Long Weekend Fun = Sad Goodbye

My Mom was visiting this last week. It was a Holiday Weekend (Victoria Day - celebrating Queen Victoria's Birthday) here in Canada. We had beautiful weather, great food, really good drinks & fun adventures all with my Mom here with us. She and I went on 4 runs together over the 8 days she was here! That was a lot of fun for me! 

It was really sad to take her to the airport yesterday. Each visit the twins are older and more aware of how much fun it is to have their Grandparents around and more and more devastated when they leave. It really breaks my heart. More on my feelings on this "assignment" we are on in a later post - I want to keep this one up beat!

A few other blogs I follow of friends I have met here in Canada did a recap of their long weekends in photos. Seems like a good way for me to sum up our fun time with Nana as well! Thanks La Dauphine  and Cherry Pie Twins for the idea!

Planting a Vegetable Garden with Nana!

I'll write more soon about the vegetable garden and our unexpected guests munching on it! Argh!

Taking Nana out on her first "treasure hunt" aka Geocaching

See my post on Geocaching here. This find was called "Dude, I lost my car"! Super fun!

Finding the Cache in the lost car!

When we are not using Saturday night as our date night we often entertain at home and always have Saturday Night Steak. I tried a few new and really good recipes. We invited some of the running friends my Mom has gotten to know on her visits here. See the recipe for the layered hummus dip here and I'll post about the others (Strawberry White Chocolate Tiramisu & Blue Cheese & Pear Crostini & Strawberry Margaritas) soon! 

Saturday night steak with running friends!

Another Geocaching adventure in our friends new neighborhood of Bronte Harbor. We didn't find the first one, but luckily there was another nearby!

Geocaching, beach walk, & lunch at the Fire Hall

We ended the long weekend and my Mom's visit with a Victoria Day BBQ and invited over my cousin (actually my Mom's first cousin, my 2nd cousin) and his partner. 

Mike, Nana & Logan playing a game on the iPad

I hope you had a fabulous long Victoria weekend if you are Canadian - it was wonderful weather here. If you are American do you have fun plans for the upcoming Memorial Weekend? I wish safe weather for everyone this weekend after the recent devastation! 

Summary Saturday

I'm a day off! Eeek! Not a good start to my weekly summaries! It's been a busy weekend. My Mom has been visiting since Tuesday and the weather has been gorgeous so we have been outside a lot! 

Training

Monday - run: 40 min run with hill repeats. Elizabeth Primrose came out to discuss running form for our running group. Click here for the recap on that. 
strength training: legs, lots of squats & lunges!

Tuesday - off day - drove my cousin & his wife to Buffalo airport and picked up my Mom

Wednesday - run: 40 min run with hill repeats with my Mom! We did hill repeats again because I only got one set in on Monday night because of the running form part. 
strength training: upper body & core. Tonight was low weight, high intensity circuits. My Mom joined us and did great! 

Thursday - off

Friday - 7k easy run

Saturday - 12k long easy run

Web Find

We hosted a few running friends over for Saturday night steak dinner (when we are home on Saturday nights we cook steak). I was looking for some spring/summer recipes. Of course I went to Pinterest for inspiration. I found a great recipe for a hummus layered dip I want to share. It's really easy and the flavors make it taste like it was so much harder to prepare than it really was. I highly recommend it!

Layered Hummus Dip from therightrecipe.org

Layered Hummus Dip Recipe

Ingredients

16 oz container of your favorite hummus - I used a roasted garlic flavor
equal amounts (I did around 3/4 cups each) of diced tomatoes, diced red onion, chopped kalamata olives & diced cucumber
1/4 - 1/2 cup feta cheese crumbles
tablespoon fresh dill 

Directions

Spread the hummus evenly on a platter - I used a cake stand like the picture from therightrecipe.org. Mix tomatoes, red onion, kalamata olives & cucumber in a bowl. Spread evenly over hummus. Sprinkled feta cheese crumbles over top then fresh dill. I cut off a couple sprigs of the dill and used a kitchen scissors to chop the dill over the dip.

Serve with pita chips! Enjoy!

Goals for the Week

* I really need to get my nutrition back on track. My Mom is a healthy eater, but I feel like we drank more than usual - toasting her visit and the fabulous weather we were having. 

* With not feeling the greatest last week I did not wake up before the boys any morning. I really enjoyed that time so I need to start that again.

* Run again on my own on either Thursday or Friday. I have been only running 3 days a week since that's all the group meets for - but running this Friday morning with my Mom felt really good. I also know that will benefit my training for the marathon.

Do you have any weekly food traditions like Meatless Mondays or Saturday night Steaks? How many days a week do you run when training for a long distance race?

My "famous" Guacamole

I really love to entertain people at our home. I mostly host parties with appetizers and drinks, although I have been fine tuning my "dinner parties" as well. I am an extremely social person so I don't like to be stuck in the kitchen preparing food while my guests are at the house. I tend to prepare most items ahead of time and have them all out to munch on so that I can enjoy the party with my guests. One of my staple prepare-ahead-of-time-foods is guacamole. I make it so often people have come to expect it at a get together at our home. My cousin came to visit with his wife from Portland, Oregon and I made fish tacos for dinner. What better to serve that with than my "famous" guacamole. For a while I wasn't giving out my "secret ingredients" but I was getting asked about my recipe so often, I decided to be flattered instead of secretive about it.

