September 4, 2010

Trying some new things

To mark the start of the holiday weekend,I met up with some girlfriends at The Redhead for dinner, and then moved on to The Belgian Room for craft beer. Yum! Knowing that we were going to be getting free frites at The Belgian Room, I tried to go light on my entree at The Redhead, opting for the appetizer-size portion of shrimp and grits while all my girlfriends had the fried chicken platter (their specialty, and supposedly the best fried chicken in NYC). After tasting a bit of the chicken, I was a little sad I hadn’t gotten that as well, but the shrimp and grits were tasty and a much smaller portion.

At The Belgian Room, things started to get a bit out of control. I started with a basic Ommegang Witte, followed by a Delirium Tremens, since those were on draft and therefore part of the half-off happy hour selection until 8pm. But after two of those (and the two beers I had at The Redhead, Allagash White and a Double Dog Double Pale Ale), I was ready for the frites. They did not disappoint! Served with about six different dipping sauces, I loved the curried ketchup and found myself wondering why curry spices aren’t added to all ketchups. Delicious!

Then came the bad decision to try my first sour beer. On recommendation from a new friend who knew a good amount about beers, I opted for the Cantillon Kriek as a starter (my other friend, Meg, went against the advice and tried the Cantillon Geuze).


But after the first sip – yuck. Call me uncultured, but sour beers just taste completely spoiled to me. It may be an acquired taste, but I would prefer to just drink good beer and avoid that. No Night of the Funk for me!

I called it quits after that, and woke up this morning mad at myself for eating so much. The scale doesn’t show any difference even after my week of intense workouts, which is disappointing, but I know progress often comes in spurts so I just have to be patient. After procrastinating for a little while online, I hit the gym for a 40 minute elliptical session, and then headed off to Central Park to try out a new fitness phenomenon – hooping.

If you’ve never heard of hooping before, you can check out this video for a quick overview (though I don’t know what’s with the blindfolds – never seen that before). My friend Lorelei got into it a year ago and is pretty addicted these days, scheduling all her events around hooping classes. Meg had an extra Groupon for a class, so I took her up on the offer to join in. At first, I loved it – I was very good at the traditional “waist hooping.” But when our instructor had us start getting into what I guess you’d call arm hooping (e.g. when you don’t have the hoop around your body but instead pass it around in a circle around your body using your arms, and then hoop it over your head), I started sucking. I hit myself in the head quite a few times, let the hoop go flying a lot, and broke a few nails as well. Hooping is dangerous stuff! By the end of the class, I could transition from going around my body (with my body not in the hoop), to up in the air, to down back around my waist, but I hadn’t yet mastered lifting it back up from my waist up in the air. My left hipbone was really sore from getting hit with the hoop (it’s much heavier than a traditional hula hoop), and I decided that while I had fun, I didn’t feel like doing it again.

But being outside on a gorgeous day like today was incredible, and I walked home in good spirits. I made plans to meet up with a friend to hang out in the park and read the rest of the afternoon, so just had to head home to shower, eat a quick lunch, and get ready. Inspired by the gorgeous outdoors, I decided to try out a recipe I had found on Vital Juice for a Glowing Green Smoothie.


The picture on the Vital Juice website came out a lot better than mine, probably in part due to the fact that I had skipped the fresh parsley and the celery (don’t keep the former on hand, ran out of the latter). But the smoothie was delicious! I know I’m probably going to catch a lot of flak from those who think green smoothies are gross (I learned that the last time I posted a green smoothie recipe), but I thought this one was incredibly good and definitely worth a try. Romaine has less flavor than kale, so it’s probably a better introduction to green smoothies, and the cilantro makes it very refreshing while the fruits make it sweet and tasty. No added sugar, too! I’d love to start making this my go-to breakfast, at least while I’m in town and have access to my blender.

Anyone else have any green smoothie recipes to share?

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5 thoughts on “Trying some new things”

  1. green smoothies rock…I actually plan on having a chocolate green smoothie today after my two hour run…sounds like the beer and hoopin were fun times, even with sour beer and breaking hoops..lol

  2. Next time, try a Framboise. They are the sweetest of the sour beers, particularly the ones by Lindemans. Good choice not drinking the Guize. I love Framboise’ and Krieks and I don’t like the guize. ;o)

  3. I’ve had a bunch of the Lindemans ones before (Framboise, Peche, etc), but even though those are classified as lambics, my understanding is they don’t count as sour beers. They’re super sweet!

  4. Hmm, you are right, Cantillon doesn’t add sweetener, whereas most lambics these days do. I don’t remember the Kriek being that sour, but I haven’t had it since our last trip to Belgium, pre-kids.

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