New cookbook and a 8 mile run

Since we've started to visit some of the local LA famers' markets, we've noticed that there are all sorts of delicious things there but we're clueless on how to cook them and what to pair them with. So, we decided to take a page (pun most certainly intended) from our favorite cooking duo in NorCal (my brothers-in-law, Eric & Ryan) and we got ourselves a farmers' market themed cookbook.  This particular one is called Williams-Sonoma Cooking from the Farmers' Market.  You can purchase it from the Williams-Sonoma site here or from Amazon.com.

Surviving Carmageddon

This past Saturday was a busy day of running but lets face it, mostly eating.  By doing all this local stuff we thought we'd be avoiding all the Carmageddon hoopla.

We started our day off with a 6 mile run which marked the official end of Disneyland Half Marathon training week 3.  I've started using the Nike+ GPS app that's I downloaded to my iPhone and it's pretty awesome.  I just strap my iPhone to my arm and run with the app activated and it keeps track of my distance, pace, run duration, elevation changes and even draws a map of the route I just ran.  It works on the treadmill too.  I'll try to figure out how to share that info to the blog.  Anyway, here is the map of the 6 miler:

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Half Marathon Training: 2 Weeks Down, 8 To Go

This weekend Clayton and I did 5 miles. We’ve done this route before, but it’s a good one. We head East on Palms, go North on Motor up all through the lovely Cheviot Hills neighborhood until we reach Fox studios, then go West on Pico past the golf course, and finally South on Westwood Blvd. It’s a fantastic 5 mile run to have in our pocket. The Cheviot Hills neighborhood gives you a lot of good hills (and you get to pick out what house you want) and then you get relief when you reach Pico, nice shade from the trees and a softer surface on the dirt and leaves to give your knees a break.


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4th of July Foodie Weekend

It's Tuesday and we're recovering from a great holiday weekend. On Saturday we drove down to San Diego and planned on some beach time before grabbing dinner. Unfortunately the drive from LA to SD took 3.5 hours and cut out all our beach time. We did drive by the beach because we're stubborn like that.

After our failed beach attempt, we were hungry so we headed over India Street in San Diego with our friends Marie and Dan from Meandering Eats. Make sure to head over to her blog and read/subscribe/obsess over it, you'll be happy you did.  Anyway, Marie and Dan made reservations at one of their favorite places called Wine Vault & Bistro.

This place was AMAZING! It has a set 5 course menu at $30 so everyone eats the same food and they have an optional $20 wine pairing for each course.  Carly and I decided to share the wine pairings.  Below are pictures and descriptions of the food: