So as you'll recall, last April I met with a nutritionist who had me give up just about everything for a few weeks. No alcohol, no dairy, no wheat/gluten, no soy, no eggs, no caffeine and no sugar. It was not easy, but at the same time, I felt terrific. I eventually added the dairy back in, and eggs and sugar. The one place where I ran into trouble was reintroducing wheat, and we eventually concluded that while I'm not allergic to wheat/gluten, I do seem to have some sensitivity to it, so I started limiting my intake.

Shortly after that, everything with wheat flour in it started sending my blood sugar straight through the roof, so I'm exploring gluten free options, which is how I got to spinach polenta lasagna. I've found that recipes that naturally do not include gluten tend to be way better than "gluten-free" products intended to replicate a gluten-having food. Those tend to suck. I'm generally ok with this, although if you catch me on free pizza, cake and soda day at work, I'm a little cranky. Anyway, on to the recipe:

Spinach and Polenta Lasagna
Polenta (1 cup uncooked)
15 oz ricotta cheese
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons dried basil
2 teaspoons dried oregano
10 ounces spinach (sautéed for a couple of minutes if fresh or thawed and drained if frozen)
1 25 ounce jar spaghetti sauce
6 ounces mozzarella, grated

Becky doesn't eat meat, but if you do, this bit's for you:
1 pound ground beef
½ small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, diced

For the polenta - I used some polenta I had on hand. The directions there were to bring three cups of broth to a boil and then mix in one cup polenta, stirring the whole time until it thickened, which took a couple of minutes. I think it was some kind of quick cooking polenta. Then I spread it out on a cookie sheet in a thin layer to cool. Next time, I'll probably go with the premade polenta in a tube and just cut it into slices and press them into the pan. The important thing is to make sure the polenta is firm, not soupy, because it is the base for your lasagna and you don't want it getting mushy.

For the cheese mixture: add the two lightly beaten eggs to the ricotta cheese. Stir in the basil and oregano. Mix in the spinach.

If you're making meat sauce, brown the ground beef with the onion and garlic. Drain the fat, then stir in the tomato sauce.

If you're not making meat sauce, just heat the tomato sauce up in a sauce pan until warm.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spray a square 9x9 pan with olive oil.

Press a layer of polenta into the bottom of the pan, using half of the polenta. Top with half the ricotta mixture, then half the tomato sauce.

Top that with the rest of the polenta, then repeat the ricotta and tomato sauce layers. Then sprinkle the grated mozzarella on top.

Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour. You'll probably want to put the casserole pan on a cookie sheet in the oven because it does bubble over a bit. You'll get at least six servings out of it.

Well...March, usually one of my favorite months, kind of sucked this year. I was sick with one thing or another for three of the four weeks and I turned 40. I was not thrilled about the approach of 40, nor am I particularly happy about it now that it has arrived. Still, the world did not end and if you want to take your mind off such a milestone being miserably sick for three weeks is one way to do it.

Let us speak no more of March.

April has been a bit better. My 40th birthday present to myself was an iPad2, although I only got it last week. First I had to dither about spending the money and which one to buy and then I had to wait for it to arrive. But now it is mine and I love it. I worried a bit that once I actually had it in my possession, I'd feel bad about how much it cost. Nope. I'm still figuring out everything I can do with it, but it's great.

The other big news of the month is that I saw a nutritionist, who put me on an elimination diet. No gluten, dairy, sugar, caffeine, eggs, alcohol or soy for two weeks, with limited red meat and pork. By the end of the two weeks I was actually fantasizing about a piece of toast with butter on it. Interestingly enough, I do seem to have had fewer headaches and stomach upsets in the two weeks, but then again, I don't get headaches and an upset stomach constantly. I don't think I have a food allergy, but we'll see.

