10 Days of Thanksgiving: Days 9 & 10

10 Days of Thanksgiving: Days 9 & 10

Happy Thanksgiving Eve! Today I will be working and then joining the masses in the great Thanksgiving migration. I hope everyone has a great day today and tomorrow and that you eat lots of great food and have a great day with your friends and family. Here are my last two of ten things that I am thankful of this year!

9. My Feet 
 
“Running isn't a sport for pretty boys...It's about the sweat in your hair and the blisters on your feet." -- Paul Maurer. My feet have taken me many miles. I have been lucky. I have friends who cannot run due to injuries or pain. Not only that, but they have taken me hiking up high mountains and through cities. I do run a lot but I also love to walk. Lately I have been taking walk breaks in San Francisco for a half an hour here and a half an hour there. I play a game where when I get tot he corner I go whatever way is green. I am having a lot of fun seeing little things that I never noticed before.

10. Family

Each year the definition of family gets broader and broader.  The people you see every day at work, the friends who you can pick back up with after months of separation, the blood relatives and their relatives and their friends. This year I am spending Thanksgiving with my brother and his lady and her family. It will be a different day than normal, but regardless, it will be spent with family.

Where is the best place your feet have taken you? Who are you spending Thanksgiving with?
10 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 6, 7 & 8

10 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 6, 7 & 8

There are only two more days until Thanksgiving! And so many more than two more things to be thankful for! Here are a few more things that I am happy about this year!
 
6. Employment

We tend to take this for granted, but after having several months off, I don't sneer at a steady income. Of course, I am still keeping an eye out for the perfect traveling, photography, writing job with good pay, so if you know of an opportunity for that, let me know.

7. Having a 401k

When I was 18 and I was getting my first corporate job, an older friend of the family told me to put at least as much money into my 401k every month as the company would match. He suggested putting more if I could, but that I should at least put in the company match, since if I didn't I would be essentially throwing away free money. He was right, and now I am giving the same advice to people just starting out in their first big job.

8. Travel

Clearly these all go hand in hand. Whatever money I am gaining from employment and not putting into my 401k is going toward as much travel as I can do! Some years it's more than others and this year has been a bit slower than normal, but I have been lucky to both do some traveling around my home state as well as doing  some visiting with friends and family around the country. I hope I will continue to make time for travel, as it is something I really love! 

Kansas City

Washington DC

Oregon

Yosemite

Do you have a 401k? Did you do any fun traveling this year?
Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice



Many people get stressed out with all the extra work that the holidays bring. Not only do you have to do your regular day to day things, but throw in grocery shopping, having a kitchen or house full of people and having to get up early and plan and cook everything so that it hopefully comes out of the oven all at the same time, and you can easily have a meltdown on your hands.

Personally, I love to cook and like we have talked about in some of the previous What’s For Dinner posts, planning ahead is key. It’s hard when you only have four burners and one tiny oven, but it can be done, and it can be fun.

For several years, I was a vegetarian, so I left the cooking of the turkey up to the carnivores. My favorite thing was the sides. Now, I love cooking and eating turkey, but my favorites remain the same. I could eat side dishes all day. Oh wait, I DO eat side dishes all day. However, this can be traumatic on my waistline! So there are a couple of things that I do in order to not feel the post dinner food coma and accompanying guilt.

First, I sign up for a Turkey Trot! I know, it’s sometimes hard to fit in in, but you can put the turkey in the oven and then go off and run. It takes less than an hour for most and you end up feeling invigorated afterward! The other thing I do is that I try to cut down on my butter and sugar intake by doing a few subs to my favorite recipes.

One of my favorite side dishes is sweet potatoes! However, the general recipe is loaded with butter and sugar. Personally I like the taste of the potato and don’t need to cover it up with sugar, so I just go Au natural. Also, I love the flavors of fall, so why not work with what’s available?

Cinnamon Apple Sweet Potatoes
3 Large Sweet Potatoes (or Yams)
1-2 Large Apples
1 cup pecans
4 Tbsp Brummel and Brown spread
2 Tbsp cinnamon
½ -1 cup Craisins
1 tsp salt (or more to taste)


Dice up the apples and sweet potatoes and put them in a large bowl. Add remaining ingredients and toss together thoroughly. Put mixture in 9 x 13 baking dish or on a cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for about an hour, stirring occasionally (3 – 4 times). Remove and enjoy! The apples give it a bit of sweetness without the added sugar.

__________

Another dish I love to make is dessert. One of my favorite recipes is for these pumpkin spice muffins. If you sub part of the sugar with splenda and use Brummel and Brown rather than butter, you have a muffin you can sink your teeth into without feeling the Turkey Day bloat. 

