Eating and Sweating

SWEAT: JUMP!

2009-06-29T11:31:00.003-04:00

A few Maui jumps. The first one is quick and at the '7 Sacred Pools' which is on the southern tip of Maui after Hana. Lindsey and I jumped about 50 times from various spots out here.
#2 jump/swimming was the highlight of the trip. We found this waterfall after a 30 minute hike and we were the only 2 people here.....not another soul. A little scary to swim in such a remote place but exhilarating as well.
#3 jump----Our friends Jonathon and Lacy took us here in Kapalua. There were a few locals here but definitely no other tourists.

EAT: Great Weekend

2009-06-28T13:10:00.006-04:00

With all of our worldly travels we have neglected creating in the kitchen so we decided to get caught up this weekend. We made pizza....from scratch. Bought whole wheat crust from Trader Joe's....basically a pile of dough in a bag. Smoothed it out, added some sauce, cheese, grilled red onion, mushroom, turkey pepperoni, and spinach.

It was good....we'll be doing this again....possible creations:spicy BBQ chicken pizza?.....something with jalapeno's is necessary as well.

On Saturday we went to Costco and came across a lb of lump crab meat so crab cakes became the menu, the only question was how. We came home and started scouring websites looking for a fun new recipe. We decided to combine two favorites from my mom's personal cookbook...Her recipe for actually making the crab cakes and we decided to use her Mango, Avocado, Tomato salsa to top the cakes. "My new favorite recipe," Lindsey was quoted as saying. It really was awesome and will become our new staple for crab cakes. The salsa is delicious any way you eat it so when you top crab cakes with it, you can imagine how good it becomes! The two recipes per my mom and then pics to follow:

Crab Cakes

1 pound super lump crab meat
1 tsp Old Bay seafood seasoning
1 tsp chopped flat leaf parsley
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1/3 cup plain bread crumbs
1- 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard (one and one-half)
1- 1/2 Tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 egg, beaten with a fork

Mix together lightly and pan fry to brown in 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon canola oil. Cook about 3 minutes a side over medium-high heat. Can make the patties ahead, cover, and refrigerate. Fry up later, just before serving.

Makes 8 patties to serve 4 people for dinner. Or, can make smaller patties for a party appetizer.

Avocado, Tomato and Mango Salsa

1 mango, peeled, seeded and diced

1 avocado - peeled, pitted and diced

4 medium tomatoes, squeeze juices out, dice

1 jalapeno pepper, (remove seeds from one half only depending on how spicey you like it )- use the whole pepper and mince

½+ cup chopped fresh cilantro

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons fresh lime juice

1/4 cup chopped red onion

1 Tablespoon olive oil

In a medium bowl, combine the mango, avocado, tomatoes, jalapeno, cilantro and garlic. Stir in the salt, lime juice, red onion, and olive oil. To blend the flavors, refrigerate for about 30 minutes before serving.

Scoop the salsa over the crab cakes and enjoy:) You can see that we also had mounds of zucchini on our plates....our easy veggie fix lately has been cubed zucchini, salt, pepper, Italian seasonings, wrapped in tin foil and dropped on the grill for about 20 minutes.

Maui Video!

2009-06-25T15:05:00.004-04:00

I recorded several videos in Maui yet as I watch them now, there is nothing earth shattering captured by me....so don't get too excited. Hopefully this will give you an idea of a few things we saw and also where we stayed.

First up, this was our first full day in Maui and we headed north from Ka'anapali up through Kapalua and around the Northwest "thumb" of Maui. Total trip time was about 5 hours....remember, this was our first day so we stopped just about every 10 minutes to look at everything we saw!
This is a panoramic shot of Honolua Bay about 15 minutes into our journey:

This video is after we climbed down to the Olivine Pools. I was pretty much out of breath after our climb and unfortunately you can't really see how steep and looong our climb was. We climbed down and there were some pools of water that our book said would be cool to swim in. We opted not to....if you look closely at the top pool in the video, you will see a splash from someone jumping in from the rocks.

Lastly for set one, we have a quick shot after we explored the Nakalele Blowhole. It was a good hike down to see a blowhole that the ocean shoots through up to 50 feet in the air. This is tied to the tide, however, so we only saw it shoot once and it was about 4 feet. This video was after we climbed back up and were eating a snack in an area by ourselves. This was right next to the touristy area and for whatever reason, no one climbed the short climb down to this area.

More to Come......

EAT: Pork Tenderloin and Olive-Mustard Tapenade

2009-05-04T09:31:00.003-04:00

Well some of my readers have sworn off pork because of the swine flu.....come on, pick up a paper....swine flu is an airborne virus that you contract the same way as regular flu! The good news is most of the general public must be thinking the same way because when shopping this week I found pork tenderloin marked down to $2.30 each....usually $8.99!

