for 40 minutes until golden. Stir the mixture after 20 minutes to make sure it is evenly baked.
7 Let the granola cool completely. It will become crunchier as it sits.
8 Stir in the dried fruit when completely cool.
9 Store in an airtight container.
Channa Masala Curry
Adapted from Rupen Rao
Ingredients
4 Tbsp. olive oil
1 cup minced red onion
2 cups canned garbanzo beans, rinsed
1 Tbsp. minced ginger
1 Tbsp. minced garlic
1 can diced tomatoes, including juice
Spice mix:
(You can also buy Rupen’s Channa Masala spice mix. The recipe is on the tin, so it tells you how much to use.)
1 Tbsp. yellow curry powder
1 tsp. garam masala powder
1 tsp. mango powder
½ tsp. cayenne powder
Salt to taste
½ fresh lemon juice
Chopped cilantro
Instructions
1 In a skillet, heat the oil over medium heat.
2 Add onions and sauté for 5 minutes, stirring every few minutes until the onions are light brown. Add ginger and garlic, sauté for 2 more minutes.
3 Add tomato and spices, mix well, and cook covered on low heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4 Mash tomatoes with the back of a spoon.
5 Add 1 cup water and garbanzo beans and mix well.
6 Bring to a boil over medium heat, and add salt.
7 Cover and cook for 20 minutes.
8 Use the back of a spoon to mash some of the garbanzo beans.
Add lemon juice, garnish with chopped cilantro, and serve with basmati rice and naan or roti.
Warm Up
Clocks – Coldplay
Lost Girls – Tilly and the Wall
Before-work Cardio
I only did two miles because I struggled with shin splints, especially on my left leg. I’ve had this problem off and on, but usually they let up after the first mile. Since I had to go more slowly, I ran out of time. I did six minutes on the arm bike maintaining 60 RPM and about 10 minutes on the mat, doing planks and leg and core work.
Flightless Bird, American Mouth – Iron & Wine
Happy Ending – MIKA
Dreams Be Dreams – Jack Johnson
Tore My Heart – OONA
The Con – Tegan and Sara
Count on Me – Bruno Mars (So wholesome)
Happy – Pharrell Williams (So sappy, but I love this song.)
Lovers’ Eyes – Mumford and Sons (I set this one on repeat through arm bike—so great.)
Day 11, April 9, 2014
“Show me the buffet.”
—John Pinette
I was surprised at how moved I was at seeing Su Meck at her book signing in Rockville. Su was on the talk show and book-signing circuit after her gripping memoir I Forgot to Remember was published. In the book, Su describes her survival and recovery from a devastating brain injury when her son Ben was a baby. I got to know Su when Ben and Mia performed in the “Laramie Project” together their senior year of high school. Su’s daughter, Kassidy, did musical theater with Adin, and they were members of the same show choir. Su and I were stage moms and volunteers who drove our kids to rehearsals, collected props, and raised money for the youth theater group—Act Two Performing Arts before it became ActTwo@Levine—and threw cast parties for the kids.
Su had always been friendly and pleasant and enjoyed talking about her son Patrick, the diver, who had no interest in theater. We had met Patrick for the first time at the book signing, where Su told one of our friends that although she always carried a book with her to rehearsals back then, the brain injury had left her without the ability to read. She just wanted to fit in and seem normal. Su and her husband, who now live in Massachusetts, had made a decision to keep her injury a secret, and not one of the moms who socialized with Su had a clue until she told us about the book just before it was published.
Su’s story is honest and touching. Woven throughout the pages of her memoir are the moments when she felt normal. There weren’t many of these, but they formed the foundation of her survival. She said one thing she could count on were her gigs teaching aerobics or some other fitness class at a health club, probably what we would have called Equinox in the 80s, wearing our Jane Fonda leg warmers and leotards. There are disturbing moments as well, and it’s hard not to feel like we all let Su down by enabling her to keep her struggle a secret. Her loneliness permeates the book, and I think we all feel a little guilty about that.
It was great to be together to catch up and to celebrate those moments of survival.
As we walked to our cars, my good friend Carmelita Watkinson suggested the two of us head to the bar at Seasons 52 for a late dinner. We had a great meal—I had a salad with sushi grade tuna, and both of us had a glass of Napa Valley Honig Sauvignon Blanc. In the center of the bar was Andy with the terrific voice at the piano. Andy is there every Tuesday night, and we’re thinking we might be there too.
***
I was sad to read about the death of John Pinette at the age of fifty. Adin is the one who found the story and forwarded it to me. Apparently, the cause was a pulmonary embolism. When we lived in California and drove vast distances for practically any reason, Pinette’s famous comedy special, Show Me the Buffet, was a favorite CD. He made fun of his size and his huffing and puffing around Disney World, and he recounted endlessly hilarious situations at the buffet.
In the end, not really that funny.
Very sad, Adin wrote.
***
Yesterday, I pushed myself to go to the gym for cardio before work and later had training with Adorable where we focused on my core, which I learned includes my lower back as well as my gut—duh—and my pecs, shoulders, and arms before heading to the book event. I did not have the same shin splint problem I had been having on Monday. Adorable had showed me some specific stretches to try before getting on the treadmill. It would be months and some guidance from my current physical therapist Dr. Kevin McGuinness before I was done with this problem, though.
Only one is worth mentioning after such a long and full day.
Talk Dirty – Jason Derulo featuring 2 Chainz (I’ve put this one in the same category as “Candy Shop” by 50 Cent. Seriously great stuff, but do we need to be exposed to this much explicit language? Jason Derulo?)
Day 12, April 10, 2014
“This is how I roll.”
—LMFAO, “Sexy and I Know It”
It was probably only for a second, but I felt myself shrug when I stepped off the scale.
I’m fine just the way I am.
Adorable and I decided to put off getting me back on the scale, at least for this week.
“We