Strong Women and Whiskey

not for the delicate palate

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Location: Oxford, Pennsylvania, United States

I've found that if you speak as if with authority on nearly any topic, most people will believe you. This frightens me.

Monday, May 30, 2005

Really..... I'm here

I can't believe it's been this long since I posted. I lapsed on the gym sometime after the last one, since I was doing so much I couldn't even think straight. I wore out my body, which in turn, wore out my brain. The day I decided not to go was a Saturday, the 21st, because I was having trouble putting words in the right order, both on paper and verbally.

So I took some time off, reset the ol' whatever, and am starting fresh. I am the queen of false starts. Plus, I hate journalling what I eat, and researching calories since I tend to eat odd combinations of things, ethnic foods and so forth.

So Thursday, I met with the trainer again, aparently I've still managed to make progress. I have a bunch of new exercises to go with my old ones.. and Jenni, I specifically requested he add lunges and show me how to do them. They are fun! One of the exercises put me out of commission for two days. My upper calves were miserable and stiff and just .....hurt. Part of that is I'm a big fan of stretching, and I really didn't get to warm up as much as I would like. I'll get there earlier from here out to do a better warm up when I have a trainer day.

However, I've lost 10 lbs since the begining of May and haven't had a cigarette yet. So I guess that's progress. I do think that perhaps I've gained every one of those pounds back this weekend! Jon and Jen came down. We had fun. We ate. We drank lots. AND went on a nature walk of sorts.

Doug went out to buy a grill (charcoal only, thank you very much) and comes back with something roughly the size of a football. Okay, maybe a bit bigger. Just a bit. It's absolutely great, seriously. It's a little Sunbeam grill, just like the big ones. It looks like a pod waiting for the Mother Ship to come get it. But it successfully grilled veggies, hot dogs, insideout burgers (cheese in the middle, yum), and about a dozen country-style pork ribs ( I made the rub and let it soak in overnite) the second batch of ribs turned out so good because I let them smoke for a while, the meat got that red color it gets when it's been smoke-cooked out the outside, and the sauce charred just enough. Oh, that's just heaven.

There's an article that ran on slate.com over the last week called "The Great American Barbeque Pilgrimage": check it out. I was in agony all week. I really, really, need more. The four of us grazed all weekend and there is a rainbow of empties in the kitchen waiting to be turned in for the deposit. I also made my Irish steak (Jon's request) for breakfast today. Recipe as follows:

  • Pan fry some steak in butter (well marbled cuts are good) with salt and pepper, maybe some garlic powder or season all salt.
  • When done to your liking remove from skillet, leave the drippings
  • add 1/4 cup of good whisky to the hot pan and scrape of the drippings
  • add a bit more until all liquid-y
  • dump in some heavy cream (1/2 cup maybe more)
  • cook, stirring constantly until reduced a bit and thickened
  • pour over steak and serve

For a special treat I marinated the steaks in whiskey for a few hours. Yummy.

So I've refused to food-journal this weekend. I don't care if it's "cheating". I like food, now I can diet until July 4th.

So, it was a good weekend of hanging out. We four took a two hour hike through Fair Hill which was fun. I wore my heart monitor to see how good a workout I was getting, just for the point of reference. I think it was a good investment. Played some frisbee, some of us *ahem* playing and carrying a beer bottle. One of us got gimped up and sprained their ankle. They shall remain nameless except for the comment that it's good they didn't drive down from NH. *grins* But.... at least they know when they're really looking at fireworks, eh?

*sigh*

I really wanted those pretty lights to be fireworks.

8 Comments:

Blogger Erin said...

lol sounds like massive helpings of fun. I am so completely jealous of y'all 4some weekends. I want a 5some weekend! (scott's no fun anyway)

Were you like, I dunno, a professional chef in some past life? All your recipes sound like they kick ass.

ML~
~E

7:39 AM  
Blogger Vickie said...

sounds great! Tell nameless to take care of that ankle!

10:35 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

lunges are great for your legs and butt. keep up on them and you'll see a difference in a few weeks.

the bbq sounds fun!

4:44 PM  
Blogger Mommyleek said...

I was wondering where you'd run off to. Sounds like y'all had a great weekend. And don't worry about falling off the wagon... cheating every now and then is good for you, I think. Or else I'm using that as my excuse for the weekend I had!

5:04 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

L didn't go into the whole fireworks thing enough. When we were driving Jon and Jen to the airport yesterday, we saw some fireworks on the left. L pointed over to the right and said there were MORE fireworks over there. I looked over, and it was a building. The windows were red and white, and the trees blocked the lights enough to make them look like flashes. I laughed so hard I cried, and had a hard time driving. I kept pointing to street signs and saying "Look, fireworks!" I am lucky that she didn't beat me.

6:11 PM  
Blogger Vickie said...

you're lucky we don't all beat you, Doug!

8:12 PM  
Blogger Laura said...

i really WANTED them to be fireworks, though. *sigh* Of course now I'm cursed and will forever be taunted with "oh look! fireworks!" when it's not really fireworks. I know how these things go. Thanks for taking up for me V. :)

Yep, I am back on the wagon... mostly anyway. Ah well. Back to the gym today, hopefully I can walk tomorrow.

10:44 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hey look-
fireworks!

love you!
me

6:01 PM  

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