Winter wonderland

Collie Rule #17: replace one time commitment with another.

Our legs are still sore and the stairs are still not pain-free, but we're loosening up and feeling a bit more normal today. We're still recovering, of course, and feeling a bit more tired than usual. Hoping to catch up on sleep through this weekend, and then get back into the workouts on Monday. Or Saturday — have Christmas Relays in the morning; will be a good test of our legs 6 days post-marathon. Should be fun.

Unkie headed home on Monday and we headed to work. Got some congratulatory hugs and smiles from colleagues. Always nice. Other than that, nothing too exciting has happened this week. We did, though, return to the kitchen full force. Seeing as the lemon tree is ripe with fruit, I made some lemon scones ... including homemade candied peels and a light sugared lemon glaze. Delicious! Busted out some dark chocolate cakes tonight. I'm thinking of retiring from teaching so I can bake full-time. But then who would eat all the goodies?

End of the week should be mellow. We're heading into the final two days of teaching and a pretty open weekend. We'll get back in the saddle with our weekend riding crew, too. Can't wait.

Stay warm. It's been frosty here.
m&j

Meyer Lemon Scones (thank you Cheese Board Collective)

What you need
1/4 C minced candied lemon peels (to make: peel 3 lemons, boil, drain, rinse with cold water, drain. Add 1/2 C water and 1/4 C sugar to the peels. Boil until water is gone)
Grated zest of 1 large lemon
3/4 C sugar
3 1/2 C APF
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 C unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
3/4 C heavy cream
3/4 C buttermilk
Lemon glaze: 1/4 C lemon juice & 1 C powdered sugar. Whisk together.

What to do
1. Preheat oven to 375. Line baking sheets with parchment paper
2. Combine lemon peel, zest, and 3/4 C sugar in a small bowl
3. Sift flour, baking soda, and baking powder in bowl of stand mixer
4. Add salt and lemon sugar to the bowl and mix with paddle attachment
5. Add the butter and cut it in on low for about 4 minutes
6. Make a well in the center and add cream and buttermilk
7. Mix briefly, just until ingredients come together
8. Using a #16 scoop, scoop dough onto prepared cookie sheets
9. Bake 25 minutes. I bake 15 minutes, rotate front to back, top to bottom. Bake 10 more minutes
10. Top with glaze about 10 minutes after pulling out of oven

Makes about 16 scones

Deep Dark Chocolate Cakes (more from Cheese Board ... yah Berkeley)

What you need
2 eggs
1 C sour cream
1 C heavy cream
1 C strong brewed coffee
1 tsp vanilla extract (we use fake vanilla)
3 C APF
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp baking powder
1 1/3 C unsweetened cocoa
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 C sugar
1 C cold unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 1/2 C chocolate chips

What to do
1. Preheat over to 350. Butter/grease 2 9-inch pans OR 6 small loaf pans
2. In medium bowls, combine the eggs, sour cream, coffee, heavy cream and vanilla. Whisk well.
3. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cocoa together in bowl of stand mixer
4. Add salt and sugar to dry mixture
5. Add butter and cut it in on low speed about 4 minutes
6. Mix in the chocolate chips
7. Make a well in the center and pour in the wet ingredients. You'll think the mixer is going to overflow; it won't, but it's really full. I do some start and stop mixing until the mixture gets going.
8. Fill pans evenly with mix. If making loaves, fill pans 3/4 full. I weight my pans (I know, I'm neurotic) to make sure they're as even as possible
9. Bake for 25 minutes, rotate front to back, left to right. Bake for another 10 minutes. Check the cakes for firmess and springiness. Or you can use the old toothpick test. Cool for 10 minutes and remove from pan.

These are DELICIOUS! If you love chocolate, these will surely delight.

What a week

It's been a week since the last post and we've been busy, busy, busy. Save for restraining myself from baking (harder than I thought), our energies were focused on the marathon. The week got off to a rough start as Jamie woke up Monday morning with a cold, and it got worse as the week progressed. But, with the help of more herbal supplements than we've ever taken before and some top-secret Chinese herbs from Krista, Jamie managed to cut the cold short. I also put up "the wall" as my friend Jen calls it, and did my best to stay healthy. I washed my hands like it was my job, slept on the couch one night, and otherwise tried to mentally block any and all germs from coming my way. It worked! But it was exhausting staying healthy.

