cheesecake success!

look what i baked! gluten-free cheesecake :D last night was baked dessert night so i got to whip up this cheesecake before heading out to take women for a walk. the base was made with brown rice "krispies," sugar, and butter. the cheesecake was neufchatel (the lighter cream cheese), tapioca flour, vanilla extract, eggs and some sugar. it was crazy hard to mix the 15+ cups of neufchatel and other odd ingredients by hand but the mega huge whisk was nice. so was melting the cream cheese a bit by hand.


there's a curse on ankles at work, we've had at least 4 sprained ankles since i've been here and i rolled my ankle this morning on my run but i think if i just be nice to it today then i can still teach my first cardiokickboxing class tmrw!


today we re-hiked the plymouth vista and i remember my first week one of the participants was starting her first week and she couldn't make it to the top to see the view and she wanted that to be her goal before she left and today she made it! it's amazing what these women are accomplishing in the time they spend here and the changes their bodies undergo. and i think i want to become a life coach if this whole dietetics thing doesn't work out...haha, i think i just need to make up my mind in life.

nightlife

PA and i made it out to killington tonight to get in the real world and check out another local bar. killington is about 30 minutes from ludlow past plymouth and the lakes. we went to JAX, which felt like the middle of nowhere but was pretty big. it's on top of a laundromat and we were probably the only two females there among a group of post college guys and a very low-key bachelor party. we liked the bar, one b/c it was more our age than outback, and the bartendar was really nice and she really talked to everyone at the bar. 


we noticed that no one we meet in bars is from VT and that they are always going to be golfing at okemo golf resort the next day. there must be a special at okemo for sundays for large groups of guys wanting to get their game on.


there was a 100 mile relay on route 100 that we saw on our way to the bar and the people were running by GM on our way home tonight, i'm not sure i would ever want to run at night by myself even w/ a headlight especially in these dark roads.


oh, and we saw a bear on our drive home! it looked pretty small but it lumbered across the street pretty quickly.


i think i'm just plain old allergic or super intolerant to alcohol. every time i drink i get sick and today i broke out in hives, so i guess i will have to do some experimenting to figure out if it's all alcohol or what, but after a drink and a half today i felt ill and the first drink ended up in hives (note to self, no more rum). the weather is back to being crisp and fall-like, it's a nice change of pace, but swimming in the lake today would have been much nicer with a hot day.


have a good night!

drama llama

more drama in the kitchen- apparently i flopped on both baking things i did. so really, lets just leave me out of the drama and i'll just do some back stuff like bulletin boards and putting dishes out onto tables...it's amazing how different personalities clash and i'd rather not be the one in the middle. i'm getting where both the chefs and the dietitian are coming from, but it would be nice if they could communicate w/ each other and not have me as a middle funky ground.

today's vermonting walk/hike was hawk walk, which starts at hawk mountain resort. i took 2 of the more gung-ho ladies up salt ash road which had some snazzy houses on the mountain. i wish i nabbed a shot of lunch (mac and cheeseeeeee, man, i wish i could live off this stuff...which also was apparently too salty...). after four weeks here i think i finally got the wednesday self-serve lunch plate servings down. minus the part where i went back for 2nd helpings of the mac&cheese:D i may have finally found a mac&cheese that i like more than the kraft box version. i got to showcase my cardioboxing skills (my nutrition supervisor joined in on the class in her skirt no less!) and then the highlight of the day- spontaneous decision to go swim in a lake!

the fitness/intern coordinator lives in a house by lake echo (it's a private lake except for the state park section, which is still not re-opened since hurricane irene damage) and she offered to show us how to enter through her section so we asked the kitchen to hold our dinners and we just drove there after work still in our workout clothes (i had like full workout pants on). there's a little dock and a floating platform a bit further. the water was actually warm (it probably helped that it was in the mid-90s today) and you couldn't touch the ground, which was really nice b/c the storm apparently brought lots of ickies to the bottom. it was sad when i couldn't haul myself onto the platform...so some more upper body is necessary or else i will just have to keep pretending that i just like to float around in the water all day...lol. 

