I set some goals for myself for August to work on accomplishing my 101 in 1001 challenge. I didn't meet all my goals, but I still think I did pretty well!

4. Try a bikram yoga class. -- Did not do this yet. I think a weekend class is my best bet, but my weekends are already pretty busy in the upcoming weeks, so I'm not sure when I'm going to accomplish this.
11. Lose 10 pounds. (I am 7/10 there! I want to lose the last 3 pounds to reach that goal, and keep it off.) Yes!! (Just made it on that last day, too.)
40. Create a PhotoBook. Ack, no. We really need to get on this!
47. Make bread (not quickbread) from scratch. Yes!
76. Go to the Baltimore Aquarium. Yes!
97. Go an entire month without buying clothes. Yes! (And then I promptly ordered two shirts on September 1.)
100. Go a month without buying coffee (except grocery store and dining out). Yes!

I went 5-for-7... not too shabby! Now I just have to think about what I want my September goals to be.

I am the first to admit it, I am absolutely spoiled... by my commute.

First job out of law school (a.k.a. job from hell) -- short Circulator ride or a 20 minute walk.
Clerkship -- 10 minute metro ride or ~2 mile/40 minute walk.
Firm job -- first two weeks, 30 minute metro ride; next two years, 20 minute walk or 5 minute drive; past year and a half, 12 minute walk.

Today, I start a new job at a new firm. And I have to drive to work. DRIVE. As in, actually get in a car at least 5 out of 7 days a week. And drive it. During rush hour.

Thankfully, I have a reverse commute, but even under the absolute best of circumstances, it's a 25 minute drive... probably an average of a 35 minute drive... and a real possibility of (gulp) an hour drive with traffic and construction.

Let it be known, I never took walking to work for granted.

Last night, I went with a few friends to a wine and cheese class at Cheesetique. The class was called "The Great Unknown" and the goal was to introduce the class to eight wines they probably had never heard of before, and they were paired with six "exotic" cheeses. My favorite wine of the night was the Valle dell'Acate Il Frappato, a slightly chilled, light red wine... perfect for summer. I enjoyed all of the cheeses (of course... I don't think I've ever met a cheese I didn't like), but we had a Norwegian cheese called Gjetost that, I swear, tasted and looked just like a caramel. It is so unusual, but I think it would be amazing paired with a crisp apple, so I am going to keep an eye out for it at Whole Foods until the next time I get back to Cheesetique. (The line was too long last night to scope out the cheeses, so I only bought the Frappato.)

What really impressed me about the night was how much the cheese shop owner and the wine guy (I'm not really sure what his official job is) were into what they did for a living. I mean, with jobs like theirs, how could you not love what you did? How does someone become a cheese shop owner, traveling around the country and world to try different cheese? That is a job I would love. I don't enjoy wine enough to want the wine guy's job, but the idea is the same... finding a hobby you are passionate enough about to turn it into a career. It sounds so much more rewarding than a boring old desk job. I'd love to learn about all the different types of cheeses, the best ways to serve them and pair them, the history behind different cheeses (like the Gjetost!). Not to mention, "cheesemonger" is such an awesome word.

Maybe in my next life.

We just got home from a quick weekend trip to Pittsburgh to catch a few Mets games with our friends, Carla and Aaron, who came down from Buffalo. (Rumor has it there is a good chance they will be moving to Baltimore in a few months, meaning I will get to see them more often than once or twice a year!)

Tomorrow, a wine and cheese class at Cheesetique.

Wednesday, restaurant week dinner at Art & Soul.

Friday, dinner and Twelfth Night.

And then next weekend, packing up my work office for the big move. (More on this soon!)

Oh yeah, and I need to keep up on my Army Ten Miler training.

I'm so exhausted just thinking about it.

As I mentioned in my last post, we've been getting eggplant pretty regularly in our CSA and I've been stumped with coming up with new ideas for cooking with it (that are appealing to me, anyway). Today, our dinner looked very much like bar food... fries with a variety of dips. Only, it was actually pretty healthy and we didn't feel totally gross after, as I often do when eating lots of fried food.

