Side trips.

Hello, readers! According to my handy tracking app, the NYC marathon is 3 days, 20 hours, 56 minutes, and 10 seconds away! I will have more to say about that soon, but first I have some miscellaneous updates. I will tell you about these updates via the stories two trips I made this past weekend.

First- I got a new job! This has actually been in the works for several months, but I got an official "yes" about two weeks ago. Things are still in process, so I don't want to give too many details at the moment, but the gist is that I will be part of a small team providing a specific model of family therapy at several sites in the Baltimore area. I won't have an official start date until our whole team is assembled, but I think it will be sometime next month. I am very excited that I will actually be using my degrees soon!

My boyfriend Andrew also started a new job not too long ago, so we decided to celebrate both of our successes by going out to dinner last Saturday. At first, we were going to go the steakhouse route. Then, the temperatures plummeted and the DC metro area got hit with the freak early snowstorm known as #snoctober. Given the nasty weather, I lost all desire to put on a dress and we both decided that a pub would give us a better "first really cold day" atmosphere. The OpenTable app on my Iphone suggested a place called Hunter's Head Tavern. It looked awesome to me, so I suggested it to Andrew.

What I failed to realize is that Hunter's Head is down in VA wine country, a good 45 miles from Andrew's house in Alexandria. A less generous and adventurous guy would have put the brakes on this idea, but Andrew was game for making the drive. So we drove, through the oddly beautiful landscape of fall leaves and snow, until we got to the pub. Only when we pulled up the driveway did we realize that we had both passed Hunter's Head on previous VA wine country trips and really wanted to stop in. For that reason alone, we both agreed it was worth the drive. It didn't hurt that the food was delicious and the atmosphere was really fun.

The weather was awful for photos, so you will have to trust me when I tell you that we were standing in front of one of those old-fashioned red London phone booths.

  

Foxes featured prominently in the Hunter's Head decor.

The morning after our pub-travel adventure, Andrew and I woke up to find that the snow was gone and the sun had returned. This was excellent news, because Sunday was Marine Corps Marathon day! Late in the morning, Andrew and I went to Crystal City and joined my marathon coaches at mile 22 for the Annapolis Striders water stop. We were handing out several things, but the most popular turned out to be pretzels. They were so popular, in fact, that we were running out just a few minutes after Andrew and I arrived. Knowing the area, Andrew suggested that we make a 10-minute walk to a nearby Costco to get more. Thus began the Great Pretzel Trek.

The walk to Costco was complicated by the fact that we had to cross through the marathon itself twice. Once we pulled that off, Andrew realized that he had lost his Costco card. So, we waited about 30 mins in a crazy Saturday line so he could get a new one. Then, once we got into the actual store, we were told that they do not carry pretzels. I refused to believe it. What Costco doesn't have pretzels??? We walked through the entire store just to verify- indeed, no pretzels. We left in stunned disbelief and started walking toward a grocery store. About 10 minutes into that walk, we came across a Rite Aid and cleaned out their entire pretzel stock- 7 pounds! Then, we made the trek back to mile 22, crossed over the marathon again, and resumed our stations... only to learn that most of my friends from the training group had passed while we were gone. D'oh!

So, I had missed most of my friends, but the immediate gratitude from pretzel-hungry, exhausted marathoners made it all worthwhile. We had a great time handing out goodies and cheering people on. I was happy that Andrew had a chance to see what mile 22 of a marathon looks like- or, more importantly, what a middle-to-back-of-the-pack runner looks like at mile 22 of a marathon. Now, he is all ready for NYC!

As we drove home after the race, I checked FB and learned that all of my friends had amazing races. The first-timers finished strong and the veterans, Val and Noreen among them, all set new PR's. Congratulations, runners!

Top Chef Triumph!

Carla Hall, my favorite TV chef, has appeared in this blog twice before. Back in February, I wrote about how she inspired me to make chicken pot pie (which was delicious). Then, just a few weeks ago, I wrote about how my aunt Michele (who is a friend of Carla's) invited me to lunch with her on a day I have to be out of town for work (tragedy!).

 A few days after that tragic phone call from Michele, she called me again. She explained that she had run into Carla at an event and told her about me- specifically that I'm a huge fan and that I'm really bummed about not being able to go to her lunch. Carla, whom Michele has always described as incredibly gracious and appreciative of her fans, apparently took this situation quite seriously. She told Michele that I should come and help out with one of her cooking classes sometime (!). Michele was calling both to tell me the story and because she couldn't remember whether or not I like to cook. She said something along the lines of "I'm afraid I may have just signed you up to chop onions." I reasssured her that I would be happy to chop onions for Carla anytime.

Mentally, I filed this phone call under "exciting future possibilities" and went about my business. Then, to my great surprise, I heard from Michele again. She had learned of a launch party for Carla's (amazing) cookie line happening at a DC cafe last night. She asked if I would like to join her and my uncle for dinner and the party. Once again, I had to work around some conflicts, but I was determined to make it happen this time.

And I did! After work yesterday, I met my aunt at her Union Station office and then we headed off to meet my uncle Joe at Lincoln, a seasonal small-plates restaurant on Vermont Ave. in DC. I had heard good things about Lincoln, and was not dissapointed. I especially loved the heirloom tomato risotto and the NY strip steak- yum! My only complaint was that the waiters kept trying to take our plates away before we were finished. This led to several comments by Michele that we were not going to leave food behind because there are starving children in Somalia. Her comments made me laugh every time, which, in turn, made me look like the most insensitive person on earth. Next time, I hope the waiters will allow me to keep both my plates and my human decency.

After dinner, we were off to ACKC, an excellent cafe/dessert place and host of Carla's launch party. When we arrived, we immediately found ourselves in a line for pictures with Carla. Then, after about 30 seconds, we were told that we had arrived just in time for a drawing and handed some raffle tickets. Within a minute of our arrival, Michele won the raffle! The prize was an Alchemy by Carla Hall t-shirt, which Michele graciously gave to me:

Shirt front: the Alchemy logo, which incorporates an "a," a heart, and a flame. In Carla's words, "I paid for it, so I'm not changing it!"

Back of the shirt: Carla was well-known for this phrase on "Top Chef." At the party, we chatted about where it came from. My uncle suggested she may have learned it from him.

A few minutes after the drawing, we made our way to the front of the picture line. Michele introduced me and Carla said "Your aunt has been pimping you out!"

Carla and I.

With Michele.

Once the pictures had been taken, we got out of the way and spent some time buying Carla's cookies and enjoying some tasty chocolates. As the party wound down, my aunt and uncle got interested in Carla's t-shirts and sent me to inquire about sizes and prices. I walked over to her, just hoping not to say anything stupid (as I have mentioned before, I am crazy awkward around anyone I admire). I was pleasantly surprised when Carla said "Oh- I want to come and talk to them!," and actually joined us at our table for awhile.

Carla was amazingly gracious and down-to-earth. Within a minute or two, I totally forgot that I was talking to someone I watch on TV. Carla has a couple of wonderful traits that I have always noticed in Michele as well: they are both boundlessly enthusiastic and they both make everyone they talk to feel like the most interesting/important person in the world. Watching them together, I was reminded of when I first met Michele, nearly 20 years ago.

Michele is my uncle's second wife and I distinctly remember the family event where she met many of my relatives, including my mother and grandmother. My family tends to be fairly protective of its members and more than a little wary of outsiders. My grandmother, as wonderful as she was, could be a particularly hard sell. From the moment she learned that Joe was dating someone new, she started speculating about all the ways this woman must be unsuitable for her son. I rememeber waiting for Joe and Michele to arrive at this event, sick with worry about how Michele might be treated.

