Archive: June 2008

Are you tired of pets whose only purpose seems to be covering your furniture with hair? What about those soggy walks in the rain? Or costly veterinarian bills?

They say that pet ownership pays off in unconditional love, but does that really help when you arrive at home after a long day at work? What you need then is a pet that will comfort you, offer you support, and pause in its demands on your time and energy. For that, I offer you the Pedi-Pet!

This soft, comfortable footrest is self-heated and surprisingly compliant, provided you have appeased it with a dog biscuit. The small model (shown above) may not be suitable for larger owners, but you can rest assured that there is a Pedi-Pet that’s right for you. As a lively addition to your decor, the Pedi-Pet will a great conversation piece and last for years!

Order your very own Pedi-Pet now — supplies are limited! Be sure to ask your operator about the Pedi-Pet Deluxe, which can double as a headrest! For once, let your pet repay you for your faithful guardianship as a Pedi-Pet. After all, you deserve it!

Get your daily dog dose with Smalls, Kaya, Rufus, Ben, Bailey, Gus, Foxy, and Zapp!

You started to run a couple of months ago, but not because you liked it. In fact, you hated running. Even in elementary school, the mile run was the one aspect of the physical fitness testing that baffled you from the start. You could whip all the boys in pull-ups, sit-ups, and definitely the sit-and-reach, but you lagged behind during those four laps on the track every year.

Despite that, you knew that you had no endurance, and that it’s best to start exercise habits when you’re relatively young and spry, instead of when the metabolism decides to move on to greener pastures. Plus, building up cardiovascular health was a good investment for the future, especially since high blood pressure runs in your family. The climbing gym had treadmills, but your only pair of sneakers was at least five years old. And then you found a pair of Asics for half off, so there was really no excuse.

You set up a program for yourself to run and walk for thirty minutes every time you were at the gym. You started out at eight minutes of running, and made a resolution to replace two minutes of walking with more running every two weeks. Once you got to twenty minutes, you’d start jogging around the neighhorhood, and maybe even with the dog. You got a small notebook to log the distance and times and bought cheap hand towels to mop up perspiration. You were ready.

And, really, you weren’t that bad. The eight minutes weren’t fun, by any means, but by the third or fourth time, each pounding step on the conveyor belt no longer elicited strong feelings of hatred. You concentrated on staying on the balls of your feet and breathing correctly, and you were surprised at how the degree of torture was less than you anticipated. You successfully ratcheted up the running times, and you learned quickly to cover up the clock with your notebook, so as to avoid counting off every dragging second. You find that you don’t mind the running, once you get down to it.

You’re working on sixteen minutes of running this week, and at the pace you’ve picked, that’s 1.2 miles. Due to last week’s horrendous heat wave, you took a hiatus of twelve whole days, according to the notebook. That is not good. This time will probably be painful, just so you know.

As usual, start off with two minutes of walking warm-up. Squeeze an old tennis ball in your right hand to build forearm strength. Two more minutes at a slightly faster pace, and then head in to the sixteen minutes of running. Slide the notebook over the digital display to hide how slowly the time is passing. Focus on the climbers in the gym. Tell yourself not to check the time until the guy on that white route comes down to the ground. The last three minutes of running are a challenge. You feel your feet flattening out and your arms flapping, but you lean forward and pump your arms to finish out. You’re aware that your face is beet red, and you can feel the sweat dripping down the small of your back. Lovely. Remind yourself that the mirror is showing much more toned calves, and you may even see that creep up your thighs. Yes, remember that.

At last, the sixteen minutes are over. You made it. Now, six minutes of brisk walking. Drink water slowly. Drape the towel around your neck. Breathe deeply. Two minutes of slower walking, and then two last minutes of slow, cool-down walking. Squeeze the tennis ball in the left hand. The distance meter reads at two miles, and that feels pretty good. You’re getting closer to that vague “5K in the future” goal. You hobble off the conveyor belt, gather up your running paraphernalia, and return the magnetic key to the front desk. After pushing through that half hour, you’re ready to sit in front of the gym’s big turbine fan and stretch slowly. You earned it.

This morning, when a co-worker asked me how my weekend was, I tried to recall what I did, but I could not remember anything for the life of me. The only thing that sprang to mind was that I finished The Other Boleyn Girl, but that was it. How does that happen? And why does it seem to happen every week? Am I really that old?

Flustered, I looked at my calendar to see if anything would jog my memory. Oh, yes! We went to dinner with JG’s teacher friends after the high school graduation! That’s right. We had a nine o’clock dinner reservation, which kind of blew my mind, because that’s about time to wind down for some shuteye, at least according to the teacher hours we keep. No, on Friday, nine o’clock was time to order up a calamari appetizer and a rigatoni dinner and then proceed to eat myself into a carb-loaded food coma. Fortunately, my dress was made of jersey, so there was no visible ill effect.

