Yesterday we spent a lovely Mother’s Day at the Yard. Camden Yards, still the most beautiful park in baseball.

It just felt right that we spent the day at the baseball game, with my mom, Noel’s mom, Noel’s brother, his wife, and their three kids. We both came from pretty big baseball families–Noel is from the home of the Little League World Series and played baseball as a kid and some of my earliest memories were at the baseball game with my whole family and my grandmother. We used to sit in the bleachers at the old Memorial Stadium, and boy did we make a lot of noise!

It was sun hat day for the ladies, so we got our mom’s sun hats. Nice of us, huh? Okay, just kidding, we also got them hanging plants and those were quite the hit!

I actually really enjoyed going to the game with everyone and there’s sort of a not so secret reason–Noel is really into baseball. Like he screams so loudly he can get the whole section cheering with him. So for me, when we go just the two of us, it means I’m that girl sitting next to the loud crazy guy (you all know you’ve seen him at a ball game before). So yeah, it’s more fun for me when there are other folks around for me to talk to, for the moments when Noel is getting a little too intense. I think yesterday was also more fun for Noel, because his mom, brother, Tony and Carlos were all there to egg him on.

I also had a really good time playing with the kids and seeing them enjoy the foam fingers I bought them. I was a little shocked that they were $8 a piece, but it was totally worth it to see the kids get hours of fun out of them.

And of course, there was food. Boog’s BBQ. Best stadium food ever!

All in all, a really fun day. We are so lucky to have our family so close, and I really cherish these days with everyone.

What a week this has been. I am grateful my life gives me the flexibility to be there for people I love when they need me. But now there is a lot of catch up, which isn’t always something I’m great at, but I’ll make it work!

But let’s rewind a minute to last weekend, which I was lucky enough to spend in sunny (and possibly a little too hot) central Florida! Some of my Team Peacock friends were nice enough to let me crash their vacation so I could run the Expedition Everest Challenge on Saturday night.

The Expedition Everest Challenge is a 5k with obstacles and a scavenger hunt. Because I had never run something like this before and the race started at what is practically my normal bedtime, I had no expectations of how I would do. Especially since the sample clue the race directors sent out made absolutely NO sense to me. Yeppers, this looked like it was going to be a winning experience.

Because I had no expectations, I let myself have a lot of fun pre-race. My Peacock Teammate Charrissa and her husband Derek were also in town and racing, so we faithfully carb loaded with awesome pizza at Via Napoli, then hydrated with some sparkling Rose–the other 86 percent of wine is water, right? After our fueling mission to Epcot, we headed back to the resort for some lounging pre-race. We reconvened at about 7.30 to head to the Animal Kingdom parking lot, the staging area for the race.

From our arrival at the Animal Kingdom Butterfly lot, the race felt very un-Run Disney. The expo–which really wasn’t an expo but just a packet pickup–should have been a tip off. The start line was chaotic and there was no one providing direction. When it was time for me to head into my corral, I couldn’t find the entrance! There was no Mickey at the start! And the announcers weren’t my favorite and I didn’t understand the point of the Gary storyline (if anyone figures it out, let me know).

But the worst thing was how the waves were set up. Typically, Run Disney sets up corrals by expected finish time and they enforce it. Frankly, this is one of the things that makes me love Run Disney races. They encourage everyone to participate, but they make people start in reasonable places by making people provide proof of time and then enforcing the corrals on race day. But for this race, the waves were set up by type of team. So all individuals were in wave 1, men’s teams in wave 2, coeds in wave 3, and so on. This doesn’t sound like a big deal, and I’m certainly not the fastest person on the planet, but it is frustrating to weave around walkers at the start of a race.

So after about a half mile of weaving to start the race, I tried to pick it up a bit and hit my goal pace. And while my legs said let’s go, my lungs sadly said no freaking way. It was hot and it was humid, and this girl doesn’t enjoy having an asthma attack in a theme park. So I eased up a bit and decided to just have fun. And it was fun. Surprisingly so to leap over hay bales and to run through tires. The third obstacle–climbing under a net across astro turf wasn’t my favorite, but I survived.

And suddenly, someone was shoving a a clue and a pen/flashlight combination at me. I hadn’t noticed a finish line for the 5k, but it seemed I was now in the scavenger hunt portion. Each clue for the hunt had a location in the park printed at the top, and then a written clue with some type of puzzle below it. I ran to the first location, solved the clue, then headed on. My “scavenger” hunt took me from the Oasis, to Camp Minnie Mickey, to Africa, then to Asia, then onto the base of Mt. Everest.

And although none of the clues were particualarly HARD, it was challenging to weave through racers who were still on the 5k course, find the right station to present your solved clue, and keep hold of my clue cards, camera, and pen. But I made it, and I was pretty happy with my time–51 minutes for just under 5 miles of total running, scavengering, and sweating.

Rockstars Charrissa and Derek beat me to the finish line and they were REALLY happy with their time, which they thought was right around 38 minutes. We took advantage of finishing early by riding on a few rides and picking up our bags before heading to the Restaurantasourous for post race beers and sweet potato fries. Charrissa and Derek thought their time might be good enough to place, so we stayed around for the awards ceremony.

