My New Year's Resolution: Say "No" to Dieting

Well, the first week back from break was at least a tad more interesting than expected! That is, if you find one day off and a few cooking projects around the house as interesting as I do? I guess I'd say the fun technically started last Friday night with some babysitting, something I haven't done in a while. As a thanks to my office-mate Jeff for watching my research plants and pet fish over break, I took charge of his two toddlers long enough for him to take his wife to dinner. We had a great time, such sweet little guys! And man, his 4-year-old is very honestly the smartest I've ever met - unprompted, he explained the common industries around the world using an atlas, and then the health benefits of calcium as we had cookies and milk!

The next day was an outing to the "Big City" around here, Spokane. Bryan and I decided to drive up sort of last minute, but for several reasons. For one, we both had Christmas gift cards to stores that aren't here in little old Pullman. Secondly, it gave us a reason to meet my friends Jill and new husband Eric for lunch and hear about their recent Costa Rica honeymoon. It feels nice to hang out with people NOT in the biology department sometimes (Pullman can get a little claustrophobic otherwise...). And thirdly, we made it up in time to see one of Bryan's younger cousins compete in a regional youth gymnastics meet. When I say younger, I mean so young that it was insane what these kids can do! There were 10ish-year-olds flipping, springing, and generally being super athletic everywhere. Here's the cousin; turns out I'm not a very good photographer of action shots, but this move is still impressive.

A pretty amazing sport when watching children do it actually inspires you to get out there and get in shape yourself!

That motivation being said, here's what I actually did with my scraps of free time after work this week: food, food, and more delicious food.

I've found another thing to like about a cold winter. It makes you absolutely LOVE something a simple as a grapefruit. While in Riverside, the grandparents had given Bryan and myself permission to raid their citrus and avocado trees, and we actually had 100% success hauling quite a bit of tasty loot back to Pullman in our suitcases. Every day I've seen it all piled up on my kitchen counter since makes me happy. Not only are they bright, colorful, and twice as big as anything you can buy in a store here, but super luxurious to be so fresh when the world is all cold and gray outside. And every time I eat one of the tangerines or grapefruits it tastes just like it always did my entire childhood, except ten times better because now it's a special thing that came from so far and I won't be eating every day for 4 months straight.

One little project I tried Sunday with decent success was to preserve some of the big, beautiful Meyer's lemons. This variety is definitely not sold here, and I read they're the perfect type for canning. This way I can think up things to enjoy them in for the next month or two. I went with candied lemon first; all I had to do was boil 4 sliced lemons in sugar water, and look at all the candy and syrup I got out of it!


I'm thinking the next thing would be to make some kind of sweet bread with chopped candied lemon bits inside and that syrup glazed over it. I'd also like to try canning salted lemons. I'll let you know what the heck that tastes like if I get to it. Being the botanist that I am, I also couldn't help but keep a bunch of seeds to see if I can get any to grow.

I'll keep you posted if this turns into a little farming project of its own.

Speaking of citrus, I saw the sweetest thing today involving an orange. My other office-mate, Berkley, just got married in late December, and in the lunch his new wife had packed for him this morning was an orange with "I Love You" carved onto the side. Aren't they adorable? It made me very happy for them =)

Another good use of the awesome Cali produce took place just this evening because the first smuggled avocado was ripe; it went into an avocado/bacon/lettuce/onion sandwich. YUM! And just in case that first glorious 5000 calories didn't make you drool, I'll admit I also tried an unthinkable thing I heard about recently: "baconaise." That's right, a little of the hot fat from the fried bacon stirred in with the mayo before spreading it on the bread. Although I think I heard my arteries cry a little, the rest of me thought it was one delicious dinner to end a long day in a long work week.

I know, I know, at this point you're thinking I'm already way too into this blogging thing because I'm now taking pictures of my dinner plate. Probably at least half true, but I felt like sharing because as a not-so-big fan of sandwiches in general, I was so impressed with this creation that it made me kinda proud!

And finally, I also relaxed tonight by finding a good use for that extra Christmas candy that would otherwise have gone into hiding in the cupboard for the next month; I just chopped it up and baked it into cookies. The candies I had left were a sort of imitation Andes Mints, but a sharp knife easily turned them into chunks that spruced up a regular chocolate chip cookie recipe.


I sampled part of one right after baking last night and really liked what I tasted, although I was still digesting the wonder that was my sandwich so I haven't gotten to test these very thoroughly yet.

So, there you have it, a delicious start to my semester, and a firm commitment to an abnormal New Year's resolution! Hope all are well, and good luck keeping your resolutions, whatever they may be. Hmm, I'm hungry...