Success!!

Today was a swim day. When I got to the pool and started swimming laps, coach Steve said "What happened to breathing every third stroke?" Yeah, I knew I should be practicing that. So I did. And I actually had some success with it. I didn't feel as much like I was going to drown when breathing on the left. Still doesn't feel natural, but I'm hoping that with practice I can at least make it work. Today at my P.T. appointment, my therapist tested my neck and shoulders and could tell that I didn't turn as easily to the left. She gave me an exercise to help with that and said that it should help my swimming, too. That would be great. I need all the help I can get.

Matt dug the rest of the onions out of the garden today.

I made dinner for my friend Margo and her family this evening. With a vegetarian daughter, she requested something with Tofu. So I made a tofu dish from the latest issue of Cooking Light ...

along with rice noodles (pad thai noodles) and veggies ...

some cole slaw with cabbage from the garden ...


green beans from the garden, some biscuits and cherry jam and some blueberry bread ...

for breakfast. It's got about 1/2 whole wheat flour, only 4 Tbsp. of butter and some granola in both the batter and the topping. New recipe and I didn't get to try a slice! I'll have to get a review from Margo and then post the recipe if the review is favorable. :-)

Tomorrow morning I will run with the marathon training group at the R.A.C. It looks like we're scheduled for 18 miles. I've got LOTS of green beans to give away. There's no more room in the freezers for them. I also made cookies for those that would rather not munch on raw green beans after the run. Ha!!

Thick and Chewy Triple-Chocolate Cookies
(From Cook's Illustrated)


2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (10 ounces)
1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
16 ounces semisweet chocolate , chopped
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (about 2 cups)
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons instant coffee or espresso powder
10 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/4 sticks), softened
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar (10 1/2 ounces)
1/2 cup granulated sugar (3 1/2 ounces)

1. Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl; set aside.

2. Melt chocolate in medium heatproof bowl set over pan of almost-simmering water, stirring once or twice, until smooth; remove from heat. Beat eggs and vanilla lightly with fork, sprinkle coffee powder over to dissolve, and set aside.

3. In bowl of standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter at medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 5 seconds. Beat in sugars until combined, about 45 seconds; mixture will look granular. Reduce speed to low and gradually beat in egg mixture until incorporated, about 45 seconds. Add melted chocolate and chips in steady stream and beat until combined, about 40 seconds. Scrape bottom and sides of bowl with rubber spatula. With mixer at low speed, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Do not overbeat. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature until consistency is scoopable and fudgelike, about 30 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, adjust oven racks to the upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Leaving about 1 ½ inches between each ball, scoop dough onto parchment-lined cookie sheets with 1¾-inch ice cream scoop.

5. Bake, reversing position of the baking sheets halfway through baking (from top to bottom and front to back), until edges of cookies have just begun to set but centers are still very soft, about 10 minutes. Cool cookies on sheets about 10 minutes, slide parchment with cookies onto wire racks, and cool to room temperature. Cover one baking sheet with new piece of parchment paper. Scoop remaining dough onto parchment-lined sheet, bake, and cool as directed. Remove cooled cookies from parchment with wide metal spatula and serve.

BTW: Someone from King Arthur Flour happened on my post the other day about receiving a "bake" t-shirt from a friend who'd visited the store. Pretty cool. The power of google (or other search engines ...)

Well, it's 10:00 and I believe I'm going to go to bed early and do some reading. I've been tired all week. Even managed a little nap today while the blueberry bread was baking.

Quote for the day: "“There’s nothing wrong with having your goals really high and trying to achieve them. That’s the fun part. You may come up short. I’ve come up short on a lot of my goals, but it’s always fun to try and achieve them.” --Tiger Woods

Good night. ;-)