Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Sports Nutrition

I have got to start eating better. I totally bonked on my run tonight. I was suppose to run 7 miles at 9 minute pace. I think my first mistake was that I enjoyed one last day of sleeping in this morning before school starts for the kids tomorrow and didn't get my run in in the morning. After that, it was go go go with the kids all day long. Both kids got their nails done, hair cut, one got her ears pierced (again), and the other HAD to have new make up for school tomorrow.

I had a piece of cinnamon apple bread and coffee at 10 am and two loaded grillers from Taco Bell at 2:30 pm. I ran through the grocery store then we all came home at 4:30 pm. By then, I was wiped out and had to rest for an hour before taking my older daughter back to the school to pick up cheer uniforms. The plan was to get her uniforms then go for my run. Well, it took OVER TWO FREAKIN' HOURS for her to get her uniforms. I sat in my car the whole time, totally fuming.

I thought about blowing off my run but I don't have another day to do it this week so I went out after 8 pm to try and do it. So...

Mile 1 - 8:51
Mile 2 - 8:54
Mile 3 - 8:51
Mile 4 - 8:55

then I totally bonked...

Mile 5 - 10:31
Mile 6 - 10:18
Mile 7 - 9:58

average pace - 9:28

I am suppose to eat 10 grams of protein and 40 grams of carbs within an hour of exercising when I exercise over an hour. It is SO hard for me to choke down the protein. I usually eat a container of Greek yogurt. Last week, when I did my 14 miler at 10 pm, the only thing I could find in the house was a grilled chicken breast. That was not fun. Tonight, it took me half an hour to get the yogurt down.

I also am positive I am bonking on my paced runs because I'm not fueling correctly before I run. Last night, I had to attend a mandatory fall athlete-parent meeting at the high school. At the end of the program, they had a woman named Dawn Weatherwax who is a sports nutritionist give a talk about sports nutrition. I think I got more out of her talk than anything else. I am seriously thinking about contacting her for a nutrition plan.

In any case, I have GOT to eat better... and sleep more!

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

I'm Glad She Didn't Sneeze

Aztec Meringue Cake


This is the cake I entered in the "Other Layer Cake" category at the Fair. It's two layers of Kahlua soaked chocolate cake and two layers of pecan coffee meringue held together by chocolate buttercream and finished with coffee buttercream. I stenciled the top with cocoa powder and cinnamon. By the time I got to the cinnamon, I needed a third hand to hold my stencil so I could tap my strainer full of cinnamon with both hands while keeping the stencil from sliding all over the cocoa powder I had just put down. I enlisted my younger daughter to help. All was good until I peered over at her through a cloud of cinnamon dust and saw her start to wrinkle her nose. Arghh! She was going to sneeze and couldn't move because she was holding my stencil. I made 3-4 more quick taps of the strainer and whisked the cake away. She moved her head out of the cinnamon dust ... and didn't sneeze. Whew! I decided then and there that stenciling cake tops is WAY to stressful.



German Chocolate Cake
This cake, I ended up icing in my basement on top of my washer. Once again, the kitchen was so hot that all the buttercream just turned to liquid before I could get even a quarter of the icing piped. I finally resorted to the basement!
I am attempting a "three-peat" this year. I have won the Cake Sweepstakes at the State Fair the last two years. The Sweeps is given to the overall cake at the fair. They take all the first place winners from the different cake categories and pick the Sweeps. These are the only two cakes I have in the running this year. I think the filling on my German Chocolate might be too thick and the Aztec Cake is a bit "out there" with the meringue layers so I'm not getting my hopes up. There are some people who bring 10+ cakes every year. I think one lady last year brought 23! Winning the Sweeps two years in a row was almost unheard of so I'd be pleasantly shocked if I got it again.
Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes

I had a really hard time picking out a cupcake recipe to make. So many intriguing choices! I was all set to make the Reese's Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting that Isabelle had posted here when my family talked me out of it. I REALLY think they talked me out of making those cupcakes because they wanted to eat the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups I had already purchased!

These cupcakes have a coconut pecan filling inside of them and coconut buttercream icing on top. I have taste tested half a pan already. (Somebody stop me!)

Honey Applesauce Cake

This is the cake for the "Honey Applesauce" cake category under the "Honey Cake" division which is separate from the regular cake division. More then 51% of the sweetener in the cake has to be from honey. The frosting has to have honey in it too. I made a "regular" confectioners' sugar based frosting. The funny thing about this cake was how "hard" it was for me to frost it! I generally use buttercreams or glazes and do fancy things to finish my cakes. I can't remember the last time I used a regular frosting to frost a cake. I got totally stressed trying to make the "random swirls" in the frosting look just right. I think I needed a few drinks before frosting this.

