I smell Fall....

It's the end of August already! Well, Friday is, and besides it getting dark shockingly early at around 8pm, for all other intents and purposes, it's still Summer between 10am and 4pm most days. The mornings are cooler, the nights are breezier (thank goodness) but it's still sunglasses and air conditioning on in the car. However, today was the first day where I wore..... a hoodie...when I walked the puppy at 5pm. I probably could have managed without but there was just the slightest chill in the strong breeze. In contrast  though, summer still lingers at times. Last night I ran with my weekly run group and the humidity was intense...In my half marathon training, by far the hardest runs have been the 5-7k on Tuesday nights. Way harder than the 90-120 min early morning weekend runs. I guess mentally and physically I prepare for a long run by hydrating the day before, eating a good clean meal (clean meaning no allergens or foods I don't usually eat), no alcohol (well maybe a glass of wine with dinner) and getting a good nights sleep (except when the puppy wakes up with a nightmare or a pair or racoons is attacking the BBQ). In my head, the Tuesday night run should be a breeze, it's short, I run with other people so it's social and I have a pace to keep up with people so that's motivation. However, every single Tues since Canada day has been accompanied by a brutal humidex of 30-35C.......eeuughhhh! It's so gross, you sweat everywhere (think inner ear, between your fingers and inside your eyelids) and I run sooooo slooowwwly. I ran a long 18km on Sunday morning in 17C with no humidex and my pace per km was 20 seconds faster than a short Tues night run. Ah well, it's all part of the fun of running! I have loved our long hot summer for the most part though and the perfectly timed rain every 7-10 days has been perfect for the lawn and the veggies. The carrots are almost fully grown,  we've enjoyed a fresh head of broccoli every week, Nacho the puppy has developed a taste for snap peas fresh off the vine and I finally have some lettuce!
Cooking wise, it's been exclusively BBQ every night. PB even suggested we sell our stove as we never use it anymore but then what would I hang my tea-towels on?
Have not really tried any new recipes although I did do a roast chicken dinner on the BBQ on Sunday. I knew there would be a lot of fat dripping from the chicken skin so I placed a few layers of foil in the vegetable basket and then put the chicken in there, surrounded by some halved baby potatoes. and that was it. The chicken was lightly oiled, salted and rosemary-ed (with fresh homegrown rosemary) and I cooked the whole thing for about 50 mins. Done and done. We had some peas on the side, I did not BBQ them as they would fall through the grates but maybe one day I'll try!

 Here's a pic of the newest family member, Nacho. He's almost 4 months old, a yellow lab and he's awesome, quite the little character!

My other recent foodie find was as Costco. I usually don't buy pre-made sauces but they had samples of this sauce, Habanero pepper and pineapple made by Rothschild Farms out of the states. I had a steak rub from the same company as a gift and it was hands down the best steak rub ever and now I can't find it anywhere to buy here without ordering it from the US. So this caught my eye. It's spicy and sweet and I basted a pork tenderloin with it on Monday.  Incidentally I'd like to report an easy cooking method for this that I found on a random webpage. It's the 7-6-5 method. Heat the BBQ. Place tenderloin on for 7 minutes. Turn and cook for 6 minutes. Turn off BBQ and leave closed for 5 mins. Done perfectly exactly as promised.
 I'm most excited to try the sauce with some halibut or cod though, I think that will be the dream combo and the plan is to try that on Friday evening, on the BBQ of course. The stove is full of dust so I can't use that!

Grill marks with that?

whew, what a scorcher this summer has turned into! My veggie patch is going crazy and I thinned out some baby carrots yesterday to allow the remaining ones to really flourish. We rinsed the small ones and chomped through them on the deck while sipping Budweiser. This is the life!

As you can see, we loved them!
I recently tried a variation on a previous recipe, black bean and avocado salsa, by grilling the avocado instead of just putting it in raw. I also omitted the black beans for a lighter version. The salad certainly looked even more appetizing (and I thought that wasn't possible), grill marks have that effect on everything. Taste wise, the avocado was a little nuttier and softer, but the big thing was the aesthetics...and I got the chance to grill yet another food that is not your average grill fare.

As for the veggie patch, we have eaten 3 heads of broccoli. made a batch of kale chips, eaten a bunch of baby carrots as detailed above, made Warm Sweet Potato and Kale salad with homegrown Kale and munched on numerous snap peas picked freshly about 2 seconds beforehand. The leeks, carrots and parsnips still have a way to go, the Rainbow chard is taking over and finally I have some lettuces appearing. Tomatoes are slow but some fruits are materialising.

