Hellllooooooooo long lost bloggies!

So I'm going to deliver the bad news first...

Official word from the doc - achilles tendonitis. GAH! He said it wasn't too bad and it was good that I was coming in early on, but that I should definitely stick to cross training and 'anything that doesn't cause pain' plus pop a bunch of Advil and 6 weeks of physical therapy.
SO NOT HAPPY! And of course while I was at the doctor's office, I wasn't feeling any pain whatsoever. AND he equipped me with a heel lift which, after running 2 blocks to get to work from the doc's office and switching to heel striking, did not cause me any pain...hm...no pain, ey? ;p

I'm going to check out this physical therapy thing and do the elliptical (VOMIT) machine the rest of this week, but there will be no tapping out of the marathon. No freaking way. There's probably no way I'll be able to run the whole thing (unless some sort of miracle takes place in the next week or so) so plan is to run/walk and worst case scenario power walk the whole thing. The last time I ran/walked a long run, I think I did 4:1, which I think is totally doable right now. Either way, it's happening.

I am pretty bummed about the whole thing mostly because I put a lot more into my training this time around and was feeling really good and strong. I was looking forward to running w/V and possibly PRing. The whole thing sucks, but I know I shouldn't push myself to run through pain...I know it'll ultimately end up bad. Whatevs...we'll see how it all goes.

Now for fun weekend recap...

Friday was the beginning of our whirlwind weekend. Selin arrived and we almost immediately headed out to one of our favorite dim sum places - A&J Restaurant in Rockville, Maryland. It's small, only takes cash and has a paper menu of delicious treats you mark up and give to your waitress. I forgot to bring my camera and was clearly too distracted by all the food to use the camera on my berry so here are a couple shots I found on Yelp:
The front two dishes are staples for us when we visit A&J - Cucumber Salad in Hot Garlic Sauce and Potstickers. The cucumbers are cool, refreshing, spicy and slightly sweet (not to mention garlicky ;p).

Another staple dish - Scallion Pancakes. These are light, crispy, doughy disks of goodness. I like to make a puddle of soy sauce, vinegar and chili sauce on my plate to dip the pancake in...YUUMM :)

Other tasty treats I couldn't find pictures of: Pan Fried Beef Bun (closest thing to a soup dumpling around here), Cold Noodles in Hot and Sour Sauce, and Bean Curd Rolls with Assorted Mushrooms. There are a lot more suggestions (and photos!) at foodwanderlust too!

After some digesting and vegging out, we met up with friends for dinner at Proof in Gallery Place.
This time I DID remember my camera, but it was way too dark to take any decent photos without a flash (and yes, I felt weird taking flash photos of my food) so here's one courtesy of Google Images:
We sat at the round table in front of the wine wall, but only ordered one bottle of wine between 9 of us. Thanks to Selin, we had an additional 3 delicious bottles of California wine (none available at the restaurant - they ask in advance) for the low corkage fee of $25 a bottle. Not bad considering the bottles at Proof start around $40.

Dinner was tasty and pretty light. I started with a salad of Roasted Beets with Pea Shoots and Kaleidoscope Carrots (with sherry mustard vinaigrette, Stilton and toasted hazelnuts). I wish I was able to get a picture of this salad! It was a perfect combination of salty, sweet and earthy. The beets were slightly sweet and went great with the potent Stilton. The hazelnuts (which I forgot were in the salad) were a nice surprise crunch!

Jamie started with the Crispy Pork Confit (sweet soy glaze, Thai jicama salad and lime-pepper emulsion) and didn't know that was all he ordered. I guess there was a mix up and they thought he wanted the first course serving when he really wanted the main course serving. So we ended up splitting my main course - Wreckfish with Corn and Mushrooms (can't find it on the online menu). The fish was perfectly cooked and had a nice sweet/smokey sauce to go with it. The corn and mushrooms - heaven...then again, they are two of my favorite things ;)

