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.

Hot Doug's

"There are no two finer words in the English language than "encased meats" my friend."

- Hot Doug's, Chicago

My mind was, quite

literally, blown yesterday for lunch. Several of my coworkers invited me to go along with them to Hot Doug's - a sausage emporium in Chicago. If you are ever in Chicago GO THERE. I cannot put it more simply. However, GO THERE EARLY AND BE PREPARED TO WAIT (see photo of line).

Don't get me wrong, I hate lines. I refuse to stand in at bars and rarely pay cover (totally unnecessary in Chicago). This was worth it. Actually I was spoiled because we had friends who weren't working and got in line early for us so we only waited about half an hour, a couple of them that had gone before waited over 2 hours. Also keep in mind that if you get there too late they will close the door in your face at 4pm - regardless of how long you've waited.

It's still worth it. Quite possibly the best sausage I've ever had - the Game of the Week which was Antelope with some sort of pepper sauce and a reallllllly good chevre. And the side? Duck fat fries. I'm drooling just thinking about it. Anyway, here's the gang including a special shot of the youngest member of our party (no sausage for her).

Dad

I'm a day late on this one - yesterday was Father's Day.

I've frequently said (and been told) that I'm ruined for men because my dad is such a wonderful person. He works hard, cooks, cleans, is handy, and randomly brings home flowers for no reason. All in all, he's pretty much amazing. When I think about why he's so important to me, however, it's not any of those things - it's the fact that he laughs so hard he cries at some of the stupidest humour out there (anyone remember the cartoon Duckman??), it's the fact that I can talk to him about anything and he'll always have my back, it's the fact that we can say absolutely nothing and I know he has my back.

I don't say it enough - I love you, Dad. You're the best.

P.S. I got him the meat grinding and sausage making attachments for his Kitchenaid mixer for Father's Day - sausage making extravaganza here we come!

Cubs - Sox Game and Chicago Deep Dish Pizza

Friends at the Cubs-Sox Game (plus two unhappy looking blonds - typical of the crowd that day)
John Butler Trio from Friday night (see previous post)

I'm a thin crust kind of girl. There's nothing shameful in that, but here in Chicago it's a bit of a rarity. Without fail, when someone comes to visit they want Chicago-style deep dish pizza - the stuff that you can eat maybe one slice. If you're lucky.

So since my friends from home were down we decided to go to Giordano's for deep dish pizza post the Cubs-Sox Crosstown Classic Game (more on that in a minute). It took us about 35 minutes to order (with several tense moments), but everyone got what they wanted in the end. I split the spinach stuffed pizza and you know what? I may be converted. I've had Pizzeria Uno's, I've had several we've ordered through work, but this plain, spinach stuffed pizza really hit home for me. Or maybe it was just the excessive amount of beer and mai-tais and the really good friends I had around me.

To be honest, we kind of needed the pick me up following what might possibly have been the most boring baseball game I've ever been to - and I like baseball! I read a couple articles following the game and even reporters seemed to agree - the crowd wasn't into it. I don't know if it was the unseasonably cold weather, the poor playing/standings of both teams, or the hangover from the Stanley Cup parade the day before, but I have to say, I was disapointed.

It didn't matter in the end - like I said, surrounded by friends we would've had a blast anywhere.