#5 - One Hundred Consecutive Stomach Crunches

Abs of steel!

Not quite. Unfortunately stomach crunches can only do so much, because if there's a layer of fat on top of them then you still can't see the awesome six pack that may be residing underneath. Which is why cardio is just as important as building muscle.

Still, I've been wanting to get better at stomach and arm exercises, which is why I chose to make a goal for crunches and push-ups. I'm still working on the push-ups, in part because they weren't a part of my original work out routine. I've been doing sets of 30 crunches - on my back, on my side and bicycle style - as part of my regular routine for awhile. It makes my stomach feel pretty good, but I always got plenty of rest in between each set.

The very first time I attempted to do 100 in a row I made it all the way to 74. At first I thought perhaps my goal of 100 was too low... maybe I should attempt a higher number... but then I started slacking at the gym and I wasn't going as often, so it took me much longer than I thought it would to hit my goal of one hundred.

There is nothing more frustrasting than reaching 91 stomach crunches and having to give up because your abs are cramping. Only 9 to go! Ridiculous.

I didn't try to do 100 in a row every day. Mostly I concentrated on doing my normal 30 at a time, but I started doing more sets. This helped work out my stomach to a point where I could do 100 without stopping.

The push-ups are proving to be even more of a challenge, but I have hope! I've already done 15 in a row.

#51 New Recipes: Green Bean Bundles

This may be the unhealthiest green bean recipe I've ever come across which, of course, means it's also the most delicious. Green beans wrapped in bacon... delightful! There's also a wonderfully unhealthy sauce that they go in as they bake, to add to the level of unhealthiness. These are great as an appetizer for a party, I would not recommend making it part of your dinner, because you probably shouldn't eat too many of them, no matter how tasty they are.

Ingredients:
1/2 stick butter, melted
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 teaspoons garlic salt
2 teaspoons black pepper
100 whole green beans
5 slices bacon, cut in half

1. mix together the butter, soy sauce, sugar, garlic salt and pepper in a bowl. Set aside.

2. Sort the beans out into ten little stacks of ten beans each of roughly equal length (I did bundles of five)
3. Wrap each stack of beans in one half slice of bacon. Secure with a toothpick.
4. Lay your bacon-wrapped bundles out in a baking dish. Drizzle the butter mixture all over the bundles.

5. Bake 350 for 20 minutes, or more if you want things a little extra crispy

Soooooo yummy. I wish that I could justify eating them at mealtime. They're still dangerous as an appetizer because you can almost convince yourself that eating them is healthy. Just look at how green and vibrant the beans look! That's a vegetable! Don't do it.

But, considering how unhealthy  most party food can be, I think this is a great healthy-ish (in comparison)option to serve!

#51 New Recipes: Hasselback Potatoes

 I love potatoes. They're one of my favorite foods, and I'm always happy to find new ways to do them. These looked new and interesting, but at the same time very similar to a regular old baked potato.

Ingredients:
5-6 medium baking potatoes
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbspn olive oil
2 tbspn butter
coarse salt
black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 425. Put the potato on a cutting board, flat side down. Start from one end of the potato, cut almost all the way through making thin slices.

This was the biggest pain in the ass. It was really hard to cut most of the way through the potato without cutting all the way through. There are twice as many slices as it looks because the potato didn't want to split apart much while it was still raw. I might have been able to get them to spread a little better if I'd cut down further, but after ruining several potatoes by accidentally cutting all the way through, I wasn't going to risk that.

2. Arrange the potatoes on a baking sheet and sprinkle garlic in between the slits. Scatter some butter on top of each potato - it doesn't have to be exact. Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle some salt and pepper over the potatoes.

3. Bake the potatoes for about 1 hour or until the potatoes turn crispy and the flesh is soft.

 So the various potato slices spread apart while they were baking. Eating them was slightly different from eating a baked potato, it was more like eating potato chips with a soft center.

This minor difference was not worth the 30 minutes it took me to slice these potatoes to look like this. I would have rather just sliced all the way through and made some chips. These stupid things took way too long what was was, basically, a baked potato. Or, oven baked potato chips. Either one of which would've taken half the preparation time.

Never again.

#65 New Authors: Pray for Reign

I have what you might call an obsession with King Henry VIII and Tudor England. I read everything I can get my hands on, as long as it's historically accurate (Books like Phillipa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl annoy me because some idiots actually take them to be accurate. I eviscerated a girl in one of my literature classes who truly believed that George and Anne Boleyn almost had sex but they couldn't go through with it... because that's what she saw in the movie. *Facepalm*).

