Cooking Light February 2011

Another very nice evening with my friends from my Cooking Light group this everning. We were at my house. My fave for the evening? The cheese chive challah. Delish! We're all sending positive thoughts and vibes to one member who was missing tonight ... Barbara, who had a hip replace today. We missed her and can't wait 'til she's back at it. Here's the slideshow ...

I don't know why it plays in reverse. Argh!

Just a reminder ... Beetles Tuesday evening any time after 6:00 PM. And Melby, Millie and I (maybe Peter?) are running the track at 6 AM. It's going to be REALLY cold outside.

Well, I'm tired so I'll post more tomorrow. Good night.

The Snowshoe Crew

After just over an hour spin on the bike this morning (a very good ride) it was off to Oxbow Park for a trek through about a foot of powdery snow on a beautiful February day. Though windy outside the woods, it was just perfect in the shelter of the trees and hills.

There was a very good turnout: Wendy O'Leary, Ann, Mike and Aaron Nepstad, Dave and Elaine Eide, Roger and Joyce Heil, Tod and Meg Bellrichard, Adam Walters and myself. Right out of the gate, we went up quite the hill. We had a couple of river crossings. Little did Mike know how apropos this sign would turn out to be.

< Christina Aguilera just muffed up the National Anthem. Ouch. Not good. That's going to get some press. >

We crossed the river a couple of times ... "over the river and through the woods" as they say. :-)

Attempting the last crossing, between two patches of open water, Mike Nepstad went through the ice.

He only went in up to his thigh, but it made me very scared. Thin ice is nothing to mess with. He bent a pole in the process but luckily wasn't hurt and with the relatively mild temps and us close to the end of the trek, he came through it OK. After returning to the parking lot, it was off to The Den where we met up with Tom O' and heard about his "situation" at home with electricity and the basement remodeling project.

I managed to set my purse down on the edge of a couple trays of popcorn and fill my purse AND the table. I get the dipstick award for the afternoon.

Then it was off to Trader Joe's for some veggies (arugula, sugar snap peas, tomatoes) and bread. And flowers for the table tomorrow. (I also ran a mile, just because I'm running at least a mile every day this year. Mileage for last week: roughly ... 75.)

I'm having my Cooking Light group here for dinner. On the menu:

Diane: Wine
Pam: Date, Walnut and Blue Cheese Ball
Mary: Cheese and Chive Challah
Renee: Maple-Glazed Chicken with Apple-Brussels Sprout Slaw
Barbara: Broccoli Slaw with Oranges and Crunchy Noodles
Kathryn: Rosemary Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Shallots
Margo: Pecan Spice Cake with Maple Frosting
Laura: Vanilla Cake with Italian Meringue Frosting

I think it sounds pretty delicious!!

Today: Happy Birthday, Tom Woo. :-)

This is not a good picture, and sorry for the messy yucky garage floor, but I've got some bike rollers (Bike Nashbar brand) that are up for grabs. If you're interested, give me a shout. They're way to scary for my taste.

Lace-Up Against Breast Cancer news and notes:

1) We could use some help making a balloon arch at Mayo H.S. (inside!) on Saturday afternoon. If you can help out, give me a shout. THANKS.
2) We could use some baked goods for the silent auction. They are needed by Friday. If you'd like to donate some cookies, quick breads, yeast breads, etc. give me a shout. THANKS.
3) We would love it if you would run!! There'a 2-mile, a 5K and a half marathon. Registration info is on the website.
4) I'm baking treats for the volunteers.

I got a very fun anonymous comment on my blog regarding the Penzey's Oatmeal Pancake recipe I posted, but hadn't tried yet. Here it is: "I don't know you and you don't know me, but i made the penzey's oatmeal pancakes 2 weeks ago from their new catalog and they were terrific. Everyone in the family including my 2year old keeps talking about them. Didn't find recipe at penzey's site and truly appreciate you for posting it. Hope you enjoy them as much as my family. I'm off to pancake mountain in the am, thanks to you. Thank you!"

Tuesday is the monthly social gathering at Beetles at 6 PM (or after). I'm sure there will be some heading over to the track first. I'm running speedwork Tuesday morning instead, when it opens at 6 AM. In any case, hope to see you at the track and/or Beetles!!

Back to baking for Lace-Up (oatmeal Craisin cookies ... delish!). Good night.

Super!!

It was a great day! A very good turnout for the breakfast run.

I lost count, but 30 to 35. About the same as always. And just the right amount of food. A little pumpkin bread left, but that's in the freezer. Thanks Kristin for the blueberry banana smoothies!! Very interesting conversation with Jeff, Trevor, Andy, Erin and Dan after the crew left. Wow! Morning pix might have to wait until tomorrow. I'm off to Whistle Binkies shortly with the girls. :-)

Here are the LUABC medals and scarves. VERY NICE.

