Aftermath of the storm

Last night I headed up to the community garden to survey the damage. Below is an example of what was coming down in the yard on Tuesday afternoon. It sounded like a meteor shower hitting the house. A very loud meteor shower. The extent of our damage, at least that we've discovered so far, is a broken window in my husband's work room upstairs. That'll be fun to fix.

This little tomato got clobbered. It was the worst of the six I planted this weekend. Poor thing. I'll be taking it out and planting a new one. The others weren't happy, but they were still standing.
The potatoes came through nicely. I need to buy more compost to top up my rows.
Part one of my Three Sisters faired well. This is the corn, that was planted a couple of weeks ago. Last weekend I planted the beans. They haven't sprouted yet. No picture of the swiss chard. There's a bit of hail damage to the chard, but it won't make it taste any less yummy.

No Knead Bread

After the craziness of yesterday afternoon, spending "quality" time with the dogs and the parrot in a closet under the stairs, listening to tornado sirens blaring and hail hitting the house, I decided to try making no knead bread. I don't know how I stumbled upon this blog but I'm glad that I did. Now I love bread. Probably too much. Especially when it's warm from the oven or bread maker, slathered with butter... oops. Drooling now.... As you know, I've been doing Weight Watchers since the end of October, so it's not a treat I allow myself very often. And since I've pretty much been at a plateau since I hit my 10% goal, I probably shouldn't be treating myself now. That's life, though. I can eat things, but I'd better be prepared to exercise more and eat plently of healthy things, too.

I have a bread machine, which makes great bread. When I've tried to make it by myself, I've totally messed up. Last time, I ended up with bread that wouldn't rise, and was so tough. I think the yeast continued to rise in my stomach, which was NOT a good thing. So when I heard about no knead bread, I thought it would be neat to try. So last night, after I signed off from work, I put the dough together. Flour, salt, yeast and water. Pretty easy, huh? I'm not 100% sure my yeast was fresh enough, but it rose. The trick to no knead bread is that you don't mess with it. It sits in a bowl, on your counter, overnight. Simple.

No Knead Bread

3 cups AP flour

1 3/4 t salt (Note: this was too salty. I'll reduce to 1 t next time)

1/2 t yeast

1 1/2 c water

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt and yeast. Stir in the water, mixing enough to ensure that it's worked in. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 12-18 hours on your counter.

This is what it looked like this morning, after 13 hours. When you're ready to bake, heat up your oven to 450. When it reaches temperature, put your dutch oven and lid in to heat for 30 minutes. (Note: I read that my dutch oven lid can only be safely heated to 400 because of the handle, so I heated the bottom for 15 minutes at 450, reduced the heat, and when it hit 400, I put the lid on and heated for another 15 minutes.)

While the oven is heating, dump out the sticky dough mixture on to a heavily floured counter and shape in to a ball. Mine didn't really come out as a ball, more like a blob. Cover with the plastic wrap and let it rest while the oven and the pan are heating. After the pan has heated for 30 minutes, remove from the oven. Pick up the blob and put it in to the pan. Cover and stick in the oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove. At this point, I removed the lid and stuck it back in for a few minutes to get it a bit more brown. When it's baked, carefully remove from the pan and let cool on a wire rack.

Isn't it pretty?

Now all I need to do is figure out how many WW points this loaf is so I don't eat the whole thing!

How Is It December Already?

Happy December! I really don't know where this year went. The summer passed in a blur because it was so stinking hot that I stayed in side a lot. The fall went quickly, with the weather cooling into much more user-friendly temperatures that the doggies and I have quite enjoyed. The Aussie has even been joining us on evening dog walks. (It's either that or he has to listen to The Boy bark and whine while I take Puppygirl out for a walk first) This time, last year, I was getting ready to run my first half marathon. Oh, the nerves! I'm not participating in White Rock this year, but I want to wish my friends who are, a great race! It's a great course, and the Christmas decorations on the houses in Highland Park are a treat to see.

My update for this week for the 10K A Day Challenge:

Monday: 5,000 steps
Tuesday: 10,311 steps
Wednesday: 10,285 steps

Tuesday and Wednesday I went to the gym and did 30 minutes of cardio, which helped with my step count and activity points for Weight Watchers. Today's plan is weights with The Cajun (my trainer). No race this weekend, but I'm doing the North Texas Great Santa Run next Saturday. I've signed up to run Bold In The Cold in January with my cousin. My plan for this weekend is to head over to run with the LGRAW group either Saturday morning or Sunday morning before church. The problem with Sunday is that Sunday afternoon is my weigh in/meeting day. I don't want to be too hydrated before the weigh in since 20 ounces of water equals a pound. When I run, I suck down water like mad. I always bring a BIG bottle of water with me to the meeting and as soon as I weigh in I start drinking. It's hard to imagine how dehydrated I've been for so much of my life.

Mostly finished

One good thing about all of the heat we've been having here in Texas. I've had lots of time to sew and the doggies have been keeping me company in my sewing room. I'm almost finished with this quilt top I've been working on. The last thing to do is the black sashing around the edges. I won't be able to quilt it this weekend on the long-arm machine at the quilt store because I'll be quilting the dresden plate quilt top pieced by either my grandmother or my great-grandmother. How cool will that be? A quilt finished by the great grand-daughter of the woman who pieced it by hand decades before.

Broccoli Cauliflower Salad

I've had this salad before, but never prepared it. O.M.G. It was good. Perfect for these hot Texas summer evenings. I brought it to a potluck dinner last night. LoL, someone else made a broccoli salad too! At least one person said they prefered mine because of the added cauliflower, but both broccoli salads were polished off by the masses. If you can find low fat shredded cheese and low fat coleslaw dressing, all the better, and you may need more dressing, depending on how big the broccoli and cauliflower heads are. If you can, start this the day before, to give the broccoli and cauliflower plenty of time to chill with the dressing and the flavors to blend.

