I woke up yesterday morning deciding that it was going to be my last “rest” day.  Meaning, I would take it easy to allow my bod another full day of recovery from the stomach whatever I had going on.  I woke up thinking I had slept in only to realize, “oh right time change”, and reality was that it was 6am and not 7am.

Oh well, I was ready to be up and get some stuff accomplished.  I was tired of laying around doing nothing.  In fact I kept getting headaches from laying around so much.  I was also tired of being cooped up in the house AND I was tired of not eating.

When I woke up on Sunday ready to eat, and that included chewing, I was beyond ecstatic!  Food sounded appealing, my stomach wasn’t uneasy, and the thought of having some coffee again after days without almost brought me to tears.

What?  I love morning coffee, ah’ight.

I plopped down on the couch with a small bowl of:

• Stonyfield French Vanilla yogurt
• Small red delicious apple (purchased from the farmer’s market)
• Homemade granola

YUM!  And the coffee was even better!

I wasn’t the only one with cabin fever.  A certain boxer who was in desperate need of a walk was also ready to bound out of the house.  We bundled up and headed out for a lovely walk.  It was such a gorgeous morning and was so cool outside (in the 20s) that it made my cheeks flush and caused him to start prancing around.

Rocky loves the cold.  Like LOVES it.  He’s crazy.

Once home, I snugged on the couch with my laptop, another cup of coffee, and watched some Food TV.  I really do like Giada but my eyes sort of bugged outta my head when I saw her kids show yesterday and she made them grilled cheese sandwiches, fish sticks, and then they got to decorate cakes.  The fish sticks and sandwiches I can handle.  The cakes?  Individual poundcakes that the kids then decorated with as much frosting and candy as they wanted.

Yikes!

That’s a lot of sugar for some toddlers and young kids.  I probably would have demanded her to babysit my kid after that.  No way would I want to be dealing with that sugar rush and crash!

Eventually Scotty got up and it was time to get thinking about some Sunday Breakfast.  Which wasn’t really breakfast at all.

I needed some greens in life in a big way!  Living off canned soup and crackers means that the veg factor is running low.  That had to change!  I loaded us up with huge salads of:

• Mixed greens
• Carrot
• Cucumber
• Cranberries
• Walnuts
• Sunflower Seeds
• Bacon bits (local bacon that I cooked)
• Homemade croutons
• Shredded cheddar cheese

Topped with a maple balsamic dressing.

We both had salads, clementines, and faux-mosas.  OJ + Seltzer and I added in some fresh lime juice as well.  On the far right side is a cinnamon bun I picked up at a local bakery for Scott.

I was putting together our salads, and I had cut up the clementines.  I asked Scott to finish peeling them, separating them, and to put them on the table.  This is what was waiting for me.

Awwwww

Back off ladies, this banana is all mine!   And sadly he doesn’t have any relatives of interest, he’s one of a kind.  Otherwise I would be putting my matchmaking skills to work.

After lunch it was time to hang out.  I read and worked for a bit, and Scott did the same.  The time change was throwing me off a little.  I can handle the morning, it’s the evening that kills me.  By 7pm, my body is already starting to wind down and be ready to call it quits for the night.  I want dinner and I want to relax.

Well by 6pm, my body was wondering why the heck we hadn’t eaten yet and good lord can we get some jammies up in this place already?!

I decided to just roll with it and be a rebel in the face of change.  I made dinner.

Red wine risotto!  Easy one pot meal, I was able to work this while chatting with my mom on the phone.  Risotto is beyond simple!  I love it so much that I’m going to do a post just on risotto.   Just you watch!

This had loads of awesome stuff in it like spinach and zucchini.  It was very rich while also being warm and hardy.  LOVE!

Plus it’s topped with cheese, and the HQ staff loves their cheese.

We watched Saturday’s Pen’s game while we ate.  The game started off really badly but then Bylsma wised up and switched goalies early. If you don’t dig or couldn’t give two shakes about hockey, feel free to skip ahead to the next picture.

MiniRant:

Last year, early on Fleury started going down hill fast in terms of his skill and ability as a goalie.  Scott and I called that out like in October.  Both of us, but more from me, wanted the backup goalie, Johnson to get more playing time.  He’s a great goalie and could have been even better if given more ice time.

This year, Fleury is basically nonexistent and Johnson has been getting way more ice time proving that he is also a top-notch goalie.  I LOVE it!  Because he’s fab.

He’s my new favorite player because my previous fav, Eaton, moved to another team.  I picked Johnson because I’ve supported him since he was signed on for the Pens.

I haven’t jumped on any bandwagon and I pick my faves because they can PLAY and know how to do their job.  Not because they are pretty or are a “super star”.

OHC is officially Team Johnson!

Laugh all you want, but Johnson Time is a Good Time!  /MiniRant:

Wine of the evening was a dry red blend by Cantina Zaccagnini.  I also used this in the risotto.  It was alright.  Not the best red but certainly not the worst.  It was decent enough for sipping while sitting on the couch yelling at the TV.

My bedtime snack was a few pieces of toffee and then I was crashing hard.  By 10pm I had to call it quits and hit the hay!  I zonked out fast!

How was your weekend?  Did you have trouble adjusting to the time change? Do you wish the Government would just pick a time and stick with it already?

This post was part of OHC’s Homespun Sunday Series.

Hi gang!  How is everyone doing?  How was your weekend and did you do anything fun for Halloween?

Admittedly our weekend went by way too quickly!  We had to make up for last weekend which if you remember was full of crazy and drama.  This weekend we had chores to get done and be responsible adults.   Saturday was a “work” day.  I had blog stuff to get done (because I consider that work and not just a hobby) and Scott had freelance projects to work on.

