A few things I've cooked, in no particular order:

Ice Cream in the KitchenAid Ice Cream Attachment. I've made several batches, and this was the easiest because it was not custard-based, so no cooking. I believe it included sour cream, sugar, lemon juice and zest. Recipe from Epicurious.

Fritatta. I make this once a week. At least.

Sesame noodles with tofu, which are just so delicious and a nice, light-but-filling thing for summer. This will return to the rotation soon.

No pictures!

It's been quite some time since I edited the blog, mainly due to a sad lack of picture uploading on my part, which I will try to remedy. It's not as if I haven't been taking pictures (mainly of my food) -- but I haven't found the patience needed to actually (1) transfer them to the camera, and (2) load them onto the blog. A blog without photos is a sad thing indeed.

However! It's been an interesting nine months since the last post! Most interestingly, I got married on July 3 and began the adventure of being a wife. So far, so good, as they say; it's tremendously nice to have a buddy beside me who's happy to change cat litter, shovel snow, and cheer me up. Actually, I do have a picture to share, taken with my brand-new iPhone on the day we bought a pair of them as honeymoon gifts to ourselves. What a cutie!

Upon being married, I moved to lovely Carytown, Richmond's trendy/bohemian neighborhood. I also acquired John's two cats, bringing the total count to three. Three cats in a smallish apartment did not make for good times at first, but they reluctantly tolerate each other now, for the most part. Still lots of hissing!

Before and After

Welcome to my newest cousin, Celie Annalin!

American History 101

True quotations from a caller today:

"He came over on the Mayflower with Christopher Columbus."

"It all goes back to Rome."

"There was a Civil War and they was a Continental War.  I reckon George Washington was in the Continental War."

"Loretta Lynn was in the middle of this.  The Carter family, too."

More on the race . . .

So, by the numbers: I came in 7,109 of 26,242 overall finishers (about the top 25%); 391 of 2062 in my age group (about the top 20%); ran the second half very slightly faster than the first half (19 seconds faster, to be precise -- this is a good thing); and had a 9:09 pace overall (faster than my training pace).

May I say that I was really quite pleased with myself?

More generally, it was a great day to run. Everything went perfectly for me as far as getting there, parking near the start (my little secret!), watching the elite runners sprint off, and laughing at the costumed runners. The speedo-ed "Michael Phelps" certainly encouraged me to get past him, and some people I knew won first in the group contest with a great Ms. Pac-Man theme. The weather was perfect. The waves were nicely timed, so there weren't too many slow people to dodge. There were bands and spectators all along the course, and then there is the course itself, which is just one of those perfectly lovely places that makes me glad to live in Richmond.

Pictures later if I buy them!

56:55!

That, my friends, is my best-ever 10K time . . . all on very slack training, thank you very much.  The original plan was that this would be the year I really tried - the goal was a sub-55.  But what with the traveling to Alabama, getting sick, getting engaged, snow, and it just being too darn cold to get out of bed in the morning, I sort of didn't get started until two weeks ago.  My long run (on a treadmill) was a pathetic 3 miles.

The only theory I have was that the caffeinated Jelly Bellies I scarfed down before the race helped, as did predicting my time optimistically so I wasn't stuck running around slowpokes.  Anyway, yay me!  I'll have a more thorough analysis of splits, places, and all that later.

Got a shovel?

Oh, holy cow.  Will you just look at all the snow?  I'd guess about six inches, and it's still falling.  (It would appear to be the last gasp, though, according to weather.com.)  I've got some still-painful frostbitten fingertips and lots of lovely pictures.  I'm going to spend the rest of the day watching movies and baking cookies.  And hoping they cancel work tomorrow, because we really truly do not have a snow shovel, and how am I to get out of here?

Lucky 13!

All my readers know, but I wanted to make it official with a blog announcement as well as a gadget . . . John and I got engaged!  Ring pictures soon, I promise . . . Look, here it is!

A few words about the holidays

No, I haven't become one of those people who calls Christmas "the holidays" (which is disturbingly common, you know) but am referring to the Christmas-New Year's stretch. Which is two holidays, ergo, "the holidays."

