I have a legitimate excuse...

To continue gorging myself on sugary goodness like this, found out at one of my local grocery stores.

I PASSED THE THREE HOUR GLUCOSE TEST!!!

Take THAT gestational diabetes ;)

32 isn't so bad...

When you have a husband like mine :)

He seriously made me feel special this year.  He always goes above and beyond but this year was especially nice.

My birthday was Monday so we started the celebration the Saturday before.

Husband made reservations at an adorably upscale bed and breakfast in a little town in Pennsylvania about 2 1/2 hours south of us.

Introducing Hotel Fauchere.  This place was seriously incredible.  Upon checkin, we were greeted with a glass of wine (for Nick, anyway) and surprised to have our room upgraded to the best room in the house.

We spent a lot of time relaxing on our private balcony.  Nick was in love with the marble covered bathroom.  The hotel dates back to 1852 and the room had some of the original charm intact but was tastefully updated and very comfortable.

Milford, PA, where the hotel was located felt like a town forgotten by time... it was one little main street with quaint shops and restaurants.  We went out for a quick walk before dinner and being 6 months pregnant, I naturally made Nick take me to the old-fashioned candy shoppe for fudge and penny candy.  Had we not had dinner reservations shortly thereafter I'm sure I would've stuffed my face with ice cream as well ;)

That night, we enjoyed a fantastically creative 7 course dinner.

Yes, that is a potted "plant" salad, a rock (with sliced bear) and a log (with foie gras) used as plates and on the bottom left is puffed clay.  Who knew you could eat clay?  It was surprisingly not bad.  For as odd as it looks, this dinner was delicious.

After dinner, we retired to our room to find a placard on the bed stating that if we chose, we could call the front desk for cookies, cold milk and a bed time story delivered to our room.  We were a little leery of the bed time story so we passed.  But cute thought, right?

As if being pampered with an overnight get-away wasn't enough, husband surprised me with the most amazing birthday gift... the DSLR camera I've been lusting after for a year.  I can't wait to learn how to use this thing.  Taking pictures of Bakmi with this will be so much better than with our little point and shoot.  The dogs will probably get tired of being my test subjects over the next few months.

Then on Monday (my actual birthday), I was presented with this gorgeous arrangement at my office.  I love surprise flower deliveries!  They were so fragrant that my office smelled incredible all week.  Now they're sitting on my kitchen table, still as fresh as they were 6 days ago.

The finale of birthday weekend was a dinner at one of our favorite places in Albany, Cafe Capriccio.

So.  No complaints about turning 32.  I had an amazing weekend with my favorite person and still feel like a 25 year old :)

Life@(The Purnomo)Home

This is getting to be a bit much.  I promise I'll stop with the publicity posts soon but this one is too good not to share.

Late last year, we were asked by a good friend of ours, who happens to be a journalist with our local paper, to be featured in a Chef@Home article that he writes for the Times Union's Life@Home Magazine.  And as we're learning in this blog, I don't turn down publicity. 

In early March, we found out that we were scheduled to do the shoot later that month.  Cue three weeks of frenzied house clean-up and decorating.  All of those annoying little projects that we put off after the renovations definitely needed to be finished before a photographer stepped foot in my home. 

Or so I thought. 

Naturally, the pics that made it in the magazine only showed our kitchen and a bit of the living room.  None of the fancy new artwork, window treatments or gorgeous fresh floral arrangments appeared.

Oh well.  It was the kick in the ass that we needed to get the house done.  At least now we can relax and enjoy it.

We had a fantastic time during shoot, preparing and serving three courses for six.  Husband also paired two wines (one white, one red) with each course.

Course 1:  duck tacos with homemade salsa and creme fraiche
Course 2:  bacon-wrapped cipollini salad with hot bacon vinaigrette
Course 3:  paella (with every seafood variety known to man)
Dessert:  dark chocolate bread pudding a la mode

The food was delicious, the conversation entertaining.  And ever the hostess, I sent each guest home with a goodie-bag of homemade chocolate chip cookies.  Yes, I went a little overboard.

Even the pups enjoyed themselves.

