...Crockpot Chili

So, I knew that when we moved from palo alto to Cleveland the weather would be, shall we say, less than perfect and at times chilly. After a relatively mild October, fall finally showed up this week with morning temperatures into the 30s. Brrrr.... I awoke Thursday AM to a chill in the air, overcast skies, and the day off. Can't think of a better day to try my hand at making some chili, something I had never done before but had been meaning to try out!

With my morning coffee in hand, I googled some recipes online. A search for "mexican crockpot chili" and "paleo crockpot chili" yielded some promising results. I omitted beans, and blended a few recipes to come up with one that I hoped would make a dericious dinner later that night. 

The Recipe:
2lb ground beef
2 medium onions
1 grreen bell pepper
6 stalks celery
1/2 jalapeno
1 28 ounce can diced tomatoes
1 4oz can trader joe's fire roasted green chiles
3 tablespoons ancho chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
2 chipotle chilis in adobo sauce
garlic
salt and pepper to taste

D and I had signed up for a CSA over this summer that had included 1/8 of a cow. In other words, we have a lot of grass-fed ground beef in our freezer right now (although less than you might think after a few months of paleo eatin'). I threw one of those packages into the microwave to defrost while I chopped up all the vegetables.

I browned the meat, then removed it from the pan. In went the onions, pepper and celery. After the onions were getting soft, I added the garlic, gave it about a minutes then added back the beef along with the chili powder, oregano, and cumin. I sauteed it for a few minutes, then removed from heat and into our slow cooker.

To that I added all the rest of the ingredients, and stirred it together. I set the cooker on LOW for 8hours and left it on the counter to go do all my other errands of the day.

After two hours or so I checked on the connoction. It tasted good, but still something was missing. Back in May, D and I went to a tiny authentic mexican restaraunt in Southern Utah when we were hiking around Bryce and Zion canyons. Nestled on top of the Chicken tortilla soup I ordered was a chipotle chili in adobo. It gave the soup a wonderful smoky flavor. I figured that smokiness might lend itself well to the chili so I lovingly placed two large chilis right on top of the cooking food and replaced the lid.

Later that night, when D got home from work we made a fire in the fireplace (!) and I served up two big bowls of chili garnished with some chopped cilantro. D put some sliced avocado on his too. His verdict: "this is amazing". The adobo added a wonderful complexity to the rest of the flavors. We both gobbled it down and then played some crabbage err cribbage by the fire. It was a wonderful fall night. And a recipe that I'll have to repeat in the future!

Crossfit

Today is my one year crossfit anniversary. Yeah, many people don't remember their first day of their workouts, but crossfit isn't any workout. I remember heading to the CFPA box after an interview, nervous and excited about what the day might bring. There were barbells, kettlebells, pullup bars...and a roomful of extremely friendly people that immediately made me feel welcome and were quick to answer all my questions about what a Burpee is, what TGU stands for, how to do a "kip" on a bar. I can't remember what the skill was for that day, but I remember the WOD: 10->1 pushups alternating with 1->10 pull ups. Looking at it, it didn't seem all that hard. But boy was I in for a surprise. I set up my green band and waited for the clock to count down 3...2...1... and we were off. And before I knew if I was hurtin'; my arms were on fire, I was in pain but there were a group of people cheering my on and I sure as hell wasn't going ot quit until I was done. My pull ups and pushups weren't the "best quality" but I finished the WOD. And felt the high that comes with knowing you pushed yourself the hardest you could for those minutes. Yeah my biceps were barking and calluses were planted on both my hands. but I felt alive and on a high from my accomplishment.

These feelings have lasted the whole year. Yeah, crossfit and I have had our ups and downs. Last december I wound up with a tibial plateau fracture (stayed tuned for the post: C is for CRUNCH) and was sentenced to 8 weeks of not putting any weight on my Right leg. I was pretty downtrodden about my newfound gimptitude until Tim quipped at the CFPA christmas party that i could still do crossfit, we would just have to be creative about it. So I hopped over to Sport Authority and bought a small skateboard and would row one legged when the rest of the class would run and do one legged deadlifts when my gymmates got to use both their legs. But eventually my orthopedist cleared me for nonrestricted actionand I was back to serious crossfitting, wall balls and all.

My ohio license FINALLLY came through at the beginning of September and I started working, then we went off to cape cod for a week. Dan and I had a blast doing Fight Gone Bad at Crossfit Distinction and then we were off to Jackson...which was GREAT except for when "Colter" succeeded in bucking me off onto my Left side. I was ok except for some seriously bruised rib which screamed in protest whenever I tried to do a pullup or situp let alone a snatch. Reluctantly (I'm a terrible patient) I put myself on "crossfit rest". Four weeks later, however, I feel ready to go and hit the gym with a vengeance yesterday.

