Fitness

First day at PBT

Rise and shine!

Got up at 5:35 coz the fiance came to bed. I grumbled, tried to get back to sleep, but the inevitable 5:40am alarm rang. Grrr…

Bundled up, jumped into the truck and drove to PBT. Hey, looks like a decent-sized class.

Little did I know that putting on the handwraps would be the easiest part of the class…

45 grueling minutes of non-stop, fast-paced cardio and kickboxing. My legs were sore!!!

Yuck, sweat. That’s going to be the norm for indoor workouts, I guess.

I think I’m going to need a bigger towel.

 

Exercise info of the day:

Ab crunches: 100 crunches in 2 minutes = 6-10 calories lost 

http://www.livestrong.com/article/308073-calories-burned-for-100-crunches/ 

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Ye Olde Garden

Who ate my garlic chives?

I noticed something nibbled the tops off my garlic chives last week. I inspected it this morning and noticed it was growing back. I can’t think of anything roaming about in the cold, wet few days that feasts on garlic chives.  One of the variegated society garlic clumps nearly got uprooted since it had been in the way. (I have several common chives potted up that were untouched.)

12/20/2011 Chives, Mums & Asters (1)

Asters and mums are making a second round of blooms. Obviously not as floriferous as the first round, especially since I neglected to deadhead them.

12/20/2011 Chives, Mums & Asters (2) 12/20/2011 Chives, Mums & Asters (4)

The larkspur seedlings are coming along…I’m thinking of uprooting the yarrow in this bed and replacing it with a stand of angelonia come spring.

12/20/2011 Chives, Mums & Asters (3)

Ye Olde Garden

Indoor gingers

We had a brief respite from the cold weather this week. And so far, this week has been full of rain. With temps in the 50s and 60s, I put out the ginger lilies so they could catch a bit of watering. The big one could use some trimming. These ornamental plants could make great indoor Christmas decor, if I were a bit more industrious in their upkeep.

12/15/2011 Indoor Gingers

Dining, Recipes

An attempt at maja blanca

I had a bag of frozen corn in the freezer, a can of coconut milk in the pantry, and a box of rice flour. I strived to make some maja blanca maiz this weekend but ended up with a cold dessert with the consistency of pudding. The maja blanca of my childhood possessed the firmness of gelatin or flan rather than the softness of champurado, or a standard rice pudding.

Maja blanca is typically referred to as a coconut pudding or rice-coconut pudding. But in my experience, it typically sets or hardens after cooking. My experimental dessert sat in the fridge overnight and remained in a semi-liquid state. Luckily I didn’t go so far as to produce latik, or fried coconut curd, to accompany it. So, after much review of the original recipe, I resolve to retry the dessert again with cornstarch.