10 x 10 Introducing Transfer Swings, Cauliflower and Melon Salad with Roasted Corn and Homemade Clam Chowder with Roasted Corn and Chicken?!

(see workout below)

It's official.  I can no longer say "I never get sick!"  I've had this summer cold for days now, in fact I think it started a week ago, took a couple of days to kick in and then, pretty much, took me down for 4 days.  I chose to not go to yoga practice, not just because I felt like crap, but I so dislike it when other people come to class sick and I'm right next to them blowing their nose and coughing....and the thought of being trapped in a 104 degree room for 90 minutes was the last thing I wanted to do!

I started to really feel bad the night before The Swing Quest, but I would have had to be in the hospital before I would miss my favorite event, beside that it's only a couple of hours!  That was on Sunday, took Monday off, trained Tuesday morning but cut it short, took Wednesday off, trained yesterday (Thurs.) and got a bit more done and I'm thinking I might actually make it to yoga today.

This week's 10 x 10 teaches you the next progressive swing combination, transfer swings (tr).  I know many of you have already been swinging for a while, or have already played around with switching hands every rep, but for those of you that are new swing practice, or maybe you are an Instructor teaching or leading new students, this is the next progression.

My order is as follows for teaching:
2 hand swings (2 hd)
2 hand swings to one hand swings (5 2 hd + 5 R, or 5 2 hd + 5 L)
5 one hand swing R + 5 one hand swing L (5/5, or 5 R/ 5 L)
10 one hand swing R and L (10 R, 10 L)

then I go back, to 5/5, add in 10 transfer swings (10 tr) for practice.  When the time comes to "train" the swing and you are (or your student is) ready and comfortable with switching hands every swing rep then the faster and more complicated swing progressions are demonstrated and practiced (sw/tr, 1/2 sw ld, rndabt)

The basic training progressions are as follows:

10 2 hd sw
10 tr
5/5
10 R
10 L
or reverse the last 4 progressions, 10 2 hd, 10 R, 10 L, 5/5, 10 tr.

The video tape demonstrates this progressive swing workout:

10 2 hd sw
5 2 hd sw + 5 R
5 2 hd sw + 5 L
5/5 x 2 sets
10 tr x 2 sets
5/5 x 1 set
10 tr x 2 sets

Enjoy....and practice it a few times!

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Thursday morning training starts at 5:30am and the first hour is one of my most demanding workouts of the week.  Yesterday was no different.  I'm back to swinging double 16kg's but this cycle I've added heavy double cleans and I've got a crazy workout I have yet to post for my Czech friends to which this cycle was inspired.  I had to back off for 3 weeks, one while I was in Sweden, one the week I got back, and this one I was sick. Next week it's back to some serious business!  Here was the basic workout we did yesterday. (we always start with a 100 swing 5 minute warm up)

single bell warm up (14kg, then repeat w/16kg)

sw/cl/tr (1 swing, 1 clean, 1 transfer swing) 1 min work/1 min rest
x 2 sets each weight
8 min

work sets started OTM (16kg's)

3 double cleans, 5 dbl swings ("park" the bells after the cleans, then start the swings) x 5 sets
3 dbl cl, 10 dbl sw
3 dbl cl, ladder down the swing in the next 5 sets, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5

15 sets total, 15 min

Swing/snatch practice 16kg (all equal work to rest intervals)

10 2 hd sw (15 sec)
10 tr (15 sec)
1 sw/1 tr (30 sec)
1 sw, 1 sn, 1 tr (1 min)
1 sw/1 sn x 6 R, 1 sw/1 sn x 6 L (1 min set)
10 / 10 snatch (1 min)
8 minutes, repeat this round 3 times
24 min

10 x 10 2 hd swings
5 min.

total workout 57 min.

I haven't been in the habit of journaling my Thursday morning workouts for the honest reason that I'm usually too tired and if I don't do it during or right afterwards I forget the exact number of sets/reps.  This is a good example.  I go by the clock and I know for a fact that we trained for 62 minutes, not a second less, so 5 minutes was lost somewhere.  I know it seems trivial, but what I like most about how I program my routines is that because of the progressive combinations I use I can look back and recount the exact workout based on the number of intervals (time), IF I don't wait to long to write it down!  I've got so many great routines that I need to start journalling them again.  So if you ever wonder why I'm a bit tired looking when I video tape Thursday 10 x 10's the workout above is the reason!


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Cauliflower, Tomato and Melon Salad with Sweet Summer Corn

Since I was sick over the weekend I did not feel like cooking first thing Monday morning, but I had a refrigerator full of perishables that was telling me otherwise!  I spent the morning making some of my favorite curried baked beans, a staple for my vegetarian days, some eggplant lasagna for Mark (with sausage and pasta), a vegetarian lasagna for me that included kabocha squash, and finally an accidentally amazing raw cauliflower, tomato and melon salad with roasted corn.