I needn't have worried. Michele breezed in and charmed the entire family in a matter of minutes. To put it mildly, her work and lifestyle are very different from much of my family, and she could have easily come off as snobbish or intimidating. Instead, she was warm and genuinely interested in every single member of the family. By the end of the day, my grandmother was claiming that she always knew Michele would be great for Joe. For the rest of her life, my grandmother never missed a chance to sing Michele's praises. Michele, in turn, developed a knack for buying my grandmother presents that completely suited her over-the-top style. I have great memories of my uber-stylish aunt presenting my grandmother with watches and rings that would have suited Cher or Dolly Parton, ca. 1970. Michele always seemed genuinely happy to make my grandmother happy, and I always found these exchanges touching.

So, watching Michele and Carla together, I could understand why they are friends and why they both do so well in the hospitality industry. Who wouldn't want to entrust their special event to one of these ladies? I feel very lucky to have spent some time with one of them, and even luckier to have the other in my family!

Top Chef tragedy and triumph.

I don't watch much TV, but one show I never miss is Top Chef. The obvious reason I love this show is that I'm way into food and cooking, but on a more basic level I just enjoy watching talented people compete at what they do best. The contestants on "Top Chef" work under very challenging conditions- they don't get to use recipes or cookbooks, and their time is severely restricted. They also get thrown crazy twists pretty much every episode. Yet, they consistently put out remarkable food. I feel pretty confident in the kitchen, but I'm not sure I could produce something as simple as a batch of cookies with 30 minutes and no recipe.

I've been lucky the past few seasons because some of my favorite Top Chefs have been from the DC area. You may recall that last summer, my friend Katie and I had an amazing dinner at Volt, which is owned and operated by "Top Chef Las Vegas" finalist Bryan Voltaggio. This week, two of my other "Top Chef" favorites crossed my path. One encounter was tragic; the other was terrific.

First, the bad news: My all-time favorite "Top Chef" contestant is Carla Hall, who was on both the "New York" and "All-Stars" seasons. I would have loved Carla simply for her personality and positive attitude, but she also happens to be a friend of one of my favorite relatives, my aunt Michele. Michele is the special events director at Union Station in DC, and she and Carla are both members of the same philanthropic/professional organization. Michele is even busier than I am and watches almost no TV, so I gave her email and text message play-by-plays of both Carla's seasons. Ever since I learned of their friendship, I have been waiting for the call from Michele inviting me to one of Carla's events.

This week, I got that call. Michele has been invited to a special luncheon where Carla will serve a menu based around one of my very favorite foods, the tomato. My uncle is unable to attend, so Michele asked me to come with her. I was giddy with excitement... until I checked my calendar. On the day of the luncheon, I am traveling to PA to speak to a church on behalf of my office. What's worse, everyone else in the office is also traveling to speak at churches, so nobody can take my place. So, for now, my closest encounter with Carla will remain this amazing tin of cookies my friend Corinne ordered from Carla's company for my birthday:

Order your own from Alchemy by Carla Hall. You will thank me!

Now, the good news. Last night, I was able to soothe my Carla disappointment by enjoying dinner at a new restaurant opened by another Top Chef: Graffiato, owned and operated by Mike Isabella of "Las Vegas" and "All Stars." Mike was definitely not one of my favorites on the "Las Vegas" season, but he showed up on "All Stars" with new skills and a better attitude. It was fun watching his transformation, and I was totally rooting for him by the end. In the finale, he made a dish involving a pepperoni sauce, and judge Gail Simmons spent her entire deliberation raving about it. Thus, I was very excited to see Graffiato open in DC and even more excited to see the pepperoni sauce on the menu. Graffiato opened less than a month ago and has been getting a ton of attention, so getting in is not easy, but my friend and I were lucky enough to snag a 5pm table on a Thursday night.

Graffiato is located in a 2-floor space in Chinatown, with a bar and smaller dining area downstairs and the main dining room upstairs. There are open kitchens on both floors, and I spotted Chef Mike multiple times checking on things in the kitchens. The menu is (very reasonably priced) Italian-inspired small plates and brick oven pizzas. There is a $55 tasting menu, but it must be ordered by every guest at the table. My friend is a vegetarian, which can be tricky for tastings, so we just ordered off the regular menu. The staff were very attentive and willing to explain things. At times, they were a little hover-y, but I'm willing to forgive less-than-stellar service in a restaurant that just opened. Here's what we ate:

For first course, we had hand-pulled mozzarella with fava bean sauce (a special) and sugar snap peas with tomato pesto, goat cheese and sesame seeds. The snap peas were delicious, especially with the goat cheese and the sesame seeds. I'm not sure that the tomato pesto added much, and I started eating it with the mozzarella instead (which was a good decision).

After the first course, I had the thing I was most excited about: chicken thighs with the pepperoni sauce. Unfortunately, for me this was the most disappointing course. It was very good, but after watching the "All Stars" finale, I had expected the sauce to be spectacular. Instead, I found it a little weak. The pepperoni flavor was so subtle that I might not have picked it up if I hadn't been looking for it. Good, but just not great.

To quote Gail Simmons, "Pepperoni Sauce!!!"

What was great was the risotto ordered by my friend for his second course. He offered me a bite, and I went back for several more trying to figure out exactly what made it so delicious. I tasted parmesan, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar (all of which are listed on the menu), but I thought I tasted something sweet as well. Risotto is one of my favorite things to cook, so I'm looking forward to spending a few hours in the kitchen trying to figure this out. One thing I definitely learned from this dish is that I need to cough up a little more for better balsamic!

After the chicken thighs and the risotto, my friend had sweet corn agnolitti and I had polenta with pork meatballs and a soft egg. My friend said that the agnolitti was delicious, and it must have been because he ate the whole plate in minutes! The stars of my plate were the meatballs, which were easily the best I've ever had. They were as good as I had expected the pepperoni sauce to be. I was a little confused by the rest of the plate (the egg and the polenta). It was all tasty, but I really did not understand how the three components went together. Also, the dish was served with a fork, which was useless for the polenta and egg. It should definitely come with a spoon! I requested one as I did not want to miss a single bite.

Finally, we tried 3 desserts: a chocolate tart with sea salt gelato, nutella sandwich cookies, and pistachio gelato. The tart was good, but totally overshadowed by the sea salt gelato, which was AMAZING. I have an unreliable ice cream maker at home and getting it fixed never seems to get off the bottom of my "to-do" list. The sea salt gelato changed that in an instant. After my long run this weekend, I think I'll head straight to Bed, Bath and Beyond for another ice cream maker and then to Whole Foods for some sea salt. I must have more of that gelato! While I'm at it, I'll probably pick up some pistachios, because the pistachio gelato was also delicious. Continuing the salty/sweet trend, the nutella cookies were light wafers dusted in salt with the nutella in between. Simple, but brilliant. I could have eaten a whole bowl of them.

All in all, Graffiato was well worth the visit and the cost (which adds up because so many things on the menu sound so good!). It was a very different experience from Volt, where the food was much more technically complicated. Everything I ate at Volt was spectacular, but I would have no idea how to re-create it at home. The food at Graffiato was much more basic, in a great way: simple, straightforward, delicious. It made me want to try it at home, and also come back to try everything I missed the first time. Well-done, Chef Mike! 

Underestimating and Overestimating (in which I run the Cherry Pit 10-miler, eat an enormous burger, and attend tri training class #1).

Hello! I am writing this post from the brink of total physical collapse. Its been an intense day, all about underestimating and overestimating:

First, the underestmating: This morning was the Annapolis Striders' Cherry Pit 10-miler. I ran this race for the first time last year, in 1:49. I was sure I could come close to that time this year, but I doubted that I could beat it. I simply have not kept up with my running since the B&A Half on March 6, and Cherry Pit is a hard, hilly race. Given my low expectations, I started out slowly, hanging back and chatting with friends. I lost the friends around mile 3, but I stayed at a conservative pace. Around mile 5, I realized that the miles were flying by and I still felt pretty good, so I picked it up a bit. At mile 8, I looked at my watch and realized that I could PR if I could run the last two miles at 5K pace. It was tough, but I did it, coming in somewhere around 1:47 (no official results yet). Still, I finished with gas in the tank and wished that I had started the race with more confidence.

