Friday Five: Let's Eat!

This week's Friday Five comes from 3dogmom over at RevGalBlogPals:
My first ever Friday Five is dedicated to Nikki MacDonald, sister RevGal, who was hungering for an opportunity to write about Haggis. With that introduction, today’s FF is all about food!

1) Is there a food from a foreign land whose reputation led to trepidation when you had a chance to give it a try? Did you find the courage to sample it anyway? If so, were you pleasantly surprised or did you endorse the less than favorable reputation that preceded it?
Growing up in the middle of the midwest, anything remotely "Oriental" sounded exotic and strange.  I remember reading about and seeing people in "New York" eating "Chinese food" but never having the guts to try it myself.  Until I got to college and actually smelled the aromas wafting away from the Imperial Palace in the Union.  First time I tried it I was hooked, completely.  Now I love the stuff.

2) What food from your own country/culture gets a bad rap?
I love many of the delicacies that come with my ethnic heritages:  German and Swedish.  I'm not sure if potato sausage and pickled herring are authentically German/Swedish or if they're an American development, but I love them both, particularly around Christmas.

3) Of what food are you fond that others find distasteful?
My campus pastor introduced every board member to his favorite pizza:  Canadian Bacon & Sauerkraut.  It sounds disgusting, but it's actually wonderful.  Add in some black olives and onions and it's a wonderful pizza if you're not going to be speaking in close proximity to anyone in the near future.

4) Is there a country’s food, not native to you, that you go out of your way to eat?
My ex-wife introduced me to Korean food when she was a student at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA, and I still love the stuff.  Bibimbap, bulgogi, and kimchee, which makes my father wince because he remembers seeing it made and buried to ferment when he was stationed in Korea in 1968.  Thanks to Christina, I'm also able to remember to thank my host in Korean when I order and receive my food.  "Kam sa ham ni da" is guaranteed to make any Korean restaurant worker smile in delight.

5) What is your guilty pleasure food?
Ice cream.  Love, love, love the stuff, but we don't keep a lot of it around as I find it hard to resist.  We've limited the girls to weekend treats only, and so far that's keeping everyone's sweet tooth at bay.

Bonus: What was your most memorable meal (good or bad), either because of the menu, the occasion, the company, or some other circumstance that makes it stand out?
I've blogged and preached about this before, but the wedding banquet for our friends Sven & Eva at a castle outside Coburg, Germany was the most incredible meal we've ever experienced.  It was four hours long, your wine glass/beer stein never went dry, no one got hammered, and everyone laughed, cried and had a wonderful time.

Yeah.  It was as good as it looks.

Minnesota Blogger Con-Fab Thingy (In Which I Forget Proper Documentation, But Consume 1X1023g Saturated Fat. YUM)

I'm a good blogger, I'm a bad blogger.  But you knew this already.

New Year, New Start

Photo by Amanda Woodward.  Used by permission.

Today is the first day of the new year.  Happy New Year!

Okay, yeah, it's the first day of the new liturgical year.  The first Sunday of Advent.  Year A, for those of you keeping score.  Gospel of Matthew. 

Liturgical geekery aside, I'm ready for a new start.  It was approximately a year ago that the Unbloggableness got started, and even now, several months after the last bit of official handling that mess required, the healing process is continuing in fits and starts - sometimes it's weeks without considering it, and sometimes something trips your memory and you're furious all over again.  It's well past time to be done with this, and well past time to be doing something instead of dealing with something.  So, a new year, a new start.

The U.B. isn't the only thing I'm anxious to put behind me.  I've gained another fifteen pounds this year through lousy diet and sloth.  I've spent far too much time messing around on message boards and not nearly enough time reading books, watching good TV and good movies.  I've put off house projects and dithered on things that could have been handled much more quickly if I'd put my mind to it.  In general, it feels like I've been sleep-walking for about a year now, and I'm ready to be awakened. 

Right now I'm sitting next to the fire at the Lutheran Center in Ames.  Six students are here with me, doing homework, the Sunday crossword, and just hanging out.  These incredible people have deserved so much better from me this year:  better sermons, better attention, better leadership.  This Advent I want to start over with all of them.  Thanks be to God, one can do just that.  Maybe I can't undo the sloth of the past 12 months, but I can sure as hell spend the next 12 making up for it.  So:  commence.

