Pizza Beans, Cookie Bonanza, Memorizing Poetry

This post has been sitting in the drafts for a few weeks while I was waiting to cook "something new". But we've been contentedly eating quick meals from our usual rotation and I haven't had the bandwidth to try new recipes or play around in the kitchen. 

Yesterday, in using up some dried cannellini beans, I tried out something small but new to me, pizza beans. You don't really even need a recipe for this. I simply cooked soaked cannellini beans in the instant pot, drained them and mixed in marinara sauce and pizza seasoning, then ladled them into a baking dish, topped with a little mozzarella cheese and baked/broiled until bubbly. They're so easy and good- something different from the usual bean recipes I make. (and kid-friendly, although only one of my kids ate them). I served the pizza beans with some roasted broccolini. 

* * * A Cookie Bonanza * * *

First up, printed design cookies. My Aussie friend and my son and I had ourselves a mini baking session on a Sunday morning last month. We had a farewell lunch at work later that week and I thought I'd bring some cookies in to share. A fun trend that I'm seeing in the baking world is called printed design sugar cookies. 

The idea is that you lay out little colorful cutouts on a plain dough base, roll it all out to uniform thickness to make a printed cookie dough sheet, then stamp out cookies and bake them. Have you seen these on blogs and social media recently? Here's a cute how-to post of a floral print, and another post on printed cookies from King Arthur Flour. If you want an edible craft project, this one is for you. 

I used my favorite cookie dough. We left most of it plain for the base, and broke off some pieces and added food coloring. We used play-doh tools (sanitized and washed!) to stamp out shapes and make patterns. I chose to make a bright flower pattern in keeping with the season. Then I placed a parchment sheet on top, rolled it gently to flatten the shapes into the base, then cut out cookies with a drinking glass!

It was such a great little project, and I can imagine being able to customize all kinds of cookie designs for people (initials) or occasions. 

Second, baking from the bookmarks. I have so many cookie recipes saved in my to-make files, it is well beyond my life expectancy to try them all. A recipe I had bookmarked recently is Scandinavian almond bars. I love that this recipe came from the blogger's student who brought it to school as a assignment! These were very easy to make but it was quite tricky to tell when the cookie slabs were done baking. It is like biscotti without the second bake. Everyone loved the taste of these cookies. 

Third, my newly acquired cookie press. I saw my friend and former co-worker at the aforementioned work lunch and she gave me a very sweet, very late holiday present- an OXO cookie press with 18 design disks! My son and I couldn't wait to try it out. I used the butter cookie recipe in the product leaflet. This was my first time using a cookie press, and at the beginning, it didn't work at all. The cookie shape would squeeze out but wouldn't release. After some frustrating minutes, I realized that the steel design disks are not the same on both sides. There is a subtle difference, with the design on one side being sharper than the other. When I made sure to place the disk with the sharp side touching the dough, the cookies released beautifully. (Nowhere is this mentioned in the product directions, by the way.) We tried three designs this time- two flowers and a teddy bear! 

                                                      * * * A math book * * *

I've been binge reading so many great books. I'll mention just one in this post, that I picked up from the library's "new books" shelf- Math for English Majors by Ben Orlin. The subtitle of the book is "a human take on the universal language". Orlin argues that just like any language, math has nouns (things; numbers), verbs (actions; calculations), grammar (algebra). 

The book is informative and funny and charming. I'm an averagely mathy person. I don't "get it" the way I get biology, for example. I'm constantly on the remedial math train, is what I am saying. Orlin uses fun little line drawings and creative examples to illustrate ideas and explain what it is all about. 

One of my favorite chapters was on Large Magnitudes, with examples on how to overcome "number numbness" and get concrete. He explains orders of magnitude (1, 10, 100...1 million...10 billion) in terms of people, dollars, years. For instance, the difference between a million and a billion can be hard to intuitively understand; they are both big numbers. But they are vastly different from each other. 1 million seconds is 12 days while 1 billion seconds is ~32 years. 1 million calories can feed a person for 16 months, 1 billion calories can feed a person for 1300 years. 

I loved this book so much that I bought a copy to give my nephew for his birthday. If you have middle/high school aged kids or if you'd like a little dose of entertaining math yourself, I highly recommend this book.

* * * A couple of fun challenges * * *

The last week of April, I spent a few minutes each day memorizing a poem, of all things! One of my besties from high school texted me with a link to this poetry challenge on NYT, and I was happy to play along. It reminded me of when this friend and I memorized poems in middle and high school. (We had an amazing and very strict English teacher. I credit her with a lot of my love for the language. And thanks to her determined drilling, I can tell you all about the figures of speech to this very day.) 

The poem itself is about an all-nighter on the Staten Island Ferry, which coincidentally I rode only a few weeks ago. This poetry challenge was well-designed- with little games to test your memorization, and short articles diving into the meaning of the poem. We so rarely memorize anything any more, making this a refreshing challenge. This is what life needs more of, enjoyment of beautiful language, human connection, culture. As the articles said, 

"Memorizing a poem is like taking a work of art that you love and letting it live and bloom inside of you." 

"It can be a way of holding onto something beautiful, a morsel of verbal pleasure you can take out whenever you want." 

"It’s a flower in the windowbox of your mind."

Another time, I did a 10 minute challenge (gift article)- looking at the famous painting, "The Starry Night" by van Gogh, for 10 whole minutes and taking in every detail and letting yourself soak in the experience. Fantastic! So very different from the second or ten we spend looking at things. It makes me want to take an afternoon and go to the art museum and stare at paintings and sculptures.

Other delightful moments from the past few weeks: an early morning walk in the botanical gardens on my birthday... 

Trees and sunshine= perfect birthday

Taking time to smell the roses

...and a day hike with a dear friend. We got out of town for a day, drove to Amicalola State Park, hiked up to the top of the falls, climbing 604 steps in the process, ate lunch at the restaurant at the top, hiked 45 minutes on trails at the top (towards the start of the Appalachian Trial), then walked down. A perfect day with perfect weather! 

