Monthly Archives

November 2013

Tasty

Feezor Family Secret Recipes

November 25, 2013

Turkey Dinner

I’m sure everyone feels their family’s Thanksgiving meal is the best… and I hate to break it to you… there is some stiff competition at the Feezor household.  Every year my mom whips up the best meal of all time, and today I am going to share our (not so) closely guarded family recipes.   Here we go (click the links for full recipes)!

Tumbled & Marinated Turkey

Thanksgiving Potatoes

Praline Sweet Potato Casserole – my favorite!

Pomegranate Salad

Cranberry Conserve

Not Your Mother’s Green Beens

Thanksgiving Meal

(please excuse the lameo iPhone photo from last years Thanksgiving – I’ll update with more current photos after this year!)

Tasty

Pressed Juicery Review

November 24, 2013

So I did a juice cleanse… and I completed it!   With ZERO cheating (might I add) and I couldn’t be prouder of myself (can’t you tell?!).

Pressed Juicery

Before my wedding I attempted a cleanse that was comprised of a protein shake in the morning and lettuce with a protein and lemon juice for lunch and dinner. Needless to say this five day cleanse was cut short on day 3 after my parents had an intervention and said I was becoming something resembling the span of Satan.

Ever since then, I’ve been intrigued by the whole juice cleanse and really wanted to complete something like this.  Some of my coworkers do the master cleanse once a year (the lemon juice, cayenne pepper, maple syrup, water cleanse) and have done it for 20 days straight in the past!  They gave me some advice/tips, one of them being a lot of it is in your head.  Also, you have to be doing it for the right reasons (ex. not to just lose weight).

I’ve been in a bit of a workout/body image slump and wanted something major to re-boot my system and thought what better time than now!?  I have always been turned away by the price and told myself I would make the juices on my own… but over a year later I cannot say that I have ever done that… so I put my wallet where my heart/mind was and paid up!  (I also did the math and if I ate meals out for those 3 days I would definitely be paying more!)

I drink a green smoothie every morning for breakfast, and often pick up green juice when I’m in Whole Foods… and I cannot tell you how gross some of those are.  I wish I was more hardcore, but I am honest enough to admit that I cannot eat a “juice” that tastes like watered parsley… so when I was deciding which cleanse to proceed with I knew Pressed Juicery was the direction I had to go.  I go with my sister to their Ferry Building location whenever I am in SF and die for every drink I’ve tried of theirs – I can’t wait to try their holiday sampler!

Day 1

I woke up at 6am to check my front door for my juice delivery (I was surprised by how excited I was for this… Is this what being an adult is?! Getting excited for juice?! Anyways…). I OCDly organized them in my fridge, moving all tempting items out of eye view (ie wine).

I started the morning with hot water and lemon and had my first juice at 9:30.  I drink a green smoothie every morning, so I am not scared of green juice… But I definitely have had my share of juices that were a struggle to consume – fear not Greens 3 is delicious! I would have this delivered to my front door every morning (if I won the lottery)!

Throughout the day I consumed the 6 drinks on a two hour schedule, drinking a bottle of water in between each juice.  I also ordered the chlorophyll and aloe juice (although one aloe was missing from my delivery 🙁 ) that I drank between juice 4 and 5 and after 6 respectively.  All of this drinking results in necessary access to a bathroom – I highly advise against starting a cleanse before you get on  no transatlantic flight or a 3 day hike.

I have read how people get energy boosts and I thought that was a load of baloney… But honestly it’s true! I haven’t had that productive of a Sunday in forever! It was so great to not have to think about what to eat/make/clean up – although I did spend the day at the farmers market, grocery store and cleaning out my kitchen cabinets and fridge… All while prepping my produce for week (not the best idea in theory but I was surprised I wasn’t tempted to cheat – just excited to finish the cleanse and enjoy my farmers market goodies!).

Day 2
I was wide awake at 5:00am – I was NOT expecting my energy levels to be like this.  So I started reading cleanse reviews (I told myself not to as to not be swayed by other people’s experiences… but I couldn’t resist).    I had another hot water and lemon to start my day and then my first juice at 6:30am (I didn’t want to start too early, and would have preferred to start later, because I didn’t want to be done with my juices at 5pm and be starving the rest of the night – there really is a science to this!).