That is how the majority of our Saturday was spent, doing that and avoiding political phone calls.

Seriously is the political stuff a lot more aggressive this year or what?!

Yesterday I got up early and had a lovely “short” long run of 8 miles.  I just felt like staying closer to home and didn’t really want to venture out.  It was awesome and I’m so glad to be running just to run again and not have something looming over me.  I’m totally not a goal orientated runner.  More on that at another time!  I realize I keep saying that but well, it’s true. All of these things I want to talk about in their own post!

Yesterday’s run was so chilly and fantastic! I am a full on cold-weather runner.  GIMMIE! It was so chilly yesterday that I had to wear a hoodie and my toboggan (toboggan = winter hat).  I was a happy happy girl!

Once home and showered, I had my yogurt snackie.

• 2% Fage
• Homemade granola
• Homemade Cranberry sauce
• Chocolate chips

YUM!  Since it was Sunday Scott made us some peppermint coffee which was so good!  We picked it up at Harry and David.  It doesn’t have an overpowering peppermint taste but it’s enough to let you know that it’s there.  The smell of it brewing though is amazing and fills the whole house with a holiday smell!

A little after Scott got up,  I headed into the kitchen to make Sunday Breakfast.  All I had on the brain was pancakes with some buckwheat flour!

Handsdown buckwheat pancakes are my favorite!  They are light but still have a great nutty and whole grain taste to them.  I also love using cider to make pancakes!  The best liquid to use for pancakes in my opinion.

I topped my pancakes with:

• Butter
• Vanilla Yogurt
• Maple Syrup
• Cranberry sauce

Uh, I like my pancakes loaded up!  Maple syrup is nice but adding yogurt takes it to a whole other level making the pancakes more filling.  We had turkey sausage (local) on the side along with some clementines and bananas.

As much as I miss summer fruit, I’m really happy that clementines are back in season!  I love those little guys!

Our Halloween celebration was really low-key.  I got some cute placemats at Big Lots (or Odd Lots to some).

Cute!  I used to go all out for us on Halloween.  No one we knew had a party nor did anyone like to dress up.  So I use to make us a party just for two!  I would kick Scott out of the house and spend the day decorating and cooking.  I would text him that he could come home and then he had to go straight upstairs to put his costume on.

Our costumes were always easy comfortable things made from stuff we already had or stuff bought on the cheap from Target.  Then we would have dinner which was lots of yummy stuff all made to look odd and with “creepy” names.

This year that didn’t happen though.  I would say that Halloween snuck up on us but really we have just been so busy with stuff that I didn’t even have a moment to think twice about it.

I did stuff around the house yesterday and helped Scott a bit with garage things.  The garage got a big overhaul yesterday as it needed cleaned out and organized.  I helped where I could then the rest was left to Scott who spent the rest of the day fixing it up.

After breakfast, the next time I sat down and got a chance to hang out with him was after 8pm when we had dinner! :o

We are meatless in the house because I haven’t had a chance to restock the freezer from the previous debacle.  That’s alright thought because it game me a chance to test out some new recipes.

I made an easy BBQ black bean dish.  I made the beans myself, added in some sauteed onion with red and green pepper and added some bottled BBQ sauce to that.  I’m still trying to perfect my bean cooking.  I soaked these for over 24 hours and they still had a really hard outer shell to them even though the inside was fully cooked.  I have no idea how to get soft creamy beans!

We also had mashed sweet potatoes and apple stuff.  Mmmm!  I was trying out a new stuffing idea for Thanksgiving and I think this is totally going to work!

We watched Halloween while eating dinner and finished the movie while sipping wine on the couch.

Wine for the evening was a San Angelo Pinot Grigio.  It was alright, not really as dry or crisp as I would have liked.  Not a bad wine but no definite flavor or punch to it.

We started watching a behind the scenes type show on Halloween (the movie) but I had to cut that short and hit the hay.  I was zonked out!

Tell me about your weekend!

This post was part of Off Her Cork’s Homespun Sunday.

When we were on the ride home this past Saturday, our thoughts turned to:

• Catching up on life/business stuff
• Putting on fresh jammies
• Sleeping in our own bed
• Wine
• Easy and lovely Sunday morning run

The best laid plans, right?

When we walked in the house, both of us noticed an odd smell.  It smelled like something had turned.  I thought it was the garbage disposal so I put some baking soda in it and got it taken care of.  I finished putting things away, and headed down to the basement to put the cooler away.  I noticed the smell had gotten stronger in the basement.  When I made it down, I finally saw what the problem was.

We have a standup freezer in our basement.  We purchase meats, veggies, and fruit in bulk.  Not only our food, but also Rocky’s food in bulk (he eats a fresh foods diet, not kibble).  Apparently the freezer door wasn’t closed properly and it opened up while we were gone.  Everything thawed and leaked all over the freezer and then the basement floor.  Our house smelled like rotting meat and fish.

Good times.

It took us a long time to get that cleaned up.

We both showered and finally ate “lunch” around 4pm.  Rocky had eaten his dinner right before us.  It wasn’t long after that I noticed him acting funny.  He was acting like he was going to throw up, which that really isn’t odd.  Rocky throws up sometimes, no biggie.  This was different though, he was uncomfortable.  He would lay down, then sit up, then lay down, then walk around.  Rinse, repeat.  I felt his stomach and it was all tense and pulled up tight against himself.

All of these are signs of bloat which isn’t something you can wait around on to see if it goes away.  Bloat needs to be addressed ASAP.  Bloat can happen to any dog but is more prone to happen to larger dogs and dogs with big chest areas, like boxers, dobies, and great danes for example.

