Bulgarian Pepper and Cheese, a la Moosewood

So, just a heads-up before I get started: I did in fact take pictures along the way, but my phone is dying and apparently decided not to save any of the photos I took. That's okay, though: I've set about drawing some re-creations of them. Quite frankly, between my poor photographic skills and my almost other-worldly talent for drawing with computer programs I kind of don't you'll be able to tell the difference.

Okay, with that out of the way, let's talk about dinner! I picked this recipe because the last time I was home I stole (with permission?) Mom's copy of the Moosewood Cookbook, and since then I've been honestly intending to cook something out of it "sometime next week" or "as soon as I remember to get the necessary groceries." Obviously that strategy failed for many consecutive months, so this first new blog post seemed like an ideal way to get on track.

First things first: chop/semi-mince 2 medium-large onions and 3 green peppers and saute in about 2 T butter... the recipe calls for 1.5 c chopped mushrooms as well, but (a) I forgot to buy them, (b) wasn't all that sad about that fact, and (c) decided not to let (a) stop me. Anyway, remove from heat when the peppers are becoming tender but are still a bit crunchy (moral/aesthetic consideration: crunchy vegetables are always Better. Discuss.) To the sauteed veggies add the following mixture: 1.5 T soy sauce, 1.5 T cheap cooking sherry, 1 t marjoram, 0.75 t salt, and some indeterminate amount of ground black pepper. To really get the full "Dinner Blog" experience, try to break your pepper grinder during this step. This has the bonus off adding in some unknown/unknownable number of whole peppercorns; they will be a treat to discover while eating the finished dish later on.

Sweet, with that done it's time to start assembling the dish. Soak 1 c raw bulgar (I used grind #2, as it was all my supermarket carried) in some water for 15ish minutes, after which it'll be a bit less crunchy. Spread it out in an even layer in a buttered 9x13 baking pan (which I didn't have, so I substituted a maybe 8x11 glass baking dish), and then pour the veggie/sauce mix and spread out into an even layer on top of that. For layer #3 combined 12 oz cottage cheese with 1 c crumbled feta. Finally, pour 3 lightly beaten eggs on top of everything, and dust with feta. I don't know about you, but there's something I find oddly fun about making layered dinners like this. Anyway, here's the result:

Remember: this is not a photo, just a photorealistic drawing

Turn the oven up to 11 (in this case, "11" = 350 degrees) and bake for 40 minutes. Let it rest for 10 minutes after taking it out and then serve/enjoy!
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Well, this week has felt kind of ridiculous. The first few days (from the start of the long weekend, essentially) I came down with some kind of cold, and just when I was starting to feel like I was on the upswing I managed to sneeze violently enough that I missed the stair I was aiming for and turn my ankle as badly as anything that's happened to me since my soccer days. Fortunately I'm up and walking again (although I think I'll take a few more days off from running), but that meant during the second half of the week I worked from home instead of walking to work.

It turns out that I really don't like working from home, although maybe that's a reflection of the work I had to do... I'm, of course, quite excited that I can see the end of grad school off on the horizon, but getting together application materials for postdoctoral positions and fellowships turns out to be much, much less fun than doing research. Oh well, has to be done I guess (must. not. stay in grad school. forever.)
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Figure 1. Cross-sectional view of dinner

Verdict:
Pretty good, I think; probably it'll be added to the semi-regular-but-not-super-often rotation, so all in all I'll call it a success for the Dinner Blog's first attempt. The one problem, though, was that with using the smaller-than-suggested baking dish the layer of bulgar ended up being too thick (see Fig. 1) -- in the future I think I'll either use less or see what happens if I try multiple layers, bulgar-veggie-bulgar-veggie-cheese or something.

Next week:
I don't know...

The Dinner Blog begins: The rules of the game

Well, by popular request I am once again resurrecting this blog... But since I've already written as much about bread and running as I care to, I've decided to switch to a new topic. In the past I've used the writing of this blog as a prompt to get me to do things I ostensibly wanted to do anyway (the whole "I've told other people I'd write about this each week... I guess that means I have to stop procrastinating and do it" incentive), so I spent the last few weeks thinking about something I wanted to do better that would also make a convenient blog topic. This is what I came up with.

