iamKT

Wow this blog is neglected!

2010-05-16T21:06:00.000-07:00

Soooooooo much has happened since July 2008, so I better take some time and update y'all on the happenings in the Carter House. But, not tonight:D

An Experiment in Pita

2008-07-21T20:36:00.000-07:00

There was a time when I was deathly afraid of baking bread...anything bread related scared the hell out of me. I was so unsure of the process and what the effect my willy-nilly, little-bit-of-this- little-bit-of-that, devil-may-care cooking philosophy would have on the baking world. What happens if I murder the yeast in scalding hot water? Why is the line so fine between done and burnt? Why is there so much waiting! Just rise already!

Well, not anymore! Les and I attended a bread baking class at Draeger's Market in San Mateo and we were champions and got through the yeast adventure unscathed. Ever since we took the class, I no longer fear bread. Every time we see a sandwich, we say "we can totally make that bread". We are bread heroes.

I was browsing the latest Fine Cooking magazine last week and came across their Fresh Pita recipe. While reading it, I knew this was an experiment we could handle. Les and I tag-teamed this recipe. I made the dough and watched it through its first rise, Les rolled and shaped them, and we both baked and quality taste-tested them:)

Ready to Rise
Rolled Out and Ready to Bake
Puffed Up Deliciousness
Stuffed with Chicken, Onions, and Feta
Breakfast Pita Stuffed with Egg, Rice, and Cheese

I stole this fabulous quote from Amy

2007-12-02T23:17:00.000-08:00

Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
"It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly...who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at best, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

I thought it too precious not to pass on.

Do you know where your food comes from?

2007-12-02T23:06:00.001-08:00

Do you know where your food comes from?
If not, you should. There are major corporations encouraging inhumane conditions for the animals you eat, introduction of synthetic hormones into these animals you eat, widespread use of pesticides and chemicals that affect the nutritional value and composition of the food you eat, and an overall attack on free speech in product advertising which affects EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US. Because of it, one day, you might just find your choices being taken away from you to decide what food you buy at the market.

I've been doing a lot of reading about this tonight and think you should get educated, too. Start here:
Chews Wise and follow the links in the articles. Join the revolution and get smarter about the things you put in your body.

If you don't want to do the research, here are some tips:
**Buy organic - who cares if it costs more - we're talking about your health here!
**Buy from local farmers - support your local farmer and your local community
**Don't be lazy - stop eating fast food and make real food for yourself and your family
**Read product labels and buy food that you can eat the way nature intended it to be
**DEMAND accountability from our politicians to ensure our safety with legislation they pass for healthy food and let them know you are a smart American that supports sustainable agriculture

I love this time of year

2007-08-19T13:15:00.001-07:00

I love when Autumn is right around the corner. The change from hot and lazy Summer to the crisp and cool Fall makes me go all tingly inside and gets me really excited for snow adventures in a few months.

It's also the time of year when I do my purging. Not the gross kind, people, but the good kind. It's when I go through every single closet and drawer and clean out the things that I haven't touched in a year and give it to charity or send to recycle. Doing this makes the house seem less full and new in a way. I'm a big fan of simplicity and this is one way to accomplish that goal.

I think we all have too much stuff for the sake of having stuff. If you haven't done this in a while - or ever - you should all give it a try. Reduce, reuse, and recycle. When you get down to basics and resist being a slave to consumerism., a completely liberating feeling takes over and it's wonderful.

That is all:)

xxoo
KT

Sunday Roast - featuring Nigella Lawson's recipes

2007-07-22T18:41:00.000-07:00

Since I've stopped training for triathlon, there's a void in the routine-craving side of my brain. I've decided to fill that void with something food related and yummy rather than more exercise...because I already get quite enough of that!

Starting this week, I will do a Sunday Dinner featuring a renowned chef's menu. Since I was nursing a hangover this morning and flipped the t.v. back and forth between Food Network and TLC for approximately four hours, I decided to do Nigella Lawson's Weekend Wonders menu. I'me not normally a fan of Nigella, and I'm not sure why. There's just something about her that puts me off. But, this particular episode caught my attention because it was such a simple thing to put together.

I went to Whole Foods. I forgot how expensive things are there. I am a Trader Joe's shopper and will continue to be after today's grocery bill exceeded $100 to feed five people. I've never spent that much on cooking one night's dinner at Trader Joe's. TJ, I'll never stray again, I promise. Yes, I am a tightwad with money.

Things I learned for each course:

Onion and Sage Chicken and Sausage Roast
Marinade this for at least two hours and pour all of marinade into roasting pan
Thighs and drumsticks tasted better than the breasts
Leave skin on chicken

Petite Peas
Don't walk away from this while the stock is reducing! Find busy work by the stove, because it happens quickly and will burn. Then, like me, you'll have to start over;)

Heirloom Tomato and Cucumber Salad
The longer this marinates, the better. It was great the next day.

