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I’ve mainly been using this blog as a place to talk about my cooking, eating, exercising, and weight loss adventures, and you can be certain that weight loss remains, as ever, an important item on my list of New Year’s Resolutions. But there are some other pretty major things going on in the next year… such as the wedding we’re planning! So in addition to the usual “lose weight” and “spend less money,” my resolution list includes “plan an awesomely fun wedding” and “don’t be a psycho-bride.” And that’s pretty much it!

On the food and eating front, I got some pretty cool toys for Christmas. I cannot wait to use the avocado cutter that my dad got me, or to grow herbs in the Aerogarden my mom got me, or to make ice cream in the ice cream maker I got myself. My friend Darcy got me an adorable set of primary-colored dinosaur-themed cupcake papers and picks. I’m not sure what event I’ll use them for, but it’s gotta be something special! AND I got a fondue pot from Steve’s brother and his girlfriend! It makes me happy to know that the people who know me see me as enough of a cooking enthusiast that they get me awesome cooking stuff for Christmas.

Do you know the blog Cake Wrecks? You totally should. The blogger, Jen, posts daily photos of professional cakes that have something hilariously wrong with them. Her story is neat—she was a working schmoe like you or I, but she started blogging about something she found entertaining, and now it’s her full-time job. Nice, huh?

She’s put out a book, and went on a book tour with her husband. On November 5^th, they went to the Barnes and Noble in Bethesda, and I simply had to be there. One component of the tour is that attendees were invited to make cupcake-sized replica (wreckplicas) of the cakes on her site and compete for prizes. And… I simply had to do that, too. So I chose to re-create the “dirty turkey” cupcake cake from this post. Here’s what I came up with:

Nice, huh?

I attended the event on the 5^th with my coworker Erica, and while I do believe that my cupcake was well received, it was not a winner. That’s OK. If you check out her roundup blog post, you’ll see that I had some hot competition (and you can also see Erica and I in the second row in the crowd photo!)

Despite my loss, it was a cool event. They gave a slideshow of their favorite wrecks, took some audience questions, and then signed our books for us. And there was cake! Of course.

Make applesauce! Today I set myself up at the dining room table for a lengthy stretch of peeling and cutting (with Navin serving as a pretty worthless assistant). I gotta say, it’s a lovely fall-like way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Armed with what the internets told me about apple varieties, I chose to whip up some applesauce using 6 Ozark Gold, 4 Grimes, and 2 Rome apples, which I think turned out to provide a pretty nice balance of flavor.

I started with a recipe that called for half a lemon’s worth of juice, 2 t of cinnamon, and a cup of sugar, but the apple flavor was tasty enough that I only used half the cinnamon and a half-cup of Splenda. The other change I made was to run the sauce through a food processor twice, because I’m not a fan of chunky applesauce. And I have to say it turned out delicious. It was a splendid accompaniment to the pork chops I made for dinner tonight!

Onyah Fail. Weeks 12 and 13 whizzed by without getting a chance to blog anything. I’m a big sack of lame, I know. Here are a few highlights from the past two weeks…

The End of Peaches! When I was picking up my share yesterday, Mr. Farmer said that there will be no more peaches, and a small cheer went up from the crowd. Which made me laugh. But the end of peaches heralds the arrival of craploads of apples! So it’s time for me to stock up on T. Marzetti’s fat-free caramel dip and start gathering apple recipes. Here are the results of some apple research I’ve done:

• Golden Delicious: Sweet and well-balanced flavor makes it perfect for fresh eating, salads, and processing in applesauce or pies.
• Grany Smith: Tart but well balanced flavor. Their crisp bite and tangy flavor can be enjoyed out of hand or in a salad, but their flavor really comes through when baked or sautéed
• Rome: Good eating apple due to its sweet and mildly tart flavor. Better as a cooking apple because its flavor grows richer when it is baked or sautéed.
• Grimes: Rich, distinctive, aromatic, and spicy in flavor. Perfect for applesauce. It is an excellent, juicy, cider apple; good for all kitchen uses except baking.

I’m happy to see squash, eggplant, and sweet potatoes. The DC weather has turned cooler lately, and I am loving the feeling that fall has arrived! I used the eggplant and basil to not-so-creatively make my usual eggplant parmesan. The sweet potatoes I foresee being turned into these curried Sweet Potato Wedges, which I’ve made before and found very tasty. I’m also planning on roasting the tomatoes and tossing them with whole wheat penne and shrimp for dinner tonight. (The tutorial on tomato-roasting on Smitten Kitchen’s blog is excellent. Interesting side note: I learned that my friend Karen and her boyfriend Jwon are friends with Deb from SK, and I was totally starstruck and dorked out in her dining room when she told me this. Deb is one of my heroes.)

