Restaurant Wars 2013 - California Pizza Kitchen

First off today, I have to say Happy Anniversary!!! to Boyfriend.  It's been ten years since our first date.  Ten years, seven cities, nine different apartments, over twenty different countries, we're like our own little Amazing Race.  That's right, BF and I have been a couple for a whole decade.  You might ask why we aren't yet engaged or married.  My answers generally vary from 'We've only been living together for 2 years' to 'We're really busy' to 'If I get engaged, then I have to plan a wedding.'  We'll get around to it before all this food blogging catches up to us and I can't fit into a size 4 wedding dress!

Now, back to the reason for todays post - Restaurant Wars 2013!  It's been almost a month since my last RW post because I've been out of town so much recently!  March and April found be travelling to my hometown for a long weekend and to Washington, DC for a work conference.  I also spent my weekend mornings training for my half marathon.  I reorganized my RW schedule based on restaurants that are close to our apartment and therefore easy weeknight meals!

This week brought us to California Pizza Kitchen, on a surprisingly busy night.  Our CPK is located inside of a mall, like most locations these days, and tends to be a popular place for dinner.  It would be forty-five minutes if we wanted a table.  How long for the bar?  You can sit down right now!  I highly reccommend sitting at the bar at CPK.  The bartenders are fun and lead to quick drink service.  You can also watch all the pizzas being made and get good views of the TVs.

Personally, I love all of the unusual pizzas at CPK.  I always wind up with their pear & gorgonzola, spicy Korean BBQ or Jamaican Jerk pizza.  BF is more of a classic pizza fan.  Meat and cheese is his go to pizza.  This trip to CPK was no different - I went with the Thai chicken pizza and BF got the Meat cravers.  Apparently vegetables have no place on a pizza in BFs world. 

When it came to reproducing CPK at home, I had a little leg up.  While browsing the local bookstore in Montclair, I stumbled upon this book.  Published in 1996, previously owned, this cookbook cost me $8.  Deal.  The best thing about this version of the cookbook (they have updated it twice since the original was published), this book contains several pizzas that are no longer offered on the CPK menu.  Like BF's favorite - The Rosemary Chicken and Potato Pizza.

 I remember heading to CPK in the early years of our relationship and ordering this pizza.  He's been upset ever since it was pulled from the menu.  When I discovered the recipe in my new cookbook, I knew this would be the recipe to make for RW - CPK.  The only problem, this recipe is so involved.

It took me almost two hours from chopping the first clove of garlic to when I pulled the pizza out of the oven.  You can prepare some things in advance (which I should have done, but I neglected to read the recipe ahead of time, bad blogger) and shave some time off of the prep.  I have also reorganized the directions, to allow you to multitask during the cooking process.

Make this pizza, it is delicious.  And according to Boyfriend, very close to the original.

A Wilde Half Marathon

This weekend, all of my weeks of training culminated in my first half marathon!  It was six weeks ago that I decided to sign up for and seriously train for 13.1 miles through Central Park.  I have always wanted to complete a half marathon.  I realized that I would never train for it, unless I made the commitment and signed up for a race.  It was paying that entry fee that made me stick to the training schedule. 

Boyfriend and I woke up at 6:00 am, Sunday morning, and got dressed in our finest running gear.  Boyfriend was not officially signed up for the race, as it was a ladies only half marathon, but he planned to run along with me as long as he could.  I loaded up my running belt with Clif bloks and lip balm and tossed extra clothes and water in my tagged baggage.  We headed off into the sunrise toward New York City.

You want to head into the city?  There really isn't any traffic at 6:30 on a Sunday morning.  You might be a bit early for brunch though.  We parked our car around 72nd st (right near the finish line of the race) and walked into the park with hundreds of other ladies, already wearing their running bibs.  By 8:00am BF was waiting at mile 1 for me and I was waiting at the starting line, nervous energy coursing through my body.

When my seed corral was finally at the start line, all 1,000 women were packed tightly together.  After I crossed the starting line I was ready to go.  The first mile I spent on the outer edge of the course, passing everyone in my corral.  Apparently I underestimated my running pace at 9:40/mile, after my six weeks of training I was running closer to 8:20/mile.  I spent the majority of the race passing everyone in front of me, it felt good.

BF met up with me at mile 1 and kept up until his shoes came untied around mile 4.  I was on my own, with 10,000 women, running the Central Park loop.  The loop is 6 miles around, which meant I would be making two full loops and one mile of a third.  I knew that once I passed the 6-mile marker, I would be much happier the next time around.

And I certainly was.  I was so thrilled that I reached up and tapped the mile marker, only 1.1 miles left to run.  Gradually I increased my pace until I was at a full out sprint to cross the finish line at 1 hour 55 minutes, five minutes shy of my two hour goal.  Do I think I could do better?  Yes.  Do I plan to run more half marathons?  You bet.

Finally, my heart goes out to those that have been affected by the tragic events at the Boston marathon yesterday.  It's unbelievable what occurred and so surreal that something like this could happen.  I have several friends that were running in the marathon this year and thankfully have heard from all of them.  Here's hoping for a swift recovery for those injured yesterday as well as the city of Boston.

Wilde Week #12

1. It's been six weeks since I decided to sign up for a half marathon.  Before this training program, my longest run was the Bolder Boulder 10K.  After finishing my 12 miles last weekend, I'm confidant I can do this half marathon tomorrow!  Here's hoping I finish it in under the four hour time limit.  My plan is to finish in under two hours.  Two laps around Central Park and I'll have finished my first half marathon!

2.  What was I reading this week?  Teen lit!  I love reading all these post-apocalyptic world stories.  They are such great commuting reads because they are fast moving and requires very little of me.  This is good because I generally fall asleep at some point on the train.  The book this week is Delirium by Lauren Oliver.  Set in an alternate timeline in our world, where love is seen as a disease, our heroine Lena learns that her world isn't quite what she thought.  A little silly, kinda sappy, yet another trilogy.  I wasn't sure I would even bother reading the next two books.  The last few chapters finally convinced me to read onto the next book.

3. Nails this week?  Okay, I painted them a few days ago, so don't mind the chips here and there.  This nail varnish from Illamasqua is called Purity.  It's actually a really nice peach, so perfect for spring.  I only have one complaint.  The coverage of this polish isn't that great.  I put on two coats and could have done with a third, but I was too lazy.

4. I want to be as daring and creative as this girl!  She heads to the thrift store and buys over sized, outdated and un-cute clothes and turns them into the cutest outfits ever!  For like a dollar each!  So jealous.  I have a sewing machine, I should buy some ugly clothes...

5. I was in Washington, DC this week!  I was attending the AACR (American Association of Cancer Research) annual meeting from Saturday to Wednesday, learning about what's happening right now in cancer research.  While I wasn't at the conference, I was wandering around DC (and logging my marathon training miles!) taking pictures with my phone.  So much fun, so many cherry blossom trees.

6. I know this is from last year, but I totally want to dust off my ice cream maker and make myself some strawberry-coconut ice cream!  It sounds delicious.  Maybe I'll wait until I can pick my own berries?

7. While I was away at the conference, Boyfriend was at home, cleaning up my mess!  Apparently he grew sick of all my cookbooks on top of the kitchen cabinets and bought me a bookshelf!  Now all I want to do is stand in front of it and look at my cookbooks.  There's a little open space up there on the top shelf, I'd better head to amazon and fill it up.

8. I'm inspired by my new bookshelf to making marshmallows and macarons.  Let's see if this inspiration carries me into the kitchen...