Food, food and some reading

I found out the other day that R.W. Apple's wife is going to be auctioning off his wine collection. I have blogged about him a bunch of times and was recently pleassantly surprised to finally find an article on Seattle that he wrote before he passed away in 2006.

In the midst of the article about the wine collection being auctioned off, I also found out that his wife is publishing a book of a new collection of more than 50 of Apple's dispatches from the front lines of food called "Far Flung and Well Fed". Needless to say, it has been added to my Amazon list.

Speaking of books on food by men who worked for the New York Times, I just finished Frank Bruni's memoir called "Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater". Enjoyed it, particularly the chapters around the cat and mouse game he had to play with restaurants while being the New York Times restaurant critic as well as what went into his review of Wild Salmon, a Pacific Northwest themed restaurant, which I actually blogged about here.

You can read about other R.W. Apple entries that we have blogged about here, here and here.

Sticking with the cooking theme, I'll point you to some of the recent creations coming from the Beck kitchen.

And finally, you can always keep track of what is going on with Purple Teeth Cellars here.

Hoping this is more like a "break"

I just typed up an entry on the Purple Teeth Cellars website about the demise of a column that has become regular reading here in the Beck household - the "Tastings" column from the Wall Street Journal. Needless to say, I am not happy about this development.

We have blogged in the past (see here and here) about one of the column's biggest contributions to the wine drinkers' community - Open That Bottle Night. People around the world celebrate it in different ways, but we do a potluck with friends at the house with everyone bringing a wine that focuses on a fun story about how the bottle was procured.

I don't see the tradition ending in the Beck household just because Dottie and John aren't writing their column for the WSJ anymore. I just hope that they are taking a break and will pop up in a new forum that truly showcases their talent for writing and love for wine.

I already know that I am making the cassoulet from Madison Park Cafe for our part of the 2010 OTBN potluck and I am darned excited about it now that I received a couple of pointers after giving it a go earlier this month! So I'll be raising my glass to Dottie and John anyway. Hope you do the same if you do some version of OTBN or have read their column or one of their books.

In honor of Dottie and John's rating system for wine, I give the cessation of the column a big, fat "Yech!" (you can all imagine what that rating means).

Interesting Wine and Food Pairing - Zin and Lamb

So I got Jill this nice Wine Lover's Cookbook for her birthday and she decided to make the Grilled Leg of Lamb recipe from it tonight. She also decided to make the Flageolet "Baked Beans" from the Second Helpings Union Square Cafe Cookbook as the side dish. The Wine Lover's Cookbook suggested a pairing of Zinfandel and Jill asked me to get something appropriate.

For some reason, I thought of my college (go Gauchos!) room-mate's Marian's Vineyard Old Vine Zin (2007) from his family winery. This was the first bottle of his we have opened since I purchased a mixed case. Well, it was a tremendous match. The zin showed blackberry and smokiness and the fruit really held up to the 15.5% alcohol of the zin. For some reason, when I heard we were having lamb, I thought, "excellent - another Rhône style wine evening" which I always enjoy. It was good to mix it up. We drink a lot of Rhone style wine ;-)

Stu's St. Amant Winery is in the Lodi appellation of California. When we were in college, he would bring some port wines from the winery for us to try. It may have been sophisticated for university students, but it was a welcome change from cheap beer. I now love port and I am sure that part of that is from my introduction many years back.

Thank you Stuart (Stu, Stu-Baby, Captain Stubing, Merrill, etc)!

1:59:27 – I bent but did not break


Yep, that's my new PR (personal record) for a ½ marathon. It happened on what is known by many to be a really tough race – the Seattle ½ Marathon – for a few reasons:
  • The toughest hills are in the 2nd half of the course.
  • The weather in Seattle at the end of November tends to suck. In 2006, it was borderline icy.
  • The organization of the race is something that runners continuously complain about (i.e., running out of water at some of the stops, having to climb a boatload of steps to get your clothes at the end of the race).
  • Generally you have a few extra pounds on you from Thanksgiving.
When most people talk about the Seattle ½ marathon (there is also a full marathon component), rarely is anything positive said about it. See above bullets. So it made absolutely no sense that I would decide to run this when I had an offer to run other races, most notably the Rock-n-Roll in Las Vegas the following week.

Given how hard the course is as well as the typical weather pattern, I was only hoping to beat my previous PR of 2:05:29. I wasn't expecting to reach a more longer-term goal of getting in under 2 hours. Seriously, it never even entered my head for this race for all of the above reasons. Plus do you know how hard it is to shave 5 ½ minutes off of a ½ marathon time? You're talking about almost 30 seconds per mile! No way.

Clearly Coach had a different plan in mind. I am a person who really thrives on preparation by driving as much of the course that I can (usually dragging along Marc) and scopes out how bad the worst hills are so I can run the equivalent ones in training. So Lesley decided to organize a run that mimicked a good 75% of the course a couple of weeks before the race.

The weather was crappy and I wasn't feeling too stellar, but I got a sense of the hills and built up some more confidence in running a decent pace in the race. The pace was set by Lesley and when she told me that I was running close to a 9:00 min/mile pace for most of the run, I was pretty happy. I was set.

Marc and I decided to golf with our good friends, JoAnna and Mary, for Thanksgiving at Bandon Dunes. We had a great time and I got to hang out with my regular caddie, Todd. Todd even took us on a preview of the new course, Old MacDonald. Unfortunately my Giants lost to Marc's Denver Broncos, which was a bummer, but the weather was awesome all around (ok, the last 3 holes in the last round were wet but that's pretty good considering the time of year).

