Experiments in the Kitchen, AKA- Mom's Science Fair Project

So the other night I had this 5lb pork loin that I had thawed with no real plan as to what I was going to make with it. Somewhere I had recently seen a recipe for a slow cooker pork roast with amber beer. Hmm. J had some questionable amber beer in the beer and deer down in the garage and I had a pork loin. Perfect. But where did I see that recipe? Never mind, I'll just wing it. So I looked in the spice cabinet and see my collection of Dizzy Pig rubs. PLUG warning: I love these rubs! I coated my lovely loin, the pork I mean, with Dizzy Dust BBQ seasoning and let it rest while I did some chores. The lovely loin, as it will be known henceforth, was then browned in a big skillet with oil. Then I caramalized half a sweet vidalia onion in the oil. I made the gravy with lots of Dizzy Dust mixed in with the flour and used a bottle of amber beer as the liquid. The lovely loin and the onion and some fresh slices of garlic (about 3 cloves) and the rich, dark beer gravy went into the crock pot for 4 hours on high. Of course I have no pictures. I do have testimonials though they are unintelligible because they were grunted with mouths full of lovely loin and mashed potatoes.

I hope Chris doesn't sue me for using his Dizzy picture.

Pie, Strudel and Earthquake Cake. Oh and Bikes.

Wednesday morning with gatorade, a cold pasta and foccacia lunch packed, coffee and breakfast cookies in hand, J, my sweet Sarah Smiles and I headed out toward Mt. View, Arkansas for some trail ridin' fun. I've never ridden on the Syllamo trails so this was going to be a new adventure.

The trails still have some issues from mother nature's wrath during the winter and spring. I caught a bad spot and somehow managed a bad fall early in the day, turning my pinky finger into a Z. Some tape and 4 ibuprofen fixed it enough to Man Up and Ride On.

There were definitely parts of the trails we rode that I really liked. There was some hikeabike. I don't know anyone who will say they like hikeabike. The trail Gods provided us some nice views and some moderately difficult technique building areas that gave us a good workout. There were some nice rocky areas that were challenging but fun to play on, some sweet downhills sweeps and some sand. I do not heart sand but it does test your mettle. I had a good time despite the injury and came away thinking I've managed to improve my skills this last year even though it's been tough to find enough time to ride hard trails.

But the day seemed to be more about the food. With us, it's ALWAYS about the food. We had this really cool dude along for the ride, a travel writer. Who happened to also be working on a story about Pie. Pie. I love pie. Sarah loves pie. Our new writer friend, loves pie. We talked about pie and streudal for hours. Okay, Sarah talked about strudl for hours. Apparently if you haven't been to The Pantry in Little Rock for strudel, you are missing out on the sweet mystery of life. We rode, we talked, we even sang a little. Sarah and I found a soul-mate in our new friend who happily sang along to our bad TV theme song rendiditons. After 20 miles, a few hours, a couple of injuries and countless horsefly bites, we got off those blasted bikes and went to find pie. Sweet Glorious Pie. We went to Cody's in Fifty-Six and had pie. It was okay. Then we needed to drop our writer friend off at the Ozark Folk Center State Park. We can't stop there and not eat at The Skillet. They have green beans that are like crack. I don't know what they put in them but I could eat them all day long. That and the tomato/onion relish. Oh my heavens. Between the 4 of us we had grilled trout, chicken fried steak, catfish, baked potatoes, fries, mashed taters, green beans, carrots, homemade hush puppies, biscuits and cornbread and then....TADA Earthquake Cake. Now I've heard tell of Kaye's cooking afore. I hear she is one mighty fine country cook. I want to adopt her. Even though it would seem silly to adopt a grown woman, I'd do it anyway. Just for the recipe for the banana earthquake cake. See, she won't give out the recipe but I figure if I'm her momma, she'd have to give it up, right? Right.

 Excuse me, I have to find a dessert. Fast.