Was it my best WOD? nope. Am I ridiculously sore today? You bet. Did I love it?Hells yeah.

The WOD was 3 round of 300ft KB waiters walk, 30 pullups and 15 thrusters. After 6 weeks of hiatus, I was down to a thicker band than I was used to and had to scale the Thrusters to 55 down form 65 but I pushed thorugh. It felt so great to be doing a WOD with other crossfitters, with our coaches cheering us on, doing one (or 15) more reps even when all I wanted to do was be DONE. 18+mins wasn't a great time, but still I finished and today my quads were on fire as I limped around the ED.

You know what I can't wait for? To do another WOD tomorrow.

...coffee

i. love. coffee.

the smell of the beans, the taste, the caffeine buzz. nothing's better on a blistering summer day than a cup of iced coffee, and nothing warms the core like a cup of hot joe when the winter winds are whipping around outside.

I wish i could say that I remember my first cup, but alas, such a transforming memory is lost. I know it occurred somewhere around my junior year of high school. Until that point I was a tea drinker. My mother grew up in Ireland, so naturally her kids had tea growing up. Not just any tea mind you - irish breakfast tea with milk and 2 sugars. but then.... i found coffee.


yes, this substance is the first thing I grab in the morning and depending on the day, midmorning, afternoon, after dinner. I'm an addict.

now I take my coffee seriously. not any ol cup of joe will do if I have any say about it. Dunkin donuts is for the weak. And no thank you to sugar and creamer. Occasionally I'll indulge in a bit of soy milk. But I prefer it black. Better to taste the beans :) My current fav? Philz' Ambrosia. Philz is a San Francisco based company. If you visit any of their fine locations (my first trip was in teh Mission; but the Palo Alto one was much closer) they will make you your cup just for you. Yup, their motto isn't one cup at a time for nuthin. D an I love their beans so much we have it shipped to us in Cleveland each month. Yum.

Runners up? Peet's Major D and Cleveland's Phoenix Coffee.

Damnit writting about this is making me thirsty. Time to turn on the kettle.

...Cats

Last week, D wasn't the only one that came home to Cleveland Heights. He flew in from Jackson on a blustery Friday afternoon. I picked him up - Cowboy hat and all - and on the way back we paused to pick up two little cats from a rescue organization called Lucky Paws Animal Rescue.We had picked out these girls right before we left town and the lady who had them in her foster home was gracious enough to take care of them while we were on vacation. Annie (the kitty formerly known as Jill) and Grace (the kitty formerly known as Drew) were loaded into my car and arrived in their "forever" home.

Now, adopting a cat (or two) is a lot harder than you might think. From San Francisco to New york to Cleveland and everywhere in between, there are a lot of shelters and rescue organizations. Luckily, D and I were on the same page about what type of cats we wanted. Two, so they could keep each other company. Outgoing, so they wouldn't get scared when we had people over. Young adults, who unlike kittens would be more willing to tackle the "Mickey" mice under the Fridge. (Whose poorly thought out late night snack of my Godiva chocolate pretty much sentenced him to a feline presence to contend with). The trick was to find some that we could call our own.

Our biggest resource was Petfinder, an online database of pets that are ready for adoption. Here you can find, cats, dogs, birds, geckos, pigs... if it's domesticated, it's on that website. We looked over the pictures and descriptions of what seemed like hundreds of feelines and narrowed down a few that seemingly would be a good fit. However, they were dispersed amongst several rescue organizations.

That's when phase two of the search kicked in. Each organization had an application for potential cat owners, asking why you want a cat to what you do for work to what you will do with the cat on vacation etc etc. Then the phone calls started. This was the "screening" process where not one but two separate women associated with each organization called to ask pretty much the same questions on the application, making sure I gave the same answers. I dubbed them the "kitty police" when talking to D about it. Yeah, I know they are well meaning, but there was an excessive amount of promising not to declaw the cats that had to be done.

Well, we managed to pass the screenings and made an appointment to go view some kitties one Friday night. (Actually this was right before we hit up The Greenhouse Tavern - see prior posting). The coordinator warned me that M, the foster woman's home we were heading to had "a lot of cats". And boy was she right. M probably had 30+ cats around available to be taken home. A rainbow of cats swirled around us in her driveway, weaving in and out of our legs. We paused and waited to see if any would stand out to us. One or two came up initially, but they were almost "too" friendly, climbing up my back and asking for attention incessently. Others were too young or too old. But pretty quickly a little black one attached herself to D, cuddling up to him. I could tell we had found at least one of our kitties. She was so sweet!