I decided not to make a fourth cake. I went to bed at a reasonable time last night and got all the cakes to the Fairgrounds by 2:30 pm today - well before the 4 pm cut off. Of course, driving home, my brain started running through all my options for Gold Medal and Ghirardelli and popcorn and all the other upcoming contests!

Tagged and ready to go!



What's your favorite cupcake?

Ever been to a fancy cupcake store? I haven't but I just saw that a new one opened up on SR135.



Sunday, July 28, 2013

Honey Pecan Bars and Pecan Pie Cookies

What a beautiful day! Today is truly a rest day for me. I deep cleaned my kitchen yesterday after turning my fair entries in. I even used the granite polish on my countertops and steam mopped my wood floors. There was NOTHING on my countertops or kitchen table. Then I had a cup of coffee and went to bed.

The weather is perfect today. It almost feels like early fall. I spent the morning reading on my upper deck then went for a short 3 mile run. So this is how my running went last week:

Sunday: rest
Monday: rest (suppose to cross-train but it didn't happen)
Tuesday: 7 miles
Wednesday: 14 miles
Thursday: 3 miles
Friday: 7 miles
Saturday: 3 miles

34 miles total, my longest week yet. This week will be less mileage as every 3rd week in the training cycle is a lower mileage week. I'm looking forward to it.

So here is my Honey Pecan Bar recipe.

It's one of my favorites. I use it for the Honey category where 51% or more of the sweetener in your recipe has to be from honey.

Crust
2 cups flour
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) butter

Filling
1 cup honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons heavy cream
3 cups coarsely chopped pecans

First, line a 13 X 9 pan with parchment. This makes it way easy to lift your cookies out of the pan later.

I buy pre-cut 16 X 12 sheets of parchment paper from www.webstaurantstore.com . They charge $4.49 for a package of 100. This is WAY cheaper than anything I've found elsewhere and pre-cut parchment makes my life so much easier.

Next, put all your crust ingredients in a food processor...


and process until fine and crumbly.


Pour it all out into your 13 X 9 pan and press into place, raising the edges up slightly.


Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

In the meanwhile, put your honey and brown sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Let it simmer for 3 minutes, add your butter and cream, and simmer for 2 more minutes.


Remove from heat and stir in the pecans. Once the crust is baked, remove from oven and lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees. Pour your filling into the crust and bake for 20 more minutes.




Cool, lift cookies out of your pan and cut into bars.



I liked this recipe so much that I wanted to enter it in the Nut Cookie category at the State Fair. Our County Fair has a stipulation that you cannot enter the same recipe in more than one category. I couldn't find any such rule in the State Fair but I didn't want to take any chances so I changed the recipe slightly and created

Pecan Pie Cookies
Pecan shortbread layer
3 cups flour
1 cup pecans
3 sticks of butter
Pecan pie layer
1 cup honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons heavy cream
3 cups coarsely chopped pecans
As you can see, the filling is exactly the same. I don't have "how to" photos since I created this on the fly during my crazy day on Friday.
For the shortbread, process the pecans and flour together until pecans are fine. You don't want to process the pecans alone because the oils in the pecans will make the pecan meal clump together. Add your butter and process until a dough forms.
Press the dough into a 12-serving whoopee pie pan or similar. You will only use half the dough at a time if you are using a 12 hole whoopee pie pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.
Make the pecan pie layer just like you made the filling for the first recipe and spoon it over the pecan shortbread layer. Lower oven temperature to 325 degrees and bake for 15 more minutes. Do not under bake these cookies. The edges need to be golden brown or else they will be too soft to pick up. Cool completely, then remove from pan.


If you like pecans or pecan pie, you will like these cookies. Enjoy!

I suppose today is the calm before the storm. Tomorrow will be cake day. I have 4 cakes and 6 of the same cupcake I need to turn in by 4 pm on Tuesday for the State Fair so the baking madness will resume in the morning.

How was your weekend?


Saturday, July 27, 2013

Crunch Time

So this is what I had for breakfast this morning...

Very well-done Cinnamon Apple Pull-Apart Bread

I had a looong day yesterday. I ran 7 miles on the Monon Trail while my daughter danced. I LOVE running on the Monon! It's beautiful plus it's shady and paved and no cars. It was a great run. I even made a quick grocery trip afterwards before picking up my daughter. Then it was back to baking.

