time

Machu Picchu - April 2013

"Time (as is well known) sometimes flies like a bird, sometimes crawls like a worm. But a man feels particularly happy when he doesn't even notice whether it's passing quickly or quietly".   

This quote from Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev stood out to me. It's true. Time flies and it crawls. I remember time flying when I was in Peru earlier this year. The trip went by so fast. But I also remember time crawling during our 5k hike straight up during our trek to Machu Picchu. When I'm playing with children inside, time crawls. But when I take them outside and play on the playground, it flies.

I always wear a watch. So time is a big part of my life. I like to schedule and be on time to things. But I know that when I don't have to wear a watch and I don't have to be anywhere or go anywhere, that is when it doesn't matter whether time is passing quickly or quietly.

Brickle Drop Cookies

When I was making these I saw a recipe on the back of the Heath bar bag for brickle drop cookies. I like heath bars so I thought I would try the recipe. This was my first recipe I have ever made that used cream of tartar.

They were quite easy to make and the recipe made a bunch. 

I think next time I would put more Heath bits into it. You couldn't really taste the heath as much. Some type of heath or chocolate frosting would also be good on this. I was too lazy to make the frosting so I found this sugar, chocolate, and coffee bean topping to put on.

These cookies were good. They weren't spectacular. 

Creation #10 = partial success

Oreo Milkshake Heaven

A while back my Mom decided to buy some knock-off Oreo brand thinking we would enjoy them. They were not at all like true Oreos. Okay, maybe I am being a selfish American right now. Needless to say, they weren't getting eaten and were going stale. The best thing to do with them instead of throwing them out was to make a milkshake. And that is what we did.

They were simple and I would say comparable to Chick-fil-a's Cookies 'n' Cream shake.

Creation #9 = definite success!

breakfast cookie time

My mom came up with a great breakfast cookie recipe and I got to help make them. Catherine likes to eat them for breakfast but they are great anytime.

go bananas! go! go! bananas!

We made banana bread the other day. At the bottom of the recipe it suggested serving the bread with honey on it. I told the expert chef (my mother) and she thought it would be even yummier with cream cheese frosting on it. She was right.

The first step was to squeeze all of our overripe, frozen bananas into a bowl. I would recommend taking your bananas out of the freezer to that out a good bit before making this. Ours were still very cold and by the time I had squeezed them all into the bowl, my fingers were frozen.

We put nuts in our bread and in order to enhance the flavor, we roasted them first. 

We mixed all our ingredients together in our trusty KitchenAid.

We put the batter in bread containers and sprinkled some cinnamon on top. It was all ready to go in the oven.

It came out looking and smelling wonderful. Our next task was the cream cheese frosting.

We added some red and yellow food coloring to try and get an orange fall color.....it sort of worked.....

The bread came out looking and tasting wonderful! Now I'm spoiled and banana bread without cream cheese frosting just won't taste as good.

Creation #8 = success!

trifles

This is the trifle cake mom and I made a while ago. We made it for a couple different events.

I didn't really love it. I'm not a big pudding or cake person. This trifle is layered with pudding and cake. If you like pudding, cake, and heath bars, this is the treat for you!

Creation #7 = fail (according to my taste buds)

Writing about this reminds me of the play I read in Dr. Gordon's class - Trifles by Susan Glaspell. I remember reading it in class and each of us voicing different characters. It's a short and interesting play.

My first FALL

I had my first fall the other day. I also went horseback riding for the first time in forever. Maybe I was a little over zealous in wanting to canter? Maybe I didn't have the girth on tight enough? Maybe I am not used to riding english? Whatever the reason, I fell off my 16.2 hands high Arabian steed. His name is Vincent.

Abigail and Catherine take lessons every Friday and I decided to join them last week. Between the ages of 7-12 I took horseback riding. I learned Western though so this saddle felt a lot smaller. It was good to ride again. 

Besides it being my first fall off a horse, this fall is my first fall without school. It has been different and enjoyable. 

smiling at the park

One day last week I spent the afternoon with these kiddos. We went to the park and played this cool game for a while. 

I was realizing the other day how much time I spend around little children. All of my jobs except my newest are centered around children. That must be why my new job is so different. 

I have learned a lot about children in the last 4 or so months. 

-I am not as stressed and worried for their protection + safety as I used to be (not sure if this is good or bad....). 

-After spending a certain amount of time with them I get a little crazy.

-They make me laugh

-They ask the best questions

-Their attention span is very short and being crazy can come in handy.

Those are just some recent things I have learned from being around children so much.

