Halfway Through

I showed up to Army 10 on Sunday morning with a vague idea of what my goal time was. My plan was just to stick with Meredith for as long as I could and see what happened from there. When I met her at the race, I asked her what pace we should start at. She replied that she was hoping for 7:30. I choked on my water at that point. I'm sorry what? 7:30? In my head I'm thinking, "I really don't think I can do that." I mean that's faster than my fastest time. She led the way to our corral, and all I remember is passing crowds and crowds of people... getting closer and closer to the big balloons that marked the race start. Seriously there are 30,000 people at this race, what business did I have being this close to the front!!

But when the race began and we clocked our first mile at exactly 7:30, I was feeling good. The next few miles were all under 7:30, and I was still feeling good. Then at mile 4, as I ran through the water stop, a gentleman decided to stop dead in his tracks to sip his water right in front of me. I dodged out of the way, only to slip and completely EAT IT in front of a nice long line of Marines, and hundreds of spectating fans. I glanced down and saw a long trail of blood making its way down my leg. As I hopped up and continued on, I swallowed my humiliation and started to think about how I felt pretty bad-ass running with a bloody knee.

And just then, at about halfway through... I passed a man with no legs. NO LEGS! Running 10 miles. My pride and self-reliance hit me like a freight truck. Just when I was feeling proud of my pace, proud of my determination, proud of my own strength, God quite literally brought me to my knees. I spent the remaining 5 miles counting my blessings. Thank God for those men and women who put their lives in danger every single day so that I can run freely through the streets of Washington, DC today. So that I can read my Bible and talk about it right now, on this blog, to hundreds (or dozens?) of people, and I won't be killed for it.

I finished the race in 1:15. 7:33 splits. It amazed me how when I put my faith and gratitude in the right place, and gave the glory to whom it rightfully belongs, I could do the things I thought were impossible.

Onto dinner, I decided about halfway through making this pizza I would post it, so it's missing a few pictures, but this is worth making. Thanks, Laurie Digges (and Sarah Taylor) for the recipe!!

Caramelized Onion Pizza with Rosemary

Fresh ball of Pizza dough

Garlic

Olive Oil

Couple sprigs of fresh Rosemary

6 onions (really, 6, because I scoffed at that number and did 3, and I regretted it)

Fresh Mozzarella

Italian Sausage (Had to add this since I cut it short on the onions, but I prefer this pizza straight vegetarian)

First slather some olive oil, garlic, a little salt and some chopped rosemary on your pizza dough. Stick it in a 400 Degree oven for about 15 minutes.

Get the onions started. Can you believe it, I'd never caramelized onions before. So here is what I have to say about that - A WATCHED ONION NEVER CARAMELIZES!! Slice all 6 onions, toss in olive oil in the saute pan, then let them go over medium heat. Let them sit for a while before you toss them. If you toss them too often, they will never caramelize. It will literally take you 30 minutes at least, you've been warned.

Another note, go ahead and get out your stainless cookware for this. Stainless is better for times that you want that browned stuff that sticks to the pan (AKA the "fond," why I know this stuff, I don't know). You want to scrape up those yummy little browned morsels and mix them in with the onions


In the meantime slice your mozz. Handy little trick: use your egg slicer.

See? perfectly, evenly sized slices



How are those onions? Not near done.


Getting closer, and I'm getting impatient! At the end, add in a couple cloves of chopped or pressed garlic and some salt.


I cheated and added a little balsamic to move the caramelizing process along. I was hungry.


Just top the pizza with the beautiful brown caramelized onions, I threw in some already cooked and sliced sweet Italian sausage. Shredded Chicken would be tasty too, but you definitely don't need any meat at all!

Put the mozz slices on top, and throw some more rosemary on there!

Bake about 20 minutes or until cheese is bubbly. Yum.




Cut-N-Seal giveaway ends tomorrow, so go ahead and enter if you haven't already!