As we were wrapping up the golf on Thursday, my knees started to ache and I wasn't sure if that hole walking the equivalent of 36 miles over 5 rounds (4 playing, 1 just watching) was too smart the week leading up to the race. Oh well, that lowered the expectations even more.

Awhile back, my friend, Michael, a very experienced runner and triathlete offered to run the race with me. Then Coach Lesley offered the services of someone who wanted to pace someone running somewhere between an 8:30 min/mile pace and a 9:30 min/mile pace. Sweet. I was really happy with what we had done a couple of weeks earlier, so I told Lesley to share with Andria whatever the "secret sauce" was in our training run. That's all I knew.
Marc, ever the supportive husband, gets up before dawn to drive the 3 of us to the start, and we're psyched that it's not really raining and it's not that cold. Gun goes off and we're running. Mile 3 was kind of a long, slow slog up on to the freeway, but then it was mostly downhill and flat for the next 4 miles. The 8th mile was tough and while I bent in my determination, I didn't break thanks to Andria and Michael.

Andria was focused on my pace and Michael focused on my form (no boxing movements with my arms when I run) – what a team. Got over the tough hill and headed into mile 9 which was mostly flat, and then had a steady hill for mile 10. The 1st quarter of that hill was the worst and then it was fine. Michael was reminding me that we were on pace for sub 2 hours, but I wasn't ready to talk about that as I had bonked in the past.

Another bump before we crossed over the freeway at around the end of mile 12 was tough (another bending moment), but then I had another ½ mile to recover before the last stretch. I saw Marc again and I was just absolutely gassed. The last hill, while not that steep, was so tough at the end. Another Coach Lesley runner saw me (we never met but he saw my shirt!) and kept encouraging me, too!

I'm telling you – between Marty (my new friend), Andria and Michael, I think they did everything they could to get me to the stadium (finish line location) other than physically pushing me. I got into the stadium and the clock was on 1:59, all of a sudden the fatigue didn't matter. I ran as hard as I could to get in under 2 hours and while the official clock/gun time said 2:00:03 (3 seconds over 2 hours), I knew my chip time from when I crossed the start line was under 2 hours.

It wasn't until we finished mile 10 that I realized what Coach had told Andria to do – go for under 2 hours. And never in a million years did I think I would have achieved it in this race. But I did and I'm proud of what I've done. I'm thankful for Coach, Michael, Andria, Marty and of course, Marc for providing awesome support during the race.

When I started running, I was barely able to run 3 miles outside and ran about a 12 min/mile pace (I could have run faster but that would have involved a visit to the porcelain god… not a good outcome). My pace on Sunday was just over a 9 min/pace for 13+ miles. It takes time and patience (especially if you get injuries like I did). If I can do it, so can you! And some of you know that I am talking to you! J


So there you have it – 1 hour, 59 minutes and 27 seconds. I'm now the proud owner of a sub 2 hour ½ marathon time.

The AB That Swung The Mojo Permanently

This time in 2004, I would have to say that Johnny Damon was probably one of my least favorite people in the world. For those of you who follow baseball with any kind of regularity, you probably know why. For those who don't, click here to learn all about the "idiots" on the Boston Red Sox in 2004.

Low and behold, Johnny Damon was the starting CF on Opening Day for the Yankees in 2006. Yes, he swapped sides in "The Rivalry" and he was good enough that he could make a positive impact on the Yankees. Damon prided himself on his consistency around the amount of games he played in every season, but there were times that he was injured and he probably should have gone on the DL.

Moving on to 2009 and what happened to be Johnny's "walk year"…. The Yanks moved to their new stadium, which also had the favorable right field porch for lefty hitters, and Damon seemed to find his groove. He made some boneheaded plays in the field plus his arm for defense is pretty much non-existent. But I figured Damon did good enough during the season that the Yanks would probably re-sign him for 2010 because he also didn't hide the fact that he loved playing in NY for the Yankees. Like many Yankees fans who were ready to kill themselves in 2004, I was waiting for Damon to showcase some signature playoff moment to help the team.

Get to the playoffs and against the Twins in the ALDS, Damon didn't do so hot with the bat. To his credit right after the Yanks swept, he worked on his hitting and hit .300 in the ALCS against the Angels and seemed primed for a great World Series with respect to his hitting. Through the 1st 3 games of the Series, Damon was hitting .167, which is not exactly stellar, which brings us to Game 4 in Philadelphia.

When Damon came up in the top of the 9th inning, he was 2 for 4 for the game. The game was tied and there were 2 outs with no one on base, and he was going against Brad Lidge, who had not blown a save at all during the 2009 playoffs in spite of his forgettable season as a closer. In the at-bat, Damon was determined to get on base and he hadn't really had that signature moment in the playoffs that made me curse him in 2004.

After 8 pitches, Damon finally found a pitch he could hit and smacked it into left field. So Mark Teixera came up, and since he was batting left and tends to pull the ball to right field, Philadelphia employed "the shift" where most of its players shifted to the right side of the diamond. That meant the person playing 3B was somewhere around the middle of the field.

As a Yankees fan who catches games fairly regularly, I am aware of the shift but forgot about it because this was a fairly big spot in the game. FOX continued to suck with its coverage and didn't say anything to viewers about the shift. What happened next had me go from a "WTF! Noooooooo!!!" moment to a matter of "Wow… cool…. Uh, what just happened" moment.