Amicalola Falls, a 729-foot waterfall
that is the highest in Georgia

The view at lunch

A Family Trip to NYC

NYC is one of my favorite places in the world. V and I lived there for several years in the early aughts and grew up there, in a manner of speaking. Those years ended up shaping much of our world-view. Neither of us has been back recently but we have wanted to show our kids the city we love so much. The world feels unstable these days, and I thought we shouldn't wait any longer and travel there over spring break. 

We spent a few days in NYC last week- Wednesday afternoon through Sunday afternoon. The weather did not cooperate whatsoever; it was pretty chilly and drizzly almost the whole time we were there. It was no spring break, that's for sure! If the weather had been nicer, our visit would have looked quite different, but here's what we ended up doing--

• Arrival day- We checked in at a hotel on the Upper West Side- a great residential neighborhood. Walked around the neighborhood soaking in the atmosphere and ate dosas for dinner! 
• Day 1
• AM: This was the one morning of dry weather and we made the best of it. We took the subway down to the Staten Island Ferry (which happens to be free, and provides fantastic views of lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty), then walked to the 9/11 Memorial (V and I were both in the city when 9/11 happened and our kids were curious about what that was like) and the Oculus shopping center across the street for a quick lunch. Then we walked partially across the Brooklyn Bridge and back to the subway uptown for some rest in the hotel, stopping for gelato on the way.
• PM: We took the subway to Rockefeller Center and stopped by the iconic toy store FAO Schwartz. It was absolute wall to wall crowds and mayhem and we got out pretty quick. After stopping in the Nintendo store next door, we walked to Times Square for a few minutes at that dizzying intersection. Then back uptown for a relaxed dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant with incredible dips, fresh-baked bread, and falafel.

Artist rendition (by my 8 yr old) +
view of Lady Liberty from the ferry

View of downtown Manhattan from the ferry

• Day 2
• AM
• Breakfast was classic bagels with a schmear. We walked a couple of blocks from the hotel to explore Central Park- visiting Belvedere Castle and surrounding parts of the park. 
• Then we crossed the street to the Natural History Museum and spent hours there, including watching a wonderful show at Hayden Planetarium. The kids enjoyed the marine life hall with the life-size blue whale replica and the dinosaur exhibits. 
• We headed to a nearby Mexican restaurant for lunch and then back to the hotel to rest, stopping at a bakery on the way for some choux pastry.
• PM: We took the subway to Roosevelt Island, walked around there for more views of Manhattan, then took the amazing Roosevelt Avenue aerial tramway back to the Upper East Side, and walked over to have dinner and drinks at a friend's apartment. 

Avenue perspective, from the tramway

• Day 3
• AM: We had a lazy morning followed by brunch with an old friend- it was a happy reunion after not having seen him for decades. 
• PM: We took the subway down to SoHo. The kids wanted to visit the SlooMoo Institute- a slime play experience. I stopped at Pearl River Mart, the iconic Asian emporium. Big sis wanted to shop for clothing, so we hit up a bunch of stores like Cotton On, Uniqlo, and a few others. Stores were jammed with lines for trial rooms. Dinner was some takeout that we took back to the hotel suite- Asian and pizza from the neighborhood.
• Departure day: We walked over to Zabar's Cafe and market for breakfast, then strolled through Riverside Park, spotted a Banksy piece on the walk back, grabbed one last piece of pizza for lunch, and then checked out and off to La Guardia airport. 

Things we wanted to do but didn't: walking the High Line, watching a live show...and a hundred other things. 

Traveling with kids comes with its compromises- instead of seeking out special restaurants (I had a list, y'all), we grabbed food wherever it was most convenient; we did kid-friendly things like slime museums and what-not instead of going to other (you know, world class) museums and art galleries; we built in plenty of down time for the kids to just chill and play video games in the hotel room. 

We walked a LOT- like 20,000 steps each day, and that's honestly my favorite thing about NYC- walking around, people-watching, ducking into stores and food shops. Grabbing a slice of pizza here and there whenever you feel like it. The city hasn't changed a whole lot in 20 years! 

It was pretty hilarious to see my small-town kids reacting to big city things. My daughter smiled at every person on the street because that's just Southern small-town etiquette, and then turned to us and said, sadly, "No one's smahling back". Her other observation: "Everyone is dressed like Europeans." At our friend's apartment building, the uniformed doorman ushered us in, and my son asked, "Do all buildings have bodyguards and do they fight people?" 

Some of the things we ate-

Choux pastry

Mango gelato shaped like a rose

Neighborhood pizza!

Overly seasoned mushroom pizza

Steamed rice noodle rolls- something new to me!

* * * 

What I'm reading

Just before this trip, I happened to read a book that is set in New York City in the 1980s- Is There No Place On Earth For Me? by Susan Sheehan. Published in 1982 and awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction the following year, it is a masterclass in empathetic, immersive journalism. This book is a classic investigation of schizophrenia. Sheehan follows a young woman named Sylvia Frumkin (pseudonym) who suffers from chronic schizophrenia and navigates the mental health system. I was amazed to learn how many programs existed at that time in NYC, arguably more than what most patients get all over the world—hospitals, transitional housing, daycare centers, even sheltered workshops. 

What’s heartbreaking is how little they helped. Treatment was rarely consistent. Doctors didn’t always read her chart, medications weren’t titrated properly (antipsychotic medications don't have standard doses and have to be worked by for each patient), and some so-called therapies, like insulin coma treatment (horrendous pseudoscience) and vitamin megadosing, did more harm than good. Today, it is known that antipsychotics are needed to be taken lifelong to manage severe mental illness (schizophrenia can be managed but not cured) but Sylvia's doctors kept trying to wean her off the drugs, resulting in predictable relapses. To top it all, Sylvia had a form of schizophrenia that was particular resistant to treatment. 

