Dinner, New-er Book, and Success

This was our dinner tonight.  I didn't finish all of it, but it was good!  It is parmesan encrusted tilapia (a huge hit for everyone in our house), Persian super basmati rice, and steamed broccoli with a little Molly McButter on top.  The kids can't get enough of the parmesan tilapia and they love rice plain.  Broccoli, on the other hand, is only a hit with mom and dad!

I know that in one of my recent posts I said that I was going to read Ultramarathon Man.  I had every intention to do so, but my great sister-in-law said that Born to Run was the buzz book at the moment.  I went to amazon.com and looked it up, and the premise was much more interesting than UMM.  I'm about 80% done with BtR, and I LOVE it.  Christopher McDougall did a great job with the book.  It feels more like a narrative than a running how to book.  He definitely favors barefoot running.  It makes me a little excited to take my fivefingers out for a run soon.  He looks into the science and history of running in an interesting way.  Two amazing runners who have inspired me (thanks to the book) are Emil Zatopek and Scott Jurek.  They were/are amazing people who happen(ed) to also be great athletes.  They're definitely worth looking up on Wikipedia.

Success- I met my running goal for today!  It was so pretty exhilarating :)
Here's a breakdown of my run:
4 miles @5.5mph
0.5 miles @5mph
0.5 miles @4.5mph
The rest @4mph

Total miles = 5.51
Total calories burned = 986

I have to say that I am incredibly grateful for my running partner, Terilyn.  She's the reason I was able to finish my first 5K in just over 33 minutes, and it is so much easier to run 4+ miles with her on the path or treadmill with me.  If you're trying to pick up running, a running friend is invaluable.  I'm good at pushing myself, but I am more determined when I know that someone else is counting on my to reach the goals I've set for myself.  Having a blog to keep me accountable has also been great.  I appreciate all of the blog comments, e-mails and Facebook comments I receive from people who read my posts.  It definitely helps me keep my eye on the prize.

Terilyn and I are scouting out 5Ks, 10Ks and half marathons!  It's possible that we will attempt a half marathon in the fall :)

Late St. Patrick's Day Dinner

We managed to have our late St. Patrick's Day dinner last weekend.  I was crazy sick the whole week before.  Luckily, I was on the mend in time to disinfect the house and get the corned beef, root vegetables and dessert parfaits together.  Our friends brought over an insanely beautiful bouquet from the farmer's market in downtown Wiesbaden.  If you're curious about Alton Brown's corned beef that I blogged about making here, I thought it turned out great!  We didn't have the salt peter necessary for the nice, pink color that most corned beef has, but the flavor was great!  I also served root vegetables with a garlic herb butter.  I had never tried parsnips before.  They're kind of like a mild carrot.  Interesting stuff.

My favorite part of the meal *because I'm a sugar junky* was the mint fudge brownie parfaits.

YUM!  I found the recipe at Confessions of a Cookbook Queen.  It's a great blog!  I searched a ton of stores (a friend did a lot of searching for me, too) for cute jars to make these guys in, but it didn't work out.  Apparently caning/jarring isn't super popular in Germany in early spring.  Hopefully I'll manage to snag a few dozen during the summer months.  I even had some cute green ribbon to tie around the jars...next year!  This year I had to make due with regular glasses.  I think they turned out pretty cute :)

Thanks to a friend we even had some delicious Irish Soda Bread. She brought it pretty much straight of the oven and it was amazing.  Here's a picture.

*****EDITED TO ADD*****
Meredith's Irish Soda Bread Recipe!
Irish Soda Bread
prep time: 15 min / cook time: 50 min
Ingredients
    •    4 cups all-purpose flour
    •    4 tablespoons white sugar
    •    1 teaspoon baking soda
    •    1 tablespoon baking powder
    •    1/2 teaspoon salt
    •    1/2 cup margarine, softened
    •    1 cup buttermilk
    •    1 egg
    •    1/4 cup butter, melted
    •    1/4 cup buttermilk

Directions
    1.    Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease a large baking sheet.
    2.    In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and margarine. Stir in 1 cup of buttermilk and egg. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead slightly. Form dough into a round and place on prepared baking sheet. In a small bowl, combine melted butter with 1/4 cup buttermilk; brush loaf with this mixture. Use a sharp knife to cut an 'X' into the top of the loaf.
    3.    Bake in preheated oven for 45 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean, about 30 to 50 minutes. You may continue to brush the loaf with the butter mixture while it bakes.
 *****End Edit*****

Another friend brought over a really great cake with berries baked into it.  I didn't manage to get a good picture of it but it was lovely!

I'm sorry that this post wasn't super exciting.  I'll be posting new pictures of our house and of course silly stories about my kids this week.  :)