This Weeks Eats 6.30.13

It's still hot here in Seattle and it's pretty brutal for most people.  On Friday I said we've become weather wusses, but I also failed to mention that most people around these parts do not have air conditioning - imagine it hitting the mid-80s INSIDE your home.  Blerghhhh.  We certainly experienced our fair share of ridiculous numbers on the thermostat before we caved and installed central AC two years ago.  So, yes, just as we're all slightly crazy when it snows even a centimeter (because there are hardly any snowplows and they do not salt the roads) we're also whining when it's near 90 degrees out, but a fan can only do so much.  Local yokels, definitely give me a heads up if you want to sit around inside my house!  It'll probably be empty because I can't pry the kids away from the sprinkler in the backyard...

I also have the makings for these easy limeade margaritas - we relied on them heavily this weekend.

• Monday - Pizza
• Tuesday - Fish (Oven Fried Halibut) n' Chips (Alexia Fries)
• Wednesday - Chicken and Veggies in Masala Simmer Sauce and Brown Rice (usually pick up these sauces from Whole Foods or Cost Plus)
• Thursday - Independence Day! Gonna try these Sausage and Veggie Foil Packets on the grill with some Aidells  and Lemony Roasted Potato Salad
• Friday - Barbacoa Enchiladas (using leftover beef from when we made taco bowls for enchiladas with jack cheese, corn tortillas and Frontera Sauce)
• Saturday - Rigatoni with Arrabiata Sauce (In a dutch oven, saute about 1 cup chopped  yellow onion in olive oil until soft, add about 3 cloves of chopped garlic and 1/2 pound hot Italian turkey sausage, deglaze with some white wine once it's browned and add 28oz can crushed tomatoes, 8 oz tomato sauce, a can of tomato paste, a generous pinch or two of Kosher salt, pepper and crushed red pepper - let it simmer for at least a half an hour.)
• Sunday - Easy Chopped Salads with Chicken, Bacon, Red Onion, Blue Cheese, Avocado and Homemade Champagne Vinaigrette

Linking up with Mommy Run Fast and Jill Conyers, as well as Rachel at In No Simple Language - be sure to check out all the great weekly menus!

Friday Things

First off, yeaaaaaaah HAWKS!  That last game was ridiculous, two goals in 17 seconds! With only 16 seconds left in the game!  I usually don't use the term EPIC, but there really is not an alternative for what went down in Boston on Monday.

more than 2 MILLION folks in Grant Park today

Honestly, if I still lived in the city, I'd be avoiding the parades and this stuff like the plague.  But, as my brother pointed out on this picture he posted to Facebook, it's about 1/4 the size of what the crowd would be if our beloved Cubs won the pennant.  True that - I'd do whatever I could to come home for festivities if the Cubbies won the World Series.


OK, other awesome thing this week?  Well, to summarize, I think this was my favorite internet find to come out of the DOMA ruling: 

From The Oatmeal, obviously.

One more thing that had me smiling this week: If Kids Tweeted About Shows Like Adults Do, from Buzzfeed.  We're currently in a Justified phase and just counting the minutes until Breaking Bad returns in August (and Sons of Anarchy in September).  

Red Tricycle recently posted a list of top 11 aquariums in the world and now I'm obsessed with watching this video from the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium:

I could watch this all day!  The whale sharks!  The manta rays!  They also have whale sharks/manta rays at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta and I'm seriously considering a visit there, because my son would LOSE HIS SH*T.  I think I've mentioned before that he's crazy into marine life and there's definitely a whale shark in his collection.

This is just a part of the collection 

Watching that aquarium is also making me want to go swimming, especially since it's SO HOT out right now - like mid 80s!  Hah.  We've become total wusses since moving to Seattle and running today felt like a major slog.  But I wouldn't trade the weather here for any other city - I've talked about that before, too.

90s by Tuesday??? Ermagherd I'm MELTING!

OK, I'm going cheesy pop for the playlist this week: Glowing by Nikki Williams has really grown on me.

Happy weekend!

