by Sam Tackeff | Jul 21, 2014 | Meat
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Yeesh, y’all. Another weekend passes by without a weekly meal plan. I swear, I have an excuse: my very first triathlon which took up most of my weekend! Race recap forthcoming! Fortunately, I have a list for emergency dinners that I’m always fond of here, and I’m always trying to add to it! Tonight’s dinner is filed under emergency quick and easy.
Pork chops + asparagus. Season boneless pork chops on both sides with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. You’ll likely want one or two per person. [We spilt three, just over a pound] In a large skillet, heat a few glugs of olive oil on medium high. Put the pork chops in the pan, and let them sit for 6 minutes without touching them. Resist the urge to fidget and touch them, they’ll be just fine without interference! After six minutes flip the chops, and move them to one side of the pan. Add in a large handful of cleaned asparagus (usually I trim the stalks in one fell swoop while the elastic band is still holding them together.) Cook the pork chops for another six minutes, while flipping the asparagus with tongs or a fork. Test the pork for doneness, then remove the chops from the pan to a plate. (Usually I like them just slightly under my preference, and I’ll let them rest for 5-10 minutes to reach full doneness.) While the chops rest, turn up the heat and cook the asparagus through, tossing gently. Serve as is, pure meat and veg, or round things out with a side of refried beans.
Here’s me crossing the finish line!
Recovery was a long nap yesterday afternoon, and a long walk today after work.
Here’s the best flower I encountered:
Happy Monday!
by Sam Tackeff | Jul 18, 2014 | Restaurants
There was a period of my life where I relished trying the newest restaurants, and being “in the know” about every new place, and every new dish. It was, however, exhausting, and while I did manage to eat many a phenomenal meal, I also found myself with quite a few duds, and then I got sick of eating out. It happens, okay? Even to a food blogger. It might have had something to do with working for a dish review site – unlimited delicious meals out felt like both a blessing and a curse. These days we’ve become early bird special type of people, making it out to the same restaurant every week, so often that we’re very much so regulars. Admittedly this has it’s perks. The occasional hot cider donut with salted caramel sauce on the house is one of them.
And I don’t want to sound like a sob story here, because sometimes we actually get out of the house and try new things. Tonight we ventured out into the wild world of Somerville in order to eat at La Brasa, the newest neighborhood restaurant by chefs Daniel Bojorquez and Frank McClelland. I may have made a mistake by describing it to Devon (the Southern Californian) as a Mexican restaurant, but after eating here, I’d call it neighborhood local and seasonal with diverse culinary influence? I suppose you can throw around “hipster” in there, but only if you’d take that to mean people who are a little alternative and very passionate about food.
We managed to get in without a reservation (okay, so it was 6:00 pm), huzzah! and set forth ordering from their family style menu.
Beet pickled egg with dill and micro greens. ($2) First of all, you should know that the interiors of the restaurant are totally welcoming. The tables. The mismatched cutlery. The custom lighting, the wide open seating (the space is quite large, and the kitchen fairly open). The Bose sound system hanging from the ceiling makes the music sound great. And how cute are these plates? That beet picked egg, my first bite of the evening did not disappoint. And it was pink!
Insistent on something green for dinner, we shared this Little Gem salad with buttermilk poppyseed dressing, preserved lemons, and almonds. ($9) For some reason I thought they were pistachios – maybe I’d make this with pistachios in my own kitchen – but this was a nice salad! It always feels good when you order a salad and it comes well dressed, but not overly so. The lemons were chopped into tiny cubes, and gave just enough of a tart and salty hit to make this quite charming.
We then split an order of Tacos de carnitas. Slow roasted pork shoulder with salsa verde + chile de arbol ($7). These were solid, with good mingling of rich pork with bright salsa verde, although truthfully, while I worship the pork, I’m never fully satisfied with carnitas.