After the Breakfast Run wrapped up, I joined LaRee for our long run. She did 3 miles with Puck before I got there and then we ran 12 together, basically up to HyVee north and then back to her house. We did it at a pretty decent clip. Every time I looked at my Garmin we were running 8:14 pace. After getting back to LaRee's house I went out for more miles. 21.25 total. Felt great, and it was a very nice day for running. Just on the verge of melting and not too much wind. After 13.1 yesterday I didn't know if my legs would rebel today, but all good!! I'm very happy with my run.

Sara Holmes is selling Girl Scout cookies. Different this year ... the cookies are available right away. No order and wait deal. If you're interested, you can email her at holmesfam4@charter.net (Her dad gave me permission to post this.)

I think I'll join the Snowshoe Crew tomorrow noon at Oxbow Park. Sounds like a nice day for a hike in the woods.

Gotta run!!

Beautiful!!

What a beautiful day it turned out to be!! I ran to the Y (it's been a while!), lifted, and then swam for an hour. Spotted in the pool ... Judge Lund, Dr. Warner, and Nancy Kryka who was in the lane next to me. Why do I always find myself swimming next to these super fast swimmers who make me feel like I'm swimming backwards?? Nancy is a state/national class masters' swimmer. Very fast!! After a couple minutes chilling (?) in the hot tub, I left the Y and ran to Ted's house to pick up some papers to overnight up to Eric in the cities at FedEx. Then to HyVee for some fat-free half and half for tomorrow's breakfast run (for the egg bake) and then FINALLY ran home. I had my Scottish oats breakfast at about 10:45. I was STARVING. Total miles for the morning: 6.40.

When I got home, I started baking. Tom Woo's Second Anniversary of his 50th Birthday Cookies (oatmeal raisin) ...

and pumpkin bread with pecans.

This evening, Peanut Sitting Pretties.

Some for tomorrow's breakfast run (please join us ... 7:30 if you want to run, a little later if you just want to eat!) and some to the freezer for the Lace-Up Against Breast Cancer silent auction next Sunday. Speaking of Lace-Up, here's a picture John posted of the custom medals. They're VERY nice.

John and Jean will have the medals and the embroidered scarves at the breakfast run tomorrow.

I've finally charged up my new Garmin and am running with it now. The old one was incredibly unreliable. It would only power on after just being removed from the charger. Sometimes the display would appear upside down and backwards, sometimes half of each number was showing (top half) ... really weird. I think it's time I send that baby to Garmin heaven. Yesterday I ran 10.08 in the late afternoon. I tweaked my around-the-hill loop and went out past Bamber Valley and Mayowood instead of running the little stretch on Salem Road which is very unsafe when the bike path isn't runnable. It was 9.6 so I added on a little extra on Mayowood Road. I think it'll be a good alternate course.

Back to today. It was so nice out this afternoon, that I decided to go out for another little run. It was in the 30's, the wind had died down considerably and was just about perfect for February!! I stayed around the hill and ended up with 13.14 miles. Felt great!!

My suppers are getting rather boring. Here's last night's ...

plus some leftover green beans amandine. Here's tonight's ...

plus some delicata squash and a "lite" English muffin. I opened some low-fat Newman's Own sesame ginger salad dressing (35 cal for 2 Tbsp). It's quite good.

I saw this in People magazine (from 2009!) when I was on the Stairmaster yesterday. It's about Sherri Shepherd who's a cohost on The View I guess. It says "...who went from 167 lbs. to 159 lbs. and took move than five inches off her formerly 38 1/2-in. waist." Also ... NOW A SIZE 6! THEN A SIZE 16! Huh?? Excuse me??  She lost just 8 pounds and in the process went down 5 dress sizes and took more than five inches off her waist? Wow. That's HARD to believe.

Well, I've been at it all day long. Time to wrap this up. Hope to see you in the AM!!

Wow!!!

Got home from Riverdance a short while ago. WOW!! I totally loved it. Great show.

2 hours on the Stairmaster this morning. 10.08 mile run about 4:00 (14 degrees and windy, but all in all, not too bad).

Don't forget ... breakfast run here Saturday morning at 7:30. Some are starting at 6:00 if you want extra miles. All are welcome whether or not you run!

More tomorrow. I need my beauty sleep..................

"Will It Go Round In Circles?" --Billy Preston

Yes, "it" (she) will. Again ... and again ... and again. 82 times to be exact. I was awake at about 4 AM, couldn't get back to sleep so about 4:30 I was up and at 'em. The wind chill was -13 and getting lower, so at 5:45 I headed to the RCTC indoor track to run a recovery run. I had it all to myself. Nice. Glad I had some tunes.

