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2013-52 Week 16 II

Continued from Part I.

So when we last left, Jess and I were leaving Disneyland and heading south for an overnight stay in San Diego. We used Priceline’s mystery hotel to get a four-star hotel for sixty percent off and wound up getting a night at the Omni hotel. When we booked the room and the map came up I knew immediately which hotel it was; it was the hotel that connected to Petco Park, the home stadium of the San Diego Padres. We actually considered going to see a game, as the Rockies would be in town playing that night, but decided against it once a major brawl broke out between the Dodgers and Padres the night before, with one of their players charging the mound on an obviously unintentional hit by pitch and knocking one of our pitchers out for two months when he slammed into the pitcher’s shoulder. We weren’t willing to contribute any money to the Padres’ coffers after that. Still, it was a great location and guaranteed a unique experience, so we were excited.

Of course, being downtown San Diego, I had to relinquish our beloved and slightly dinged Yaris to the hotel and pay for the privilege of parking my vehicle somewhere. We went to the front desk and had our initial two double bed regular room upgraded to a king bed premium room by the very nice staff. We were on the 19th floor which, being in Southern California, didn’t thrill me, but I figured the odds of anything happening were minuscule. Thankfully (and hopefully obviously at this point) I was right. We got in the elevator and prepared to head up 19 floors, but just as the elevator was starting to pick up speed it then slowed to a stop again to pick up a very well, shall we say, lubricated party heading up the 21st floor penthouse. Finally the elevator shot us up to our destination and we emerged; I immediately noticed the building being a little more shaky than I would have liked. It seemed to die down once we were in the room, and it took a few hours for me to realize that was probably an effect of the express elevator on my legs more than any building instability issues. But back to the room, as it was one of the nicest that Jess and I have stayed in yet.

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Above, from the front door looking in. Below, from the window looking back.

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The room was a fairly standard size, if not a little larger, but all the items inside of it were top quality. What you were really getting your money’s worth for, however, was the view. I liked it so much so that I took pictures when we first got there and then again at night. We were directly over the Convention Center, with the Coronado bridge to our left:

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And the south side of Downtown to our right:

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Here are both again, from a different spot, later that night:

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And I definitely had to take picture straight down, turns out nineteen stories is a long way up:

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And then again, at night:

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One of the most exciting random things, however, was that our room overlooked a small park behind the convention center, a small park that would host the finish line of the Ragnar Relay the next week.

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We decided to hang around the room for a little while, as we knew there would be traffic coming into the area for the upcoming Padres game and didn’t want to have to fight it to get out. As the game was getting underway, we decided to give it a little more time before heading to dinner, but we definitely wanted to explore the hotel a little and to see if any of the action at the stadium was visible to us. The hotel is shaped like a puffed out sail, with one long round edge on one side, two skinny sides, and a flat backside. Our room was on the round outside edge, and the stadium was on a straight line behind us towards the front door of the room. We explored the hallway and found our way to the opposite side of the building and a large window which looked out over:

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Yeah, we could see the ballpark.

We hung around for a few batters and hoped to see a ball hit into the outfield, as most of the infield was blocked from our view by the overhang which shaded the third base line seats. I did take the opportunity to take a picture of how far up we were again, and also the sky-bridge that connected the hotel and the ball park.

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One of the Padre hitters fulfilled our request and drove a ball up into the air heading for deep left center field. We could track the ball perfectly as it made an arc that completed just over the fence out of the jumping reach of the center fielder. While I missed the fireworks in the first picture (you can see the trails on the left side of the picture, actually just behind where ball landed), I did not miss the columns of fire in the second.

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Our curiosity satiated, we decided to explore the rest of the hotel. They took the connection to the stadium seriously, as I have nearly two dozen pictures of memorabilia that they have scattered through the first few floors between the restaurants, meeting rooms, and public spaces. And I only took pictures of a third to a half of it. Don’t worry, I won’t inflict them all on you here; when I get some time I’ll upload them to an album in the photo section of the site. I will share this one, which is one of the earliest baseballs used in the late 1800s.

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We also found the roof top (sixth floor or so, not the penthouse) sitting area and pool, which both looked great at night. It was a little chilly, so no one was taking advantage of them at the time (well, there was one guy on his iPad in the Jacuzzi, thankfully he didn’t make the picture).