The underestimation trend continued when I got home. Yesterday, I visited the local butcher, hoping to buy some bison burgers for a post-race treat (if you haven't tried bison, it is SO GOOD!). I picked a package from a cooler that seemed to contain all bison, and thought I was buying four 1/4 pound bison burgers. Then, at lunchtime today, I opened the package and realized that I actually bought two 1/2 pound beef burgers. Oops. I'm not sure I've ever eaten a 1/2 pound burger before. I had to put it on a pita because I don't have any buns large enough for a patty that size. The burger was intimidating, but also delicious. I ate the whole thing, plus some mashed potatoes, and a salad. 6 hours and some serious activity later (see below), I am still pretty full. Thank you, enormous burger!

Now, on to the overestimation portion of the day: my first class with the "Wonder Women" tri-training group. I signed up for my first tri right after the marathon, feeling excited and not too intimidated. Its a sprint, so the distances are short, and I loved both swimming and biking as a kid. How hard could it be to pick them up again? Well, if you've been following my attempts at swimming, you know that my childhood abilities do not necessarily translate to adulthood. I can now add biking to the list of things that were fun when I was a kid, but are incredibly hard now.

I was definitely nervous for this first class, as I knew we would be biking, and I only went for my first adulthood bike ride yesterday. Still, I thought I could keep up. I'm actually pretty good in spin class, and the class was sure to be packed with other first timers, right? Wrong. All it took was one glance at my classmates' bikes compared to mine to know that these ladies are in a different league. Sure enough, when we did introductions, I learned that I am the only first-timer in the group. When we set off on the bikes, I saw just how far behind I actually am. I was far to the back, out of sight of the other riders, within the first 3-5 minutes. I struggled for the whole 6 miles, actually considering dropping out at a couple of points. Our very kind and gracious instructor hung back with me the whole time, as I fought both fatigue and embarrassment. I can accept being in the back of the pack, but I hate being last.

I did get a little redemption when we got off the bikes and transitioned to a 1-mile "benchmark" run (meaning that we will run the same mile several times throughout the training to gauge our progress). Given the race in the morning and the brutal bike ride, I had very low expectations for the run. Yet, as soon as we got going, I got caught up in the excitement of an activity in which I actually feel competent. Somehow, I managed to run my fastest mile of the day and finish ahead of more than half the group. So, that was a bit of a confidence builder for the tri. It was a good reminder that one of my strengths as an athlete is the ability to shake off a rough patch and keep pushing.

I think I may need to call on that strength tomorrow morning, when the alarm goes off and I can't feel my legs...

17 seconds and 1.6 pounds.

This week, I came within a hair's breadth of two milestones:

1) Weighing under 150 pounds. Thanks to my long relationship with Weight Watchers online, I can tell you that the last time I weighed in under 150 was in November 2008. I started the new Weight Watchers this past November at 158.5, and I am now at 151.5. So, I am really trying to be diligent this week. Seeing a 14_ on the scale would be pretty phenomenal way to celebrate Valentine's Day!

2) Finishing a 5K in under 30 minutes. My brief racing career started with a Valentine's Day 5K in 2007. I finished that one in 34:15. Since then, I have done four others, with a previous PR of 30:22. Today, at the Annapolis Striders' Valentine's Day 5K, I really thought I would see the 29:59 I've been longing for. Unfortunately, I positioned myself way too far back at the start and spent probably the first half of the race weaving around people. At mile 2, I really kicked it into high gear- so much so that I was worried about throwing up at the finish! Ultimately, I crossed the finish line (without puking) at 30:16. So, a PR, but 17 seconds short of my goal. Next time!

Now, my two goals are having a little conflict. Given the fact that I've been doing 8-10 mile long runs for several weeks in preparation for a March half-marathon, I did not think that a mere 5K could leave me tired and starving. Boy, was I wrong! I have been either eating or dreaming of food ever since I got home from the race at 11:30. Around 1, my good friend Pat called and asked if I would like to watch a movie and eat chocolate cake tonight. It was like a phone call straight from my soul. So, I am currently baking a (homemade) chicken pot pie and waiting for the arrival of my friend and the cake. I will do my best to enjoy both in moderation.

Speaking of chicken pot pie, are you watching Top Chef All-Stars? This week's episode was (in my humble opinion) one of the most entertaining Top Chef episodes ever, and my favorite chef Carla Hall won with her own chicken pot pie. I loved Carla when she was on Top Chef New York, and my fandom increased exponentially when I learned that she is friends with two of my very favorite relatives- my uncle Joe and his fabulous wife Michele. Michele has told me that she is every bit as quirky, funny, and nice as she appears on TV. Joe has bragged that he cooked her crab soup and she asked for seconds. This season, I have enjoyed sending Michele emails and text messages the morning after each episode telling her how well Carla is doing. I am very much looking forward to sending the message saying that she's in the finale!

(Ideally, I will do that weighing 149 pounds, the morning after a 29-minute 5K.)

Sorry, Bill Cosby...

...but Runners World is my new authority on pudding. A few months ago, when I was recovering from my appendicitis, I ate a ton of Kozy Shack SimplyWell pudding. I love this pudding for its relatively short list of recognizable ingredients and its low Points on Weight Watchers. Still, as I was digging into what was probably my second container one day, I remember thinking "How hard could it be to make this from scratch? I need to look for a recipe."

I forgot all about my pudding-making ambition until a couple weeks ago, when the new issue of Runner's World arrived in the mail. I don't subscribe to Runners World for the recipes, but they do feature a surprising number of good ones. As I was flipping through, the above photo caught my eye. Lo and behold, there was a simple recipe for mocha-cinnamon pudding, and almost every ingredient was something I always have on hand. The only exception was chocolate milk, which I almost never buy because I have a hard time not drinking the entire container the day I bring it home.

So, this week, I added (the smallest possible container of) chocolate milk to my grocery list and made the pudding. It looks pretty good in that photo, but it tastes even better. SO GOOD! Even better, the recipe actually lived up to its promise of simplicity. The whole process (which included chopping up chocolate) only took about 15 minutes. The recipe says that it yields 5 servings, but the pudding is very rich, so I think it might stretch to 6 or 7. For you Weight Watchers people, the Points are 4-5 per serving (depending on the size), which isn't bad for such a good dessert.

So, make some pudding now and thank me later!

I like to go against the grain.

So, its New Year's, the day when people put away the holiday cookies and dust off the treadmill. For me, its the perfect day to make some fried chicken:

Just call me Colonel Popeye.

The recipe for this fried chicken is one of the first things in Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home, which is Chef Keller's cookbook aimed at mere mortals like myself (as opposed to culinary Gods). Like most of the other recipes in Ad Hoc, this one is manageable for a reasonably skilled at-home cook, but its still a stretch. Doing it right means buying and butchering a whole chicken, making lemon-herb brining liquid, brining the chicken for 10-12 hours, tempering it for another 90 minutes, preparing the flour/cayenne/paprika/pepper coating, executing a 3-step coating process, and then frying everything on the stove in the right order and without burning down your house. This is what Michael Pollan is talking about in his book Food Rules when he says that you can eat all the junk food you want, as long as you make it yourself. If I wanted to eat this chicken everyday, I would have to quit my job.