Pumpkin Spice Muffins
1 cup Flour
¼ cup Splenda
¼ cup Sugar (or you can use ½ cup sugar only)
2 tsp Baking Powder
2 tsp Cinnamon
½  tsp Nutmeg
½  tsp Salt
4 Tbsp Brummel and Brown spread, cut into pieces
1 -1 ¼ cup Pumpkin Puree
½  cup Evaporated Milk
1 Egg
2 tsp Vanilla
½  cup craisins (or raisins)

2 Tbsp Sugar
1 tsp Cinnamon
¼  tsp Nutmeg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease 12 muffin tins.

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt. Cut in spread with two knives or your fingers until it is fully incorporated. In a separate bowl, mix together pumpkin, evaporated milk, egg, and vanilla. Pour pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture. Add raisins. Fold gently until mixture is just combined.

Use a ¼ cup measure to fill 12 muffin tins with batter. Sprinkle with remaining cinnamon-sugar-nutmeg mixture over the top of each unbaked muffin. Bake for 25 minutes. Take out of the oven and leave to cool for about 10 minutes before taking out of the tin. If you are like me, you will not listen to this advice and you will take one “ugly” one out for a sample right away. Somebody has to do it. 

Thank you to Good to Know & Unilever Spreads for being a sponsor. I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Who is the Thanksgiving chef in your family? What is your favorite dish to eat? What is your favorite Thanksgiving recipe?
10 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 4 & 5

10 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 4 & 5

I will be foregoing my weekly Fitness Friday post today for a continuation of the 10 days of Thanksgiving. Today we have number 4 and number 5 of the 10 things I am thankful for this year.

4. Where my Parents Live

I have posted about this a million times before, but the place I grew up is so beautiful. It is pine trees and clean air and swimming in the cold river on a hot summer day. It is the sound of birds in the morning and the smell of pine and the wandering up and down through the mountains. It is a great place to go home to. I can't wait to go home for Christmas and play in the snow and bake cookies and play a few rounds of Rummikub and read my book near the fire. For some reason it's that much sweeter at Mom and Dad's house.


Hiking with Dad

Lovely snowy day

5. Public Transportation

One of the best things about living where I do is the fact that I don't need a car. I could probably write a whole post about this too. I have talked a little bit about the Casual Carpool, which is how I get to work, and it only takes about 20 minutes. Going home, I take the bus, which also only takes about 25 minutes. There is also the option of taking the train or a boat. I also walk a lot, and it is nice to have the option to do so. Other than that, there are options for bike shares, car shares, rent by the hour and more. One thing I recently found out about is Get Around, where you can rent out your own car if you don't need it, or you can rent a car by the hour if you do. I love that my monthly transportation cost is roughly 150 dollars and that's including all transportation and gas!

My favorite - the F train

Do you enjoy going back to the area you grew up in? How much do you spend a month on transportation?
10 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 1, 2 & 3

10 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 1, 2 & 3

Lately, I have so many things going around in my head that I cannot make them settle coherently. This is good timing though, since last year I joined up with Lisa to do the 10 Days of Thanksgiving and it's about that time again! Like last year, I will not necessarily do one a day, but there WILL be 10 things! You can see the ones I did last year here. Also like last year, I am a little late to the party. That's the way it goes in November, I guess. The first three are kind of a theme... Here they are: Things I am thankful for this year, number 1, 2 and 3!

1. Where I Live

The neighborhood

This year I am lucky to be in the Bay Area, where the weather is perfect running weather all year round. No matter what you like to do, it is here. Within walking distance, there are restaurants, grocery stores, running trails, art, wine and easy biking paths. It is all here! There is something for everyone and the everyones are varied. I like having varied everyones around me.

2. Great Food 

Pancakes at La Note

Ethiopian? Vietnamese? Nepalese? Burmese? YES PLEASE! I love all the great ethnic food near me and let me tell you, I MISS that when I am working around the country. I get so tired of fried food and meat with gravy. I want a nice, steaming hot bowl of Pho! So that's great. My other favorite thing to do is Brunch. I have a list of places To Try that I am working on, albeit slowly! Some of my local favorites? Brown Sugar and Sams Log Cabin. This is up for change though! Any suggestions?

3. Places to Run 

Huckleberry Preserve

This deserves a post all on it's own, but it is so nice to not only have a great neighborhood to run in, but also several paths nearby. Best of all, there are several parks with many, MANY different trails to run on. As you know, trail running is my favorite thing to do and I also think running hilly routes is better for you, is less monotonous and makes you stronger overall. So having these so near to me is pure BLISS. I don't ever want to live anywhere where I don't have trail access ever again!

