Inaugural JLSA's Resolve for a Better SA 5K

Alternately titled: One of the many reasons I haven't posted much in the last year.

This morning the Junior League of San Antonio held it's inaugural Resolve for a Better SA 5K. Behind the name- it's still fairly early in the new year and getting healthy/being active is a common resolution and making a better SA is what JLSA is all about.

I was fortunate enough to be on the planning committee for this (in addition to other responsibilities for JLSA), but when you believe in something you make it happen.

And did these ladies make it happen. It helped that we took a couple of 5K planning trips to Port A, that really got our gears turning, and we all completed the audacious 12 races in 12 months. So we've done our race research.

At our last run- Color Me Rad, from left to right: Our fearless leader Mireya, Erica -Communications Extraordinaire, Kristen- Master of Volunteer Coordination, and Me- "We can always move the table later" Ariana

We had a veteran community runner in our midsts and he posted about the run on a Runner's World Forum. Thanks to Scottydog for supporting our event! You can read his post on the forum here.

Thanks to everyone who came out to support the event (almost 300 registered runners and walkers), signed up to fundraise and donated to those who fundraised!   You are helpling JLSA support over 60 Community Agencies with volunteer time and money. Things like this don't happen without people supporting them and awesomely patient spouses who let them get planned.

2012 Year in Review.

What to say about 2012?

It had it's ups and downs.

My family mourned the loss of my paternal Grandmother early this year. She lived a long full life and because of her we are all here. She was a mother, a traveler, an ice skater, a storyteller, an artist. She loved and is loved and she will always be remembered.

In comparison to that the other low points are not even blips on the radar. Her long full life is a reminder to constantly go and create my own stories and I definitely did my best this year.

I completed my second half-marathon, this time properly training and beating my first time by almost an hour. Thanks to a lovely group of ladies (and one of their committed husbands and the constant cheering on from my own) I completed one race a month, besides the half along with all of them.

I've had the honor of being on the Junior League of San Antonio Board of Directors as the Community Council Chair for the 2012-2013 year (the fun continues until May of 2013).

Justin and I traveled. Mostly together, sometimes separately. We went to Minnesota to remember my Grandmother, Leakey on the Frio River to celebrate friends, San Francisco to celebrate the 4th of July with Amy and Doug, Las Vegas to celebrate birthdays, Madrid/Toledo/Paris/Brussels/Barcelona to celebrate Christmas.

I went to Cabo and Rockport/Port Aransas to celebrate friendships and Austin to celebrate music at ACL.

We renovated our kitchen. Not with our own hands, unless writing checks counts. We are smart enough to know our limits. So soon we will travel to our dining room to celebrate cooking in our house.

It's been a year to remember. The ups and the downs.

Seven days until finish two.

One week from today I will be done with my second half marathon (2012 Rock 'n' Roll San Antonio).  Because my first one was so awful (due to improper training- my mom was a rockstar, I was a weakling) it's almost like this is the first one.

I am stoked. I am ready to go out and rock this thing. I am ready to work on my running speed after this is over, since I won't have to focus on my distance.  Saturday mornings will be all mine again.  You see when your jogrun is at about 13:30 minutes a mile (just under 4.5 mph), even the longest run done so far, at 10 miles, takes you over 2 hours.

Last time it took me over 4 hours to finish, and my mom was a trooper with me the whole way.  Justin even provided me moral support by walking a couple of the last miles with us.  He should have just signed up for the whole thing.

This time will be different. With my fully charged iPhone, my awesome mix of music and a little voice telling me to go faster (literally, with an app on my phone).

All I have to do is follow the path shown by the purple line:

Want to pay to get text messages to see where I am on the course? Go here. I swear these people think of everything.

Please send me some positive race day vibes!

City Solve San Antonio- Winners

My friends and I entered a Photo Scavenger Hunt for fun.

Four unassuming young women from the Junior League of San Antonio.

For fun we solved the clues, ran around downtown and Southtown San Antonio in the rain and took multiple pictures with all teammates in them.

I fell behind the group as we ran towards the finish line, but saw the cute couple team, The Tortoise and The Hare, behind me and knew this was no time to walk.

Must keep jogrunning.

We ran into the back porch of The Friendly Spot to check in at the finish line and there was no one else there.

We were the first team to get there and we maxed out the bonuses to further reduce our check-in time.