Kindle has opened up a whole new world for me. I can sample books for free to see whether or not they're worth reading, and then download them if they are. If I'm incredibly lucky, they're only 99 cents, like this little gem!

The book starts on the day before Anne's execution, but it quickly draws back into her memories so that the reader gets the full story. And, for a short fiction novel, it's got a lot of accuracy, which I appreciated. I especially liked the portrayal of Anne and George's relationship - incredibly close and loving, it's easy to see how some of their actions may have been interpreted in the worst possible way. Anne's feelings skirt close to impropriety at times, enough to make me uncomfortable, but the story sticks to the historically verifiable facts.

Most refreshing is the portrayal of George's wife, Lady Jane Rochford. I always feel bad for her because modern novels and movies tend to make her into a hateful villian who turns her husband over to the authorities due to malice and who wants him to die. Not at all historically accurate, by the way. Much neglected but very loving, and also a good friend to Anne, Lady Jane only told her questioners that Anne and George were close, not that she believed they were having an incestuous affair. The council took advantage of the siblings' closeness to paint Anne as a harlot, with the most awful sexual crimes they could imagine.

Obviously the novel can't be completely historically accurate, but it's much better than most fiction novels about Anne that I've read. The writing style flows and is easy to follow and I found myself very engrossed in a tale that I know very well. For 99 cents, this Kindle read is an incredible bargain.

#97 New Restaurants: Annie's Bistro Francais

Bethesda is full of restaurants, but so many of them are cookie-cutter crap. I say that in the nicest way possible, because it's not their fault. Bethesda's full of new money and, unlike the old money in DC, they feel that they have to show off their money and their importance. This attitude usually equates to self-entitlement and a refusal to eat anywhere that doesn't cater to the generalized tastes of the neighborhood. The most successful restaurants tend to be those with large menus that can accommodate all tastes and walks of life, and their expensive because how much one pays is more important than the quality of one's meal.

This made it very hard for me to decide where Chef Hubby and I should go on a date. I wanted to try somewhere we'd never been, because of my Day Zero Project, but nothing looked appealing to me. Tooling around OpenTable.com my eye happened upon Annie's... we'd walked by a couple of times and it had always look empty, which either meant it was bad or that it wasn't cookie cutter. I decided to risk it.

Annie's Bistro Francais is a breath of fresh air compared to the usual same old new restaurants around me. I got to try a restaurant that was new for me as well as being new to the neighborhood, and I hope it manages to stick around for awhile because it was fantastic. The decor is simple and fairly European, although I've never been to France it definitely reminded me of some of our Honeymoon cruise. I loved the little centerpieces on the tables:

Annie's menu is small, in part because it's a Farm to Table Restaurant. If you ask the server who is also the bartender who is also the manager and husband of the cook, he can tell you exactly where everything came from and on what day they got it.  Everything they buy is local, from Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, etc. Except the wines, of course, which are French.

At first the somewhat limited menu selection worried me. I'm such a picky eater and I couldn't find any of my usual fallbacks on the menu - there were no chicken breasts or beef at all! Reluctantly I found myself choosing between dark meat chicken and pork. I went with the pork, even though I usually don't like pork. It's either dry or slimy and it gives you tapeworm. Also, all of the entrees come with the same sides, you just choose the meat. The sides, the day we were there, was spinach and potatoes. I hate spinach. So far I was starting to think that maybe this risk wasn't paying off, but that's ok, there were some options on the appetizers menu that looked promising. We'd get some appetizers, I'd eat about half my pork, fill up on potatoes, and take the rest of the pork and the spinach home for Chef Hubby to eat for lunch the next day. He was excited because he got to order the duck, which he loves. He also likes spinach. Weirdo.

For appetizers we ordered Tomato Soup and a Cheese Plate that came with goat cheese and brie - I'm pretty sure I recognized them as being from the local farmer's market that has a cheese stall where I like to buy cheddar.

The soup was my first clue that this definitely wasn't going to be a cookie-cutter Bethesda restaurant. It was shockingly fresh tasting. Imagine biting into a fresh tomato covered in basil. Now imagine that in soup form. Normally soups in Bethesda taste like they have plenty of butter and cream, with tomato flavor. This tasted like a tomato. And basil. I'd never had anything like it before in my life.