One line that stayed with me comes after a wonderful Christmas party that the patients are treated to, but can't seem to enjoy: “Wherever I go, I take myself with me, and that always spoils it.” Another, when Sylvia contemplates her mentally well sister who enjoys an independent life and career: “When you know all of those things exist for other people but not for you, sometimes it’s very hard to endure the not having.” 

Since the 80s, many mental health institutions have been shut down, but not adequately replaced by community and out-patient care. Just yesterday, I read one more devastating piece in the New Yorker on the lives (and untimely, harrowing deaths) of people with mental illness. 

* * *

I'll end this post with a link to a delightful article I read recently in the NYT, about a cake picnic in San Francisco. The premise is pretty simple- you show up to the picnic venue with a cake. No cake, no entry. Cakes are laid out, admired, then sliced, shared, and devoured. What fun! I would love to organize a copycat cake picnic myself. 

A Moment of Fitness is on break this week. If you have a fitness-related question, post it in a comment and I'll try to answer it in a future post!

Dumpling Pancake, 90s Music, Back-up Plans

In my last post, I mentioned being the proud owner of the biggest head of cabbage ever. In the days since, it made me giggle every time I opened my fridge because the cabbage is apparently of the never-ending variety. No matter what I made with it, welp- there was always more of it waiting in the crisper. 

On a Friday evening, dangerously close to dinner-time, racking my brains for yet another cabbage recipe, I was reminded of a very interesting dish I saw on Johanna's blog called dumpling okonomiyaki. It combines two things I love, dumplings and savory pancakes, into one very interesting and pretty dish. I had a packet of vegetable dumplings in the freezer (it is a staple for us and makes for many last minute meals) and everything else that I needed for this dish was on hand. It looked like a great opportunity to dispatch more of the cabbage.

I started by mixing the pancake batter, following the recipe pretty closely, but with less flour and cornstarch, fresh ginger instead of pickled, and regular green cabbage instead of Chinese cabbage. I added other bits, like cabbage and green onion. It is interesting that the recipe calls for a bit of shredded cheddar, a non-traditional ingredient. While the batter rested, I cooked up the dumplings in my cast iron skillet. 

Then I added the pancake batter around and atop the dumplings (I didn't need all of it and we enjoyed plain veg pancakes the next day). The whole thing cooked for 10-15 minutes, then I tried flipping it unsuccessfully, so I flipped it in sections. Even with my messy and imperfect execution, the resulting thick pancake was so, so good, golden and crunchy on either side, soft and savory in the middle. Absolutely delicious with some soy sauce and chili crisp, one of my favorite things I've made in recent months! It is a fun, off-beat recipe to make and eat. 

* * * 

More cupcakes were made this weekend- chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ermine frosting (rosette swirls with Wilton 2D piping tip) for my Aussie friend's birthday picnic at the park. We had a lovely time sitting outside even though the day set an all-time record for highest pollen count in the air! It was apparently 10 times higher than what is considered extremely high by pollen standards. Oof. On the plus side my grey car is now dyed a bright yellow. 

* * *

The Book Riot's Read Harder 2025 prompt #7 is Read a book about a piece of media you love (a TV show, a movie, a band, etc.) Immediately, I thought of 90s music, which, while not a particular band or piece of media, is a collection of media that I have adored, since, well, the 90s. So I picked up 60 Songs that Explain the 90s by Rob Harvilla, which started as a podcast and was published as a book in 2023. As the author says, the music you loved as a teenager is the sweetest music you'll ever hear. That's how music works and how being a teenager works. In his words, "With apologies to my loving and supportive parents, I was raised by MTV..." and to his credit, he has parlayed his teen obsession into a career as a professional music critic. 

The book has 10 themes with 10-12 songs representing each theme. Some examples of chapters and songs are listed below. (I myself have distinct memories of each of these from the 90s; for instance, Prodigy's Firestarter was the soundtrack of an incredible fashion show in one of the college festivals; I lived with my aunt in college and she loved Sheryl Crow...)

• Chaos Agents (pretty self-explanatory, songs which rocked the culture) includes Madonna- "Vogue" and Prodigy- "Firestarter"
• Women vs. "Women in Rock includes Alanis Morissette- "You Oughta Know" and Sheryl Crow- "If It Makes You Happy" among other legends
• Flukes + Comebacks + Spectacular Weirdos (what the rest of us would call one hit wonders) includes Los Del Rio- "Macarena (Bayside Boys Remix)" and Vanilla Ice- "Ice Ice Baby"
• Vivid Geography includes Missy Elliott- "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)" and Soundgarden- "Black Hole Sun" 

I turned this book into my personal multimedia experience by playing songs out loud while reading about them. It was a good time. The chapters are rambling and all over the place, with the author mixing in his memories, impressions, and critiques of the songs/ bands, along with mentions of noteworthy events and "tea" involving the artists, such as feuds and controversies and cultural impacts. 

For the best and most entertaining visual summary of 90s music, however, I refer you to the series- VH1- 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s- this is episode 1; all episodes can be found online. 

When I want some music in the background, I've been listening lately to an online radio station called Radio Paradise- either their main mix or the rock mix. It is pretty eclectic. One song I rediscovered this week by hearing it on Radio Paradise is by a Canadian musical project called Euphoria - Delirium (1997), an instrumental song. I don't think I ever heard it in the 90s but it was instantly recognizable- I'm pretty sure I heard it a few years ago during an astounding dance performance by the group MOMIX. In any case, this went on my playlist right away. 

* * *

In today's moment of fitness, the importance of If...Then planning. For me, the slow ongoing cultivation of an exercise habit has been an education in human psychology. One tactic that I frequently use is If...Then planning, which is what I informally call "Plan B and Plan C" and what psychologists call implementation intentions, that is, plans you make beforehand about when and where to act. 

For instance, part of my regular exercise schedule is to go on short runs 2 to 3 mornings a week. But running outside is a plan that is prone to many obstacles- everything from bad weather to early meetings to darkness due to daylight savings time. So a couple of back-up plans are needed.

