Breakfast Sandwich

This morning I made a yummy breakfast sandwich. I modeled it after a sample I tried at a local coffee shop yesterday. There's had motzerella cheese, and all I had in the house was Irish Dubliner. I think the sandwich was really good, but would have been a bit better with a different cheese.

Ingredients to make two:
two mini bagels - toasted
two eggs - fried
two slices of cheese
12 spinach leaves - fresh

7 grape tomatoes or 1/2 Roma tomato
1/4 cup red onion
1 tsp olive oil

pan fry the onion and tomato until soft.

Pile all ingredients on the bagel and enjoy!

Pumpkin Scones

Starbucks Pumpkin Scones have been a favorite treat of mine for
10+ years. A few years ago my daughter tried them and also fell in love. Being the person that I am, I naturally searched online for a recipe I could make at home, so I didn't have to buy the scones at Starbucks (which I rarely did). I found a recipe here: I've been using it for almost three years now, my family loves it, my co-workers love it, so needless to say, it's a keeper. I modify it slightly, which I will comment on in (parenthesis) below. I ended up tripling the recipe so I'd have some to take to work with me, and some to freeze (I just froze the dough.)

Yield: 6 scones

Scones

2 cups all-purpose flour

7 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

6 tablespoons cold butter

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

3 tablespoons half-and-half

1 large egg

Powdered Sugar Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon powdered sugar

2 tablespoons whole milk

Spiced Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

3 tablespoons powdered sugar

2 tablespoons whole milk (I use half and half)

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 pinch ginger

1 pinch ground cloves

Directions:

TO MAKE THE SCONES:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly oil a baking sheet or line with parchment paper.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices in a large bowl. Using a pastry knife, fork, or food processor, cut butter into the dry ingredients until mixture is crumbly and no chunks of butter are obvious. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk together pumpkin, half and half, and egg. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Form the dough into a ball.

Pat out dough onto a lightly floured surface and form it into a 1-inch thick rectangle (about 9 inches long and 3 inches wide). Use a large knife or a pizza cutter to slice the dough twice through the width, making three equal portions. Cut those three slices diagonally so that you have 6 triangular slices of dough. (I NEVER do this, I just use a spoon and plop the dough down on the baking sheet, lined with parchment paper, they end up being roundish, not triangular, but I can live with it.)

Place on prepared baking sheet.

Bake for 14 -16 minutes. Scones should begin to turn light brown. Place on wire rack to cool.

TO MAKE THE PLAIN GLAZE (I don’t make this, I only make the spiced glaze)

Mix the powdered sugar and 2 tbsp. milk together until smooth.

When scones are cool, use a brush to paint plain glaze over the top of each scone.

AS THAT WHITE GLAZE FIRMS UP, MAKE THE SPICED ICING:

Combine the ingredient for the spiced icing together. Drizzle this thicker icing over each scone and allow the icing to dry before serving (at least 1 hour). A squirt bottle works great for this, or you can drizzle with a whisk.

Read more: http://www.food.com/recipe/starbucks-pumpkin-scones-214051#ixzz1jS9aUsyg

Starting Over, from Scratch

I can't believe it's been two years, almost to the date since I last blogged on here!
Lately I've been trying to cook and bake as much as possible from scratch. This includes making my own marinades and sauces, some breads and snacks. Why, you might ask? The main reason is for health, there are SO many chemicals and preservatives (yes, I know preservatives are chemicals) in most of the food on the grocery store shelf. Budget also plays a role in this equation, it is much more cost effective to bake from scratch.

