Psychology: Exercise

Since as long as I can remember, hubby has been craving a treadmill.  But not just any treadmill.  Nay verily, the treadmill that he coveted is the biggest, baddest, and most feature-laden treadmill on the market.  Oh, excuse me --it's not a treadmill; it's an incline trainer.  At first I laughed at him for it - who in the world would want to treadmill-ize uphill and downhill?  But then he explained the features to me and its benefits, and so guess what?

We got one.

And I gotta admit, it is one sexy piece of exercise machinery.  It has Google Maps built into its built-in Wifi connection so you can literally "hike" anywhere in the world.  I could jog in Paris if I wanted to.  All on a treadmill.  It has trainers built into it.  It will automatically incline and decline according to the "terrain" you've selected.  It has regimens built in for weight loss, competition, marathon training, and probably a whole heck of a lot of other things I can't even begin to fathom.

I'm addicted.  No, seriously.  I actually have used the thing, of my own free will and voluntarily and all that stuff.  Twice in one day, in fact (yesterday).  I am becoming an exercise addict, despite my processed-couch-potato nature.  Determination has set in to get rid of my belly (it's significant) and get some definition to my cankles.

Yesterday I got one-third of the way through one of the trainer workouts, and then just alternated between jogging and walking at 3 mph until I had burned 350 calories.  I was proud.  Today, I got to 126 calories and had to stop.  But I did go for 3 of the 4 miles of the dog-walk today (each lap around our dwelling area is a mile).

And my legs?  Oh, they hurt.  They gloriously ache, burn, throb, and protest against this amazing activity.  But I discovered something that I never really believed existed until I experienced it for myself:

endorphins.

food: quick dinner

When I don't feel like cooking, I usually make the same old chicken with pasta and spinach.  Always.  It has garlic in it, and chicken, and pasta, and spinach.  With a touch of butter or olive oil, depending on my mood. Today, I altered it and did the following vegetarian option:

• 1/2 pound pasta, uncooked
• 5 ounces raw spinach
• 1 jar Alfredo sauce (I used Classico roasted garlic)
• a whole bunch of garlic powder (because I am out of fresh garlic)

I cooked the pasta, then drained it except for about an ounce of the water.  Then I threw in the spinach and let it cook in the water for a bit (not a lot of water, just enough to "steam" the spinach).  Once the spinach was almost-cooked, I threw in the pasta and stirred.  Then I poured over the jar of Alfredo sauce and garlic powder and stirred.  It was delicious.

And no, I didn't take pictures because hubby's plate was the prettiest, and right before I could take a picture, he unscrewed the top of the crushed red pepper and poured the entire jar over his pasta before he realized that you flip up the top of the lid to sprinkle it on.  Since this happened to him at a restaurant once also, this was hilarious and amazing and I nearly squirted seltzer out my nose.

In other news, I started running on a treadmill today.  I am immensely proud of myself and plan to lose the 45 pounds I wish to lose by doing this, assuming my knees and shins can handle it.  Grrr.  Hear me roar.

Dogs: Noah

Meet Noah.  We are dog-sitting him while his owner is at Crufts Dog Show in England.

He is a very regal-looking boy... 

 who loves taking naps on couches...

and even more loves just plain sitting around on a couch. 

 Here he is with Winston (left) and husband (middle)

I can't get enough of him while he's sleeping because he is so darn cute 

He also loves looking at things outside like crows and other birds. 

What a gorgeous fellow!

Now that he has adjusted to staying here with us, he is a happy camper who hardly ever stops wagging.  He's not as playful as Oliver and Winston, but he is very loving and always cheerful.  I think I'm in love.

Oh yeah, and he's a Rhodesian Ridgeback, from Kaskazini Rhodesian Ridgebacks.  He has sired two litters of beautiful puppies thusfar, and I hope several more.  I'd like him to be the dad of a pup of mine someday.  If you're interested in getting a Ridgeback, I'd highly recommend this breeder. :)

Food: baked ziti the easy way

Baked ziti was a staple dish of almost every covered-dish, potluck, or shared-responsibility dinner I went to growing up.  The joke was that it wasn't really a local meal unless there was baked ziti.  But there is good baked ziti and bad baked ziti.  The bad is the kind that has little cheese except a sheet of cardboardy mozzarella from a bag on top and a smidgen of sauce in the "filling."  Not mine.  Mine is a cheesy wonder, which is how it should be.