We knew the article wasn't coming out until the June issue.  Waiting was so hard!  I was dying to see it.  Or more realistically, dying to read what I was quoted as saying.  Did I mention the two glasses of wine per course?  Or that our dinner conversation was recorded?  ;)

Finally in late May we received several advance copies and couldn't have been more pleased.  A few days later the article was posted online and then it hit news-stands.  Read it here.

And don't be shy.  Tell me what you think!

Love,

Mr & Mrs P, M & B

 

Caro(lyn)line in the City.

Ever see that show?  During it's mid-90s run, I acquired the show title as an unfortunate nickname.  What is with kids and their obsession with nicknames?  Anyway...

We spent this past weekend in one of my favorite places... NYC!

We left bright and early Saturday morning and headed straight into Manhattan for brunch at Ai Fiori in the brand new Setai hotel.  One word.  AMAZING.

Clockwise from top left:

Oysters for the husband.  I don't do oysters, aphrodisiac or not ;)

Olive oil cake

Sweet polenta with marcona almonds and currants.  Delicious.

Ricotta and marscapone tortelli with a red wine glaze.  Again, delish.

View of the contemporary dining room overlooking 5th Ave.
Veal angolotti.  Incredible.

Unpictured:  A bottle of  rose champagne

And because I'm a giant dork (and I had 2 glasses of bubbles and a glass of Riesling in my system) I took a picture in the bathroom.  ha.  It had mirrors on opposite walls, so you know, when you look in one, you see a thousand.  It amused me ;)

After brunch, we did a little shopping and met up with friends for a drink at a funky little hole-in-the-wall Irish pub, complete with stereotypical Irish-New Yorker bartender.

Three vodka and sodas later we headed back to the hotel to clean up for dinner.  Our 8:00 reservations at Aureole turned into an 8:15 since someone just had to curl her hair.  Ahem.

This dinner with husband's two best friends and their girlfriends was one of the more memorable I've had.  The food was truly amazing.  It was all so delicate and flavorful. 

Sorry for the shitty pictures... it was dark and we didn't want to use the flash.

Clockwise from top left:

Hamachi with mint, cilantro, red onion and guava.  So light and yummy.

Ruby Red Shrimp w/ curry meringue, kaffir lime and coconut jus.

Husband's entree:  Dry aged rib eye with ricotta cannelloni and red wine jus.

Cannoli Sundae

Dark Chocolate Torte

My entree:  Alaskan black cod w/ creamed spinach and brown butter.  Melt in your mouth, creamy good.

Unpictured:  Two bottles each of champagne, gruner and syrah.  We don't like to drink at all.

The waitstaff took such great care of us... three courses, dessert and the first bottle of bubbles were sent out on the house.  Helps that husband is friends with the GM :)

Before leaving, we got a tour of the kitchen and got to meet the very talented chef.

After dinner we headed to the bar at the Gansevoort.  Not my scene.  Way too crowded and loud... I can't hang like I used to.  So sad.

After one pathetic drink at the Gansevoort, we headed across the street to someplace a little more my speed.  A place where we could actually sit at the bar and have a conversation:  Primehouse.  I don't think I had a single drink there though... it was after midnight at this point and if you've been following this post, you'll recall that I've been drinking basically all day. 

 

Couldn't leave without a cute picture!

After stopping our taxi a block and a half away from our hotel to grab a late night slice of cheese pizza (4th meal!), we ended the night in our shoebox-sized room around 1:30.

Sunday was a wine and restaurant trade show at the Javits Center.  Too bad we were far too hungover to really enjoy it.  We ended up cutting the day short and heading back to Albany early.  The ride home wasn't complete without a pit-stop at Woodbury Commons though!  Saks and Kenneth Cole missed me :)

So.  Long weekend full of good food, drink, friends and fun.  Now it's Monday evening and I'm still recovering.  I can go to bed at 7:30 tonight, right? ;)

Confession to myself.

I haven't been being honest.

See this pretty little weight tracker from my Spark People page?

It looks pretty great, right?  I'm so close to the finish.

If only I was being honest.

I was honest when I logged that beautiful 133 back in, oh, October.

I even managed to get down to 131.5 for a few glorious days.

And even better than that, I stayed put at 132 throughout the ENTIRE holiday season.  I call that an accomplishment.

Somewhere along the line in January, though, I got horribly off track.  In my own defense, I had a very busy social calendar. 