Unkie arrived on Wednesday afternoon! So fun! So fun! The best part of having Unkie here is that he shares our passion for the three things we do: eating, sleeping, and relaxing. Perfect. He had a long travel day on Wednesday, so he slept in on Thursday and enjoyed puttering around our apartment. He said it took hours to see all the pics. He read the newspaper, enjoyed being in California, and then picked me up for our adventure. See photos below.

A view of the famous GG Bridge from the Marin Headlands. Unkie and I ventured up here on Thursday afternoon.

My first travel and adventure companion ... he's such a photo composer.

Notice how Unkie is trying to make me shorter. =-)

Here we are.

On Friday he came to school for the day. He sat in on my journalism class and helped some students with PhotoShop, joined me for lunch, and then explored the town while I headed to my last block class. The three of us ended the day and the week with some awesome chair massage — perfect ending to the week — before we headed home to relax, nap and eat. Saturday morning we headed to Sac-town for the big race. A leisurely morning was in order, so we arrived around 1:30 p.m. After checking in, we hit up the expo. Nothing too exciting, but it is clear where I get my "take anything free that's offered you" trait. Unkie spent more time at the expo than we did. I secretly think he loves exploring; he's says he was just seeing what the vendors have to offer. We rounded out the day with a delicious sushi dinner with Megan and Anders, and tried to head to bed early as our wake-up call was coming at 4:20 A.M. Yikes.

The SF running crew waiting for the bus this morning at 5 A.M. It was 32 degrees.

Anders and Unkie bid us farewell, and Megan, Jamie and I caught the bus to Folsom (starting point of the race). It was freezing, literally. Thankfully Jamie made us some headbands and some arm warmers. We also stopped for some garbage bags on Saturday night. Good thinking, Jamie! The start was bustling with 7500 marathoners and 3000 relay participants, and while we were nervous, having been at the start a year ago, we knew what to expect and what we needed to do to meet our goals.

Jamie's race report: I felt pretty good through the first half. I was right on pace, not too fast, not too slow. I was able to keep hitting my splits until 19-20 miles at which time I slowed a bit for two miles but was still on target to come in under 3:10.59. Then at 22 miles, I wasn't able to keep up that pace. I stopped a few times to stretch and was able to run the rest of the way, but not as fast as I had earlier in the race. I came across at 3:15.10. Three minutes faster than last year, but still 4:11 slower than Boston. Damn it!

Mary's race report: I felt great through 18 miles. I kept repeating what someone told Jamie: my job is to run my pace. I also kept repeating my friend Jen's saying: the finish line is a tractor beam pulling you in. My legs got a bit heavy before the halfway point, but my lungs felt awesome and I wasn't having to work hard to maintain pace. Mile 18 got a bit harder, but I was within 8 miles of the finish, so I knew I could push through. Last year I fell off the pace group around mile 18, so with each mile I knew I was holding pace longer than before, but mile 22 was the end for me. I not only fell off the back of the pace group, but my legs also stopped working. I went from 8:23 pace to who-knows-what pace and then some walking. Mentally, this was the hardest race I've ever done. Harder than Ironman, harder than last year. I walked, I shuffled, I promised myself I would "run" the final mile. But I cried when the 3:45 pace group passed me and again when the 3:50 group did. And, I cried my way across the finish line. It wasn't pretty, but I finished in 3:54. Not what I had hoped for, but I think I lost sight of what finishing a marathon means. Boston was one goal, but not the only goal.

The SF running crew and the WTC SuperFan (aka Krista). Notice the noodle, fresh from retirement and IM cheering.

WTC and the State Capitol and the noodle.

My favorite. Krista has seen us finish two marathons, an Ironman and the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon. She has traveled far and wide to shout our names, dry my tears, and otherwise support us in all we've trained for. She's a keeper!

We head to bed and into the final week of classes with some sadness but with a sense of accomplishment. We trained for another marathon during a coaching season and pushed ourselves to achieve greatness. As we tell our water polo girls, some of the best lessons we learn about ourselves come from our athletic endeavors. We did everything we could to train hard and train smart, but sometimes no matter how hard we try, no matter how much we want something, we don't get what we want. It sucks, but we'll give it another try ....

Unkie heads home tomorrow. We have two weeks left before Christmas break. 2010 is on the horizon.

m&j

Cue Christmas

The crackling fire, the stockings hung, the decorated tree .... yippie for Christmas!

Well, with Thanksgiving behind us and our next break only three weeks away, we spent last night and today Christmasing the apartment and making merry. It was the perfect ending to a perfect Thanksgiving holiday.