TRI # 1

Well, I did it. I completed my first triathlon. I've been wanting to do one for a while. After swimming year-round for 5 years I knew after high-school I wanted to do something different. In triathlons I can still swim without it being 5 or so hours devoted solely to swimming, like swim meets.

After getting back from camp at the end of August I started looking for triathlons close by. I saw there was going to be one on September 22 in Huntersville (just 20 minutes from me). It was The Ramblin' Rose - an all female mini beginners triathlon. It was 250 yards of swimming, 9 miles of cycling, and a 2 mile run.

I was pretty confident I could be ready to do such a small triathlon in 3 weeks. I knew I could do each of those components on their own. The challenge would be doing them back to back and going as hard as I could at each one.

During the three weeks before the race I somewhat failed at training. Because it was such a mini triathlon I kind of shrugged off training. I swam for about an hour three days a week and I went biking a few times. I did a 9 mile bike and 2 mile run back to back twice before the actual race. I drove the bike course once as well. But that was about it.

I'm such a newbie at triathlons though. I wasn't even sure what to wear. Thanks to a friend that has done an Iron Man, I decided on wearing tri shorts and a tri top. It was perfect. That way I didn't have to put on or take anything off throughout the race.

I showed up early on race day and set up my transition area. Everyone had to rate their swim ability on a scale of 1-10. 10 was the fastest. I was in the 10 group and was able to be one of the very first people to start the triathlon. Having a good swim time definitely helped. That way I started out ahead of most people and didn't really get stuck behind anyone.

Even though I was one of the first people to start the swim, I still got stuck behind 2 or 3 women. I ended up passing them but it definitely slowed me down a little. The ten lap swim went by very fast and then I ran to my transition area to get ready for the bike. I put my sneakers on as fast as I could and started the next leg. The bike course was mostly flat so that definitely helped. I am not the best at cycling though. I don't do it often enough. I just bought a very nice bike for my birthday a week before the race. The race was my 5th time ever riding the bike. It was super nice though. Right after I finished the bike course I grabbed a sip of gatorade and started on the run. By this time I was tired. It was kind of difficult to run. I don't understand how people do an Iron Man.

My goal for the race was to do it under 1 hour. I really didn't know how long it was going to take me. I did it in 51 minutes so I was very happy! I ended up being 22nd out of 673 and 1st in my age group! Definitely will do another.

 

honey chamomile syrup

We had some club soda left over from the pink punch I made and I didn't want it to go to waste. I searched for drinks including club soda and came across one for a honey chamomile drink. We had honey and chamomile tea so I decided to go for it.

The recipe called for about 1 cup of honey and two packets of tea. I put that mixture in a mason jar and put it in the fridge to cool. Once that was cool I mixed some of the honey chamomile syrup with some club soda and my drink was complete. I squeezed some lemon in too.

I did not like it. I think maybe I just don't like club soda.

Creation #6 = fail

apples + crisp

The same night we had french onion soup my mom asked me to make some apple crisp. That was totally fine with me. I love apple crisp but I had never made it before. It is so easy! I don't know if I just used an easy recipe or if it is just easy to make. I was very surprised.

I cut up a bunch of apples we had lying around and poured on the crisp. That was basically it. It went in the oven and came out smelling delicious! I think it's a dessert you have to have with ice cream. It's good with whipped cream too.

The apples could have been cut smaller. They weren't as soft as I think they should have been. Other than that it was quite yummy.

Writing about this reminds me of the cheesecake I had for my birthday. We went to the cheesecake factory and I got the dutch apple caramel streusel cheesecake. It was so good.

I hope your mouths are watering.

Creation #6 = success!

feeling french

Both Kaela and Catherine are learning french and Catherine needed to make a french dish. I found a recipe for french onion soup and me and catherine made dinner together.

We had most of the ingredients already. The only thing we had to buy was cheese and beef broth. We had french bread leftover from the paninis. The recipe called for both swiss and gruyere cheese. I've never had gruyere cheese before. I went to Harris Teeter to get it and almost couldn't find it.

The first big step was to caramelize the onions. This was a bit tricky. The recipe said to have the heat on medium-low for 20 minutes......that didn't work. We turned up the heat and after a while they finally turned brown. Now we could get our soup going. From here it was pretty easy. After mixing the broth and a few other ingredients, we poured the soup into six ramekins. The gruyere was sprinkled on top of the soup and then a slice of french bread was put on top of each. Swiss cheese was then put on top of the bread. Into the oven they went!

They turned out better than I expected. I have only had french onion soup once at a restaurant. I don't think Catherine had ever had it. She asked, "why is the bread so soggy?".

 

It was yummy though. I would make it again.