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Satisfied that our wandering had finally killed enough time to get us out of the majority of traffic, we went down to retrieve our car from the valet. We then made our way to the western side of San Diego towards a place that one of Jess’ applicants directed us to, a barbecue joint named Phil’s (Point Loma edition, apparently the original spot). We were scolded for eating our way around San Diego (Hodad’s, Pizzeria Luigi, etc) and never having tried Phil’s, although that was primarily because we had never heard of it. Apparently we were the only ones who hadn’t however, as there is always a line out the door and a webcam that monitors said line. Not only that, but the building itself had helpful signs posted outside:

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After waiting in line for the twenty minutes listed on the sign (it might have been slightly shorter) and talking to the nice hostess at the front of the line, we made our selections from the menu and then got some extra things to try. We might have gone a little overboard, but there were so many things that looked interesting:

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Phil’s is best known for their baby back pork ribs and I’ll admit, when I first started eating them I wasn’t that big a fan. Jess asked how I liked them and I expressed my opinion, and she looked at me like I had gone insane. Turns out I was eating a slightly over-done end, and I’ll tell you from the second rib on I was hooked. They were definitely as good as advertised. Don’t need to get the beef rib or the Caesar again (The beef rib was good, but overshadowed by the baby back ribs. The Caesar just didn’t stand out and the dressing was a little weak), but everything else was well worth it. While it is certainly a tempting proposition with friends already down there and gorgeous weather, Jess and I are glad we don’t live in San Diego as we’d both weigh double what we weigh now.

After wrapping up our BBQ-fest, we adjourned back to the hotel. Going to bed, I found out why there were complimentary earplugs in our night stands, the train tracks that ran below our window were still in service and very active. One long train stopped for over a half-an-hour under our window and across an intersection, and you could hear the warning klaxon even up in our room. It finally cleared out however, and I was able to get some sleep (Jess had brought her usual earplugs and was well asleep before I was). Morning came and we spent as much time as we could in the room before checkout just before noon (pretty generous since check-in time started at three pm). On the way to our next destination Jess saw a park off the freeway that we decided to stop at, and take a little hike. Jess found a tree that had a fun branch and, from that branch spotted what we initially though was a snake, but wound up being a lizard with really tiny arms and legs (I think that’s a skink?).

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It was a lovely green area and a nice little walk to stretch our legs after driving and lounging for most of two days.

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After that it seemed appropriate to continue the weekend’s minor baseball theme, getting lunch at an outdoor mall near UCSD and then catching “42” at the Arclight there. It was a really good movie, the only complaints I heard going in was that it made the story a bit more mythical than it might have actually happened. I’m fine with that, I go to movies for my hero journeys and “42” really delivered. Having a connection via rooting for the Dodgers all my life certainly helped. Even if you’re not a baseball fan, I definitely recommend it.

Finally it was time to top off our trip with a sojourn to Hodad’s, since Jess was going to miss my visit with my Ragnar van the next week (spoiler alert: our van didn’t make it to Hodad’s because they randomly decided to close from 11 am to 5 pm the next Saturday!). We had our usually awesome food, and I found that my name made it up on the wall!

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Why Nebraska? I don’t know either.

With many great memories and full tummies (we probably won’t be doing Phil’s and Hodad’s on consecutive days again . . . whew!), we finally had to head back from our lightning trip down to San Diego. On our way back up the Interstate I saw five floating lights, which I remarked was probably LAX’s holding pattern. As we got closer Jess was the first to identify them, they were actually the floating fire lanterns like you see in Tangled (and, you know, apparently, real life). They drifted over the freeway and on past in a few minutes, much like our trip did. We had a lot of fun in a short amount of time, and spent Sunday resting and recuperating to get fully charged for the week ahead after many hectic ones.

Next up, though probably not tomorrow as I’m pretty booked, Ragnar!

Weight: 226 Loss: 4 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 204.5 miles (+0 miles) Last year-to-date: 127 miles – Words-to-date: 30251 (+1908)

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Recipe #34: Michael Simon’s Fettuccine Alfredo

Fettuccine Alfredo

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Last weekend, Matt was away running the Ragnar Relay, so I decided to go check out Steampunk day at the Renaissance Faire with a friend. It was very cool to see all the costuming that people have come up with. Including a crazy awesome steampunk I-Pad case. I can totally see myself getting into the whole steampunk craze, but I just don’t have that level of commitment right now!

