So, via Ubisoft and Clever Girls Collective, I got my hot little hands on a copy of Gold’s Gym Dance Workout for the Wii. I brought the game over to my brother and sister-in-law’s house to play with my SIL. She and I like to play Wii together every now and then, particularly dance or music games. I figured she’d be game to try out GGDW with me since she’s always looking for ways to stay active and help burn off the last little bit of baby weight since having my adorable niece eight months ago. Adding to the fun, my SIL’s sister also came over to play along and laugh at our attempts.

I say attempts, because the dance sequences were actually kind of hard to follow. There are several different settings you can play – latin and pop dance workouts, mini-games that have you bouncing around doing different activities to burn calories, and cardio boxing. The dance workouts were a lot like attending a real dance class at the gym – there’s an instructor on screen demonstrating and shouting out the moves. And, a lot like a real dance class, they don’t stop or slow down to help you catch up if you get lost. Which I did. Frequently. My SIL was better at mimicking the steps, but I kept getting confused as to whether I should be mirroring the instructor or following their moves. We all agreed that there should be an option to turn the instructor around so that you can watch their movements in the same way that you should be doing them.

(This is a screen shot of the warm-up exercises, led by my “personal trainer” avatar.)

During the dance parts, there’s a chart on the side of the screen that shows how well you’re doing (or not doing), and you can go back and play back the individual moves to help you practice them separately. You can do two-player dance workouts, which is nice if you do best when motivated by working out with someone else. Or if you want to get the person laughing at you from the couch to put their moneymaker where their mouth is.

My favorite part of the game is definitely the mini-games. They’re fast paced and fun – you can do karate chops, ride bulls, canoe, jump rope, etc. (I think I like the sword practice best. I am not so good at the matador moves – good to learn in case I ever decide to go to Pamplona.) They’re probably not the focus of the overall game, but certainly the highlight for me.

I think with a little practice, I could probably get better at the actual dance workouts. Even off-step, we could tell that they are a good workout, they got our heart rates up and got us moving. Plus, my niece loved watching our dance steps and bouncing along to the music, getting her own little workout while we danced away.

(Notice the slight blur? That’s because Eva is bouncing out her dance moves!)

Have you tried Gold’s Gym Dance Workout? What did you think? What’s your favorite workout game?

I mastered the first step, washing and cutting the figs. You know, because a raccoon could do that.

I mastered the next step, applying honey and then topping the figs with blue cheese:

The part that I didn’t quite get down was the melting. I wasn’t sure whether to bake or broil, so I chose to bake. Except it wasn’t melting the cheese. Even after 15 – 20 minutes in the oven, the cheese was still intact. So, at that point I decided to broil. And then my friend Lilly and I wandered away from the kitchen and started watching television, forgetting about the figs until the smoke detector started going off about five minutes later. Yup, you know things are going south when the smoke detector starts screaming at you.

Instead of lovely cheesy fig bites, we had melted molten figs:

I wish I could say that they still tasted good, but they were so over-cooked at that point that they were pretty much flavorless…well, except for the slightly burned blue cheese flavor. Not one of my finest moments in the kitchen.

Fortunately, for every kitchen failure I’ve ever had there have been many times more successes. This weekend, redemption came in the form of fresh plum crisp.

The recipe was pulled from Epicurious, originally in Bon Appetit in May 1993. Here it is as it appears on the website:

Plum Crumble

• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup old-fashioned oats
• 1/3 cup plus 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces

• 2 pounds plums, halved, pitted, cut into wedges
• 1 tablespoon plum brandy or Port

Mix flour, oats, 1/3 cup sugar and cinnamon in medium bowl. Add butter and rub with fingertips until mixture forms coarse meal. Press with fingertips until mixture begins to form moist clumps. (Crumb topping can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Toss plums, remaining 1/2 cup sugar and brandy in medium bowl. Transfer to 9-inch deep-dish pie dish. Sprinkle crumb topping over. Bake until fruit bubbles and topping browns, about 1 hour. Cool slightly. Serve with ice cream.

**My notes: We didn’t have brandy or port, so we substituted a teaspoon of vanilla extract instead. I also threw a pinch of ground cloves into the topping mixture. It was done after about 45 minutes, not an hour as stated in the recipe (I learned my over-baking lesson from the figs). (You could also use peaches…I repeated it tonight with fresh peaches and it was great!)

It was AMAZING!! The crumble topping was delicious and the fruit was sweet and gooey and warm. With a scoop of vanilla ice cream, it’s the perfect end-of-summer dessert.

Vintage button flower earrings from Life Through the Lens:

Silk flower belt/headband from Shrimp Salad Circus:

Felted flowers from The Pickled Herring:

Aren’t they all lovely? And each project seems fairly simple and inexpensive to do – my kind of crafts!

