Project PRR Part 1 - The Beginning

I got some wicked awesome news today! My entry check was cashed today, meaning I'm going to join 55,000 runners this 4th of July in the Peachtree Road Race!

For those of you who live in the ATL you know what I'm talking about. For all of y'all who don't, the P-Tree is a 10k jaunt down Atlanta's mother road.

Let me back up. I've never been an athlete. Far from it! Yes I was always the last husky kid picked for dodge ball. I'd rather spend 4 hours doing algebra (math is fun) than have to run a lap or two in P.E. class (an excellent venue for the fit kids to pick on the slow fat kid). As my weight climbed in college my tendency towards a Jabba the Hut level of fitness escalated.

For the last 5 1/2 years, my weight loss has focused on eating less food, and trying to get out when I can and move. Exercise is especially cruel to the extremely obese. I remember trying to exercise when I was starting out, and I could barely manage to walk a mile. On a hot summer day, I'd break a sweat just sitting around my apartment.

Jenny and I have talked about entering the Peachtree since we were just two crazy kids in love. But it was never the right time, and we were never in the right shape. Well you know what? Now is the right time, and now is my window for getting in some kind of shape other than "round".

So now you're thinking, where's all this coming from? Well I have 4 motivating factors:

1. My resolution to lose my holiday weight has stalled like a Cessna 172 at 50 knots.
2. If Anne is going to do a race, then I'm going to do one too.
3. I saw the movie 300. As I was walking to my car some dude told his buddy - "You know what that movie makes me want to do?...sit-ups!" I had the same reaction.
4. I woke up three weeks ago still stuffed from dinner at Maggiano's the night before. I hated the bloated, lethargic feeling of being full 10 hours after my last meal, and I spent three hours on the internet looking for something to do about it.
   

So here I am, three weeks into my training regimen and I feel great. I've been following a program (which I'll detail out soon) and I'm now getting a half hour of exercise at least 5 days a week.

Has the weight come off yet? No, not really. But this isn't about the weight anymore. I'm giving myself a break from weight goals and instead I'm trying to achieve a fitness goal for once in my life. I'll let you know how it goes...

P.S. - Applications are still being accepted through the end of the week!

It's getting hot in here, so make chipotle rice...

I had grand plans for posting my latest and greatest recipe last Monday, but I had a little trouble at the office.

So in light of my crazy week at work, I've decided to make chipotle rice pilaf. No that doesn't make any sense, but it's my blog and I'll do what I want to.

Anyhoo, I've always been fascinated by chipotles. I've passed by them several hundred times in the market, and somehow I've been able to avoid their siren song of heat and smoky goodness. I'm not as hard core as Sam at Becks & Posh (she made her own chipotles en adobo), but I think I've managed to take my first steps into this delicious new world.

Why rice? Well I'd love to make my own version of Nuevo Laredo's Chicken Diablo, but Jenny doesn't like super spicy food and I don't think my stomach could take eating all the leftovers. Mostly it comes from the guilt of always resorting to a boxed (horrors!) Spanish rice mix when I cook Mexican food. I guess it was high time that I man up and make some rice from scratch.

Excuse me for the ego, but I think my first real Spanish rice tastes pretty good. It's based on Good Eats' rice pilaf, but I've added a whole ton of other bits and now I think it's nothing like where it started.

Out of respect for my guests, I made this version pretty mild. If I were making it for heartier folk, I'd double the chipotles and adobo sauce. Oh and before you all start complaining, I know that there are like a half-dozen chipotles in the can. Don't worry, I'll find some use for the remaining soldiers and post about it here. Sheesh.

This recipe makes a ton of rice, which was plenty for a party of 6, but if you're not willing to eat chipotle rice pilaf for a week you can scale the recipe down. If you do, change the liquid according to Alton's recommended amounts (see scene 7).

Chipotle Rice Pilaf

3 tablespoons Olive Oil
1 med Onion, diced
1 med Green Pepper, diced
3 cups White Rice
4 lg. cloves Garlic, finely diced
2 Chipotle Peppers, seeds removed and diced
1 tablespoon Adobo Sauce
1 can (14.5 oz.) "Petite" Diced Tomatoes, drained with liquid reserved*
Approx. 2 cans (14 oz. each) Vegetable Stock*
2 teaspoons Ground Cumin
2 teaspoons Salt
2 Bay Leaves
Cilantro, for garnish

Preheat your oven to 350°.

In a large oven-safe pan or dutch oven, heat the olive oil and sweat the pepper and onion until translucent. Add garlic and rice. Cook over high heat, stirring constantly, until the rice is fragrant (it'll smell like nuts) and darkens slightly.

Add remaining ingredients, stir, and bring to a boil. Cover the pot and and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

Remove and let sit, covered, for 20 minutes. Fluff with a fork before serving.

If you want to get all fancy-pants, garnish with cilantro. Whoever finds a bay leaf gets 1 year of good luck.

Makes 8 servings (approx. 1 cup per serving), 6 points per serving.

