Kate decided to start running and tells me that I inspired her. How humbling to be the inspiration of someone’s accomplishment! This was going to be her first marathon, so I decided to run with her, and get her to the finish line. Her goal was to finish at 3 hours, I pushed her to the finish at 2:25. She didn’t stop once, a great time for her first!! I’m very proud of her accomplishment!

The Half was very enjoyable for me. It was the first race where I wasn’t running my race pace and it was so enjoyable that I’m thinking about becoming a pacer for future races.I loved being the one to encourage someone to thefinish! Thanks, Kate, for helping me find another passion!

So … since we would be in Chicago for the race, we decided to stay an entire week to soak up the city! It is our first time in Chicago. The weather is at its best, and Chicago reminds me of a mini-Manhattan … more modern, less congested.

This picture was taken from our table at the Signature Room on the 95th floor of the John Hancock Building. Beautiful!!

Gino’s East
The pizza here was sooo good, and the line to get in was sooo long! The crust was flaky, and had a cornmeal taste to it. Very different, and very tasty! We may need to visit Gino’s again before the trip back home. This was my favorite deep dish pizza.

Eggsperience Cafe
Two miles from our hotel on Michigan, but well worth the short cab ride. I had the apple, pecan, caramel pancakes, and Jeremy had the norm: eggs and potatoes. He’s a potato kind of guy.

Giordano’s was the other famous deep dish pizza we tried, voted best by NBC. Gino’s was definitely my fav, but Jer liked Giordano’s the best. The pizza tasted “fresh” and very yummy!

The Purple Pig
The saying goes, If you give a pig wine, it’ll turn purple.

Some of the menu choices:
* Pigs Ear with Crispy Kale, Pickled Cherry Peppers & Fried Egg
* Sardines with Shaved Fennel Salad & Lemon Vinaigrette
* Purple Pig Platter
* Pigs Tails Braised in Balsamic

My husband would call this heaven … me, not so much. I settled on Roasted Bone Marrow with Herbs, Prosciutto Bread Balls, and Braised Pork Shoulder with Mashed Potatoes.

DMK Burger, grass-fed beef bar
My kind of meat! Absolutely the best burgers and fries I have ever had! Hands down! I had the Roasted, Hatch Green Chile, Fried Farm Egg, Sonoma Jack, Smoked Bacon Burger with Amish Blue and Smoked Bacon Sweet Potato fries. Jer had the Holy Guac-Aioli Burger. Chorizo Guacamole, Sonoma Jack Cheese, Chipotle Aiolo, Cilantro and onions with Sweet Potato Fries w Lemon Tobasco Aioli. The picture does no justice as the lighting was so dark inside.

Good thing we’re runner’s, or we would be on a diet! Overall, I LOVE Chicago! We were there for a week, and can’t wait to visit again!

While I was out with a client, my hot husband was at Whole Foods shopping. He texted, “How about Monkfish?”

I said “Sure!” with excitement. I love experimenting with new fish. We usually buy the fish of the day, and this was literally the “special” for the day. Curious about this fish, I looked it up online and this is what I saw …

I was horrified needless to say, but somehow I managed to make this weird, creature taste good. We tried our best to enjoy it, but this flashing image kept popping up as I took each bite. I thought to myself, I can’t believe I’m eating this, but I played it off well! I’m tough, I can eat anything!

I’m not going to share the recipe, though. I don’t think you would enjoy taking the membrane off of this fish’s tail, AND I really don’t think I would cook it again, but I thought the story was fun to share!

Ugly tastes pretty good served with red pepper and polenta!!

I decided to use my special curry that Chef Angelo ground for me. Ironically, we visited Angelo today at his new restaurant, Social Eatz, and he asked if I had finished the curry he made for us. I said no, and continued to tell him that I had just used it in a recipe the night before. He asked to see a picture! (LOL, Angelo knows that I take pictures of the recipes I cook because he knows how I blog.)

Jeremy showed him the picture of the plated curry loin and his response was, “Wow, so avant-garde! And the pork is nicely cooked!” LOL

I asked how he knew that from looking at my iPhone picture, and he said by the color of the meat – it’s nice and pink. It’s true, I am so very careful about overcooking my pork. I take it out when the internal temperature reads 130 … just the way we like it!

By the way, this recipe is so, so yummy!

