Steve Hoag's Marathon Sports

What: Steve Hoag's Marathon Sports (Running Store)
Where: 2312 W 50th St, Minneapolis
Rating: 8
Non-Quantifiable Rating: Shoe Savants

OK, if anyone from Marathon Sports sees this, please know that you changed my life. I am hell-bent on buying from independent running stores, but I spent years and years buying every brand of running shoe on the market and suffering from every running injury known to man.
In a moment of sheer genius, I went to Marathon Sports where they made me actually get my butt on a treadmill and watched me run, and told me I was buying the wrong kind of shoes. I whined but I listened, and three years later I'm on my 9th pair of the same exact shoe (and the only reason I have gone through so many is because they were soooo right on on the type I needed that I now run 50-60 miles a week, injury-free, and I am on my 10th full marathon so I keep putting 500 miles on the shoes and having to buy new ones!!)

I love you, Marathon Sports. Love, love, love. Love, love. And one more love.

The Birkie

What: The 2010 American Birkebeiner nordic ski race
Where: Cable to Hayward, Wisconsin
Rating: 9
Non-Quantifiable Rating: Slow and steady...gets 2,326th place.

Hey!!  You know what would be super fun?  Doing alternating single leg squats along side simultaneous lat pull-downs and tricep extensions.  For three hours and thirty-nine minutes straight.  While covering 51 kilometers.  Broken up only by the occasional death-defying slide down an icy, curving downhill while herds of snowmobilers line the track and eagerly await your spectacular (and nearly inevitable) face plant.

Put that way, it sounds like a person would have to be a little "off" to find the Birkebeiner appealing.  And come to think of it, nordic skiers do tend to march to their own frozen drummers.  But I'm proud to count myself among them -- at least as a wannabe.

This was my 3rd Birkie (as us super-cool insiders call it), and it was a lot of fun.  I actually trained this year, and cut two hours and 29 minutes off my previous time (that tells you alllll you need to know about how slow I was before).  The conditions were perfect, and I managed to finish right in the middle of the pack, earning myself a substantially cooler starting place for next year.

As usual, the Birkie was impeccably organized, and the northern Wisconsin crowd came out in full force to cheer.  And only some of them were hoping to witness face plants.

Mon Coeur Cotes du Rhone

What: J.L. Chave Mon Coeur Cotes-due Rhone 2007

Rating: 10

Price: $15.99 to $26.99 online (more at restaurants, per usual).

Non-Quantifiable Rating: So. Good. It. Causes. Sentence. Fragments.

Yes, that's a two digit rating you see there.  I know...I'm shocked too.

At Cave Vin last week, the waiter asked what we'd like for half price wine night.  I said something super helpful and sophisticated like: "Uhhh, dunno, something good, kinda Pinot-y...or whatever...and stuff."   Somehow, our waiter translated my request into: "I'd like the best wine ever, please."

OK, it's probably not the best wine ever, but it's the best wine this amateur oenophilic palate has encountered in recent memory.  It was great (albeit a bit tannic) the instant it opened, and became absolutely sensational after it sat for a while (I read online that someone decanted it and let it sit open for 36 hours before drinking).  It has dark berries, bittersweet cocoa, and a wee bit of coffee.  It's full-bodied, but it won't kick you in the pants.

My only complaint was that it was so good that it kept interrupting our dinner.  Every time one of us took a sip, we'd interrupt the other person to say something like "ooohhhwwowww" (again, that's my sophisticated palate talking).  It's that good.  It was pricier than we'd usually spend at a restaurant and we decided that if we could find it online for less than $20, it deserved a full 10 rating.  I did, so it is.

Shutter Island part 2

image (c) rottentomatoes.com

What: Shutter Island (the movie - 2009)

Rating: 6

Non-Quantifiable Rating: Good-looking, mildly creepy, super old-school and stuffed with cliches.  Kind of like Bill Clinton.

I very rarely regret reading books (except that droning Faulkner in the 10th grade - sorry Mr. Podas).  However, I reviewed the original book version of Shutter Island a while back and I wish I hadn't read it first, because it fully ruined the movie for me.

As you all know from the trailers, this is a period piece about the investigation of a maximum security mental institution in the 1950s.  This is not Scorcese's best effort, but it's a better-than-average movie given the steaming pile of digested hot dogs clogging movie theaters these days.  It is on the long side and the slow side (the latter of which is strange, given that it's a psychological thriller).  However, it has Scorcese's signature slickness, mental twisting and visual appeal. 

If you're a Scorcese fan, you'll probably like it.  If you you think you would enjoy sitting in the dark trying to solve a Rubik's cube for a few hours, you'll probably love it.  If you, like, totally wanted to see Valentine's Day instead and omigod, someone's DRAGGING you to this, like, stupid man flick, you'll definitely hate it.

