Meal Plan

Sorry it's late!

This week, we are having/have had

Shrimp Linguine
Spinach Salad with Oranges, Feta and Chickpeas
Bean and Corn Soup
Vegetable Curry
Tilapia with Sweet Potatoes and Peppers


The linguine was kind of blah, so I won't bother you all with the recipe, but I'm getting the corn soup stuff ready tonight to go in the crockpot in the morning, so if that turns out I'll have a new recipe up soon.

Ow.

This morning, I got up at 6am and ran thirteen miles in the rain.  At the end, I looked like this:

Sara and Sarah came to cheer me on, thus the sign;  they are awesome.  I'm standing with Erica, who suggested I run the half marathon in the first place.  

The race started off really well; it was only sprinkling a little bit and I felt good with the pace we set.  After a few miles, though, the skies opened up and poured down rain on us like an Ark was going to go floating by any second.  It rained like that for about a half hour, long enough to thoroughly saturate every piece of clothing I had on, from my socks to my hat.  When the rain let up, the wind picked up, and so we ran cold and wet, ran and ran and ran.

Running cold and wet wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  It was uncomfortable, but not so much that I ever considered stopping.  We were lucky that it didn't really pour down rain until we were nice and warmed up, so aside from some blistered toes (wet socks chafe like ... something that chafes a lot) the rain didn't really make the race worse than it would have been otherwise.  

I felt pretty good, even on the hills, of which there were many.  I felt good, that is, until Mile 10.  Ten miles is as far as I ever ran in training, and the training program assured me that I'd be able to do the last three miles no problem on race day with all the adrenaline and excitement of the other people on the course.  Unfortunately, nobody told my legs that.  At Mile 10, my legs sent a very clear message to my brain that went something like this: "Okay, awesome!  Good race!  Time for stopping!"  And then "Stop now?"  And then "Um, seriously, this is far enough.  We've been doing this for two hours, and that's really all we signed up for.  Stop or be stopped, crazy lady!"  It hurt, and I could feel every stride all down each leg like an electric shock.

It was around that point that I began to struggle to keep up with Erica, and where the sum total of my conscious thoughts became "left, right, left, right, left, right, left, right" as though I could keep running without using my muscles at all, but by exerting sheer will over my feet.  Finally, finally after 5-6 hours of that, or maybe only 20 minutes or so, we saw mile marker 12.  And the world was full of joy and light.  Erica turned and looked at me and said "Come on, we can do anything for one mile!  One more mile!"  And she was right. We cranked it.  I could move again, and the pain mellowed, and I kept right on her heels until we could see the big archway, and then we ran like we were fresh and new and hadn't just powered through thirteen miles. I crossed the finish line, and saw my friends waiting for me with a sign, and very nearly burst into tears.

I am so blessed to have so many wonderful friends; people who support me no matter what crazy adventures I embark on.  People who stand in the rain with signs or call me with messages of love or generally just keep showing up... they keep showing up.  I could wrap myself in the warmth of my friends and the glow of accomplishing a goal I wasn't sure I could really do, wrap myself up in that feeling for days and days.  Thanks, guys!

Butternut Squash Lasagna

Today I was blithering endlessly about food, as I often do, and I happened to mention this lasagna to a coworker who has a newfound love of butternut squash.  As per her request, here's the recipe:

Butternut Squash Lasagna with Sage Bechamel Sauce


Nouns-
1 butternut squash, roasted, peeled and chopped
1 package no-boil lasagna noodles
1 pint ricotta cheese
3 onions
1-2 tbsp sage
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
2 cups milk
2 cups shredded gouda or mozzarella cheese
6-8 cloves of garlic, minced
1/8 tsp nutmeg

Verbs-
Preheat oven to 400.  Thinly slice the onions, then caramelize in olive oil or butter until sweet and warm brown.  Set aside.  In a saucepot, melt the butter over medium low heat and add the garlic, stirring for 2-3 minutes.  Add the flour and stir into a roux.  Cook the roux until golden, then add the milk, nutmeg and sage, stirring to thicken. When bechamel sauce has formed a creamy consistency, remove from heat.  Layer a greased baking dish with lasagna noodles, then ricotta, then onions.  Top with sauce.  Add another layer of noodles, then butternut squash, more ricotta and the shredded cheese.  Top with sauce. Repeat until all the noodles are used up.  Pour any remaining sauce over the top and sprinkle any remaining cheese over that.  Bake for 45 minutes or until bubbly and hot through.   Yummmm.

Meal Plan

This week's plan- we didn't get to the chicken parmesan or the huevos last week, so here they are this week.  We are having folks over for dinner on Tuesday, so that will be Thai Fried Rice Day.  

Orange Glazed Tilapia

Shepherd's Pie

Chicken Parmesan

Thai Pineapple Fried Rice and Asian Cabbage Slaw

Huevos Rancheros

Apple Butter

This weekend we went out to Hood River and picked apples.  It was a lot of fun and we ended up with dozens of apples for only $11.  I decided we should make apple butter, which is one of the tastiest substances on earth. Here are the two apple butter recipes I made this weekend, though I started with just one big batch of 4 or five pounds of apples for the applesauce base for both recipes.  I canned my apple butter, and the whole process is shown on my Flickr page, here.  (Hint- click the Show Info button at the top right of the screen for step by step instructions.)