We grabbed two (one for the freezer) and decided to do it up a healthy new way. Here it goes:

Ingredients

1 (1-pound) pork tenderloin, trimmed and cut crosswise into 8 pieces
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground fennel
Cooking spray
1/4 cup chopped pitted kalamata olives
1/4 cup chopped pitted green olives or onion-stuffed green olives
1 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon bottled minced garlic

Preparation

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Press pork pieces into 1/2-inch-thick medallions. Combine salt, pepper, and fennel; rub evenly over pork. Add pork to pan; cook 4 minutes on each side or until done.

While pork cooks, combine olives and remaining ingredients. Serve olive mixture over pork.

Yield

4 servings (serving size: 2 pork medallions and 2 tablespoons olive mixture)

Nutritional Information

CALORIES 163(33% from fat); FAT 6g (sat 1.6g,mono 3.2g,poly 0.7g); PROTEIN 24.3g; CHOLESTEROL 74mg; CALCIUM 31mg; SODIUM 590mg; FIBER 0.7g; IRON 2.2mg; CARBOHYDRATE 2.2g

Thoughts: Different way to cook it for me as we cut it into 8 pieces and cooked in a frying pan....not the grill or oven as I am accustomed. You spoon the olive mixture over the medallions at the table. Quick, easy, and a bit salty as prepared. I also cooked some brown rice on the side for a carb and loved the pork with the rice because it completely evened out the saltiness. Rice = saltiness gone:) Lindsey ate it sans rice so it can be done but not for me. Easy to make and new fresh taste. Will make again.

Roasted Tomatoes and Mozzarella
Once again we decided to play with some tomatoes. A bit different this time though. I took 6 ripe tomatoes and cut them in half. Then I tossed them in EVOO. Next I placed them seed side up in a 13x9 and roasted them for 3 hours at 275 degrees.
Roasting will cook them down a little and add a sweetness to them. We took them out of the oven and brought them to room temperature.

Then into a bowl, added some mozz, balsamic, sea salt, pepper. Done! Yum! (Coulda used some fresh basil )

SWEAT: 24:03

2009-05-04T09:24:00.002-04:00

Still can't touch the 23's.....getting closer!

EAT: Chicken Piccata and Homemade Balsamic Dressing Salad

2009-04-30T13:34:00.004-04:00

Last night we experimented with a healthy version of Chicken Piccata and it was pretty darn good.

From foodpics

INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons dry breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1/8 teaspoon pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 (4-ounce) skinned, boned chicken
breast halves
Cooking spray
1 teaspoon margarine
Cooking spray
1 teaspoon margarine
8 thin lemon slices
1/4 cup low-salt chicken broth
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons lemon juice
**Capers (not in original recipe)
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Combine first 5 ingredients in a shallow dish; set aside.
2. Place chicken between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap; flatten to 1/4-inch thickness, using a meat mallet or rolling pin. Lightly coat both sides of chicken with cooking spray; dredge chicken in breadcrumb mixture.
3. Melt margarine in a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook 4 minutes on each side or until done. Remove chicken from skillet. Set aside; keep warm. Add lemon slices to skillet; saute 30 seconds. Add broth, parsley, and lemon juice; cook 1 minute. Spoon sauce over chicken.
YIELD: 4 servings
PREPARATION TIME:15 minutes
COOKING TIME: 12 minutes
NUTRITIONAL INFO
CALORIES 160 (16% from fat); FAT 2.9g (sat 0.6g, mono 0.8g, poly 0.7g); PROTEIN 27.3g; CARB 6.9g; FIBER 0.4g; CHOL 66mg; IRON 1.4mg; SODIUM 115mg; CALC 46mg

Thoughts: Grating the lemon rind was cool…neither one of us had done it before and couldn’t believe how powerful the smell and taste was from this! We agreed to keep our eyes open for more recipes with a lemon rind. Spraying the chicken with PAM doesn’t allow the breadcrumbs to stick terribly well but it was ok. Chicken is very tender when you pound it…..we didn’t have the proper tool so we took a regular hardware hammer and put the chicken breast in a baggie. Then we opened an old magazine, inserted the chicken breast in baggie, closed the magazine on top and then pounded it through the magazine. Worked good enough.

Lindsey cooked the recipe to a T and she even threw in some capers at the end that were not called for. Usually when you order this in a restaurant it is very buttery and very good…..this recipe isn’t as buttery, but it is pretty good considering how healthy it was. We’ll definitely make it again.

From foodpics

HOMEMADE BALSAMIC DRESSING
We also had a salad on mixed greens, tomato, and shredded mozzarella. We topped it with a homemade dressing that you really just feel your way through to taste.

Balsamic Dressing
EVOO
Minced Shallot
Dijon mustard
Splenda

Yes, Splenda. The original recipe I saw of this called for sugar but we didn’t have any so we used what we had and we’ll only use this in the future.