What’s inspiring you lately?

Click on the link above if you want to see why I need to scrub my  mouth out now (you’ll have to click on it again on the next page). This is what I get for leaving my water glass sitting out, I guess. Blech!

He’s the most talkative cat I’ve ever met, the kitty version of a Chatty Cathy… a Chatty Catty??

His owners have a nice blender (woohoo!) so I’ve been making banana nutella smoothies while I’m here:

They’re delicious. Just blend together 2 frozen bananas (let thaw briefly to make peeling easier), a couple of tablespoons of Nutella, and about 1/3 cup of nonfat milk. Perfect for breakfast or dessert!

My cat-sitting has coincided with having a cold and viral conjunctivitis, so the cat and I have both been curled up on the couch lately, quarantined. I was finally feeling a little better yesterday, so a friend baked beer cupcakes (!) and came over for bacon pizza from our favorite local pizza joint. She made the cupcakes in these adorable silicon teacup molds, using Blue Moon‘s Honey Moon Summer Ale and plenty of real honey. Sticky sweet and good!

The Hungry Mouse’s Drunken Coffee Jello – This grown-up version of Knox Blocks looks divine. I think I might try to make either Earl Grey tea or chai latte versions with plenty of dollops of fresh whipped cream.

Smitten Kitchen’s Everyday Chocolate Cake - I must have a sweet tooth this week, because looking at this rich, moist chocolate cake makes me want to crawl through my computer screen. Can’t wait to make this and serve it up with an ice cold glass of milk. On a side note, I just love Smitten Kitchen‘s food photography. She has wonderful natural light for her shots and great counter tops to give nice contrast to her photos.

Chocolate Nutella Cookies from Garrett McCord‘s guest post on Simply Recipes – Yes, okay fine, I definitely have a sweet tooth. I’ve been on a Nutella kick lately after having a banana-Nutella smoothie recently, and these cookies look amazing way to scratch that Nutella itch!

Do you have a favorite food blog or post to share?

The poet Jean Perrin dreamed “of marrying the dawn with the light of the moon,” and I invite you to do the same. The darkness you’ve been immersed in will leave you soon. As it does, please don’t forsake the pale, moon-like radiance that has provided you with a bit of guidance and consolation. Rather, bring along what it has taught you as you head into the far brighter phase you’re entering. In other words, retain some of the wisdom the dim light has compelled you to learn.

“Sri Wasano’s Infamous Indonesian Rice Salad” – edited by the HungryCook

~ 2 cups cooked brown rice (despite my normal cooking prowess I’m somehow terrible at making rice, so I usually cheat and just buy the prepared packaged brown rice at Trader Joe’s, it’s actually about 1.5 cups)

1/2 cucumber, diced

1/2 green bell pepper, diced

2 scallions, chopped

1/2 cup dry roasted peanuts (unsalted)

1/3 cup raisins

Dressing:

1/4 cup canola or peanut oil

1.5 tablespoons sesame oil

juice of one orange

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 tablespoon honey (this is approximate, depending on the sweetness of the orange)

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

Mix dry ingredients together. In a separate dish, mix together the dressing (this is to make sure it has the right balance of saltiness/sweetness/tang/etc. before you mix it all together). Stir dressing into rice mixture and let marinate for at least a half hour before eating, so that the rice has time to absorb the flavors of the dressing. Yields 4-6 servings.

To me, this salad is the perfect blend of flavors and textures – a great warm weather side dish. Enjoy!

My corn salad is a go-to summertime treat, particularly since I love the flavor of raw corn. In fact, everything in it is raw, which I think is what keeps it from being a succotash. Here’s my recipe:

Corn Salad

2 ears of corn, kernels cut off of the cob

1/2 of a red or green bell pepper, diced

1/3 of a red onion, very finely diced

1-2 cups of cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

1 cup cucumber, diced

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

dash of salt & a hearty grind of fresh pepper

Optional additions: 1/4 cup chopped basil, or some diced avocado.

Mix everything together and enjoy. If I’m making it as an accompaniment to Italian food, I make sure to add basil, but you could add cilantro instead if you want to serve the salad with Mexican food or another cuisine. I love the fresh flavors and taking advantage of all those great seasonal vegetables!

The falafel sandwiches were easy to make because of shortcuts like using a mix and store-bought hummus. I love the ease, but crave fresh hummus and falafel (even pita!). Do you have a good recipe for homemade falafel or hummus? If so, please share!

The fountain at Lincoln Center:

© 2010 Ana Cruz

© 2010 Ana Cruz

Strolling in the Financial District:

© 2010 Ana Cruz

The Brooklyn Bridge:

© 2010 Ana Cruz

© 2010 Ana Cruz

What a gorgeous, photogenic weekend!