Food and Other Ways To Pass the Time

Now that our travels have lulled for a little while, I have felt a little bit like this cat. Not interested in doing much. Not running very far. Not trying very hard to be... anything. And that's alright, everyone needs a break every now and then. So I thought I would go through and see what activities we've done in the past couple months that I've forgotten to talk about here!

Ed is busy working away on his wine production line. We're starting to tease out which fruits and juices make the best wines and which taste like... well. Not great. And sometimes we get a little hyper activity going on our pantry. When I can smell the wine in the living room, that's usually a heads up for me to check on the situation:

When things in the pantry are quieted, sometimes I'll go meet Ed for lunch. This particular restaurant, Orenchi Ramen, has been a pain to try to get into. We're talking slammed 10 mins before it opens. We got there 30 mins early, signed up on a list that already had 10 parties ahead of us, and finally got into this place.

Orenchi Ramen (Tonkotsu Base) - egg, pork, green onion, bamboo shoot, mushroom, sesame, nori seaweed

I was super impressed and I'm glad we didn't order anything else - I was freakin' stuffed. If you like ramen, we'll definitely take you here.

Sometimes we'll get together with coworkers. Ryan was leaving the company and had heard I liked to sing so he thought going out for karaoke and dinner would be fun. And it really was.

I'd never done the karaoke where you're in a little room with your friends and can order food and drinks...

The computer was difficult to use because English wasn't the default setting and well, if you didn't know the languages, you were bound to struggle. This was our playlist at one point:

Ed's coworkers would add songs for anyone to sing (anyone being namely me), so I was pretty hoarse by the end of the time. :) It was a lot of fun, Ed's lucky to have some really nice coworkers. After karaoke we went to this Burmese restaurant and it was... delicious. Actually, it was previously a really terrible kabob place we took Austin, Michelle and Brian when the Ethiopian place was closed next door. Oops! Come back guys, it's much more delicious now!

And of course what else do we do with our time? Eat donuts! Well. Maybe not all the time but it's hard to resist the crazy things they come up with at Psycho Donuts. Ed knows I don't like banana anything so if you see one with bananas, that's all his. Mine was a Mom-osa for Mother's Day (orange icing with champagne flavored filling).

These two donuts below are the Sticky Monkey and the Apricotology. So massive. Amazingly, we were unable to finish them. :)

We also found a kick ass fish tacos restaurant about a mile from our place... I'm fairly certain we'll be returning there with great frequency.

And ya'll know, I love me some Potbelly's. Well, by us they have place called Mr. Pickles. Let me just say, these sandwiches were delicious and MASSIVE. We easily made two lunches from the two sandwiches.

I'm still cookin up a storm, trying new things as often as the budget allows. This was my attempt at Medeira cake from Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess cookbook. It was pretty delicious. A little too crispy on the edges but great soft center. Side note - who ever got this loaf pan for me, THANK YOU. Shame on me for forgetting, but it is a miracle worker. Nothing ever sticks to it, it cooks so evenly, and it makes the most beautiful crusts.

I'm practicing with the camera my Uncle Tom gave me...

Can you be a photographer that specializes in produce, donuts and cat pictures? Cause that's pretty much what I'm workin' with here.

And that folks, is how you recap several months of completely random activities. Here's to a more coherent post next time.

Bourdain, 12mi, 20lbs, Horsies, and pancakes!

Sorry everyone! I've been delaying writing a post for too long. I kept saying, 'Oh, I'll wait until something happens and I have something to write about.' Well, we went to see Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert talk, finished a 12 mile run, went horseback riding and ate pancakes and I didn't write after any of that!

The event with Bourdain and Ripert was alright. They are pretty funny together and it would have been a really interesting night if we hadn't read Bourdain's books and Ripert's Avec Eric. Ripert may be my favorite chef to date. One of the questions they were asked was if you were stuck on a desert island and couldn't lift a finger to cook, what three chefs would you bring along? I named Ripert right off the bat, but as Ed and I discovered, we could only name one or two other chefs whose food we had actually tasted and really loved. Tyler Florence was also on that list. We cook a good deal of special event meals from his cookbooks and we've loved every visit to Wayfare Tavern in the city (if you visit, you must try the burger, it is magical). They discussed the merits of west coast vs. east coast cooking, whether it's more important to have a good chef or good ingredients (they heartily disagreed on this point), and said California looked ridiculous for passing the ban on foie gras ('like a bunch of rubes' according to Bourdain). They also drank beer during the second half of the discussion and after all that talk of food and drink, watching someone drink a beer will make you thirstier than a marathoner in the Kalahari. One of my favorite moments was when it was revealed that Bourdain is not allowed to cook at home. His wife believes he's incapable of cooking Italian food correctly and is also on a protein kick for her martial arts training, so it's limited options for meals. He then compared his wife to a T-Rex Chuck Norris. Isn't that just a t-shirt waiting to be made?

The next weekend was peak training for me, culminating at a 12 mile run. It went about as well as can be expected. I feel as prepared as I can be for this race.

My super chic new running visor. You know, because it's essentially summertime out here now.