Now for our meals. I’ll preface this by saying that for a while I was loathe to review restaurants because I didn’t want to have to write anything negative. But that’s part of the fun of a review now, isn’t it? Forgive me kind folks at La Brasa, but our meal had a low point, and it was, alas, the pork sandwich. While it sounded delicious – roast pork loin sandwich with rapini, chorizo & fiddlehead tomme ($14) – I would not recommend, unless you’d like a dry salt lick for your meal. Perhaps it was a fluke, but the dry pork, bacon, chorizo in combination was difficult to get through even with the nice mustard and cheese in there – so much so that my dining partner suggested that we name the sandwich “The Oscar Wilde“. Truly though, I *really liked each individual ingredient*, but together, alas, no.
Fortunately, my meal (the top picture of the post) was no less than excellent – lamb liver with summer squash pupusa ($14) – although I felt a little sorry that I was the one with the better choice of the two. It’s never fun to have a slightly discontent dining partner, and alas, for him, he doesn’t love liver, so he didn’t share in my gustatory delight. I believe the description mentioned wild mushrooms, but they must have been chopped finely in a tart little sauce, because I couldn’t quite taste them. The squash blossoms were a lovely touch!
Now, as our meal was finishing, we noticed that there was a cart with a massive piece of meat being rolled around. Yep, meat on a cart, and I couldn’t help but think regretfully that I’d never made it to the House of Prime Rib in San Francisco. So it turns out that they sell rib roast with chimichurri for $3.50 an ounce. Because we’d already eaten, I went for a single restrained ounce. There was a brief moment as she was cutting our steak and I was taking my first bite that Akinyele’s “Just Put it In My Mouth” the erm… non-radio version (yeah, there is no radio version, and please don’t look this song up) started blasting on their Spotify soundtrack. Somehow it was an apt music choice for this buttery steak, but ahem, perhaps not for the majority of the patrons. I did however laugh out loud. Someone noticed at some point and we got a new song.
With most of the neighborhood serving local favorites Barismo, George Howell, etc. or sometimes bringing in heavy hitters Intelligentsia and Stumptown, I was excited to try a coffee that I’d not yet had around here – a local espresso from Gracenote in Berlin, MA. I missed catching which one it was, but while I found it a little bit fruity for my taste, it was a very nice cup indeed. Espresso – Gracenote. ($4)
Before deciding on dessert, I inquired about the market sweets (Taza chocolates, and such from their market), but we ended up fortuitously ordering the Butterscotch Pudding with cinnamon whipped cream and rice crispies. ($6) This, my friends, was a great end to the meal. Pudding is the best!
Two final notes: everyone working here was cheerful and nice – and the service was quick, even as the restaurant began to fill up. Also, while we don’t do too much drinking, the drink menu here looks excellent, including a small selection of smoked! beers. And I regretted missing out on their paloma and boozy horchata.
La Brasa
124 broadway street, somerville, ma
617 764 1412
www.labrasasomerville.com
by Sam Tackeff | Jul 17, 2014 | Wellness
Today was supposed to be a “rest day” – in preparation for a big race this weekend – the concept of which I think I’ve forgotten nearly 60 days into my 10,000 step a day streak. I spend a lot of time thinking how to optimally operate as a human being, and for me, streaks are a particularly motivating way to instill good habits. 10,000 steps is sort of an arbitrary goal – in the past, I’ve done 10 minutes of exercise a day, 30 (60, and 90) days of eating mindfully, a mile a day running streak that lasted from Memorial Day to the 4th of July. With my Jawbone sleep tracking I’ve also been working to get in at least 7.5 hours a sleep a night, but haven’t managed to keep that one alive for more than a few days at a time, alas.
The side effect of having a daily step goal is that a mile or two extra a day comes naturally – you find yourself taking meandering routes in order to round out the step count. Suddenly the 10,000 step goal is well surpassed and you’re at 12, 13 or 15,000 steps, and you’ve walked the long way at the end of the evening from Boston to Harvard Square because the weather is so nice.
Of course, there’s always room for a little reward – this gorgeous evening called for a micro scoop of Turkish Mocha Toscanini’s ice cream (some of the very best in Boston). An excellent treat. By the end of the evening I’d made it up to 17,000 steps, and now I’m sitting on my couch with my feet up.
Did you make it outside today?
by Sam Tackeff | Jul 16, 2014 | Fitness
“Consciousness is only possible through change; change is only possible through movement.”
