New to me

In the grand tradition of Isabel and Mrs. Squirrel, I present all of the new things I have done since Friday:

Saw a movie at the Back Alley Theater
Last week, a friend e-mailed me to see if I wanted to come along to see Amelie at Kennett Square’s Back Alley Theater on Friday, and maybe get a drink or dessert afterward. I had no other plans, so three of us girls met up for a quiet night. None of us had ever been to the Back Alley Theater, which shows older films just once a month, so we approached it with an open mind.

We followed a trickling line of older folks to the back door of a downtown restaurant, where a nice elderly lady took our five dollar admission fees, and gestured us downstairs to get popcorn or a snack. To our surprise, popcorn and candy were free! “But water is a dollar,” the concessions lady said apologetically. We exchanged incredulous glances, grabbed some goodies, and headed to the theater. By “theater,” I mean a large meeting room with one wall covered in mirrors, rows of the stiffest white chairs I had ever had the displeasure of inhabiting, and a viewing audience where at least sixty percent of those seated were senior citizens. The opening screen of the Amelie DVD gleamed on a long wall from an LCD projector, with one-third of it spilled onto the ceiling, and I was not certain that I had not entered into (and willingly paid for) an illegal movie showing.

Uncomfortable seats aside, Amelie was charming, and I enjoyed it much more than my first viewing about five years ago. The older audience made the movie even more humorous with their constant murmured questions about the plot, retelling of action, or translation of French signs. Afterward, the three of us stopped at a bar for dessert and drinks, and we had a lovely night for under $20.

Grilled pizza and made a caprese salad
After salivating over Deb’s guide to pizza-making, JG got it in his head to grill pizza sometime. Ever the supportive wife, I printed out Ina Garten’s instructions that coincided with an episode of Barefoot Contessa that I have seen at least three times. I made a half portion of the dough easily enough, despite the horrendously vague instructions (for shame, Ina!), and we pulled the rest of the ingredients together while the three little dough balls I formed waited under a damp towel. JG manned the grill during the proceedings while I stood by and marveled at things like puffy crust and grill marks. When the crusts came off the grill the first time, we made quick work of adding sauce and toppings, and mere minutes passed before JG delivered the charred, cheesy goodness to the table. If this inaugural batch is any indication, our summer will be full of grilled pizza. In a pinch, or for a crowd, we’ll probably just use prepared pizza dough, but the yumminess will still prevail.

Oh, and I made a caprese salad, too. I looked around for different takes on this dish, but they all essentially said to put the tomatoes with the mozzarella cheese, rip basil around everything, and then scatter olive oil around. So … that’s what I did. And it was delicious.

I wasn’t sure if the pizza and the salad would qualify for my resolution to try two recipes each month. For the pizza, we only followed Ina Garten’s dough recipe and grilling method, and JG manned the grill; I didn’t even follow a recipe for the salad, and wasn’t it more assembly than cooking? I conferred with OPH as to whether these two dishes counted, and she gave hearty approval for including them. Well, then! So it must be.

Went for a run in my neighborhood without wanting to die
Last week, thanks to everyone’s enthusiastic props for my attempts to become a runner, I printed out the Couch to 5K workout schedule and stuck it to the fridge. I thought the steps might be a good way to get acclimated to running outdoors, you know, at some point.

Yeah, or maybe the very next day. I covered the afternoon walk on Thursday for JG while he was out golfing, and I decided to take Ted with me and try out the first C25K workout: alternate 60 seconds of jogging with 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes. I thought I could handle that, even if staring at the second hand on my analog watch was not ideal. Thanks to the killer hill that runs the length of the neighborhood, I only lasted for ten minutes. Oh, failure! There I was, all confident about my sixteen minutes of running! On a treadmill! With zero incline! It was hubris, truly.

JG suggested that I run along the top of the hill, rather than up and down it, at least to start. Then I’d get used to the terrain without feeling as though my lungs were about to mutiny. On Saturday morning, I took the morning walk from JG, which was amazing in and of itself on a weekend, and Ted and I got through the entire workout! The real clincher is that today, I got up early, and did the workout on my own before the dog walk. I, a self-proclaimed, anti-cardio, night person got up early on a Monday to run/walk for twenty minutes! What the heck?