Harris Jacobs Run

It’s been a while since I’ve posted.  I don’t even want to see the date of when the last post was! 

But I’m back!    This is going to be a race report of the run I did this morning.  Just words – no pix.  I may be able to add pix later, since I think some were taken on the course.

This is a small(er), local race.  I like it because it supports sports programs at a community center (and I’m sure I know plenty of kids who benefit from this).  I also like it because this community center just happens to be 1.5 miles from my house (until we one day move).  I work out at this community center, so I tend to see people I know who are doing this run, too. (I will admit that I drove there, but so did my race friend who I did the ING Georgia with! )  And another thing about this race is that it goes through the neighborhoods around here.

I had no goals for this run, as I haven’t been running that much since my half marathon.  I thought I might get caught up in the race atmosphere and run faster than I normally run – and try to go faster than last year.  (Last year was the first year I ran this race, and I was in much better shape last year).

Well, let’s just say that I didn’t run faster than last year.  Surprisingly, I was only 1 minute slower (but still under 10 minute/mile pace).  This is a good, 4 mile run.  What I like about it (and forgot), esp if I were in better shape, is that there are a LOT of hills.  It’s hard to live in Atlanta and not encounter hills.  The first couple miles are not too bad, but there are a couple hills.  Shortly after mile 2, the hills really begin!  Not just one or two, but several.  Some short and steep.  Some long. I’ll have to see if I can export course info and include it here.  I realized after the run that this is a good training route!  I’m not quite ready to add it to my run routes, but hopefully I will do so, soon, and get my tush in shape!

I was surprised to see the number of neighbors who were out on their lawns, cheering for us.  Some even set up their own water stops!  They probably all belong to the community center and knew people who were running the race.  There was one little boy who was running slightly ahead of me.  As I’d get close to those who were outside their lawns, I’d hear them cheer for this little boy.  I’m sure he LOVED it!

I will say that my race friend did awesome – he also hasn’t been running that much since the ING Georgia (and he did the full marathon there), but he managed to go even faster than last year!  Just under a 9 minute/mile!  Congrats to him!

Elevation map

Silly, big pup

Stella went to the vet the other day – she’s fine, but probably allergic to everything outside.  Oh, and she is 10lbs heavier than I thought – she’s ~85lbs.  BIG dog, huh?  But a sweetheart.

And – she is so funny, when she’s not being a pain, that is.  She likes to play in the house.  Her favorite game is keep away.  She will have a toy in her mouth, and stare you down to chase her.  She thinks she’s taunting you to take her toy – especially if it’s a squeaky, she will bite it to make a squeak, sometimes squeaking in a pattern, to taunt you even more to take it.  As soon as you get up and head towards her, she takes off.  Then you get close to her, and she turns in circles so you can’t get near the toy in her mouth.  If you start leaving her, she will chase you down to take her toy.  And then you chase her back to get her toy.  So it’s keep away and chase.  And she has so much fun.

Tonight, she grabbed her cow.  I wasn’t in the mood to chase her everywhere, so I grabbed her octopus.  She then wanted the octopus.  So what does she do?  She leaps towards me, with all her being, to get the octopus.  As I mentioned, she’s now close to 90 pounds.  So I step back a couple of steps, to make sure I don’t topple over backwards in the event she rams into me.  She then gets the octopus.  So I get cow – and squeak it.  Guess what – she now wants cow.  We do this a few times, and then she’s done playing, happy, and tired.  So she lays down, spread out like a frog, with her head up, mouth open, panting, and smiling.  And we know she’s happy!  Silly dog…

Appetizer Caprese

A few years ago I discovered that I LOVE Caprese salads – mozarella, tomatoes, and basil.  When it’s served to me, I cannot get enough of it.  If I see it on the menu, I’ll choose it over a green salad – usually split with the husband 

Last night I hosted Bunko.  A few weeks ago I started devising a plan in my for what to serve.  And I remembered that at my bro’s last birthday, his girlfriend (at the time) had made bite sized capreses by putting them on toothpicks.  So, what did I do yesterday, 2 hours before my friends came over?  Caprese…on a stick (if you’re a Jeff Dunham fan, draw it out like Peanut does…:)  )

This doesn’t take that much time – and it’s so impressive to your guests.  (I like entertaining and preparing food for guests, however, I’m not the best with cute/clever presentation…this one covers that)

Ingredients

1 pint cherry tomatos

8-10 leaves of basil (I used 2 “stalks” – so it was probably about 8 leaves of various sizes)

mozarella – sorry, I didn’t measure how much I used

toothpicks

1.  Cut the tomatos in half

2.  Take the basil leaves and tear or cut them into small pieces

3.  Cut some mozarella into small pieces – you want them big enough to go on the toothpick, but not too big to take over the toothpick

4.  Thread the ingredients onto a toothpick – I used 2 halves of a tomato, 2 pieces of mozarella, 2 pieces of basil.  Most of the ones I made were threaded as:  tomato, mozarella, basil, mozarella, basil, tomato.