The deal is that Damon managed to steal not just one base, but two bases, in one play. But FOX's cameras didn't show the wider perspective so fans were left confused about why Damon would attempt something so brazen. This article from Sports Illustrated actually shows all of the things Damon had to figure out before executing "the play" of the 2009 World Series. Truly amazing and makes you wonder how he does such dumb things in the field.

Now we have a runner on 3B with 2 outs. Lidge was completely flummoxed and ended up hitting Teixera with a pitch, which was excellent since Teix wasn't hitting at all. That brought up A-Rod, who we've already documented was having an awesome World Series. He hits a double to put the Yanks up 5-4, and then Jorge Posada gets a hit to drive in Teix and A-Rod. Score 7-4, and yeah – Mo comes in and Yanks now one game away from winning it all.

Yes, the Yankees played 2 games after this one but it was really "game over" for the World Series after that comeback. I think this play will stick with me in the same way that David Tyree's catch will stay with me for a VERY LONG time.

Good Karma Anyone?

Before the post on "What Bad Karma?", I had last blogged on September 23rd when the Yankees made the playoffs, but had not clinched home field advantage. Based on my recent experience during the New York Giants 2007/8 Super Bowl run, I felt it was the right thing to do once the Yanks were one of the last 8 teams competing for the World Series. Now we're going to get to what happened on September 25th. On the 26th, Marc and I were going to host our annual JDRF (Type 1 diabetes fundraiser) at the house. A close friend and excellent chef, Wendy Johnson, was in charge of the evening with respect to the menu, cooking, pairings with the wines and general culinary genius.

The 25th also kicked off a 3-game series with the Yankees playing the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. If the Yankees swept, they would clinch the AL East and most likely home field advantage throughout the playoffs. How does this dinner and the Yankees/Red Sox series tie together? Well, Chef Wendy is a Red Sox fan.

Now I know Wendy is a professional and would do everything in her power to make things go really well for her. As in the Part 1 post, I have a number of friends who are Red Sox fans and we share a passion for baseball despite our respective allegiances. But still. I asked Wendy if she was going to wear her Sox cap during her food prep on Friday, the 25th and on the day of the dinner on Saturday, the 26th. She sighs and said that her cap was stolen. WHAT?!?!

Wendy had been so busy with clients (a good thing in this economy) that she had not had time to get a new one. I felt terrible. This was not one of those dumb pink caps, but a broken in one that Wendy has had for years. I had to think what I could do to help. We have that shared love of baseball, but I was conflicted on what I should do.

So in the spirit of kindness and generosity, I stopped off at a store near Safeco Field that day and picked up a hat for her. She was completely surprised and while I could have put something very minor in the brim of the cap indicating that the Yanks rule (a minor take on the David Ortiz jersey almost being buried in Yankee Stadium), I chose not to. Thought that would negate what will hopefully be good karma for the Yanks.

That being said, I did hope that my good intentions would translate into positive karma for the Yankees! Again, more absurdity in thinking my actions can impact the team but I don't claim to be sane when it comes to cheering for the Yanks or Big Blue.

Before your ask:

Oh – I guess I need to blog about what we served at the dinner. That got caught in the non-jinxing efforts. Oops!

Stay tuned. Yes, there is still more to come.

What Bad Karma?

So much to cover to cover with the Yanks winning their 27th World Series. Now we are moving to one of the few very sensitive topics in the household.

Yep, that would be Alexander Emanuel Rodriguez. I have never been an A-Rod hater but have never been someone who would purchase an A-Rod jersey as outlined in this post when the PED allegations came out. But I will give him credit for facing the media without union representation, unlike a slugger from a rival organization, and for actually admitting that he took steroids – again, see same slugger from rival organization. When he opted out in 2007, I thought the move lacked class but what later came out was deep regret for the move and Goldman Sachs having to get involved – no kidding, *THAT* Goldman Sachs.

You can read about why Marc detests A-Rod here, which talks about when he played for the Mariners in the mid to late 90s. The hatred of A-Rod is probably the single most annoying thing about Mariners fans. The loudest that Mariners fans get is when A-Rod comes to town as a visitor and they continuously boo him. It's actually kind of pathetic because you never see the fans cheer that loud for their own team's successes with the same vigor that they boo A-Rod. My take is that the dejected and bitter fans should get to therapy, and soon, since this happened after the end of the 2000 season.

OK so Marc, along with countless others – mostly Mariners fans, believed that A-Rod was cursed and that as long as he was with the Yankees, they wouldn't win. It didn't help that his performance in the post-season from Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS through the end of the 2007 ALDS was abysmal. I know – well covered territory and now, ANCIENT HISTORY. When he came back from surgery in May, he whacked the 1st pitch that he saw out of the park in Baltimore. Yeah, things were different but as fans, we didn't know realize how that would all play out.

The Yanks have won it all with A-Rod playing a pivotal role throughout the 5 weeks of the playoffs, so I believe the 'bad karma' label is no longer applicable. Let's see - postseason batting average of .365, a .500 on-base percentage, a 1.308 OPS, 15 runs, six home runs, 18 RBIs and a few intentional and unintentional (ahem – that'll leave a mark) walks. That ain't so bad.

And for all of that talk about being a "true" Yankee, that always seemed to be a load of crap. Don Mattingly never won a World Series as a player (he played for the Yankees his entire professional career) and yet his number is retired in Monument Park.

So thanks A-Rod for destroying the psyches of our playoff opponents' closers – Joe Nathan, Brian Fuentes and Brad Lidge, but maybe you want to buy Kate Hudson something really, really, nice, too.

