PhD Strides

Happy [Belated] Thanksgiving

Posted on November 26, 2011 by Elise

This year’s Thanksgiving was very similar to last year’s. It was the return of Orphan Thanksgiving, as paying for two plane tickets home in a three week span just doesn’t make sense – after all, I am a poor graduate student.

I started the day off with a turkey trot in Almaden, where I ran into Alisyn, who was running the 5k. [Race recap to come, as soon as I get photos.] It was so great to see you!

Once I got back from the race, it was time to tackle the main ordeal of Thanksgiving. Meet our 20-pound turkey, Felix (yes, I name my food).

Felix was rubbed with lemon juice on the inside, salt and pepper, and stuffed with parsley, celery and carrots. On the outside I massaged him with melted vegan earth balance, and seasoned him with salt, pepper, fresh thyme and fresh rosemary. He browned very nicely in a short 4 1/2 hours.

Me and Felix (and the bourbon we utilized for the evening’s manhattans)

Although I was the chef de jure, I passed off the carving to one of my cohort members. We utilized this video to get the most meat off of a bird that I think is possible.

Once the turkey was cut, the feast was served.

My plate – plus massive amounts of nibbling as the evening went on.

I also decided to make some non-traditional desserts. I had vegan lemon bars, vegan chocolate raspberry brownies and a vegan apple raspberry crisp (which somehow eluded all photos…)

Other delicious desserts included pecan pie and chocolate dipped pecan balls (amazing)

And with dessert served, our evening of good food and debauchery was just getting started.

I’m so thankful for my family, back home, who I sadly had to be without this Thanksgiving. I’m also thankful for my wonderful friends who I wasn’t able to see. And I’m extremely thankful for my fantastic cohort members and other friends who made this Thanksgiving one to remember. It wouldn’t have been the same without you!

How did you celebrate your thanksgiving? What are you thankful for?

What was your best Friday deal?

Posted in Baking, California, Graduate School, Holidays | Tagged chef, cohort, dessert, dinner party, holidays, PhD, thankful, Thanksgiving, turkey | 4 Comments

Minnesota Cranberry Orange Muffins

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Elise

One of my favorite part of the holiday seasons are the return of my desire to eat muffins! Any and all kinds of muffins! From bran to blueberry to pumpkin to the amazing muffins featured in this post: Minnesota Cranberry Orange Muffins!

This recipe is one that’s been in my family for as long as I can remember. And they’re a staple at all holiday get togethers. Kind of like my family’s sweet potato casserole (its seriously the best in the world – in my completely biased opinion). Recipe will come this weekend!

But for now….

Do yourself a favor, and make these. Stat. The combination of cranberries and orange is sweet yet tart, and oh so delicious.

Minnesota Cranberry Orange Muffins (12 muffins)

2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup sugar
2 tsp grated orange peel
1 tsp salt
1 large egg
3 tbsp vegetable oil
3/4 c orange juice
1 1/2 c whole cranberries (fresh or frozen)

Grease muffin tins or use muffin liners.

Preheat oven to 400. Sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda in large bow. Stir in sugar, orange peel and salt.

In a separate bowl, beat together egg, oil and orange juice.

Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add liquid. Mix well, and then fold in cranberries. Spoon batter into the muffin tins until they are about 2/3 full.

Bake 15-20 minutes or until nicely browned and toothpick comes out clean.

Then let cool (if you can wait!) and enjoy.

What food always makes an appearance at your holiday get togethers?

Posted in Baking, California, Holidays, Recipe | Tagged cranberries, Fakesgiving, holidays, muffins, orange, recipe, Thanksgiving | 6 Comments

Foodbuzz Festival: A Good Lookin’ Gala

Posted on November 9, 2011 by Elise

Saturday night of the Foodbuzz festival was the annual Gala dinner. This year, it was held at the Grand Hyatt in San Francisco. After an afternoon of tasting decadent food, running over to my race expo to pick up my half marathon packet for Sunday’s race, Julia and I got all dolled up and joined Mellissa and Melissa in our hotel lobby before heading over to dinner.

Since it was raining on our walk to the Hyatt, the other girls huddled under the umbrella, while I ran with my coat over my head towards cover.

Once we got to dinner, we were served Alexia fries for appetizers. The fries were the new flavors created by fellow bloggers – look for them in stores soon! (I can’t remember the flavors…I’m a bad blogger Winking smile )

Then, there were more appetizers once we got into the dinner. Vegetarian sushi, veggie samosa and butternut squash risotto bites.

