Thoughts on Valentine’s Day, from a home cook foodie.

Tradition dictates that you take your significant other to a fancy restaurant on Valentine’s Day, but I’m here to point out the flaws in this notion. First, ask yourself this, is it romantic to say “I love you so much that’d pay a lot of money for you.” If you’re smart, you’ll realize that you’d NEVER say that out loud, unless you’re into “renting” girlfriends. So what does say love? I think cooking a dinner for a loved one says so much more. It says you’re willing to do something you don’t do often or something outside of your comfort zone or even that you’re willing to learn how to do something for them, or best yet, it says all of the above.
I think there are three distinct approaches to making a dinner for someone. First approach is figure out what their favorite food or ingredients are and make a meal based on that. Second approach is to stay in your safety zone and make something you’re good at. You have to be careful with this approach, since your tastes may not match theirs and the whole point of cooking for someone is to make it about them. Third approach is to make something fancy that has a high level of difficulty and/or has expensive ingredients.
If you’re going to take the bait, think through what you’re going to do. I suggest making three things; an appetizer or salad, a main course and a dessert. If you don’t have great kitchen skills, stick with the salad and make something simple like cookies for dessert. The great thing about salads and cookies is that they can be made way in advance and free you up to concentrate on the main course. I have a very bad habit of overdoing anything I do and I ask anyone out there to heed my warning, keep it within your abilities; a main course should basically be two items or even one if you do a pasta type meal.
It may be too late for you this year, but keep this notion in mind for birthdays, sweetest day, Valentine’s Day and anniversaries. A few other subtle touches can go a long way during your romantic dinner. Turn off the Olympics or the NBA All-star game and turn on some quiet music, jazz or classical gives you the most romantic bang for your buck. Dim the lights if you can and use candles. Enjoy.

Chinese New Year's 5k (Year of the Tiger)

Another has gone by and I’ve run another race at Papago park. I’m pretty sure this was the same crew that put on the other New year’s 5k (as in Jan 1st). If I recall correctly I wasn’t a big fan of the prison anklet timing devices on that day, but they weren’t around today.
I seem to have run two distinct versions of the Papago park race, this company uses the version that has a hill, well really a series of hills for close to the first mile. It’s a slightly tougher version of the course but it does help stretch the field out fairly quickly.
This race doesn’t really have anything to set it aside from any other. It’s a good little race, about 200 or so runners, with a decent field, my age category had all 3 placers finish under nineteen minutes. That’s a bummer for me but I like to see others do well and I don’t feel like I really raced when a twenty two minute run finishes in the top ten. I haven’t checked yet, but I probably wasn’t in the top 25 and I know for sure that I wasn’t in the top 3 in the 35 to 39! That does bring up one criticism I had today. The race started at 9am but the awards didn’t start until about 10:20. I don’t mind waiting around but it would be nice if they could get preliminary results out before the awards so I make an informed decision to stay or not.
I’m not sure if the volume knob was bumped today or I just wasn’t in the mood for the announcer, but at times I was uncomfortable with just how loud it was. Sometimes I’d like to think up a polite way to let people know you EITHER yell or you use a microphone, but you don’t yell into a microphone. I seriously believe the announcer’s voice could have carried without the boost. I know after the New Year’s race I read a review from a runner who wasn’t pleased with the content of the announcer’s talking. I didn’t notice anything that day, but today I could have done without the face Chinese accent…it’s not funny, it’s just racist. He also used the term Boobs….several times despite the fact that race included a kid sprint.
In the end, not a bad race for those of us who like to have something to do every weekend, but again, there was no one thing about the race that made it unique. The T shirt was nice and since I didn’t place I don’t know what the medals looked like, but I’m always happy to see five year age categories. I’m going to grade this race a C+ but I’m sure I’ll be back next year unless something else comes up. There is a race at 6pm today and I would consider doing a different race although I generally don’t like doing races at night.

Runner's Den 5&5 or Double Nickel

Runner’s Den 5k & 5 Miler (Double Nickel)
This race represented everything I remembered about running when I lived back East (technically Ohio is not all that east, but compared to Phoenix). Several hundred not several dozen people showed up. Roads were closed; the local police worked the corners. It was a REAL race. Now I know that not all races can be big and this wasn’t what I would call a big race, more of a medium race. The half marathons I’ve entered lately have been BIG races. I really needed a medium sized race. The little races have been inconsistent due to weather or unscheduled course changes, etc.
This race featured something I’ve never done before…you can enter BOTH races they have. Usually this behavior is frowned upon and the start times are too close to do it even if you wanted to. However, the 5k and 5 miler start an hour apart with the 5k first. The starts of the two races were only feet apart but because you go two different directions to start they separate them; you use the same finish for both.
It had rained last night and the road was still wet so the 5k course had me a bit worried. The course involved not one, not two, but three 180 degree turn arounds; the first coming maybe a hundred yards into the race. I made it a point to start at the front of the 5k because of this potential bottleneck. I intended to run the 5k at a training pace, as did many of the other people I was talking to before the race. However, my competitive spirit kicked in at some point and next thing you know it I’ve run the fastest race of the season. The 5k featured a very fast field, I saw several dozen sub 18 times on the post race unofficial results. I’ll check later today to see just how many. Yesterday I ran a race where I finished 10th overall with a time in the 24 minute range, today I finished 11th in my age group running a 21:44! Oddly enough I don’t like being in front of races; I guess I’m not THAT competitive.
The T shirt was a simple but nice red cotton T that I will actually wear again. The double race, called the double nickel, didn’t require you to fully pay twice, you just paid six dollars more and you weren’t stuck with an extra T-shirt or two numbers.
The course goes through the suburban neighborhoods and other than the turns was pretty pleasant. The road was wet but in good shape otherwise. One thing I don’t miss about running back East is the pot holes and manhole covers. The races were timed with the D tag system and the production company was the one that has the TV monitor with results instantaneously. It was nice to finish, grab a drink and walk straight over to the scrolling screen to see who you placed. I’m a statistics nerd and this definitely feeds my needs!
This was my favorite race of the year and earned a solid A from me. I’m hopeful that my new city has more races of this quantity and quality ahead. I met some good people and I’ve added some more familiar faces. I’ll be hitting the road soon and logging some new locations on to my Half2Run account (google that if you’re not familiar with it, cool concept).