I started working on this Thursday night, when I went to Whole Foods for the ingredients and prepared the brining liquid. Today, I had no plans other than running and writing a sermon, so I spread the other chicken-making steps out over the course of the day. Early this morning, I cut the whole chicken into pieces and put it in the brining liquid. In the afternoon, I made the flour/spice coating and set it aside. A little later, I realized that I didn't need all the buttermilk I had bought for coating the chicken and decided to make some biscuits. There's a biscuit recipe in Ad Hoc, but it called for two whole sticks of butter to make only 12 biscuits. I was sure that the Weight Watchers ETools would crash if I tried to calculate the Points for that, so I turned to the very-helpful Cooking Light Everyday Favorites and found a more reasonable (and still quite tasty) recipe. A couple hours after I made the biscuits, I took the chicken out of the brine, rinsed it off, and let it come up to room temperature for the precribed 90 minutes.

Finally, a little before 8, it was time to fry. In the book, Chef Keller lays out a very specific order and timing for how to execute all the steps involved in cooking the chicken. I did my best to follow along, but I definitely made a few mistakes. Coating the chicken involved three steps: dredging in the flour/spice mixture, dipping in buttermilk, and then dredging in flour/spice a second time. After that, it all got fried in batches in oil heated to very precise temperatures. I screwed up the timing and temps a little, which made some of the coating come off and resulted in slightly oilier chicken than I wanted, but it still looked pretty good when I put it on the plate.

Then came the best part: the first bite. Chef Keller claims that his is the best recipe for fried chicken in the world. When I read that, I thought it sounded a little arrogant. After tasting it, I am a believer. This chicken is AMAZING. The lemon-herb brine makes the meat juicy and flavorful, and the flour/buttermilk/spice coating has all the crispy goodness you want from fried chicken with an added little kick from the cayenne and paprika. My version of this chicken- made with my amateur, semi-skilled, home-cook hands- is easily the best fried chicken I've ever tasted. I can not imagine what it must be like when the Man himself makes it. I'm not sure I could handle it. 

So, take that New Year's resolutions! I will definitely be putting in extra treadmill and spin class time to make up for this chicken, but it will be worth it. A delicious start to 2011!

I must never work from home (Weight Watchers update #3)

Happy New Year's Eve! I hope you are all having fun. This afternoon, I joined an impressive crowd at Fleet Feet Sports in Annapolis for a 5K fun run called "Last Run of the Year." Tomorrow, I'll be doing my first run of the year, aka: day 1 of the Annapolis Striders' 2011 half-marathon training. In between, I'm supposed to be working on a sermon for Sunday. Instead, I just cooked a big (and delicious) meal of steak, mashed potatoes, and a spinach salad with a homemade bacon vinaigrette dressing. And, of course, I uncorked a bottle of pinot noir purchased over the summer, because you can't eat steak without red wine!

This dinner highlights a little problem I have noticed this holiday season. Allow me to lay it out for you: I am super-duper busy, leaving little time for my hobbies. Thus, when I have time off, I like to spend lots of it engaging in those hobbies. One of my favorite hobbies is cooking. Thus, when I have time off, I cook (and therefore eat) like its going out of style.

Today, as on several mornings over this holiday season, I made a favorite holiday breakfast of french toast with cranberry sauce. Fortunately, I'm out of champagne, so I didn't drink a mimosa with it, but I did that on three other occasions this holiday season. For lunch, I took leftover rice from Chinese takeout, some leftover veggies from shepherd's pie, and a leftover orange-glazed pork chop from Christmas Eve, and made orange-y pork fried rice. Then, for dinner, I had the aforementioned steak feast. That's just today. At 11 tonight, I'm going to put a chicken in some brining liquid I made so that I can try Thomas Keller's fried chicken recipe for lunch tomorrow. There's still another steak in the fridge too...

Thankfully, I also like going to the gym more often when I have extra time, so I've put in several extra hours of exercise in between all this eating. Thus, I only gained 1 pound over Christmas week and I'm hoping to at least break even this week. Also, my New Year's resolution is to get my food budget under control. If all goes well, this should have the side-benefit of reigning in my cooking frenzies just a little bit.

If there's one thing I've learned from all of this, its that I probably shouldn't work from home. Ever. I sometime dream about setting up a counseling office in my house, seeing a few clients a day, and spending the rest of my time writing. Its a nice idea, but I think its better for me if I'm separated from the kitchen at least 40 hours a week. Maybe I could install some kind of timer-lock...

Happy New Year!

Cardio vs. Christmas cookies: Weight Watchers update #2

This morning was weigh-in #3 since the Weight Watchers changeover and I am down another pound! I think this is the first time in two years that I've actually lost three weeks in a row. For awhile now, I've been in a pattern of lose one pound, lose another pound, then gain three. This new system really works!

The fact that I lost at all this week is a Christmas miracle, because I've entered the portion of the holidays which I like to call "cookie sweatshop." Its time to put together all of my recession-Christmas homemade gifts, and most of those are baked goods. Not only do I have zero willpower around said baked goods, I won't let myself give anything away without tasting it first. (Once, I made a beautiful cheesecake for Thanksgiving, only to cut the first slice and realize that I forgot the sugar- lesson learned!)

In the past, cookie sweatshop week was a total free-for-all in terms of eating and I just dealt with the consequences in January. This year, under the new WW regimen, I've been able to approach it in a slightly more sane manner. I think the new system is a bit more flexible- mainly because I have more free points and activity points to work with. Also, knowing that I'm tracking everything helps me stop after the first or second cookie. Finally, I've really cranked up the cardio to help balance things out- I've added an extra spin class to my weekly schedule and I've done a couple of longer races over the past few weeks. Last week, I earned 60 activity points, which is the equivalent of more than two days' food for me. Looking at that total, I couldn't decide which was the more impressive feat- that I did enough exercise to earn those points, or that I ate every single one of them and then some!

Okay, I'm off to bake another batch of cookies and go to bed early. Thursday is 6am boot camp day, and the last two weeks have been so hard that I very nearly cried. Its easier to be tough on a full night's sleep! Goodnight!

Weight Watchers update: So far, so good.

Image from the awesome Natalie Dee- http://www.toothpastefordinner.com/.

I learned a couple of things when I posted about Weight Watchers last week:

1) At least 25% of the people I know have done WW at some time. Maybe 50%.

2) People who do WW like to talk about WW. I had more interest in that blog post than anything I wrote about the marathon. 

Armed with this knowledge, I thought I would give an update on how I'm doing with the new WW:

I'm doing well! The changeover happened in the middle of one of my WW weeks, so I've weighed in twice since then, even though its only been about 10 days. Thus far, I'm down 2 pounds, which is better than I was doing under the old system. Granted,  a big part of this success is due to the fact that, in order to learn the new system, I have been tracking Points and measuring portions diligently. I should have been doing that before, but I wasn't. (Note: tracking and measuring works.)

Still, I think the new system deserves some credit. The new practice of incentivizing healthier foods (like fruit) by making them 0 Points and penalizing unhealthy foods (like alcohol) by raising the Points is definitely pushing me to make healthier choices. I haven't had any alcohol since the changeover; before, I probably would have had some wine with dinner at least twice in 10 days. I've also had more fruits and veggies in the last 10 days than in the month prior. In fact, my new solution to everything is "have a banana." Here's how that sounds in my head:

"I would like some wine with dinner... Maybe I'll have a banana."

"A soft pretzel sounds like a good idea.... but I think I'll have a banana."

"I could definitely eat all of those cookies I'm baking for Christmas. Time for a banana!"

I'm sure you get the idea.

So, thus far, two thumbs up to the new Weight Watchers. I'll continue to keep you posted. How is everyone else doing?

