Monkey Rarebit

The weather this weekend was perfect.  Highs around 70, lows in the 50s.  Now if I could just find a place that has that temperature all year round, I’d move there in a second!

Thanks for all the well wishes for my 5k!   I didn’t come in last for my age group either!   I’ll take 13 out of 18 for my age group – I was 12:20 seconds behind the winner for my age group – so that’s my goal to get fast for next year.

Division: F 40-49 Reg: 24 DNS: 6 DNF: 0 DQ: 0
PL No Name Representing Total Time Back Pace
1 247 ESTERLE, Cheryl CRYSTAL LAKE IL 28:25.2 +0:00.0 9:08.3
2 228 LESIUK, Elizabeth PALATINE IL 28:50.0 +0:24.8 9:16.3
3 33 STEFFEN, Jen MONTGOMERY IL 29:26.6 +1:01.4 9:28.0
4 231 BARNETT, Maureen ROLLING MEADOWS IL 29:48.3 +1:23.1 9:35.0
5 193 CHO, Jennifer NORTHBROOK IL 30:07.7 +1:42.5 9:41.3
6 221 ZILINSKY, Nicolet PALATINE IL 31:09.4 +2:44.2 10:01.1
7 104 TRUSZKOWSKI, Jan SCHAUMBURG IL 31:27.8 +3:02.6 10:07.0
8 216 MARIGLIANO, Maureen HOFFMAN ESTATES IL 31:53.4 +3:28.2 10:15.2
9 38 WOLOSZYK, Edith EWOLOSZYK@YAHOO.COM IL 32:29.0 +4:03.8 10:26.7
10 264 BEAUER, Shawnn 36:13.1 +7:47.9 11:38.7
11 194 SHAH, Ami HANOVER PARK IL 36:15.9 +7:50.7 11:39.6
12 204 HOCKING, Melissa HOFFMAN ESTATES IL 38:08.4 +9:43.2 12:15.8
13 192 VELATINI, Beth CARY IL 40:45.8 +12:20.6 13:06.4
14 209 TRIVEDI, Neha ARLINGTON HEIGHTS IL 42:10.2 +13:45.0 13:33.6
15 125 MAES, Heidi BUFFALO GROVE IL 43:19.4 +14:54.2 13:55.8
16 64 ROBINSON, Nicole BARRINGTON IL 44:40.5 +16:15.3 14:21.9
17 46 LUCAS, Trish HUNTLEY IL 49:25.0 +20:59.8 15:53.4
18 143 COX, Colleen KENOSHA WI 57:13.5 +28:48.3 18:24.0

I thought I’d be spent on Saturday, but I just had tons of energy.  After we got back from the race, I did some more repair work on the roof, made our meal plan and grocery list, then took a long hot shower – felt great!

We ended up eating at El Zarape, which is a Mexican restaurant right down from my grocery store.  Tony and I have always loved everything we have gotten there – the meat is always super flavorful and tender, they request our ‘NO ONIONS ANYWHERE” rule, and the salsas they provide on the table are excellent.

So If you happen to be in the far NW suburbs of Chicago, try this place out.  Tony pointed out something on the menu for me to try out I’d never seen before.  It was called Spicy Pork sopes.  I ordered everything a la carte.  The sopes was $3, the tamale was $2 and the side of the best refried beans cost $1.50.  I am a cheap date!

It was so good – the bottom was like a crunchy corn dough, and the pork was super tender and nice and spicy.  The tamale was a bit bland and dry, but doused in that green salsa that is in the squeeze bottle in that picture made it good – hot sauce cures everything, right?

I grilled a chuck eye roast on Saturday night.  I also made attempt #101 to make scalloped potatoes.  I ended up microwaving the white potatoes earlier in the day, let them cool on the counter before making my casserole – no crunchy potatoes!  I thought it was funny because blog reader Renee sent me a link for scalloped potatoes:

I thought about you as soon as I saw this!  I know the dish eludes in the kitchen and wanted to share: http://southern.food.com/recipe/scalloped-potatoes-85629

Hope it’s successful!

