June Foodie Pen Pals...

I started to worry that I wasn't going to have a pen pal this month. Apparently the pen pal that got my name was MIA so the person that had her ended up having me instead. My new foodie pen pal ia Mary Alice.

My box came in the mail today.

I just love receiving packages in the mail. I love opening my foodie pen pal box each month I always think of Forrest Gump and his box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.

First up was some honey. I love honey, I think you can never have too much in the pantry.

Next was some black raspberry jam. You might not know this about me nut I love jam. I prefer it to jelly, I can't tell you why I feel this way I just do.

Finally there were cupcakes.

I am sad to report that the cupcakes didn't survive the journey.

not sure if it was just the journey or the Oklahoma heat but these poor cupcakes were in bad shape. Thankfully Mary Alice sent me the recipe so I'll be able to recreate them myself.

I found the recipe here.

Cupcake Ingredients

1 box Betty Crocker SuperMoist white cake mix
Water, vegetable oil and egg whites called for on cake mix box
1 Tbsp grated lemon peel
1 Tbsp lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 350. Place paper baking cup in each of 24 regular-size muffin cups.

Cupcake How to

2. Make and bake cake mix as directed on box for cupcakes, using water, oil and egg whites and adding lemon peel and lemon juice.
3. Cool 10 minutes; remove cupcakes from pans to cooling racks. Cool completely.

Frosting Ingredients
1 1/2 c white chocolate baking chips
1 1/2 c butter, softened
1 c powdered sugar

Frosting How to
1. In a small microwave bowl, microwave baking chips uncovered on high for about 1 minute, stirring once, until softened and chips can be stirred smooth; cool.
2. In large bowl, beat butter and powdered sugar with electric mixer on low speed. Gradually add melted chips, beating on high speed until frosting is smooth and spreadable.
3. Frost cupcakes.

Garnish with edible or candy flowers.

 

So it's another great Foodie Pen Pal month. Wonder what's in store for July.

Picking Blackberries and Running Some Hills...

On Monday Linda and I headed up the hill behind the barn with some of the kids to pick some blackberries. Bo the dog decided to come along with us and we got quite a few berries. We even got to pick a few wine berries and try them, I have decided they are my new favorite berry.

On Tuesday morning I was ready for a run. I got Karen to go with me. The pictures I took don't accurately depict the hills that we ran. We got in 3.5 miles but I think there is some sort of hill calculation that would play into it and it should have been closer to five normal Oklahoma-type miles. Plus it was a cloudless, sunny day. There were some trees but not near as many as I would have liked. We got followed by dogs on three separate occasions, including some mean looking yappy little dogs. They were pretty funny though. Thankfully, all the dogs were nice ones.

Thursday morning I was up early and determined to beat the heat and hit the hills again. I headed out solo this time, it was 6:15 Oklahoma time and no one else was up yet. I headed down to the end of the driveway and turned left instead of right. By the way, it was about .45 mile to the end of the driveway. It was all downhill going out and uphill going home. Plus it was gravel. Know what's worse than running on cobblestones at the Cowtown half marathon? Gravel.

I think I'm going to have to plug in my Garmin when I get home to get the elevation of both runs because the pictures don't do it justice. It was damn hilly and it was hard and fun. I love a good hard run and I am so glad to be running hills again.

I only packed my running shoes for the week so they saw some travel, some hills, and some horses. They are in need of a trip through the washer when I get home Sunday.

 

Things are Getting Interesting...

We made it to Nashville and we might be having some technical issues. Outside of Little Rock Jen noticed a strange noise coming from the front driver's side tire. You might remember Jen's car from last years trip to the beach. We had some technical issues then too.

So we got checked into the hotel and took the kids down to the pool.

We asked at the front desk for suggestions for a place to order pizza and they directed us to a great place that delivered. The very nice woman at the front even agreed to let us eat by the pool, which they don't allow normally, and we were able to feed the kids not in our hotel rooms.

After we drug the kids out of the pool and back to the rooms I got Camy, Carson, Hailey and Hannah situated to watch some tv I headed down to the fitness center to torture myself on the treadmill.

I don't know what it is about the treadmill but I can't seem to run on one without getting blisters on my feet. I did 4.4 miles in 45 minutes. In my mind I imagined I was running to Target and back. I even called Josh and got him to talk to me for a little bit so it was just like running with friends. I even caught the end of the Track & Field Olympic Trials and got to see the finals for the women's 100M. It made me very happy to be running even if it was on the treadmill.

I thought I was only sleeping with Camy last night, apparently Hannah had other ideas. She woke up at about 3am and said she was scared and wouldn't let me tell her no. She crawled in bed with Camy and I and helped hog the bed. Not such a good night sleep.

So now we are hanging out in the hotel waiting for Firestone to call us and tell us how long it'll take to fix Jen's car.

 

On The Road With Paige...

We are on the road. We have a very long trip ahead of us but it seems to be moving along just fine so far.

I am in the car with the youngest and oldest cousins. Karen and I have Haden, Hannah (aka Hurricane Hannah) and Paige. Ah, Paige she is one of a kind. She is the oldest cousin, I became an aunt because of her. She was the first baby Josh and I ever kept overnight. She is a teenager now and it is definitely interesting when she is around.

This is Paige, you don't need much more explanation than this.

Quotes from the car with Paige...

