Minneapolis Taste Buds

Mark overcame a knee injury during marathon training and finished the Las Vegas Marathon in 3:36. AMAZING! I also finished, but he had to wait quite a while for me! He greeted me with a huge bear hug at the finish. Neither of us knew if I'd make it through this one as I acquired some injuries a few weeks before the marathon. My left IT band was hurting from mile 3 on but I somehow made it through. I met a very nice woman named Lynn and we finished the last 7 miles together. I thank God I met her as I didn't think I could finish alone. She was amazing! This was her 7th marathon and she'd just had surgery in August. Very tough and inspiring. It was great having our friends there with us this year to cheer us on and celebrate afterwards. Mark and I hobbled around Vegas the rest of the trip, but still had a great time. The holidays have already passed us by and we're here in Iowa celebrating with Mark's family. We celebrated Christmas Eve at my sister's and Christma...

I must admit I'm a bit jealous of my boss and her husband who are vacationing in Italy-my very favorite place to visit. She writes, "I thought you’d like to know that this is the usual order for a truly Italian dinner. The surprising part is that the salad FOLLOWS the entrée! 1. Appetizers: Bruschetta and Beans and greens and onion 2. Soup dish (more like a stew actually) 3. Pasta dish 4. Pasta dish 5. Beef slices 6. Salad 7. Lemon dessert 8. Espresso . . . don’t forget the wine!" I asked her about her favorites so far. "Tonight we had a fabulous lemon chiffon type pie that was served on top of a ¼ inch yellow cake base. Very light after a heavy meal of so many courses. The prosciutto seems to be different than in the U.S., much lighter. Every place in Florence charges a cover charge of 2-3 Euro per person, even for lunch. Seems strange to me because there is no music provided. I have yet to figure out what the cover charge is supposed to cover. The waiter tells us...

Hubby and I finally tried Ristorante Luci last night. We used to live about 5 minutes away (now we're only 10 minutes away) and drive by it all the time. Turns out Thursday night was a great time to visit - they offered a Perzzo Fisso, a four course taster's dinner, that was fantastic and only $20/person if we both ordered it! It started with a large scallop with a tomato/ red pepper puree, followed by a creamy mushroom soup for me and a nice cesare salad for the husband. Next was a homemade pasta with a slice of pork (the only thing we weren't crazy about - pork was dry / pasta didn't have much flavor). The entree was salmon and risotto with aioli, and we added a tiramisu cheesecake for dessert. A great bottle of wine + a fantastic server and great cozy ambiance - we'll definitely go back for more. Online reservations for Ristorante Luci at Open Table .

Opening the mail just isn't as fun as it once was . . . bills, credit card offers that fill my shredder, newspaper ads from stores I never visit. I remember being at Iowa State and getting that little slip of paper in my mailbox every so often telling me to stop by and pick up a package-a much needed box from little Laurie. My mom always knew just what I needed - unexpected little goodies: Mac & Cheese, Rice Crispy Treats Holiday decorations for Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's Day Basically stocking stuffers for any occasion. She even sent Mark care packages while he was in Rome for a semester. At this time of year I always think a lot about college. Good times . . . but I'd never go back! Most appreciated care package items for college students (or anyone): Stamps Quarters for Laundry Recipes (family favorites) + some of the ingredients Coffee or hot chocolate packets (& marshmallows) Lined pads of paper with magnets to stick on the fridge Chip clips Post-it Not...

My dad bought me a fancy Cuisinart Food Processor . Very exciting! Tonight I made the basil pesto recipe out of the manual to try something different and it's fantastic! I froze it in 4 containers to use later. My second Cuisinart attempt was to grind the flax seed I accidentally bought whole. I normally buy Bob's Red Mill Organic Flaxseed Meal & mix it in with my yogurt, but must not have been paying attention at Target. Failure on the grinding. It just wouldn't cut through the little guys. I did a some reading online about ground vs. whole, but couldn't seem to find reliable sources to answer these questions: What's the best way to grind flax seed? Is ground flax better than whole? Or, Is there value in eating both versions?

Subtle signs of Fall are all around this week . . . The Minnesota State Fair is here already. It's a little bit darker each morning when I run before work and the morning temps are perfect. I can actually turn the A/C off and get a good night's sleep. The sedum and morning glories are blooming and my basil plants are enormous. Every August I start frantically planning recipes that revolve around using my herbs-knowing that the convenience of having an herb garden will disappear sooner than I'd like with the first frost. Today I'll start making basil pesto (basil, pine nuts, olive oil, Parmesan cheese, lots of garlic, water ), to stock the freezer for the winter. Saturday night we made grilled corn on the cob with chive butter, mushroom and cherry tomato kabobs with olive oil & basil, and Cooking Light's Rosemary Shrimp Scampi Skewers . Yesterday I stopped at the St. Paul Farmers' Market and stocked up on eggplant, zucchini, squash, bread, and cilantro (if...

After a little over a month off (sort of) since Grandma's Marathon, we've reserved our flights, hotel, and registered online for the December 7 Las Vegas Marathon! I'm actually looking forward to getting back into a regular training program. I've been running sporadically a few times per week since Grandma's and Mark's been running about once per week. We did the Boston Scientific 10K on Saturday. It was a great race and we both set PR's for the distance (my time even included a sprint to the porta pottie at mile 4 - mental note: arrive earlier to next race to avoid bladder emergencies). We're hoping to recruit some of our friends to come run with us or to cheer us on and celebrate afterwards. Hopefully they can make it! 20,000 runners - 250,000+ spectators - There couldn't possibly be anything this exciting happening in Minneapolis in early December.

We had a great, relaxing trip up to Two Harbors on Friday. We checked in at the Americinn and made our way back down to Duluth to the DECC to get our race info. We got rock star parking, got our packets, had our spaghetti dinner, and were back at the hotel by 8 ish . We watched Karate Kid and Caddy Shack (what better motivators??) and were sleeping soundly by 11. We got up (who knew it was light out at 4:30 am?) and had our bagels and went out to catch the bus to the starting line. One very long porta pottie line and an orange Gu later and we found ourselves in our starting line spots - Mark in the 3:20 zone (cripes, he's fast), and I, realist that I am, parked myself in the 5:00 region. I'd been estimating a 4:30 - 5:00 finish time based on my long training runs and the RunnersWorld .com pace calculator. Starting line The weather at start time was fantastic - in the low 50's. I started out well and flew through the first 10K. Then all the advice from every marathon-fi...