Then, because I'm a genius, I hit on a brilliant combination of spreading some brie on my freshly baked french bread and dipping it in the soup. Um... delicious.

The bread was fantastic. Cripsy on the outside, soft on the inside and very warm. Exactly the way french bread should be!

By the time our entrees came I was starting to feel hopeful. Maybe the pork wouldn't be bad. Maybe I'd even try the spinach. The menu said it had bacon in it. Maybe I'd actually enjoy my dinner, even though it was well outside of my comfort zone. Chef Hubby had no qualms about his dinner and was very annoyed with me that I made him wait so I could take a picture before he dug in.  I got the Look of DOOM.

Now for my dinner... it came out looking delicious!

"Sure, Muffin," you're saying, "it looks good. But you've spent this blog entry talking about how you hate spinach. And how pork is gross. You really freaked me out with that tapeworm thing too. Did you actually eat it?"

The most incredibly unexpected thing happened.

If my Mom read this blog, I'm pretty sure her head would explode, seeing this. Hey Dad, if Mom's around make her read this entry. That's right... all that's left on my plate are a few potatoes. POTATOES. How did this happen?!

Well, for one, the chef really knows how to cook pork. It was a little salty with the sauce, but very tasty and hey... I love salt so I'm not complaining. The actual pork wasn't slimy, it wasn't over done, it was just right. Yeah, I'm the Goldilocks of pork. The spinach? Well yeah, it still tasted like spinach, but all the bitterness and the metallic taste that is what I hate about spinach was missing. In its place was delicious, flavorful bacon. How could I not eat all of it?!

When we explained to the miracle of my empty plate to the server/manager, he told us he'd tell his wife who is the Executive chef. Which is how we found out that it's a family owned and run business... add that into the farm to table aspect and this is about as small business and local as you can get. I hope Annie's sticks around for a long time.

They don't make their own desserts, but they do get them locally at one of my favorite pastry shops, Tout de Sweet - the owner and chef is a good friend of Annie's chef!

Chances are next time we'll just swing by Tout de Sweet and get the dessert straight from there because it's a little bit cheaper straight from the source, but we'll definitely be returning to Annie's. In fact, we're going there for a wine tasting in a couple weeks to celebrate KatieSchmatie's birthday and I can't wait!

#51 New Recipes: Oven Roasted Garlic Brussels Sprouts

Brussels sprouts are definitely not something I would have ever though I'd like to eat. Sometimes I still don't, it really depends on how they're prepared. While I didn't like this recipe as much as the Cider Cinnamin Brussels Sprouts I made, if you like the flavor of Brussels Sprouts this is a good recipe to really taste them and it gives them a nice texture.

Ingredients:
2 lb brussels sprouts, trimmed & halved (quartered if large) (This is the size of bag you can get at Costco or Sam's Club)
5 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees, move oven rack to upper third
2. in a 9"x13" baking dish toss together brussels sprouts, garlic, water, oil salt and pepper and spread into a single layer. Personally, I found that there were too many Brussels sprouts for me to make a single layer in the 9x13" pan and I ended up putting them into two pans:

3. Bake for 40-50 minutes until caramelized to taste, tossing once about 25 minutes into cooking time. Remove from oven and toss sprouts int the pan scraping up brown bits into the sprouts.

Simple, tasty, easy. While this recipe was much easier than the Cider Cinnamin Sprouts, I still think I liked the Cider Sprouts better. They had more flavor and sweetness to them, in this recipe I thought that the taste of the sprouts really overpowered the garlic flavor... the caramelizing was nice though. My mom isn't a big sprouts fan and she still ate some.

However, this was waaaaaay too many sprouts. We had left over sprouts for a week and I was pretty sick of them by the end of the week, especially because they weren't my favorite preparation either. I'm going to keep looking for some more sprouts recipes to try out.

#79 Four Seasons Photography: Fall

As part of my Day Zero Project I'm taking pictures of myself in the exact same locations and (as close as I can get it) exact same poses during all four seasons. I've already done Fall's photographs which came out beautifully and this past weekend I was able to get a winter scene - and even better, a winter scene with snow! KatieSchmatie and I had been waiting for snow to fall so that we could take pictures and Mother Nature finally obliged. There wasn't a lot of snow, but more than enough for our purposes!