Good thing we did, because they WON the coed division! Definitely awesomesauce. They are huge Disney fans (like me) so to win a Disney race is just about the coolest thing ever. I was so happy for them, and caught this fantastic picture of them coming back from getting their award!

After the win, we stuck around to get a few pictures with characters. I mean, you pretty much need a character to hug you while you’re holding a trophy! I got some pictures too, because I just love characters. I will say, that Pluto got a little fresh. But I found out the next day that I actually finished as the 15th woman overall–which was pretty exciting for me!

Overall, I enjoyed the Expedition Everest Challenge. Yes, I do think how well I did made me like it more, and I think I would enjoy it more in future years now that I know how it is set up. And I always love the time with my teammates.

It’s flower show time! Let’s check out this year’s topiaries.

Last year, we were lucky enough to actually spend part of April in Paris. This year we spent our April in Baltimore, but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t celebrate the most glorious month in my favorite European city in high style thanks to Petit Louis Bistro!

Petit Louis has been one of my favorite restaurants since Noel and I first went their a lifetime ago when we were still dating. It’s a nice restaurant, but it has a casual French Bistro feel that I love. We’ve been on their mailing list for ages (we had our rehearsal dinner at their sister restaurant Pazo, and our fifth anniversary dinner at another sister restaurant, Charleston) and although we’ve always thought their events sounded fun, we never managed to make it. But when I saw an email blast for April in Paris and noticed that is was on a free weekend I knew we had to go. So we bought tickets and convinced Tony and Carlos to come along.

Sadly, the scheduled day of April in Paris was a washout, so the event was moved to Sunday, April 29. Slightly inconvenient for me, since it meant an early return from the Broadkill Beach Club after the Ocean City Half, but boy am I glad I decided to still go. It was a ridiculous amount of fun with great food and wine for all.

When we arrived for check in about half an hour into the event, we were quickly checked in and offered berets and stick on moustaches for a photo op in front of the model Eiffel tower. After we had some fun with that, we stopped at the bar to turn in the first of our two (included) drink tickets for glasses of wine. The wine selection was nice, with a Pinot Blanc from Alsace, a Cotes du Rhone Rose and a Cotes du Rhone Red.

We found a stand up table right next to the food and headed over to hit the buffet. The food was simple but delicious and fresh, and the spread included fresh baguettes, potato salad, mesculin salad and an asparagus salad, and then grilled shrimp, chicken, and steak. Everything was delicious and all you could eat, so we definitely had seconds. And our second glass of wine.

It’s probably a good thing that the part of the buffet we were closest to was the dessert, so I knew to save room for it. We helped ourselves during our second glass of wine. There was quite a spread, including lemon cookies, almond cookies, and meringues. But then as we lingered over a third glass of wine (bubbly for me!) new desserts started rolling out and we were lucky enough to get opera cake, madelines, and cream puffs!

All in all it was a fantastic way to spend a laid back Sunday evening. Good food, good wine, and of course good friends. I hope we get a chance to welcome spring this way again next year–because at $39 a person, it was the deal of the season!

Sometimes, you surprise yourself so much, it’s almost unbelievable.

This Saturday I ran the Ocean City Island to Island Half Marathon with my longtime friend (and maid/matron of honor buddy) Jen. It was Jen’s first half marathon and my seventh. Neither one of us felt like we were very well trained, me because of my aforementioned groin injury. Jen used to be a track star, so I was pretty sure she was going to rock it. But for myself, well, I thought I might be lucky if I ran a 2.10, which I thought would be respectable coming off an injury.

It was seriously disappointing to be undertrained from this race because it has a reputation as being THE PR course in the state of Maryland. It runs from the Ocean City inlet to Assateague Island (home of the wild ponies!) and there are exactly two hills–one leaving the island of Ocean City and one going on to Assateague. Race morning also dawned with perfect running conditions–temps in the 50s and overcast skies, with no wind.

I went out strong and felt pretty good. After 2 miles, I was holding a good pace in the low 9s and decided to see how long I could ride it. I was running comfortably hard, but not so hard that I was triggering the injury, or feeling like I was going to burn myself out. When I hit the 10k mark in under an hour, I knew I had a chance to PR if I could just hold on. I was still feeling good, so I knew there was a good shot.

It was all going well and the miles were ticking off until I reached the mile 10 marker. And then, suddenly, both of my feet cramped at once. It was unlike anything I had ever experienced in a race (and something I hope I never experience again) but luckily, after about 30 seconds of walking, they released. I was able to start running again, although at a slightly slower–about 9.30–pace. I was feeling good until the mile 12 marker, which was at the base of the bridge on to Assateague. Suddenly, both of my legs cramped below the knee. I dropped to a walk and the pain went away, so I decided to power walk up the bridge. I was at 1.52 or so at this point, so I figured I had some time to walk, and I HAD to finish. When I reached the other side of the bridge (after about half a mile of walking) I was able to run again and make it into the finish.