On Wednesday we cut out of school faster than we've ever managed before. We end our half day of school with a Thanksgiving assembly. It is a time for music and fun, and a few heartfelt thank yous from students, faculty and staff. While usually this is simply one more obstacle to overcome before break begins, this year one of our water polo girls made us cry with probably the greatest thank you we've ever received. It was surely the perfect way to start the holiday season and something we will never forget. After the assembly we briskly walked to the car and headed north to Oregon. It's amazing the climate difference just 9 hours north. Oregon = cold. bbbrrrrr.

We had two great days with Jill, Gee and Jordan. We feasted and relaxed, and enjoyed the beautiful greater Bend area. The real highlight came from the Girls on the Run Turkey Trot. Needing to get in a 6-mile tempo run, we decided to use the race as part of the mileage. And, clearly our training is paying off: Jamie came in fifth and won his age group! That's right. Bend could be the place where low home prices and slow 5k times intersect. Could Bend be our dream city? Nah, too cold. I came in 35th and second in my age group. We got some snazzy red water bottles and a nice ego boost. We headed home on Saturday and enjoyed the comforts of our apartment. It's funny, we enjoy being with family, but coming home feels so good.

Today we had our final weekend run. We banged out 8 miles at marathon pace and felt pretty good. The time in the car didn't do much for our legs, but we were happy to get in the run and feel like we had to hold ourselves back to stay on pace. Marathon is on Sunday. We're eager for the race, and are looking for a few extra hours of sleep each night. We're focused on staying healthy this week and just staying relaxed as we look forward to Sunday morning. Unkie arrives on Wednesday, so once he gets here it's go time.

m&j


Pumpkin Scones (Thank you Cheese Board Collective! I'm clearly on a scone kick. I've made Lemon & Blueberry, Oat, and chocolate chip. Maple Pecan are coming later this week. Might whip up some lemon ones as well; our lemon tree is bursting with fruit!)

What you need
1/2 C heavy cream
3/4 C buttermilk
1 C canned pumpkin (I like Libby's)
3 1/2 C APF
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 C sugar
1 C cold unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes

Topping: 1/4 C sugar & 1/8 tsp cinnamon

What to do
1. Preheat oven to 375. Line cookie sheets with parchment.
2. Whisk together cream, buttermilk and pumpkin.
3. Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg together in the bowl of a stand mixer.
4. Add salt and sugar to dry ingredients and mix with paddle attachment until well incorporated.
5. Add butter at low speed. Mix about 4 minutes until butter is pea sized.
6. Make a well in center of dry mix, add liquid mixture. Mix briefly, only until ingredients come together. You'll want to mix more, but if you can hold off the scones will be even lighter and fluffier!
7. Using a #16 scoop, portion out dough onto prepared sheets. Dust with cinnamon sugar mixture. (Jamie did the latter by using a small strainer and a few light taps of the hand. Worked perfectly!)
8. Bake 25-30 minutes. In our oven, I bake for 15 minutes, rotate pans top to bottom and front to back, and then bake for 10 more minutes.
9. Cool on wire racks.
10. Enjoy. You could add chocolate chips or some sort of nuts to jazz up the flavor. I would vote for the former as nuts in sweets don't really do it for me.

Told you the tree was bursting!

Chicken in a pot (from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food)
Usually I hate Martha Stewart. I find her recipes overly engineered and the final result not nearly worth the work. But, every now and again there's something that is 1. simple and 2. tasty. This is it.

What you need
1 1/2 C chicken broth
1/3 C dry white wine (we used DeLoach because it was on sale)
1 3-4 lb. whole chicken, rinsed, patted dry, giblets removed
1 tbsp butter, room temp
Zattarans cajun seasoning (this is our seasoning favorite -- ok, more like Jamie's. It's his signature spice)
2 leeks, white and light green parts only, rinsed well, cut length-wise into 2-inch pieces
5 good looking carrots, halved both width-wise and length-wise
5 cloves garlic, unpeeled
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 lb new potatoes, cut into bite sized bits
Salt and pepper

What to do
1. Preheat oven to 450. In a 5-quart dutch oven, combine chicken broth and wine. Rub chicken with butter and season generously with cajun spice. Generous! Put chicken in pot and cook, uncovered, for 30 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, toss leeks, carrots, garlic, oil and potatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Remove pot from oven and add vegetables. I added a bit more water and a few more splashes of wine to get the liquid level back up. You can't ruin the dish with too much liquid, but if the liquid level is too low, the veggies don't cook well and things dry out. Ick. Bake covered until chicken juices run clean and veggies are softened— about 40 minutes. Let chicken rest 10 minutes before cutting.
3. Eat. Save leftovers for another night's dinner. This is surely enough for two nights for two people.

