Get It Together...Get It Together...

Phone is ringing. Oh my God. Get it together see what's happening...

Okay back to the real subject at hand. Just over a year ago, I found myself sitting at 215lbs, wearing roughly a 16/18. Don't get me wrong. I know how to eat well, and I thought I knew how to exercise. The problem was that I wasn't really doing either. I was eating well, I was just eating ridiculous portions. I definitely was not exercising. While sitting at a bridal shower in March I chatted with one of my cousins. She mentioned that she was running a 5K in June. For those of you that don't know a 5K is 3.1 miles. I secretly confessed that I had always, sort of wanted to run a 5K, or more realistically say that I could run a 5K. This is the part of the story where I say she forced me into it. More like coerced. Reluctantly, I signed up. June 2, 2012. Paige's Butterfly Run in Syracuse.

It was as though it was etched in stone. Since I signed up for it, I knew that I had to run it. Commence training...I downloaded a couch to 5K app to my Ipod Touch (I didn't even have an iPhone yet, can you believe it?) and began. The first day was a 5 minute warm up, with alternating 45 second jogging/1min30sec walking intervals. I thought I would die. Just under three months later I went with two goals in mind: finish the run without dying, and preferably under 45 minutes. Long story short, I finished, I didn't die, and my official time was 38:39. I was hooked.

Over a year later, I have lost 30 pounds, 2 dress sizes, completed 7 different 5K races, and gained a lot of something. Confidence, gusto, joy, I'm not sure. Maybe all of them.

I still have a lot of weight to lose. I now have new goals in mind including completing a 5K with no walking, and then completing a 10K. I need a new pair of sneakers desperately, and I just got in the short dress that I ordered for my baby sister's wedding...in a size 12. Did I mention it's short? And tight? So now I need to get it together...

The Lost Draft: Happy New Year!

2009 was a big learning year for me. I'm proud to say that I've spent a few moments reflecting on the top ten lessons that have made the largest impact on me.

1. Even on my worst days, my son will still make me laugh.

2. Being a stay-at-home mom is both rewarding and torment.

3. I sometimes feel bored, when really I still have a lot to do.

4. My living room won't stay clean no matter how hard I try.

5. I am not very good at keeping up on my blog.

6. A part-time job is sometimes a big night out.

7. We really need a babysitter in our area.

8. I really need to learn more about photography.

9. I'm in love with my dutch oven. What's better than one pot meals.

10. I'm easily inspired by movies and books. I recently watched "Julie and Julia", and all I want to do is try to cook my way through an entire cook book.

That being said, I decided to be a bit more realistic and aim to simply cook dinner more than once a week. I am also vowing to try out new recipes, and make use of my dutch oven. We got a whole bunch of snow this weekend, so I decided to aim for something that sticks to the ribs.

My searching lead me to a recipe for chicken and dumplings found on marthastewart.com. I decided to give it a go as it called for my beloved dutch oven.

Cooking with Booze: Buttershots Recipe 2 & 3

Truth time people. I tried two more recipes, but the honest truth is that recipe #2 was not in fact cooking with booze. It was drinking it. It seems that there are few available recipes involving Buttershots that do not involve simply drinking the sweet libation.

Recipe #2- Caramel Apple Martini
Let me tell you, this was YUMMY! So yummy in fact that I considered making a second and decided that my liver might not appreciate it. This is definitely going to be a staple recipe for the holidays, and as a matter of fact it would probably be extremely delicious warmed. As I am not an avid drinker at home, I don't own any normal martini glasses, so please pardon my "Shopaholic" glass.

Recipe #3- Butterscotch Apple Pie Filling
I used a recipe adapted from Pixiwishesforeheadkisses and it turned out awesome! The original recipe I'm sure is far better than mine as Becky uses her own pastry recipe. As many know, homemade pastry is far tastier than store bought but in the interest of time, I bought from the refrigerated section of Shaw's. I ended up using roughly 6 medium red apples (mostly Cortland), and skipped the lemon juice which simply keeps the apples from browning. Overall, it was awesome. I will say though, I would probably use more booze. C didn't taste it at all, and I was more than comfortable feeding it to my children. I intended on taking a photo, but my husband dug into it before I had a chance!