• "Is that what happens when you spill paint in the garage?". This was after I showed her where I burnt my hand last weekend.
• This is not a quote but the entire conversation between her and Karen when Karen was trying to get her to start a movie was very entertaining. So much so that I opted to just listen rather than help.
• She told us that her mom told her she couldn't bring a blanket in the car. But two pillow pets were ok. (Apparently her mom has no recollection of this conversation.)
• "My brother gets the scardy farts."
• We are taking turns playing music from our phones and Paige is playing music by Flight of the Concords.
• Paige said she was gonna use the goldfish crackers as a training tool to get Haden to say mama.

In case you were wondering. This is Haden. So far the dog training techniques are not working on him.

We made it to Nashville and the trip just got more interesting. More on that later.

 

One of Those Days...

I'll be leaving for vacation Saturday morning. I've got all the snacks already, and I baked up some cookies tonight too.

I can't decide if it's harder to leave for a vacation or harder to come back to work. Although today it seemed way harder to leave. I will be gone for the last week of the quarter so there are lots of things to do before the end of the month. I do have someone to handle part of my job while I an gone but I have a lot of stuff to get done before 5 pm tomorrow.

Today was one of those days that I worked the entire day with that goal in mind and at the by the end of the day things had not worked like I needed them to and I found that there could be a few big kinks in the process. I won't bore you with the details because it really is boring stupid crap. I almost started crying on a call with someone this afternoon and had had enough by 5:00.

I already got my run in this morning so my stress relieving options were baking and the bottle of wine in my fridge.

So I got some baking done. Cookies for the road trip this weekend because really can you have too many snacks?

And then we ordered pizza for dinner so I had a little wine.

now I am wondering if 7:54 is too early for me to go to bed. I have been sleeping horribly all week I am going to skip the Y in the morning and hope I can sleep until my alarm goes off. That hasn't happened since Monday when I overslept and missed my run. Guess I have been so worried I would oversleep again that I've been overcompensating. Kinda sucks.

We did watch our new favorite show Dogs in the City. Penny just loves this show.

So here's to hoping tomorrow will be a better day and vacation that starts in less than 24 hours.

 

 

Hitting the Road...

My sisters and I are hitting the road this weekend. We are loading up two cars with seven kids and heading to Auntie Linda's house outside Roanoke, Virginia. Calling her Auntie Linda makes her sound like she's about eighty, right? She's not near that old.

The first most important thing to think about? Snacks. We are going to be in the cars for two long days so we better make sure no one starves to death.

it's probably not reasonable to have goldfish crackers and Cheez-it, but as you can see here reason doesn't play into road snacks. Hello, Easy Cheese ans crackers. You also may not know this about me but there was a time not so long ago that This was something that was frequently found in my pantry. Wow, on second thought, I'm kinda grossed out by past behavior. Maybe I'll leave that one for the kiddos.

Pretzel Crisps and Popchips are two of my recent new favorites. And sweet potato Popchips are all the better. (if I had to only have one veggie the rest of my life the sweet potato would be it.). Twizzlers are just the best non-chocolate candy ever.

And the best for last, Funjuns. I prefer to never travel any great distance without them. Jen has already said they are not allowed to travel in her car. I say more for me. I guess I'll have to share some with Karen.

I've also got water, Dr. Pepper and Root Beer. I'll probably throw in some granola bars and I got some cheese sticks. They were just in the fridge so I didn't get a picture of them. You know what cheese sticks look like, right. If not we may not be able to be friends.

So if we happen to get stranded in a snow storm I think I have enough food to keep us alive for quite some time. It's gonna be a great trip.

WIAW #9...

The WIAW posts are quickly becoming some of my favorites. While most of my food choices are the same old things I have been trying to make an effort to change it up some. It's been crazy around the Craig house, with swim practice for Camy, Kumon for Carson and cross training for me and regular working out for Josh it's had to get motivated to get in the kitchen to try new things.

The fact that Josh is dieting for the latest biggest loser contest at his work and that my kids are the pickiest people on the planet, no one wants to eat much of what I would be willing to cook. One day I think my kids will want to eat the foods that I love. *sigh*

This was the Father's Day breakfast I whipped up and burnt the shit out of my hand in the process.

There were plenty of leftovers that I turned into a breakfast sandwich on Monday morning with some toasted wheat bread and a little Laughing Cow Garlic & Herb cheese.



So convenient. I took the picture in my car because that's where I ate it on the way to work.

I overslept yesterday morning and missed my morning run. This is complete insanity for me. I never oversleep. Seriously. I am that girl that is usually awake when the alarm goes off. I never snooze. Never. If I say I'm gonna meet you for a run or workout I'm gonna show.

Anyway, because I missed my run I packed my stuff and hit the Y for my favorite kick-your-ass spin class. It did just that. When I got home I was starving and craving some carbs.

Again cooking for no one but myself I made some penne with some tomato sauce. I decided to add some sauted mushrooms and zucchini to change it up a bit. It was yummy.

I had some garlic bread to round it out. I like to think the veggies in the sauce balanced out the excessive carbs. It sure hit the spot.

Finally, I broke out my new favorite wine glass on Saturday night.

I think I'm going to only drink wine out of this glass from now on. It'll be like my birthday every day. Incidentally the wine in the glass is my new favorite Middle Sister Wicked White wine. I also love their Smarty Pants Chardonnay.

It was a pretty yummy week. Vacation starts on Saturday when I hit the road with my sisters and our seven kids so there should be some good eats next week.