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Calm Before the Storm

January 6, 2010 by

Like most of the Eastern half of the United States, Chicago is in the middle of a deep arctic freeze – or at least that’s what it feels like! Good thing I ordered my new coat from JCrew  – yeah! Now all I need is a warm set of gloves and I’ll be set for the rest of the winter.

Because we are all trying to warm up in our house, soup sounded perfect for tonight’s dinner…

1.6.10 Chicken soup 3

Seriously, chicken noodle soup is like the edible version of a big fuzzy sweater or a huge bear hug – warm and cozy I tell ya!

Around midnight tonight, Chicago is supposed to start getting snow. Not just any snow but SNOW! From midnight until Friday morning we are supposed to get anywhere between 6 and 12 inches of snow. I know, you probably think that Chicagoans are used to snow. And, for the most part, we are. But when snow falls that hard, that fast, it can really cause trouble on the roads – whether you’re used to driving in the snow or not.

For the most part, I don’t mind the snow – when I don’t have to leave my house and venture into it. But when I know that I’m supposed to go to work the next day, I get quite anxious before the storm hits. I spend all day listening to and reading the weather reports. Then I practically have an anxiety attack thinking about how long it’s going to take me to get to and from work (usually 2-3 hours each way in bad snow). 

So to calm myself down this evening, I chilled out with my new tres chic calendar…

1.6.10 French Women for All Seasons Calendar 3

The 2010 engagement calendar/planner is actually based on the popular book, French Women For All Seasons, by Mireille Guiliano. She also is the author of the fabulous book, French Women Don’t Get Fat, which I adore! The planner has large calendar pages interspersed with recipes from Guiliano’s books as well as French language lessons, and other surprises. Plus, it has colorful, French-themed illustrations – how cute is that?

And yes, those are more French macarons pictured above – do you see a theme here?? 🙂

I am supposed to leave on Friday morning for my Phoenix trip. With the winter storm headed Chicago’s way, who knows if I’ll be able to get out. I hope I do because I could really use some warmer weather right about now!

Ciao babes!

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Cooking, Baking, and Merry-Making

January 1, 2010 by

Hello All! So, is everyone still recovering from last night? 😉 I took it easy because I’ve been kind of sick the last couple of days. Surprisingly, I was still able to run yesterday morning – which seemed to help a little. Since Scott’s parents were coming over for New Year’s Eve (and spending the night), I split my day between errands and cooking.

After running out for groceries (I love Trader Joe’s!), I started to bake, and cook, and bake again! I think I mentioned last week that I managed to go through the whole Christmas season without making a single Christmas cookie. Well, yesterday, I sure made up for lost baking! Aside from making my usual chocolate chip oatmeal cookies (a la Nieman Marcus), I also made one of my favorite Fine Cooking recipes…Banana Chocolate swirl coffee cake…

12.31 Banana Chocolate Swirl cake1

I said it before and I’ll say it again, I don’t know how they can get away with calling this a coffee cake – it’s really more of a dessert!

If you can believe it, this was only 1/2 the chocolate I had planned for our New Year’s celebration. Scott has been repeatedly asking me to make chocolate mousse. I find mousse time-consuming and, unless you really know what you’re doing, it just doesn’t seem to turn out right. But, I obliged and made a simple chocolate mousse...

12.31 Chocolate Mousse

I followed the directions exactly, except for omitting the rum – because we only had spiced rum, not the dark rum that it called for. I thought is was just so-so, but everyone else seemed to like it – of course, after a few drinks, everything tastes better!

Just before my in-laws arrived, I also made a batch of Ina Garten’s cheese puffs…

12.31 Cheese Puffs with bacon

Hmm, these are soo good and really easy to make. I added crunchy, uncured bacon to give the puffs a little crunch and even more flavor – fantastic!

Although I don’t eat seafood, everyone seemed to love the shrimp cocktail, courtesy of Scott’s parents…

12.31 Shrimp cocktail

Sorry – I have a very difficult time even thinking about eating these little crustaceans. 

For our main course, I suggested we have a make-your-own salad bar to offset the not-so-healthy eating that we’d be doing for most of the night.

12.31 New Year's Salad Bar

I ended up not eating a salad after all because I think my stomach troubles have been linked to salad – either the dressing or the lettuce – and I didn’t want to chance it. 

