Monday, October 21, 2024

Ginger Garlic Paste, and a Fall Hike

I'm not an adventurous person, so I read adventure stories with a large measure of awe and admiration. Books like Cheryl Strayed's Wild and Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air have stayed with me years after I read them. Recently, I read Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods about hiking on the Appalachian Trail (AT). I am endlessly fascinated by the AT trail, which is said to be the longest walking-only path in the world, extending over 2000 miles from Georgia to Maine. 

I live only an hour or so away from the AT and have always wanted to walk on it. My little bucket list dream came true last weekend. My Thursday running buddy C is from a town very close to the AT and she planned out a day hike for a small group of four women. Millions of people do day hikes and multi-day section hikes on portions of the AT each year. About 700 people walk the whole length of it each year, hiking for about 4-6 months! (Astonishingly, C's husband hiked the whole trail from Maine to Georgia back when he was just 19, and did it in under 3 months because he really wanted to be home for Thanksgiving LOL.) 

Back to our day hike- we started around 9 AM and covered 10 miles of trails in about 6.5 hours, 30K steps according to my watch. We started off climbing up and down Blood Mountain, Georgia's sixth highest peak, and the highest point of the AT in Georgia. It was cool to see the AT shelter at the very top of the mountain. We ate a packed lunch at the foot of the mountain and then walked 5.5 miles from Neels Gap to Tesnatee Gap. 

We were either ascending or descending the whole time. It was no walk in the woods, I assure you. Ascending is hard for obvious reasons- you're working against gravity. But descending is also very hard- as you have to be very careful with balance and it uses a whole different array of muscles. I was wary of injuries and descended gingerly and overall was the absolute slowpoke of our group. By the end of the hike, I had three simultaneous thoughts about my legs: (a) My legs feel like jello, (b) My legs feel like lead, (c) I can't feel my legs.




The day was picture-perfect, the views were spectacular, and fall colors were just starting to show. We saw no wildlife at all- I see a diversity of wildlife in my own backyard every day but spotted none up in the mountains that day. Over 10 miles of trails, I also did not see a single piece of trash. 
 
It was a special feeling to be on the AT trail and know that I could have just kept walking for a few months and reached Maine. Instead, I hopped into a car, went back to our rental cabin and dined on canned veggie chili on a bed of spaghetti, washed down with a beer. I was ridiculously sore for days afterwards. But it was completely worth it. It gave me a tiniest taste of the AT and what it must be like to do the full hike, sleeping in shelters or on the ground, walking on average 15-20 miles a day for months. Humans amaze me with the things they do for recreation and adventure.

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On the culinary side, I am highlighting a staple ingredient in my kitchen- ginger garlic paste (GG paste). I've mentioned it in hundreds of recipes but I don't think I have ever talked about how I make it. (Probably because there's not much to it. But here goes.)

Why make GG paste? Ginger and garlic are aromatics that add plenty of oomph to many savory dishes- especially Indian, Thai, and Chinese, for me. Technically, it is just fine to keep some fresh or frozen ginger and garlic on hand and mince it up for recipes as needed. But making a paste of the two together and storing it in the fridge/freezer is an absolute time-saver and significantly cuts down the friction to making curries and stir-fries from scratch. 

You can buy jars of GG paste in Indian stores but I find that homemade tastes best.

How to make GG paste? I buy fresh ginger and garlic- the freshest you can find, which is often in the Asian store. Peel the garlic and wash the cloves. Peel the ginger (a spoon works best), wash and roughly chop. What ratio to use? I like a 2:1 ratio of ginger to garlic. I like the warmth of ginger and garlic can be assertive to the point of being overpowering, so this ratio is best for me. Here, I used roughly 2 cups chopped ginger and 1 cup garlic cloves. Just place them in a powerful blender with some salt and a few tablespoons of water and blend it down to a paste.

How to store GG paste? One batch of GG paste lasts me several months, portioned into a few glass jars. (One of my GG jars is a baby food jar from years ago.) I store one jar in the fridge and others in the freezer. Then as I finish a fridge jar, I move in the next one from the freezer. There are other clever ways of storing it, such as using ice cube trays to make GG paste blocks. But I find the fridge method to be the most flexible so I can spoon out whatever amount of GG paste I want for any recipe. 


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A new recipe I tried last week: a modified version of cowboy beans where I used smoked paprika in place of bacon and veggie crumbles in place of the ground meat. I took it to a potluck and the dish was a hit. 