now i can say i swam in a lake! i think i'll use my vibrams as water shoes just so i can avoid the murky bottom by the dock and walk up onto the beach when i don't even have the energy to flop onto the deck like a beached whale. you'd think as a fitness instructor i would have some mad muscles, which i think oftentimes the women here judge me for when i'm not as strong or as quick as the other intern. sometimes i think they see me as more approachable b/c i look more like them, but sometimes i don't know if they take me seriously b/c i don't look like joy bauer or jillian michaels. but it's something to adjust to, and it's always a work in progress, but it was really fun jumping into the lake (much less daunting than the cliff diving).

happy first day of summer!

i would never run a restaurant...

...but i sure like to eat at them :D

we went to the downtown grocery on monday night for their prix fix dinner to celebrate karen's bday and her last week at GM. man, this stuff will burn a hole in your wallet but leave your stomach so happy. it was $25 for a starter, entree and chef's dessert (i didn't get a solo shot of the dessert...) but i got the tomato soup (delish!) and salmon w/ fingerling potatoes and wild mushrooms. dessert was a trio of pineapple and basil sorbet, chocolate souffle w/ i think a caramel kind of sauce (or knowing vt, maybe maple), and a mini donut w/ a raspberry sauce. 

i also got a rum and ginger beer (they make their own) w/ mount gay rum (which was very tasty). eum eum. a wonderful night to celebrate one of the nicest ladies i've met here. the clientele at the restaurant is definitely averaging around 65+ but that might have to do w/ the price of the place, but for the prix fix days it's definitely worth a trip (plus the people there are soooo nice!)

but onto intern stuff- first real day in the kitchen (9-2 w/ an hour break for lunch). i got to use the flour mill and grind brown rice into brown rice flour (quick but also overloaded the poor machine and the poor thing went crazy). with the brown rice flour i made gluten free cheddar cheese sesame crackers (which also had tapioca flour and sorghum flour). it was all sorts of complicated ingredients and i really just wanted butter and flour and cheddar cheese. plus, i have no idea the point of having three different flours so i was feeling a bit lost on how to cook w/o really measuring (i love the ginormous mixing bowl machines). the last 10 minutes before lunch time were sort of frantic (thus the not wanting to ever run a restaurant) and i felt like i needed to be meryl streep playing julia child in that movie where she practices dicing onions to be really fast.

after that it was a bit smoother (sort of). i made the chocolate zucchini cake (which was actually squash b/c there was no zucchini) and keeping track of quantities and baking/cooking to those proportions for a certain number of people is very awkward (case in point, using MasterCook program it said to use 2 and 5/8 of an egg...). plus, i got the wrong number scooped out so i had to do lots of fiddling to spread the batter out (which made for small looking cakes) but they tasted pretty good. keeping track of what people do and do not eat and allergies is also a whole 'nother fun game so there are charts all over the kitchen w/ the menus and layouts of everyone's diet.

tmrw's hump day! it's supposed to be killer hot so the walk tmrw should be uber fun. ack, i can't believe i missed taking a pic of my first attempts at cooking in large batches!

water, water, everywhere

from last night's shenanigans at the downtown grocery to today's exploring, this was probably one of my favorite weekends here so far. lisa and i went to the downtown grocery which is in ludlow- it's a very cute, tasty, but pricey place. it has a great fresh foods menu (they have a garden in the basement and on the roof) and everyone there is super nice. the plan had been to get 1 drink, but we ended up talking to everyone at the bar and the owner until past midnight. haha, which means drunken food search which is very difficult when everything in town closes early evening...but we ate their homemade potato chips and sampled some of their signature mixed cocktails so i'm excited to try out their dinner food tmrw night! 


but anyway, got about 3 hours of sleep but was ready for getting out of green mountain and going for a hike (it helped that i probably ate 3 extra dinners in a "please soak up this alcohol" late last night. we got lost getting to manchester for this hike, so 2 hours later we made it to the lye brook falls trail. it's a pretty straight forward trail to the waterfall- about 3 hours round trip at a leisurely to steady pace. the incline wasn't bad at all and a stop to enjoy the view.