Salt Dough Ornaments (inspired by I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas)

What you need
2 1/2 C APF
1 C salt
1 C water

What to do
1. Mix all ingredients until the dough is smooth, workable, and rollable.
2. Roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness.
3. Go crazy with cookie cutters! Don't forget to make a hole in each shape. You're going to need to hang these awesome ornaments on the tree.
4. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet (I did line my cookie sheets with parchment; I was nervous these would stick) and bake for 2 hours at 250 degrees.

We had a blast making these today! The recipe made about 25 ornaments ranging in shape and size. We've got unicorns and stars, wreaths and bunnies, piglets and trees. Of course, once these cool, you can have even more fun with paint. We used simple acrylic paint, easily found at JoAnn's.

Thankful for laughter

Context: we were talking about Christmas presents and birthday presents and the difficulty we're having coming up with gift ideas.

Jamie: Having a birthday the day after Christmas is the cross I bear.
Mary: What does a cross-eyed bear have to do with anything?

gobble gobble
m&j

A new addition to the family

Even though we live in an pet-free apartment, we've managed to maintain a small menagerie of animals without being found out. There's muskrat (from a 1986 language arts project), Jeremy Fisher (a gift from some students a few years back), Loves-a-lot Bear (a 1987 birthday present), and the elder stateswoman Pammy (she was born in 1983 at my Ground Round birthday party). These animals have lived with me, and us, for quite some time. This Friday at our water polo team party, a new family member joined us: Water polo bear. He's pictured to the left of Loves-a-lot Bear; he's the one wearing the water polo cap! How cute is he? He also has a speedo on, and is clearly a veteran player. If you come and visit, we can introduce you.

The end of this week was quite exciting: Andre Agassi on Thursday night (signed book, check!), team party on Friday night (super fun!), awesome 13-mile run on Saturday morning (we both ran faster than need be). We did have to part ways on Saturday afternoon as I headed to trapeze with some friends and Jamie had to work at Open House. Ugh for the latter. But we had a restful evening and early bedtime, so all was right with the world. Today was a glory day as we got more than 10 hours of sleep last night. Lazy weekend mornings are always a favorite in the Collie household. Mix in the Sunday Times, some tasty breakfast, sunny skies, and we were in heaven. We did get out and about to see two homes. One was adorable and perfectly priced, but the neighborhood was not so great. The other was in the greatest neighborhood, but we hated the kitchen and the tile flooring. Oh well. We're becoming more choosy with our home viewing time, so we're trying to see only those places that are true possibilities. We're done sizing up the market and learning the neighborhoods.

Also had a great end to the week baking wise. Visited Smitten Kitchen for two tasty recipes: pumpkin cupcakes and snickerdoodles. The former were a big hit with people at work. The latter are for a student's birthday, pilates, and a bake sale. Quite a workhorse cookie. The cookie scoops have been put to good use this week; Jamie even got in some baking action while making coconut haystacks. What a treat to come home to those on Saturday. He's still tweaking the recipe, so I can't share it quite yet.

We have a short week what with Turkey Day on Thursday. We head to Bend early Wednesday afternoon for a few days with Gee, Jill, and Jordan. Promises to be fun. Not sure about the internet up there, so we might be off-line until next Sunday. If that's the case, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone that reads this and everyone we love!

Oh, one thing we forgot to mention: we love Mountain Hardwear! Jamie got word of a secret sale going on this weekend. Said secret sale was happening in the East Bay. This was a real sale. None of that sort of sale, 10% off crap. This was 75% off or more. We picked up a few new jackets to add to the collection. I got a cute, purple lightweight down jacket (with hood); Jamie got a similar one in black; I also picked up a lightweight down vest. The combined price we paid for the three items was still less than what the cheapest one would have cost in a retail store. Great way to end the weekend!

gobble gobble
m&j

A Happy Belated Birthday and stuff

That's right, November 18 would have been my mom's 67th birthday! I decided to rename the day National Unkie Day. No better way to celebrate my mom than to celebrate the good man she married and the amazing dad that raised Kerry and I. So, Happy Birthday, Mom! Happy Unkie Day, Unkie!