My favorite things, part 2: the new Weight Watchers

As many who read this blog already know, I've been a member of Weight Watchers off and on since October 2003. Prior to joining WW, my weight had fluctuated for years, and I only had the vaguest notions as to why. Starting in the 8th grade, I lost and gained a decent amount of weight at least three times, and it always felt like it just happened. I knew some things that I was doing right, and some things that I was doing wrong, but I really could not have told you why my weight changed when it did. This meant that I had no idea how to replicate the weight losses, nor how to prevent the weight gains.

For me, WW was a revelation. At the time I joined, I thought I weighed, at most, 165lbs. At my first meeting, I learned that I actually weighed 177lbs. Oops. I'm not sure if this was the heaviest I have ever been because I never paid much attention to the scale before WW. In fact, as I soon learned, I had never paid much attention to anything regarding food, weight, or exercise before. Obviously, I knew that eating a banana was better than eating a cookie, and that going for a walk was better than watching TV. Beyond that, though, I really didn't have a clue.

When I joined WW, the program used the Points system. Under that plan, all foods were assigned a Points value based on calories, fat, and fiber. Essentially, the Points values came from calories, with penalties for fat and rewards for fiber. Exercise was measured in Points too, with a formula based on your weight, the duration of the activity, and your level of effort. Every day, you tracked your Points like a checkbook. You had a balance at the beginning of the day (based on your age, weight, and activity level), and then you deducted points when you ate and added them back when you exercised. As part of the program, you got tools to manually figure out Points for food and exercise, or you could pay extra for books and/or an online program that listed Points for various supermarket foods and restaurant meals.

By the end of my first week doing WW, I had a pretty solid idea of why I had gained weight. In the beginning, my daily Points balance was somewhere around 24. When I added up the Points for my 3-4 times/week Dunkin Donuts breakfast (bagel with lowfat cream cheese, OJ, and coffee with cream), it came out to 18. Baja Fresh, which was one of my favorite restaurants at the time, did not have a single menu item under 25 points. Even when I was eating healthier foods, my portions were 2-3 times bigger than they needed to be. I also realized that exercise, which I had always used as a free pass to eat whatever I wanted, could only do so much. A 60-minute spin class, which is some pretty serious exercise, would only cover the bagel portion of that DD breakfast.

Losing weight with WW the first time felt easy. I had so many bad habits when I started that simply eliminating those was enough to make me drop weight quickly. I started October 1st and had lost 40 pounds by late May. At that time, I relied heavily on frozen entrees and other diet convenience foods. I also tracked my Points religiously and exercised semi-regularly.

I managed to maintain that initial weight loss for close to three years. Weight started to creep back on when I stopped paying attention to things like portion sizes, got more into cooking, and ate out more often. Then, came the Dark Days of late '07- mid '08 when my life was a total mess and all of my energy was focused on just getting through the day. By the time I emerged from that, I had gained back at least 15 pounds and it was time to head back to good 'ol WW.

I've been trying to get back on the WW bandwagon off and on for a couple of years now, with limited success. Most of the problem has been me- my crazy schedule and lack of willingness to think about one more thing. However, the second time around, I've had some gripes with the Points system. For the past few years, I've been trying to remove most processed foods from my diet. This includes things like WW frozen entrees, fat-free "cheese," and artificial sweeteners. Without those convenience foods, I have found it much harder to stay within my daily Points range without feeling ravenous all the time. Also, having a Points system based mainly on calories meant that fresh, healthy foods (like bananas) sometimes had more Points than super-processed diet foods (like 100-calorie pack cookies).

This is where the new Weight Watchers comes in. Starting this past Monday, WW rolled out a totally revamped Points system. The process is still the same- you track Points for food and exercise, aiming to stay within a daily target- but the way the Points are calculated is totally different. Now, the formula is based on protein, fat, fiber, and carbs. Also, the new formula generally favors healthy, whole foods. For example, most fresh fruit now has 0 Points. Before, fruit was often high in Points because its natural sugars make it high in calories. Whole grain carbs are also lower in points now, especially compared to refined carbs. In the past, the difference was negligible. More fruit and more whole grains is great news for me, because I love those things anyway.

There are some tougher changes, too. For example, the Points value of alcohol is now way higher than before. Also, having to re-learn Points is a challenge. Over the course of 7 years, I had memorized the Points for pretty much everything I eat regularly. I had also developed the ability to "guesstimate" Points pretty closely just by looking at a food's calorie count, and I knew the right Points-range for a meal pretty instinctively (ie: 6-10 for dinner). Now, I have to unlearn all of that and learn a new system. How many Points for my morning protein bar? Used to be 4, now its 5. Is 5 a lot for breakfast under my new Points budget? I'm still figuring that out. Finally, many of the WW materials I had amassed over the years are now useless. Earlier this week, I recycled all of my old Points guides and forked over about $15 for new materials (on top of my montly charge for using the online program). To the credit of WW, they put all of the new materials on mega-sale (50-75% off), so buying them wasn't as painful as I had expected.

Even with the challenges, I can't complain too much about the new system. Its not like I didn't know that drinking alcohol is bad for weight loss. Now, I'll be even more careful about that. Also, I was long overdue for a reassessment of my go-to foods, recipes, and portion sizes. Being mindful about those things is what helped me lose the first time, and I had not been doing a great job of that lately. Finally, the new fruit rule is worth all of the other changes to me. I already went to the grocery store for a purely fruit-buying trip and I am enjoying eating my bananas and pineapple with reckless abandon.

So, on the whole, I think the new Weight Watchers is probably an improved Weight Watchers. I would encourage anyone who wants to lose some weight or just eat healthier to check it out. One caveat is that I highly recommend going to meetings for at least a few weeks, as opposed to just doing the online program. I used to go to meetings, but I am online-only right now because of my schedule. The online materials are a great supplement to meetings, but I think that the introductory materials they give out at meetings are much easier to follow. Also, I am really missing having a meeting leader to explain these changes to me.

I'll keep you posted on how I do with the new programs! WW friends, I would love to hear from you too!

A "hollow day."

For awhile now, I have been obsessed with the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, along with a decent chunk of the late-elementary through high school readers in the world and quite a few adults. If you have not heard of these books, you really owe it to yourself to check them out. You can put yourself on a sure-to-be-very-long waiting list at your local library, or pick them up on Amazon at http://amzn.com/0439023521.

I won't spend too long summarizing the books here; I'll save that for a later post. For my purposes today, you only need to know that the heroine is a 16 year-old girl named Katniss who has spent her life struggling to get by in a poor coal-mining community called District 12. For much of the first book, she has to struggle to find food. At one point, she thinks "I know I'm going to have what we call a hollow day back in District 12. That's a day where no matter what you put in your belly, its never enough."

Very fortunately, I have never struggled with actual hunger in my life. However, I think pretty much anyone who has ever trained for a marathon or other serious athletic event can relate to the idea of the "hollow day." Just this Saturday, I discussed it with Katie C. and her lovely training partner Erin. During our training, we have all experienced days when, no matter what or how much we eat, we never stop feeling hungry. Often, this happens when we add mileage and/or speed to our longer runs. After some of my runs, I have eaten a bacon, egg, and cheese bagel (which is a decent-sized breakfast) and felt like it literally fell through a hole in my stomach. When that happens, I know that it will continue for at least the rest of the day. I will eat like crazy and still feel hungry. 

Today is one of those days. I increased my usual weight in Group Power yesterday, and then I took a spin class last night. This was a pretty decent activity increase compared to my usual Monday, and I am feeling it today. I ate lunch at noon, and was starving by 2:30. This is inconvenient because I am meeting a friend for dinner at 6:45, and the only snack I have available is an apple. I ate the apple around 3:30, and immediately realized that it wouldn't hold me for 3+ hours. So, a few minutes ago, I broke down and ate the Lean Cuisine I had packed for tomorrow's  lunch. Guess what? Still hungry. When I ate Lean Cuisine #2, I deluded myself that I would just get a salad when I meet my friend, but right now it feels more like a steak kind of evening. Hollow day indeed.

