Arnica: The Downhill Mountain Biker’s Friend

Downhill mountain biking is not safe, probably not a good idea, but always a good time. I’ve been riding for about 2 years now and started racing this year. I don’t have any biking experience really and tried cross-c0untry riding a handfull of times before making the switch. At first I was terrified and hated it, but now I’m totally addicted. I ride as often and as long as possible, often until my hands bleed and well beyond exhaustion. Unfortunately, as a direct result, I am nearly always nursing at least one injury. While I do wear loads of safety equipment (full-face carbon fiber helmet, flak jacket that covers my chest, back, and arms and shin guards that cover me from knee to ankles) unfortunately you just can’t protect everything. *As a side note I learned the hard way this past weekend that wearing a mouth guard is also essential to prevent tooth and mouth injury and reduce the chances of a concussion.  The steep rocky terrain combined with skinnies, jumps and speed all end in injury at some point.  Fortunately my acupuncturist recommended arnica a few years ago and my mother, a massage therapist, also recommended it and began incorporating it in my monthly treatments. She also purchased me the essential oil to use at home after injury because of the frequency with which I am acquiring new hematoma. I now swear by this stuff as it does seem to help me heal more quickly than my husband, who doesn’t belive in natural treatments.  Arnica is a flower native to EurAsia and cultivated by Native Americans. It has been used topically to ease inflammation and promote healing for bruises, sore muscles and injury caused by overuse or trauma. The essential oil can be married into a lotion or applied directly to the skin and is an ingredient used in many organic or all-natural healing balms. After a long weekend of hard riding and rolling around over rocks and under a 40 lb. bike I am very, very thankful for this all-natural remedy. So if you find yourself sore, overworked or bruised whether its from downhilling or whacking your knee on the coffee table, consider grabbing yourself some arnica online or at your local health food store to help ease the pain naturally.

Filed under DIY, Health and Wellness, Nutrition and Supplements, Product | Tags: arnica, balm, bruise, Downhill Mountain Biking, essential oil, flower, fracture, healing, natural, remedy, sprain | Comments (2)

Pizza Party Leftovers + Polenta = Yummy!

So, if you decide to use my earlier posted pizza recipe for your next pizza party, you are likely to have a few leftovers.  If you take those leftovers and mix them with prepared polenta, you can end up with something really, really tasty.  Here’s what to do:

Use a pre-cooked roll of polenta and thinly slice little rounds. Next, lightly oil the bottom of a deep dish or glass pan (I used an 11×13 lasgna pan for mine). Place a layer of the polenta rounds down first. Next, cover with sauce. Pizza sauce is great, but if you don’t have enough leftover there are two alternatives. You can use spaghetti sauce in a jar or make your own sauce quickly. In a bowl mix (2) 16oz cans of tomato sauce with (2) 6 oz cans of tomato paste. To the mixture add dry Italian Seasoning or thyme, rosemary, marjoram and garlic. Fresh works easily well.  Mix in salt and pepper to taste and pour half over your polenta slices.

*If you want to get really fancy, here’s how I made my sauce.  In a large saucepan I added a tablespoon of olive oil and warmed. I then added 1 clove of chopped garlic, a chopped onion, and about a pint of sliced cremini mushrooms. I sauteed until everybody was soft, but not mushy (about 5 minutes) and then added the two cans of tomato sauce and two cans of paste.  I stirred on medium heat until bubbly and then poured over my polenta and sprinkled dry Italian Seasoning over top.

Next, layer on your leftover toppings. I used vegetarian pepperoni, green peppers, black olives and shredded mozzarella cheese. Cover with another layer of polenta slices, then more sauce and top with fresh mozzarella cheese. (Shredded works fine too). Cover the pan with aluminum foil and broil on low setting for about 30 minutes to ensure that the polenta is warmed all of the way through. Take the foil off and kick the broiler up to high and cook for another 5 minutes or until the cheese is browned and bubbly. Allow to cool and then scoop a heaping pile into a bowl and enjoy. This is the best and easiest way that I have found to use the last of my pizza leftovers and the family loved it.