After getting nice and toasty at dinner
(and apparently starting a 'super asian' evening theme), we all jumped into cabs and attempted to grab some drinks at Marvin.
Now I enjoy Marvin on say, a random weeknight or early evening, but 10:30pm on a Friday night? No no. I think we stayed for about a drink each and then decided we all needed to pay a visit to The Big Hunt.
I love the Hunt for many reasons 1) super casual 2) always some sort of seating 3) roof deck option 4) cheap 5) wing nite 6) fond memories and 7) this baby
Ladies and gentlemen, the Black Velvet (Guinness and Strongbow). I mean, I'm sure I could get this somewhere else, but it just screams Big Hunt to me. Sometimes I think it's weird I like it so much, especially since I rarely drink cider OR Guinness...what can I say, the combination is deliciously refreshing ;) I also tried a pumpkin ale of some sort and um, NO. It smelled really good, but I really wasn't into the taste of it. :(

Even though we are all creeping on 30, we decided we were going to go out like we were barely 21. Heellllo Jaegerbombs!
My end of the table merely pointed and photographed at the shot takers before we hopped on over to the next bar...
(is this turning into a bar review post?? meh?) A friend of mine had mentioned Public Bar recently and I immediately poopoo'd it because of the location. I just assume anything in that general area (near Sesto Senso, 1223, Andalu - or whatever it is now) is going to be crowded and full of really young, clubby types. Not really my thing. However, I will say that at 1am, Public Bar was actually pretty fun. If anyone remembers what Five was like...picture that, but with a ton of TV screens playing all sports, all the time. So bizarre, yet SO fun at the same time.
See? Everyone's having fun and rocking the peace signs...even random lady in the front!

Phew, MAMMOTH post! I'll leave you guys with that and fill you in on the following day (on barely any sleep) with my two nephews. Talk about energetic! Hope everyone enjoyed their weekends!

CONGRATS to everyone that ran Chicago this weekend!! :)

trekking the buda castle district

Hello readers. Jamie here with another Budapest entry. Karena and I were a little tied up with house guests on Friday, Saturday, AND Sunday so there was no time for blogging. It is a lot of work keeping up with two little tots and a crazy Turkish woman.

So I wanted to start this entry off with something that I forgot about last time. After we finished exploring St. Stephen's Karena and I decided to sit in the square and just watch people go by. That is when my frozen treat radar started going crazy. I noticed people walking around with cones of gelato shaped liked flowers. We did a little exploring and came across a little stall called Gelato Rosa. YUM! I love all things cold and creamy. Immediately, I ordered one cone that you see below. It was vanilla inside and strawberry outside. Karena got hazelnut wrapped in vanilla. It was good...definitely not the best. I really wish they had gelato di crema, a basic and simply decadent custard flavored gelato with a hint of citrus. It isn't fancy, but it is my absolute favorite. The old British folks next to us stared at our treats with envy. I would have happily volunteered the location, but they never bothered to ask. Hey, if they want to punish themselves who am I to stand in the way.

Okay, so now that I got that piece off of my chest, I can get back to talking about other things. We started off with breakfast at the hotel again. I loaded up on salamis and had two pieces of fruit...a doubling of my non-protein intake from yesterday :) Karena and I both wanted to hit Nagy Vásárcsarnok (Budapest's Central Market Hall). When I bought our tickets a while back, this was one of the things that I flagged as a "must see." Karena and I love to visit markets and shopping areas in different countries. I love to see all the neat things they have for sale and it is always a good place to find some tasty treats that we might not have heard of back home.

As with the rest of the buildings that I've commented on, we were not let down by the ornate decorations on the outside. I mean, just look at the details and varying patterns that are seen on the facade. There were TONS of other tourists here and I think they were partly drawn to look at the market itself. The stalls downstairs weren't anything spectacular. Just a lot of repetitious veggie and meat stalls. I did linger to look at the meat products, but I held back on purchasing a couple pounds of pork belly, whole chickens, and salamis to keep me company as a late-night snack. There were also a lot of stalls selling Pálinka, packages of Hungarian Paprika (available in the States, but of course I bought some) and whole capsicums. The vendors had a lot of other tourist garbage...stuff like mini spoons, magnets, lace of some kind, and t-shirts. The main tourist vending areas were on the second floor, which was quite claustrophobic. There were tons of stalls and they all had stuff hanging from rods above our heads. We didn't really see anything too spectacular. I had read in our guide book about a cheese vendor and a mushroom vendor, but then I realized that I couldn't really do much with the mushrooms. If we bought them we wouldn't have been able to cook them and I'm really not the type to walk down the street shoving mushrooms in my face.