Before dinner, we had a special guest do a tasting demonstration: the handsome, charming and talented Tyler Florence! He cooked up a pork chop and spaetzel dinner – it smelled and looked fantastic. Sadly, we didn’t get to eat it…

He also announced and honored the bloggers who created the new Alexia fries flavors (the ones we tried during cocktail hour) – congrats to the bloggers who created the flavors!

One Tyler’s demonstration was over, dinner was served. Well, everyone else’s dinner was served…

Through a string of miscommunications from the wonderful people at Foodbuzz to the kitchen and servers at the Grand Hyatt, my server had no idea what to do about my no-dairy diet. I was served a salad with blue cheese – which I had to send back. Then it took 10 minutes to get me a salad without. And another 10 to get me some ~~salad dressing~~ vinegar and oil(I kid not). By the time I got it, my table was long done. Bibb lettuce salad with honey roasted pears and glazed pecans.

And then dinner, I’m not even sure what my entrée was…but it looked like this:

It was supposedly dairy free, but I have this sneaking suspicion it wasn’t. [Case in point: I had my typical reaction to dairy consumption take over Sunday morning mid-race until Monday evening. Worst 48 hours I’ve had in 6 years.]

Luckily, dessert (for me) was redeeming. Fruit never looked soooo good.

Taste the rainbow.

And my dessert was incredibly better than that served to the regular crowd. Have you ever seen a bread pudding that stuck to your fork like this one?

Yeah, neither had we…

And, I had some amazing tablemates: Julia, Mellissa, Melissa, Kathleen and Kara.

After dinner with these amazing women, we headed back to the hotel where I promptly crashed (and eagerly took advantage of that extra hour of sleep) because I had stupidly (yes, you were right Melissa) signed up for a half marathon Sunday morning. A half marathon I quickly regretted when my stomach started to turn (excuse my french):

And then when it didn’t go away, it hit me: I was having a dairy allergy attack. And the next day when I was still in pain it was confirmed:

Le sigh. Besides the allergy attack, and the lackluster food, but delightful company Gala dinner, the weekend in San Fran for Foobuzz was a blast! I had a great time making new friends, finding out about different products, and just having two days away from all that is econ and graduate school.

Have you ever had a problem with servers not understanding your order or special diet needs? Have you ever sent a meal back?

Have you ever had a bad reaction to food or food poisoning? What was it from – and do you eat it anymore?

Posted in Blogging, California, Dairy Free, Graduate School, San Francsico | Tagged Alexia, allergy, appetizer, Bloggers, blogging, dairy free, food buzz festival, food poisining, Gala, meal, San Franisco, Tyler Florence | 3 Comments

Foodbuzz Festival: Decadent Tastes

Posted on November 7, 2011 by Elise

The highlight of Foodbuzz Festival for me last year was the Tasting Pavilion. Three hours of tasting decadent foods produced (mostly) locally to the Bay Area and learning about the companies, their stories and the product. So Saturday, when it came time for the Tasting Pavillion, I put on my big girl stretchy pants (jeans + spandex), and got ready to let my taste buds go insane.

Though there were a ton of products I truly enjoyed, I thought I’d share with you a few of my favorites:

Perhaps the best thing I’ve eaten in my life: Honey Walnut Spread served over goat cheese, provided by California Walnuts. It’s a great appetizers piece – expect to see it make an appearance at my holiday meals! (The recipe can be found here.)

It was a serious food orgasm, no joke. I ate at least 4 of them. I stopped counting after 4.

Vignette. Wine Soda – alcohol free wine. All of the flavor, none of the alcohol.

21st Amendment Brewery – I sampled the Watermelon wheat beer – made with real watermelon, which would be a great summer drink. Though, lets be honest: I wanted to drink it for the can designs alone…

Sonoma Syrup. Hand crafted syrups, extracts and drizzlers that will make you drool. After trying their vanilla bean simple syrup, I was in love and wanted to lick my spoon until I could taste it no more. They also gave me a bottle of the vanilla bean to try at home – look for it on top of delicious recipes soon: I’m thinking drizzled on top of cinnamon rolls, apple crisp, vanilla soy icecream…

Culinary Twist all natural sauces. They were flavorful, but not over powerful and made with ingredients of which I could pronounce everything – and they even had some gluten free options! My favorite was Maya Bay, a Thai marinade, sauce and dip. Really awakened my tastebuds.

The station I fawned over for hours: Redwood Hill Farm Goat Cheese and yogurt (not pictured). I love their products, that it’s a small, organic farm that treats their goats with love and feeds them right, and provides a quality product to their consumers. Its one of two goat cheese/yogurt products I buy, and will remain so.

