Going . . .

nowhere / or somewhere - it doesn't matter, because today was the type of day that we deserve after putting up with winter.  Oh my - it was beautiful.  Sunny skies, a little breeze - a perfect 71 degrees.

Blue sky

Running: I started the day with a 2.6 mile run. Many of my running friends are running half and full marathons and I am struggling to work my way back up to 5-6 miles.  I will do it, I know, but it will take awhile. People can talk about how great walking is, and I am the first person to talk about the benefits of biking, but nothing - NOTHING compares to running. If you haven't been running for awhile, 3 miles is a long way.  Case in point, last weekend we were in New York for a long weekend and walked 8-10 miles per day - Friday, Saturday and Sunday - that is a lot of walking. Last week I biked to work Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday and yesterday biked to pilates class for a week total of 56 miles this past week.  All that exercise and 3 miles is tough.  Needless to say, this has made me recommit to running. As an exercise nothing compares!

Planting: Later in the morning I went to the flower shop to pick up some annuals.  My gardens are full of perennials, but the burst of colors that annuals provide is a must have.  I focused on purples, oranges and yellow as color choices.  Hoping for pops of color in those specific colors will look nice.

Veggie garden planted

We also planted our veggies, which included carrots, radishes, spinach, onions, peppers, tomatoes, beans and beets.  I left space for more tomatoes and area's to plant more radishes and spinach in a couple of weeks to spread the yield out over a few weeks.


Menu:  On tonights menu, compliments of Jenna's eat,live,run blog was Beef Empanadas, HERE.  I should have started making these earlier in the day, but it was worth the 7:30 dinner time.  The dough came together easily. I took Jenna's suggestion and combined the butter and flour with my hands. I usually do it with a fork, but actually it was easier to get it completely mixed together using my hands.  Empanadas can be made in a variety of sizes, I looked through the cupboards and found a 5 inch bowl and used that as my dough cutter.  It ended up being a perfect size!  The beef filling was good and a bit unusual, since it included a chopped hard boiled egg.

cut dough

ready for the oven

fresh out of the oven and ready to eat

As always . . . Enjoy the moments!

Bike rim . . .

. . . art!

 

Wow - were does the time go?

Skipping biking and running, yard work and a trip to New York and tons of other stuff - today was a work in the garden day. But before we did that I started the morning off with a little 2 mile run with Sophie. Next up was a bike ride to Pilates. After class I headed over to Revolution Cycles to pick up an old bike rim to build our garden gate! Didn't even have to pay for it, what a great bike shop. Biking with a bike rim over my handle bar was not the easiest thing, but doable. Once home we headed out to pick up our boat and two jet skies. I am sure this is the latest we have ever picked up our water toys from winter storage, but the weather has not exactly been warm enough to even think about being on the water, let alone in the water . . . current Lake Mendota water temp is in the 50's, brrrrrrrrr.

Here is what we did with the bike rim.

 

After we built the door, next up was to put the fencing up. By the time we finished that we didn't have time to plant, but that can be done tomorrow. We still have to put some fencing material on the bottom of the door to keep the rabbits out. Again, that can be done tomorrow.

Because of life in general, I have not been cooking much - - but last night I made shrimp tacos with grilled poblano and avocado salsa. HERE. The salsa was so good, I just finished it off tonight wih a couple of chips. Oh my, it was so good.

Enjoy the moments.

As I read back through this post, it is scattered and disorganized, which pretty much describes my life right now! Oh well!

 

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Catching . . .

. . . up! Oh what a beautiful morning!

Easter Sunday - ahhhhhh! The morning started with choir practice at 8:00 to prepare for singing at both the 9:00 and 10:30 services. In addition to choir responsibilities, Todd and I also ushered at the 10:30 service. Busy morning and a busy week for church. I don't usually sing in the choir, but the Pastor asked a few individuals to sing with the choir to boost the ranks for the Palm Sunday Passion musical and Holy Week. This entailed weekly practice with a Palm Passion service on Palm Sunday, singing on Good Friday and singing again on Easter Sunday. Last Thursday was my last practice :-). Don't get me wrong, I love to sing, but the mix of choir members isn't really a group I want to hang with. There are some VERY nice people, but then there are also the whiners and complainers. You know the type, nothing ever makes them happy. I don't like to be around people like that and since it is my choice, I don't have to!