Broccoli Cauliflower Salad

1 head of broccoli
1 head cauliflower
12 pieces of center cut bacon (1 package)
1/4 red onion, diced
3 hard boiled eggs, chopped
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup coleslaw dressing
1/4 c sugar
2 T apple cider vinegar
1 T lemon juice (or sprinkle in about 1 t of True Lemon)
1/2 c craisins, soaked in pomegranate juice
1/2 c sunflower seeds

Trim and cut the broccoli and cauliflower into bite sized pieces. Wash and drain the broccoli and cauliflower and place in a large bowl. Mix in the coleslaw dressing, making sure to coat the vegetables well. At this point, I covered the mixture and put it in the refrigerator to sit overnight. It at least needs a couple of hours to chill so that the flavors mix.

Put the craisins in a small bowl with the pomegranate juice. This can chill overnight too.

Next Day: Cook the bacon until it's very crispy (I did this in the microwave). When bacon is cool, cut into small pieces. Set aside. You'll add these at the last minute along with the sunflower seeds so that the bacon doesn't become soft.

Stir the broccoli and cauliflower mixture. Add in the diced red onion, shredded cheese, chopped eggs and the craisins.

In a small bowl, combine the 1/4 c sugar with the apple cider vinegar and lemon juice. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Pour into the salad and mix well. When you're ready to serve, stir in the bacon bits and the sunflower seeds.

Enjoy!

Sometimes...

Sometimes a finish is good enough. Last Saturday I ran (and I use that word very loosely since I walked for half of the race) the Liberty By The Lake 10k in The Colony, TX. Remind me next year that racing in July in Texas isn't the brightest idea. And doing a 10k (thank you very much trainer, Barbie's Evil Twin, for having to back out at the last minute) is really, really not a bright idea. It was very hot, very sunny, no breeze, no shade, and it was 95 by the time I was done. And boy, was I done. I finished second to last, with a time of 1:31:21. But I finished.

Friday Night Recap: Runs With Garden Tools, Plays In Dirt...

When I was younger, my Dad had a huge vegetable garden. I love most vegetables, but wasn't a big fan of gardening. Weeding and picking beans. Ooh. Fun. Funny how things turn out, actually.

Fast forward 30 or so years, and you'll find me playing in the dirt in my plots at our community garden. Aside from the fact that I am part of the group that got this garden off the ground, I'm proud of all we've accomplished in the last two years. This is our second season, and we're already off to an amazing start. Just yesterday, we donated 50 pounds of fresh, organic vegetables to a local foodbank.


This is my first plot. It's our second year together. Digging up potatoes. Fresh potatoes are amazing.

Here's some of my haul. This next is my second plot. It's our first year together.

One of the few vegetables I'm not a fan of: eggplant. I'm growing them for the foodbank. Aren't they pretty?

A zucchini is hiding in here. But I found it! Ooh, pretty. Nothing like digging in the dirt to ruin your hands. I had been wearing gloves, but it was easier to find the potatoes without them.

Heading home. 99 degrees and it's 7pm. Here's the haul of 7 pounds of potatoes! A bunch of these guys will head back to the garden on Saturday morning for harvest and delivery to the foodbank.

Anyone need some herbs? My sage and oregano are taking over the courtyard bed, and my rosemary is taking over the front bed. And yes, that rosemary does span the entire field of this picture. The inner part had to be cut out a year ago after the first bad freeze killed that section of the plant. This rosemary was a birthday present from my sister 5 years ago. It came in a 1 gallon sized container. I'd say rosemary does quite well in North Texas, wouldn't you!?

Now it's time to relax on the patio with a shandy, my kindle and get the grill fired up for dinner. Here's Puppygirl and The Boy in picture 1 and Featherbutt (in the cage), ShortStuff (behind the chair) and Puppygirl in picture 2.

Happy New Year and a 100th Post

100th post. How'd that happen? Well, since it's New Year's Day, I want to wish you all a wonderful New Year. Hopefully you're well hydrated and don't have too much of a hangover this morning.

I received a wonderful calendar from the lovely Healthy Loser Gal (Thank you!!) for Christmas. This morning I jotted down my goals and my training plan in this calendar for the Rock N Roll Half I'm running the end of March. It will hang out on my desk, gently nudging me each day and inspiring me to get moving in a way that a Google calendar reminder won't. It's kind of shocking, seeing my training plan written out, but I have to remind myself that I can do this, I have done this, and I will continue to do this.

I got outside for 3 miles this morning, some of it was a walk with the dogs, so the pace was rather eratic with all the stop, sniff, sniff some more, piddle, sniff... Overall, the 3 miles was done in 48 minutes. I've only run three times since White Rock, with 3.5 miles on Christmas Day in Virginia being the longest distance, so to say I'm rusty would be an understatement. Lol! Speaking of running on Christmas Day, when I got back from the run, The Aussie whispered to me that seeing me go running, especially since it was super cold and windy that day, kind of freaked my family out. I got a kick out of that, I have to admit. Almost as much as I got from the look on The Aussie's face when he opened up a present from me. It was a key ring weather station from National Geographic. He looked at it, looked at me, and with a shocked look on his face, because he hadn't figured out what it was yet, said "Is this for running??" Major LOL on that one! Sweetie, I love you, but I know you aren't ready to get off the couch yet. I'll be waiting for you when you are, though. :)

Well, I'm off to go do some New Year's pantry organizing. Yes, I know you wish you were me. Have an awesome weekend and do something to inspire you and get you moving! ...Now, where's my Rick Astley CD? He's great to clean to...

Wordless (kind of) Wednesday

July 23rd

September 8th (today)

September 8th (today)