July = Busy

So how long has it been since I posted?  Forever.  We've been crazy busy this month with school, travel, and general everyday routine redesign.
Friday, July 2 - Nicholas' last day at his pre-school.  He's been there for three years and has made a lot of good friends.  Instead of the usual cupcake deal, he chose to bring popsicles.  It was water park day and pretty hot so it was a good choice.  Travis is still at the school so it's not like Nicholas will never be back to visit.
Monday, July 4 - All of the holiday traditions were served up.  Hot dogs, chips, and firecrackers.  We shoot them off in the driveway in an effort to annoy our Canadian neighbor.  Not really, I'm just kidding.  She doesn't care.  Plus she is our cat-sitter.
Tuesday, July 5 - Work from home, pack up the car.  I logged off as soon as I could so we can hit the road.  We made it Frederick, MD.  We've stopped there before so we knew a nice clean hotel to stay in.  Hampton Inn has always been a thumbs up with comfy beds and killer breakfast buffets.
Wednesday, July 6 - We arrive in Rome, NY finally.  (Why does Pennsylvania have to be such a pain?  It's just really in the way of where we need to go.)  We were too late to make it to a training run on the Boilermaker course.  But in time for a good Italian dinner and then settle in our hotel.  We found a new place to stay, no more race track or casino hotels.  This is a Wingate on the old Air Force base turned office park.  There was a snack shop with sodas and water that charges to the room.  We stopped there every day and night for provisions.
Thursday, July 7 - We made it over to visit Grandma Do and Grandpa Paul at their house.  The boys love running around in the yard and sitting on the tractor.  Grandpa Paul always has snacks and kool aid for the boys.  Then it was dinner time.  Grandpa Paul was about to turn 80!  We planned a party with his friends and family at a local restaurant.  And a delicious chocolate-chocolate cake.  He was so happy to have everyone there.  Travis really wanted to sing Happy Birthday in a microphone, it's all he talked about.  Nicholas made his piece of cake disappear in seconds.  That boy loves some chocolate.

Grandpa Paul, Nicholas, and Travis posing with the cake

Nicholas and Grandma Do

Travis giving Grandma Do a kiss (the Hershey kind : )

Friday, July 8 - We went to the Boilermaker Expo as soon as it opened to pick up my race packet.  It was held as usual at the Masonic Retirement Center.  The grounds are beautiful.  Nicholas and Travis got to see a real race car and Nicholas sat in the driver's seat.  Here's a pretty lotus flower in the pond.

Then we drove up to Cooperstown.  It's a beautiful drive and such a neat town.  We decided the boys were old enough to go into the Baseball Hall of Fame this year.  They had a blast seeing the memorabilia and learning about former players and major events in baseball history.

We have a photo at this statue from our last trip.  Maybe a tradition?

Look how high his leg is?  Travis is giving perspective.

One wiped out little boy on the way back from Cooperstown.

Saturday, July 9 - We drove to Oswego.  It was kind of a long ride through the country but we marked off another Fort and a great lake from our list.

Lake Ontario from the Oswego, NY, USA coast

Canons are awesome!

Walking under the ramparts (A little eerie when you think about the men who walked under there centuries ago.)

Obligatory photo in front of the sign

Sunday, July 10 - Up bright and early for the race.  Adrian dropped me off at his cousin Leslie's house at 6 am.  We parked at the finish and took the shuttle to the start.  David Patterson, Governor of NY, was there to cheer on the runners crossing the start line.  I don't think he saw me or anyone else (it was quite the joke during the race, 'wave to the Governor, everyone', 'he's here to see the runners').  He seemed like a nice guy though.  I made it through the race.  I was doing pretty well up to about mile 7.5.  I had a goal set out.  Finishing mile 9 I realized I needed to speed up.  More like "Oh sh*t, I need to get moving."  So I passed the girls in pink sports bras and tu-tus and hauled it to the finish line.  I made my goal with two seconds to spare.  Phew.  Then I made it to the Saranac truck for two summer ales.  Grabbed a lunch bag.  And chilled by the Utica Roadrunners tent with Leslie.   The race was good.  It didn't have the same spark as my first year.  I sort of felt alone in a sea of thousands (almost 12,000) running by myself just chugging along. 
I called Adrian to pick me up a couple of blocks away.  After a much needed shower we went to another lake.  We went to nearby Sylvan Beach on Oneida Lake.  His cousin Jamie and her husband Matt met us there for a late lunch, beach time, rides, and ice cream.

Travis loved playing in the water!

Nicholas decided getting water on his head wasn't all that bad.

Nicholas shooting Travis' tank

Nicholas shooting Travis' plane (are you sensing a theme?)

After we finished up, we met up with Grandma Do and Grandpa Paul for our last meal of the trip with them.  Somehow I was still awake after the race and trip to the lake.  We said our farewells and went back to our hotel.  We intended to drive the whole way back in one day the next day.

The boys passed out.  They were so tired from all the fun on our trip!