Best Pancakes Ever (Whole Wheat!)

What: Whole Wheat Pancakes

Rating: 9

Non-Quantifiable Rating: Breaking News: Mrs. Butterworth breaks up with Hungry Jack and elopes with my pancakes.

I hate to be the one to bring down an industry, but I vote that we all collectively agree to quit buying pancake mix.  We must have reached a point of serious cooking-phobia if it has become worth it to drop four bucks on a box of pancake mix (into which you still usually have to add some combination of eggs, oil, or milk).

These pancakes are ridiculously easy, and you probably already have the ingredients in your kitchen.  And I haven't even come to the best part:  They are mind-bogglingly (not a word) delicious and healthy!  If you are still convinced that "whole wheat" equals cardboard, you clearly haven't tried these (or my whole wheat bread).

So put down the bright yellow box, and start cooking them from scratch.  After trying these light, fluffy, heavenly little cakes, you'll never go back.

WHOLE WHEAT PANCAKES (adapted from recipezaar.com)

Serves 4-6 (or two of me)

- 1 c. whole wheat flour

- 2 tsp. baking powder

- 1/2 tsp. salt

- 1 tablespoon honey

- 3 tablespoons oil

- 1 c. buttermilk (you can make your own cup of buttermilk by pouring 1 tablespoon of white vinegar into a

   one-cup measuring cup and filling it up to the top with regular milk.  I used vanilla soymilk and they were 

   extra sweet and rich).

- 2 large eggs

DIRECTIONS:

1) Stir oil and honey together in a bowl.

2) Add milk and eggs, and beat well.

3) In a separate bowl, mix together dry ingredients well.

4) Fold dry ingredients into wet ingredients.  Don't overstir - just until the flour is moistened.

NOTE:

- This makes a very thick batter.  Don't be tempted to thin it out - it is supposed to be thick.  This works best when you make smaller pancakes because they will puff up nice and thick and if you use too much batter, they won't cook through the middle before the outsides burn.

Cave Vin

What: Cave Vin (French restaurant)

Where: 5555 Xerxes Ave., Minneapolis

Rating: 9

Non-Quantifiable Rating: How do you say "Six more plates of goat cheese, please" in French?

You could drive by this place hundreds of times and never realize it was there.  I should know - I actually HAVE driven by this place hundreds of times, and never noticed it.  They didn't even have a sign until a few months ago.  Now that I know about it, I feel like a privileged member of the "in-the-know" crowd.  Of course, now you're part of that crowd too.  We should have a special handshake.

When you walk in to Cave Vin, you're greeted by a giant wall of wine (a good sign), and a cozy, bistro-like atmosphere.  It was hopping on a Monday night, and we quickly found out why. It's fantastic (and half-priced wine on Mondays and Tuesdays probably didn't hurt).  We cruised through the bread basket (I loooove restaurants that still have those!) and roughly 963 servings of appetizers and entrees, each of which surpassed the last.  Apparently there is one guy standing in the back hand-crafting each entree from scratch.  I bet that guy's email address is GnocchiWizard@UnFreakingBelievable.drool.

The service was attentive without being overbearing, and the wine list is amaaaazing (our waiter's spot-on recommendation will be reviewed shortly).  Some people might not like the fact that "cozy" translates to "I sort of feel like I could reach out and eat off the plate of the guy at the table next to me," but that makes it all the more authentically French.  And no, I didn't steal anyone else's food, but I can't say it wasn't tempting.  

All in all, this was easily one of the best meals I've had in recent memory.  Between the phenomenal food, great ambience and unassuming charm, it warrants the unusually high rating.  Fair warning: it's not exactly in the TGI Friday's price range, but it's not insane.  Besides, if I could afford to eat there more often, I'd have to also be able to afford new, roomier pants. 

La Granja Tempranillo

What: 2008 La Granja Tempranillo

Rating: 7

Price: $3.99 at Trader Joe's

Non-Quantifiable Rating: I dig the pig.

I'll be honest: I bought this wine because of the pink spotted pig on the label.  I didn't expect much from it, given the unknown brand and ridiculously low price, but the pig was too fun to pass up.

When I took the first sip of this wine, my low expectations were confirmed.  It smelled acrid and didn't taste much better (insert obvious pig/barnyard jokes here).  However, I'd already poured it into the decanter so I kept cooking dinner and let it sit for a while.  After 30 minutes, I noticed it smelled less pig-like, so I tried it again - and voila!  The pig just needed to air itself out for a while.  It's actually quite good.  A bit on the dry side, and a little bit of black licorice.  It's not very sophisticated, but it's very drinkable and more than worth the price.  Just don't forget to let the pig chillax for a while before you dive in.