2013 Playlist
Easy  by Porter Robinson (and Matt Zo).
I Could be the One by Avicii featuring Nicky Romero
Pair of Dice by Tiesto
Ain't No Stoppin' by Ferry Corsten (featuring Ben Hague)

Come and Get It by Selena Gomez
Apollo by Hardwell featuring Amba Shepherd

This Head I Hold by Electric Guest

Castles in the Sky by Ian Van Dahl

Feel this Moment by Pitbull, featuring Christina Aguilera

Into Your Arms by the Lemonheads

Just Give me a Reason by Pink

I Love It by Icona Pop

Little Secrets Passion Pit

Sovereign Light Cafe by Keane, remixed by Afrojack

Clarity by Zedd

Years by Alesso

Something Good Can Work by Two Door Cinema Club
She Wolf by David Guetta, featuring Sia
Alive by Krewella
Illmerica by Wolfgang Garnter
Drowning by Armin van Buren
Give Me Your Hand by The Ready Set
Language by Porter Robinson
Cry for You by September
You Are My Diamond by Tiesto - featuring Kianna
Arguru - Deadmau5
We Are by Jus Jack & Oza, featuring Aeone

Volunteering and Spectating at Seattle Rock N Roll Marathon

My first experience helping out at a race was so totally awesome and I'm super excited to find an opportunity for more volunteering in the future.  I was at the Nuun hydration stop along the Seattle Rock N Roll Marathon course.  It's no secret that I love Nuun and having an opportunity to hang out with some of my favorite running brethren and Nuunies, while also checking out this whole Rock N Roll Marathon thing, was a no brainer.  

Dawn and I helped with setup and were on the road from the Eastside by 5:30AM.  By around 6AM we were mixing huge vats o' Nuun with members of the sample team and filling up four long tables with rows and rows of solo cups.

By 7AM we were joined by a group of fellow Nuun enthusiasts - Lauren, Sarah, Rebecca, Meghan, and Rira.  Within 15 minutes, the elite runners started passing by and shortly thereafter everything became a blur of: grab the cups, hand out the cups, run back to the table and repeat.  For the first few waves of folks, I held two cups at a time: one held out (with my fingers on top, so people could grab from the bottom) and the another on standby in my other hand.  I quickly realized that I could grab up to four cups with my fingers in one hand, and have the other at the ready (holding five total) and I still had a hard time keeping up - it was CRAZY, and we were an extra station!  I also learned that sometimes runners would point to the person that they were going to grab water from - this was really helpful when someone would point to me and I'll totally do this in my next race.  I never thought of it, but it lessens confusion and the possibility of your water getting handed to someone else and waiting extra precious seconds for another cup.

We all jumped in where help was needed, so I'd take a break from handing out Nuun when we were low on cups to grab - which happened a lot.  My head was bent over all those cups with my full pitcher of Nuun quite a bit, filling them as fast as I could without knocking them over.  Despite this, I was able to see my Bootcamp instructor cruise by, as well as teammates Morena and Nolana, Zoe and Kerrie, Robyn, Stacie - pretty much everyone I knew that was running, other than Lauren , Allyson and Lena (sorry I missed ya!).  It looked like everyone was having a great time, and based on the recaps I've read, they all really enjoyed the new course.  Despite my dislike for huge and expensive races, I may just entertain the idea of running it one day...  But hanging with Nuun and cheering this race might be a more fun tradition!

Meghan, me, Sarah, Lauren, Rira, Rebecca

Once we ran out of tasty electrolytes (around 9:30AM!) we went across the street to where the runners were coming back through at mile 10 to do some cowbelling.  Lauren reminded us of the awesome Alexi Pappas method of cheering:

So, when I'd see a girl come running (I picked ones that were wearing sparkly things), I'd yell "you look like a mermaid!!" and I got the BEST smiles. HA!  This was so ridiculously fun.  Lauren also came up with "you are great at running!"  This also elicited some big grins.  I also found that pointing right at people, looking them in the eye and saying "YOU are awesome!" got good results.  Getting people to smile at mile 10 of a half marathon was really, really gratifying.  I highly recommend giving it a try.