It was the first really hot day we have had here this season though, so we didn’t stay long. My allergies combined with the dry, dusty air and smoke from a nearby brush fire was also giving me a nasty sinus headache. After getting home, I did what most people do after a day like that… Took proper care of my Renaissance dress, jumped in a cold shower, and parked myself in front of the TV until my headache went away.

At some point, it dawned on me that Matt would still not be home for several hours and I should probably feed myself. Still having a bit of a headache, I really didn’t feel like thinking about what to make. Thankfully, I was catching up on episodes of The Chew and this was the recipe that was being prepared. After watching the segment, doing a quick mental inventory and determining that angel hair was close enough to fettuccine I wandered into the kitchen to make it.

It was a perfect recipe to make on autopilot. Quick, easy, simple. My only note, and this is a rule in general, use real Parmesan cheese, not the crappy green can stuff. Which is a good rule in general. I normally only use the 100% grated stuff for breading on chicken or something, but after reading this article the next day, Matt said that even that wasn’t an option any more, and I agree!! Sadly, I had a wedge of the real stuff in the fridge, but I was being lazy and cheap, and it was a mistake. The fake stuff clumped up in the butter  and was, in a word, blech. As the main problem was the cheese was separate from the sauce, I was still able to eat the noodles in what was essentially a butter-shallot sauce which was still good. I will say, it was similar to, but not quite as good as, the Creamy Garlic Pasta I made previously. This was nice though, as it was a traditional alfredo, it didn’t require any cream which I don’t normally have on hand. I need to make this again, the RIGHT way with real cheese, to truly give an opinion on it.

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Recipe #33: Quinoa Mac and Cheese

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There is no link with this recipe because it was more a concept than recipe. I have seen several pins on Pinterest that involve using Quinoa instead of pasta for mac and cheese. The theory behind it is that it lightens it up calorie-wise and bulks it up nutritionally. The problem with using one of those recipes is that I really love my mac and cheese recipe. Instead of using someone else’s to test the concept, I just used my recipe and swapped 4 cups of cooked quinoa for the normal elbow macaroni.

I have to say, I wasn’t a fan. I love quinoa in salads and as a sub for rice, but it just doesn’t hold its own as a pasta substitution. It becomes lost in the sauce and brings a very odd texture with it. I should add, I hate over cooked pasta, so I usually under-cook my pasta for mac and cheese, that made this texture even less desirable for me. I can see that if you needed to make this change for health reasons, gluten or wheat allergy etc., how it could be a way to still enjoy something you love. With so many gluten/wheat free pasta choices available now though, I’m not sure I would go this route if Matt ended up falling into that category.

Since I somehow feel I should include a recipe in this post, and it is probably my “most requested” recipe. I will throw my mac and cheese recipe in. Basically, I was bored one weekend and decided I wanted to make “the best” mac and cheese, so I made 5 different batches until I came up with something I was satisfied with. This is what resulted…

Jess’ Mac and Cheese:

• 1/2 pound elbow macaroni
• About 8 strips of bacon (save 2 tablespoons of the grease)
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 tablespoon mustard (yellow or whole grain. Powder is fine too)
• 1 cup chicken broth/stock
• 2 cups milk
• 1/2 cup yellow onion, finely diced (I don’t mind the texture in the final product, if you don’t care for onion or pieces of it, you can shred it on a box grater)
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1 large egg
• 12 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded
• 4 ounces smoked gouda, shredded
• Salt
• Black pepper

Topping:
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs

Directions
Cook the bacon until it’s crisp and save at least 2 tablespoons of the grease. Once cool, crumble into pieces.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Boil salted water to cook the pasta (about 2 minutes less than the package says).

While the pasta is cooking, in a large pot, add reserved bacon grease and 1 tbls butter over medium-low heat. Once the butter is melted, whisk in the flour and mustard and keep it moving for a few minutes minutes (you’re making a roux). Slowly stir in the chicken broth and milk, making sure it’s free of lumps. Then add the onion, garlic, bay leaf, and paprika. Simmer for ten minutes and remove the bay leaf. Do not let it boil or the sauce will break.

Temper in the egg. Stir in 2/3 of the cheddar and all the gouda. Season with salt and pepper. Fold the macaroni and the bacon into the mix and pour into a 2-quart casserole dish. Top with remaining cheddar.

