Cooking (New Recipes)

I really enjoy cooking but haven't gotten to do it much lately. However, this has been a big week in cooking.

I started off with this Apple Crisp (from Allrecipes.com). It turned out really well. It's a great fall dessert.

Apple Crisp

10 cups all-purpose apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup water

1 cup quick-cooking oats
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter, melted

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degree C).
Place the sliced apples in a 9x13 inch pan. Mix the white sugar, 1 tablespoon flour and ground cinnamon together, and sprinkle over apples. Pour water evenly over all.
Combine the oats, 1 cup flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and melted butter together. Crumble evenly over the apple mixture.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for about 45 minutes.

And right now, baking in my oven is a Chocolate Cobbler, which reminds me of the chocolate molten lava cake because there is a chocolate sauce underneath the cakey top layer. This recipe also came from www.allrecipes.com. (Update: This turned out just OK.)

6 tablespoons butter
1 cup self-rising flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups boiling water

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Melt butter in an 8x8 inch baking dish while the oven preheats.
In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, 3/4 cup sugar, and 1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa. Stir in milk and vanilla until smooth. Spoon this batter over the melted butter in the baking dish.
Stir together the remaining cup of sugar and 1/4 cup cocoa powder. Sprinkle over the batter. Slowly pour boiling water over the top of the mixture.
Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until set. Serve slightly warm with ice cream.

I am also baking these granola bars from http://momadvice.com/food/aldi_meal_plan_fall7.aspx.

Chewy Granola Bars (this tasted like an oatmeal cookie.)

Ingredients

4 ½ cups oats
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup butter
2/3 cup lite corn syrup
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease on 9x13” pan. In a large mixing bowl, mix together all of the ingredients (minus the chocolate chips). Stir in chocolate chips. Press into pan & bake for 18-22 minutes. Let cool for ten minutes, and then cut into bars.


And Ben gets lemon pepper garlic pork chops for lunch this week!

The Joys and Pains of Running

Who knew that getting into shape would be so hard on the body? :)

So the big toes going numb was from wearing the wrong heels. I went out looking for flats and almost bought some Jimmy Choo flats. But I just couldn't do it. Jimmy Choos must be heels (in my mind) and I don't want Jimmy Choo to cause my feet to go numb so we'll wait and see. They need to be open toe or a square toe and that might be hard to find with Jimmy Choo. The feeling is slowly returning to my toes.

But I digress....so last week I finally ran two miles on the elliptical and somehow hurt my leg. I thought at first it was shin splints but now it's just a pain below the knee cap for the past four days. Arggh. If it's not one thing, it is something else.

But I did notice that I lost some weight after running two miles. And today, at church, I ran into a friend who is training for a marathon. She had just finished a 16 mile run yesterday and oddly enough, her arms were very toned! I asked if she had been working on her arms and she said, "No, it was from the running." The running caused the fat to melt away and her arms looked amazing. I was very impressed that she hadn't been doing any weights and that the running caused her arms to look so lean. Interesting.

The 5K is Nov. 1st. I kinda doubt I'll be ready. My goal was to increase my mileage by .5 miles a week; I'm a little behind due to the numb toes and sore knee. So we'll see.

So my running friends, how do you prevent injuries from running? I have good running shoes, Asics for pronating and have an orthotic. What type of stretches do you do? Do you stretch before running or just afterwards?

FIX IT

This came on TV two nights ago and it was hilarious! It was Saturday Night Live, Weekend Update Thursday. I love this guy yelling about the economy and saying, "FIX IT! When I wake up tomorrow morning, it better be FIXED!"

The funny part starts 2 minutes into the clip so move the cursor to about 2:10 to get to my favorite part.

Sometimes if you yell enough, you can make things happen. :)

Beta Fish

I have a beta fish in my office. He's red. He looks a lot like this:



I am starting to get worried about him. I have had him for about a month now.

He spends a lot of the time resting at the bottom of his bowl. It's like he's resting. It's a little odd. He seems to be a bit sluggish at times. Maybe he's bored.

One co-worker likes to come in and give him kisses. Another colleague likes to get him riled up and agitated. And I've been forgetting to feed him lately. Work has been busy. Poor fish.

I think people in the office are taking bets on how long my fish will live.

Love and Respect

In my Sunday school class, we are doing a series on the book, "Love and Respect." It's a class for young married couples. So the book is based on the following verse:

"However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband." Ephesians 5:33

We just started the series but I think the premise is that in a marriage, women need to feel loved and men need to feel respected.

Is this really true? Are we really hard wired as males and females to need respect and love, respectively? What is respect? Do women value love over respect?

If you live in the area, Ben and I are starting a small group focused on marriage on Sunday evenings at the church. We'll be digging deeper into this book and trying to find answers to my questions. Email me if you are interested in joining our small group!

And the winner of the debate.......

is Sarah Palin!

Didn't she look amazing?

I loved her suit. It was perfect. I wonder what kind of shoes she was wearing.

Yes, this is very superficial. (Just so you know, I read the Economist and the Wall Street Journal regularly.)

She made Joe Biden look 190 years old. And when he smiled at her (when they had the dual shots of them on the TV), did it look like he was leering at her?

I don't think this vice presidential debate is going to change the election (unless you vote for Ben.) I think Sarah Palin did a great job. She was a little nervous at the beginning but after she got warmed up, she did just fine.

I would agree with the commentators - that they both walked away "winners." Or at least, there was not a clear loser.

I thought it was sweet when she held her baby after the debate was over. I can't believe that she just had a child recently. She looked amazing.

I am a Sarah Palin fan. But I'm voting for Ben.

PS: I had to laugh when an ExxonMobil commercial came on after the debate. They got pretty bashed during the debate.

VOTE for....

Do you know who you are voting for in November?

Does the economy have you worried?

Both Barak and McCain voted for the bailout.

You should vote for Ben.

He's the perfect write-in candidate.

"If you don't play, you can't win." --Ben

Vote for Ben.

Ben always votes for himself because he'd hate to lose by one vote.

Numb toes

I just ate a garlic chicken pizza roll, drank half a diet Coke and 1 cup of coffee with two pieces of chocolate. I'm exhausted. The caffiene has not kicked in. I had court this morning, which went well. Our client is really nice Christian guy.

OH - my big toes are starting to go numb! Is this a bad sign? I wonder if it is from the working out/running. I have a good pair of running shoes. But I have been wearing heels more at work. It's really disconcerting when you can't feel your big toe. I have a scheduled doctor's appt in 23 days. Has this happened to anyone else? I have stopped wearing heels and reduced the workouts but the 5k is in a month. I hope it is not some weird autoimmune disease.....or leprosy. You know, that's how leprosy starts. You lose feeling in your extremities.