Turkey Trot & Turkey Feast

Silicon Valley Turkey Trot!











My official results -
Place: 1632 out of 2413
Age Group: 232 out of 393
Chip Time: 1:06:16
Pace: 10:40/M












Not to compare, but -
First place, women's elite 5K - 00:16:00

Yikes...

Since I'm a newbie, I haven't figured out how to pace myself during a race yet. I think I start out too fast, dodging all of the slowpokes at the start (sub-9 minute mile!), then pooping out halfway (12 minute mile). The course was a lot narrower and more crowded than the SV Marathon, so there was quite a bit of dodging required.

And at mile 5, the 10K course merged with the 5K walking course, at the narrowest part of the Guadalupe Trail. 7,000+ people on a trail that's 6 feet wide? Really?

Oh, well. We had a great time, anyway!
















Time to look for another race! Wharf-to-Wharf? Bay to Breakers? Who wants to sign up with me?

Hello?




Afterwards, a huge Thanksgiving throw-down at Stew & Trish's.

The brown sugar cinnamon ice cream turned out pretty well. I think I'll make it for obon.




















Mika, doing her best turkey impression:

Brown Sugar Cinnamon Ice Cream

I'm making this for tomorrow's Thanksgiving potluck:

Brown Sugar Cinnamon Ice Cream

Whisk together:
4 egg yolks
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch Kosher salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Add:
4 cups half-and-half

Heat to 180 degrees, strain, chill, & spin. Serve with pie.

Get This Book

I was the recipe tester for this book last year:
















NPR just named it one of the ten best cookbooks of 2008!

You may have seen Jon & Vinny on their Food Network show, Two Dudes Catering.


For those of you who are wondering what the heck a recipe tester does:

1) Chef decides to write a cookbook. He/she gives their recipes (previously written on grease-stained index cards, if anything) to the editor. And the recipes probably serve about 50 people each.

2) Editor takes the recipes, pares them down to a reasonable serving sizes, and gives the edited recipes to the tester (that's me).

3) Tester makes the recipes exactly as written, tastes them, and gives notes to the editor. If the recipe fails miserably on the first try (which hardly ever happens), it gets edited and tried again.


It can be tedious, but I think it's fun. Having worked at the most awesome & nit-pickiest test kitchen in the world, I find this sort of thing soothing.

Hm, I think I'll post one of their recipes. If you promise to buy the book, that is...

Northern Exposure

“I just want it to go in the history books.”
Mary Boudukofsky, Aleut American internee.


Am watching this documentary on PBS right now (narrated by President Bartlet). I didn't know anything about this...


Aleut Story
In 1942, as World War II invaded Alaska, Aleut Americans were taken from their homes and removed to abysmal government camps 1,500 miles away... An estimated 10 percent of the men, women and children sent to the camps would die there—a death rate comparable to that suffered by Americans in foreign prisoner of war camps. As the Aleuts prayed for deliverance, "friendly forces" looted their homes and churches in the Aleutian and Pribilof islands.

Those who survived would fight for their rights... In a historic action, Aleuts joined Japanese Americans in seeking wartime reparations from the federal government.

Really, am quite sad I didn't know about this. Did you? I know about the Japanese-American internment and reparations, of course. I heard Barney Frank speak about that a few years ago, and I saw the exhibit that was at Ellis Island (which included info on other ethnic groups that were interned along with the JAs), but I don't remember any mention of the Aleuts...

Recipe Wednesday

Today, loyal readers, we start a new feature: Recipe Wednesdays!

The recipes I post will either be my own or ones that I pick up on the road. Today's recipe is from our '06 Iowa trip. Have I made these? Not yet*. I'm gonna, though.

Really.



Ham Balls
2 1/2 # ground ham
2 # lean pork
1# ground beef
3 beaten eggs
3 cups crushed graham crackers
1 cup milk





Mix together and baste with
2 cans tomato soup
3/4 cup vinegar
2 cups brown sugar
2 tsp. dry mustard

Bake at 350º for 1 hour, last half hour uncovered.


*So don't blame me if this doesn't work.

Coming in 2009!