Refrigerate to chill.  Serve.

Playing with lights

I like reading food blogs.  I don’t proclaim this to be a food blog – this is just a blog for all my random ramblings of my interest of the moment.

However, I do like the pictures I see on food blogs.  And we do have a camera that some of the food bloggers use or have used at some point.  And I know the lighting we have is not good for the pictures I take.  I also don’t think I’m that great with playing with software to try to make the pictures look better.  That’s because I don’t know what needs to be done to the pictures to make them look good.

I read a little bit on various blogs as to what the bloggers use to take their pictures – camera, lens, lighting, etc.  Since I take the pictures as I cook, usually for dinner, the sun is setting and the available natural light is minimal.  I read about these lights that can be used for food photography.  As a surprise, my husband got them for me.  I tried to put them together – it’s not hard – but it’s easier done with two people.  So we finally put them together tonight.  We also went to Costco today and found lights that are used for mood enhancement – not necessarily used for food photography, but simulating sunlight.  So we bought those, too, to see how they worked when taking pictures of food.

So how did the lights do?  We tested them out tonight while cooking a roast.  Let’s say – both lights did make a huge difference in how the pictures came out.  Both lights made the pictures look soooooo much better!    The Lowel EGO light is taller, and better at diffusing the light.  We only used one Lowel light with one reflector (we have two).   But for the pictures we took, they both lit the food nicely.  Let’s see if I can show you…(ignore the messy background   I’ll work on that, next    And these are all straight out of the camera – I haven’t played with any of the features available in photo software)

This is with kitchen lights on – I believe the lights above the microwave are also on:

This is with the Lowel lights:

This is with the mood lights:

Now, for the main meal – roast.  The first one is with just the kitchen lights and the microwave lights:

We only took pictures with the Lowel EGO lights for the roast:

So I’ve got to say – I’m impressed by these lights.  I’ll be using them more!  And I will be working on setting up my background and settings for taking food pics.  One thing at a time, though!

Am I a runner?

Am I a runner?  Can I call myself a runner?  I remember having these thoughts 5-6 weeks ago, as I was training for the ING Georgia half marathon, and getting in long runs of 8, 9, 10 mile runs during the weekend, and 4-6 mile runs a couple times during the week.  I would run at least twice a week, sometimes more.  And as it got closer to the race, I would easily run 4-6 miles on the treadmill.  And I remember thinking that 40-60 minutes on the treadmill was not a big deal.  I could do it easily.  I enjoyed it.  I also remember thinking that it was not that long before when a 60 minute treadmill run seemed like something that was unattainable.

But I was training.  And getting the runs in.  And the distance.  And started having these thoughts of – am I a runner?  I didn’t feel like a runner.  Not that I had a definition of what a runner should be.  But I definitely was not one.  I liked doing my training – but I wasn’t pushing myself that hard.  I would only push myself to get the distance in.  I didn’t do any workouts such as speed or tempo.  I wasn’t by any means fast.  I knew I was building up my endurance.  I was enjoying it.

As I would recant my training runs to others (mostly non-runners), I wondered if they considered me a runner.  Most people don’t run as much as I was running.  Lots of people don’t even run.  Was I a runner in their eyes?

I think I started to think of myself as a runner, but didn’t let on to anyone that I was starting to feel like one.  I ran the half marathon – with 10,000 of my closest friends!     I felt like I was a part of something – here are thousands of people running 13.1 or 26.2 miles.  And I was a part of this!  I was doing it – no matter how cold or painful it was.  I was running 13.1 miles.  Even though I did all my training runs by myself and not with any running partners or part of a running group, I still felt I was a part of a running community, if you will.

