Channa Masala

Erica found this recipe while Chris was in China and has been looking forward to making it. Tonight was the night! It is very tasty - a lot of flavors. Erica had Chris try it. His response: "Is it good?" He can't taste anything since he is under the weather. Despite it's yumminess, Erica really wasn't in the mood for a heavy dish. So, we got in the car and drove for ice cream. It hit the spot. Perfect for Chris's sore throat too.

Before you try out this recipe, please read through this tutorial. The instructions are very particular. But don't worry, the dish is pretty simple.

Channa Masala

Serves 4

2 15 ounce cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed

2 garlic cloves, smashed and chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped

1 inch knob ginger, peeled and chopped

1 15 ounce can diced tomatoes

3 tbsp tomato paste

1/2 lemon

1 tbsp coriander

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp garam masala

1/4-1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp tumeric

2 tbsp butter

In a large cast iron skillet, heat the butter. Once melted, add the onions and cook for about 15 minutes on medium low heat, or until golden brown.

Once the onions have caramelized, add the garlic, ginger and jalapeno and stir well. Cook for about two minutes or until it starts to smell like heaven on earth.

Add the tomato paste and pince. This is very important and if you don’t do it right your dish is pretty much doomed. No pressure.

Add the coriander, cumin, cayenne and tumeric and stir well. Then add the diced tomatoes, chickpeas and garam masala.

Cook for about five minutes or until the chickpeas have heated through. Finish with a squeeze of lemon and top with plain yogurt and cilantro if desired.

A Catch Up

A family of three tomatoes were walking downtown one day when the little baby tomato started lagging behind. The big father tomato walks back to the baby tomato, stomps on her, squashing her into a red paste, and says "Ketchup!" Here is our catch up:

Chris got back home last Sunday. He was very jet lagged. He has a lot of pictures from China, he just hasn't blogged them yet. Maybe this week. Chris has been sick since he returned from his trip.

Erica has started streaming Nip/Tuck on Netflix and is totally addicted. It is dark, but entertaining. She has also been working long hours as busy season at work has started.

This weekend was rainy and cool. No hiking or outdoors activities for us. We got out for a few hours of shopping on Saturday. Chris's eyes were bothering him all day Saturday and got worse through the evening. It seemed he had all of the symptoms of pink eye. We found an express care clinic that was open on Sunday just in case. The internet says salt water and cold compresses help, so we tried them out. We used saline solution in lieu of making our own salt water.

This morning Chris's eyes looked and felt better. They still appear a little red and sore, but aren't goopy like they were yesterday. He felt good enough to go to brunch with our friends Julie and Keith at the Copper Onion. After brunch, we grabbed a few groceries and then we both fell asleep on the couch. Perfect weather for napping.

Sports Drink

I have not been running as much lately. The days are shorter, the temps are cooler, and most nights I just do not want to leave the warm apartment. I need to get better about getting out the door and putting in the miles.

I found this recipe for homemade sports drink that will be fun to try on long runs. The recipe is measured for ONE QUART of sports drink.

1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 tbsp lemon juice
water

Put salt and sugar into 1 cup water and stir. Microwave mixture for one minute – stir again to dissolve completely. Add mixture to bottle with orange juice and lemon juice and fill with a handful of ice. Swirl to cool the hot water down, and then fill to the top with cold water. Note: most Gatorade bottles are one quart, so they are perfect to fill with this.

http://www.thefrontburnerblog.com/2010/02/recipe-homemade-sports-drink.html

China Update

It sounds like Chris has been having a pretty good time on the other side of the world. One evening he played pool at the European style Bund Brewery. There is a ping pong table at the office and the guys were able to play one afternoon.

Chris ate bull frog leg. He did not eat the chicken foot in his soup and they did not order the bull or deer penis soup.

He says it is pretty humid there.

That's all I know. Happy Friday everyone!

I Was on the News for Two Seconds

Make-A-Wish wins $100,000 Grant from Humana

Click the link above, watch the video. I am just after the 1 minute mark. My back is to the camera. Everyone at work was all excited about it.

Day and Night

Night and day pics from hotel window...

China

Chris managed to smuggle some pictures out of China. Okay, not really. You can e-mail pictures, which he did.

Chris says: Here are a couple pics from Xitang, a historic Chinese town. It is a big tourist destination for Chinese...and a few non Chinese.

Solo

It has been a pretty low key weekend with Chris away. I have gotten some text messages from him. He is 14 hours ahead. At 5pm tonight, he was having breakfast before his first day at the office. He is staying in Shanghai, but I believe the office is 45 minutes away. The first full day, he and his co-workers visited a 1,000 year old town and took lots of pictures. The blog is blocked in China, so we will all have to wait to see them.

Today I went grocery shopping and it took a long time - I don't go to the grocery store near the apartment very often because I shop near work and I didn't know where everything anything was. One of the big things I wanted to get was Chia seeds, and they didn't have any. They sell some foods in bulk and I thought they would have them, but I am not that lucky. I will just have to keep importing them from Colorado.

But, I did find ingredients to make Bright Basil Bean Dip and Wheat Berry Salad with Red Fruit!

Bright Basil Bean Dip

• 1 can navy beans, drained
• 1/3 cup ricotta cheese
• Zest of half a lemon
• Juice of half a lemon
• Handful of basil
• 1 tablespoon of nut butter or tahini
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• pepper to taste

I blended all ingredients in the blender. I didn't have ricotta, so I subbed mayo. I also used white kidney beans instead of navy beans. I added the tahini, but the dip was already really creamy, I'm not sure it was needed. For the basil, I used 2 Dorot frozen basil cubes.

