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.