Running: 2nd annual Women’s business all the way 5k

My race day didn’t start the typical way. A combination of a race that was moved and my unfamiliarity with the city combined to have me arrive at the race with fifteen minutes until the start. I hadn’t finished my coffee, nor even opened my water. I registered, relieved to have not driven around for 45 extra minutes for nothing, and ran the shortest, fastest “warm up” of all time. Anyone who knows me knows that being behind absolutely kills me. The staff was pleasant and helpful; they offered me a small T-shirt since that was all they had left, but I turned it down since I will never lose enough weight to put that on! It was a standard white T with a couple different colors of writing on the front. This was a charity based run for the Women’s business something-er-other. I probably should pay more attention if I’m going to blog about it, but I was in a bit of a hurry.
My understanding is that the start of the race is normally in another location, but construction or something forced the move. In the end, most of the course was the same as the races that start at the Zoo entrance. There is a bit of hill at the beginning and therefore the end since it was an out and back mostly along the canal.
It was a small but very friendly crowd; I didn’t have a chance to talk to anyone before the race but did so after while waiting for the awards ceremony. Several of the age divisions didn’t have three finishers and several others clearly had walkers fill the spots based on time. I think I overheard an estimate of 150 with preregisters and race-dayers; but it felt even smaller, maybe 100.
Conversation after the race was at first based around everyone thinking the race was about a tenth of a mile or more long, which may not sound like much, but that will add 30 to 60 seconds to your time depending on your pace. I really couldn’t tell because I didn’t warm up or stretch, but I was also suspicious of my first mile split being 7:57. I normally get caught up in the start, get some adrenaline and come very close to 7:00 flat (and then run a horrible 2nd mile, but that’s a different story all together).
I met some really great guys after the race and I’m starting to establish a collection of faces in my mind of people that I see week in and week out. One gentleman I was talking with was quite an inspirational story, he told us he used to weigh 380 lbs. (and I’m pretty sure I had heard that correctly) and was now in the 190 lb. range and getting better. He was thankful of running and gave it most of the credit for turning his health around. He had run the P.F. Chang’s Rock and Roll Marathon last month had set his sights on several others. He also commented on the race being long, since his pace per mile was faster in the Marathon than it was in this 5k! …and so was mine. (but I did the ½ marathon)
I was very happy that even though this was a small race there were awards for every five years of age and despite my lack of warming up, I did finish tenth over all and second in my age category. The awards were fairly common looking, but each place had a unique medal and it felt like someone actually tried.
I’ve had a topsy turvy last couple of weeks on the running scene with odd weather patterns and relocated courses but I’m still having fun. Next up…something called a “Double Nickel” a 5k and 5miler in the same day!

Cooking: The Better burger (best burger?)

