Life as a vagabond

I got a tattoo the day I graduated from my MBA.  My parents got in the car to drive home and I went to the tattoo parlour downtown.

I got "yes." tattooed on my left wrist.  There are a variety of a reasons for it - some related to the Beatles, some to life philosophy and outlook, but the main reason was to encourage myself to say "yes" to more things.  To embrace change and opportunity immediately and with open arms.  To stop analysing and considering every little pro and con and take the risk, leap into uncertainty.

I'd been thinking about it for a long time - I've wanted a tattoo for years and years and this tattoo pretty much since I was diagnosed last summer.  Having a health scare resets your priorities and, for me at least, was the shove I needed to take better care of myself.  That was not to say that I was going to let Crohn's control my life.  I went back to do my MBA, I traveled to South America, I spent times with friends and family... I went on steroids and went crazy for a little while (only slightly kidding... I was not the nicest person for a few months there).

I also made the decision to move to London, England for work.  It was offered and I started to think about the Pros and Cons and then stopped myself - I'd been asking for international work for years.  This IS what I want and has been what I wanted for as long as I can remember.  And yet, I was reverting to categorizing all these little things that were basically irrelevant.  I was being given the opportunity to go live, work, and play in Europe.  So I said yes.  I leave (hopefully) next Friday.

In the meantime, it's beautiful and sunny here in Bowmanville, Ontario.  I've been living with my parents and commuting to work when I need to since paying rent in Toronto seemed a bit silly for 3 months.  I've been loving it, but also needing to get back on the health track - while the steroids made me crazy, they also made me put on a significant amount of weight.  Hot and sunny, but no ice cream (not today anyway).  Not to worry - there are plenty of options, including one of my favourites below (no pictures because I ate it too fast):

Frozen Banana Almond Treat

1 frozen banana cut in chunks (I buy clearance organic bananas at the market and freeze a whole batch)
1 tbsp almond butter
2 tbsp almond milk
splash of vanilla
sprinkle of cinnamon

Blend all of the ingredients together in a Magic Bullet, food processor, or blender and enjoy.

Morning, weddings, and sweet potatoes.

Shot with my Hipstamatic for iPhone
Lens: Buckhorst H1
Flash: Off
Film: Blanko

I love some of the lenses on the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone - it's insane how cool some of the photos turn out just by chance (see: my morning vanilla coconut milk cappuccino with cinnamon above).

So the wedding marathon is 3/4s over.  Three weddings in a row for three weekends in August.  Next weekend I have a bachelorette for another friend, then she gets married the following weekend.  While it was a bit insane, it's been really wonderful to see some of my amazing friends and family tie the knot with their partners.

Phil and Megan (Wedding #1 in Ann Arbor)

Dave and Amy (Wedding #2 in Guelph)

Pam and Jeff (Wedding #3 in Toronto)

I also got to spend a wonderful night with my friend Julie.  Given my love of cooking, it's not often that a friend offers to cook for me - let me just say this, if you cook food like Julie did, then you can cook for me any time!  She made a delicious dill sweet potato casserole that was incredible (and served it with some salmon and dill sauce... we like dill).  Eating this while watching the first episode of Firefly... incredible.  Below is an approximation of the recipe.

Red wine, sweet potato casserole, salmon, and Firefly.  Perfect night.

Sweet Potato Casserole

2-3 sweet potatoes

6 carrots

3 green onions

1/2 c. plain yogurt

2-3 tbsp. dill

1 c. cheddar cheese

Cook the sweet potatoes and carrots in a pot of water until tender (chop them up so that they cook faster).  

While they're cooking, chop up the green onions and fry them lightly in some butter.

Mash the sweet potatoes and carrots together and stir in the fried onions, yogurt, and dill (to taste).  I would guess you could also add some salt and pepper about now if you thought it needed it, but I'm not sure that Julie did... and it didn't need it.

Spread the sweet potato mixture into a casserole pan and sprinkle it with cheddar cheese.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 20-30 minutes or until the cheese is all melty and delicious.

This is clearly a recipe that you could play around with using a base of any root vegetable and seasonings that you feel like - I could see using roasted squash and thyme.

The nail in the coffin...

First it was scotch, then it was knitting, now it's a hardcore pill box.  I'm officially a grandma.

In other news, the undergrads all arrived this weekend for Frosh Week.  I escaped to the cottage for the first time this summer and spent 3 glorious days up there.  More to come at some point.

Jack

I just lit a candle in my window for Jack Layton.

A great man who inspired me to care about politics, who let me know that my opinion mattered... even though I was young.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=159768760769587

A candle for Jack.

Jack Layton

July 18, 1950 – August 22, 2011

Fall is in the air

I just went for a walk through downtown London and it hit me that the summer is almost over. I moved to London during the hottest week of the summer to an apartment with no A/C. Today it rained pretty heavily, but after the storm passed it was a cool, breezy, sunny day - it felt like Fall. Fall is my favourite season; the cooler weather, warm colours, and late season fruits and veggies appeal to me. I snapped a couple of photos with my iPhone to capture the moment.

Shot with my Hipstamatic for iPhoneLens: John S
Flash: Dreampop
Film: Blanko

Sometimes you throw caution to the wind...

That sounds like a pretty ambitious statement for what I'm going to post about, but I'm going to run with it.