Here I am, almost 4 weeks since the half marathon, and I haven’t run.  The crazy thing is – even though I haven’t run, I now consider myself a runner.  I’m a little bummed that I’ve been having knee problems.  It started while training for the half marathon – got a case of runner’s knee.  I didn’t run after the race.  I was given some exercises to do (I was semi-consistant with these).  I would occasionally do some other type of exercise, but not run, in order to not strain my knee.  I’ve noticed this week that the pain is mostly gone.  I plan on getting back into running, slowly.  I plan on doing non-running workouts for a few more weeks, at least, in order to try and stay in shape and to let the knee heal.  With that, I did a run/walk combo last Saturday – run 2 minutes / walk 1 minute:  repeat a total of 10 times for a 30 minute workout.  I hopped on the elliptical on Tuesday – and surprisingly enjoyed it.  I went to spin Wednesday – and loved it.  My legs were just going – they had so much pep in them from not doing a whole lot for a few weeks.  As for Thursday, the day after spinning – well, that was a different story.  It started that morning in the shower – my knee felt weak.  I was not sure it wasn’t going to collapse under me.  Several times throughout the morning, I was on the verge of tears.  I don’t think it was necessarily the pain, but the fear of the potential of something really painful or of my knee just going out from under me.  As the day wore on, the pain/fear subsided.  Since then, I haven’t necessarily babied my knee, but I notice when it feels like it’s tweaking and slow down and change how I’m moving so as to not cause pain/twinges.

And today – I went out for a 3:1 run/walk.  I set the watch for 10 intervals.  And in the middle of the 8th interval, I was feeling some pain all around my knee.  It was enough for me to consider walking the rest of the way instead of those last couple of run intervals.  BUT, I did the runs, and just didn’t try to push the pace.  I had the thought of not running at all for the next month – to take up swimming (which while I know it’s good for me, I’m not fond of getting up to speed and endurance with swimming – it alwasy feels like my lungs are gonna burst) and walking, only.  But I don’t want to do that.  I just want to get back into running and building up my distances again.  And I’m even ready to start doing training runs – like tempo and speed work.  Never did I think I’d want to do that!!!  I want to run.  I want to work on my speed.  I want to get back up to a 6 mile (minimum) base.  I guess that means I’m a runner.  If only my knee will cooperate, then I can be a runner! 

On a mission

Last night we ate at Atlantic Seafood – this is turning into one of my favorite restaurants.  That is a funny statement, because I didn’t eat seafood until, oh, a couple years ago.  I’m still not a big seafood eater – I’m working on fish.  I’ve been eating tuna for a year or two.  I’ve discovered I like tilapia.  I’ll eat sea bass.  And whenever Greg gets fish, I will usually try a bite.  I know I’m still not a salmon lover.

So last night, I decided to try a new fish.  I’ve had a couple bits of mahi mahi when Greg has gotten it at another restaurant.  Last night I was daring, and ordered it for my meal.  I ordered the coconut crusted mahi mahi.  Oh. My. Goodness.  This was SO good!  This might be my new favorite dish.

So, now, I’m on a mission to make this myself!  So we can have it again!  I don’t think it’ll be hard.  But that is my latest mission – to make coconut crusted mahi mahi!  YUM!!!

“Secret” family recipes

I have been having a mental debate with myself – not sure which side is winning right now!

It’s about what to do with “secret family recipes”.  The question is – do I post them and share them with all, or keep them “secret”?  I actually don’t think there are that many recipes that fall into that category.  The only 2 I can think of include a hershey’s cake and kishka (if you know what this is, I make a vegetarian version).  And well, the kishka is not really a secret as I found it on a box of Manischewitz tam-tams once.  Ha ha.  Part of keeping it a secret is that means I’m the only one who gets to make it.  Which isn’t necessarily an issue – at least with the kishka.  I’m just expected to make it whenever the occasion calls for it.

But by sharing it, then there is a written record of the recipe, and hopefully it doesn’t get lost.  I’ve seen others who favor this method – this way the “pinches”, “smidgens”, and other cooking secrets don’t get lost as the recipe gets passed on from one generation to another.  I know when I’d ask my grandmother questions about how she would make different favorites of mine, it was always – a pinch here, a lot of something there, until it tastes good, etc.  I wish I had written down her recipes.  Now I can only try to recreate them until they taste like I remember them.

So that’s the dilemma…what to do with the secret family recipes?!?!?!

Taco Soup

It took me a long time to get into cooking.  My mom never let us in the kitchen – sorry mom, but that’s how I remember things.  Or maybe it’s because I got banned after making no-bake cookies that turned out awful, thanks to my sister and getting tsp and TBSP mixed up – sorry sis, that’s how I remember it! 

I don’t recall doing lots of cooking until I moved in with the husband – in fact, one year for my birthday, he got me a 3-day cooking class at Viking.  We always have to tell people that I wanted to go and requested it, not that he thought my cooking was bad! 

