Pasta Solves All

So I just got home from 2 weeks in California for work and I leave Tuesday for Italy, which means I have an awful lot to do at home in just a few days. In the past 48 hours I've done 3 loads of laundry; gone to the gym for step class and an upper body strength workout; cleaned my entire house; gone grocery shopping; gotten my oil changed (which is the only time I hate having a hybrid because it costs twice as much for the synthetic oil); gotten my snow tires off (so winter you'd better better be over); went out to dinner to use a Groupon that was about to expire;  finally hung up the jewelry rack that's been sitting in my closet since I moved; went to kickboxing (which was a total waste of time because there was a sub instructor and she was terrible); met my friend Breezy for a concert, a beer, and gelato; helped chaperone my Mom's Sunday School class at the Children's Museum (which I actually loved because it let me drool over tons of babies and act like a 6 year old myself); started packing for Italy; and made pasta.

So let's talk about the pasta. I'm hosting girls' night tonight and we have an international theme. I naturally picked Italy as my country because I wanted to make pasta and justify buying my very expensive Italian pasta maker. I made 2 kinds: my normal plain egg pasta, and also a vegan spinach pasta. They both came out awesome, but I was so surprised how good the spinach pasta was considering it's just spinach and flour!

Pasta Dough
2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup semolina flour
1 tablespoon kosher salt
4 large eggs

Add the flours and salt to the large bowl of a food processor and pulse to combine. With the food processor running, add the eggs until a dough balls forms. Once the dough ball forms, run machine for 30 seconds to knead. Divide dough into 4 equal parts.

Spinach Pasta Dough
6 oz fresh spinach leaves

Dough ball!

1 1/2 cups  unbleached all purpose flour
2/3  cup semolina flour
2 teaspoons kosher salt

Use the large metal chopping blade and the large bowl of the food processor. Add spinach and process until finely chopped. Add flours and salt and process until a dough balls forms. Once the dough ball forms, run machine for 30 seconds to knead. Divide dough into 4 equal parts.

Once you have the dough comes the fun part! Run each dough ball through the rollers starting at width 1 (the thickest) until you reach the desired thickness.




Then, slide the cutting attachment onto the pasta maker and feed the flat sheet of dough through the cutter. Like magic you have perfect pasta!

 Add to boiling water and cook for 3-4 minutes. Voila, perfect pasta!

 So gooooood. 2 bowls of pasta, cheese, tomatoes, and arugula later and I'm a calm, happy camper.

Marathon Shoe Dilemma

So the latest go-LIVE went so well that I got to come home a day early. Yeah! Except not really because my flights were so delayed that I didn't get home until 3 am. But I did at least get moved from a middle seat to an extra leg room window on my first flight and a first class upgrade on my second flight. I asked for some red wine and I got a whole solo cup that was about overflowing. That mellowed me right out.

So this morning I didn't drag myself out of bed until 10, and then I couldn't manage to get myself out the door to run until 11. I had been planning to go to the gym since I ran the past 3 days, and I am supposed to be tapering, but when I saw this I just couldn't resist.

 
Since it was bright daylight and I was very leisurely in my run prep I actually looked at my sneakers before I put them on. Um holy grossness. First of all they stink. Like smell them across the room stink. And they are nasty looking too. They've been through a winter of marathon training in snow, sleet, slush and mud. They aren't too sound structurally either,  the sole is completely worn down in places (pronate much Kiersten?), the padding in the heels is all lumped up weirdly, and the corners of the toebox are ripping. No wonder my feet have not been happy lately.

Time for new shoes. Except wait, I'm running a marathon in a week. And the cardinal rule of racing is nothing new. So what do I do?? I had a new pair of Brooks sitting in my closet waiting, so I decided to pull them out and give them a try this weekend. I slipped in my orthotics and off I went. They felt wonderful, no rubbing or blisters at all. Just a nice cushioned ride. The only issue is that they were so nice and white and shiny that I didn't want to get them dirty. Not easy to do on a warm spring day in Maine, there were a lot of giant puddles and mud. I seriously added an extra .4 miles to my normal run because I was trying to avoid puddles. And I got in some agility work too because I did a lot of fast feet high knees trying to make as little contact as possible with the mud.

So now I have a dilemma. Bring the worn out shoes that I trained in? Or bring the new shoes?

Night Shift Madness

I should not be allowed to work the night shift anymore. The is the second week of go-LIVE so it's super slow, which means that I am bored. I don't do well with boredom.

Example 1- I am bored and sitting alone next to a giant basket of candy. Candy binge ensues. Multiple nights in a row. As I drive home feeling sick with a sky high blood sugar I vow not to do it again. But I do. And probably will again tonight.

Example 2- I am bored and at a computer and I'm sleep deprived. So I start to seriously consider getting in another international marathon this spring. I mean I'm already in shape, so it'd be way easier to stay in shape an extra month or so then have to do a whole separate training cycle next fall. And I have a ton of miles. And I mean doesn't everyone just fly to Japan for the weekend? But, I can't find a race that fits perfectly into my schedule.

Santiago, Chile is April 1. I'm not sure this gives me enough time physically, or work responsibility wise, to recover from Rome.

The Nagano, Japan marathon is mid April, which would be perfect time-wise. But registration is closed. (Anyone have a special pull with those race organizers? I'd love you forever).

And then I was looking at the Sundown Marathon in Singapore in May, but then I realized that's like 20 hours of flying one way.

Any other marathons in South America, Africa, or Asia in the next couple months that are still open and are less than a 12 hour flight from either California or Boston??

Sonoma County Weekend

Um why don't I live in California?? And why the heck have I chosen to spend 15 hours each way flying home for the weekend when I could have been here.

I was on call all weekend, which meant that I had to stay in California. I was little bummed about this initially, but I ended up having a FABULOUS weekend. Saturday I slept in until 10, which I haven't done since college. After working until 2 am all week, it was great to catch up on some sleep. I am staying at the Flamingo Resort which I chose because it is attached to an awesome health club. They have a beautiful outdoor pool, which actually makes me want to swim in a way that the nasty Y pool at home never does. I swam my first ever consecutive mile! It made me feel like I might stand a chance in the tri this summer!