My house was just crazy yesterday. My husband was working from home and took over my kitchen table for most of the afternoon. Both girls were back to school clothes shopping online and kept wanting me to look at stuff. I FINALLY had some time to myself after supper.

So... the Cinnamon Apple bread was the last thing I made last night. Everything was going well until there was 15 minutes left on the timer. Then, I decided to lay down on the couch and relax a little until the oven timer went off... and I totally slept through the timer! I have never slept through any kind of alarm before. I guess I was really tired. Anyway, I woke up some time later wondering why the timer hadn't beeped, walked into the kitchen, then stared at the oven in horror when I realized the timer had already gone off. I was sick. Then I went to bed. It was 1 am.

For some odd reason I popped out of bed at 6:15 am today. I made my bread again.

Much better!


Then I remade the Honey Pecan Bars. Baked my sugar cookies to decorate and made Brickle Blondies as my dairy cookie. I also tried to remake my Honey Oatmeal bread because the top of the one I made yesterday was misshapen. For some reason though, the bread wouldn't rise a second time in the pan. I finally gave up on it because I just didn't have time to mess with it and took the misshapen loaf. I also remade my caramel corn.

New rule in my house: if any of the children need my help for a fair project or ANY project, they have to ask me to do it a week before it's due. In the middle of all my baking madness today I had to run to Walgreens to pick up the photos my younger daughter wanted to enter in the fair then run to Hobby Lobby for the mat board I had to cut. All the entries were due by 4 pm. It takes an hour to drive to the State Fairgrounds. I decided I was leaving the house at 2 pm today with whatever was done. So, at 1:30 pm, I am cutting mat boards and dry mounting photos for my daughter. I've got caramel corn cooling all over my counter. I have raw honey oatmeal bread dough still sitting in my bread proofer. I have a tray of Brickle cookies sitting on top of the proofer because I've run out of flat surfaces in my kitchen. There are old newspapers covering my entire kitchen table because I couldn't locate my cutting mat for my mat cutter, then I had to spray dry mount adhesive over everything. Oh, and I still have to type my Brickle cookie recipe since that was the dairy recipe I picked last minute. Forget about decorating my cookies! I decided that one wasn't going to get done. Essentially my kitchen looked pretty trashed. I pulled out of the driveway at 2:15 pm with Brickle cookies still cooling in the back of my car.

We got to the fairgrounds at 3:15 pm and it was anarchy at the Culinary Arts check in. I left my daughter in line and checked in our Photos and her Art, then went back to Culinary Arts and found that the line hadn't moved at all. We finally got out of there at 3:50 and the Culinary Arts check in line was still going up the stairs out of the building when we left.

I got 8 out of 9 items to the fair today. Not too bad. One year I had to leave an entire cake that I'd been working on for 2 days at home because I ran out of time for the final layer of icing. I ran into several people I know that compete every year still standing in line behind me when I left so at least I'm not the only one that is totally crazy on check-in day. I'm looking forward to reuniting with my kindred spirits at the fair on the 2nd!


Thursday, July 25, 2013

Just Not Feelin' It

I started baking for the State Fair today and I'm just not feelin' it...

Almost everything I'm baking, I've made before. These are suppose to be my tried and true favorites and, for some reason, nothing is turning out the way I want. Here was today's line up:

Caramel Corn - I think the caramel tastes overcooked
Coconut Pistachio Biscotti - This one may be OK
Honey Pecan Bars - Not gooey enough
Pecan Pie Cookies - I just made this up tonight. It's a variation of the Honey Pecan Bars.
                                 I think the base is too thick.
Decorated Cookies - I've got the cookie dough chilling and I can't find my cookie cutters!
                                  I bought cookie cutters from the King Arthur Flour catalog just for this
                                 purpose and now I can't find them! I've ripped my kitchen apart...
Dairy Cookie - I still need a recipe. The one I thought I was going to use tastes awful.

I've called it a night and will look at everything again tomorrow. Tomorrow's line up:

Loaded Potato Rolls - They won King Arthur Flour yeast roll contest last year, was 2nd in the
                                   "Other shaped dinner rolls" category at the State Fair last year, and won
                                    yeast bread Class Champion at the County Fair this year.
Honey Oatmeal Bread - This has won 1st at the State Fair as well as 1st at the County Fair
                                       several times.
Cinnamon Apple Pull-Apart Bread - This was 1st at the County Fair in the "Other bread"
                                     category; I'm entering it in the Sugar'n Spice Bakeoff for the State
                                     Fair - it's a sweet bread contest.
Then I have to make my decorated cookies and my dairy cookie. The dairy cookie category is any cookie that has at least 2 dairy ingredients in it.