Plan A: If it is a running day on my schedule, then go for a run outside before work.
Plan B: If running outside is not possible, then do a HIIT workout at home.
Plan C: If doing a HIIT workout is not possible, then take more walking breaks during/after the workday. 

I also want to learn how to run confidently on a treadmill (I feel like I am falling off- I don't enjoy it) but have not gotten around to that yet. It could be an alternative to one of the plans above.

I believe that for the average exerciser (me), exercise consistency is way more important than exercise intensity. If..Then planning increases consistency because, first of all, you have a plan in place. And you have alternatives ready and waiting for the inevitable times (for such is life) when Plan A fails. Also, you don't have to come up with alternative plans on the spot. They are waiting in the wings. Having back up plans for various scenarios teaches us to be adaptable and not look for the first excuse to cancel the planned workout. 

Late Winter Meals, Novels, Preventing Injuries

Colcannon

Meal prepping- making quantities of meals to refrigerate or freeze for the future- is quite a thing these days, as it should be, being a practical and time-saving format of home cooking. For most of my cooking life, I have not been a meal prepper, preferring to cook a meal every evening that we eat for dinner, with leftovers for lunch the following day. Rinse and repeat. 

But these days I am a semi-meal prepper because it fits my hybrid work schedule. I have settled into a pattern of 2 biggish cooking sessions every week, one on Sunday that feeds us into mid-week and another on Wednesday that takes us into Friday. Friday evening can be a pantry/fridge-cleaning meal or take-out. It is wonderful to have meals ready to heat and eat on office days.

This week's cooking was hearty, cold weather fare. Winter turned to Spring this week, at least as per the calendar. In reality, the weather is swinging wildly and the season changes hourly. On Sunday, I made the lasagna and enchilada casserole and a pot of pinto beans and rice. On Wednesday I made colcannon and radish sambar (not pictured). I added a romaine lettuce salad and veggie sticks (cucumber, carrots) to round these out. By mixing and matching this food, it fed us all week for lunches and dinners. 

1. Colcannon- Because of St. Patrick's Day last week, cabbage and potatoes were even cheaper and more abundant than usual in the grocery store. V brought home the biggest head of cabbage I've ever seen in my life. I'm talking comically big. Even after 3-4 cabbage dishes, I have half a head in the crisper. Anyway, I leaned in and tried colcannon, an Irish dish of mashed potato with cabbage. I used this recipe but made it in the instant pot, which was dead easy. I served it with veggie meatballs (from Aldi) topped with barbecue sauce- it was so good. The picture is of a lunchbox with still-frozen meatballs! 

Spinach lasagna

2. Spinach lasagna- This is a favorite in my family always, although this time my son inexplicably decided he did not like it. Ricotta, frozen chopped spinach and oven ready lasagna sheets make it quite easy, for a lasagna, anyway. It still requires making a sauce and making a filling and layering everything together. 

Enchilada casserole

3. Enchilada casserole- I had a few corn tortillas stashed away in the freezer, and also had some fresh tomatillos from a rare trip to the Mexican supermarket. I made salsa verde and used it as the sauce for this casserole. The filling was a bunch of vegetables and soy curls. 

I have plans for some of that never-ending cabbage tonight. I'll post it next week if it works out! 

* * *

There's a whole stack of books I've been devouring and this week is all about the fiction. I read this novel for the PS 2025 Reading Challenge Prompt #14: A book about a nontraditional education- Never Let Me Go, a 2005 novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. 

(Possible spoilers ahead...) The narrator of Never Let Me Go is a 31 year old woman named Kathy. In this book, written in simple prose and in the first person, she reminisces about her childhood and schooling and interactions with fellow students. The nontraditional education here is what appears to be a pleasant English boarding school, but turns out to be a school that provides an upbringing to "clones" who are created for the sole purpose of donating their organs to other humans, with their lives ending after a certain number of donations. 

This book is shelved in the science fiction genre and I don't feel that it is an accurate characterization. I had more questions than answers about how this whole cloning system in this fictional dystopia works. (Turns out somebody on reddit had the same exact questions as me!) These questions were so distracting that I didn't particularly like the book when I was reading it. But it left me feeling deeply uneasy and I thought about it for days after. This was an interesting feeling- a book that affected me after I closed it much more than it did while I was reading it. 

The second book I read was also set in Britain, but is less of a dystopian read and more of an escapist novel- You Are Here by David Nicholls, published only last year. I read this book for the Read Harder 2025 Challenger for Prompt #9: Read a book based solely on its setting. The setting that attracted me was the English countryside. This witty, romance-lite book is about two lonely strangers, each reeling from a failed relationship, who are thrown together on a coast-to-coast "ramble" (hiking trip). It was fun to join these characters on their trip through geographical features (crags, moors...), pubs and various lodgings, bad weather, and various complications. If you're looking for a light-hearted read, I recommend this book! 

* * *

Today's moment of fitness discusses something we'd rather not think about- injuries. In the last few weeks, I heard of two serious exercise-related injuries. One of my childhood friends tore her ACL while "doing some stunts in the gym" (no idea exactly what, and I'm afraid to ask) and needed surgery to repair it. The dad of one of my local friends- a fit gentleman in his 70s- was on a group bike ride, crashed into a hard-to-see barrier and had major spinal injuries (he is in rehab and expected to do well.) News like this is always sobering. 

Exercise, an activity where we are purposely and intentionally stretching our limits and subjecting our bodies to controlled stress, certainly has its risks, but they are far outweighed by the benefits. Of course, everything in life carries risks. Even the most mundane of activities carry a chance that things can go wrong. Not exercising is riskier in the long term. Exercise risks can't be eliminated but there are ways to minimize them. 

