the proud, the few. and 26.2.

thinking is overrated. so i say, stop already. stop thinking, just do. trust me when i tell you this is a pretty good way to navigate life.





as you well know, i don't like to think about things much before doing them. mostly this works out nicely.

let's for a moment review some life-changing decisions i didn't give much thought to:


adopting philippe, one of the smartest, most handsome and fashion-forward dogs i've ever met;
buying house;
moving to dc;
quitting well-paid job with lots of vacation and bennies, and going to culinary school to make $11 an hour for three years;

i do all sorts of wild and wacky without thought. and look, i turned out ok...right? i'm sure there are some doozies i can't even think of right now.

so back in april, i received a quick email from best girlfriend that probably went something like this: i'm signing up for the marine corps marathon. here's the link if you want to join!

without thinking, i clicked the link, typed in my cc info and was redirected to the confirmation page. i'm officially signed up to run marine corps marathon, october 25, 2009. easy breezy. and everyone says it's so hard to get in.

i started training immediately by buying new shoes, cool running clothes, the nike+ ipod gear which tracks all that mumbo jumbo about how far you've gone and your pace. the best thing about it is the kickass feature of "power song" where you simply hit the center button and your most motivating song of choice immediately takes over your ipod, sending your tired ass into overdrive. i created a playlist called "marathon" with all my favorites to keep me in the training mood.

i was doing good in my pre-training. up to 8 miles for my weekly long run and philippe was right there with me too. he's amazing that one. handsome and athletic.

well two months later my training hit a speed bump, called burn out. i just stopped running.

then official training season began in june, my girlfriend she just keeps at it. she's given up fun friday nights for pasta and making bogus banana bread, and running those dreadful saturday morning long ass runs when you and i are still in bed - well not you and i together - you in yours and me in mine. i quietly attend to my sleep or coffee-drinkin and meet up with her for brunch as if i was right there with her. exhausted. sometimes wearing workout gear [poser].

i never officially decided or spread the word that i wasn't running the marathon. don't ask, don't tell. i appreciated that no one was asking because i wasn't comfortable with being a backer-outer. i don't like to half-ass things.

you know i'm an all or nothing girl head to toe. i'm either fully engaged in something or i want nothing to do with it. to the extreme.

as the race day approaches, i'm taking on all sorts of cheffing jobs before and after because the mcm is not on my calendar. wtf? why did i never actually put it on my calendar? [does this mean i never intended to do it, doctor?]

subconsciously trying to weasel out, i scheduled 7 events in the 3 days following marathon day. busy week, no? but the day i really realized, was when a client asked me to cook for a sunday afternoon party, late october. never wanting to turn business down i got the job covered by a chef friend. i'd cook, she'd pick up food from me at 2 pm, race day. i can figure this logistical nightmare out. or if i can't - work is a great excuse to not run, right?

mcm eve, i went over to friend's house to prepare for race: carbo-loading on two enormous bowls of pasta bigger than my head. yum. if you saw how much i ate you'd realize why there was no choice but to run. i tell her i'm going to run half with her and then peel off.

in store for me the rest of the evening is party prep. totally opposite of a marathon, a sprint to get finished hors d'oeuvres for 50.

at 6:15 am, friend and i are heading towards the air-filled balloon arches that are the starting line of the marine corps marathon. i assure you whatever your level of ass drag this morning, you are suddenly alive and attuned to how magnificent this is. what a tremendous spectacle unfolds.

there are thousands of runners. the race begins with the wheelchair marathoners. if you can't get inspired by that, well put your head back into the sand, ya jackass. seriously.

my girlfriend and i start off together but i separate because last-minute dude decided to show up to run and they're all chatty and gaga.

the people running: in all shapes and sizes. in halloween costumes. in t-shirts with their names on them. in shirts with the name of a soldier they run in honor of. dead? alive?

and many are soldiers themselves. in fatigues. and combat boots. carrying flags. and backpacks. there was even a barefooted man. next thing you know 9 miles have come and gone.