Melt the butter in a saute pan and toss the bread crumbs to coat. Top the macaroni with the bread crumbs. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and rest for five minutes before serving.

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2013-52 Week 16

I bet you didn’t know that I was studying magic. Poof, watch me disappear from the blog for over a week! It’s been an eventful one too, particularly last weekend when I got to participate in my yearly favorite running event, the Southern California Ragnar Relay. But that’s going to have to wait a bit, because I still have to relate the adventures of two weekends ago, when Jess and I decided to have an adventure.

It’s late and I want to get this up for the week, so I’m actually just going to focus on the first part of the adventure. I promise I’ll be more timely updating the rest of it, I’ll even try to get another post up tomorrow night (I know, I know, you’ve heard this before). Let’s get to the actual content though, rather than my excuses, and this should be fun since there are pictures too! Our adventure started when Jess and I decided at the last minute that since it was Spring Break (FAQ: No, we don’t get Spring Break off at work, the University is still open even though the students don’t have to show up.) and that meant I didn’t have to teach on Friday. Since I was (am) rehabbing my knee, I also decided that I needed to shelf Karate for the time being, since I can’t really jump on my right leg, so I didn’t have to worry about class on Saturday either. This meant we had a clear weekend! We took work off Friday and started to plan our getaway.

The first thing we needed was a location and a length of time. We went back and forth between going away for the full weekend or just splurging on one really fun Friday and Saturday. Poking around Priceline, we found one of their mystery deals, where the hotel was guaranteed to be in a certain area and the price was given, but you didn’t know the hotel until you booked. A four-star hotel in downtown San Diego caught our eye, and after deciding that 60% off was pretty good deal regardless of what hotel it was down there, we decided to put it all on one night and go for it. That, however, is a story for next time . . .

We had another destination Friday before we got to the hotel, a very familiar one with some unfamiliar friends. Disney has been doing this thing called “Limited-time Magic” where they run certain events for a week with unique experiences. The event for the week in question concerned “Long Lost Friends” where they dedicated a section of the park to characters that you don’t see out all the time. Jess really wanted to see them, being a unique experience and all, and my knee was okay with walking as long as it wasn’t for an extended amount of time. So we set aside a few hours at the park to go check out the characters and to also try out a dessert Jess had heard about that not a lot of people knew you could get by itself.

We arrived at the park right around noon and I had to go about the business of renewing my pass, since it had expired in January. At the booth, the cast member informed us that there was a special pass-holder only preview of the new Iron Man exhibit at Innoventions later in the afternoon. We made our way over to check out the line, but it was far to long for us to spend in with a limited time at the park. So we were off to the back of Frontierland, where they had set up several meet and greet areas for the characters you don’t see everyday. Here come the aforementioned pictures, and were going to break them up into groups for easy digestion.

The first group is characters that we didn’t see that I got bad pictures of just to say we caught a glimpse.

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Okay, to be fair this is a good picture, but just as we got into line to see Jane and the one gorilla from Tarzan I’m supposed to remember, they went on break. Which was too bad, since Tarzan was one of the first movies Jess and I saw together. At the same time, so too went the three little pigs (the picture of them I got was bad enough I actually deleted it rather than inflict you with it), and sadly Scrooge McDuck. So sad, in fact, that I took a picture of their empty station before they changed it over just for the memories:

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Woo-oo indeed.

Other characters we didn’t visit and I got bad pictures of included some from the Hunchback of Notre Dame:

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The technicolor fairies from Sleeping Beauty:

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Is that not what they’re called? I’m so bad with names. They looked like they were having a lot of fun, though. Also, another pretty good picture.

Finally, the coup de grace of bad pictures, Mushu’s back!

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Yes, I mean literally his back. Jess actually got a better picture I was able to yoink:

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Not much better though, turns out the line for Mulan was long! We waited in our own long line to see a group of characters which we both enjoyed during our childhoods. I’m getting all “Oh De La Le” just thinking about it. Yup, Robin Hood, that fox (no, literally), was on the scene:

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If you can’t tell, Prince John was always itching to fight Robin Hood:

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The line snaked back and forth, so we moving along the front of the set for a little while which was how we got these pictures. I started to snap another one when a young lady stepped into frame just as I was pushing the button. I immediately saw a box (from the facial recognition) light up as she turned back to whoever was behind her and I swear I couldn’t have gotten a better picture of her if I tried (Hey, I’m no Danny Baker, or Neil Johnson, or Meghan Christine . . . you know what, we know a lot of professional photographers).