Thankfully we have a great ER Animal Hospital close by.  We tossed on some clothes and headed over right away.

The rest of the evening was spent at the ER vet.  Rocky did not have bloat nor did he have food bloat (food bloat similar to us feeling bloated after eating too much or too fast).  He was fine even though his stomach was still pulled tight against him.  Rocky was discharged and we were headed home.

We got back home at 11pm.

We still needed to eat dinner by that point.

I got Rocky comfortable, made a quick dinner with some frozen leftovers, and then headed to bed.

So yeah, Saturday was pretty much spent in drama land.  Come Sunday I wanted nothing to do with anything.  I really just wanted to stay in bed with my boys but alas, being an adult means that sometimes you have to do some stuff when you don’t want to.

No run Sunday morning because I was just plain wiped out.  All I wanted was sleep.  I was a bit bummed because my last run was the previous Tuesday!  I made myself some light breakfast, yogurt with granola and had a lovely cup of peppermint mocha coffee.  Tis the season!

The rest of the morning was spent getting caught up on emails and things like that.  Scott and I decided to have breakfast before heading to the grocery store.

We had scrambled eggs with assorted veggies:

• Red and green pepper
• Red onion
• Broccoli
• Spinach

With some oatmeal bread toasted and dabbed with Irish butter!  OJ and some fruit to complete the Sunday Breakfast.

Then it was off to the grocery store to fight the crowds.  We got there later in the afternoon so that seemed to work in our favor a bit.  Whole Foods, while busy, wasn’t full on crazy.  However we stopped at The Anderson’s before that and it was full on mad house.

Note to self, no more Anderson’s on Sundays!

We purchased a few things and then headed back home.  It was really hard for me to spend money on food.  That might sound weird, but having lost all that food left me uneasy and unwilling to put out money for more.

The rest of Sunday we spent taking care of Rocky.  I prepped his foods and I prepped our dinner.  All I wanted was some major veg action.  We had veggies at my mom’s but we also had a great deal of meat, more than we usually eat.  I couldn’t eat anything animal!

We had baked potatoes at my mom’s and I have been thinking of nothing else since then.  I bought us some HUGE baking potatoes so we could have some for dinner!  Our loaded potatoes had:

• Butter
• Cheddar
• Cracked black pepper
• Our version of sour cream, 2% Fage Greek Yogurt
• Chopped chives

See?  The potato takes up most of a large dinner plate!  Don’t worry, I had more than three carrots.  It might not look like much but it was exactly what I wanted and hit the spot!  We ate and watched Dancing with the Stars.

Wine for the evening was Clos Du Bois Chardonnay.  It was alright, sort of light for a chard.  It didn’t really have any kick or flavor at the end, just a light white with not much else going on.  I also had a big bowl of SO Delicious Ice Cream and then crashed in bed!

Today I’m still trying to get caught up on everything!

How was your weekend?  Please tell me it was a lot more relaxing than ours!

This post was part of Off Her Cork’s Homespun Sunday Series.

I broke several rules all weekend long.  Not on purpose but sometimes stuff happens and at some point you just have to go with it and accept the situation.

Yesterday, I broke my own Homespun Sunday rule and went out for breakfast.  Yup.

I was starving after my race yesterday and I was also tired.  Once I showered, Scott mentioned going out to breakfast.

“Oh we haven’t gone out to breakfast in a very long time.”

“I know, so let’s go!”

And I agreed.  Not only because I love the idea of going out to breakfast but also because I was tired and hungry and quite frankly I wanted someone else to cook for me and bring me copious amounts of food.

I knew exactly what I wanted and even though I could have made it all myself, I didn’t want to take the time nor make the mess in the kitchen it would require.  Totally being honest.  So I bundled up (I was still warming back up from a cool race) and off to breakfast we went.

Saturday, I um, didn’t really fuel myself properly for Sunday’s race (more on that in the race recap), so not only was I making up for racing but I also had to play a bit of “catch up” as well.  This is my entire breakfast and while I didn’t eat it all, I did eat most of it.

You can see in the upper left hand corner is a blueberry pancake with a sizable dent in it.  I started eating before snagging a picture.  I had to get some food in my belly quick.  The pancake almost takes up the entire plate, I ate it all.  I ate all the potatoes, scrambled eggs, and one sausage link.  Four is a bit much even for me.  I didn’t eat the English muffin only because I forgot to ask for it unbuttered.  The fruit I split with Scott, and I had three cups of coffee with a few glasses of water.

I’m pretty sure that when I ordered all that food, the server thought that my eyes were bigger than my stomach.  I had a small piece of pancake left that I hadn’t got to yet and the server almost whisked my plate away!  “You’re done so can I take this away for you?” I had to rescue the little bite from the hovering plate!

I was an eating machine yesterday.  This meal lasted me about two hours.  Then I had a protein smoothie with some cheese crackers.

And then I had some prunes.

Then I got started on dinner because I wanted to eat some more.

I’m not sure I could handle the training for and running a marathon.  As much as I love to eat, I really don’t enjoy eating all. day. long.  I’m serious.

Yesterday was the first roast dinner of the cooler weather season!  Hooray!  I made a roast chicken and it was oh so good.

There was also some mashed potatoes with chives, and roasted carrots and parsnips.  I had a wing and a breast on my plate.  The chicken and potatoes got topped with gravy.  Yum!  And then I had more chicken and mash.

Scott and I watched some ridiculous documentary on TV and sipped on some wine.

Estancia Pinot Grigio.  Some of it I used to baste the roasting chicken with as well.  It was a really nice light white and made for a really good sipping-on-the-couch wine.  Then I had a big bowl of SO Delicious Peanut Butter Chocolate ice cream and around 10:30, I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer so I hightailed it to bed.