Anyway, a few pictures, in no particular order. Two are in Baltimore, with random JS family members and their pets; two will be recognized by my faithful readers as being at Meme's house, or rather in her kitchen. We were all very tired on New Year's Eve, so we ate our chili and went to sleep without so much as a spoonful of ice cream (though I actually think she managed to get us to eat some of Bonnie's famous chocolate pie). The next morning I whipped up some tasty Morning Glory muffins . . . or rather reconstituted them from the mix I bought at Whole Foods. They were very tasty with apple butter.

Later that day a few Smiths came over bearing food - roast beef with assorted trimmings - and we had a lovely supper, after which we enjoyed the traditional New Year's Eve sundaes. Happy 2009 to everyone! It promises to be a terriffic year.

Chili Pouf

So, Christmas morning this year found me away from my normal traditions. The lovely Ginny and Craig made up for it, though, with all sorts of delights (babies, dogs, and a real Christmas tree!), not least of which was Eggy Pouf on Christmas morning. As I ate it, I thought it tasted both delicious and haintingly (ha! meant to type "hauntingly" but as a sort-of-Alabamian, haintingly works too) familiar. It was, it turned out, pretty much the same thing as the old Gilbert Christmas classic, Mexican Eggs, but with cheddar instead of pepper jack and bacon instead of chilies.

I was inspired, then, to make a pan of Mexican eggs for supper the other night. It's easy, tasty, and always pleases. We ate it with some nuked sugar snap peas.

Mexican Eggs

5 eggs, 1/4 cup flour, 8 oz. cottage cheese, 4 oz. canned diced chilies, 2 Tbs. melted butter, 1 tsp. baking powder, 2 cups chredded pepper jack cheese. [I wanted to use up the tail end of some white cheddar so I shredded that and made up the balance with pepper jack. Also, the food processor just goes through cheese so quickly you will not believe it. It's magic!]

Mix it all together and put it in a greased 9 inch pie pan. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes, turn the oven down to 350, and cook for another 20-25 minutes until golden and perfect.

Look!

Behold some of my delightful Christmas presents!  I've already watched the Dexter DVD (thanks to Kenny and an absurd amount of off-work time), and Lewis Agonistes is excellent so far - still in the biographical portion.  However, the prize this year goes to the camera, a gift from the lovely and talented JS . . . everyone can look forward to seeing more pictures on the blog in 2009!

Slightly disappointed . . .

53% Geek

This bodes well!

17

More Dolly Dodging, before I forget!

Our story continues . . . . So, after finding sustenance we went down to our cabin and waited for the ship to sail, which it did, around 4 p.m. It was great fun to watch Miami ease away. Shortly thereafter we went up top - well, up a couple floors, anyway - for a lifeboat drill. It was at this point we discovered our cabin had only one lifejacket, a problem that was never rectified.

After standing around "listening" to instructions on what to do if we had to abandon ship . . . and I say "listening" because we were positioned near some kind of fan or vent that was blowing noisily and preventing our hearing anything at all . . . we sauntered back to the cabin and got ready for dinner.

Now, many cruises have assigned seating for their dinners, and this was no exception. I had great fears of being trapped with some overly-sincere, apple-cheeked, corn-fed Michael W. Smith devotees, but it turned out Charlotte and I had our own table, and per the rules of the cruise, would continue to have our own table through the entire vacation. Nice! We also had the same waiters, which made for a pleasing continuity. The formal dining room (the "Gold Olympian," I think) was very elaborate . . . lots of deep red velvet-looking banquettes, gilded staircases, etc. The sub-waiter, a small man from Indonesia, got our beverages and tempted us with bread. The main waiter, a Peruvian, told us about the specials and offered his recommendations.

Aside: The food on the ship, while not absolute top-drawer, was consistently tasty. In the main dining rooms there was a base menu ("Carnival Classics") composed of standard steaks, Cesar salads, etc., and there was a daily-changing list of specials as well. I particularly enjoyed a lentil soup, an Indian vegetarian plate, and fattoush. My very favorite thing to have for lunch was a bowl from the Mongolian barbeque line. I'm sure it was neither Mongolian not barbecue, but it was a very tasty bowlful of self-selected rice noodles and vegetables, wokked and sauced by one of the cooks, and served HOT!

