Making Changes

She didn't mean to be funny (I think), but one of the women in water aerobics last night said she liked the class because there's no shame in leaving early.

Honey, please. Wiggling my way out of PE was the first thing I did in kindergarten and the last thing I did before high school graduation. I am impervious to shame on the matter. Believe it or not, I was an incredibly fit kid from ballet, gymnastics, and swimming. Oh, and if I wanted to go anywhere I had to ride my bike (which also accounts for the pocky scar where I gravelled-up my leg... the elbow and face healed better).

But note that in those activities no one is throwing stuff at me. Tennis, volleyball, softball, basketball, soccer - all involve a spherical object at high speed (that HURTS) that must be struck and dodged at the same time. Not for cash, not for cookies, just for having done it. Ummm, no. Dance is an art and swimming is a survival skill. If dodgeball is a survival skill you need to carefully examine the choices you've made in life. In college I fulfilled the PE requirement with one semester of dance, and another of fencing, which I knew full well no one would ever ask me to participate in after work.

Were I a mother, I think I'd give Mary a run - or, more likely, a mosey - for the title of Worst Soccer Mom (her hilarious post on this can be found on her hilarious blog, here)*. As it stands, I'm a soccer aunt and that's WAY easier than being a soccer mom (although without politicians pandering to me which, frankly, I could use more of). Basically, if I show up I'm a hero.

Where was I? Ah yes, water aerobics. I LOVED the class, but I should've met it for drinks first before going all in on an hour-long class. The very fit, heavily-accented German instructor paced the edge of the pool, yelling "HAAAAAAAR FLUFFLE!" and heads would bob up and down. Then "FASTER!!!" and sure enough, everyone would bob double-time. Dutifully, I got twice as confused as I had been before. "Waaaaagggg rummin!" was next, and everyone scooted down to one end of the pool. I swear I'm not making this up.

But once she added the pantomime - and once my glasses-less self got close enough to see her - I was golden. And sore. But that's fine, because I'm envisioning my tushie toning and my legs sleeking. You do too know what I mean.

And as part of the Staring Down The Barrel of 40 program, I'm branching out on the vegetable recipes. It's been years since I made cauliflower - Sweetie doesn't care for it, and it's not one of those veggies that comes in a good one-person serving size. So with dinner over the weekend I made this yummy roasted cauliflower and some steamed green beans, so that we both had a vegetable.

The recipe calls for Parmesan, but I had Asiago and went with that. It was really good, although I didn't so much care for the leftovers.

*Mary and I went to high school together and re-connected on Facebook. She is a self-proclaimed "kitchentard", so I'm guessing she's not a stinkycheeser...
Roasted Cauliflower

Ingredients
1 head of cauliflower
2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled and coarsely minced
1 lemon (I used bottled lemon juice)
Olive oil
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
Parmesan cheese (I used Asiago - no snobby culinary reason, it's just what I had in the cheese drawer)


Method
1 Preheat oven to 400°F. Cut cauliflower into florets and put in a single layer in an oven-proof baking dish. Add garlic. Squeeze a lemon over cauliflower and drizzle each piece with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. If the oven hasn't reached 400°F yet, set aside until it has.

2 Place casserole in the hot oven, uncovered, for 15-25 minutes, until the top is lightly brown. Test with a fork for desired doneness. Remove from oven and sprinkle generously with Parmesan cheese.

Serves 4.