Food Recap!

With all the MCM stuff going on, I've neglected all the fun food! Here's a quick recap of the weekend/week's eats:

Pre-race meal was sushi at Murasaki in Tenleytown. Jamie and I have been here a couple of times and Murasaki hasn't disappointed us yet! The menu is a little overwhelming with all the pages and photos, but it's so yummy! We started with an order of Jumbo Shumai and Tsukune (chicken meatballs with teriyaki sauce) for the table.
For the main event - assorted sushi (I actually forgot what I ordered, but I know I got a few nigiri and 4 or so rolls) and Chicken Yakisoba. It was just the right amount of food for the five of us! I know it's a little weird, but I do love sushi pre-long run...it has salt, lean protein, carbs, fat, and it never makes me feel gross full! Two thumbs up in my book!

Post-race was sort of an act of desperation. While V headed to Clarendon for food w/her fam, we decided to skip the overcrowded metro (I've never seen so many people spilling out of the metro entrance before!) and head back into the District. Everyone was tired from walking, so we parked ourselves near the Key Bridge to hail cabs to the closest restaurant with beer-a-plenty - Cap City.
It's not my favorite, but it does have a wide variety of food and beer...plus, it takes large parties and was close to where we parked.

First up, BEER. Delicious beer. I wasn't thrilled at the idea of it at mile 22, but I sure wanted it after the race was over! I went with the Pale Rider Ale as I browsed the menu for food.
I wanted EVERYTHING on the menu...well, at least the entire appetizer section ;) I was too lazy to dig around Jamie's backpack for my camera so no pictures. We got an order of Black & Tan Onion Rings and Jalapeno Cheese Dip for the table. The onion rings were ok, but the cheese dip definitely hit the spot! For my first meal of the day, I went with the Grilled Chicken Wrap (fresh salad mix tossed with chicken, roasted corn, tomatoes, cucumber, black beans, cheddar and chipotle ranch dressing wrapped in a tomato basil tortilla) with Sweet Potato Fries.

I have no idea what the deal was with my stomach...I ate half my wrap and all my fries and was done. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy! Don't worry, the food didn't go to waste, I ate it almost immediately after we got back to the apartment. I also cracked open my celebratory bottle of wine:
I picked this up on Friday at the new wine store near job #2. They offer free tastings daily and this was the first one I sampled. It was a little out of my typical wine price range and I decided it would be my gift to myself ;) It's deliciously crisp and light!

Jamie, Sparky, my folks and I vegged out to a Cake Boss marathon before I declared it was time for dinner. My declaration was met with somewhat crazy looks, but eventually we got two pizzas delivered from Angelico - the Angelico Special (tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, Italian sausage, ham, caramelized onions and roasted red peppers) and the Vegetariano (tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, mushrooms, green peppers, red onions and black olives).
If I could, I'd dump more veggies on the Vegetariano. Do you think more veggies makes for a delicious pizza?? I do ;)

Monday Monday eats. Susan stopped by the store to get fitted for proper running shoes and I invited her over to join Jamie and I for dinner. My mom brought a vat of Chicken and Pork Adobo down with her so we heated it up for dinner.
Served with it was a cucumber salad/pickly thing my mom makes
And some Lumpiang Prito (?) a family friend made from scratch - I totally googled because I only know Lumpia Shanghai :/
Usually I'll serve lumpia shanghai with a sweet chili sauce or Mang Tomas All Purpose Sauce. With this other kind of lumpia, I put out bowls of those sauces plus a bowl of garlic and cider vinegar.Susan made some small salads for us and dinner was served!
YUUUM and it was like a home cooked meal, but not.

Tuesday was Tofu Tuesday! I started catching up on blogs and saw that Paige over at Running Around Normal could use some fun tofu recipes. While I was at the Giant, I grabbed an eggplant and a container of extra firm tofu and brainstormed....

Hot 'n Peanutty Eggplant and Tofu
1 block extra firm tofu, cubed
1 baby eggplant, cubed
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp creamy peanut butter
1 tbsp szechuan sauce
2 tbsp black bean sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp chili oil
2 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp water or broth
squirt sriracha sauce

Whisk last nine ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside. Heat vegetable oil in a skillet and saute eggplant until soft. Add tofu and cook for 3 minutes before adding sauce. Stir sauce in and cook on low heat for 5 minutes. Serve immediately over rice.
For an out of nowhere experiment, I thought this was pretty good! It reminded me a little of something else I made with eggplant, but better. I'd add some thinly sliced onion next time or another vegetable...just to add a contrasting texture.