I'm hoping everything will go smoothly tomorrow as each bread takes about 3 hours to make, counting the rise times. If things are going OK, I may try to remake some of my stuff from today.

I am just VERY TIRED right now. My younger daughter is at a dance workshop again this week. This week, it's just from 9 am - noon. It's in Carmel. Since it's an hour drive each way, I'm just staying there while she dances. Today, I ran 3 miles on the Monon Trail then showered at my mom's house. My legs are DEAD again. I ran 14 miles last night - got done at 10 pm. I ran 7 the day before, squeezing it in between coming back from Carmel, taking the dog to the vet, and my older daughter's high school registration. I felt OK last night but my legs just felt like wood today. Tomorrow I'm planning to run 7 miles on the Monon Trail. Might as well get my run in while I wait on my daughter, besides, I might not get my run in otherwise!

OK, I think I'm actually going to go to bed before midnight tonight. Hope I'm feelin' it more tomorrow.

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Johnson County Fair Week in Review

Today was the last day of the Johnson County Fair. I had to work all day so my daughter and I actually went yesterday to look at everything one last time. I like to spend time looking at all the exhibits to get ideas on all the stuff I'd like to learn how to do... someday.

I'll have to admit I spent a lot less time out at the fairgrounds this year than in years past. It might be that the kids are just getting older and are not as interested or I might just be too busy this year. So this is how the judging went...  I compete Open Class which means they give out one first, one second, and one third place award for each category so not everyone gets a ribbon like the 4H kids do. The judges also have the option of not awarding a first if your item is not up to snuff so you can't win simply by default if you have the only item in the category. This suits my Type A competitive personality to a T. I don't like "contests" where everybody wins a prize because it's really not a contest then. If everybody wins, you don't really "win" unless you get an overall award. Just my 2 cents. The other thing to remember is that this is a subjective contest. It's a judges opinion based on certain criteria. The more you compete, the more you understand what the judges "like" which may differ from your own tastes. OK, here's what I got:

Smith Island Cake - 2nd, I don't have the judging sheet yet but I'm sure they felt there wasn't
                                         enough "cake"
Looked pretty though!

Brownies - 2nd
Drop cookies: Pineapple Iced Coconut Macadamia - 1st
Fancy cookies: Pistachio Thins - 1st
Chocolate chip cookies - 1st
Molasses cookies - 1st
Other quick bread: Cheddar Bacon Chive Scones - 1st, Quick Breads Class Champion
Fancy dinner rolls: Loaded Potato Rolls - 1st, Yeast Breads Class Champion
Other yeast bread: Cinnamon Apple Pull-Apart Bread - 1st
Fruit pie: Blueberry Crumble - 2nd
Peanut Butter Fudge - 3rd
Caramel Corn - 1st
Microwave candy: 2-Layer Fudge - 1st
Honey Cookies: Honey Pecan Bars - 1st, Honey Class Champion
Honey yeast bread: Honey Oatmeal Bread - 1st
Heart Healthy cookies: Oatmeal Raisin Breakfast cookies - 2nd
Box Mix cookies: Spicy Hot Chocolate cookies - no placing

So, 18 baked items, 12 First places with 3 Class Champions, 4 Seconds, and 1 Third. There are 12 different Classes of baked goods and I had items spread across 10 of them. Each Class has one Champion selected from all the First place category winners. The Reserve Grand Champion and Grand Champion are then selected from the 12 Class Champions. Two years ago was my best showing ever when I won 6 Class Champions and the Grand Champion.

I also showed 2 photos and got a First in the Holiday Themes category and a Second in the Portrait category. I'm showing these same photos at the State Fair. I also showed a scrapbook that won First in the scrapbook category.

I get to prep all over again next week for the State Fair. My week should be a little more sane though because the due dates for my baked items are spread out more. I "only" have to bring 9 items to the Fair by next Saturday - as opposed to the 18 I brought last weekend!

I'm going to try to post more of my fair recipes this coming week.

It finally rained today! I had to run outside last night because the fitness center closes early on Friday nights. I did 3 miles in the sweltering heat at 8:30 pm - and my legs were DEAD from the previous 2 days. I did another 6 at 8:45 tonight after work and it was a very pleasant 75 degrees outside.

Total miles this week: 31 - still on track! I SO did not feel like running tonight but I'm glad I did.