*Quick fundraising update. As of today, our combined donation total is $1940 and we have a little over 18 days to go. Keep the donations coming- you could be the person who pushes us over the $2000 mark!

A long weekend's worth of updates.

This long weekend could not have come at a better time. I'm not a big fan of Columbus Day and I don't really understand why my office (which is all about social justice and loving the stranger) celebrates it, but between the recent illness and all the schoolwork, I definitely needed an extra day at home. Here's what I've been up to:

Thursday night, I got a lovely package in the mail from my former roommate Katie, who now lives in Hawaii, containing the shirt pictured above. As much as I don't want to go through marathon training again, I may consider it as part of a future visit to her new home of Honolulu. Especially if I can convince her to run it with me. She doesn't think that will happen, but I can be very persuasive...

Friday, I tried to take it easy and go to bed super-early in order to shake off the last of my cold and gear up for Saturday's 18-miler. When I started out on Saturday, I thought it had worked. My first few miles felt really good, and I was appreciating both the week of rest and the fact that I was moving again. Around mile 7, it started to get tough. At 8, I decided to slow down a lot and try to recover for the second half of the run. That got me to about mile 11. At that point, things really started to fall apart. I just didn't feel like I could run anymore, so I switched almost entirely to walking. By mile 13, even that was difficult. I was exhausted,  pretty much everything hurt, and the 5 miles back to my car felt like a really long way. Fortunately, one of our coaches noticed that I was taking too long to get back to the start and drove to the trailhead to look for me, cutting the last 1 1/2 miles off the end of my return trip.

Not finishng that run was one of the lower points of my training. I didn't cry or panic, but this was one of the only times in the past few months where I actually thought "maybe I can't do this." Oddly enough, someone from my gym made me feel better this morning by asking how I'm feeling and commenting that I looked awful last week. She was right. On my one and only visit to the gym last week, I had to run into a bathroom mid-class and splash water on my face to keep from throwing up. I was really sick, and I obviously needed more time to recover before attempting such a long run. If I continue to take it easy, I will get back to where I was before.

For the rest of Saturday and all of Sunday, I got to really enjoy the extra dose of weekend. Saturday night, I went to Baltimore to celebrate the lovely Katie Cashin's 26th birthday. Yesterday, I spent a few hours making some fall dishes: corn fritter casserole and shepherd's pie:

Yum! Then, I actually went to a movie. I've been to maybe 5 or 6 movies in the past 2 years, which is so sad. Going on a Sunday, which is usually homework and laundry day, felt downright decadent.

Finally, this morning, I went to the launch of the new Group Power release. Earlier this week, I discovered that the company behind GP actually puts up trailers on YouTube, so here you go:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkApJe4XQI8. I am grateful that our instructors, Bill and Kelly, are a little more low-key than these guys. They still make it fun, but I think they understand that there's only so much enthusiasm a person can handle at 6am.

Now, its time for deferred laundry and homework day... but maybe a nap first. 
  

Walk it off.



"The Biggest Loser" started its new season on Tuesday, but Katie C. and I have been channeling trainer Jillian for a few weeks now. Over the summer, we realized that we would be in the same section of Psychological Testing this semester. This is the second of two statistics-based courses in the Loyola MS program (PhD students do more), and a source of great anxiety for many. As a (very) general rule, people drawn to human services professions like counseling are not the most mathematically-minded people, and many have not taken a math course in years. Thus, the stats classes tend to be the sites of numerous student freakouts and meltdowns, which consume valuable instructional time.

Inspired by the summer fill-in show "Losing It With Jillian," Katie and I decided that we could improve the stats experience by tapping into our own inner Jillians. So, when a student starts to freak out, we could stand over his or her shoulder and shout things like "Walk it off!," "Be in it to win it!," and "Don't say 'can't' to me!" When the whole class starts to lose it, we could lead them in some quick jumping jacks or push-ups to blow off steam. The prof hasn't called on us for this important job yet, but I find myself thinking these things whenever I'm confused, stuck, bored or annoyed in class. I can tell Katie is doing it too, because I sometimes see her chuckling to herself during the tougher moments in class. So thanks, Jillian. This problem set's for you.

On a totally unrelated note, I had one of my new favorite dinners last night: spaghetti with bacon and eggs. This is slightly adapted from a Real Simple recipe (available at http://www.realsimple.com/) and it is great for both pre-run carb loading and post-run recovery. Just watch your portions and don't eat it every night if you're trying to maintain or lose weight. I don't think its Bob-and-Jillian approved.

Ingredients

1 box whole-wheat spaghetti (For me, this is enough for 4-6 servings. If I'm cooking for just myself, I make the whole box and save the leftovers for later in the week.)

About 1/4 cup canola or olive oil, and 1/2-3/4 cup grated Parmesan (This is enough for the whole box of pasta. Again, I make it all and save it.)

2 slices turkey bacon per serving

2 eggs per serving

kosher salt and black pepper

Directions

1.Cook pasta according to the package directions. Drain and return pasta to the pot.

2. Toss pasta with the oil, the Parmesan, and salt and pepper to taste.

3. Cook bacon in a nonstick or cast-iron skillet over medium heat until crisp. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate. 

4.Wipe out the skillet and return it to medium heat. Crack eggs into it and cook until whites are set but yolks are still runny.

5. Divide pasta among bowls, toss each serving with 2 strips of crumbled bacon, and and top each serving with 2 eggs.

Super-easy and delicious! The best part is, if you only cook for 1 or 2, you wind up with enough leftover spaghetti to make this at least a couple more times (and believe me, you will want to). Enjoy!

Dogs and hogs.

Yesterday was a very full, great day! It started with the Annapolis Striders' Dog Days 8K (4.96-mile) trail race up at AACC in Arnold. I've run on trails a few times before, including one other trail race- the Montgomery County Road Runners' Difficult Cross Country 8K- which happened back in April. That race was entirely on trails, including lots of rocks, tree roots, and downed trees. It also included two climbs up a hill which they (accurately) described as "like climbing a wall." You can see me at the bottom of that hill here:

MCRR wasn't kidding about that race being difficult (though it was fun too). I finished it in an hour and 12 minutes. The Dog Days, on the other hand, was only partially on trails, and the trails themselves were much flatter and free from major obstacles. Even after running 14 miles the day before, I was able to finish the race in 55 minutes. My roommate Katie and running buddy Val ran the race too. Katie's a pro at trail running, but Val had never done a trail race before and she did really well!

After the race, Katie and I headed up to Baltimore, where we helped two good friends move into an amazing new house. Then, we did a quick change and made a long-awaited trip to Frederick to eat at Volt restaurant. Volt has been around for a few years, but I (along with most of the world) only learned about it last fall, when chef/owner Bryan Voltaggio was the runner-up on Top Chef Las Vegas. I've been looking for an excuse to go ever since, and finally got one when Katie accepted a new job in Hawaii. Given the amount of time we've spent running, cooking and eating together, it seemed appropriate to celebrate Katie's moving on with a race and a trip to a great restaurant.   

I had really high expectations for Volt, and I was definitely not dissapointed. The restaurant is housed in a beautiful restored mansion right in downtown Frederick. Inside, there is a bar/lounge, a main dining room (where we ate), a chef's dining room (which serves a prix fixe tasting menu), and the extra-special Table 21 in the kitchen where very lucky (and wealthy) diners eat a unique 21-course tasting menu made by the chef right before their eyes. On the way to the restroom, you can just catch a glimpse of Table 21. Katie and I each walked by a couple of times, hoping to see Bryan himself. I finally got lucky on my last trip. I only saw him from the back, but I was still excited.

