WIP Wednesday: Sweat. Eat. Repeat.

I had a whole other theme thought out for today's post, but I'll have to save that for another time.  So look forward to hearing about some fiber purchases I made last weekend.  But right now, I'm in recovery mode from this evening's workout, and that's all I can really think about.

I'm in the second week of Hal Higdon's Novice Supreme marathon training program, which specified a three-mile run for today.  I usually run on the treadmilll before joining my group exercise class, but I only rack a little over two miles in 30 minutes, then give myself about ten minutes to refocus on whatever torture the trainer has devised.  Could I squeeze in another mile?  And then do a whole other workout?

You know it!

Now, the question remains, can I get out of bed tomorrow morning?

I'll deal with that hurdle when the alarm goes off.  For now, I'm just digesting my delicious post-workout dinner.  Brace yourselves, because I did not have pancakes.  No, this time I went with something completely different: chana masala from Tarka Indian Kitchen, and Tutti Frutti frozen yogurt.  Aside from the proximity to frozen yogurt, I chose Tarka because I've recently found that I quite like Indian food, making my dad and I the only two who do.  So we have to take advantage of our opportunities to enjoy it, and I have to make my way through a menu full of wonderful-sounding dishes.  Chickpea curry?  Yum.  And Taro frozen yogurt for dessert?  Double yum.

I don't have an action shot of my cardigan sleeve sitting in a pile of basmati rice, you'll be happy to know.  But I am a few inches into the ribbing there, and I've added a few layers of wrapping onto my single cop.  If I can run three miles, then bust out a great group exercise class, I'm sure I can get these WIPs turned into FOs soon!

For more WIP posts, visit Tami's Amis.

Not-so-centered thoughts

I decided to go to the gym for my run this afternoon, and thought that I might as well join the group yoga class while I was there.  I'm guessing that these are not the calming thoughts that I'm supposed to empty my mind with:

• My feet are cold.
• What am I going to make for dinner?
• What's on TV tonight?
• I should publish that article on Examiner when I get home.
• Top Model with guys...
• My feet are cold.
• My calf muscles are just not long enough.
• What should I bake for next week?
• I should paint my nails.
• My feet are cold.

Namaste, everybody.

Cubicle kitchen: Banana Velvet Loaf Cake

There are lots of ways to save people.  When you donate blood, they like to tell you that you saved two lives.  That certainly feels good, knowing that for very little effort you can play an important role in someone's physical ability to breathe in and out.

On a much smaller scale, though, feeding people baked goods does its own kind of saving.  When I brought this to our coffee klatch, one of my coworkers took two slices and exclaimed that this was just what he needed to make his day better.  That also feels good.

To make sure that my iron levels were high enough to donate, I consciously made an effort to eat foods high in iron.  Last time the blood drive came through, I missed the cut by one point.  Along with my daily multivitamin, I had shrimp for dinner a few night, and tried beet greens for the first time.  I sautéed both leaves and stems with garlic, which was actually pretty tasty.  And with the deep, vibrant colors, you just know you're getting lots of tasty vitamins.

While chocolate cake doesn't immediately appear to be similarly nutritious, when it's made with a couple of mashed bananas instead of butter or oil, it's not without redeeming factors.  Plus, there's the old standby excuse of it being food that's good for you...good for your soul.

Banana Velvet Loaf Cake
Recipe from One Good Thing: Simple Three-Ingredient Banana Bread

My notes:

• I used Mam Papaul's Black Velvet cake mix (saving the frosting mix for another time)
• I added Peanut M&Ms into the batter, and sprinkled some dried banana chip pieces on top
• This makes a very moist cake.  The recipe calls it banana bread, but I think loaf cake is much more accurate.  As one person remarked, this is much more like an indulgent chocolate brownie with banana than a banana bread with cocoa.
• I made a full-sized loaf in a 11" x 6" pan, and a little mini loaf using a 4" x 2.5" pan for one of my mom's co-workers who celebrated a birthday.  The full-sized loaf took closer to an hour to bake, while the mini loaf was closer to 20 minutes.

Inspiration Saturday: Royal baby shawls

Now, I'm not an avid royal-watcher.  I will admit to having a coffee cup commemorating William and Kate's wedding, but it's at least 50% ironic.  There's something nostalgic about having a little piece of memorabilia, it makes me think of lovely little old ladies in the UK with the full set sitting in their window on some faded white doilies.  And there's something kind of wicked about imagining what her face would look like if she saw me sipping instant coffee out of my delicate little mug.

So amongst the hubbub of the royal baby, I haven't been on tenterhooks, but I'm also not antagonistically cynical.  Especially when I saw one of the presents baby George will be receiving.  I don't know much about baby gifts, but I'm guessing that a lot of his are platinum and engraved.  At least one, though, is knit.

Apparently in 1982, William had a shawl specially designed, spun, and knit for him by Margaret Stove as his official gift from New Zealand.  The Summer 2013 issue of Spin Off has an article by Stove all about it.  For William's son, a shawl was again hand spun and knit, this time by Cynthia Read, but the design was one of Stove's:

Photo credit: Interweave

It's Filmy Fern, from her latest book, Wrapped in Lace.  It looks simply spectacular.  I don't know that I could ever attempt something like this, but I do love staring at it.  What does a baby do with a shawl like this?  I guess pretty much the same thing as me.