Thursday, July 18, 2013

Caramel Corn


So this was the temperature at 8 pm last night when I decided I couldn't put off my tempo run any longer. Call me a weinie, but I ran inside. Plan was to run 6 miles at 9 minute pace. My Garmin cannot pace indoors but only functions as a stopwatch. It's 7 laps for a mile and I can't do complicated math while I run so I decided to try to run each lap in 1:15 which put me at 8:45 pace. I did well for about 4.5 miles, then I could feel that I was no longer running aerobically. I made it to 5 miles then slowed it down for a warmdown. I ended up doing the last mile in 10:15 so I ended up running for 54 minutes anyway.


This was the temperature today after I did my 13 mile run this evening. Yup, did that inside too. I figured I'm training for a November race and it's not going to be 90 in November. I think taking a week off last week actually helped because my legs felt pretty good today, even after the tempo run last night and a full day of work today. Today was an easy pace. Ended up running 13 in 2:19, counting my Gatorade break after 7 miles. And yes, I often drive over a 100 miles a day.

Now onto my Caramel Corn

This is the caramel corn I give out to all my family and co-workers at Christmas. It took first place at the Indiana State Fair last year and first place at the Johnson County fair this year.

Ingredients
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
2 sticks of butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 bags of popped microwave popcorn

Directions
Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

On stove top in a heavy saucepan, melt butter, corn syrup, and brown sugar together. Bring it to a rolling boil at 250 degrees on a candy thermometer for 5 minutes before removing from heat.


Rolling Boil

Put your popcorn in a large container for stirring. I use a canning pot. Add vanilla, salt, and baking soda to sugar mixture and stir. Be careful. The hot sugar mixture will foam up.

Use a deep pan; it foams a lot!


Pour hot sugar mixture over popcorn and stir until well coated.

Make sure you use a BIG container; it's really hot and really sticky


Pour into roasting pan and bake for 30 minutes.

This what it looks like after 30 minutes

Stir popcorn, then return to oven and bake for 30 more minutes.

Stir well!

Remove from oven and pour out on wax paper. Use a wooden spoon, then your fingers to separate all the popcorn pieces so you don't end up with big clumps and each piece is well coated with caramel. This caramel corn is VERY buttery; your fingers will get VERY buttery.



 Store in airtight container after completely cooled.

ENJOY!!





Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Raspberry Wrap Up

This is a fact: the week of the Johnson County Fair is ALWAYS the hottest week of the year! I think it's like 100 degrees outside right now!

Despite all my good intentions, I did not make it to bed at a reasonable hour on Monday night. Frosting my cake with buttercream icing proved to be problematic, even in my air conditioned house. The kitchen was hot because I'd been baking all day. I got the cookies finished without a problem. I had visions of doing a basketweave finish on the cake. One of the things I've learned from years of competition is that presentation really matters. You want your product to really WOW the judges before they even taste it. Judges like pretty food. I got out all my cake decorating tools and got ready to ice the cake... and my buttercream proceeded to melt faster than I could ice the cake. I gave up the basketweave idea right away. Then I had to keep putting the cake and icing back in the refrigerator every time the icing got too runny. All I wanted at this point was pretty swirls at the bottom and top of the cake. It took me until 2 am to accomplish that.

So here's the cake...
Raspberry White Chocolate Buttercream Torte

I refrigerated it overnight and then took it to the fair in a cooler. I cannot tell you how many years I've had icing slide off my cake or simply melt into oblivion while transporting it to the fair! I would even drive my car around the block with the AC on full blast until it was ice cold inside and the icing would still melt. I finally figured out I needed to put it in a large cooler so get it there in one piece.

I created the cake recipe for this contest. It's a white cake and I put raspberry jello in it for the raspberry product that was baked in. I spread raspberry preserves on top, then put cut raspberries and buttercream icing between the layers and prayed it all tasted good together since I've never made it before.
cake after it had been judged

So here's how the judging worked. Everyone was awarded either a first, second, or third based on the merit of the product - so everyone gets a ribbon in this contest. Then, the judges keep all the first place winners and select 6 Honorable Mentions, a Reserve Champion, and Champion in each of the 4 categories. They then pick the overall Grand Champion from the 4 Champions.

My cake placed first in the Miscellaneous category, then got a Honorable Mention.

Here are my cookies...
Raspberry Linzer Cookies

They placed first, then got a Honorable Mention.