The key to building a better burger is to not cheap out. For me, the burger is comprised of 5 distinct elements; bun, meat, vegetables, condiments and cheese. Each of these elements must play their role and add flavor to the whole, but also not dominate.
Since the only true requirement to a burger is the meat, we’ll start there. I prefer a large burger as opposed to consuming several small ones. I know that “sliders” are all the rage these days, but they are generally crappy and I think this fad will pass. I like the approach that sit down restaurants take to burgers, a single substantial patty ranging from a quarter to a half pound. Personally, a half pound burger is a bit much, but because my favorite foody grocery store sells Kobe beef patties pre-made and very reasonably priced, who am I to argue. That’s right; Kobe beef is the way to go. To make a great burger, you should grill, to successfully grill the meat needs fat. Kobe burgers will never appear on a diet program, but they make my better burger, just not my better for you burger. In the category of meat you can also augment the flavor of your burger with bacon. Many a chef has been quoted as saying “everything tastes better with bacon on it,” and I couldn’t agree more. However, I prefer a twist on the traditional bacon on a burger. The standard approach is to lay one or more strips of bacon on the burger somewhere on top. I really hate taking that first bite of bacon cheeseburger and getting an incomplete chomp on the bacon, thus pulling it out of said burger and on to my chin. Since you cook the bacon separate from the burger anyways, I give it a little rough chop and put it in-between the meat and cheese, thus ensuring this won’t happen.
The bun may seem unimportant to some, but not to those who care about what they eat. Now I understand that wonder bread makes what they call hamburger buns, but much like you wouldn’t put a Lamborghini on thirty dollar tires, you should not put your better burger on an inferior bun. The big debates with buns comes down to toasted or not and sesame seeded or not. I lean towards unseeded but toasted. The seeds can occasionally get stuck in your teeth and really don’t add much flavor, just texture. The bacon chunks will add a nice texture, so the seeds are not needed. The best way to get a great bun is to get them from the bakery, not the standard bread isle.
Some “manly” men would argue that the only vegetables that belong on a burger are a pickle. I couldn’t disagree more. However, the wrong vegetables are worse than none at all. I’m a fan of the traditional lettuce, tomato and onion. If I don’t have bacon then I would add pickle, but the two together is too many salty flavors. Now don’t go thinking that just any lettuce, tomato or onion will do, the better burger has to have better ingredients. Iceberg lettuce has no place here, green leaf lettuce, you know, the kind that actually has flavor is the only lettuce you should be putting on your better burger. Mixed greens are also an acceptable choice, but absolutely not iceberg. My favorite tomato to use is heirloom; they’re those really ugly looking tomatoes that range from green to orange, but sometimes red. I won’t buy a green one even thought the flavor is exactly the same; I’m just freaked out by green tomatoes, even if they are ripe. Last but not least the onions. Unless your goal is to scare away your friends and offend your spouse and/or significant other, you must have cooked onions. There are three Ed approved ways of cooking onions for your better burger; the first is grilled, the second is sautéed in either bacon fat or butter and the last is boiled in beer. I listed them in the order of my preference. As for the kind of onion, if Vidalia onions are in season, you can’t lose there, otherwise I go with any other white onion available. I love red onions, but they don’t belong here, they’re too powerful and put the burger out of balance.
There a few standard burger condiments, I only use one. Ketchup and Mayonnaise hide the taste of low quality burgers and belong on your sliders or your chain restaurant burgers. Whatever your preference, a better burger has only one condiment. My better burger has mustard. Now I have nothing against yellow mustard or honey mustard, but they belong my chicken nuggets or French fries. I have a two way tie when it comes to which mustard to use; Dijon or whole grain. Dijon works nicely if you put it on the bottom bun, yep, defy convention and put your condiment on the bottom bun. Since we toast our buns we’re making a statement about the condition we would like them in, crispy. No point in toasting the bun if get soggy as soon as I put the meat on it. Putting your condiment on the bottom bun helps prevent the bun from sponging up all the burger juice. Please note: this doesn’t apply to ketchup, so don’t bother with bottom bunning it.
The last ingredient added to your burger can be the most important; the cheese. Virtually any cheese can work, depending on your tastes, however it must be real cheese and it must balance with your other choices. I love a large variety of cheeses and yes I’ll even eat Kraft singles, although I’m not convinced that’s even actually cheese; but for my better burger I’ll be doing the slicing. If the cheese doesn’t come in bulk and isn’t sold by weight, is probably isn’t fabulous and why cheap out now? My new favorite for the better bacon cheeseburger is Gruyère, it’s a Swiss cheese and tastes like a slightly more intense version of what most people would call “Swiss” cheese, but no holes.
So I’ve covered all the ingredients, the only thing left is cooking our masterpiece. Purists will declare that charcoal grilling is the ONLY choice. I can’t argue with the flavor of charcoal grilling, but I live in the desert and charcoal is frowned upon. Plus burning a bunch of charcoal for a single burger isn’t very “green”. So gas grilling is the next best thing. Grilling is superior to pan frying in all ways unless you like your burgers well done. I think well done is a sin that is completely unforgivable. The flavor of beef peaks at about medium rare and should always, always, always contain at least some pink. If you’re going to cook your burger to well done, don’t bother buying good ingredients. In fact, just don’t bother, go get a dollar menu double and a value meal.

P.S. – salt, pepper and maybe some garlic powder if you’re wondering.