Before baking

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Media round-up

  • Watching: I took my son and a few of his friends to the movie theater to see the recently released movie The Wild Robot. The biggest success was the screening room itself, because it was outfitted with a playscape on an entire wall, so the kids could climb and jump and get their wiggles out for 30 minutes before the movie. I'm glad I discovered this place! The movie itself is very enjoyable. The story trope of found family is nothing new at all, but done with a lot of heart of gentle humor, and the animation is stunning. 
  • Reading
    • Another short story collection, The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans. I enjoyed two of the stories in this collection: Boys Go to Jupiter and Anything Could Disappear.
    • This was a random pick from the Halloween-themed book display at the library- Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? And Other Questions About Dead Bodies by Caitlin Doughty and it was a quick, informative and surprisingly hilarious read, given the subject matter. 
  • Listening to
    • A song I discovered via the car radio- Big Feelings by a Canadian pop group, the Arkells. I now sing it in my head whenever we have a "big feelings" situation in our home, which is...frequently, ha ha. "Are you afraid of big feelings?" Not me, never.
    • We spent a lovely afternoon at Porchfest, a daylong community event where local musicians play on porches of homes around town and people wander around and listen to music. It was the most beautiful day weather-wise and a joyful celebration of the enormous talent in our midst. My favorites were tap dancers performing to Bittersweet Symphony by the Verve and high school musicians who did a cover of Supermassive Black Hole by the Muse. I was so impressed by the drummer, a teen girl.
  • I recently discovered the NYmag weekly crossword- a new one is published every Saturday, and they are free and a lot of fun to solve, with puns and all. The difficulty is right at the sweet spot for me- hard but doable. 
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In previous moments of fitness, we talked about 3 types of training, (1) cardio or aerobic training, and (2) strength training (including compound exercises and accessory exercises) and (3) core training. Today, I'll talk about the other 4 types of training:
  • Flexibility: Basically, this is all about stretching and practicing our full range of motion. Stretching exercises make daily movement easier and can help relieve aches, pains, and cramps. Stretches should be part of every workout. 
    • Warm ups before exercising are ideally dynamic stretches where you "get moving", such as high knees and arm circles. 
    • Cool downs after exercising often involve static stretches on already-warm muscles where you hold a position for 30 seconds or so, for instance, a standing quad stretch where you stand on one foot and bend the other knee, grabbing the ankle and bringing the foot up behind you.
    • While stretching is important with any workout, stretching can also be a workout on its own. Yoga and Pilates are two examples of workouts that involve flexibility training.
  • Balance- Practicing balance is very beneficial for reducing risks of falls and sprains. It improves proprioception, that is, our awareness of our body in space. There are three major systems that keep us balanced, and balance exercises involve challenging each of these. 
    • Visual system, that is, eyesight. Try to stand on one leg with your eyes closed! 
    • Vestibular system, involving sensory receptors of the inner ear. This system can be challenged with exercises that involve staying balanced while bending over or hopping, for instance.
    • Somatosensory system, involving sensory receptors in skin/muscle/joints. Running on unstable surfaces is an example of balance training for this system.
    • In each workout, try to incorporate a single leg or hopping exercise to practice balance.
  • Plyometrics= jump training. We jump around so much as kids, and then almost never as adults. Jumping exercises are beneficial for increasing bone density and decreasing muscle loss with age. They also contribute to increased strength and power. Jumping rope is a great way to practice plyometrics, or doing exercises like jump squats and lateral jumps. 
  • Speed, Agility, Quickness. Speed is moving fast in one direction. Agility is being able to change direction rapidly. Quickness is reaction time. Practicing these things improves response time and coordination. Example of SAQ exercises are ladder drills, agility dot drills, and cone drills. 

Tuesday, October 08, 2024

Coconut macaroons, Book sale treasures, and Core exercises

Fall is creeping ever so slowly into North Georgia. The days are going by in a blur- cross-country meets and fall festivals abound- and I'm not being particularly adventurous in the kitchen. 

For a teacher potluck, I signed up to bring in a gluten free dessert. I had a bag of unsweetened coconut flakes in the pantry so I thought I would make coconut macaroons, based on this recipe. I've made cardamom and saffron macaroons before; they are a lovely, chewy dessert for anyone who loves coconut.

This time I mixed together 4 cups coconut flakes and 1 can sweetened condensed milk in a large bowl, then added some salt and vanilla for flavor. I whipped 2 large egg whites to stiff peaks and folded them in. Then I used a 1/8 cup measure to dollop the sticky mixture onto 2 parchment-lined sheets and baked them at 325F for about 20 minutes. I got 22 golden macaroons and dipped the bottoms in melted dark chocolate. My "artful" chocolate drizzle was a bit of a flop but the macaroons are tasty.