I was also looking for hardcore Hungarian hooch. My buddy hot-pocket and I used to sit in bars and get rocked off this stuff. He had a colleague whose Hungarian gramma would send her bottles of the stuff. Don't ask me how she got it...all I know is that it was like gold on the lips. Unfortunately, I could never find anything I wanted. All the Pálinka I found was catered to tourists and nicely packaged as a gift. We did stop in some bodegas later in our trip, but I just couldn't bring myself to buy a bottle on a whim. There were so many different flavors that I didn't know which to choose. Lucky for me, Karena got the courage to buy three or four small bottles. So maybe when she's not looking I will dip into one or two of them!

It was in the market where I first noticed my unfortunate decision in attire. You see, I chose to wear my yellow Imperial Cerveza t-shirt. What I didn't realize was that the crazy Swedes were in town for a 2010 World Cup qualifier. Oops. Last time I was in Europe this happened too. I went to Denmark and my first day in Copenhagen was a 2006 World Cup qualifier. I had never witnessed so many of my partial brethren running around with open containers of Carlsberg (sometimes more than one open containers). That being said, I was ashamed to be in a bright yellow shirt like so many of these scruffy Swedes and was afraid that I was going to be mistaken for one.

I was just going to have to suck it up today. I had no intention of going back to the hotel. Karena and I were off to see Buda today. Home of the Budai Vár (Buda Castle), Mátyás-templom (Matthias Church), and the famous Halászbástya (Fisherman's Bastion) and several other great sites. Karena and I took Tram Number 2 from near the market to the closest stop near Széchenyi lánchíd (Széchenyi Chain Bridge). The tram was really cool because it drove right along the water. We could see great views of sites up and down the Buda side of the city...this included a teaser of the Castle District as well as views of the Gellért Baths. We got off at the Chain Bridge, walked across, and queued for the funicular up the hill. Even though you might thinkg both of us are runners, there was no way we were walking up that hill.

We arrived at the top of the hill and a couple of Italians promptly stopped and asked me to take five to seven pictures of them in varying poses. I think I did okay as a stand in fashion photographer. Karena's main draw to the Castle District was the House of Hungarian Wines, which allows one to drink unlimited samples from different Hungarian wine regions (and eat unlimited appetizers) with the payment of just one entry fee. Unfortunately for Karena, we found that this place was closed....but, I'm not sure if it is permanently closed or if it was temporary to do the Hungarian Wine Festival taking place a few days after we left. Either way, wine was not to be had. So we decided to hit the Budapest History Museum in the castle. I thought it was great. There was four floors of history to be seen. We got to look at historic artifacts that ranged from pre-history, to medieval era, to the modern age. I thought it was really neat to have the different layouts of the castle and of the city presented. We even got to walk around in the basement of the castle. The foundations were laid so long ago. It really is an interesting feeling to be surrounded by something that was constructed before so many events that shaped the world. I mean, I think the first castle structure was completed on the grounds around the middle of the 13th Century. That was even before Gutenberg Bible was printed. They even had delineated where specific rooms were set up, like the stairs for a tower, a storage room, or kitchen. It gives you a great sense of the space we enjoy and possibly even take for granted in out houses and apartments. You also could really get a sense of the variety of people and ethnic groups that made Budapest what it is today....not just Hungarian (or Magyar), but also Jewish, Turkish, and Germanic. You could see influences from the cultures in the tapestries, coats of arms, and marble stonework used to decorate buildings and tombs.

At that point we were both feeling pretty Hungry. Out in the main quad area, I had noticed (with my nose of course) something delicious. There was some sort of pastry that I had to try. Yes, I had to. I couldn't leave without giving it a taste. So we stopped and saw that it was something like funnel cake. It was called Kürtőskalács (Hungarian Chimney Cake). It came in eight or so flavors, but I wanted to get vanilla. The man took it off the heater and rolled it in sugar and gave it to me. As you can see, the cake didn't stand a chance.