I did attempt (and I’m using that term loosely) to drink some wine, but my stomach as still cramping up – ugh! I guess it was meant to be because the white wine ended up being bad after sitting in the fridge for too long…

12.31 Toad Hollow Chardonnay

Although, how cute is that little toad! Reminds me of the Wind in the Willows 🙂

The whole evening was spent chatting, eating, and listening to music (I think a little dancing happened somewhere in between). Just after midnight, we all wanted to call it quits for the night – that’s what happens after college, you just can’t keep up with your old self anymore!

By the way, did anyone catch Dick Clark on TV last night? It seriously hurt just to watch him, I had to look away whenever he came on the screen. He did a relatively good job though, considering everything that he’s been through health-wise. 

Ok, be back later with the scoop on today – which involved more running, eating, and taking down Christmas decorations – sniff, sniff 🙁

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Food Hangover

December 30, 2009 by

Is it possible to have a hangover from food? If it is, I’m pretty sure I have one. I think I ate the most food at one meal last night than I have in a very long time! Without further ado, here’s the scoop…

Scott and I met his parents and his brother and sister-in-law at Francesca’s Famiglia, a fantastic, family-owned bistro in the Chicago suburbs (although the original Mia Francesca is in downtown Chicago). Our pre- New Year’s dinner started with a little vino and some bread/oil for dipping…

12.29 White Wine

Only one glass of Chardonnay for me! Next up were the appetizers – crunchy calamari and bruschette topped with mozzarella cheese, basil, plum tomatoes, and prosciutto…

12.29 Bruschette

The prosciutto was a little odd tasting to me but I took it off and ate the rest of it -hmm, hmm good!

The salad course was next. I was actually going to pass on the salad, but everyone else was getting a salad – so, when in Rome…

12.29 dinner salad

I had a simple dinner salad (giving half to Scott who decided to get the minestrone soup) which was mighy tasty with its super fresh ingredients -and HUGE carrots – plus balsamic dressing. 

Now for the main course…decisions, decisions…

12.29 Francesca Menu

I was really wrestling between the spaghetti with sausage and prosciutto or the fusilli. I decided to go on the lighter side, avoiding meat…

12.29 Pasta with capers olives

Talk about HUGE portions! The fusuilli came out in a large bowl and was topped with a light cherry tomato sauce, capers, black olives, and parmesan cheese. Simple, yes, but delicious! I decided to stop half way and save room for dessert. And luckily I did, because they had banana chocolate bread pudding on the menu…

12.29 Banana Bread Pudding

This actually was a smaller dessert than I expected, but it was just right for Scott and I to share. The banana chocolate bread pudding was topped with banana fudge gelato, drizzled with cream anglaise and caramel sauce. Oh my, I could have skipped dinner to eat this whole dessert and would have been content for the rest of night! Everyone at the table split a dessert, including tiramisu and protiferoles made with pistachio gelato…

12.29 Protiferoles

The profiteroles were so cute, I just had to have a taste! Finally, when I thought we had ended our meal, the waiter brought out a complimentary round of limoncellos for the table. Sorry, I took one sip of this very strong vodka drink and completely forgot to take a picture of it!

In true Italian/European fashion, the whole meal took about 3 hours from start to finish. For the most part, I think what I ate was very healthy, it’s just that I ate too much – or at least more than my body is used to.

Ok, now I must find a cure for this possible food hangover – WATER!

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Fit Bloggin Bound

December 29, 2009 by

Hello to all my blog buddies out there! I just returned from an amazing Italian dinner with my in-laws. I’m so full and completely exhausted from the wine and food. I plan to share all the details with you tomorrow morning, but here’s a preview of how I ended the meal…

12.29 Protiferoles

I just have to say – OMG!!! These protiferoles (cream puffs) were huge! Again, check back tomorrow morning for more details.

Fit Bloggin, March 2010

Before signing off, I must tell you that I just registered for the Fit Bloggin conference in Baltimore! Woo hoo! I am so excited. If you are at all interested in the Social Media-Fitness/health combination, I highly suggest you check it out! If any of you are going, drop me a note. Maybe we can arrange an early morning run (for exercise or just to Starbucks ;-)) or a dinner. March can not come soon enough!

See you all in the AM.

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Yoga – No Excuses

December 28, 2009 by

Hey There! 

I don’t know what the problem is  – yesterday and today, running has been so HARD! I could barely make it through 4 miles on the treadmill. Spring weather can NOT come soon enough!