And as previously discussed, I don't do well when I'm walking through life tired and hungover.

I still went to boot camp once or twice a week and played volleyball a few times but other than that, I got almost no exercise for a full 6 weeks.  I have no excuse other than pure laziness on my part.  I also ate like crap.  Those six days in St. Louis were brutal... mexican and margaritas, way too much wine, late night drunk-sledding followed a trip to White Castle, etc, etc, etc...

Somewhere near the end of January, I reluctantly stepped on the scale.

137.

Oh.  My.  God.

I mean, I guess I wasn't truly shocked.  5lbs isn't all that much when you consider the crap I put in my body, but damn.  I was so happy at 132. 

Enter February and slightly warmer weather.  I got back on the exercise train with a couple outdoor runs and I've been going to spin class at least twice a week and playing volleyball every Thursday.  And I've gotten my eating back on track.  For the most part.  I eat so well Monday-Friday then blow it every weekend with multiple course meals and far too much alcohol. 

So explain to me why I was surprised when I stepped on the scale Saturday morning to see it read 137.8. 

Surpisingly though, I don't feel all that bad about myself.  My clothes still fit, only some pants are a bit tight and I think I look pretty damn good.

I've come to a conclusion though.  This high-maintenance, calorie-tracking, exercise-fiendish lifestyle I try to live really isn't condusive to my wine-loving, social-hostessing, all-around-fun life.

So in an effort to be honest with myself, I'm changing my weight-tracker to reflect this weight gain and I plan to be fully honest with how well (or not well) I'm eating and not let a few nights of fun hinder my progress.

Ah, honesty... be nice to me please.

Weekend (Food) Warrior.

I think I earned that title this past weekend. 

After a lovely dinner of mussels frites and wine at Garden Bistro 24, then drinks and dessert at dp on Friday, the Mac & Cheese Bowl on Saturday, and drinks at Cafe Capriccio followed by a ridiculously large dinner at Chez Mike on Sunday, I'm spent.

Yesterday was recovery.  I was basically non-productive all day.  The older I get, the more and more I need that extra day to recover.  Sad, right?

And true to form, I have almost no pictures from the weekend.  Even though my camera sat in my purse the entire time.  Fail.

I have a few from the Mac & Cheese Bowl, which was amazing, by the way.  dp and Yono's had a booth with their fabulous "Mac & Cheeks" (description in the picture below).  And I ran into Jen from Jen is Green!  When she walked up to the booth next to ours, I felt like I spotted a celebrity.  Guess that's what blog-stalking does to you ;)

Clockwise from top left:  Cup upon cup of mac & cheese... after about a dozen, I was done.  Nick and me behind the dp/Yono's booth.  More of the good stuff.  Chez Mike's cheddar -ale mac was my favorite of the day.  Mac & Cheese Bowl t-shirt.  dp/Yono's mac & cheeks. 

There were 30 restaurants at the bowl who were judged for best mac & cheese.  Sadly, we didn't win, although it was definitely one of the best there, in my opinion.  I ate some that I seriously couldn't force down.  More than one cup ended up in the trash after just one bite.  But some on the otherhand, were so good that I went back for seconds and thirds.  It was such a fun event... just please don't show me any mac & cheese for at least a month ;)

Sugar overload.

See this?

 This platter of cookies?

This half-eaten platter of cookies?

And this half-empty dish of peppermint bark?

Might be my fault.

I seriously can't stop.  But I really can't blame myself.  I mean, my sugar cookies and peppermint bark came out so amazingly good this year it would be a sin to NOT eat them.  Right? 

Someone should have stopped me after #5 last night.

I woke up this morning with an aching stomach.  For real.  I thought that only happened to children. 

I need to get rid of these cookies fast.

To do that, I've come up with two possible solutions:

1:  Eat everything that remains as quickly as possible.

2:  Throw them away.

ha.

Let's be sensible here.  We all know I'm going to eat them.

So if anyone needs me in the next day or so, I'll be in a sugar-coma on my couch.

Happy Christmas!

This Thanksgiving I'm thankful for year-old cake.

Much to Bella's joy, my parents drove in from the 'lou for a Thanksgiving-week visit.

Much to Bella's dismay, they were here to see me and the husband.  Not her.  Ok, maybe her too.

