...Holy Crossfit Batman...

Ok, well I challenged myself yesterday with shopping trips to Marshalls and HomeGoods and not buying anything but what I NEEDED...

No really, I did do that but then I went over to Viva Cindy's and Ernesto's casa of delicious food and bone crunching workouts.  This was my first crossfit experience and as Cindy say's "it was a doozy," at least for me!  Here is the crossfit series we did, and while viewing just imagine me sweating profusely, groaning, and wobbly legged through the entire thing. 

We begin with a 400 meter run (one lap around a track). 

Follow with 30 "wall balls" which is throwing a 12 pound ball from a squat position high on the wall...

...then catching it and moving back into a deep squat.

And then 30 box jumps, I don't know how high the box is, but suffice it to say that I stared at it for a solid minute before I decided there was no way I could jump from a still, standing position on the ground, up to the box.  Cindy made me do it once, and then said "well if you can do it once, you can do it 29 more times."  Hmmm....

It totally looks like I am going to miss in the picture!  Rest assured that I did not miss, but I did have a less than pleasant encounter with the box which I will tell you about in a moment...

Repeat this series five times and then die.  I have to admit I didn't do the last set of wall balls or box jumps because I really did think I might die after the last run...  Ernesto tried to push me like a good coach, maybe I should have listened... I really think this type of exercise would be perfect for Sean, painful and pushing you to the limit.  I would like to point out here that my arms were in a "V" for victory, I was very pleased to be done!  The runs got harder and harder as my legs got wobblier and wobblier so Cindy loaded me with some fun music- first lady gaga, then the thong song- ha!

So... I am not a bare knuckle boxer as you may be thinking, but I was so nervous that I wouldn't make it to the top of the box that I swung my arms as hard as I could and made a direct connection from knuckle to box... serious pain, my knuckles are still swollen and I can't get my ring off or bend my fingers into a fist...  But it was all OK after Ernesto and Cindy fed me super spectacular brisket taquitos with two delicious salsas, pickled red onion, lettuce, radishes, and queso fresco...  Now you're jealous!

Then on my way home I got to watch the most amazing sky, pitch black but somehow the clouds were totally lit up....ahhhh...

So crossfit is wicked hard, try it, it is a low maintenance, hard core, mentally challenging work out and this morning I am hurtin'!

...Happy Birthday Trey...

Trey is the first person we knew in Atlanta, Sean works with him so they met when Sean was still in the evil empire (that is just what I called his office in Seattle, it was an enormous black glass building in a "w" shape).  So... the first time I met Trey was at pink house thai, again not really what the restaurant was called but it was a big pink house in Fremont (super delicious)  It is actually name Kaosamai, go there!

Trey if fun.  We like him.  He likes cars, and shopping, and working out, and being busy, and will seemingly try anything (which we also like).

So for his birthday we wanted to make him something tasty... enter Cream Cheese Pound Cake.  Trey choose to have lemon pound cake, so I did alter the recipe slllllightly, and I can say with 100% certainty that anything on this Tasty Kitchen site that has a good rating, is in fact delicious, it has never led me astray.

Ok begin with ingredients.... I am excited already... I cut the recipe in half to only make one loaf.

Typically I am against sifting... I find it tedious, and I am not convinced that it makes a difference (I am no pastry chef).  However, the recipe said to do it, and I was making it for someone other than me, so I did it.

Then I creamed ROOM TEMPERATURE butter, cream cheese and sugar.

Add the eggies...

Enter the alteration, I zested (is that a word?) this lemon and then squeezed a quarter of the lemon into the batter.

Slowly add dry sifted flour mixture...  I love my hand mixer, thanks Mel!

After mixin' it up I stuck it into the oven...

Then I watched Sean and Aphi watch tv. from the stairs...

Isn't she the cutest little shiny black mutt (SBM) in the world?!

While the cake was baking (an hour is a long time, although I cut the time a little since there was only one loaf, so about 45-50 min.) I also made some lemon and honey whipped cream.... I love making whipped cream (and then having the left over in my coffee in the morning) but I usually only do maple syrup in it, I have to say lemon and honey were awesome....

Whip it up until it's stiff (that's what she said), preferably while wearing a frilly apron...

I then "iced" it in lemon curd, I may have left it in the oven for five too many minutes and the edges were a little brown so I was concerned it would be a tad dry to I iced it while it was hot and somewhat thickly hoping that the lemon curd would melt in a bit.  This may have helped but I must say, this is the densest, moistest, richest pound cake ever...yum.

Happy Birthday Trey!

...Shelf Bliss...

Sean and I only moved here to Atlanta in January 2010, and it took us a few months to find a home we wanted to buy, at which point Sean picked out a mid-century modern-ish soviet looking block town house that I was somewhat opposed to (picture tour to come). That is until we came to see it, fell in love, moved in and proceeded to change everything in it! One aspect of the place that I immediatly loved were the built in bookshelves, here is a picture of them the day we moved in...

Pretty damn messy, but you get the idea. This created the challenge of using it as art, display and storage all in one. Sean and I did not always agree, as I told him once when he tried to move a picture that was carefully placed just so behind a bowl, "you make things ugly." I am pretty sure he was thinking, "I'll give you something ugly," but he laughed, and more importantly put the picture back.