You see, the first two years out here in Illinois I'd say I did a (relatively) good job learning to be a better cook, trying new meals, etc. etc. As grad school has worn on, though, I feel like I've fallen into a rut of always making the same handful of dishes on some vaguely rotating schedule. So, it's time to step back up to the plate (ugh...worst. pun. ever.) and get back to trying new foods.

So, the rules of the game will be simple:

(1) Sometime during each week I will make myself cook one new thing, and then write about it.

(2) If the week is particularly rough and I don't have time to do a real grocery trip I'll allow myself to make an something old, but in which case I will not be permitted to look at a recipe.

That's it. For consistency I'll try to stick to writing things up on Sunday, starting a week from tomorrow (when I told some of you the first post would be Sept. 3 I thought that would be a Sunday... whoops). Here's where you all come in: I have a handful of cookbooks from which to select new dishes, but those will only last me so long. Have any particular favorites you think I should try? Send 'em along, and they'll get added to the list!

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Next week: "Bulgarian pepper and cheese delight"

The Marathon

As this will (once again) be the final post of this blog, I thought I'd change up the format a bit and just focus on the big day itself...

Pre-race: I don't remember being keyed-up enough for a sports event to lose sleep the night before since... well, probably my high-school soccer days, but I definitely didn't get much sleep on Friday night. Still, I had gotten plenty of rest the night before, had been eating well, and felt really good Saturday morning before the race. So, armed with a somewhat foolish racing strategy (start out with the pace group -- finishing the marathon in 3:10 -- that would let me qualify for Boston, try to keep up with them for 13 miles to satisfy my pride, and then drop back to a more reasonable pace), some of my favorite racing foods (Chocolate Outrage GU and cran-razz Clif shot blocks), and one of a pair of what must be the finest custom-designed team racing shirts the world has ever seen (you know you're winning at life when you're designing a t-shirt in an image analysis program developed by the NIH) I lined up with the the other ~10,000 people running either the full or half marathon.


Miles 1 and 2: Thanks to the crowd of racers at the beginning we started off running a bit slower than our projected pace (so that people weren't tripping over each other), which both felt good and was great for my confidence. Also, I had not been expecting the crowd of spectators lining the first mile... I'm pretty sure I was grinning like a fool for the first chunk of this race! Anyway, by the second mile we had established our pace and had separated enough for me to see that there were about 40-45 people running in the pace group with me -- more crowed than I was used to, but fun! Surreal musical moment: right around mile 2 was a man singing a cover of "Tangled up in Blue." I mean... a great song, but not exactly a pump-you-up, get-the-blood flowing athletic anthem.

Miles 3 - 6: We definitely settled in the pace in this little stretch (which, being on the outskirts of town, included some pretty windy stretches), and I was feeling pretty good. I had been worried that the pace group I was running with was going at a pace a good 1:45 faster than I had done my long runs at, but I guess the mid-week faster miles and the taper really do combine to get you ready to run both longer and faster than you have before. Also, around this time everybody in the pace group started naturally falling into roughly the same stride pattern, and it was just really neat to feel all simultaneously locked in like that.

Miles 7 - 10: Started out with another great musical moment... a chunk of this section was through a large park, and in a gazebo was a four man band -- one drummer and three electric guitars -- just wailing repeatedly on the opening chords to "Eye of the Tiger." Very appropriate. Also, this stretch included my first sighting of friends cheering me on while dressed in funny hats. While all of the spectators lining the race were great and so kind in cheering everybody on, this was particularly heartening.

Miles 11 - 16: In this chunk I was still (surprisingly!) feeling pretty good, like I was running smoothly and as easily as could be expected. The sun came out around this time (I think the temperature by the end of the race got to be in the upper seventies or so), and I was starting to feel that, but at 13 I decided "Well, why not? I guess I'll try to stick with this pace group for as long as I can." It was also around this time that I finally got the hang of drinking water out of the cups they had at the aid stations while running... but where by "got the hang of" I mean I managed to get the "water in mouth" to "water splashed on face and shirt" ratio from 2:8 to more like 6:4. Also, right around mile 16 was my favorite sign of the race... something like "Kanye says 'Yo runners, I'm really happy for you, Imma let you finish...'"

