Friday Five

I had so much fun yesterday with Zachary watching these funny videos yesterday.  It gives me so much joy to see him laugh.  I am so blessed to have had such wonderful sons.  I know we all think that our kids are great, but mine really are!!!



1.  I am completely out of peanut butter, like I took a spatula and scraped every little bit out of the jar.  I am addicted to peanut butter.  I had to have half a bagel with plain butter.  The good side of this is I get to go to the grocery store which I love. This may be the size I move up to

2.  I am going to the new Whole Foods close to my house tomorrow and I am really excited because I have a rolling list of things I have been wanting to get. 

3.  Have you heard of Coke rewards?  I have been entering the caps (most donated) into the system for a few months and have $30.00 already!!!!  I also have been entering my grocery store receipts into Ibotta and have $20.00. 

4.  I am starting to take donations to make homeless blessing bags to pass out on Thanksgiving.  Memphis has a huge homeless population.  If you are interested email me at has2run@yahoo.com

5. We are carving pumpkins tonight which should be a lot of fun.  Hot apple cider and scary movies what a great way to end fall break!!!

What are your plans for the weekend?
Do you eat an obscene amount of peanut butter?
Do you participate in any rewards programs? Which ones?

First time including links ~ Happy six months

I have been blogging for over a month and a half and recently got a new computer.  So I am trying to do link attachments today.  Hang in there with me as I try.  I am really just going to review some of the blogs that I am really loving.
jenchoosesjoy.com  I really love her blog and have followed it religiously.  I even met her last year at the Cumberland Plateau Stage Race.  She has great recipes, running tips, and is very involved with St. Judes Childrens Hospital

hungryrunnergirl.com  Janae is a runner from Utah with a super gorgeous daughter.  She is a very positive person with a really interesting life.

greatnowwhatsk.blogspot.com This is a blog that I recently started following.  Shay writes great stories about her and her husband's adventures in home renovation and she runs as well.

These are just a few I love reading everybody's blog. If I made a list of all the blogs I love it would be over a hundred.

Ok, so now a huge shot out to my friend Cat!!!!!  I am so happy to announce that she has made it six months clean and sober.   I love me some Cat.  She is the most supportive person in my life.  I met her at the hospital when she was at a whole new level of rock bottom.  To the point she had scraped holes in her forehead on a heroin binge and did not even realize it.  She weighed about 80 pounds, and looked like a zombie.  I do not know why I felt the immediate need to support her, I never had met her before this day.  I never even tried a cigarette in my life. I have never used a drug.  I had only seen the criminal side of drug use.  The theft, burglary, possession, and other related crimes often associated with drug use.  I knew I could help her.  Let me tell you that drug use has no boundaries. It can affect rich, poor, smart, dumb, good looking, ugly etc.  I am so happy to now know  how beautiful and smart Cat is.  She is the most caring and giving person and I wish her all the joy and health that I possibly can.  Overcoming drug addiction is not easy.  I would say it is one of the hardest things there is to do. 

 

 It is fall break this week for Shelby County Schools.  So I have a whole week of just me and Zachary and I am pretty excited to go for walks, lunches, and watching movies.  Zachary is the most low maintenance of all my kids, maybe I am just worn out? 

I cannot wait to hear all the great race reports from Chicago, Kona, and the Army ten miler.  I have a lot of friends racing this weekend.

Were any of your friends racing this weekend?
Have you ever known somebody who was an addict?
Did the links work?  I hope so.

 

 

Who knew Wednesday

Time for who knew Wednesday.  I do not know how I made it through so many years not knowing some of this stuff....

Now I know why every criminal has a copy, and they proudly display it when in court.  I always thought "it is a little too late now to be reading it."

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO, this can't be right.

Never thought about this, who knew?

This is so scary,  maybe it is why people are running around so quickly.

So accurate.  Two of my favorite states PA, where I was born and raised. GA where I spent almost 20 years.  Makes perfect sense. 

Love this girl.

Did you know?  I thought they were for grip when drunk.

So far my week has been uneventful.  Other than my son, faking his way home yesterday.  He called home from school basically saying he was on his deathbed and I needed to come get him.  I get to the school a little panicked and there he is sitting looking like a million bucks.  I wanted to leave him there however I still let him come home.  One day I will learn.  You know when your kid is sick and he was NOT sick. 

I have a long run scheduled this morning and then baking chocolate cake from scratch, super exciting.

Any fun facts you want to share?

How is your week going?

Have you ever played hooky from school or work? 

Day eleven is pure heaven!!!

After going to the grocery store and stocking up on by baking essentials, 5 pounds of flour, 8 pounds of sugar, heavy whipping cream, eggs, butter (of course) chocolate chips and a few other things I came home to conquer day 11.  