For basic baked ziti, you need:

• 1 pound of pasta, cooked until it's almost-cooked (about 2 minutes less than the indicated time on the package)
• 1 regular-size jar of spaghetti sauce.  I use marinara sauce from Barilla a lot of the time, but Prego got me through it today.
• 1 to 2 pounds ricotta cheese, depending on your taste.  Today was a 1-pounder day.
• 1 pound fresh mozzarella - not the little balls, but the blob that you can slice
• Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
• sprinkly Italian seasoning

If you haven't done it already, cook the pasta 2 minutes short of the cooking time on the box in salted water.

Get your 9x13" pan out.  Pour in the spaghetti sauce.  All of it.  Trust me.  Then, pour in the ricotta and mix it around until it looks pink and gross.  (It really is ugly to me.)

Pour your pasta in, and stir it until every single one of those little ziti noodles (or penne noodles) is covered in saucey-cheesy goodness.

Top it with the fresh mozzarella slices.  If you have extra, you can munch on it for a good treat.  Sprinkle the mozzarella with Parmesan and Italian seasoning.

Bake at 350 until it is bubbly, melty, and delicious.  Probably a good half hour to an hour will do.  But don't brown the cheese too much, because you want it to be moist and heavenly and not cardboardy and dry.

Eat.

Variations:

- vodka sauce with fresh mozarella balls (not ricotta) and chopped frozen spinach (thawed), topped with fresh mozzarella and parmesan cheese

- sausage and peppers in the sauce with the regular recipe.  A restaurant down in Endicott calls that "ziti rosso."  It's ahhh-mazing.

- alfredo sauce, chicken, and spinach, with tons of garlic and possibly broccoli.  And cheese on top.  Maybe breadcrumbs too.

Be creative.  Baked pasta is an amazing vehicle.  I even saw a variation once for mild sausage and a pumpkin-sage cream sauce that was heavenly... I think it was Paula Deen who came up with it...

Religion: Why I am confused.

I was raised devoutly Catholic.  Never missed mass.  On blizzardly Sabbaths/Days of Holy Obligation, we had to watch mass on TV and respond out loud to the priest (it happened once or twice tops).  I went to Catholic school for 9 years until their music program no longer offered to me what I wanted and my mom agreed to let me go to public high school.  I was an active music minister in the church until I was 29 or so.

I am glad I went to Catholic school and even gladder I had this upbringing.  It gave me an edge in music school (no joke, especially when studying sacred and early music), gave me cultural depth and beauty of tradition on holidays, and showed me the importance of having spirituality in one's life.

But here's why I'm confused:

• I believe priests should be allowed to marry.
• Furthermore, I believe women should be priests.
• I believe in gay marriage.  Vehemently.  Especially when I see so many beautiful gay couples and so many awful heterosexual ones.  God is love, and whosoever lives in love lives in God.
• I believe that there should be no law against abortion, even though I personally would never have one.
• I practice hormonal birth control, and I believe that it is a greater respect to the dignity of life to practice it than for me to have a kid who would have birth defects from the antidepressants I take to keep myself from committing suicide.
• I entirely dislike the church's stance on multiple political and personal beliefs: birth control, abortion, abstinence before marriage, gay marriage, priests' lifestyles (the vow of chastity), women as priests, etc.  Furthermore, the church telling me who to vote for does not have a place in my life, and I will probably vote opposite whoever they endorse on purpose.
• I don't believe in transubstantiation.  I believe in Real Presence.  (I.e. God is present in the host, but the host is not God himself.)
• I don't believe that the sacrament of Confession actually absolves you from your sins.  I believe that can only be done through your own genuine repentance and effort to never commit that sin again.
• I don't really think there is a place for me to sit in the church if I'm sitting there resenting everything.  If anything, I think my presence is damaging, even though God is supposed to accept us and welcome us at our darkest moments.  This is a very confusing point of contention in my heart.
• I don't believe that giving up something trivial like chocolate is the best way to make yourself closer to God during Lent.  Do something significant instead, like REAL self-improvement.  God wants you to have the chocolate once in a while.  For realz.  Especially if you thank Him for it.
• I do not believe in tithing in the 10% of your salary sense.  Offer up a gift to God that is unique, be it through ministry or outreach.  (I was a music minister who, if you add up the time I could have been paid to do that, would equal more than I make per year now.  They never think of that when they never see an envelope from me in the collection basket.)
• This is trivial, but I don't feel it's quite correct to have people's names on the collection envelopes.
• I lived with my husband before marriage, on purpose.  So did everyone in my Pre-Cana class, and no one batted an eye.