Eggplant and Zucchini Fries:
(you could do this with one or both vegetables)
1 eggplant, cut into strips
1 zucchini (or 2 tiny ones), cut into strips
Extra virgin olive oil
Panko breadcrumbs
additional seasonings of your choice (we used Penzey's 4/S Special Seasoned Sea Salt)

Salt eggplant strips and place in colander over bowl for 10-15 minutes to get some of the liquid out. Rinse very well (otherwise you will end up with way salty eggplant). Place eggplant and zucchini strips in a bowl, drizzle with olive oil. Toss to coat.

In a shallow dish, stir together bread crumbs and additional seasonings. Coat strips and place on parchment lined baking sheets. Bake at 400* for 20-25 minutes.

The vegetables themselves don't get very crunchy, but more like sweet and nutty from the roasting. The breadcrumbs add a nice crunch, though.

Okra Oven Fries
okra
olive oil
seasoned salt (we used 4/S again)

Toss whole okra in oil and rub on seasoned salt. Bake on parchment lined baking sheets in oven at 400* for 20 minutes. (We just threw ours right on there with the eggplant and zucchini.)

I made two dips to go along with our "fries." (We dipped in some Dinosaur Barbecue sauce as well.)

Curry Dip:
1/4 cup nonfat Greek yogurt (I'm a fan of Trader Joe's brand)
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoons grated onion or shallot
1/2 teaspoon red curry paste

Sriracha Dipping Sauce:
1/4 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
Sriracha sauce to taste (about 1/2 - 1 tsp.)
2 T fresh-squeezed lime juice

For both dips, mix all ingredients in bowl until well combined. Chill if you have time, or serve right away.

This dinner was super fun to eat. We just piled all the "fries" onto a platter, used sandwich sized plates and dipped straight into the bowls at the dinner table. Both of the dips were really yummy and would work well with crudite, chips or crackers.

We've been getting eggplant in our CSA for the last 3-4 weeks and are getting even more today. I checked previous years and it looks like we'll be getting eggplant pretty much all summer. That's a lot of eggplant, especially for someone (me) who is kind of picky in how she likes it prepared.

So far, we've made baba ghanouj (delicious!), baked eggplant parm (twice), and an eggplant tomato sauce that we've used over fried polenta rounds and tortellini. We don't usually eat much Italian food and we're getting a little tired of the same preparations, over and over. Unfortunately, I have a real texture thing with eggplant (and yellow squash, while we're at it), and seem to only like it when it's sliced reeeeally thin or completely mashed up. Grilled hunks or sauteed cubes of eggplant are just too mushy for me.

Anyone have any great vegetarian (or vegetarian-adaptable) eggplant recipes to recommend? I know there are a lot of eggplant curries out there, but most of them seem to use cubed eggplant... anyone know of any non-mushy variations? (And yes, I salt the eggplant before using it; still not a fan of the texture.) Thanks!

Last month, two of my college roommates invited me up to NYC "for a weekend of spa pampering, Lilah gazing, yummy food eating fun" to celebrate my "pending nuptials." (Lilah would be the 5 month old daughter of one of these lovely ladies.) Of course, I said yes.

The weekend was perfect. I took the train up this past Friday afternoon, and other than a one hour delay before we even got on the train, it was smooth sailing. (Smooth training?) I took a cab up to my friend Lara's place, dropped off my bag, and took the bus over to the same yummy Italian restaurant I went to for my birthday. We were soon met by our friend Jill, her hubby and their baby girl. Dinner was a real treat, as we so rarely eat pasta at home. Dinner was over at 10:30 and we called it a night, because Lara and I had a Central Park run planned for the morning.