Celebrity sightings aside, the food was the real star of the evening. The main dining room serves 4 courses a la carte, which change regularly depending on what's in season. (I had checked the menu when I made the reservation about 10 days ago and several things had changed by Sunday.) Katie and I decided to share the first two courses and then order two main dishes and two desserts. Between courses, the wait staff brought out little extra treats, including a refreshing shrimp ceviche amuse bouche and an amazing selection of fresh-baked breads and rolls.

Our first course was a medley of heirloom tomatoes, surrounded by micro-greens, some kind of encapsulated mozzarella, and "frozen flavors of gazpacho." All of the flavors and textures worked together beautifully. By the end, I wanted to lick the plate and we were both super-excited for the next course: pork belly. For me, this turned out to be the star of the night. I can barely remember what else was on the plate (other than white beans) because the pork belly itself was so delicious. It almost made me regret the 15+ years I spent as a vegetarian. For main courses, we shared plates of beef tenderloin and roasted chicken. I tried the chicken first. It was accompanied by two different sides: delicious Asian-flavored greens with little bits of ham, and a perfectly cooked polenta cake. The chicken was delicious, but it was out-shone by the beef tenderloin, which was served rare over some of the most delicious mashed potatoes I've ever tasted. I had no idea that I was over-cooking my beef until I tasted that tenderloin, but I will not make that mistake again! Finally, we had our two desserts: a deconstructed meyer lemon tart and "textures of chocolate" accompanied by pistachio ice cream. Everything was delicious, but the star of this course was the pistachio ice cream with a sprinking of cocoa powder. I told Katie that I wanted to bathe in it.

When we had finished our last courses (again, resisting the temptation to lick the plates), the server brought our check and we got two pleasant surprises: First, neither of us was going to have to wash dishes because the meal wasn't nearly as expensive as we had anticipated/feared. Second, we were given a little take-home loaf of lemon-poppy seed bread "compliments of the pastry chef." We were both excited about that bread (which I ate for breakfast this morning) because it allowed us to put off the moment when we would have to resume eating regular food just a little longer. 

I drove home thinking that I had just easten the best meal of my life and the day could not get any better. Then, I got a text message telling me that the couple Katie and I helped move earlier in the day had gotten engaged! So, congratulations Nancy and Jessie! An amazing end to an awesome day.  

Feel-good story of the day (and other news).

Today's New York Times features a great story about a man who recovered from open-heart surgery and then challenged his heart surgeon to do a triathlon with him. You can read it at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/19/sports/19racers.html. This story really spoke to me because this marathon experience has brought so many new people into my life and deepened my relationship with others in ways I never would have imagined. When I was taking classes from Dr. Murray in 2007 and 2008, I knew that she inspired me to push myself, but I never imagined that her example would push me into something like this!

Its been a very busy few days, so here are some highlights:

I made it back to boot camp this past Thursday. As usual, our awesome instructor Kate took us for a run outside and mixed it with a series of drills. As an added bonus, she set her watch alarm to go off every 5 minutes. Whenever it went off, we stopped wherever we happened to be and did 20 pushups followed by 20 mountain-climbers. During the class itself, I thought that the mountain-climbers were the easy part (relatively speaking). Then, my alarm went off Friday morning and I realized I couldn't sit up. My lower abs have been sore ever since. Doing anything in plank position is virtually impossible and anything involving sitting up is extra-difficult. (Note to self: work on lower abs!)

On Friday afternoon, I had lunch with my fabulous fundraising/training partner Katie Cashin. We made plans to distribute our newly-printed business cards (ask me for one!) and for our fundraising party series, Jock Jam Annapolis and Jock Jam Baltimore. More about that soon. That night, I went to see a show by my friends' amazing band, the Pushovers. You should check them out immediately at http://www.thepushoversband.com/. 1/3 of the band is my friend Nancy, who has wanted to be a musician throughout the many years I've known her and, over the past few years, has really made it happen. I could not be more proud of her!

On Saturday morning, I ran the John Wall 1-mile race with the Annapolis Striders. I haven't raced a mile since the Presidential physical fitness test my freshman year in high school, but somehow I remember that I did that in around 9 minutes. So, that was the only benchmark I had to go on. I put myself in the 8:30-9:30 heat and hoped I wouldn't come in last. I finished in 8:27, 18/23 people in my heat (clearly, I was not the only one guessing at which heat to be in). Not bad, but I think I could do much better with a little speed work. (Note to self: do speedwork!)

On Saturday afternoon, my family and I celebrated the 3rd birthday of my niece Greta (see post below) and then I came home and celebrated by return to the world of meat-eating by roasting a chicken:

It tasted even better than it looked. I was bursting with pride. Katie (my roommate) made some delicious light macaroni and cheese from the Rocco DiSpirito cookbook Now Eat This! and we had a terrific dinner.

Sunday morning, Katie and I worked off part of that dinner with a 6.5 mile-run downtown and around the Naval Academy. It was my first long-ish run on a hot day since hurting my ankle, and I can't say I put in a stellar performance, but I always enjoy morning runs in Annapolis. Its nice to run through a downtown that isn't packed with tourists and greet all of the other early-morning runners, fishermen, and crabbers. Katie and I went to church afterward, but we both had a hard time focusing because we were dreaming of the naps we would take when we got home.

Finally, this morning, Katie and I went to the 6am launch of the new Group Power release at my gym. The launch days are always fun- the instructors go all-out with themes, costumes, and prizes and the classes are usually packed. This morning was the first time my regular instructors Bill and Kelly led the launch, and they both did a great job. During the class, I didn't think it was that hard, but I'm already feeling the all-consuming hunger and soreness which tell me I was working harder than I thought.

That's all for now!

Eating with Oprah.

Every year, my mom gives me a subscription to The Oprah Magazine for Christmas. This is awesome because I get to read it without the shame of having actually purchased it. The food section is always filled with things that look amazing, but I find that the recipes often involve rare and expensive ingredients, crazy complicated techniques, and/or tools that only some professional have access to. I think Oprah forgets that we don't all have personal chefs.

Earlier this week, I was flipping through the latest issue and found a story on cooking with peaches. All of the pictures looked so delicious that I immediately called my roommate Katie over to look. The first photo featured a grilled pizza, which was fortuitous, because Katie has recently gotten way into grilling pizza. We were intrigued.

Katie and I have been roommates for a year, but for most of that time we've been entirely consumed by work: Katie as a veterinary resident, me as a counseling intern. For many months, we both worked 12+ hours days, on opposite schedules, which means we often went days without even seeing one another. Its a real shame, because Katie is one of the best roommates I've ever had and we actually enjoy one another's company at those times when our paths cross. My internship ended in May and Katie finished her residency at the end of June, so now we have about 6 weeks of actual interaction before Katie moves on to a new job in Hawaii (happy for her, sad for me). We are spending the majority of that time working out and cooking.

Katie and I are a good match in both of these areas. She's a million times more experienced and talented as an athlete, and I'm a bit more knowledgable in the kitchen. So, we can push each other. Plus, its much less intimidating to set out on a hard run or embark on a big culinary project if you know you have help. The pizza pictured above was a perfect collboration. I wrote the shopping list, made the dough, and assembled the toppings; Katie shaped the dough and figured out how to get it on the grill. The end results were DELICIOUS. Yay teamwork.

(I would post the recipe, but I can't find it online, so instead I will implore you to buy, borrow, or steal a copy of this month's Oprah magazine. Whatever you pay will be worth it. If you're curious, the crust is made from corn meal and bread flour, and the toppings are olive oil, red pepper flakes, garlic, peaches, pancetta, goat cheese, toasted almonds, arugula, and a little more olive oil and salt.)