Time is the third piece to the puzzle, since starting a Masters program in October 2011 I have been busier than ever! I work full time, have a husband and a 9 year old daughter, thus my days an nights are pretty booked. It is so nice to have my meals all planned out for the month, with most of them already prepped and ready to go in the freezer. I'll blog more about that another day. For today I'll share a recipe with you for Sweet and Salty granola bars. My daughter loves the sweet and salty granola bars from Quaker, but they are SO expensive in the 'regular' grocery store and I no longer have a Costco membership. I searched the internet to try and find a comparable recipe but didn't have much luck, so I ended up combining two recipes found here and here.
Mary's Sweet and Salty Granola Bars

• 3/4 cup peanut butter, preferably natural
• 4 tbsp butter
  
• 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-2 cups mini pretzels
• 3 1/2 cups *toasted oats
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped nuts (I used half peanuts and half cashews)
• 2/3 cup melted butter
  
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup honey
  
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp salt
  
  

*To toast the oats, put them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 10-15 minutes at 350 degrees.

Line a 13" x 9" baking pan with parchment paper.

In a sauce pan melt the 4 tbsp butter, add the 3/4 cup peanut butter, 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, 1/4 cup honey and 1 tsp vanilla extract, stir over medium low heat for about 10 minutes, or until completely mixed. Pour the mixture into the baking pan. Put the mini pretzels on top of the mixture (see picture).

In a large bowl mix oats, brown sugar, chopped nuts, chocolate chips,
egg, honey, melted butter, vanilla extract and salt. Put this mixture
on top of the pretzel mixture.
Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.
Let cool before cutting.


They turned out really good! They don't taste anything like
the Quaker ones, but I'm happy with the result. I would maybe add a little less chocolate chips next time, since they are really sweet.

Let me know if you try out the recipe!

A new year, a new goal

It has been ages, months really, since I last updated this blog. My last post was in July, the day after my birthday and 5 days before my Dad had brain surgery to remove a cancerous tumor discovered on July 15. His surgery went well, he currently taking chemo and doing well.
I DID run the marathon, and perhaps one day I'll blog about it, but for now, just know that I did it.
I also bought a house!
A lot has happened since last July, all of it was life changing.

For now, I'm happy to report that I started running again, joined the YMCA and hope to complete at least two marathons this year, the first one may be in April.

Fifteen.15. 10 + 5

Wow. Running 15 miles is hard. Who'd a thought? We started at 6:40am at Zuanich Park, ran to Chuckanut Crest (near the Teddy Bear Cove Parking Lot on Chuckanut Drive) and ran back. I had a lovely running partner; I think I talked her ear off. For some reason I just couldn't shut-up.

The run was good, I felt okay during it and immediatly after. However, now at 2:30 I am pretty sore! Mostly my feet, but also my butt and legs. I more worried about tomorrow though, the soreness tends to wait a day or two to really kick in!

The cuts on my feet didn't bleed, so all is well there.

When we got done we remarked that it was fantastic that we ran that far, but can't imagine tacking 11 more miles on. 2 months to go!

A Year Older, a new group

I did not realize this until a few months ago, but women in their thirties are extremely competitive and fast. Looking at the top times for races for women in their 20's compared to 30's is unreal. If only I had decided to start running a few years ago!

To top it off, I sliced my foot open in three places today. I was trying to hydrate myself for the big 15 mile run tomorrow. I dropped a glass and it shattered sending shards of glass everywhere. Thankfully nothing was cut deep.

Happy Birthday to me!

Run 542

also known as CRAZY GIRL WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?

For some reason I cannot explain, I decided to do the Run 542. It's only 7 miles, yes I can say only 7 with confidence now. However, it's the 3,000 ft elevation gain that's got me worried!.

RUN542 climbs nearly 3000 total feet over 7.2 miles of very rough access roads and technical single track in, around and through the legendary Mt Baker Ski Area and the Mt. Baker/Snoqualmie National Forest. Starting at the White Salmon Base Area (el. 3500ft), under the magnificent glaciers of Mt. Shuksan, the course climbs 5 separate and challenging ascents, laced with 4 descents, and tops out at Artist Point (el. 5140ft.).

Again, what was I thinking?

I did sign up for a class through the YMCA to train for the run, which is great. There are 6 other awesome ladies also in the class.
It should be fun!