1. Warm up and cool down. Start each workout with dynamic stretches (e.g., arm circles, leg swings, high knees). End each workout with static stretches. Start and end each run with a brisk walk. 
2. Use proper form and technique. Improper form can lead to tears, strains, sprains. Proper form can be learned with a trainer, or with exercise videos, watching carefully and practicing, ideally in front of a mirror. 
3. Start slow and progress gradually. This is a big one. We get excited and impatient; we want results fast, want results NOW. It is only human to be this way, but it is a huge risk factor for injury if you go too hard, too fast. This is my main problem with trendy gyms like F45 fitness, Orange Theory fitness, Crossfit. They often emphasize boot camp style workouts, with high intensity and a fast pace. You're doing complex movements, and doing them fast. It is a competitive and hyped-up atmosphere with instructors urging you to keep going and smash that workout. It is a group setting where your form is generally not being watched closely. All of this comes with a higher risk of injury, and this is especially true for people who are older and/or deconditioned (i.e., not accustomed to exercise). These gyms are popular for a reason. They can make exercise exciting, and they often build devoted communities of exercisers. But they are intense and that's not always a good thing for every person.
4. Pay attention to intake of water, food, electrolytes. Being dehydrated and depleted makes you fatigued which can lead to everything from dizziness and fainting to just impaired reflexes/ judgement as you exercise. 
5. Use appropriate gear such as well-fitting shoes and safety equipment. This is a reminder to myself. I went running two days ago before dawn (dawn is late these days because of daylight savings time) without any lights on me, and felt unsafe as I was crossing streets- I don't think cars could see me at all. Clearly, I need visibility gear.
6. Rest and recover. Don't work the same muscles hard every day. Rest and recovery time is what allows your body to respond and adapt to exercise to make you stronger. 
7. Curb your ego and listen to your body. There's no heroism in finishing a race if you feel intense pain in the middle of it. There's no point trying to lift an impressive weight if you're not ready for it. It is a learning process to figure out when to push yourself and when to draw back and stop and rest. We can't always get it right but we can keep working on it. 

* * *

Are you a meal prepper or do you cook on a daily basis?

Black Forest Cupcakes, Beet Dip, Progressive Overload

Last weekend was a busy one- I both attended a party and threw a party. It stretched my social stamina and by Sunday evening, I was all caked up and partied out. The party I attended was a first birthday (more on the food from that party below.) The party I hosted was a farewell party for my former boss and his wife, a couple in their 80s, who are now moving several states away to be closer to family. 

Over the last dozen years, the whole time we've lived in GA, they have been close family friends and bonus grandparents for our kids, attending all the holiday concerts and dance recitals and preschool graduations and grandparents' days at the kids' schools. For the last couple of years, my daughter has visited Mrs. C almost every weekend and learned to quilt from her, a very special activity that they enjoyed together. They are a big part of our life. All of this to say that this farewell was bittersweet, and I hosted a Happy/Unhappy Hour for them and a bunch of our former colleagues. 

Happy hours or tea parties are much easier to host than full dinners and just as much fun. We kept it quite simple with a menu of drinks/ snacks/ cake. For the celebratory dessert, I went with cupcakes instead of cake for easy serving. I considered many different flavors and then landed on a oldie but goodie that I haven't made in a while- Black Forest Cake. It was prompted by the jar of Trader Joe's syrupy Amarena cherries that I was hoarding in my pantry and jonesing to use. 

Those of us who grew up in urban India likely have a nostalgic fondness for Black Forest cakes- likely the first "fancy" pastry that any of us encountered, with chocolate cake soaked in syrup, a whipped cream topping with chocolate shavings and a cherry on top. This delightful NYTimes article covers how this German confection has improbably found popularity in different cultures in all corners of the world. (I posted a black forest cake recipe in 2005 and another one in 2015, so perhaps this is a once-every-decade thing for me?)

Black Forest cupcakes

1. Make chocolate cupcakes. I used this recipe mostly because it makes 16 cupcakes which was the number I needed. (I knew Stef back when I lived in STL and she is truly creative with her flavors as well as being a rigorous recipe tester.) Cool cupcakes completely.

2. Make cherry filling (I used frozen cherries and made the cherry filling from this recipe). Cool the filling completely.

3. Fill the cupcakes- I used a paring knife to cut a cone out of the top of each cupcake, and lopped off the tip of the cone to leave just a disc. Then I filled the cupcake with a heaping tsp. of the filling, and covered it back up with the disc. It doesn't look terribly tidy but will get completely covered by the frosting.

4. Top with whipped cream (I used this recipe) and a preserved cherry.

To really tick the black forest boxes, what would have good in addition to the above is (a) soaking the cupcakes with a kirsch- cherry syrup mixture, and (b) topping the whipped frosting with chocolate curls or shavings. But the cupcakes were delicious! It was my first time making filled cupcakes and they are so easy and good. 

With the leftover lopped-off cupcake tips and filling, I made two sundaes for my daughter and her friend.

* * *

The other thing I made for this happy hour that ended up being a huge hit was a beet dip. I first tasted it a few weeks ago when another friend brought it to a potluck. I love beets ("dirt candy") but they're not a favorite in my household and not a vegetable I buy regularly. 

This dip is a revelation, though, with raw beets blitzed with nuts and some terrific Middle Eastern flavors like pomegranate molasses. (I found a bottle of pomegranate molasses in the local international market quite easily.) It is so easy to make, looks beautiful, and is a total crowd-pleaser. 

The recipe for this beet dip comes from the NYTimes Cooking section but is subscription-only; however, it is available on some blogs, like here and here and here. 

• You can see from the links that any kind of nuts can be used here- almonds, pistachios, walnuts. I used walnuts and thought they were perfect. 
• I reduced the amount of olive oil drastically but otherwise followed the recipe closely. 
• For the yogurt, I used homemade plain yogurt that I hung up to thicken slightly. 

* * * 

Our Brazilian friends threw a birthday party for their baby boy, and there was some GOOD food to be had, all of it made from scratch by one of their mothers. This lady is aspiring to do some small-time catering and she would certainly make a success of it. 

For lunch, there were trays of Brazilian Style Shepherd's Pie called Escondidinho, or "little hidden one". The vegetarian version had veggies and tofu sauteed in a mushroom sauce. There were also several flavors of brigadeiros, beautiful little treats made with condensed milk, and a lime cake. It is truly a treat to eat lovingly prepared homemade food. Also a treat to go to a birthday party and eat something other than pizza! 

