Monday 11/23

I cannot believe this week is already Thanksgiving! Holy crap. Where did the time go??? Sorry I have been so lazy on posting. I've been pretty boring and I never think of the blog at a good time (e.g. when I'm not at work).

I did make over 13 dozen cookies yesterday. Todd's church is delivering meals to people on Thanksgiving so I volunteered to make cookies and he cooked a turkey. It actually didn't take me that long, as I only made three types. I made chocolate chip (easy and it's a big recipe), coconut, and oatmeal butterscotch chip. They all came ok, but the oatmeal one was kinda dry. Bummer.

Blah blah blah

Not too much going on in my world. Still recovering from the marathon. Every time I run, I feel great, but then I hurt the next day. Hmmmm... I ran a few miles on Sunday with my friend Connie while she rocked the Columbus Half Marathon, and then I ran 6.2 miles with my friend Joanne while she ran her first ever full marathon. Big CONGRATS to both of them!! (Although I don't think either of them read my blog! LOL.)

I met with a potential bride and groom tonight, to coordinate their wedding in May. They were tons of fun, so I hope they hire me! :)

We've been cooking a lot, so I'll try to post some recipes over on the food blog soon. I bought some cool produce at the farmer's market (dragon carrots and orange beets!) and we got lots in the CSA too. We've used eggplant, leeks, potatoes, celery, broccoli and green peppers, all from the CSA, in the last few days. I also made some hummus from scratch - easy and delish!

Ok, I'm off to iron and watch Biggest Loser.

Marathon Week!

Holy crap, less than a week till the big race. I can't believe it's actually here! Only three more days of work since we're taking off Friday morning. The weather is looking like it's going to be chilly. This is good, since the last two years have been unseasonably hot. However, it looks like it might be pretty chilly and also rainy. We have zilch experience running in the cold since it has just now gotten nippy here. The biggest problem this will cause is what in the world to wear. I can't remember which warm things I like and I don't have much to wear in this weird in-between weather. Hands down though, it is MUCH better to have weather be a little too cold than a little too hot.

I really don't have much else new to report. Maybe I'll be more interesting when I'm not just running. :) I have been trying some new recipes lately, trying to use up some of the produce we're getting from our CSA. So I'll post those over on the food blog (colYUMbus.blogspot.com) tonight.

I'm not sure if I'll post again before the race, actually. Tomorrow night is the MIT (Marathoner-in-Training, my running group) banquet, Wednesday night is my last speed workout, and Thursday night is packing. Busy week! So hopefully my next update will be a great race result. I've had some minor nagging pains so cross your fingers they go away!

Happy week!

last weekend of September

Well, yesterday was pretty rainy and dreary but today was pretty gorgeous once the morning was over. It's a huge reminder that it's actually fall now!

This weekend was pretty low key. I ran yesterday morning and did pretty much nothing until we went to a party to watch the football game. I'll confess that I barely watched any of it. :) Then we got some Vietnamese food for dinner and watched the latest James Bond movie. It was pretty good.

Today I tried to sleep in a bit and then really didn't do much. Grocery shopped, laundry, walked the dogs for a long walk, went for an easy run. Todd made delicious beer can chicken on the grill - yum! it turned out even better than we imagined. I made some delicious potatoes to go with it- just cut up some potatoes from the CSA and tossed them in olive oil, salt, pepper, and fresh rosemary, put them in some foil packets and tossed them on the grill. So easy and very tasty.

Now I'm drinking a glass of wine and deciding whether or not to run to Target. :)

Happy Labor Day weekend!

Wow, I can't believe it's Labor Day weekend. (I feel like I start every post with a similar statement...) The weather is GORGEOUS here. Not too hot, sunny, light breeze. Really beautiful weather.

Partly because of that, I had a really great 20-mile run yesterday. I started early (6 am) with a small group and then joined the main group after 6 miles, so we were done by about 9:30 instead of the 10:30 ish time they would all finish at. I felt really good yesterday, despite some lingering pain I've been having on my foot/ankle area (which flared up horribly on Thursday). I even finished really strong, with a 9 minute mile up the hill to finish! Hopefully this bodes well for the marathon... I also had a great speed workout on Wednesday, feeling strong and good. We shall see...

I think Todd and I are going to bbq today. I love barbecuing and eating outside and I haven't done nearly enough of it this year. not sure exactly what we'll have yet...

Work is very busy right now. I'm super excited though that last week went so well that I don't have to work today. and tomorrow should be a light day, going in at 10 and hopefully only staying a few hours. We're less than 2 weeks from the big opening and this coming week is going to be a busy, stressful, productive one.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Random

Sorry I haven't been posting as much. I seem to always think of it when I'm at work, and I really don't think it's a good idea to be posting at work. :)

The weather has been weirdly cool here. It's kind of nice but sometimes it's actually too cool. It's been fabulous running weather though. And since I am getting full-swing into marathon training, that's a good thing.

The CSA has been giving us prolific vegetables (see my other blog) and we've been trying lots of new fun recipes.

Todd and I went up to Lake Erie for a brief visit last weekend. It was very short but fun to get away. My favorite part is always stopping at the winery on the way up. :) (surprise, surprise)

The dogs have actually been showing some improvement lately. We had a really great walk the other day and they've been pretty good. Now if we just get Abbey to stop barking at the cats when she even hears a peep out of them through the basement door...