What's dinner without dessert? I was feeling nice so I allowed some frozen treats into our shopping basket this time:
This is one of my favorite Ben & Jerry's flavors, next to Cherry Garcia. I think I have a soft spot for fudge chunks.

Tonight was a lonely dinner since Jamie's off at a happy hour with old coworkers out in Reston. I've been craving some of this ever since I threw it into our grocery cart!
I can't eat JUST shells n cheese and hot sauce...c'mon, gotta have a veg of some sort in there! Hm, what to add? Peas!
And some Trader Joe's Corn and Chile Salsa just for fun (um, this stuff is like crack to me but I don't think it was a good idea on the mac).
I like to line the bottom of my bowl with some greens (spinach, arugula, you name it) before putting something warm in it so they wilt a little.
The party in a bowl with a generous dousing of Texas Pete
How do you like to mac??

MCM Part Deux

Where were we? Ah yes, the Mall. V and I were feeling pretty good but decided to reserve some energy for that silly bridge. We passed a Sport Bean station on the way so I grabbed a pack. Seemed appropriate since I really hadn't consumed anything since random pretzels near the Lincoln.

Normally I think Sport Beans are gross - way too strong of a taste and I think they even taste a little mediciney. However, at this point in the run, they were the best thing EVER. Just the sweetness I needed. I ate them slowly as we ran and felt a second wind coming on!
V and I agreed to pick up the pace a bit once we hit the Castle and we could see the rest of the pack making their turn onto 14th Street...uh oh, here we go!
As usual the gradual hills of the bridge (I think there are 3 inclines over the 2 miles) slowed us down. I think this was when our estimated finish went from 4:54 to 4:56 to 5:03. This was also when I accidentally hit stop on my watch. Oopsie. Good thing I knew we were 9 minutes off the gun time :)

I got another burst of energy just as we said bye to the bridge and entered Crystal City...which was promptly squashed. Why? Um, my foot got stuck to the street at the water stop and I almost fell over! Wtf?!? Spilled Powerade makes the streets sticky! Lots of spilled Powerade makes it extra sticky! Gah! Knee felt weird after that and I tried to shake it off. V and I wound our way through Crystal City looking for our cheering section and passed a bunch of people handing out beers - um, not feeling it at mile 22, thanks.

Crystal City was PACKED with spectators and random flags on both sides of the street.
We ran past Jamie & company at mile 22ish and 23ish and realized we were approaching the home stretch! Only a little over 3 miles left! By the way, no one said it would be a lonely 3 miles! Columbia Pike to 110 felt like the longest run ever!

We ran through the Pentagon parking lot and then had to loop around onto 110, back where we started. MJ was blasting from the speakers (you bet I got a bounce in my stride as Thriller played. psh) when we hit mile 25 and V was getting ready to start her big push for the finish line. I on the other hand, was just starting to feel a not so cool pang inside my left ankle. I knew we still had that monster hill to tackle so I held back a bit - no jogging it in!

Dear monster hill to Iwo Jima, I hate you. You were terribly steep and painful when I ran up you during the 2006 10k and didn't know the finish line was still a bit further. How dare you challenge my 26 mile-tired legs!

I charged up the hill and was almost out of breath at the top, but found enough energy to sprint to the finish, though my sprint must have resembled marching...hi jelly legs.
Final time - 5:10. One minute faster than Chicago. With hills. With an injury. With 4 weeks off. I'll take it!
So I'll aim for under 5 again next year...maybe I'll tackle the streets of Chicago once more, or maybe I'll explore a new city. Any suggestions?

I learned a few new things this time around:

• Next year I'm upping my longest run to 22 miles.
• Cross training is my friend, not the enemy.
• Running with a friend makes everything more fun.
• Having cheerleaders means no bag check ;)
• If I can PR with hills 'taking it easy', I know I can dip below 5 hours.
• I'm allergic to temporary tattoo sticker sheets.
• Tattoo stickers do not hold up with sweat.
• I actually like sport beans late in a run.

Check out the massive medal ;)

MCM Part I

As most of you know, I had a few goals for this year's MCM - finish under 5 hours, make sure V finished, and have a good time. Then the injury set in and those goals were swapped for another set - finish, don't f-up the achilles, and make sure V finishes and has fun. I knew I needed a backup plan, but really hated to admit it. I was actually consistent with my training this year and felt really strong. Of all 3 years of running, why did I have to get injured now?!?!

