learn something new, like a language or how to paint: make that investment worth the time taken.
Taking time for granted is the most wasteful item in our life. Time stops for no one. I like that sage. I have a clock that constantly ticks in the back of my mind. Really, I hear time count off seconds every hour of every day. I 'feel' time, it's motion and movements. As I get older I realize that I have far less time than I have already spent. Have I spent my used up time usefully? I try to, but not always with success. I hate to waste a moment. I know I will never get it back. I no longer have 'all the time in the world'.... but I also don't feel rushed to get anything special done.
I'm now spending my time on what I like, with whom I love, and where I want. I have become very selfish about this time. No more frittering away hours trying to solve things I have no control over. I will not waste a precious second worrying about 'media mania'. The latest and greatest crap on the news, net, IPad... what ever. None of it affects me and I don't waste a single second dealing with any of it. My time is for taking care of myself, my husband, my family, my friends. The people and things I find important, not what the TV is shouting at me about. That is not time well spent.
As I pass through time, I feel the urge to stop people and ask them if they think they are using their time to the utmost. I know I would only get a puzzled look, maybe a shrug or a shake of the head. Forget about asking "what time is it?" and move to "I know the time is now".
xox
m
where does the time go? What do I get done in an hour, a day, a month, a year? Am I measured by my accomplishments, their successes or failures? Or is my time my own to pass as I see fit? Why am I pondering the concept of 'time' today? The clocks moved ahead one hour last night. We all 'lost an hour'. Did I really lose anything other than a little sleep. I don't sleep very much to begin with so it wasn't much of a loss in my books, but time shifted. Can it do that?
The speed of time is fascinating to me. A week of school seemed to drag on forever. A week of vacation flew by. Same week, same number of days and hours, but the change in activity changed the time. As we age, and we are all doing it no matter how much plastic surgery Joan Rivers has, we realize that time is a finite thing in our lives and should not be wasted. I think the best use of time is to make sure we use it with no regrets. Choose to take a year off from school, okay but realize you will never get that time back, use it wisely. Take time to learn something new, like a language or how to paint: make that investment worth the time taken.
Taking time for granted is the most wasteful item in our life. Time stops for no one. I like that sage. I have a clock that constantly ticks in the back of my mind. Really, I hear time count off seconds every hour of every day. I 'feel' time, it's motion and movements. As I get older I realize that I have far less time than I have already spent. Have I spent my used up time usefully? I try to, but not always with success. I hate to waste a moment. I know I will never get it back. I no longer have 'all the time in the world'.... but I also don't feel rushed to get anything special done.
I'm now spending my time on what I like, with whom I love, and where I want. I have become very selfish about this time. No more frittering away hours trying to solve things I have no control over. I will not waste a precious second worrying about 'media mania'. The latest and greatest crap on the news, net, IPad... what ever. None of it affects me and I don't waste a single second dealing with any of it. My time is for taking care of myself, my husband, my family, my friends. The people and things I find important, not what the TV is shouting at me about. That is not time well spent.
As I pass through time, I feel the urge to stop people and ask them if they think they are using their time to the utmost. I know I would only get a puzzled look, maybe a shrug or a shake of the head. Forget about asking "what time is it?" and move to "I know the time is now".
xox
m
Thursday, March 8, 2012
2 bags, 2 hours
Hi,
I have decided that 2 bags, or 2 hours, is my gardening limit per day for the months of March and April.
I did the math.
If I do 2 hours a day of clipping, digging, weeding, pruning, cleaning, seeding, planting and puttering per day, for the next 7 months (210 days, but I'll round it down to 200), times 2 hours per day, equals 400 hours, at $10/hour (which is about ½ of what I get paid to give swimming lessons), works out to $4000.00 worth of gardening.
Ouch!
The season has started so early here it looks like I may need to re-think my gardening strategy this year. I don't know that I'll have the power and strength to last 7 or 8 months of garden work. In Toronto the season is June through September. Four months. I grew up knowing that nothing went in the ground before the May 24th weekend and it all dies the day after Labor Day in the first week of September. Over, done, finished. Pennsylvania does not play by the same rule book. We have 70° weather today on March 8th. The snowdrops are finished, the crocuses are almost over with, the tulips are 6" out of the ground, along with the daffodils that are about to bloom. Every tree in the yard is budding and my allergies have kicked in.... and it's only March!