Grace & peace,
Scott

Running Report: Dam to Dam 20K, Des Moines, IA

I ran a dam 20K yesterday. [ba dump crash!]

The Dam to Dam is supposedly the largest 20 kilometer race in the country. I don't know if that's true, but there were 6,746 finishers, so you figure it's pretty big. All I know is I had a good time for being fat, slow and tired on race day.

The biggest drawback? Early start time + point-to-point course + sleeping at home Friday night = EARLY wake up call. As in 4:00. I met with our local runners group at 4:30 to pick up my race bag with timing chip and number, then drove to Des Moines with the group. We arrived at our parking ramp in downtown Des Moines and I promptly forgot my wallet in my car, so had to leave the runners group and go back. By the time I got down to street level the bus crowd was really big. I mean REALLY big. Crowds are the name of the game at Dam to Dam.

They dropped us off below Saylorville Dam at about 6:30. At this point I was thinking it would be a snap to get to a biffy, do my last 'business' before the run, lube up and get ready to go. Of course, that didn't happen. Biffy lines were long wherever you went, and they also didn't tell us that it was a walk of about a mile to the start on the Dam. So I got into line about 45 seconds before the starting gun went off, which wound up being okay since it was another seven minutes before I actually crossed the line and started the run.

It was a BEAUTIFUL day for a run. Temperature was about 60 at the start and was no higher than 73 at the finish. Light winds kept us cool as we moved off Saylorville Dam and wound through some countryside on our way into town. I can only remember four noteworthy hills, including the road over I35 where people were honking the whole time as they drove underneath us. Great day for a long run with 7,000 friends.

Personally, the day was just an endurance test. It's no secret that I've been struggling with training, my back and my weight since Alanna was born. So my only real 'goal' for this race was smart race management, as in: 1. No walk breaks; 2. Proper hydration; 3. Negative splits toward the end. I got the first two right on, but the third was just too much yesterday. I felt really good throughout the race, which indicates I hit a good pace for what was essentially a long, easy run. My feet and knees bothered me throughout, but never more than what I've become accustomed to enduring, and toward the end they weren't much of a problem at all. The only times I walked were at water stops and for one bathroom stop in mile 11. I only stopped for water twice, at mile 5 and mile 9, and I think that's about right for me. In previous distance races I've drank far too much and gotten sick at the end - yesterday, I felt just fine crossing the finish line and got some Gatorade in me right away to replenish fluids. Negative splits just didn't happen, for a couple of reasons. First, I haven't gotten enough rest lately, and the early start just sapped whatever energy I had to give from my limited sleep. Second, I'm just too heavy right now to run more than six miles at a hard pace, so by mile seven I could tell I'd just need to take it easy and grind my miles out to the finish. Third, I haven't run enough this spring, especially long runs. If I want to get faster, I'll just need to keep picking up miles until I'm back to where I was senior year of seminary. It was just tough to pick up the pace at the end - I covered mile 12 in 9:30-something, but miles 9-11 were all around 10:00. I just didn't have good speed in me yesterday.

But the course was great, the fans cheered us on and overall I was pretty happy. The post-race expo was really confusing, but I got my medal and some good food and enjoyed the post-race glow before changing my clothes and heading north to Ames. Next Saturday is going to be fun - a 10K charity race in Lincoln with college buddies. Hopefully this 20K will make next week a walk in the park - or maybe a jog.

Grace & peace,
Scott

Why I Posted My Weight On Facebook

Well, here's the deal. Since becoming a father twice over, the war on excess weight in my life has mostly been a retreat. True, it hasn't become an out and out bloodbath yet - I'm holding steady at the same weight over the past month. But I'm tired of just getting by and being disappointed when I look in the mirror. So, hopefully, a little public accountability will go a long way.