As is evidenced from my forgetfulness — I can't believe I went to bed without posting, again! — it's been a full few days. Self inflicted fullness, of course. It all started on Tuesday with some scone baking. I promised my writing class I would bake for them — it really came from a recent shipment of new cookie scoops; yes, I have five of these; is that weird? The chocolate chip scone recipe made only 17 scones; I have 18 students in class. So, I had to double the recipe. That meant a few solid hours in the kitchen, lots of scones, lots of tasting and testing. It was a great night, but when my students asked for their essays my reply was: you're eating them right now. If only grading were as much fun as baking; maybe then I would hand back papers in a timely fashion.

We had a short but fast tempo run this week. Jamie ran about 10 seconds faster than need be and I squeaked in about 2 seconds faster. Felt good to run so quickly; was also nice to have a five mile run on the schedule. This weekend holds a 13-mile run at marathon pace. After knocking out our final 20, 13 seems like a breeze. That kind of thinking is surely a sign we've been training too long. But, to counteract our running and get us ready for our full return to outdoor cycling, Jamie got us some new kits from Hammer Product — you've got to love the yearly closeout sale. We'll be all decked out and riding the roads in no time.

Two super duper bright spots on the calendar as we close out the week: we're going to a book signing with Andre Agassi tonight and I'm heading to trapeze on Saturday. Yes, we'll be sitting within a few feet of Agassi, and he'll be signing our copy of Open. I'm hoping he brings Steffi and the kids. Then on Saturday I'm bringing my Thailand learned aerial skills stateside. Promises to be fun. Pictures to come.

m&j

ps: scone recipe to come. I'm a school sans cookbook.

Best weekend ever

WTC's Top Rejuvenating Activities

1. Baking cookies and making sugared pecans (I say pee-cans; Jamie says pee-cahns).
2. Waking up with no alarm.
3. Relaxing in the sun-filled living room while reading the newspaper and watching football.
4. Hitting up open studio at Pilates to loosen our legs post 20-miler.
5. Watching the Colts and Peyton Manning. Holy crap, that was a good game.
6. Eating at Bubba's. Delicious.
7. Enjoying some tasty Sol Food with friends.

When you start your 20-mile run at 6:30 A.M. on Saturday morning, and finish up just before 9:30 A.M., it's like the entire weekend is ahead of you. And what the heck are you supposed to do? We're time fillers: those people that struggle with too much free time. But not this weekend. We had couch time and sleepy time and baking time and do nothing time. We even, and this will surely NOT be a habit, did a wee bit of work to get ready for the school week. As I said, this is not normal as we don't like to/find it impossible to work at home, but when you've got oodles of time it's kind of easy. We both felt good on our long run, and now we're headed into the sweet, amazing, awesome, thank goodness we made it taper! Definitely glad to be here.

We did have a fun adventure on Friday night that I have to share. Our cell phone died. Not a quick death, but a sporadic, chaotic one. One moment the phone would work, the next it would shut itself off, and the next it would turn on but the buttons wouldn't function. So, with heads hung low we entered the AT&T store in need of a new phone. 1. We don't like to spend money on phones because, well, we hate using them. 2. We don't want data and texting and pictures and such; we just want to make phone calls. 3. A phone with actual buttons is required. The salesgirl waved us to the cheap and easy phones, and there we stood perplexed on what phone to get. Like any discerning shoppers, we used the store's iPhones to look up phone reviews before making a selection. Here's what the winning phone was noted for: "Large numbers make this easy to use. Great for people with disabilities and the elderly." That translates to perfect for WTC. So far four thumbs up.

Have yourself a happy week.
m&j

Classic Sugared Pee-cans/Pee-cahns (not sure where this is from, but a former colleague swapped me this recipe for a brownie recipe I made)

What you need
2 egg whites
1 C sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 C lightly toasted pecan halves (to toast the pecans, spread on a cookie sheet and toast at 350 degrees. Nuts should be fragrant and lightly browned, about 10-12 minutes)

What to do
1. Heat oven to 250 degrees. Line cookie sheet with parchment or grease with shortening (latter makes a bigger mess but gets the job done.)
2. Put egg whites in bowl of stand mixer and whip until frothy. Add sugar and salt. Mix on low/medium speed until thick.
3. Fold in pecans. Resist the urge to eat pecans now. Who knew eggs whites and sugar could be so good.
4. Transfer pecans to prepared cookie sheet and arrange in single layer. Cook for 15 minutes, then stir gently. Repeat this process until meringue is golden brown. I suggest figuring out the doneness by tasting a nut or two every 15 minutes. Jamie agrees with this process. In total, the nuts are usually done in about 45 minutes.

Store in air tight container -- if any remain after snacking/tasting/testing. This makes a great present and looks super cute in 1/2 pint mason jars. Just whip a little ribbon on the top and you're good to go.