Honey Bee Cake
It may not look perfect, but it's soooooooooooo delicious!
If you can't find yellow marzipan, yellow food die works fine.

Fennel and Heirloom Tomato Salad

2007-07-21T19:33:00.000-07:00

I introduced fennel into the house last summer and Les hated it. I tried to sneak it in again, by mixing into a salad, but he didn't fall for it. He picked out all the fennel, but ate everything else. This salad is coated with my standby red wine vinaigrette. I rather enjoyed it but know a third try with the hubby isn't going to happen.

Mendocino Flower Seeds All Grown Up:)

2007-07-21T19:22:00.000-07:00

Les and I went camping on the Mendocino Coast last November. While we were there, we went to the Mendocino Botanical Gardens. It was a beautiful experience and I bought some seeds to plant at home. This is the outcome of some of the Nasturium seeds I planted. She's gorgeous!

Roast Lamb and Vegetables

2007-07-21T17:03:00.000-07:00

Les, my English hubby, has a special place in his heart for a proper roast dinner. I'm not 100% in love with lamb because it makes me think about a cute, fluffy baby animal...not dinner. But alas, he likes it, so I make it every once in a while.

Homemade Pizza is the Best

2007-07-21T16:54:00.000-07:00

You just can't get better than homemade. Food that is made by hand is full of love and shows the people eating it that you cared enough to spend time making something that would make them happy. I found a recipe for pizza dough in No Need to Knead by Suzanne Dunaway, the book that Sheri gave me last year.

This recipe is very simple and you can't screw it up. Les has always enjoyed my homemade pizza, but that was when I used Boboli pizza crust. Now that I know how to make my own, he loves it even more.

I heart buckwheat pancakes

2007-07-21T16:40:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning always means breakfast in bed. For the past two weekends, I've made buckwheat pancakes with blueberries. Love them! Enough said:)

Happy Fourth of July

2007-07-04T08:44:00.000-07:00

Photo Courtesy of Jon Cates

Today is about patriotism and remembering how we separated from the stoggy and unkind British Monarchy and forged our own culture and identity as Americans. We are a group of hard-working, industrious, generous, and proud people. Of course, we have our share of lazy do-nothings, as well, but we don't want to concentrate on that!

It's unfortunate that the American Indians had to endure much hardship at that time of our history, but it was bound to happen. We can't honestly think that this country, with all of it's resources and opportunities would not have been exploited and left untouched at some point. That is just not realistic.

I digress.

Happy Fourth of July everybody. Relax, enjoy life, drink a beer, have some cake, and don't forget to show your country you appreciate her beyond bounds. Americans enjoy freedoms that most of the world only dreams about. Don't ever take these stars and stripes for granted.

Carter's Eats

2007-05-27T08:19:00.000-07:00

The past two months, for the most part, I've stayed in compliance with the South Beach diet recommendations. As I've mentioned before, the plan is easy and makes mealtime much less stressful because it's all mapped out for me.

There are some days when I must have something naughty...like a real pizza or some cereal. I've fallen off the wagon a little bit lately because my school, work, and training schedule didn't allow me to do much shopping or planning with my food. I eat on the go and whenever I have time. That usually means something hand-held and quick - tasty morsels wrapped in bread. The almighty sandwich is what I'm talking about.

Here's some food that we've been consuming over the past several weeks.

Breakfast in Bed - egg whites with cheese, turkey bacon, and "white" wheat English muffin

Spinach and ricotta stuffed salmon, mashed cauliflower, and salad

Sirloin steak with peppers and onions

Sour cream waffles - not SB approved!

Semester, please end already!

2007-05-17T18:39:00.000-07:00

Work, school, and training have kept me so f-ing busy these past two months that I have no life. I don't like not having a life. I like being able to slack-off a little bit and just live. I like to drink a beer without feeling it's damaging effects on my motivation. I like staying up late and not worrying about being up at stupid o'clock to make it to school on time. I am so ready for this semester to be over. I have one more final and one last presentation to make for my research report in the other class. THEN I will have a life. Until then, my fellow bloggers, I will continue to be MIA. I know, one day, I will be able to read your blogs and chuckle at your clever remarks. Not yet...not yet.

XXOO
KT

Highway 9, Saratoga, CA - I OWN you!

2007-04-29T19:53:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah baby. I had a two-hour ride scheduled tonight and was wondering if I should do my normal route through Los Gatos or if I should be brave and climb. Of course, I chose to climb. We all know I love it climb...perhaps not while it's happening, but I do absolutely adore the exhilaration of an extremely satisfying downhill.

