But I don’t run because I’m fast. I don’t run for the speed or thrill of winning a race. I run because it clears my head. Because I love how I feel afterwards-the ache of my muslces, the sense of accomplishment. I run because I’m blessed with a body that works and lets me push it. There is a sense of freedom in running, outside of races or times or pace. I didn’t start running to be competitive or to achieve something, but simply to run for the sake of doing it.

Reading this book on running:

I’m not far enough in yet to have a definite opinion, but he seems to be telling more than just his story-he incorporates a lot about history, about running in general. Enjoying it thus far!

And I want to run this race:  http://www.oneheartforjustice.com/. Any takers to join me??

On to a culinary delight I’ve never had before, until a few weeks ago. What kind of southern gal am I, to never have had fried green tomatoes before? (I dislike sweet tea with a fierce passion…and I realize that makes me a bad southerner). Anyway, these gems came out of the garden of my mother, the farmer. 

I sliced them up, and it takes a little extra work, slicing green tomatoes, vs. red because they are pretty hard. Not soft and mushy like red tomatoes. Sprayed one side with a some cooking spray, sprinkled with seasoning salt (Crazy Jane’s is a favorite. Cavendar’s-the Greek seasoning salt is also wonderful), and slid into a fiery hot pan.

Just let those little guys hang out and soften. I covered them with a lid to speed up the process. The thicker the slices, the longer it takes for them to break down and caramelize, but given enough time, that’s what will happen. They’ll be soft and slightly sweet and full of flavor. 

They’re good plain, or with some feta sprinkled on top. I also don’t recommend eating too much…unripe foods can cause a little stomach disruption, if you know what I mean:)

Perfect for bread making. Now, this is only the most technical of bread making, because all it is is dumping a list of ingredients into the bread maker and letting it do its magic. Sometimes I forget we have one, but it is a huge time saver. I made a loaf of honey granola bread. Is there anything better than the yeasty smell of bread? That’s probably one of the reasons I like certain beers, because of that strong yeasty flavor. 

Om nom nom.

Maybe the best part of my day Monday:

So thankful for these ladies who left this-it’s nice to see people getting it “right.”

Side note: I had a family today that ordered for their kids, ranging in age from I’d say 1 1/2-9 years that ate hummus, and a pizza with garlic, spinach, broccoli, and onions. I told the mom I was pretty impressed and she just laughed and said “oh kids learn to like whatever you feed them!” I’m tucking that away for future knowledge. Back to applesauce. We grew up eating this stuff. My Grandmama had a giant apple tree in her backyard and we would climb it and pick apples. A few weeks ago, I helped pick apples off the tree in our yard. It was not quite as nostalgic as my childhood memories. Mostly it was hot, I kept getting pieces of branch and bark in my eyes, and the apples kept rolling away from me. I digress.So it goes from peeled and boiled green apples into the strainer where it is mashed around and comes out in a thick puree. It is sweetened with sugar (Splenda for me) and has some thickener put in and then it is frozen. It is possibly the best summer dessert there ever was.It is fantastic on toast, with cottage cheese, or by itself. Really, I can’t envision a bad variation of things it can be paired with.

One more tangent: It seems Mumford and Sons can do no wrong:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj0xOdE07TQ&feature=g-vrec. Please listen.

There was a Nike ad that I saw frequently during the Olympics (I didn’t hear the words to it, because I mostly saw it at work where the televisions are muted). However, there was another version that I never actually saw but that supposedly aired, with a similar theme. It featured a boy, 12 years old and overweight, running. That’s it. And the narrator talks about greatness is often believed to be reserved for a “chosen few” but that in reality it is possible for each of us to attain.

Firstly, that is such a true statement. We often think that if we aren’t of a certain caliber, then we aren’t capable of doing much of anything. That is true in sports, in fitness, in our jobs, in anything in life. And we are fed images and stories constantly about those that are achieving great things and they become our models and the standard to which we try to stack up. But really, we’re all capable of anything, anyone can achieve greatness. And how often do we see those “great” models fail or merely show their humanity and we stand by as they are lambasted for it.

I love the quote from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, “Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” Whatever mode we come by greatness, it is there for everyone. And isn’t greatness in the eyes of the beholder, perhaps? What someone deems a great thing maybe isn’t all that much to someone else.

Secondly, this kid (Nathan) has come under a lot of fire for doing this commercial. So have his parents for supposedly exploiting him. During the interview, I think that was made pretty clear that wasn’t the case. If it has any positive effect, whether on someone watching, or simply on Nathan as motivation, I think the effort was beyond worth it.

What is greatnesss-is it what we do, what we achieve, who we are? I certainly don’t believe our greatness is defined by what we look like, or how fit we are. Maybe somehow that all fits in, but no singular thing defines greatness in a life.

Go watch it yourself and see what you think:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JnYcuRW_qo&feature=related

This fantastic little guy was caught earlier this week. (And by fantastic, I mean a fantastically huge nuisance…) He had been digging deep holes throughout the yard looking for grubs.

We didn’t eat him, he was not the meat in our Botswana meal. I won’t tell you where he ended up.

Last night we went on a little trip to Botswana, where my brother was all summer. And by “little trip” I mostly just mean he fixed us Botswanan food: beef and cabbage, pap (pronounced “pop”), and corn. The beef was marinated in a soy sauce, garlic, ginger, and pepper sauce, and the cabbage was cooked with onions and tomatoes. Very unique flavors and very African. Actually, it is eating every last bit with your fingers that makes it authentically African.Pap is a Botswanan variation of the typically African cornmeal mush. I say mush because that really is what it is-cornmeal cooked in boiling water until it is congealed and mashed easily. We had it in Tanzania with almost every meal, except there it was called ugali.

