when your coffee tastes like poison, you should...

probably clean it.

So, I've had this little, cheap Mr. Coffee for at least 4 years now. I've never cleaned it (gross, i know). Well my coffee was taking progressively worse. Eventually it started to taste like poison OR death causing chemicals.

Well, apparently you are supposed to clean your coffee maker once a month (who knew) to get rid of the coffee bean oils. Here's all you gotta do:

How to clean your coffee maker
Make a mixture of 1 part water to 1 part vinegar. (I only had apple cider vinegar, so I used that...and it turned out fine!). Since I have a 4 cup coffee maker, I used 1 1/2 cups of water and 1 1/2 cups of cider vinegar.

Put a coffee filter in the machine, just like normal.

Pour the vinegar mixture where you normally pour the water. (I have a fun story about this. See below...)

Turn on the coffee maker, press brew, and let the mixture run completely through.

Throw out the filter and the brewed mixture.

Repeat 2 times with plain cold water.

Clean as a whistle.

A fun story about my coffee maker (as promised)
As most of you know, I worked at Starbucks for quite a long time. And as most of you know, Starbucks sells coffee. By now you should have deduced that while at Starbucks, I made coffee...a lot of it. You would think I would be quite good at it. I thought I was quite good at it.

Unfortunately, the first time I made coffee in my Mr. Coffee, I put my filter in, put my grinds in and pressed brew After a few seconds, the coffee maker started to make this weird, chemical, burning smell! I failed to add water!

At Starbucks, we don't have to add water when we brew coffee. The coffee brewers are hooked up to the water, so it automatically dispenses...which means, I didn't know I had to add water to my own machine! Oops...

english muffin pizzas...not just for kids

Tonight I found myself with all the ingredients to make English muffin pizzas. English muffin pizzas are so much better than bagel pizzas because (1) there's no awkward hole for the sauce to fall through; and (2) the sauce flows into the nook and crannies.

As usual, I apologize for the quality of the photos. I actually had to delete some because they were blurry. I will get a new phone that takes better photos someday. Or maybe even a real camera!

English Muffin Pizzas
Serves 1

Ingredients:
1 English muffin
Marinara sauce (mine's homemade! check out the recipe I use here)
Cheese (tonight I used little scoops of ricotta and shredded mozzarella and cheddar)
Anything else (the world is your oyster. try onions, mushrooms, pepperoni, pesto, bacon, shredded zucchini...you get the picture)

Directions:
Chop any veggies you want to use into small pieces. Saute them. Unfortunately unlike regular pizza you can't skip this step because your english muffins aren't going to bake as long as pizza normally does and you don't want hard veggies.

Rip the english muffin in half and bake for 1 minute (I used the toaster at 400 degrees, but feel free to use the oven). This way the bottoms don't get soggy.

Layer your ingredients on the english muffin. I used marinara sauce, little scoops of ricotta cheese, sautéed onions, shredded cheese, and then tons of spices (italian seasoning, extra oregano, garlic salt, and some hot sauce).

Bake in oven for an additional 8-10 minutes at 400 degrees until the cheese is bubbly.

Done!

pasta salad with butter (not fava) beans

yum...butter beans

Confession: I have not run in a very long time. I have not been to the gym in a very long time. I have not gone on an outdoor jog in a very long time. I need to fix this. I'm signed up to run a Falmouth 7 miler in August which is apparently very hilly...and long. Ugh. I've got to somehow motivate myself to get on some sort of training plan.

Well, moving on to something I have been doing...eating...a lot. I adapted this pasta salad recipe from Saveur. If I had to make this again (which I probably will!), I would substitute an extra can of butter beans instead of the fava beans that the recipe calls for. 

Also, apparently you are supposed to peel fava beans? I am super confused. In the photo on the internet they look green; however, in the can from the store, they were brown. What??? Confusion.

Pasta Salad with Butter Beans

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

3 ripe medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped

2 large garlic cloves, peeled and minced

3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 can fava beans

1 can butter beans

1 pound pasta (I used colored bowties!)

Feta cheese to taste

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Put tomatoes, garlic, mint, oil, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Toss and let sauce rest at room temperature for 1 hour.

Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling, salted water.  Meanwhile, drain and rinse fava and butter beans. Toss pasta, beans, sauce, and feta cheese.

Eat :-)

In other news, I am behind on blog posts. Stay tuned for:
- Attleboro 10k race recap (This happened over a month and a half ago. Sometimes I stink at blogging)
- Harpoon 5 miler race recap
- Photos of me eating my way through San Diego (Spoilers: pork belly, carne asada burritos, and a caprese salad were all involved in this)
- A delicious blueberry pie

terrible run

I went on a terrible run. I was supposed to go on a 4 mile loop around the Charles, but I probably walked more than I actually ran. Oh well. You have your good days and your bad days right?

The good news is:
1. I actually went on a run (I haven't exercised since the race during Memorial Day weekend...ack).
2. I got some pictures along the Charles. They don't look half bad and I even took them with my crappy old iPhone camera.

The first 2 are from the Harvard Bridge (aka the mass ave bridge) looking out at the Boston side. Actually, it makes no sense that this bridge is actually called the Harvard Bridge, seeing as it is in front of MIT and there are tons of actual bridges near Harvard that aren't called the Harvard Bridge.