Cooking Part 2: Irish Pub Food Part1

My 38th birthday saw a host of cooking books that really look exciting. (okay, it’s not my birthday yet, I opened them early) Spanish, Asian and Irish Pub are their themes. I’ve made plenty of Asian food in my day, so it went to the bottom of the pile. I know little to nothing about Spanish or Irish Pub food, but I do about something in Irish Pubs….Guinness! Since Guinness is my favorite beer I decided to hit the Irish Pub cookbook first. I’ve already placed a dozen or so markers for the recipes I want to try, I’m pretty excited.
For the first meal out of this book, I went with stuff that sounded similar to food I’ve eaten in my life, but unique enough to have a bit of risk in it. That decision really paid off! I learned my lesson from German day a few weeks ago…or whenever that was. I will not make a zillion things ever again. A relatively simple meal is the way to go; not a grand feast. The only over extension I went with this time was that I made a dessert; but you’ll have to forgive me once you hear what’s in it.
Tonight’s meal was Guinness Beef Stew, Cheddar and Herb biscuits and Irish Cream Cheesecake. The Beef stew is served over mashed potatoes. I’ve never, until now, eaten a turnip or a parsnip as far as I’m aware of, but the recipe called for both. The sauce of the stew is made from beef stock and Guinness (I suppose you could technically use any stout, but I’m a Guinness man and the recipe did ask for it by name!). Two pounds of sirloin that’s been cubed is dusted in flour and sautéed in oil and butter. You then remove the beef and cook down four medium onions. At first the thought of four onions sounded a bit too much for me, but I decided to follow the recipe and I could always adjust it the second time I make it if need be. I think I will leave the four onions, the other ingredients hold their own no problem. The beef and the onions stew in the beef stock and Guinness for over an hour before the other ingredients are added. Carrots, parsnips and a turnip are the other vegetables and they’re added about 40 minutes before you’re ready to serve. I think my stew was supposed to be thicker than it was, but I enjoyed it as is. Since one of the serving suggestions was over mashed potatoes I decided to go that route. The stew not being too thick made for a nice gravy for the potatoes and I enjoyed this recipe enough that it’s going in the card box; an honor that hasn’t been bestowed on many recipes.
The cheddar herb biscuits were interesting and worked differently from a standard southern biscuit. The batter, that’s right, I said batter, is poured into muffin tins instead of a typical American biscuit that would need a cutter and a rolling pin. The recipe called for parsley, tarragon and rosemary as the herbs to use, but didn’t state in what proportion. I evenly used all three but it turns out that rosemary is far more intense than the other two and that’s all I tasted and smelled. Now don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed these and found them much easier to make than regular biscuits. I will also be adding these to the old recipe box, but with a little note to go easy on the rosemary. I’ll have to figure out what the best portioning is; of course I don’t actually know what tarragon tastes like, but maybe I will eventually.
The final item of the meal is still in the fridge. I didn’t read the recipe completely and didn’t realize that the “no bake” cheesecake still needs four hours in the fridge to set up. I will be attacking it shortly, but I figure any cake with Bailey’s in it can’t be too bad. I would say this is definitely not a family cake since it has ¾ cup of Bailey’s in it and is not baked to get some of the alcohol out of it. The crust was made from a cookie that took a long time to find, what they call a “digestive cookie” in Ireland. After I bought them, ground them up and make the crust, I tasted one. They’re just graham crackers! If I like this cake, I will probably purchase crust in the future. Not that making crust is too difficult, but when you go to cut the cake I won’t have to worry about scratching my good 9 inch cake pan. I’m still not sure how I’m going to get it out.
Since wine with Stew and biscuits would be silly, I didn’t the obvious and most appropriate thing; we had Irish beer with our meal. Actually I had Irish beer and my wife had a British Ale can in the picture that was never opened! Since Guinness was in the stew, I guess it would have been the obvious choice for a drink, but I went with Murphy’s to expand my horizons.
My first experience with Irish Pub cooking went well, very well, and I can’t wait to try it again. Like I mentioned earlier I have a dozen plus recipes I identified that I’d like to make, so this is definitely part one of many.

Scottsdale Fit City 5k

Fit City 5k in downtown Scottsdale was a nice little run. However, they didn’t want it to be a little run. The weather the last 3 days has been miserable to say the least. I think that a lot of runners stayed away because of the weather and flooding. One runner I spoke to said that the press release stated that the race was hoping to draw a thousand runners. Only 200 numbers were handed out and slightly less than that ran it.
The race course had to be altered due to the flooding in the area and it forced them to run a double looped course; basically around the block twice. I actually didn’t mind the course and my time was very fast but the double looping of a race can and was a real problem. The second loop was slightly smaller than the first and had a turn off towards the finish. There was a volunteer there but a crowd in front of me was the victim of the volunteer’s friendliness. Instead of repeating “first lap straight, second lap turn” she was cheering for the slow runners and even talking to kids in strollers. For once I wasn’t the guy who was sent astray but did see a couple people in front of me that ran extra. Since the course had to be altered no one was familiar with what to do and it was a tough situation, but I don’t blame the organizers.
Since the course was an improv I really won’t spend much time describing it; but rather spend time on the highlights and lowlights of the experience. The T shirt was a Dry fit style shirt in bright red. I’m not a big fan of red unless it has a Buckeye on it, but it isn’t too bad. The back is covered with sponsor’s names and I’m sure they’re not super happy that there were more left over than were handed out. The Goodie bag came in the form of a reusable grocery bag style and was the same bright red color. In my efforts to go greener as I get older, I’ll probably use it. There was also an additional bag that one of the vendors was giving away if you wanted it.
I hope the organizers send out questionnaires or something to help improve this race. I’m not sure they would get a thousand people for several years, but there are plenty of tricks to attract more participants. Step one, offer awards. I was surprised to find out that they didn’t have age divisions at all. Your race won’t last long without awards. Step two, offer awards that are not created on your home computer! I didn’t actually see the award certificates they gave out since they only went to the top three overall, but when pieces of paper are involved they’re usually pretty cheesy. I paid $25 to enter a 5k that had a zillion sponsors, put a little of that back into some awards or prizes; the more unique the better.
I was pleasantly surprised that the race was D tag timed, with only 200 participants that is definitely overkill but again they anticipated a substantially larger crowd. They also had a really cool idea for posting the results at the sight. There was a tent with a large television under it. A laptop was feeding the television the results and they were scrolling continuously and instantaneously. Trust me; runners love to know how they did, and the sooner the better!
Although this year’s race gets a C+ because of losing runners, I will give it a go again next year. I’m going to assume that the issues with losing people will be resolved by being able to run the intended course. Had no one been lost I would have given a B- and having awards would put the race in the A- range. I think it can only peak at A- because the course view has little hope of being visually nice, but again, we didn’t run the intended course, so I’ll reserve judgment until next year.