Keep on truckin!

Thanks Renee!  The secret to a good grilled roast is to make sure the meat is at room temperature before grilling – never go from fridge to heat – it seizes the meat and you’ll get tough meat every time.  Also, sometimes simple salt and pepper is the way to go – this time I used a rosemary sea salt and fresh cracked pepper.

Tony and I enjoyed our respective beverages:

Ed enjoyed lounging around the backyard.

After 30 minutes, put your meat probe in – pull the meat at 125 degrees for medium rare.  Let it sit for at least 15 minutes before slicing – I was in a bit of a hurry, so our sat only about 7 – still super tender though!

Keep an eye on your coals – since I normally put in way too many, I went with a smaller pile of coals and added about 10 more briquettes half way through.

Yesterday was my first Sunday football widow day!  I met my Mom and Hannah at church – my Mom knew I was meeting them for dinner, but I surprised her by showing up at church too – they have a new pastor, who I really liked – you know a pastor is good when you don’t feel like taking a nap during the sermon!

They were having a book sale fundraiser – you know I couldn’t walk away from old cookbooks!

The first recipe I flipped to in the 1942 Good Housekeeping cook book was called Monkey Rarebit.  I was half thinking either monkey meat or rabbit was going to be in the ingredient list.  But no, this is in the cheese category.  And you know how I feel about cheese!

Monkey Rarebit

– Makes 6 servings – 413 calories, 23 grams fat, 29 carbs, and 19 protein

Ingredients:

• 2 cups day old bread crumbs
• 2 cups bottled whole milk (or 1 can evaporated milk mixed with 1 cup water)
• 1 pound processed American cheese (4 cups)
• 2 teaspoons bottled thick meat sauce (are they talking about A-1?)
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 6 slices of toast

Soak bread crumbs and milk in the top of a double boiler for 5 minutes.  Add cheese and seasonings, and cook over boiling water, stirring occasionally, until the cheese is melted.  Serve over toast.

A quick google image search, I found this recipe.  And while the above sounds kind of gross, I have to tell you – this looks delicious!!

Hot cheese on toast?  Um, yes please!  I think I’ll try to think of a way to bring the calories down on this one.

We said a special hello to one of the church members – Mary.  She’s battled breast cancer, tumors in her eyes, and she’s going back to the hospital next week.  She was tearing up while she was talking about it – so I didn’t ask for details, but please send good thoughts her way this week.  This is the kitchen of my Mom’s church – lots of pot lucks have been had in this kitchen!

After church we went to Stir Crazy for lunch.  On my way to church I made a Green Monster for the hour road trip – it took me the whole ride to finish it!  I added a half cup of frozen blueberries to the mix – so it’s not quite as green as usual.

And more veggies for lunch!  I did the build your own stir fry with beef – my sauce was 1/2 spicy szechwan and 1/2 szechwan black bean – perfect combination!

It felt like I was eating forever and still managed to bring half of this home.  I half jokingly asked Hannah and my Mom if they thought I could make the leftovers into a breakfast – we’ll see!

Tony had a late lunch and I was still full from dinner, so I ended up making a quick pizza around 8:00 – mine side had three different peppers, including spicy jalapenos, while Tony had mushrooms and pepperoni.  We each had two slices.  I may have picked up a new hot sauce – buffalo jalapeno hot sauce!

I’ve found out where my comments are going on your blogs!  Lori, Nicole and Kristen have all confirmed that my comments were stuck in their spam folders, which is so weird because I have been commenting on these blogs for the longest time.  So if you haven’t seen a comment from me in a while – check your spam folder!

So here’s my weekly WI:  Down 1.6!  Woot!

Since I wrote the majority of this post yesterday, I have time to take a 30 minute walk before work – got to build up my stamina again!

How was your weekend? Make it a great day!