I eventually got over the frustration (and by eventually I mean Friday night) and accepted that this was not going to be a race. I mean, I took a good 4 weeks off of running (minus a few scattered 1-2 milers), what could I expect?

V and I planned to meet up at 7:15 near the Arlington Cemetery stop since neither of us was checking a bag (yay for cheerleaders!). I got a little delayed, thank you metro for your special detour, but still got there with time to spare.

We made our way to the start line and crept into the 4:30ish area. Yes, we were those girls. Whatever. We weren't alone and you know it. I ate a Mocha Clif Shot around 7:50, per race day ritual, and anxiously awaited the start.
We finally crossed the start around 8:09 (the importance of knowing this will come out later on) and V whipped out her phone to see if our cheerleaders received the text messages we signed up for (MCM offered a text or email option to track your runner). No such luck.

The weather was perfect and I really didn't need my top layer, but it wasn't a throw away! I knew my crew was going to be on the Key Bridge around mile 4 so that was my planned hand off. V and I were off and running through the streets of Rosslyn and all of a sudden there's Jamie, his mom and my folks. Woah, unexpected! No handoff but it was nice to see them early on!
We tackled the rolling hills of Lee Highway and Spout Run, enjoyed the gorgeous fall colors, ripped a sticker tattoo off my leg, text messaged and chatted w/our entourages, and got a good steady pace going during the first 4 miles. My original plan was to run the first 4 or 5 miles to break free of the crowd and then run/walk. I was still feeling good when we hit the Palisades so I decided to just keep chugging along. V and I shuffled up hills so we wouldn't waste energy and took it easy on the downhills. By the time we hit Georgetown, I was still feeling good and told myself I'd make the switch around mile 10.
Mile 10 quickly came and went and I was so pumped about seeing our cheering sections scattered along the steps of the Lincoln (and the crowds of spectators in general) that I just kept going. V and I kept checking in with each other to make sure we were okay and it was all systems go, go, go!
I revised the game plan once again when we hit Hains Point (oh, Hains Point). Since I had felt good through mile 10, I figured why not just run the first half and take the second half as a run/walk? Genius! However, my body had something else in mind...

As soon as we got to the TNT water stop at the tip of Hains Point, I was too excited and feeling too good (in the legs) to stop. My breathing got a little off because of nerves/excitement so I slowed down a bit, but those legs...they held up! This was also when I realized I had not eaten any of the gels I packed. Oops. I don't know if my stomach was upset or nervous or what, but I couldn't bear the thought of eating a Chocolate Clif Shot. I actually told V I wanted to suck on a salt packet. Bizarre-o.
Since you should never, EVER drink just water for 26.2 miles, I ended up taking some Powerade (it's like they knew I loved Blue Powerade) and water at every other water stop. More text messaging/calling took place and once we hit Mile 16/the Lincoln Memorial, V grabbed some pretzels from a random spectator and we saw our entourage waiting to cheer us on! Jamie and fam picked up a couple strays this time around - Susan, who finished the 10k earlier that morning, and Steph, who trekked all the way from Baltimore! SO excited to see everyone!!

By the time we hit the mall, the track your runner text messages finally started coming through. Based on our half marathon split, we were scheduled to finish in 4:54. NIIICE. V and I are Army Ten Miler vets so we knew what came after our little jaunt on the Mall...the 14th Street Bridge. GAH! Sometimes I wonder what I hate more, the bridge or Hains Point...

Done aaaand DONE!

Hey all, I'll have a full race recap at some point tomorrow, but for now I'll leave you with these tidbits:

• ran the whole thing b/c I felt FIIIINE until like 24 miles in when I started feeling a little pang inside my ankle (same ankle w/the achilles pain)
• V was running STRONG!
• I love having a cheering section!!
• Temporary tattoo was a STICKER and the majority of it fell off at mile 4. I think I was allergic to said tattoo because I now have some skin discoloration on my right leg. WTF.
  
• V and I were on track to finish in 4:56ish for the first 30k, but that damn 14th Street bridge is the END of me!
• Sport Beans were actually not bad when I grabbed a pack on the mall
• I had a Mocha Clif Shot at the start and didn't eat any of my gels for the rest of the race. MEH?
  
• I think next year my long run will max out at 22 since I've fallen apart around that mile marker every single marathon. It's a sign.
  
• Even though I came in at 5:10, I still PR'd...only by a minute, but freaking awesome considering I went into it injured!
  