Stay tuned for the next installment where we will cover school and other events.

More Success

Did you really think I stopped at cupcakes?  Pssh...no, I kept going.
I found the Eatocracy blog on CNN.com and it's full of material on food, drinks, and a few chef interviews.  A contributor posted her dear grandmother's chocolate chip cookie recipe.  Very sweet.  I took down a copy of it.  Upon further analysis, it's the same as the one on the back of the Nestle bag.  Granny wasn't too original on that one but I'm sure she was a nice lady.
Last night when I was delaying dessert I checked V & Co's blog for some crafty idea or more evidence that Utah is nice in the summer.  She posted her chocolate chip cookie recipe with a secret ingredient.  She uses pudding mix!  I had only heard of that for cake.  Of course she recommended vanilla.  In my cabinet I had chocolate fudge and an unidentified flavor of pudding - the box was missing.  The males around here love chocolate a million times more than I do. 
I tried out this version of cookies.  Chocolate fudge cookie with milk chocolate chips and M&Ms.  The boys loved it.  The cookies aren't as dense which I think is because of the pudding mix.
It's not all about baked goods though.  I found a recipe through the Whole Foods weekly emails for a Kenyan dish with kale and tomatoes.  That didn't sound too complicated.  And maybe it's the secret to why they run so fast.  I got a little nervous about kale so I substituted spinach.  Then I happened to have mushrooms and zucchini already.  Throw it all together and let it simmer for a while.  As a side dish I cooked pearl cous cous.  They are bigger than regular cous cous.  And if you've ever had to clean up after a toddler who can't get all of it in his mouth, you'll appreciate the pearl size.  Adrian loved both dishes and the leftover mysteriously disappeared during the night.  Hmmm.... I guess I'll have to make them again soon.
As a side note, I had a really strong training run this morning.  I'd like to think it's from the Kenyan dish and the cupcakes and cookies I ate yesterday.  And probably nothing to do with the low humidity and temperatures under 75 degrees.  Right?

Kitchen Adventures

This one is for you Mom.
Starting about a month back, I daydreamed of a cupcake mobile.  I could park near busy downtown areas, office parks, and playgrounds and sell my goods to anyone with cash and a sweet tooth.  Cupcakes are very trendy right now.  I watched a few episodes of Cupcake Wars on FoodNetwork.  Those people can bake their tails off.  They just come up with recipes on a whim and totally amaze the judges - most of the time.  So I gave it a shot a couple weeks ago.  I made pink lemonade cupcakes.  The cake wasn't quite moist enough.  The icing was sickeningly sweet.  I had to scrape 2/3 of the icing to make them palatable.  Luckily I only made mini-cupcakes.  The ratio worked out.  My co-workers seemed to like them all right.
I spent some time surfing the web looking at different recipes and reading some blogs, making notes.
I was inspired by this new concept - cupcakes with filling.  No, not like ding dongs or twinkies.  More sophisticated like.  There were two methods out there for inserting filling.  One, use an apple corer and remove a bit of cake, then insert filling.  Two, use an implement like a pastry bag attachment or ketchup bottle to inject filling.  I found a well rated recipe for raspberry filling.  It called for shortening, powdered sugar and real raspberries.  You can't go wrong with shortening.  Then I found a standard cream cheese icing recipe from another site.  I personally love bagels with cream cheese and raspberry jam - the perfect combo, in my opinion.  Since I was going to be making filling and icing from scratch I allowed the use of a box cake mix.  I made the cupcakes easy enough.  Then I made the filling.  The shortening with powdered sugar and fresh raspberries didn't really blend.  It looked kind of separated but it tasted really yummy.  Good thing it's filling and not readily visible.  I filled a squirty bottle and went to work.  It was hard to tell how much was going into the cupcake.  Time to make the icing.  I totally should have paid attention to how many cupcakes it was for.  Oops.  We now have a ton of cream cheese frosting in the freezer for future use.  : )
Adrian was the first to taste the raspberry cupcakes.  He made a face that I immediately thought was a bad sign.  Then he said it might have been the best cupcake he ever ate and requested a second one right away.  Phew!  After cleaning up I sat down to eat one too.  Wow, it really was awesome.  Of course this meant I couldn't take the entire lot to work.  We had to selfishly keep some.
I presented them to my co-workers.  You know how people just say, "those were good" and they're being polite or just generally pleased with it.  These got rave reviews repeatedly. (I heart alliteration)  "They are so moist" (I attribute this to the shortening from the filling soaking in to the cake)  "I don't normally like icing, but this so good!"  (That would be the ridiculous amounts of butter and cream cheese)  People want more, soon.  It was suggested that a challenge another girl at work who is a great chef.  They think we should have a bake off on alternating days.  Oh boy, that might be a little much.  I wonder what other combination of flavors I can create.
Oh, and I also had my merit review today.  Apparently I am awesome at my real job too!  I will be getting a few more bucks to pay for more baking supplies.  : )