I'm loving growing these vegetables, so satisfying to see the daily changes and then to harvest them. Already planning my Winter garden and next Summer's one too. I think my focus will be on kale, broccoli and lettuce next year. And I want to grow some garlic too. And more herbs. And peppers. I think I'm gonna need some more raised beds.

run, chew, run, chew, run, chew

I am currently in training for a half marathon in the middle of September. I trained for and ran a 10k race (the Bluenose) in May so I already had a decent base although I'm nowhere near in the good shape I was 2 years ago when I was regularly running 10k 2-3 times a week for general exercise, albeit on the pancake flat seawall in Vancouver but still, I was making good time and was doing lots of other exercise such as netball twice a week and spinning classes as well as kickboxing and hiking the Grouse Grind. Since moving last year, my workout routine has gone, well.... it's just gone. Only now that things are more settled, am I able to get into a regular routine. I always do best when training for something in particular so me and my running buddy K-Mac decided to both enter the same race so we can train together. We don't do all our runs together as schedules do not permit but we keep each other in check with updates in-between our weekly Tues night run club. Up to 10k is my ideal run/ race distance but the downside is, it's easy to slack off because as long as you are generally fit, you can run 10k without too much trouble. A half marathon (21k) on the other hand, does require training if you wish to have the use of your legs for the 2 weeks after the race. Factor in a late Summer race date where temps could be in the mid 20's and if you haven't done any hot weather training, you likely won't make it to the first water station. What does this  have to do with food? Well, doing any kind of exercise longer than an hour requires nutritional preparation. I planned an 11k training run for last Saturday morning so that meant Friday day and night were all part of it. We've been having very hot weather, high 20's with humidex in the mid 30's and so I planned a 7 am run to beat the heat. For anything where dehydration is an issue either for medical or performance reasons, it's key to start your hydration a couple of days before hand to give your body time to "top up" it's water reserves. Also, if you drink too much on the day, you just need to pee the whole time and that just sucks. Food wise, I had an evening meal of salmon skewers (on sale at Superstore for $1.25 each!) and an avocado mango salsa I made, minus the black beans from the original recipe, as I find they bloat me a bit which impedes the enjoyment of the run. I had a poor sleep as was flying solo with the new puppy that night so was up every 2 hours to take him outside to pee. On runs of 7k or less, I usually do not take water with me. I find carrying water is a hassle and not that comfortable whether you have a fuel belt, camelbak or handheld. But, this run required a water source and my subsequent longer training runs will require water and fuel in the form of gels, electrolyte drinks etc. I found a fuel belt from Nike with 4 bottles and 2 pouches which I thought would be fine. I have previously had a camelbak which I loved as it was so easy to sip and no bulky belt hitting my elbows but you can only have one liquid type as there is only one bladder. With the belts you can have water in one, electrolyte drink in another, wine in another (kidding). I also had new runners (got them on sale at $60 off!), and I was going to try out some electrolyte chews. There are 3 main fuels on the market for endurance activities: gels, chews and sport jelly beans. In the past when I did a half marathon and a triathlon a few years ago, I used gels which I like but they can be very sickly sweet and stick to your gums if your mouth is dry, which it usually is when running. You need to take with water and this can be fiddly when running and then there is the sticky packet that you have to put back in your pocket...yuck. Also, if you only want half, the other half gets squished all over your hand, your bag or just wasted if you toss it away. Training runs for endurance events are not just to get your body ready, they are to try out gear, figure out what pre-race preparations work for you and what you need during the race. A bad training run will lead to a good race! I decided to try out the Sharkie gels, they are soft chews with some carbs and electrolytes. You are supposed to have one every 15 mins or so. I put them in my pouch and could easily retrieve them while running. They were easy to chew and the chewing motion increased salivation in my mouth which was good. However,  I didn't like the taste of most of them. The packet was "berry splash" so they were all different but I did get a cherry one. I love cherries. I hate cherry flavour. But I ate in anyway and carried on. Energy wise, the run was great, the chews sat well in my stomach and I felt really good on the run. I'm going to try some other brands of chews and also re-test the old faithful gels (which can be premixed with water to avoid the whole sticky mess I mentioned) to see how it goes. Either way, each training run is a mission and what  I learn will give me great confidence in the run and hopefully make for an enjoyable (and fast) 21k.

No wheat? Just use bacon!

Just a quickie for you, PB actually came up with this idea yesterday when I asked him to make me a snack for lunch as I was wiped out from being at work at 5am. I loved it so much, I made it again today.
We buy this bacon from Costco and it's pretty good. We grill it on the BBQ and I also grilled the half avocado too. Then I added salsa which was not home made but it's a good one that is always in my fridge, Superstore medium salsa, found in the mexican section.

No recipe as it's just bacon (bread) with avocado and salsa!
Wheat free is soooo much fun!

Pimp My Patch

The veggie patch is in full bloom! We've had very favourable growing conditions for the past few weeks with lots of hot sun and the occasional much needed downpour. Everything in the patch gets bigger by the day and even a small broccoli has formed....so cute!

 

The kale and chard are going great guns and I anticipate making some homegrown-homemade kale chips by the end of the month. We also added some additional structures to the beds, a trellis for the beans and a removable fencing system to keep out the deer who are very prevalent right now.  This is the fort knox/cadillac/pimped up veggie patch.