It is a very clean way to eat, but not one I think I can keep going forever. For one thing, I miss cheese. For another, it is a lot of work. The gluten free thing is the biggest hassle (and I don't care what anyone tells you, gluten free pasta is terrible) but the lack of dairy is what bothers me the most. Well, and I don't enjoy tea without a little bit of sugar in it. Easter came just after the two week period ended and I cheated wildly, eating waffles, bacon and hash brown potatoes with cheese at brunch without any ill effects. But now I'm back to "everything-free" until my follow up with the nutritionist in early May. Then I get to start officially adding foods back in.

So, what's up with you? If there's still anyone out there, that is.

Cake recipe (this is based on a recipe I found on Epicurious for a chocolate layer cake)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 ¾ cups sugar
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup water
¾ cup buttermilk
¾ cup vegetable oil (I used canola oil)
3 large eggs

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Coat two 9 inch diameter by 2 inches deep cake pans with a non-stick cooking spray and then line the bottoms with parchment paper. Spray the paper too.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl. Whisk to blend, then form a well in the center. In a separate bowl, whisk together the water, buttermilk, oil and eggs in a medium bowl to blend. Pour the wet ingredients into the well in the dry ingredients. Stir or whisk until just blended. Divide the cake batter between the two prepared 9 inch cake pans.

Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. If the cakes get domes on top, cover with a dish towel and push down very gently to flatten them back to level. Cool completely in the cake pans on baking racks.

Mousse layers:
4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
4 ounces milk chocolate, chopped
4 ounces white chocolate, chopped
¼ cup cold water
1 tablespoon unflavored gelatin
5 large egg yolks
¼ cup sugar
1 cup half and half
1 ¾ cups chilled whipping cream

Spray a 9 inch diameter (or slightly larger, mine is about 9 ½ inches) spingform pan with nonstick cooking spray. Line the bottom with parchment paper - spray the paper too.
Place each chocolate in its own medium sized bowl. (this recipe takes a lot of bowls) Next, combine the gelatin with the ¼ cup of water and let it stand until the gelatin softens, about 10 minutes.

While the gelatin sits, beat the egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl until the mixture is pale yellow and very thick. This takes about five minutes by hand, or about 1 minute if you're using a hand-held blender with a whisk attachment. Bring half and half just to a simmer in a large saucepan. Gradually whisk the hot half and half into the egg yolk/sugar mixture. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium heat for about 3 minutes. Be careful not to boil it, just cook until it thickens and gets custard like. Remove custard from heat and stir in gelatin until it dissolves. Pour through a strainer into a glass measuring cup, then pour 1/3 of the custard into each chocolate bowl, stirring it into the chocolate until the chocolate melts. Use a different spoon to stir each chocolate so that you're not mixing flavors. If the mixture cools before the chocolate is completely melted, you can set the bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir for a little while longer until it melts all the way. I had to do this with two of the bowls, and it worked fine.

Beat the whipping cream in a large bowl until stiff peaks form. The hand blender with the whisk attachment is great for this too. Divide the whipped cream evenly between the three bowls of chocolate, using about 1 1/3 cups for each one. Stir until completely combined.

Now we go back to the cake, which is probably completely cooled by now. Place a plate over the cake pan and invert it, tapping on the bottom of the pan with a knife. The cake should pop right out on to the plate. Take a large knife and carefully cut the cake layer in half horizontally. The easiest way to do this is to put it on a cake stand, insert a large knife in the side, and then slowly saw through. You want to keep it as level as possible, but don't worry if it isn't perfect. You can always even it out later, and this recipe is pretty forgiving. Repeat with the second cake. You now have four 1 inch high layers of chocolate cake.

Take one of the cake layers you've just created and place it in the bottom of the springform pan. Pour the semisweet chocolate mixture over it, smoothing with a spatula. Some of it will run over the sides, but that's ok. It's why we're using the springform pan. Chill in the freezer for about 15 minutes to set the mousse.

Once that layer is set, add another layer of the chocolate cake, then top with the milk chocolate mousse, smoothing with a spatula. Return to the freezer for another 15 minutes to set.