Hm. Nothing on Saturday except a tentative friend over for dinner. Right, JG’s old high school friend came over. That was after I slept in until the ridiculous hour of 11am and then stumbled out to the back yard to help JG wash the cars. Ted had fun scratching up mud puddles in the yard and running away from the hose, and now Walter is much cleaner, although the windshield is a bit streaky. That was probably my fault. I flexed my improving knife skills by being JG’s sous chef for dinner preparations, and he grilled up a beer can chicken for his friend and us. The two of them reminisced about high school and caught up on what everyone was doing while they duked it out on the Mario Kart racetracks, and I finished my book and kept Ted occupied.

The calendar showed nothing for Sunday, but that didn’t seem right, either. Ah, that’s because I made dinner that night and prepped chili to go into the crock pot for the next night because JG had plans to play golf after work. Yes, that rings a bell. That’s all I did? But I distinctly recall not getting a nap that day, so I have no idea what I was doing when I was not cooking.

I think I’m still drowsy and punchy from when I was up and awake at 3am on Monday morning. My mind gears were spinning, so I got up and spent the next three hours editing pictures, because that is the normal behavior of an early riser, or something. Bah. It’s just another sign that weekends are too short, and the workday comes too soon. It’s almost vacation time. Almost!

At the beginning of the month, I received a lovely e-mail from Nic. I’m not sure if it was my heartrending tale of lemon cookies, my overall history of kitchen adventures this year, or the brilliant flash of inspiration (or maybe a combination?), but she had the beginnings of an idea for a widespread new recipe challenge, sort of a “M:PT in the Kitchen.” After lots of Gchatting and Google docs-sharing, we are pleased to introduce Whip It Up, a summer challenge to try new recipes!

The basic idea is that Nic and I will try and post about one new recipe each week for eight weeks, and we’d love for you to join us! Just think: assuming twelve people jump in and try completely independent recipes, we will have collectively tested and shared 96 recipes in two months! I don’t know about you, but the mere prospect of my recipe binder brimming with new possibilities is enough to make my heart aflutter.

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What’s Involved

The challenge will run for eight weeks, from July 6-August 29. Every Friday, Nic or I will post a weekly wrap-up to cull the recipes people have tried.

Every week, there are three simple steps:

1. Cook! The only parameter for the challenge is to try and post about one new recipe each week. The type of dish, cooking method, and quantity are all up to you, and effort is what counts here, not culinary mastery.
2. Post! Write up your experience on your site, including photos if you can. You can be as in-depth as you’d like, but posts should answer the following questions, in addition to providing the recipe itself:
   • Was the recipe easy to follow?
   • Did the dish taste good?
   • Would you make it again?
3. Tell us! E-mail us the post’s permalink, and it will be included in the Friday wrap-up.

But wait, there’s a prize! Every participant who fulfills the challenge will qualify for a raffle to win a choice of three fabulous cookbooks:

• Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, by Marcella Hazan (Nic’s favorite)
• The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook (my favorite)
• Barefoot Contessa at Home, by Ina Garten (because we both love her)

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Excuses, Allayed

“I’m a terrible cook!”
We are serious when we say success doesn’t matter here. Just stick your neck out and try something new, and who knows? You might surprise yourself! Or win a cookbook!

“I don’t think I can keep up that pace!”
Even if you’re not sure that you can try one new recipe each week, sign up and try anyway! The cookbook prize is just an incentive, but we applaud all kitchen adventures, no matter how often they transpire. Heck, one of my new year’s resolutions was to try two recipes per month, so one recipe every week will be a challenge for me, too. Don’t worry, there is no danger of getting voted off the island if you miss a week, so give it a shot!

“I don’t know what to make!”
Nic and I have compiled a list of resources, so browse away! If you have a specific dish in mind, let us know and we can try to help you find a good recipe. We are also providing optional jumping-off points, just in case you are really stumped. For example, instead of trying to whittle down the entire food universe, we might nudge you onto the smaller planet of Salads, but going along with that suggestion is completely voluntary.

“I’m going on vacation!”
In the case of a week away for whatever reason, you can double up on a recipe for the following week. That is, you can “cash in” a maximum of 2 recipes per week. That guideline is to prevent someone from cooking three brand-new, three-course meals, knocking out the 8-recipe minimum, and completely missing the point here. Besides, I think I would go crazy trying to cook nine new recipes in one week, so really, we are saving you the sanity.

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Sign up! E-mail us with your name and website address, and we will add you to the roster. We’re taking names for two weeks, so get out your recipe clippings and e-mail us by Friday, June 27. Grab yourself a badge and join the WIU photo pool, and you are good to go!

Allez cuisine!