S'mores and Staying Busy

*How about a little random for your Thursday.....*

To start off, it's my dad's birthday today!! I can't believe how fast the year has gone. Wishing I could be up in VT to celebrate with him. It's so weird to be down here and not there with him today.

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I had my first run yesterday without pain. No hamstring pain. No foot pain.

And there was no pain again this morning. I don't want to get too excited about it since the pain has come back each time this has happened over the last few months, but I'll take it.

If you've wondered why there has been little talk of running on the blog over the last few months then see above. PAIN. There's nothing to say about 4-5 mile runs that are sometimes plagued with hamstring and foot pain. This paragraph alone summarizes my running over these months: run a few days, take a few days off, race, take a week off, blah blah blah.

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Keep reading - we're getting to these amazing things....

Am I the only one who loves naps? I seriously only need 15 minutes am I'm good. I used to rush home after XC practice my senior year at UVM, shower, nap for 15 minutes, eat, then go to class. It kept me awake for the rest of the day - no falling asleep in physics or whatever I was taking at the time.

Now I find myself taking a nap almost every day that I'm not in school and I don't want to keep that habit going all summer.

Finally, yesterday I discovered how to stay awake all day. Who am I kidding - I knew this all along. The secret is...

STAY BUSY!

For example, if one wanted to stay awake for an entire day, they could wake up at 6:30 and proceed to the following activities:

 eat breakfast, run, shower, write two blog posts, catch up with a childhood friend from VT, call your dad and talk for an hour, make beef stew (only Tom would request this in 90 degree weather), eat lunch, hang a mail-center thing your brother made you for Christmas (photo to come), walk to the bakery for bread and graham crackers, spontaneously make an amazing summer desert with those graham crackers (thank you Jacquelyn!), decide that you still have not spent enough time in the kitchen and proceed to make a batch of pizza dough, play with your amazing orange furry friend that likes to play fetch again, pay bills, clean the kitchen from your earlier mess, and wash two loads of laundry - but don't fold them because your orange furry friend decides he likes the full-laundry basket as his bed better than anything else and stays in there until you go to bed 5 hours later....

Reason #1 why clothes don't get folded: he will grab the shirt I'm folding, pull it toward him, and begin to  bite it

Reason #2 why clothes don't get folded: A bag full of warm clothes = most amazing bed ever, especially when placed under a ceiling fan

Yep, that takes you to about 5:30. Along with an hour or two to read the headlines or to get distracted by facebook/blogs.

My favorite part of the day was finally sitting down to have dinner, finishing said dinner, and then surprising Tom with the frozen s'mores from Marin Mama Cooks :)

You know you want to make them. Trust me, you really do. The crunch of the crackers, the chewiness of the frozen marshmallows, the cold chocolate - they make the perfect summertime treat even without a campfire. And she wasn't kidding when she said they're highly addicting. They really are. 

Snowquester Snow Day

A snow day was called for our school this morning. Although there was barely (and I mean nothing) any snow on the ground, I was excited to hear of the decision. The snow is expected to start accumulating, especially by the afternoon. So it really was a good decision on their part.

I think I have had more days off down here due to weather than in VT!

The snowflakes that are falling now are huge. Wilson has tried to catch a few from inside, but didn't have any luck.

Since I don't have to shovel that means I can truly relax today. I celebrated by opening a hot-chocolate gift set that I received from a student at Christmas time and enjoyed a cup of chocolate for breakfast.

Brownie Cookies with Salted Caramel Filling

Superbowl means two things for me: commercials and lots of food.

We stayed home last night and made ourselves a party including wings and beer. Good wings, I might add. Tom found an awesome recipe. We were a little bummed that we weren't up in VT with his family at his aunt and uncle's house - a yearly tradition. But that is how it goes now.

To overcome the sadness, I made amazing brownie cookies that sandwiched a dob of salted caramel filling (thank you Bakers Royale!)  I used my go-to salted caramel recipe from Brown Eyed Baker and had a hard time resisting the urge to devour the entire bowl of caramel. 

Each of the three components (brownie, caramel, frosting) were great one their own, but when combined, packed incredible flavor. I am even going to go as far to say that these brownies are so much better than the boxed Ghiradelli brownies, and those are something pretty special!

It was hard to hold off on them, but somehow we managed to wait until Beyonce started performing before we took our first bite. 

Baking this Holiday Season

I love the idea of holiday baking. There are TONS of recipes out there that I want to try. However, each year I go back to the same recipes.