Filed under DIY, Recipe | Tags: gluten-free, ingredients, leftovers, mushrooms, pizza, polenta, quick and easy, recipe, thrifty, vegetable protein, vegetarian | Comment (0)

Making Pizza at Home

My husband and I have been making pizza together for the last 5 years using our own recipes that combined make the best thin crust south of Lombardi’s.(We do still go to NYC at least once a year to eat the real thing). Many moons ago, I took a recipe from the internet and tweaked it and have been making my super thin crust pizza the same ever since. I like it because it’s easy, simple, uses my food processor and is consistent. It’s a very thin crust, almost cracker thin if you stretch it all of the way, and bubbly on the edges. My husband may, or may not, reveal his secret tomato sauce on another date, but here is how to remake my delicious dough.  I’m writing from memory, so if you have any issues making it, or I find corrections, I’ll post the edits.

What you’ll need:

Special Equipment:

baking stone

food processor

silicone rolling mat

rolling pin

pizza peel (2 are better, but you can work with one and a large cutting board and a large flipper)

Ingredients:

1 cup warm water

1 tbsp yeast (I’ve used dry active and the baker’s; it doesn’t really matter)

1 tsp honey

pinch of salt

3 cups flour (plus more for covering your hands and dusting your work surface)

1/4 olive oil

(chopped rosemary and garlic add-ins, but you can put whatever you want in your crust)

cornmeal

First, you’ll need to get the yeast ready to go. Take one cup of warm water (not hot, just warm to the touch) and stir in the honey. Sprinkle the yeast on top and give it a quick stir and allow to sit for 5-10 minutes. (It will get bubbly and make a gooey brown slime on top of the water; then it’s ready).  Next, add 1 cup of flour to the processor and dump in the cup of water and yeast. Give it a quick pulse to mix. Add in a pinch of salt, 1/4 cup of olive oil and the second cup of flour. (I never measure the olive oil, I just count to 4, 4 times, but do it however you like). Pulse it a few times to really get it mixed together well. It will start to firm up a bit.  Finally, add in your other ingredients (garlic, rosemary or whatever you want to add to your crust) and the last cup of flour.  Pulse until all of the flour sticks together and forms a ball. If it doesn’t begin to firm up and ball together you can add a few teaspoons of water if it is too dry, or a few teaspoons of flour if it’s too wet.  Don’t worry about it begin perfect, you just need it to stick together and you should err on the side of wetter dough.  Next, turn out the pile onto your silicone mat. Flour your hands. (seriously, do it, or you will have a huge mess in moments). Add a bit of flour to the top of your dough and on the edges of the silicone mat to incorporate if your dough ball is a sticky mess. Next, knead the dough by folding it over and pushing it in on itself mainting the roundish shape that it is in currently. Do this 60 times, or for about one minute. Don’t over do it, you just want to get it to a good sticky, but stretchable texture. Finally, coat the sides of a large bowl with olive oil and toss in your dough ball. Roll it around to get it covered in the olive oil and then cover. Cover with your silicone mat. (This prevents a crust from forming on the top of the dough, but if you do get one, don’t worry, it’s not the end of the world; just knead it in). Wait until the dough rises and doubles (30 min to an hour). Ideally you want the room to be 70 degrees or warmer to help it rise more quickly. *If you are making pizza in the winter, you can put the bowl on the top of your fridge near the back, or on your water heater for extra warmth. If it’s a nice summer day, just set it on the porch or in the window sill to really get it going quickly.  Once the dough has doubled in size, punch it down flat with your knuckles and preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. The stone should be placed in the oven when preheating so that it’s warm and ready when you pop in your first pizza. Let the dough rise up to the original size again (about another 30 min or until your oven is preheated. Once the oven is heated and your dough has risen, you are ready to make the pizza. Pull off a handful of dough and pat it and stretch it into a disk. Place the disk onto the silicone mat and roll out to the size of your pizza peel or a bit larger than a dinner plate. (If you get a hole, just pinch the dough together, it’s fine). It doesn’t have to be round. Home made pizza doesn’t look like the stuff you get in the store, but no one will care because it tastes better anyway.  Once you have your pizza rolled to size, sprinkle a little cornmeal onto your pizza peel and put your dough onto the peel. Top it with sauce and toppings (get crazy, it’s your pizza!) and slide the pizza from the peel onto the baking stone.  Give it a couple of quick little shoves and it will slide off onto the stone.  Close the door quickly and cook for about 6 minutes or until the crust is dark brown, bubbly and crispy.  Place it on the counter to cool while you pop in your next pie. Repeat until you have enough to feed everyone in the house. We often host pizza nights with friends and enjoy drinking wine, telling stories and making outrageous pies. A single batch of dough will make about 4 pizzas and because the crust is thin each person is likely to eat one, so if you are having a party, plan to make 2 or 3 batches of dough. You can freeze the leftovers and just thaw to make it again the next time. *as a healthful tip, if you take it easy on the cheese (a dollop or two of fresh mozzarella and basil, pizza can be a tasty and healthful dinner.  I hope you enjoy making pizza with friends and family as much as we do, and if you have any hints, tips or complaints please feel free to share in the comments section. Mangia!