The last photo is of the Cambridge side. You can see rowers!

Now the bad news is that I've registered for the Philly half marathon on November 18th, which means I need to actually start training so I can somehow run 13.1 miles. Crap.

If anyone knows of any 10k's in the Boston/New Hampshire/Maine area this summer, let me know. I need to start running them!

summertime and the livin's easy + run to remember

Memorial Day weekend marks the beginning of summer. Wooo! It started on Saturday (5/26) with some beach going.

And then there was some boat riding.

Courtesy of Sir Captain Alex.

We went from Hingham (where the boat is docked) all the way to Boston and back to Hingham.

On Sunday (5/27), I ran Boston's Run to Remember. There is a 5 miler and a half marathon on the same day. Obviously, I ran the 5 miler. This was my second 5 miler (I ran the Harpoon 5 miler the week before) and I'm proud to say I ran the whole thing! I finished in 51:16 (10:16 pace).

My friend, Irene, ran the half. She's pretty awesome. We got medals! (my favorite kind of race...where you get bling at the end)

So far, this is my most favoritist race. We got to run through some amazing parts of Boston, including: past the old courthouse I used to work at, Beacon Hill, around the Public Garden, through Downtown Crossing, the Financial District, and finishing up in the Seaport. My favorite part of the race was running past St. Francis House with all the homeless guys cheering us on.

Notice the big black thing on my wrist? I recently got a Timex Marathon GPS watch. I love it because it keeps me running at a more consistent pace and I am therefore, able to run farther! It does look huge, manly, and black, but apparently they don't really get any smaller than that.

Here are my race splits:
Mile 1: 10:25
Mile 2: 9:41
Mile 3: 10:35
Mile 4: 10:11
Mile 5: 8:52
(it doesn't exactly add up to 51:16 because I had some trouble with the watch at the beginning of the race. aka I tried to start it before I crossed the start line)

After the race, I went to my friend Drew's house for my first BBQ of the summer! Orlando made ribs stuffed with bacon and Drew marinated some chicken.

Thank goodness summer is finally here. Here's to more BBQing, tomato and pepper planting, herb growing, porch sitting, and canned beer drinking!

marathon monday aka patriots day aka the best day ever

I love the Boston Marathon! The marathon always takes place on Patriots Day in mid April (one of those weird holidays that only gets celebrated in Massachusetts). I get the day off from school so it's a great excuse to sit around and drink all day. Oh, and watch people run!

The marathon starts in Hopkington and winds through the towns of Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, Newton, Brighton (technically part of Boston), and Brookline, before finally ending up in Copley Square, Boston.

My old apartment (the tall brown building) used to be the BEST place to watch the marathon. My bedroom window overlooked the route and we had this sliding door with a fake balcony. We were also conveniently located at Mile 24.

Since I live across the street from my old place, I still live at Mile 24 and I still watch the marathon in the same place!

The runners in Coolidge Corner! Can I do this one day? I am not so sure...

Here's what Irene and I did instead of running...we drank some Sam Adams 26.2, a seasonal beer that Sam Adams made just for the marathon this year!

The finish line is in front of the Boston Public Library in Copley Square. I took this photo the day before while they were still setting up.

I can't wait until next year!

roasted broccoli with panko bread crumbs and cheddar

SCHOOLS OUT!!!!! which means summer's here. which means plenty of BBQs, cooking (aka new recipes), beer drinking, porch sitting, tomato growing, and beach going.

After binge eating all last week during finals (and by binge eating, i mean i was on a diet of: m&ms, reeses peanut butter cups, burritos, like 10 bottles of seltzer water, a crapload of coffee, tons of fried chicken, and every single frozen meal trader joes has to offer), I need to go on a diet in order to fit into this bridesmaid dress for my cousin's wedding.

(don't worry I plan on writing a full finals week report. parts of it were quite entertaining. parts of it were quite awful. actually, who cares because it's over!)

So you thought I would post a healthy recipe right? Of course not. I had to go ahead and cook broccoli in bread crumbs and cheese. I can't help it. I think I am addicted to junk food. I'm going to have to slowly wean myself off of it or something.

Whatever. I made this recipe tonight for dinner...a pretty tasty way to eat broccoli. No need to be precise with any of the measurements (my favorite way to cook!).

Also, for those of you unfamiliar with panko bread crumbs, it's a japanese bread crumb, but it's pretty mainstream. I got mine at trader joes, but you can probably find it at any regular grocery store.

Roasted Broccoli with Panko Bread Crumbs and Cheddar
Ingredients:
A bag of broccoli florets or a couple of heads, rinsed and trimmed
1/3 cup of panko bread crumbs (I just eyeballed it. I probably used more than 1/3 cup)
1/4 cup of grated cheddar cheese (Again, I just eyeballed it)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, toss broccoli florets in olive oil, salt, and pepper. (feel free to add other spices if you wish!)

Spread bread crumbs into a cake pan and place in the oven for 2 minutes or until lightly toasted.

Remove break crumbs from the oven and toss with broccoli. Put it all back into the oven and roast until the broccoli is tender, about 8-10 minutes.

Remove from oven and toss with cheddar cheese. Serve immediately!