Just want you to know:

I'll be posting about this pie after we eat it tonight. Props to Runner's Kitchen and Pete Bakes on the inspiration/recipe.

Back bend on a Donut

I read this today and it kind of bugged me. If you read it knowing it's based purely on the fact that adding exercise is not the post effective way for you to lost weight, then it is somewhat logical, but if you think harder, you might say, "Why did they waste four (online) pages on this? And wouldn't you be healthier if you stayed the same weight with exercise than lost weight but were still a couch potato?"
Also, it's not like if you eat less and don't exercise you'll drop 25 pounds immediately. That's going to be incremental, so you may as well gain a little fitness while you do it.

Yikes, so below are some excerpts from Time's article "Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin": http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1914857-1,00.html, and then my comments on them...

The conventional wisdom that exercise is essential for shedding pounds is actually fairly new. As recently as the 1960s, doctors routinely advised against rigorous exercise, particularly for older adults who could injure themselves. Today doctors encourage even their oldest patients to exercise, which is sound advice for many reasons: People who regularly exercise are at significantly lower risk for all manner of diseases — those of the heart in particular. They less often develop cancer, diabetes and many other illnesses. But the past few years of obesity research show that the role of exercise in weight loss has been wildly overstated.

Uhm, you're not saying much here, and what you are saying sounds a little contradictory. Wouldn't you rather have lower risk of diseases than weigh less?

What's going on here? Church calls it compensation, but you and I might know it as the lip-licking anticipation of perfectly salted, golden-brown French fries after a hard trip to the gym.

Please, find me one person who wants to scarf fries after a run? I prefer a granola bar, dry cereal, slice of (whole wheat) bread.... Something that's not going to make my stomach unhappy.

A standard 20-oz. bottle of Gatorade contains 130 calories. If you're hot and thirsty after a 20-minute run in summer heat, it's easy to guzzle that bottle in 20 seconds, in which case the caloric expenditure and the caloric intake are probably a wash. From a weight-loss perspective, you would have been better off sitting on the sofa knitting.

If you're hot and thirsty after a 20 minute run in the summer heat, you can drink water and be a-ok. You don't need any electrolytes under half an hour, and you don't need 20 ounces of electrolytes. In fact, it's more like 4-8 ounces for every 20 minutes of exercise. And again, let's talk about making the stomach unhappy (or at least mine, I'm sure you're glad to know this)... Plus, so I've heard, better absorption of gato or other sports drinks occurs when it's about 1/2 strength. I tend to drink flavored seltzer with an ounce or two of juice in it post-run.

"If you're more physically active, you're going to get hungry and eat more." Gortmaker, who has studied childhood obesity, is even suspicious of the playgrounds at fast-food restaurants. "Why would they build those?" he asks. "I know it sounds kind of like conspiracy theory, but you have to think, if a kid plays five minutes and burns 50 calories, he might then go inside and consume 500 calories or even 1,000."

Uhhhh they build those so kids can have fun, play, you know, do kid stuff. Also, have you known anyone to burn 50 calories in 5 minutes???????
And wouldn't McDonald's prefer if you bought 1,000 calories of food for the little one??

We all need to move more — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says our leisure-time physical activity (including things like golfing, gardening and walking) has decreased since the late 1980s, right around the time the gym boom really exploded. But do we need to stress our bodies at the gym?

Sure, we don't need to. But sometimes doesn't it feel kind of good? Also, I'm curious, since I don't have a garden to garden in: all else equal, are people who live in smaller (sqft) homes heavier than people who live in larger ones?

Actually, it's not clear that vigorous exercise like running carries more benefits than a moderately strenuous activity like walking while carrying groceries.

What kind of benefits are we talking? Running will better prepare you to run a race or escape a tiger than carrying your groceries will.

In short, it's what you eat, not how hard you try to work it off, that matters more in losing weight. You should exercise to improve your health, but be warned: fiery spurts of vigorous exercise could lead to weight gain. I love how exercise makes me feel, but tomorrow I might skip the VersaClimber — and skip the blueberry bar that is my usual postexercise reward.

It's what you don't eat, not what you eat too much of because you think you've earned it. And most people don't exercise to "work it off" but to "work out." You shouldn't have a postexercise reward, you should have a post exercise refuel.
Besides, fries and gatorade - not part of a diet that helps you lose weight, regardless of whether you work out or not.

On Farmer's Markets

Have you ever been to the Arlington Farmer's Market in Courthouse on Saturday mornings? It's really fantastic, and if you haven't been you should make the effort. Similar to the Dupont Market I guess, Atwater's is there but Napoleon Bakery is not (thank god for Wednesdays in Foggy Bottom). However, Willow Restaurant is always there with treats, this week it was a peach-hazelnut tart with ice cream. Mmmm, ice cream for breakfast.
I tend to go between 9-11, and it's usually pretty crowded. Westmoreland Berry Farm has the longest lines and seem to have some good looking fruits. I usually make my way around the market, stopping in with one guy for yellow grape tomatoes, another farm for cucumbers, another for berries, and yet another for peaches (and then get a loaf of bread, mmmm bread).
Well this week, I had peaches and I had big tomatoes from Thursday, but I wanted some more blueberries & raspberries. And as luck would have it, the berry farm had an extremely short line. So I got in it. I have to say the blackberries were enormous, but I'm not the blackberry's biggest fan, so I didn't get them. (Incidentally, I have a regular old flip cell phone with no internet.) I picked up a box of blueberries, a box of raspberries, and a box of yellow cherry tomatoes.

Here is my assessment:
Raspberries - awesome, sweet & big
Tomatoes - mealy, boring, not snappy
Blueberries - not tart, almost sweet, kind of bland

In other words, not worth my waiting in line in the future, I'd rather visit a bunch of different farmers to get the same stuff.

