Food shopping and pumpkin pudding

A tip from Cook's Illustrated about using maple syrup instead of sugar in pumpkin pie has resulted in the most delicious, creamy pumpkin puddings!

Someone has just reminded me about the great imported San Marzano tomatoes at Big John's PFI. I'm embarrassed to report that I've never been there; probably can't really call myself a Seattle foodie until I go.

My fantasy Thanksgiving dinner

Roasted turkey with garlic cloves and olive oil (no stuffing, just herbs inside) served with a mushroom-infused reduction of the pan juices
Fresh cranberry orange relish
Butterleaf lettuce salad with pear (or tomato) slices and vinaigrette
Grill-roasted herbed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, and chunks of squash
Sourdough and butterfly rolls (store-bought) with whipped butter
Baked Granny Smith apples (baked with liquor-and-ricotta filling)
Individual pumpkin puddings (same recipe as pie filling, but substitute brown sugar and double the ginger)

Yes, this is Thanksgiving dinner without gravy, stuffing, pie crust, and whipped cream. I think eating it would make me feel satisfied but not overwhelmed. But I can't imagine having the nerve to serve this for fear people would think I'd joined the food police.

What do you think?

That feels better

A thousand years from now some archeologist will be pondering over early 21st century skeletons and wondering why we all had hunched shoulders. Or perhaps some of us will be buried in our Aerons and the answer will be obvious: deskwork.

Massage therapist Larry Swanson has assumed the persona of The Office Rat to help us bring a fitness mentality to our office jobs. His Office Rat blog provides a tip a day, many with You Tube videos, to help us combat desk debilitation. Larry interviews fitness and bodywork experts like Reta Wright-Kinghorn (a sleep disorders clinician) and Lara McIntosh (from Wassa Dance), and draws on his own experience as a massage therapist.

Larry is the therapist who helped me figure why I was having trouble with the warrior poses in yoga. He showed me how years of hunching over a keyboard had shortened and tightened the muscles in my chest, making it very difficult for me to release and extend my arms back and out to the side. Some assisted stretching, and persisting with the yoga, eventually solved the problem.

Check out his latest tip, on stretching your forearms.

(Cross-posted at The Mysterious Traveler)