Homemade Apple Sauce
Noun-
Apples

Verbs-

Core the apples and cut the into slices. (*Note- if you do not have a food mill, you have to peel them, too.)  Put all the apple slices in a pot with just enough water to cover the bottom and cook on meduim low until the apples are soft, about 30 minutes.  Run the apples through a food mill if you have one, a food processor if you don't.  If you have neither, then hand mash with potato masher.  At this stage, if all you want is delicious sugar-free homemade applesauce, you can stop.  Or, you can add some sugar, cinnamon, lemon zest or whatever you like.

Caramel Apple Butter-
Nouns-
4 cups apple sauce
1.5 cups sugar
1.5 cups caramels
1 tsp cinnamon

Verbs-
Pour the applesauce into your crockpot, add the sugar and cinnamon and cook on low for 8 hours.  Then, if desired, puree with immersion blender to make it smoother.  Unwrap the caramels and microwave them until bubbly.  Stir them into the apple butter.  Yummm!



Spiced Apple Butter
Nouns-
4 cups applesauce
2 cups sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
1 inch fresh grated ginger
1/2 cup apple juice

Verbs-
Add the spices, half the sugar and the apple juice to a heavy-bottomed pot and cook on high for five minutes.  Pour the mixture into the crockpot and add the applesauce and remaining sugar.  Cook on low 8 hours.  Add more sugar to taste.  Yumm!

Aunt Esther's Lemon Cake

Today while out apple picking I learned that I had totally forgotten my friend Jared's birthday, which is tomorrow.  Whoops!  Happy Birthday, Jared!  I have a history of forgetting birthdays, including a very memorable time I thought my friend Miriam's birthday was actually three days later than it is and called her on that day to wish her all the happiness in the world, only to discover that I'd talked to her on her actual birthday earlier in the week and of course failed to say anything about it then, like the doofus that I am.  I try very hard to make it up to people when I inevitably forget their birthdays, which means that for tomorrow, I'm bringing out the big guns:

Aunt Esther's Lemon Cake- 
Because nothing says "I"m sorry for forgetting your birthday" like the most delicious lemony-tart confection ever created by humankind.
The cake:
Nouns-
3 cups sifted flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup milk
Finely grated lemon rind- 2 lemons worth

Verbs-
Preheat the oven to 350 and grease a bundt pan (I mean GREASE IT). Sift together the dry ingredients.  Cream the butter and sugar together, then beat for 2-3 minutes.  Beat the eggs in to the butter/sugar mixture one by one.  Add the dry ingredients and milk in stages to the butter mixture.  Stir in the lemon rind.   Pour into a well-greased bundt pan and bake for 1 hour.  Let stand 15 minutes, then invert onto a plate.

The Glaze:
Nouns-
1/3 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup sugar
Stir juice and sugar together over low heat until sugar is dissolved.  The poke holes all over the cake with a skewer and brush the glaze over the cake.  Let stand several hours before eating.  (No really; normally that would be a joke, but in this case, the cake really is better after it sits and I"m not just mocking you with delicious untouchable cake)

Roasted Root Vegetable Salad

This is SO GOOD, but really rich and complex, so it's best as a side or an appetizer.

Roasted Root Veggie Salad-


Nouns-
3 beets
1 sweet potato
3 carrots
1 lemon
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
5 fresh basil leaves
2 tbsp roasted pine nuts
2 oz soft goat cheese, crumbled

Verbs-
Peel the vegetables and cut them into bite size pieces.  Arrange them on a greased cookie sheet and roast for 30-45 minutes at 400 degrees.  Cool the vegetables in the freezer or fridge.  Zest and juice the lemon, and whisk the zest and juice together with the honey, olive oil and vinegar.  Pour over the veggies.  Add the nuts, goat cheese and basil leaves and toss lightly.  Enjoy!

Meal Plan

This week we are having --

Fake Stroganoff
Tangy Tilapia 
Zesty Veggie Barley Soup
Chicken Parmigiana with Homemade Marinara
Huevos Rancheros

Hot Toddy... yummm

The Husband had a long day today and came home with sore feet and an empty belly.  It's also cold and rainy today, the kind of day that leaves no room for denial that winter is coming, and October has settled in to stay.

As a result, I made the Husband a hot toddy from some chamomile
liqueur we bought on a recent local distillery tour.  We have christened it The Sleepy Spencer.

The Sleepy Spencer
Nouns-
1 oz J. Witty Organic Chamomile
6 oz  chamomile tea
1 oz apple juice or apple cider
twist of lemon

Verbs-
Heat the tea and pour into a mug.  Add the apple cider and the J. Witty, Garnish with a twist of lemon.  Enjoy.



As a variation, you could also make this:

The Very Sleepy Spencer
Nouns-
1 oz J Witty
1 oz Apple Brandy
6 oz chamomile tea
cinnamon stick

Verbs-
Brew the tea, add the brandy and J Witty, stir with the cinnamon stick.

Ten Miles is Far

I have come to appreciate how far ten miles is.  Ten miles is far.  Really far.  Really Really far.

Do you know how long it takes to run ten miles?  It take 2 and half hours.  That is a long time to run, guys.  You can watch Avatar in that time.  Not, I grant you, while running.  But Avatar is long; I specifically remember complaining about how long it was, and I just ran for that long.

I really cannot emphasize enough how far it is.

FAR.