Yanks are in the post-season, so now what?

Again, we continue not to be awesome on blog posts but we'll get there. I haven't really blogged about the Yankees this season because I wanted to wait until they made the playoffs to offer my thoughts. The Bronx Bombers have had a solid year, and while it has been through contributions up and down the line-up, I'll also add that it cannot be a coincidence that the Yanks went on their tear once A-Rod, Marc's enemy numero uno, came back from being on the DL.

Now we all know what happened with A-Rod in the off-season with some PED revelations and hip surgery, but with the Yanks signing Mark Teixeira, the pressure on A-Rod to be "the man" dissipated quickly. And once A-Rod came back into the line-up, Tex started hitting and things started to roll. There were a couple of blips, but overall, Yanks fans are happy to be playing in the only month that matters in baseball – October. And while the boys punched a ticket, they still don't know where they are seeded. Given the home records of the other potential teams, they have to go for home-field advantage. Hopefully they can wrap that up soon so the rotation is ready for the post-season.

The title of "most talked about/over-analyzed Yankee" now belongs to Joba Chamberlain. I think it is safe to say that he probably needs to see A-Rod's shrink (not that there is anything wrong with seeing a shrink – I'm just saying). The Yankees have messed with his pitch count, schedule, you name it, and it has royally screwed him up. And it hasn't helped that Joba has been in fantasy land regarding the quality of his starts. We have an example of someone who got a taste of fame a little too quickly and probably can use some humble pie, in addition to the Yanks hopefully learning some lessons so they don't screw up Phil Hughes or Ian Kennedy in the same way. Young pitchers who were not nearly as micromanaged as Joba and have had success include Rick Porcello from the Detroit Tigers and Jon Lester from the Red Sux.

Given Joba's apparent sense of entitlement, although he does have 2 more regular season starts to show everyone what kind of heart he has, I would say to leave him off of the 1st round (ALDS) playoff roster. Joba needs to learn, like Melky Cabrera did, that nothing is a given and playing for the Yankees is a privilege and not a right. Plus Bob Klapisch wrote a great article on whether Joba is taking care of himself in between starts and in the off-season, as well as for him to get his "stuff" together. How can you invest so much in the workload and not look at what kind of prep he does in between starts? Stupid! Almost as stupid as the Yankees' brass not having A-Rod get hip surgery as soon as the season was over last year instead of waiting until Spring Training, and then having to spend time on the DL!

I also think AJ Burnett has gotten a bit of a raw deal for his lack of wins since late-July (scored a HUGE win today and that game vs. Boston in mid-August was a pure thriller), although I will say it is feast or famine with him. But he has had some excellent starts that have either had little to no run support, or no decisions. I actually saw him pitch a great game on Friday against the Seattle Mariners, but Felix Hernandez was just better (in case you didn't know, Felix is one of 2 real Cy Young contenders with the other being Zack Greinke of the Kansas City Royals).

My take for the 1st round of the playoff roster (you get 25 people) is:

Nothing controversial except for probably the pitchers with Chamberlain, but the others in the bullpen have been awful, including Ramirez, Melancon, Marte, Bruney (big gag), and Albaladejo. If Chamberlain does get his head screwed on straight in the next 2 weeks, then I would probably take out Mitre.

So those are my thoughts heading into the postseason. The Bronx Bombers are there, but still need to get in the right place to set themselves up for some wins and to move into the ALCS. Taking 2 out of 3 from Boston would probably go a long way towards making that happen. GO YANKS!

Latest from “Beck land” in Summer, 2009

I know, I know – we continue to be lame on the blogging front. We can talk about how busy we have been, but everyone is busy…. We get it.

What's been going on (outside of working at our day jobs)?

  • We had a fun visit with our nephew, Mason, along with Marc's parents, Dee and Bruce. Checked out things like the Grossology exhibit at the Pacific Science Center and saw some cool looking sailboats at the pier. Plus Marc went into baking instructor mode by showing Mason how to bake some cookies, make M&M pancakes and create a personalized pizza!
  • We've made some updates to the Purple Teeth Cellars blog. We had a great time coming up with some vegetarian food pairings for our wines, and will continue to post those recipes throughout the next few weeks.
  • We've been having some fun experimenting in the kitchen, drinking wine and entertaining friends. Pictures of some of our creations have been posted here.
  • Hitting Safeco Field when the Yankees were in town. We caught 2 of the 4 games, and the Yanks won both of them. Woo woo! We took 3 of 4 in the series.
  • Kicking off JDRF fundraising. As you know, raising $$$ for finding the cure for Type 1 diabetes is very important to us, so we're doing the normal e-mail campaign plus hosting the wine dinner at the end of September. If you're interested in donating, please click here.
  • Hanging out with friends and trying restaurants we haven't been to yet.

With respect to that last bullet, we've hit a number of Italian restaurants in the area recently and here are some thoughts:

  • Osteria La Spiga – everything was great until they told us that the wine steward was too busy to come out when they didn't have EITHER of the dessert wines that Marc and I picked out. It's too bad. The other thing that happened was that they pulled a "sneak the bread cost" at the end when we didn't even request the bread. Not cool. You know, if you just told us that it went really well with the proscuitto, we would have ordered it and not minded paying for it. The food was great (we had an awesome dessert) and there were a number of reasonably priced wines. The space was pretty large if you're looking to go out in a group larger than 4 people. It's in a great section of Capitol Hill, with the Plum Bistro (just opened) in the same building and Barrio across the street.
  • Barolo – service was very good, the fresh pastas were excellent and the wine list was solid. The secondi courses were an afterthought because there were so many awesome pasta dishes to choose from.
  • Bricco della Regina Anna – you can have dinner here and go to Chocolopolis next door for dessert. It's more of a wine bar with some small plates, but they had a lamb carpaccio from Salumi (Mario Batali's father owns it) that was so tasty that we had to have a 2nd order sent out.
  • Spinasse – best of the bunch. Service was great, porcinis were in season (I was in love), menu was simple but excellent, and solid wine list. The menu is not as expansive as the others, but they make up for it in quality. I wouldn't recommend going with more than 4 people and reservations are a bit tough to come by on a Friday or Saturday (at least by Seattle standards).