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Ignore the cast member getting jiggy with it on the right side of the picture, they were doing it a lot. Actually, everyone in the area seemed to be having a great time, ourselves included. Finally it was our turn to meet and greet and I promptly responded by doing my best Robin Hood impression and attempting to steal the Sherrif of Nottingham’s gold.

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Now I’ll allow myself a moment of pride here (stop laughing), as Jess asked what we should do when we got up there and I had an epiphany mid-way through the line. After verifying that no one else ahead of us was doing it and I was truly a unique little flower (okay, you can laugh at that one), it was time for an archery contest!

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Note Friar Tuck praying for the poor people behind the camera. Prince John had for some reason wandered away, and when he came back as we were leaving I drew my bow on him and he backed away sucking his thumb. It was priceless, sadly the cameras had already been stowed.

Another changing of the guard occurred when we went back to visit the RGB Fairies (still wrong? Dang.), and we wound up visiting some of our other favorite characters (well, Stitch is one of mine, at least):

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I was on fire, as I suggested the surfing pose too. Finally it was time to grab some dessert before heading out of the park and down to our hotel adventure. Jess discovered a smore-molten brownie desert at the family style barbecue joint behind Big Thunder Mountain which you can apparently order apart from the giant meal. We did so, and were served this:

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Yeah, it was as good as it looked, and, oddly enough, even better the next day (we were tipped off by the hostess who seated us that you could get a to-go box), at least for me. And then it was time for us to head out, as we had many more adventures to embark upon in next twenty-four hours, adventures you will get to hear about . . . later.

Weight: 226 Loss: 4 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 204.5 miles (+20.3 miles) Last year-to-date: 127 miles – Words-to-date: 28343 (+1382)

Posted in Matt 2012-366, Matt General. Tagged with , , , , , , , , .

Recipe #32: Michael Symon’s Kielbasa Beans

Michael Symon’s Kielbasa and Beans

 

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This is more of a review…

This is a bit of a more upscale version of franks and beans. Upscale isn’t the right term though because it still very basic. Using canned beans makes this a fairly quick and easy dish too. The recipe says over 120 minutes to prepare, but mine took less than an hour so I’m not sure where the discrepancy is.

This is one of the BEST recipes I have made in a while. Filling, sweet and spicy (a favorite combination in this house), great mixture of textures from the beans, kielbasa, and the panko topping. Matt couldn’t stop telling me how delicious it was and we both couldn’t wait for leftovers the next night. Also, since we still don’t know what Matt’s food allergy is yet, I made sure to note that this recipe is dairy-free. It was a little surprising to realize as it was so good. I think that goes to show that Matt and I really could stand to cut a little dairy out of our diets.

 

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Recipe #31: Chimmichurri

Argentina has given me two of my favorite things. First, one of my favorite people/best friends, Belen. And second, a LOVE for their cuisine. I don’t remember when it happened, but at some point I was introduced to Argentine food and was hooked. First of all, the steak is AMAZING, best steak you’ve had in your life. Then there are empanadas which are just to die for. Finally, there is probably my favorite, as in one of my top 5 favorite things of all time, Chimmichurri. I will eat my weight in this stuff. I’ve heard it referred to as “Argentinian Ketchup” but I almost feel that is an insult. Take that not as a comparison to quality, but more so of versatility. You can put this on anything: grilled veggies, bread (one of my favorites), or its (in my opinion) best use, on steak.

Chimmichurri

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This is ridiculously easy to make…

1 bunch flat leaf parsley
8 cloves garlic
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon diced red onion
1 teaspoon dried oregano (optional)
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
Juice from one lemon wedge

Put the parsley in a food processor first and pulse it a bit to chop it up a bit. Then throw in everything else and pulse it a few more times to blend. That’s it.

This is a GREAT marinade too. Now, I’m not going to talk about how traditional this particular recipe is (it’s probably not at all) but it’s still tasty and much (MUCH) better than the Rachel Ray version I was making before. Summer grilling season is coming up and I strongly recommend trying this on your steak.