Did you all have a great weekend?  Any fab eats?

This post was part of Off Her Cork’s Homespun Sunday series.

Hi gang!  How was everyone’s weekend?!  Mine went by too quickly and now here I am on a Monday feeling a little outta sorts. :o  Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends to the North and Happy Columbus Day to all the folks in the US.  Columbus Day is such a weird holiday!  It’s a holiday that really isn’t.

Do you get Columbus Day off?  Here at the HQ we do not.  The upside to working for yourself is that you can pick and choose what days you want off and when.  The downside is that you can find yourself working while everyone else is off doing not work things.  Some places get this day off and not others.  I never worked in a place that observed this holiday.  Nor has Scott.

Yesterday I totally checked out and laid on the couch.  I was so out of it, I apparently forgot to take a picture of my yogurt and granola.  Whoops!

I completed my long run, the last long run before the race this weekend!  And I have to tell you that the weather yesterday was amazing and totally perfect running weather.  Not at all like the week before where it was miserable.  In fact let’s not even talk about that week anymore.

I leashed up Rocks and got his walk done before it got too hot outside, that’s right, before it got too hot.  We were close to 90 yesterday.  Oh Ohio, you and your crazy ways.

Then I showered and got busy doing nothing.  I watched a little Food TV with my post race fuel, which I’ll recap sans picture.

• 2% Fage
• Homemade granola
• Chocolate chips

With coffee.  MMmmm baby!

Then I discovered a Law and Order marathon yesterday!  HEAVEN!  I watched for a bit and then got busy making us some Sunday Breakfast which is what you see above.  We had:

• Scrambled eggs (with hot sauce)
• Home Fries with peppers and onions
• Cheese bagel, straight up

When I make home fries, I actually roast my potatoes with the peppers and onions.  A little olive oil and seasonings, then I roast at 425 till crispy.  This way I have nice crispy potatoes, I didn’t have to dirty another pan, and the potatoes aren’t saturated in oil or butter.  Totally yum!

Seriously, after breakfast, me and the couch became best friends!  Scott had to do grownup stuff around the house (read chalking windows, fun!) and I literally just zoned out and watched L&O.  There were so many other things I could have done, but I honestly could not bring myself to “work”.  I cannot even tell you the last time I crashed out and watched TV all day.  I have been longing for a L&O marathon (TNT does them a good bit) and this one hit at the perfect time.

Eventually, at 7pm, I got up and started dinner.  I checked with Scott and he was wrapping things up, good thing too because I was about to tell him to come inside!

Please excuse the lame pictures you’re about to see.  I promise that dinner was a lot more tasty and satisfying than it’s going to look.

Simple side salads with:

• Mixed greens
• Shredded carrot
• Chopped yellow tomato
• Pumpkin seeds

Drizzled with a bit of balsamic and oil.

See, told you, lame. The plate was huge and therefore makes my dinner look smaller than it is.  Also, that burger just looks sad, but I promise it was very delicious.

With the salads, we had roasted broccoli and chicken burgers!  It was late in the day so the idea of eating a big fluffy bun was not appealing at all, therefore I nixed it.  It was a chicken burger full of yummy tasty stuff that you’re going to have to wait on!  I was craving burgers like mad and since we had amazing weather this weekend, I thought for sure we would be able to grill.

That didn’t work out due to Scott running late with chores and us actually being late with meals.  We didn’t eat “breakfast” until 2pm and this dinner was served going on 8pm.  Yikes!  For me, on a Sunday after a long run, that’s late!

The burgers got sauteed up in a pan and there’s cheese on the inside which is why there is no cheese on top.  I cleared everything!  Scott got full really fast and so I finished everything he didn’t eat.   That made it just the perfect amount of food!

We watched Saturday’s Pens game after dinner while sipping on some wine.  The game?  Horrible.  Let’s not even dwell on it.  There was ice cream to be had also, a lovely bowl of SO Delicious peanut butter and chocolate.  YUM!

I had a bit too much wine and went to bed way too late.  My Monday is now full of work and trying to shake off the cobwebs.

Tell me loves, how was your weekend?  Do anything exciting?  Have anything fantastic to eat?

This post was part of Off Her Cork’s Homespun Sunday series.

Hi gang!  How did everybody’s weekend go?  Ours went by way too quickly!  Both of us had work to get done and our weekend was slated as a work weekend.  While I was able to get some things accomplished on Saturday, Scott on the other hand was busy with house related issues.  Oh the joys of home ownership!  Our downstairs toilet had been leaking for quite some time.  Leaking on the inside not on the outside.

Then on Wednesday, I went to flush and broke the handle.

Yikes!

Scott spent the entire weekend fixing and replacing everything in the tank in order to get it to stop leaking and start flushing again.  This is after he spent time earlier in the week fixing up my washer that decided to be a drama queen.

And finally yesterday he had to tie down some siding that decided to come loose but not completely fall off allowing it to just blow in the breeze.

Uh, when it rains it pours.

Oh and it did that too yesterday!  I completed my long run in the most miserable conditions but I don’t want to dwell on the negative.  The positive is that I got it done and what kept me going (other than thinking of my half in two weeks) was thinking of taking the hottest of showers!  After stretching and getting dinner in the crockpot, I sprinted upstairs to my steaming hot shower.  Scott was up by this point which was very early for him!  While I thought that I would jump right into making Sunday Breakfast, I realized that I actually wanted to sit down on the couch for a minute, drink a strong mug of coffee, and feed my belly a snack.