And Miles.  Poor, tortured Miles, looking completely dejected in his sweater. 

Being the nice dog parents we are, we let him take it off.  So he could kill it.

Then we started the week off on the right foot with a Pre-Thanksgiving feast.  Italian-style.  'Cause, you know, everyone needs a 3,000 calorie meal four days before a 5,000 calorie Thanksgiving dinner, right?

And then we had cake.  Yes, we are those dorks who adhere to the old "let's keep the top-tier of wedding cake in our freezer for an entire year and eat it at our first anniversary!" tradition.  

Now obviously we missed our anniversary.  But look at the size of that cake people!  There was no way we were going to eat that without some help.  Or without subjecting loved ones to freezer-burned buttercream.

In actuality, the cake wasn't that bad.  The frosting was a bit chalky but the cake and filling tasted just like they did at our wedding.  Or so I'm told.  I didn't get cake at our wedding.  Not sure how that happened. 

The week of my parents visit was, per-usual, jam-packed with fun things to do.  What's a vacation if you actually get to relax, right?

First up was a New York State Restaurant Association dinner honoring my wonderfully-talented father-in-law, Chef Yono, for the Faces of Diversity award he received earlier this year from the National Restaurant Association. 

Here we are looking pretty.

 And here we are in the limo we surprised my parents with.

Remember this?  Because of that, we rode in style for the evening.  For free.  Suck on that, Unnamed Transportation Company.

We look happy, no?  Doesn't mean you're off the hook for last year's debacle.

More highlights of the visit:

Lunch with the Plue-family patriarch, Great Uncle Art.

Lunch with my dad's fourth grade teacher, Shirley, who is now basically a member of the family.

 Mom drinking a Sweet Carolyn at dp.  Named for me, duh.  Mom loves martinis at dp.  I love watching Mom drink martinis at dp.  Tipsy Mom is hilarious.

Aren't we precious?  Please ignore the fact that my shoulders are up to my ears.  I always forget that this is NOT a flattering way be photographed.

 Mom and me, post 5,000 calorie Thanksgiving dinner.  If only I hadn't been so preoccupied with stuffing my face then I would've gotten a shot of the dinner table over-flowing with food so good that I ate leftovers for breakfast, snack, lunch, snack and dinner the next day.

Don't you just love food Thanksgiving?



New me?

So I'm in desperate need of an update here...

I was just scrolling through my archives. And laughing at myself as I scrolled. I can't believe some of the crap I've written over the past 9 months or so.

As evidenced by my last post, I've made a pretty drastic life-style change recently. And I'm happy to say that it truly has become a life-style change and I can't imagine going back to the way I was before.

It all started a few weeks before I began Boot Camp Challenge in June. I'd just finished running my first 5K (did I even post my results? I'll have to check...) and I was prepping myself for Boot Camp... i.e. running at least 4 days a week and starting to cut calories. Any normal person probably would've just waited til the class started but I wanted a "good" mile time during testing at the first class. God forbid I show up and show them all how horribly out of shape I really was.

Anyway, a BIG part of Boot Camp Challenge is nutrition. My fabulous instructor really focused on the fact that you cannot make a big change to your body with fitness alone. I've really embraced this theory, and holy shit, it worked! To track my nutrition, I've been using an amazing site called SparkPeople . I cannot even describe how helpful it's been to my transformation.

It's really easy to track my food intake on the site and I've found that it's become kind of a game to me... it's fun to see how much food (wine!) I can squeeze into a day while staying within my calorie limits. I'm also having a blast discovering new low-cal foods and healthier versions of recipes I've made in the past.

SparkPeople also has some pretty great articles and features. I've made even made a few online friends through the site who help keep me in check using things like a daily accountability message board.

On top of my nutrition make-over, I think completely differently now about exercise. Boot Camp has been AMAZING, to say the least. I've learned that I can push myself to limits I never thought I'd reach. I used to be such a lazy worker-outer... I'd go to the gym, get on a treadmill for 20 minutes, think to myself "eh, at least I did something" and leave, probably having burned only 150 calories. Then I'd go home and eat a bowl of pasta, wondering why I wasn't losing weight. I'm a smart one, I am.

