My bi-annual attempt at cooking

I don't cook very often ... primarily because I don't have a kitchen at the moment, but also because it takes time to prepare everything and I just don't feel like doing that too often. I do enjoy cooking, and hopefully when I do have a kitchen again, I will do so frequently.

I had to throw together a simple meal for two and asked what I should make. "Chicken and vegetables" was the response I got so I decided to go with it and try to make something flavorful out of a bland base.

I wanted to marinate the chicken, but didn't have time to put everything together and decided to go with a rub (not sure if that's what its called but I'm OK with it) and just season the outside. Basically I made a mixture of balsamic and apple cider vinegar, olive oil, a healthy dose of rosemary, basil, finely chopped (minced?) onion and a spice mixture a family friend makes called The Heat (need to find his website, this stuff is great). I coated one side of the chicken and refrigerated it overnight, then flipped the pieces and coated the other side to sit while I was at work.



The mixture of vegetables I decided to go with was from a recipe on the Epicurious app I have on my iPad and I decided to add a couple things too. It consists of yellow squash, zucchini squash, eggplant, red peppers, portabella mushrooms and vidalia onions. The squash, eggplant and mushrooms were all cut lengthwise to make it easier to grill and I tried to cut the peppers in as large and flat pieces as I could. I only used the outer portion of the onions so they would be big enough for grilling. I coated each piece with some olive oil and basil since I didn't have the other ingredients the recipe called for (mint and sun dried tomatoes) and like basil a lot.



I grilled everything on relatively low heat except for when I initially put the chicken on so the spices would sear in a little bit. It took a while but I think it turned out well and kept the chicken juicy and didn't overly crisp the vegetables. I sliced up some fresh mozzarella over the vegetables and then drizzled some balsamic dressing over it.



All things considered, I really liked this and it didn't take very long to put together. The chicken definitely had some kick to it thanks to The Heat.

Sushi 101: Roll Your Own (Catch-Up pt. 2)

Wednesday night after Habitat, I went to Whole Foods in Mount Washington to take a FREE class in Sushi. The class was put on by Genji's community group. We got a Sushi 101 book that has step-by-step instructions for making your own rolls, but also has sections about terminology, recipes and other how-to sections (use chopsticks). There were about a dozen people there and the guys running the class seemed to think several didn't come because of the bad weather (a girl in our group didn't make it because the weather caused too much traffic).

The class started with a simple avocado roll. We were instructed to take a piece of nori (toasted seaweed) and place it on the mat with the shiny side down. Then we took an egg-sized ball of rice and spread it over the nori, leaving about a finger width at the top:



The chef told us to take 4 of the slivers of avocado and place it length-wise on the rice, closer to the fully-covered end (I only used 2 pieces to make it easier to roll, since it was my first time):



From here, we'll have to go with text only until the finished product (this is from my head because I don't have the book they gave us handy):

• Slide the nori to the end of the mat closest to you
• Grab under the mat with your thumbs and just past the avocado with your fingers
• Roll the mat (and nori) over the avocado, using your fingers to keep it from being pushed
• Once you have it rolled, squeeze the mat lightly
• Unrolled the mat and reposition the roll so the uncovered (by rice) nori is on the bottom
• Wrap the mat around the roll again and use your hands to form it into a square shape
• Unwrap and cut

I found some pretty good step-by-step pictures on flickr if you go through the photostream.

The class was great and would have been worth paying for. At the end, we got the free Sushi 101 book, a free mat and 4 free rolls (the we made ourselves). The 4 rolls included an avocado roll, cucumber roll, avocado and cucumber inside-out roll and a California inside-out roll. I definitely recommend this class for anyone that likes sushi.


