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.

* * *

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. 

* * *

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

* * *

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. 

* * *

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.