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Recipe #30: Crock Pot Sausage and Tortellini

This is another dish that I have had pinned on Pinterest for awhile that I just wasn’t making the time to try. That was a big reason that I started this project, I really wanted to work through that list I had on Pinterest.

 

Crockpot Cheese Tortellini  

My phone apparently ate the photos that I took of this dish, so this is from the website…

Now I was intrigued by this recipe because on both Pinterest and the blog itself it was listed as “The best crockpot recipe I have tried yet.” As I have not had much luck with crockpot dishes, they are all rather bland for my tastes, I was hoping this would break that trend.

What you need:

1 (19oz) bag of frozen cheese tortellini
1 small bag of fresh spinach
2 (14.5 oz) cans of Italian style diced tomatoes
1 block of cream cheese (I used neufchatel since it has a 1/3rd less fat)
1 lb. of ground sausage
4 cups of chicken broth

You do need to cook the sausage first, if for no other reason than flavor. So even if you used precooked sausage, which she does in the blog, you will want to brown it first. Once you do that, you throw it all into the crock pot. Now this is where I learned something… order DOES matter. I really should have put the spinach in first. Instead I browned the sausage and scraped it and all the yummy brown bits into the crockpot then stack on top of it. Sausage does not compact, spinach does. Spinach also decreases in volume dramatically when it cooks. This would have made it much easier for me overall. So Spinach first, then tomatoes, then sausage and tortellini. Add the chicken broth and cream cheese (she recommends cubing it so it melts more evenly) and set it on low for 4-6 hours. Honestly, I would go with 4.

Our was on for about 5 hours and the tortellini pretty much dissolved into the …well soup at that point. It was just too overcooked. This dish was really yummy and I loved the tomatoes and spinach in it. Matt ate more spinach that he normally would, while he likes raw spinach, he does not particularly care for cooked. My only issue with this dish was I don’t see why it had to be slow cooker. It isn’t one of those dishes you put on at 7:30am and can come home to after work at 6pm, it only needs to cook for about 4 hours. Even then, after browning the sausage, you could easily cook this dish stove top in about 30 minutes as you only need to cook the tortellini. The flavors were all there and great, but the method just seemed unnecessary. So while I wouldn’t slow cook this again, I’d probably make it stove top! Oh, and I would also add more tomatoes, there just weren’t enough for me. This would be a great winter comfort soup… too bad it is heating up again.

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Recipe #28: Baked Oatmeal and Recipe #29: Hash Brown Casserole

Several weeks ago, Matt and I were talking and the subject of Easter Sunday came up.  I mentioned that I have always wanted to have an Easter brunch but people generally have plans after church. So we decided to have an Easter Breakfast. We invited over some friends and made it a potluck.

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Our table for our waiting breakfast buffet… silly me forgot to take a picture with all of the food on it.

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Coffee and Juice bar…

I contributed two dishes to the potluck.

First was a Baked Oatmeal.

 

 

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I have been interested in this dish for awhile. I’m a little picky about oatmeal texture and the idea of baking it seemed so…well, weird. Basically, you mix rolled oats, strawberries, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and orange zest. Put it into a baking dish and then pour a mixture of milk, eggs, vanilla, and butter on top of it. Give it a shake to make sure it goes all the way down. Then top with Bananas and bake at 375 for 35-40 minutes. I should note the original recipe called for chocolate chips or chunks to be in there as well, but I have VERY strong feelings on fruit and chocolate (as in, they should not mix), particularly orange and chocolate. And it was my dish so I left it out. So there. 🙂

Now this was actually REALLY good! Much better than the gummy oatmeal you get from restaurants and University cafeterias (Blech!). I’m not really sure how to describe it, it was moist but still had texture to it.  The strongest flavors were the orange and cinnamon, which certainly made for a lovely breakfast. The recipe suggests making this the night before (minus the bananas which would brown) and just throwing it in the oven the next morning. If I could find a way to make and freeze individual portions of it, I would completely do that for breakfast before work each morning.

 

The second recipe I made that day was a Hash Brown Casserole

 

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We dug into it pretty quickly, I was luck to get this picture!!

The casserole is a mixture of shredded potatoes (fresh not frozen), onions, spices, cheese, eggs, a Bechamel sauce, etc… It would be too much to cover the whole making on it in this post, because it is a little involved.  (And I’m tired and don’t feel like it right now…bad blogger, bad.) So click the link to the recipe and check it out. It was seriously delicious!! Think macaroni and cheese but with potatoes and not pasta. SO Good!!!