Finally, drop in the third chocolate cake layer, and top that with the white chocolate mousse, smoothing with a spatula. Freeze for another 15 minutes or until the white chocolate is set. The white chocolate layer took a little longer to set than the other two had for me. Then top that with the 4th chocolate cake layer and put the whole cake in the freezer or fridge to wait to be frosted. I did this the night before and then frosted it the next day.

You could frost this with a typical chocolate buttercream and I think it would be yummy. However, I went with a ganache and it really added a another level of richness to the cake.

Ganache:
9 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate (do not exceed 61% cocoa) chopped
1 1/8 cups heavy (whipping) cream

Place chopped chocolate in a bowl. Bring the heavy cream just to a boil in a saucepan. Pour over the chocolate. Let stand for one minute, then stir until ganache is melted and smooth. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour until the ganache is thick enough to be spread instead of poured.

Take your cake out of the fridge and remove the springform sides. It will look messy. All you have to do is take a knife and neaten up the sides until the cake is round again. Then spread the ganache over the top and sides, swirling with a spatula to make it pretty. Pop the whole thing back in the freezer for another 30 minutes to set the ganache, and then enjoy. The cake is best stored in the fridge, covered with plastic wrap. You can take it out to let it warm up for about an hour before serving, or you can microwave your pieces for 15-20 seconds.

So now I'm starting again. Back to the gym, back to counting carbs like a good diabetic, back to not baking except on special occasions. No more trips to Starbucks and no eating free donuts or bagels when they show up at work. And it's not so bad, or at least it won't be. I know I'm happier and I feel better physically when I'm working out regularly and eating the right way. I just have to get through the first two or three weeks of being sore and exhausted as my muscles remember how to exercise again.

And boy do they have some remembering to do. It's really not fair that it is so easy to lose fitness and so much work to get back in to shape. My core still feels pretty strong, but the rest of me is in sad shape. One of the ways I intend to keep it interesting is to go through and do each of the fitness DVDs I have. There are some that I've never even tried! Tonight I grabbed a kettlebell workout and it was a disaster. Right at the start there was this move where you have to hold the bell above your head, get down on the floor and then get back up again, and I hoisted the weight above my head...and then kind of fell over instead of lowering myself to the floor and getting back up. A point in my favor though - I didn't just give up. I grabbed another, slightly easier DVD and fought my way through it.

It's a little humiliating to basically be back at the absolute novice level, but I keep reminding myself that if I keep at it, I'll get back to being as strong as I was. I just have to be patient. I suck at being patient, but it's not like there's an alternative, so here I go. Maybe this time I'll even master doing a proper pushup.

So, hi! Please feel free to delurk and leave a comment. Or, just read on for the list of my favorite books of 2010. Most of these books were actually published in 2010, but my criteria for selecting them is simply that I read them in 2010, so there are some older ones that made the list.

The God of the Hive, by Laurie R. King. Have I mentioned Laurie R. King here before? I love her books and this series in particular . The premise is that Sherlock Holmes was younger than he was portrayed in the official Sherlock stories because Watson wanted readers to take him seriously. Around the start of WWI, Sherlock retired to Sussex, where he made the acquaintance of Mary Russell, a young woman just as intelligent and observant as the Great Detective himself. She becomes his apprentice, and eventually his wife. The God of the Hive is the latest in the series and is really more of a continuation of book that proceeded it, The Language of Bees, but wraps the story up quite satisfactorily. If you haven't read any of them, I recommend you start with the first book and make your way through the series until you get to this one. My favorites are A Monstrous Regiment of Women, Justice Hall, The Game and Locked Rooms.

Bring on the Night by Jeri Smith-Ready This is also a book in a series - the third after Wicked Game and Bad to the Bone - but you can read it without reading the first two. The main character, Ciara Griffin, is a former grifter who is trying to go straight and be a normal college student. In the first book she takes an internship at a local radio station, only to discover that the DJs are all vampires. She helps save the station by promoting it as the Vampire station (each vampire plays the music from the decade in which they were turned) and ends up working at the station and dating one of the vampire DJs. I like Jeri Smith-Ready's take on the vampire story. The books are fun, Ciara and her boyfriend Shane are likeable characters and the villains sufficiently villain-y (and yet defeatable). This book does have a somewhat shocking twist that I really did not see coming, and I always see the twists coming. It was cool to be surprised. One bonus: the author includes a playlist with each book and she has excellent taste in music. And the story is set in Maryland, which is always fun for me.