Before I go any further, it should be said that my sense of well-being is fine, and I do NOT find any sense of personal worth in my weight or lack thereof. I'm a child of God, and will be at whatever weight I might happen to weigh. I'm not starving myself, or taking on any unhealthy practices to lose weight. You won't find any diet drinks, fat-blasters or funky herbal concoctions in our house. Some of my friends have struggled with anorexia and/or bulimia, so you won't even find me joking about taking any harmful steps to lose weight. Healthy eating, regular exercise, plenty of sleep - that's the prescription, and hopefully my status update will show some progress over the next few months.

I have more than one reason to do this. First, I just want to be healthier, and I don't want things to get out of hand as they did in my early twenties (I think I topped out at about 270 pounds back then). Second, I'd like to get back into some of the clothes I've outgrown in the past year or so, and to feel better in the ones I'm wearing now. Third, and most importantly, I'm going to run Grandma's Marathon again this summer, and at 190, with proper training, I think I should be able to break the 4 hour barrier at last. I don't know how this will go. I love a beer or two at night, and frankly, it can be really hard to prepare healthy foods with two babies in the house. But I'm hoping this might be one more tool to bolster my discipline, and let's face it - a little transparency goes a long way.

Not too much transparency, though - you don't want to see that. :-)

Where The Hell Is Scott?

Hi there - remember me?

Things have continued in 'crazy' mode for us lately. Campus ministry keeps me hoppin, the girls keep me boppin, and there just ain't no stoppin this crazy train called LIFE. But it's all good.

Let me explain.
No, there is too much: let me sum up.

The last time I blogged was Tuesday. Tuesday night we had our campus ministry Bible Study - Job, and surprisingly it's a LOT of fun. Good discussion of one of the more challenging books of the Bible.

Wednesday, I left for a four-day marathon of policies and procedures known as "ELCA Campus Ministry Orientation." I was looking forward to it, until I actually looked at the itinerary and realized they left out the word "Retreat" on purpose. Four days of wall-to-wall work getting to know my fellow campus ministry newbies (I'm actually one of the more experienced of this year's crop, having been in campus ministry since January) and re-learning more of the stuff I've read about in our manual. Even though it was an exhausting week, it was quality time: made some great new friends, re-acquaintanced myself with a few old friends, and, most importantly, we ate really well, including a night at Costa's in Greektown (any place where they soak cheese in alcohol and then light it on fire is automatically on my "great restaurants" list).

Like many folks, I celebrated Larry Meyer's birthday on Friday night; I had the blessed fortune of doing so with some of his own colleagues, at a campus ministry gathering in Chicago. I'll blog about that some more tomorrow - I need to spend a little time in reflection before I can really say what the orientation was like in that regard.

Being away from home, I didn't sleep particularly well, but neither did anyone I left behind, unfortunately. Ainsley came down with an ear infection, Alanna caught Ainsley's cold, and Beloved soldiered on as I knew she would. I can't say enough about the awesomeness of my wife: she handled a very stressful week incredibly well, including the moment on Saturday when Ainsley saw a jogger while riding in the car, screamed "Daddy! Daddy!" and burst into tears.

Yeah, makes my heart go all melty inside, too.

So, now I'm back and getting back to work. Until we leave for Thanksgiving on Wednesday, that is. It's a hard knock life here in campus ministry, you know.

So, that's where the hell I've been. Now, check out this awesome video we saw during staff orientation, called "Where the Hell is Matt!" If you can, watch it in hi-def on YouTube. Enjoy, and I promise I'll see you tomorrow.

The Food List

LutheranChik posted this on her blog, and I thought it looked pretty fun. "It's a list of food and drink that someone -- I forget who -- thinks we all need to taste before we die. The boldfaced items are things that I myself have actually eaten."

1. Venison. LOVE me some deer sausage...
2. Nettle tea.
3. Huevos rancheros.
4. Steak tartare.

5. Crocodile.

6. Black pudding/Blood pudding/Blutwurst. First time was on an Aer Lingus flight to Dublin, by accident ("What is this? Hmmm. Salty and good, whatever it is...") Didn't have it again until a three week stay in Germany in 2003. Still good stuff but, as LutheranChik notes, "enough cholesterol to infarct an elephant."