Miles 17 - 22: So, after focusing on just breathing, trying to maintain form, running smoothly, etc. for the last 10 or so miles, mile 17 began with a sharp curve that made me look around and notice that our pace group had somewhere along the way dwindled from ~40 people to 7. Not to be mean, but this made me feel pretty good about myself... it was a tough, warm day, and just lasting for that long felt like a positive. Still, I could tell that I myself was starting to get tired -- fading a bit -- and so I started playing the "okay, just stick with these guys until mile 18," and then "alright, just hang tough until mile 19" game. By mile marker 22 there was just the pace leader, two other guys, and I still running together.

Mile marker 23: So, you'd think with a name like "hitting the wall" you wouldn't be surprised at finding it a very sudden, precipitous kind of phenomenon, but man! Even over the last few hundred yards of mile 22 I was still feeling fine. I mean, tired of course, but still relatively fine. And then, while passing the "Mile 23" sign on the course it was like something inside of me just broke down... as if some deranged alchemist suddenly discovered how to transmute muscle into lead. Needless to say, after a brief internal conversation with my legs (that went something like Me:"Please keep moving, won't you? I'd be ever so grateful! And it's not so very much farther!" My legs: "Well... No, I don't wanna!") I lost touch with that pace group. I'm still trying to decide how much of that was actually physical and how much was just psychological: the sudden, overpowering manifestation of all of the totally rational reasons to not keep running after slogging through 20+ miles. But still, quite the experience either way.

Miles 24 - 26: Really, some of the most unpleasant, painful miles of my life. Featuring about three episodes of my legs twitching -> cramping -> deciding to make me kneel on the ground for a few seconds, and a much more frequently recurring need to pause and try to stretch. I really have to thank the spectators along this stretch, though... everyone was just so encouraging, cheering me on, and practically willing me to get back up, to start running again (okay, well, maybe that last one was a bit of a stretch, but that's how I chose to feel at the time!)

Miles 26 - 26.2: This was obscenely difficult. At this point there was just no part of me that had any desire to move. At all. My legs were just pleading with me, shamelessly begging me to stop. The curb looked so tempting, the grass was so green...I just wanted to sit. But, well...I don't think of pride as a virtue, but for better or for worse it sure is a powerful motivator, especially in athletics (for me, at least). This final stretch -- the last two turns of the street and the football stadium (the race ending on the 50 yard line) -- was lined with people, and I just couldn't stand the thought of having to stop in front of everybody, so painfully close to the end. So, one stride at a time I somehow managed to keep myself going, stumbling across that finish line with a relief I'm sure you can imagine me feeling!

Post-race thoughts: Well, crossing the line I still couldn't really believe that I had actually finished -- both in the sense of having completed a marathon and in the sense that I was allowed to stop running. Then, after having someone hand me a finishers medal and a bottle of water I caught up to the pace leader I had just spent large chunk of time running with and listening to, said thanks and chatted until I was reasonably certain I could sit down without my legs cramping up on me. And then I proceeded to sit down on the field, then lie down, and then, before I mustered the energy to go look for my family and friends, spent the next 15 minutes trying to figure out how to go from lying down to an even more reclined position.

So, I have to admit that it hurt a little bit to come so very close -- three minutes! -- to my ultimate goal and then fall short just in the last miles. But, you know, "Mais on ne se bat pas dans l'esport du succès," and all that... And, ultimately, I did far better than I realistically expected myself to, and I'm pretty proud myself, both for training so hard and for how well I ran on race day.

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Marathon/training, by the numbers:

517 - Total miles run
(*** censored ***) - Dollars spent on running gear... really, a bit more than I'd like to admit!
??? - Some large but indeterminate number of accumulated generic aches and pains
48 - Current resting heart rate (well, "current" as of a week ago... right now just lying down feels like exercise)
4 - Months of training
3 - Blisters (although, remarkably, all before I bought actual running socks...I hate to admit it, but technical gear really does make a difference)
2 - Pairs of running shoes
1 - Awesome day of running

Official time: 3:13:26

Week 17 - In which I fail to respect the run...