We couldn't believe it. We just didn't want to be last and we had no clue where we were in the game because teams could go to whatever spot they wanted in whatever order they wanted. All 68 teams.

And we came in first. Can't you tell by the smiles on our faces?

Miami Championships here we come?!

Pinterest Cauliflower Pizza Dough

I have to tell you the truth. 

I'm addicted to Pinterest.

But, and this is something to consider, I've actually made stuff from there. Not as much as some, but more than others. So at least there's that. Which I guess isn't really much. You know what is really something though?

Cauliflower Pizza Dough!!!!!!

I'd seen it and pinned it, twice actually. Here and here.

For this little kitchen experiment, I went with pin numero dos. Which links to a pretty cool site that I haven't spent much time on, but I want to give the Cook Lisa Cook blog the credit it deserves for making this a pretty successful endeavor.  Again, I didn't change the main part of the recipe so please go to her site and give her the hits it deserves. But if I can do it... you know what comes next.

I didn't take pictures of all of the steps, but it looks pretty similar to what you'll see on the Cook Lisa Cook blog when you go for the step by step. 

This was mixing the riced cauliflower with the egg and cheese to bind everything together.

Justin walked in I was mixing the dough. He later told me that when he saw it he was "less than enthused" because he hadn't enjoying the pureed cauliflower experiment that I did not document. Let's just say it has to be really hot to be enjoyable and comparable to mashed potatoes.

The dough all spread out on the countertop convection over tray.

The beef cooking up. I am a meat eater. (Not a "that's what she said joke.")

The dough all crisped up and ready for toppings! I was getting excited at this point.

A bad picture of the finished product, but still tasty looking! Loaded with part skim mozzarella and about 2 ounces of beef on each side of the pizza.

 I do think I would cook it in the big over next time, or use less dough, so it is thinner and crispier throughout.

But even Justin said it was a lot better than he expected, so I'd say it's a win!

Do you think you might give this recipe a spin?

Pinterest Sweet and Spicy Cucumber Salad

More Pinterest recipe success.

Granted, this one didn't call for any real cooking, just the ability to measure and mix. As well as some patience with trying to remove the water from cucumbers.

If you want to repin it from me, then awesome. You can find it right here.

If you want to go straight to the recipe source, because I didn't tinker with it, then that's available here.

I managed to turn these bland cucumbers from this:

Into this beauty that I ate every lunch for almost an entire week:

In addition to looking awesome, it actually kept pretty well the entire week too.

Pinterest Zucchini Chips

So I spend a lot of time Pinning stuff on Pinterest.  Probably part of why I'm not blogging super regularly.

Feel free to follow me over there: http://pinterest.com/arianab

I've actually done some of the stuff I've seen on Pinterest.

The shoe organizer on the back of the door to hold cleaning supplies? Done it.

The binder clip to keep that pesky phone cord off the floor cause bending over every night to pick it up is just simply annoying? Done it.

What I do most often though is cook the recipes I see on there. We use the word "often" loosely here.

So I saw this awesome picture of Zucchini Chips and pinned it for the recipe. I link to the recipe because it seems like the right thing to do. I cooked mine in our "vintage" 1984 oven at the lowest temp possible, because  I do not own the dehydrator that the recipe calls for. But I bought the zucchini for this purpose and I'd be damned if it wasn't getting cooked at some impossibly low temperature for 4 hours.

Maybe read instructions for something throughly before you buy more zucchini than you could normally consume. Learn from me people.

Ok, please go look at the recipe and the picture there, or the one that I pinned. And then, only then, should you look at my pictures below. You need a point of comparison for a reality check.

A side note: I used the slicer attachment on my Cusinart for the first time e-v-e-r. This is the Cusinart my Dad gave me when I graduated school, that was already probably 10-12 years old at that time. This puppy still has juice. And it looks "vintage." So yes, those are the instructions lying on the counter in this first picture of the first thing I ever sliced with the slicing attachment.

Yay, I know how to use the slicer attachment!
They don't lie, that blade is sharp!

Some of you are looking good.
Some of you are looking more chewy than crisp.

Maybe they look burnt, but they tasted crispy.
Again, compare to the original pin for  a little chuckle.

Now, I know that I HAVE to get a dehydrator. Justin's gonna love that request.