I used a linzer cookie recipe I've made lots of times before but added a teaspoon of raspberry preserves to the cookie ingredients to comply with the rules, then sandwiched the baked cookies with raspberry preserves. I had second thoughts about my cookie choice in the middle of the night because I worried there wasn't enough raspberry flavor in the cookies. In this contest, the judges really want to be able to taste the theme flavor right away. I worried there was too much cookie and not enough raspberry. I guess it was good enough for an Honorable Mention though! Another thing the judges look for is that they want all your cookies to look exactly the same - same size, same thickness, same brownness, etc. - I knew I had that point nailed with these cookies so maybe that made up for the "lack" of "in your face raspberry flavor!"

My muffins also placed first, then got an Honorable Mention. I was pretty happy with these. I actually made two batches. I made the first batch in a new nonstick muffin pan. They came out tasting great but the bottom and sides were really brown. I personally like them this way but the judges feel they are overbaked when they are brown on the bottom. I got out my old muffin pan that isn't quite as dark and remade them, then picked out the 6 that looked like twinsies, or I guess sextuplets, turned them all over to make sure the bottoms matched, then turned them in.

My pie got a second. The bottom crust was a bit soggy. I used a brand new pie crust recipe and a raspberry pie filling recipe that I had never made before so I guess I can't be too upset. I usually bake all my pies for an hour. This recipe called for only 40 minutes of baking time. Since I had never made a raspberry pie before, I followed the directions and ended up with a soggy crust. That's one of the risks of not practicing a recipe before you enter it in a contest. I just didn't have time to practice this one this year.

Overall though, I had a pretty good day...



I brought my kids and their friends to the fair. They went to the Midway and absolutely roasted. I found them in a puddle inside the doors to the Extension Office when I got done. We walked around some more until their ride bracelets expired at 5pm, then went out to eat on the way home. I just collapsed into bed when we got home. Next thing I knew, it was 10 pm. I didn't get my run in in the morning so I didn't get a run in at all. I'm switching my schedule around and will try to do my tempo run tonight. I might be doing it indoors if it doesn't cool down this evening. That puts me doing my 13 miler after work tomorrow.

How is everyone else dealing with the heat?

Any "cool" ideas?

Monday, July 15, 2013

15 Minutes

15 minutes. I was 15 minutes from sliding out of work EARLY last night. I was scheduled to work until 11 pm but the night shift doc comes in at 10:30 pm so I can leave when I finish up my patients. So, 10:15 pm and I've got almost everyone wrapped up. Yippee!! Then... we had a major car accident come thru the door. A semi-truck rear-ended a sedan and the back bumper of the sedan ended up in the front seat. I couldn't exactly tell those people that were in the sedan to wait 15 minutes. Arghhh... I finally left work at 1:15 am. Then, I couldn't get on the highway to come home because the semi had spilled gasoline all over the highway where it runs through Bloomington so all the on ramps were closed and I ended up having to detour through the north end of town. Needless to say, I just went to bed when I got home.

I slept in until 9:30 am. My daughter and I ran to the fair around noon to see how we'd done - I'll post full details later - then I came home and started baking.

This is what is done so far...
Raspberry Pie - that's the first lattice top I've ever made
Raspberry Muffins - I just have to choose 6 that look alike

I still have to ice my cake and make my cookies. Hopefully I'll get to bed at a decent time tonight. I'm planning to do a 6 mile tempo run in the morning before I go to the fair. I got a 30 minute exercise bike workout in tonight for my cross-training day.

The fair has free parking from 11:30 am - 12:30 pm all week and there's no entry fee. I'll be at the Raspberry Bakeoff in the Extension Office from noon to whenever it ends so come see me if you're at the fair tomorrow!


Sunday, July 14, 2013

Raspberries on the Brain


Raspberries are on sale at Meijer this week, 10 for $10. Raspberry preserves are on sale too, 2 for $5. That's a good thing because the theme of this year's bake off at the Johnson County Fair is Raspberries. You have to have a raspberry product - ANY raspberry product counts - in the baked portion of your item. There are four categories: cookies, pies, breads (includes muffins), and miscellaneous.

So here's the plan...
Cookies: Raspberry Linzer Cookies
Pies: Raspberry Pie
Breads: Raspberry Muffins
Misc.: Raspberry White Chocolate Buttercream Torte

I'm going to try and make my pie dough before I go to work today and maybe make my cake layers when I get home from work (if I get home before 1 am).

Total running miles for last week: BIG FAT 0

I did a 3 mile run this morning. It's weird. My legs don't hurt when I run... only all the other times!

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Done!