And check us out at mile 23
That chipper look on our faces - LIES ALL LIES! haha. Hope all the other MCMers had fun!! Gorgeous day for a run!!

MCM Weekend is heeeeere!!

And I'm more anxious/nervous/excited/crazy than when I ran my first marathon! I think I'm just a bit jittery since this is my first marathon at home and the first time I'll have more than a one person cheering section (thanks, Selin ;p).

Went to the expo around 11:30 this morning and there were a lot more people than I expected to see at that hour on a Friday. It was pretty well organized, with the exception of the shirt area. I'm used to having my shirt size printed out on one of the taggy things off my bib and getting whatever shirt size I originally marked off. This was pretty much a free for all. The shirt people were just like 'So, what size do you want?' Not bad for people that got there early, but I'm thinking the late comers (translation: anyone who gets there tomorrow afternoon) will get stuck with bad sizes. Bummer.

The first shopping area you walk into sells all the Brooks Official MCM gear. I must say, I wasn't too thrilled with the selection, but I guess I was a little spoiled. I was really impressed with the selection at the Chicago Marathon Expo last year and it made the MCM Expo look itty bitty. I did manage to walk away with a fleece...because I'm a fleece whore and I can't say no to them.
I had some time to kill before I had to be at work (going home seemed like a silly option) so I metroed over to Dupont for some Chop't! I grabbed the San Antonio Cheesesteak Salad (o yes, SOOOO healthy ;p), sat on a stool by the window and prepared to browse some goody bag reading material. All of a sudden I hear "pour the dressing on the salad already!" I look up and it's one of my old roommates. Hooray!

Even though Jamie and I now live one building over from him, we rarely see each other so it was a fun surprise. Conveniently, Susan works a few blocks over so I messaged her to come meet up for lunch and then the next thing you know it's an impromptu roomie reunion! Woohoo! Yeah, I'm a bit too enthusiastic about everything right now.

No photos of the salad - didn't expect to pick up some food, so no camera. I will say it was pretty good and hit the spot considering I was craving red meat. However, I found it to be a little to rich for me about 1/4 of the way through. I'm one of those people that dips into salad dressing instead of pouring it in and this salad really didn't need any dressing. They went a little overboard with the pepperjack...blech.

For dinner, we planned on making a Tortilla Espanola but my pan wasn't cooperating and it ended up sticking so instead we had scrambled eggs with potatoes and tomatoes...not quite the same :(
Whatevs. Better luck next time...or perhaps a better pan. Hm...

Now on to the fun stuff...RACE DAY ATTIRE AND PLANS! I'm writing this now like a huge nerd because my parents will be in town tomorrow and we'll be running around (sadly, probably doing errandy sorts of things because I think the fun of 'visiting' DC has worn off after 9 years. HA).

Because I know you all care about what I will be wearing from head to toe ;p

V and I got these matching bright orange tanks from Under Armour:
I was going to iron on our names, but um, yeah...failed to notice that you can't iron these shirts. Now I'm stuck with 2 packs of iron on letters. Oh, did I mention that we drove all the way to Rockville last night to get them at Michael's? I mean, that's not all we got and we did get some sushi at Hinode for dinner (and who am I to turn down sushi) but still...what to do??

Underneath I will have my absolute favorite sports bra EVER. I have it in maybe 4 different colors and I HIGHLY recommend it :) Why yes, it is also orange!

I'll also be rocking those Nike capris I mentioned the other day
My precious Mizuno Wave Riders, shut up, I don't care if pink doesn't go with orange ;p
My Amphipod for good measure
To block the sun and tame my hair that keeps growing and I'm too lazy/poor to get it cut, one of my favorite race goodies (it was free too!):
Yeah, HI JERSEY! In case you happen to get stuck behind my run/walking ass :p
I'll probably throw this on for the first half of the race:
This was my 'souvenir' from my first marathon expo that I never really wore until this year. I love it now...it's that perfect not quite fleece thickness, plus it's SO SOFT!!

And my gels because I just don't leave for a long run without them!
I might grab a Blueberry Pomegranate Roctane as well...maybe another mocha...we'll see how I'm feelin'.

AAAND the most important part:
I found temporary tattoo paper and I've decided to turn my happiest looking bean from my header into a tattoo for race day! Absolutely ridiculous, but I figured hey, at least it'll wash off and maybe people will recognize it?? Meh? So if you see a crazy lady with capris and a fairly large bean on her calf, be sure to say hi!! :)

Agh! It's already 11pm!!! I need to send out emails to my prospective cheerleaders to let them know where to meet up AND sort of clean for the folks.