In other news, I did my first short run on the ankle this morning as part of boot camp class, and everything seems fine! I think I'm going to shave a few miles off the long run this weekend, but hopefully I'll be back on track within a few weeks. Thanks for all of your concern and supportive messages!

Not a great start to the weekend.

The plan for today was to join my sister on her first 5K ever and run to and from the race in order to add enough extra miles to equal a 12-mile long run. Instead, today is all about RICE: rest, ice, compression, and elevation. Awesome.

The trouble started yesterday morning. I took a half-day from work in order to make up some of the training I missed while I was on half a dozen planes and in WA (see post from earlier this week). My awesome and very athletic roommate agreed to join me at 6:30am for a trail run, followed by a visit to the new Annapolis recreation center at Truxton Park to use the track. For me, the run was rough from the beginning. It was hot and I had barely done anything all week (see other post from earlier this week). By the time we reached the trail, I was really struggling and Katie was way ahead.

About halfway through the trail, I tripped on a tree root and fell, twisting my ankle. I got up and tried walking on it. It definitely hurt, but not too bad. I walked on it for a few minutes and the pain went away. By the time Katie realized I was missing and came back to check on me, it felt fine. I resumed running and was fine for the rest of the trail, a mile run on the track, and the mile walk home. The most painful part of the whole thing was at the rec center, when I put some hand sanitizer on the abrasion on my left leg (yikes!).

After I got home and had a snack, I felt good enough to walk to the gym for group power. I made it through the class fine, no pain at all. Then, during the cool down, I noticed that my ankle hurt whenever I put my weight on my right side. It got steadily worse as I walked home. Within 30 minutes of arriving home, it was excruciating and I couldn't put weight on it at all. I actually crawled to the bathroom at one point because trying to walk was just too painful.

Two hours of icing and elevation later, things were no better, so I made a doctor's appointment and took some Advil. Naturally, as soon as I had an appointment, I started to feel a little better. Katie took me to the doctors where they talked to me like I was both reckless and crazy. "You ran after you fell? And then you went to the gym???" I kept trying to explain that the ankle didn't hurt until after the gym, but I don't think anyone really heard me. The doctor sent me for xrays and gave me a referral to an orthopedist. Then my mom, who asked the same incredulous questions as the doctors, gave me one of the crutches I used 10 years ago when I was in a bad car accident.

Today, the ankle feels much, much better. Its shocking how much it hurt yesterday and how little it hurts today. I go to the orthopedist Tuesday and I'm praying that he'll tell me I can get back to training soon. I really don't want to get too far off track. Plus, working out has become such a huge part of my routine that I hate missing it.

In more positive news, I tried my first recipe from Rocco DiSpirito's new light cookbook, Now Eat This! (http://amzn.com/0345520904) and it was delicious! Definitely a book to try. Also, my awesome sister Meghan and my niece's friend Liza persevered through pouring rain this morning to run that 5K- a first for both of them. So, congratulations to Meghan and Liza!

Birthdays and blueberries.

June is a big month for birthdays in my family. Mine is June 5th, my nephew Shane's is June 22nd, and my Mom's was yesterday (June 30th). Mom doesn't look it, but she just turned 58. She looks as good as she does, at least in part, because she's always been super health-conscious. When she was a kid and teenager, she participated in all manner of exotic athletic pursuits, including baton-twirling and belly-dancing. At one time, she hoped to be a school gym teacher, but instead she got married at age 20 to my Dad, who already had two small children. As busy as she was with two (and eventually three) small children, she always took the time to eat healthy and exercise. When I was little, we used to go for walks or bike rides pretty much every day, and twice each week, I would sit reading in a school gymnasium as she took her weekly aerobics class. Now, many years later, Mom still does aerobics every week, gets up early to catch exercise shows on TV, and takes my little niece Greta (above) for walks while my sister-in-law takes her own fitness classes. So, thanks Mom, for setting a good example for us.

For both Father's Day and Mom's birthday, I made two delicious treats involving blueberries. Fruity desserts are my favorite kind, so I always get excited when berry season rolls around. Back in 2006, when I was still at Yale, I got a great summer internship which featured all manner of fun social activities for my fellow interns and I. One of those events was blueberry-picking at one of my favorite CT places: Bishop's Orchards (http://www.bishopsorchards.com/).

The trip wound up falling on one of the hottest days of that summer, so only the die-hard foodies among the interns decided to go. Given the small numbers, my supervisor generously allowed me to bring my roommate Matt along for the ride. Matt and I were best friends for all three of our years at Yale, and probably spent 75% of that time at restuarants or in the kitchen (the other 25% we spent talking about Harry Potter and watching "Lost"). This is how I'll always remember Matt:

When we arrived at Bishop's, we were told that we had an hour to pick as many blueberries as we wanted. As long as we could stand the heat and keep picking, all the berries were free. Matt and I were up to that challenge. We walked away with well over 20 pounds of blueberries. Thus began challenge #2: using 2o+ pounds of blueberries. We ate them raw, put them on salads, blended them in smoothies (with yogurt before work, with vodka and triple sec after work), and baked them into whatever creations we could imagine. To this day, whenever I cook with blueberries, I think of that time. Sigh.

So, in honor of birthdays and blueberries, here are three great, easy recipes which use the same basic ingredients:

Blueberry sauce:

All you need for this is 1/2 to 1 pint of blueberries and some red wine. Just put the blueberries in a small sauce pan with enough red wine to cover them and simmer over low-medium heat, stirring often, until they form into a sauce. You can use the sauce for ice cream, crepes, other desserts, whatever. This basic recipe works with all kinds of berries, fresh and frozen. I use it all the time.

Blueberry lemon muffins:

This is another Food Network recipe, from the cookbook How to Boil Water (http://amzn.com/0696226863). It says that it makes 12 muffins, but I usually get 18 from this recipe. Also, you can replace the 1/2 cup of butter with 1/2 cup of vegetable oil if you prefer.

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar (white or light brown) plus more for sprinkling on top of the muffins
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon fine salt
Freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup whole milk
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries, rinsed and dried

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line a 12-muffin tin with cupcake liners and set aside.

Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg together in a medium bowl; set aside.

Put the butter in a microwaveable-safe dish or measuring cup. Cover with plastic wrap and microwave until melted, about 30 seconds. (Alternatively melt the butter in a saucepan.) Whisk the milk, eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla with the butter.

Make a small well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour wet ingredients into the well, then stir with a wooden spoon until the dry ingredients are moistened but still lumpy. Do not overmix the batter or your muffins will be dense. Gently stir in the blueberries. Divide the batter evenly into the muffin tin and sprinkle the tops generously with sugar.

Put the muffins in the oven and immediately reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees F. Bake until golden brown, about 25 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the cooking. (Insert a toothpick into the center of a muffin to check if it is done. Toothpick should come out clean). Cool muffins in the pan on a rack for a couple minutes. Turn the muffins out of the pan and cool on the rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.


Blueberry cobbler:

This recipe comes from my favorite magazine, Real Simple. I remember getting the issue and being so excited about it that I made it that very day. Its very easy and delicious. This is a photo I took the first time I made it, to prove that it looked just like the picture:



Ingredients

2 pints blueberries
1/3 cup plus 1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 cups heavy cream

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375° F. In a shallow 1 1/2-quart baking dish or a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate, toss the blueberries, 1/3 cup sugar, and 1 tablespoon flour.

2. In a medium bowl, combine the baking powder, salt, lemon zest, and the remaining flour and sugar.

3. Add the butter and blend with your fingers or 2 knives until coarse crumbs form. Add 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons cream and mix until a shaggy dough forms.

4. Drop mounds of dough over the blueberry mixture. Bake until the berries are bubbling and the top is golden, 35 to 40 minutes. Serve with the remaining cream for drizzling, if desired.

Enjoy!