Recipe: Spätzle and Sausage + a trip to Old World Village

Back in our first trip to Seattle, Minh and I stumbled across a German restaurant on the edge of town. I can’t remember what it was called or where exactly it was located.. all I really remember from that day was being extremely tired (from a flight, only a few hours of sleep in the car, an early hike at the base of Mount Rainier, and lots of driving around and arguing with Minh… I was pretty cranky)…. and I vaguely remember our meal. And this was when I first discovered that Minh (and I) was IN LOVE with beer, sausage… and spätzle!!!

For a long time, we didn’t know what to call this dish because it came as a side on our sausage plate, and we just referred to it as the cheesy side. Minh SWORE that it was some sort of mac’n'cheese, while I thought it was more like a doughy “rice” with cheese. Eventually, we determined that it was spätzle, and we went on a mission to find some nearby.

Which brings us to… OLD WORLD VILLAGE in Huntington Beach. I’ve only been to Old World a handful of times, but we new that there was supposed to be a “good” German market and deli there, so we stopped by in search of good sausage. Imagine our delight when we found out that they were selling spätzle! The woman who helped us (the owner maybe), was a little bit weirded out by the fact that we wanted to buy a pound to take home (since they were serving it in the dining area), but she was very helpful in telling us how to prepare it at home. It came already boiled, so we just had to saute it with some butter and melt some cheese into it. We also bought a pound of dry “hot’n'spicy” sausage and headed home to make dinner.

Hot'n'Spicy SAUSAGE!!! (dry and cooked)

Delicious grated mix of cheeses...

Saute that spätzle in HOT BUTTER!!!

It turned out pretty good… I went a little crazy with the butter, so it was a bit “greasier” than perfect, but the balance of the cheese and the spice of the sausage made it a pretty good dinner for two. We even had some German beer to round out the meal.

Dinner and a movie...

On the Trails: Santiago Truck Trail to the Luge

Last last Saturday (March 12), Minh and I were out volunteering as flaggers for the Santiago Canyon Time Trial. I’ve considered actually participating in the race, but I’m so slow going through the canyon that I’d probably start first and end up last to cross the line.

Manning the "Tunnel"

Since we were out in the area, we decided to get a nice mountain biking ride in. Minh let me choose the trail (like he always does.. except this time he didn’t say: “Are you sure you want to do that trail.. ??”). I decided on Santiago Truck Trail to the Flagpole, then down the Luge. I’ve never been up to the Flagpole and never ridden down the Luge, so it was all new to me. The ride was actually pretty tough. First, you have to climb up Modjeska Grade Road, which is no easy feat. It’s steep and long. I managed ok with my granny gear, but Minh had to walk quite a bit of it since he’s running a 1×9 on his mountain bike.

Once you get past that devil of a climb, then it’s fairly “easy” climbing to the top. There are some steep sections, but it’s mostly rideable if you’re in shape. I can’t remember if Minh said it was worst or easier than Blackstar, but I was dying. There were several times that Minh said we should turn back because of my unsteady heavy breathing (I think he was afraid I was going to throw up), but I told him to keep going. We took several breaks, but eventually made it to the TOP!

First time at the Flagpole.. signed my name and everything...

The view is pretty nice at the top too.

View from the Top.. pretty nice if you ignore the smog..

Now it was time for the “fun” part. I have to say that for me, going down the Luge was fun, even though I went really slowly. It’s the longest stretch of technical single-track that I’ve ever done, but in the end, I kinda loved it. Once I get a better grip on my bike handling skills, I think I could take it a lot faster and make it even more fun (maybe add some elbow and knee pads in there). Minh, on the otherhand, didn’t enjoy it so much.. but he also doesn’t really like downhills or singletrack… or really mountain biking for that matter.

A Little Preview – Bonelli Park

Coming out of the “off-season”, I knew I would be out of shape… but I didn’t really anticipate how severe my laziness and lack of training really affected my overall endurance, fitness, and ability to ride/run/swim/train.

The weekend before the US Cup race at Bonelli Park, Minh and I headed out to do a little course recon and to determine whether or not I thought I’d be in any shape to race. We quickly discovered that I wasn’t in any shape to be racing… the new course is a lot “more fun”, which means more technical, more punchy, and less forgiving. My bike handling skills just weren’t up for what would be a brutal beat-down the following weekend, but I was glad we got a preview of the course (rocky downhills, singletrack switchbacks, off camber, rock gardens, logs and all…).

Here's Minh riding through some singletrack with a nervous look on his face...

While we were out there, we did a pre-ride of the Xterra Renegade course that I will be racing in April. The course is the same as last year (at least that’s what we assumed), which meant that I had already done the course before. There’s just one hike-a-bike section that will slow me down, but for the most part, the course is completely ride-able and with some focused training, should be fairly “easy”. I’m actually pretty excited about this race, which will be my first triathlon of the year! Now if only I could get my legs to cooperate so that I could get some good runs in.

Dirty dirty bikes after the ride.. thanks to all the mud...

After the ride, we stopped by The Hat for some pastrami and delicious onion rings… grease and fat – the two necessary ingredients for the perfect pre-ride meal… yum!

Condiments GALORE at The Hat!

mmm.... Patrami...

greasy and delicious onion rings

Race Report: Fit to be Square 5K

Yes.. I’m still alive. Work has been crazy busy lately, and I have a lot of things to blog about, but not much time to actually get around to writing the posts and selecting/formatting pictures. I’ll try to get back on track with the posts because I’ve… let’s start off with the last time I ran…

I haven’t really been following my planned 2011 race schedule. Mostly because I’m just not prepared.. the second reason is because my shins have been KILLING me. I went to see an orthopedist, who told me that I DO NOT have a stress fracture (YIPPEE!!!), but I do need to lay off the running for a while until the shin splints go away. So, I haven’t ran (at all) since the Fountain Valley Fit to be Square 5K on February 19. I had signed up for this race on a whim… Minh told me about it only a few days before, and I thought it’d be a good way to support my local community.

Me and Minh before th race (Picture from the OC Register)

I went into the race having not ran for about a week because of the shin splints.. But I told myself that I’d give it my all since it was only a 5k. The goal was to finish in under 25 minutes. I didn’t have high hopes about placing since there were A LOT of high schoolers out there racing (to raise money for their school teams) and those kids are ALWAYS faster than me.

... and they're OFF!!!

I started off at a pretty good pace, and kept it up for most of the race. I had to stop once to walk for a little bit, but overall I felt pretty good. I ended up finishing in just under 25 minutes which was AWESOME!! (Although… the race course was just shy of a full 5k, but not by much).

Pushing myself for a strong finish...

To my surprise.. I ended up in SECOND PLACE in my age group – Females 19 – 39. Pretty awesome for not being prepared, right?

Second Place!! whoop whoop!!

The OC Register did a little online photo album of the race that you can check out here: 5K runners ‘Fit to be Square’ in Fountain Valley.

There were 5 bajillion snails around because of the rain the night before...