Photo: AA Newton

The sweaty season is just around the corner and unfortunately it’s not going anywhere that fast. Turning on the stove may be a deal breaker, but let’s face it: you can only eat that much salad before you need something more substantial.

This is where cold borscht (or chlodnik) comes into play. First, let’s take a moment to appreciate the beauty that is happening here – look at this color! But this is not about style over substance: Cold borscht is so filling that I regularly say out loud: “Wow, I’m stuffed” after I’ve sanded down a bowl. It’s also very easy to do. If you can put in about 15 minutes of hands-on effort cooking, peeling, and dicing some beets, you are in business. With a serving of cold borscht in the fridge, you’re just a handful of side dishes away from an ice-cold, deeply refreshing meal that will keep you full for hours.

But above all, cold borscht is delicious. It might be nothing more than turnips and the water they are boiled in, but with the help of generous spices and garnishes, a humble bowl of watery turnips turns into a mosh pit of various textures and flavors. There’s a lot going on here and everything is good: sweet, juicy beetroot, crunchy cucumbers, hot spring onions, herbaceous dill and enough salt and acid to pucker your mouth a little – but it won’t, because the sour cream rounds everything out. It’s absolutely flawless. Here’s how to do it.

How to make cold borscht (chlodnik)

Photo: AA Newton

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For the soup:

• 1-2 pounds of beetroot, all about the same size
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of table salt, plus more to taste
• 2 tbsp sugar, plus more to taste
• 1/4 cup of vinegar or lemon juice, plus more to taste

Serve:

• Diced cucumber
• Sliced ​​spring onions
• Chopped fresh dill
• Freshly cracked black pepper
• Sour cream, crème fraîche or Greek yogurt or a vegan equivalent (I used homemade cashew cream)
• Hard boiled eggs (optional)

Scrub the beets well under running water. Put them in a saucepan, add enough cold water to barely cover them, and cook until the tip of the knife slides easily into the center of the beets. Cooking times will vary depending on the beet size and your method, but here are some general guidelines:

• Stovetop: 20-30 minutes for smaller beets; 40-50 for larger ones
• Instant pot: 3-5 minutes at high pressure with manual release for smaller beets; 8-10 for larger ones
• Microwave: 5-8 minutes at high output for smaller beets; 10-15 minutes for larger ones

When the beets are cooked, transfer them to a plate or bowl and let cool completely. Reserve the cooking liquid. Peel the cooled beets with your fingers, then grate or dice as desired. (I like a 1/4-inch cube.) Place the beets in a large mixing bowl and add enough of the reserved cooking liquid to cover them.

Now for the fun part: Season the beet mixture vigorously with salt, sugar and an acid of your choice. (Beets can hold an almost alarming amount of all three, so don’t be shy.) If it starts to taste like pickled beet brine, you’re done. Place the bottom of the soup in the refrigerator overnight so that it is completely cooled.

To serve, ladle the soup into bowls and top with a handful of cucumbers, spring onions and dill, a dollop of fermented dairy products (or non-dairy products) and a generous shower with freshly cracked black pepper. A halved hard-boiled egg is a delicious (and beautiful) finish, but it’s not required. This magical dish – pretty much just vegetables and flavored water – is a truly filling meal on its own.

An earlier version of this story spelled it “borsch”. We changed it to “borscht”, not because the former is wrong or because of the guy in the comments, but because it Googles better.

Photo: Jacob Lund (Shutterstock)

Even among professional athletes, nobody trains at 100% performance every week. There are times to rest and relax, often for a week or more, and you and I can apply this principle to our routines as well.

What is a discharge?

There is a lot of disagreement about this! For some people, a Deload is a complete break from training, like a vacation. You take all week off, and that’s all.

For others, a Deload is less intensive than your usual work. You may do as many sets and reps as possible, but the weights aren’t that heavy. On the flip side, a deload can reduce volume so you do fewer reps and sets, but the weights can be just as heavy as usual.

The type of Deload you should use depends on the type of work you have done up to that point, the reason for the Deload, and your (or your trainer’s) training philosophy.

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When should I unload?

There are several ways that weight lifters (and recreational athletes like you and me) can use a Deload. Here are the main ones:

• To prepare for a competition. To do your best, you have to Reduce fatigue without rusting. Peaking usually involves reducing volume (fewer reps and sets) while holding the weights heavy.
• To introduce new lifts or destinations. You are more likely to experience pain doing something new and intense. It is therefore often useful to introduce new exercises or new types of training during a week of lighter training (in this context this is sometimes called a “pivot week”). )
• For recovery after a hard training block. Some programs have a built-in Deload week; In other cases, after completing one program, you can take an extra week to complete before starting the next.
• As part of a long-term plan to manage fatigue. Even if your training wasn’t particularly hard, you should occasionally take Deload weeks to make sure you don’t get unnecessarily tired.
• In response to perceived stress. Some programs do not include planned weeks of rest and it is up to the trainee to decide when to take a break.