Besides my dishes, we also had sausage, eggs, cinnamon rolls, a really yummy quiche, waffles, and bagels. All in all, a fantastic spread!

We had a wonderful time hanging out and then all carpooled to church. It was such a wonderful way to start out the most important day of our year.

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PS: Because we all left straight for church service and many people had to leave for lunch immediately after service, several items were left at my house with the understanding I would return them at our Bible Study on Tuesday… I never said the state in which I would return them.

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Recipe #27: Bow Tie Chicken Alfredo

My friend, Crystal, and I try to hang out about once a month at my place, kid free. We get to catch up, she gets a mommy break and dinner, and I get to try new recipes. 🙂 Everyone wins!! So last time she was over, I decided to try this recipe…

While this recipe does come from Ree Drummond (The Pioneer Woman), it was actually sent to me by my boss who tried it and loved it.

Bow tie Chicken Alfredo

What you need:

Bowtie Pasta (farfalle)

Tablespoons Butter

Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts

Salt And Pepper, to taste

2 cloves Garlic, Minced

3/4 cups Chicken Broth (Or dry white wine)

1/2 cup Half-and-half

3 Tablespoons Heavy Cream

Chicken Broth, For Thinning

3/4 cups Parmesan Shavings Or Grated Parmesan

2 Tablespoons Fresh Parsley, Minced

First things first, cook the pasta for one minute less than the package directs.

While that is going on….

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

Salt and pepper both sides of the chicken breasts and put them in a skillet with some butter over medium-high.

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Once golden brown on both sides and are cooked all the way thru, remove them from the skillet and let them rest while you make the sauce

Add 2 more tablespoons of butter to the skillet,  throw in the minced garlic and cook for about a minute. IMAG0109 (2)

Now, here the Pioneer Woman says to pour in white wine, instead I used chicken broth. One, Crystal doesn’t like the taste of alcohol. Two, I didn’t have any. So add your chicken broth… then let it come to a simmer and reduce for about 2 minutes.

At this point you would add the half-and-half, I used 1% milk. Again, it was what I had and I also wanted it to be a bit lighter. This did result in a slightly thinner sauce though. Anyways, add the milk , cream, salt, and pepper. Then whisk until it’s all combined.

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Let it simmer for a few minutes until thick. If it gets too thick, you can thin it with a little more chicken broth.

Once thick, remove it from the heat. Add Parmesan to the pan, then throw the pasta in. Toss.

Now, return to that well rested chicken and cut it into strips.

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Add the chicken and continue tossing until it’s all combined.

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Taste for salt and then top with minced parsley and Parmesan.

This was delicious and Crystal loved it. Although, starting with butter and garlic, I had her fairly early on. It was one of those dishes that you can’t stop eating even though you are full. The sauce was much thinner than I thought it was going to be, probably because I used milk instead of half and half. It just didn’t look like the Alfredo that we’re used to, the kind that coats everything. I was worried that it wouldn’t have much flavor because the pasta didn’t look like it was coated, but it was there in every bite. I think I would try this again with half and half though to see the difference.

 

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2013-52 Week 15a – Boston

I probably should have started doing this earlier in the year, but the tonal shifts that were going to be required dealing with the events of the last week were just going to be too gigantic to put all of the topics into one blog post, so I’ll be posting a couple times this week and differentiating them by letter suffix and subtitle. The first topic I am going to be writing in is both the most recent and the most tragic, and also the closest to home, so I need to process it here. I’m certain by now that most of you have heard of the horrific act of terrorism that struck yesterday’s (4/15/13) Boston Marathon, and as of yet no coward has come forward to claim credit for their malicious handiwork.

If you click on the running tag at the bottom of this post you will find, at this point in time, 87 blog posts that have to do with the subject, including one of my earliest posts on this site, Joy, Pain, and Mortality or “Why I Run”. Written weeks before the beginning of my Lost Year, I wish I had reminded myself of the content sooner, and am thankful that it has held up and seems even more true in this tough time. As I mentioned in the post, the vast majority of my miles I run alone, but I run them for the privilege of being able to run with others when it matters. I am exceedingly grateful for the timing of my next run that matters, as this weekend I will be participating in my fourth Ragnar Relay SoCal, and it already promises to be both a remembrance and a celebration.

