Who knew Wednesday

I really enjoyed who knew Wednesday last week and had a lot of great feedback. So I think I will keep doing the who knew every week.

Who Knew

This would have been so much fun, but would have looked like crap a couple hours later!!!

Ummmm, seriously, a duck?????

Not that I eat them much, but now I will NEVER!!!

This was a real shocker, I had no idea the number was so high

Seriously, how crazy was this guy!!!

How fun would this be, never eating at the same place.

Yesterday I had a great run.  I ran a little over 7 miles at an 8:13 pace.  I also took a spin class!!!  Overall I feel like I am getting faster little by little.

I also made another loaf of bread.  HERB AND SCALLION QUICK BREAD

All purpose flower, buttermilk, scallions, eggs, baking powder/soda, salt, sugar, butter, thyme and dill.

This was good, but not my favorite.  It kinda tasted a little like corn bread, which I do not like.

I am two weeks into this baking challenge, twenty recipes down.  

I hope you are having a great week.

What was the most interesting fact to you?

How is your week going?

Have you ever fallen out of bed?  I have not

Essential refrigerator baking items

Every morning I literally have to tell myself to stay positive and be happy.  I hope one day this will come natural for me and I don't have to tell myself.  Rock bottom is not where I want to ever re-visit.

I don't know if I mentioned that the reason I am doing this baking challenge is because I have literally watched Julie and Julia 1,000,013 times!!!!  I absolutely adore that movie.  I used to watch Julia Childs when I was younger.  

Alright moving on, this is not a complete list of all the items you could possibly need, just what you should have on hand when baking.

BUTTERMILK- I use the cultured lowfat version which can be purchased at any grocery store.  Also if you are in a bind you can make your own buttermilk at home by taking one cup of milk and mixing in one tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice.  I actually tried this one and it worked great.  

BUTTER- I have used sooooooo much butter these last two weeks, like five pounds.  There are basically two types of butter salted and unsalted.  My recipes all call for unsalted so that is all I have on hand.  NEVER use margarine in place of salt, you will be cheating yourself, real butter makes everything taste better.

EGGS- I use regular large eggs from the grocery store.  I actually used dozen in one day making two recipes. So back to the store I went to get more.

HEAVY CREAM- I keep a small container on hand because a lot of other meals I cook call for heavy cream.

PLAIN YOGURT- Many of the quick bread recipes use yogurt to keep the bread moist.

That is pretty much all you really need to have on hand in your refrigerator for many recipes!!!!

Guess what I have planned today!!!!!  Long run wohoo!!

What do you eat on your long run? I love gummy bears

Do you eat everything in your house when you get back from a run?

Do you use butter or margarine?

Butter baby and the Ambien curse

While I am baking all these wonderful treats, I am keeping up with how much stuff I use. I seriously have used 4 pounds of butter. That's a crapload of butter.  All the recipes call for unsalted butter.  I previously only used margarine because my mother said it was the same she was sooooooooo wrong!!! It makes a world of difference. I'm currently using Land O Lakes unsalted sweet butter.

Every time I use a lot of butter I always think about Julia Child saying this,

I totally agree!!!

So I knocked out peanut butter cookies which were so good,  I knew if I baked the whole batch my thighs were going to reach up and bitch slap me.  So I found this little bit of information in the book,  that said if you make the cookie balls and place them on wax paper in the freezer after they completely freeze you could bag them up for later use, genious!!!!! 

The cookbook said it grossed 24 cookies, ummmmmm it made a lot more!!! Here is a pic of the final product

 I also made banana bread, because I have too many frozen bananas,  I cannot wait to cut this sucker open.

I am not exaggerating when I say, everything I have made has been spot on.

So I cannot sleep without taking medicine.  I have tried melatonin, valerian root, over the counter sleep aids and many prescriptions with no success. So my doctor prescribed me Ambien a few months ago, and I actually fall asleep. I also have PTSD from the military and many years as a police officer in Atlanta so I have to take something to stop the nightmares.  Anywho, I know that a side effect of Ambien is doing things and not remembering.  This is so embarrassing, but I had no idea that I did it until I woke up with a big ass spoon of peanut butter in bed with me.  It was on my face, the bedding, probably on PRISSY!!!! This is PRISSY, my true love.

She loves me NO matter what and sleeps with me. Her name is fitting.

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day!!!

Have you ever woke up with food in your bed?

What did you do this weekend? 

Do you use real butter or margarine?

I got a comment!!!! Day 5 baking knocked out two recipes

I got a comment on my blog today!!! It was so nice to know that I have readers, it made my week thank you. (Lisa@runningoutofwine)

Holy crap, I saw this recipe and I had to make it. I cannot stop eating it!!! I know this is a baking-running blog but this is the best salad I have EVER had.  Actually, it is a slaw, Rainbow Slaw. I got the recipe off of Theskinnyconfidential.  It is purple cabbage, green cabbage, green onion, green pepper, yellow pepper and carrots with a tahini, olive oil, sea salt, lemon juice and water dressing.  Mix it all together and heaven I'm telling you it is addictive.

 

Yesterday, I took the day off of baking, because I knew I was doubling up today.  We are having breakfast for dinner so I am making biscuits and also peanut butter cookies.

We have not had brinner in a long time so I took advantage of the Simple Drop Biscuit recipe. Zachary is a meat and potatoes kinda person.  So i made bacon and sausage gravy. 

The biscuit recipe was so easy and they turned out perfect.

The recipe called for all purpose white flour, buttermilk, melted butter, salt, sugar, baking soda, baking powder.

I really enjoy this cookbook. It includes tips for most of the recipes. For this recipe it called for putting the cold buttermilk in the melted butter which created lumps. It lets you know that that is supposed to happen. The clumps resemble the small buts of cold butter in biscuits prepared the traditional ways.

They turned out perfect!!! They were light and fluffy. 

I look forward to baking everyday, it is so much fun to create these treats.  

I also made peanut butter cookies...to die for.

Running, I am so sad I still cannot run. I'm really trying to be positive about the situation. I've been doing a lot of strength training and non-impact cardio.  Patience is a virtue...

Random thought-Have any of you tried IBOTTA?  I started using it and got $9.00 back so far just for buying what I usually buy, in less than a week.