http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
In my opinion, cheesecake is better in miniature form. A dense, rich slice is more than I can handle after a meal — but a muffin cup-sized portion is just right. These mini cheesecakes are ridiculously creamy, and feature that buttery graham cracker crust everyone agrees on. They’re equal parts celebratory and homey, which is really the best kind of dessert.
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
With Thanksgiving now just a memory, our holiday attention turns to the most wonderful time of the year: Christmas! And with that comes the joyous — but daunting — task of bringing the festive spirit of the holiday season into your home: decorating your house, buying (or unpacking) the tree, untangling that giant ball of scrambled Christmas lights, and perfecting that holiday playlist on Spotify. I’m exhausted just thinking about it.
So it comes as no surprise that the grocery equivalent to Santa’s workshop, Trader Joe’s, is here to help us out with at least one of those tasks: the decorating of your tree.
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With temperatures dropping outside, our minds are more focused on warm soups and stews rather than salads these days. But I still love a feel-good dinner salad anytime of year. These 10 recipes celebrate the ingredients and flavors of the season — like roasted vegetables, dark leafy greens, and maple-sweetened vinaigrettes. Plus, they’re satisfying enough to be called dinner but not so much so that they’ll weigh you down, which is always a win in my book.
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One of the first things people do when they start working out is focus on their abs—crunches, sit-ups, leg lifts, bicycles, and the like. I mean, who doesn’t want a six-pack? Entire fitness schools have sprung up around the idea of targeting your abs with direct work. Take Pilates. In its purest iterations, it’s considered a “total body” philosophy, but the way most classes seem to go you end up spending all your time doing a bunch of complicated crunches and other targeted ab work (and grimacing every time you cough for the next week).
Let me make a radical proposal here. All this ab work isn’t necessary.
Don’t get me wrong. The “abs” are extremely important. Not only do they round out the physique and look great, but abdominal strength also provides stability, supports good posture, and improves movement. Strong abdominals allow and enhance the full expression of a person’s athleticism. Running, jumping, lifting, throwing (balls, spears, or punches), and basically any movement all require—and are improved by—strong abs (i.e. a strong “core”).
When you think about training the abs, consider what the abdominals’ purpose is: to provide a stable foundation for the rest of your body as it moves. They can move, but it’s not their primary function. As such, the way most people train abs is completely superfluous and ignores that essential function—maintaining stability and resisting movement. When you think about it that way, crunches and sit-ups don’t make a whole lot of sense.
But crunches? Abs are best at holding steady and supporting all the other tissues and limbs as they move through space. Using your abs to move heavy weight a few inches is just weird. It “works,” but is it ideal? No.
If you insist on direct ab work, focus on movements where the abs don’t actually move all that much.
In both cases, you’ll be blasting the hell out of your abdominals, but you won’t be flexing and extending your spine.
Okay, with all that out of the way…
I don’t do much direct ab work. You won’t find me doing crunches or bicycles. Instead, I’m using my abs all the time.
Heck, when I’m driving my car or carrying my groceries or walking the dogs, I’m tightening my abs.
It doesn’t matter what you’re doing. The abs figure prominently.
There’s probably one exercise I do specifically for my abs, and that’s the plank. But again, the planks work the abs by resisting movement, by keeping your body straight and solid against the pull of gravity. They aren’t moving.
I made a short video on how I work my abdominals without a specific abs routine. Take a look.
Finally, the single most important thing you can do for your abs in terms of looks, of course, is to become a better fat-burner. Hidden underneath even the most sedentary, flabby exterior is a rippling six pack. Simply possessing basic human anatomy means you have visible abdominals somewhere under there. Get lean enough and you’ll see them.
Thanks for stopping in today. Questions, thoughts? I’d love to hear them.
The post Why an “Ab Routine” Isn’t Necessary (and What I Do Instead) appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
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We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Amazon has a bunch of home decor pieces that look expensive, but are ridiculously affordable. It’s not that surprising, right? After all, you can buy just about everything (and we mean everything) at the mega-retailer — and usually for a low, fair price.
Of course, we’re not the only ones who think Amazon is a decorating enthusiast’s paradise. Truth is, plenty of interior designers can’t get enough of Amazon’s cheap thrills, either.
Don’t believe us? Here, five designers share what they buy on Amazon for under $50. Psst … many of them are available for Prime shipping!
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
On The Great British Bake Off, the white tent where the contestants create their marvelous mouth-watering bakes is a place of comfort and joy, even when the pressure is on. Yes, The Great British Bake Off is technically a competition, but the white tent also represents the bond between the bakers and their love of baking.
This is why (and be warned, there are spoilers ahead) it might have come as a shock to some viewers, when, on the latest season of the show, the final three contestants, Rahul Mandal, Kim-Joy Hewlett, and Ruby Bhogal, actually left the tent to complete their final technical challenge. It was the first time in the show’s eight-year history that the contestants have stepped outside of the tent to bake, but it turned out to be a worthwhile risk on the show’s part.
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
At first glance, silicone baking mats don’t seem all that hard to store, right? They’re practically weightless, so you should be able to store them anywhere. The problem is that they’re floppy and won’t stand up on their own.
So what do you do? Roll them up! But now the problem is that they don’t want to stay rolled, and that is a dilemma. Rubber bands don’t slide on easily, and twist-ties are awkward. I’ve seen a fairly involved technique involving wrapping them up in a dish towel and tucking the ends under, but why would I want to add bulk inside any of my cabinets? And of course, you can buy a special gadget — which looks like a slap bracelet from the ’90s — just for these purposes.
Fortunately, we’ve come up with a solution that’s better than all of those ideas.
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This may come as no surprise, but John Legend, who is good at literally everything, happens to also be really good at giving gifts! We caught up with Chrissy Teigen (at the Chase #OneLessThing Holiday Pop-Up Shop) and learned that the first gift he ever gave her was a cooking class at Sur la Table. Cue swooning.
Significant others, take notes!
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By the time we’re done with Thanksgiving leftovers, we wake up and it’s December: the season of cheese balls and bottomless cookie jars. Weekends are filled with rich cocktails and endless eggnogs. Forget season’s greetings — it feels like all of December is season’s eatings. And sometimes we just need a little bit of a break; something refreshing, resetting, and that makes us feel like we’re steeled for the giant tub of caramel corn that just arrived in the office kitchen.
Here are a few of my favorite recipes to make me feel a bit better between bites of boozy truffles and roast beef.
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
When you hear the words “Dutch oven,” do you automatically see dollar signs? With the two biggest names in the business — Le Creuset and Staub — costing upwards of $285 for even just a small, four-quart option, we totally get it. That’s a lot of money to spend on a single piece of cookware!
While you may be tempted to skip it entirely and spend that money on, say, groceries, we do really insist on the fact that every kitchen needs a Dutch oven. And that’s why we’re writing this post. Because you don’t HAVE to spend a small fortune on a Dutch oven. In fact, you can spend just $45 and get a legitimately good, reliable, workhorse of a Dutch oven.
For now classes are 6pm and 640pm at 2840 Wildwood st in the Boise Cloggers studio.
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