We learned this little girl was about 2 years old, and had been in foster car for most of her life waiting for someone to adopt her. She had a brother there, an orange tabby. Despite multiple tries, he remained uninterested in us and constantly walked away. We wanted cats who would be happy to sit on the couch and provide company to whoever was home if D or I were working in the hospital. His indifference led us to bypass him and keep looking. Luckily, another orange tabby showed up. Technically she's a "dilute" tabby, a softer version of her bright orange counterparts. This girl siddled up to me, meowing hello. A few minutes more and we were sold. Lil black "jill" and orange "drew" it would. A perfect pair right before halloween.

One more thing remained: names. Jill and Drew, especially Drew, had to go. But what to call these girls? Definitely nothing cutesy like "muffin" or "snowball". On the other end of the spectrum, we quickly nixed fang and killer. We've both had pets growing up with "people" names, so that was a logical place ot start. In honor of our love of crossfit, we named them "Annie" and "Grace". These are both named WODs. Annie is 50-40-30-20-10 of Double unders and situps and Grace is 30 clean and jerks for time. Yup, we're totally crossfit nerds. and proud of it!

Well, one week into our cat adventure and we couldn't be happier. Yes, they have their quirks. About once a day Annie launches into a "meow attack" where for no apparent reason she tries to talk to us for a few minutes straight. Grace will occasionally spaz out and run under or behind a large piece of furniture, then emerge minutes later and trust us to rub her belly. All in all it's a pleasure to have them scurrying about the house, especially when D is working late.

We like to think that these girls have hit the cleveland cat adoption jackpot :)

...Climbing

...Climbing a trail to an Alpine Lake!

It's hard to pull myself away from horseback riding at the Triangle X Ranch in Moose, WY.  However, Jackson has a plethora of other outdoors activities to offer: fishing, float trips, running, biking and hiking in two of the nations premiere national parks. D, the Captain and 2 other guests at the ranch CF and BF decided that this year we would tackle a hike in Grand Teton National Park.

The Park includes the Teton Range, the youngest set of mountains in the Rocky Mountain Range. It is named for the "Grand Teton", the tallest peak of the range at 13,775 ft. The French traders who passed through the range selling their fur dubbed the Grand and the two other surrounding peaks "les trois tetons" aka "the three breasts". This has led to countless awkward interactions amongst parents and their inquisitive children who would like to know what "tetons" means.

After perusing a book of hikes in the region, we settled on one that would take us to Amphitheater Lake.  The trail starts at at 6700ft and winds up 4.9 miles to our destination, an alpine lake at 9,700 ft.  Much of the elevation gain is along a group of switchbacks.

Sunday morning, we filled up on a typical "ranch" breakfast of eggs and bacon. At the end of the meal, the Captain made himself a sandwich of french toast, bacon and an egg and stashed it away for lunch. Once our bellys were full it was time to drive over to the park. We made one pit stop at Dornan's for another cup of coffee and were soon inside the park.

We passed Bradley and Taggert Lakes and pulled into the parking lot at Lupine Meadows. By 10am we were on our way! The trail ascends fairly quickly, but the switchbacks are cut widely into the mountainside for a pleasant walk. You don't feel like you are climbing as quickly as you actually are. We were afforded great views of the lakes below and the whole plain that swoops over towards Jackson.

Just near the top we were rewarded with a close up view of Disappointment Peak, Grand Teton and Owen Peak. A little further down the path was the first lake, Surprise Lake. The water was crystal clear albeit freezing from the snowmelt and high altitude. Several people were enjoying the scenery although it didn't feel crowded at all. D and I perched on a rock jutting into the water and took in the view. There's nothing like being outside on a perfectly clear day!

We lingered at the lake for a few mintues, taking in the sight and then put on our packs again and continued the 0.2 miles to Amphitheater lake. We made it! The approach to this circular lake is flat about half of the way around. The remainder of the banks quickly slope upwards to steep rock faces. A natural Amphitheater with peaks of the Tetons still towering over us even at this height up the mountainside. We ate lunch, then relaxed. D and I walked a bit around and found a butterfly flapping in the water. D rescued it with a stick and dryied out its wings in the mid-day sun. Slowly the little insect began flapping again and was ready to take flight when we were ready to trek back down the mountainside.


The way down was just a lovely as the trek upwards. The morning haze had cleared and we were able to see further across the plains. We noted that there were four separate fires up and down the opposite range.

About half way down the slopes D spotted a delicious snack: huckleberries! This cousin of the blueberry (and state flower of idaho!) is a darker purple than it's more famous brethren but just as tasty. Yum! We had a taste of a few to carry us the rest of the way to the car. We arrived back to the lot at about 5pm, tired but content. It was a great day spent with wonderful company in one of the best places on earth.