Here is a picture of my church sanctuary this morning! Yup, those are the 10 commandments, front and center! Sort of imposing! Flowers in front of the alter, towels on the alter (offered for 'The Road Home' program, a homeless program my church and I are involved with) and a paper flower cross made by the Sunday school children on the side.

Since our oldest son Joe, was spending Easter with his girlfriend's family and Charlie stayed in Eau Claire, it was just Todd and I. When we got home from church, Todd asked, do you think it is OK to run the power washer on Easter? my response, Sure, I don't see why not! So we got busy cleaning the screen porch and outside furniture. With the warmer temp's finally arriving in Madison, the porch is a wonderful place to sit, but a winters worth of grim needs to be cleaned off of screen, floors and furniture before you want to use it.

Todd handled the power washer, while I scrubbed the furniture. I am sitting on the porch as I type this and it is nice to sit on the chairs without a beach towel, which I used to keep the grim off of me!

Now for the 'catch up' portion.

Running: I have been running 2 miles in the morning with Sophie usually 4-5 days a week and did venture out for 4 miles on Friday morning.

Biking: Tricia and I did a 27 mile ride on Friday, passing through Paoli. Little did I know that we would bike to Paoli (15 miles) on Saturday too!

On to Saturday, Todd, Joe, Chelsea and I decided to do a short ride to Paoli. From our starting point, it is a nice 15 mile ride, nothing challenging, but a great lunch destination. I asked Tricia if she wanted to join us and she said sure. When we got into Paoli, we stopped at one of the many unique shops in Paoli, this one is called 'Cluck'. They specialize in chicken feed and collectibles. I found this great print and can't wait to get it framed and hung, photo bombing chickens!

Here we are outside of the Paoli Pub. There are 'nicer' 'artsy' places to eat, but we prefer a beer and food at the pub and the food is really good!

Side note: I have biked 139 miles in March and April - not as much as many avid bikers, but I don't really consider March and April prime biking months, so am pretty happy with that mileage.

Recipes: Cooking my way through Jenna's blog: eat, live, run  HERE.  l have been really focusing on making some recipes the last couple of weeks. Last time I posted, I had my next recipe selected, Chicken Paprika with homemade dumplings, here. This was the first time I've ever made dumplings and they turned out great. The dish was wonderful, rich and creamy. Will be making again. And it was quick and easy.

We had a causal get together at church a couple of weeks ago. Wasn't sure what to being, but I knew it would be something from Jenna's blog! I decided on Grilled Brie with Honey and Trail mix, here. Again, Brie is something I haven't ever made. I have eaten it, but just never made anything with it. This was well received, everyone enjoyed it and again, easy peasy!

Next up was Spinach feta turkey burgers, here on Sunday. I know I sound like a broken record, but they were so good. Turkey burgers can be a little dry, but with the spinach and feta cheese in the burger, that provided a little moisture and they were great. Not much to look at, especially when you compare it to the rich dark color of a beef burger - but it can hold its own in a taste test.

Tuesday brought us Pork Chops with Grilled Nectarines, Caramelized Onions and Gorgonzola Cheese, here. Sounded and looked fancy but it was really quick and you just can't go wrong with the combination of Grilled Nectarines, Caramelized Onions and Gorgonzola Cheese, oh and the pork.

Last Thursday I wanted to make Red beans and rice, here. I started with soaking the beans Thursday evening and then in between running and biking on Friday, I headed to the store to pick up the ingredient I didn't have on hand, specifically ham hocks. Another thing I have never used in cooking! Like chili, the red beans and rice gets better each and every day it is warmed up.

Hoping you all had a wonderful Easter.
Enjoy the moments.

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Spring has finally . . .

come to Madison . . . although our two large lakes, Monona and Mendota are still frozen

and we are sure to receive some cold temp's in the weeks to come, I think we can actually think about spring in the current tense instead of the future tense.

