“Pasta-bilities” in the Lowcountry

What a great turnout for our lunch series.

Rhonda Looney from William Sonoma presented our first Spring cooking class where she featured “pasta-bilities”

We dined on Caprese salad, two different pastas and sauce (Penne and Pesto and Spring Vegetable Pasta with baby arugula, thinly sliced zucchini and sun dried tomato’s with garlic, crushed red peppers and chevre cheese. Mmmm all melty and gooey goodness!

For dessert it was a choice of red velvet cupcakes or double mocha.

Prizes were given for naming ingredients and techniques and everyone took home tons of ideas and knowledge.

We look forward to the next event in June where we’ll learn how to grill pizzas Poolside and enjoy some of Rhonda’s creative expertise for an ice cream bar.

The Oldfield Wine Lottery

A subtle breeze, high tide and the expansive view of the Okatie River, what else could you ask for? Well how about a glass of Pinot Noir?

This past Sunday we 7 couples gathered at the River Club for the Wine Lottery.

They were asked to bring two bottles of Pinot Noir (both the same) and an appetizer to share.

I presented one wine of each brought, to a display table and wrapped the other up in undercover wrappings. This would be a blind taste test with the winning wine owners receiving all the bottles (7 in all) from the display table.

What made it so great were the scenery, food and friendship. The wine doesn’t hurt either.

It was light evening, with casual conversation and relaxed atmosphere. So as the sun set we finished our wine and contemplated our next lottery and what could possibly top this night.

An Afternoon with Friends

I always say some of the best cooks in the Low Country reside in Oldfield and last Saturday they proved it once again.

We gathered in the newly re-arranged Sports Club living room armed with 10 different soups, each one homemade and over the top yummy!

We had Cream of Garbanzo Bean, Asparagus Bisque with Cajun shrimp, Chicken Tortilla and Louisiana Gumbo. There was Oxtail and Old fashion Chicken & Vegetable soup.

One soup was masterfully made with fish, crab and shrimp pulled right from the Okatie River. Now that’s fresh seafood Gumbo.

It was a great afternoon spent with friends. Recipes were traded and leftovers spooned into to-go containers. We’re always up for a challenge but thankfully we didn’t have to decide a winner. We all left happy, full and completely satisfied.

Let’s see what we cook up next!

Annie Get Your Gun

What do you get when you mix 13 lovely ladies, beautiful 70 degree weather, and guns?  Ladies Clay Shooting!!!

Oh my gosh, what an amazing day.

We were lead by experts Marvin Bouknight and Jason Dubose in a day of “Annie Get your Gun” Oldfield style.

The day started out with a nice leisurely travel to our host Hunt Club, Turkey Hill Plantation. This sprawling plantation is an adventure waiting to happen.

Courtney Smith, our Hospitality Coordinator for the day served up an amazing lunch; Low country Shrimp Gumbo, Roasted Tomato Soup, Maple bacon BLT’s and Roasted Turkey on Foccia. For the sweet side there was a variety of fruits, cakes and cookies. How could it get any better we thought?

Well it did.

After a well informed and expertly instructed demonstration of proper gun handling, how the shells were loaded and what the clay shooting stands were all about, we were all giddy with anticipation of firing a gun.

We all took turns at various clays coming from different targets (each target represented a different flight pattern). There were so many high five’s, back slapping and hoots and hollering that you would have thought we were winning a prize. Even when we missed, we congratulated each other on a great attempt.

Finally having to drag us away from the stands, Marvin and Jason gave us a great tour of the plantation and its impressive history.

We are so privileged to have Turkey Hill as part of an Oldfield amenity. Plans are already underway for the next shoot and girls over night trip in the BIG house.

I’m even thinking about asking Santa for my own rifle.

A New You in the New Year

Some people make excuses, others make commitments.

Congrats to the class that uped their level in the New Year.

If you want to kick your routine up a notch, join us for extreme TRX.   Or just stop by set up a sustainable wellness goal for 2012.  Take it one step at a time, and before you know it you’ll be looking and feeling fantastic!

Add steps, medicine and kettle balls to really test your core strength.