Haven't been to Café Juanita in awhile, but it is still my favorite Italian place in Seattle.

Sometimes it is just about finishing

On Saturday, I completed my 3rd half-marathon of 2009 (my 6th one overall). What was special about Saturday's race was that it was the inaugural "Rock 'n Roll" series for Seattle and given Seattle's place in music history, I had a feeling it would be rowdy and fun. And it was. I have never run a race where there were more people out and about cheering us on all over the course – even on the I-90 part where spectators had to walk quite a way to cheer us on. It was cool.

But it was also warm for us Pacific Northwesterners – probably mid-60s with no clouds in sight. Yes, it makes the scenery beautiful, but it also makes it hot which is not something we are used to. On the other hand, my "new" friends from Phoenix (thanks, Ed!) thought it was awesome and 2 of them made PRs (personal records). Good for them. Seriously. They are a lot of fun and I hope that this prompts them to come back for next year's race. I actually had the opportunity to participate in the post-race tequila shot ceremony and I'll admit that it has to be at least 10 years, if not more, since I have done one of those.

The day started out early – think before 5am. So early that we caught the sunrise during the week that has the longest days of the year. Marc, ever the supportive roadie, agreed to drive me and 3 friends down to the start, so we wouldn't have to deal with shuttles. And his meticulous planning got us about 500 meters from the race village at the start line. He is awesome, and I know the 4 runners (me included) in the car really appreciated his efforts. Note to Jeanne, Chris and Jen – Marc takes payment in chocolate treats (but no fruit).

Chris was doing the full marathon and going to clock in a serious time, which he did – 14th OVERALL! Wow – congrats, my friend! Marc saw Jen on the course towards the end and gave her a cheer, which couldn't hurt her already awesome effort. And Jeanne clocked in a strong time too! Must have been the ride in the Jetta that got my fellow runners in a great frame of mind. J

Once Jeanne and I braved the porta-potty lines (which took over 35 minutes), we split off and I met some of my fellow runners, Patricia and Tricia, who are from Coach Lesley. Coach was actually competing on her own in the ½ marathon and she kicked some serious butt - how about 218th out of 15,610 finishers (this does not include the approximately 2500 that did not finish the ½ marathon)!?! How 'bout that? I work with Lesley on and off depending on where I am at with my training, but let me tell you how awesome she is. Of course, she is also a 2-time Ironman Championships qualifier so 13 miles is just a quick run for her. Way to go, Coach!

Patricia and Tricia run a little faster than me, so my plan was to try and keep up with them. For the 1st half of the race, I was either with them or they weren't too far ahead. I was trying to go for a sub-2 hour race even though I knew it would be a stretch due to some health problems I had at the beginning of the month, which really impeded my training at a critical time. I couldn't do the hill training that I did for Vancouver and Mercer Island, the two races I did earlier this year). One of my friends, Eric, got me obsessed with an awful hill near where we both live.

At the start of mile 4, there was a long and gradual uphill. By the time I got to the top (I was maintaining a good pace) at the start of mile 5, Marc was waiting patiently with my GU and G2. Unfortunately the fuel ended up being too late and I was gassed by the halfway point, which didn't bode well for the 2nd half.

Our friend, Dave, caught me and was being supportive but I told him that I was battling. He also rocked with a great time (Marc saw him too on the course!) and we got to celebrate with him later at Crush. I did a lot of walk/run combo stuff in the 2nd half. I'll admit that I thought about calling Marc (I keep my phone handy particularly at the race finish when it is impossible to find anyone), but I said that I needed to finish this out – fast or slow. It was pretty surreal to get into the I-90 express lane tunnel and hear heavy metal music blaring. I saw Marc again at the end of mile 12, and he got me going again even though he could tell I was gutting out the finish. I finished strong and found out that Patricia and Tricia also ran great times when we all met up for a group photo with Coach Lesley.

I found Marc and we began the long walk back to the car (Marc is not being cruel – the walk is by design to help my legs). We watched some baseball on TV and then our new friends from Phoenix pinged us to meet them at Duke's at Lake Union for tequila shots, beer, burgers and chowdas – in that order, I think. It was a lot of fun and I got to talk some NFC East with them as they are Cowgirls fans. Hehe. No, they were cool. A couple of the gals had Spicy Virgo t-shirts made, and given that I am a Virgo, I am ordering myself one. Marc and I introduced the gang to Mac 'n Jacks, etc. Fun times.

Rested some more with the ice/steam combo (thanks, Michael – it sucks, but always works), and watched the Yanks polish off the Mets before heading to the aforementioned Crush with Marc and Dave. We brought a 2001 Gary Farrell Encounter while Dave brought a 2002 (?) DeLILLE D2. Once again, Crush didn't disappoint and proved why it is one of my 2 favorite restaurants in the area (Café Juanita is the other one). Also saw my friend Jana and her fiancé, who were celebrating their engagement with some folks (good score on that one, Jana!). At that point, we were all spent by 9pm. Yeah, it was a disappointing race for me, but it was a fun day with Marc, friends (new and old), great weather, awesome food and wine, Yankees win, lots of positive messages from folks all over the place, etc.