All in all, I am not a practicing Catholic.  Here are the things that are part of the Catholic church I do believe:

• If you have a grave sin on your heart, you should not receive communion until you have made peace with that sin.  However, I don't believe the sacrament of Confession does that.  See above.
• You should always make yourself as ready as possible to receive God (spiritually) before you go to church.  I still don't believe that we "eat Jesus."
• Full, conscious, and active participation in the liturgy is the only way to go.  Sitting there like a deadbeat doesn't do it for me.
• The reminder of our mortality on Ash Wednesday has always been beautiful to me.

I still don't know what to think.  But my mom is pushing me to go to church.  She probably thinks it would be good for me, but I feel strongly that if I can find a church/spiritual center that jives more with my beliefs, I'd feel better.  I"m thinking Episcopal.  I've thought Episcopal for a long time, especially since I attended an Episcopal church in Philly that really did it for me, even though I was told they were very "high" and atypical.

I am closing this post to comments because I know it will bring on too many "YOU'RE GOING STRAIGHT TO HELL" dialogue that frankly I can't deal with.  But I had to get this all off my chest.

Food-ish: cookware that makes me go "squee"

After three weeks of walking by the display and drooling, I finally succumbed to the temptation today.

That's right: I bought a Le Creuset Gratin pan.  14" across, Cobalt blue, and nice, heavy stoneware.  Marked down to a reasonable price (I'd pay more than this for this pan in generic form), and I decided it was mineallmine oh sweet Lord I have a Le Creuset gratin pan!!!

I have plans for this pan.  First thing up is fish, baked with white wine, butter, shallots, and lemon.  (I'm trying to eat more of that evil swimmy stuff that we're supposed to eat a lot of.)  Second up is a Julia Child recipe for Gratin Jurassien (cream and cheese and potatoes, oh my!).  I might use it to serve up a monstrous pile of risotto to my friends because it is so pretty.  I might use it to roast a chicken.  Oh, the possibilities are endless!

The other item that made me go "squee" today was in Target, and I bought it on impulse, even though I have wanted one of these particular items since I have known about them: a cow-shaped cream-holder thing for your coffee table place setting.  That's right: a cow creamer!  You know, the one where you hold it by the cow's tail and it looks like the cow is barfing out half-and-half into your coffee?  Yes, I have one of those now too.  I don't have big plans for it other than serving half-and-half (or better yet, real cream) in it.  Though I might use it for gravy just once to see what my mother does.  >insert giggles<

What are the fine items in your kitchen that make you go "squee?"

Note that "going squee" requires the item to be:

• awesome to a degree that you can hardly stand it
• cute to a degree that you can hardly stand it
• incredibly freakishly well made
• any or all of the above

Food: Parmesan-Panko Tilapia

Let me be clear: fish is one of my least favorite meals, but I can stand tilapia.  So here is how I fixed it up tonight and made it more tolerable than usual.  I do this "recipe" a lot, so it's in the oven right now and I can assure you it tastes fine.  Which is more than I can say for most fish, unless that fish is fried.  All fried fish is food of the gods, for a reason I cannot fathom except that it's deep-fried.  And deep-fried anything (almost) is tasty.  Including cheesecake.

First, I took 2 frozen tilapia fillets (plain) that I got from ye olde Wegman's.  You can get these at Walmart, too, but I find the Walmart brand tilapia a little more fishy-tasting and less plain-tasting than the Wegman's ones, and like I said earlier, I dislike fish, so the less fishy, the better.

Then I put them in a 9"x9" pan and drizzled a little extra-virgin olive oil over them.  Not a lot, but enough for it to drip down the sides of each fillet and into the pan a bit to prevent them from sticking to the pan.  (It probably would have been good to spray the pan with cooking spray too, but I didn't.  We'll see what happens.)  Next, season with seasoned salt and Fines Herbes (I use Penzey's mix of Fines Herbes).  Probably a total of a teaspoon of each went on both fillets.

Now, get out your can of Parmesan (or, if you like to be fancy and flavorful, your wedge of Parmesan and your microplane grater) and sprinkle that stuff generously over each fillet.  Don't be stingy.

Finally, sprinkle each fillet with some panko bread crumbs to taste.  I use a lot, because the crunch helps me forget that I'm eating (ugh) fish.

Bake at about 400 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the fish flakes with a fork.  I'm not positive on the time, so check it often after about the first 15 minutes.  Usually it's a good 10 minutes after I check it for the first time.

And I do assure you, it's quite tasty.  The fish part is mild, the fines herbes and Parmesan are tasty together, and it has a pleasant crunch and texture.