Posts from — December 2009

Joe Cocker sings an amazing version of “A Little Help From My Friends” at Woodstock. Skip to around 4:20 for a good sample of Mr. Cocker’s unique singing style.

Watch John Belushi – With A Little Help From My Friend in Comedy |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

John Belushi parodies Mr. Cocker’s unique singing style.

Hat Tip: Big Daddy Bruce

Braised Brisket with Beef Jus by Stephen

This recipe was given to me by the grass-fed vendor and it’s a revised version of Wolfgang Puck’s original.

Ingredients:

All grass-fed beef brisket

Bacon-fat or other animal product

Salt and pepper

1 leek

3 large shallots

1 carrot

2 celery hearts

5 garlic cloves

tomato paste

1 cup dried apricots, sliced

1 bottle of wine reduced by half

beef stock – enough to almost fully cover meat

sprigs of thyme, rosemary, and sage

2 apricots, sliced (garnish)

Beef Jus:

Braising liquid

herb-butter (kerrygold)

For the braise, season all sides of the meat liberally with salt and pepper and set in refrigerator for 2 hours (if you don’t have the time, this step isn’t necessary). Set your oven to 300 degrees and heat a heavy dutch oven pan to high heat. Add the animal fat to the pan and sear each side of the brisket (5 minutes/side) until golden brown. Once all sides are crusted remove the meat and place all chopped ingredients from leek until garlic in the pan and sauté until translucent and soft. Add chopped garlic, tomato paste, and apricots to the pan and continue to cook on medium heat. Let the tomato paste get nice and brown (this will enhance the flavor of the braising liquid tremendously, don’t worry if the bottom bits on the pan look burnt, they’re going to taste great). Add the reduced wine to the pan and deglaze. Add the brisket back into the pan and cover with enough beef stock followed by the addition of the herbs. Gently mix the ingredients all around to evenly distribute. Cover the pan and place in the pre-heated oven for 3.5 hours.

Once cooked, take the pan from the oven and place on stove to cool with cover off. Here is where a few decisions can be made regarding the cooking date. It’s better to cook the brisket one day before serving it for a few reasons. This will enhance the flavor of the meat, allow for easy removal of excess fat, easy slicing of the brisket, and relieve stress when serving to company. If you plan on going this route then transfer the meat and braising liquid into a container to refrigerate until the following day. Prior to serving, skim off excess fat from the top to decrease the richness of the sauce, remove meat and slice to desired thickness and strain braising liquid into a small sauce pan. Begin reducing the liquid until the desired consistency is reached – depending on flavor and salt profile (about half). Once reduced, add a pat of butter (I used Kerrygold’s herb butter) off heat and whisk for added smoothness. For small servings, reheat the sliced brisket directly in the saucepan with liquid, or for larger portions, reheat in microwave and then pour hot beef jus over the brisket.

If you plan on eating the brisket directly after it’s done that’s perfectly fine. Just skim off as much fat as possible from the liquid, and follow the same instructions for the beef jus. Just note, you will not be able to cut the brisket into perfect slices since it will be too juicy, so expect a more shredded or junky consistency with your entrée.

Serve with cauliflower mashed potatoes or vegetable of choice. In the above picture I went with a similar approach to the Couscous recipe but added some yellow squash along with the cauliflower in the blender. I quickly sautéed the veggies with some coconut oil and salt and finished it off with a small knob of herb butter. You want a nice vehicle to soak up that brisket sauce!

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You’ve seen what I eat for breakfast, lunch, and my daily breakdown of foods. I don’t always eat like that.

Sometimes, eating poorly is really really fun and really really necessary. Clearly, when I eat a chocolate peanut butter ball, a Russian tea cake, or an oatmeal lace cookie I have no illusions that I am eating healthy. Christmas is a great excuse to do this. When I choose to eat like crap, I enjoy every minute of it. There is literally no case to be made that eating a Christmas cookie is good for me. But I like it….so every now and then I will eat a couple.

What don’t I like? Here is a short list in no particular order:

Brown Rice, cereal bars, Kashi cereal, tortillas, whole wheat bread, most Paleo baked goods, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Coke Plus, Gatorade, Poweraid,  Muscle Milk, South Beach bars, Zone bars, protein bars, “Light and Fit” Yogurt, Michelob Ultra, granola, Go Lean Plus, frozen yogurt, Splenda, turkey bacon, canned soup, ketchup, anything with Soy, almost anything at Starbucks, low fat milk, low fat ice cream, low fat peanut butter, margarine, veggie burgers, low sodium soy sauce, and ALMOST ANYTHING FROM JAMBA JUICE.

Why are these dangerous? Because you can tell yourself they are healthy. It is easy to eat things like this every day and not think twice about it. You can’t eat Christmas cookies every day and kid yourself into thinking you are eating well. You can drink Diet Coke and eat Kashi everyday and be totally convinced that you “eat pretty healthy”.