An inside-out California Roll

Biggest Loser update thing maybe

So, remember when I said I was doing that biggest loser competition at my gym ... well, there are less than 2 weeks left and I haven't seen the inside of a gym since the day before I went to New York (coming up on a month ago now). I have been maintaining the weight I lost in over the last four weeks, but I don't know how since I have been doing everything people that are not in a weight loss competition do. This includes fun stuff like going to Wednesday wing night at Mahaffey's for the past 4 weeks, going out most nights of the week (gotta celebrate my friend buying a house in Canton ... right?), satisfying my chinese, chipotle, pizza, beer, nacho ... well, let's just say whatever craving I'm having gets satisfied.

The real question is ... do I even still have a chance at winning, or at least coming in the top three to get a prize? I figure I need to get to at least 10% weight lost to be in the running. After weighing in at 278, that means I would need to get to 250 pounds by next Sunday. I'm around 264 right now, so it's possible, but unlikely ... I also have to consider the fact that I don't really deserve to win, everyone else in the competition has been working out and doing all the right things and I have just been sitting around doing what I want.

We'll see how this turns out ... but I think I am going to try and at least do something healthy over the next week ... maybe.

In NYC

I have been neglecting the hell out of this blog and probably will be posting sparingly over the next few weeks until I actually accomplish something noteworthy to write about.  

I figured being in New York was worth writing about ... especially since I have been having a lot of fun and relaxing.  I walked over the Brooklyn Bridge yesterday and would love to do that on a regular basis if I lived up here.  It was right around sunset when we (my friend Vanessa from college and I) were crossing and the skyline behind the Statue of Liberty was gorgeous.  I'll post some pictures tomorrow or Monday when I have the ability to upload them.  

Tonight I am going to a vegan restaurant to celebrate the birthday of one of Vanessa's friends.  Should be an interesting time trying to figure out what I am eating since I don't know what half the stuff on the menu is other than that it doesn't include anything from an animal.  There is ice cream on the desert menu and I am kinda curious to try it since it doesn't include any milk.  We'll see how this goes.

Beginning of a Long Journey

Monday was the start of my weight loss competition and I weighed in at a hearty 278.2 pounds. Unfortunately, I was still feeling sick (but with a different illness than last week) and couldn’t work out after. Instead, I planned on getting up super-early yesterday and going to the gym at work with one of my co-workers. 5:30 AM came and I felt terrible, I texted her that I wouldn’t be there and ended up staying in bed until 9:30ish. Got into work late and was in a haze all day.

On the plus side, even though I haven’t been able to work out yet, I started my healthy eating habits. I didn’t have any soda or beer yesterday (but I did have 2 glasses of wine with dinner) and drank (or is it drunk?) over a gallon of water throughout the day. Dinner was by far the best meal of the day and was graciously prepared for me by Jenny. We had a spinach salad with hard-boiled egg and turkey bacon mixed in, season asparagus, brown rice and a nice piece of salmon (which is lunch today). This was paired with a Riesling from Boordy Vineyards of Maryland.



Tonight I won’t be able to have a nice prepared meal because I am playing in my indoor soccer league. My only hope for the game tonight is to come out of it being able to walk since my ankle still isn’t 100%.

Also, anyone reading this should expect a lot of posts like this over the next several weeks, but don’t worry … I’ll still be doing a lot of fun things and will (hopefully) get back to working on my house so I can provide updates on that.

I'm Going to Miss You in the New Year

I woke up determined yesterday morning. "Determined to do what?" you ask ... to get some form of burrito-type food for lunch. Thankfully, Columbia provides with me every possibility to get this food and my Mom happens to live in Columbia.

On my way home I headed to my favorite of the main four (Chipotle) and they had some clever sign on the door indicating how the Silent Night is overlapping into a silent day and they will be closed (Chipotle definitely has the best marketing team of the four). Next stop ... well kinda, I didn't pull into the shopping center but looked from the main road to see that Q'doba was also closed. Across the street from that shopping center housed a Baja Fresh, but I couldn't see it from the street and had to pull in. I drove by another empty building and continued on my quest. On the way to the next stop I had to drive by the Dog Pub and noticed 4 or 5 cars outside and made a note in case I was unsuccessful in my mission. The final stop was California Tortilla ... again I was faced with an empty store. Instead of heading back to Dog Pub, I parked and decided to get sushi at the place next door to Cal Tort.