― Aldous Huxley, The Art of Seeing
Some days I get this momentum, this feeling of never ending energy. For me it’s all about the inertia – getting going is always hard – okay, sometimes brutal – but once I’m moving, I can go on forever. Today felt like one of those days. After a few days of laying low, I was ready to get out and MOVE. An early wakeup at 5:05 to get to November Project. Stadiums. Up the big steps, down the little ones. Watermelon. Being last. I show up at the 5:30 because it takes me double the amount of time to do the full tour as everyone else. If I come early, the 6:30 class starts by the time I’m finishing up and I still feel inspired by the party. And then I registered for the B.A.A. Half! That’s two half marathons that I’m registered for. (I’m also going to do the Chilly Half again. Even though I swore after I finished it last year that I’d never run it again.) This afternoon I went to Olympic lifting clinic, and then headed out for a long walk with a friend. The next few days I’ll be laying low again, tapering for a race this weekend – I’m looking forward to the rest too!
Two links tonight:
:: Watched this clip tonight – all you can eat with Giannis Antetokounmpo – an interview over food with the adorable rookie from the Bucks.
:: This woman who DOMINATED American Ninja Warrior. Yep, it’s a Buzzfeed article with gifs. Just click on it and thank me later.
by Sam Tackeff | Jul 15, 2014 | Wellness
For the past few weeks I’ve been learning to cultivate a new morning routine: carpooling into Harvard Square and then making my way into town towards the office by the North End. I’ve been stopping for coffee at 1369 for their cold brew, and then walking purposefully as far as I can get before heat overtakes me. Then, I hop on the MBTA to cut three quarters of a mile from my route in order to make it in time to morning meetings. Usually it’s only the distance from Kendall to MGH, but even that is enough respite from the outdoor sauna these days. (That is, when the T deigns to have the air conditioning on.)
While walking, I’ll have a single ear bud in, partially listening to the world around me, and at the same time listening to a book on tape or a podcast. This week it’s been Ruth Reichl’s Delicious. On the T, I pull out my phone and read books that I determine public transportation worthy, usually of the non-fiction self help variety that I can read a few pages at a time. I’m finishing up Arianna Huffington’s Thrive, which has taken me a month so far, because my T rides have been few and far between as the weather’s been (mostly) lovely.
Today’s chapter was about gratitude exercises, or “intentionally bringing into awareness the tiny, previously unnoticed elements of the day” – a practice of I’m already a big believer in. I found myself highlighting this paragraph, because I’m all about calm at night these days:
“Gratitude exercises have been proven to have tangible benefits. According to a study by the researchers from the University of Minnesota and the University of Florida, having participants write down a list of positive events at the close of a day – and why the events made them happy – lowered their self-reported stress levels and gave them a greater sense of calm at night.”
For me, gratitude practice often comes in a form of a list, but sometimes it’s just the photos I take during the day on my iPhone. The little things that make me pause and smile that I’d like to remember later.
Today, for instance – a particularly funny doge meme outside of J.P. Licks – because Shiba Inus are really the cutest. Which reminded me of course of this picture above that I snapped a few weeks ago of the dog walker in the neighborhood. What’s better than one dog? Six. And then there’s this huge bucket of macerating strawberries that I saw in the windows of Toscanini’s – some of the best ice cream in the world.
I was expecting ice cream on our Data team outing this afternoon, but instead we ended up on the roof deck at Sam’s on the Waterfront, where we shared some appetizers – crispy french fries, edamame hummus with papadums, fried zucchini sticks, and a cheese plate. I’d been craving oysters, so I lucked out with a little plate of my own. There was cold lemonade, a few gin cocktails and a scorpion bowl, and talk of endurance sports – a few of us are crazy enough to want to take on races beyond our wildest dreams –and the prices of cable these days, pregnancy taboos, net neutrality, and childhood films. Two at the table had not seen the Goonies, which we might have to remedy on a quieter work afternoon!
For dinner, we tucked in with sushi and an episode of True Blood, and tonight I’m thankful for the fact that I’m an adult, and while teenage me would have been appalled, I can read a chapter or two of a book and be out like a light before ten p.m. this fine evening.
What are the tiny things that may have gone unnoticed in your day today?
