carbo-loading

It all started as a joke. I had been giving Judd a hard time about his eating habits -- he considers pizza a breakfast food and popcorn a dessert -- when he pointed out that I consume grams upon grams of unnatural white powdered sugar substitute per day. He had a good point - there's nothing healthy about sweetening your drinks with the contents of a yellow, baby blue, or pink paper packet. But even though I know it's probably not good for me, I can't seem to cut it out of my diet completely. So, I thought up a challenge: I would give up my beloved Splenda if Judd would run a 10k.

Fast-forward a few months. Judd had not spent more than 20 minutes on the treadmill, and I was still recklessly stirring who knows what into my daily cups of coffee. Somewhere along the way though, I decided I myself could use a fitness challenge. A goal to set with literal milestones to work toward. So in January, I signed myself up for the Scotland 10k and started running in Central Park on the weekends. And this morning I did it! (If you squint, you can see me in that photo wearing a blue shirt and navy shorts, just behind that orange pole.) I ran a full loop, 6.2 miles, around the park with 10,000 other runners, most of whom finished long before I did. I never expected to win today's race, but I must admit that I was pretty humbled by the number of runners either twice my age, twice my size, or with half as many legs that jogged right past me. (I did actually pass one blind guy around mile 4.)

Even though I'm hardly a high-octane running machine, I still needed fuel to get out there and go, even when I was only jogging one or two miles. Which brings me to the best part of jogging: carbo-loading! Sure I often eat (not to mention drink) tons of carbs on an average weekend night. But I've really enjoyed having an excuse to indulge in potato, rice, and flour based entrees lately and have also been expanding my own pasta repertoire at home. Here's a recipe worth sharing for a vegetarian rotini with lentils that I made last weekend courtesy of Lidia Bastianich - super easy and delicious!

1 cup small green lentils

1/3 cup diced carrot (~1 medium carrot)

1/3 cup diced celery (~1.5 stalks)

2 bay leaves

5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

4 large garlic cloves, peeled and sliced

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

28-oz crushed tomatoes, preferably San Marzano

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1-lb rotini or other pasta

8-10 large basil leaves, shredded

1 cup freshly grated pecorino cheese

1. Rinse the lentils and put them in a saucepan with the diced carrot and celery, bay leaves, and 3 cups of cold water. Bring to a boil, cover the pan, and adjust the heat to maintain a gentle, steady simmer. Cook until the lentils are just tender, about 25 minutes (or longer, depending on the size).

2. When the lentils are almost cooked, pour the olive oil into a large skillet and set it over medium-high heat. Scatter in the garlic slices and cook for a minute or two, until sizzling and starting to color; sprinkle the crushed red pepper and toast as the garlic sizzles. Pour in the crushed tomatoes and stir well. Bring the tomato sauce to a boil and simmer for five minutes until starting to thicken.

3. When the lentils are tender remove the bay leaves and pour the lentils and any remaining liquid into the pot with the tomatoes. Season with salt, add shredded basil, stir everything together, and heat the sauce to a bubbling simmer. Cook for an additional 25 minutes until the lentils are quite tender and the sauce has thickened to a consistency you like for pasta.

4. In the meantime, cook the rotini in a large pot of salted boiling water until al dente. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the al dente noodles right into the simmering tomato sauce. Cook an additional minute or two and turn off the heat. Stir in grated cheese and drizzle with a little olive oil before serving.

a gigante pot of Greek beans

I was feeling adventurous the other day and decided to try my hand at gigantes, the giant white beans often featured in Greek cooking. I believe gigante means "giant" in Greek and these creamy beans really are enormous - each one is roughly the size of a quarter. A quick search on epicurious yielded a recently published recipe for gigante beans from one of my favorite chefs, Michael Symon.

I went to law school in Cleveland and spent three happy years living amongst laid-back and good-natured midwesterners. Cleveland is actually a great town for foodies -- it is home to a surprising number of excellent restaurants and specialty markets and there's never any traffic or need to make a dinner reservation more than a few days in advance. And, for the most part, it's less expensive to eat out there in than in New York, which was friendly to my graduate student budget.

During my third year of law school, I read "The Soul of a Chef," by Michael Ruhlman, a journalist and Cleveland native. The book, which I recommend despite its slow beginning, profiles two very different up-and-coming chefs, Michael Symon and Thomas Keller (the famed chef behind the French Laundry in Napa and now Per Se and Bouchon Bakery in New York). At the time, Michael Symon was an ingenue on the national culinary scene, though he had a successful restaurant, Lolita, on Cleveland's trendy west side (trendy for Cleveland, at least). Since the publication of Rhulman's book, Michael Symon has opened Lola, a second much bigger restaurant in Downtown Cleveland, won a coveted James Beard award, and least interestingly, joined the Food Network's roster of American Iron Chefs. But he was so lovable as a struggling young chef bringing his passion to a random neighborhood of a dying rust belt city, that I won't hold that against him.

But I digress -- pent up blogging energy. The bottom line is I was excited to make Michael Symon's version of gigantes only to discover that I could not actually find the dry beans. Anywhere. I went to Fairway, Citarella, and Whole Foods and none of them carried gigante beans. One of those new helpful women in red aprons at Fairway suggested I try Kalustyan's on Lexington Avenue and 28th Street.

Kalustyan's is the most magical specialty foods store I have ever been in. They have row upon row upon row of exotic ingredients. I would not have been at all surprised to see a cape-clad Harry Potter shopping in there for rare ingredients for a new spell recipe. Since I don't really like candy and never did, the "like a kid in a candy store" has never really applied to me, but that's how I felt as I roamed the aisles of imported beans, grains, nuts, herbs, spices, and spreads. You must check it out. I found a 2lb bag of gigante beans in no time at all and was on my way home to get started. 24 hours later, I had 3 quarts of really tasty beans.

And without further ado, here's the recipe for an enormous pot of greek beans:

1 pound dried gigante beans

1/4 cup olive oil

2 medium onions, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

6 cups chicken or vegetable broth

2 cups water

1 28-ounce can of chopped San Marzano tomatoes

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/4 cup ouzo (Greek anise-flavored liqueur)

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 cup fresh chopped dill

1. Place beans in a large bowl and cover with water by three inches. Let soak overnight then drain and set aside.

2. Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add chopped onions and garlic and saute until onions are golden brown, 7-10 minutes. Add beans, broth, water, chopped tomatoes with juice, vinegar, ouzo, oregano, and crushed pepper; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until beans are tender 2-3 hours.

3. If necessary, uncover and cook beans until tomato mixture thickens and liquid is slightly reduced, an additional 10-15 minutes. Stir in chopped dill and season beans with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

We've been eating a lot of beans at our house this past week. They're good plain, with a salad, along side a sliver of spanikopita, and over couscous.

If you don't feel like making gigantes yourself but you'd like to eat some, I suggest stopping by Anthi's Greek Food, a delicious and inexpensive takeout place on Amsterdam Avenue between 89th and 90th. I have picked up gigantes, spanikopita, and tzatziki there several times lately and it's all been great.