Second Half In the Bag!

Sadie4 Comments

Well here’s another 2013 goal I can check off! Yesterday I completed the Colonial Half Marathon.  It started and ended on my school’s campus so I really had no excuse, I had to sign up. Here was my motto for the race.headband

Let me tell you, it was not a walk in the park. It was hill after hill after hill after hill. The last few miles were almost comical because I felt like around every corner was another uphill climb. I had no idea Williamsburg was hiding all those hills.

I started out pretty fast because I was feeling good, but the hills took a toll. By the middle of the race I definitely started slowing down.  I remember seeing the Mile 9 marker and thinking, “forget my time, I just need to finish.” My mile splits are very uneven but I ended up coming in at 2:02 which is an improvement from my 2:04 at the Richmond Half.  I dropped a couple minutes, but the effort was much more substantial.

Here are a few of the tunes that got me through the 13 miles:

1. Troublemaker by Olly Murs (feat. Flo’Rida)

2. End of Time by Beyonce

3. C’Mon by Kesha

4. What About Us by The Saturdays (feat. Sean Paul)

5. Say Somethin by Austin Mahone

On Friday we shall review all the awards season fashion, I hope you’ve been paying attention!

Weekend Brunch: Strawberry Stuffed French Toast

CarrieLeave a comment

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If you have a special guest for breakfast on the weekend, this is a simply and impressive dish to prepare for the morning hunger pangs. Take your favorite loaf of bread (in this case, I used cobblestone bread from Ward’s Pastry in Ocean City). Brioche bread also works well. Make sure you have a whole loaf so you can cut the slices extra thick. Here is the recipe to make two stuffed pieces. You can double, triple, or quadruple the recipe depending on how many guests you have to feed.

Strawberry Stuffed French Toast

Ingredients
Strawberry Cream Cheese, Two 1-inch thick slices of bread, 1 egg, 3 tbsp milk, 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon, 1 tsp vanilla extract, sliced fresh strawberries, canola oil and butter for frying

1. Make an incision in the bread to create a pocket for stuffing.
2. Stuff about a tablespoon of cream cheese into the pocket.
3. In a pie dish, mix together the egg, milk, cinnamon, and vanilla extract.
4. Soak the bread in this mixture on both sides until the egg mixture is absorbed into the bread.
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5. Heat a small frying pan with one tbsp canola oil and a small pat of butter. Place the two stuffed slices of bread in the pan. Flip over after about three minutes and cook on the other side.
6. Place french toast on a plate and top with sliced strawberries. Now you are ready to enjoy this delightful treat! Happy Saturday everyone!

Cranberry Nut Crumb Muffins

Sadie1 Comment

So I keep meaning to make cranberry nut bread, but I can’t think of an occasion or a purpose for it.  I’m usually not one to bake without a purpose because I live by myself so there is a good chance that I will end up eating it all myself.

Recently though I had an occasion to make muffins so I thought I would turn my need to make cranberry nut bread, into a need to make cranberry nut muffins. I looked around on some of my favorite sites to find recipes, and found the one below on the Food Network website.

I did, however, make one smart swap. The recipe called for sour cream, and to be honest, I’ve never been a fan. That’s not to say that I wouldn’t by it for a specific recipe, but I thought a better alternative would be greek yogurt.  So I swapped out the sour cream for greek yogurt and even added a little orange zest for brightness the muffins turned out great!yogurt

One of the great things about these muffins is the fabulous streusel topping.  It’s like coffee cake meets muffin. You should definitely give these a try the next time you are in need of a breakfast/brunch treat!

Cranberry Nut Crumb Muffins

Yields about 24 muffins, adapted from Food Network

Ingredients

  • 8 Tbs unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 cup plain greek yogurt
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • zest of one orange
  • 1/2 cup dried cranberries, cherries, or raisins

Topping

  • 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
  • 1 Tbs flour
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 Tbs cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
  • 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 350 and line cupcake pans with liners.
  2. In one bowl combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
  3. In a different bowl cream together butter and sugar.  Add eggs one at a time., then vanilla and orange zest.
  4. Alternate adding dry mixture and yogurt to the wet mixture.  Begin and end with the dry.
  5. Fold in the dried cranberries, and try not to over mix the batter.
  6. To make the topping combine all of the ingredients in a bowl, and smush together with hands or pastry cutter to get to a sandy consistency.
  7. Fill cupcake tins about two thirds full with batter then sprinkle each with the crumb topping.
  8. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown and tester comes out clean.Yummy topping