Speaking of spectating, if you missed it this weekend, here's the video of the gals I mentioned on Friday running the 800M final - Alysia winning (!) on Sunday and teammate Kate Grace coming in fourth with a PR of 2:02:14!

And lastly, if you've never sat and watched a live stream an Ironman finish line (or been lucky enough to watch in person), you are MISSING OUT.  It's just so inspirational and I was so excited to catch them calling out "Dimity Davis, you are an Ironman!" as it was happening live.  And I also caught seasoned Ironman teammate Cathleen crossing the finish and winning her age group!  

Me and Sarah with Cathleen (in the middle) at last year's Mustache Dache

Yeah, it was a pretty darn inspiring weekend.  Congrats to all on such great races!

This Weeks Eats 6.23.13

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend - we had a great one with our favorite date night restaurant and a movie, preceded by my first outing to just spectate (and provide some additional hydration) at a marathon.  

Thanks for the pic, and the lift downtown, Dawn!

It was a gorgeous day (70s and sunny), but a wee bit hot for distance running, in my opinion.  Good thing we were providing extra electrolytes for all those runners.  

I've been making a lot of iced coffee lately in these warmer days and the cold brew method is the way to go - if you can remember to start your coffee the night before.  The Pioneer Woman has a great recipe, but it seemed too unwieldy for me, so I found this one and loooove it.  I mix it up in my French press and strain it in the morning.  Like The Pioneer Woman, I enjoy making it with sweetened condensed milk, but it can be hard to incorporate into the coffee.  The solution?  I use an old glass jar and shake my ingredients.  

And, sometimes jazz it up with caramel sauce.  SO healthy, I know.

• Monday - Pizza
• Tuesday - Coconut Lime Pork Tacos (Doin' a little 'taco Tuesday' and trying this recipe my cousin sent me for This Weeks Eats!)
• Wednesday - Alpine Chicken Casserole (Chicken breasts topped with swiss cheese, cream of mushroom soup thinned out with water, or a little white wine if ya want, and then cubed stuffing that's been tossed with a little butter. Bake at 350 for an hour, covered with foil for the first half hour - mmmm, cheesy baked goodness.)
• Thursday - Turkey Burgers (with lots of jalapeno, garlic, onion, cilantro and spices: cumin, chili powder, cayenne)
• Friday - Beef and Vegetable Kebabs with 'Mojo Sauce' (moved this back from last week, since we decided to go to Red Robin for a last day of Kindergarten celebration)
• Saturday - Baked Ziti
• Sunday - Grilled Chicken Club Salad with Guacamole Dressing (an old Rachael Ray recipe)

I'm linking up with Mommy Run Fast and Jill Conyers, as well as Rachel at In No Simple Language - be sure to check out all the great weekly menus!

Friday Things

I think I'm one of very few people who never watched the Sopranos, but James Gandolfini's death still hit me pretty hard.  I can't help but think of my dad when something like this happens; he was even ten years younger than Gandolfini when he died.  

last Halloween together 1980

I'm only one year younger than my dad was when he died, and my son is one year younger than I was; it's so surreal, and unimaginable to me that my kids would lose me or my husband right now.  My heart aches for James Gandolfini's loved ones and, I have no idea about his family history or lifestyle, but it's a good reminder to all that we take care of our tickers.  I've said it all before (in the post linked above, after all the race recap stuff) that heart disease is the leading cause of death for men AND women, more than cancer.  Not that I don't have my own beef with cancer, I do; but, it seems that people aren't as aware of the dangers of heart disease.   

OK, off my soapbox and on to more upbeat Friday things!  Sports! First off, if you have no idea about what's going on in between Olympic cycles in the world of Track and Field (which, admittedly, I do not) this guest post from Sarah at Once Upon a Lime over at the Oiselle blog is a great introduction to what's going on in the world of professional running while the USA Outdoor T&F Championships are happenin' this weekend.  Tonight, I'm psyched to see not just one, but TWO amazing athletes that I've had the pleasure of running with (!) teammate Kate Grace and superstar Alysia Montano in the women's 800m semi-final.  