7. Cheese fondue.

8. Carp.
9. Borscht. But I don't remember what I thought, so I'll need to try it again.

10. Baba ghanoush.

11. Calamari. Chewy rings of deep fried deliciousness.
12. Pho. What, pray tell, is pho? Vietnamese soup of sliced rare beef and well done brisket. I DO NOT EAT RARE ANYTHING.
13. PB&J sandwich.
14. Aloo gobi. Not sure even after I looked it up on Wikipedia.

15. Hot dog from a street cart. How, exactly, have I not done this yet?

16. Epoisses. "A pungent unpasteurized cows-milk cheese." Whatev.
17. Black truffle.
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes. Berry wines from Carlos Creek Wineyards in Alexandria, MN: sweet summery goodness.
19. Steamed pork buns. Think I had this at a dim sum restaurant in San Francisco. We ate a lot of weird shit that day. Good, but weird.
20. Pistachio ice cream. Eww, eww, eww. Ice cream should be vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry, with chunks of real nuts and stuff mixed in if you like, but NEVER pistachio.
21. Heirloom tomatoes.
22. Fresh wild berries. We had several mulberry trees around our house on the farm where I grew up. Have not tried wild blueberries or blackberries, but I hear they're tremendous. Hope I get to someday.
23. Foie gras. Never ever ever.
24. Rice and beans.
25. Brawn, or headcheese. Not that I know of, and I don't think my mom would have been that sadistic.
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper. A cousin of the habanero, apparently. Considering spicy oriental cuisine can make me break into a sweat, I don't think this one's likely to happen.
27. Dulce de leche.
28. Oysters.
29. Baklava. But I hope to someday soon: it sounds delicious.
30. Bagna cauda. A hot dip from the Piedmont area of Italy, made of garlic, anchovies, olive oil, butter and sometimes cream. You dip vegetables in it, apparently. Sounds yummy to me.
31. Wasabi peas. Hope to, though - love horseradish and I hear it's similar.
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl. Good stuff, that.
33. Salted lassi. Blech. You don't want to know.
34. Sauerkraut. Ja, Ich liebe!
35. Root beer float.
36. Cognac with a fat cigar. Someday...
37. Clotted cream tea. Never ever ever.
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O. Vodka, Everclear, Schnapps - whatever we could mix with it. Ten years ago, in the Cape Cod. Ahhhh, the Cape Cod, home of unscrubbed bathrooms, flying forks and Trash Can Punch. Those were the days...
39. Gumbo.
40. Oxtail.
41. Curried goat.
42. Whole insects. No, nay never!
43. Phaal. Hottest curry dish in Indian cuisine? Not on your life.

44. Goat's milk.

45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$130 or more. Uh-huh. Like that's gonna happen on a campus pastor's salary...
46. Fugu/Pufferfish. No, but it's the main topic in one of my favorite Simpsons episodes.
47. Chicken tikka masala. Chicken in a curried tomato sauce. Interesting, but haven't tried it yet.
48. Eel.

49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut. All together now: "mmmmmm, doughnut..."

50. Sea urchin.
51. Prickly pear.
52. Umeboshi. Japanese, pickled ume fruits. I'd try it.
53. Abalone.
54. Paneer.
55. McDonald's Big Mac Meal. But I prefer the Doublecheeseburger meal, complete with the McGurgles and the McHeartburn.

56. Spaetzle. The Black Forest Inn in Minneapolis makes good spaetzle.

57. Dirty gin martini.
58. Beer above 8% ABV. Well, duh.
59. Poutine. From Wikipedia: "Poutine is a dish consisting of French Fries topped with fresh cheese curds, covered with brown gravy and sometimes additional ingredients. The freshness of the curds is important, as it makes them soft in the warm fries, without completely melting." Again, how have I not tried this yet? God bless the Quebecois...