I decided to ride straight down Saratoga Ave, from my house and rode into Saratoga. I decided to get onto Highway 9 - a billy goat climb - and it took just over an hour to climb all the way to the top where it ends at Skyline Blvd. 2135 feet of climbing for 7.3 miles. Oh what an amazing feat that was. On the way up, I realized something...and this is going to be quite profound, so pay attention.

Climbing difficult roads takes four things to accomplish: two legs and two hearts. Two strong legs to turn the pedals over, one heart - the primed cardiovascular machine that pumps fresh oxygen and blood into those legs that are pushing and pulling your ass up the hill, and the other heart. The one that makes you dig deep and removes all thoughts of quitting out of your brain. This is the heart that gets you up the hill, if you don't have heart, how do you get up that hill? You don't, you quit and go back down from whence you came. And that's no good. That does not feel good at all. Always use both of your hearts when things get hard.

Highway 9, I really do own you today. My hearts and legs totally took advantage of you and we won. Thank you for the 42 mph max speed going downhill, too. You have replaced Bernal Road as the MOST satisfying downhill in the South Bay!

Dove Evolution

2007-04-17T20:43:00.001-07:00

An ad campaign every woman and man should see!

Hills that kick my a$$

2007-04-09T11:55:00.000-07:00

Normally, I pride myself in being somewhat a billy goat on hills. Riding GB through a steep course is what gets my blood moving and sense of accomplishment...accomplished. However, I did something really stupid on Saturday. I started up a road that I had never been on and had no idea where it ended. OMG. Bohman Road, you officially suck!

I do enjoy finding new routes but need to know what I have in store for myself so I know how hard I'll have to work. This road was steeper and had more switchbacks than any road I've been on. It was painful. It was a stair-stepper ride, for sure. I can usually climb comfortably at 5-7 mph on a steep, but this one reduced me to 2mph! After every turn, I kept thinking, "This has got to be it, I have to be at the top already!". But, NO! It took me ONE HOUR to climb ONE STUPID MILE! Like I said, it sucked.

I never made it to the top. I met a cyclist that said I was only halfway to the top and my legs responded to that comment with a resounding, "We're done, KT, we're totally done with this road. Take us home now.". Of course, the downhill was not satisfying at all because of the switchbacks, narrow road and cars. Brakes were engaged the entire time.

It will be quite a while before I attempt this climb again. I will conquer it, but not until my brain returns to normal.

Total ride was 2.5 hrs and 26 miles. Hard rides are worth it, though, in the end. It's that accomplishment thing.

OK, it's really not placebo, SB works

2007-04-09T11:47:00.000-07:00

Y'all know this is my second week on the South Beach diet. From the very first day on it, I've felt amazingly good. I've been sleeping better, have more energy, am friendlier (as if this was possible;)), and have a clarity that's been missing for a while.

I spent Easter weekend at Mom's and blew the SB out of the window. The first night we had spaghetti with meat sauce AND garlic bread and I had a horrible night's sleep. I kept waking up every hour and tossing and turning. I was also terribly bloated the next day. Easter Sunday came and was a day of excess....full of candy, chocolate and bad/sugary carbs at dinner (brown sugar sweet potatoes, anyone?). This night's sleep was just as restless and I had that creepy/crawly thing going on in my legs and was getting very irritable because of it. When I woke up this morning I was groggy and bloated again.

The moral of the story is that sugar is most likely the reason I'm not sleeping well and can't shake this 20 lbs off of my body no matter how much I exercise. It affects the way I sleep and my mood during the day. Being on SB has made me realize this and I will not fall off the wagon again. It's just not worth the aggravation. I felt great without those irritations, so today, I'm back to clean eating without processed carbs or any sugar.

Cycling South San Jose

2007-04-03T08:02:00.000-07:00

Sheri and I finally hooked up for a bike ride. For being training parters, not a lot of with-partner training has been happening in the past several months. She's busy with work and other grown-up things and I've been left to my own vices, which has worked out fine, I just miss her company.

After an hour of searching for the Gilroy Hot Springs ride, part of the Tierra Bella course, I gave up. The place where I usually get my routes has not been kept up and has broken links and doesn't work properly anymore. What's up with the Bikemaster?? Sheri, in her infinite wisdom, did a clever thing and went to G-Maps Pedometer and mapped out a route for us herself.

I will eventually get all of my rides onto my iamkt.com site, but that will be a slow process. For the sake of people like me, though, that live to find new and exciting routes, it must be done:)

We finished our ride in 2.5 hrs and did around 25 miles. It was a perfect day and an excellent ride.