After 12 miles, it was yelling at me and naturally I obliged with my favorite post-run fuel:

• 2% Fage
• Homemade granola
• Chocolate Chips

YUM!  I inhaled this while watching some Food TV which is still a guilty pleasure of mine no matter how much I complain about it.  I also talked with Scott about how to best plan out our day.  Then since my belly was growling, I got up to make breakfast.

Seriously I am in love with this picture.  It actually makes me want to have breakfast all over again!  I made some pumpkin pancakes (recipe to come since it’s Pumpkin Month!) and totally topped those bad boys with:

• Butter
• Vanilla yogurt
• Maple syrup
• Homemade cranberry apple sauce

After the picture, I also put two pieces of chicken sausage on my plate.  No matter how hard I try, sausage is just not photogenic.  At. All.

Scott and I cleaned up the kitchen and then we got busy with our respective tasks.  Sadly his was all about the toilet.

I tried to organize my iPhone contacts list and resulted in a huge fail.  Do any of you have iPhones?  I want to create groups in my contacts list so that I can lump people into categories but I can’t seem to do that.  Is that possible or something that iPhone doesn’t support?

Also, since we’re talking gadgets.  I want to get phone alerts regarding multiple calendars.  The info I can find online talks about how to stop getting alerts from multiple calendars that your phone is sync’d with and I want the opposite!  I want alerts from all my calendars!

Anyone?  Bueller?  Bueller?

Dinner was cooking away all day long and it smelled so amazing it was ridiculous.  Since yesterday was all gloomy, rainy, and dreary, it was the perfect time to bust out the crockpot.  I added in some lovely country style pork ribs and let it simmer all day long.

I had bone-in ribs that I put in the crockpot with:

• A small can of diced tomatoes
• Splash of chicken stock
• Green pepper
• 1/2 an Onion
• 1 Jalapeno
• 2 cloves of garlic
• Red pepper flakes
• Lots of BBQ sauce

YUM!!!

If you’re curious as to what country style pork ribs are, they are a meatier cut of pork and actually not ribs at all!  They are cuts from the blade end of the loin closest to the shoulder.  Why they are called ribs I do not know, other than possibly from their “rib” like shape.  They are very meaty and do well with slow cooking, like in a crockpot or braising in a dutch oven.  They also would be great to use to create shredded pork BBQ or for pork tacos.  If you see them the next time you are looking for pork cuts, give them a try!

We love them!

Ribs and sauce were placed on top of some jasmine rice and we had sauteed sweet potato and zucchini on the side.  Can you believe this was my first time sautteeing sweet potato?!  Normally I roast the pieces, or bake a whole potato.  I like the sauteed version!  Although it does take a bit longer to cook.

Wine for the evening was leftovers from already open bottles from earlier in the week.  And my dessert was a HUGE bowl of coconut ice cream which was delicious!  We watched Holmes and his new show after that, Holmes Inspection.  I have to say that I was  not surprised that people were mislead on inspections they had done.  Inspectors can be just as corrupt as contractors.  As home buyers it is our responsibility to be there during a home inspection and to make note of anything that catches our eye that the inspector doesn’t mention.  It’s also our responsibility to ask questions.  Homes are expensive, probably the biggest purchase we will make in our lifetimes (no matter if it is your first home, or your fifth), we need to look out for ourselves.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions and don’t be afraid to walk away if the situation is more than you want to handle.

I was exhausted yesterday and hit the hay shortly after that.

So tell me how your weekend was and what yumtasatic foods you created and got to eat!

This post was part of Off Her Cork’s Homespun Sunday.

I wish that I could say that yesterday ended up being as relaxing as I hoped but it didn’t quite reach that level.  Don’t get me wrong, it was a nice day!  But not enough got done and the day went by too fast.

I always have the Sunday blues.  It’s the one day I have with Scott where we hope to have nothing on the agenda.  Sometimes we succeed and sometimes we do not.  No matter what though the day always seems to fly by at lightening speed.  In the blink of an eye it’s 3pm and time to start thinking about phone calls to family, making dinner, and settling down for the evening.

Yesterday both of us had some work that needed to get done and sadly most of our day was spent doing that.  Booo for working on the weekends!

As you know, I decided to take a Me Day yesterday and just chill out doing what needed to be done on my own time.  I did try and make some pumpkin bread but that turned into a Baking Fail of monstrous proportions!  The pumpkin bread was in the oven at 375 for over two hours and the silly thing would not cook all the way through.

To put it in perspective, roasting a whole chicken at 375 wouldn’t even take two hours long.  Sometimes pumpkin can be a tricky one to work with because it is very thick and that can affect baking time greatly.  Yesterday it just did not want to work.  I was left trying to figure out what to do about breakfast though because that stinkin’ bread was supposed to be breakfast!  I bought some fresh local apple cider on Saturday and decided to make some cider corn cakes.

Mmmmm! I am starting to get a serious pancake addiction going on.  I just love them so much!  I love making them and coming up with new flavors but I especially love eating them. This is a new thing for me because while I always liked pancakes, I never really LOVED them.  Now that I make them on my own, I can’t get enough.

I top my pancakes with a bit of butter and then drizzle on some yogurt and maple syrup.  Heaven!  We also had some chicken sausage and fresh fruit.  I had a red pear and a few slices of apple.  I bought some Honey Crisp apples over the weekend, also from a local orchard.  They are so so good!  They taste exactly like what you would think an apple should taste like.  I call them cider apples because they taste like a big glass of cool apple cider.

After breakfast and kitchen clean-up we walked Rocky and it was so cool outside! I had to put on sweats and a sweatshirt.  I am so excited for this time of year again!  I don’t mind telling you that I have already bought some Christmas cards and cute little winter themed tumblers with Christmas trees on them.

