As I wrote on Saturday, I threw an impromptu breakfast party Sunday morning for some of my long-lost ski friends who were staying with us and my friend Amy who came in from Stanford.  Amazingly, I pulled everything off (never cooked breakfast for that many people before) and it all came out well! Even Kevin, who claimed to “hate tomatoes” held good on his promise to at least try it, and he ended up liking it! (I thought this might be the case, as I “hate tomatoes” myself, yet love this dish).  I woke up at 7am to walk Linus to the market and get more food, then got started cooking… while three large guys caught Zzzz on the floor in my living room. As they woke up one by one I recruited them to help in the kitchen and put them to work peeling pomegranates and mashing basil for pesto.

I made the baked eggs in prosciutto-wrapped tomatoes recipe which I had cooked for Earl before, however as we had bacon in the house I subbed bacon for prosciutto. This worked out okay, though I did pre-cook the bacon on the Foreman beforehand and I think it could have been a little less cooked; it turned out pretty crunchy. Also, I think I liked the flavor of the prosciutto a tad more, however bacon tasted fine.

Ready to go in the oven- these are tomatoes hollowed out, then coated on the inside with a homemade pesto and wrapped in bacon.  Bake those for 10 minutes to roast the tomatoes a bit, then fill each with an egg and bake again for 10 more minutes.  Couldn’t be simpler!
Notice the pre-cooked bacon is not wrapping around the tomatoes very well. Another reason why not to pre-cook the bacon as much and also why prosciutto might work better- more supple. I also threw on some parm cheese into the tomatoes which you can see in the pic:

Your chef, with no makeup, messy hair, her glasses and rocking her pajamas and a hangover:

We are ready to eat!! Amy brought the OJ.

After 10 more minutes in the oven, here’s how they looked. This is for 10 minutes at 350*… if it were just Earl and I dining, I would go for 8 minutes as both of us like a runnier yolk… however with a bunch of people, tastes vary and I figured a harder yolk is safer… easier to err more towards “done” than “raw” when it comes to egg cooking times.

Bacon-wrapped Tomato Baked Eggs

Bacon-wrapped Tomato Baked Eggs


Plated! Served with a pomegranate seed and arugula simple salad. Turns out, 2/6 of my guests hated pomegranate seeds. Should have checked beforehand, I guess! What a waste of peeling effort :P

Linus got in on some tableside petting action.

Earl snapped a post-breakfast group shot. I love these people!! The last time we were all together was Straightline Ski Camp last Feb. We’re trying to plan another meet up soon- be it at Straightline Camp 2010, Argentina next summer (doubt I’ll have the $ to pull that one off) or even a long bike trip up the Lost Coast.

After breakfast, everyone packed up and Nick and I got ready to make the trek to Sacramento for the race. We went to the expo and got Nick registered, then had a pasta dinner at 5pm and went to bed pretty early. I did spend time making my Fan Extraordinaire sign (I actually love making signs to cheer people on, I think it’s a holdover from my days as a highschool cheerleader) while we watched bad cable before bed.

Here is Nick getting in “the zone” on the way to the Marathon Expo:

And here is a snap of the sign I made. It reads, “GO NICK, RUN FAST.” Simple enough instructions :P

GO NICK, RUN FAST

GO NICK, RUN FAST

Race morning, Nick left at 5am to catch the pre-race shuttle and I stumbled out of bed at 7am to go cheer. I planned to see him in three spots- mile 10, mile 18 and the finish. My plan worked and I did get to see him at each of those locations. We weren’t sure it would work because he wasn’t running with a phone or anything (he’s a Serious Runner… unlike me who races with cellphone in hand and tweeting the entire time… lol).
Nick during the race! He was literally running so fast it was hard to get a good pic! You can practically see the “zoom” lines coming from behind him.

Ninja on the course!

Nick was a bit bummed about his final time- 3:32. He’d been trying for Boston, which he needed 3:10 to get into. He went into this admittedly a bit undertrained (apparently he likes biking a lot more and has been mountain biking most weekends instead of doing long runs), and also the pretty cold temps (it was 32* at the start!) threw him off. Selfishly, I am a tad happy he didn’t get boston because it means he’ll be running a lot this next year and hopefully we can meet up for another marathon :) :P evil of me, I know.
Post-race shot. Don’t we look cold?! It was pretty freezing while cheering, and I was in a bulky fleece. The orange tree behind us is misleading!!

There was even a corgi spectator! This adorable guy was named Frodo Baggins. Such a great name for a corgi.

After the race we drove back to SF, stopping at a post-race nosh of In & Out. Then I dropped Nick off at the airport and headed directly to work. A shift had opened up which apparently they needed someone badly enough to offer DOUBLETIME THE ENTIRE SHIFT. Sweetness! I worked a 20-hour shift, from Sunday at 10pm to Monday at 6pm. I’m loving these open shifts at work, makes picking up a day really simple and earning some extra $$ pretty easy.

This week is super busy for us- tonight we have Earl’s company Christmas Party, tomorrow I picked up another shift at work from 6am-6pm, Thursday I’m doing a hike with my friend Andrea, and then I work Fri, Sat and Sunday 5am-5pm. Finally, on Sunday night we have our ambulance company Christmas Party, which I am ALSO psyched about! Also in the meantime I am trying to write a TON of Christmas cards and otherwise do errands for the upcoming holiday. I’m writing a tad over 50 cards this year, and I try to write a personal message on them all. I’ve been writing them between calls on the ambulance :) I normally crank out about 5 a shift.