After my mediocre run, I replenished with some Kashi Go Lean Crunch…

12.28 Kashi Go Lean Crunch

Then, it was off to my first day of work after 10 days of being off. The day was actually really good. Half the office was still on vacation so it was nice and quiet. I ended up getting a ton of things done. I hope that it’s the same way tomorrow. Plus, when I walked to my desk this morning, there was a cute little Christmas card and a Christmas tree magnet on my desk from a coworker – how sweet!

12.28 Christmas Tree Magnet

About 11 AM, I started getting a snack attack but just wasn’t ready for lunch. Instead, I grabbed a peppermint chocolate Luna bar….

12.28 Luna bar

It tasted sooo good going down, but I think I ate it way too fast because I had stomach cramps for the rest of the day, ugh!

Lunch ended up being leftovers from the other night – a little spinach risotto and mesquite chicken…

12.28 Spinach Risotto

Luckily, my stomach eased up enough to let me eat this, but then it was back to cramping again. Later in the afternoon, I found out some GREAT news! A few months ago, I mentioned on one of my posts that my office was going to offer onsite yoga once a week. Well, our office yoga starts next week – woo hoo!!! I am so excited! My colleague who is arranging the yoga class brought the instructor by my desk to introduce me. How cool is it that I can now practice yoga at least once a week and not even have to leave my office? Now I have no excuse not to practice. Hmm…I think I might have to buy a new yoga mat to celebrate!

Any recommendations on a good yoga mat????

A great thing about the yoga class, aside from it being onsite, is that my company is paying for the majority of the class. Perfect – nearly free yoga! I was so thrilled that my stomach felt a little better. I decided to splurge and have some this….

12.28 Enstrom toffee

Mmmm, melt in your mouth, Enstrom English toffee! This is my absolute favorite toffee and I only have it once a year around the Christmas holiday (good thing too, or else I’d be huge!). If you have never tried this toffee, I highly recommend it. But a word of caution, it is very hard to STOP eating it. I took two small pieces from a gift box that was delivered to our office. But, while walking to the staff lounge, I accidentally dropped one piece on the ground. I contemplated picking it up and eating it anyway (yes, that’s how good it is!), but decided to just throw it away and – what else? – get another piece to replace it!

My commute home was a breeze and I was happy to see that dinner was nearly ready when I arrived. It was a basil chicken stir fry kind of a night…

12.28 chicken stirfry 1

Hmm..so good, and not too spicy, which was good for my tummy…

12.28 chicken stir fry 3

Scott’s parents are taking us and Scott’s brother and sister-in-law out for an early New Year’s dinner tomorrow night. Can’t wait!

Have a great night everyone and see you tomorrow.

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Savoring my last day of vacation…

December 27, 2009 by

Hey all!

I can’t believe how fast the last 10 days have gone by! In less than two weeks, I was able to give the house a major cleaning, spend some quality time with my sister and her family, and celebrate Christmas. Plus, I managed to accomplish ALL of my goals for the vacation…

  • Wrap 40+ Christmas gifts
  • Sort through my clothes and household items to find items to giveaway
  • Donate items to Goodwill
  • Get to a yoga class
  • Study for personal trainer certification (although I need to study a TON more)

Not too shabby!

So, my last day of “freedom” started out like this….a fast but very challenging 5-mile run on the treadmill. It’s amazing that I can do 6 or 7 miles outside with no problem, yet 4 or 5 on the treadmill is really difficult. After the run, I enjoyed a big, steaming bowl of oats…

12.27 oatmeal

Plus, I had a cup or two of Harney and Sons English Breakfast tea – loose leaf style!

12.27 Harney and Sons English Breakfast

I go back and forth between Harney and Sons English Breakfast and Tazo Awake tea. I just happened to be down to my last Awake tea bag and thought I should save it for my first day back to work – always thinking ahead!

The rest of the day was spent cleaning and studying, including a nearly 3-hour study trip at Barnes and Noble, just for the change in scenery. While I was gone, Scott spent the afternoon making his homemade pasta sauce, which we also enjoyed for dinner…

12.27 Pasta sauce

I admit, I ate way too much of this pasta/sauce combo tonight, plus the AWESOME three-cheese garlic bread. Not to mention…fresh turkey meatballs..

12.27 Turkey meatball

Now, I’m finishing off the night with a little blog reading and cookie eating…

12.27 walnut cookie

Enough from me, gotta run so I can get some decent sleep before work tomorrow!

See you then!

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Christmas Goodies

December 26, 2009 by

Happy Day After Christmas Everyone!