For more information about the shawl, there's a great blog post by Stove's granddaughter at Holland Road Yarn Company.  And as always, for more inspiration, go to Woolen Diversions.

WIP Wednesday: From spinning to sprinting

If exceptions make the rule, then I'm setting myself up for a fully-regimented 30 weeks of marathon training.  Because I gave blood today, I figured I was unlikely to be able to complete the scheduled 3-mile run.  So instead, I ran it yesterday morning, making my grand total mileage 4.5 miles.  I haven't even tried counting how many miles I'll have posted in training before the marathon, I have a feeling that it might freak me out a little.  All I need to know is that I have another 1.5 miles scheduled for tomorrow after using today as a rest day.

Even though the Tour de Fleece is technically over, I haven't taken any rest days from spinning.  I'm still adding to the final cop with neatly placed wraps around the spindle:

I love the colorful geometry of it, like a purple Chrysler building.

I've also started work on that second sleeve of my cardigan.  It's not much to look at yet, but here's a look at the beads I bought over the weekend:

Don't they go perfectly?  It's giving me something to look forward to when I'm picking up all of those stitches for the ruffle.

So there are three of my works in progress: spinning, knitting, and running.  For more WIPs, go to Tami's Amis.

Cubicle kitchen: Sweet and Salty Blondies

Knowledge is a dangerous thing.  Because now that I know the only thing needed to make caramel is a microwave and a can of sweetened condensed milk, which is something I pretty much always keep in stock in my pantry in case I need to make some fudge.

I had heard that I could make dulce de leche sauce by boiling the can itself, but I also read that there might be some reasons not to, like the risk of the can exploding if the water level became too low, or that the can itself might impart some not-nice things.  So when I found some examples of people taking the condensed milk out of the can and using the microwave, that seemed the best place for me to start.  I don't know why, but I still avoid double-boiling.  I'll get there eventually.

Now that I've hooked you with the caramel, let's take a step back to the true start of this treat: chocolate-covered pretzels.  Hmm, I could probably have hooked you with those as well, couldn't I?

A package of chocolate-covered pretzel rods were the first ingredient I had decided on.  I thought about using them to create a crust, but in the end went with something simpler so that I could take time for the second ingredient I had decided I would need: that caramel.  It just seemed to be the logical next step when you already had salty and sweet.  So I found a blondie recipe with pretzels and caramel and went from there.

Another success, and just the beginning of my love affair with this cheater's version of caramel.

Sweet and Salty Blondies
Recipe from Averie Cooks: Salted Caramel Pretzel Blondies

My notes:

• Instead of 2 cups of mini pretzels, I chopped up 8 chocolate-covered pretzel rods, along with a few Rolos and mini Heath bars.
• I didn't have any caramel topping on hand, so instead I made my own following these instructions from The Perfect Pantry.  I had issues with the bubbling milk/caramel reaching the cling film and making a mess, so in the end I used a plastic tupperware with the lid askew on top.  Keep an eye on this, because if you take your eyes off of the microwave for more than a few seconds, you could have a very sticky mess.  Because you're going to bake this, you can under-'cook' it a little in this phase.  Also: you will have leftovers.  I'm sure you can figure out something to do with them.

Beads, berets, and Bugs Bunny froyo

I've always been a little ambivalent about Sundays.  Yes, it's still the weekend, but at least some of the luster of that is diminished by knowing that Monday is just a sleep away.  Sometimes I try to keep Sunday completely free of all reasons to leave the house and just keep it as a lazy day in preparation of the week ahead.

However, when Yogurtland has Looney Tunes-themed flavors that might be going out of rotation in the next week, I can make an exception.  And after a little Google searching, I can find a reason to head up to North Austin.  Unfortunately, the first excuse, a quilting fabric store, was closed on Sundays.  But then, Mom found Sea of Beads, and well, excuse found.

I haven't added much beading to my knitting so far, but I'm such a fan of extra color and sparkle, it was only a matter of time.  And when, amongst all of the other gorgeous beads and charms, I saw a tube of number 6 seed beads in a color that goes perfectly with my cardigan.  That's right, because when you're lamenting all of the endless finishing details of your first long-sleeved garment, what you really want to do is add another detail.  What can I say?  I need the sparkle.  Just a little, in the ruffles.  And maybe the neckline.

From one indulgence to another, it was time for froyo:

At the time, I didn't know that it would be around until August 4th.  All I knew was that a new flavor was coming in after Sunday, so I couldn't be sure that it wasn't replacing what sounded like a delicious froyo version of a Terry's Chocolate Orange.  Since I've already made fudge inspired by that flavor combo, I had to try this.  Yum.  If you have a Yogurtland near you, you should find a bead store nearby to give you a reason to try it too.  I also tried the Bugs Bunny Carrot Cake, but I'm really looking forward to swirling the Marvin the Martian Kosmic Fruit Kaboom Sorbet.  Pineapple and lime?  Sounds like one Mom will love too.

I also managed to catch Phil Mickelson winning the Open.  I don't know if there are any other knitting golf-watchers out there, but for me, aside from rooting for Phil, the main story was his daughter's super-cute knit beret, which we all saw in panorama when the whole family went in for a celebratory hug.  Great excuse for an Examiner slideshow.  Gotta make use of that agreement with Getty Images whenever possible.

So that was my Sunday.  It got me through Monday.  How about you?