Oof, It's May.

Well, hello again.

As per usual, I didn't intend for this extended absence to happen, but such is life. And I'm just letting life happen these days, remember?

Since I've been at my temp editing gig, I've been privy to lots -- TONS -- of free magazines, one of which is People. The mag recently started a "One Last Thing" feature on the last page of the book, where they ask a star a bunch of random, innocuous questions. Because I have nothing to report, but still wanted to stop by and say hi, I thought it might be fun for me to answer some of these inane queries.

I keep telling myself that nothing has happened that's worth blogging about, but, well, after answering these questions, it's just not true. I did discover Schmackary's after all. (If you're interested in reading the interview with the actual celebrity, in this case Sarah Chalke, go here.)

LAST FILM THAT MADE ME CRY
I don't cry often, but when I do, it's often about animals. So the last movie that made me cry was Marley & Me. I was home by myself and I tried stifling it, but once I realized no one was around to laugh at me, I balled.

LAST TIME I GOT SUNBURNED
On our trip to Puerto Rico. I slathered on the sunscreen but still managed to feel the burn.

LAST INJURY I SUSTAINED 
Over Christmas. I was doing a trail run at my parents' and I tripped -- bad. Real, real, bad. Full-on Slip 'N Slide action. I still have scars on my right knee from it.

LAST VACATION I TOOK
That would be Puerto Rico. Again. (Hmm... maybe this exercise isn't that interesting after all.)

LAST TIME I INDULGED 
Thursday. The husband and I went out to dinner in Hell's Kitchen, and on our walk home we passed Schmackary's for the first time. The smell was so intoxicating it literally formed a hook around our necks and pulled us in. I got the Peanut Butter After Dark, naturally.

In Defense of Gwyneth Paltrow and Her New Cookbook

Whenever Gwyneth Paltrow does something, there’s always a lot of hate thrown her way (see: here and here), and with the launch of her new cookbook, It’s All Good: Delicious, Easy Recipes That Will Make You Look and Feel Great, the headlines are no different.

"The book reads like the manifesto to some sort of creepy healthy-girl sorority with members who use beet juice rather than permanent marker to circle the 'problem areas' on each other’s bodies," writes one critic. “"It's All Good seems to take laughable Hollywood neuroticism about eating to the next level," writes another.

Why all the hate? Because in this 304-page cookbook, released this week, Paltrow advocates an elimination diet, in which one avoids coffee, alcohol, dairy, eggs, sugar, shellfish, deepwater fish, potatoes, tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplant, corn, wheat, meat and soy—not just for a period of time, but for the rest of one’s life.

Recommended by her doctor Dr. Alejandro Junger (of Clean diet fame) even Paltrow admits the idea was a bit overwhelming at first, and a blow for the self-professed foodie. Still, she says, the end result was life changing, and spawned the idea for this cookbook, which she co-wrote with Julia Turshen, a food writer and private chef based in New York.

Now, as an admitted fan of hers, I don’t quite get all the hate for someone simply encouraging living a healthy lifestyle, but even more so, I feel the need to remind people not to knock something until they’ve tried it. Over the course of my 30-some-odd years, I’ve eliminated whole food groups from my diet at different times and for various reasons—some were health-related, others just out of curiosity—and it always amazed me how differently, and often better, my body operated in the absence of certain foods. Some I’ve added back in and never looked back (like meat) and others (like cheese) I consider a treat food because of the effects, good and bad, their absence has had on my body. What worked for me didn’t work for all my friends, or even always align with Paltrow’s advice in this book. The point is, every body is different, and every body will have different needs, but you can’t blast someone for a certain way of life until you’ve given it a go yourself.

The lifestyle Paltrow advocates in this book isn’t always easy, and she readily admits that. “The rest of my life? Without Parmesan cheese and fried zucchini and pasta and baguettes and Pinor Noir?” she writes. “That was not going to happen, let’s face it. However, could it become my baseline?...Could I lean toward it more? I decided I could.” Without saying so, it sounds like Paltrow is following the old 80/20 rule when it comes to food: eating healthy 80 percent of the time so you can indulge the other 20 percent.

That certainly doesn’t sound like a “neurotic” and “creepy healthy-girl” way of living to me, but a balanced, healthy and realistic approach to eating for the rest of one’s life.

And let’s face it: If any diet can help us all look as good as Paltrow does at age 40, why not try it? 

Photo: Amazon

I wonder: Have you ever tried an elimination diet? How did it go? 

How to Make Love (Bars) at Home

Happy Valentine's Day!

The hubs and I don't really celebrate this day, mostly because we're that annoying couple who believes we don't need a day to remind us that we love each other. (Go ahead, barf. I won't watch.)

To that end, and with all this time on my hands, I decided to cook dinner and dessert last night as a bit of a pre-V Day surprise. Dinner was meh, but dessert saved the evening. Thanks to a relatively new-found obsession with dates, I decided to make date and almond bars from the always-winning cookbook, Fat Witch: Brownies, Blondies, and Bars. (If you've never had a Fat Witch brownie, you are seriously missing out. They are guaranteed to change your life, and I can't believe she gives away her recipe in the book because the end result is spot-on in texture and flavor.)

I'm usually not one to alter a recipe, but I thought the addition of coconut to this dish would make the bar even more amazing, and it turns out, I was right (for once). This seemingly simple add essentially re-creates the taste of Pret a Manger's famous Love bars but somehow with completely different ingredients. For extra indulgence, we topped ours with some Grater's vanilla chocolate-chip ice cream.

Please don't be dismayed by the amount of butter and sugar in this recipe. These bars are well worth the splurge.

Date and Almond Bars from the Fat Witch (with an addition so slight it's not worth calling an adaptation)

Ingredients: 

For the filling:     1 3/4 cup pitted and coarsely chopped dried dates     3/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice    1/4 cup sugar    3/4 cup blanched slivered almonds

For the batter:     1 cup +2 tablespoons unbleached flour     1 1/4 cups quick cooking oats     1/2 cup packed light brown sugar     1/4 teaspoons salt     1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter almost at room temperature, cut into pieces     1/4 cup shredded coconut

Directions:
Grease a 9 x 9-inch baking pan with butter. Dust with flour and tap out the excess. Preheat the oven to 350.

To make the filling, bring the dates, orange juice, and sugar to a boil in a medium pan over high heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for three minutes, stirring occasionally. The mixture should be thick. Remove from heat, stir in the almonds and set aside.

To make the batter, measure and then sift the flour into a large bowl or mixer. Stir in the oats, brown sugar and salt. Add the butter pieces one at a time and mix well. The dough will be crumbly. Finish mixing until you get a smooth consistency.

Press the oat mixture evenly into baking pan. Using a spatula, spread the date mixture evenly on top of the oat mixture in the pan. Sprinkle the top with oats and coconut.

Bake for 30 minutes until light brown on top and the edges are browned and pulling away from the sides of the pan.

Remove from the oven and cool on a rack for one hour. Cut just before serving. Makes 12 to 16 bars.

(Not-So-Great iPhone) Photo: Me!

What are you dining on for Valentine's Day?