January 2011 Archives
As you know, one of my goals for this year is to cook food that creates leftovers. Easy lunches, quick dinners, healthy ingredients - it's an all-around win.
We've been doing this every Sunday with a variety of soups. It's been quite cold here in the Northeast and there's nothing better than a piping hot bowl of soup on a cold or snowy day.
Here are two of our recent faves.
Portuguese Kale Soup with Garlic Toasts
adapted from St. John's Club Kale Soup Emeril's TV Dinners by Emeril Lagasse
- 2Tb olive oil
- 1 pound spicy sausage - I use Hillshire Farms Hot Links
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped
- 10 cloves garlic, rough chopped
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
- 4 quarts of chicken stock or chicken broth
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/4 tsp dried thyme
- 2 large Idaho potatoes, peeled and diced
- 1/2 tsp dried red pepper flakes
- 1 bunch kale, well washed and cut into 2" pieces
- 1 15 oz can white navy beans, rinsed
- 1 15 oz can red beans, rinsed
- Salt and pepper
- 1 baguette
- Additional garlic cloves
Heat the olive oil in an 8-quart stock pot over medium heat. Add the sausage and onion, season with salt and pepper, and saute, stirring, until onions are translucent and sausage has begun to brown - approximately 3-5 minutes.
Add the garlic, bay leaves, parsley and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes.
Add the thyme and red pepper flakes and cook for an additional minute.
Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Season again with salt and pepper.
Reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer, uncovered, for approximately 1-1/2 hours.
Add the potatoes and kale, season again with salt and pepper, and cook for approximately 15 minutes.
Add the beans and cook for another 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.
While the soup is finishing, slice the baguette into 3/8" slices and place on a baking sheet. Put the slices into a 500° oven for a few minutes - until just starting to crisp up. Put oven on broil. Remove the baking sheet, rub both sides of the toasts with garlic cloves and put back into the oven to toast, flipping when the first side is browned. Remove from the oven.
When potatoes are tender, skim off any fat that rises to the top, remove the bay leaves and serve with garlic toasts.
Pasta e Fagioli con Carne
adapted from Pasta e Fagioli I from allrecipes.com Note: the ditalini is added to each bowl individually to avoid the pasta from getting mushy when stored in the refrigerator Heat oil in a 6-quart stock pot. Saute beef until cooked through, breaking up into small pieces as it cooks. Add onion and saute until translucent. Add garlic and saute for another 3 minutes. Add tomatoes with reserved liquid, chicken broth, basil and ground pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 1.25 hours. Add beans and parsley and simmer for another 15 minutes. Ladle soup into bowls and add ditalini to each bowl. Serve with grated parmesan cheese. Making the Leftovers Successful We struggle with making use of leftovers - we run out of time in the morning to put it together and the lack of ease just makes us fall back into buying lunch during the day. A few weeks back we started packaging all the leftovers into single-serving containers. If there are condiments - like grated cheese for the Pasta E Fagioli - I put small amounts into ziploc bags to bring to work and use throughout the week. What a difference! Now the biggest challenge is remembering the grab a container from the fridge before we leave for the day.
I bought the yarn for my niece's and nephew's Necco Wafer Hoodies in August when my mom was up to visit. I love planning projects with her so even though I hadn't planned on casting on until after Rhinebeck it was a no brainer.
I did a swatch right away to make sure the yarn would work. The original is in Cotton Classic but I wanted something easier to wash and dry without the hassle of adjusting for shrinkage while knitting combined with the anxiety of "did I allow for enough shrinkage?" Kids grow out of handknits quickly enough without the added challenge of a shrinking garment.
Comfort DK was an easy choice - huge color palette in a machine wash and dry yarn. And it's really soft. I read reviews and they were positive so I went with it. I didn't want to do matchy matchy so I picked colors that suits each of them.
nephew's on the left, niece's on the right
I love how they share 3 colors each but the result will be unique for each of them
And then the bag sat, untouched, for three months. I finally cast on in mid-November.
I started with my niece's hoodie - it's smaller and I thought I'd bang that out more quickly. Ha! Then I thought I'd get hers done over Christmas vaca. Double ha!
When writing up my goals for January I realized the clock is ticking. These kids are not getting any smaller so I needed to get moving pronto. I've been working on my niece's and finished the body this weekend. The whole time I kept thinking to myself "Why didn't I just do the next size up so she could get a second season out of it?" But I had most of the body done and the thought of ripping it all out was just not enticing.
I measured once more after it was off the needles and wouldn't you know it - my gauge had loosened up a bit while knitting it. The body is almost 2" wider than it should be for her "intended" size! She'll be able to get a second season out of it! This is particularly good news since they live in Dallas and have a much shorter winter season.
on a side note - does anyone know why my recent pics are so overexposed? i'm sure i did something unintentionally but i don't know what!
Discovering my gauge "mistake" has invigorated me with these projects. I still have one small issue with my niece's - the bottom garter edge rolls up. I'm thinking this is probably a result of the yarn substitution. I'm going to add a bit more to the bottom hem but not sure what exactly I'll do - pickup and knit garter for a few more rounds? Crochet makes a nice, firm edge but I don't think that's the aesthetic I'm going for. Any other ideas?
It's a new year and I want to start it off right. This year is all about commitment and the only way I see making those goals a reality is to keep them in my sights. I want more follow through and accountability for my goals. Here's my first step toward that.
My goals for January are:
- Finish a pair of socks - I have 2 pairs actively in progress so this should be doable.