Spring! I especially think we were waiting . . . waiting . . . waiting for any slight sign of warmth after the extremely cold winter we had. I checked the weather history and in March 2012 the highest temperature was recorded at 83 degrees with 19 days when the high for the day was 60 or above. 19 days sounds unbelievable as we just survived a March that only yielded 1 day that was above 60, March 31 when the high was 65.

Biking: This year we were thrilled with 50+ degree weather, which occurred for a whopping 5 days in March! I got out on my bike on 3 of those days and was also out on a day when the high was only 46! I biked for a total of 61 miles in March, an all time record. When I bike to work I usually do 60+ miles per week, but in March, not so much!

Running: I have been running, but not for any distance. My runs are comprised of running with Sophie for 2 miles. Here we are on Monday morning - I loved the deep blue sky.

The next race I would like to do is the Crazy Legs run on April 26th, a 8k run though UW Madison campus, ending up on the 50 yard line at Camp Randall. Unless I am able to get some hill work in and run for more than 2 miles, I won't be signing up. We will see what the next few days and week end brings.

Recipe Update:
I have now made 25 recipes from Jenna's blog: eat,live,run, HERE. Doing the math or looking at the counter on the right hand column of my blog, shows that I have 105 recipes left to go. Looking at the number of recipes I have completed so far, 25 just doesn't sound like that many, especially since I started in November. Anyway, I am not going to give up and will continue through this journey!

Last night I made the Penne with White Bean and Spinach, here. I will be honest, I didn't think I would enjoy the fact that there really wasn't any real sauce in this recipe, but the lemon zest and juice along with a little water from the penne and the white beans provided a creamy consistency. The cayenne pepper provided a bit of a bite. It was a quick easy meal. I would make it again and actually thought of adding tuna . . . that might sound weird, but I think it would go well with the lemon and spinach.

I have another recipe planned for tomorrow evening - Chicken Paprika with Homemade Dumplings - this will be a new experience since I have never made dumplings before!

As always

Enjoy the moments!

 

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Christmas Wishes . . .

. . . to everyone reading!

Pretty quiet Christmas here . . . presents, church, family, snow, baking, cooking and wine. What more could anyone want?

Eat,live,run recipe update

I added three recipes to my project - Turkey meatballs, Broccoli, Cheddar and Potato soup and Turkey Taco Casserole.

Sunday while watching the Packer game I made the turkey meatballs, HERE. Positive comments from everyone. The meatballs were good and the marinara was quite tasty. Until the meatballs go into the marina they aren't much to look at, ground turkey has a way of looking pale and (honestly) somewhat sickly compared to beef.

On Christmas Day I made the Broccoli, Cheddar and Potato soup, HERE. Usually I make cream of broccoli soup for Cristmas Eve - but since we celebrated on Tuesday, I decided to switch it up and made soup on Wednesday. I have to say, it was hard for me to not make my customary Cream of Broc soup - but I gave Jenna's recipe a try. The recipe called for blending the broccoli and cooked potato. I used my immersion blender and left a few chunks of broccoli and potato. The recipe includes a bit of cayenne, mustard powder and sharp cheddar cheese - this all gives it a bit of a bite. It was really creamy and yummy. Another great one. This is a pic from my lunch today at work - I remembered that I had not taken a photo, so this had to do!

Although I was thinking we would order pizza tonight I arrived home and decided to make Turkey Taco Casserole, HERE. Easy to put together and ohh so good. It is quite apparent I need to learn to take better food pictures. Well, if you want to see better pic's make sure to check out Jenna's blog - she takes much better pic's! I added sliced black olives to the recipe.

I am off to make a Cosmo in celebration of getting released from infusions today! I saw the Doctor today and she decided today's infusion was my last. My arm looks good and I just need to keep an eye in it and make sure to call if there is any type of recurrence.

Tomorrow I am heading out for a run and will be adding the squats and lunges to get ready for skiing.

Enjoy the moments!

 

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