lye brook falls is one of the tallest in the state of vt. it's a gorgeous waterfall and the water runs over all the shale-like rocks.

there was a small path up to a higher point on the falls, you can kind of see me in the middle of the picture.

after the hike we got some gelato at a really cute diner in downtown manchester (i'll remember the name eventually). and then headed to dorset which was about 10 minutes from manchester to look for the quarry that the locals use for swimming and cliff diving. 

the quarry was pretty big and there was a good number of cars parked outside. one section w/ the lower rocks had families w/ lawn chairs parked and smoozing, but once you walked around the quarry to the other side, were the teenagers and teenagers who looked about 12 smoking and drinking and diving off the cliff (all seemed like bad combinations). there's some shallower jumps at around 6' but also a 30' and 40' jump. after watching this girl stare down at the 30' jump for about ten minutes i figured i would start out at 30 and see how things went...

the water was freezinggggg. i was definitely stalling jumping off and couldn't look down other than to check if there was anyone below i would kill before i just had to jump off. it was tons of fun, not sure if i'll make it to the 40' jump but maybe next time when the weather gets really warm.


happy father's day and happy sunday!

airport runs

i much prefer participant pick-up/drop-off to the rutland airport rather than the manchester-boston airport in new hampshire. most likely b/c rutland is only 30 minutes away whereas machester, nh is 2 hours away. but i made it and now i want to nap...haha. i thought about stopping by in new hampshire but it didn't really look like there was much to see. next time i'll have to plan better. 


taught the full morning schedule of classes- circuit strength, cardio walk and then a short and sweet stretch so i could drive one of the women to the airport. i've been slacking on the food pics so here are some goodies to drool over:D

from the top left clockwise: thursday salmon dinner, a shot of the avocado chicken pizza (that little strip coming off is 1/2 of a serving, so you get to pick 2 slices), sirloin steak dinner (this is of course a shot of my roommie's dinner, i got tofu, but i figured you'd want to see the nice cooking on the meat instead of more tofu), and last but not least- more tofu w/ sauteed squash and polenta (i'm not sure how i feel about polenta...)


getting laundry done and hopefully a nap. happy saturday! 

getting into the groove

it finally sank in that it's already my 3rd week here and every week these women are truly inspiring. it's awesome to see them forming bonds w/ each other but also killing hardcore aerobics classes that are on par w/ fitness classes i teach to athletic college students.  


tonight's dinner was probably one of my favorites (behind the chili and something else i can't remember)- tilapia, quinoa, pico de gallo, red cabbage and i think a lime/avocado sauce. eum eum eum. 

it's tuesday so also baked dessert night! and carrot cake finally made an appearance. after 3 weeks of relatively no added sugar in any food (except for when PA and i runaway from GM) sugar added to foods tastes really sweet. it was a carrot cake muffin-esque dessert w/ i think a maple syrup crunch. 

the awesome fitness idea for future reference- toe taps to strengthen the shins to prevent shin splints. just have a bend to the knees and one foot in front and tap it out like in legally blonde during the court case. so tiringggg!

have a good night! it's pouring here!

adding another state to my list

so my rules for checking a state off as a state you've visited are:

1) you have to get off the highway

2) have a meal or go somewhere touristy or otherwise

which means i get to check off new hampshire! being "stuck" at GM all week and falling asleep around 10:30 means that PA and i try to pack in as much as possible on weekends. after the shenanigans of saturday, sunday was spent in woodstock and new hampshire. woodstock is roughly an hour northeast (i think) of ludlow. we (PA, linda and lisa- staff participants) hiked part of the mount tom trail (6 miles) to one of the overlooks above the town of woodstock. 

the hike was nice, minus getting little pebbles and eaten alive by mosquitoes (the mosquitoes here are crazy!)

the town is so pristine (think no gum stuck to the sidewalks and everyone in polos and khakis). i kept expecting people to break out into song and dance in the middle of town. there's lots of cute shops (also some very expensive). and apparently really good restaurants in the area.

