How to Roast a Cheap Cut of Beef (PDF). The Snook and I were fascinated by this Cooks Illustrated article today. We had a blade roast ready to go, and we followed their advice to slow cook at a low temperature before blasting at a high temp for the last few minutes. It was fantastic. We had it with homemade mashed potato, sauteed swiss chard with garlic, and fresh sweetcorn. (We always hit the veggie box hard on Sundays!) Dessert was a slice of Orange Poppyseed Cake, which the Snook made from scratch this afternoon. Oh, that was after he made three jars of marmalade with lemons from our tree. Can you tell what our favorite winter pasttime is?
Month: June 2009 (page 4 of 7)
If any of you are Dooce fans, she is having the baby NOW!
Amish Finances. Fascinating article on how Amish people afford such nice houses and big pieces of farmland. The author doesn’t mention whether the Amish community in Lancaster has taken outside jobs to the extent that they have in my area of Indiana. With the collapse of the RV industry, a lot of the Indiana Amish find themselves in very different circumstances.
I got some new shoes! This morning the Snook and I caught a bus to Rozelle so I could go to Running Science. My physio had recommended the place, and even given me a referral voucher for 10% off. When I got there, the staff had me take off my shoes and socks and walk barefoot on their treadmill. (I was a little intimidated by this part. I kept waiting for him to go: “Boy, you walk FUNNY!”) A video camera was positioned behind me pointed straight at my feet, so the monitor above showed exactly where I was striking and how far I was rolling with each step. I was happy to learn that I have fairly neutral pronation, which was backed up by the wear pattern on my old shoes. My left foot rolls in a tiny bit more than the right, but other than that I was fine. To him, this indicated that my shin splints aren’t really due to any mechanical problem other than too much running in very deflated shoes! He brought me out two pairs of shoes (New Balance and Brooks) to try that both offered moderate stability. I walked around and ran on the treadmill in both pairs, and they both felt great. In the end I went with the New Balance, just because they seem to inspire greater devotion on the running blogs and podcasts I listen to. They’re New Balance 1224s, and I’m wearing them around the house now to break them in. I also picked up a couple new technical T-shirts (half off! only $20!) and a stick of Body Glide. Today will be my third day off running, and I’ll go for an easy jog tomorrow and see how I feel.
Oh yeah. I got my Facebook vanity URL: facebook.com/kristine.howard. I’ll admit it’s not quite as good as facebook.com/TheSnook.
WWKIP Day 2009
Many thanks to Sally for taking over the organisational duties this year. She did a fantastic job! We had EIGHTY knitters gathered together at the Bayside Lounge, taking over an entire half of the cafe (both inside and out). Sally gave away nearly a dozen door prizes that were donated by local yarn-related businesses. There are several more photos on my Flickr page. It was a lot of fun. Thanks to Sally and everybody who came!
W.T.F. NOTRE DAME?
Just found out that the fantastic Bourke Street Bakery around the corner from our house is going to be leaving. Why? Because Notre Dame bought the whole block and is evicting all the tenants. THAT SUCKS. Look, I thought it was really neat four years ago when we discovered ND were creating a tiny campus in Chippendale. In the intervening years though, they’ve slowly been buying up buildings and shopfronts in the neighbourhood for expansion. I don’t want my neighbourhood to turn into a sterile college campus! I NEED MY SOURDOUGH, YOU BASTARDS. I think this definitely merits a strongly worded letter from a local homeowner AND alumnus.
Asian Poses – I am so going to start doing Puffy Cheeks and Nyan Nyan in my photos from now on.
Ten Things You Should NOT Do In Las Vegas. Snookums was happy to be vindicated in our choices. “We got it right. Chapel of Love bad, Little White Wedding Chapel good. Denny’s is also recommended!” However, I feel compelled to point out that I failed at #3 – Wear Painful Shoes. I wore my beautiful white brand new wedding Converse and they gave me blisters on my heels.
Shin Splints. This kinda sucks. I’d been feeling some little niggles in my left shin for the past week or so, but nothing too major. I mentioned it to the physio last week and she said to just keep an eye on it and make sure it didn’t become worse. I did some research on it the other day so I knew what symptoms to look for. Today at lunch, I headed out for a 45min jog around the Domain in the winter sunshine. I walked for about 5 minutes to warm up, then start slowly jogging up the hill to the Art Gallery. I picked up my speed a little as I got into the park with all the other runners. I was feeling really good as I was rounding the tip of the peninsula at Mrs. Macquarie’s chair, when suddenly I started getting sharp little shocks in that left shin with each footfall. It wasn’t terribly painful, but it felt like a needle was poking me in the leg with every single step. I knew enough to back off. I stopped to stretch (and Twitter), and I ended up walking pretty much the whole way back to the office. I’ve done some more reading, and the good news is it seems like I’ve managed to catch it early. I don’t really have any intense pain (except when I’m massaging it, and then it hurts like hell). I iced both shins tonight, and I took an anti-inflammatory and massaged Voltarin into both legs. I think the causes are fairly obvious: over-training, running on concrete, and running in really old shoes. (I was sure I’d gotten these last October before the Melbourne Half, but upon further checking, it looks like I got them last May for the Sydney Half. They’re a year old! EEP! No wonder.) So I’m going to take a couple days off, and on Sunday we’ll be taking a trip to Rozelle to visit Running Science. I’m going to get my gait examined and hopefully get myself some new wheels. In the meantime, let me know if you have any tips for faster recovery or keeping fit without aggravating it…