Well, so much for trying to blog and bake at the same time! I had visions of giving a day by day account of baking for the fair but that proved to be impossible. I barely had time to sleep much less touch a computer. Plus, driving my daughter to her dance intensive really messed up my timing this year since I spent 2 hours twice a day driving back and forth from Carmel.

I didn't get everything I wanted to get done but I decided to stop when I got too tired and decided I wasn't having fun anymore. I think I was just too tired this year and my feet are just killing me. I haven't run all week so I don't know why my legs hurt so much.

So here's the recap...

Wednesday
- Made caramel corn. I actually took photos so the recipe will be coming soon. It was downhill from there!
- Made peanut butter fudge. I scorched it.
- Made 2-layer fudge. I think it's OK.
- Made chocolate fudge. I cooled it too fast and it was too grainy.
- Made peanut butter fudge again.
- Went to work and fed my co-workers peanut butter fudge #1 and chocolate fudge.

Thursday
- Got up at 6 am and made Honey Pecan Bars.
- Left at 7:45 am to take my daughter to her dance intensive.
- 10 am. Home again.
- Made chocolate chip cookie dough. Put in refrigerator.
- Bake brownies.
- Made molasses cookie dough. Put in refrigerator.
- Bake chocolate chip cookies.
- Made coconut macadamia cookie dough. Put in refrigerator.
- Bake molasses cookies.
- Bake coconut macadamia cookies.
- 3 pm, leave to pick up my daughter. Back at 5 pm.
- Get more groceries and have dinner.
- Make honey oatmeal bread dough; let it rise.
- Cook 2 lbs of bacon and chop.
- Bake honey oatmeal bread.
- Bake 8 thin layers of cake. I'm making a Smith Island Cake. 
- It's after 2 am, time for bed!

Friday
- Got up at 6 am and spent the next hour trying to get my daughter to wake up. It's the last day of her dance intensive and she's been dancing from 9 am - 4 pm every day. She was impossible to wake up! Didn't get any early morning baking done.
- 10 am. Home from Carmel.
- Make blueberry pie.
- Make loaded potato roll dough; let it rise.
- Make cake filling and fill and crumb coat cake. Put in refrigerator.
- Bake loaded potato rolls.
- Time for a quick shower, then my in-laws arrive. My daughter has a small showcase at the end of her intensive today.
- 3 pm, leave for Carmel.
- 6 pm, back from picking my daughter up and watching her showcase.
- My daughter is making an apple pie for the fair so it was her turn in the kitchen. I attempted to take a nap. I never got to sleep but I did get my feet up.
- Made dough for tomato basil garlic bread; let it rise
- Made cheddar bacon chive scones.
- Bake tomato basil garlic bread.
- Made dough for cinnamon apple pull-apart bread; let it rise.
- Make and glaze Smith Island cake.
- Bake cinnamon apple pull-apart bread.
- Make spicy hot chocolate cookies.
- Make oatmeal raisin breakfast cookies.
- My daughter is also entering two drawings in the fair and of course she didn't get them done until tonight either. She left these for me to frame. The first picture fit a standard frame. The second picture was on 12" x 12" paper! I ended up cutting a custom mat for a 16" x 20" frame. I guess one of the advantages of being a craft-a-holic is that I own a mat cutter and just happen to have various colors of mat board laying around... so here I am custom framing a picture at 3:30 in the morning.
- 4 am, I am DONE for the night.

Saturday (hey, that's today!)
- 6 am, up again because I decided to make one more thing.
- Made pistachio cookies and typed the recipe.

One of the advantages of doing the fair year after year is that I use a lot of the same recipes. I keep all my typed recipes in a file on my computer so all I have to do is print them. You have to turn the recipe in with all your entries. The pistachio cookies were a new recipe so I had to type it.

- 10 am. Time to load the car and get to the fairgrounds! Entries were due by 11 am today.

I never re-made the chocolate fudge. I was going to make some caramel candies, a honey cake, cupcakes, another box mix item, a quick bread, and 2 other cookies but I just didn't have time. Taking time to drive a total of 4+ hours a day really took a chunk out of my baking time. I got 18 items done so that's good enough for me! All my breads came out darker than what I think the judges like but I turned them in anyway. I think they will either love or hate the Smith Island cake. It looks really cool but the layers are so thin I don't know how much cake they'll actually get to taste.

I  have to work tomorrow so I won't get to find out how I did until Monday. I have Monday off to bake my items for the Raspberry Contest on Tuesday. I only have to make 4 items so I should have time to make a quick run to the fairgrounds to check on my entries.

Anyone else going to the Johnson County Fair this week?