I'm also super psyched for Mother Runner Dimity who I met exactly a year ago - she is gonna become an Ironman Ironmother on Sunday in Coeur D'Alene.  Go Dimity GO!

And of course, also happenin' this weekend...

HAWKS! And, no, not Seahawks.  I know a lot of folks don't get into hockey, and I must profess that I don't pay attention to the games during the regular season anymore.  But, this has be a helluva showdown between the Blackhawks and the Bruins: three out of four games into OT, one of them a triple OT.  Hockey is just such an adrenaline pumping sport with constant movement and shots on the goal.  I remember going to my first games with my big brother and his buddies when we were in our early 20s and drank Mickeys malt liquor in the parking lot beforehand.  Classy.  We even made it to one playoff game back in the day.  After awhile, a group of my girlfriends made it a yearly tradition of at least one regular season game, followed by a long night out on the town.  Such great memories and I'm pretty pumped to see them goin' for another Stanley Cup.

Speaking of back in the day, I was a HUGE fan of this movie when I was a kid and I about died laughing when I saw this:

Hmmm, it's not streaming on Netflix; perhaps it's worth putting in the DVD queue... 

On to music - I suppose I'm going with a theme of adding artists that I had on last year's playlist to this year's; this time it's Easy  by Porter Robinson (and Matt Zo).

Happy weekend!  If you're running Seattle Rock N Roll Marathon or Half, let me know and I'll keep an eye out for ya - I'll be handing out Nuun over by their offices that are near mile 2/mile 10 on the course!

2013 Playlist
I Could be the One by Avicii featuring Nicky Romero
Pair of Dice by Tiesto
Ain't No Stoppin' by Ferry Corsten (featuring Ben Hague)

Come and Get It by Selena Gomez
Apollo by Hardwell featuring Amba Shepherd

This Head I Hold by Electric Guest

Castles in the Sky by Ian Van Dahl

Feel this Moment by Pitbull, featuring Christina Aguilera

Into Your Arms by the Lemonheads

Just Give me a Reason by Pink

I Love It by Icona Pop

Little Secrets Passion Pit

Sovereign Light Cafe by Keane, remixed by Afrojack

Clarity by Zedd

Years by Alesso

Something Good Can Work by Two Door Cinema Club
She Wolf by David Guetta, featuring Sia
Alive by Krewella
Illmerica by Wolfgang Garnter
Drowning by Armin van Buren
Give Me Your Hand by The Ready Set
Language by Porter Robinson
Cry for You by September
You Are My Diamond by Tiesto - featuring Kianna
Arguru - Deadmau5
We Are by Jus Jack & Oza, featuring Aeone

Hike With the Kids - Wallace Falls

A waterfall was the deciding factor for our hike with the kids last weekend, at big brother's request.  This helped us narrow our choices down to Franklin Falls or Wallace Falls.  It had been over six years since I did the Wallace Falls hike (it was one of my last hikes while pregnant with big brother) and one that baby girl hasn't been on - we did Franklin Falls when she was a wee thing...

Look! There she is, peeking out over daddy's shoulder.

My husband has done the out and back at Wallace Falls to the middle falls outlook with my son when he was three.

Same spot at three, and six years old

We figured that baby girl would be good to go, now that she's three.  Yeaaaah, not so much...  We forgot how clumsy she is and how much she'd prefer to be carried.  My husband got a bit of a bonus workout, carrying those additional 30+ pounds!   

Carrying, always carrying her...