If I don't get a chance to jump on here again before Sunday, good luck to everyone running the marathon and 10k this weekend!! See you on the road!!

continued castle district trekking

After listening to the Swedish football team's fight song (surprisingly in English!), Karena and I got up to check out the northern part of the castle district. It was here that we got away from the oppressive tourist hoards that were congregating in all the areas of the southern Castle District. The southern half is mostly where you find all the sights and restaurants. The northern half is were all the old residences are found. We both soon realized this after one to two blocks. Soon, it was just Karena and me, walking down quaint cobblestone alleys.
We passed a few houses that had objects inlaid into the mortar or building materials. Other buildings had small niches that were filled with flowers or other plants. We also saw buildings with small medallions, perhaps to commemorate a famous former resident or partial occupant. Something like those rumors of "George Washington Slept Here." It was really quite nice. I decided to turn down a small alley that led to a gravel street parallel to the rampart wall. Soon we were walking next to people's back-yard terraces and balconies. Karena thought someone was going to come out and yell at us for trespassing, so we turned back onto one of the streets.

We soon arrived at the Bécsi kapu (the Vienna Gate), where according to Rick Steves, "you can walk for 10 days and arrive in Vienna." This is assuming you know what roads to travel on and avoid getting lost. The Vienna Gate is also where the Hungarian army overpowered the Turks in the 1680s and reclaimed the Castle District for Hungary. Check out this link for a great panoramic shot of the area surrounding the gate. Notice all the quaint little houses and Hungarian cabbage burners (cars). Also in the immediate area of the Vienna Gate is the Magyar Országos Levéltár (Hungarian National Archives). The roof has a great pattern to it, which mimics the roof of Matthias Church. The building is a HUGE Romanesque-style building; it is tall and sits partially on top of the Vienna Gate. I couldn't even get the whole thing in a picture. Check out my picasa account for close-up details of the entrance and the columns surrounding it.
Around the corner, at Kapisztrán ter, are the remains of the Church of Mary Magdalene. The area around the remains are very old; I'm not sure how old the actual pieces of the church are that are still standing. The tower and nave window looked like they were in fairly good condition and didn't look like they had survived several wars dating back to the 17th Century. Still, it was quite something to see the two lone pieces of a church standing. Karena and I wandered around the site and soaked up our surroundings. It was getting late and we wanted to head back across the river to the Pest side of the Danube. So we decided to take a nice walk along the western rampart (Tóth Árpád sétány) of the Castle District. This overlook gave us views of the Buda neighborhoods outside of the Castle District and the hills further west of the city. It all looked very woodsy and nice. Further out, the neighborhoods that centered around the hills all seemed to be covered in trees and other types of foliage. Whether it was intentional or not, it was a great move on the part of people who built there to preserve some sort of natural coverage, as opposed to just wiping the slate clean and covering it with bricks, mortar, and concrete.
We traced our way back to the Funicular, but this time decided to descend on foot. The paths down the hill were nice and paved, and every once in a while we could come across a monument or stone memorial...we dodged the traffic to get back to the Chain Bridge and made it across to Pest. At this point, Karena's stomach was speaking to her again. We decided to stop at a cafe in the square surrounding St. Stephan's Basilica. We both ordered some small dishes and had a couple of beers and enjoyed our surroundings. There was actually a wedding that was going on at the Basilica, so we watched the wedding party leave from the church and pose for all of their pictures on the steps. I can't really imagine holding a wedding of 200 people in such a large space. And also, it didn't seem like they were prohibiting tourists from entering the space. Maybe the ceremony was being held in some part of the Basilica that we didn't see. Who knows. I just enjoyed getting off my feet for a while and letting my dogs rest.

