Easter Brunch

After our 18 mile long run last Saturday, Brian and I met up with my sister (Samantha), her boyfriend (JC), and our friends (Justin & Andrea) for a Saturday Easter Brunch at Salty's on Alki. I had only been to Salty's for their brunch one other time and it was simply delicious. What better way to refuel after a long run with many different protein and carb options?! Also you really can't beat the view. Here is my Saturday Easter Brunch in pictures:

View from our table

Plate #1 of Deliciousness

Plate #2 of Deliciousness

Dessert Plate #1

Dessert Plate #2 - Had to get my fruit in!

As you can see I stuck to the seafood at the buffet. They just had too much good seafood for me to venture to the land animals. You can't tell by two plates of dessert but I'm not really a sweets person. I will choose savory over sweet any day. But the dessert table and chocolate fountain were just too enticing to pass up. And I mean who can really say no to dipping things into chocolate?! They even had rice krispies and marshmallows that you could dip into the chocolate.

After running 18 miles I thought I could do some serious damage at a delicious buffet but I actually didn't eat as much as I had planned. After I cleaned plate #1 I only took bites of each dish on each of the following plates. 

Salty's is definitely a great place to go if you love seafood and Dungeness crab claws. A must visit for anyone in Seattle.

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In marathon training news, Brian and I finished Week 19 with our last 20 mile run. We are now tapering until Race Day - which by the way is in three weeks!  In just three weeks Brian and I will be running our first marathon. So unreal! Our last 20 mile run was challenging but great. Mile 20 was a 1 mile long hill. It was brutal but we did it. I can't wait to see how our training pays off. 

Fueling for Our Long Run

I'm always on the lookout for a good marinara sauce and since we really like spaghetti for our pre-long run dinner it gives me the excuse to try out new recipes.  I found tonight's recipe on Smitten Kitchen and the recipe has apparently made its way around the blogosphere.  When I first read through the recipe, I couldn't but help and agree with some of the comments on the blog.  I was skeptical.

 How can just these three ingredients make such a great tasting sauce?

Tomato Sauce with Butter and Onions (from Smitten Kitchen)
Adapted from Marcela Hazan’s Essentials of Italian Cooking

Serves 4 as a main course; makes enough sauce to lightly coat most of a pound of spaghetti

28 ounces (800 grams) whole peeled tomatoes from a can (San Marzano, if you can find them)
5 tablespoons (70 grams) unsalted butter
1 medium-sized yellow onion, peeled and halved
Salt to taste

Put the tomatoes, onion and butter in a heavy saucepan (it fit just right in a 3-quart) over medium heat. Bring the sauce to a simmer then lower the heat to keep the sauce at a slow, steady simmer for about 45 minutes, or until droplets of fat float free of the tomatoes. Stir occasionally, crushing the tomatoes against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon. Remove from heat, discard the onion, add salt to taste (you might find, as I did, that your tomatoes came salted and that you didn’t need to add more) and keep warm while you prepare your pasta.

Serve with spaghetti, with or without grated parmesan cheese to pass.

I followed the recipe and the only change I made was adding lean ground beef and hot Italian sausage because Brian and I were in the mood for spaghetti with meat sauce. 

Meat!

The sauce was delicious and rich. The butter was a great addition to the sauce.  It would have definitely been fine on its own.  It is so simple and really easy to prepare.

Sauce just simmering away

Time to dig in

Now we are just staying in and out of the wind and cold. Hoping that the spring storm stays away from 7am - 10am while we are out doing our long run.