I digress…so this recipe is one of the first ones I made – before I really cooked.  A friend compiled recipes into a cookbook, which was a fundraiser for her class.  She told me this was such an easy recipe – basically dump and cook, in one pot.  I’ve changed it a little…

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef (or turkey)

1 can black beans – drained & rinsed

1 can kidney beans – drained & rinsed

1 can corn (regular, mexi-corn, or hominy – I prefer hominy)

1 pkt taco seasoning

1 pkt ranch dressing (powdered)

2 c water

In a pot, ground beef.  Once ground, add black and kidney beans, as well as corn.  Mix it all up.  Add taco seasoning, ranch dressing, and water.  Stir.  Let sit at least 10 minutes for the flavors to blend.  Serve.  I think last time, it simmered for at least 30 minutes.  You can top this with so many things – sour cream, tortilla chips, guacamole, or just avocado.

How easy is that?  I can also see this as one that is good to cook with the kids in the kitchen.

If you’re feeding lots of people, you can increase the number of cans of beans and corn used.

The past couple of times I’ve made this, I’ve added chopped onion and peppers, since I had them on hand.  Really – you can do just about anything to this, and I’m sure it’ll be great!

Return to normalcy

At least I’m hoping it is.

It’s been a hectic 1.5 weeks – not necessarily bad, but just busy.  Last week was busy with the birth of our nephew!  Yeah!  But that also meant little sleep from running around so much.  And we had a big family dinner last Wednesday with my husband’s family, and my sister-in-law’s in-laws.  That night as soon as I got to my sister-in-law’s house, I went to work, helping get everything together.  And then eating.  And being tired.  On top of all of that, I started to get sick.  So I haven’t had a chance to hold my little burrito!    I’ve been very good not getting too close to my nephew and hopefully he did not get sick!  More family came in over the weekend, so there were more meals with everyone.  Which while good and very nice to be with family, I know I ate more than I normally would have.  My cold got worse!    Everything cumulated yesterday with the bris!  Some of the relatives started going home.  And now we’re back in our house.  Hopefully getting back to our schedule.

My cold has started to get better.  While not completely gone, I’m not feeling too bad.  I’m starting to get a little more sleep, except for last night when the little thunderstorm woke me up and I couldn’t get back to sleep for a while.  With all the in and out of the house we had, I will say that Miss Stella was great last week!  I was expecting her to act out and go back to her destructive ways of a few weeks ago.  (I almost don’t want to write about it in case it jinxes the situation and she does go back to being destructive! haha)  But she was really good and kept the house in one piece!

We cooked dinner tonight, which was nice, since it has probably been over a week since we’ve eaten dinner together, just the two of us, in our house.  We had a yummy dinner, too! 

And…we got a new toy today!  Apparently you can’t get out of Costco with only the items on the list you walked in with.  haha  Greg bought a new printer/scanner/fax.  This thing is so cool – at least to me!  It’s wireless – you can scan a picture or document and have it saved straight to your computer.  You can print the item that was scanned in several formats – picture, pdf, word, pdf that is searchable, and I don’t remember what else.  You can print from your computer or a storage card.  Or, even better, your iPhone!  Crazy, huh?  There’s an application that allows you to print from your iPhone to the HP.  It scans double-sided.  And the pictures we printed seemed to be pretty decent!  I have lots of picture frames to fill, and now I can print the pictures for them!

Oh – this is it:  Link to our nifty new scanner

I’m not neglecting you…

…I promise.  All two of you out there! 

It’s been busy – I don’t remember last week, but it was busy.  And I was working on my L-O-N-G race report! 

And this week has been L-O-N-G, too, but in a good way.  How, you ask?  I became an aunt!!!  My sister-in-law had her first baby – it’s a boy – yesterday!  Happy Birthday, IDT!!!  We got the call late on Sunday night, so we went to the hospital to keep my in-laws company.  We were there til 2 or so, and then went back yesterday morning.  My adorable nephew was born a little before 11 in the morning!  We were there a few more hours so we could see him and my sister-in-law.  And didn’t sleep much last night, as well as getting up EARLY for the gym!  So I’m tired.  And that’s only the beginning of the week.

Got a couple of meals out w/the various families this week – I’m cooking for tomorrow night’s dinner.  Almost done!    So hopefully this weekend I can catch up.  I have a couple of recipes to write up and pix to edit.

And as much as I’d like to go to the gym tomorrow morning – it’s spin – I think I’ll be sleeping in.

As for my knee – doc said it was runner’s knee (don’t remember if I mentioned that already) – and it would be best to not run.  So I have 1.5 more weeks of not running – hopefully it won’t be too hard to get back the distance and start working on speed!

Just rambling now…happy tuesday!