Fat Toad Farm Goat Cheese Carmel from Vermont. It’s a product currently being featured in the Foodzie cooking box, and one I recommend checking out if you’re looking for a new twist on carmels for the holiday season. I tried all four flavors, and my favorites were the Cinnamon and Vanilla Bean. Sooooo good. I tried to run away with a box of it, but they didn’t let me Winking smile

I also really enjoyed the House of Balsamic vinegars. I was actually so in love with their product (though to be honest, I can’t really afford it), that I forgot to take photos. But their 6, 12, 25 year balsamic vinegars made me want to make love to the spoon it was on. And their white balsamic made me swoon – the flavor and price — and I actually was given a bottle to try at home, so I’ll hopefully be sharing recipes with you soon! .

The bbq sauce that stole the show was J. Lee Roy’s Dippin’ Sauce. It was true bbq flavors, with none of the preservatives or ‘bad stuff.’ Natural ingredients of which I could pronounce every single one of them!

And I also couldn’t help but be won over by the wonderful, cheerful owners!

And on the way out of the Pavillion, these TCHO bad boy’s caught my eye. Decadent chocolates – where the flavor comes from the type of cocoa, and no two batches taste exactly the same. LOVE it!

Julia and I, post-three-hour-eating-binge after the Pavillion. We had a great day.

There were so many other wonderful products at the Tasting Pavillion, but I don’t have photos of them all, so these are just a few of the most memorable. I had a great time networking with companies and trying new products, and I’m excited to use some of them that I just can’t live with out on a more regular basis to ‘spice’ up my meals!

Is there a product listed above that you would love to try?! What is your favorite ‘indulgent’ product to cook with or have around the house?

Posted in Blogging, California, Holidays, Recipe, San Francsico | Tagged balsamic vinegar, bbq sauce, beer, California, Carmel, chocolate, food buzz festival, Foodbuzz, goat cheese, goat milk carmel, products, San Francisco, simple syrup, vignette, walnuts | 5 Comments

Foodbuzz Festival: Welcome Reception & Dinner

Posted on November 5, 2011 by Elise

Before Foodbuzz festival officially began, Mellissa, Melissa, Julia and I had a glass of wine at our hotel for their ‘wine hour.’

The Foodbuzz Festival started with a welcome reception and dinner. The welcome recpetion was sponsored by Sabra, and featured tons of delicious hummus fanfare.

Oh, and delgihtful wine provided by Bonny Doon Vineyards. My favorite was the Albarino.

After the reception, came the buffet dinner.

Housemade Beet Raviol; Ceviche Shooters; Lentil Salad “To Go” Boxes; and Mai’s Rolls

Glazed Marin Sun Farms Pork Belly: Broccoli Puree, Wood Roasted Florets, Pickled Shiitakes and Chile Morita Vinaigrette

Pan-Seared DayBoat Scallop: Grapes, Capers, Wood Roasted Cauliflower and Varjus

The scallops and porkbelly were by far the highlight of the evening for me. The meat jut fell apart and into your mouth – delicious. And the scallops were perfectly cooked – and the varjus made for a decadent flavoring.

I was disappointed I couldn’t eat anything from the Electrolux Comfort Food Buffet Station, as everything had creamy/dairy/cheese, etc. So, my choices for dinner was slim (and it made me happy I had eaten my fair share of hummus at the welcome reception.) The buffet was surprisingly un-vegan friendly (aka un-Elise friendly).

Dessert was talked up by Foodbuzz to be a great buffet. Unfortunately, I was dissapointed: THERE WAS ONE vegan dish – and even that was marginally vegan. The chances that the gelatin was a vegan gelatin are slim-to-none. And, it was okay, it wasn’t exceptional.

After dinner we went out with a few of my friends off of Union Street. It was great to meet up with them, and have a cocktail, but the evening went a bit too late for my liking. C’est la vie. At least we took a cab back to the hotel (that we somehow didn’t pay for….but it wasn’t illegal or anything).

This morning I’m playing hooky from the conference to shop, walk around San Fran, hit up the Ferry Market, and just enjoy life. It’s a rare occasion I get to visit San Fran, so I’m going to enjoy the city while I can!

Are you at Foodbuzz Fest? What are your weekend plans?

Posted in Blogging, California, San Francsico, Vegan | Tagged buffet, dessert, Dinner, Foodbuzz, foodbuzz festival, reception, sabra, San Francisco, vegan | 1 Comment

Half Moon Bay International Marathon

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Elise

Over a month has passed since my second marathon on September 25, but I haven’t been certain on how to recap it. I also didn’t necessarily want to relive some of the race. In many ways it was a great race for me, but in others, it was quite painful and frustrating.

To begin with, I loved the Half Moon Bay International Marathon!

The volunteers, the organizers and the course were all wonderful! The Brooks shirts were adorable, and the medals were awesome!