Food: Ode to Pizza

I love hot pizza
Chewy golden crust, bubbly cheese
Take out or homemade

This is the first of what will probably be a recurring series of food inspired poetry. I've always wanted to write a Hiaku! :-)

P.F. Chang's Rock and Roll Arizona 1/2 Marathon

Another running year here in Phoenix has officially started. The P.F. Chang’s Rock and Roll Arizona Marathon and ½ was today. I have only run this event once before and had just moved here for that one.
I was pleased that I didn’t wait for a bus for an hour this year. In fact my morning was quite pleasant up until a few minutes before race time. One thing that no race seems to have ever cured is the line at the Port-o-potties, so I guess I can’t complain about that….but I still will! I’ve been to races in the past that had adequate facilities but didn’t label and distribute them well, which will have the same effect. My personal belief on this is that five minutes in line is fine; ten minutes in line can get painful if you didn’t get in line soon enough; and a half an hour in line is just plain unacceptable. My two trips prior to the run fell in the later two categories. At least they had them at mile two for those of us who weren’t willing to tough out one more trip and miss the official start. Perhaps the normal people to potty ratios used to calculate how many to have don’t take into account that you have 30,000 people chugging water and sports drink so they don’t get dehydrated during their 13 or 26 mile adventure.
The race I ran in Las Vegas this past December was run by the same company, but it was their first year running that race. I believe P.F. Chang’s (as it is known here) is in its seventh year. Las Vegas had the starting area in corrals but they didn’t label and enforce them very well; Phoenix did a better job at labeling and even had some ropes in between them to help ensure everyone didn’t just GO. I still spent the majority of the race passing people but the number of blatant road blocking runners was fairly small for a race of such a size. I think the fact that the starting line was NOT near the gear check, but rather the gear check was at corral 26. This may have prevented people from getting too lost or just jumping in anywhere.
My only beef with the race organizers at all was the lack of signs at the starting area. I never saw a single one. The only reason I found the gear check was because the 27 UPS trucks are hard to miss! The Marathon and the ½ Marathon have separate starting areas and we had several Marathoners in our line…of course they were an hour late and I’m not sure how they didn’t notice that no one else’s number was yellow. Several people asked me if I knew where to go and I asked several more myself. I know we were provided a map of the start area on the internet, but I did get up at 5 am to do this and didn’t think I would need to bring the map with me. Nor did I study for this exam! I also, after the fact, realized that the booths labeled “Solutions” were in fact “Information” booths. I’m just not clever that early in the morning; perhaps ever.
I really liked that the starting area was a large runner’s “hang-out” area with food and beverages (including coffee!) and there was a band there as well. The first time I ran the race I got off the bus just in time for the start and basically sprinted from bus to gear check (luckily I changed on the bus) and hit the road. I was determined to not have that happen again. I left the house at 5:30 in the morning and was parked and on a bus by 6:15 for an 8:30 start. Since I had read about the runner’s camp at the start and the weather was pleasant I decided this was the way to go. I was right.
When I get off the bus I like to scope out the area and make my plan. I’m going to sip on sports drink and eat anyways, might as well do it on site instead of in the car. Now that I know they have coffee I might save two bucks in the future and not stop on my way in. This is where those signs that didn’t exist would have been helpful. I arrived with lots of time but not everyone does. There is a huge park in the middle of everything going on so finding somewhere to stretch was no problem at all. Figuring out where you were was.
I’m really starting to enjoy running again and this did nothing to hamper that. The course itself is nothing special but they’ve increased the number of water stations and bands to the point where there is something going on almost the whole time. There was also a great turn out of on lookers and several times I slapped hands with a huge series of children. No idea why, but I love doing that. There were also a large number of cheerleading teams and dance squads (or whatever they’re called) cheering us on. The chant of “run it out” seemed a bit odd, but hey, they were trying and I wasn’t going to complain. I just contemplated what else my choices would be for the next mile.
The miles were marked so well that I…as in ME…didn’t miss a single one. For the first time ever I have 14 splits on my watch (including that silly 0.1 mile at the end). I wish the course didn’t end with only hills on the course, but they’re not bad and it’s not like they can control that. I suppose they could run the race in reverse but they really are not anything to even train for. I think the net elevation change was something like 50 feet over thirteen miles, so really flat.
The medal was nice and VERY heavy. I’m not sure what they make them out of, but the Rock and Roll series definitely doesn’t cheap out them. I’m a sucker for a really nice finisher’s medal and I was attracted to running Phoenix again because of the tie in with Las Vegas they created. By finishing both races I’ll receive another medal in the mail approximately six weeks from now commemorating the “dual in the desert”. I’m running New Orleans, another rock and roll, next month and they have additional medals for every additional race of theirs that you run. Now I know this is a marketing ploy, but OHHHHH is it working, at least on me!
The T shirt was kind of blah, but if you run regularly like I do, you have so many of them that you just don’t really care much anymore. The purchasable merchandise was actually pretty nice and although I usually don’t give in to that, I did pick up a nice cotton long sleeve and a pint glass. Nothing cheers an accomplishment like a pint of Guinness in the race’s commemorative glass!
I think my overall grade for this race is a B+. Any of the aforementioned issues resolved could easily lead to an A-. I don’t think there is the potential for an A or A+ because the scenery is just so so. Although I live here, maybe the scenery is nice to the folks from out of town? I ran in Moab, Utah in October of last year and I’m not sure I’ll ever see better scenery than that. It is my gold standard for grading the views, but it also has a 2000 runner limit.
While running I usually dream up all sorts of oddities; this year I decided to create my own motto, semi stealing one from a famous shoe maker and general sports apparel giant. They claim “just do it” and I’ve decided that “just” doing it isn’t enough; I’m going to “Do it like I mean it”. I know corny, but anyone knows me knows that I don’t take myself too seriously and I’ll be saying it tongue in cheek. I’m still working on a clever sign off to running blogs, but as noted earlier, I’m not so clever at times. So go have some fun, and try to make running part of it.

