24 Days of Thanks: #'s 24 & 23

November is the month we spend recovering from our sugar-induced coma on Halloween and preparing for one of the only days we get a free pass on totally over indulging on food. And for me, my birthday falls on November 1st (Yay to being 31! I'm not being sarcastic either.), which means birthday cake. And I typically eat 2/3 of it all by myself. Of course not in one sitting, thankfully. So, this time of year is one of my favorites. Not just for the sweet-loaded holidays, but because this time of year, food and all, brings together friends and families. We often drift over the year with our own resolutions and easily get absorbed back into the monotony of daily fast-paced life.

So, I thought, why not spend the next 24 days leading up to the biggest feast of the year, and ponder on why we celebrate this holiday, by sharing 24 things that I'm thankful for.

So here's the first two (I 'm going to count down, but I don't know that these are in any particular order of importance.):

#24. My birthday. I know this sounds a little selfish, but I'm thankful that my parents decided to have a kid after 10 years or so of being married, and thankfully it was me that came out on November 1, 1980. And birthdays, really are the best. You get spoiled and if you like sweets, it's the one time you get to have your cake and eat it too!

#23. My house. It was built in 1954, and it's been fun...renovations and all. When we moved in, the kitchen was like walking into a retro dream, orange and yellow wallpaper and harvest gold appliances along with four layers of linoleum on top of wood floors. Really?! What were they smoking in the 60's and 70's! The best...there was a pencil sharpener attached to the wall in the den (like the one you used when you were in elementary school). What I would give to know when and why that was put there. Anyway, I do like our old house. It's not perfect by any means (not because of the above statements; we modernized the kitchen and removed the pencil sharpener, since we removed the wall). But, the bathrooms are small, the closest are almost non-existent, and we have no garage. But we have an amazing backyard for our Juno to run around in, and we were able to build the kitchen of our dreams in a space that before wasn't well used. The fact that it's not too big, makes us work harder at not having too much stuff (which in reality, you don't need all that stuff, unless it goes in the kitchen). And, there's not as much to clean! Ultimately though, it's the place I look forward to coming to at the end of every day. Where my hubby and junebug are waiting for me.

Apples, Apples, Apples

It feels like fall. It's cool enough to sit around the fire pit and drink wine comfortably and without being dinner for the mosquitoes.

So as fall begins...one excursion to the mountains already down. Last week we went hiking with the June bug and then off to pick Apples.

Here's a few highlights from the hiking and Apple picking:

Tree huggers

BJ Reece Apple Orchards

So the question is...what have I done with a half bushel of apples since last week?

Well, we've had lots of apples.

-We made french toast with stewed apples (cinnamon, sugar and butter all included of course!)

-Apple chips (which I've decided I don't have the patience for, or the time...but if you want to try, you can check out this blog cupcakeproject.com. I highly recommend adding the cinnamon and sugar, but be patient and don't forget to spray your pan before letting those puppies bake for several hours...it's not pretty, and don't worry about having cute little shapes. I cut mine in thin slices and let them just bake. They will taste the same and be just as pretty with the cinnamon and sugar on top)

- Apple pie/tart (which I just finished making and our whole house smells of butter and gooey apples...yummy! Recipe below.)

-But my favorite, or at least Juno's were the homemade apple treats I made for her in cute bite-sized apple shapes. (Mouth watering for your little pup, I promise. Recipe below...just incase you have some spare time on your hands. Note....I pretty much spent my whole weekend baking and cleaning up after myself; but it was a change of pace and enjoyed.)

Doggie Apple Treats (June Bug approved)

For original recipe click here to see cdkitchen.com, but I modified slightly

2 cups whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup unbleached flour (I used all purpose flour)
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 apple, chopped or grated
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup vegetable oil (I used half the amount of oil)
1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
3/8 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray cookie sheet with vegetable oil spray.

Lightly dust work surface with flour. Blend flours and cornmeal in large mixing bowl. Add apple, egg, oil, brown sugar and water; mix until well blended. On floured surface, roll dough out to 7/8-inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters of desired shape and size. Place treats on prepared sheet. Bake in preheated oven 35 to 40 minutes. Turn off oven. Leave door closed 1 hour to crisp treats. Remove treats from oven. Store baked treats in airtight container or plastic bag and place in refrigerator or freezer.

Apple Pie/Tart

Crust: you can either make dough yourself and use a tart pan, which is what I typically do, but today, I was cleaning out my freezer and found I still had a good and unused frozen pie crust so, that was my shortcut today.

For the apples:

5 apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced.

Layer the bottom of the uncooked pie crust with all the odd shaped misfit apple pieces. Then, start arranging all of your pretty slices in concentric circles. Fill in with other odd apple pieces as you go, to even out the layers. There's no science to it, and don't worry if it's not perfect, it will still taste the same.

Sprinkle the top of your layered apples with 3 tablespoons of sugar and arrange 4 tablespoons of unsalted cubed butter around the top.

Bake at 400* for 1 hour or until golden brown. Be sure to check your pie crust or cover the edges with foil, so the edges don't burn.

Let cool and enjoy....ice cream or no ice cream.

However, you decide to eat or prepare them....just remember that an apple a day keeps the doctor away.

Sweater Vest Obsession

Ok...so it's been almost one month since we went to Vegas, and I found an article of clothing that I just couldn't stop obsessing about. But, I just couldn't bring myself to pay for the price tag associated with it. Relatively speaking, it's not that expensive of an item when you think about buying a Louis V. or something like, but still, you've got to set boundaries and budgets for yourself.