After a call home to see what they wanted, I placed an order for some edamame, an eel & avocado roll, a shrimp tempura roll and a California roll. While waiting for the meal, I thought about this competition coming up and starting making a (mental) list of all the things I am going to miss when I start and about how (if I am successful) I won't be able to go back to the way it used to be. So basically ... I wrote all this just to say:

"Chipotle ... you'll be missed!"

Oh, and I got a Chipotle giftcard yesterday and am making it a goal to use it before the 5th.

Loving me some Louisiana Crabs

Saturday I went to my dad's girlfriend's (remember, Betty?) house for dinner (and watch the Terps fall apart). I met her brother, his partner (both from San Diego), and her mom. I liked them all and her brother was pretty funny and very outspoken. Her son Bamm was there too. While waiting for dinner and trying not to cry from the disaster that is the Terps, we (Me, Bamm, Betty's brother and his partner) played several games of Wii bowling. I have a Wii and haven't played it since my graduation party in the beginning of the summer so this was a good time and makes me think I want to start having people over to play again. After playing Wii, Bamm wanted to play Warhawk (a PS3 war game) online with me. I own this game too, but have only played it twice in my life so it was a fairly new undertaking. We play for about an hour until Betty left to go pick up dinner.

Betty got back with the crabs, but I can't remember where she got them; she lives out in the country so I wouldn't know anything around there anyway. Everyone sat down to eat while my dad and I watched the final pick-6 thrown by Turner this regular season. I haven't had crabs in a while (mainly due to lack of funding) and was pretty happy to get some this late in the year and good ones at that. Since I live very close to the water in Baltimore, I was getting crabs a lot over the summer, there are a lot of good places nearby. I assumed they were Maryland crabs but never knew for sure. These were obviously from Louisiana, they other primary source of this kind of crab. These were very good and had the right amount seasoning on them, nice and spicy. The only problem now is I want to get them again but don't want to spend the money. I know what the title says but I definitely love me some Maryland crabs more.

Thanksgiving Eve Festivities

Since I did not have a Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving, I am glad I got to enjoy a great night on Thanksgiving eve. Actually, my only meal I had on actual Thanksgiving consisted of left over Chinese food from the previous Friday, at least it wasn't the Ramen I had planned on eating.



The night began with a lasagna dinner that was brought by several people and was very scrumptious. I brought Jager and Red Bull for desert. After everyone was done eating we played the easiest drinking game ever. You assign everyone a number and roll dice, when your number comes up, you drink. If there aren't enough people then all the unused numbers are social (usually the highest and lowest numbers). After a while we moved to an easier version, odd numbers are for the girls and even numbers are the guys. We had our desert (Jager, Sambuca, or Grape Vodka) and headed to the Pickled Parrot.



I don't have any exciting stories from the bar, but can say that it was a great time.

I have heat!

I worked from home this morning so that I could fire up my boiler and make sure the heat started warming up the house without blowing up. I had to install the new thermostat first which was fun because my hands were cold. The temperature on the thermostat went as low as 50 but the meter was below that, so my house was somewhere in the 40's. By the time I left for work it was up a little over 50 ... hopefully when I get home tonight I will have a low 60's house.

I probably would have worked from home all day but I am going out for Sushi near work with a friend from grad school that works for one of those secret government agencies. She just got the job there a little over a month ago and I want to hear about how it's going. Then I will inevitably be playing rockband later because it is becoming an addiction. We played again yesterday after Mahaffey's wing night and realized that the drums are much easier when drunk cause of the stupid foot pedal.

Friday's disappointment made better

So, I was not able to see the new Bond flick on Friday because one of the applications at work decided to break around 5:15 and I didn't get out of there until around 7 ... I was planning on going to the 6:30 or 7:00 showing downtown (about 30 minutes away) and wasn't going later than that.

