Things that are awesome

Things that are awesome!  (none of them running things... but bear with me...)

1) Tomatillo Salsa.  I have this thing for green salsa... an obsession really. When I used to be a server at a mexican restaurant, they had a secret stash of green salsa that was hidden in a fridge in the bar--people could get it for free only upon request, and no one really knew it existed.  Except for me.  And I ate it EVERY DAY for three months.  No joke.  When I go to the store now, I still always end up buying jars of green salsa, but haven't found a brand that I'm totally in love with yet.  I've considered making my own but have been timid about dealing with tomatillos... until my brother texted me this photo of his homemade tomatillo salsa.  That was the last straw... and I knew I had to do this, so I made it today.  Don't be afraid of using tomatillos!  It wasn't that bad at all.  They are kind of weirdly sticky under the paper skin, but you can rinse them and then I just cored them like a tomato.
What you do:
10 tomatillos (get the biggest ones you can, peel back the paper a little to make sure they aren't icky in there)
1 very small red onion, or 1/3 of a normal red onion
1 habanero, de-seeded
lime juice (lots and lots)
garlic (2 cloves or so)
cilantro (lots and lots)
cumin (maybe 1/2 a tsp or more)
salt to taste.  sugar to taste if you've gone too wild with the lime juice.
De-paperize the tomatillos; put em in a food processor and chop em up.  then chop the other stuff; mix together; eat!  Yummy yum.  I'm going to take the leftovers and mix it with avocado chunks for a tomatillo guacamole.

2) Cold-Pressed coffee from Caribou Coffee.  I've tried making my own cold-pressed coffee but it just isn't as good as theirs.  This is my favorite summer treat...but it's dangerous because it goes down really easy like an iced tea or something and then you realize you're wired out of your mind.  And somehow it makes me FAR more wired than regular coffee.  And if I drink it in the car, 9 times out of 10 it's empty by the time I get home and then I'm REALLY wired.  Seriously though, try it.

3) Nectarines.  Yes, they really are more awesome than peaches and yes, they are delicious.  Thank you summertime!

4) Raw "Cottage Cheeze" made with macadamia nuts. This photo is shamelessly stolen from the blog where I found this amazing recipe, Addicted to Veggies.  (I would've taken my own but mine wasn't as pretty, and maybe the beautifulness of this photo will make you go check out that blog, because it's probably the best raw foods blog I've ever seen!)  I've eaten like 100lbs of this stuff on cucumbers, on crackers, on fruit, mixed with other salads, on everything.  It's so so good.  The recipe is over here.

5) Andy Schleck and his Tour de France heroism.  (isn't he adorable?? total cyclist crush..)  As some of you know, I'm completely addicted to watching pro cycling, and this addiction really becomes extreme in July when the Tour de France is on.  This year Andy Schleck came really really close to beating Alberto Contador (who I really dislike for a variety of reasons).  In an unfortunate turn of events that people are referring to as "chaingate," Andy's chain popped off on an important mountain climb--Contador kept attacking and ended up taking the yellow jersey, gaining 39 sec on Schleck in the overall standings.  While there are no official rules about attacking during a mechanical problem, it's frowned upon by many and Contador was booed on the podium (he later issued an apology on Youtube).  Andy Schleck, though, was an unbelievably good sport from the next day forward, and he almost took the jersey back in today's time trial stage, where Contador was a huge favorite for the win.  Andy was ahead at the first checkpoint and he's historically really bad at time trials.  His ride today though was absolutely insane--I have no idea where all of his energy came from. He rode so well, and Contador is an impressive time trialist--everyone assumed Andy wouldn't even have a chance.  Contador ended up winning the tour with an overall 39 sec advantage--ironically the exact amount of time Schleck had lost to him due to Chaingate.

The tour this year was full of a lot of other antics including a ton of crashes in the 2nd stage, a cobblestone stage, a fistfight after a stage, Robbie McEwen crashing after a stage was over, a headbutting incident that ended up with Mark Renshaw getting disqualified, Andy's brother Frank crashing out of the tour, and more.  But as far as I'm concerned, Andy Schleck is the true hero, even though he lost the tour to Contador.

This commercial the two did together is pretty much awesome and good-spirited.

Also, Team Saxo Bank was totally awesome this year more generally... I love Jens Voigt (he's hilarious!), and he had another epic crash but kept riding anyway (so badass)... and Fabian Cancellara is super cute and really amazing at time trials, and then Andy and Frank of course.  Ahh...for as much as I love watching cycling and love pro cyclists, one would think I'd like biking myself... but I have this overwhelming cowardice about riding in traffic.

Now back to your regularly scheduled running posts :)