Generally speaking, I'd say this hike is best for kids in a carrier, kids four and older, or brave, independent and nimble three year olds.  It's a step up from a nature walk: just under 4 miles round trip and about 1200 feet in elevation gain.  There are quite a few rocks to navigate and exposed tree roots, as well as a couple of narrow switchbacks.  That being said, it's a great hike for families: a short drive from Seattle, a decent sized parking lot (make sure to bring your Discover Pass), picnic tables and bathrooms (not port-a-potties) at the trailhead.  We headed out in the late morning, arriving around 10:30 and there were still a few parking spots left.  It took about an hour and a half to hike 1.8 miles to the picnic shelter and viewing area at middle falls, stopping for water breaks, petting dozens of dogs, and photo ops.  

main photo op of the falls

Yep, 50min miles is about the right pace with two small kids.  But, the hike back down went a lot quicker - about an hour. 

Lots of stops along the river where you can walk down to sit on the rocks

great view near the trailhead of Mt Baring, Philadelpia Mtn, Mt Index, and Mt Persis (just telling you what the sign says; after 9 years in Washington I can only name Mt Rainier, Mt Baker, Mt St. Helens and Mt Si on sight)

It makes for a perfect day to hike up, have a snack, take pictures, head back down and eat a picnic lunch at the trailhead.  Hopefully baby girl will be a bit more brave, and less clumsy, next year...

  

This Weeks Eats 6.16.13

I hope everyone had a lovely Father's Day weekend.  Just as with Mother's Day, it wasn't too different from any other around here.  We did get a nice bottle of wine to go with our favorite at-home steak dinner on Saturday night after a hike earlier in the day with the kids, and we had a nice lazy pancake breakfast Sunday morning.  So, yeah, pretty much the usual - aren't weekends always meant for celebrating?  

The Ginger Sesame Chicken Salad recipe we tried last week was a hit and we'll definitely be making it again!

I added cherry tomatoes, a teaspoon of sugar to the dressing (as it was a tad salty) and I think we'll throw on some chow mein noodles next time.  Yum.

• Monday - Pizza
• Tuesday - Chicken with Artichokes, Tomatoes and Mozzarella
• Wednesday - Beef and Vegetable Kebabs
• Thursday - Chicken and Vegetable Stir Fry with Trader Joes Red Curry Sauce
• Friday - Penne with Vodka Sauce, and some Turkey Sausage and Peas
• Saturday - Date Night!
• Sunday - Burrito Bowls with Cilantro Lime Chicken (trying this crockpot chicken recipe to put in our faux Chipotle bowls)

I'm linking up with Mommy Run Fast and Jill Conyers, as well as Rachel at In No Simple Language - be sure to check out all the great weekly menus!

Friday Things

First things first: if you haven't tried Oiselle's Roga shorts (or my go-to, the Long Rogas - I first talked about them here) NOW IS THE TIME.

I was so glad to have an excuse to finally pull the trigger on the Diamond Long Rogas!

OK, can we talk tv for a minute here?  I'm finally getting around to watching Girls (I'd been meaning to after all the Golden Globe wins, plus I'm a fan of Judd Apatow) and...whoa.  I'm simultaneously disturbed and captivated.  It sure does make me glad to be middle aged and out of my 'single in the big city' days, something I NEVER thought I'd say.  Because, c'mon, literally partying like it's 1999 was pretty awesome.

New Year's Eve: 12/31/99 one of my favorite pics everrr - just hanging with Chicago's finest while we wait for another keg to be delivered to our 3rd floor apartment.  Living next to a liquor store was also pretty awesome.

I guess being thankful for my years is a good thing, because everywhere I turn this week I've come across a tidbit on the internet that, albeit funny, is gettin' totally down on middle age.  Case in point, this '32' parody of Taylor Swift's '22':

And also, this recent Huffington Post blog post: 40 Effed Up Things About Being 40.  I'm not quite there yet, but I can relate to a few of these things - #27 cracked me up.

Ok, back to tv for just a sec - how awesome are these AT&T commercials??

I put two songs by Avicii on to the playlist last year and I'm finally adding one to this year's: I Could be the One by Avicii featuring  Nicky Romero.

This is turning out to be Funny Video Friday, because it's the funniest and most awesome music video, except for the very end - but I suspect that she'll be alright...