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer This one was not published in 2010. I just discovered it on a list of "books to read while you wait for Mockingjay to be published." The story of what happens when an asteroid hits the moon and knocks it closer to Earth, this book is a huge downer. I'm not kidding! At the same time, I loved it. I seriously could not stop reading it. It's a YA book, told from the point of view of Miranda, a teenager in a small town in Pennsylvania. After the asteroid hits, her world starts to unravel, slowly at first and then with a terrifying speed. It was fascinating to see how Miranda, her friends and her family all react differently to their new reality.

Feed by Mira Grant. I picked this one up on a whim when rambling through Barnes & Noble one day and I'm so glad I did! It's the story of Georgia and Shaun Mason, a couple of bloggers in the world after the zombie apocalypse. Due to the ongoing problems with zombies, blogs have taken on a whole new role in society. Georgia and Shaun are chosen to shadow a presidential candidate on the campaign trail, and the story takes off from there. Together they battle zombies and shadowy conspiracies and traitors in their own ranks, while watching the popularity of their blog soar. The story is well paced and Georgia and Shaun and the other characters felt so real. Mira Grant really knows how to build a vivid world. I'd almost want to be a part of it, except for the zombies. And I don't want to ruin anything, but there is a scene where a fairly important character dies, and I was practically sobbing while I read it. So well done.

At the end of the book there was a page with a note that said "keep an eye out for the next book in the series." And I thought oh yes please, I'd like more of this. Well it turns out that the next book won't be available until spring, so thanks for the confusing note Orbit books. However, looking for it led me to discover that Mira Grant is actually author Seanan McGuire, so I went out and got her first book, Rosemary and Rue. Rosemary and Rue is the story of Toby Daye, a half human, half faery private detective in San Francisco. At the start of the book she's happily married with a little daughter, but then something goes wrong for her on a case and she ends up enchanted and living as a fish in Golden Gate park for 14 years. The story picks up with her trying to put her life back together and avoid all that is faery. But of course, she gets pulled back in after a former friend from her faery days is murdered. The story is very enjoyable and I have a huge crush on Tybalt, the King of the Cats.

Seanan McGuire actually led me to this next book in a roundabout way. I went to pick up her third book An Artificial Night, and while I was there, one of the bookstore clerks handed me Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind and said "Read this, you'll love it." I had seen the book but had been turned off by the description on the back cover, which really does not do a good job of showing you what to expect inside, but I always take the recommendations of book store employees seriously. Well, he was right. The book is great. Kvothe's story, from his years traveling with his parents' theater troupe, to his time alone and a little crazy on the streets, to when he makes it to the university make for a fantastic story that is beautifully told. The sequel comes out in March and I can't wait to read it.

I don't read a ton of romance novels, but there are a few authors I like. Laura Kinsale is not actually one of those authors, but someone, possibly Manda, wrote about her Flowers from the Storm and I was intrigued. The heroine is Maddy, a Quaker woman in 19th century England. Her father is a mathematician, and she meets the Duke of Jerveaux when he co-authors a paper with her father. Months later she stumbles across Jerveaux in an insane asylum. He's had a stroke and they think he is insane. She can tell that he's not though, and takes on the task of helping him to recover. They slowly fall in love, but the whole time Maddy agonizes about being true to her faith and not being seduced away from the values she holds dear. It was nice to read a book that really departed from the traditional romance book formula.

Edited to add: I forgot Sunshine by Robin McKinley! Also not published in 2010, but really very, very good.

If you're wondering what to comment about in honor of delurking day, here's a prompt: What was your favorite book of 2010?