This gave us enough fuel (I could actually use one now) to walk through the tiny streets of the Castle district. We hiked up the road to the area where the Buda Hilton is located. This is also near the Fisherman's Bastion and Matthias Church. There were lots of small trinket shops, but I spotted one that looked legit. We went inside and it was selling all this great hand-made and hand-painted pottery. Karena and I went on a little splurge and spent like 200USD. It was well worth it though. WE got a lot of pieces four ourselves and family (hint: you will get your gift at Christmas if you haven't received it yet). If you ever find yourself in the Castle District, look for Tarnok 10 Galeria at Tarnok ut 10. It is on the right-hand side of the street as you walk towards Mattias Church. There were two older woman working while we shopped and they were very nice and wrapped everything to survive the trip home. After I was loaded like a packhorse we wandered down to the Fisherman's Bastion and enjoyed the views up and down the Danube. We began to be serenaded by some drunk Swedes (I shall not repeat the song on here) and decided that it was time to continue walking to the other end of the Castle District.

I think I will end here for now. Tomorrow I'll finish up the Buda Castle post by talking about a demolished church, cafe dining, and our quest to find a downhome hungarian-jewish restaurant.

No title = no link!

Hey all - it's going to be another quickie post :\ Gotta finish cleaning and prepping for a big weekend! On the agenda: Selin's in town tomorrow and we're starting the food adventures early at A&J in Rockville for some much needed dim sum! For dinner we're headed to Proof and then off to Policy for drinks. Don't worry...we'll be responsible adults since these two will be over at 10am ready to hit the streets of DC!
Anyone have suggestions for good kid-friendly activities in DC? I think Jamie's planning on making some ice cream with them at some point - a request was made for Cookies n Cream :)

Chef Jamie was out in full force tonight. I got home and he was almost done with dinner...a very impressive one at that!
Asparagus Spinach Pesto with Blackened Shrimp courtesy of Gimme Some Oven

Earlier this week I was doing my usual FoodGawker browsing and making the menu for the week and I couldn't help but DROOL over this dish (um, please head over to see the mouthwatering photo because this doesn't do it justice)! Jamie took charge of the kitchen and I came home to this
That I promptly sampled and we have a bunch leftover that will NOT go to waste ;)

He had just finished cooking up the shrimpies
While we waited for the pasta to cook, I insisted on a salad (even though Jamie argued 'but there's asparagus and spinach in the pesto!') so I made small ones with mixed greens, avocado, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper
Once the pasta was ready, I scooped a few heaping spoonfuls of the pesto on top and stirred (good thing I didn't just dump!)
Jamie added pine nuts and then the shrimp
And then dinner was served!
YUUUUUMMMY! This is one dish I can't wait to eat as a leftover :)

Okeey...early morning bootcamp and then the big test - a long-ish run with the strap. Not setting a distance or time. I think I'm just going to see how far I can go and if I happen to run home, cool. If not, eh, whatever...I just hope my appointment with the doctor on Tuesday goes fine. Trust me, you guys will be the first to know if I get bad news. AGH.

And a few things before I forget (or in case I don't have time to post before Sunday ;p)

• New blog on the block - The Passion Fruits. I've seen and eaten Luke's amazing spreads. Trust me, you should check it out...they will not steer you wrong!
• Jamie's moving date has changed and he WILL be here for the marathon! Wooo!!
• Hop on over to Chicago Marathon Val and CAUTION: Redhead Running and wish Val and Morgan good luck as they run the Chicago Marathon on Sunday!! It's Val's third and Morgan's first and my favorite course :) Hooraaayyy! Good luck to non-bloggers (and any bloggers I missed!) running as well :)
• I don't usually get all misty, but I totally did while watching The Office tonight. Anyone else? Please tell me I'm not the token sap. hahaa.
  

Hungarian Cultural Inundation

Hello everyone. Sorry for the inconsistent posting about our trip, but I have been busy planning for my move and also coordinating my last few weeks at my current job. Exciting time are ahead, but for now it is back to Budapest. When I left off, Karena and I had finished our very first tour on a segway. It seemed like a lot happened, but that tour only took us to about noon or 100pm, so we had tons of time left for other activities. Both of us were a little thirsty and hungry, so we decided to find a cafe to plan out the rest of the day. It was nice to sit outside and just watch the world pass by. It is hard to do that in DC because a) it doesn't seem like we have that many cafes...just restaurants to rush you in and out, and b) every time I eat outside here, it seems like some homeless guy starts hassling me for food, money, or both.