Facebook Has Taken Over

I've been pretty busy lately. Work and Home seem to be hopping along and free time is at a premium. Because my family seems to be addicted to Facebook, I am required to be also. That's my story, I'm sticking to it.
Last weekend were were here.

Devil's Den State Park in Winslow, Arkansas. It's quickly becoming a family favorite. There are miles upon miles of wonderful hiking trails, mountain biking trails and about 60 caves and countless crevices to explore. Usually, we are tent campers but this weekend...my sweet boy rented me a cabin. A CABIN! With a jacuzzi tub and a real kitchen! Oh my heavens it felt like the Ritz Carlton in comparison to our camp cots, 2 burner propane stove, ice chest and sharing a bathhouse with an entire campground adventures.

J and I were there to do the last of the Adventure Sprint Races put on by the Ozark Extreme Team and the small one came along hoping for a caving adventure with the bats. J has been very ill the last several weeks and we're just getting back into training together. He was a trooper. The race began about 10 a.m. with a super dooper trek thru some of the best trail areas in the park. We hit checkpoints across several different trails (and roads) on foot before getting to the mountain bike portion of the race. About 2 miles into the bike, my chain broke. J fixed it for me but pretty soon, the whole rear derailleur broke free from the frame and I was forced to "scooter" my bike. Eventually the decision was made that we couldn't possibly finish with me pushing my bike and we had to "quit" after 4 hours of hard labor. That was a tough call. Very tough. I felt like we were doing well especially considering J had really Manned Up for me after being so sick. Oh well. At least it was during a short race and not the "big one" coming up.
Later that evening we took the small one for a 2 hour guided hike with the park interpreter Casey. She appreciated it because it meant a slow hike. We, are not slow hikers. In the end we stayed back to explore a cave and got mulitple bat fly-bys! So cool.


The next morning we had that yummy french toast in the picture and headed out for another hike on Yellow Rock trail. What a gorgeous day we had. We could not have asked for better weather. I mean seriously, August in Arkansas and it was PLEASANT. That just doesn't happen people.
And now, back to the regularly scheduled program...a busy life.

A Month of Crossfit

I completed 4 full weeks of crossfit, missing one day each week except last week, I made all 5 days. It makes me sweat. It makes me tired. It makes me feel pretty good about how strong I am. Weekends have usually involved at least one endurance workout, running or biking for at least an hour, preferably 2 or 3. I've been tracking workouts and some of my favorites are days when it's a long list of exercises that you have to rotate thru as quickly as possible. This morning for instance, started with a bench press/hang time set.
Bench press at
80% of your max 1 x 6
84% of max 2 x 5
88% of max 2 x 4
between each set you have to hang from the pull up bar with your knees up, thighs parallel to the ground for 30 seconds.
THEN the workout started.

3 rounds
chest press x 8 30lb ea arm

farmer walk (walk all the way across the gym carrying heavy dumbells) 45lb

walking pushup for 10 yards (10lb dumbells in hands, do a pushup, extend an arm out without moving your feet is harder than it sounds, spider crawl up and do another pushup) this was the hardest thing on the list, I swear.

incline flies 8 x 15lb
flat flies 8 x 15lb

punching bag 30 seconds

start another set. If you can't, you have to hold a plank until you can start the next round.

Every day is something like this. I am really enjoying it. Except on days that involve running. Sprints blow.

A Week Without the Small One

This week I am recieving daily (or almost daily) updates from Wisconsin and Minnesota. The small one was offered a very, very generous vacation via accompanying her sweet friend Al, her brother, Dad, Gma and Gpa in their MotorCoach from LR to Duluth. I haven't seen her pictures yet, but since she called me to ask what the procedure was if you see a bear in the woods, I'm guessing there might be some real doozies. They stayed a couple of nights in a cabin on the Wisconsin edge of the lake. Hence the request for bear knowledge to be imparted. Apparently there were good trees to be climbed and she was told to make sure she didn't climb one with a bear already in it. I wonder if she ever climbed a tree after that warning?