We'll be saddlin' up and hittin' the road again soon:
















January 10, 8:00PM
Sunnyvale Performing Arts Center
550 E. Remington Drive, Sunnyvale, CA

February 28, 7:30PM
Earlham College
801 National Road West, Richmond, IN

March 6, 7:00PM
The Colonial Theatre
95 Main Street, Keene, NH

March 8, 2:00PM
Moore Theater, Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH

April 2, 7:30PM
Laxson Auditorium
400 West 1st Street, Chico, CA

April 17, 8:00PM
The Center Stage
2310 Colts Neck Road, Reston, VA

April 19, 4:00PM
Carolina Theater, Fletcher Hall
309 W. Morgan Street, Durham, NC

April 21, 7:30PM
Southern Adventist University, Iles P.E. Center
4870 University Drive, Collegedale, TN

April 24, 7:00PM
Augusta State University
2500 Walton Way, Augusta, GA

April 28, 8:00PM
Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Ferguson Hall
1010 North W.C. MacInnes Place, Tampa, FL

Ice Cream

For D & A, who are having fun with their new ice cream maker:

Vanilla Ice Cream

Whisk together:
4 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons nice vanilla extract

Add:
3 cups half-and-half

Heat the whole thing over medium-low heat, stirring with a heatproof spatula, until slightly thickened/steaming but not boiling (180 degrees).

Remove from heat; strain; refrigerate.

Spin in ice cream machine.

Variations:
- Add instant coffee granules to hot custard mixture. Amount is up to you.
- Reduce sugar to 1/2 cup; add 1/2 cup chocolate chips & 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon to hot custard mixture; stir to melt chocolate.
- Add crushed Peppermint Joe-O's to finished ice cream.
- For ice cream sandwiches: works best with underbaked cookies, baked just long enough so that they hold together.

VOTE!

Silicon Valley Half Marathon race report

My first half marathon!















Course:
Downtown SJ to Los Gatos High School, via Willow Glen & the Los Gatos Creek Trail





Miles 0 - 7
Piece of cake. Most of it was on flat pavement, and I was doing about a 10:15 mile. Not so bad for a slowpoke like me.

Miles 8 - 12
One of the toes on my left foot starts to cramp, so I had to run/walk with my toes curled up. Not very comfortable. Also, the trail was HILLY. I enjoyed the first ten hills; the rest were not so much fun. And it was really strange to run by the Pruneyard & over Hwy 17, which both seem really FAR from San Jose.

Miles 12-13.1
I sucked it up and ran it, even though by this point I thought I had broken my toe (it's fine now, go figure). The last final bit was on grass, and I was so tired I couldn't lift my feet above the grass, and the bottoms of both feet started to cramp (if that's possible). I ran it, though.

Chip time:
2:36:09
Not great, but not terrible.
















Lessons learned: If you're going to run a half, you should actually RUN 13.1 miles sometime BEFORE the actual race. Ai yai yai.









Next: a 10K! Easier than a half!

Snacking Richmond

So, enough about the folk festival. What did we eat?

Everything.


At the festival:




























































Dinner with the Yoon family. An unbelievably awesome homemade Korean feast!




































Perly's, a downtown Richmond diner.


















Their jalapeno sauce, made in house.

Adam would've loved it. We polished off this bottle in his honor.












Brunswick stew, the chicken version.

The original contains squirrel. This, luckily, did not.





Pecan pie (it was warm & pretty good; mine is better), rice pudding, chocolate chip cookies.






And this was next door:



It was closed and empty, except for a few bare tables and small piles of signs.

Hm.

Richmond Folk Festival

I've participated a few amazing festivals, but the Richmond Folk Festival was the best, by far. (Sorry, Tanglewood, PMF. Take that, Aspen.) Amazing artists, fabulous food, and the festival staff and volunteers are just about the nicest people you'll ever meet. And the most enthusiastic 185,000 audience members, ever.






































































































































The Saturday night party, which we thoroughly enjoyed:


















Here's a slide show with more photos.

And a blog with photos from the after party.

Out & About in DC

Seeing the sights in DC!














My friend Amy was in Washington Opera's production of the Pearl Fishers. Before going to the opera, we had dinner at Heritage, an Indian restaurant in Dupont Circle.







































We had chickpeas, eggplant, chicken tikka masala, & veggie curry. The eggplant was heavy on the cardamom, which I liked, and the tikka masala was awesomely salty.


At the Kennedy Center:



















After the show:
















The next day, Amy and I hung out on the mall, then went to dinner.



Snacks at the Museum of the American Indian.
I had an apple tart. Not too sweet, apples still firm, nicely balanced flavors. A pretty awesome snack, and from a cafeteria, no less.












Dinner at the Afterwords Cafe at Kramerbooks Bookstore in Dupont Circle.

I was feeling veggie, so I had the farro, quinoa, and barley salad, heirloom tomatoes, and asparagus. Cute and yummy. I would have this again, for sure.

Endless hours in the car

When we are in the car for hours at a time, we like to entertain ourselves by trying new snacks.

Snack #1: Reese's Peanut Butter Cups with Caramel



















Verdict: Too sweet. Ack.










Snack #2: The contents of this box.


















The verdict: Crickets! To be used as bait. Not as snacks (for us, at least).








Britt finds other ways to entertain herself.