Five Things I Like

No offense to people who post lists of pet peeves (I have a few of those, too!), but as part of my effort to be positive, here are five things that really please me:

1. My iPod, with all its lovely nano features:  video, audio, pictures, calendar, address book.  It has saved me from boredom and unwelcome talkers on many occasions.
2. Beautiful fall days like today:  Cool in the shade, warm in the sun.
3. Bacon.  Really, is there anything better?
4. Days with enough free time to get a little knitting done.
5. Purring cats - it's the best sound in the world.  If dogs could only learn how to purr, we wouldn't need cats at all.

The Good News . . .

 . . . is it's finally cool enough in the  mornings to run outside.

The bad news is that I'd forgotten how hard hills are.  (Just 5.5 miles today instead of the half-marathon-training-program-prescribed 7.)

But a bad day at Deep Run Park is better than a good day at the gym, even if Gold's does show ESPN.

Dodging Dolly, Part The Second

So, we made our way onto the very huge ship. We were on the "Riviera Deck" (i.e., Steerage), so there were many floors to go down in an elevator. We got there and walked . . . and walked . . . and walked some more to our cabin, which was pretty far aft but thankfully had a window. It was vaguely reminiscent of a less seedy Tutwiler Hall, with twin beds, lots of built-ins, and minimal floor space. We unpacked out bags and stowed them, then ventured out for food.

I think the passenger capacity was around three thousand? Believe me when I say it felt like many, many more than that. Teeming multitudes, swirling confusedly but purposefully like ants. Anyway, we went to the Lido Deck where we wandered around lots of cafeteria-style lines (again, reminiscent of tarted-up college dining options) before Charlotte settled on a slice of pizza from some kind of poolside vendor. We got beverages and settled down at the bar to eat/drink.

Two notes: One is that a major hidden cost of cruises is your beverage options. I understand and expect to pay for alcohol, but they charged for Cokes, for heaven's sake. Another is that one point on which Charlotte and I diverge is that, when hungry, I will pretty much eat the first non-seafood and non-mayonnaisey thing I can find. Charlotte, on the other hand, will be more selective even as she grows hungrier.

Dodging Dolly, Part The First

(Which sounds like it ought to be some kind of song title, but in reality is what I did on my summer vacation.)

I've been back from the cruise for two weeks and am just now getting around to recording my thoughts.  This will have to be a several part entry because it's an off Monday for me and I've got many errands to run, chores to do, weights to lift, etc.  Let me begin by saying it's not called Miami International Airport for nothing (ha!  More like the Black Hole of Calcutta if you ask me), and that Carnival Cruise Lines might really want to think about having a better luggage strategy for people with brutally early flights.  Hauling two bags around the airport for four hours doesn't really put me in my happy place.

Anyhoo, Charlotte and I met up at the baggage claim and were herded onto a bus allegedly headed to the port, only to have to wait around for what seemed like hours (probably not, but the fact that C was starving - but apparently not starving enough to eat a Larabar or almonds - made the whole ordeal seem rather protracted).  We took a ten-minute or so drive to the port and were then herded off the bus, snarked at by the man who wanted a tip for putting a label on my bag (sorry, fella, five tips per day is my limit, and if I'd known you were going to be a pill about it, I'd have carried my own darn bag), and herded into some kind of check-in line.

(Do you see a theme developing here?  I realize they have an awful lot of people to manage, but maybe it could be done without making us feel like cattle?  Maybe?)

$51.64

Is how much I paid to fill up my car with gas this morning.

I believe I mentioned recipes . . .

Cheese Ball:

Cream together in a mixer 16 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature, and 8 oz. sharp cheddar, finely shredded, also at room temp.  When well amalgamated, add 1 Tablespoon finely chopped onion, 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce, 1 teaspoon lemon juice (I used the juice of an entire half lemon), and a few dashes cayenne pepper.  Once it was all mixed up I globbed it onto a piece of waxed paper, wrapped it up, and put it into a roundish bowl in the fridge overnight.  After it stiffened up, I formed it into a more ball-like shape and rolled it in chopped toasted pecans.  

We always eat it with Wheat Thins.  My mother makes tons of this every Christmas.