I ended up not doing a lying down one. Way too cold. I'll just stick with these poses for now =)

#51 New Recipes: Slow Cooker Lasagna

I have achieved success with my slow cooker! After my Crockpot Roast Fail I was a little hesitant to try out the slow cooker again, but my new diet helped spur me to give a new recipe a try! I've decided not to take frozen lunches to work anymore, because they aren't very healthy, especially when it comes to salt intake. The last time I went to the doctor she warned me that my blood pressure was a little high, something I've never had a problem with before... but I've been eating frozen lunches every day for almost two years now. That's really the biggest change since the last time I've been to the doctor, so I decided no more frozen lunches! Even if it has absolutely nothing to do with my blood pressure, it's still a good idea.

So instead, on Sundays, I've decided to make things that I can easily pack up into separate containers and take to work during the week to eat. This slow cooker lasagna seemed like a good idea! There's not a whole lot of prep work involved and then I can just toss it in the slow cooker and make my Sunday dinner!

Ingredients:
1 lb lean ground beef (I substituted chicken - even leaner! =)
1 jar spaghetti sauce (the recipe didn't say how big, I used a small jar of Traditional Ragu)
1 cup water
1 15 oz. container of ricotta cheese
2 cups Italian Cheese mix
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 egg
2 tabsp parsley
6 lasagna noodles, uncooked
2 tbsp garlic powder (I added this myself, originally the recipe only called for Parsley... but what kind of Italian dish doesn't have garlic in it?! You can also add other seasonings if you like.)


1. Brown meat in large skillet; drain. Stir in spaghetti sauce and water.

2. Mix ricotta, 1 1/2 cups Italian cheese, 2 tbsp parmesan, egg, parsley and garlic.

3. Spoon 1 cup meat sauce into slow cooker; top with layers of half each of the noodles, broken to fit, and cheese mixture. Cover with 2 cups meat sauce. Top with remaining noodles, broken to fit;

 cheese mixture and meat sauce. Cover with lid.

Now, I used more than 6 noodles total. I basically just made sure that I had a complete noodle layer in between the meat and cheese... because I love pasta. But if you wanted to keep this a little lower carb you can stick to just 3 noodles per layer.

3. Cook on low, 4-6 hours or until liquid is absorbed. Sprinkle with remaining cheese; let stand, covered, 10 min or until melted.

The lasagna smelled soooooooo good that I scooped some of it out before I remembered to take a picture. It was moist, flavorful and just all around delicious. This is definitely one of my new go-to recipes, and it'll work well with any kind of ground meat. Chef Hubby is a big fan too! This would be a really easy thing to make for a party or small gathering of people. I don't have a very big crock pot, but there's a surprising amount of lasagna in there!

The MET Opera Live Feed: The Enchanted Island

A couple years ago my Grandfather took me to see the Metropolitan Opera's The Barber of Seville. We didn't go to New York, we only paid $25 for the tickets and we watched it on a screen. But we did see it live!

The MET Opera does this fantastic thing where, to bring their work to more audiences, they have a live feed at select movie theaters throughout the country (and in Canada!). The productions are phenomenal, the tickets are a fraction of the price, subtitles are easily read along the bottom of the screen and (in my opinion) you get a much better view of the stage. You can see the actor's faces - something not possible with any tickets I'd be able to afford at the MET. Opera is not the most accessible form of theater, and the use of a live feed to movie theaters has made a huge impact on Opera as a whole. I've found that it's best to order my tickets at least a month in advance, because there's a very good chance that the showing will sell out a couple weeks beforehand. It's also best to show up to the theater about half an hour before the show starts if you want to get good seats. I'm always surprised and delighted to see the range of ages sitting in the audience (although admittedly there's not a lot of diversity).

Opera is suddenly understandable and accessible in a way its never been before.

This past weekend I introduced Katieschmatie, Chef Hubby and some other friends to the joys and delights of the MET's Live Feed when we went to see the World Premiere of The Enchanted Island.  It starts off as being based on Shakespeare's The Tempest and then begs the question - what if Ariel messed up the spell that created the tempest that brought Ferdinand to Prospero's Island, and the Honeymooning lovers from A Midsummer Night's Dream (Helena & Lysander and Demetrius and Hermia) were brought there instead? It's a completely new story, with very modern language (Seeing Ariel sing "Duh" was one of my favorite moments of the show) set to Baroque arias that aren't well known even in the opera world.