this is the nicest looking inn from the outside but i was not a fan of the interior decorating.

on the way to linda's house in NH we stopped by to look at quechee gorge. you can actually hike down, but we had perishables for dessert and were pretty tired from the walk, but it's on my list to see sometime soon!

it was an hour to linda's place, i wish i had gotten a picture to show that i had actually gone, but i'm sure i'll be going again. linda is the nicest lady ever. she and her daughter cooked us dinner. it was soooo nice to help cook again and have a meal other than one at gm. we had panko broiled haddock, roasted carrots and asparagus, bamboo rice, corn on the cob and grilled caesar salad (take the whole romaine lettuce head and toss in olive oil and garlic, grill, and top w/ parmesean and dressing. eum eum eum. her house was set in a mountain overlooking another ski resort/mountain. amazing views. came back late and managed to brush my teeth and didn't bother to shower (it's becoming a bad habit since we workout all day, but don't do it- you're face will break out like hitting puberty).

unfortunately today was monday so back to the "real world." this really feels like camp sometimes. but i taught my first very own fitness class- total body strength and it didn't go too bad. dinner was no good and i didn't even eat it all so yay for the late night snack option :D

ludlow asian population = 2!

met an asian last night at outback (bar and nightclub, ooooh, i know you're thinking super snazzy, but bring it back to ludlow :D). after getting ice cream at scoops (PA and i shared the minty moose, i prefer the denali moosetracks just b/c the minty moose had too much chocolate) we got all decked out (i.e. college wear of jeans, top and sandals) and went to look for a bar nearby (since we were our usual sleepy selves at 8 pm). tom's loft tavern looked closed and killarney's only had about 2 cars parked outside of it, but outback (nothing to do w/ the steakhouse chain, but it does have an australian theme) had half a dozen cars parked outside so in we went. 


the guy checking ids was really into his job- checked our ids for a good 15 sec, looked at us for a good 10 sec and then our cards for another 15. i'm thinking if i was under 21 i wouldn't drive all the way to ludlow for a drink.


average age at the bar was probably about 40-50 but a 50th birthday party was about to start. around 10:30 the DJ w/ his mac started playing some pretty decent music. the birthday celebrators were super cute and people watching was fun from the bar (beers on tap- $6, i was so hoping being in the middle of nowhere would make for cheaper drinks). they ran out of magic hat #9 after my first beer, which was really sad  and had to make due w/ a blackberry wheat which was so-so. 


but onto the asian story, he was probably one of the most jacked asians i've ever seen but he looked pretty asian (something about his clothes and glasses and the way he did his hair) and he knew the dj so when one of the people PA and i met there was requesting a song i went up and asked him where he was from. haha, he probably thought i was completely crazy but he said he was originally from nj but had been in vermont about 20 years so i'll take it! one of the sweet old ladies from the birthday party grabbed me from the stage and walked me to the birthday girl to get cake. so cute. there was a creeper so after the songs kind of sucked we said we had to teach the next morning and ran off. oops, it sort of felt like we hustled them for drinks but we hadn't realized how creepy he was until the last half hour of our night there.


the bar also had a game set up w/ a hook in a wall and a washer tied to a string about 2 feet from the wall and you try to swing the washer to catch onto the hook. anyone seen that before or is it a small town new england thing?

nature's stair master

lake echo from vista trail

 finished two weeks here now and PA and i went all out today exploring. there's 5 lakes in the plymouth area and we wanted to explore but the state park is closed until the end of june and the lakes are pretty much private so we went back to the plymouth vista lake echo trail we did yesterday w/ the participants so i could get some good shots and we could walk around more. so w/ the participants it took about 30 minutes to get to the top for the view (PA and i charged up in about 10...so we took some detours). 

it's finally not raining in vt, i'm sure it'll change but we took full advantage and explored the trails. then grabbed some maple creemee- which was vanilla soft serve w/ maple flavoring. i'm not sure if i can ever get used to the maple syrup in all my food (w/ my pasta was probably the weirdest so far). 