I didn't have that problem in Budapest. The few homeless people I saw did not bother patrons that were enjoying their meals on the sidewalks. Anyways, so we had a nice meal...some croquettes and a nice salad. I drank a tasty Fanta Narancs (Fanta Orange). At the cafe, we were able to come up with a plan of attack for the afternoon: St. Stephen's Basilica, a tour of the Magyar Állami Operaház (Hungarian State Opera House), and the Néprajzi Múzeum (Hungarian Ethnographic Museum).

Hungarian State Opera House

I talked briefly about St. Stephen's in my previous posting. It is named for the first king of Hungary, King Stephen I (later canonized as Saint Stephen) who is most well known for spreading Christianity throughout his kingdom...which was considered pagan at the time. The inside of the basilica was very beautiful and is decorated with tons of red marble pillars and white marble statues of significant religious figures. The dome of the Basilica is 96 meters tall, to correspond with the Magyar arrival to the Carpathian Basin in 896. The dome is huge. I couldn't believe how large it was when I was staring at the ceiling. I guess from the outside the size is misleading because it is far away. I read in the Basilica that they can fit up to 85oo people comfortably inside. In addition to the nave and apse area, there were about eight to ten separate chapels where individuals could worship other religious figures from Hungary's past. It was all really beautiful. I'm always impressed by the way churches and other religious structures are decorated. The amount of detail, craftsmanship, and artistic expression of religion is truly spectacular. We wandered around as Karena took photos of various parts of the Basilica, but I was really bent on seeing the Holy Right...St. Stephen's Incorruptible Hand.

This was my first Holy Relic. To my knowledge, I don't think I have ever seen one in person before. So I was mighty excited to pay my 200 HUF so that the little glass case would light up and show off St. Stephen's hand. It was exciting, but Karena found it hard to take pictures of. I stood up there for 30 seconds looking at it. Apparently, the Holy Right is taken out for annual processions where Hungarian Catholics honor their country's first king. The hand was really small and delicate. Hungarians like to say that St. Stephen was a wee man and that his wife was taller than he was. Although it was small, brown, and shriveled, the hand did not resemble a California Raisin like I had originally envisioned.

Next up was a tour of the Hungarian State Opera House. We walked in for the 200pm tour and were immediately greeted by a scene similar to what we found in the baggage claim at Ferihegy Airport. It was pandemonium. My first thought was to turn around and wait for the 400pm tour, but Karena barreled through the crowd to the gift shop. There we bought our entry tickets and also our camera pass. Here in Hungary we encountered a new idea where tourists have to pay more for a ticket that allows you to photograph things. Since Karena is the camerawoman, she had to pay about 1000 HUF (5 USD) to take pictures. We were sent back out to the main hall where there were six tour groups all milling about. The Opera House ran six tours at once...all in different languages. The tours ranged in size from about 40 (English and German) to one (Hungarian). Our English group was so large that they divided us into two groups. We saw some of the people from our Segway tour earlier. The son didn't look much happier than he had been early that morning.

Karena and her camera

The tour was very informative. We learned that Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary commissioned the building to be constructed, but he said that the Hungarian Opera House could not be bigger than the one in Vienna. The word is that when he first saw it, Franz Joseph exclaimed "I said the Opera House could not be bigger than Vienna's, but this is certainly more beautiful." He was right. The inside of the Opera House was ornate. I mean the royal box was used by Madonna and Antonio Banderas when they were in town filming Evita. If it is good enough for Madonna, then you know it brings the bling. There is marble all over the place as well as on the floor. Other parts of the floor are tiled in frescoes. There are also painted murals galore. Check out this site for a great virtual tour. What tops off the Opera house is the three ton chandelier and the gold leaf that covers all the wall decorations in the main performance hall. YOWZERS!! Perhaps my favorite part of the tour was this old Indian man who kept asking questions so obscure that he constantly was confusing the tour guide. The poor girl obviously did not have a strong enough grasp on the intricacies of opera production between the years 1856 and 1871. Shame on her. I looked over at the end of the tour and he was standing in the aisle of the performance hall and had tissues stuffed in the collar of his shirt. I later saw him running after a bus when we were walking to dinner that night. Between running into Segway tour colleagues and this interesting fellow, I soon realized that Budapest is a small place!