When I saw the clock, I was ecstatic. It read 2.06, and I knew I had started a bit late. When I looked at my watch, it was confirmed. 2.05.30. A two minute PR. Unbelievable. I’m back, and in a big way.

Afterwards, we celebrated. Breakfast, a stop at the Fractured Prune, and then a stop at the world’s greatest liquor store, Atlantic Liquors, for a bottle of celebratory champagne. Because big races (Jen had one too…a 1.55!) call for big celebrations. And big thank yous to our support crew, Matt and Kori.

Do you ever wake up in a place where you are just really, really happy? This week, I’ve found myself in one of those places. I have a lot of exciting things coming up in my life and I just feel so blessed. I know I’ve worked very hard to get myself to this place, but I am also lucky enough to be surrounded by people that care deeply about me–and they truly help me to enrich my life every single day.

So I just want to take a moment out to document a few of these things I’m so excited about. Because I want a reminder, on a day when I’m feeling blue, that I’m really surrounded by good things.

1. My Return to Road Racing

So I mentioned, in passing, that I tweaked something in my groin. Well it turned out to be a pretty big deal, and I ended up taking off practically the whole of March. A pretty big bummer for me, since I had some serious running goals this spring. But thanks to my friends at Physical Therapy First (seriously, if you’re in Baltimore Dave Bender is AWESOME), some ART and some crazy acupuncture, I’m back on the road. And I have three super exciting races lined up–Ocean City Island to Island Half this weekend, Expedition Everest Challenge next weekend (with Peacock time! Yes, it’s at Disney World. Are you really surprised I’ve stayed away this long), and the the Marine Corps Historic Half May 20.

2. SUMMER 2012!! It’s a Broadkill thing, you wouldn’t understand.

I used to be a hardcore winter lover. Okay, maybe I still am. But after our total lack of a winter this year, I’m so excited for my beach time to begin. I’m doing the Summer Championship Series again, and hopefully the Triple Crown Weekend (three 5ks in three days!) And then there’s Memorial Day, the 4th and just lazing on the beach and soaking up the sun. It’s going to be even more awesome because we have functioning AC this summer! There are also some non-beach related fun trips, like a girls weekend in NYC and Noel and I’s first trip to Disneyland in August!

3. Some BIG things in the fall.

[Isn't this the cutest picture of Kori and Larry? I hadn't published it before because they used it for their wedding invitation. They're getting married at the Boardwalk!]

I thought I was going to build my fall around two things–my sister’s September wedding and the New York City Marathon. Well, I didn’t get into NYC, but I want to do something equally big and fun, and I’m getting ready to pull the trigger on that. Any guesses?

Thank you all for reading along. I know the format of this blog has changed somewhat over the last year, but the truth is, I’m not doing as many new recipes and I want to blog about what I care about now. So thank you for hanging, and I promise there will be more food, more travel (I’m not done with Ireland yet and the next trip is just around the corner!) and more fun along the way.

A while ago the fine ladies at Charm City Cookbook Club asked me to join their group! It’s been a really fun time, and after a few quality months in the group, it was finally my turn to host! So I got the Ratskellar ready and fired up the oven to host pizza party friday a la Biz!

Pizza Party? Why yes, because I picked Jim Lahey’s new cookbook, My Pizza for my first foray into Cookbook Club hosting. I’m a big Jim Lahey fan–I practically freaked out at the Sullivan Street Bakery in 2009–and when I saw he had a new pizza cookbook out, I knew it was the perfect choice for me to make for cookbook club! So I ordered a pizza stone and a peel (I had wanted both forever) and preheated the oven to 500 degrees. And the results were absolutely fantastic! We were in agreement, not a single bad recipe in the book!

The book literally has recipes for every type of pizza you could imagine–red sauce, white sauce, no sauce–along with an assortment of toasts, salads, and even a few deserts. I hope to share some of those with you in time, but for now, let’s start with the basics, the simple, no knead dough cooked on a hot stone for pizza crust perfection. You won’t be sorry you try it!

Just make sure you have some good friends and some good wine on hand. Because once the pizzas come out and the wine starts flowing, a good time is almost guaranteed!

No Knead Pizza Dough
Adapted from Jim Lahey’s No Knead Pizza

Ingredients:

3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour plus more for shaping dough
2 teaspoons fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast

Directions:

Mix flour, salt, and yeast in a medium bowl. While stirring with a wooden spoon, gradually add 1 1/2 cups water; stir until well incorporated. Mix dough gently with your hands to bring it together and form into a rough ball. Transfer to a large clean bowl. Dough will be shaggy, but that’s okay

Cover with plastic wrap and let dough rise at room temperature in a draft-free area until surface is covered with tiny bubbles and dough has more than doubled in size, about 18 hours (time will vary depending on the temperature in the room).

Transfer dough to a floured work surface. Gently shape into a ball and separate into 4 portions. Working with 1 portion at a time, gather 4 corners to center to create 4 folds. Turn seam side down and mold gently into a ball. Dust dough with flour; set aside on work surface or a floured baking sheet. Repeat with remaining portions.