at the sugar house there was a dad losing his mind and cursing left and right at his wife...so awkward to get back into our car right next to them. but the sugar house has really cute vt stuff- shot glasses, shirts, jewelry to food stuff (i need to get my hands on some grade B maple syrup before i leave this state).

man, this is gonna be a long post- but lunch was tempeh surprise. the potato "fries" were amazing w/ siracha (my best friend) and ketchup. i'm off and on again w/ the tempeh but i'm hoping for some chili tonight!

going up the tower

after lunch, PA and i headed out to okemo so she could climb the mt and we could both finally go up the tower and get a view of vt. we went off the rd and took the ski trails (kind of brutal on the low back and calves but broke up the monotony of transversing the rds). we got a little mixed around but finally saw other people and they pointed out the fire tower to us. 

the 360 views from the fire tower were absolutely amazing! you could see the lakes, ludlow town and our home for the summer. it was also very very very windy and the tower would shake, so that was kind of freaky and fun. the total walk, up the ski trails and down the rd took us about 2.5 hours

tired

today was a long day...i'm feeling wiped out, but it's still the beginning of my internship so it's going to take a couple weeks until i'm in a sort of semi set schedule. i think i clonked out around 9:30 last night and got up a bit before 6 am. PA and i are on day 1 of training for this tri so we took road the bikes right out of our building towards rutland which was a bad decision b/c a) it was freezingggg and b) it was uphill. a highly amusing way to reintroduce yourself to biking. haha, so maybe not biking for a bit. one of the staff participants walks the golf course before it opens in the morning so i think i'll try running that tmrw.

today was bizarre weather all around (maybe it was from the venus sun thing yesterday, which we couldn't figure out how to watch here w/o blinding ourselves, so today show this morning was of course a great way to pretend we did). we on and off rain and rain w/ sunshine. but we did get this great shot of clouds just hovering over okemo mountain which was really cool. sometimes in really stormy weather the whole mountain is impossible to see. 

lake echo in plymouth is part of the view for one of our walks off "campus" (vermonting). we got back to the car right before the rain started (yay perfect timing). this area is also big during the fall for tourists ("peepers" not sure about the spelling) to come see the leaves. that's "peeper season" with buses and cars going 12 mph taking pictures of all the leaves. and seeing the number of trees around it would be pretty spectacular. our supervisor took PA and i on a trail by our place and boy does she walk fast! i feel so out of shape here, maybe more than i did at the fitness expo in february...time to do more running and strength training. 

today's lunch was serve yourself again and i always get so confused putting my own food on my plate so i try to follow the same layout we do for the plates that are made for us, but i still get a huge amount and get flustered. so feeling just like a participant on wednesdays. but it's nice and colorful:D 

ooooh, the snack today was the apple truffle again. man, that will probably never get old. dinner was also great today- tofu, roasted potatoes and all sorts of veggies (forgot the pic of my salad again).


so glad the week is half over- just got to get through 2 more days :D hopefully next week i'm scheduled for more nutrition stuff (although the lecture tonight was really good, but i felt like i was in school all over again trying to learn about all these hormones and nature vs. nurture). gotta get my thinking cap on! have a good night, as usual, my night is ending wayyyyy early.

dinner pic!

i finally remembered to bring my camera down for dinner to nab a shot of this food! although i'm not a fan of shrimp this was still pretty tasty. and their take on pad thai was pretty nice (although i much prefer the real noodles and not the thin ones we got here...but that's healthy for you.) this is not including my side salad w/ roasted red pepper and capers dressing (eum eum)

the "pad thai"- thin noodles, sugar snap peas, cucumber slices (which was different but a good different), squash, and shrimp. i got tastes of coconut but no peanut (probably b/c all the possibilities of allergies). i loaded mine up w/ siracha :D btw, the plate is 9", the idea is 1/2 the plate for veggies, 1/4 for protein and 1/4 for grain.