My last peach recipe: This one was a real crowd-pleaser, so I wanted to share. Another gem from SK was this Peach Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Frosting recipe. I brought them to a BBQ and to work and everyone thought they were mega-tasty. I was glad to see the Great Peach Onslaught of 2009 go out on a high note.

Weigh-in switch: I’ve been forgetting to weigh in on Thursday mornings. Every other Thursday I’m out the door before 6:00 AM to hit the gym, and I’m just not capable of remembering to weigh in (and then remembering what the scale said) that early in the morning. So I’m switching my weigh-in day to Sunday. Sadly, my first Sunday weigh-in was not a stellar one, likely because of all the beer and Mexican food I consumed on the Saturday prior.

While last week’s delivery was a pretty sane assortment of things that are none-too-difficult to use up—a tomato, a pepper, a few peaches, a few apples—this week is a bit more challenging! Another dozen peaches have arrived. And I’m flying to Houston for my cousin’s wedding this weekend! How am I supposed to consume a dozen peaches when I’m not even around?

Also… when I land on Sunday afternoon, Steve is picking me up at the airport, and taking me directly to our friends’ house for a BBQ (and not just any BBQ—a goat roast)! So I did a little research on pie-freezing, and the internets say that you can freeze your pies before you bake them, then pop them in the oven and they’re good as new. Trusting that the internets know what they’re talking about, I embarked on another cooking adventure!

I took today off to prepare for the trip, and spent the better part of the afternoon making these hand pies from Smitten Kitchen. The recipe calls for a lot of prepping and chilling and prepping some more and chilling some more… so it takes a while. But I baked two of the hand pies, just to see how they would turn out, and I had one of them and they. are. awesome. The crust turned out wonderfully crispy and flaky and I’m sure all those chilling steps are to thank. The rest of the pies are in my freezer, and baking instructions have been written down for Steve, so he can bake them on Sunday and we can bring them to the goat roast. Lord knows I don’t need 20 tiny pies sitting around my house!

How does this spread look, eh? So nice that it attracted not one but two kitties! I apologize for the delay in writing about my week 6 delivery—it’s been a very awesomely busy week. We got the veggies Wednesday, I spent the better part of Thursday night and Friday morning cooking, then we drove out to The Plains for a birthday weekend in the woods. Here’s how I used the foodstuffs this week:

Oregano: Dried for future use (just like week one)

Peaches: Eaten just as they are. Crazy-delicious!

Zucchini and garlic: Mediterranean Quiche for Saurday morning, which was pretty darn tasty. If I were to make it again, I’d put some effort into squeezing the liquid from the cooked zucchini—I thought it was a little watery.

Cabbage and basil: Horseradish Cole Slaw, which paired awesomely with the BBQ Brisket that was served Saturday night.

And then there were the apples! They’re lodi apples, and there were eight of them. The farmer warned that they don’t last very long, and eight is a lot of apples for two people to eat… so I decided I should make something pie-like! A while back, when visiting Iowa over the holidays, I thoroughly enjoyed an apple galette (which is like a tart, but more rustic) that my stepmom made, and I asked her for the recipe. She ever-so-kindly scanned and e-mailed me the pages of Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home that featured this awesomeness. The recipe is actually pretty simple; the filling is apples, dried apricots, and dried currents, and the glaze is apricot jam and Grand Marnier. In addition to the anxiety around making my first pie crust, I was a little nervous about the lodi apples. I found very little information about them online—one site said they were good in pies, but I had no idea if it was trustworthy. It turns out it was—the galette was perfect! I can’t say enough about how tasty this was, and what a crowd-pleaser it turned out to be this weekend. Next time I have a surplus of apples and an upcoming special event, I’m breaking this one out again!

The scale showed a teeny little .2 loss this week, which I am OK with. I went a little nuts at a Memorial Day cookout, and ended up exceeding my points by the end of the week. But since I still saw a loss, I can say that it was worth it! Chicken wings, guacamole, cherry pie, and too much beer… mmm-mmm.

It’s Sunday afternoon, and I’m about to go make my lunches for this week. I’m whipping up some whole wheat pasta with roasted eggplant and tomatoes, and I got some Parmigiano-Reggiano to grate over the each portion. 1 T of it is only .5 points, and packs so much more of a flavorful punch than the low-fat Kraft crap I’ve tried in the past. Cheese is totally one of those foods that I am willing to splurge on! I’m also going to chop up a bunch of fruit, then I’ll be making this Chicken Piccata with Summer Vegetable Pasta recipe for dinner (I’m particularly excited about it—I love anything that has capers)! Yet another Sunday spent in the kitchen.

P.S. at 9:00 PM: The piccata was so good I almost died. Seriously. I will be making it again and again.

