Let me see if I can fit you in

I have this annoying habit of trying to fit too many things into one day. I do it whenever we go down to LI. I see what my friends are up to, then see if we can squeeze in a playdate, or ice cream or a 15 minute visit as we're driving to the store. Or I plan a visit to my Aunt's or Sister's house on our drive home, because they are on the way to the thruway. I was guilty of it today. We planned on going to the pool this morning, start painting the dining room this afternoon (even though it's absolutely beautiful outside) then go to our neighborhood's Founders Day Picnic at five. I already told three friends that we would be at the picnic, and told Mike we were going. But last night on facebook, I found out my friend from college is in town, she's from Jersey and I haven't seen her in 15 years! She wanted to come over tonight, so I figured I could tell her to come at seven. But then I realized I would be spending the whole picnic worrying about getting home in time for her visit. So I went against my "pack as much in as possible" instinct, and asked what she's doing tomorrow morning instead. I think I get this from my Dad, he's always trying to fit visits in with all 6 of us over one 24 hour time period, and we all live in different places. I guess it's not a bad thing, I just want to get as much out of my time as possible. But it should be quality visits, not a quantity of visits, so I think I handled today the right way.

Ahhhh, it's Saturday, when life is a bit easier because Mike is home. I'm looking forward to a little happy hour at the picinc, although it will be beer. I'd rather have some vino. Above is a photo of my favorite chard, Tunnel of Elms. It's a california white, and very inexpensive, but very tasty. I was thinking of giving up my nightly wine while I do my smoothie challenge, but then I thought harder about it. hmmmmmm, maybe not.

Up for a Challenge?

Today I had a bunch of errands to run. I've been fighting a summer cold, but managed to get a four mile run in, two days after my 11 miler. So this morning was a catch up day, I got my lip waxed, and we headed to the grocery store. I was feeling "thin" today, had my favorite denim skirt on, and my hair was behaving. We started cruising the frozen food section, and a few stock boys looked my way. Then I caught them looking again. I start feeling very cougar-ish, and thinking "hmmm, I must still got it!" We get in the car, and I look in the rear view mirror and see....a bright pink upper lip. No, florescent pink, really really pink. Those boys didn't think I was a MILF, they were probably thinking "why does that mother have a red mustache?"

My friend Jennifer and I were talking more about smoothies and Amazing Grass. She's been looking for a new breakfast, to better fuel her days running after her twin girls. We decided to do a challenge, to have smoothies made with AG for breakfast for the next 30 days. We want to see if all the hype is true, if it gives us boundless energy and glowing skin. I'm hoping it will give me some sustained energy for my new longer training runs. Wanna join us? It doesn't have to be smoothies, it can be anything. Exercise more? Take a break from sugar? Find time to read more? We're starting on Friday morning, so let me know, and I'll keep you posted on our progress.

My Quiche Recipe

I'm trying to figure out how to list the foods that I write about, along with a link to it's recipe. In the meantime, I'll start of with my quiche recipe.....

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees

Quiche pan (mine is 9 inches in diameter, and 2 inches deep)

Pastry (to make life easy, I use the Pillsbury refridgerated pie crusts)

4 large eggs

1 1/2 cups light cream

1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

whisk all the above together in a bowl, you should have some bubbles on top of the mixture.

The good stuff - whichever you choose, be sure to sautee the veggies first in a bit of olive oil and salt, to get the excess water out, before putting them into the pastry lined pan. Otherwise you get a messy quiche.

1. 1/2 cup onion, 1 cup broccoli florets, and 6 oz cheddar

2. 1 pound of spinach (it shrinks quite a bit when you sautee it), onion and 6 oz mozzarella

3. 8 oz of sliced baby portobella mushroom, onion and 6 oz swiss

4. add your favorite protein, like chopped cooked bacon or cooked baby shrimp.

Pour the egg mix over the veggies and cheese, bake for 15 minutes at 425. After that, lower the temperature to 300, and cook another 40 minutes. Make sure it's golden brown on the top, and not wiggling, before you take it out of the oven. Try to wait 10 minutes to slice, and enjoy!

Quiche Me He Said

With all the grilling we've been doing, I was in the mood for something different for dinner the other night, so I made a quiche. It was baby portabella mushroom, vidalia onion and swiss. Mike loves my quiche, although it's a bit fattening. Little does he know that about a year ago I altered my recipe, and started substituting Light Cream for Heavy Cream. I just whisk it a bit longer, and it still comes out light and fluffy. I think my quiche pan has had it though, some of the egg mixture leaked out while cooking, but I baked it on a foil lined cookie sheet so the mess was contained.

Oh, there were a couple of times this weekend when the topic of chocolate bacon came up! First, Mama Such told me she made a batch of bacon brownies, and her kids ate them up. Then this weekend at a friend's BBQ, my friend B told me they sell chocolate covered bacon in a store in Rochester. I'm going to have to look into that one!