From the looks of your posts (or lack of them 😉 ) I gather that all of you were doing quite a bit of merry making and rightly so. I, of course, did quite a bit of celebrating myself. Instead of giving you every detail about the last three days, I’ll just give you the highlights starting with Christmas.

I can hardly believe it, but it ended up being 45 degrees and sunny on Christmas morning in Chicago!! I was absolutely thrilled to be able to run outside on Christmas. It felt awesome to breathe in the cool, crisp air, and see the glistening snow in the trees. After my run, I enjoyed a fantastic breakfast – a 3-egg omelette (1 egg and 2 egg whites) courtesy of my egg-loving husband…

12.25 Christmas omelette 2

He put all sorts of goodies in it too, like broccoli, red peppers, mushrooms, spinach, and cheddar cheese – I’m such a lucky girl!

12.25 Christmas omelette

Then it was PRESENT time!! Most of the gifts I gave to Scott came from JCrew, that’s what he likes, so that’s what he gets. In turn, most of MY gifts came from Anthropologie. I LOVE Anthropologie but rarely buy anything there because their items are so expensive. I think that’s why Scott shops there for my birthday and Christmas because he knows that I won’t spend the money on myself.

For starters, I received some cool European-esque dish towels…

12.25 Anthropologie towels

I feel like we go through a ton of dish towels each week so these were a very welcome gift. Next up were some cute little bejeweled hair clips…

12.25 Anthropologie hair pins

He knows me so well and knew that I would fall in love with these little darlings. He also gave me a very trendy cupcake book…

12.25 Anthropologie cupcake book2

Surprisingly, there was no red velvet cupcake recipe to speak of. I find that very odd – how can you do a gourmet cupcake cookbook and NOT include a red velvet cupcake? It is still a very sweet book though! I can’t wait to make some of these cupcakes, especially because I can put them on my brand new Anthropologie plates…

12.25 Anthropologie plate 1

12.25 Anthropologie plate 2

Oh my, was I ever having fun opening these presents! And, last but not least, came my favorite gift of all…

12.25 Anthropologie teacup 1

A new tea cup! Scott knows that I’ve been wanting a new tea cup for work and for home. I kept saying how I needed to find just the right cup, not too big, not too small, and just the right design. I definitely won the lottery with this little cutie!

12.25 Anthropologie teacup 3 The detail around the cup is fantastic – especially the cute little flower by the handle as well as the inside design…

12.25 Anthropologie teacup 2

Ok, how lucky am I to have a guy who can go into Anthropologie and buy frilly things for his wife!

I also received a very pretty top from Anthropologie although it’s too big 🙁 

After presents we hustled over to my in-laws for the rest of the day. We were having so much fun opening presents and eating that I really didn’t take many pictures. But, let’s just say I ate my fair share of dip, cheese, and cookies. I am SO feeling that today too!

Moving on to today….Saturday is normally my day to take off from running. But instead, Scott and I headed to the sledding hill for a little outdoor fun. Unfortunately, I became cold really fast (only went down the hill twice) and had to take a rain check.

I warmed up with some hot Tazo Awake tea and a few little walnut cookies…

12.26 Walnut cookie and Awake Tea

These walnut cookies, courtesy of my Father-in-law, are so yummy! They taste a LOT like mini coffee cakes, so it’s no wonder why I love them!

12.26 Walnut cookie

Lunch was warmed-up turkey chili from the freezer – perfect for a very snowy and cold day…

12.26 Turkey Chili

Then it was time for a much-needed nap. I am usually not the napping sort of gal, but I do love a good nap when I’m on vacation.

Dinner was my own creation tonight – mesquite grilled chicken with spinach risotto and sweet carrots…

12.26 Spinach Risotto 2

The risotto was especially good, although Scott thought it had a little too much spinach it it.

12.26 Spinach Risotto

Now, were eating a little popcorn and watching Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince – another Christmas present.

Ok friends, that’s all for now. I want to want the rest of my movie then it’s off to bed! Have a great night everyone!

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The Cheese Cupid

December 21, 2009 by

Hello All! 

I’ve been meaning to tell all of you about this great new Web site for wine and cheese pairings! The Cheese Cupid is a Web site developed by the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board that helps you pair your favorite wine/beer/liquor with the best cheeses for that wine or vice versa. It’s super easy to use and it gives you photos and descriptions of the cheeses and wines. And better yet, it even has a free iphone application – perfect for when you’re running around buying last-minute party items.

A few weeks ago, the Cheese Cupid actually sent me some cheeses to try….