Directions: Add a decent amount of balsamic to a bowl and then throw in some minced shallots….maybe 3 tablespoons worth. Next add some Dijon….maybe a teaspoon to start….then a whole packet of Splenda. Start to mix it with a whisk while slowly drizzling in some EVOO. Stick your finger in and taste…..add more of the ingredients to get it where you want it . End result will be tangy and the Splenda will cut that for you.

Drizzle over salad and enjoy.

Serenity

2009-04-27T13:30:00.006-04:00

Any beach weekend is great as there is something that can't be put into words what the beach does to the soul. We just got back from a loooong weekend at Lindsey's family beachhouse. It's a great place that they built in 1981 I think?? It has remained essentially unchanged since then and still is TV/Internet free. If you aren't into sitting on the beach, you won't last long here.

We left Atlanta just after 5pm on Thursday and headed straight for Tallahassee to pick up Lindsey's mother. After the pick up we landed at the beach just after 1am. Took us about an hour to "open up" the house...turn on the water, electricity, etc.

View Larger Map

Friday evening, Lindsey's sister Katie, her husband Matt, and son Eli joined us and her other sister Kristie came up Saturday morning. Friday and Saturday were spent lounging on the beach were you were only interrupted to make a sandwich or use the bathroom. It was fairly windy all weekend so the high 80 temps felt awesome....never scorching hot.

Friday night we went to a local guy and bought a few lbs of shrimp, boiled it, and then feasted on peel-N-eat and salad. Some late night beer drinking with Katie and Matt kept us up until about 2.

Saturday we had a few beers on the beach, played some Cornhole (fun beach game for those not in the know), and read books. Man, I am really into Corona lately!

We decided to do surf and turf for dinner Saturday night so it was more shrimp and we did burgers too. As we prepped the dinner, I decided to introduce some Birkett guacamole to the Snyders.....HUGE HIT! Hard to go wrong with a massive bowl of delicious guac when you have hungry people right?

Matt C and I did our best to create some awesome burgers....marinated in Dale's sauce, topped with thick extra sharp cheddar, fresh jalapenos, fresh cut bacon, and guac of course.....really, really good!

A great trip! Enjoy the pics.....pretty boring as I didn't get many with humans in them.

They Really do work!

2009-04-23T14:29:00.005-04:00

Ever see those camera's in the sky that hover above traffic lights? Yup, me too....and I have never actually heard of someone getting busted until I received the following pics in the mail. No points on the license because they can't prove "I" was driving......$70 lesson to remember to not run reds!

Great Lake Swimmers

2009-04-22T12:39:00.003-04:00

A few weeks ago I told Lindsey I had a surprise. She is a big fan of a small band called Great Lake Swimmers from Toronto. They have been around for a few years but still haven't really caught on with public radio. So I saw that they were coming to Atlanta and playing at a tiny bar....tickets were only $16 each!
So I grabbed two and we showed up along with only about 130 other people....needless to say we were standing 1st row and closer than anyone else.

EAT: Mushroom Pork Chops

2009-04-22T08:58:00.002-04:00

Mushroom Pork Chops

4 pork chops
salt and pepper to taste
2 Garlic Cloves
1 onion, chopped
1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
2 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
Pinch of ground tyme
Sherry wine/white wine
Milk

Smell: 4

Ease:2

Overall:3.5

PREP TIME 5 Min COOK TIME 35 Min READY IN 40 Min

DIRECTIONS

Season pork chops with salt, pepper, and garlic salt to taste.
In a large skillet, brown the chops over medium-high heat. Add the onion and mushrooms, and saute for one minute. Pour cream of mushroom soup over chops. Cover skillet, and reduce temperature to medium-low. Simmer 20 to 30 minutes, or until chops are cooked through.

Very easy to make. I browned the pork in a swirl of EVOO on med high heat for about 3 minutes a side….could still see almost pink in the middle (I didn’t cut it, just used my eyeballs!) when I took the pork off the heat and let rest on a plate. Browning both sides but allowing the meat to actually cook in the sauce allows it to be very tender when it’s time to eat.

I then sautéed onion and mushrooms scraping up the remains of the pork as it cooked. For the last two minutes I added 2 minced garlic cloves.

Next, I stirred in 2 cans of cream of mushroom and eyeballed some Sherry wine though any white wine will do. I would say I added around a ¼ cup. I splashed in about a ¼ cup of milk as well. I added a pinch of thyme, some more pepper and then put the lid on and cooked just above a simmer for 30 minutes.

I cooked some Wild Grain Brown rice while the chicken cooked and ladled the gravy and chicken ontop.

Overall this is a nice dinner. Nothing incredible you’ll tell your co-workers about, but it’s good.