I figured I should get at least get something up on the page in case my URL comes up during the interview. So, hi Triple L Show listeners! I swear it's not usually quite so boring here at Bad Penguin.

And for the record, the lovely Bella is as awesome in real life as you'd think she is from the show.

We had some nice lettuces at the beginning of the summer. They were very enjoyable, until one day they all disappeared. The corn grew very tall but never produced any actual corn. We did get a few green peppers, but the red and yellow pepper plants just sat there doing nothing. Last week I was very excited to see that we had one small, adorable watermelon growing, and then this weekend something ate it. At this time I suspect that son of bitch groundhog. He was seen in the area, and has the means, motive and opportunity to commit the crime.

My herbs have done ok, except for the cilantro. I used a bunch of it in June and then all of a sudden it got very tall, flowered and died. At least I still have the basil, rosemary, thyme and sage.

Now all of my hopes are pinned on my tomatoes. I put in four different varieties of tomato plants because I love fresh tomatoes -- in salads, in sandwiches, with cheese, on their own, in sauces. I have plans for those tomatoes. The plants have all grown up nicely and the marigolds I planted with them seem to be doing their job of helping to keep pests away, but they are all still stubbornly green. All except this one

I sliced it up and ate it on an english muffin with some smoked mozzarella. Delicious! But now it's like the other tomatoes are just taunting me with their potential to be awesome. Or stolen by rogue groundhogs.

I've written about the deer and the bugs, but there is so much more. When we had the big snowstorms earlier this year, the snow stuck around for a while. Every morning we'd wake up to more tracks crossing and crisscrossing the yard and the driveway, highlighting just how much activity goes on out there. Hoof prints and paw prints and bird tracks weaving their way back and forth in the snow.

There's a fox who lives in our woods (we think) who I typically see crossing the driveway at night. There are squirrels galore. One day recently I was coming home and there was a squirrel sitting in the middle of the driveway, clutching something in his paws and nibbling on it. I pulled up in my car and he gave me an irritated look and moved a couple of feet farther down the drive. I inched forward and he looked at me, then moved a couple of more feet. Finally, after the third time I got near him, he glared at me and took off into the woods.

Something helped itself to tuna can out of the recycling bin. My money is on the raccoon John saw amble down the front steps, across the front walk and into the woods.

We had a full on, Winnie-the-Pooh-style bee's nest in the bushes between the house and where we park our cars. John dealt with that one. If I look out the window to the back yard, I'm almost guaranteed to see two or three butterflies dancing around. Of course there are also a lot of gnats, which aren't nearly as charming.

There are bunnies, of course. And birds. I don't know much about birds, but we have a hawk I see pretty regularly, the woodpeckers, cardinals and blue jays. Plus plenty of others I can't identify, including one that makes noise exactly like R2D2, and some bird that very insistently kept trying to build a nest on our front porch.

About a month ago I looked out into the back yard and there was a mama deer calmly nibbling on a tree at the edge of the woods while her very tiny, very young fawn raced in circles around her, zooming into the trees and then tearing back out of the woods at her.

Just on Wednesday what we think was a groundhog (it looked kind of like a squirrel on steroids) snuffled around on our front steps for a bit before disappearing off somewhere.

I think my favorite story is this one though, although technically it happened in my neighborhood but not at my house. Last fall I was driving home after dark. It was one of those dramatic, windy nights with a full moon lighting up the sky. Something flashed on the side of the road, catching my eye, and I slowed down, just in time to see a mouse run in front of my car, followed by a big, fat marmalade cat. The mouse stopped on the double yellow line, the cat swiped at it with a paw, then snatched it up and continued on his way across the road. It was like something you'd see on the Serengeti, only in miniature. And sad for the mouse, of course, but also kind of magical.

So, for the record, my annoying and stupid allergies started in 2009. I started having trouble with my earrings. I thought my ear piercings were getting infected, because they kept getting puffy, itchy and sore. This went on for a while, actually. Then one day I happened to mention it to my friend Laila, and she told me that it sounded like I was having an allergic reaction. Sure enough, as long as I stuck to plain gold earrings, my ears were fine. That kind of sucks because I don't really care for gold, but at the same time, not wearing earrings isn't that big a deal. I can wear some silver earrings, but not all.