Ingredients:

3/4 lb. pork loin, organic, vegetarian feed, humanely raised
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 cup bread crumbs
2 Tbsp freshly ground curry
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp organic garlic powder
1/2 tsp granulated onion
4 small organic red potatoes, quartered
5 mushrooms, thickly sliced
1 small onion, sliced
Olive Oil
1/2 cup organic vegetable stock

Directions (20 minutes):

1. Rinse and pat dry pork loin. Slightly beat egg in bowl; add loin to coat with egg.

2. In a separate bowl, mix together the bread crumbs, curry, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and granulated onion.

3. Add egg-coated loin to bread crumb mixture, and coat well.

4. Place the loin in baking dish. Add the red potatoes, mushrooms and onion to the baking dish.

5. Pour the vegetable stock over the potatoes; drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

6. Bake in a 350-degree oven, covered, for 35 minutes.

Sauce Ingredients:

1 Tbsp organic Vegenaise
3 Tbsp organic almond milk
1 tsp freshly ground curry
1 1/2 Tbsp whole wheat pastry flour
Salt & pepper to taste

Sauce Directions:

1. Once the pork loin is done, transfer about 1/4 cup of the vegetable juice from the baking dish to a small sauce pan.

2. Add the Vegenaise, almond milk, curry, and whole wheat pastry flour. Constantly stir over low heat for about 2 minutes to thicken. Salt and pepper to taste. (You may have to add more almond milk or flour depending on the consistency you would like your sauce to be.)

3. Serve sauce over sliced pork loin.

Ingredients:

3/4 lb. flounder fillets
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/8 cup grated or shaved Parmesan, Romano or Asiago cheese
3 tablespoons Earth Balance buttery spread, softened
2 tablespoons Vegenaise
3 green onions, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce

Directions:

1. Preheat broiler. Place fish in a greased, shallow baking pan. Sprinkle with lemon juice, salt and pepper.

2. In a small bowl mix cheese, butter, mayonnaise, green onions, salt, pepper, and hot pepper sauce; set aside.

3. Broil flounder for 4 minutes, or until fish flakes easily with a fork. Remove from oven and spread cheese mixture on top.

4. Broil an additional minute, or until cheese is lightly browned and bubbly. Serve warm.

Serving Size: 3

I am especially excited since everything is over a “5″ rating in terms of how the meats are humanely raised, organic and processed for his restaurant. Angelo has a higher standard than Whole Foods meats. I was very impressed as I only buy humanely raised, non GMO, etc.

Social Eatz is Angelo’s second restaurant opening, of many more to come. He’s also started on a biography/recipe book. Jeremy will be traveling with Angelo to Asia for 10 days in April to get great shots for the book. Maybe I can tag along.

So back to the photoshoot … Angelo brought his sous chef, and marketing and web design team. My job was to assist the photographer and help make the food look tasty on the plating. We propped ribs on top of styrofoam, and glazed leaves with oil using my makeup brushes. Numerous Q-tips and toothpicks were used. Angelo called the shoot very intense and said he saw me doing more of this! (LOL, I work intensely and am a perfectionist!)

The best part was, extra food was made so we could snack in between plates being shot. And not because I’m biased, but Angelo’s food is so amazing! One of his glazes for ribs has coffee in it. Who would’ve thought?

There will be a few events in the next couple weeks before the grand opening – an opening party at Social Eatz with all the cast from Top Chef All Stars, which Jeremy will be covering and networking; and a family and friends dinner that we’ll be attending but not working! We’ll be sure to post pictures from those events. Life is great in the foodie world!

www.socialeatz.com
www.angelososa.com

Be sure to watch Angelo on Bravo’s highest-rated television series, Wednesday nights, 9 pm EST. I can’t tell you the results, so you’ll have to watch the rest of the season!

P.S. My fridge was left stocked with Asian hamburgers, ribs, special sauces, cheeses, and freshly ground spices.

We decided to take them to taping number 2 of Food Network’s 24-Hour Restaurant Battle. They love food as much as we do, and thought this would be a fun day. We arrived at the studios in Brooklyn an hour late, signed our releases, and walked to waiting room number 2 right away. From our last taping, we learned that you really don’t have to be there right on time.

The four of us sat down with a group of about 50 people who had been waiting awhile. We were sitting for no longer than 10 minutes when the producer’s assistant came up to the four of us and told us that we were chosen to be alongside the judges as they entered the restaurant. She said we were camera friendly. We followed her backstage and felt the glares as we had just walked through the door – late – and others would still have to wait.