We left the Opera House and navigated towards the Ethnography Museum. It wasn't too far, just down a couple of streets and across from the Parliament building. This place was really cool because it was made up of a bunch of collections from different parts of Hungary. It showed how Hungarian people lived in the small towns and hamlets before the modern age. The collections were set up to mirror a person from birth to death. Karena and I actually started backwards, with death, and moved forwards through to birth. Kind of like our own little Benjamin Button.

The first thing I learned was that in ye olden days, when Hungarians were married they were given clothes that they would be buried in. These clothes weren't necessarily the clothes they were married in. So, the museum presented everything in nice little sections...stuff like typical clothes from different sections of Hungary, pottery, furniture that you would find in the house, and religious objects. The museum also dissected daily village life and talked about things like trade, toys and entertainment, agriculture, animal husbandry, fishing, transportation, and the different professions needed to make life easy (tailors, hat-makers, shoe-makers, etc).

After finishing with the museum, Karena and I contemplated skedaddling over to the Buda side, but we couldn't figure out if it was going to rain. We decided to hold off for another day and find something to eat. We were craving a little variety so we talked about getting Chinese food. I know, I know...why are we going to eat Chinese food in Budapest? Well, for one, it is the best cuisine around, and two, I always like to try other takes on food that we think is common. This is one reason why I used to try and eat at a McDonald's in every country I visited (that didn't last long). Now, I think I will try to eat Chinese food in every country I go to. Anyways, we make it to this nice quaint restaurant and the first good sign I see...there are Chinese people eating there. Okay. I got a little confused when we had a Hungarian waiter, but he knew his dishes, so it was all good. The food was decent. Like Karena said in her post...it was no Great Wall Szechuan House (I love my jolly Szechuan friend), but the steamed beef dumpling was pillowy and delicious.

Okay, that is all for tonight. I am tired. Next up (hopefully Friday) will be flowery gelato, a market excursion, Buda adventures, and the invasion of the Swedes.

Easy does it...

Howdy strangers. Sorry for being MIA...I've been a bad food photographer all week and I really hate posting without pictures :( Plus, gotta put in some QT with Jamie!

I really only cooked once since my last post and honestly, that seems so long ago and I can't remember what I put in it! Oops!!
I do know it was Pork Stirfry and I marinated the pork tenderloin in a splash of Maggi Seasoning, soy sauce, maple syrup and garlic. I also used asparagus, radishes, green pepper, shiitake mushrooms, shallots and celery. The sauce is a little fuzzier...I think I used some oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, sesame oil and maybe some chili garlic sauce? Yeah, that sounds about right ;)

We had a pretty full weekend after that...

• Saturday was a running fail. New kicks were good, achilles not so much. About 10 minutes into our run, I decided it just wasn't happening. It wasn't super painful or anything, but I knew it wasn't right so I stopped. I also decided that the Army Ten Miler wasn't going to happen either. Super bummed. :(
  
• Dinner at Fogo de Chao - if you haven't been, it's basically all the meat you can possibly eat...served on swords. I think we've been there way too many times to mention :[
  
• Engagement party at McFadden's where I totally got the shifty eye from random, barely 21 year old girls in the bathroom - pardon me for wearing flats and barely there makeup. Psh. I also saw what might be the GROSSEST thing ever - some girl in the stall next to me put her BARE FEET on the bathroom floor...UM, no. Never. Ever.
• Since I was too broken to run the ATM, Jamie agreed to fill in. I'm a big nerd so I went out to cheer...unfortunately he's too fast and I never saw him on the course haha. On the way back, we ran into a coworker of mine who suggested I check out this Achilles Tendon Support
  Did a little jog and walk around the store and was sold. It basically provides compression and stability for your achilles tendon and also raises your heel a bit to reduce stress on the tendon. God, I'm such a sucker for doodads.
  
• Dinner at Jaleo in Crystal City - I think we've now been to all the Jaleo locations in the DC metro area. We got two really good tapas that I had never tried before - Papas Arrugas (Canary Island-style wrinkled baby potatoes served with mojo verde - cilantro, cumin, garlic, sherry vinegar and olive oil sauce)
  This is what they looked like...sort of. This picture kinda looks like powdered Munchkins haha. Anyway, they were DELICIOUS - just the right amount of salt, warm and soft in the inside!
  
  The other new dish we tried was the Rossejat (traditional fried pasta, paella style, with shrimp cooked in a seafood broth).
  The flavor was nice and briny and the pasta was perfectly crisp on the top and full of seafood-y goodness!
  

After all that, we definitely needed a detox dinner. On Monday's dinner menu - Pre-packaged Mania:
Dole Southwest Salad Kit (it was the only kit the Giant had and it was a kit sort of day), to which I added a few handfuls of Arugula Salad from another bag and some
O yes...Purdue Short Cuts Oven Roasted Turkey. I really hate these things, mostly b/c they smell weird and the texture is just not right. BUT, I did require a meat product in Monday's salad and in a pinch, these will do.

Overall, it wasn't exactly the detox I was looking for. The salad dressing was a creamy ranch/salsa thing and there was a lot of iceberg lettuce...I'm not an iceberg girl. Ah well, you win some, you lose some. Are you picky about salad greens?

I also stopped to pick up one of these:
Just for my buddy Mr. Achilles! So far it's been treating me well. I like that it straps on. Totally wore it at my desk today ;)

I was feeling good so I decided to take the Achilles support for a test run. What I didn't know was that a work emergency would have me literally running up and down Connecticut Avenue trying to find an office supply store that sold 11"x17" plastic sheet covers for a submission due tomorrow morning. WTF? So I probably did about 2 miles with lots of stops and starts. I also learned that these sheets DO NOT EXIST IN STORES! UGH. I stopped at like 3 stores with no success! I ended up at my office and working without them.

Once I got home, Jamie had dinner all ready and it smelled amazing. What was on the menu?
Hyderabadi Biryani courtesy of
It was actually pretty good for a box mix! Spicy, slightly sweet from the lemon curd - delish! Definitely buying this box again! Jamie also grabbed a package of naan because well, naan makes everything more fun :p

Ok, time to ice and rest the leg before tomorrow's bootcamp class - I've missed about half the classes since this is a shortened session so I feel like I HAVE to make it to the next three...or else it's a waste.

Defeat.

Man o man. Not a fun morning at all! Last night the fire alarm in our building went off around 11 just as I was getting into a deeeep sleep. We walked out and after 20 minutes or so of standing around, the fire department let us all go back inside. About 30 minutes later, the alarm went off again. Um, not going outside. It then proceeded to go off every few minutes until 2:45AM!

Jamie gave up and went to his mom's house because he couldn't stand it anymore. I, on the other hand, can sleep through pretty much anything so I stayed. I also shoved these in my ears:
Nooo, not mini foam rollers ;p

But of course, as soon as Jamie was out the door, the alarm stopped going off. We got a notice under our door this morning saying that it was a faulty smoke alarm that is located near a bunch of hot things (like in the mechanical room...near things that get all hot and I guess smokey all the time. wtf) and that they apologize for the disturbance. Um, I'm just glad I didn't have to go to work this morning.

So instead of my planned 8am wake up and treadmill adventure, I woke up around 9 and slowly got myself ready for the run. I had been waiting for this ALL week and the whole lack of sleep thing totally threw my excitement off! Laced up the sneaks, stood up and no. No No. Immediate irritation in the Achilles...like something was seriously pushing me. Not cool.

I looked to my growing pile of sneakers in the closet and realized, o crap. I don't have any other shoes to run in!
Since I was just planning on doing an easy 2 mile treadmill run, I figured eh, maybe I can make the trusty ol' Inspires work. They definitely didn't bother my Achilles when I laced them up - Inspires - 1; Elites - 0.

