Can’t take it!

Finding it hard to work even 12 hours a day, and there’s so much to do!

Haven’t mopped the floor in so long, I don’t remember what clean looks like!

Tired of not being able to do my best in anything because getting it *done* is all I can manage!

I’ve maybe gone bananas!

BUT! I did run 12 K this morning! (and I ROCKED IT, as an aside! Wooo-ee! It was slow, to be sure, but I was in the front group, and the last 5 just kept getting easier… I think I have some distance work in my future!)

Still… feel like I’m losin’ it!

And yet:

When the weight of the world crushes, when I’ve done everything I can but feel like it’s enough… that’s when I pull out the big guns:

bathtub meditation (thank you, lovely and talented Graham, for the Epsom salts!) and a little home-made PB cup for one.

And with that, tomorrow will be better… if for no other reason than the fact that it’s one sleep closer to Friday, when I’m going to Calgary, and thereafter will end the era of the crappy iPhone photo images.

Yay. And blarg.

How do you come down when you’re overwhelmed? And: Is it better to be OVERwhelmed or UNDERwhelmed, as a general rule?

1. Costco sells DENBY!

And it’s not BAD!

2. Freezer burn can actually *improve* the taste of some foods.

(‘Member these? I brought the last few to work today—turns out, they’ll hit the spot when I’m in a pinch and need a quick kick of healthy energy. I won’t say I like ‘em, but might I miss them when they’re gone?)

3. Even I can crave a sandwich.

Can’t tell you when I last ate one, but here was the thing of beauty: 2 slices of wheat-free soy bread, toasted. 1 side with a slice of Jarlsberg cheese and 1/4 avocado, the other side with 1 Tbsp edamame hummus topped with scrambled egg whites and basil… and some Dijon mustard to make it sing! With carrots and cherry tomatoes on the side, It was actually pretty awesome. Go figure!

I’m off to bed, as a reckoning awaits me in the morning: I promised the group that I’d run the full 12 K this week. So *of course*, the route-planner went and changed the route so that kilometres 2-5 are ALL UPHILL! Za! I emailed him and said, basically, “aw, man!” And he responded:

“Dear S

I can tell that you relish a challenge.  I have every confidence in your abilities.  It will be that much more special to have you running. How could you not run after all of this confidence in you?
See you Sunday, S.”

I feel a barely veiled threat in there. Pray for me! Happy Hallowe’en to you all!

My mom reads my blog sometimes. I’m glad—as I think I bore people around me with my endless interest in food and healthy living, I’m happy to have her along…

and today is my mom’s BIRTHDAY! Happy Birthday, Mom!

Cutest torchbearer ever!

True story: I’m basically the world’s worst mailer. I have great intentions, and I. LOVE. MAIL!, but I just cannot seem to get it together to get stuff to my mom on time. I was late for Christmas and mother’s day (several years in a row), but I owned this birthday because she *actually* got my card today! (I’ll leave aside any discussion about how wrong it is that it takes 6 days for something to go from the Hinterlands of BC to Montreal… ga.)

True story #2: my mom hasn’t really ever *loved* anything I’ve baked. She lives far away and has therefore tasted very little of it, in fairness, but this is also because I have this annoying habit of trying to convert her to *my* favourite things instead of making her *her* favourite things… As today is, indeed, HER day, Mom, I think you’d really like this one… may I present my vanilla cupcake with vanilla buttercream, and a spicy poached pear filling (aka Van-Van with Spicy Pear)?

Now, to take it down a little… this post is an ode to momS, not just my mom… because today is also the second anniversary of the death of a woman who I thought of as my “Western Mom”. She fought a valiant battle against Cancer two years ago, tenacious till the very last, and I miss her lots, and think of her with a smile whenever she comes to mind…

So tonight’s post is in honour of Moms of all kinds, in all ways, and in loving memory of Rusty.

I look forward to pomegranate season all year. Now that it’s here, I’m looking for every conceivable way I can find to sneak pommies into my diet, on one condition: I like to keep them as unadulterated as possible, because a) if they’re just juiced or b) hidden, then a) I could just *buy* Pom juice no matter the season, or b) it’s basically WASTED!!

I bought a box of six pommies at Costco last Friday, and though I’ve been known to eat two poms (alone!) a day in the past, fructose fails to thrill me as it used to… I’m sure not giving up the red riot, however—think of the anti-oxidants! Think of the children! It would be a crime not to do my part and ingest at least as many poms as I have fingers and toes during this fine pomegranate season.

I find it really satisfying to shuck the poms: I do a couple at a time, my fingernail beds turn purple, and I play a game I call “no seed left behind”,  in which the object is for me to save *every* unburst seed I can, while still chucking the too-soft, purpling ones. And when it’s all over… well, some #5 usually breaks out. And I give in. For the sake of the children…

1. In a Pomegranate-Pear Fall Salad

2. As a garnish, ’cause they’re so pretty.

(This is the flourless chocolate cake I made for my neighbour’s 21st birthday on Sunday last… with a little whip cream on top. Hated the tip I used, but apparently, the dessert was a win!)

and you’ll remember this little beauty from last Friday—the apple-frangipane-pom tart:

3. In cupcakes!

I made these last year for a birthday—they’re grapefruit pomegranate cupcakes with grapefruit cream cheese frosting… and pomegranates FTW!

A-ha moment: every bite comes with a splash of pommie juice—they sink in the batter, but stay intact when baking. In fact, I think the batter is like a buffer, because I tossed some pommies into my pancake protein pancakes but the heat from the pan broke them down. Not so when baked in a cupcake! This one was a real winner, though I say it myself…

4. As a delightful mocktail:

I mortar-and-pestled some pomegranate seeds, and mixed the juice with sparkling water… tossing in some (floating? Cool! ) pom seeds as a garnish was delicious… though *nothing* looks appetising in an iPhone pic, does it?

(Action shot!)

And… 5. With a spoon.

Are you in pom-rhapsody, too? What seasonal treats do you look forward to?