Well, I guess I've been feeling a little too good about myself with respect to running - even with all the niggling little aches and injuries I've gathered to myself. You'll recall that last week's long run got pushed to this Monday... Well, it was a 13 mile run, so on Saturday -- planning out how I was going to distribute the work I had to do over the next few days -- I thought to myself, "Okay, that time we did the 20 mile run on Monday I was more or less useless at work for the rest of the day, but this is only 13 miles," upon thinking which I promptly proceeded to make a schedule that involved being my usual productive self on Monday afternoon.

Let's just say that that was a mistake. And that I spent a lot of time that afternoon staring blankly past whatever paper I was thinking I might read.

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Monday: 13 miles... see above for commentary

Tuesday: 4 miles, nice and easy

Wednesday: 5 miles

Thursday: 4 miles again

As usual, another day off on Friday...
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Less than one week left! A fact which seems less and less real the more I think about it... come to think of it, this whole marathon has been seeming less real the closer it's gotten for several weeks now (more or less since the first time we ran 20 miles). I think when I started this plan, looking for a medium-term goal to work towards, in the back of my mind I was thinking of it just like any other long-term plan... and the last four months have kind of flown by.

Anyway, I guess that also means just one more of these blog posts... I'm not sure whether I'll be mobile enough to make it to the office the day after the Marathon, but check back maybe on May 3rd or 4th and I'll probably have put up the final post.

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Saturday: 3 (!) miles... there comes a point where the time it takes to walk back and forth to the gym (it was rainy today), take a shower, grab lunch, and walk back to the office so far exceeds the time you spend running that it all feels a little silly. And I can now report that 3 miles is basically that point.

Sunday: 8 miles today. It's funny to think that my long run this week would have been just another usual mid-week run a month and a half ago. In related news, I love tapering.
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Week 16 - The taper begins...

So, last week's 21 miler was the last long run of the training program, and from here on out the name of the game is cutting back on the mileage, recovering from all of the little aches and pains I've accumulated, and just generally letting my body rest up. Honestly, I think I would feel better about the upcoming race if it were a few weeks farther off than it is. I mean, at this point barring injury I'm sure I'll be able to make it across the finish line -- it's the conditional I'll be in as I do that that I'm worried about!

I have to admit, though, that it's kind of nice to have the daily running time starting to shorten up a bit. First: with the semester winding down things are starting to get pretty busy for me, so having running taking a smaller bite out of my schedule is much appreciated. But perhaps a more gratifying second: it feels pretty awesome to run these 4 to 6 milers and realize you could easily do the same run again.

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Monday: After yesterday's grueling 21 mile effort, I invoked my executive privilege to take this day off.

Tuesday: 5 miles, outside, in absolutely perfect Spring weather.

Wednesday: 6 miles, same conditions as on Tuesday.

Thursday: 5 fast miles

As usual, another day off on Friday...
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Not much else to say, update wise... research is keeping me busy, and then end-of-semester stuff for that one class I'm taking is keeping me up late at night. Oh well. How about this though...
Ways In Which My Toaster Is Already Making My Life Better:
(1) Bagels for breakfast!!! (Really, I should just stop the list here, this being the only important item on it... Incidentally, does anybody know a good place to get bagels in Champaign-Urbana?)
(2) Re-heated slices of homemade pizza!! (I like them cold, too, but not having to microwave them to heat them back up = awesome)
(3) Um...it occupies space! (Anything that makes my apartment look less spartan gets at least a few points just for that, I think...)

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Saturday: 4 miles...back on the treadmill, though

Sunday: 4 miles at pace... once again this weekend's schedule got a little shifted around, so we're doing the long run tomorrow instead of today.
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Week 15 - Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Yeah, so, I have to admit... after today's run (which was, to be honest, difficult and really rather painful) I feel legitimately a bit proud of what I've been able to build myself up to in these last few months. Anyway, for some reason I was thinking about the above-referenced poem earlier this week...let's see how well the analogy holds up:

Pride at fleeting accomplishments: Check (see above)

Two vast and trunkless legs of stone: At first, you'd think this one a bit of a stretch... But after the run I more or less collapsed on the couch with my legs still on the floor, having decided that it would be too much effort to raise them the foot and a half it would have required to be more comfortable lying down. So, to any ant that wandered into my apartment just then, check on the trunkless legs. And I guess they were immobile enough to count as stone.