Instead, I called a friend I haven't seen in a couple months and we headed to Yuki Sushi in Owings Mills. When I first started my current job a group of 4 of us used to go there at least once a week and I loved it. At lunch they have an awesome deal where you get a couple rolls and soup for $6 or something like that. Unfortunately, that deal does not carry over to the dinner menu. Friday night we started with Edamame (theirs is good because they use the sea salt, but tonight it was a little too salty) and each got a spicy tuna crunch hand roll. Gotta love a seaweed ice cream cone with raw fish replacing the ice cream. Then we got several rolls: a jaguar roll (eel and avocado, fried), a shrimp tempura roll, and some roll with blackened tuna and shitake mushrooms. My favorite is the jaguar roll. She paid for dinner and I left the tip so overall it was a great experience.

Now I am planning on seeing Bond tomorrow (Tuesday) night and will provide my thoughts of it at that point (if I actually form an opinion).

Friday Lunch

Today I took a long lunch. I went to Home Depot to buy a broom and mop for cleaning up the left overs from last weekend and also got soap and a bucket. Oh, and I needed a thermostat since my old one was the victim of falling ceiling and I am starting to think about turning on the heat in my house in the next couple weeks.

After the HD trip I met up with my co-workers at Bateman's for lunch. I was naturally the only one at the table that ordered a beer, but since I am used to this it wasn't an issue. Also, this guy that eats an unfathomable amount of food ordererd the 24 ounce bacon cheeseburger. Really, the only reason I am writing this post is so I have an excuse to post this picture:


That's really all I got ... for now, I am going to see Bond (Quantum of Solace) tonight and then gearing up for the Terps - UNC game tomorrow.

My Goal

My goal is to not spend any money of food or drinking until my birthday weekend (the 26th) with the exception of this Sunday night (already have an outing with my volleyball team planned to go to the comedy club). I feel like I have everything I need and just need to keep myself from going on my random, nightly trips to the bar. I only have two discs left till I am done the entire Six Feet Under series so hopefully I will be able to get some more work done on my house instead of getting distracted by DVDs.



The beer is left over from the Ravens game this past weekend and I will be drinking mainly out of the Brita, unless I am working on my house ... then the beer will be a requirement since drinking and demolition go together perfectly.

Labor Day Weekend Wrap-up

My friend Vanessa came down to visit me this weekend because apparently the neighborhood she where she lives in Brooklyn is on the edge of the Caribbean section and the was a big parade/festival thing going on that gets pretty out of hand and she didn't want to be there. Saturday she spent all day shopping and lounging around while I was at the Maryland-Delaware football game. On Sunday she and I went out to brunch with my dad and his girlfriend. We went to Eggspectation in Columbia ... one of the best breakfast places there is. I had a waffle with fresh blueberries and she had their strawberry and banana crepes ... the crepes are so good my dad and gf ended up splitting an order as a dessert.

I was tired from the previous day's activities and headed back downtown to take a nap before dinner. Vanessa's bday was earlier this month so I took her to a nice dinner at Flemming's in Harbor East as a belated gift. We had the "Wicked Cajun Barbecue Shrimp" as an appetizer, they were really good but not spicy as the waitress made them out to be. We both ordered the filet mignon (she got the petite) and split a bunch of a la carte sides; a baked potato, chipotle cheddar macaroni and cheese, and grill asparagus. I had a couple glasses of wine (a Cabernet and a Cab-Merlot blend), she left her ID in NYC and isn't a big drinker anyways. She ended it with chocolate lava cake, no desert for me (not a big fan of chocolate or cakes).

Some of each of the sides and my filet

Does it look like I got some sun at the Terps game? (Keep in mind I generally have a traditional Irish (pale) complexion.