For whatever reason, this sweater vest from Banana Republic, just caught my eye. Online it's shown only in gray...funny thing, you can only buy it in gray online too. More about that in a sec.

Credit: bananarepublic.com

Well the idea was to run my 5k, and get the vest as a little reward. So, I did run my 5k (in 32.23 minutes - yay!) but the vest was no where to be found. I visited several stores and they either didn't have any more of the brown or not in my size. So, I thought, I'll just buy it online. Nope. Not a chance. As I mentioned before, it is only offered in gray online. Why do that? To drive me crazy I guess.

Well finally, I was able to track one down in my size. I called, put it on hold, and guess what?

This is the best part...it was 40% off!

And the results...I can enjoy this fall with a wardrobe complete with sweater vest.

What Would Alaskans do?

I just want to share and pass along a little article from a friend who recently traveled to the great state of Alaska...food and nature is always good for the soul, so if you haven't had the chance to venture out this year, nourish from afar.

Article posted via online travel mag: gomadnomad.com, written by Michael Bugno

What Would Alaskans do?

5k countdown

So....we went to Vegas two weeks ago today, and I managed to run three times while on the west coast....which was quite nice in Seal Beach, CA. Great weather! But low and behold I woke up last Friday ready to travel back home with a nasty head cold. :-(

Running has not been on my to do list this week. Just resting. And now we are one week away! Yikes. So a little running this week, while at the beach, in some nice, humid, salty air, hopefully, will make the run next weekend seem not as difficult.

I can always walk some, and it is a "downhill" run after all.

7 days and counting!

Goodbye College Years...

Those were my thoughts a couple Sundays ago, when I was looking at my "Ruby" red 3-door saturn that I've had since my college days and gawking over the pearly white CT200h Lexus sitting next to it. Yes folks, that Sunday was a big day. I turned in the keys for my saturn, which served me well, and signed myself away for a 5 year loan on a new Lexus hybrid hatchback.

I have to admit...it was hard. I know it's just a car, but it's only the second car I've had in my entire life of driving; and I drove it for the past 10 years. And, the little red saturn was a very generous gift from my parents, which I'm so grateful for (both the Parents and Ruby).

Ruby, as she was named quite appropriately by my friend Angela, took me a lot of places and has filled me with a lot of memories......

Back and forth 180 miles (roundtrip) approximately every other weekend in college (go dawgs!) to either visit my parents or the Techie boyfriend (now husband)

Several parking tickets...Ruby was red. What can I say. She wasn't hard to miss.

My first solo vacation with a boy (now husband)

Road trips galore:
~Texas, New Orleans, Florida (this was all one trip)
~Montreal, CANADA! for Jazz Fest, which included stops in Hershey, PA; the Adirondacks; Montreal - of course; Toronto; Niagra Falls (both sides); and Ohio, where I saw the prettiest sunset I've ever seen, believe it or not, on Lake Erie.

~Florida several times more
~Cinncinatti, OH with Angela for Gena's 30th, which included repeat stops, coming and going, at McAlister's Deli for oversized, stuff-your-face, loaded baked potatoes

Singing and dancing in the car with girlfriends.

Riding around, just to listen and not miss the monumental sports cast when the dawgs beat the gators for the first time, in who knows how long.

My first real "moving" accident: being rear-ended by a Blazer with Juno ending up in the front seat with me. Luckily no injuries. (Side note and reference to the "moving" accident: the car before Ruby unfortunately had to experience the inexperienced driver's utmost assurance that she wouldn't hit the lawnmower in the garage; I never said depth of field was my forte.)

And so on....{sigh}

But, most importantly, I always got to where I was going.

109k miles strong, Ruby's waiting for new adventures. And new adventures await me with the CT200 Hybrid, which gets 43 City and 40 Highway. It actually charges the battery when you brake!

Luxury combined with being green. It doesn't get much better than that. And, I'm kind of a hippy at heart. I love planet earth.

So here's saying my goodbyes to Ruby and hello to [insert name] Lexus...we'll see how you hold up to her.

The "run" down

So this week was a good week for running with my new shoes! At least that's what I'm saying made the difference.

3rd Run. Tuesday, August 16th was successful! I made it all the way...full 3.1 miles. My goal was to just go the 5k path we've mapped out around our neighborhood and make it up the first big hill in the last mile. But, at 65 degrees F and low humidity (plus new running shoes), a little extra endurance seemed to be on my side. All in just 35 minutes. I was happy.

4th Run. Thursday, August 18th...can I say this?...Damn, I hate humidity. It was low 70's with a lot more humidity, and I was sweating like I just took a shower. I did make it all 3.1 miles again (yay!), but it was harder this morning. And, I really hate that last mile. Here's how it goes....first mile (for me anyways) always sucks. Just hate it. Going into the second mile, I start to feel good. That last third with 3 intense hills...h-a-t-e...i-t!!! Time. 40 minutes today. But, I felt good when it was over. (Of course!) No, but really, it feels like I accomplish something before the day gets going and that is rewarding.

Tomorrow...leg workout, and then off to Vegas baby! Something tells me working out in Sin City is going to be hard. But I will try to be good ;-) ...technically, I still need to get one more run in this week.

5k Race: 23 days and counting.