Ran Like a Mother, Ate Like a Dad

On Mother’s Day, my wife, youngest daughter, and I all participated in a charity 5K run called “Run Like a Mother”. It was the first 5K for all of us. My wife wanted to do it both for the charity Kelly’s Angels (which supports children who have lost their mothers), and also as part of her health and fitness journey. I did it for the charity (my mom died when my sister was only 7) and to support my wife.

The day started pretty early for a weekend. We had to be there at 7:30 in the morning and it takes a half hour to get there. I hadn’t preregistered, so I did so when we arrived. Then we each got our number. I was 602. I’m sure there were more people that registered after me.

The run started at 9:00 and we were a good ways towards the back of the crowd. My wife and I weren’t planning on running fast so we didn’t want to get in the way of others. Since we were so far back, it started as more of a walk until things opened up a little. Kate took off running at this point while I stayed with Linda. Shortly afterwards, Linda started jogging. We jogged a bit then walked a bit throughout the entire hilly course. Generally we walked uphill and jogged down. Around 51 minutes later we arrived at the finish line with Kate cheering us on. Apparently the numbers we wore were tagged in some way. Shortly after we finished, they posted the standings. Kate came in 218th. I was 444 and Linda was 445. According to the web page with the stats, there were 566 runners so we beat over 100 people. Not bad for our first 5K.

When we got back into town, we stopped in for breakfast at a local cafe. The coffee wasn’t great, but my Challah French Toast pretty good. After breakfast we went home and chilled out most of the day. Later on, I went to the store to pick up some steaks. Earlier in the week, I had seen a new seasoning I want to try at BJ’s Wholesale Club, but I didn’t want to spend $7 on a huge container of it. Well, as luck would have it Hannaford had a small packet.

I don’t drink bourbon, but I do like brown sugar so I wanted to give it a try. I seasoned Linda’s steak with the usual garlic powder, onion powder, and Nature’s Seasons, but I used the new marinade on mine. As it cooked, it appeared that some of the marinade may have come off. The steak looked great, but I didn’t think the flavor was very strong. It was good, so I am definitely going to use the rest of the packet on my next steak.

Overall, we had a great Mother’s Day. We ran our first 5K and had some great steaks.  I ran like a mother and ate like a dad. Who could ask for more?

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

My wife Linda recently picked up a package of whole wheat flour and has had great fun making dinner rolls and waffles. This time she made something a little more traditional – chocolate chip cookies. We weren’t quite sure if they would taste as good as “normal” chocolate chip cookies due to the wheat flour.

 

Linda mixed up the ingredients, but our brown sugar had been sitting around for a while. On word of advice: If your brown sugar is all packed together in clumps, break it up BEFORE you add it to the rest of the ingredients. I cannot stress this enough. It was almost comical watching us try to break up the clumps in the mix. At least we didn’t have the chips in yet. Eventually, we ended up using a mashed potato strainer to break them up. It was quite a sight watching us scoop cookie batter into the strainer. It was oddly effective though.

After we got everything all mixed up properly, the rest went flawlessly. They cooked up really well and smelled great cooking. I’m not sure, but I’d swear Linda used more chips than called for in the recipe. The cookies were loaded with them. Not that I’m complaining or anything. I love chocolate chips.

Linda found the recipe on the Betty Crocker site, but here is is below for easy reference.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 egg
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 package (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips (2 cups)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375ºF.
2. Mix sugars, butter, vanilla and egg in large bowl.
3. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt (dough will be stiff).
4. Stir in chocolate chips.
5. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet.
6. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light brown (centers will be soft).
7. Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet. Cool on wire rack.

Makes 3 dozen cookies

via Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Candied Yams Recipe

My wife has been making these for the holidays for as long as I can remember. She always thought I had tried them and disliked them, but for some unknown reason, I never did. Well, the reason isn’t really unknown. It’s because I thought I wouldn’t like them because of the yams. In any case, this year I went ahead and tried them. I can’t believe I went this long without trying them. Here is the recipe if you’d like to give it a try.

Ingredients:

• 1 can of yams
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cup marshmallows

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Pour yams into a 9×9 baking dish
3. Cut up butter into small pieces and distribute evenly
4. Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over the yams
5. Cover with marshmallows
6. Bake for about 25 minutes or until marshmallows become golden brown

If your fussy eater has a sweet tooth, then there is a pretty good likelihood they will enjoy these. I actually went back for seconds and then had more the next day as well. I’m already looking forward to the next time Linda makes them.

Acorn Squash Recipe

Recently, my wife and I picked up an acorn squash to try. We’ve never had one before so we looked around for a recipe that looked like something we might like. She came up with one that seemed kind of similar to the butternut squash recipe that we didn’t like. (Cue dark, foreboding music).

Ingredients:

• Acorn Squash
• 2 tbsp Dark brown sugar
• 2 tsp Cinnamon
• 1 tbsp Butter

Directions:

1. Cut the acorn squash down the middle – Use a large knife as this is not easy.
2. Remove the seeds.
3. Bake for 30 minutes on 350 degrees in a pan with the cut side down.
4. Remove from oven and turn over.
5. Add butter to each half.
6. Add brown sugar and cinnamon to each half.
7. Return to the oven to cook another 30-45 minutes.
8. Remove from the oven and scoop out the squash to serve.

As soon as we started, I had a bad feeling. The acorn squash looked a lot like the butternut squash except it is more round. It has that same orange color. It also has a similar smell. They both remind me of pumpkin. I guess that makes sense since the pumpkin is a kind of squash too. All three are considered “winter squash”.

As with the butternut squash, I was really hoping that the brown sugar would make it taste good. Well, brown sugar let me down again. Even with brown sugar and cinnamon, I didn’t like it. Neither did Linda. We have concluded that we just aren’t winter squash people. However, Linda says that she thinks I might like pumpkin pie. She might make one later this year for me to try.

From what I’m hearing from people, if you don’t like butternut squash or acorn squash prepared with brown sugar, chances are you just don’t like the squash and no recipe will change that. I think we will likely continue our efforts with summer squash when they are in season again.