After dinner we walked across the street to the Landmark Theater and saw Pineapple Express. Good movie and a lot more violent than I expected. Reminds me of when James Franco and Seth Rogan were on Freaks & Geeks (great show, everyone should see it)

I dropped Vanessa of at the train Monday afternoon and went to my mom's in Columbia for her bday celebration (it was last Thursday). My friend and former roommate Ali came and we had a great time. Basically this was a weekend of great meals .. better than the ones I had in Vegas the previous weekend (except maybe the Wynn's buffet). My mom's bf made steamed mussels from his "secret" recipe (we have these whenever there is a big dinner at my mom's and they are amazing). My dad and his gf (yes, my mom and her bf and my dad and his gf all had dinner for my mom's bday at my mom's house; my dad's sister was there too) brought the drinks, white sangria with lots of fresh fruit in it mixed with a splash of ginger ale. Both my sisters were there and one brought her bf (the other's bf was hosting a dinner of his own so she came for dinner than left to go back to his cookout). We had steaks from the Laurel Meat Market (one of the best butcher's in the area) cooked on the grill by my dad and seasoned to perfection. There were left-over grilled mixed veggies from my tailgating that we re-heated (on the grill) and added to fresh ones that I grilled at the time. Desert was angel food cake with fresh strawberries, raspberries and blueberries topped with whipped cream. I know what I said about deserts and cake, but there is something about angel food cake that I like, maybe how light it is ... i don't know. My mom opened her cards and gifts and then we all went our separate ways. It was a great end to a great weekend.

Maryland vs. Delaware

Several things came together to make Saturday a great day:

- Terps football season opener

- Opponent was Delaware (a bunch of my friends went there)

- Tickets were easily available

- Game was at 3:45

- Tailgating started at 11:00

- The rain decided to stay away

- We didn't run out of beer

- The food was awesome

- Maryland won (even if they looked pretty bad)

The rest will be shown through pictures and captions.

Me displaying finesse required to play cornhole

Jones and Bob waiting to throw

Can you say vegetables?

I think it's going in the hole

Waiting for the food to be ready

"It's Paris, with an E"

Meggett about to run over some Blue Hens

"Go Terps!"

Watching in the stands

The end result

Back from Vegas

So, I got back from Vegas over a week ago and am only now finding time to post about it. The trip was mostly relaxing and not nearly as crazy (or crazy at all) as I had anticipated. I blame it on the fact that I have an addiction to poker ... not gambling, just poker. I spent about 16 hours playing poker when I should have been out at clubs or seeing a show or doing something more exciting than sitting at a table with 9 other guys (and the occasional woman) giving my money to each of them in small chunks. On the plus side, my friend Brian that I went with is a food lover so we definitely ate well while we were out there and tried a variety of places. I don't regret the trip because I needed the rest, but wish I chose to go somewhere intended to be relaxing, like a cruise or something. Next time I go it will be like my last trip when I went with a larger group and we tried everything.

The next time I go to Vegas I have decided that the following conditions must be met:
- At least six people going
- Thursday - Monday
- During March Madness
- Someone assigned to keeping me out of the poker room
- Stay at the Wynn
- Go out every night
- Go to at least one show
- Drink fewer triples of SoCo straight up before noon

And now some pictures for fun:

Out the plane's window over the Grand Canyon

View from our room in the MGM Grand (New York New York straight across and Excalibur on the corner)

Last course of breakfast from the MGM's buffet (worst of all the food we had)

One of the lion's from the indoor habitat in MGM Grand

Me in front of the lion habitat

Some of the food from the Wynn buffet that Brian won by signing up for a player's card (the best buffet food I have ever had)

... or are you just happy to see me?

So my sister's boyfriend has a little garden in his back yard (which makes me wish I had a yard instead of a 8' x 12' concrete slab) and grows some random vegetables ... including the zucchini pictured above. He also put me in touch with his friend that has season tickets to the ravens he was trying to sell. The quarter and can are just there to show the size of the zucchini. I'll probably grill it this weekend during my graduation party since there will be enough to go around.

Yeah for my first post about something random that actually happened the same day I posted it! I'll put up those pictures I said I would soon (don't know who I am talking to since I am pretty sure I am the only one that reads this)

Oh, and btw ... The Dark Knight was f'ing amazing.