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

T-Minus 5 Days

It's 5 more days until County Fair entries are due... and my standup freezer decided to crap out on me on Sunday. We got back from Louisville and I went to get something out of the freezer when I found water all over the pantry floor and everything in the freezer thawed out. I spent the rest of the night tossing food out and cleaning up the water. Freezer is empty now and I'm not going to deal with it until next week!

I picked up my exhibitor cards and entry tags from the Extension office today. It's SO much easier to do them at home before you get to the fair grounds. I also did the bulk of my grocery shopping and tried planning out the baking schedule. Here's the plan...

Wednesday
Make all my candy and start making cookie dough before going to work.

Thursday
Bake my cookies. Start quick breads.

Friday
Make my pies and yeast breads.

I'm going to try to get the kitchen cleaned and prepped tonight if I get home before 1 am. It's still a disaster right now because I had to pull most of my stuff out of the pantry to clean the freezer mess.

See everyone tomorrow!

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Week 3 ... actually turned out OK

Early on, I had a feeling this week might be a disaster. My left leg has been killing me. The whole leg hurts so bad I can't sleep. I thought I was just sore on Saturday but after resting it on Sunday it felt worse. Plus, I had to work Tuesday thru Friday. I know lots of people have regular jobs where they have to go to work 5 days a week but I get whiney when I have to work more than 3 days in a row. So... according to my training schedule, Monday was supposed to be a 6 mile paced run in preparation for my 8 mile "long" run on Tuesday. The weather has cooled significantly this week so I went outside. Goal was to run about 9 minute pace.

Mile 1 - 8:50
Mile 2 - 8:54
Mile 3 - 8:53
Mile 4 - 8:51

Mile 4 is always the toughest mile on my course because it starts uphill, plateaus for a little bit, then goes uphill again so you start and finish on an uphill. I was really tired and psyched out about it and pushed pretty hard. So I hit pace for mile 4, then I let myself go on the downhill and all of a sudden I just felt BAD all over - like I was sinking into the ground and I just wanted to lay down right then and there. Plus I was sweating but now I had a cold sweat. I ended up just stopping, then doing a walk/jog thing back home for a total of 5 miles.

Tuesday, I was going to run before work but couldn't get out of bed. After work, there were thunderstorms so I was going to go to the fitness center. My husband had car trouble though so I had to help him first, then it was after 8:30 pm and I didn't think I could comfortably get 8 miles in with my warm up and warm down at the fitness center before they closed at 10 pm. I was driving back home to give up for the night and try to re-figure my running schedule so I'd have another pace run in before I tried the long run when it stopped raining. I pulled into the old West Grove school where there is a running trail and decided to just do my run there. It ended up a glorious night for a run! The weather was cool. As the sun set, mist rose up from the ground. I felt good and felt like I could run forever. The only problem was that when it got dark, there are no lights where the trail goes into the woods and the footing was a little dicey since there was standing water and mud from the rains. I ended up running 10 miles and got done at 10:30 pm. After that, my week got better. I am loving this cool weather.

This is how the week turned out:
Sunday - rest
Monday - 5 miles
Tuesday - 10 miles
Wednesday - cross train: walked 3 miles (5K course for race next day)
Thursday - 5 miles: 5K + 2 mile cool down
Friday - 3 miles
Saturday - 5 miles

28 miles for the week.

My leg is still killing me but I've been getting home from work after midnight the last couple nights and just collapsing into bed so getting to sleep hasn't been a problem. I'm taking tomorrow off and seeing the chiropractor on Monday. Next week is my "wiggle week." I have to bake all my county fair stuff, plus work 3 days and drive my daughter to her dance intensive all week so I am just going to run when I can.

Today is my 17th Wedding Anniversary. My husband and I are now off to a weekend in Louisville. Gonna eat some good food and flame/blow glass with a glass artist!

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Sparkler Sprint 5K

Happy July 4th!!!!

This morning was a great day for a race. Nice and cool. Fast flat course. The race was a benefit for the Franklin Community Cross Country team and the guys took it out at a FAST pace... we're talking the first 10 finishers ran under a 6 minute pace!

I ran my first mile about the same as I did on Saturday but managed to hold it together for the rest of the race to run my fastest time of the year.

Mile 1 - 7:39
Mile 2 - 8:11
Mile 3 - 8:21
Last 0.1 - 0:36.9

Official time - 24:47.9
Average pace - 7:58


Won the 40-49 age group by 48 seconds. Pretty good morning for me. Got a 2 mile warm down in and now I have to go to work.

Hope everyone enjoys their holiday!