*Add enough vegetable stock to the reserved tomato liquid to bring the total volume to 3 1/2 cups.

Mama Conway's Tuna Antipasto*

Since we're knee-deep in Lent, I thought I'd share a fasting-friendly Conway classic. Not Conway as in my family, but as in my Mom and Dad. My Mom has been making her tuna antipasto since before I knew what tuna was. Or antipasto.

You see, I have a hard time calling this dish antipasto. Sure, it's got olives, vegetables, and other elements of the antipasto course, but it's all mixed together. Really, it's more of an Italian tuna salad.

Still, it's my mom's recipe and I'll let her name it. Maybe we can compromise and add an asterisk. I'll just blame her for the confusion and disappointment I get from ordering at Italian restaurants.

My mother made this for us all the time, and not just during lent. My father was especially fond of it, most likely because my mom jams it full of olives. No wonder they've been married for 30 years. I recall that every time it was served my dad would hiss with delight and utter some kind of (clean) expletive in Spanish. He'd then eagerly load up a saltine with olives and tuna and down it in one bite.

Sadly, my lovely wife hates olives. Sad for her, because this means more antipasto* for me. (which is probably why we'll be married forever, too).

This dish has wonderfully acidic overtones from the pickles and ketchup, and the briny-ness of the olives sends the flavor rocket into orbit. There's a lot going on here!

A few notes on the ingredients. First, I used albacore tuna because I think it tastes, oh, a million times better than regular chunk light. Just be careful, because like all tasty things in life if you eat albacore too much it'll kill you. Nursing and pregnant mothers and children should use chunk light tuna. I've never tried it, but I suppose if you're a tuna hater you could use canned chicken instead.

Second, I used manzanilla olives, mostly because they're small and because they came in a handy 3 oz. container (too bad they don't come in a 5 oz. one). Finally, the mixed pickled vegetables can be found in the pickle section of your local supermarket. They usually have cauliflower, carrots, celery and onions in them.

The Tabasco sauce is optional, but adds a little kick to the antipasto*.

Anyway, this dish is a great light lunch or dinner. It's loaded full of flavor so a cup goes a long way. My mom always served it on saltine crackers, but I suppose you could do something else with it. I can't think of anything else, but that's just because it never lasts long enough for me to experiment.

Tuna Antipasto*

2 tablespoons Olive Oil
1/2 cup Onion, diced
1/2 cup Celery, diced
1/2 cup Green Pepper, diced
2 cans (6 oz. ea.) Canned Tuna, albacore preferred
1 jar (16 oz.) Mixed Pickled Vegetables, chopped into smaller chunks
1 small jar (3 oz.) Manzanilla Olives
1/2 cup Cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
3/4 cup Ketchup
Tabasco Sauce, to taste
Salt and Pepper, to taste

Sweat the onions, celery and green pepper in the olive oil over medium heat until soft and translucent. Allow to cool.

Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Taste and adjust seasoning with hot sauce, salt and pepper. Refrigerate overnight, serve cold with saltines.

Makes 5 cups, 2 points per half cup or 5 points per cup.

P.S. - For someone who so famously hates ketchup, I've certainly been using a lot of it lately...

A great cause, and an Alton photo-op

I have a long and tortuous history getting a good picture with Alton Brown. I've seen the man twice before, and each time it seems that something goes wrong. My first shot (at a book signing) was overexposed, my second (as an extra on Good Eats) was underexposed and blurry. This time I finally got it right.

Let me back up. Jenny and I attended a Chinese New Year party to raise funds and awareness for Heifer International's Chuxin Hilly Area Livestock Development project in China. If you've never heard of Heifer, you should find out more.

I don't push many charities on this blog. Maybe I should. Heifer is one of my favorites, focusing on sustainable community development. They don't just give support to the needy, they help them develop their communities through agricultural and economic initiatives.

Those are a lot of big words. Basically they don't just give them a fish, they teach them to catch their own.

This is important in this day and age where the concern isn't just poverty and need, but the unbreakable cycle that so many around the world find themselves in. While I'd love to wipe out world hunger and strife with a quick fix, I feel that grassroots development in small communities is more effective and ultimately much more important.

Enter Alton as the guest speaker at the party. His production company has been helping Heifer for several years, and in his speech he recalled Heifer's guiding principles and discussed how they mirrored his own.

Afterwards he hung out and signed autographs. I used this opportunity to apologize to AB for being rude during the filming of our Good Eats episode. He said that my paparazzi-style snapshot "wasn't so much rude, as it was dorky."

Well put, good man. Well put.

Anyway, he's a classy dude, and we had a great time hanging out and learning more about the great things one organization can do.

P.S. - So the truth must be heard. My photo op with Alton at the party went all wrong. My shirt was messed up and my eyes were closed, and immediately afterwards AB had to run to talk to reporters. Here's the original shot. So in desperation, I got my buddy Josh to take this picture, and I photoshopped the two together. You'd have done the same too, if you're as big a dork as I am.

