Healed

Ran 8 miles yesterday. 7 1/2 on Wednesday. The knee cooperated. It must mean that I'm healed! And I'm so convinced of it, I'm going to do a 1/2 marathon. It's not whole enchilada that I hoped to do, but it's a whole lot of progress over limping around like I was a year ago starting at this time.

Here I go! Watch my speed!
(Thus spoke Uncle Joe from Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory)

BOOF

Or boeuf. Whatever.

On Monday, I took at class at Central Market's cooking school on Julia Child. We watched the making of and sampled her Cream of Mushroom soup (surprisingly "quick and easy" but not that amazing in the end), Boeuf Bourguinion, and Chocolate Mousse with Creme Anglaise.

I could write sonnets about this Boeuf Bourguinion. I was more than licking the bowl. And the mousse! With this amazing vanilla creme sauce...and toasted almonds...and amaretto whipped cream. It was a blissful, captivating, world-shaking experience. I've always liked to cook and experiment, but if a recipe called for too many ingredients or had too many steps or took too long...fugetaboutit.

And Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguinon takes 4 hours, at least 16 ingredients, 12 steps (plus the two sub-recipes for the garnish)! So I tried Friday afternoon. If you'd like to spend an afternoon "mastering the art of French cooking," the recipe and pictures are nicely detailed at this blog: Boeuf la bourguignonne. Except don't go back and forth from pan-to-pan like she does. That's madness. And unnecessary dishes. Julia dirties enough dishes without that, and you lose the flavor of the "fond" that develops on the bottom of the pan. Julia doesn't waste flavor like that.This is what I made, served over egg noodles. It wasn't as good as the one made by Central Market's chefs. But it's a very good beef stew, and I shared it with some friends, and they really liked it. "Gourmet"--Amy said. Julia Child, definitely.

I will keep trying. I vow to no longer steer away from a challenging recipe, because it might just be the best thing I ever ate.

Record snowfall in Dallas!

Yesterday, 12 inches of the most beautiful, soft powdery snow fell on Dallas. No school, of course. Woo woo! These are the trees next to my house. So pretty.
The first thing I did, after pulling some downed branches from our tree out of the road, was to go walking in the pristine snow. In some places, it was deep up to my shins. It's surreal to see Dallas covered in snow.

I had to photograph all the snowmen. Only twice in my life has there been enough snow to make snowmen, and one was a halfsie--built on a wooden table with a mop for hair. She was beautiful.
Today, we have the pro-team fan snowman,
The headless snowman of doom,
"You Shall Not Pass" snowman,
Abstract snowmen, or perhaps a snowfort?
A snow-nose lion,
Sad, armless, baby carrot-nosed snowman,
And my own mini-mailbox snowman, that I made on a whim on my neighbor's mailbox. A little present, if you will.
So much snow! You could just pick up a mound of it. So Casey did.
The puppies were really cute in the snow. Charlotte, who's fat and stubby-legged, had to bound around to get through it. Charlie was oblivious, as usual.
And I had to taste of course! It tasted like numb tongue.

The snow is already melting and rolling off our roof like an avalanche, but we had snow! Wowie!