Cold weather motivation and another Mac-n-Cheese

Since the Wineglass I've been full of excuses not to run and today i signed up for the Buffalo Turkey Trot to give me a little motivation. With this colder weather it is also easy for me to not get out and run because of the weather, so I'm going to go and renew my winter time gym membership also. In the 4 races I've done so far this year I have run a personal best in each and would really like to close out 2010 with all 5 races being personal bests. The Turkey Trot is an 8k (or 4.97 miles) and my best time in the 8k came during the Shamrock race earlier in the year with a time of 33 minutes 14 seconds. Last years Trot was run in a time of 34 minutes 47 seconds. I really like the Trot course as the last 2 miles are downhill on Delaware Ave. into downtown, so I'm hoping to push myself at the end to come in at around 32 minutes. The Trot is a huge race in Buffalo and this will be the 115th running with 12,500 people expected.

Its a crowded race, so if i don't set myself up right at the start i could get caught behind some slow runners. Can you spot me? Hint, I'm somewhere behind the gingerbread man.
Last night I wanted to use some of the Miso I had bought at the store the other day so I searched for a recipe using it. I came across yet another variation of mac-n-cheese so I thought I'd give it a try and see how it stacked up with the others.
Ingredients:
2 cups raw cashews
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp pepper
2 cups almond milk
1/2 cup canola oil
1 Tbs corn starch
1/4 cup white miso
2 Tbs lemon juice
2 Tbs horseradish (optional)

Finely grind the cashews in the food processor, then add nutritional yeast, onion powder, salt, garlic powder, pepper and blend in with the ground cashews.

In a saucepan combine milk, oil and corn starch, bring to a simmer and stir for about 5 minutes until the corn starch is dissolved.

With the food processor on, slowly add the milk mixture to the chashew misture and blend for around 2 minutes until smooth. Then add the miso and lemon juice and blend it in.

Then just mix with some pasta and you are done.

This was amazing, but i found it even better mixed in with some hot sauce.

A weekend in New England

I couldn't have asked for a better birthday weekend! The weather was perfect for late October and the leaves were still at peak along the New England coast, unlike at home where they are well past peak. We got up early Friday morning and headed out towards Providence. We made it to Danbury, CT in time for an early lunch and then into Providence around 2:30 to check into our hotel. We were staying the first night at the Providence Harbor Radisson and were pleasantly surprised at the nice view over the bay from our room on the top floor.

The hotel was about a 30 minute walk down Historic Benefit St., across the canal and into downtown.

 After eating dinner and having afew beers we headed over to the arena for the Phish show. It was a great high energy show and we were dancing like crazy for most of it.

We had a great time and by the end of the First Tube encore i was ready to head back to the hotel after being up since 4:30 am. A perfect way to celebrate my 34th B-day.

 The next morning we got up and walked down the street for some breakfast before we checked out Newport just 40 minutes down the road. Newport was fun, we walked around checking out the shops dowtown and then we drove out to see the mansions. I was just amazed at how big some of these homes were.

And the impressive views that come with them.

 

We ended the day of sight seeing with dinner at The Clarke Cooke House on a table overlooking the harbor. Then drinks at the outdoor bar on Bowen's Warf under a full moon.

The next day it was time to leave Newport and head back home. We decided to take the long way home and drive along the coast. We made it to Mystic, CT and stopped for breakfast, then took a walk through town . Mystic is a nice little seaport and tourist destination. I'm sure its crowded in the summertime, so October was the perfect time of year to go. 

 As we were walking along the mystic river the drawbridge opened up to let some boats though.

We finished up our trip down the coast in Niantic, CT where we took a walk on the beach and witness the Amtrak flying towards NYC from Boston.

We Said goodbye to the coast and headed across Connecticut taking back roads though the small bedroom communities of NYC on our way into New York and across the Hudson River via the Bear Mountain bridge. After 13 hours of driving i was tired, but the drive was well worth the extra time.

More wine and a new toy.

As I knew I would, I've been slacking in the blog department. This past week has been busy though so I'll use that as my excuse. Anyways we went to the Finger Lakes again over the weekend to pick up round 2 of our grape juice for wine. Got up early and pulled into Fulkerson around 10:30. Again there was no line, last year we waited in line for almost 30 mins to pick up our juice. This week we were picking up 11 gallons of Vidal and 6 gallons of Cabernet Sauvignon.

Right now its bubbling away in the kitchen.
As for the Gewurztraminer and DeChaunac we went get on the previous trip. I had to rack, or siphon the wine off the yeast at the bottom of the bucket, into carboys where it will stay for the next few months clearing up.

 Here are the 2 wine carboys, 5 gallon for the Gewurztraminer and 13 gallon for the DeChaunac, in there new home with acouple of IPA's.
In other news from the weekend, I got a new food processor, the old one just wasn't cutting it.

 The new processor in action, making some White Bean Alfredo.

Actually turned out quite well, i highly recommend this recipe, i know its going to become a staple this winter.

Its also great at shredding up cabbage and carrots for making coleslaw. Is it odd that I'm excited getting a new food processor?
This will have to be my only blog for the week, I'm off to Rhode Island for my B-day weekend and to see Phish. I'll tell you all about it on Monday.

Couldn't ask for a better weekend.

What a great weekend, the weather was amazing and i did nothing work in the yard for 3 days. Actually, I never left the four mile valley during those 3 days.
The first thing i wanted to do this weekend was finish painting the fence. A few weeks ago I painted the front of the fence and have been dying to finally complete it.

Now the fence is finished and i must say, it looks amazing. Just like those horse farm fences i always see when driving down in Northern Virginia. Next year i plan on doing the side fence the same way.

 Next it was on to the garden. This year we had a ton of tomatoes and peppers but i would like to grow more peas, beans, corn and potatoes than we did this year. Here is what the garden looked like this year.

So i decided to double the garden space so that we can grown more vegetables next year. Also i am working on creating a temporary green house for the early spring to start the growing season as early as possible. We are definitely going to need a bigger freezer after next year.

I had to hold off on tilling the whole garden because i still have plenty of peppers growing that I would like to keep as long as possible. I even transplanted some chili peppers into the house to see if they will continue to grow. Who knows if they will but its worth a shot.

The peppers are on the new shelves we added to the kitchen this weekend so we could bring our herbs in and also try and grow some lettuce indoors over the winter. The pepper plant was a little tall and is pretty much touching the ceiling, who knows if it will get enough light up there?

The last thing i really wanted to get done this weekend was to move the Lacrosse and Cayuga grape plants up the road, to a hillside, that i would like to turn into a vineyard. This will make room for the Lemberger and Cabernet Sauvignon we will be planting in the spring. Some friends of ours own some land on a hillside behind their house which I think could make a perfect spot for a vineyard. First i want to see how the grapes would fair over the course of a year before i start taking the time to clear the land and get it ready for about an acre of grapes. Lacrosse and Cayuga grapes are hybrids, developed as a hardy grape plant for colder regions. These two along with other hybrids will be planted in this vineyard all goes well.

The view is amazing up there, especially in the fall. So I'm planning on spending plenty if time in the "Four Mile Experimental Vineyard", as i like to call it.

 For football on Sunday, I marinated some extra firm tofu in a bowl of hot sauce for around 5 hours. Baked them for 30 mins and then fried them on high heat in a skillet for about 10 minutes. I also made sauteed mushrooms and spinach in some olive oil, salt and garlic. Along with my favorite Nacho Cheese to have with some chips and salsa.

Everything was amazing, i love Sunday football foods!!!