While I would’ve loved to have known that there would be a decent amount of trail running (I get nervous on trails due to my ACL repaired knee), I am definitely planning on signing up again next year! This was an absolutely great race.

I started off the race running with Alisyn who I met for the first time about 2 minutes before the race started. We started off running together since we had the same time goal: sub 4 hours. We started off probably a little too fast with a couple of ~8 minute miles. Whoops! But, my legs were feeling good. We knew it was bad though for the rest of the race, so we slowed it down to about a steady 8:30 pace.

After the first few miles, the hills came up, and since I live in on a mountain and run hills regularly, we separated to run our races. Before I knew it, I made it to the half marathon point: I was running at an 8:34 min/mile pace. I was rockin’ it.

I got a little confused trying to figure out where to run…

And then, then it all went downhill. I took a Clif Shot with some water right at the half marathon mark, and about a minute later, it all came back up. I thought it was a fluke, so I kept running. About a half mile later, I lost my breakfast. I walked for a moment, and then started jogging again, listening very carefully to my body. I started doing okay, so I started running again, picking the pace back up. I took small swigs of water, and started tuning into my body: I knew I had very little fuel left my body, and I didn’t want to push too hard, as I wasn’t feeling the best. (Case in point: my face below)

I slowly but surely made it through the miles. And at mile 18 I took a little Gatorade, and it seemed to settle okay, so I kept running, though at this point my pace had slowed a lot.

Mile 22 I got the great idea to try a half a Clif Shot because my body was feeling drained. Mile 23, I lost said Clif Shot to the side of the road. So, I swished out my mouth, and adopted a walk/run strategy as my body was pretty weak at this point.

Around mile 25 I saw my friends Eva & Eric who had come up to support me. They gave me a little bit of energy and reminded me it was only 1.2 miles to the finish – I knew at this point I could finish and that even though I wasn’t going to get that sub-4 hour marathon, it was going to be close.

Before I knew it, I was at the finish.

Official finish time: 4:10:46 (9:34 pace). Though I didn’t meet my goal, I still will take this: A PERSONAL RECORD!

So, while it wasn’t my best race ever, and I felt miserable for most of it, I was still able to finish and still got a PR. Oh, and one of these sweet medals!

It was a great course, great group of runners and definitely a race I recommend to those living in NorCal (There’s a 10k and half marathon too!)

Oh, and because the field was so small, my 4:10:46 got me third in my age class! W00000000t! So, I got a $50 gift card to Fleet Feet & a nice plaque in the mail!

What fuel do you use to do long runs/cycles/endurance activities? I’m trying to figure out what to do now because I’m afraid to go back to Clif Shots. I don’t want to end up in a similar situation. I’ve got a half marathon on Sunday, and I’m going to try the Honey Stinger chews, but am open to other suggestions on what works for you!

Posted in California, Marathon, Running, Running Recap | Tagged half moon bay international marathon, marathon, personal reord, race, raceolution, racing, Running, running recap | 6 Comments

A Pumpkin Filled Day

Posted on October 30, 2011 by Elise

Yesterday was the most fall-like day I’ve had in a long time. It started off by baking pumpkin muffins.

Which I brought to pumpkin carving later, and are now all gone – and I only ate one!

Pumpkin Muffins (or Bread)

1 can (15 oz) pumpkin
3 cups flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp nutmeg
1 c sugar
1 c oil
1 c water
4 beaten eggs

Mix together four, salt, baking soda, spice in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together sugar, oil, water and pumpkin. Beat 4 eggs and add it to the bowl with pumpkin. Then slowly blend the egg/pumpkin mixture into the dry ingredients.

Line muffin tins with muffin cups, and fill to about 2/3 full (should make about 24 regular sized muffins). Then bake at 400 for about 15 minutes. I usually bake for half the time on the bottom rack, and then move the tin to the upper rack (that way I can bake more muffins faster!). Bake until they’re starting to turn a darker brown, or until the toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool, and enjoy!

And now I kind of want to go make more…so that I can have my fair share Winking smile

Once I baked the muffins, I headed to a pumpkin carving party! It was a blast!

Beer, pumpkins, knives…lets just say there were lots of pumpkin guts flying through the air! It was awesome to feel like a kid again! My friend Eva and I co-carved a pumpkin together. Can you guess which one of these pumpkins we carved?

Drumroll please…..

…..

….

The Tree of Life (just kidding) Eva also creatively carved stars on the backside as well.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Are you celebrating Halloween this year? If so, what are you going to be? I’m still not sure…and we’re going out tomorrow night as Halloween is a big holiday here in town. Apparently 20,000 people come for the festivities! So, any suggestions for me?!