I must be forming my own traditions: fudge, peppermint cupcakes, and cookies.

This year there were no cookies. But there was plenty of fudge and cupcakes. Fudge for work, fudge for Tom to take into work, fudge for family and friends, and of course, fudge for a holiday party that consisted of a dessert-making contest. Cupcakes were for birthdays, baby showers, and that same holiday dessert party!

With all of that baking comes much taste testing. So I got plenty of chocolate deliciousness this season.

And with teaching comes along more sweets - like the caramel cupcake from Georgetown Cupcakes that I got on our last day before vacation.

I totally understand why people go on diets for New Years. I won't go on a diet, but by the time NYE comes around I am ready to take a step back from the sweets for a while!

Time for the Olympics!

I LOOOOOVE the Olympics!!! And Cake. We'll get to the cake later, but first, let's talk about those London games!

This year the Olympic-watching is even more exciting me due to this girl (#7), right here!!!

Seriously, Courtnay is my hero. Tom and I woke up super early (6:00am) to watch her play for Team Canada against Russia.

Needless to say, I had a little motivation for my 8 mile run after. I love the Olympics in general, but when you know someone who's actually there and you get to watch them play on TV it is just that much more inspiring. This girl has worked her butt off to get there and we are so proud of her! Gosh, it almost sounds like we're her parents and she's our little girl that has grown up *sniff*

You can bet that Tom and I were watching the Opening Ceremony last night, hoping to catch a glimpse of her. We had a few people over to watch as well, including a friend from Milton who lives in the area! It was so great to see a familiar face. We whipped up some pizza and sangria, then spent the night in front of the TV making predictions about what would happen next in the ceremony.  


Oh! And we ate cake, of course!

A little chocolate deliciousness frosted with some vanilla buttercream!

I tried to add gold dust to the side, you know, to be all glitzy and stuff, but it ended up just looking like I spilled a bunch of brown sugar on it. Oh well, you live and learn!

It is safe to assume that I'll be spending many hours with the TV watching these summer games. I'll be cheering on Team USA in each event except for one. I'll let you take a guess at which one that may be :)

Hunting Groom's Cake

Last week, in the midst of packing for our DC move, I was able to escape the boxes by baking and decorating three cakes. One of them in particular was so much fun to create. 

I was asked to make a surprise groom's cake by a high school friend, who got married on Saturday. I love surprises, but it is tough to keep them a secret!

Her request was a to create a vanilla hunting cake. The inside is filled with chocolate buttercream, and the outside is frosted with both chocolate and vanilla.

The bullets, antlers, and leaves were made out of fondant. Cool looking, but definitely not delicious-tasting. 

The tree trunk was fun and easy to create. A swirl on the top for the inner tree, followed by a messy frosting with a knife for the bark.

I looked on a lot of websites to see how to do camouflage frosting. The technique I chose was to pipe the border of each color, fill it in, temporarily freeze it to crust the frosting, then to smooth it flat with wax paper and a fondant smoother. 

The grass, although simple, is probably my favorite part of the cake!

To make the antlers I colored some fondant a light brown then shaped them and let them set. I used a knife to create markings and lines, and then used a paintbrush to dry-brush brown food coloring onto the outside.

Congratulations to Elyse and Ryan!!

Guinness Cupcakes with Bailey's Buttercream

I had corn beef and cabbage on Saturday for the first time ever. Ever! It was quite enjoyable, and so far has been the only way I'll eat cabbage.

Tom and I were at our friends' house on Saint Patty's day for some March Madness and to celebrate the holiday of course! With our insanely warm weather (we may break into the 80s today?!) it felt like we should have been celebrating Memorial Day instead.

I'm sure you're going to fall out of your seat with shock when I tell you that we brought the dessert! Who would have thunk!

Since it was a holiday, our dessert needed to be something special. It needed to have some green. It also needed to have some beer. Irish beer. And Irish cream.

And that's when the chocolate Guinness cupcakes with Bailey's Buttercream was born! I followed the recipe on Brown Eyed Baker, omitting the ganache portion of the cupcake.

These cupcakes were awesome. Like, really super delicious, and very rich. They will most certainly be reappearing at future St Patty's day celebrations!

Birthday Weekend

I turned 25 this Sunday. Happy Quarter-Century to me! It was an awesome weekend. I really couldn't have asked for a better one. The weather was wonderful, and it's the warmest birthday I think I've ever had.

Here's the birthday in a nutshell...

Friday

• Tom came home with a beautiful bouquet of flowers for me!  