In January I started getting weird itchy, scaly patches on the palms of my hands. I know that doesn't sound all that serious, but you'd be amazed at how much stuff you touch with your palms. They were constantly irritated to the point where my skin was cracking and bleeding, and the only thing that helped was covering my palm with a bandage. Of course it is very difficult to keep a bandage on your palm because you flex your hands so much, so I looked ridiculous.

I asked my doctor about it, and she said it was a contact dermatitis, and recommended that I start wearing gloves at the gym, when I washed dishes and did any cleaning. That helped a little, but mostly with the extra irritation. The itchy/scaly part didn't go away.

Then I got my iPhone, which I immediately tucked into a plastic case to keep it protected. And lo and behold, over the next four weeks, my palms cleared up. I consulted Dr. Google, and my symptoms seem to fit very well with a diagnosis of a nickel allergy. It usually starts with trouble with a piercing and then is exacerbated by a cell phone. Unfortunately, the treatment for a nickel allergy is pretty much "stop touching nickel, dumbass." However, I was perfectly content to wear earrings sparingly, look dorky in gloves at the gym and keep my phone in a case.

But lately it's affecting my wedding ring, and that is not ok. White gold is apparently made with nickel in it, I guess to make it less yellow, and yes, my wedding ring is made of white gold. I love my wedding ring. It wasn't terribly expensive, but it is in a Celtic knotwork pattern that suits us. I love that it matches John's ring, but is just smaller. I love that he carried it around on our wedding day and then put it on my finger and we started off on this new part of lives together. And now I can't wear it for more than five minutes at a time, which is really upsetting. If you need me, I'll just be over here trying to find a cure for nickel allergies. Or a way to coat my wedding ring so I'm not actually touching it when I wear it.

I couldn't fall back asleep though. The only thing I could think of that would cause a noise like that was an explosion, which led immediately to thoughts of "Something went wrong at Ft. Detrick (home of scary bioweapons research) and now our lives are about to become something out of The Stand, Feed, or The Passage. Fuck!" Although I suppose that we're close enough to Ft. Detrick that if something did happen there, we'd probably die pretty quickly. There's a cheery thought for you. Perhaps I should lay off the post-apocalyptic fiction for a while.

Then I considered a plane crash.

Then, well, BP has a facility here in Frederick. Maybe all of their stuff has just started spontaneously exploding.

How big a car accident would it take to make a noise like that and shake the whole house? I don't think that's actually possible.

At this point it finally occurred to me to turn on the radio. I'm not kidding when I say I'm not a morning person. My brain actually moves that slowly at 5 am. Plus, I was very busy thinking up worst case scenarios. Imagine my surprise when they said it was an earthquake. You can't really blame me for not thinking of that. This is Maryland. We don't usually get earthquakes here. Based on 1970's disaster movies, I always figured there'd be more shaking, things falling over and general drama. And George Kennedy.

Anyway, by then I was full on awake, so I just gave up and got out of bed. What a weird way to start my day.

Of course, having all those options can backfire. I went in to Moby Dick planning to maybe grab some kebab for lunch, panicked when faced with all of those choices and just ordered falafel instead. The completely unhealthy high point of this particular journey was my realization that since I am no longer a strict vegetarian, I could have rice krispie treats again. I may have gone on a small rice krispie treat related binge.

I'm learning how to cook non-vegetarian food again, which is going to take a while. But I have one old favorite recipe that I've resurrected. I give you Bad Penguin's tuna salad for people who hate mayonnaise:

1 can of tuna
1 tablespoon country style Dijon mustard (the grainy kind)
1 teaspoon capers
1 ½ teaspoons lemon pepper mix
1 rib of celery, chopped

Mix all of the ingredients together with a fork, then serve on toast with lettuce. Easy-peasey and tasty too.