We finished our late lunch and headed back to the hotel. While Karena napped...she seems to be able to fall asleep at any point of the day. That is a skill I really wish I had. So while she slept I planned our dining options for that night. I read about this one place in a guidebook and I don't know why it struck me, but I wanted Hanna's Kosher Kitchen. I think that I saw I could get "crispy and succulent Kosher chicken fried in breadcrumbs." Hahaha. After all that walking and exercise, I probably felt like I could eat an entire fried chicken! So, we navigated the old, dark streets of the Jewish quarter looking for this restaurant. We found it with no problems!!! Quite an accomplishment for us, I was very proud that I didn't get us lost. Unfortunately, it was Saturday night and the restaurant was closed :( I wasn't crushed (Karena was probably happy that I couldn't eat a whole fried chicken), but I wasn't happy. I felt much like this man below.
Fortunately we passed another restaurant on the way to Hanna's. It did not look crowded outside and luckily, they had a menu on the door. We had stumbled upon Kőleves Vendéglő (Stone Soup). For a description of the food and evening, see Karena's post. I had the hunting beef stew, which wasn't a stew at all. It was very delicious and something that I would like to try and replicate at home some time. The clientele was interesting. At two tables were groups of women who were probably in their late 20s to early 30s. The man behind us was in his 50s and the other fellow in the back was probably in his mid 40s. The younger people were definitely not there for the dining option. They ordered small plates and shots of Unicum, an herbal bitter similar to Jägermeister. The single fellow in the back of the restaurant was funny. He kept complaining to the wait staff about other restaurants in Budapest that had charged him every time he ordered a tea. I distinctly remember him asking if they had "free refills" more than once...in fact, when they said "no," I think he asked for a carafe of warm water so that he could continue to reuse his old teabag. Hahaha...he was funny. I think he ordered a cheeseburger. We could tell that the waitresses did not enjoy going to his table because it seemed he had a new absurd request/complaint every time they arrived.

I can't remember if we had dessert, BUT I do remember having more of the king-kong sized beers. I love the oversized beers I could get and would definitely not turn one away right now. Karena and I left the restaurant completely happy that Hanna's was closed. As difficult as it is for me to admit, the meal at Stone Soup was definitely better than an entire fried chicken.

Okay folks. I'm going to post maybe one or one-and-a-half more entries about Budapest and then it will be time for me to jet off to Korea. Next time I will talk about my search for Hungarian crepes, our walk down the shopping streets, and a fabulous last dinner on an old paddleboat.

Enjoy!

Success?

I did a nice easy 1.5 miles on the treadmill this evening with no pain! Well, maybe a little at the end when I tried to speed up a bit. What can I say, I hate the treadmill and wanted it to end as soon as possible!! Promise it won't happen again!

This was totally the face I had at the gym. No joke.
I closed out my gym trip with a quick visit to the elliptical machine (10 minutes felt like FOREVER) and then made sure I stretched every bit of my lower body. Rolled out both calves when I got upstairs and decided to throw on the ice pack for good measure. Don't want anything acting up this week!

Did anyone else in DC notice how GORGEOUS it was out tonight? I put in a late-ish night at the office and was surprised at how warm it was when I walked outside. PLEEEEEASE be this nice on Sunday ;)

I may have found my race day bottoms:
I got these Nike capris a couple weeks ago because well, sometimes you just need a new pair of running capris! These actually hit right below my knee! Holy crap. Capris NEVER fit my short legs...even my favorite Under Armour ones were practically full tights on me! haha. These fit wonderfully and even have a zip pocket in the back. I highly recommend them :)

In technology news...the SportBand issue has been resolved. It was definitely accurate this time around, except for when I stopped it after a mile to stretch my calf. I should have known that it only counts when you are moving. HA. Oops. I AM having issues with the website and getting my runs to display in miles instead of kilometers, though. It just won't save! Lame.

Jamie took charge of dinner tonight and made another recipe from our How to Cook Everything Recipe Calendar - Pork Satay.
Jamie cooked up the rice and I snuck in some greens for fun ;)

Pork Satay (from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything)
1 lb pork tenderloin, trimmed
1/2 c soy sauce
1/2 c water
1 tsp chili powder
1 tbsp peanut butter or tahini
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice or vinegar

Slice the pork as thinly as you can. Cut the slices into pieces about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Just before you're ready to eat, start a charcoal or wood fire or preheat a gas grill or broiler; the fire should be quite hot.

Mix together the remaining ingredients and stir the pork into them. Let sit for awhile or overnight, refrigerated.

When you're ready to cook, thread the pork onto skewers without crowding. Grill or broil until browned all over, a total of 5 to 8 minutes. While the meat is cooking, bring the marinade to a boil and reduce it slightly. Serve the skewers hot, using the marinade as a dipping sauce.

We ran out of peanut butter so Jamie went with tahini. Also, we seem to have misplaced our skewers so we just threw the pieces onto the broiling pan to cook:
They cooked pretty quickly and tasted good, but I was bummed that they weren't crispier/darker brown. Oh, how I wish we had a charcoal grill! Not that I know how to work one, but everything just tastes better on them!

Off to shower and bed! Need to catch up on sleep this week!!