Getting back in the groove!

Over the holidays I did a lot of stuff.

• Hung out with family
• Hung out with friends
• Went to the dog park with Wookie!
• Caught up on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, New York and Orange County (Thanks Dad!)
• Went to the Hill Country(Boerne and Fredericksurg)
• Saw a movie
• Went to the Riverwalk and saw the lights.
• Ate. A lot. 
• I ate a lot of good food at good restaurants and at home.

What I didn't do:

• Keep up with my running from my couch to 5K training. (Or much exercise period, unless you count Wii bowling, tennis and golf.)

So this week I  did the following:

• Got back into the gym with a friend on Wednesday
• This morning my office announced another Biggest Loser (Girls vs. Girls and Boys vs. Boys so I might stand a chance with no Europe trip (Sad Panda) in the middle of it.) 
• This afternoon I hit the pavement with Wookie! and did 2.73 miles in 50 minutes

This was not bad for the first time on the streets since early December 2011.  My jogrun was decent, but something was off in my shoes and I ended up walking probably half the time. (And I was getting some awful side stitches.) Apparently, when bonding with Wookie! at the dog park I used some old crummy sneakers and put my good insoles (that help me combat the awesomeness that is plantar fasciitis) in them. 

I never moved the inserts back into my workout/running shoes. (Face.palm.)

I realized this after my workout at the gym on Wednesday when my shoes felt loose.  I remembered laying the inserts next to my sneakers to put them in before the next gym trip and apparently I didn't realize I didn't have them in until I was a 1/3 mile from my house. Far enough to not turn around.

So at about 2 miles in my feet said no more and it took the other 0.73 to get home.  Wookie! was also throwing in the towel and has been recovering ever since we walked in the door.  

Yay for a tired puppy letting us sleep in tomorrow morning!

Fredericksburg's The Rathskeller

Justin and I spent a couple of awesome days in Fredericksburg, TX, before the new year. During this wonderful little trip we were lucky enough to stumble into the Rathskeller for breakfast.  It was across the street from the Fredericksburg Brewery Bed and Brew where we stayed.

If you do one thing while you are in Fredericksburg you should eat breakfast at the Rathskeller.

Image from Trip Advisor

Justin ordered and enjoyed an awesome spin on the typical corn beef hash concept.  His had duck, with perfectly juicy skin. I was jealous when I saw his plate, but that was before I really paid attention to mine. I ordered the smoked salmon on potato patties with over easy eggs, sour cream and caviar. After one bite I realized I needed to replicate this awesome meal at home. While the combination might sound crazy, it's really just crazy good.

I made it and you should too, especially if you can't get to Fredericksburg.

It was pretty simple:

What you need for one plate:

• Two potato patties
• Two to Three large thin slices of smoked salmon
• Two eggs that you'll cook to your liking. (I'm an over easy girl)
• Sour Cream (full fat, low fat, no fat- you pick your poison), top to your liking
• Two to three teaspoons Yellow caviar (or roe)

Now to put it all together:

1. Bake frozen potato patties according to package instructions. (I said simple right! I'm not making these from scratch, through the Rathskeller might've.) You should be able to find these in the frozen food section.  Heck, I bet pre-made hashbrown patties would be pretty tasty too. (I'm kinda hoping it goes without saying that you then put them on a plate next to each in the fashion seen below.)

2. Lay two-three large slices of smoked salmon across the top of the potato patties.

3. Carefully, oh so very carefully, place the almost perfectly cooked over easy eggs (or however you take them) on top of the salmon, one egg per patty. (I cooked them while the potato patties were baking.)

4. Top with sour cream and caviar.  (I might have gone over board on both here, but Justin didn't complain about it.)
                                                

Then just dig in and enjoy!  Sorry no pictures of the empty plates.  You'd probably think they looked weird anyway because we licked them clean. (Just kidding about licking them clean. Sorta.)

The awesome thing about this meal, is you don't have to wait until the morning to eat it, this would be great anytime of the day!

I guess this can be filed under healthy cooking, if you really do bake the potato patties, go with fat free sour cream, and aren't as heavy handed as I was with it. 

Garage Makeovers

Apparently 2012 is the year of the Barbour casa getting some much needed attention. A couple of hours ago Justin wrapped up putting together and installing a work bench in the corner of the garage that contained the chaos of our (er, his?) tools.

Can't wait to see what this baby is going to help churn out. Day one of 2012 and home improvement projects are already being completed.

Here's a before and after!