tuesday's are baked dessert days. today's was black bean brownie topped w/ raspberry jam and orange zest. the black bean brownie was the cooking recipe for class last thursday and i think it tastes better when it's fresh out of the oven and warm. once it's cooled it gets a bit too dry. but the jam was definitely fresh.


got to pump up some fitness balance balls today. we got around 15 minutes to get a ball inflated, but it still wasn't filled enough. but if you ever need a great tricep workout go ahead and get some empty fitness balls and a bike pump and have at it! slow and steady wins the race for this task. tomorrow i get to showcase my teaching skills for fitness for my boss...i very much dislike performing for someone that knows their stuff b/c i get so flustered.


oh, and i think i'm signing up for a mini triathlon...tmrw starts training! 

small airports

made a couple trips to the rutland airport today to pick up new participants for the week. PA and i definitely drove past the airport road the first time b/c we couldn't believe it would be so tiny, but we turned around and made it. the airport was about the size of a large house and the parking lot was about 1/8 the size of a grocery parking lot back home. it's a tiny airport that has those small 6 person planes coming in. 


the airport is about 30 minutes from GM and while we were in the area we checked out the chain stores and the downtown area. 

we found this dollar store and they were selling these, i guess play dolls for the spice girls. all the baby spice were out but the very interesting posh, scary and sporty were still around...

this was the coolest looking building front and i have no idea what they were actually selling. it was about 2 pm on a sunday but there wasn't a single store open except one restaurant bar...

we're double the number of women now so it's going to be tough learning all new names again! maybe i can exercise my brain a bit by learning names.

strolling of the heifers

woke up to pouring rain, but i was on a mission to check out this cow parade that one of the sort of locals talked up. there were cows...

and llamas, horses, donkeys 

and people in funny vehicles, but it sort of felt less than i was expecting. it was highly entertaining though and PA and i felt like we were in a foreign land.

the town of brattleboro (about an hour south of ludlow) is pretty cool. it has an eclectic mix of stores (everything from a mystery book store to vinyls and interesting art pieces).

this bathtub of beads was in beadniks off of main street. the sign just made me want to climb in, i'm thinking the beads would have been kind of like a massage? it was partially a specialty beads store (think beadazzled) but it also had knick knacks like gumby and old school candies (like razzles). 


we ate at amy's bakery arts cafe (also off of main street) and it was packed at lunch time. my feet were soaked through and it was cold so all i could picture was a hot sandwich= tuna melt w/ avocado. eum eum eum. i highly recommend. PA got this hot turkey sandwich that had avocado and pesto on it that she liked. the baked goods also looked tasty.


it's been challenging thinking of things to do in the evening after lunch as everything is either too far away and everything closes so early so tonight was another movie night w/ some of the ladies. PA and i are going to rutland airport to pick up some new participants so we'll check out that area while we're there. have a good night and hopefully you stay dry!

moose/meese/mooses

happy friday! it was a great day for moose

up at 4:45 this morning to search for moose. driving out to our secret spot, this is the sun rising on one of the lakes by our way. the water was evaporating off the lake (you can't really tell), but look at that sun rise!  

 GA has an eye for spotting these suckers. 2nd day searching for moose for me and PA and we got two:D

we waited for an hour but they didn't cross the street so we headed back to ludlow, grabbed coffee and "ugly little donuts" from sweet surrender. the cinnamon sugar ones are super cheap and delish!

today's food included yummy muffins at breakfast (i preferred the apple cranberry over the applesauce peanut butter one, strangely enough), pizza at lunch (it's really sad getting a real serving slice of pizza...so i had 4 slices...haha). the pizza was great, flat and crispy- the ones i tried were: one w/ feta-tomato-argula-marinara sauce (my fav), a caramelized onion one, and a mushroom one (my 2nd fav). and i had tofu parm (the women got free-range chicken parm) for dinner. got to go on 2 walks w/ the women and did some upper body strengthening. oh, and i also learned how to make an origami box!

GA left today w/ her family so it's just me and PA, i'm not sure what we're doing tonight, but tmrw's plan is to watch a cow parade in brattleboro (see the link on the side bar) even if we get flooded in this rain that's coming.