A Green Monster Invasion

I had a fab running weekend. Saturday morning I did 3 miles around the neighborhood, then this afternoon I ran 11 miles! I was psyched. I had to run on the treadmill, since I wasn't in the mood to run in the rain. I popped In Her Shoes into the DVD player, and I was off.

I've been reading on different blogs about Green Monsters. Have you heard of them? They're smoothies made with Amazing Meal Wheat Grass powder. There are websites dedicated to this stuff, it's a mix of protein and nutrients, which are supposed to give you crazy energy. I ordered some for myself, but after reading more about it, I thought it would be perfect for D while she goes through her chemo treatment. So I emailed the company, and the founder emailed me back, telling me which two powders would be best for her, as he had two friends go through chemo, and they used the powder.

In some of the photos I've seen, the smoothies really are green (but I think it is a more intense color if you put spinach in your smoothie). I made two, one with my usual smoothie ingredients, one turned bright pink (from the raspberries?) The other was a pea green. They were pretty good. I like smoothies in the a.m., you can get a bunch of servings of fruit in one shot.

I have yet to find out if D has tried them. She had her first five hour long session of chemo last Monday. She's been really tired, but she made it to her part time job on Friday. Which I thought was great.

I'm running....around.

I haven't run in a week. yikes! I logged a couple of short runs, and one seven mile run before our trip to LI, but since that, nada. I was hoping to get a run in at my Mom's, but that never happened.

Yesterday I had planned a long run in the afternoon on the treadmill, I stretched, got my gear out, got Luke settled, and then I got on facebook. Then blogger. Then email. You see where I'm going here. I just didn't feel like doing it. Then I looked at the clock, realized Eliza would be up soon, so I took a long shower instead.

When I'm in what I call my running groove, I will run every other day, sometimes every day. I get to the point where I'm thinking of my next run, before I even finish a run. But when I fall out of the habit, I really fall out. I still think of going for a run, I plan it, but then it doesn't happen.

This summer has been really busy, weekends, as well as during the week. I've been letting the kids stay up waaaay too late, they are usually tucked in by 8, and this week bedtime has been more like 9:30, and, forgive me kids, ten! No more excuses, I need to get in gear if I'm going to be running the Rochester Half Marathon in September.

We're going to Rochester tomorrow for a BBQ, and I was thinking of driving the course, but I probably won't. I lived there for 5 years, the city is pretty flat, so I don't think I have any crazy inclines to worry about. I've got a long run planned for Sunday, after which I hope to relax under a tree.

The Riptide didn't get me, the homesickness did.

We're back from a busy weekend visiting my family. We always jam so much in, but it's always a great time. We started off with my aunt's annual family bbq, basically Christmas in August. We got to see all the babies that have been born this summer, and see how everyone else has grown after a year. If you read my post last month about the sundress I was hoping to wear....I skipped it, it was still a bit tight. I opted for comfort in a skirt and top, which still looked cute.

We wanted to fit as much beach time into the weekend as possible, but Sunday it rained, so we compensated with a matinee of Ice Age 3 and frozen custard from Rita's. After which, I gave myself carte blanche to eat all my favorites for the rest of the visit. Which got a bit scary. The weather cleared, so my brother had a bbq, and I chowed on my sis in laws cooking, which is kick ass. Fresh tomato salad, roasted butternut squash, lemon pepper chicken, fresh bread, you get the idea. But hold on, it gets worse. They live near a Chipotle, which we do not have. We stopped on the way home and got burritos, in case we got hungry later. Which we did, after more wine and Scrabble.

Monday was beautiful, so we made it to the beach. It was the first time L&E saw the Atlantic, and of course, there were riptide warnings. It was sooooo great just to stand there and breathe the air, it's been way too long. We played in the water, Mike got nervous about the undertow, but after a bit, he relaxed and enjoyed it. My sister and I decided to swim by ourselves, so we plowed through and got past the break line, and it was great. Something about salt water and the water's energy is so invigorating. I was happpy until an Adonis like lifeguard appeared next to me, saying to be careful because I was right next to a riptide. Don't have to tell me twice, so I headed to shore. You could actually see the riptide from the beach, it churned around and looked darker than the rest of the water. I was happy to sit on the towel and eat my favorite Long Island deli lunch, chicken cutlet on a roll with lettuce, tomato, and real mayo.

Tuesday we had to head home, but not before stopping at my Great Aunt Betti's apartment in Queens. She's 89 and a total trip. We couldn't leave without her giving us a pint of ice cream, four ice cream drumsticks and four beers. I tried to tell her it would melt in the four hour car ride, but you can't argue with Aunt Betti.

I was already feeling melancholy as we said goodbye, and felt worse when Luke said he didn't want to go, and even worse when we drove by our old apartment in an effort to avoid traffic. Ugh. That's the one thing that sucks about a visit home, I see all our old stomping grounds, and I start to second guess our decisions. I know our move upstate was the right one, but I woke up this morning incredibly homesick. I know it will pass after a few days, and I'll remind myself of my favorite "when I'm down" song, by the Grateful Dead....."oh the first days are the hardest days, don't you worry anymore..."