Esther Knits and Cooks http://esther.b3noit.com Thu, 25 Oct 2007 02:00:25 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.2 en Check it out! http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/10/24/check-it-out/ http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/10/24/check-it-out/#comments Thu, 25 Oct 2007 02:00:25 +0000 esther http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/10/24/check-it-out/ Check out our newest blog addition:
http://baby.b3noit.com

Exciting!

]]> http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/10/24/check-it-out/feed/ Long time no post http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/10/20/long-time-no-post/ http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/10/20/long-time-no-post/#comments Sat, 20 Oct 2007 13:36:35 +0000 esther http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/10/20/long-time-no-post/ It has been a crazy month since I last posted. I’ve been to Texas, Ohio, Maryland, D.C., and back all within the last two weeks. Two weeks ago we headed out to Jered’s cousin’s wedding in Dallas. It was a nice wedding in which we were musicians! I accompanied Jered and his brother in law on the flute, they were playing guitar. We were quite the family band. Over the wedding weekend we shared some exciting news with the family that will be posted here later (maybe you can guess what the news is?). We also found out about some other exciting news with other members of the family- it was quite a weekend!

The next week I headed out to Columbus for the ACES conference. It was an exhausting 3 days- but very fun. My entire cohort went and the conference was at a great location, close to plenty of shops and restaurants for when the conferencing was over. A good time was had by all and I left Columbus with new Steve Madden shoes. Fantastic!

Just this past Tuesday we headed up to Bowie, Maryland to visit Jered’s uncle and partner at their home. Jered’s grandparents were visiting so we made the drive up on a Tuesday afternoon and drove back home after dinner Tuesday night. It was quite a trek, but the food and company was well worth it!

This weekend we are taking it easy, doing some projects around the house and recovering from our jet-setting ways. I leave you with a picture of our orange “guest” room. This has something to do with the exciting news we have yet to post about!
Orange and Blue Room

]]> http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/10/20/long-time-no-post/feed/ Texas Sheet Cake http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/09/15/texas-sheet-cake/ http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/09/15/texas-sheet-cake/#comments Sat, 15 Sep 2007 14:07:10 +0000 esther http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/09/15/texas-sheet-cake/ Two weekends ago I decided to try my hand at a recipe handed down to me by my mother-in-law. I grew up in a household where sugar and sweets were villainized- if we suggested something wasn’t sweet enough we would get a snarky snare from my mom. Now that I’m all grown up (or at least trying to be), I rather appreciate my mom’s efforts to keep us healthy and fit- but growing up I was terribly annoyed with her! Obviously my reason for this little trip into my past is that I had never even tried texas sheet cake until I had my first Thanksgiving with Jered’s clan in Wichita a few years ago. It took a while to grow on me, my taste buds having been conditioned to balk at that much sugary goodness. So two weekends ago when Jered and I were craving a little sugar one-two punch I decided to pull out the family recipe.
tsc2.JPG
If you know texas sheet cake you might be asking yourself, why is it so dark? I substituted special dark cocoa because I prefer a deeper, darker chocolate flavor. I also substituted low fat sour cream for some of the butter. It turned out fantastic!
texassheetcake.JPG
To encourage commenting- let me know if you might be interested in the recipe!

]]> http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/09/15/texas-sheet-cake/feed/ Lasagna http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/09/11/lasagna/ http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/09/11/lasagna/#comments Tue, 11 Sep 2007 18:44:33 +0000 esther http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/09/11/lasagna/ Sunday morning I woke up with a strange urge to make lasagna. So that’s exactly what I did. I was perusing some of my favorite food blogs and saw a great little piece on bechamel sauce. This got me all excited about making an authentic lasagna. After a quick trip to Trader Joe’s I was ready to start cooking.