Wisconsin cheese

They sent a block of cheddar, edam, gruyere, and gorgonzola for me to sample. I ended up trying the edam and cheddar at a dinner party I had over the weekend. The cheddar tasted – well, like cheddar. It was good, but nothing too special.

12.21 cheese tray

However, the edam was fantastic! I have never had edam before and had never even heard of this type of cheese. It was a mix between Swiss and cheddar and was so mild yet flavorful. So yum, I wish I had more! I did attempt to use the Cheese Cupid site to pair my cheese with a recommended wine. But, it turns out, I never ended up drinking wine that night!

Ok, enough cheesey talk 😉 I had another fabulous but chilly run outside this morning! I wonder if I’m getting addicted to winter running?? 

Today, Scott and I finally bought our Christmas cards. We are just now beginning to write them out to about 50 people/families. I highly doubt any of these will get delivered before Christmas, but better late than never!

Tomorrow, I’m headed to lunch with Anne, a long-time friend and former colleague. We’re headed to Big Bowl – yummy Asian stir-fry.

Gotta run. See you all tomorrow!

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Flexing My Runner Muscles

December 12, 2009 by

Only one more day to enter my Crabtree & Evelyn giveaway! Find all of the details at Bistro Chic!

Hello Everyone – 

Hey All! I’ve got to make this quick, because I have another early class tomorrow.

I had to be at class (45 minutes from my house) at 8 AM today. Ugh, getting up that early on a Saturday is NOT fun unless you are on vacation in Hawaii or Europe. I attempted to go to Starbucks for a pick me up, but after driving around for 15 minutes, I couldn’t find ANY! What’s up with that – I thought they were on every corner! All that work and I was 20 minutes late for class with no coffee to show for my efforts. Bah – humbug.

12.12 starbucks: http://www.flickr.com/photos/66208256@N00/2092989435

Well, I realized today that I really need to get back into my yoga routine. At class today, we learned all about resistance training and flexibility. I actually did the testing and was tested on. When the flexibility portion came around, I could barely reach past my feet – yikes! Granted, I am only 5′ 1” and have a very short torso, but I really think I should be more flexible than that 🙁 It kind of makes sense though – I read somewhere that distance runners are some of the most inflexible athletes. Hmm…I guess i would fall into that category – although I’m not proud of that factoid.

12.12 Yoga

But I really kicked a-s on the crunches test – I did the max you can do – sweet! 

I was soo exhausted by the time class ended. I am really thankful that Scott had a little stir-fry action going when I arrived  home…

12.11 Chicken Stir Fry

I didn’t think I was that hungry, but I just couldn’t stop eating tonight! I had two servings of stir-fry plus a bunch of ice cream (not pictured). I guess talking about exercise all day can actually increase your appetite – he he!

OK, gotta run. My class goes from 9 AM to 4 PM tomorrow, then it’s time to clean house – my big sister, her husband, and my nephew are arriving on Thursday night to stay with us for the weekend. Woo hoo! We have so much planned – I’ll share details later in the week 😉

Have a great night everyone.

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Freshman year all over again

December 11, 2009 by

Hi Everyone! I am blogging on a break from my class so I’ve got to be quick. This ACSM class for Certified Personal Trainers is making my head spin! I don’t know what I was thinking when I thought I could take the test within a few weeks of taking the class!

12.11 ACSM slide

Just check out this crazy slide! I haven’t taken a class in soo long – I swear I don’t even remember how to study. I feel like a Freshman in college again.

Before leaving for class this afternoon, I hopped on the treadmill for a brand new running routine! Yes, I think I’ve broken out of my rut – here’s what I did:

  • 5 Min walk at 4.0
  • 2 Min run at 7.0
  • 3 Min run at 7.4
  • 2 Min run at 7.6
  • 2 Min run at 7.8
  • 2 Min run at 7.0
  • 2 Min run at 7.4
  • 3 Min run at 7.6
  • 2 Min run at 7.8
  • 2 Min run at 7.0
  • 2 Min run at 7.6
  • 2 Min run at 7.4
  • 2 Min run at 7.8
  • 2 Min run at 7.0
  • 2 Min run at 7.6
  • 5 Min walk at 4.5

Total 30 min run and 10 min walk!

Wow, this workout kicked my butt! I was sweating so bad at the end too, and I only covered about 4.5 miles! Burned a ton of calories though – whew, thank goodness 😉

I’m about to head back to class after eating my yummy $3.50 salad…

12.11 Dinner Salad

See you all tomorrow night!

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