My question is this: Are they usually better? Is that why there was no line this week? Did I get an off box of blueberries? (Is that possible?) Were everyone's blueberries boring this week?
Or are they just not worth visiting in the future?

Happy Birthday to Me (and Us)

Lesson learned: toaster ovens are not for baking cupcakes. (I thought maybe similar to the EZ Bake Oven, but nope.)
Look what happened:

Those are toasted on the top and totally gooey on the inside. Oops.

I still made two dozen* cupcakes and a two-layer cake.
Yes, I kind of did make my own birthday cake, but it was for a party for these birthday boys and girls:


Matt is wearing a Soylent Green t-shirt in this photo, which I thought was pretty funny. Anyway, onwards to my super adventures in the kitchen.

1. On Tuesday night I baked the layer cakes (and I used MATH! to figure out if I needed to double the recipe for the two pans or not. Yes children, math is useful in real life.), then let them cool and stuck them in the freezer until Friday.
The cake recipe is from the Silver Palate Cookbook I think, but it involves a cup of wine. Adult cake I guess.
2. Friday morning I took the cakes out to defrost.
3. Friday post-work I baked some cupcakes. Wait till you hear what I did with them.


4. Saturday morning it was FROSTING time. If you don't know this about me, I love frosting. Not that lame-ass buttercream stuff, but the sugary-sweet kind. Oh yeah. Usually I just eat the frosting from cakes and leave the rest of the cake to scavengers.
Frosting recipe from same cookbook. It involves melting chocolate and butter, then adding it to milk and powdered sugar and vanilla. Yum. Then you have to refrigerate and beat it every 15 minutes. YUMMMM.


5. And I cut up some strawberries.


6. Then I went wild with cupcakes. I used the filling tip from my cupcake frosting set and filled them with chocolate frosting!


7. And I frosted my cakes, adding a layer of strawberries in the middle.
There was a lot of switching things in and out of the fridge because it was HOT and the frosting got a little melty.


8. And I frosted the cupcakes. Some of them got strawberries, some got sprinkles. Check them out! (I didn't get a great picture because things were starting to get hectic, so no cupcake porn sadly. If you want real porn, you can go see Bruno.)


9. And I decorated the cake. I used some vanilla frosting from the can or contrast, and pretty colored sprinkles and star confetti. And more piping tips.


Yes, I put sprinkles only on the white frosting in case you can't tell from this photo.
Maybe I should start taking orders?

Anyway, the cake was excellent. Really really moist, and then a good contrast between strawberries and chocolate frosting. Delicious with ice cream too, but what isn't??? And I did actually eat the cake. I made it, which meant it was awesome, so of course I was going to eat it.
(Just in case you can't tell, I'm really freaking proud of myself!!)


*Less the two that got zapped on the top rack of the convection oven. Jeeez.

All Star 4th of July Brownies Go USA

It's been a while, I know. I'm currently watching the All-Star game (I know, who is this girl??). But I think Wake is an awesome pitcher, even though we don't have Mirabelli anymore, his dedicated catcher. Go Sox. Or go AL... And the Big O is throwing out the first pitch! Also right now there is a Marine Corps concert across the street, so now for my segue into 4th of July brownie-mania.

July 4th was busy: 3 barbeques/parties, then fireworks watching. I also made 3 pans of s'mores brownies, because after apple (or cherry) pie, what's more American than s'mores*?



Anyway, this was one of those times that I was 100% ok with brownie mix since it was being kicked up a few notches.
I came across a bunch of recipes, but the simplest and also one of the better sounding involved just crunching up some grahams and tossing them into the batter. I added milk & semisweet chocolate chips to it too.


Then put some marshmallows on the top. You actually just bake it with the marshmallows on top and they get gooey and toasted in the oven**.


They came out awesome! And again, sooooo easy. And I don't think I'm talking myself up too much when I say that everyone loved them, I mean, they were pretty awesome.


(Oh, I tried to make some ganache and drizzle it over the top, but it wasn't quite thin enough. Here's the photo.)



*S'mores came from the girl scouts. Blueberry pie would also be all-American as blueberries are native t0 North America.
**Right. In the convection oven, not so much. A few recipes suggested sticking hem under the broiler, but since we are not using the oven......

Comcast Resolved

Supposedly, will have to check on it when I get home. Wonder what exactly did the trick.

Comcast Issues - If you blog it they will come. Or something.

Yes, we've been having Comcast issues. Ever since I switched our service (got Encore & HBO, paid less) we haven't been able to watch anything on Encore On Demand. And let me tell you, I've tried to watch 102 Dalmations about 20 times and it still isn't working.
Friday after a horrible morning at the dentist I was supposed to stay home and nurse my novacained face waiting for Comcast.

Comcast called right at 2. I thought, well aren't I lucky?
As you can guess, I am not.
My Comcast caller told me that Comcast's call center people had screwed up (no way, really) and that they weren't actually supposed to send anyone out to fix my problem due to the nature of the error. It was in fact supposed to go to Comcast's On Demand people and they would fix it remotely. Needless to say he would not be coming by and this was the day that I should have just gone to work.
(Hey, I have a great dentist NOW though because of it.)
He did however give me all of his supervisor's information - phone & email - and told me his technician number, and that if our service wasn't fixed in 24-48 hours, to call his supervisor.
Well Monday morning I called twice, left a message and eventually sent an email.
Today I called again, left a message (while he was on the phone, because it's a cell number and I get that annoying beep) and sent an email.

The last time I ranted about Comcast they discovered the blog and started fixing stuff, hopefully this will help too.
And I will keep calling and emailing until this gets fixed.

So Comcast=jerks. Again. Can't wait to move somewhere that I don't need to use it. UGH.