1. Eat healthier
While I doubt that I have been eating healthier (I blame Halloween and all the candy that I have left over, as well as the awesomeness of fall desserts) but I have been cooking a lot more. I really enjoy cooking and I would say that it is one of my hobbies now. We tried to restart having 2-3 Fresh 20 meals every week, but it was hard coordinating our schedules, so we kind of went back to cooking for ourselves. I try to still plan about 2 meals per week for myself though so that I can have plenty of leftovers to bring to work.
And it is fall! The leaves are falling, there is a cool chill in the air, and it is time for all the delicious fall cooking. Ben and I went apple picking at Indian Ladder Farms (and bought cider and cider donuts as well...), and brought home 2 bags full of McIntoshes, Cortlands, and Galas.
Delicious McIntosh apple, ready to be picked!
The result of this apple picking was a dinner for 4 of a roasted sausage, apple, butternut squash combo that just screamed of fall flavors, and 2 homemade apple pies, one of which was brought to work the next day and eaten up very quickly!
I've just started to learn to cook Korean food as well. Made Kimchi Pancakes and Beef Doenjang Jjigae for a board game night with Kelsey and Ben (I dominated at Ticket to Ride, again). Then, used more of the kimchi to incorporate into mashed potatoes, for a very fusion-y dinner.
European, Asian, and American flavors in one dinner: Northwoods Fire seasoned strip steak, caprese salad, and kimchi mashed potatoes. My tastebuds were astounded from all the flavors!
The last of the kimchi went into making kimchi fried rice, which was good for 1 dinner and 2 lunches! Just yesterday, Ben and I steamed some mussels in a Thai red curry broth. It wasn't as spicy as we'd like, so next time we'll have to double up on the curry!
I cut up a whole bunch of cilantro to top off these mussels. Mmm, but I do love cilantro.
So it looks like I am cooking plenty, the question now is if it's healthy. Well, I will certainly try to cook healthier, but keep it tasty! ;)
2. Exercise more
Oh boy, I definitely have been failing this one. And I really have no excuses. So all I'm going to do is post some photos of a hike that we took to Newman's Ledge in the Catskills. It's funny because after these 1.5 years of living in this area, I have yet to hike the Catskills, I've only been going north. Well, this was my first time, and I have to say that it was gorgeous! Also a fun drive on the way there as I took some winding mountain roads next to Kaaterskill Falls.
Foggy day, so when we reached the ledge, we were above the clouds!
The other form of "exercise" that I have engaged in is walking... a lot. Thanks to my new Birkenstocks (yes, I am a hippie now), my feet did not hurt and I had no blisters after walking for 12 straight miles. Walked about 12 miles in a day around Washington D.C. with Hans, Kevin, and Sebastian. We saw all the monuments just a few days before the government shutdown.
Sitting on the back side of the Lincoln Memorial.
Watching the beautiful colors of the sunset on the pier of National Harbor.
Caught a viewing of the Daily Show, John Oliver's last show!
Friends since freshman year.
This is another place in which I am lagging behind. I'm still reading World War Z, embarrassingly enough. Also I have been reading a lot about finance recently as I'm starting to invest my money, and trying to be financially savvy! I've also downloaded Wool, a recommendation from Hans, on my Kindle, but have yet to begin... more to come...
4. Learn new things/develop hobbies
Ah, I can definitively say that I am improving in this aspect! I signed up for a drawing class called "The Human Figure Given Life" at a local middle school. I have wanted to take a drawing class for a while, because as a child, I doodled a lot and was also sketching, but sadly never took any formal art classes or continued to draw after middle school. I was looking for an introductory general drawing class, but none of them really fit my schedule as I was traveling a lot for recruiting. However, this class is only 5 weeks long and also very cheap! And human figures is something I am not accustomed to in my drawings, so it is definitely a challenge for me! Here are some sketches that I am proud of so far:
A lot of times, we are given a photograph to draw from.
In this particular class we are concentrating on hands and feet, as they are detailed and lots of attention need to be put on them so that they look right!
After focusing on just hands and feet, we were given photographs of full human figures in which the hands and/or feet are displayed prominently.
I chose this figure because I thought the pose was interesting (also because I did not have to deal with the face, which I currently suck at).
I've also been better about taking more photos and uploading them into Flickr. Even if not everyday is the most interesting day, sometimes it is nice to just take a photo as a memory of a point in time. Even if it was very simple, just a reminder of the everyday things in life, fleeting moments, and memories of things I've done, places I've been. And of course, food that I've eaten.
Been back a few times now for recruiting, and I still miss the place dearly.
Well, that ties it off for this time. Definitely happy to have re-discovered how much I love to draw, and how much I love to cook. But still need work on exercising, eating healthier, and reading more books!
Until next time!
