On to the weekend, post-work Friday, I finished up a grad school job application, solved the Express' crossword puzzle, and created the week's g-list, ALL before a night of pasta carbonara and Turner and Hooch with my boyfriend. The boy's organizational skills far surpass mine and so he offered to clean up my cascading tower of cookbooks and mess of spices. As evidenced from the photos, he clearly killed at clean up. Unfortunately, he failed to alphabetize the cookbooks, but I guess I'll give him a pass there.
Saturday, I woke up ultra-early, considering that I took the day off, to run the Alexandria Waterfront 10K Road Race. Anders drove his friends, his cousin, and yours truly to the race course, we waited in the hot humid weather for my 10K and the others 5K, and then less than a minute into the race, it rained. Then it stopped and then it rained. This pattern continued the whole 6.2 miles. Typically, I prefer not to run in drizzling to pouring rain. However, since the air quality made it difficult to catch a full breath, I welcomed the rain. Most of the race covered my usual jogging routes which allowed me to pace myself fairly well. About .1 from the finish, a random runner challenged me to a sprint to the end. I pumped it out and ran out strong with a net time of 58:57, one minute below my last 10K time. Solid!
Sunday, I woke up hungry for BEEF. My boyfriend and I went out to the famed Ray's Hell Burger in Arlington, the home of 10 oz. burgers, a long list of standard and fancy-shmancy toppings, and Obama and Biden's controversial burger lunch (they ordered the beef medium well 0 : ). I enjoyed the freshly ground beef and my sauteed mushrooms and onions, but I'm not sure if I'd agree with all the burger hype... pretty good.. not the greatest but DEFINITELY the biggest burger I've ever devoured (slowly as always but not a scrap left). Dairy fills me up faster than meat, but I can honestly say that the Ray's burger kept residence in my belly for a solid seven hours. Oof!
Sunday night, after g-shopping at Trader Joe's, the Teet, AND Whole Foods, I set about tackling the quinoa (pronounced keen-wah). I bought the natural aka not rinsed version, so I first sifted it in and out of to two bowls as cold water poured over the seeds and repeated the process again and again and again until the water around the quinoa seemed fairly clear which took forevah! I'm aware of quinoa's high protein content and nutritional superiority to the average bowl of rice, but quinoa's a pain in the ass. I'm not a fan of rinsing food bits smaller than the holes in my strainer and a glut of the tiny white beads escaped the bowls and spread all over my sink. Grrr. Thankfully, the rest of the preparation proceeded smoothly. I brought six cups of vegetable stock to a boil, dropped the rinsed quinoa in, turned the heat to low, and let the pot go for 20 minutes as the quinoa soaked up the stock. Meanwhile, I chopped red and green onions, olives, bell peppers, and cucumbers, and tossed in a cup or so of feta in a big bowl. In a medium bowl, I whisked together lemon juice, olive oil, basil, oregano, and black pepper to form a dressing. Finally, I tossed everything together to complete the Greek quinoa salad. I resisted sampling the salad, but I think the salad dressing is a keeper (it smells like light, lemony love) and the finished product looks promising as well. Is quinoa the new couscous? Can quinoa redeem itself after initially aggravating the Rhino? Stay tuned.
Tomorrow: Coconut Layer Cake
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