Filed under DIY, Recipe | Tags: dough, pizza | Comment (0)

What I’ve been up to on Etsy

Hey, here’s a peek at both my personal shop (Serendipit) and my team’s shop (Fashion:Remix). Please keep us in mind for your personal wardrobe updates and gift giving. We all make and sell eco-friendly refashioned or recycled clothing and accessories.

Filed under Environmentally Focused, Products, Shopping, Uncategorized, Website | Tags: crafts, design, eco-friendly, Etsy, fashion, gifts, refashion, SerendipiT, sustainable, thrifty, vegan, vegetarian | Comment (0)

Feeling Super Inspired

I love, love, love fashion. I love to watch it, read about it and obsess over it. Unfortunately I can’t afford any of it, so I try to make my own eccentric glamor work with what I have. I also like to refashion things I own to look similar to trends. I have no issue with wearing trends out of season; I just love to find things that are really inspiring. This season has so many great things to choose from. I don’t think I’ve ever felt more inspired. While catching up on some light reading about NY Fashion Week @cutblog their Best Bet really caught my eye. Funktional’s Scarf-Collar Coat was really intriguing so I popped over to Need Supply Co.’s website and found this beauty. There were so many great pieces that I ooed and aahed for an hour. The Fishbones top by LNA is so effortless, accessible and inspiring; I think this one will go up on my sewing wall. I suddenly feel the urge to focus on cut-outs and reverse applique. If I make anything interesting in the coming weeks I’ll be sure to post all about it.

Filed under Fashion | Tags: cut outs, fashion, inspiration, LNA, Need Supply Co., New York Magazine, NY Fashion Week, reverse applique, the Cut | Comment (0)