What to say about the events of yesterday, though? The perpetrator has yet to be caught at this time, but I can’t for the life of me fathom what their goal and purpose was. I believe whoever did this is a domestic terrorist, as the scale (two smaller bombs), locale (the end of the Boston Marathon isn’t the Super Bowl), and timing (fatalities would have been greatly increased had the bombs gone off even an hour earlier) all point to low organization and skill. Not that it makes it any less tragic, and hopefully everything will be solved soon enough, but this strikes me as an attack of opportunity rather than meticulous, globe-spanning super terror cells. Unfortunately that only scratches the surface of the who, how, and why questions, but it does little good to speculate on those things now.

Thank God that the horrific actions of one can be ameliorated by the actions of so, so many. The finish line of the Boston Marathon has to be one of the most photographed and recorded locations on Earth, and every picture and video showed the same thing: an initial blast, the crowd fleeing, and then an immediate counter-rush of all the people heading in to help. There was no certainty that those were the only two blasts coming, that this was not the start of a larger scale event, but that didn’t matter to the heroes on that street, the first responders who immediately took control and started the difficult task of bringing order to chaos. I have seen a quote from Mr. Rogers circulated widely in the past day, and it was one that Jess first exposed me to several tragedies ago:

When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” To this day, especially in times of “disaster,” I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.

Though I am over three thousand miles away, I just want to offer my sincerest thanks and appreciation to all the people who were there, bravely and selflessly helping regardless of their role.

Speaking of distance, the internet has brought communities of all types together in a way that was just not possible in the past, but now requires us to find a new type of coping mechanism that wasn’t required before. The community of runners, volunteers, and family and friends has always been a tight knit one, as it takes a special kind of person to go out and run, or hand those same runners some water, or just go out and cheer for someone running by for a few seconds out of several hours. Jess put it best (though sadly I can only paraphrase at the moment), saying that she loves the finish line of a marathon because it is such a positive and uplifting place, where everyone is cheering and happy for complete strangers, and that someone tarnishing and targeting that place is terrible. Considering the status of Boston as the American marathoner’s Mecca, it is unlikely that anyone in our community does not know of someone directly affected by this tragedy. In fact, I have no doubt that this will cause our community to become oven closer. Already our Ragnar team is looking for ways to show our support, and we will hardly be the only event in the country this coming week.

But what of the day after? Those of you that know me understand that I do not think much in the morning outside of my predefined routine. One of my traditions is to wear red on Tuesdays (because CSUN is the Matadors and one time I saw a flyer for “Mata-Tuesday” which told me to wear red, and it just sort of stuck), and so it makes for an easy outfit selection when I’m not thinking in the mornings. Of course, on the way into school Jess mentioned that she saw people posting about wearing their marathon medals in honor of the people at the Boston Marathon, and when I got in I found people talking about wearing their shirts today. I decided I needed to go home and change at lunch, but not before stopping at Lidz in the mall to pick up a personal token that I’m going to wear through the end of Ragnar. This is my first and, hopefully, only #selfie but I didn’t have anyone around to take the pictures for me, as Gatsby was less than cooperative, apologies.

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In the grand scheme of things, this may be an extremely small gesture, but it is one that I feel is important. Many small gestures can add up to a larger one, and encourage larger activities themselves. If you don’t know what to do, start with that small thing. I know for sure that I didn’t know what to do yesterday or this morning, but I decided that I wanted people to know that I wasn’t going to ignore this tragedy and that it touched me and those I care about deeply. I decided to buy a black Boston baseball cap, to represent my mourning. I had a choice at the store, however, and decided against the all-black model, instead choosing the one with a white outline around the logo, to represent the hope provided by all those heroes this situation forged. That’s why I’ll be wearing this hat through Ragnar.

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Thank you for accompanying me on my journey while I processed such a senseless act. As more information becomes available, I’m certain I might address this again, but it feels good to have worked things out a little bit. Hopefully I helped you a little too in the process. I’ll have some details up from the weekend before all this went down hopefully tomorrow, because Jess and I had a great time on a little getaway trip.

Weight: 226 Loss: 4 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 184.2 miles (+6 miles) Last year-to-date: 101.2 miles – Words-to-date: 26961 (+1306)

Posted in Matt 2013-52, Matt General. Tagged with , , , , , .