* * * 

In today's moment of fitness, I will talk about a concept called progressive overload, a key principle of strength training. It is a proven method to improve strength and gain muscle mass by gradually increasing load on the muscles over time. Doing just a little bit more than you did before. 

Let's take an example of one muscle group- biceps, the major muscle of the upper arm. Say we want to gain muscle mass in the biceps and get stronger. A typically exercise for the biceps is the bicep curl, a very recognizable exercise. 

There are different ways to use progressive overload to strengthen the biceps:

• Increased intensity (probably the most common): gradually lifting heavier dumbbells. You may start with doing 8 repetitions of bicep curls with 8 lbs dumbbells in each hand, then a couple of weeks later, you may progress to doing the same with 10 lbs dumbbells, then 12 lbs and so on. 
• Increased volume: gradually increasing the number of reps or sets of an exercise. You may keep the weight the same but go from 8 repetitions to 12, or 1 set of 8 reps to 3 sets of 8 reps.
• Increased frequency: gradually increasing the number of training sessions per week. Over a period of months, you may go from doing bicep curls once a week to twice to three times.

This works on the principle of adaptation. Your body keeps adapting slowly to the controlled overload/stress you introduce by building muscle tissue (as well as the connected ligaments and tendons), by improving the neuromuscular connections, etc. Doing it slowly and steadily minimizes risk of injury and results in sustainable progress. 

Can progressive overload continue forever? Beginners tend to progress quite fast but of course it isn't feasible for gains to continue in a linear fashion forever. A time will come when progress is very slow and incremental and you plateau with your bicep curls- you can't do any more reps and/or can't increase the weight you are curling. 

What then? There are many options:

• Maintain: If you are satisfied with how strong your biceps are, just keep lifting at the same level to maintain muscle mass.
• Change up the exercise: Instead of conventional bicep curls, try a variation like hammer curls, reverse curls, or curling an EZ bar. Challenge your muscles in a slightly different way.
  
• Change the focus: Instead of focusing on strength, shift the focus to another aspect of fitness, like doing power curls, which train explosive strength. 
• Focus on recovery: If a plateau occurs at a time when you should be reasonably progressing, consider taking a week off (deloading), or increasing recovery time, and then getting back to the routine. 

* * *

What's a great new recipe you've tried recently?

Instant Pot Pulao and Supplementation

It has been a hectic work week around here. I could have used a lazy Saturday but it was not to be. We had to be out of the door bright and early for a 5K race that V and I both signed up for, with our son doing the one mile fun run. It was chilly but sunny, nice running weather, but the race course was exhaustingly hilly. The day did end with a very special treat- friends treated us to a double fondue night at their home, thanks to fondue pots acquired at estate sales! We started with a cheese fondue with homemade bread for dipping, plus roasted veg and potatoes, and ended with a chocolate fondue with strawberries and freshly baked madeleines. This friend is an incredible baker and I'd love to learn how to make that bread and the delectable little madeleines.  

Here's one of our weeknight dinners that was quite satisfying:

• A stir-fry (subzi) made with a few odd potatoes that needed to be used up, and frozen Italian green beans which I always stock in the freezer as the back-up green veg
• A pulao/ pilaf with soy curls, made in the Instant Pot

This kind of a pulao is made in minutes, makes for a cozy meal, and is crowd-pleasing. I made it recently for our family friend in her 80s who was recovering from an illness, and she called to say how much she enjoyed it. It is a flexible recipe. With rice as a base, you can bulk it up with any combination of vegetables, beans, lentils. Amp up the flavor if serving as a main dish, or leave it quite plain if there's a spicy side dish available. Here, I made it as a "mock chicken pulao" with soy curls. This made about 4 servings. 

The things to remember are the ratio (1 cup rice to 1.25 cups water) and the cooking time (pressure on high for 4 min, leave it alone for 10 min, and then release pressure). The rest- the other ingredients, and the flavoring- is quite flexible.

Pulao (pilaf)

• Soak 2 cups soy curls in warm water for 10 minutes. Squeeze out excess water gently.
• So many things could be subbed for the soy curls- kidney beans, chickpeas, tofu, paneer, edamame, nutrela type soy chunks, and so on.
• Soak 1 cup rice in water for 10 min, then drain in a sieve. 
• I used white Basmati rice but jasmine rice or any other variety should do. If using brown rice, know that cooking times will increase.
• Heat a bit of oil in the Instant pot
• Add some cumin seeds, chopped onion, ginger, garlic
• Season with turmeric, salt, red chili powder, a spice mix of your choice, some kasoori methi.
• Kitchen King is a spice mix I frequently use here. I ran out, so I used some tandoori masala. Garam masala will work too. 
• Add some chopped tomatoes (fresh or canned) and the soy curls and mix well. 
• Add soaked, drained rice and 1 and 1/4 cup water, deglaze the bottom of the pot.
• Pressure cook on HIGH for 4 minutes, followed by 10 minutes natural pressure release, followed by quick pressure release. 
• Add a handful of minced cilantro and a squeeze of lemon juice for a fresh note.
• Fluff with a fork and serve.

* * *

I read an incredible book this week, Radium Girls (2017) by Kate Moore, for the PS Reading Challenge 2025 Prompt #32: A book about an overlooked woman in history. It had been on my to-read list for a long time and I'm so glad I finally got to it. The genre is narrative nonfiction, a genre I love and have written about before. Moore highlights a group of overlooked women in history, and tells their story in such an engrossing way that I whipped through a thick book in 3-4 days. 

We think of trends and influencers as a new thing, but of course these have existed for ages. Marie and Pierre Curie discovered the element Radium in 1898. Madame Curie toured the US in 1921 to raise funds for research and set off a worldwide craze. People were entranced by the mysterious glow of this new metal. Radium laced products were sold as a cure for everything and as a miraculous, healthful supplement. 