 

• We drove up to Morrisville to see Tom's dad's band, In Kahootz, play. They were awesome and we enjoyed watching them play

Saturday

• Went for a 5-mile easy run
• Met up with some UVM interns for dinner at the Skinny Pancake. I really love savory crepes. I ordered the Deja Vu, which is sausage, cheddar cheese, and apples in a crepe, drizzled with Vermont Maple syrup. Yum.
• Headed to Bagito's for some coffee with the interns, and enjoyed some music from Montpelier's Jazz band.
• Met up with Tom and watched him eat two tacos from Mad Tacos. He didn't make it in time for dinner with the interns.
• Headed to the Savoy Theater (my first time there!) to see Albert Nobbs. What an interesting movie.....
• Headed home to discover some Lake Champlain Chocolates and peanut butter cups under my pillow!! How sweet! (heh - literally!)

Sunday

• Woke up and immediately (I mean, I just turned off my alarm) received a package of Birthday Cake Oreos and a card from Tom
•  Headed out for a 20 miler with my friend Rachel. We averaged 8:10 per mile and enjoyed a gorgeous morning. By the time we got back it was up in the 40s
• Found a giant banner in our living room after my post-run shower

• Took an hour nap by accident
• Walked around Montpelier. I'm pretty sure everyone was out there. It was well into the 50s by the afternoon and few were wearing jackets
• Met my dad, brother, and my dad's GF for dinner at Sarducci's. We were stuuuuffed when we left.

• Came home to enjoy some of my dad's strawberry shortcake, to open gifts, and to hear a lot of hilarious stories. My dad seems to always have a good one to tell!

Wilson showed off his awesome high-five skills

The best part about birthdays are spending them with those that you love. It's too bad they only come around once a year!

Questions for you!

1. Have you seen Albert Nobbs? If so, what did you think? If not, are you planning on it?
2. What did you do in the warm weather this weekend?

Melted

This vacation has been wonderful.

I took at least one nap a day. Often times two. I think Wilson enjoyed those times. He's a fan of "cat naps".

I ran all but one day last week. Weekly mileage total: 42.5 miles!

All that running left me hungry. Hungry for cookies. Today's agenda only consisted of lesson planning, no running. That means one hour more for baking.

These cookies are always better than I remember. The melted chocolate chunks are incredible, especially fresh out of the oven.

That's all for now. Back to the planning

Homemade Oreos: So Much Better than the "Real" Ones

I'm taking a break from the Spain documentation to introduce you to something incredibly delicious. Spain-trip posts will continue next week (hopefully).

I know I posted about homemade Oreos last year, but I just have to do it again.

I made them last weekend so we could eat them during the Patriots game. And eat them we did.

Monday came around and I needed another batch. I could seriously eat the entire batch in one sitting, but am too afraid of what the result would be. That meant that I needed to recruit others to help me eat them (or to prevent me from eating them all).

Two of Tom's college roommates were up Monday night and demolished a good fraction of the batch. It's hard to stop eating them when they're still warm from the oven. On Tuesday I brought the remaining cookies into school  to share with my mentor teacher and the UVM interns. I'm pretty sure they all agreed that these might just be some of best cookies out there.

I can't decide if I like them more than the chocolate chip cookies I can't stop talking about.

Homemade Oreo Cookies

Adapted From Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients

Cookies:

1 1/4 cups AP flour

1/2 cups Hershey's Special Dark cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups sugar

10 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature 

1 egg

Filling:

1/2 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

1/4 cup Crisco

2 cups confectioner's sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 tablespoons milk

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375 degree F
2. In a standing mixture, mix the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. Turn mixture to low and add the butter and egg. Mix until dough is sticking together in one ball.
3. Make teaspoon-sized balls of dough and place on parchment paper or baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Slightly flatten the top of the dough, but not too much. Dough will flatten on it's own. 
4. Bake cookies for 4:30 minutes, rotate, and bake for another 4:30-5:30 minutes. 
5. Remove cookies from pan and cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.
6. While cookies are baking and cooling, add the butter and Crisco to a mixing bowl and beat for a few minutes. Add the sugar and vanilla and beat on high for 2-3 minutes. Add milk to make softer frosting, or omit for a denser filling. 
7. Fill pastry bag with #12 pastry tip and pipe onto cookie, then combine frosted cookie with unfrosted cookie. Wa-la! An Oreo!

Enjoy with a glass of milk, or take the cookies apart and eat one side at a time!