I’ve been so busy with work the past month that the only time I’ve had for the blog, and interacting with you, was during the time we were in the kitchen. In between sauces simmering and pasta dough resting, desserts being prepared or the coffee pot piping, I tried to respond to whatever comments I could or write back to the messages I received in the contact form. (This is why there has been a sudden uptick in gourmet food related posts – my actual day-to-day responsibilities have been non-stop so I don’t feel like talking about more finance when I have a few moments to focus on something else. I’ll probably be up most of the night going over our finalized 2012 personal Federal tax documents before I give the sign-off to the accountants on Monday morning so they can get it all in before the extension deadline. It’s the last step since the business filings were done a month or two ago.)
This Sunday was wonderful in every way. It was one of my favorite types of days – cold, strong winds, and dark skies. I was working in a guest room and suddenly smelled the scent of warm pumpkin bread; the fragrance wrapping around door posts and down hallways like one of those classic children’s cartoons. I made my way toward the kitchen and heard a symphonic version of The Legend of Zelda soundtrack being played through the speakers, noticed that the autumn decorations had been brought out, and the house was now filled with pumpkins, leaves, and other signs of a Midwestern harvest. The windows were open, the fireplace was burning … it was just life. And good. And beautiful. And comforting. It made me realize, as I do every day, that I married the best person in the entire world. I can focus on what needs to get done and this stuff is just taken care of without me having to think about it.
The fresh pumpkin bread waiting to be enjoyed …
The house is being transformed into its autumn incarnation …
We jumped in the car a bit later. We grabbed mini custards at Culver’s (you all should try them – they’re good, might not be on the menu depending on where you are, and about half the size of a small) and ran errands to look for some items to finish the decor for the season. Then, we returned home and began working on dinner, which was a classic pesto (Basil, pine nuts, olive oil, butter, salt) over homemade fresh pasta (in this case, Fettuccine). At one point, my mother-in-law stopped by for an hour or two, grabbed a plate, and hung out with us, catching us up on her job search, a recent concert she attended, and other members of the family, enjoying a bowl for herself and taking some wrapped pumpkin bread back for my father-in-law.
We made a classic pesto and tossed it with the homemade fresh pasta recipe I demonstrated a few days ago. Normally, we go with Farfalle but this time around, a simple Fettuccine seemed right.
It was a good day. This is what life is about – spending time with the people you love, enjoying the simple things.
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Reader Comments (5)
Comments are presented chronologically, with replies indented beneath the comments to which they respond.
Anon
October 7, 2013
Usually, all this gourmet food translates into weight gain. How do you defend against that?
Joshua Kennon
October 7, 2013
Replying to Anon
Like this. I try valiantly, but am not always successful, so it's something I have to watch. Aaron's solution is to life weights and run 4-5 days a week.
Richard Garand
October 7, 2013
Replying to Joshua Kennon
I have heard many good things about lifting weights to lose weight. I haven't looked too closely at those effects because I need to focus on weight gain.
Odai
October 8, 2013
Replying to Richard Garand
I'm trying to gain weight (muscle) as well, so I've been browsing health websites. Let me share a few random things I've learned.
Gaining/losing weight is [calories you eat] - [calories you burn]. If you eat more than you burn, you gain weight. If you burn more than you eat, you lose weight. A pound of fat is ~3,500 calories, so if you're eating 500 extra calories per day, you'll gain a pound every week.
(It's also worth reading the Wikipedia article on what, exactly, a calorie is)
When it comes to weight gain or loss, it's really mostly what you eat. Most people burn close to a couple thousand calories per day just by being alive, and light exercise isn't going to add much to that - it's easiest to cut out the high-calorie foods to lose weight (major reductions in volume of food you eat often leads to giving up).
Gaining muscle is harder, and I'm still trying to learn about it. You have to eat excess calories and protein (as building blocks for the muscle), do strength-building exercises (weight lifting is the most measurable and controllable choice), and get sufficient sleep (apparently most muscle growth happens while you sleep).
Aerobic exercise (running, swimming, anything that makes your heart pump) is good for your heart, and your health in general. But it's not going to burn enough calories to let you eat anything you want, and it's not going to build huge muscles (at best, swimming builds lean muscles).
Flexibility training is supposed to be good (e.g. yoga), it reduces the chance of muscle injury in general, since your ligaments are stronger. Also, being in a team sport really helps - the only time I've been able to consistently stick to a regimen is when I had the social support of a team activity.
Some of the things I've written may be wrong, since I'm still learning, so I encourage you to be skeptical and do your own research. Resources I like include Scooby's Workshop and Reddit's Fitness board.
Richard Garand
October 8, 2013
Replying to Odai
I've heard a lot of the theory - I just need to really work at it to get any results, and I would rather enjoy meals like the ones shown above since I essentially get a free pass on them 🙂 I can understand why very few people are sympathetic to my problems.