Since my diagnosis I have been pretty stringent about what I eat - I'm keeping it healthy and working out a lot in the hopes that my body will function better... will feel better.

Some days, however, you need to let it go. Letting go for me means enjoying some comfort food. Some days are days like today.

Taken with my iPhone out my front window

On days like today, when I've been working hard and it's dreary out, I want some comfort food. For me, there's nothing more comforting than homemade mac'n'cheese - cheesy, carby, spicy (in my case) delicious-ness. I don't really have a recipe for mac'n'cheese, but all recipes I've seen include making a bechamel sauce, adding in some spices and cheese, and mixing the sauce with some pasta. Sometimes I add bacon or bread crumbs, sometimes I bake it, sometimes I don't. It's really one of those laid back dishes that can be changed according to your mood.

Cheesy comfort food... served with a nice bitter beer for me!

Basic Homemade Mac'n'cheese

3 tbsp. butter

3 tbsp. flour

Spices (e.g., paprika, nutmeg, cayenne, cajun seasoning, etc.)

1 1/2 cups milk (any kind - I used skim because it lets me think this is healthy)

1 1/2 cups cheese (any variety - I used a combination of mozzarella, old cheddar, romano, and some Laughing Cow flavoured cheese wedges... literally what I had in my fridge)

Cooked short pasta, about 4 cups (I think?)

Toppings (bacon, bread crumbs, chips, tomatoes, use your imagination)

You'll note the ingredients say "cooked pasta" - if you don't want to bake the mac'n'cheese in the oven then cook it according the package directions, if you want that old school mac'n'cheese casserole then cook it a few minutes shy of package directions.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Add the flour and cook slightly (this is known as a roux). Add your spices, I used cayenne and cajun seasoning this time, but my mom's always had tabasco, worcestershire sauce, and nutmeg. Add the milk and whisk, whisk, whisk (this will help ensure a smooth sauce). Flour acts as a thickener and as the milk heats up the sauce should begin to thicken - this is the bechamel sauce (plus spices). Add in the cheese and stir until it's all melted. I mixed in some turkey bacon (look at me being healthy!) at this point.

Cheese sauce - CHECK! Pasta - CHECK! Mix that shit together!

You can eat it just like that. I frequently do. To kick it up a notch you can top it with something crunchy like panko or regular bread crumbs, some bacon bits, or chips or you can do what my grandpa used to do which was tomato slices. Toss it in the oven at 350 degrees for a half hour or so until it's nicely browned and bubbly on the edges.

When homemade mac'n'cheese is that easy, why on earth would you eat the store bought stuff?

Big changes = big delays

So it's been a year since I've posted. Funny how that happens.

Why the delay? Well, a lot has changed. I decided mid- last year to make the move back to my home(-ish)town of Toronto. Work did not have any issue with me transferring offices, but it required a lot of organizing, packing, logistics, nightmares, and unpacking. After a bittersweet goodbye, I left the Windy City behind with fond memories and amazing friends. In the end, I love being closer to family and old friends and still able to visit new(er) friends in Chicago.

Around Christmas I started thinking about more changes and over the course of the next few months made the decision to go back for my MBA. Around the same I started having some pretty serious health issues. And was working 80+ hours per week. I was busy... not blogging.

Where am I now? Located in London, ON (another move!) having started my accelerated MBA 2 weeks ago at the Richard Ivey School of Business and diagnosed with Crohn's Disease. I am heading back to the employer post-MBA so there's no stress on the job front, but it's definitely been a change in lifestyle. The diagnosis has been a huge wake-up call for me about the manner in which I have been treating my body. While the verdict is still out on why some people develop Crohn's Disease (I do not have a family history), I realized how important it is to treat my body FAR better than I had been. As a consultant and a food lover, I have spent 3+ years sitting at a desk for many, many hours per day and then eating rich, unhealthy foods with little to no exercise. Over the past few months I have tried gluten-free, vegetarian, dairy-free, etc. while trying to figure out what would help me feel better. The answer is - no one diet is going to work for me. No single food type irritates my gut. What I have found is that when I make the conscious decision to eat well, I feel better. Not all the time, I still require daily medications and will likely require them for the rest of my life. There's a strong probability that even with the medications I will have to have surgery to remove part of my bowel. I cannot control all the variables in my life, but where I can make a difference in my own quality of life, I choose to do so.

I signed up for a personal trainer at the gym - yesterday was my first day in the gym and he kicked my ass. Apparently I have never done a squat correctly in my life and I still don't think I have even after him correcting me over and over again last night. I've talked with him about focusing on weight lifting with him while I will do cardio on my own (since I'm already comfortable with it). I'm really looking forward to working with him for the next few months.

Wake up call #2 - included in my training package was something called the "bod pod" which is a much more accurate measure of body composition. I'm tall (5'10"ish) and not generally considered overweight (153 lbs.) I've never had anyone tell me I have to lose weight. Turns out my body fat percentage is almost 36% - WOAH! This is wayyy higher than I've ever heard (and in the unhealthy "excess fat" range). As perspective, if you just calculate my BMI off of height and weight you get 22, completely in the range of normal. That's the bad news. The good news is that I'm working on it. I'm building muscle mass. I'm back to cooking with whole, organic foods for myself. I'm hoping to get back to sharing some of those foods with you.