Cooking with Booze: Buttershots Recipe 1

So it turns out that there are not a ton of cooking ideas that involve butterscotch schnapps, but I did manage to find one. Turns out most of the others involve simply drinking the ButterShots. That being said, I'm already changing my game plan. ButterShots recipe means one to eat, one to drink. Last night was my eat one, and I had to improvise a bit to take down the points plus value, as I've been doing Weight Watchers. So here goes:

1 ripe banana (cut in half lengthwise)

2 tbsp brown sugar

.5 tbsp butter

1.5 tbsp ButterShots

Melt butter in a frying pan and mix in sugar and ButterShots- add banana pieces and cook down making sure to baste with the banana with it. Cook down until everything has caramelized and thickened. This probably would have been delicious enough on it's own, but I decided to pour it all over some vanilla ice cream. The end result was amazing. So amazing that I did not bother to take a picture, and that typing this has me salivating like Pavlov's dog. 

Up next, ButterShots Recipe #2- Caramel Apple Martini

Cooking With Booze- Part 1

During one of my never ending quests to clean out my house, I have discovered a part of my past that I cannot get rid of...my liquor cabinet.

Nowadays, if I am going to imbibe, it is usually a relentless attempt to escape the confines of my house...meaning I go out. This has left me with a full liquor cabinet that I cannot bring myself to part with. In an attempt to clear this out (without pouring myself some tall ones every night), I am going to challenge myself to cook with my booze. This means I need to remove it from the hidden cabinet above my fridge and place it back out in the open.

Here goes Step 1: INVENTORY
-ButterShots (3/4 bottle)
-Southern Comfort (2/3 bottle)
-Grand Marnier (3/4 bottle)
-Chambord (2/3 bottle)
-Applejack (2/3 bottle)
-Triple-sec (2/3 bottle)
-Jameson (2/3 bottle)
-99 Apples (2/3 bottle)
-Frangelico (1/2 bottle)
-Tequila (2/3 bottle)
-Spiced Rum (Full bottle)
-Pimm's (Full bottle)
-Bailey's (Full bottle)
-Madeira (1/2 bottle- bought solely for cooking)

Additionally, I have a two bottles of holiday wine, a bottle of port, a specialty bottle of beer, and a bottle of ice wine. I suspect these will all be consumed on their own time.

My game plan is to focus on two recipes per week that involve cooking or baking with any of the above open bottles and stick to one liquor only. I'll do my best to post the recipes and review them...

This week: ButterShots.

What is Nickelodeon Teaching My Children?

My boys are both big fans of Nick Jr's show Team Umizoomi. I allow them to watch it because it is frankly not as annoying as some other shows (ie: Dora). Today both boys were sitting watching as Milli, Geo, and Bot ran around on another of their typical problem solving adventures. The story today was that a little boy named Anthony attempted to mail a card or some other package to his grandma. He seemed to have forgotten to put stamps on the package.

At first glance, I simply thought that the moral was to follow the rules. In this case, remembering to put stamps on the package or the post office wouldn't deliver. Well, that was not the real lesson.

Team Umizoomi (Milli, Geo, and Bot) proceeded to hop through the mail slot at the closed post office, and find the package. Once located, they put stamps on it, then hopped into the mail truck, rode to grandma's house, and rang her door bell.

Today's lesson: don't forget to put stamps on your packages, or they won't be mailed. Or is it, breaking and entering, and tampering with mail is fine, as long as it's in the name of grandma?

52 Weeks Updated

When I first took on the 52 week challenge, I struggled to find 52 areas of my house that needed to be organized. The funniest part is that I definitely don't have an organized home, so this shouldn't have been an issue, As the weeks have gone on, I did exactly what I thought I would- added more. I'm now up to 42 different areas. This week, I tackled kitchen stuff, meaning that it was time to organize the following: utensil drawer, cabinets (2) with small kitchen appliances, pots and pan cabinet, two additional drawers, and a cabinet with all of my spices, flower, baking supplies, and some bowls and platters. Cleaning these out also meant that I had more items to add to my 2012 items in 2012 list. This list contains all of the items that I've gotten rid of in my house over the year. The goal is 2012 items in 2012. That means roughly 5.5 items per day. I picked up this challenge back in early April so I have some catching up to do. I should have roughly 671 items on this. I'm currently sitting at 184 items gone.

I'm over the moon that I no long have things jumping out on my head every time I open a cabinet. Here are my before and after photos:

Cabinet- BEFORE

Cabinet- AFTER

Drawer- BEFORE

Drawer- AFTER

Pretty, right?