Really in the grand scheme of it all, I have come a long way in my running. 10 minutes per mile used to be fast (in 2008) and now it is an easy pace for me. But I'd be a liar if I said that even with the health issues which impacted my training, I wasn't a bit disappointed with my time – 2 hours and 10 minutes for 13.1 miles. This puts me in the top 27% for all women who ran the ½ marathon and finished, and the top 30% for men and women who ran the ½ marathon and finished. And sometimes it is just about finishing even when you know you don't have your "A" game. I could have quit, but didn't so I'll give myself a pat on the back for that if you don't mind.

Slacking in the Blogging Department

We have definitely been a bit remiss on the blogging front. Lots of things going on in the household that have precluded us from updating things, but we hope that is going to change a bit. Today's very LOOOONG entry is going to be about some of the more recent exploits in the kitchen (non-baking edition because that is Marc's department). You can see some pics of these creations here.

But a friend of mine, Marlene - whom I had the pleasure of going to school with from 1st grade through undergrad, told me that she wanted some of the recipes after I posted some pics on Facebook. While this isn't an all-inclusive list, it is a start. Where I couldn't find the actual recipe, I'll post a link to the cookbook I found it in.

Grilled Flank Steak with Cilantro, Lentils, Feta Cheese and Green Grapes - this can be found in Tyler Florence's book, Tyler's Ultimate. This is one of many recipes I have made from that book and have enjoyed. And Marc really enjoyed the Lentil Salad, but I'll add that you want to mix and serve the ingredients in the salad the same day. For some reason, the flavors just don't mesh well when they sit together overnight.

From the same book, there is a recipe for 'The Ultimate Spinach Salad', which really does rock the house. I can tell you that I have made this countless times without anyone complaining and people asking for another serving. For those of you who don't eat pork (the recipe calls for bacon), you can substitute mushrooms and it still works great.

With the spinach salad, we decided to go for some hard core protein and made Rosemary Balsamic Vinegar Glazed Ribeyes. I think we opted to do this after I ran Beat the Bridge to raise money for JDRF.

Shifting over to poultry, we did one duck dish as well as a few chicken dishes. There was Martha Stewart's Grilled Chicken with Red Pepper and Basil that was served with Carmelized Shallots with Barley. The original recipe from her cookbook, Martha's Healthy Quick Cook, calls for corn instead of barley, but we decided to make it a little healthier with the barley. It takes a bit longer to cook with barley, so you need to either cook it the night before or just allow an extra hour as opposed to corn, which cooks pretty quickly.

Next up from Jacques Pepin's Simple and Healthy Cooking cookbook - Chicken African-Style. It was pretty easy to make and it's a recipe that you can make on a night where you may have more time (i.e., Sunday night) and doesn't take a lot of time to cook if you wanted to serve it during the week when you have less time (i.e., Monday or Tuesday night). We opted to do the marinating on Sunday and served it on Monday, and it was very flavorful.

Wrapping up the poultry section of this blog entry, we went for something in Jerry Traunfeld's Herbal Kitchen cookbook - Tarragon Chicken Breasts with Buttered Leeks and Ramps. OK, I added the ramps because they happened to be in season when I made this recipe. Another easy recipe to make during the week due to the fact you do not need a ton of ingredients, which means less chopping and prep work.

Finally, we're going to end this entry with a seafood entry. Yes, I said seafood. Given Marc's dislike of seafood, we don't cook it much around here but we were hosting a dinner party in honor of Cousins Claire and Arnie being in town, and salmon is in season. We made special adjustments for Marc because this dish not only had seafood, but something else that Marc has a strong dislike for - mushrooms.

So I made one of my favorite dishes - Seared Salmon with Roasted Sweet Corn, Shiitake Mushrooms, and Balsamic Vinegar Butter Sauce from Danny Meyer's Union Square Cafe cookbook. While this recipe is not hard, it is a decent amount of work because of the amount of ingredients and chopping involved - particularly if you go with fresh corn as opposed to frozen corn. But even with the amount of work involved in putting together the dish, I never regret it because it always tastes so darned good.

As a matter of fact, I recommend you make extra of the sweet corn and mushroom mixture, as well as the butter sauce, because you can also serve it with chicken as a leftover, which is what we did for Marc. We also made a separate corn and carrot mixture for Marc, given how much he does not like mushrooms. It worked.

Putting the Cooking Skills to the Test

So I was going through one of our recent cookbook acquisitions, Paley's Place Cookbook: Recipes and Stories from the Pacific Northwest (Hardcover), last week and saw a number of recipes that piqued my interest. One of them, in particular, stood out - Duck Wellington with Mole Sauce.

Some background - this cookbook has some significance to us because on a trip to Portland, we checked out Paley's Place for dinner. It ended up being one of the best meals I ever had in terms of the quality of the food and the service. Yep, it is actually in my "Top 5".
As I started going through the recipe, I was thinking that this was going to be as complicated of a recipe as I have tried in a long time. Lots of ingredients, lots of steps, lots of things coming together at the end - all of the makings of either a culinary success or disaster. I figured I would attempt this on Saturday where I had plenty of time to make a "go" at this insanity.

