Conference Cassoulet

So, p.s., no dinner posts this last week as I am in a conference in Cleveland. I've been here since Sunday, and surprisingly this is one of the rare times I've had internet access. There'll be a new dinner post next week; sorry if you've been holding your breath waiting for this post.

Bitter Garlic and Tomato Chicken

I recently was given a copy of the Times International Cookbook, and for those of you who don't know, it is kind of hilarious. Just leafing through it there are all sorts of writing quirks and various hints that it was, in fact, written in the '70s. Most of the recipes have specific serving sizes (you know, "Serves 4-6 people" and the like), but some of the ones in the "China" section just go with "Serves any number of people. Within reason." Also, based on a very unscientific counting, I'm guessing that at least half of all of the recipes call for 2 tablespoons of warm cognac.

Anyway, today's dinner isn't from that cookbook, but I'm sure some some of the upcoming ones will be. Today I went with a simple chicken dish. Start things off by cooking 7 teaspoons of garlic (a terrifying amount) over medium heat in 1/4 cup olive oil until it is brown (but not burned). Add 1.75 cups of diced tomatoes, turn heat up to medium-high, and cook for 15 minutes, until the tomatoes start breaking down. Stir in 1 teaspoon each salt, pepper, and cilantro (the recipe called for parsley...thank you, herb substitution guide).

Cut up 1.5 pounds of chicken breasts into thigh-sized pieces (speaking of being off-recipe, it called for thighs, and I went to the supermarket, bought chicken thighs, and put them in the fridge. Somehow, between then and now, the thighs mysteriously turned themselves into breasts. I'm almost positive that I didn't actually buy the wrong thing, so it's quite amazing that the chicken was able to do that). Add them to the sauce, and cook until down (~10 minutes). Serve over basmati, and enjoy.

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Well, my phone's camera is still broken, and while I'm sure my homages to Dads MSPaint skills will continue  some other week, this week I've just spent far  too much time creating and editing figures for papers and presentations to get really excited about drawing lots of little grains of rice mixed in among the chicken and tomato.

Still, at least that means that the Science is going well these days -- the Society of Rheology meeting is one week away; woo...Cleveland! But no, it should be fun.
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Verdict: Delicious. Actually, I think I made one mistake with this recipe... I didn't strain out the tomato seeds before adding the tomatoes to the garlic, and think the bitterness of the seeds muddied the supposed bitterness of the browned garlic. Still, this was a meal that combined three of my favorite food groups: carbs, garlic,  and tomato, so it couldn't really lose.

Braised broccoli

This post is a public service announcement (wait...did I actually just link to that song?) because while this recipe might not be a full dinner, it makes an awesome side dish, especially if you have to bring it over somewhere else...

This weekend I went to potluck and was in charge of bringing a side dish (aside: other than the broccoli, other items included: salad, hummus and pita, olives, watermelon, and Little Caesar's pizza. Odd.), and what makes this dish amazing is that is tasty when hot but also excellent at room temperature. So, when everyone shows up late, it still works. How many veggie dishes can you really say that of?

Broccoli.
Or maybe a tree, hard to know.
 P.S. College folks: does anyone know what ever happened to the painting of me as a piece of broccoli?

So, to start off: cook 1 teaspoon minced garlic and 1 finely chopped shallot in 3 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. While waiting for the shallot to get reasonably soft (4-5 minutes, medium heat) chop up about 2 pounds of broccoli florets (stem works too, but I don't like it as much) into bite sized pieces, and then add to the olive oil/garlic/shallot. Cook for a bit less than 5, and then add 1 cup of dry white wine that has had 0.5 teaspoons of salt and some arbitrary amount of ground black pepper. Let the wine heat up and start bubbling off for 2 minutes, turn the heat down to medium-low, cover, and let simmer for 6 minutes.

Uncover, turn the heat back to medium, and let most of the remaining wine bubble away. Serve. Enjoy.
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Saddest moment of the week: I apparently convinced somebody to try making the most delicious pie ever, and then did not get to have any. Le sad.

Otherwise, though, life is good.

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Tastes better than it looks.

Verdict: Implicit in the above description.

Next week: I'll actually try to have an interesting new recipe.

An ominous second week: Giotto's pizza

So, first announcement: my phone is still semi-broken, so prepare yourself for more incredibly life-like MSPaint images. Anyway, as the title suggests this dinner blog is getting off to something of an ominous start: it's only week two and I've already had to invoke the "hey, it's not a new dish but at least I won't look at the recipe" rule. But, after you read my justification in paragraph below I think you'll agree that this pizza was very much in the spirit of the dinner blog. I also think what I really need is for you all to start suggesting things for me to try cooking. Oh well.

Anyway, for this week I went with a pizza, partly because about three months ago I finally acquired a circular pizza pan... until that time I had been making a veritable legion of rectangular pizzas using a broiler pan, and in fact have continued to do so this summer. And you know what? That had to stop, and it stopped this weekend.

So, for the dough proof 2 teaspoons of yeast in just less than 1 cup of warm water. Add a splash (a heavy splash...maybe 1 T) olive oil, 2 t salt, a clove of minced garlic, and 2 T dried rosemary. Start stirring and then kneading in about 2.5 cups of flour. Let the dough rise for an hour (a good hour).

But even before making the dough, start preparing the tomato sauce. Saute 1 large chopped onion and 1 clove minced garlic in 2 T olive oil, and when the onion is translucent add 1/2 a cup of red wine and 2 T tomato paste. Add a few dashes of salt, grind in some black pepper, and sprinkle in some oregano. Stir, and let it simmer until some of the liquidity of the wine/paste mixture has bubbled away. Having forgotten to get tomatoes at the farmer's market this Saturday, I reached into my emergency stash of canned tomatoes: crush by hand the contents of one of those 28 oz can whole plum peeled tomatoes, and add the tomatoes/juice to the sauce. Set it simmering.

Okay, now's the fun part! Take the dough, punch it down, and flatten into a circle. When you got it to a rough 7" diameter or so, start throwing it!

Totally awesome flying pizza... there were definitely no collisions of the dough with the cabinets, as depicted. Also, in my apartment there are only two cabinets above and below that counter, but "two" is apparently a hard number of cabinets to draw.

Okay, now that you've had your fun, take the blobs of fallen-apart dough, recombine them, and just use a rolling pin. Le sigh. Put a little olive oil on the pizza pan, put the dough on top, and evenly coat with sauce. Shred about, say,  1/2 a cup each mozzarella and asiago (the supermarket was out of Parmesan...how is that even possible?), and sprinkle on top. Saute half of a cut up green pepper briefly, add as a topping. Preheat your nice wood-fire oven to 800 degrees (or, failing that, your gas oven to "as high as it'll go without setting off the fire alarm") and put the pizza in the oven. Bake for 12 minutes, and then remove and let cool.
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Another week of not really having much to update you all on... work is busy, but good. I have an upcoming conference in Cleveland (in October), and one of my friends was good enough to send along this tourism video (language)...which was pretty fantastic. It really helped get me excited about visiting the city for the first time. More news next week. Maybe.

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Some people can draw a perfect circle freehand... I throw a perfectly circular pizza.

Verdict:
Pizza Is Always Awesome.

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