One of my favorite summer salads I have in my book (The Swing page 212) was made better quite on accident!  I almost didn't make it because the only white vinegar I had was plain old distilled white vinegar that I normally only use to make pickled veggies, or clean out the coffee maker!  I prefer to use a better quality, and more mellow white wine vinegar for salads but I had none, so I splashed on just a small amount of plain white vinegar thinking I would go to the market and finish the salad later in the day with better one. And for some crazy reason I decided, last second, to dice up some melon (watermelon and orange honeydew) and add that in.  I only used a very small amount of olive oil, maybe 2 tbl at the very most, for the amount of fruit and veg I used:

1 small head of cauliflower (sliced very thin using a mandoline slicer)
3 ears of corn, roasted under the broiler
4 med tomatoes (from a friends garden, seeded)
1 basket yellow grape tomatoes (sliced in half)
1/2 small red onion, small dice
about 2-3 c. diced watermelon, or any combination of summer melon you like
1/3-1/2 c white vinegar (or a little more depending on the size of the salad)
1-2 tbl olive oil
salt to season

This salad does better made at least 1 hour ahead of time to "marinate".  the melon should make it pretty darn juicy, creating a lot of liquid on the bottom, but we like it that way.  If I had any I may have also thrown in some fresh strawberries too!

I know it was the plain white vinegar that made it taste so good because Mark and I ate it so quickly I had to make another batch, and the second batch I used a "better" white wine vinegar and it just didn't taste as good!  I couldn't quite figure it out...but I finally splashed some of the other vinegar on it and it came to life!  So, lesson learned.  Plain white distilled vinegar has a sort of kick and brightness that could be harsh if not used in the right amount, so in my opinion be careful and cautious with the amounts you use.  Taste as you go before adding more. (picture above was taken before the addition of the cauliflower)



Homemade Clam Chowder w/Roasted Sweet Summer Corn

The salad came about because of some corn I bought on Friday and because of the vinegar situation I almost made a chowder soup instead.  My daughter in law, Cristina, mentioned how much she loved clam chowder the last time I saw her and that planted the seed in my brain!  Clam chowder is so easy to make using canned clams, which I had in my pantry, so two days later, on Wednesday, I had to make some!  Mark really likes it too, and he loves, loves, loves corn so I used both and I even added chicken.  I had one rogue russet potato so I threw that in too.  One more lucky ingredient...smokey ham stock in the freezer :)

Sautee:
1 onion, 2-3 celery stalks, med dice.  At this point you can choose to thicken the soup a couple of ways.

Using 1-2 russet potatoes, small dice (optional), OR make a roux with 2 tbl flour and 2 tbl butter, OR both.

After the onion and celery are translucent, IF you want to thicken the soup with a "roux", move veggies to the side of the pan and heat up 2 tbl butter.  Then sprinkle 2 tbl flour and 2 tbl Old Bay Seasoning into the melted butter and quickly stir/cook until raw flour smell turns to a more "nutty" aroma (about 4-5 min), then add 4 c. stock.  The stock should thicken up right away. Add 2 cans chopped clams w/juice, potatoes (if using) and roasted corn, and cooked diced chicken (optional).  Bring to a boil, turn down heat and cook partially uncovered until potatoes are soft, about 10-15 min.  Turn off the heat and add 1/2 c. heavy cream....goodness, I almost forgot to list this!  duh!

Technically I guess you can add the cream at the same time you add the stock and clam juice, but I prefer to add it at the end and control how much I use by tasting for the amount that is just right.  In this case it was about 1/2 c.

Super simple huh?  Here is the order of ingredients again:

onion
celery
Old Bay Seasoning
(flour if using)
(potato if using)
4 c. chicken, veg, or smokey meat stock
2 cans of clams w/juice
roasted corn, cut from cob
(chicken, cooked, if using)
1/2 c heavy cream I added at the end.  Technically you can use any grade of milk or cream to your taste, or don't add any.  It's your soup, you make it the way you like it!

The only reason why I list flour (for a roux), and potato as optional is because I recognize the desire for low and no carb options, as well as some people liking their chowder soups less thick, or not thick at all.  Personally I chose not to make a roux this time because Mark prefers his soups with a thinner broth consistency, but like I mentioned above I had one potato in my fridge so I used it.  In the future I think I will still add at least one potato, or use small red potatoes instead (cut in half or smaller).

A couple more things; I added chicken, something I've never done before with clam chowder, because I didn't want it to be too clammy, and because I needed to make some chicken stock.  This was before I realized I had smokey meat stock in my freezer, which is what I ended up using.  Also, I'm fine with canned clams!  Sure, a fresh clam chowder would be easy and delicious, maybe more so, but to me canned clams are no different than canned tuna (in quality) which most people don't have a problem using.  Surprisingly I prefer BumbleBee canned clams after experimenting with other "higher quality" (more expensive) brands.  Oh, and in this batch I used a roasted red bell pepper I had in the freezer too!

I ended up storing it a couple of small jam and mason jars I had in my cabinet.  It seemed to be a good serving size and re-heatable in the microwave by simply removing the lid.  I hope to visit my son and daughter in law this weekend and recreate it for them in their kitchen for dinner on Saturday.

Have you ever made clam chowder?  What is different about your recipe?