My runs have a pattern generally: a slowing at mile 3, but overall good first 5 miles, a small slowing again to mile 6, then pretty steady 7-10.5, and then the slog to the end. It was pretty ugly those last 1.5-2 miles. I haven't talked about it much because I don't want it to be a reality, but I'm having trouble with my knee. Some of you may remember the horrific move we made into this apartment on our own and how I injured my knee. It flares up every now and then (Yosemite and hikes generally), and these very long runs have been pretty brutal to it. I don't care if I have to walk that last mile or three to the end of this half marathon. I'm going to run as much as I can and finish what I started. Just... fingers crossed it's only moderately painful. I'm still really enjoying the training, more so now that my runs include some gentle 3-5 mile days.

Weight loss? I'm down 20lbs and counting!

Impromptu fashion show! Look at how I'm not completely busting out of my engagment party dress now. I could lift my arms and comfortably hug someone! So glad I didn't get rid of this number.

 I think I spooked Ed when I yelped in joy at the number on the scale. I think what is most exciting about all of this is that I might finally find out my 'happy weight.' It's been a couple years since I've been here at this weight (since 2007/2008). I've got a ways to go before I'll be in the 'healthy ranges' doctors recommend, but, I'm so proud of how far I've come. It's been VERY slow, but what I take away from that is that this is no yo-yo diet. I hate this phrase but, it has been a lifestyle change. I'm going to write a post on things I wish someone had told me before I started dieting and running soon.

My current secret weapon against sugar cravings: Coconut bread! I make it, eat one or two slices and then send the rest into work with Ed. Yay coworkers!

This past weekend we went horseback riding. I haven't been on a horse in ages but Ck and I used to go out with Mom in Gettysburg and ride a couple times. Ck even took some lessons if I remember correctly... seems like 100 years ago. The trail followed the coast line of Half Moon Bay, half up on the cliffs, half on the beach. It was pretty wonderful. Ed rode a horse named Texas and I rode Thumper. We decided at the end that we had very, very little input into the horse's decisions about how this ride was going to go. You guys know how much I love my romantic imaginings - re: me pretending I'm Jane on the Moors calling for Mr. Rochester on particularly foggy, quiet runs - so of course I was encouraging Ed to imagine himself as Mr. Darcy. I'm not sure he was 100% on board and may have been partial to the cowboy side of horseback riding, but he did say he felt very manly riding a horse. :)

Last but certainly not least, this past weekend I. ate. pancakes. 

I haven't had pancakes in a bazillion years (that's an exact number, I've been counting). Okay I should be clearer, I ate a pancake. Singular. One. And it was the greatest pancake. I know there's not much variation, especially when it comes to the kind of pancake I like (plain - absolutely nothing in it, especially not blueberries or chocolate chips - sacrilege!), but it is still such a treat to get a nice fluffy, delicious pancake.

And yes, pancakes DO rank right up there with Anthony Bourdain, weight loss, 12 mile runs and horseback riding.

And just in case you were wondering what my upcoming race looks like:

It took awhile to track down this elevation map, and my response when I saw it? I did NOT do enough hill training. This could be rough.

Six days until race day!

Reverb12 Day 7 - Feast

For the month of December I'm following a prompt-a-day format that I found on a blog I thoroughly enjoy, Tenaciously Yours. Explanation of #Reverb12 can be found here.

7. Dec 7th: Feast: Hopefully you've had more than one spectacular meal in 2012, but what is the first that comes to mind?  Were you surrounded by family at the dining room table?  Sitting on a bench by the lake?  Bring us there

This year was full of so many good meals. 

Every single meal we had on our honeymoon was delicious. I still dream of that soft, flaky fish in that clean buttery sauce. The breakfasts with  rich rum-butter french toast.
The brunch we had at Omi's house the morning after our wedding... Aunt Dolly bringing all her irresistible homemade pickles and frying up okra in the cast iron skillet. Best fried okra I've ever had. Our dinner out at Animal in L.A. with CK, trying all of those dishes... those BBQ pork sliders that I could eat a million of, the spongy, creamy tres leches cake. My 26th birthday dinner at Wayfare Tavern in downtown San Francisco, and that incredible burger. The Ledo's pizza (that we desperately miss out here) that we had with Mom and Ken right before the hurricane trapped us all inside for a few days. Later we got to watch Omi enjoy the leftovers of that pizza on facetime. :)

I really can't pick one for my favorite meal. I can't even pick out my favorite cooking experience... I really enjoyed making chicken fricassee not that long ago. Made me feel like a real chef using a bundle of herbs! Maybe I could pin it on making that breakfast pizza for Ed's 30th birthday. That was a great day and it was exactly the kind of ridiculous, fun, over-the-top man-food that you can't help but laugh at and then devour.

As we speak I'm in the midst of making my cookies boxes and I never want to eat another cookie again... but I'm in love with the process. Not just the process of making the cookies, where the kitchen very quickly progresses into total chaos, (I was wearing more flour yesterday than what ended up in the cookies. In fact, I'm sure there's a fine layer of it over here on the dining room table now that I look around me...) but the process of cleaning. I hate the very beginning of cleaning- where you are staring down that sky-high pile of dishes and food debris everywhere. My feelings start to change at that point when you can finally see just a glimmer of clean space being cleared.... a corner of the sink, a portion of the counter top cleared and freshly wiped down. It is only then, after the goods are made, the people are full, the leftovers put away and the sink cleared, that is when I feel like a real homemaker. 

I kinda strayed from the point of this prompt, oops! Oh well, back to making cookies!