7 mile run in a snap

2007-03-26T15:40:00.000-07:00

Yeah, weird. I haven't run in about a week, but today was amazing. My coach told me to stay in zone 1-2 for 1:20:00, but I forgot what made up my zones for running, so I was really in Z1 the entire time! Hence, I should have done 8-9 miles in that time, but it was good to go slow. I'm still building my aerobic base so slow is perfectly fine. Aside from that, I had my doggie with me and she doesn't do well past five miles.

I feel fantastic today. I'm not sure if it's a placebo effect from going on the South Beach diet yesterday, but for some reason not eating any sugar or refined carbs is definitely agreeing with me. I love the fact that they give me a meal plan and a shopping list each week. It's what I've always wanted. I don't like having to figure that stuff out on my own. I'll keep you posted on my progress:)

Blue Sky Bike Ride

2007-03-26T15:23:00.000-07:00

Sunday was bike ride day. I met a new friend through the tri club and we met up at Lake Almaden to do a 33 mile ride through the South Bay. Gorgeous day, sunny and cool. As usual, the wind behind the foothills toward the reservoirs was present, but not as bad as it is during the summer. I can tell that my fitness has improved greatly over the past two years because certain hills on this ride that kill me, did not phase me at all yesterday. It totally rocked:)

Nutrition fair brings out students - News

2007-03-25T20:53:00.000-07:00

My good friend Lawrence is working hard toward his MBA in Kinesiology at San Jose State University. He is diligent about enriching the lives of children and young adults by teaching them about the importance of good nutrition and exercise. SJSU had a nutrition fair this past Wednesday, March 21 and he was interviewed for the Spartan On-line newsletter. Here's a link to the article - Nutrition fair brings out students.

I even used my very limited HTML skills to create a website for him - Intro to Sports.

Why Lazy, Why?

2007-03-24T12:48:00.000-07:00

People, I ask you....why am I so lazy? I can keep up about two weeks' worth of workouts and then it all falls apart. Hectic work schedules and tiredness kick in and I just stop doing it. Why must it be this way? After this happens, I takes another week to get back into the swing of it.

This is not very productive for me because I am doing ALCATRAZ and I NEED to TRAIN. The caps are not for you, my dear reader, they are for my own motivation.

I wonder if I can just get off my butt right now and get my swim and run in today. Yes, I wonder if this will happen RIGHT NOW! Okay, I will...but only after I comment on the blogs I've been neglecting - GreenPea! Your motivational posts usually work. I'm coming over right now!

Wish me luck, I need to get out of this house, it's a gorgeous day to be in the pool.

Saint Patrick's Day

2007-03-18T19:57:00.000-07:00

Some days, on my way to work, I stop by a quaint little place called Lowry's Irish Coffee House in downtown San Jose. I always have a latte and a veggie bagel and reveled in the fact that it's a little-known gem. Lately, though, quality of food has gone down and I notice new owners. As if the obvious changes weren't enough, these new owners are not paying attention to even the littlest details. They speak very broken English and are not very friendly. So, when I walked in on Friday morning, they posted their St. Pat's menu and it looked like this:

Happy San Patrick Day. This weekend we serve:

Corn beef hash and eggs
Corn beef and cabbage
Irish stew with bread

I mean come on people! What the hell is corn beef and who is San Patrick? Let's put some effort into your attempts at business and at least try to make it look like you care about those of us that are rooting for cafes to stand on their own in a Starbucks world. It was disheartening.

What it did, though, is remind me that I needed to go to the store and pick up a beef brisket and veggies. This was the first time I made it but Les said it's the best cabbage he's ever had:) My gravy was lumpy - no surprise there - but it was still good.

Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon

2007-03-03T18:57:00.000-08:00

In December, TriCalifornia sent an email announcing the lottery they were going to hold for the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon and I said, "What the hell, I'll sign up....it's not like I'll win a slot or anything." Welp, I won! I have secured a spot at this insane race and have been training my butt off, literally:) It's 92 days away and I have coached workouts going on.

Today, I went to Santa Cruz with the Silicon Valley Tri Club and it was an amazing day. We did a 1000 yard swim at Seacliff Beach and then followed it up with a trail run at Nisene Marks State Park. Then we had breakfast and headed home. It was the best training day I've had in a long time and I was glad to meet some new friends.

The swim showed me that no matter how long it's been, you never lose the feel for the ocean. I immediately warmed up - after peeing in my wetsuit! If you didn't know that little trick, you should seriously try it. Your pee is sterile and it's not gross if you don't think about it:) After about five minutes in the water, I got my groove on and swam my little heart out.

Today was a good day.