Now when I say authentic I’m kind of stretching things because Jered and I are vegetarian my tomato sauce didn’t really resemble a traditional lasagna tomato sauce. First, it had no meat, and secondly it was studded with rather large pieces of zucchini and summer squash.
Veggie Sauce
The authenticity I am talking about is all about the bechamel. I’ve never made lasagna with bechamel, but I’ll never make it without it again!
Bechamel
And just to be extra cheesy, I added a layer of this ricotta, pecorino-romano and chive mixture.
Ricotta
Magnus was particularly happy that I included this layer…
Magnus

The best part of this is that I still haven’t tried the lasagna even though I made it Sunday morning. Shortly after I finished assembling the lasagnas (it made two, which is lovely), we got a call from G & C, inviting us to dinner. We had a lovely dinner at their house and the lasagna got put in the freezer. We are having it for dinner tonight. I may take some pictures of the finished product all hot and bubbly out of the oven.

]]> http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/09/11/lasagna/feed/ Taking the blog in a new direction http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/09/09/taking-the-blog-in-a-new-direction/ http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/09/09/taking-the-blog-in-a-new-direction/#comments Sun, 09 Sep 2007 19:34:59 +0000 esther http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/09/09/taking-the-blog-in-a-new-direction/ As you’ve probably noticed, things look a little different around here. Thanks to Jered, my blog now has a completely different look. Along with that new look comes a new direction for the blog. Whereas it used to be my “fitblog” chronicling my weight loss efforts, I have decided I would like something more multi-dimensional- I am, afterall, much more than just a person trying to lose weight! (although this is still a goal of mine)
I’ve decided to broaden the scope of my blog to include my life in general- which includes plenty of knitting and cooking (actually quite a bit more cooking than anything else). I hope to become a more regular blogger, and by regular I mean more than once a week. I have a busy semester ahead of me that I’ve just started, but I’ve made myself a promise to do my best to finish all school and work related tasks before the weekend so that I can continue to have a life as I make my way through the second year in my program.
As some of you may know, Jered and I are planning to start a family in the next year or so, so there may be little updates about that on here every now and again too!

To start us off I thought I’d write a bit about the canoe excursion we took with a couple of friends of ours last weekend. It was my first time canoeing, and yet there is no photographic proof that I was actually in a canoe, other than the fact that I am taking pictures of everyone else. We rented canoes at Waller Mill park in Williamsburg and went out for a little over an hour. I had so much fun I almost decided to rename my blog Esther Canoe’s.
Jered in the back
Jered doing most of the work in the back of the canoe.
Waller Mill Lake
The lake- so peaceful!
Our friends

]]> http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/09/09/taking-the-blog-in-a-new-direction/feed/ My even weirder husband :) http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/07/30/my-even-weirder-husband/ http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/07/30/my-even-weirder-husband/#comments Tue, 31 Jul 2007 00:57:21 +0000 esther http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/07/30/my-even-weirder-husband/

]]> http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/07/30/my-even-weirder-husband/feed/ Our weird cat Magnus http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/07/30/our-weird-cat-magnus/ http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/07/30/our-weird-cat-magnus/#comments Tue, 31 Jul 2007 00:42:55 +0000 esther http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/07/30/our-weird-cat-magnus/

]]> http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/07/30/our-weird-cat-magnus/feed/ Good Week http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/07/08/good-week/ http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/07/08/good-week/#comments Sun, 08 Jul 2007 15:17:05 +0000 esther http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/07/08/good-week/ It’s been a relatively good week getting back on the plan. I lost over a pound and a half and would have probably lost more if I hadn’t gone to a great cookout and eaten my weight in potato chips because we didn’t eat until 9 pm! That and we had pizza and movie theatre popcorn yesterday (those can’t have helped either). But overall, it’s been a great week! I found this new breakfast I love to eat- Nonfat Greek Yogurt, sprinkle on some fresh blueberries and frozen raspberries, top with a little demerera sugar for crunchiness- it’s so delicious and only 3-4 points depending on how hungry I am and how much yogurt I eat. This is a bit of a breakthrough for me because I really hate yogurt. Up until now I have not liked the stuff at all, I will eat it if it’s the only thing around, but I don’t go out of my way. I think growing up in Germany I was spoiled by high quality yogurt- in Germany the yogurt is thicker and less sweet, the way I like it! Well I found this Greek strained yogurt that is nice and thick- I get the plain stuff and add my own fruit and sugar- it’s perfect!