For example:

Breakfast: Bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios (Lowers cholesterol!!)

Lunch: Diet coke (0 calories!), Small Acai Cup from Jamba Juice (620 Calories, 114 Grams of Carbohydrate, 67 grams of sugar)

Dinner: Gatorade (electrolytes!) and a veggie burger (low fat!)

See my point?

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So what is the answer? Well , to start, try garden vegetables, especially greens, lean meats, nuts and seeds, little starch, and no sugar. Shop to the perimeter of the grocery store. Don’t eat anything with more than 3 or 4 ingredients. Real food rots if left out. Read everything you can on Mark’s Daily Apple.

Still looking for more answers? Try reading the primer I wrote on Paleo eating a couple weeks ago, found here.

When you finally decide how successful you really want to be, you’ve got to set priorities. Then, each and every day, you’ve got to take care of the top ones. The lower ones may fall behind, but you can’t let the top ones slip. You don’t forget about the lower ones though because they can add up to hurt you. Just take care of the top ones first. In 25 years as a head coach and assistant, I think I might have missed one practice. Why? Because practice is my top priority. A day doesn’t go by when I don’t accomplish something in my family life or my profession because those two things are my top priorities.

Dan Gable

#1. Jumping from one program to another. You gotta stick with it. Don’t just do workouts you think “look tough”.

#2. Learn how to Olympic lift. Sure you “can” muscle up 135 lbs in a workout a couple times. However, you are wasting potential, time, and energy unless you commit yourself to learning the Olympic lifts.

#3. Not spending enough time in the gym. I know, I know part of Crossfit’s selling point is that our workouts are short. I’m not talking about workouts, I’m talking about time in the gym. “Fran” is between 2 and 4 minutes long for advanced athletes. It isn’t uncommon for them to warmup for 45 minutes prior to Fran. Throw in PNF stretching and myofascial release (which you should be doing), and you are in the gym for more than an hour…. for a 3 minute workout.

#4. No organization or plan for supplemental work. Doing a couple handstand push ups every other week isn’t a plan. Running a couple 800s isn’t “doing CFE”. You need to have a plan. Set some goals.By January 1st I will be able to do X. The way I will accomplish this goal is Y.” And you gotta write it down. And you gotta talk to a coach.

#5. Not taking back off weeks. If you aren’t excited about getting into the gym to train, you need to rest. Every month or two, take a couple days off (not because of injury) and stay out of the gym. When you come back, you’ll be able to get after again instead of just “punching the clock”.

#6. Stop F$%KING pacing. Seriously. I know you can do 100 pull ups in sets of 5. Why not just “get comfortable being uncomfortable” and not set an artificial limit for yourself? Turn your rational mind off.

#7. Trying to  be something you aren’t. Look, if you are 5′6, 145 it is going to take years and years of training to have a 450 lb deadlift. Recognize that you are probably not going to have an 1100 lb CF Total at that size. You gotta play the cards you are dealt.

#8. Stop trying to get “lean gains”. I get it, everyone wants to gain 15 lbs of “lean muscle”. Me too. Not gonna happen. You can’t gain that much muscle in a short period of time without some serious steroid consumption or phenomenal genes. Gaining weight is a great goal, just recognize that you might not have an 8 pack for a couple weeks.

#9. Respect don’t revere Crossfit. Ask yourself this question: When was the last time you read something outside CF.com or the CF Journal that you applied to your training? If the answer is “never” it is time to explore the studio space a little.Want to learn to gain strength and weight? I’ll bet the strongman community knows a little about that. Want to learn some new gymnastics progressions? I’ll bet a collegiate gymnast would know a couple.

#10. Taking yourself too seriously. I get it, this Crossfit stuff is awesome and fun. However, in the end it is about working out. You aren’t good enough to get mad. Maintain some perspective on the whole thing. Your family, your religion, your country… these are things to take seriously.

If you don’t enjoy the journey, you’re in it for the wrong reasons.

Bonus: #11. Newsflash: You probably aren’t going to make it to Aromas. Neither am I. Here is the weird part- it doesn’t really matter. Honestly, it is a little anti-climactic. You have to love  training and working hard for its own sake, not for the sake of some competition you probably aren’t going to make.

From a great Afghanistan blog, Ghosts of Alexander.

1. Offer simple explanations for everything, no matter how complex. Nobody wants to hear that there is no sound answer or that “it’s extremely complicated.”
2. Make a gross generalizations about Afghans based on a single Afghan you met (a far too small sample size will also suffice).
3. Ignore dissenting opinion on the ground if it contradicts your set of biases.
4. Mistake your English-speaking Kabuli contacts as representative of all Afghans.
5. Mistake the Kandahari guys you speak to through an interpreter as representative of all Afghans.
6. Repeat some false historical cliché about Afghanistan. Only the historians will be able to call your BS in a convincing manner.
7. Hold out the offer of a solution to all the problems with yourself and your ideas at the center (i.e., the Snake Oil approach).
8. Use exoticisms that make you sound really informed. Something like “Pashtunwali,” “Deobandi,” “badal,” “arbakai,” “jirga,” “shura,” etc… You don’t understand these terms in their social context. But no worries, neither does your reader.
9. Place yourself as a central character in your article. You are Lawrence of Arabia, or perhaps Tintin. You are the intrepid hero of your hopefully non-fictional adventure. Just go with it. People love a good story.
10. Create a “Pet Afghan.” Basically you need to cheer for some Afghan power figure like he’s your favorite sports team.
11. Power Point is a great way to cover up for your inability to communicate effectively. Use it.