Baroque opera is defined by love. Jealous love, intimate love, lost love... its defining characteristic  is having lots of arias full of love - and when you have three sets of lovers as well as three more characters who desperately long to be part of a set of lovers, there are plenty of opportunities for all sorts of arias. And the singing was incredible. Ariel stood out to me as being incredibly talented with a beautiful voice, fantastic comedic timing and being absolutely gorgeous. I loved every moment of her on stage.

Caliban tugged at my heart. Looking absolutely grotesque (we found out during his interview at intermission that it takes the poor guy 45 minutes just to get his make-up done!), Caliban managed to steal my heart when he fell head over heels in love with a spelled Helena, not realizing that her love was a result of his mother, Sycorax's, magic.

He went from being brutish and gorilla like to adorably play-ful, like a puppy... and when Helena breaks through the spell binding her and runs from him, it's like watching someone kick that playfully adorable puppy. You can't help but feel bad for him. You also can't help but admire his talent, as his fantastic voice rings out from underneath the breastplate he wears over his torso.

Providing plenty of comedic humor are the lovebirds from Midsummer's, looking a little worse for the wear once they're on the island. Sure they're shallow and vapid, but they're also pretty funny.

The fact that this is a modern opera is brought home when, as Lysander and Demetrius' rivalry becomes physical, Demetrius finds himself on the receiving end of a brutal titty-twister. Ancient opera this is not!

Sometimes, however, a story line become complicated enough that the resolution can only come about at the end of a God. Neptune, played by the World's Greatest Living Tenor (according to some) Placido Domingo, provides that role. And you can tell that this role was inserted for him and written for him - it's also the first time he's had the opportunity to play a God - and what an entrance he makes!

Ok, personally I thought that the character of Neptune was kind of silly and unnecessary... but he does help wrap up the plot. It's not the strongest plot in the world. What I do love about Neptune is the way he comes onto the stage. The MET, for the first time ever, used a combination of scenery and projection to create the most fantastic scenes on the island and under the sea. Fish swim through Neptune's watery domain, vines grow and writhe on the island, and every five minutes I found myself muttering under my breath, "That is so cool!"

The story begins, however,  as centered around Prospero and his quest for "forgiveness and peace" and Sycorax, who had once loved him but was eventually spurned by him and now lives out her life on the "dark side" of the island.

Sycorax had the most incredibly haunting notes of the entire production. I don't know how she did it, but in one of her arias her voice would start out so soft, but with the purity and clarity of a bell, no vibrato at all... just a glorious pure tone that swelled and you realized with shock that it was coming from a human throat and not an instrument. She gave me goosebumps.

Prospero, on the other hand, confused me at first. If you don't know what a Counter-Tenor is, it's a full grown man who sings like a woman. With my eyes closed, listening to Prospero scolding Ariel, I pictured Cinderella's step-mother in my head. Opening my eyes and seeing a menacing figure of a man was... confusing to say the least. I couldn't figure out why on earth the part of Prospero would be a voice part that seemed so different from what I thought the character called for. The mystery was cleared up when I read an article about how the Opera was written, in which it was revealed that all Baroque Operas require a Counter-Tenor. So it's just following tradition. Eh.

All in all... it was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon even though it wasn't the best Opera I've ever seen. It was fun to watch something new and we laughed a lot and were very impressed by the scenery, projection and overall look of the entire show. My friends are now hooked and we'll be going to see more of the MET's live feeds (with more established operas) throughout the Spring, which I'm very excited about. Opera is bigger than life, filled with glorious scenes and fabulous costumes, and the singing is pretty incredible. Since we can have it at such a good price and such a convenient location, why not?!

#51 New Recipes - Honey Garlic Balsamic Chicken

I love finding new ways to make chicken breasts. It's one of my staple dinners, I make it all the time, and I'm constantly making the same recipes over and over again. Something easy and delicious but new sounded like a great idea!

Honey Garlic Balsamic Chicken
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 a cup balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
3 chopped garlic cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons honey

1. Pat the chicken breasts dry with paper towels. Season with salt and pepper. Melt butter over medium-high heat and add the olive oil.

2. Add the chicken to the pan. Cook until both sides are brown and the chicken is cooked through. It is about 6-7 minutes on each side. Take the chicken out of the pan and put on a plate and cover with foil.

4. Add the chicken broth, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, garlic and honey to the pan you just cooked the chicken in. Cook for about 5 minutes, the sauce will thicken. Use a spatula to get the browned bits off of the bottom of the pan.