Backstage we chatted with Chef Scott Conant. He mentioned how he had just flown in to NYC the night before, worried he wouldn’t make it because of the storm that had just hit. I thought he was very friendly, definitely more relaxed from day 1 of taping. I’m a fan!

We did our thing as background people as the judges walked into the restaurant, then sat down to order and eat from restaurant “Bout”, a roller derby themed restaurant.

Not a great experience compared to the first restaurant we critiqued. We waited almost an hour for our food! Appetizers were pork sliders, greasy potato chips, and deviled eggs. The main course – greasy hamburgers, fried cod, burnt fried chicken. Alexa had to order another meal because of burnt fried chicken. This resulted in major camera time … lol.

Dessert was good – bread pudding … yum! We had a great time besides the fact that the food was greasy and a long wait. My opinion is that Bout does not win this food battle.

Serving size 2

We were seated and ordered our drinks. As our waiter Andrew approached (his real job is as a standup comedian in SOHO), he told us they ran out of all dessert. My heart dropped, as I am a sucker for sweets, and I gave him an “Oh really, that’s okay.” Really it wasn’t.

As he walked away, the producer came up to us and said, “I understand your waiter just told you that they are out of dessert. We’re going to shoot that again.” As the mic came over our heads and as they prepared to shoot this re-enactment, I started to get nervous. Finally the waiter came over, and I replied, “Oh really, that’s okay.” They ended up shooting it again and again. Each time my response was the same. A little boring I know. Was I supposed to “act it out”? Who knows? Hopefully it doesn’t get aired; I had a bad hair day today! lol

Halfway through our appetizer, the producer moved us to a table directly next to the judges’ table. Jeremy continued to eat his clam chowder and my plate of well-seasoned clams topped with chorizo and spinach. This was my favorite dish. For our entree, Jeremy ordered the roasted duck with mixed white and sweet potatoes. Something I’m going to try and make. I ordered the cod drizzled with a chipotle sauce and spinach. The cod was perfectly cooked and very tasty!

The judges ate and shared their entrees, including the dessert – a whoopie pie that they had “run out of” – which seemed to last about 2 hours. Halfway through, the producer added a couple to our table and the waiter continued to bring us more drinks and food, but no dessert. Adding a couple to our table made the experience much easier and by the time shooting was done, we weren’t nervous. Round two, in a couple of weeks! A blast for sure!

About the show: Hosted by renowned chef Scott Conant (chef and owner of Scarpetta and Faustina at The Cooper Square Hotel), each episode of 24-Hour Restaurant Battle features dueling two-person teams of aspiring restaurateurs who have 24 hours to conceive, plan and open their own restaurants for one night. On each team, one person handles front-of-house issues like decor, seating and service while the other manages back-of-house matters like menu planning, shopping and, of course, cooking. When the doors open, each restaurant serves a discerning group of diners, along with Scott and a rotating panel of judges representing three areas of expertise: restaurant marketer, restaurant reviewer and restaurant investor. Based on the restaurant’s concept, execution and viability, the judges choose a winning team to receive $10,000 seed money toward realizing their dream.

The marinara sauce is homemade with all organic ingredients. One of our favorites!

Ingredients:

1 organic eggplant
Organic olive oil
1 onion, chopped in large pieces
4 garlic cloves, pressed
Sea salt
Pepper
1 – 28 oz. can tomato puree (make sure it is 100% all natural, no preservatives, no artificial colors or flavors)
Thyme
Dried oregano
1 bay leaf
Organic freshly chopped basil
Organic whole wheat penne pasta
Freshly shaved Parmesan, Romano & Asiago Cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut up eggplant, with skin on, into large square pieces; place in large baking pan.

2. Drizzle olive oil over eggplant. Add salt and pepper and toss. Place into oven. Bake for 20 minutes uncovered; toss again halfway through.

3. Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Add crushed garlic and chopped onion; cook until softened. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Stir in tomato puree, oregano and bay leaf. Add salt and pepper to taste. I don’t measure; I season to taste. Taste your sauce and make sure there is enough seasoning. Simmer and let the seasonings meld for 20 minutes.

5. Cook penne pasta according to package directions, in boiling water with salt. Rinse and drain in cool water. If not serving right away, drizzle some olive oil over the pasta and salt and pepper lightly.

6. Add roasted eggplant to your marinara sauce.

7. Add fresh basil, and taste again to make sure there is enough seasoning.

8. Ready to serve with shaved cheeses on top!

Serving size, 4. Enjoy!