now my knee hurts but i'm looking for my friend who is coming to support and cheer. i know she's surprised to see me because well, if i didn't think i was running this thing... this gives me a much needed burst of energy. i've lost marathon girlfriend and as i decide to text her to ask, i find that my beloved bberry is malfunctioning due to being in sweaty back pocket. that's gross. i know. huge bummer.

a sign from the crowd keeps appearing throughout this race btw.

pain is temporary, glory is forever

i thought it was cheesy the first time i saw it. but by the 4th time i thought, hell yeah, no $hit. bring it mothertruckers.


streets of dc are lined with thousands of cheerleaders. this is probably the reason people finish this amazing race. i know without question if not for these people i wouldn't have.

so at mile 13, in my mind i give myself permission to stop at any time. i have $20 taxi fare in my pocket, next to my lipgloss, which i have reapplied at least three times by now. hey, you never know who you're going to run into.

every 5 miles i'm eating these jello shots my friend told me to eat. i think these are baby miracle-makers because i feel good. and btw if anyone tells you that chocolate flavored goo is disgusting, don't listen. i got my paws on one and it was like chocolate pudding. hit the spot. when doesn't chocolate come in handy?

i'm pretty sure i consumed more calories than i expended that day. hmm.

at mile 14/15 i see cheerleading friend from mile 9. what, is she a vampire? how does she get from place to place so freakin fast?

at mile 17 i have to use the facilities on pennsylvania avenue. i saw portapeepees with no lines. this is like seeing an oasis in the desert. did you know they stock them with purell hand-sanitizer? brilliant.

at mile 18/19 i know i have friends who came out to watch the runners. i spot them. yay. you have no idea how important this is.

approaching mile 20 i haven't a clue as to what i'm about to be in for. you see, i never checked out the map because that would've been like i was planning to be at mile 20. it's here i tell myself two lies: 1) the marathon is only 25 miles because the last mile doesn't count and 2) i can run 5 miles - anyone can run 5 miles

mile 20-22 is the most brutal segment: the 14th street bridge taking you from dc back into virginia. i see some smileycheering friends - yay. but i'm really pissed i didn't jump out the race because now i just want to jump off this bridge. so boring, so devoid of cheerleaders, so flat and boring. people are dropping like flies here needing to stretch out the kinks or cramps or whatever. i scream in my head: if this bridge is only one mile long i'm going to kill someone. because it feels like 5.

on the other side of the bridge i'm hysterically searching for a mile marker. i need to know how far to go.

i finally see mile marker 23, which i'm sure is a typo. because i feel like this must be 26.

miles 24/25 are truly loathsome. this is where the wheels fall off/the wall is hit for many. it's not a pretty stretch. thankfully this was one of the most gorgeous days of the year. it's probably 60 degrees and sunny.

at this point your brain can tell your body to get a move on but your body gives you the bird, the double bird and a few choice words. i temper this urge to sprint with the thought i don't want to be one of these people on the side of the road with massive cramps. slow and steady wins the blah blah blah, right?

mile 25 the crowd gets bigger again. you see people who have finished meandering back this way - people have finished and are still alive is positive reinforcement. my friends again. happyconfused to see me, cameras in hand, wtf? is that jt? yes, it's me, people, and i'm almost done and in a hurry no less.

i smile and pose continuing. no time for hugs and kisses now. i'm sure of only one fact: my lipgloss is still perfect.

mile 26 is amazing. then cruel because the final .2 is a crazysteep hill. that's not a funny joke. i'm thinking in my head, you've got to be effing kidding me. no i just said that aloud. click: power song.

thank you flo-rida. seriously. you do spin me right round, baby. right round and up the hill to cross the finish line.

i grab my medal and an aluminum foil snuggie i think you're supposed to don for drama's sake, kudos and poor babies. i have got to motor like nobody's business. as much as i'd like to wait for friends and hugs and congrats, i've gotta get my fanny in a taxi. i have frosting to make. and dijonnaise. and shrimp to marinate.

first i have to walk a couple of uphill miles to find a taxi. i'm cussing like a sailor. my driver gets a full on $5 tip i was so happy to find him.