We worked and worked and then it was time to call it a day and make dinner.  Typically on Sunday I know exactly what I plan on making for dinner but yesterday I had no idea!  So many things sounded good that I was having trouble picking just one.  I looked to the weather for inspiration.

It was cold and gloomy, it was supposed to be a relaxing day so I turned to comfort food for the answer.

Hello Mac ‘N Cheese!  Spicy Mac ‘N Cheese to be specific.  I put a few twists on this one, I added in some shredded carrot, shredded zucchini, and some pinto beans.  I also used unsweetened coconut milk instead of plain soymilk.

A big huge steaming bowl of mac ‘n cheese was perfect for yesterday!  Normally we eat Sunday Supper at the table but yesterday we curled up with our big bowls of pasta and hit the couch.  We watched a new show called Undercovers.  It’s a show about a married couple who are also CIA spies.  Created by J.J. Abrams so it makes it wonder if he’s missing Alias a little bit (aren’t we all?).  The pilot was actually really good and I’m curious to see if the show can keep up the momentum.

After that we tried some movies.  First up was 9 that I couldn’t even get through.  I think maybe I managed to watch the first half hour before calling it quits.  Yikes!  Then we switched over to Ninja Assassins.  Now going into that movie I knew it wasn’t going to be anything great.  I realized that but wow it was bad.  Not even the fight scenes could redeem it!  That was a waste of my time.  Bah!  This is why Scott and I stick with watching old movies because everything out now is just junk.

We finally switched to something a lot more entertaining, Holmes!  And I saw that starting next week it will be back to two Holmes shows back-to-back.  Hooray!  We nibbled on some sugar cookies and nutroll while sipping on some Barefoot Pinot Grigio.

Then I finally kicked it up to bed because I was spent!  How was your weekend?  Do you feel Sundays go by too fast as well?  Do you get the Sunday Blues?

This post was part of Homespun Sundays.  Let me know if you join in too!

Hello my pretties!  How was everyone’s week last week?  Mine was busy!  I came right home from Atlanta and had to hit the ground running when the week started.  I had to do some catchup work and then there were a lot of business meetings and connections scheduled.

Thursday I had my speaking gig with the local chapter of the PR Society of America to discuss the relationship between bloggers and PR reps.  It was really interesting and I loved getting a chance to meet and talk with PR reps about their experiences with bloggers.  There’s two sides to every relationship folks!  More on that at another time, I hope to do an article about it.

On Saturday, Scott and I attended a sausage making class put on by friend and fellow blogger, Rachel!  Actually it was a joint effort, as Rachel’s husband, Alex taught the session with Rachel providing assistance.  I learned a lot and realized that I definitely need to be making my own sausage and grinding my own meat at home.  Easy peasy!  I didn’t get to take any pictures during the event but once I start doing my own, you can expect a post about that as well!

After a quick trip back home to feed Rocky and eat a quick lunch, Scott and I headed back out to run some errands.  We hit up World Market first!  Man I love World Market!  They have a bunch of fall stuff out now, everything from placemats to Halloween decorations.  So fun!  We walked out with three kinds of pumpkin beer (for an upcoming project! Stay tuned!), one of which being my absolute fave, and some wine.  I also had some knick-knacks and some plates!  They had a sale going on their white square plates and you all know how much I love square plates!

Sunday was my long run day and man did it feel good to be out hitting some double digits!  Last week I missed my long run because I was flying back from Atlanta.  I don’t know about you, but I definitely am not of strong mind and body enough to crank out a double digit run after flying.  I quickly realized that during my run, I had not eaten or drank enough water on Saturday.  Whoops!  It had occurred to me that this might be the case but I thought I was in the safe zone, but after about 5 miles I realized that I was not.  I was able to still run 10.5 miles but man was I hungry when I was done.  I slammed two glasses of chocolate soymilk to quiet my stomach and get some fuel moving through the body, and walked Rocky.  After a very lovely shower, I had some yogurt with granola and a dab of pumpkin butter that Scott picked up at World Market.  It was alight but super sweet.  Thankfully I only added in a small spoonful!

Since we had pumpkin French toast on Saturday, I didn’t want anything cakey or syrupy on Sunday.  I opted for eggs instead!

Egg sandwich on quinoa flax bread with lettuce, tomato, onion, and bacon.  The eggs and bacon were local.  I’m lucky that my Whole Foods carries a lot of local products including eggs.  When I can’t get to the farmer’s market to pick some up, I can swing by Whole Foods and get some.

Really simple breakfast yesterday with the addition of pineapple and a big glass of OJ.  I loved this sandwich paired with the whole grain bread!  I’ve done this before with sprouted bread and on occasion a big white flour bagel, neither of which fill me up or keep me full as long as this bread did.  It was amazing!  I don’t know if I can go back to the other versions now.

Normally one a long run day I will be looking for a snack midway through the afternoon and have some extra fruit or whatever but not yesterday.  I was good all the way till dinner!

I prepped as much stuff as I could for dinner in the evening so that I wouldn’t have to worry about it later in the day.  I had high hopes that we would be able to grill since we haven’t grilled in ages.  Sadly that was dashed!  Around dinner, the winds really picked up and the temperature dropped which made the air a lot cooler.  That wasn’t the problem, it started getting really overcast and looked as if it was going to rain.  There were thunderstorms in the forecast and I didn’t want to chance starting the grill only to have to stop because of rain.

So we grilled inside instead!  With a grill pan, no worries, I didn’t bring the grill inside.   On the menu was coleslaw and steak fajitas!

As always, mayo-less coleslaw.