Adventures in Cooking: Part 1 German food

I’m really looking forward to exploring food this year. I didn’t know where to start so I figured, “Hey, I’m German, I’ll make German stuff.” If I only knew what that would lead to!
It turns out I know NOTHING about German food. Heck, I barely know anything about Germany. So my journey began with the internet and a learning experience. Don’t get me wrong, I love the internet, but try typing something generic like “German Food” into a Google search; nearly pointless. The biggest lesson I learned about food and cooking is that I don’t know much. After a couple of hours surfing around the world wide time killer I had collected a few recipes; enough to say that I’m making German food. In the future, I’ll be buying cookbooks or getting suggestions from friends. Some of the information I learned was helpful. My mother had suggested the German version of Potato Salad, so I had a term I search for directly. Of course I went to my old stand by for recipes, the food network and found a couple versions. I picked my favorite looking one and hunted around for other “German” dishes. I liked the sound of Schnitzel, so I printed that recipe too.
Okay, I had a main course and a starch. I needed bread, a veggie and a dessert. I guess by stating that I was making some very American assumptions, but again, not much research. Eventually I settled on a beer rye bread that I found in a bread cookbook that I have and I found an apple strudel recipe that looked tasty. For the veggie dish I really struggled; continuing research reveled very little, but it would appear the Germans like asparagus and Brussels sprouts. I’m not a huge fan of either, but I went with the Brussels sprouts. I didn’t find a particular preparation for them, but hey, everything tastes better in bacon grease.
I had made chili and some cookies earlier in the day to stock the fridge and freezer and I learned another valuable lesson: don’t wear yourself out BEFORE you start into something new. The bread takes the longest to make so I started that first. I’ve never made a rye bread before and was pretty excited. Instead of regular sugar for the yeast fuel, the recipe I found used brown sugar and molasses. I had to use three different flours which meant buying two more flours! I did use AP flour instead of bread flour, but did buy the whole wheat flour and the rye flour. I got to add another spice to my collection as well, since I hadn’t had need for caraway seeds in the past. Now my goal is figure what I’ll use them for again in the future besides rye bread. I use a bread machine to make the dough but then use an oven to bake it. I tried to make a free loaf (not in a pan) but probably should have let it rise longer than I did the last time; it was a bit thick, but not too bad. Jen tried it, I’m not sure if she liked it or not, she didn’t say much during dinner, but was pleasantly surprised that she was willing to try German food. I think the caraway seeds freak her out.
While the dough was forming in the bread maker I started working on the apple strudel. The recipe I found used Phyllo dough for the outside. Since I’ve never made one before, I don’t know if there are other things you can use. The filling included crushed shortbread cookies, apples, golden raisins (soaked in bourbon!), pecans, cinnamon, brown sugar and butter. I might have forgotten something, but you get the idea. If anyone wants the recipe I have it printed out and would be happy to attach it to the end of this blog (that goes for all the recipes). I didn’t do a very good job of wrapping the filling into the dough and my strudel sprung a leak during baking, but it was saved. It took some effort to get the caramelized filling off of the cookie sheet, but it turned out to be worth it. I think the strudel is definitely making my recipe box. For those of you who don’t know, a recipe makes the box only after I’ve made it and liked it. I currently don’t have many recipes in there, but I hope to start filling it.
Next up was the potato salad. This was fairly straight forward and any recipe with a half pound of bacon in it can’t be too bad. I boiled the potatoes according to the recipe but in the end they were not as soft as I would have liked. I think you need to pick out the little tiny potatoes to make sure that they cook enough. The potatoes cut easily, but felt firm when eating. This dish was something very different for me; I’m used to potato dishes with cheese in them. I’m pretty sure Jen didn’t like this dish but was polite enough to push them around to get me to think she was trying them. I didn’t figure she’d try them since they had onions, so pushing them around was already above expectations.
The Schnitzel was really easy to make. I don’t bread meat very often but it doesn’t take much skill. It turns out that Schnitzel is very similar to the Italian dish Chicken Parmesan only without the sauce and melted cheese on top. Both Jen and I enjoyed the Schnitzel and I really think I’ll make it again. I was pleased to find a main dish that wasn’t too heavy. Most of the food I found during this hunt seemed not only heavy and rich to eat, but really heart unhealthy. Now don’t get me wrong, don’t eat Schnitzel on regular basis, it was sautéed in butter and had cheese in the breading, but it didn’t weigh me down with a creamy sauce or anything that seemed too heavy. It was served with a lemon wedge and I think in the future I might squeeze it on for a little zing.
Now if you remember the beginning of this article you’d recall more food on the agenda. Well, there is uncooked food in my fridge, but I simply ran out of energy. I suspect the Brussels sprouts may never get made, I don’t know. I was also going to attempt some sort of mini dumpling thing whose name currently escapes me but it turns out I didn’t have enough eggs. In the end, I was pretty happy with my first adventure and it has left me wanting more.
Here is where I would put my clever sign off phrase if I had one. I do not. :-)