A's Gma told me they were going to visit this bridge and take a lake cruise. This is gorgeous, I hope the small one remembered to take her own pictures.

The Trip, capitalized because it is a Trip not a trip, also included 2 nights in a suite inside the Mall of America. Oh me. Oh my. The phone call today at noon revealed that all but pocket change of the money she started out with has now been spent. Mostly on clothes. Ugh. I hope SOME of the lecture about buying things that will last as memories sunk in and it isn't all consumables. And what is this Minnesota Sushi she's raving about? Something about smoked walleye and some kind of roe that she can't pronounce. Only a 13 year old girl can go from Urban Outfitters clothes to smoked walleye in the same breath.

I am ready for her to come home. She has 4 more days. And no money. Ha. She must learn to budget someday. I hope.

The Start of Something New

Last week was my first attempt at multiple Crossfit workouts.

Monday:
general w/u
6 x 10 sec sprints
set 1: 6 x 6 ea
hang clean 65lbs
push press 20 lb DBs

set 2:
50 hang snatch
go to max rep then drop to plank until you can continue
I did 6 x 6 reps then 2 x 5

had little time to stretch and it hurt the rest of the day and into the next workout

Tuesday:
general w/u
4 rounds repeated:
800 m run ( tight and slow)
95 lb bench press to max (2 + 2 with spot was about it for me)
chair push ups to max (on toes, max for me was 4-5)

GOOD stretch, much better than Monday

Wednesday:
general warm up + 1 min run at 7.4 mph
12 x 10 sec sprints with 20 seconds rest in between. If more than 20 seconds is needed- do 5 pullups.
Did 7 sprints, pullups, only finished 3 more sprints, I was toast, 5 pullups.

In the evening I went out for a 2 mile trail run/hike on the quarry trail at Pinnacle.

Thursday: Rest day. Did 30 minute walk on treadmill at 3.7 mph intervals 2-8% incline.

Friday:
general w/u with 800 m jog
5 round repeated of : 5 pullups, 10 pushups, 15 squats
warm down 2 x 400 m jog with 30 sec rest in between
core work, roman chair w/ 10 lb plate, plank, side plank, toe touches, leg lifts, etc.

Sat: yard work
Sun: 18 mile bike ride, no big hills, avg 18 mph

A WEAK of no Blogging

This several days have been less "active" than usual, mostly due to heat and my general dislike of gyms.
I have managed a couple of treadmills workouts, an early morning short hilly run but no bike. J's been sick, too sick to do any working out and I find that I won't ride without him. Didn't say don't because I can, could if I wanted to, but I choose not to.
Last Friday I met Sweet Sarah Smiles for a foray into the world of Crossfit. Apparently there is a sports performance center here that does uber athlete training for speed-agility etc. that also has crossfit programs in the early a.m. and early evening.
1st workout involved a repeated circuit of :
400m run while holding a 6lb medicine ball OVER head
12 plyo jumps with 110% body weight
sprints on a whack treadmill that likes to spit people off the back all while a pit bull barks at our butts. Not kidding.
sprints-no idea what the settings were but basically the first round was 30 seconds at a good incline then by the 3rd set the incline was WAY up but it was 12 seconds. the speed was consistant, the time and incline changed. Whew.
THEN came the ab work. It was the only part of me that was sore the next day. My abs hurt for 3 days.
Then I drove to work, worked half day, drove to Vicksburg and chowed down at a seafood buffet at a casino. Noice.

Today went back for more torture at Crossfit to determine whether I not I want them to consistantly torture me for money.
5 repeating circuits:
800 m run
30 x 15lb kettlebell swings (ouch)
pullups (admittedly with rubber band assistance) to failure

Disappointed in that last one. My best circuit was still only 6 and by the 5th I couldn't do 1. rrrrrrrghhhh
Yeah, I'll be back. With Money. To pay for my own torture.
When I got home I parked the car in front of the house which means I'm opening my door against a hill. I thought I might let it slam back into me my arms are so tired.
youtube of crossfit fire explanation