athlEAT: oscar

Showing posts with label oscar. Show all posts

4.02.2010

Birthday Weekend

This past weekend we celebrated Kevin's birthday by heading out to the mountains. We couldn't have felt farther away from the city, but in actuality, we were only an hour and a half away.

We chose The Cascade Inn Historic Bed & Breakfast because it was near multiple parks and they allow dogs!

Yes, even Oscar got to getaway to the mountains for the weekend. Our first floor room was comfortable & beautiful.

We were lucky enough to have the entire B&B to ourselves for the weekend.

Breakfast Saturday morning was delicious. Ham/Green Onion/Monterey Jack quiche, Lemon poppy muffins, fresh fruit, coffee & OJ. This hearty breakfast fueled us until late in the afternoon.

After breakfast, we had plans to go mountain biking in Gambrill State Park, but unfortunately, it was much colder than we expected. Instead, we started the morning with a hike on the Appalachian Trail with Oscar.

It was a bright morning and we decided to head towards Georgia in hopes that it would get warmer as we walked. ;)

After Oscar was tired out, we dropped him off at the house and headed over to Cunningham Falls State Park.

We decided to take the Cliff Trail and after we made it up the short climb, we stopped for the standard couple shot.

We discovered the falls in no time and took some pictures before climbing up the rocks.

Kevin decided to scale the rock wall, which was funny to see.

I made one failed attempt to make it up the same route, before finding an easier way up. After more exploring/hiking, we headed back to the inn for some relaxation before dinner.

Carriage House Inn is on our list of possible caterers, so it was a perfect opportunity to give them a try before our official tasting.

Cream of Crab Soup

Garden Salad w/ a homemade Tomato Vinaigrette

Warm, Crusty Bread

Scallops in a citrus tomato sauce w/ garlic mashed potatoes and julienned vegetables.

Our food was good, but in all honesty, nothing knocked our socks off. And I kind of want my socks knocked off for the food at our wedding.

The next morning, our breakfast included one of the Inn's specialties - Caramelized bacon. (The recipe is listed on their website). It had that awesome sweet & salty combo.

Served with a belgian waffle. We were officially stuffed.

It was a quick drive back into Baltimore where we completed our P90x week with some KenpoX. Definitely needed to work off the bacon & belgian waffle!

3.04.2010

My Favorite Blog Subjects

Trader Joe's

It has been awhile since I posted about my latest Trader Joe's purchases. I still love that place and they don't pay me to say that. Actually, the people at Trader Joes don't even know I exist. Except that I am the annoying IP address that keeps requesting they open a Trader Joe's in Canton.

Anyways, the Cilantro and Jalapeno Hummus is my latest obsession. Kevin and I went through one of these things in 2 days. He takes big scoops.

The Multigrain Pita Chips with Sesame Seeds are the perfect scooper and something I pick-up everytime I am in the store.

I noticed this Gyoza Dipping Sauce and grabbed it immediately. I am always failing to create the perfect combination of soy sauce, rice vinegar & sesame oil for gyoza dipping.

No picture of the package, but the Thai Shrimp Gyoza w/ the dipping sauce was a very tasty combo.

The other day I made this breakfast wrap.

1 Handmade Whole Wheat Tortilla (TJs brand, of course)
Edamame Hummus (TJs)
Lite Mexican Cheese Blend (TJs)
Spinach
Scrambled Egg Whites + 1 regular egg
Chalula hot sauce
Only thing to make it even better would be some chopped tomatoes, but we were all out.

Workouts

I am proud to say that Kevin and I are days away from completing Week 4 of P90x. Our only slacking includes missing 1 session of Ab RipperX and cutting yoga 30 mins short. Not too shabby.

P90x Superlatives (so far)

Favorite - Core Synergistics. The time seems to fly by and I feel like I am getting a great overall work out.
Hardest - YogaX. My wrists (and entire body) hurts like hell during the first 40 mins of a million downward dogs and Chaturangas.
Most Surprising - The first time I did KenpoX, I felt silly and couldn't keep up. When I finally started focusing, it is now one of the workouts I actually look forward too.
Least Favorite - Ab RipperX is only 15 mins, but I hate abs. Always have, so I struggle through this workout and the minutes seem to last an eternity.

With all this P90x going on, the frequency of my running has been suffering. I am getting smaller runs in once or twice a week, with a longer run on the weekend.

Oscar & Lucy

Oscar wanted to say hi. He tried on the heart bandana Lucy got on her trip to the vet.

The serious look.

Speaking of Lucy, you wouldn't know it from the picture below, but she did everything in her power NOT to get into this carrier when it was time to go to the vet last week.

I came home to find her hanging out in there as if it is her favorite place in the world.

Then I catch her drinking out of Oscar's water bowl.

Since I have probably reached the pet picture limit, I will end this random post here and say that I hope everyone has fun plans for the weekend. I am in store for a weekend of fun celebrations that includes 1 new restaurant and 1 restaurant that has a special place in my heart. Cant wait.

Good night!

2.06.2010

Two Firsts

The snow inspired me to cook two new things today. Chickpea Blondies and French Onion Soup. Let's start with the Chickpea Blondies. The other day I saw Tina @ Carrots N Cake make these and was immediately puzzled. How could the same ingredient that makes hummus be used in a blondie? I had to try them for myself.

This recipe originally comes from the "Have Cake, Will Travel" blog. I altered the ingredients slightly. Instead of Strawberry Preserves, I used my Grandmom's homemade Strawberry/Rhubarb Jam.

Instead of crunchy, natural peanut butter, I used Trader Joes Creamy Almond Butter w/ Sea Salt.

I also used whole wheat pastry flour instead of flax or rice flour. Coming out of the oven, I was slightly worried.

Then, I took a bite.

Not a hint of hummus at all! ;) Next time I plan to add in some chocolate chips for an extra something-something. These were absolutely delicious and I cant seem to stop sneaking into the kitchen for small slivers that dont actually count.

Moving on to the French Onion Soup. Kevin's favorite soup in the world is French Onion. So, when I went looking for a recipe online, I had to choose "The Best French Onion Soup (ever!)" from Cookography.

This recipe told me to use a dutch oven. I don't own a dutch oven. I want one very badly, but since they are a million dollars, lots of onions went into my largest, heaviest pot. It couldn't go into the oven, so I did this all on the stove-top and it worked just fine.

After a few hours, the onions had cooked down and I began the deglazing process. Pouring the sherry into the caramelized onions was one of the best smells ever.

Well, that and the smell of freshly brewed Americana's from High Grounds down the street. We had been craving coffee and kept calling down there to see if they were open. Kevin was lucky enough to catch the manager stopping in for a few minutes. Yesss.