I used a skirt steak (local) and added a dry rub to it that consisted of:

• Kosher Salt
• Black Pepper
• Chili Powder
• Garlic Powder
• Smoked Paprika
• Brown Sugar

And let that hang out in the fridge all day long.  Then when I pulled it out in order for it to get to room temperature I let it sit in a quick “marinade” made of:

• 3 cloves of garlic
• 3 handfuls of cilantro
• Soy sauce
• Olive oil
• Juice of one lime
• Red Wine Vinegar

The steak sat in that for about 1/2 an hour or so, then I heated up a grill pan and cooked the steak till about medium.  I let it cool and sliced it up for the tortillas!  While the steak cooked and cooled, in an oven I roasted up some red pepper slices, onion slices, and some Cubanelle pepper slices.

Served on whole wheat tortillas and topped with homemade guacamole and sour cream (Fage) with roasted peppers and onions.

Angela asked me a while ago, but I don’t know if she saw my answer since I answered it in the comments section so I’ll repeat it here.  I use 2% Fage as my sour cream and do not use sour cream at all.  The Fage works so much better than actual sour cream and it tastes better too!  Plus with it being yogurt you are getting additional protein and good bacteria in your meal!  I use 2% because I like fat.  Fat is good for you!

After dinner we kicked it watching an old Sherlock Holmes movie and then we watched an episode of House Hunters that we had already seen but were still in awe about.

Speaking of HH, did any of you see the International episode with the couple that was looking for a vacation home in Puerto Rico and their budget was $1Million and they were going to PAY IN CASH?  Let me repeat that in case you misunderstood, they were going to purchase a $1MILLION dollar home and pay for it IN CASH.  A MILLION DOLLARS IN CASH.

That’s how the crazy rich roll I guess!

Wine for the evening was a white.

It’s a nice light Pinot Grigio that makes for a great sipping wine.   I also had a bowl of SO Delicious chocolate ice cream that didn’t make it onto the camera because no one thought about it. :p

How was your weekend?  Did you do anything fun and exciting?

This post was part of Homespun Sunday! If you want to participate, please let me know!

Hi gang!  Is everybody having a lovely holiday weekend? We are but it is going by way too quickly!  I have so much to get done this week in preparation for going to Atlanta this weekend.  YaY!  I’m excited but also have a feeling that it’s going to sneak up on me fast!

I got in a nice long run yesterday and the weather could not have been more perfect.  The sun was out and it was very chilly, in the 40s when I started.  I busted out 12 miles and felt a lovely satisfaction once it was done.  I know I won’t get a long run in this upcoming weekend, so I needed to make sure I got a decent one in while I could!

I never really got “hot” during the run.  I warmed up but it was chilly the entire time.  Taking a long HOT HOT HOT shower when I got back home almost might have felt better than the run itself.

Quick refueling with some yogurt and granola, can you see the chocolate chips peeking over at you?  Steaming hot coffee to wash everything down with.

I pulled another “unplug” session yesterday.  I didn’t write an exercise recap and didn’t do much of anything else online either.  While I was watching Food TV, Scott got up and I put the laptop away so that I could hang out with him.

After a while I heard his stomach growling and made my way to the kitchen for some lovely Sunday Breakfast.  I had some cider left over from the previous week, so I used that all throughout the day in each of our meals.

Cider corncakes!  Pancakes made with cornmeal and apple cider.  These were thick, fluffy, and amazing.  So tasty and perfect for the start of fall!

I put a bit of butter on top and dipped into maple syrup.  These were filling! I could only handle eating 1.5 of them.  Sadly the watermelon in the back was bad and I had to toss it.   I had some pineapple and we ate that instead.

After breakfast, I got some fab looking pork chops in a cider brine.  Mmmm!  Cider brines are probably my favorite, followed closely by a beer brine.

The rest of the day was spent lounging around and walking Rocky.  My legs were a bit sore from my run, so I wore my leg sleeves and stayed off them as much as possible.

The day flew by and we weren’t even doing anything!  I chatted with my mom and the next thing I knew it was time to feed Rocky and get started on our dinner.  We were originally going to grill but it was late by the time we started, so I nixed that idea.

I ended up making what turned out to be one of the best pork chops we’ve had!  Or at least, in my opinion anyway!

Pork chops with sauteed apples and onions with a cider reduction sauce.  These were bone-in chops and they were huge!  Easily a good inch and then some thick.  Amazing!  Locally raised and bought over at Bluescreek in North Market.

The side dish was some sauteed Swiss Chard and mashed potatoes.  Not quite as good as the kale and mashed but still yummy nonetheless.   Greens + mashed potatoes is one of the best combos ever!

The pork chops are going to be an upcoming recipe!  I will tell you that everything was cooked in a skillet and the flavor is outstanding.  A great fall inspired dish and a nice twist on the chops & applesauce pairing.

All together!  The chops were so huge that I couldn’t even eat my whole portion, and that’s after running 12 miles!  I had slightly less than half, these were big babies!  Scott made plenty of “nom nom” noises and deemed them fantastic.

YaY!

I have to tell you that I am in love with square plates!  They have so much more surface area compared to round plates and they take up less space in the cabinets.  I bought some nice ones on sale at Target and also found some on clearance at Triple B (Bed, Bath, and Beyond).  I’m getting rid of all my other plates and making the switch to square.

Dare to be Square kids!

Dessert was some cranberry oatmeal cookies that also had walnuts and pumpkin seeds!  I did not make these with cider but I should have to keep the theme going. They were yummy little powerhouse cookies!  We watched Holmes times 2!

