the missing photos from 5.6.06‘s entry are finally up now.

also on the recently completed list: lace pillowcases – this is what all that whining about knitting lace back in february was about.

the best thing that’s come out of my kitchen in a long while.

+ 4 chicken breasts
+ 8 oz herbed goat cheese or an herbed cream cheese
+ 1 jar roasted red pepers, sliced into strips
+ 2 eggs, lightly beaten
+ 1 cup seasoned bread crumbs
+ 1 cup cream or half and half
+ 1/3 cup fresh parmesan, grated
+ 2-3 cloves garlic, minced and crushed
+ 2-3 shallots, minced and crushed
+ 4-5 Tbsp olive oil
+ 1-2 Tbsp butter
+ salt and pepper to taste

1. heat oven to 400 degrees

2. prepare chicken breasts by slicing horizontally almost all the way through, creating a pocket in the chicken. spread cheese and tuck red peppers into the pocket, and close.

3. heat 3-4 Tbsp olive oil in a large frying pan. meanwhile, dip the chicken breasts in egg and coat evenly with breadcrumbs. add the chicken to the pan and cook about 4 minutes on each side, until the breadcrumbs are nicely browned. transfer chicken to a glass baking dish and bake until chicken is fully cooked, 30-45 minutes.

4. meanwhile, heat 1 Tbsp olive oil and 1-2 Tbsp butter in another frying pan or sauce pan. add shallots and garlic and saute for 3-4 minutes. add remaining red peppers and stir until they are hot and coated in oil.

5. transfer the shallots, garlic and peppers to a blender or food processor. puree.

6. transfer the puree back to the same sauce pan. add cream or half and half and whisk until evenly blended. once the sauce is hot again, add paramsean and wisk until it has melted and blended into the sauce evenly. salt and pepper to taste. stirring occasionally, let the sauce reduce to the desired thickness, 5-10 minutes.

7. optional step: push the sauce through a strainer to get a smooth, even texture. or don’t, and enjoy the slightly pulpy texture of the red pepper puree.

8. plating: drizzle a small pool of sauce onto each dish and place a chicken breast in the center. top with a spoonful more sauce. serve with fresh string beans and some crusty bread.

for vegetarians, a tofu alternative isn’t really possible, but the sauce is so good i recommend making that and pouring it over, well, just about anything.

From: support@active.com
Date: 31 May 2006 20:30:46 -0800
Subject: Registration Confirmation

This message is generated as confirmation of your recent registration on Active.com. You have been successfully registered for the following:

Race: The Banco Popular Chicago Half Marathon
Registration Date: 05/31/06
Distance: 13.1 miles
Event Date: 10/01/06

so i’m not listing this task as done yet, by any means. but i started training five weeks ago, with seventeen more to go, and i’m feeling optimistic enough that i forked over the money for the race registration. my name’s listed on their website; i can’t chicken out now.

i’ve long known that i want to complete a marathon some day. i think running the half is a hurdle i have to get past before i can even really comprehend running the full thing. i ran on track and cross country teams in junior high and high school, and for many years being a runner, whatever that means, was central to my sense of self. in college i was distracted by all the usual things that distract college students, and separated from my running companions, and so running became an only very occasional habit. coincidentally, i gained 15 pounds. after college i injured my neck in a ski accident which left me with an impaired sense of balance, making running (or even walking straight) an exhausting feat. i learned to be a gym bunny (lost the 15lbs), used ellipticals, stairmasters and bikes, took yoga and cardio kickboxing classes as i slowly regained my sense of balance over the past five years. this spring i discovered i could run without my vision going all blurry and my feet going wonky. i don’t know how long this improved condition will last, but i’m grateful for it. when my friend becky told she was registered to run the half marathon in chicago in the fall, i decided that this was the right summer for me to train: i have health, a little free time, and a friend to train with. and hey, i’m 28 this summer, so maybe running the full marathon for my 30th birthday is a good goal. i might be getting ahead of myself here, tho – i’m only up to about 3 miles at a time now. 26.2 seems pretty far away.

our high school running coaches instilled in us the notion that running is 95% mental preparation and only 5% sheer physical effort. what’s been a pleasant discovery is that, after taking nearly 10 years off from running, it’s only the physical fitness that deteriorates from lack of use. all of the mental hurdles i’ve had to make with running are all still in place. and so training is, in some ways, easier this time. my head’s in the right place. i just have to get my body in shape. and boy, can i tell that i’m 10 years older than i was last time i ran competitively. yikes.

so in case you were wondering, the countdown in the upper right corner is counting down till race day. if you’re really interested, you can keep tabs on my mileage and other stats on the training log. and cheer me on to my goal on october 1!

come here ibook that my brother is giving me because he’s awesome.

go away car door handle that broke off in my hand today. i had to leave my dignity in the glove box and climb out of the car on the passenger side. and will have to tomorrow. and every day until i can afford to get it fixed.

come here panang curry. you are so yummy.

go away panang curry. the cat just barfed and it looks much too much like dinner.

