a cooking coup

*just a note, blogger is being lame. it let me change my header but it won't let me change my colors etc. boooo blogger.*

anyway, this weekend was bay to breakers. which i did not run. for the 2nd year in a row. and all my family asked me about it. boooo me. i honestly don't know what it is about my running slump, going on several, several months now. i get busy, i get inspired. i get busy, then i go to crap. i haven't whined about it in awhile, because i mean really, who likes a whiner? i don't. but still it isn't enough to get me motivated. some days i cut myself slack. i tell myself that running isn't the only thing in my life and i am not defined by whether i run or don't run. but there's a voice somewhere that say, c'mon you know you wanna...

...

in other news, i spent a lot of time in the kitchen and a lot of time with family this weekend. both excellent things. at the risk of sounding totally mushy, my family makes me so happy. it's funny to me that i spent my whole life wanting to get out, get away, be on my own and now with them, i am the happiest i have been in a long, long while. i spent all this time trying to find my place, find my life, when it was here all along. it wasn't enough just being me. i'm much happier also being a daughter, and a sister, an aunt, a cousin, a niece, a granddaughter. and quiet suburban life is really starting to grow on me. it's crazy, i know.

as for my cooking coup, i made homemade caesar dressing. which sounds easy enough. and it was. but i have this thing with caesar dressing. i scour high and low for the restaurants with the best caesar dressing...made with real anchovies. not the sour, vinegary crap. and so far i've found only 2 restaurants with to die for dressing. one by the beach i go to, over an hour away, and a pizzeria in the town 10 minutes away. and sometimes 10 minutes is too far to drive. especially when you're too lazy to put on pants. so i found a recipe and figured out i had all the ingredients already in my kitchen! who knew! and let me tell you it was the bomb! (do people still say that?)

i also broke in the new mini muffin tims by making mini quiches! everything tastes better mini. and you totally lose track of how many you eat. among the fillings: roasted red pepper chickn sausage, shredded mexican cheese, spinach, scallions, and dill havarti. yes, dill havarti. yum. i made enough quiches for dinner and a snack tomorrow. once we polish the last of them off, i'm looking to dive into the tub of marinated fresh mozzerella...

dude. i really need to get to running.