So consider yourself lucky that I'm sharing my recipe, ha! :-)

I usually don't measure out my ingredients when making this guacamole. I have made it so many times I know when it's good by a quick taste or consistency. I measured things out this time around to be able to post the recipe. But with all recipes, feel free to add more of the things you like and less of what you don't!

I always consider my crowd when adding the jalapeño pepper and red hot sauce - more for those I know can handle it, less for those that can't or if I know kiddos will be eating it. Have you heard that Midwesterners, specifically Minnesotans can't handle spice? I've heard the joke that ketchup is considered a spice in Minnesota! I'm not one of those people - I can handle the non-ketchup kind of spice! :-)

I base the amount of my ingredients for this guacamole based on the number of avocados I'm going to use. I base the number of avocados I'm going to use on the amount of people I'm serving. For this batch I was making it for 6 people + a couple toddlers sneaking bites!

Ingredients (missing garlic)

Begin by chopping the cherry tomatoes. Depending on their size I usually cut them in half then quarter each half. I prefer cherry tomatoes because I like that they are firm after cut into eighths. I like my guacamole chunky! 

Halve cherry tomatoes, then quarter each half

Dice red onion - Have you ever wondered why they call it red onion when it's clearly purple?!?!

Diced red onion

Using rubber gloves chop the jalapeño and garlic. Roughly chop cilantro. 

Mix together tomatoes, onions, jalapeño, garlic & cilantro in a container you can close tightly. Squeeze the juice from one lime over the tomato mixture. Stir well, cover and refrigerate for a hour or overnight. I usually make the guacamole this far the night before. That way before I'm serving it I don't have the mess in my kitchen of all the chopping. I like how the guacamole tastes with these veggies marinating in the lime juice! 

Veggies marinating in lime juice

Just prior to serving cut up avocados. I forgot to take a picture of myself cutting the avocados. I found this picture from ourbestbites.com on how I cut them. First run your knife around the avocado the long way. Remove the pit. Slice into the avocado making a checker board look. Then spoon out into a large bowl. Repeat with each half of the avocados.

How to cut an avocado by ourbestbites.com

Mash the avocados to desired consistency. I always like to leave it a bit chunky. 

Stir in marinated tomato mixture. Add tablespoon of worcestershire sauce. This is my secret ingredient - I like how it gives the dip a smokey flavor. Depending upon how spicy I want the dip or how spicy the jalapeño is I'll had 3-4 dashes of red hot sauce. Add a pinch or two of salt and pepper to taste. I usually don't add too much salt even if it tastes like it needs it - tortilla chips have enough salt on them! Stir well and serve with tortilla chips! Enjoy!


Guacamole Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup cherry tomatoes (halved or quartered)
3/4 cup diced red onion
1 medium sized jalapeno pepper (seeds removed from all or half depending on spice level desired)
2 garlic cloves - minced
juice of one lime
3 ripe avocados
1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
3-4 dashes of red hot sauce (more or less depending on taste)
salt & pepper to taste

Begin by chopping the cherry tomatoes. Depending on their size I usually cut them in half then quarter each half. Using rubber gloves chop the jalapeño and garlic. Roughly chop cilantro. 

Mix together tomatoes, onions, jalapeño, garlic & cilantro in a container you can close tightly. Squeeze the juice from one lime over the tomato mixture. Stir well, cover and refrigerate for a hour or up to overnight. Just prior to serving cut up avocados. Mash the avocados to desired consistency.

Stir in marinated tomato mixture. Add tablespoon of worcestershire sauce. Depending upon how spicy I want the dip or how spicy the jalapeño is I'll had 3-4 dashes of red hot sauce. Add a pinch or two of salt and pepper to taste. I usually don't add too much salt even if it tastes like it needs it - tortilla chips have enough salt on them! 

Stir well and serve with tortilla chips! Enjoy!

Do you have a dish that you consider your "famous" or "signature" one? Do you share the recipe?

Hello

Me & the Mr at the Around the Bay 30K Race in Hamilton Ontario Canada

Hello, My Name is Katie. I'm starting this blog as a way to archive the next 26 weeks of my life. 

Why the next 26 weeks? Well because that is how many weeks it is until the 2013 Chicago Marathon.  

Here are a few things about me you may want to know - or that may help explain the things posted on this blog:

- I was born and raised in Minnesota. Yes, I have a very distinguishable Minnesoooootan accent! :-)

- I'm a wife to a man from Wisconsin. He loves U.S. College & Professional Sports. Notably the Green Bay Packers, University of Wisconsin Badgers, & the Minnesota Twins (more on the not-so-random Minnesota team later)

- I'm a wife to a chocolate salesman. Yes I have an endless supply of chocolate at my disposal! Yum!

- We live temporarily in the Toronto area of Canada for my husband's job.

- I'm hold a Masters degree in Elementary Education. I taught elementary school for several years prior to moving to Canada.

- I'm a mother to Twin 3 year old Boys. You will hear a lot about them. They are the reason I wake up in the morning and the reason I run.

- I love to travel. Having the twins has slowed that down a bit, but thankfully we have grandparents that love them to pieces and are willing to stay with them so we can travel. 

- I love to cook & eat good food and I really enjoy a good glass of red wine or an ice cold margarita! I will post often about my cooking, but don't expect professional pictures of my creations. My camera of choice is my iPhone these days and that's what you will get! :-)

- I run. I'll chat more about that in the next post. 

So for now, thank you for reading. I'm not sure how many will, as this blog is mostly meant as a way for me to get my thoughts out about training for the marathon. But, if you have stumbled upon me. . .Welcome, I'm happy you're here!