Creation #5 = success!

a pink drink

While flipping through a magazine I came across a recipe for this punch. I've never really made any sort of mixed drinks before so I thought I would try it. I decided to make it to go along with my eggplant paninis. According to the recipe the drink needed to chill for at least 2 hours before serving. All it is is pink lemonade concentrate mixed with Cran-peach juice. When you are ready to serve it you mix that with club soda. I didn't even know cran-peach juice existed.

Surprisingly, I didn't really like it. Kaela and Catherine did though.

Creation #4 = partial success

eggplant paninis!

This next creation is one of my favorites I have made so far. I first thought about making these eggplant paninis when a friend gave us an eggplant from her garden. I had no idea how to eat an eggplant. I've never had one before. It sat on our kitchen counter for close to a week before I decided that we should make something with it. I found a recipe for eggplant paninis and it looked delicious! When I saw that the recipe called for pesto I knew I had to make it. Our garden is full of basil so me and my mother made a bunch of pesto. Pesto is also something I love. It really isn't difficult to make. It just became difficult when we tried to make about 10 cups of basil worth.

For these paninis I had some help from my lovely mother. I had previously frozen the eggplant so that it wouldn't go bad before we were ready to eat it. Mom grilled up the frozen eggplant while I prepared the rest of the sandwich. We had to create our very own panini maker.

It worked well. There is not too much to tell about this meal. I pretty much just followed the recipe. I think I am starting to enjoy hot sandwiches better than cold though.

The bread was flattened to a good bite size, the cheese was melted, and everything was superb. I was a little nervous Kaela and Catherine wouldn't enjoy these but they loved it and ate their entire sandwich. I will most definitely be making these again!

Creation #3 = success!

thoughts on plantains

I was at BJs with my mother and she sent me to get some fruit. I think I had a little too much fun with that. Have I mentioned that I love fruit? I basically picked up every type of fruit I saw. Well....I came across plantains. They look just like bananas so I assumed they were a fruit. Seeing as I love fruit, I grabbed a plantain as well. About three days later I went to eat my plantain. I was going to eat it just like a banana. As I was peeling it open mom asked me if I could eat a plantain like that. I didn't know. I just thought it was going to be like a banana. Before I took a bite, she looked it up on her iphone. I feel like most times when we don't know something we look it up online. What did people do before the internet? Life must have been so much more experiential. Come to find out, thanks to the internet, green plantains (the type I was about to take a bite of) are used solely for cooking. You can only eat black (ripe) plantains raw. Wow, that sounds so contradictory. Anyways, I decided to put the plantain in a ziploc until I was ready to cook something with it.

I decided to fry the plantains and have plantain chips. Then I saw instructions on how you could make mini plantain bowls and put salsa in them. So I went with that. I sliced up the plantain into about 1 inch thick slices. On the stove I got a frying pan and put a good bit of oil in it. The amount of oil I had to use kind of grossed me out. The plantain slices had to be completely covered in the oil during the frying process. Thanks to my mom who has a nifty thermometer I knew exactly when the oil was 375 degrees and could begin frying. I fried the slices for about 5-10 minutes, took them out, and let them cool for a couple minutes. I smashed one of the slices to make a chip and with the other pieces I made a little hole in the middle of it. Once all of the slices had holes in the center, I put them back in the pan and fried for about 5 more minutes. I took them out again and waited for them to cool. I grabbed the pineapple salsa we had in the fridge and spooned a bit into each of the holes. My plantain creations were complete.

 I was hesitant to try one because of the frying process. I just couldn't see how it could taste good after being immersed in oil twice! It actually tasted pretty good. It tasted kind of like a french fry. It was definitely yummier with the salsa. Kaela, Catherine, and Mom tried them and like them as well. I probably won't be  making these again anytime soon just because I don't think it was worth all the oil. But I am glad I didn't waste the plantain after finding out I couldn't eat it raw (like a banana).

Creation #2 = success!

Berry Brownie Pizza

I am home from my summer in Speculator, NY and have started to cook and bake wonderful creations. The first one I made since I have been home was a dessert pizza. It was so yummy I have to decided to share it with you.

I found the recipe in a life:beautiful magazine. I simplified it and instead of making the brownie base from scratch I just used a brownie box mix we had. For the cream cheese frosting I used 4 ounces of softened cream cheese, 4 tablespoons of softened butter, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, and 2 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar. Then for the top I put on blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries.

 With the help of Catherine I sprinkled confectioner's sugar on top. Aaaandd voila! Serve it up.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed this treat. Catherine said, "Amy you know you're going to have to make this again in a couple nights, right? Because this is the kind of dessert I would like on a weekly basis." I ended up making it again for some company we had over and they enjoyed it too!

Creation #1 = success!