First we watched some Holmes on Homes which was a really horrible story of a family being taken advantage of by a contractor.  They had an existing house that they wanted to add a second story to and more room.  Holmes had to take the whole house down and now there is a whole in the ground because of the previous contractor’s lack of experience and how he structured the new additions.  Could you imagine having your house ripped down because it was made unsafe by a sketchy contractor?!  Scary!

Then we watched Sherlock Holmes!  An older one, in black and white with Basil Rathbone as Holmes.  I don’t know if I can watch the one with Robert Downy.  He’s not one of my faves and I have a super hard time watching anything with Jude Law in it.

After the movie I kicked it in bed because I was flat out exhausted.

Today sadly no more relaxing and it’s back to work for both of us.  But at least it’s a relaxing environment, no rushing around because we don’t have to be anywhere.  We can take our time getting things done.

Tell me about your weekend!

This post was part of Homespun Sunday, if you’d like to join in, drop me a line!

Hi gang!  Yesterday was a much needed “unplug” day from everything.  No work, no blog, no run, and computer interaction to a minimum.  I very much needed some time away which I feel is important.  If we don’t get time to recharge then everything in life becomes stale and routine.   Especially blogging! I definitely think everyone could use some chill time when it comes to blogging and not stress about getting a post out everyday or every 10 minutes depending on the style of your blog.

I woke up early for my run yesterday and was not feeling it.  I was dreading it,  as in, ” *sigh* Today’s my long run which means I have to go all the way out there and back.  Man I just don’t want to run that.”

I love my long runs as much as I love my right arm so when a time pops up that I am dreading a long run, then it’s time to chill out.  This wasn’t one of those moments were you are debating a run, this was a moment of “Oh I really don’t want to do this.”  That is a completely different mindset because even if you go out anyway, you’ll hate it.

I’m not trying to hate on exercise and activity.  Instead I slept in, took Rocky for a long walk, and then spent the rest of the day being productive.  I was really hungry when I got back from the walk so I made a wee Owl bowl of yogurt, homemade granola, and some chocolate chips.  Hey, I might not have done a long run, but I still wanted some chocolate!

I watched a little Food TV but mostly I moved things to the kitchen to be even more productive.  I’m one of those people who consider spending time in the kitchen as time well spent.  If I’m making something and prepping for the day, then I’m a pretty happy person.  Because it was a “special” unplug day, I decided we should have a special breakfast.  I got Scotty up early so I would have some company and so I could see him a bit more since I didn’t get to spend much time with him on Saturday.  I was being selfish.

I figured yesterday was the perfect day for some homemade cinnamon rolls (totally vegan of course)!

I made the dough ahead of time and let that rise for about an hour.  When it was time to spread on the filling is when I got Scott up for the day.  I like nuts with my cinnamon rolls and the filling for these have pecans and walnuts.

Sorry for the unintentional flash!  Cinnamon rolls look and sound fancy but they are super easy to make.  Once the filling is spread on, you just roll everything up!

And slice! Depending on how big you want them will determine how big the slices are.  I did about 2 inches.

After they are placed in a baking dish, let rise again for about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes.  Bake, and top with a glaze.

Then eat!  I made these a little too sweet, yikes!  I could only handle 1.5 of these bad boys before my mouth puckered shut.  I have no idea what I was thinking when I sweetened them!  I guess I just figured that cinnamon rolls are sweet and these should be the same way.  Next time, I’ll cut the sugar way down.  Despite being overly sweet, they were very yummy and a nice Sunday treat!

Scott and I spent the rest of the day cleaning out the garage.  We had a ton of stuff that needed taken to Goodwill and other stuff that just needed thrown out.  We had a yard-sale over three years ago and the leftover stuff was supposed to get donated.  Procrastination at its finest!

Yesterday I’d had enough and set forth a plan to get rid of the junk.  We have so much stuff it really isn’t funny, it’s frustrating.  We have a lot of hand-me-downs to get rid of and a lot of things that we don’t use or want anymore to get rid.

The hardest thing to get rid of?  Furniture.  No one wants it and if they do, then you are responsible for getting it to them.  Right.  A couch isn’t fitting in our little hobbit car.  We have no way to transport larger items and renting something in order to transport something you are giving away for free seems silly.  Goodwill will not come and pick up items, I asked.  Any suggestions?

We were sweating buckets yesterday while we cleaned out the garage.  The thermometer at the post office said it was 98!  No wonder we were hot!  Welcome back summer.  That was a short trip!

Finally we showered and it was time to fill the bellies again.

While the chicken was roasting, we had a little cheese platter with:

• Jarlsberg
• A sheep’s milk cheese (I forget the name)
• Robusto
• Wheat crackers
• Sunflower seed and basil crackers

With some white wine spritzers for fun.

Side salads for dinner that had been chilling in the fridge for several hours (best way to eat salads!)

• Romaine
• Grape tomatoes
• Red onion
• Carrot
• Pumpkin and sunflower seeds
• Homemade croutons

Topped with a easy balsamic dijon dressing.

The chicken was glorious!  Local chicken legs that swam around in a lovely cider-brine for several hours.  A little different this time around, no cranberry juice and a bit more sugar (because I was doing 8 legs at one time).  Then I let them hang out with a cocoa-chili rub and finally roasted them at 400 for about 45 minutes.

To quote Scott, he said, “These legs are freakin’ unbelievable.”

For the record, he was in fact referring to the chicken dinner.

Some local summer corn on the side that rounded out a tasty and extremely easy to make Sunday Supper!

We settled down to finish off the evening by finishing The Tick series.  Best. Show. Ever.

Then I went to bed to prepare for another week!  How was your weekend? What yummy homecooked foods did you enjoy?

This post is part of the Homespun Sunday Series.  If you would like to join, just let me know!