Saturday morning, we woke up a little after 7 and headed out for a run through the park at 8. I had a 4 mile training run on my schedule, and Lara had a 10 miler planned as part of her NYC marathon training, so I decided to give 5 miles a go and run half of it with her. We ended up finishing the 5 miles (actually, 5.2) in 55 minutes, and then I headed home to shower while she ran 5 more. We were starving by the time we headed over to Jill's for a lovely brunch.

(The mirror makes it look like there's twice as much food as there is... still, it was a quite impressive spread for just four of us.)

We lounged around for a while before getting ready to head out to the spa for a lovely, relaxing afternoon of massages, manis and pedis.

After that spa visit, I knew I definitely needed to schedule a massage for the week of the wedding. It's amazing how much better I felt after that... so relaxed and recharged. It's almost a week later and I still feel much calmer.

We came back to Jill's for cupcakes and champagne (pretty much my favorite way to celebrate anything), and were joined by our other college roommate, Sara, for the evening. The four of us went to the Thai restaurant Sea in the meatpacking district, which was apparently bachelorette party central. There was at least one other bachelorette group at the restaurant and we saw several others (including someone with paparazzi, although we didn't get to see who) while we ate outside. The meatpacking district was totally NOT our scene, but we all love the other Sea in Brooklyn and this one was more convenient. After dinner, we wandered out of that neighborhood to find a quiet bar for one more drink.

The next morning, we went to brunch at Taboon in Hell's Kitchen. We started off with some amazing hummus, and we all ordered these delicious flatbread things that came topped with over easy eggs and your choice of toppings. (We all chose haloumi cheese, because how often do you see that out? Never.)

After brunch, we wandered around the upper west side for a bit before I had to catch my train home. No delays on the train... in fact, I got into Union Station a little bit early. Adam came to pick me up and we went out to grab some takeout from a local Mediterranean place. I even came home to a sparkling clean apartment... he's a keeper.

It was such a fantastic and relaxing weekend... exactly what I needed.

My aunt sent an email to me (and a few family members) this morning with the subject line, "Countdown..."

The text? "Only 100 days until the big event!!!"

I have a feeling she may be even more excited for this wedding than we are.

Also, one hundred days. We probably should get back to checking things off that to-do list soon.

I signed up for the Army Ten Miler back in the spring. Last year's ATM was my first really long race ("really long" being a relative term... I just mean longer than a 10K) and I finished in just under 2 hours. This past spring, I ran the GW Parkway Classic in 1:47:47. My goal for this year's ATM is to go under 1:45. Training started today.

I haven't consistently run since running the half marathon nearly three months ago. Sure, I've done a couple 5Ks since then, but other than that I have logged maybe 10 total miles. I was just pretty burnt out on the running thing, plus it's been eleventy bazillion degrees around here since the beginning of June (even our gym's AC had trouble getting below 77), so it's not like there were any lovely, cool days calling for me to go for a run.

This time around, I'm really going to try to get all my runs in. I want to do more than just finish, I want to finish strong. I may not get in every run on it's scheduled day, but I hope to get it done at some point during that week. I printed out my training calendar and hung it up on my fridge. Also on my fridge, a set of smiley face stickers ready to be used. (The sticker strategy really works for me... I also used it for making habits of flossing and taking vitamins.)

Today's run: 3 miles in 29:38. (Sub-10:00/mile pace = yay!)

I really , really want to complete all of my 101 in 1001 goals in the actual 1001 allotted days. I'm making pretty good progress so far, having completed 36 so far in 395 days... just slightly behind pace. But in order to actually accomplish this feat, I need to make a plan of attack. The following are goals I hope to accomplish by the end of August:

4. Try a bikram yoga class.
11. Lose 10 pounds. (I am 7/10 there! I want to lose the last 3 pounds to reach that goal, and keep it off.)
40. Create a PhotoBook. (Which we'll use as our guestbook for our wedding.)
47. Make bread (not quickbread) from scratch.
76. Go to the Baltimore Aquarium.
97. Go an entire month without buying clothes.
100. Go a month without buying coffee (except grocery store and dining out).

Wish me luck!