I thought that 10 miles at 8:30 pace would be reasonable. This is my 7 mile split. I think I hit it, don't you??

The first mile I felt pretty creaky after yesterday's first attempt at "speedwork" since August. Here are my mile splits: 9:39 (yikes!) 8:31  8:35  8:21  8:21  8:16  8:16  8:15  (do you think I was in a zone??) 8:04  7:41 for a grand total of 1:24:07. Then I walked a lap and then did one timed 200 for fun. I was hoping for 45 seconds, but it was 47 seconds. :-( BTW: Yesterday's 10 miler was 1:20:20, 7:10 faster than the TC10 when I was injuired. Happy about that I guess. But my fitness and speed are far from where I want them to be. Much work to do ...

The sky looks cold, and ... it was cold. Very cold. The wind was bitter.

At noon I went to the Y to swim a mile and a half. Still trying to get Team R.E.D. to Cuba!! Greeted Tracy McCray on the way in. She said, "Are you working out again? When I grow up I want to be like you." (Or something close to that.) I told her that would be a big mistake. :-) Talked with Jim Hebl in the hot tub for about 15 minutes after my swim. That's all the sightings for today I believe.

I spent most of the late afternoon/evening cleaning/decluttering the house. I have another load to bring to Salvation Army. Finally about 8:00, I had supper. A salad and a little leftover pasta from last night (Noodles "pasta fresca").

Last night, Amy, Brianne, Jean, Gina and I met at Noodles south for some dinner before heading over to Wehrenburg theatres to see The Fighter. I can't believe I didn't take a pic!! What's with that?? I enjoyed the movie, but it wasn't top on my list. I've never been a huge fan of boxing and still am not. But I'm glad I saw it. After I go home, I chatted with my sister for a little while and then took a spin on the bike for an hour. I was going to do the same today, but the evening has gotten away from me. :-( There's always tomorrow ...

Some folks are heading to the track in the morning at 6 AM for a Progressive Run (progressively faster miles by 30 seconds to a minute) as it's too cold to do it outside. I think I better stay away from the track in the morning as I can feel the stress of all those corners (320 in 10 miles) on my lower legs. I heard that the groundhog did not see his shadow this morning. An early spring is in store. SWEET!! (But who believes the groundhog anyway?)

The end of the off-season is Saturday and we'll be having a breakfast run here at 7:30 AM. (2026 Kal Lane SW, Roch). Frontloaders are welcome, as are non-runners!! The menu will be the usual drill ... steel cut oats, egg bake, fruit, muffins/scones/cookies, coffee, ... Please come! Bring your friends!

Time to read the newspaper(s). Good night.

Fun on the Run

Millie ...

and Peter ...

and I met at the indoor track ...

when it opened at 6 AM for a little "speedwork". We had the track to ourselves. It was great!! This was the first time I was going to test my left hamstring with some up-tempo running after the pull last year so I didn't know how it would go or exactly what the workout might be. I decided on 10 miles, doing a 200 meter pickup after each 4 laps/half mile during the first 6 miles. Then a plain, slow mile. Then a timed mile. Then 2 slow miles. I didn't time the pickups but my miles were: 8:02  7:18  7:31  7:57  7:48  7:57  8:02  7:06 (timed mile) 8:27  10:06. I stopped for a drink and reversed direction after each mile. It worked out great to run at that time of day. I think I might head over there the next few mornings for some "regular" miles as it's supposed to be below zero. And I'm turning into a wimp. A really out of shape wimp. That mile should have been sub-7. But I'll keep working on it. It sounds like we'll be back there next Tuesday. Join us if you like. It's free and open to the public from 6 to 8 in the morning.

Here are the promised photos from the River Runner banquet.


http://s221.photobucket.com/albums/dd88/rsaxman/SCRR%20banquet%202011/?albumview=slideshow

I had 191 hits on my blog yesterday. :-)

LUABC (Lace-Up Against Breast Cancer) news: Thank you Culver's for donating chicken wild rice soup and HyVee for donating bottled water. I/we really appreciate it! I'm in charge of food, and here's my final menu: chicken wild rice soup, cheese sticks (AMPI), bananas (KwikTrip), apples/caramel and pitas/hummus (Reichel Foods), bread (Great Harvest). I think that meal is worth the price of admission alone, don't you?? We still need runners!! Registration info on the website. Also, we're looking for a few good bakers for the silent auction. The auction is going to be food-themed this year. I'll be baking up a storm, but we'd like more contributions. Send me an email if you'd like more information. Thanks!!

Well, soon it'll be time to leave for Noodles and The Fighter with Jean, Amy and Gina.

Toodles!!