thankfully operation party food is also a success so i can spend the remainder of the day at marathon after party, sipping champagne with my brave friend who dedicated herself to training for months. what a champ. because without thousands of cheerleaders i could never do those distance runs on saturday mornings.

i can't effectively put it into words without sounding cliche but the real heroes are the people who we run in honor of. the soldiers and vets. the wounded alive. the dead who gave. it's tremendously awe-inspiring. once i finally had time to reflect i think the whole day was a perfect miracle because we have to thank them somehow.

p.s. i just now read all the potential hazards of running a marathon, including death. see, this is why you just do, rather than think. wiki would've scared the bejesus outta me with all that info prior to running.

fried blah blah blah. a recipe.

you know you can fry anything right?

people love fried. they love you for making it. they love you for serving it. they kinda want to hug you. they gaze upon you with admiration and awe. their gaze moves from you to the fried blah blah blah and they get all mouthwatery googly eyed. some even get a little romantic.

i don't blame them. i get it.

last night i was the girl serving fried oreos. fried what? yep oreo cookies, fried. evile.

(btw, people also like things served on a stick. so next time you're throwin a party and feel like doing all the work yourself, just fry stuff or put a stick in it. or put a stick in it and fry it. hell, double up and you'll get loads of kudos. besides, once you commit to the heat and mess and smell and possible fire danger a fryer provides, you might as well batter and fry everything in sight.)

one of my fabulous clients asked me to create state fair food for a themed event. as you well know, i love a challenge.

sometimes luck's on my side though. and this didn't turn out to be a challenge at all. it was easy as pie, as they [and by they, i mean people who've never made pie] say.

it was easy as fried oreos.

so, here ya go. i'm sharing on this happy friday, an easy recipe because sharing time's a happy time. and i love to spread the happy. whatever. i'm cheesyhappy to be off work for a couple days.

these were the hit of the party, as you can imagine. i totally recommend making these for breakfast on sunday. try it. and this batter is a good catch-all recipe for frying fillintheblank pretty much whatever i think.

ingredients:

2 cups bisquick
2 eggs
1 1/2 c milk
3 teaspoons vegetable oil

plus vegetable oil for frying
1 package oreo cookies
powdered sugar

method:
whisk together bisquick, eggs, milk and 3 tsp oil until smooth

heat oil in a pot to about 375 degrees

dip oreos in batter to cover and carefully place in oil

using slotted spoon, turn them to brown on both sides

remove to paper towel

dust with powdered sugar

serve warm

die

go to heaven

ray's the steaks, 2300 wilson blvd, arlington, va

there's always been a buzz about ray's the steaks. people who've tried ray's either love it or hate it for reasons that mostly boil down to expectations and ambience. what's not to love? here's a cluebird for ya: read reviews before you dine out. not every resto should offer the same old sheet. it's what makes the world go round. i like to embrace these differences.

recently ray's moved down the street from its not-so-attractive stripmall location, allowing owner michael landrum to triple the number of covers he served in a night. bonus for you: the address of the new ray's the steaks is horsepuckey. don't let its wilson blvd address fool you into thinking it's actually on wilson. it's on clarendon blvd. for the love of arlington's 19 starbucks in a 2-mile radius, i give up trying to understand the whole clarendon wilson blvd thing.

so here's how i wind up at ray's a coupla thursdays ago. i bumped in to some friends on the way to the dogpark one afternoon; a coolio fun easygoing couple who used to be my neighbors. they suggested dinner at ray's the steaks. how nice is it that? i haven't been in moons. plus i love having dinner parties with people i don't see very often. keeps life interesting, no? they said they'd arrange everything and text me the deets. which they did. well in advance of the reservation.

well, i didn't have it on my calendar, because my assistant had taken the week off. silly ditzy girl.

kidding. come on, people. i am my assistant and my life is an effing trainwreck.

turns out, i double-booked myself, having scheduled yet another mind-numbing blind date the same night. [cut me some slack before you judge. i'm trying to gather some more material for this lame-ass blog.]