5. Slice the chicken on a bias and spoon the pan sauce over the top. Or do what I did and just pour it on.

Freaking delicious! Has good re-heat value too because it's been soaking in the sauce for even longer. Yum yum yum! If you want to make it healthier, don't use butter when cooking the chicken just use more oil. Also, I nixed salt from the recipe completely - with acids like lemon juice and balsamic vinegar salt is really unnecessary.

Enjoy!

#70 Movies on AFI's Top 100 List: High Noon

There are a lot of Westerns on the AFI's Top 100 List. Usually not my favorite kind of movie, but the first one that I watched (Stagecoach) was so good that I chose another one to watch this past week: #33 on the list, High Noon. It also helped that it was a weeknight and High Noon is only 120 minutes long, much shorter than most of the other movies I have to watch.

This was definitely the kind of old fashioned Western that I picture in my head whenever anyone talks about Westerns. One lone hero stands up to a gang of bad guys, people are too scared to help him but he can't run, and then meet on the street at high noon for a show down!!!

But High Noon is more complex than that simple story, and that's what made it both entertaining and worth watching. There's Sheriff Will Kane, our lone hero, and plenty of cowardly townsfolk who urge him to run and refuse to stand up and fight against Frank Miller, the leader of the gang who's coming back into town to kill Kane after the "Northerners" decided not to convict him of the charges upon which he'd been arrested. But today isn't just any normal day in Sheriff Kane's life, it's his wedding day and the day that he vowed to his Quaker bride that he'd put down his gun and lead a peaceful life.

Amy has seen plenty of killing in her day, she witnessed her father and brother being murdered, and she doesn't want anything to do with a man who is going to put his life in danger.

I had very mixed feelings about Amy. On one hand, I wanted her to stand by her man and support him, not knock him down even lower. Instead, she's prepared to desert her husband, because he wants to go back and fight and stop Frank Miller from turning the town back into a terrible place to live. But, on the other hand, I had to admire her for standing up for her beliefs the way that she did. It wasn't just that she was making a stand against violence, she dared to ask the question, "Why should I be here for you when what you're doing could lead to you not being here for me?" She doesn't just meekly take Kane's attitude that "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do." Nope. Amy knows she's worth more than that. She's worth more than a husband who's going to risk his life on the very day that he gets married, who's going to put himself in harm's way and leave her a grieving widow without a care of what will happen to her when he's gone.

By the end of the movie, I had turned into an Amy-admirer. I loved that she stood up for herself in a calm, decisive and stubborn manner. Best of all was when, at the very last moment, even though Will didn't deserve it since he was about to basically commit suicide by facing Frank and the gang, she came back. And she didn't just support him, she shot a man for him and saved his life. Without Amy, Sheriff Will Kane would've been a very dead martyr instead of a live cowboy hero.

The acting in this movie is great. Gary Cooper as Will Kane excels, especially as the townsmen around him fall back in terror and he realizes he's going to be facing the bad guys alone. I was torn between cheering him on, because his actions were heroic, and being furious at him for Amy's sake. Mostly I cheered him on though, because I couldn't help it. He's so brave, so good and so dutiful, so willing to sacrifice himself to his own beliefs that I couldn't hold it against him that he was sacrificing the future that Amy had planned on too.

There's a lot more to this movie, lots of side stories and twists, and I enjoyed every minute of it. This was much more than a simple lone cowboy faces the big bad gang story. Will Kane stood up for what he knew to be right, when no one else would and at the risk of his own life. Too bad we don't have more cowboys like that today!

#51 New Recipes: Soy Sauce Eggs!

I'm always looking for new snacks, especially snacks that involve less carbs! Hardboiled eggs are a favorite of mine, and then I saw these on Pinterest: hardboiled eggs coated in soy sauce! Um... sounds delicious, sign me up!

They're super easy and quick to make and they're a fantastic snack, especially if you want to concentrate on getting more protein because you're doing a strength workout when you get home (or at least, are planning to). Also, protein fills you up the same way carbohydrates do, but doesn't lend itself to turning into sugars and fat as much as carbs. The biggest downside to this recipe is the soy sauce. Soy sauce has a lot of salt, so this isn't the healthiest recipe in the world and I highly recommend using a reduced-salt version of Soy Sauce.

Soy Sauce Eggs
4 hard boiled eggs, peel off the shell
5 tablespoons soy sauce

1. Pour the soy sauce into a pan that is approx 10" in diameter. Heat the soy sauce over medium-high heat.

 When it starts to bubble, reduce heat to medium and carefully add the eggs.

