After a full season of triathlon, I have learned my strengths and weaknesses. I have adopted better swimming techniques, but there is a lot of room for improvement.

I have noticed that I often drift to my left in open water swim. To correct my imbalance, I have started swimming on one side (with the other arm out in the front breaking the water) as part of my drill-sets. I spent 45 minutes in the water correcting my form today.

Drills:

• Pull buoy: 3 x (3 x 50 yards), breathe every 3, 5, and 7 strokes with no rest between each round
• 1-arm freestyle: 5 x 150 yards, swim the last 50 yards
• 5 x 50 yards sprints

Total distance: 1450 yards

Besides grilling asparagus, steamed asparagus adds crunchy texture to risotto in contrast to the creamy texture of the cooked rice.

Making risotto is all about patience; I stood in front of the stove and stirred the rice for 40 minutes.

Summer risotto with asparagus and zucchini.

Chow time for Guinea Pig.

Graham cracker with milk, I could eat those two items for breakfast, lunch and dinner when growing up. While crackers are delicious on its own, its versatility as a baking ingredient (especially used for pie crust), makes it a wonderful item to keep in the pantry.

However, most commercialized graham crackers are made with high fructose corn syrup and lower quality flour; thus, I decided to try baking graham crackers and make them a healthy choice for either as a snack or dessert.

Although the final product “cracked”, they barely had the texture of a genuine graham cracker, light and crunchy. My graham crackers turned out too soft even after cooling down; each bite of the cracker reminded me of pop-tart. To ensure the cracker stays crunchy next time, I’d need to roll the dough out a little thinner.

Anymore tips?

I have been longing to try BLT-Restaurant’s Guyere cheese popover. However, a meal in a BLT restaurant can cost a fortune. Therefore, I took upon the making of Guyere cheese popover myself. I simply used the same recipe for the basic popover and sprinkled the cheese on top of the batter before I baked them. The result…

Crispy and brown crust

Guyere cheese adds extra savory flavor to the basic popover. I put less salt, 3/4 teaspoon (half of what the recipe calls for), into the batter to prevent over-saltiness.

Distance: 6.2 miles

Time: 46:55

Feeling very fresh this morning after a rare 7-1/2 hours of sleep.

brownies.

Who’s body would you rather have?

Total distance: 5.7 miles

Total time: 43:08

What do you do to start August on a strong note?

140 push-ups were done during the run (they were done at the red-dot locations)

3 x 10 pull-ups at the playground

Total distance: 5.7 miles

Total time: 48 minutes

Popover is buttery, fluffy, and light. To learn more about baking, I decided to bake popover for dinner.

The batter was easy to make; I spent only 2 minutes blending eggs, melted butter, milk, AP flour, and salt together.

While the popovers were being baked in the oven, I made my filling, which has grilled zucchini and yellow squash, caramelized Vidalia onions, and Jersey yellow tomatoes.

Here they are, the more irregular the shape the better the POP!

Crusty outside and fluffy inside…see the next picture.

Look at the space inside…now that’s a pop! What makes the batter expand without adding any leavening agent? Steam.

Popover sandwich with my fillings (pictures above).

Popover is versatile; you practically can eat it for breakfast (fill the middle with scrambled eggs or slather on some jam), lunch (stuff some grilled vegetables and meat), and dinner (as an appetizer, dip it into your homemade soup).

Who’s poping next?