i couldn't postpone the blind date because he was driving [horse and buggy] from amish-country lancaster, pennsylvania. what the? i know, i know. one of these days i'll come across a charming gentleman who lives between 1 and 6 miles from me.

i couldn't cancel dinner with friends and look like a flakasaurus rex. well that and they mentioned something about a hottie single friend joining.

how smart am i? dinner at 6:30; blind date at 8:30.

if you know anything about ray's, besides the fact that it's a well-regarded and reasonably-priced steak house, you know it's a get 'em in getemoutasfastaspossible burn and churn kind of resto. an hour an half for dinner here is totally doable.

most people know that anytime you double-book yourself, things don't go exactly as your pea brain intends. you end up having unforeseen best time of your life at engagement #1 and subsequently visualizing ways to dodge engagement #2.

we'll call that jt's law of double-booking. it has an equal and opposite outcome too, which is when you want to disengage from a boring situation to mosey along to a merrier one.

just as i'm sashaying through the door, i see my friend and favorite dc sommelier, james beard foundation award-winner, mark slater. he recently left michel richard citronelle after 12 years and joined ray's as wine director for all of michael landrum's restos, ray's the steaks, ray's hellburger and ray's the classics. what a doll baby.

and while he's a wine-stud he is not the supercilious sommelier he could be - even though his brain holds a $hit-ton of viniferous information. mark has a legendary talent for discovering fascinating wines under $40. if you see him when you visit ray's, by all means, enlist his assistance in choosing a great bottle. that's what he's there for. for us, he sent us some yummy bubbly followed by a lovely bold malbec for dinner.

so we're seated at the best table in the house - right in the middle of all the action. i should mention here that the fellow with my neighbors is indeed, hot. all caps. not only is he terribly attractive, he's california dude rockstar trendy. and healthy looking. trust me when i tell you we don't have these creatures running rampant in dc. not straight ones anyway.

i don't know why all the people on yelp, donrockwell.com and tripadvisor blah, blah, blah are always talking about the lack of decor at ray's. who gives a frog's fat ass? i find it refreshing that it's minimalistic. it's simple. clean. what if when there's not a bunch of cluttery filling up all possible white space, you actually focus on the food and conversation [and getting the hell out as fast as ray's can get you gone]. ray's is totally family-friendly too btw. there's all sorts of clientele here - and yes, mark confirms that they do indeed serve 300-400 people a night here. standard ops.

even though he talks incessantly, i find the brawny chap next to me really interesting because he's in the process of opening a few restaurants in dc. smart and pretty? and stylish? crap i have a blind date in an hour with a guy from amish country.

it would be really rude of me to call in sick, wouldn't it? even if guy next to me is really shiny and pretty?

back to the food. ray's offers a crazygood deal: 3 courses for $23.95. first course of salad or soup, main course of either the scallops, the top sirloin or the hanger steak and choice of dessert. how oklahoma of them - i love it. i'm totally here for beef. that's what they do. really well.

the lovely mr. slater is reading my appetizer-loving mind and takes charge in sending us a few: the steak tartare "deviled" eggs. i love steak tartare with all my heart, i do. so flippin cute this is, i can barely stand it. i'm stealing this idea. deviled eggs are all the rage now if you haven't heard. you can stuff anything into a boiled egg right? they needed a little more salt. surprise, surprise. he also has the kitchen deliver a demitasse cup of the crab soup. full of flavor and muy delicioso. and, where on earth can you get bacon as an appetizer? here, friends. uber-thick slices of applewood smoked bacon perched atop a sweet tuft of sauerkraut. an order of angry shrimp comes as well, or shrimp diablo - super spicy, i warn you. but i like it. in moments our salads come and minutes after that (remember, they're all business at ray's and they want to fill your seat with someone else's arse as soon as they can) steaks arrive. mine, i went for the hanger steak - slightly tougher than other cuts and not as juicy, but bursting with meatiness. you have your choice of varied sauces and other things like roasted garlic or roquefort to top your steak. i chose a port reduction along with roasted garlic. it's likely i'm not kissing anyone tonight. who doesn't love garlic anyway? i was real happy with my choices.

i look at my watch to discover it's 8 and we haven't ordered dessert. "i've got a blind date at 8:30," i inform mr. pretty.