Next stop; Cirque du Soleil

Great Gift Ideas

If your list of gifts includes the athlete or the part time fitness fanatic, I have some great ideas for you.

For the walker or hiker (really anyone can use this) why not keep their H2O needs in mind. Check out Sip N’ Go bottles that are space saving and eco-friendly. They fill easily, get compressed when emptying and pack flatly. Great travel bottle, you’ll always have a water bottle with you. $8.00    www.buysipngo.com

For the runner try the QuickDraw Plus by Nathan. There’s a moisture wicking hand strap that allows you to run and carry your water comfortably because it stays snug in your hand. $18.00   www.rei.com

For everyone on your list including the kids whether they are a fitness buff or not;

Road ID. It’s your ID in a wearable wrist, shoe or ankle ID. There are many to choose from and smart looking too. Go for the basic that lists name, phone and address and emergency contact persons, or choose the elite that can give all your medical information as well as contact info to all emergency and medical personnel via a pin number on the back of the ID. Great for anyone that needs to carry their ID when working out, to the senior taking a walk. Prices vary but are super reasonable starting at $15.99  www.roadID.com

For the person who can’t get to the gym try the Samsung BD-D5700 smart Blu-ray player. Get free or low-cost access apps that stream workouts to your TV. Try THEGYMBOX (choose kickboxing, Pilates, treadmill routines and more) or try Yoga Helper. New classes are added each week so boredom goes out the window.

$ 129.00 www.amazon.com

Saturday Boot Camp

Saturdays just got a little more radical!!! We took our fitness class outside. Kettlebells, mats, medicine balls, bands… we had the makings of a boot camp, loud music, hot sun constant motion and a ton of calories burned (not to mention a little suntan too).

Reward Yourself

We all have that little key tag that you flash at stores for customer rewards right. Great motivation for being a loyal customer and it really pays off.  What if we created a loyal customer tag for our own virtual fitness and nutrition store?

Try this either on a personal level or with family or friends:

Set up an account where you earn points for doing a fitness class (100 points), not drinking a soda (50 points) or just getting off the couch (10 points).

Then set up a rewards chart; 500 points = a pedicure, 1000 points a new purse…

But stay honest to the task and get yourself moving.

This would be a great way to earn that family vacation and get fit together.

So, set up daily challenges for the kids and even the family pet.  You’ll have fun at the end of each week challenging each other to earn points and even more fun cashing them in.

First Friday Fun Day

What a great First Friday dinner this past week. The weather, although warm was perfect for Chefs selection of Seafood Paella. So many great dishes brought in by everyone and Marlin behind the bar, how could it get any better?

Well throw in trivia for Dino Dollars and you’ve got a hit. It’s amazing the useless facts we adults retain but even more impressive was the knowledge of our youngsters.

Try as I might, history, geography and even science couldn’t stump them.

Even more fun was the Oldfield Cheer contest. Groups were asked to put together a cheer for Oldfield and WOW, did we get some fantastic cheers.

I’m going to try to get them on tape for a future streaming.

When all was said and done the live auction at evenings end was by far the most intense auction we’ve had to date. The kids have really learned how to savor their Dino Dollars and debated long and hard if the three boxes of Sour Patch Kids was worth 200.00 Dino Dollars.

But in the end the happiest most successful bidder was rewarded with an iPod Nano.

Hopefully they load some workout music on to it and I’ll see them at the gym.

Post Workout Protein

Did you know that woman who drink 2 cups of milk right after resistance training like weight-lifting or Pilates lose more fat and gain more lean muscle then woman who drink another beverage? Ingesting proteins after workout helps repair and build muscle and milk contains about 8 grams per cup.

The two main types of proteins in milk, whey and casein, may have intrinsic properties that are advantageous in terms of supporting muscle growth. Since soy and milk proteins are considered to be complete proteins that are basically equivalent from a nutritional standpoint, you would think that drinking soy would have the same results. But research proved that men who drank 2 glasses of skim milk were found to have twice the muscle mass as the men who drank soy.

Milk proteins are a superior source of protein in producing muscle mass gains in response to weightlifting. So drink up, Milk does do a body good!