This was the first fall-like dinner of 2024. Lemon pasta from TJ's (an impulse purchase) sautéed with spinach and sage and tossed with roasted butternut squash. 

One Sunday evening I was fresh out of ideas for dinner and made some French toast for the kids. We had plenty of leftovers for school morning breakfasts. 

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Media round-up

  • TV: I started watching a random Netflix recommendation that I had never heard of, a sitcom called Still Game. It turned out to be a cult Scottish comedy series and I am enjoying it. The show centers around the lives and misadventures of a group of pensioners, complete with thick accents and salty language. What I love best is the depiction of male friendship, although my favorite character is the nosy and lovable neighbor lady Isa Drennan.  
  • Family TV: We started watching the latest installment of the Great British Baking Show. The first episode amazed me. The contestants are taking it to the next level- making an overly fussy bake during the technical round without a recipe (!!) and making hyper-realistic cakes for their show-stoppers. Although I must say I cannot stand all the fondant that goes into realistic cakes.
  • Books: Short stories used to be my favorite thing to read, as I wrote in this post some years ago. I recently read a really great collection of short stories, Pastoralia by George Saunders. The first three stories are fantastic, each conjuring up a weird and dystopian but uncomfortably believable America. The story titled Sea Oak in particular, about a male stripper and his dysfunctional family, about the struggle to get out of poverty, is the most absurd yet amazing, darkly funny story I've read in a long time. 
  • Music: I listen almost exclusively to music from the 90s (when I listen to music at all) but thanks to readio I discovered some more recent pop music to add to my playlist, from a band called almost monday- three songs I like are cool enough, live forever, broken people. I'm entering a new century, y'all.
  • Highlight: I spent a blissful hour rummaging through endless tables of donated books at the biannual library book sale where you get to fill a bag for 10 bucks. Here's a picture of my haul. The meditation book, Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn made it to my bedside table immediately and I'm enjoying reading a couple of passages before bed. The book without a title (gold rectangle on the cover) is The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. The Color Harmonies is for my dad who loves sketching and painting. The Calvin and Hobbes is for my son. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead is for my daughter, a middle-grade novel that I've read and loved before. I was very pleased with the number of science books I found this time.

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In my last post, I talked about the seven major muscle groups and mentioned sample exercises for six of the groups. In today's moment of fitness, we focus on the last group, the core. When people think of the core, they tend to think of the "abs" or abdominal muscles, the coveted "six pack" defined muscles for some fitness enthusiasts of the beach body variety. In reality, vanity is the least of the concerns when it comes to the core. This muscle group is literally the primary stabilizer of our body and involved in all movement on and off the beach. 

Consisting of much more than the abs alone, the core is a substantial cylinder of muscle tissue that wraps around our trunk. 
  • The base of the cylinder consists of the pelvic floor muscles
  • The top of the cylinder consists of the diaphragm, a key muscle involved in breathing
  • The sides of the cylinder are the internal and external abdominal obliques, involved in twisting and turning motions 
  • The superficial muscles of the core are the "six pack" abs ones- the rectus abdominis in front of the abdomen
  • The deep core muscle is the transverse abdominis which wraps around the trunk
  • The erector spinae are deep muscles connected to the spine, involved in stability
A weak core leads to many issues, including poor posture, a tendency to lose balance, and the big one, back pain. I have had first-hand experience with back pain, an episode that is seared into my memory because it happened at a particularly inopportune time, when my son was a toddler and my spouse was out of town for a week-long work trip. I remember being in spasms of pain whenever I bent down, and bending down was essential and frequent while caring for a toddler single-handedly. It was a helpless feeling and a wake up call. Back pain is debilitating and can severely impact daily life- everything from the must-dos to the fun times. 

The good news is that core exercises are easy to learn and can be done anywhere, with no equipment needed. You can do them right on the floor, on an exercise mat, or a rug/carpet. A 10-15 minute core exercise routine done 2-3 times a week is a great start towards building a strong core with many protective benefits. 

Here are some of my favorite core exercises. Search for exercise names on the internet to find images and videos. Try some out and tell me your favorites in the comments.
  • Dynamic core exercises (dynamic= you move during the exercise)
    • Cat cow stretch
    • Bird dog
    • Dead bug
    • Leg raises
    • Russian twist
    • Mountain climbers
  • Static core exercises (static= you hold the pose for some amount of time, say, 30-45 seconds)
    • Plank
    • Side plank
    • Bear hold
    • Boat pose