"what? cancel." is his response. as tempting as this is, i must adhere to my prior commitment but promise to ditch out of blind date if i'm not enjoying amish country. upon my return from powdering my nose and checking my pearly whites, desserts have arrived. i manage to capture a bite of each. do try the key lime pie. it was the winner. the chocolate and white chocolate mousses (meese?) are so-so, though i'm not that much of a mousse girl anyhow. cheesecake was good i think but i really needed more time with it to be sure. tiny peanut butter chocolate petit fours are a perfect touch that come - next to the check of course.

hate to eat and run but hey, it's ray's and if you're not running out they'll probably run you out.

i'll have to reinvestigate mr. pretty another time.

co co sala 9th & f streets, dc

i've been known to sit in front of my tv eating chocolate chips out of the bag while sipping a glass of cabernet...for dinner.


laugh all you want but for those who haven't tried it, well i recommend it - with caution. you see, when you eat a chocolate chip, then have a sip of your wine (assuming it's one that goes well with the chocolate), well all bets are off, my friend. the wine tastes better with the chocolate and the chocolate tastes better with the wine and so on and so forth. each brings out the flavor of the other.


one can plow through the entire bag of chocolate chips and the bottle of wine. you have to be careful with such an enterprise. no one likes a big fat drunk.

now that you know i love chocolate and wine together, you can understand my excitement over a new spot in dc that specializes in chocolates and wine. co co sala is uber-chic. music from underworld (or some other such group) fills the rooms, the red, the black, dark colors, glass, everything is very modular. mini fireplaces seem to pop up magically throughout the restaurant, and they're at eye-level. random, but cool. perfect on this rainy, chilly evening in the early fall.



i have to say i missed the food. due to the lack of blinking parking on this street and all streets around, and a full-on lack of parking garages, and no valet (at 8 pm - though the valet showed up around 9 - what gives?!), the girls had ordered and gobbled up the appetizers they ordered by the time i finally arrived (in a stressed out frenzy but still looking fabulous due to the illegal, right-up-front park job i finally decided to make since it was raining and i was late). what i can tell you is this: they shared shrimp mac & cheese, swordfish sliders and aztec cheese course - a mini enchilada with some accoutrements. they raved about the yummy little plates - all about $7 each. sorry i missed them - right up my alley.



we sat at the back bar - oh my, though they don't look it, these must be the most comfortable bar stools ever. they are square, brown soft leather and so cushy. we had a spectacular view of the open kitchen back here so i could see the efforts of the chefs as they work. shiny burger buns brushed with butter before being whisked off to their tables by well-endowed, red wrap-dressed ladies. (yes, i marveled at how good these ladies looked in their wrap dresses - boobies everywhere.) the final details being perched upon each plate. (not the boobies, you gutter brains - back to the food - the final details of the food were perched upon the plates!)


a portion of the bar is glass, showcasing the chocolates and bon bons you can purchase and take with you in their shiny little boxes with gold letters. the crowd is sophisticated, smart young professionals in designer suits - not the boring capitol hill staffer suits. like the chocolates, the crowd is complex and refined. a gentleman kindly sent us a round of "shots". these shots were a varied and heavenly composition of chocolate mousses (meese? mice?). a tiny spoon for each of us to taste. holy hazelnuts these were enchanting for this chocoholic. color me in love.


make sure you visit the restrooms before over-imbibing or if you're directionally challenged like me. the windows and mirrors are deceiving and you might find yourself pushing on doors that aren't doors at all. i can't even explain what happened - you have to experience it for yourself. this was like being on the starship enterprise and i disappeared for a minute. well, whatever. looking like a buffoon momentarily is a small price you pay for being in such a trendy restaurant.

by the way, this place was a cool bargain, as well; i got out with a $25 tab. this is unheard of, but believe me, i'm not making this up.


i know i haven't offered too much information in the way of the food here but if you want to check out a trendy spot, different from most places i've found lately, try co co sala.