I was happy to see a one-pound loss when I got on the scale yesterday! I’m on the road to recovery from my weekend of eating like an Iowan. The things that helped me this week were the five-mile hike Steve and I took on Sunday (it was SUCH a beautiful day I could hardly contain myself), and this week’s lunch recipe:

Grilled Veggie Pasta Salad (4 servings)

4 ounces dry whole wheat pasta (I like rotini)
1 medium zucchini
1 medium yellow squash
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
½ white onion
1 c frozen green peas, thawed
2 T sliced black olives
1 c grape tomatoes, each cut in half
2 T olive oil
juice of one lemon
1 t dried oregano
1 t Dijon mustard
1/2 t salt
1/4 t black pepper
2 medium garlic cloves, minced

Cook the pasta per package directions. Slice the veggies into grillable plank-slices. Pour the 2 T of olive oil in a small dish, and brush both sides of the veggie slices before grilling. The peppers and onions take about ten minutes; the zucchini and squash only take five. Let the veggies cool a bit, then chop them into 1-inch pieces and mix together. Add the last six ingredients to the remaining oil and whisk together to make a dressing. Toss the grilled veggies, cooked pasta, peas, tomatoes, olives, and dressing together; divide into 4 portions. Like I do with the Southwest-ey Salad, I put each portion in its own Tupperware container, and each day for lunch I bring one portion and one baggie of mixed salad greens. Dump a portion over the greens when it’s time to eat! 3.5 points per serving.

Lunches for the past few weeks have been easy-breezy for me. I’ve gotten in the habit of spending Sunday afternoon whipping up 4-5 days worth of lunches for the week. The week before last, I ate Herbed Bulgur-Lentil Pilaf and a smoothie every day. Last week, I ate Curried Chicken Salad every day. This week, I whipped up a batch of Southwest-ey salad, and I had it every day with a veggie quesadilla – my recipes are below. Having all the cooking and planning done in advance, and making something very different from week to week, keeps it easy and exciting!

Southwest-ey Salad (makes 4 ginormous salads)

1 cucumber; peeled, seeded, and diced
½ green bell pepper, diced
3 scallions, sliced
1 c grape tomatoes, each cut into quarters
½ c frozen corn kernels, thawed
½ c canned black beans, rinsed and drained
bag of mixed salad greens

dressing:
juice of one lime
1 scallion, sliced
handful of fresh cilantro
1 t salt
2 T green salsa
1 T red wine vinegar

Make the dressing in the food processor. Toss it with all the veggies except the mixed salad greens. Divide the dressed veggies into four portions. I put each portion in its own Tupperware container, and each day for lunch I bring one portion and one baggie of mixed salad greens. Dump a portion over the greens when it’s time to eat! 1 point per serving.

Veggie Quesadillas (makes 3)

6 6-inch corn tortillas
3 t canola oil
1 ½ oz lowfat shredded cheese (I like Sargento’s Mexican blend)
red pepper
white onion
zucchini
mushrooms
Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle seasoning (or similar)

Slice the vegetables into wide, flat pieces. Toss them in 1 ½ t of the canola oil, shake on the seasoning, and grill in a grill pan. The peppers and onions take about ten minutes; the zucchini and mushrooms only take five. Let the veggies cool a bit, then chop them into 1-inch pieces and mix together.

To make each quesadilla, hold a tortilla in one hand and dump ½ t of canola oil in the center. Lay a second tortilla on top and rub them together to distribute the oil, all the way to the edges. Place three tortillas, oiled side down, in a large skillet on medium heat. Top each tortilla with ½ ounce of cheese and about a ½ cup of the chopped cooked veggies. Top each one with a second tortilla, oiled side out. Cook for a few minutes on each side, until the tortillas brown a bit and the cheese melts. 3 points per serving.

1) Working out at 8:00 am is so much better than 6:00! My usual workout mornings start with a brutal alarm clock awakening, then sluggishly dragging myself out of bed and up the stairs. I do my workout, but I find that I’m yawning and grumpy through at least the first half. Today I woke up at 8:00, came upstairs in my own time, and started my workout when I was totally awake and coherent (what a concept)! I got a much better workout that I usually do – I pushed myself more, sweat more, and had a much better attitude about it. I’m hoping that when the new gym opens, the process of getting dressed, going to my car, and driving to the gym will have the same effect – it’ll wake me up enough that I can get the most out of my workout.

2) I want to make every recipe I saw on Healthy Appetite with Ellie Krieger! After working out, I flipped on the TV, switched it to the Food Network, and saw this show for the first time. She made three recipes: Herbed Bulgur-Lentil Pilaf, Steamed Artichokes with Almond Saffron Dip, and Lemon-Ginger Iced Tea with Berry Cubes, and they all looked delicious and easy! As she cooks, she shares healthy food trivia, like… did you know yellow peppers have as much vitamin C as 4 oranges? Or that bulgur has twice the fiber of brown rice? I added this one to TiVo’s to-do list. Finally a cooking show that isn’t just eye-candy!