Learning to Run

I was once a track star. Not really. I was on the track team, but I was not the fastest and rarely won any races. I ran sprints and hurdles, namely 300M high hurdles, 110 hurdles, 200M, 400M and 800M relay. It turns out that being short is not an advantage when it comes to running fast; who knew. I did love to run though and despite my lack of speed I did win the award for prettiest over the hurdles, so there’s that.  Anyway, I flirted with running about 2 years ago when my husband decided that he was going to get up early and run in the morning. Unfortunately I am not a morning person. I’ve worked on adjusting my schedule over time to allow me to get out of bed at a decent hour to avoid making my poor daughter late for school and thus subject to detention for my slackerness, but I still don’t like it. I definitely wasn’t about to continue to drag myself out of bed to suffer, just getting up and ready was torture enough as it was. Fast forward to last month… My work is again sending out tons of emails about the Komen Race for the Cure. They are even giving away prizes; and that is a mighty nice looking Under Armour shirt. All I have to do is run a 5k you say? Sold! So, I registered to race. It was a timely announcement anyway as my Step-father’s sister passed away only weeks before from breast cancer in her early 30′s and my Mother-in-Law just survived breast cancer surgery and following radiation treatments. My best friend’s mother also has survived breast cancer and she is now a high risk for developing it herself. So, I decided to run. What the hay, everyone was born to run right? This is what our ancestors did for food for heaven’s sake. Surely an athletic, trim and healthy (ha ha!) 30 something like myself could run a measly 3+ miles. HA! Despite my athleticism I found that running is still a miserable, slogging, painful experience for me and I have only a few weeks before I run my race for the cure. (BTW, click the link and donate to my suffering for a good cause please). My first attempt at running again ended in painful shin splints, side stitches and general misery, so I decided to look for help. I read that the new school thought on running shoes is that too much cushion is bad for you. My $20 shoes from the local warehouse club with marshmallows for soles probably weren’t going to cut it. I switched over to my Gola classics which seemed to help me. I was able to run without feeling like I had been beaten with a baseball bat the next day, so that was good. Next, I needed to train to run the full 5k. My girlfriend indicated that anyone could do it, even my untrained self. I however beg to differ; clearly she has not seen me dragging my sorry self around the block looking like I may puke or pass out at any moment. As a quick back story, I recently upgraded my old 2004 cell phone to the new iPhone 4 and love the apps. Naturally I looked for a good running application and found the perfect one. It’s called Couch to 5k. It can take anyone, even those who have never run, or still hate it and make you a 5k racer. I love it! It lets you listen to your own music and even tweets your peeps that you’ve finished a new stage each time you run it. (This helps if you have motivator friends who track your progress but can’t actually run with you). The Couch to 5k program or C25K takes 9 weeks to get you in 5k form. It will teach you to increase your running gradually to the point that you can run 5k or 30 minutes straight. Ambitious? Yes, but it works. As an example, week 1 day 1 (each week is broken into 3 running sessions) has you do a 5 minute warm-up, followed by alternating 60 seconds of jogging with 90 seconds of walking for 20 minutes. Even I can do that! Today I will move on to week 5 session 2 (5.2) and I have in store for me today a 5 min. warm-up followed by an 8 min jog, then a 5 min walk and finishing up with an 8 min jog. Crazy right? The best part is that I’ll do it easily and still have energy to run more. I love this app!  I’ve been running regularly for a few weeks now and I really love it. It feels good, its a great stress reliever and I’ve already lost 5 lbs that I wasn’t expecting. It’s certainly slimming down my physique, which in my case is a good thing. I tend to have a stocky, muscle-bound appearance because of the action sports and weight lifting that I do, so this adds a nice balance. I’ll post some regular updates as I move closer to my race date and share my experiences as I grow into a real live runner. The best part about running I think is that I can do it anywhere at any time. I don’t really need a of special equipment and I don’t have to drive anywhere; it’s beautiful. So, if I can run, so can you. So get out there and pound the pavement!

Filed under Health and Wellness | Tags: 2010 Komen Maryland Race for the Cure, 5k, breast cancer, C25K, donation, exercise, fitness, jogging, race, running, stress relief, Susan G. Komen for the Cure | Comment (1)

Vegetarian Buffalo Chicken Sandwhich

I made this tasty buffalo chicken sandwhich for lunch twice in the past month and wanted to share the recipe. It’s quick and easy and a big hit with the family. Note that it is vegetarian, not vegan and does include dairy. Here’s what you’ll need to make it:

1 bun or 2 slices of bread

1 or 2 MorningStar Farms® Chik Patties® Original (they come in little packs of 2 and I found 2 is just the right amount to fill me up)

1/4 cup of buffalo wing marinade or sauce (I used the Safeway brand marinade that I found in the salad dressing aisle)

1/8 cup of low-fat blue cheese dressing

How to slap it together:

I recommend using the toaster oven to heat your patties if you have one available. If not the microwave works just fine in a pinch, just don’t overcook them. (I cooked both patties, wrapped in paper towels in my microwave at work for 2 minutes and they turned out perfect.) Smear a little buffalo wing sauce on the bottom and top buns. Stack 1 patty and slather a layer of the blue cheese dressing. Stack the second patty and top with the bun. I kept the reaminder of the sauce and put it in a dipping bowl and dipped as I ate. This combination kept the patties moist and flavorful with a little kick. It took less than 5 minutes to make my lunch and it tasted as good as any buffalo chicken sandwhich I’ve ever had in pub, but it was delicious and relatively healthy. Enjoy!

Filed under DIY, Recipe | Tags: DIY, easy, eco-friendly, fast, lunch, MorningStar Farms, recipe, sandwhich, thrifty, vegetable protein, vegetarian | Comment (0)