2013 Playlist
Pair of Dice by Tiesto
Ain't No Stoppin' by Ferry Corsten (featuring Ben Hague)

Come and Get It by Selena Gomez
Apollo by Hardwell featuring Amba Shepherd

This Head I Hold by Electric Guest

Castles in the Sky by Ian Van Dahl

Feel this Moment by Pitbull, featuring Christina Aguilera

Into Your Arms by the Lemonheads

Just Give me a Reason by Pink

I Love It by Icona Pop

Little Secrets Passion Pit

Sovereign Light Cafe by Keane, remixed by Afrojack

Clarity by Zedd

Years by Alesso

Something Good Can Work by Two Door Cinema Club
She Wolf by David Guetta, featuring Sia
Alive by Krewella
Illmerica by Wolfgang Garnter
Drowning by Armin van Buren
Give Me Your Hand by The Ready Set
Language by Porter Robinson
Cry for You by September
You Are My Diamond by Tiesto - featuring Kianna
Arguru - Deadmau5
We Are by Jus Jack & Oza, featuring Aeone

Juicy Strawberry Jigglers (A Favorite Recipe for the Kids)

Many moons ago, when my son was in toddler group, a friend brought in these irresistible fruit snacks.  I've been passing on the jiggler tradition while my baby girl has been participating in toddler group and I get so many requests for the recipe, and hopefully this tradition will continue.  If you are (or ever have been) the mom of a preschooler, you know that providing snacks can be a tricky business with the prevalence of allergies and dietary restrictions.  For kids of most any age, jigglers are a big hit with only juice, fruit and gelatin on the ingredient list.  

yep, this is all you need

I haven't shared a recipe in awhile and, since I've been cranking these out almost weekly (once I make them for snack, we get on a jiggler kick), they seemed like a great one to pass on.

Juicy Strawberry Jigglers

(Makes 24 jiggler squares)

Ingredients

11/2 cups juice (divided) (I used Tropicana Farmstand Strawberry Banana, but you can use any juice – Trader Joes Strawberry Kiwi juice is really good with this, too)

1 cup frozen Strawberries

2 envelopes unflavored gelatin

1Tablespoon sugar (optional – I use about a teaspoon if I'm using strawberries)

In Blender-blend together 1-cup juice and frozen strawberries until smooth. Pour into a small saucepan and bring to a boil.  Stir occasionally to break up the frothy bubbles

Meanwhile, place the remaining ½ cup juice in a large bowl and sprinkle the gelatin over the juice (let it stand for 1 minute).  Add hot juice until gelatin completely dissolved (about 5 minutes)

Pour into 8 x8 and refrigerate until firm (3 hours)

Jiggler Fiend

This Weeks Eats 6.9.13

I'm sad to see this week come to a close; we've had such lovely weather and I had such a lovely weekend.  We even pushed back one of our meals because it was just to nice out to stay inside and eat soup, so we grilled up some hot dogs and picked up some yummy salads from Whole Foods.  Speaking of last week, of the two new recipes we tried, there was one big thumbs up: the mac and cheese with fire roasted tomatoes, spinach and feta.

We used large macaroni instead of orzo, and it turned out great.

I also got another 'me' day on Saturday, since my kids were determined to go to the Children's Museum and my husband offered to take them if I wanted to go out for a run.  Um, twist my arm.

Mmmm, seared salmon...  I love kaiten sushi when I get out on my own.

• Monday - Pizza
• Tuesday - Gnocchi Soup with Sausage, Spinach and Roasted Red Pepper (the meal moved back from last week)
• Wednesday - Farfalle with Zucchini (a tried and true Pioneer Woman recipe)
• Thursday - Turkey Burgers and Alexia Fries
• Friday - Chicken Fajitas with Frontera Grill Sauce and Fixins
• Saturday - Top Sirloin Steaks with Blue Cheese Wedge Salads and Twice Baked Potatoes
• Sunday - Grilled Ginger Sesame Chicken Salad (trying this recipe I found via Pinterest)

I'm linking up with Mommy Run Fast and Jill Conyers, as well as Rachel at In No Simple Language - be sure to check out all the great weekly menus!