The kale and chard are going great guns and I anticipate making some homegrown-homemade kale chips by the end of the month. We also added some additional structures to the beds, a trellis for the beans and a removable fencing system to keep out the deer who are very prevalent right now. PB did a great job designing and building the fencing. The plants get sun and water and I can take off the sides for weeding and harvesting. I have given all the veggies one dose of a general vegetable plant food too. Not sure if it was the sun/rain combo or that which has had the biggest effect but I'm very happy. All six of my tomato plants are good too. I think they are a little  behind schedule so they might not make fruit in time but if this weather continues, I'm hopeful. The only thing that hasn't grown was the one thing I would have put $$ on to grow best, lettuce. I planted 3 rows of butter lettuce at weekly intervals but nothing to show for it. This past weekend I put in some new seeds, these were Romaines and they were in  a "seed tape" . What a  great idea! the seeds are all spaced correctly and in a straight line. They are also protected from bugs and pests eating them which is what I suspect happened to the others. Let's see what happens...

Veg it up!

I cook a lot of meat on the BBQ and have pretty much mastered most things to perfection. I've also now started making more veggie side dishes on the BBQ too, mainly so I have even less dishes to clean up. PB and I have, for a long time, made a hash of sorts usually with the following:

par boiled halved baby potatoes
bell peppers
onions
button mushrooms

We drizzle with oil, sprinkle on some garlic powder and add a generous amount of salt and then throw it all in the veggie basket for 20-30 mins.  I've recently started adding a steak seasoning rub to it also which works well but the key is the salt. I found a couple of new recipes to try too, the first is a roasted broccoli which is supposed to be roasted in the oven but I put it on the BBQ instead:

BBQ roasted broccoli
Cut up broccoli into even sized small florets. Mix will a bit of olive oil and season with salt and pepper or seasoning mix. BBQ for about 10 minutes until cooked but still crunchy to the bite.

This is awesome and SOOOO easy. We've been trying to shop less frequently to reduce the grocery bill and so we now have a strategy of going to Costco at the start of the month and stocking up, and then going to the regular grocery store only once a week after that to top up the perishables. Costo has the best deal on broccoli with a huge bag of it (pre-cut too!) for the same prices as 2 heads of broccoli at Superstore. The problem is eating it all while it's still fresh. This method of cooking makes me want to eat lots of broccoli so I don't have to feel bad throwing food out...which I hate and can't remember the last time I did so. I know a lot of people that shop at Costco but when there are only 2 of you in the house, sometimes it's just too much for us to use with the perishable foods, unless you plan ahead like we do, and eat a lot of leftovers. Overall though, it's still a better deal at Costco on most things, as long as you buy what you need and don't get swayed by the deals on stuff that you wouldn't normally buy or eat simply because it's a good price.
The other recipe that is currently top of my list is one I saw on a blog called Tasty Yummies. It's super easy, healthy and delish. The original recipe has another couple of ingredients and seasonings but I kept it even simpler and this is my version:

Warm Sweet Potato and Kale Salad
2-3 medium sized sweet potatoes, cubed
1 bunch kale, leaves torn and stems removed
1-2 tbsp rice wine or wine vinegar
2 cloves crushed garlic
2-3 tbsp EV olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Pre heat the BBQ on medium heat. Add cubed sweet potatoes to veggie basket and toss occassionally until just softenened, approx 20 mins. Add kale to veggie basket and cook for another 5 mins or so. Remove from grill and mix in remaining ingredients, adjusting to taste as you wish.
Serve warm or cold the next day.
I served this with Super Fast Roast Chicken and it was a great combo, perfect for a potluck or a casual, elegant, low maintenance entertaining dish.

This might just work

Summer is finally, sort of here, if No Rain = Summer, that is. Well, apparently, the rest of the world (i.e.. the West Coast of Canada and the UK) are having a dismal, soggy June, so I won't complain, but my veggies need to be rained on at least once a week! The weather here is warm-ish, when the sun is out, it's hot but there is a whole lotta cloud out there getting in the way.
I am having overall good success so far with the veggie patch, the seedlings I started a few months ago transplanted well and are thriving in the sunlight, particularly the broccoli, although I have been warned that the pests love them so who knows how long they will last. The broccoli are the big ones you can see in the front bed here:
 
 

 Above is the second bed. The row of beans is at the right there and then the leeks are on the far left, very spindly stalks but must sturdier since transplantation day. The seedlings in the front right are kale and chard, doing well as I just scattered the seeds randomly in that patch with no particular skill.
 I also had grown pepper and tomato seedlings. The peppers are looking healthy but seedlings remain small, very small. The tomatoes are, well....just about hanging in. I think of the 24 or so seedlings I grew, 6 are still alive, and I use the term alive very loosely. 2 of them are doing well (pictured), if not a little small, but looking promising. The others could go either way at this point. I've tried to position them where they will get the most sun all day but it's been quite cloudy this week. I want full sun in the day and rain at night. Please.

 My biggest success to date is my windowsill basil. I planted some seeds with all the other seeds and kept them in the trays. Once they had a couple of little leaves, I moved 4 to the kitchen window sill. Their growth since then has been scary, in a good way! These lower pic was taken yesterday, and I had previously removed some leaves several times during the week for salads. The first pic was taken early May so this is basically 5-6 weeks growth...very satisfying, and delicious too.The basil seedlings I put outside at the same time have not grown at all (they are the tiny specks you see at the front of the tomato planter above).