I went into work at 9am and sipped on my Citrus 2 on my way in.  I brought juices 3-5 to have throughout my work day along with the Chlorophyll water (which tastes the worst of all of the drinks). My energy levels were still great, I wasn’t experiencing any symptoms of past cleanses (ie headaches, fatigue, sleepiness) – which I think I can attribute to my pre-cleanse prep – easing myself off of sugar, caffeine, meat, alcohol, etc.

By the time I got home I was ready for the vanilla almond milk (the only source of fat for the day), but tried to chug a bottle of water so I wouldn’t be eating my last meal at 6pm.  I had it an hour later and then crashed at 8pm and slept for 12 hours (I guess detoxing is exhausting!).

Day 3

On the home stretch!   Still feeling good, but ready for some yummy food (I’ve been recipe reading – not the best of ideas).    I was a little juiced out, so by Juices 4-5 I only had about 75% of them… they still tasted good, but it is just SO MUCH LIQUID.  Skin is looking clear, I’m feeling lean and I’m ready to try out my rebooted metabolism (on a burger and fries. – just kidding).

Pressed Juice

Summary: Success!   All the drinks are delicious and easy to drink… The most difficult part is not chewing on something (I think this is the first day of my life not doing that… Which is kind of weird to think about). My sister gave me great advice before I started – “keep yourself busy.” It kind of ruined my whole plan to have an excuse and stay in bed watching TV all day… But I think it was the best idea ever.  Keeping my mind focused on my to-do list proved to be a huge help!  I also was advised to start a cleanse on a weekend. It’s probably never a good time, but I choose a weekend when my husband would be out of town and I couldn’t be tempted by his steak loving, cocktail drinking ways 🙂  Overall this was a great experience of trying something new.  It was empowering to successfully complete it and while I didn’t experience a state of nirvana or anything, it was great to detox and give my body a little reboot.  I also have tried to adjust my food habits – I’ve been eating predominately gluten free and vegetarian, and eliminated most processed foods.  The cleanse helped to curb any cravings I normally would have for these foods and I’m excited to start a more whole diet moving forward!

Travels

Breathing Space

November 18, 2013

Breathing Space

As seen here, I took a little vacation last week.  I not only took a physical vacation, but also a mental one, and enjoyed a few days of reading some great books, enjoying some insanely gorgeous sunsets and sipping a fruity cocktail or two.  Long story short… I also took a little mini blog break and therefore won’t have any new content for this week.  I will be back next Monday – November 25th, so please come back for a great “Thanksgiving” themed week!

Sip

Figgy Manhattan

November 15, 2013

I got a little overzealous at the Farmer’s Market last month and overindulged in figs.  Not knowing what to do with the extra basket (or 3), I decided to revisit my infused alcohol obsession and created some Fig-infused Bourbon (slice figs in half and cover with bourbon – infuse for 1 month).

Fig Infused Bourbon

Now that my infusion is good and ready, I wanted to figure out the perfect recipe to unveil my creation… so I whipped up a Fig Manhattan, to really showcase the infusion.

Fig Manhattan

Fig Manhattan

  • 3 oz Fig Infused Bourbon
  • 1/5 oz Dry Vermouth
  • Dash of Angostura Bitters

Combine all ingredients into an ice filled shaker, shake and strain into a martini glass.  Top with a Luxardo cherry. Bottoms up!

Domestic

How to Clean a Stove Vent Filter

November 14, 2013

So this isn’t a very glamorous post, but one that I knew nothing about until recently.  It all started when I was noticing a large droplet (of what I later learned was oil/grease), in the same place on my stove.  I eventually looked up and noticed the filter in my stove hood seemed to be leaking/dripping… so I unscrewed it to see nothing worrisome on the other side.  What I did notice is that the filter was completely coated in grease (gross I know).

At this point I had no idea how to remedy this situation, so I tried running it under water.  When that did nothing (because the grease build up was so bad, and the water was just running over it), I decided to consult Google.

The filter on the right was untouched, and the filter on the right is one i tried to scrub with a rag (the rag is now in the trash can sadly).

After reviewing multiple suggestions, here is what I did:

1. Bring your largest pot of water to a boil.

Boiling Water

2. Add 1/2 cup of baking soda… Add it slowly because it will boil over quickly!

Baking Soda

3. Add filters to water and let boil for 5 minutes.

4. Watch as the grease boils away! Gross… but nice to know this is doing something!

Grease

5. Pull out the filter and see the difference in the side that was submerged and the side that wasn’t…

Cleaned Filter

6. Dump the water out (I recommend your yard… not your sink!) and repeat steps 1-5.

7. Let filters dry overnight and replace into your clean stove hood! Cook away!