First I dragged Marc around Green Lake somewhat kicking and screaming. I knew this meal was going to be decadent, plus he was doing something fun (read: fattening) for dessert. I clocked in one of my fastest times ever (29 minutes) around the outer loop of the lake, which is 3.2 miles. That's about a 9 minute pace, which is fast for me. I'm hoping that I can build on that as I ramp up for the 1/2 marathon season.

Anyway back to the Duck Wellington with Mole Sauce. I did the sauce first and it wasn't hard to make, but it took a bit of time and consisted of a fair amount of ingredients. I would make it again, and maybe to make my life easier, I'd do it the day before serving. The rest of the recipe is where this gets challenging because you're thinly slicing potatoes so that can form a "wrapping around the duck, minced vegetables, black currants, and duck skin mixture. Then that is wrapped in puff pastry.

I've included some pictures that Marc took in terms of getting this all together. I also made some sauteed vegetables with a persillade, which was very easy in comparison. Fortunately everything came out pretty tasty as this recipe took me a LONG time to pull it all together. I'd probably eliminate a couple of things to make this less labor intensive, and also use less bowls and cooking utensils. Marc was holding back his horror at the mess being made in the kitchen, even as I was doing my best to clean as I went.

As for wine, the book recommended a Rockblock Syrah (made by Domaine Serene) from Oregon and fortunately we had one ('04) on hand. We also thought it would be fun to pair a Petite Sirah since the flavors seemed to be complimentary, so we brought up an '03 Selby Russian River Valley Petite Sirah. The book's recommendation was pretty spot-on in terms of being a stellar match.

So all in all, it ended up being a great meal and then Marc made an awesome "moon pie" for dessert. No beverage pairing needed - the yum factor was in full effect.


One Yankee Fan's Thoughts On A-Rod

Yes, I know A-Rod has really become A-Fraud or A-Roid or whatever. As a Yankee fan, I was never “attached” to him like I was to Paul O’Neill, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera or even Derek Jeter. When Andy Pettitte’s name came out in the Mitchell Report, I thought his apology was self-serving and a bit too late for my taste.

I can’t say that it surprises me that
A-Rod’s name came out as someone who failed a drug test, but then again, no one’s name would surprise me at this point. I do recall being stunned that a player on the Mariners and who was so awful failed a drug test. I mean – he was so awful and he was taking “performance enhancers”! He was more of a laughing stock than anything. MLB, the Players Union, owners, media, etc. all screwed this one up and now we, the fans, are paying. There is blame all around on this.

Be clear – I don’t feel sorry for A-Rod. I’ll support my team, which means supporting him. A-Rod has his hundreds of millions of dollars but will now be stuck with the label of ‘cheater’ which will make his once-inevitable candidacy for the Baseball Hall of Fame seem “not-so-much”. If he did cheat, he gets what he deserves and now has something else to add to the litany of things to tell his psychiatrist.


But there is another issue here, which is being overlooked and I think it is even more important as a fan of baseball. I’m glad he didn’t handle his mistake like Roger Clemens did through vehement denials, or like Rafael Palmeiro did by saying “someone told him it was a B12 shot.” At least A-Rod is dealing with it “head on” on some level, although I question whether we will ever know all of the facts. It's sad that someone admitting to their own bad judgment is now considered a "nice-to-have" as opposed to "being expected". And I'm glad he spared us the cliché that “I only used it once… blah, blah, blah…”

If I was a player, there would be no way I would ever agree to any kind of drug testing controls because basically it has been demonstrated time and time again that the results cannot be safeguarded until the process has worked itself through. Yeah, cheats deserve to be out’ed but if this part of the process is compromised, what is to say that other parts of the drug testing process are not being compromised (i.e., the collection and analysis of the samples themselves). As a fan, I am concerned that getting the sport clean has just taken a huge step back because of the suspect nature in which this information has been leaked. And if I am one of those remaining 100+ players who tested positive…. who knows when my time will come for my “announcement”?

Whoever gave A-Rod’s name to
Selena Roberts (who did great work for the NYT before moving to SI) didn’t really want to clean-up baseball. If that person did, all 104 names would have appeared in her article. Clearly the source had a score to settle with A-Rod and/or the Yankees, and decided to go for broke. In this case, those results were never to become public unless a judge unsealed them. Someone most likely violated a few laws by being Ms. Roberts’ source and they should go to jail. End of story.

And for all of you folks criticizing the Yankees for this, remember that you don’t know who else is on that list of 100+ players who tested positive in 2003. And for once, I agree with Curt Schilling.
Publish all of the names and be done with it. The list has already been compromised.

Sometimes you just don't know what to say

I've been pretty busy over the past few weeks working with some folks to get a project approved at my day job (my non-Purple Teeth Cellars job, that is).... and as a thank you, I received a replica mask that was used by one of the greats of Mexican professional wrestling.

I happen to work with a couple of guys who happen know a ton about this league, but they were not the ones who gave me this mask. Forget about the fact that I was given this mask as a gift in a room full of people. And when you are in a situation like this, sometimes you just don't even know what to say.... which is unusual for me, as most of you know.

OK - confession: I didn't even know there was a Mexican professional wresting circuit since my brother was obsessed with the
WWF (no, not the World Wildlife Fund) and the rivalries between luminaries such as Hulk Hogan and Brutus Beefcake.

Apparently the mask that I received is a replica that belonged to a wrestler named Cien Caras. This has led to all sorts of issues. Marc now wonders if I am now going to start collecting masks. I now feel like I have a ton of research to do on the history of Mexico's professional wrestling scene since my brother tried to convince me that the fights between Jimmy 'Superfly' Snuka and Andre the Giant (also of "The Princess Bride" fame) were real.