Shatter'd visage: Hard to say for sure...but seeing as I thought walking across the room to a mirror would have been too herculean an effort, I'm going to guess yes. Check.

Frown and wrinkled lip: Same comment as above...check.

Sneer of cold command: Um...okay, I rather suspect otherwise on this one (or, at least, I sure hope I shouldn't be putting "Check" next to this one...

Yeah, at this point I think I've exhausted any similarities between me and a giant, broken, fictional statue of Ramesses... But of course, do let me know if you come up with anything else!

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Monday: My foot, which I complained about last week, is still bothering me... hopefully that clears up soon. Anyway, I took today off.

Tuesday: Another day off...

Wednesday: Well, my foot wasn't really feeling any better after two days of rest, so I went for a 6 mile run today (How's that for some questionable logic!)

Thursday: So, two days of rest saw no improvement, and running yesterday didn't seem to make things any worse... Kind of confusing, if you ask me. Another day of rest today.

For Friday, more rest!
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On a completely unrelated note, I am to be congratulated for a minor life accomplishment: as of Wednesday I now am finally the proud owner of my very own toaster!

Now, I can already hear you saying, "well, that's not all that impressive, really." And you're right... it isn't. But you have to understand: "toaster" has been item #1 on my "Kitchen appliances I need to buy list" for almost three years now, so the fact that I've finally crossed that off feels like quite the achievement. To be honest, I'm not really sure why it took me so incredibly long to just go out and buy a toaster... I mean, they aren't particularly big and bulky to carry by yourself, they aren't particularly expensive. I think more than anything it was just a combination of inertia, a relative deficit of motivation to go buy stuff for myself, and a love of breakfast cereals that kept me satisfied sans toaster for so long.

But, now that's all over, and I can make myself a bagel in the morning without resorting to broiling a single bagel in the oven. So, the next time you see me, be sure to congratulate me and share in my recent success in this!

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Saturday: Foot still not 100% (a little worried about tomorrow, now)... 3 miles of running and 15 minutes on the stationary bike.

Sunday: 21 eighty-degree, knee-grinding, quad-destroying, foot-throbbing miles. I feel awesome.
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Week 14 - In which I haven't all that much time to write this

This week was another scheduled "rest" week, and I assure you it has been much appreciated. I think between the long run on Monday and the temporarily altered diet this week my body has just been struggling to recover fully. I mean, don't get me wrong...matzah can be delicious (well...rather, you can put enough delicious toppings on it to make it acceptable), but I've decided that there's just no humanly possible way to consume enough of it to get the quantity of carbs running seems to demand. I kind of long for a grapefruit (um...where of course by grapefruit I mean bread. And pasta. And also bread.)

Otherwise, this past week was pretty uneventful...mostly just catching up on research and trying to stay on top of class. And, actually, between a meeting with my advisor tomorrow, homework and minor term paper items due for class this week, and a 20 minute talk I'm supposed to be preparing, today is still pretty busy for me. So, unfortunately, I'm going to have to keep this week's post short.

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Tuesday: 20 minutes on the stationary bike and 15 on the elliptical.

Wednesday: 5 miles, over which my legs were unusually whiny.

Thursday: 5 miles. This was the day that, between the wear and the lack of carbs, I was really feeling it. A much more difficult run than I was expecting.

Friday: The usual day off...

Saturday: My foot was bothering me a lot (which was strange... it felt fine on Thursday, and Friday obviously I didn't do anything to aggravate anything), so I substituted some time on the stationary bike for my usual running.

Sunday: 12 miles in 65 degree sunny weather. Truly, a great day to be out running, and a shame that I have to spend the rest of it inside!

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Just finished: "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men" Not really my favorite of DFW's works, but I really liked at least a few of the short stories. Also, I'm starting to realize that in the last year I've read most of his stuff. Just a few books left, now.