Tapenade stuffed eggplant boats

1 eggplant, cut lengthwise

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons tapenade

feta (optional)

Bake eggplant halves in 450 degree oven until middle is soft. Let cool. Scoop out the insides and mash until they are smooth. Mix in with the tapenade mixture. Spoon tapenade back into eggplants. Bake again for 10 minutes. Let cool. Enjoy!

*I think the tapenade tastes better cold, or at least at room temperature, which is why I think letting the eggplant cool is a good idea. When the tapenade is hot, it has a different flavor.

Hello giant sunflower. And I do mean giant, at 10 feet tall. They sure are cheerful. Amazingly, they seem to be thriving despite this heat. Every day it is like waking up in a steam bath. Or an oven. Or a dryer. I just try to think of how much I loathe winter and cold wind, take a deep breath and decide this is not unbearable. And then feel the sweat trickle down and decide it is preeeety darn close.

But back to something cheerful. Like good old hippie food: tofu. I’ve been accused, more than once, of being a vegetarian, a vegan, a hippie. I’m fine with any of those, except vegan (do you realize how much dairy and cheese I subsist off of? Cheese is my main protein!) But rest assured, as much as I love the soy, the tempeh, the veggies, I do love meat. No lie.

Cranberry vinaigrette tofu with feta and basil. Marinated quickly (5ish minutes, more time would have been better), grilled on the stove top, and then cooled with feta chunks and freshly chopped basil. Delicious.

Tofu is best when it has a lot of time to soak up the flavor of it’s seasonings for a long time, but grilling it and letting a little bit of char develop on the outside is a good way to expedite the process. Plus, I just love charred things. 

Time for Olympics. Go USA!

This guest column was in the Northwest Arkansas Times this morning. Thought I’d share

The initial moments after tragedy strikes are filled with confusion, anger, and questions. Last Friday I had been planning to go see The Dark Knight Rises with friends. I got to work in the morning and the first thing I heard about and saw on the television was the news of the shootings in Colorado. A coworker informed me a six year old was among those killed. My first question was, why in the world did someone have their six year old kid at a movie like that? I’m not a huge fan of dark films so I could barely handle the first two Batman movies, much less comprehend a young child watching them without nightmares. I acknowledge that is hardly the issue at hand; that the real issue is that someone chose to open fire. I was so disturbed by the disconcerting reel of stories on the news about the shootings that I sold my ticket. I instead spent the night with those precious to me: my family, my 4-week old niece.

Subsequent news articles can only fill you with sorrow for those affected, with anger at the injustice, with doubt and disbelief. And then the questions begin. What is our role in a monstrosity like this? Who bears responsibility? Does the accountability fall solely on the perpetrator, or did others aid in his demise into derangement? Events like these are, to me, more alarming and discomfiting than a terrorist attack or the horrors of war. Those are evils, yes, but there is a discernible motive in them. A random attack on innocent people by one person who is obviously suffering from mental delusions is unpredictable, unforeseen, frightening. It leads one to feel unsafe and nervous when going through the most mundane chores or activities: grocery shopping, going for a run, going to work. Just today, in fact, there was an altercation at church where a man was heckling the preacher as he began his talk. Unfortunately, the events of the weekend were the first thing that came to mind and something that in the end was harmless became stressful.

James Holmes was a seemingly normal person—someone intelligent (perhaps even brilliant) who was in a Ph.D. program. If he exhibited no irrational behavior before, then went crazy enough to commit such a crime, what influenced him to do so? A friend who had been to the midnight premiere of Batman was telling me that the most disturbing part for him was that as he watched the intensely dark actions of the antagonist, he felt as though it simply gave the “crazy” people in the world more ideas on how to be crazy. Which begs the question (in my mind): does Hollywood hold any responsibility in this? And not just the movies, but the gaming industry, books, graphic novels, etc.

No, Hollywood did not make Holmes, or any of the other shooters in mass murders do what they did. In the end, it was a human who made a choice to wield a gun and inflict harm. But nor is it the same as gun-control or obesity in which the gun is to blame for shooting or the fork for carrying food from the plate to the mouth. It is not an issue of gun control or controlling people’s nutrition for them. Guns and forks are inanimate objects, nothing more, and are useless unless directed by a conscious human being. But that is what films and media do; they plant images and ideas that slip into our stream of consciousness and subconscious unknowingly and they unwittingly can affect our actions.

A fascinating book about getting kids to eat a wide variety of foods that are healthy and not having them snack constantly. One of the reasons it is so interesting is because in a lot of ways it seems so simple…so common sense. Like, if you don’t snack midmorning, you’ll be hungrier for lunch. If you eat a well-balanced meal, with high-satiety items (a good mix of carbs, protein, and a small amount of fat) ypu’ll be more full through out the day until your next meal. That being said, it was thought provoking and had lots of good ideas for parents. Some fun recipes are included too.

Can we just talk for a moment about the Olypmics? I am a little bit obsessed. Actually, a lot, if we are honest. I get a little distracted at work watching them, but pretty much the Olypmics win over anything else. Swiiming and running are the best, but I will watch anything. Anything.

Listen to this song:http://www.youtube.com/OldCrowMedicineShow-WagonWheel

Read this book: French Kids Eat Everything

Don’t watch these movies: A Little Bit of Heaven or Mirror Mirror (I have yet to see one good rendition of Snow White), but be excited about all the amazing movies coming out (Anna Karenina, The Great Gatsby, Les Miserables, and The Hobbit).