The rest of the list is found here.

Courtesy of Mel Mack at CF Newport

I need a name for this. “Stephen’s Recipe Corner” sounds a little strange.  Anybody ideas?

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Sirloin Steak with Curried-Apple Acorn Squash

Cooking grass-fed meats, like Bison require a little more attention than conventional counterparts. Due to the decreased fat composition of most grass-fed meats, the tendency for over-cooking is much greater, and this dryness is pretty unappetizing. To avoid this, here are a few suggestions you can follow:

First, use a thermometer. Even if you’ve become a master of guessing the correct doneness with normal beef, you’re calculations will most likely be off for the grass-fed. It requires some 30% less cooking time than normal beef. Check for an internal temperature around 125-130 degrees. Remember to remove the meat about 5-10 degrees below the desired temperature to account for carry-over cooking (how many degrees depends on the thickness of meat and how hot the source of heat is).

Second, cooking the meat until a slightly lower internal temperature than normal will result in a slightly rarer piece of meat, but much more tender. If you can’t stand the sight of redness (shame on you), then cooking over dry-heat may not be the best option – you may have to resort to liquid-based cooking such as braising or sous-vide. Nevertheless, these  are the most important guidelines to ensure a more tender steak. The same techniques used for regular beef such as the application of tenderizing marinades can also be applied, but the two suggestions above are the most important. Also, remember to bring your steak to room temperature prior to cooking to ensure even heat distribution.
Not too many ingredients necessary. Just choose whatever cut, add whatever spices and herbs you like and follow the instructions below. Sear the meat over high heat to form a flavorful crust and then transfer to the oven with a meat thermometer inserted into the average-thicker portion of the meat.
Wine reduction (optional)
If you’d like a quick sauce alongside the steak, that’s very simple to do. Once you’ve removed the steak and have it resting for 10 minutes, put the pan back over the stove (don’t wash out the delicious fond on the bottom of pan), remove excess fat, add some butter, shallots, and liquid of choice (for this dish I used red wine). By deglazing the pan, you’ll dissolve all the great flavor stuck to the bottom, and finally let the liquid reduce by half. Adjust for seasonings.

Acorn Squash
Ingredients: You’ll have to adjust the quantity for the acorn squash filling depending on the size of your squash
•    Acorn squash, cut in half and seeded – medium sized
•    Butter (Kerrygold Irish butter preferably)
•    ½ cup diced onion
•    ¼ apple – pealed and cubed
•    ½ cup of water or apple juice (beware of sugar content here)
•    Curry powder ( I used the leftover spice blend from the previous Middle Eastern Chicken dish)
•    Chopped garlic
•    Currants (optional)
•    Olive oil
•    Balsamic vinegar

Place the two halves of the acorn squash cut side down on a dish, cover, and microwave for close to 7 minutes. Meanwhile, in a pan over medium-high heat, add butter, onion, garlic, and spices. Cook until tender and add the diced apple. Sauté for a few minutes and add a splash of water or apple juice (optional), cover to fully cook the apples. Adding the currants (optional) would be good at this point. Once water has evaporated, evenly distribute the filling into each of the acorn squash cavities. Place in a baking dish with an additional dollop of butter on top and put under the broiler for 5 to 10 minutes, until slightly browned and crispy on top. Serve on top of a bed of lettuce, drizzle some extra virgin olive oil and a splash of balsamic vinegar on top of the acorn squash. Serve alongside the steak with optional sauce.

Tonight your roommate is cooking for you.

In one week you are home for Christmas.

In two weeks you are celebrating 2010.

In three weeks you are unwinding after a stressful week at work.

In a month it is your anniversary.

In two months you are on vacation.

In six months you are hosting a barbecue.

In a year you are celebrating the new job.

In five years you are too busy with the family.

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There is always an excuse if you want one.

It is always someones birthday, some random holiday, or something you just HAVE to celebrate. There is always a reason why “just this weekend” you won’t eat right.

The stars don’t all have to be aligned for you to start eating right . Because guess what…. they never do.

I know you are truly committed when, on a “special occasion”, you say “I know it is Christmas, but I’ve committed to a plan and I’m going to stick to it”.

This is my roommate Scott’s setup while he was in Pakistan. Extra points for having the nasty Haji beard. He also gets extra points for wearing a Potomac Crossfit t shirt while in a third world country.