Sippel CSA report 5/30/09

Todd and I decided to do a CSA this year and actually got signed up for one. We talked about it last year but just never got around to it. For anyone who might not know, a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is where you basically buy a small share of a farm. You pay up front and then get veggies every week during the growing season. You theoretically are also assuming some of the risk that the farmers bear but can also reap the rewards. www.localharvest.org is a great web site to read more about them and find one near you.

I decided to start showing off our weekly haul on here. I know when we were trying to decide whether or not to do one, we really wanted to know more about what we'd actually get.

We decided to go with the Sippel Family Farm for our CSA. So far, I love it!

Week one was 5/23/09, and I didn't take a picture. They said it was a light week since it was the very beginning of the season. We got:
1 giant head of lettuce (I mean GIANT)
1 bag of spinach leaves
1 bag of mixed salad greens
1 large bunch of mint

This fit fully into a grocery sack. I used some of the lettuce to make a giant Greek salad for a BBQ on Monday and then the rest for another Greek salad for Todd and I later that week (plus some for lunch for me). We got 2 dinner salads out of the mixed greens and 3 big spinach salads out of the spinach. I haven't done anything with the mint yet but I plan to try to freeze it so we can have mojitos sometime. :)

One thing I noticed that was great was how long everything stayed fresh. We didn't have the spinach until Thursday night, and I know that the spinach I normally buy goes bad in that amount of time. I imagine this must have something to do with how ridiculously fresh the food was and also how much time "normal" produce must waste in the processing and trucking to get it to us.

So, week 2, 5/30/09. We got:
1 head of bibb lettuce (not quite as big as last week's lettuce but still big)
1 bag of mixed salad greens (even bigger)
1 bunch of kale
1 bunch of radishes
1 bunch of green onions

I love that this week is pretty different from last week! I've never cooked kale or really done anything with radishes, so this week should be fun. Here's a picture of our haul:



While I was at the Clintonville Farmers Market, I also picked up some ridiculously fresh strawberries. You have to go really early to get the berries, as they sell out quickly. I was so excited to be there on time (thanks to getting up early to start my run early) that I bought 3 things of berries from 2 different farms. They're so good it's amazing. They're so ripe that there is no white part near the stem. Just stem and then juicy redness. I dropped one onto the counter from about 4 inches up and it splattered a bit. That's how juicy they are. Needless to say, they're already almost gone. PS, if you've never had homegrown fresh berries, you should really try them. They're so different from the kind you buy in the stores. In some ways, they're less sweet than the best grocery store ones, but they have so much flavor.



Ok, that seems like enough rambling about food! I coordinated a wedding yesterday so I need to get caught up on normal household things today. It looks like it's going to be a beautiful day in Columbus today!

c is for cookie

I've been drinking wine and am going to make whole wheat snickerdoodles tonight! I've never made them before, so hopefully they turn out ok. I decided to skip the gym tonight (since I had a wonderful run last night!) and am instead being productive at home. I already cleaned some stuff and ate a somewhat healthy dinner. With of course a glass of wine. :)

Liz, to answer your question, we have three shows opening next week! I will post more about them soon, but in the meantime, here is the link to the Wexner Center website for more info: www.wexarts.org. I'm working mostly on the Coop Himmelb(l)au show (architecture). Although of course I have to get at least a little involved in all of them. :)

New Year's and Soup

I know I haven't officially posted my new year goals yet (probably because I haven't made them yet - I have a desire to be sitting in my living room with a glass of wine while doing it, is that so wrong?) but one thing I want to do is fine something I like doing. One might consider this finding a focus for my blog. :) I run a lot but I don't know that I can count it as a hobby and I don't think it's really interesting to anyone else. We shall see....

I like cooking a lot but I'm kind of intimidated by all the good food blogs out there already. Where are these people taking these photos??? They look so professional.

So, no photo to go along with it, but I made this delicious soup the other night and had it for lunch today. Highly recommend - it's easy, pretty healthy, and tasty. It's from Cooking Light.

North Woods Bean Soup
Yield: 5 servings (serving size: about 1 1/2 cups)

Ingredients:
Cooking spray
1 cup baby carrots, halved
1 cup chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
7 ounces turkey kielbasa, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
4 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 (15.8-ounce) cans Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed
1 (6-ounce) bag fresh baby spinach leaves

Preparation:
Heat a large saucepan coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add carrots, onion, garlic, and kielbasa; sauté 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium; cook 5 minutes.

Add the broth, Italian seasoning, pepper, and beans. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes.

Place 2 cups of the soup in a food processor or blender, and process until smooth. Return the pureed mixture to pan. Simmer an additional 5 minutes.

Remove soup from heat. Add the spinach, stirring until spinach wilts.

Nutritional Information
Calories:227 (15% from fat)
Fat:3.9g (sat 1.2g,mono 1.3g,poly 1.2g) Protein:18.1g
Carbohydrate:30.8g
Fiber:6.7g
Cholesterol:26mg
Iron:3.5mg
Sodium:750mg
Calcium:112mg

Cooking Light, JANUARY 2002


They provided the calorie breakdown. I think it's kind of low though. Todd got me an iPod Touch for Christmas (so cool!!!) and I downloaded this awesome app called "Lose It" where you enter what you eat and do for exercise and it tracks your calories for you. My favorite feature is where you can enter a recipe and it automatically caluclates the nutrition info per serving. When I put this bad boy in, it was a bit over 300 cal per serving (although I do up the kielbasa by a smidge). Still not bad, but not what they got.