- Finish the hoodie for my niece - I'll admit that this goal is the biggest stretch. I'm making matching Necco Wafer Hoodies for my niece and nephew. They live in Dallas so I really need to get both of them done by end of February at the latest. I'm about halfway done with my niece's hoodie.
- Blogging - Post once a week here, and post twice a week to my professional blog jodypirrello.com
- Connect with the community - I wrote about this on my professional blog but this is a goal for both parts of my life. I'm commenting a bit more on blogs (especially those who comment here) and I've become more active on the Sock Knitters Anonymous and the Stash and Burn Sock Yarn Knitdown forums. I also joined the Philly Burbs Meetup Group. My goal is to attend one meetup per month.
- Working out - go to the gym 3 times a week and do the treadmill at least twice a week.
- Cook healthy meals for leftovers - I want to make at least 4 meals this month that create leftovers. Good food and easy lunches plus saving a few bucks - can't beat that.
- Continue weight loss - I want to be careful about setting a number goal for each week or month because I believe my success can be attributed to *not* having short term number goals. Approximately 1.5 pounds per month will keep me on track. But, if I don't hit that number - or even if I gain a bit - I'll use the following month to course correct. This may sound contrary to my opening sentence about follow through and commitment but it's really not. It's about committing to a healthy, life-long approach to weight loss and weight management.
- Post about these goals and next month's goals by the first week of February.
That's it for January. I've listed several goals that tie back to my 2011 goals I posted last week. If I meet all these goals I will have started off 2011 strong, proud - committed.
I've been planning this post for several weeks now but I wanted to wait until this morning to do the actual writing. January 1st is always full of aspirations and possibilities and I don't think I could capture that sentiment properly in mid-December.
Let's start with the requisite look back for 2010. Last year I wrote about 5 main goals - 3 of which I did really well with, and 2 of which I didn't make much progress on. To get the negative out of the way, UFOs just didn't seem very interesting to me this year. The only UFO I finished was the Dribbling Drops socks (love them!). And I did very little for Rediscover What I Already Have. I used one pattern from an old book - Child's First Sock (love the pattern, love the yarn). I did sell off some more stash (maybe 30 balls of yarn that I no longer had an interest in). I've noticed that the yarn I have listed for sale on Ravelry goes faster if I post the price so I need to get going on that.
And we won't even discuss sock yarn because you can all guess how that went, right?
So, my goals for this year:
- Continue my "lose 10 pounds a year". Last year I lost 15, bringing my total to 36.5 pounds for 3 years! This is the lightest I've been in probably close to 15 years. I feel healthier and I know that the changes are lifelong. Food is no longer the enemy and I can do things like bake cupcakes or go out for a decadent meal and be just fine. I am making one adjustment though - I'm upping this year's goal to 15. I did 15 last year and I can do it again (this is combined with the next bullet).
- Continue working out. I've never been big on working out but I did it this year. I tried yoga early in the year but decided it wasn't for me. Then I started walking a few times a week. Once it got into the heat of the summer I just couldn't do it so we bought a treadmill. My love for the treadmill was far from immediate - it can be pretty boring. I finally hit my stride with that in early November (turns out podcasts keep my attention better than TV - who knew?). And then in mid-November I joined a gym. I'm now working out 3 days a week at the gym and 2-3 days a week on the treadmill. I'm building muscles and improving cardio. I monitor my blood pressure weekly and it's been going down as well - although it was never high I like to monitor it because high blood pressure runs in my family and it's hard to know if it's high without checking.
- Use up 12 skeins of sock yarn. I'm still a part of Sock Knitters Anonymous and I joined Sock Stash Knitdown with the Stash and Burn group on rav. As prep for that I made sure all my sock yarn was photographed and in rav. Guess what? I now have 72 different sock yarns - enough for approx 76 pairs of socks.
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- Cook more during the week. We added in a lot of Sunday cooking last year (and it was a blast - awesome food and great together time). We don't do as well with the leftovers though, nor do we cook much during the week other than reheating leftovers and the occasional pasta dish or pepper and egg sandwich. I bought a few weekday cook books last year but haven't used them much. I need to get into the habit of planning and following through on weekday meals. I'm tired of takeout - it's expensive and not healthy. Any suggestions for how to make this happen?
- Blog more - both for this blog as well as my professional blog. This will probably be the biggest challenge on the list but I enjoy both the writing and the connections I make with you all and truly miss it when I don't. I'm going to have to set weekly or monthly goals if this one is going to happen.
I knit up 7 pairs' worth last year but I bought enough for 8 more pairs - hardly the direction I wanted to go in. I started off the first 10 months doing really well - knit up 7 and only bought 2 (and they were even a part of the 7!) but then Rhinebeck hit (3 pairs' worth) and end of year (3 more pairs' worth). I'm sure I'll continue to buy at festivals (and I want to be able to as well). I'm on a small yarn kick right now so I should start off the year strong.
Each year I set out to make a list of goals that is a bit more realistic than last year but still be a challenge. One thing I started on toward the end of the year that will have a big impact on 2011 is how I manage priorities - identifying the must haves and making sure they happen. For me the must haves are can be summed up as "invest in me" - continue to lose weight and work out as well as blog more. They're the hardest to keep because they don't come with the immediate satisfaction of, say, knitting or photographing an FO. But like most non-immediate-satisfaction tasks their results are long lasting and that's an important theme for me in 2011.
As with every January 1st I plan to spend time doing the things I want to do all year - knitting (natch), baking (I see mini chocolate cupcakes in our future) and blogging (kicked that off strong this morning). Now that this post is done I'm off to wind some yarn and get cracking on a new pair of socks. Whatever you do today, make sure they're the things you love.