Weeknight Eats - Cornbread Sloppy Joes

I know I've taken more than a couple of cheap shots at Rachael Ray, Sandra Lee and the new generation of convenience chefs at the Food Network. Usually my angst comes in waves, and I get all hussy about the state of cooking in the world. That's why I always try to recall culinary motto #1:

I don't ever want to get so good at cooking that I don't enjoy hot dogs anymore.

I've been dangerously close to violating this rule recently, what with my fancy-pants gnocchi and oh-so Emerilized red beans and rice. Truth is that if it weren't for the "easy meals" shown on TV, most people would never cook or eat a home made dinner with their families. And that's just sad.

So I'd like to present a staple meal in the Conway household - cornbread sloppy joes. The idea comes from Jenny's college roommate. Simply put, it's a batch of sloppy joes baked with a layer of cornbread on top. This meal is a perfect wintertime comfort food - tangy meat and sweet southern-style cornbread. I ask Jenny to make it for me all the time.

Jenny has the magic touch with sloppy joes. Her secret to is to undercook the meat before seasoning. If the ground beef is overcooked, it'll turn rubbery by the time it's done and nobody wants that.

This is perfect. The ground beef is just shy of done, with little bits of pink throughout.

Now would be the time to add the ketchup, mustard, salt and pepper. If you really want to get fancy, here's the opportunity to add some cumin, tabasco, chipotles, lobster, etc. (although Jenny never does and I've never complained). Jenny also never measures the ketchup and mustard. Like I said, she's got the magic touch.

Now you could whip up some awesome cornbread from scratch, but why bother? You just got home from work, the kids are screaming and you're hungry. Also, Jiffy makes darn good cornbread and it's cheap.

This recipe isn't glamorous, but it's fast and uber-tasty. And when served with some nuked frozen vegetables and a salad, it's a great meal with plenty of leftovers for tomorrow's lunch.

Lani's Cornbread Sloppy Joes

1 1/2 lb. Extra Lean Ground Beef (93/7)
1/2 med. Onion, diced
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons Ketchup
2 tablespoons Mustard
1 box Jiffy Cornbread batter, prepared
Salt and Pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 400°.

In a non-stick skillet sprayed with cooking spray, sauté the onion until softened. Add the ground beef and cook until mostly not pink (see picture, above). Add ketchup and mustard and stir until combined. Taste, and add ketchup and mustard as necessary. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for an additional 3-5 minutes and remove from heat. Transfer to a 8" square baking pan.

Prepare cornbread mix per package directions and spread evenly over top of sloppy joes. Bake in an oven until the cornbread passes the toothpick test.

Makes 6 servings, 8 points per serving.

Ok, so I'll try the new Krispy Kreme donut

Before I go any further, I have to disclose that I'm a Krispy Kreme stockholder. Yes, I bought 20 shares of KKD shortly before they got in trouble with the SEC and the stock plummeted. That's what I get for buying stocks on an empty stomach.

So good 'ol Krispy Kreme has rocked the donut world with the announcement of their new whole wheat donut. Ok, so maybe "rocked" is a little strong. In any case, that's good news for those of us who don't quite fit in their pants.

Ok, so maybe "good news" is a little strong. If you're astute enough to peruse KKD's nutritional info, you'll find that the traditional glazed orb of goodness kicks in at 5 points (200 calories, 12g fat, no fiber). A new healthy whole wheat glazed donut liberates us from donut guilt by shedding 20 calories and a gram of fat and adding 2 grams of fiber. That's right kids, they're 4 points.

Jenny and I happened to waltz into a Krispy Kreme donutery this weekend, and I took it upon myself to give the new, guilt-free donut a taste.

I spent the required 5 minutes gazing at the mechanical wonder that is the Krispy Kreme hot donut machine. Seriously, I'm a mechanical engineer and I think that this is man's greatest achievement. Such a triumph of automation! Such precision! Man went from first flight to the moon in a scant 70 years. In half that time donut robots have made even greater evolutionary gains from their humble beginnings.

It should come as no shock that after a liberal bath in glaze a wheat donut doesn't taste a whole lot different than a traditional glazed donut. As an aside, I wonder if the employees ever eat the glaze right out of the machine. I'd bet not. They're probably tipped off by the rather terrifying "watch that you don't get your fingers mangled" sticker. Or maybe there's the fact that they'd get 2nd degree burns from the molten sugar. Or it's the specter of getting fired, maybe.

Anyway, I digress. The new wheat treats are actually pretty good, if a little chewy. Are they good enough to get me to pass by an original glazed? Well, no. I'd forgo the mayo off my sammich and pony up for the real deal.

Or I'd just go with my usual chocolate-iced creme-filled and find a way to take 9 points out of my day. I guess there's a reason I only eat Krispy Kremes twice a year...

P.S. - Ok, so I know that Krispy Kreme spells them "doughnuts". It's my blog and I'll spell donut how I want to.