Food and Friends (updated)

The Food

I was in baker's heaven yesterday baking to my heart's content. The only dilema was which recipes to choose! There was enough food, but I won't have to eat leftovers for the rest of the week, which is good. Probably the most popular thing was the oatmeal. There were several requests for the recipe, so here it is.

3/4 cup water
3/4 cup apple cider (I used juice)
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup diced pear
1/4 cup sweetened dried cranberries (Craisins)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted
1/4 cup skim milk

Bring water and apple cider/juice to a boil in a large saucepan. Stir in oats and salt; reduce heat to low, and cook 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add pear, cranberries, cinnamon, and vanilla, stirring gently to combine; cook 3 minutes or until oats are tender. Stir in pecans and milk.

I kept in warm in the crockpot which worked well as people were coming and going in small groups. Had to add a little extra milk as it sat, but it worked out fine.

The Friends

Friends indeed. It was great to have so many of them at my house. I put in some quality time on the Stairmaster early and then held down the fort and finished the food prep while the rest were putting in their miles. There were several comments (not complaints, I'm sure!) about the hills around here. I live on top of a hill and there's no way to finish a run except with at least a half mile hill climb. There are many options for roads to take to get up here, but there's no getting around it ... it's uphill. It looked pretty windy, but I didn't get outside until late afternoon when I went for a walk to get some fresh air. Windy for sure!! Strong W/NW wind. But the fresh air felt good.

I did my long run yesterday at noon. Somewhere between 15.5 and 15.6 miles. I forgot to start my GPS after stopping at Dunn Bros. for some water so didn't get the distance between there and Kellogg Middle School recorded. It seemed like the run took f-o-r-e-v-e-r. There was lots of ice on the sidewalks so I was slowed to a walk many a time. Stopped at the RAC for a drink and saw some people I knew there. Stopped at Great Harvest for a donation form for the Fetzer. Then stopped at the library for a book I'd reserved (The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society--our February book club selection). Saw Ellen Hamernik there and talked to her for a bit. F-i-n-a-l-l-y made it home. Didn't know whether I was eating a really late lunch or a really early dinner, but I was STARVING!!

I think I have Trevor Distad talked into registering for the Polar Plunge. He's doing the other two events in the Trifecta (the Stair Climb and the Lace-Up Half Marathon) so he might as well. You go, Trevor!! :o)

Have you noticed that Gatorade has been rebranded? It's now "G".

This week I discovered that I won't be able to participate in the Med-City marathon events. It's the same day my son Eric graduates from Luther College. Pam King, Julie Maxwell and Peggy Morgan are running their first marathons that day. I will be with them in spirit!! I see they have a new 5K this year.

Thank you to those of you who have sent in a RTC News article in the last couple of days. I appreciate it! Due to a quirk in Microsoft Publisher, I now have to start completely over. It'll let you open a document that has Preview-only fonts, but won't let you save it. No how, no way. So I have to start over at square one. One-derful.

There were 8 finisher in the Arrowhead Ultra 135-miler this year. Arrowhead Ultra Jim Benike ran this a few years ago as one of 2 runner finishers. He said "never again". What a brutal event.

I have some foodie stuff. I'll save that for tomorrow's post.

Quote for the day: "Don't let what you can't do interfere with what you can do." --Anonymous

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. Cheers.