Got down to the gym and eased into a jog and man, it was very apparent that the cushioning was dead in these sneakers. The balls of my feet were feeling it after barely .5 miles! Defeated. Lesson to all you newbie runners out there...if your shoes look anything like this:
*note the vertical lines that aren't part of the shoe

It's beyond time for new sneakers. A lot of people immediately look at the outsole (the black part on the bottom) to decide whether or not it's time for a new pair. They really should be looking at the midsole (the white part) - the outsole is meant to last a crazy long time since that's the part that touches the ground. Here's a good explanation I found online because my brain is too mushy right now to put things into words ;p

So yeah, I called it quits after a mere 1/2 mile. I'm going to attempt that 20 tomorrow and see how it goes...and yes, I may just pick up a new pair of sneakers at work...this is becoming an expensive hobby.

Since I was up, I threw a load of laundry in (hooray no waiting for washing machines!) and made myself a PB&J with some Nature's Pride 12 Grain Bread
I don't really know what the 12 grains are, but they sure do provide some good texture!
Seeds!

I spread some peanut butter and guava jelly on and then popped it on the Foreman
At some point in my life, I started spreading peanut butter on both sides and throwing the jelly in the middle. How do you pb&j??

After a few minutes, my pb&j was golden and toasty! However, I forgot that everything gets all melty and falls out when you cut into it. Oops!
But it sure did taste good :)

Jamie got home shortly after I finished eating and put in a request for an egg in the hole so I whipped out the loaf of 12 Grain bread again, made a hole
What do you think - too big??

Plopped an egg in and 3 minutes later, we've got Jamie breakfast!
Hell yes that's a sriracha happy face!

Ok, I'm off to shower and brave the Army Ten Miler Expo to pick up my race packet. Yes, I'm stubborn, but at least I get a fun long sleeve t-shirt out of it ;p

Running withdrawal

AGHHHH! I NEEEEED to run >:o

The most frustrating thing is that I haven't had any pain...just a little tightness in my calf. I've been icing, so we'll see how my easy treadmill adventure goes tomorrow morning. Wish me luck!!

We've had some random dinners the past couple of nights. For example, last night we had breakfast for dinner - Aebleskivers!
Aebleskivers are a traditional Danish round pancakes that are made in a special cast iron pan.
They are light and fluffy and you can fill them with pretty much anything you want! You can make them sweet or savory and they are one of my favorite eat by the stove meals (the other being shabu shabu and steamed shrimp).

Jamie asked for an aebleskiver pan a couple years ago, but we've only used it once before. This time around, we joined forces to come up with some fun fillings - Jalapeno Cheddar
By far, my favorite filling!

We also did Peanut Butter and Guava Jelly and plain Guava Jelly
These weren't so successful...the peanut butter ended up being weird when it got all hot and melty, plus the guava jelly just didn't want to stay IN the aebleskiver! Sooo, we also made some plain ones
We ate the plain ones with some maple syrup and they were like mini, pop-able pancakes :) You like my use of the single chopstick? Single chopstick is also good for stirring mixed drinks ;)

Making aebleskivers reminds me of how much I love takoyaki - SOOOOO GOOOD! It's probably because they are made in similar looking pans...but such a different taste.
These delectable little balls of dough have little bits of octopus in them and are topped with fish flakes/shavings, scallions and a mayo sauce (yes, one of the few times I enjoy having mayo in my food). HEEEAAAVEEENN! Grabbing a container of these from a street vendor and walking down a chilly street is one of my favorite food moments :) Do you have any favorite food moments?

After filling my belly with yummy balls-o-dough, dinner tonight was a much needed salad:
Mixed greens, avocado, chickpeas, sunflower seeds, feta and Foreman'd chicken. Topped it off with a vinaigrette made from some pomegranate juice, olive oil, garlic powder, salt, balsamic vinegar and dijon mustard - it actually wasn't bad for a random mixture of ingredients!

Sorry to run off, but I think I need some online retail therapy. The fall weather is finally here and I realized that I haven't gone shopping for work clothes in a long long time. Yes, my 'newest' Banana Republic pants are from Spring 2007 (did you know there's a tag that says something like SP07 or F04??) and I think it's time for new ones.