We Support Our Troops 5k

The fourth annual We Support our Troops 5k was a quiet little race. I’m puzzled at the lack of runners in the local phoenix running scene. I know the P.F. Chang’s Marathon is only a week away and maybe that’s the reason there were so few talented runners. I finished seventh in the race and didn’t even break 23 minutes. I’m running the half marathon next week but see no harm in running this weekend. If my mileage for the day is too small I’ll simply increase my warm up or cool down distance…but as per the norm, I digress.
This race takes place at the Reach 11 recreation area that sits on Tatum road just south of the Loop 101 and just North of the canal. The area is a horse lover’s park with ample parking and paths, unfortunately there was ample horse exhaust as well. I have run races at this location several times now and it seems like a good location. Today was a new start and finish location from what I’m used to but most of the course was paths that I’ve run before. Besides a small amount of access road at the beginning and end of the race it is mostly a dirt path and could almost be advertised as a cross country race. The path is fairly firm but there are areas where washes cross and the footing gets iffy. I’m prone to ankle issues so I run with caution at times on this course.
The weather was cool but not overly cold. I know one of the folks I spoke to this morning that was born and raised here thought it was freezing, but it was about 50 degrees. I ran in shorts and a short sleeve shirt and although my hands did get a little cold I find this perfect running weather.
The T shirt that came with the race is a white short sleeve cotton T shirt with red, blue and black print. Another decent T shirt for the cost and again the awards were divided into 5 year age groups. I found it funny that I won an age group award for the second time in twenty three hours; then found it even funnier when the medal was identical. I guess somewhere out there is a trophy store having a sale on “Running” medals. I was hoping the gold, silver and bronze that they were announcing yesterday were the colors of the medals but the best I can tell they’re all the same. Since I’m now getting these little medals with regularity (technically at this pace (2 in 23 hours) I would get hundreds of them this year!) I’m debating if I want to segregate my finisher’s medals from my awards medals. I guess this is a good problem to have.
The same group who ran the New Year’s Day race I ran at Papago Park ran this race. The announcer talks the entire time before the race which isn’t nearly as bad as that sounds. The only trouble is when the race was about to start; he did the old ready set go verbally and many of the people didn’t realize we were starting. I’m not sure why I’ve run three races so far in 2010 and I haven’t heard a single starter’s gun or siren. Maybe I’m just picky…okay, not maybe, I am. I mean, at least get a whistle if you’re not willing to pay for a real starter device.
All in all, again I’m glad I got off my treadmill and got my butt out and about. I have no real complaints about the race other than the general lack of support from the running community. I will run this again next year and I hope to see more folks there.

26th Annual Resolution Run 5k

This was the second week in a row that I ran a race that started at Papago Park. The 26th annual Resolution Run by RunningMasters.net. This race actually had a different course and one that I haven’t run before. Instead of running directly from the start area to the canal this race uses the roads in the Park area. The first half mile includes some pretty steep up and downs and I see why most races don’t use this course. I guess the rest of the field knew about this and took it a little easy at the beginning. I was not in the know and ran FARRRRRR too fast at the beginning. Through the first two hills I was in the top five and felt fairly disoriented with this position. By the final downhill of that first half mile I was back to around fifteenth and hurting! I eventually caught my breath but I suspect my early charge was a really bad idea. I digress.
The race itself had a few other details that were new to me. The race was the 26th annual but was fairly small and included a walking category that looked well populated. I have never seen such a small race use a chip system to time and it caused me a bit of confusion at the finish. I had two runners finish just behind me, but yet ahead of me. In large races you’re never really aware of who is around you, but this race was so small I could have counted what place I was in if I had tried to. One fact didn’t escape me however, for the first time in my road racing “career” not a single woman finished ahead of me…at least not physically, the time results say otherwise! I finished a second ahead physically, but a second behind on the clock. Again, I digress. The chip system was something I’ve never seen before and I hope that I don’t see a lot. The chip is attached to a neoprene ankle bracelet and is fairly bulky. I felt like I was on home arrest or something when I put it on! I adjusted to it shortly after putting it on, but definitely felt myself sweating under it during the run; which brings up an “eww” factor. Hopefully they wash them in some way, but I’m pretty sure this is a technology that will never catch on.
This race also had a bit of an odd start. The race began on the road, which is definitely not anything out of the ordinary. The fact that only closed the road two minutes (literally two minutes…no exaggerating!) before the start was odd. The area they collected people was on the course side of the start line so when we were allowed to enter the road the people that wanted to be near the start line had to let everyone pass between them. Several people were still filing in when the race director said “ready set go” or whatever he said in 0.05 seconds flat! I was actually caught off guard.
The T shirt was nice; it’s a long sleeve cotton T with what at first appears to be black printing with some very light pink. The race director pointed out that the color changes with different levels of sunlight, so I’ll have to see what color it actually is. Since the race was pretty small I actually finished third in my age group and received a “bronze” medal. I appreciate any awards that races give out and since this was a very inexpensive race, the somewhat generic medals seemed pretty fair. I’ll attempt to include a picture with this blog and let you decide.
All in all, these are the type of races I like to run in between big races. The crowd is small but friendly, and the race is organized enough to not frustrate you. The course had a little challenge but wasn’t too tough. The timing was accurate and the course was well marked. They actually had two water stops for a 5k although I don’t get water on distances that short, it’s not really needed and just slows you down. The T shirt seems nice and they have awards in 5 year divisions.