come here maggie and bill’s awesome wedding. it’s wednesday and we’re still recovering from a sunday night wedding. well, and the three nights of family gatherings and parties that preceded it. hopefully there will be photos to post soon. congrats to maggie and bill. yay, love!

come here summer thunderstorms. you make the midwest’s weather seem almost bearable.

per kidchamp, per tomato nation:

come here, beautiful spring weather

go away, new co-worker who started a conversation with, “so what do you really want to do [with your career because this can’t possibly be it]?”

come here/go away, old friend who called me up yesterday and offered me an amazing job, lots more money and time off than i have here, challenging, interesting work, good co-workers, the stage management jackpot. the catch? (there’s always a catch, this one’s a biggie). the job’s in utah. what would i do in utah? what would andy do in utah?

go away, netflix bait and switch. last weekend, netflix’s splash page was advertising a $5.99/month plan, but when you reload the page, or signed up through an affiliate site, the lowest price plan became $9.99. to get even, here’s the link for the cheapie deal: http://www.netflix.com/Default?mqso=80006887. no promises how long that link’ll work.

go away, king kong. we rented it this weekend, and yuck. kudos to peter jackson, it was beautifully styled and all that, but really, the cgi-monster-eating-other-cgi-monster scenes could all have been cut by two thirds. i found myself simultaneously grossed out and unable to really care which fake creature won. after what seemed like the fourth hour I got bored and told andy to tell me let me know if they ever made it to new york.

come here, memoirs of a geisha. you are pretty.

come here, pasta primavera with cream sauce experiments in the kitchen. there are very few dishes that i can improvise sans recipe, based on the ingredients in the fridge or inspiration in the produce department, but pasta with yummy sauce is one. take some combination of the following (whatever you have at hand): fresh tomatoes, mushrooms, bag o’ frozen mixed veggies, garlic, onion, cream, veggie broth, white wine, butter, olive oil, parmesan cheese, fresh lemon, parsley, or basil. boil whole wheat linguini in well-salted water, add liberal amounts of fresh-ground pepper to whatever sauce you’ve created, and you’re good to go. now, turn me loose in the kitchen with 16 staples of indian cooking, or thai, or anything middle eastern, and i’d be completely lost.

go away, html bug that causes my margins to be all wonky in firefox browsers.

go away, car stereo thief. you took my parking quarters, too.

go away, short sleeve sweaters. i do not like you.

spiky yellow tulips striped with red

pale pink magnolia blossoms, lovely for a day

gerber daisies in bold colors

violets nestled into the grass

fragile white orchid blooms

edible orange nasturtium on the plate

every year i try to pinpoint the exact day when spring begins. i do recognize the actual futility of this exercise, the seasons being a cycle, a gradual blending of hues, without a finite beginning or end. but nonetheless i always find myself mentally marking the days when certain events occur. it’s like i wait and wait and wait for some sign of spring, through the cold dreary days of february and march, and sometimes april, and then it happens all at once, and i can’t watch closely enough to see all the changes, things seem to spring out of the earth and bloom while you have your back turned. in chicago this year, the trees began to come out late on monday. by tuesday they had developed a green haze, a softening of the stark lines winter branches make against the sky. the tulips came out on wednesday afternoon, bent low and ruffled under an afternoon breeze. other signs slip past me and only register later. i didn’t notice when the grass started turning green again, until suddenly last week, the world had a slightly emerald hue to it. and the daffodils, which are in full bloom right now, they snuck past me too, i don’t recall what day they first arrived, but suddenly there are fields of yellow on either side of south lake shore drive.

but my favorite sign of spring is one that i can mark on my calendar, when daylight savings time switches over and we are graced with long, golden evenings that seem much more than just one hour longer. maybe someday i’ll have to become one of those nomadic retirees who follows the warm weather around, bouncing between hemispheres to always stay within the bounds of summer.

So Owl wrote . . . and this is what he wrote:

HIPY PAPY BTHUTHDTH THUTHDA
BTHUTHDY.

Pooh looked on admiringly.

“I’m just saying ‘A Happy Birthday’,” said Owl carelessly.
“It’s a nice long one,” said Pooh, very much impressed by it.
“Well, actually, of course, I’m saying ‘A Very Happy Birthday with
love from Pooh.’ Naturally it takes a good deal of pencil to say a
long thing like that.”
“Oh, I see,” said Pooh.

i win! see, here’s my gold metal for completing my knitting olympics project before the flame went out.

the going got kind of rough around thursday night, when i spent maybe 3 hours making and ripping out and repairing mistakes, gaining no actual ground, till suddenly it was 2am, the only thing left on tv was infomercials, and my arms were cramped from wrist to elbow. the next morning i woke up with some sort of knitter’s-elbow tendonitis/carpal tunnel thing that made typing (and knitting) unbearable.

but i persevered. 88 inches of lace, knit on teeny-tiny size three needles.

the knitting olympics also sort of skewed my approach to knitting – it’s supposed to be a hobby, but with an imposing deadline it became another thing on my daily to-do list. also, i’ve decided that knitting lace is a hateful, hateful activity. i do like the results, and they are going to make lovely pillowcases (pictures to follow), but give me a fair isle project on size 10 needles any day.