I'm now seriously in love with exercise. I even dragged myself out for a tranquil run through the Hamptons while on vacation last weekend. I've NEVER worked out on vacation before. And I honestly think I'm in better shape than I ever have been. It's a nice feeling.

Ok, now that I feel like I've updated the blog-world on who I've become (am becomming?), I feel better. Looking at my old posts is almost embarassing. Here's hoping I continue this upward battle towards life-style improvement!

Progress.

Kinda can't believe I'm doing this.

But I'm proud of myself.

6 weeks of Boot Camp Challenge, running and healthy eating actually worked! Imagine that!

So to completely embarrass myself, I'm putting my before and after pictures out there for the world to see. Maybe it'll keep me accountable. There's no way in hell I'm going back to the way I looked before. I didn't realize I had a back roll until I saw the picture. How do you miss an entire, foldy, pudgy backroll?? Seriously.

Today was the last day of boot camp for a few weeks. We tested and were measured, the same as we were on day 1. I knew I'd improved my endurance and strength and I lost about 5% of my weight but I had no idea I'd improved this much. I lost a total of 5.75 inches. Amazing. And I really increased my strength and endurance.

And just so you don't think I'm making all this up, here are my stats:

Measurements: (first number listed is from 6/19/10, second is from today, 7/29/10)

• weight: 145 - 138.5 (first time under 140 in over 3 years... YAY!!!!!)
• bicep: 11.25" - 10.5"
• chest: 36.75" - 36" (At first I thought my boobs were shrinking... then I realized it was actually the back fat!!)
• waist: 30" - 28.5" (Only an inch and a half, but I'm completely out of my tens and almost back into sixes!)
• hips: 39" - 37.25"
• thigh: 21" - 20" (They do, however, still touch in the middle. Ick.)
  

Endurance/Strength:

• mile run: 8:52 - 7:57 (7:57?!! That's faster than I ran during track in high school. This surprised the hell out of me.)
• 2 minutes of full sit-ups: 43 - 59 (Abs of steel, baby, abs of steel)
• 2 minutes of push-ups: 9 - 16 (I seriously suck at push ups)

Not so bad, huh? I was pretty impressed with myself. Feeling a bit smug today ;)

Stats aside, I feel so much healthier. I have more energy and I'm happier. I ran most of the days in between boot camp classes and am consistently running 10 minute miles and I'm up to about 3.5 miles per run. Not to mention that I don't drink as much wine (GASP!) so when I do, I get drunk pretty much immediately. Bonus! haha

Seriously though, I'm so glad I did this. It's such a motivation to see results. Classes start again in 3 weeks and I can't wait!

Now here's what you've been waiting for. Prepare yourselves. I wasn't lying about the back fat.

(Befores on the left, afters on the right.)





So there you have it.

And just so no one gets the wrong idea, 'cause we all know I put way too much emphasis on what others think about me, I didn't post this to brag. I'm seriously proud of myself. I worked my ASS off over the past 6 weeks and it paid off.

Now for a relaxing weekend away in Montreal. Here's hoping I don't gain all the weight back ;)

I knew it.

Hi, my name is Carolyn and I'm a cereal-aholic.

I seriously LOVE cereal. Can't get enough.

The thing is, I don't eat it for breakfast. Ever.

I eat if for dessert. Almost every night.

And if I'm out of milk? I eat it dry. That's dedication, people.

I've taken a lot of crap over the years for this habit of mine. Apparently it's "weird" to eat a breakfast food for dessert. Screw you haters, I now have proof that I'm perfectly normal ;)

While reading an article from "Eat This, Not That" today, I came across this little paragraph:

"That said, [cereal] can make decent desserts. One study published by the American College of Nutrition found that among late-night snackers, those who chose cereal took in fewer calories than those who made other choices, and ultimately they wound up losing nearly half a pound of body fat per week. That doesn’t mean you should switch to an all-cereal diet, just that cereal is a better evening snack than you might think."


Look at that! Cereal is helping me get skinny. The American College of Nutrition said so.


How nice of them to stroke my ego. I always knew I was better off eating a giant bowl of cereal than a piece of cake. Or box of Girl Scout cookies. Or bag of jelly beans. Now if only I could limit my portion to the amount recommended on the box, we'd be in good shape. ha