How do I know if I’m doing it right?

If you’re working with a coach, ask them about their big plans for you. The Deloads (or lack thereof) should be part of the puzzle and have a reason to be programmed as they are.

If you are running programs that you found on the internet or in books, take a moment to think about how each of them tackle Deloads. Some may contain Deloads and some may not. Programming for yourself can take inspiration from other programs, but you should also use some common sense and ask yourself how you are feeling.

Deloads are a common tool for fatigue management, but not the only tool. For example, your program may adjust the volume from week to week so that you feel fresh. If so, you may not need a Deload at all. While you are preparing for a competition, a deload is a very common way to reduce fatigue and maintain good performance, but that doesn’t mean you always have to deload before a competition. (For example, it is common practice to “train through” a low priority competition.)

A Deload is really just a training tool, so make sure you tailor your selection of Deloads to suit your body’s needs.

See: Pixar Emily. Screenshot: Emily Long

Look, we’ve all spent way too much time video calling over the past year, but we’re sticking to whatever we can to make our time at Zoom (or Teams or Google Meet) bearable, if not a little fun . On the advance with the Delta variant, it is obviously time to transform into a cartoon character.

We have covered a handful from chops for the application filter and effects to different video chat platforms, and the latest thing to try is Snap Camera’s cartoon-style filter, which turns your face into a generic character straight out of a Dreamworks or Pixar movie (h / t The edge).

Basically, this lens applies a human cartoon head that is reminiscent of Ratatoullie’s Alfredo Linguini or Elsa from Frozen. All you have to do is download the Snap camera desktop app from Snapchat and change the camera settings for your virtual meeting platform and you’re good to go. Here are the steps.

Here’s how to add the cartoon style filter to your video chat app

as a Pixar character at your next virtual meeting

Screenshot: Emily Long

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1. Close your desktop video chat apps (Zoom, Meet, Teams, etc.).
2. Download and install the snap camera.
3. Give the app permission to access your camera and microphone by agreeing to the pop-ups.
4. To choose “Open snap camera” when prompted, or open the app from your desktop.
5. Enter “cartoon style” in the search bar and activate this filter. You can also browse or search for other Snap Camera filters (such as the notorious cat face).
6. Open your video chat app again.
7. In the settings of the app, change your camera to “Snap camera”. If you need help with this step, click “Show me how” Link in the Snap camera under “Go live with this camera”.
8. To get back to your normal face, either turn off the lens in Snap Camera or change the input settings on the Video app to use your normal camera. You can also set up hotkeys in Snap Camera to turn lenses on and off.

Photo: Claire Lower

I recently got into a lot of research into the different freeze dried vegetables available at Trader Joe’s. Structurally, they’re just a lot of fun, especially when you’re around a changed state This allows you to appreciate different textures even more than usual.

I especially like the Crispy Onion Chips – whole petals of airy, crispy onions that taste the way a Funyun wants to be when they grow up. I dipped them in sour cream and sprinkled some fried garlic chunks (and a little MSG) on top, and wow – what a snack. These chips are a paradigm shift for sour cream and onion as a genre, a genre I assumed was pretty exhausted.

But beyond snacking, all of the dried vegetables you can buy at TJ’s (and other health food stores or adjoining health food stores) can be used to make tasty powdered vegetables. We’ve already talked about fruit powders and their ability to add vibrant color and fruity flavor immersed, beverages, and Garnish cake, and the vegetable powders work similarly, if not exactly the same.

For example, I wouldn’t add the mushroom powder you see above to a buttercream, but I would have (and have!) Added it to mashed potatoes and it was lovely. I could also imagine adding it to meatloaf and meatballs. Last night I sprinkled a combination of all three powders – onion, mushroom, and green pea – on a cucumber and tomato salad, and I’ll do it again!

Each powder brings its own unique flavors to the plate. The mushroom is earthy, the onion intensely onion and the green pea light and horticultural. Everything would work fine in dips, but the onion would stand out; and green peas would make a fun Bloody Mary glass rimmer, especially when mixed with a good amount of salt.

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Photo: Claire Lower

The process of making these powders is very easy. Buy freeze-dried vegetables (from Trader Joe or elsewhere), toss a handful in the food processor, and chop them into a powder. Mix the powder into dips, sprinkle it over salads (like you would with breadcrumbs), or mash it in some potatoes. A combination of mushrooms and onions would make a great pasta topper, especially if that pasta is random This one here.