2. Roll the eggs around in the soy sauce to coat them, and continue rolling them around the pan until the eggs are a dark mahogany color and the soy sauce has been reduced to a thick sludge.

You might be wondering, what are those little marks on the eggs that show up once they're in the soy sauce? Well the recipe I found said that you can puncture the eggs a little if you really want the flavor to sink in. I used my nails to break through the exterior. I should have done half and half to see if there was really a difference, but all I can tell you is that the soy sauce really sank into the eggs and made them delicious!

Obviously they'll be prettier if you don't break through the exterior, however.

3. Remove the eggs, letting any extra soy sauce drain off and place on a plate to cool.

4. When the eggs have cooled completely, pack into lunches or enjoy one as a snack! (I did both =)

Recipe:
1. Pour the soy sauce into a pan that is approx 10" in diameter. Heat the soy sauce over medium-high heat. When it starts to bubble, reduce heat to medium and carefully add the eggs.
2. Roll the eggs around in the soy sauce to coat them, and continue rolling them around the pan until the eggs are a dark mahogany color and the soy sauce has been reduced to a thick sludge.
3. Remove the eggs, letting any extra soy sauce drain off and place on a plate to cool.
4. When the eggs have cooled completely, pack into lunches or enjoy one as a snack!

#65 Reading New Authors: The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni

Another Book Club find! Not the book I voted for when we were choosing, but still one that I found pretty enjoyable.

Written in the 1800s and set in the late 1620's, The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni is one of the most celebrated books of Italian History and I can see why.

Several things struck me as I read this book:

1. The writing occasionally reads like a poem. The words occasionally sweep around the reader, setting a scene in the way someone might describe a classic painting or setting up a lengthy metaphor that brings another aspect to what looks like a cut and dry situation.

2. The story line is not always linear. In fact, the point of view jumps around quite a bit. One of the devices I found most fascinating about the book was how the main characters are really just a zooming in, a focusing of the social history being presented. The book jumps back and forth between giving a detailed birds eye view of society as a whole and then zooms into the "main characters" to demonstrate how that society might effect individuals living with in it. As a history nut, I loved this technique.

3. The characters are archetypes.

Renzo: the well-meaning, but often frustratingly naive, ignorant and therefore stupid, hero whose main redeeming quality is that Lucy loves him (even though, in my opinion, he doesn't deserve her).

Lucy: the damsel in distress. So pure of heart that she can stir compassion in almost anyone, so sweetly innocent that even when you want to be disgusted with her you can't, and upon whose honor most of the story stands.

Don Rodrigo: the bad guy. Arrogant, selfish, corrupt... he's a wealthy play boy with nothing to do but make bets with his buddies about the women he can seduce, and right now he wants Lucy.

Don Abbondio: the every day man. Unwilling to stand up to Don Rodrigo, he is not so much corrupt in his position as he is interested in self-preservation. More than willing to turn a blind eye to the evil around him as long as it keeps him safe and out of it. Although, reading this, we hate him for his lack of courage, his faithlessness in bowing to Don Rodrigo's wishes, the author constantly urges compassion... because he knows that Don Abbondio represents most of humanity. All of us who, when we see wrong, stay silent.

Don Frederick: That champion of champions... the wealthy and saintly powerful churchman who is the best of everything Christianity is supposed to represent. A saint on earth and who most people wish we could be.

The Unknown: Ah sweet redemption! This most evil of evil men is moved to compassion by Lucy and ends up coming back into the fold of Christianity. He finds forgiveness and turns his life around, becoming a protector of the people rather than an oppressor.

Yeah, there's a lot of religion in this book, because that's the time period. But there's a lot of cosmic justice too, thankfully because I was thirsting for it the entire book. More than that, however, there is a message of forgiveness, of compassion, of accepting others despite their faults. Also a few lessons in humility, keeping your mouth shut until you know the situation, the dangers of over-drinking and being smart.

All in all... I really enjoyed this book, even if at times I felt like I was back in English class reading something that went way over my head. There were times when I had trouble focusing on it... but when I did focus on it I could appreciate the wonderful writing, the interesting characters, and the myriad of messages about life that the author planted along the way. Although many parts of this book were anachronistic (mostly in how a lady must behave to keep her honor and reputation), the underlying messages all hold true in a modern society, which I thought was very impressive.