I now feel obligated to also find a good use for this mask. I have an idea which hopefully you'll all see by the end of the weekend, but it has to do with some previous plans that we had in place for Purple Teeth Cellars and the blog for that. Stay tuned as I have to get back to some of the work I was doing for PTC...

Scout.com Recruiting Widgets

So Scout.com finally has something that you can embed in your webites/blogs, desktop sidebar, facebook profile, myspace profile, etc. The recruiting widgets are here and the 2009 recruiting season is in full swing for the next month. For example, I am including the widget for Florida, although you can customize it to follow whichever Division I team you would prefer. Our home page has the Huskies and Gators.


YUM - Part Deux

Just wanted to post the recipes that Marc referred to in his post on Sunday.

Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs

4 lb. country-style boneless pork spare ribs
Granulated garlic and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 ½ cups of Syrah
36 oz. honey-based BBQ sauce
1 can pineapple chunks (or 6 oz. fresh) – drained
1 large onion, sliced in strips
1 green pepper, sliced in strips

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Rub the ribs with the granulated garlic and pepper to taste. Bake for 45 minutes. Drain the grease and liquid from the ribs.
2. Mix the remaining ingredients well in a large bowl and pour over the drained ribs. Continue to bake for another 40 minutes.
3. Serve over hot rice and enjoy!

Some thoughts from Marc and Jill after we made this:
- Loved it. Flavors were great. It made Marc’s top 5, as he mentioned in that blog post.
- I couldn’t find a honey-based BBQ sauce, so I used a maple-based one. See 1st bullet. Yum.
- 36 oz. was a lot of sauce – we think you could probably get away with 24 oz. of sauce, but for those of you who want to go by the letter of the law, 36 oz. is good.
- If you don’t have a Syrah, I’m sure any red wine will do.

Ming Tsai’s Asian Meatloaf

- Main recipe is here:
http://www.ming.com/simplyming/showrecipes2004/recipe01102004asianmeatloaf.htm - note that in Step 2, it should say “1/4” and not 14.

- Spicy Sambal to go with it:
http://www.ming.com/simplyming/showrecipes2004/recipe02212004.htm

- Spiced Panko Bread Crumbs to go with it:
http://www.ming.com/simplyming/showrecipes2004/recipe01102004.htm

Enjoy folks!

An Overdue Entry on Some Culinary Adventures

Marc and I like to experiment in the kitchen and given the exceptionally crappy weather in Seattle recently, we've been doing a lot of it. A friend of mine on Facebook responded to one of my statuses and complained that we make her hungry and jealous, which kind of reminded me that we're overdue on a 'home cooking' entry.

Some recent recipes include Cinnamon Basil Chicken, Osso Buco with Pine Nut Gremolata and the Dry Aged Ribeye (a favorite of our guests) - those recipes can be found here in a previous entry.

We served Savory Potato Gratin from The Herbal Kitchen by Jerry Traunfeld with the osso buco. Even though I like Danny Meyer's version known as Creamy Potato-Gruyere Gratin, I happened to like Chef Traunfeld's version better because it wasn't as heavy.

Another dish that we just made this week is Roast Chicken with Pancetta recipe in the most recent edition of Gourmet magazine. From the same edition, we also made Braised Cannellini Beans with Garlic, Marjoram, and Oregano - scroll down (you need to register on Gourmet's website - it's free - to get this recipe). I substitued in flageolet beans for the cannellinis to make this work and added in a little bit of mascarpone cheese to make this a bit creamier. Good stuff and both recipes are shown in the picture on the left.

We also made some homemade pizza that I'll let Marc talk about in terms of the dough, but I like to top mine with pancetta (bacon makes everything better), shitake mushrooms, spinach, and some of my Sottocenere al Tartufo. We've done a hybrid lasagna that does a little combo of Marc's favored lasagna recipe vs. my favorite lasagna recipe. More goodness to come out of the kitchen.

We've been busy conjuring up pairing ideas for our 2006 Purple Teeth Cellars Eaglepoint Ranch Petite Sirah. So far, we have two outstanding pairings that you should check out including a Pan-Seared Duck with Plum Sauce and Creamy Mascarpone Polenta recipe (pictured on right), as well as a Braised Short Ribs with Cocoa Powder, Assorted Spices and Scallions recipe.

Let's see... what else have we been cooking? Oh yes, the French Onion Soup from Tyler Florence's cookbook - Tyler's Ultimate. And from the same cookbook - the Ultimate Spinach Salad, which is quickly becoming a mainstay recipe in our kitchen.

Marc got us this awesome cookbook, which focuses on food pairings with Washington State wines - Cooking with the Wines of Washington. One recipe we tried recently, which Marc thought was awesome was the Fort Walla Walla Cellars Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs. If you want the recipe, just ping me - it was really simple, but really, really tasty!

On a recent plane ride, I picked up an issue of Saveur and decided to make a Hanger Steak with Bordelaise Sauce based on this recipe. Liked that. The Butternut Squash Puree that I attempted - hmmm.... not one of my better efforts. But Marc's efforts around the Herb Gnocchi from Thomas Keller's Bouchon cookbook led to great results.

So there you have it. Lots of cooking going on in the kitchen here in Seattle. Most of it successful, too! And of course, we have been drinking some great wine to go with these dishes. I think I'll have to recap that in another entry.
:-)