Pickled Beets, Lentil Flour, and a Half Marathon

I have to thank a friend for introducing me to her pickled beets this week. They were so delicious. Sweet, spicy, and melt in your mouth, even somewhat nutritious! Unfortunately, she opened their last jar for me to taste them. Which just means there will be pickled beet canning coming up. I am looking forward to adding them to my meals.

In other kitchen news, I bought eight pounds of lentil flour without having a single recipe which uses lentil flour. Its terribly saddening that I am going to have to spend a good amount of time looking through cook books and cooking websites to find recipes which use lentil flour - not! I relish the challenge!

Ooo, lentil bread, lentil crackers... whoa! peanut butter cookies! I will have to try those. Whoa, whoa! Even a 5-min chocolate mug cake recipe with lentil flour, jackpot!

Lastly, I am running 13.1 miles this weekend. For some annoying reason, if you tell people you are running a half marathon or a 10k or whatever, they think you are running a race far away with hundreds of people.

However, since there are no races of that distance in my area this weekend or any near by weekends, I'm running 13.1 miles myself and counting it as if I am doing a half marathon,
which technically I am.
So there.
After this run, I'm going to diversify my workouts and try something easier... like a sprint triathlon!

Anyway, I'm starting at 10am CDT and should finish around noon, so if you would like to cheer me on, please let me know. I'll give you the start/finish line and the route.

Perhaps someone can stand before the finish line and play the Rocky theme or Eye of the Tiger :)

Coping Mechanisms, Or How to Stay Afloat When Your Boat is Upside Down

Emotional upheaval sucks.

Whether a death, a break up, a move, an accident, or just some strong emotional event or change, coping with yourself and daily life afterwards can be a seriously hard endeavor. 

One of the things that I learned while working in a behavioral health unit at a hospital is that using negative coping methods after experiencing large life events can get you in a lot of trouble. (We all know what negative coping methods look like, but just in case you are playing dumb, drinking large amounts of alcohol after bad days is a negative coping method.)

So, now that my boat seems to have flipped upside down far out to sea, I've been looking into coping methods so that I don't just tread water near the site of the accident but get back to shore and start rebuilding. 

Here are a bunch of ones I have learned and some of which I am currently doing:

• Exercising regularly
• Eating regularly 
• Sleeping - which is sometimes really hard
• Praying - After all, I am an Episcopal seminarian
• Writing - pain seems to make me into a poet, and writing out how you honestly feel is cathartic 
• Replacement therapy - which is usually used for those addicted to nicotine, but in my case involves holding a rock instead of my phone
• Art therapy - working on art projects 
• Treating yourself with kindness and gentleness
• Setting straight what you can control in your life
• Baking - I usually do a lot of this one. And speaking of which, the pickles from the last post worked, but they do not quite taste as I was expecting them to taste. I think I am going to make another batch with a different recipe.

While looking up some new ways to keep swimming instead of treading water, I found the University of Minnesota's 101 Strategies For Coping With Stress page. 

Swimming in deep waters is not a new sport. Humans have been dealing with being thrown in the deep end for ages. While swimming in deep water really only means you can't touch the ground, it don't mean you can't enjoy the waters. It just takes a little more effort. 

Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming...

Simply Pickled to Meet You

In the wake of emotional upheaval,
I usually cook.
So... look out!
There will be some cooking adventures coming up.

The first is making my own pickles.
This summer I read this great article in the NYTimes about how pickles are very easy and simple to make at home, and really only takes three ingredients: cucumbers, water, and salt.

So I said to myself, I like pickles. I have water and salt. I can get some cucumbers. I have a few (maybe too many) empty glass jars. I too can make pickles!

Yesterday, I put all three ingredients in the jar as shown, and, as the article says, after a day the water has gotten a little cloudy. I am excited about this science experiment and am looking forward to my simple pickles. Perhaps if they are good, I'll get a little fancy with my next batch. ;)

This next week will be a busy one for me, as we are welcoming the incoming student to the seminary, so hopefully I will be back soon to tell you how the pickles turn out.