60. Carob chips.

61. S'mores.
62. Sweetbreads. Nope - even though Dr. Lecter mentions sweetmeats in The Silence of the Lambs, one of my favorite books/movies of all time (though, to be accurate, he was talking about human sweetmeats...).
63. Kaolin. This came up as a type of Chinese clay. I hope things aren't so desperate that gourmets are now recommending dirt - that might prove un-tasty.
64. Currywurst. Seriously? Currywurst? Sounds intriguing, but I doubt I'm going to get it any time soon.
65. Durian. A fruit with such potent odor it's been banned from hotels in Southeast Asia. Next!
66. Frogs' legs.
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake. Yes, yes, yes and YES. Deep-fried heaven, all of them!
68. Haggis. Someday, laddie, someday...
69. Fried plantain. No, but would Bananas Foster count?
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette. Nope - try to keep my intake of hog innards to hot dogs, thank you very much.
71. Gazpacho. But not since the last time Ex-Mom-In-Law made it for us. Mmmmm...
72. Caviar and blini.
73. Louche absinthe. I hear that Absinthe is coming back. Why, exactly?
74. Gjetost, or brunost. I'm pretty sure my Grandma Johnson served this for Christmas several times.
75. Roadkill. No, no, no, no...
76. Baijiu. Gesundheit. (Thanks, LC)
77. Hostess Fruit Pie Not for several years, though - WAAAYYYYyy too much sugar.
78. Snail.
79. Lapsang souchong. "Smoked tea." Sounds interesting, but no.
80. Bellini. Sparkling wine & peach puree. Sounds yummy.
81. Tom yum. Sounds like authentic Hot & Sour soup, as opposed to what we get Stateside. I'll pass.
82. Eggs Benedict. But I don't really care for it.
83. Pocky. Thin shortbread Chinese cookies.
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant. Again, campus pastor salary? Not likely.
85. Kobe beef. See #84.
86. Hare.
87. Goulash. Both the American mac-and-beef-and-tomato-sauce version and the authentic stuff. Good eats.
88. Flowers. Not sure what it was, but I know it was flowers in a salad, once. Unremarkable, actually.
89. Horse. Had my shot several times in Germany. Hear it's a delicacy. No thanks.
90. Criollo chocolate. Apparently some incredible type of cocoa. I like the good stuff, but haven't heard of this one.
91. SPAM. For some reason, SPAM was our meal whenever the power went out in the winter as a kid. I don't ever remember eating it at any other time. But I have since, and I generally like it.
92. Soft shell crab.
93. Rose harissa. North African hot sauce. Yikes!
94. Catfish.
95. Mole poblano. I've eaten enough Mexican to be sure I've had this at least once.
96. Bagel and lox. Nope - just the bagel.
97. Lobster Thermidor. Never eaten lobster - too much work!
98. Polenta. Ground cornmeal paste. Actually big in certain parts of Minnesota, but I never got the chance.
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. One of the few types I haven't tried. This, and the stuff that cats poop out. Might try the former someday, but not the latter.
100. Snake. ABSOLUTELY NOT.

Bonus round
Most unusual food you've ever eaten: Has to be Lutefisk. Can't believe this didn't make the list, actually - is it really that bad? I don't care for the stuff myself, but it's definitely a distinctive food. Another one I'm surprised didn't make the list is Rocky Mountain Oysters. This one I've avoided, since I grew up on a farm and, ahem, "harvested the crop" several times with my dad - but it's a food that should be on the list, absolutely.

This one takes a while, but if you wanna, consider yourself tagged.

Bad Blogger Guy - BAD!

It's another rainy day - so why am I not in New York City?

Bonus points to those of you who heard the horn line behind that lyric from Chicago. beedlee dee dee, beedlee dee dee...

This has been a rough week, even though nothing has happened which should make it rough. I'm not sure if it's the weather, some new late-night campus ministry stuff catching up with me, or perhaps I'm overdoing it in other ways, but whatever it is, it has culminated in 24 hours of wanting to do nothing but curl up with a mug of hot chocolate, a good book and one of my grandmothers' quilts, and read until I fall asleep. Unfortunately, that ain't gonna happen today, and probably won't happen for quite a while. I even had to cut my workout short at the gym this morning because of a splitting headache, and I HATE not being able to finish a workout.

The good news? Nebraska plays at Iowa State this weekend. We've got end-zone tickets with my brother and his girlfriend. Should be fun.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need a cup of coffee. And possibly 10cc of raw adrenaline.