Ouch, again!
It's now a battle of the blooms. Who will win out? The omnipotent Mother Earth and her green berets or Mistress Marilyn and her jug of Round-Up? Be warned. I do have chemical warfare and I am not afraid to use it. Take ten paces and draw your weapons... may the best gardener win.
xox
m
I have decided that 2 bags, or 2 hours, is my gardening limit per day for the months of March and April.
I did the math.
If I do 2 hours a day of clipping, digging, weeding, pruning, cleaning, seeding, planting and puttering per day, for the next 7 months (210 days, but I'll round it down to 200), times 2 hours per day, equals 400 hours, at $10/hour (which is about ½ of what I get paid to give swimming lessons), works out to $4000.00 worth of gardening.
Ouch!
The season has started so early here it looks like I may need to re-think my gardening strategy this year. I don't know that I'll have the power and strength to last 7 or 8 months of garden work. In Toronto the season is June through September. Four months. I grew up knowing that nothing went in the ground before the May 24th weekend and it all dies the day after Labor Day in the first week of September. Over, done, finished. Pennsylvania does not play by the same rule book. We have 70° weather today on March 8th. The snowdrops are finished, the crocuses are almost over with, the tulips are 6" out of the ground, along with the daffodils that are about to bloom. Every tree in the yard is budding and my allergies have kicked in.... and it's only March!
Ouch, again!
It's now a battle of the blooms. Who will win out? The omnipotent Mother Earth and her green berets or Mistress Marilyn and her jug of Round-Up? Be warned. I do have chemical warfare and I am not afraid to use it. Take ten paces and draw your weapons... may the best gardener win.
xox
m
Monday, March 5, 2012
the girl next door
Hi,
the world is shrinking... at least mine is.
Via the wonders of the internet you can now message anyone and everyone you have ever known in your life. This can be a good thing and a not-so-good thing depending on who it is. Old friends from high school are always good things in my books. I had great friends then and I keep in touch with a whole bunch of them. Occasionally one pops up that I haven't heard from in a while. Today I got a Linkedin message from one of those friends. If you don't know what Linkedin is, you are older than me and it's really not the important part of this tale.
Not only have I not seen or spoken to Catherine in the last fifteen years, we completely lost touch. That happens. Life gets in the way. The last time I saw Cath was at our 20 year high school class reunion, in 1997. Our lives have crossed in weird ways over the years. Her older brother is married to my ex-boyfriends sister, so I saw her at that wedding. Then she stayed at my place the weekend of the class reunion with her little boy... I didn't even know she'd had a baby. Now we have connected again through the world wide web... and the funniest thing is, we're neighbours! How wild is this?
We haven't had a chance to get completely caught up on each others lives but after a few e-mails back & forth today, with minor information floating in and around each one, it seems we live less than 5 miles from one another. What are the odds of that happening? This is not a large community and the chances of two Lawrence Park graduates living here have to be pretty small. I can't wait to get together with her and see what else our lives have been running in parallel with. Spooky.
I'll keep you posted.
xox
m
the world is shrinking... at least mine is.
Via the wonders of the internet you can now message anyone and everyone you have ever known in your life. This can be a good thing and a not-so-good thing depending on who it is. Old friends from high school are always good things in my books. I had great friends then and I keep in touch with a whole bunch of them. Occasionally one pops up that I haven't heard from in a while. Today I got a Linkedin message from one of those friends. If you don't know what Linkedin is, you are older than me and it's really not the important part of this tale.
Not only have I not seen or spoken to Catherine in the last fifteen years, we completely lost touch. That happens. Life gets in the way. The last time I saw Cath was at our 20 year high school class reunion, in 1997. Our lives have crossed in weird ways over the years. Her older brother is married to my ex-boyfriends sister, so I saw her at that wedding. Then she stayed at my place the weekend of the class reunion with her little boy... I didn't even know she'd had a baby. Now we have connected again through the world wide web... and the funniest thing is, we're neighbours! How wild is this?
We haven't had a chance to get completely caught up on each others lives but after a few e-mails back & forth today, with minor information floating in and around each one, it seems we live less than 5 miles from one another. What are the odds of that happening? This is not a large community and the chances of two Lawrence Park graduates living here have to be pretty small. I can't wait to get together with her and see what else our lives have been running in parallel with. Spooky.