To be fair, he has won some battles too, as evidenced by his growing collection of antique (read: old) pulleys that are now on display! So now that we have it much more set up I decided to share my favorite shelves, as well as some picture perfect inspiration ones for all of us.

First, lets note the beautiful paint job I did in the dining room, goodbye matt brown adobe walls forever.

The other side...

We have a shelf of loooove for all our siblings. This is Laura and Esa reveling in engagement bliss, as well as Laura graduating from Pratt. The bowls were a wedding gift from Sarah, we love them thanks Sarah (who happens to be getting married herself soon!)

Ahhh, Sean and I hanging out with my grandma's crystal, those who know me well know I have a deeply hidden passion for all that is sparkly, I think sparkle is my alter-ego.

Oliver and Carla eloped to Jamaica! Annnnd now the get to chill with the mid-mod dishes (which are really unique and may warrant later blogging on their own.

Ahhh, my grandma's china, set off beautifully by an original Carol Maguire that I love, check her out she does fine art and most recently textiles at Carol Maguire Home where you can find fun tablecloths and the like.

This is my beautiful mama, her senior picture which I ended up with in black and white, and technicolor.

This is a Mary Lee Kerr sculpture that we were given for our wedding also, Sean thinks this shelf looks too plain, it may be my favorite...

Just a pretty picture of Crystal Colorado, and a fake orchid... I have never owned a fake flower before but saw so many beautiful ones in design blogs that I gave it a whirl and I must say, it is rather easy to care for...

Another point of contention are all my books, I have so many books that the other day when I was looking for one in particular I noticed that I had duplicates of Don Delillo's White Noise and didn't even know it. Sean would like to buy me a kindle.

Here are some other beauties that are far and away superior, but much further from home...

Designer: Olivia Blechschmidt

Designer: Alison Smithson, a British designer who is inspired by the wok of Joseph Cornell.

Designer: Jon Goulder

Nope, I don't know how they did it, but I dig it!

Wouldn't we all love a little more octopus in our lives.... well here is where you can get it!

Burke Decor

This came from the Container store, we did something similar in our tiny bathroom and love it.

The Container Store

Ok, that is all I have for now, but I am going to leave you with this final beautiful thought....

Herman Miller: Eames Hang-It-All

droooool....

The Great Beignet Experiment.

Well on this nice, lazy, thunder-stormy sunday I decided to try to make these tasty looking beignet.

I have been suffering from feelings of incompetence to follow through and make these after I bought them on an impulse at the store. I wanted to make them from scratch but thought a mix could bolster my confidence for the first go round!

I have to give credit where credit is due, and the only reason I know of the beignet delight is not from thrilling New Orleans travel, but rather from Cafe Flora in Seattle, WA. Which to this day has the best food I have ever eaten out. Thank you for your excellence! My lady friend Mel and I got them there....a lot... they sat the little fried deliciousness in a vanilla cream sauce and put a delictable fruit coulis on top...ohhhhh...to be back in seattle right now...

So here it goes...

Thankfully we have a pot deep enough for deep-frying...

I rolled the dough out nice and thin (maybe too thin?)

All we had to measure the temperature of the oil (which was supposed to at 370 degrees), was a meat thermometer which only goes to 220! But I just decided once it maxed out that thermometer I would go for it. Perhaps hotter oil would make a puffier pastry? They did pop to the surface within 10 seconds which means the oil is hot enough...

mmm...hot oil...fried dough...mmmm...

Once they were golden brown, although still a bit flat I dusted them with powered sugar.

And, despite the flat nature of out little beignet, they were thoroughly enjoyed, as evidenced by my crazy-man husband! Next time we will try the cream and coulis too...

Hot as Hades Salsa of the day!

I am learning a lot about hot peppers from Viva Cindy, and today I ventured into habanero territory. Seriously, I made a large bowl of salsa with a handful of cilantro, two garlic cloves, four and a half roma tomatoes, a hatch pepper (which wasn't hot) and then one measly orange habanero that knocked my socks off!

Then I put them on a hot stove to brown three- four sides of the tomatoes and peppers.

Then just put all the ingredients into the blender and blend...

Voila! Wicked spicy salsa!

It was good, really tasty, and extremely simple but wow...hot. I aparently have to enter training to hang with Cindy and Ernesto!

Just before the salsa sweat lodge that I entered this afternoon I had a lunchtime yoga class with Graham of Peachtree Yoga full of hip and psoas openers.

(this is the lovely ramsey from my yoga teacher training getting opened up!)

Learned yogis sometimes talk about stress, anxiety and family of origin issues setting up house in our hips. Therefore hip openers can illicit emotional responses on the mat, or after practice. This is good because then the emotions are potentially moving out. It also, for me, requires a certain amount of svadhyaya, or self study in order to watch these emotions and experience them, but not be carried away by them as if they were my own personal tsunami.

So the wave came and tried to sweep me up, and I have been working all day to keep my feet planted and ride it out with awareness.

Here is a yoga journal article that I really enjoyed on this topic.... enjoy!