It is delicious! The consistency reminds me of a really creamy hummus. The recipe is from katheats.com and she served it on toast with a drizzle of honey. I had it the same way and it was yum-o. Also delicious on raw veggies

Wheat Berry Salad with Red Fruit

• 1/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1/3 cup dried cranberries
• 3 cups Cooked Wheat Berries
• 1 large Fuji apple, unpeeled, diced
• 1/2 cup pecan halves, toasted (see Tip) and coarsely chopped
• 3 tablespoons raspberry vinegar
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1. Combine orange juice and cranberries in a small bowl. Let stand for 15 minutes.
2. Combine wheat berries, apple and pecans in a large bowl; stir gently. Drain the cranberries, reserving the juice. Stir the cranberries into the wheat berry mixture.
3. Whisk the reserved orange juice, vinegar and oil in a small bowl until combined. Season with salt and pepper. Pour over the salad and stir gently to coat. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to allow the flavors to combine. Serve cold or at room temperature.

I didn't have OJ, so I used some sparkling grape juice I had received as a Christmas gift last year. I also used walnuts instead of pecans. I omitted the raspberry vinegar and instead used a low fat raspberry vinaigrette with olive oil. Also be sure to click on the link for Cooked Wheat Berries. I did soak the wheat berries over night which cuts down on cooking time.

Utah Benefits

Tonight Humana awarded $100,000 to the Make a Wish Foundation Utah. I was at the event solo since Chris is enroute to China for work. He will be there for the next 9 days or so. Anyway, here are some pictures from the event:

My co-worker Brandon and I.

Myself, Linnea, Julie.Linnea thought the person taking our picture was pointing the camera too low and we weren't in the picture.

Whats That Bug

Chris sent an e-mail to whatsthatbug.com regarding the spider we saw on Saturday. This is the response we received:

Hi Chris,
Your Tarantula is beautiful. It matches a photo of Aphonopelma iodius which we located on BugGuide. or the Desert Blond Tarantula, Aphonopelma chalcodes, which is also pictured on BugGuide. BugGuide also has this information posted on the genus page: "The Aphonopelma of North American are poorly known. Although many species have been described few specimens can be properly identified either by using available keys or by wading through species descriptions . Most identifiable specimens belong to species found in Mexico or Central America that are easily recognized by unique color patterns, such as that of A. seemanni . Correct identification of specimens collected within the United States is often suspect since determinations must be based on the process of elimination using collection dates and locality data in combination with coloration, coxal setation, and metatarsal scopulation " and the quote is attributed to http://americanarachnology.org/JoA_free/JoA_v25_n2/JoA_v25_p137.pdf. At the very bottom of the Spiderzrule Tarantula page we found a photo of the Salt Lake City Brown Tarantula and it is identified as Aphonopelma melanium. Interestingly, the Salt Lake City Brown Tarantula on the Utah Museum of Natural History website is identified as the first spider we mentioned, Aphonopelma iodius. It was found in Salt Lake City and it is a brown Tarantula, so we are content calling it a Salt Lake City Brown Tarantula.

So, we sort of have an answer. We both think our spider most closely matches the Desert Blond Tarantula:

This is the spider we saw:

This is the Desert Blond from Bugguide.net

After a little more reading, it is not uncommon to see tarantulas in the Utah foothills when the weather starts to cool. Male tarantulas are out trying to find females. They are pretty harmless and only bite when provoked. Their main defense mechanism is releasing urticating hairs. They are stinging and slightly venomous hairs that they "flick out" toward their attacker. So there you go, more than you ever wanted to know about tarantulas.

Book Worms - 2010

We got our Nooks somewhere around the 3rd week in June. We have been reading A LOT. Yesterday we were talking about what we have read the past few months and were having a hard time remembering. Not only that, but Erica doesn't know what to read next.

Here is a list of books we have read to date in 2010. Maybe it will be helpful for others. What is everyone else reading?

Erica's List
Influencer - Kerry Patterson et al.
The Help - Kathryn Stockett
Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell
Twilight - Stephenie Meyer
New Moon - Stephenie Meyer
Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer
Breaking Dawn - Stephenie Meyer
Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang - Chelsea Handler
The Host - Stephenie Meyer
Official Book Club Selection - Kathy Griffin
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
The Girl who Played with Fire - Stieg Larsson
The Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest - Stieg Larsson
Medium Raw - Anthony Bourdain
The Art of Racing in the Rain - Garth Stein
Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Super Athletes and the Greatest Race the World has Never Seen - Christopher McDougall

Chris's List
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
The Girl who Played with Fire - Stieg Larsson
The Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest - Stieg Larsson
Sh*t My Dad Says - Justin Halpern
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson
The Man who Loved Books too Much - Allison Hoover Bartlett
The Art of Racing in the Rain - Garth Stein
In the Presidents Secret Service - Ronald Kessler
The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
Accidental Billionaires - Ben Mezrich
The Boy who Harnessed the Wind - William Kamkwamba
The Help - Kathryn Stockett
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Super Athletes and the Greatest Race the World has Never Seen - Christopher McDougall

Afternoon Hike

We ran/walked to the trail head from the house. 7.3 miles round trip.

A picture with the fall colors.

Beauty and the Beast

Beautiful fall colors.

Beautiful view with downtown in the distance.

BEAST! Erica was leading the way back down the trail when she spotted this guy right in the middle of the path. Of course Chris decided something needed to be in the picture for perspective. He picked himself, which made Erica nervous (don't some spiders jump or spit or something!?). We have spent some time on-line trying to figure out what type it is - most likely a tarantula, possibly a Salt Lake County brown tarantula.