I'll keep you posted.
xox
m
Friday, March 2, 2012
Heldzel
Hi,
I think I have been 'channeling' the cooking spirit of my Bube (grandmother) lately. Maybe it's just the cold, damp winter months, but I have been yearning real Jewish comfort foods. Stuff that is so unhealthy, it deserves a Surgeon General's warning label before eating. Designed to go straight to your arteries, do not pass Go, do not collect $200 and take a ticket at the emergency waiting room for the next cardiac arrest... but boy, is it delicious!
My latest foray into gastronomic suicide has been 'heldzel'. I have no idea how to spell this any better in English but the pronunciation in our house sounded like "held-zel" so that's how I'm spelling it. Heldzel is the Jewish equivalent of a Scottish haggis. The principal is the same, but the taste is totally different. I was roasting a duck for dinner with friends and couldn't resist the temptation to try re-creating my Bube's hedzel. For those of you who are not on cholesterol medications, you might try this recipe out.
First you take the skin from the neck, clean and scrape it. This skin is going to become the outer casing, like a sausage. Then I took the duck fat (I warned you about the heart attack so leave me alone) and sauté an onion in the fat. Then add in flour to make a thick rue. I also threw in some cooked oats. This was my first attempt at this so it was more of an experiment than anything else. With a needle and cotton thread You then have to sew up the neck skin, leaving an opening to stuff the onion, oats, fat & flour mixture in. Once the skin is stuffed full, sew it closed. Mine came out in a medium ball shape, about the size of an orange. I then threw the heldzel into the roasting pan with the duck and let it roast in the fat drippings for about an hour. Are you still here or have you been rushed to the ER yet?
When the duck was cooked, so was the heldzel. I sliced it up and it disappeared. What's not to like? Duck fat, roasted in duck fat, surrounded in crispy duck skin. Can you imagine the calorie count of this thing? It's awesome! Mine was pretty good, not as delicious as my Bube's was in my memory, but not half bad either. I may try making heldzel again in ten years. I think I need to give my body a good amount of time to flush out my arteries before eating this again. Some dishes are definitely worth the health risk.... this is one of them.
xox
m
I think I have been 'channeling' the cooking spirit of my Bube (grandmother) lately. Maybe it's just the cold, damp winter months, but I have been yearning real Jewish comfort foods. Stuff that is so unhealthy, it deserves a Surgeon General's warning label before eating. Designed to go straight to your arteries, do not pass Go, do not collect $200 and take a ticket at the emergency waiting room for the next cardiac arrest... but boy, is it delicious!
My latest foray into gastronomic suicide has been 'heldzel'. I have no idea how to spell this any better in English but the pronunciation in our house sounded like "held-zel" so that's how I'm spelling it. Heldzel is the Jewish equivalent of a Scottish haggis. The principal is the same, but the taste is totally different. I was roasting a duck for dinner with friends and couldn't resist the temptation to try re-creating my Bube's hedzel. For those of you who are not on cholesterol medications, you might try this recipe out.
First you take the skin from the neck, clean and scrape it. This skin is going to become the outer casing, like a sausage. Then I took the duck fat (I warned you about the heart attack so leave me alone) and sauté an onion in the fat. Then add in flour to make a thick rue. I also threw in some cooked oats. This was my first attempt at this so it was more of an experiment than anything else. With a needle and cotton thread You then have to sew up the neck skin, leaving an opening to stuff the onion, oats, fat & flour mixture in. Once the skin is stuffed full, sew it closed. Mine came out in a medium ball shape, about the size of an orange. I then threw the heldzel into the roasting pan with the duck and let it roast in the fat drippings for about an hour. Are you still here or have you been rushed to the ER yet?
When the duck was cooked, so was the heldzel. I sliced it up and it disappeared. What's not to like? Duck fat, roasted in duck fat, surrounded in crispy duck skin. Can you imagine the calorie count of this thing? It's awesome! Mine was pretty good, not as delicious as my Bube's was in my memory, but not half bad either. I may try making heldzel again in ten years. I think I need to give my body a good amount of time to flush out my arteries before eating this again. Some dishes are definitely worth the health risk.... this is one of them.
xox
m
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