This week will be a blast. I am going to work a bit on this monster of a paper that I still have to work on for the group class I took. Fortunately we are doing the paper in pairs, so my friend and I will be tackling it together. We hope to get a good start on it tomorrow. As for the rest of the week, Jered, Clayton, my mom and I are flying out to Kansas City for Joanna and Matt’s wedding on Thursday. We fly out early Thursday morning and come back late Monday night. I am so excited!! I am a bridesmaid and Jered is a groomsman. We also just found out we are going to the lake house on Sunday after the wedding! I am very excited for this trip!

Weight this week: 156.8
Change from last week: 1.7
Total weight loss so far: 20.2

]]> http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/07/08/good-week/feed/ Lazy Monday http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/07/02/lazy-monday/ http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/07/02/lazy-monday/#comments Mon, 02 Jul 2007 20:55:14 +0000 esther http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/07/02/lazy-monday/ Lazy Monday? What?! Yes, you read correctly, I have had a lazy Monday. With summer classes over (at least the one I was taking), I have Mondays and Fridays off until August. Ahhhh the joy of it. I slept in like a lazy lady until 9:30 this morning, it was quite nice. I’ve been doing very well getting back on the Weight Watcher’s deal. Yesterday I dipped into my flex points, but nothing major. This morning I went on a 45 minute walk and came home and organized some of my books and school stuff.

Tonight is the last lecture for the class I’m teaching- from here on out the class is student presentations and the final exam on the 18th- We’re almost done!!! It’s been a great class this summer, but I will be glad when it’s over. It will be nice to have Monday and Wednesday evenings free again.

Tonight for dinner I’m making vegetarian bbq ribs, corn and potatoes with a tomato salad from the garden. This morning I went out to pick the ripe tomatoes and found that we had big fat cucumbers hiding beneath the crazy cucumber leaves. I picked one of the prickly suckers and put him into the tomato salad. Should be good eats!

]]> http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/07/02/lazy-monday/feed/ Re-Commitment to Weight Watchers http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/07/01/re-commitment-to-weight-watchers/ http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/07/01/re-commitment-to-weight-watchers/#comments Sun, 01 Jul 2007 13:22:37 +0000 esther http://esther.b3noit.com/2007/07/01/re-commitment-to-weight-watchers/ Ugh. I’m up almost 3 pounds and I haven’t posted in about a month now. I’ve taken a hiatus from weight watchers and I’m only about halfway to goal- so now really wasn’t such a good time to take that break. Rather than dwelling on what a bad idea a month long break was, I am recommitting to weight watchers today. No more fudging points values, no more excuses for not exercising. Who am I kidding? The only person I end up hurting is myself, and I know that summer is the best time to lose weight- I have more time to work out, there is tons of fresh produce to munch on, and I have time to cook every night of the week- what could be more ideal?

So- as of today I am recommitting. Starting this week I have 7 weeks left on the online weight watchers plan. I hope to lose about 10-15 pounds between now and then. If I lose more- fantastic, if I lose that amount, I will be satisfied. Then, my plan is to actually go to meetings for however much weight I have left to lose- that way I can become a lifetime member (which you can’t become online) and I can stay motivated through the last few pounds. I re-established my goal and now am aiming for between 132-135, with hopes that I will get down to 130, but knowing that that range is considered healthy BMI-wise. So here’s to recommitting. More updates guaranteed this week. For you lurkers out there, drop me a comment so I know who is out there!

This week’s weight: 158.5
Total gain from last WI: 2.9
Goal for this week: To lose some poundages

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