#51 Buttermilk-Blueberry Breakfast Cake

I would just like to start this post by thanking everyone who reads this blog! It looks like I should hit 2000 views today, and considering that I've only had this blog a couple of months I consider that quite an achievement. I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I'm enjoying writing it!

So, for my 51st blog post, I'm going to knock off yet another recipe from goal #51: Making recipes I've never made before. I'm more than halfway through the goal of trying out 30 new recipes, and this is a goal that I can see extending far beyond the original 30! I'm enjoying making new foods too much to stop.

When I was growing up blueberry muffins were a big deal. Mom hardly ever made them for breakfast, and they were usually made for a special occasion (Christmas, Easter, my birthday, etc). Blueberry pancakes were not quite as big a deal, but still a special surprise. I loved any morning that started off with something blueberry, so I was really excited to find a new blueberry breakfast item on Pinterest! Although I have altered the recipe just a little bit because I feel like it originally had way much sugar than I wanted. And, also, I substituted Splenda.

Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast Cakeserves 6-8
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp
2 tsp lemon zest or more - zest from 1 large lemon
3/4 cup sugar / splenda (I used splenda)
1 egg, room temp
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp kosher salt
2 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream butter with lemon zest and sugar.
Because I am lazy, I didn't feel like zesting an actual lemon, instead I bought some California lemon peel at the store... it smelled amazing when I opened it and worked just as well (if not better!). Next time I might put even more lemon peel in... because it said I can!

Now, when it says to "cream" the ingredients, that really just means mix them with some kind of mixer (I used an handheld) so that it's all one substance... easier said than done with butter.

 Make sure that the butter is room temperature or even a little softer, otherwise large chunks of butter may fly around - and out of - your mixing bowl. I stuck the bowl into the microwave for a couple of seconds to get the butter soft enough that it "creamed" easily.

3. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined.
3. Toss the blueberries with 1/4 cup of flour

Basically I just stood there with a bowl full of blueberries, put the 1/4 cup of flour on them and then shook the bowl around, bouncing it in my hands until the berries were covered with flour. I did have to use a spoon, just to dig down to the ones at the bottom and make sure they were coated with flour as well.

They should look like this:

4. Whisk together the remaining flour, baking powder and salt
5. Add flour mixture to batter a little at a time, alternating with the buttermilk

This part's pretty easy. I added about a third of my flour, turned the mixer on until it was combine, added about a third of the buttermilk and turned on the mixer until it was combined, and just kept doing that until all the flour and butter milk was gone.

6. Fold in the blueberries

Folding in blueberries is surprisingly exactly what it sounds like. I used a little spoon, but a bigger wooden one would have been better. But this spoon was already dirty because I'd used it to make sure the blueberries on the bottom of the bowl were covered in flour, and I didn't feel like washing another spoon. At any rate, folding just means that you insert the spoon along the side of the bowl, dig down to the bottom of the batter and then bring the bottom up and over the blueberries - literally folding it.

It's basically just very gentle stirring, because you don't want to burst the berries.

7. Grease a 9" square baking pan with butter or coat with non-stick spray. Spread batter into pan.

It's not like brownie batter, you have to smush it down a little with your spoon because it's not going to spread out to fill the pan on its own. But it's not hard to do either. At this point the recipe I was originally using said to sprinkle more sugar on the top of the breakfast cake. I sprinkled splenda on half and none on the other half... it made absolutely no difference to the taste or anything else.

8. Bake for 35 minutes. Check with a toothpick for donness, if necessary return pan to oven for a few more minutes. Let cool at least 15 minutes before serving.

Mine didn't get all browned on the top like the pictures in the recipe I saw, but the toothpick came out clean and the top was firm, so I took it out of the oven. It was delicious... very good warm, and pretty tasty as a room-temperature leftover that I brought to work with me this morning. While it's probably not the healthiest start to the day, I did attempt to make it somewhat healthier by reducing the amount of sugar. Considering that blueberry breakfasts are usually for special occasions in my life anyway, I definitely feel like this fit the bill!

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream butter with lemon zest and sugar
3. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined.
3. Toss the blueberries with 1/4 cup of flour
4. Whisk together the remaining flour, baking powder and salt
5. Add flour mixture to batter a little at a time, alternating with the buttermilk
6. Fold in the blueberries
7. Grease a 9" square baking pan with butter or coat with non-stick spray. Spread batter into pan. Bake for 35 minutes. Check with a toothpick for donness, if necessary return pan to oven for a few more minutes. Let cool at least 15 minutes before serving.