2010, the year of the cookbook?

I’m looking at 2010 to be a year of exploration of the things I already love. I’m trying my best to cross pollinate my hobbies of running, traveling, cooking and the internet. (I also love legos and science fiction, but I’m realistically ignoring their ability to fit with the others although road trip to ComicCon might qualify!). The mingling of running and traveling has been very straight forward, I’m a member of a club called Half2run; the goal of which is to run a half marathon in half the states in the U.S. with no time limit. I’m looking now at cooking. I will undoubtedly find the perfect pre-race meal during my culinary adventures this year. I certainly plan on mixing cooking with the internet, hence the reason I’m writing a blog.
I’m putting out a full APB for your favorite recipes. I’m going to do some serious cooking at least once per month. I’d love nothing more than to try a recipe, write about it and the experience of making it. At least one of my cooking frenzies will include my friends and families favorites.
Most of my current cooking includes recipes that would be categorized as foods of Italian, Mexican and Americanized Asian food as well as American foods. I do love the cuisine of these regions, but I think exploring the world through my kitchen has a great appeal. I know I have friends from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds and would LOVE to learn about the foods of this blue marble we ride on.
I’ve always had interest in learning more about Asian foods outside of China and Japan. I have no quarrel with these two countries but they’re the majority of the Asian food I’m familiar with. Asia, if I recall high school geography correctly, includes nations like Russia, India, Cambodia, Thailand, Korea, Vietnam and you can even argue for some of the Pacific Island nations like the Philippines. If you know a great recipe or even the name of a food that I should explore, please pass it on.
Seeing that I’m German myself, I should probably try some German food. I remember my Grandmother stinking the house up with Liver when I was a kid…it’s still one of the foods that I just cannot eat. If anyone knows of any lighter or less stinky German food, let me know. I’ve never actually made anything German, I’m not even sure I can name any German foods outside of Sauerkraut and Weinershitzel.
I have a nice collection of cooking tools so don’t hold back a suggestion based on the tools needed. I own a wok and deep fryer…and I’m not afraid to use them! I don’t bake as much as I cook, but I do love homemade bakery, so feel free to send baking suggestions as well. Last but not least, feel free to use me as an your own personal experimenter, unless your recipe has Liver in it!
If all my running or triathlon or biking friends would let me know what they like a pre-race meal, that could be fun too.
I’ll be cooking this weekend so we’ll see what we get to start with! I’ll be sure to share whatever I end up making.

New Year's Day 5k Phoenix, AZ

The New Years 5k at Papago Park is a fun small race. I wasn’t too surprised to see that bulk of the participants fell into one of two categories, lifelong runners and “this is the first run of my New Year’s Resolution” runners. There were a few full families, one was seven people. There was even some sort of club or something, I didn’t get close enough to tell, but they all had the same T-shirts on and where doing the Fun Run.
For a relatively small race (about 350 including the Fun Run) there was an impressive group in the front of the race. I finished something like 36th male at less than 23 minutes. I briefly saw the unofficial results and the leaders where in the 17 minute range.
I’ve run this course before, it’s not gorgeous, but it’s also not bad. You start on one of the access roads inside the parking area of the Phoenix Zoo. You make two very quick turns at the beginning so it’s probably a good thing this is a small race or someone would get run over. You then jump off the road and onto a jogging path that runs along a canal. You basically run the entire race on this path. Towards the end there is an interesting pedestrian tunnel you go through to get under a road. The last time I ran this my pace was much slower and I recall actually looking around, you mostly see the walls of people’s backyards and the really giant steel towers that High Voltage wires run on. Visually, not much, but running next to the canal on the hard packed dirt path and/or the jogging trail (depending on if you’re coming or going) is a nice change of pace for me.
The T-shirt is white with two print colors and is actually one I’ll wear again. It has become trendy to give out the Dryfit style shirts, but I don’t like wearing those for anything other than working out. It’s nice to get a cotton T once in a while.
Over all, this race was worth the money, it was low cost but seemed well organized. The course was appropriately marked. The walkers were informed to get to the back and also which side to walk on so that they didn’t interfere with the runners. There was only water at the finish line area, but I believe there were snacks in the Ramada that you registered at, I didn’t look. I normally stay after races to see the awards whether I’m getting one or not, but it’s college bowl season and I’m a fan of that sport too!
As a bonus, for the first time in a LONG time; IF I were a woman I would have finished with an overall award!  However, since I’m not, nor do I want to be, I finished 5th of 14 in my male age category only 33 seconds out of the awards, nice job guys!