I found a new brand of spices and they are bottled in these really neatly printed bottles.  

Morton&Bassett out of San Francisco.  I have not seen whole nutmeg since I was a kid so I was super excited to find these bad boys.  

I doubled up on recipes because I was feeling super productive.  

First recipe was Lemon squares.  No lie these took for ever to make and I was sweating, which made me wonder what level of fitness I am really at!!!!

The recipe called for 2/3 cup of lemon juice and 1/4 cup lemon zest.  This is where the sweating took place.  If you have never hand juiced or zested lemons this was a time consuming, making me wonder what the hell I was thinking moment. IT TOOK AN HOUR.  

First you had to compose a "crust" for the lemon filling to sit on top of which was the easiest part of this recipe.  I just combined all purpose flour, salt, powdered sugar and butter with a pastry blender and pressed it into the bottom of a pan to bake, while the filling was being made.

Look very closely you will see the hand squeezed lemon juice and lemon zest.  I am very proud of that.

Oh and lets not let the seven egg yolks plus two whole eggs not be mentioned. The filling had to be cooked over medium heat and constantly stirred.  Butter, sugar, pinch of salt, lemon juice, lemon zest, heavy cream, and a lot of eggs comprised the filling.  After it started to turn into a "gelatin like," texture I  poured it into the crust I had already made. Final product review, definitely worth the time, best lemon bars I have ever had.

I contemplated calling it a day after the lemon bars, but I had already committed to the chocolate chip recipes, plus I had a helper.  I pulled Zachary off the video games and made him help.

I have always been a Nestle tollhouse chocolate chip girl and thought there was no better.  There is better. 

Thick and chewy chocolate chip cookies.  While the end product was not thick they were awesome.

My helper really like the chocolate chips.  The hand was not part of the ingredients.  I used all purpose flour, melted butter, 1 yolk, 1whole egg, vanilla, baking soda, salt, brown and white sugar, and handless chocolate chips.  Maybe it was because extra love went into these cookies, but they will be my go to chocolate chip cookies from now on.

 

I used almost a pound of butter, almost a dozen eggs, and about 10 lemons.  I frozed most of the lemon bars because they will be so refereshing frozen.  It is so much fun to try new recipes.  I hope I feel the same way in about six months.  Day 11 twelve recipes down.  

Not much planned for this weekend, getting ready to go to my double spin class to work off the treats from yesterday.  I hope everybody has a great Saturday!!!

Have you ever had to juice/zest a ton of lemons? Did you sweat?

What is your favorite type of cookie? Peanut butter for me

What are you Saturday plans?

Still going strong day 9, check out this bread!!!!

I have a nine mile run scheduled for today.  I will run to the gym, take the hour long spin class, do a little strength and run back home.  This will be the first longer run since I had a muscle issue last week and I am praying everything goes as planned.  

I usually keep my pace at about a eight minute mile. I am trying VERY hard to get it to a seven thirty which would make me super happy!!!!

I had a mini heart attack yesterday.  It was raining and I drove to the bus stop to pick up Zachary.  The bus pulled up dropped off the kids and NO ZACHARY.  My heart sank, a million different things went through my mind. Did he fall asleep on the bus? Did he have something afterschool and I forgot? Was he hurt and I missed a phone call?  I immediately drove back to the house and as soon as I got close I see Zachary walking up the sidewalk drenched. He failed to inform me that he decided to use the other  bus stop, I was so relieved!!! 

Another day down in my baking challenge and I nailed this recipe. Rustic Italian Bread.  This seriously took all day to make.  First I had to make a sponge (really I did)  This is a "baking" sponge

It is bread flour, warm water and rapid rise yeast.  This is one bowl I was not licking!!!!  It had to sit for at least 6 hours and up to 24 hours. I was not waiting 24 hours, I do have a life. The purpose of a sponge is to "create a mildly sour and nutty flavor."  When the sponge is added to the dough, it creates a "chewier more complex flavor than breads made with unfermented commercial yeast."

In addition to the sponge I had to make another small batch of dough.

I added the sponge to the dough and let it rest for an hour and a half, turning every thirty minutes.

Finally after several hours of doughbsitting (I made that up)  I baked it.  

OMG.....I MADE THIS....AND IT IS DELICIOUS....CRUNCHY OUTSIDE....CHEWY INSIDE....HUGE ASS....BREAD!!!!!!!!

This is about six inches wide and eighteen inches long.  I keep amazing myself with these recipes and cannot wait to see what else I am going to make.  Seriously this is the best thing I have made hands down...

Thanks for the great comments you have been leaving it is such positive feedback and I love you all for it.

Have a great Thursday!!!

Have you ever heard of a baking sponge?  Yesterday was the first time!!!!

What is the best thing you ever cooked/baked?

Have you been sticking to your workout this week?