Factories sprung up to make watches with radium-painted dials that could glow in the dark. Young women were hired to do the intricate work of painting small watch dials, and to get a fine point on the paint brushes, they used their lips, thereby ingesting the radium-laced paint. In fact, far from being a miracle supplement, radium is poisonous. This book tells the story of these young girls from poor families who quit school and started working in factories as teens to earn money for their families, and the health consequences they endured, and their legal fight to get justice from the companies who employed them. I highly recommend this book. It covers a lot of issues in an interesting and compassionate way- workers' rights, corporate greed, the dark side of science, how women's health issues are minimized. 

* * *

In today's moment of fitness: dietary supplements. These are products- pills, capsules, liquids, gummies, powders, and so on- that are intended to supplement or enhance the diet by providing something extra. Some of the most common ones are multivitamins, minerals like calcium and magnesium, protein powders or shakes, probiotics for gut health, melatonin as a sleep aid, and the list is nearly endless. There are entire stores devoted to supplements, and multiple aisles in supermarkets and drugstores. 

People turn to supplements sometimes as a quick fix, sometimes out of desperation, wanting relief, and sometimes because the claims are too tempting. There are trends in supplements just like with anything else and no shortage of influencers peddling supplements for magical, easy results. It is a gigantic industry, and not a particularly well-regulated one. 

Critics of supplements rightly say that the quality and effectiveness of supplements is not always well-tested (an extreme example being the radium supplements I mentioned above which are horrific poisons), and that if you eat an overall nutritious diet, you should be getting all the nutrients you need. Experts will quip that if you're a well-fed person, multivitamins only give you expensive urine.  

Under certain circumstances which vary from person to person, certain supplements can help. I take a few supplements and I'm mentioning them here by way of sharing my personal experience. This is in no way an endorsement of what others should or should not do. I am simply not qualified to give that kind of advice. 

My primary exercise goal right now is to build muscle. Body composition (the percentage of fat, muscle, and bone in the body) is a more accurate representation of fitness than body weight. I am under-muscled, with a much lower amount of muscle than is optimal. This is very common, especially among women and especially among petite women. Adding to that, as we age, we tend to lose muscle mass. So my goal is to build muscle, which primarily needs three things, (a) strength training with relatively heavy weights and with progressive overload, (b) increasing protein intake to repair and build muscle tissue, along with extra calories in general to provide all the energy needed for this, (c) adequate sleep which is essential for muscle recovery and growth. 

Even as I try to eat enough protein- beans, lentils, tofu, soy curls, some eggs and dairy and fake meat- as part of meals, I find that an extra serving of protein powder per day really helps to boost my protein intake, especially as a vegetarian. I prefer a vegan protein powder. Here's an article about protein supplementation (NYT gift link)- be sure to read the comments for a range of views. 

The other supplement that helps with muscle-building is a small molecule called creatine. It is already present is our muscles and used to produce energy in the form of ATP. By supplementing it (again, more important for vegetarians as dietary intake of creatine is low in the absence of animal flesh consumption), you have enough creatine in muscles to be take to do those extra reps or lift just a bit more weight, which in time is what leads to muscle gain. Creatine monohydrate is the best tested supplement out there. Here's a good article that gives an overview of creatine.

My routine is, with breakfast (almost always steel-cut oatmeal), I drink a shake- putting ice and water in a blender bottle (one of those bottles with a small metal ball), adding 2 scoops protein powder (about 20g protein), 5 g creatine, and shaking it up and chugging it down. 

Anecdotes are decidedly not evidence, but for what it's worth, these things that I have been doing quite consistently for the last 9 months or so (regular strength training with a well-designed plan, prioritizing sleep, taking my protein-creatine regularly, eating more calories) are working for me in the sense that I am gaining visible muscle and getting noticeably stronger. None of this is magic or quick; it is slow progress that takes months and years. It is not magic, but it is biochemistry, which is even more magical than magic and 100% real. 

My other two supplements: After dinner, I take a one-a-day multivitamin. B12 is recommended for people like me who have the beta thalassemia trait, and I just take it as part of a multivitamin to cover other gaps like iron. And I take some psyllium husk in water for added fiber. 

Where do you stand on supplements? Are there any that you have found to be personally useful?

Next weekend is busy and I'll be back with a blog post in two weeks! 

Lessons in Cupcake Frosting, and MetCon Workouts

Our full display of V day
floral cupcakes

Sometimes, a culinary skill needs patience and practice to learn- there are just no shortcuts. Sometimes, all it needs is acquiring the right tool, and then, even a beginner can pull it off. This is a happy story about the latter situation. 

The culinary skill in question is cupcake decoration. I'm a pretty experienced home baker and can reliably turn out cakes and cupcakes, but have always struggled with frosting and decorating them neatly. It doesn't help that these are special-occasion bakes made only a few times a year; there's no scope to practice regularly and get better. I get by with a variety of strategies- enlisting kids to arrange fresh fruit (tres leches cake and pavlova), using cute ideas that involve no skill (aquarium cake, Christmas tree cupcakes), deploying frosting and sprinkles (onesie cake), assembling a cake that isn't a cake at all (donut cake). 

A few years ago, an older friend who was downsizing gave me this giant box of frosting tips. This should have been the impetus to buckle down and learn some piping work, but it was all too overwhelming. I had no idea where to start. Last year for my daughter's birthday I did select one of these tips and try to frost some cupcakes (you can see one here) but wasn't pleased with how it went. The box of tips just sat there taking space. 

At some point, my new Aussie friend showed me pictures of cupcakes she'd decorated for her family and friends, and my eyes popped- they were beautiful in that Pinterest-worthy way. I asked her if she would be willing to teach me and she gladly agreed. This Friday evening, it was Valentine's Day and we weren't doing anything special, so it thought it would be a good occasion for the cupcake frosting lesson. 

My friend shared that the "magic" tool for piping beautiful roses on cupcakes is the Wilton 2D frosting tip and so I bought one, for under two bucks at the local Michael's craft store. (Funny enough, it wasn't in the box of frosting tips I owned and also bigger in size than the tips in the box.)

To get ready for our cupcake evening, I made 24 chocolate cupcakes using an easy one-bowl recipe and a batch of vanilla-flavored ermine frosting. And brought out my stash of gel food colors and sprinkles. We divided up the frosting into smaller bowls and dyed it red (it came out more like coral), pink, green, and left some white. 

We fitted the 2D tip into a piping bag, added some red/coral frosting and got to work. It turns out that the tip is VERY beginner-friendly and does all of the work for you. Right after my friend demonstrated a rose, I was able to make one that was pretty nice looking. We frosted several cupcakes quickly with: 

• Rosettes- a single big one all over the cupcake
• Smaller off-center rosettes- one or two or three per cupcake
• Small star-shaped drop flowers

Two-tone rose (bottom right)

We wanted to contrast the flowers with some greenery. In the big box of frosting tips, I spotted one that looked like it could produce a leaf- the Ateco 70 tip, and sure enough, it makes pretty little leaves and longer ruffled leaves that looked like ferns. By adding different shades of frosting to the piping bag, we made some two-tone roses. With organic shapes like flowers and leaves, you really can't go wrong. Precision is not required. Whatever you end up doing looks quite sweet and charming. (For my humble standards, anyway.)

Drop flowers- looks a bit like a potted plant

With these two frosting tips alone, we were able to make all the cupcakes pictured above. 

Ateco 70 leaf tip, and Wilton 2D tip

To summarize my cupcake decoration knowledge gained in the last 24-36 hours:

• More is not better. Just one or two of the right frosting tips can be plenty to turn out pretty and presentable cupcakes. 
• The basic types of frosting tips are
• Closed star, like the Wilton 2D tip above
• Open star- for instance, the Wilton 1M which also seems to be a versatile tip for roses, rosettes and small hydrangea-type star-shaped flowers 
• Plain round- good for adding dots, for instance, to the centers of the star flowers- I'll have to try that in future
• Petal or ruffle (teardrop-shaped tips)- to pipe petals for large flowers
• Leaf piping tips- these have notches, like the Ateco 70 tip I used
• Russian piping tips are fascinating for making whole flowers (look them up to see examples)
• Ermine buttercream, which is my favorite taste-wise, handles being dyed and piped pretty well.

* * *

Other sweet things from this weekend- I made a batch of best cocoa brownies with red and pink sprinkles- sent half to my son's teacher and took the other half for my coworkers. Sprinkles in seasonal colors are always the easiest way to dress up baked goods!

My daughter used red candy melts and sprinkles to decorate these adorable cupcakes of her own. I particularly adore the 3D flower design she made up- she dabbed candy melt on a parchment paper to make petals, let them dry, and then peeled them off and arranged them on the cupcake. 

My son went to a day camp and they taught the kids to make these darling fruit bouquets- with chocolate dipped strawberries, grapes, and heart shaped pineapple cuts. I love our county's leisure services staff who go out of their way to create engaging programming for the kids when they have days off school! 

* * *

Reading 

• I finished a novel this week, Sandwich by Catherine Newman, that I chose for the PS Reading Challenge Prompt #9: A book that features a character going through menopause. It is a short, witty, slice of life novel about a woman in her early 50s on her annual week-long beach vacation with her husband and young adult kids, with her parents joining the vacation for two days. 
• The name of the novel likely comes from the term "sandwich generation", referring to middle-aged adults who are pulled in both directions as they care for young children and aging parents. In this case, the aging parents live independently and the young adult kids have moved out and are living on their own, so the main character isn't particularly sandwiched in a stressful way. I'm thinking of a friend of mine who cares for her child and pets and also for aged, ailing in-laws who live in the household, and travels regularly to care for her parents in a different city, all while working a demanding job. Now that truly sounds like being pulled in all different directions on a daily basis. 
• In the novel, the main character also makes delicious overstuffed sandwiches to eat on the beach, and it is relatable to see how every single family member wants a different kind of sandwich which the mother is willing to accommodate.
• It was an enjoyable and escapist read for me and I do recommend it to anyone who wants to read about domestic life from the lens of motherhood and female bodies. Although I couldn't relate very much to the main character- she is over the top sentimental about her kids, and wrapped up in everyone's lives in a way that I just am not. 
• I enjoy reading the weekly Philosophy Break newsletter, and the most recent one was a very interesting read, on propaganda and totalitarianism- writings from the 1950s that still hold true today. 

* * *

In today's moment of fitness- metabolic conditioning or MetCon workouts. These are moderate and high intensity exercises that combine cardio and strength in a clever and timesaving way to improve the efficiency of all three energy pathways (discussed in last week's post)- the immediate, intermediate and long term pathways. If you're familiar with Cross-Fit which has been a big fitness trend in recent years, it involves a lot of MetCon exercises. The workouts are fast and interesting and almost feel like a game.

One popular exercise format is EMOM or "every minute on the minute" where you have a list of exercises (say, 10 jump squats, 10 push ups, 10 mountain climbers). A timer is set that rings every minute, you do the 10 jump squats and then rest for the remainder of the minute, the timer rings and you do 10 push ups and rest for the remainder of the minute, then the timer rings and you do the next exercise and rest until the timer rings again, and so on. 

Another workout format is AMRAP or "as many reps as possible". This time you may have the same exercises (jump squats, push-ups and mountain climbers) and a timer is set for, say, 40 seconds on and 20 seconds rest. You do as many jump squats as you can in 40 seconds, then rest for 20 seconds, then do as many push-ups as you can for 40 seconds, then rest again and so on. 

I love MetCon exercises but rarely do a full workout of this type on its own. Instead I add 2-3 MetCon type exercises to the end of my usual strength workouts. Some of my favorites are wood chops, speed skaters, kettlebell swings, jumping jacks. One that I hate but do anyway is burpees! 

Tell me what you have been reading and eating in this last week!