What are you thankful for this year? What is your favorite thing about the area you live in?
Ten Days of Thanksgiving: Days 9 and 10

Ten Days of Thanksgiving: Days 9 and 10

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope that you are actually reading this on Friday, after you have successfully stuffed yourself with food on Thursday and so you couldn’t get off the couch, even to read blogs (gasp)! Or maybe it’s Thursday and you are tired of watching your uncle Leo yell at the football game, so you have popped online for a brief respite!

Today marks the last two days of Ten Days of Thanksgiving (inspired by Lisa). It has been fun to do this, both to remember the little things and because it makes me realize how many there are! It was HARD to narrow it down to only 10! I hope that you joined along, whether publicly or privately, and that we all keep remembering to be glad of the little things all year round. Happy Holidays!

And now, numbers 9 and 10!

United Airlines: I have to admit, I sometimes use Delta, but generally United carries me across the nation to see the ones that I love. Be it West or East, United gets me to where I need to go. Luckily I travel a lot for work, so when I want to travel for pleasure, I have a few points saved up for fun! Also, earlier this year when my flight from San Francisco to Sacramento (a 30 minute flight) was delayed for a couple of hours, they gave me a $200 voucher for my troubles. Thanks to United, today I am Back East, celebrating the overeating of turkey and the playing of Pictionary with my friends and family. 

In addition to the United plane seen here, I saw Air Force One in San Francisco!!!

Travel: I am thankful for travel for many different reasons. First, I find that travel broadens the mind and opens up the horizons. No matter if you are going to Missouri or France, you learn something about people, history and landscapes, just from going to a new place. And from there, you may learn something about yourself. Other than that, I am thankful that I get to travel. This year I was lucky enough to go on several trips, including a Round The World trip which ended in May! I also got to spend a lot of time with friends and family, which has been great since I am normally so far away from them!

Going boonie bashing with my parents -- Northern CA

Me and Mark Twain -- Hartford, CT

River Float Trip -- Current River, MO


Drinks at Limon with H -- San Francisco, CA

Grandma S's house -- MA

Fishing with Bro -- Marin County, CA
 
Racing with M -- Newburyport, MA

Me and Dad -- Markleeville, CA

Dancing with Penguins -- KC, MO


A's first birthday -- Sacramento, CA


Road Trip to Reno, NV

Cardinals Game -- St. Louis, MO

NYC, NY with the B's
Meetup with Lisa -- Minneapolis, MN
Raise your glass! A, K and K -- East Bay, CA
 I hope that you are having a great day with YOUR friends and family! Gobble, gobble!

Where have you traveled this year? Do you travel for work or for fun? Do you get to see your friends and family a lot? 
Ten Days of Thanksgiving: Days 7 and 8

Ten Days of Thanksgiving: Days 7 and 8


Today we have Days 7 and 8 of the Ten Days (crammed into 4 by me) of Thanksgiving (inspired by Lisa).

#7: Fruit: I eat at least an apple a day, sometimes more. I enjoy pretty much all fruit and am glad that we live in a place where we can get it fresh and juicy no matter what season, although I prefer each fruit in the season where it is ripe. I was lucky this year to catch both blackberry and apple season at home, where we can pick them right off the bush and tree. I also very much enjoyed the blueberries and fresh peaches from the farms in Missouri. 

Saturn peaches

California strawberries

Blueberries are like candy!

Picking blackberries for cobbler

#8: Flour: I know that you already know that I love to bake. Actually I tend to stay away from bread-like items most of the time. However, when I get the chance I do love to throw some flour in with a few eggs and make a muffin or a cookie or bread. So, even though I don’t use it very often, I am thankful for flour and for the baked goods it makes. 

Buttermilk flax muffins

Green Tomato muffins
A Few Other Things I’ve Made Using Flour:
Apple Bundt Cake
Blackberry Cobbler
Cake Pops

What is your favorite fruit? Is there a good farmer's market near your house? What carb-loaded goodie do you like to splurge on from time to time? 
Ten Days of Thanksgiving: Days 4, 5 and 6

Ten Days of Thanksgiving: Days 4, 5 and 6

The list continues! The idea was conceived by Lisa. I am doing the Cliff Note version of her Book, 10 Days of Thanksgiving. Here are numbers four, five and six.

#4: These Legs: In the last 5 months, my legs have successfully carried me hundreds of miles and I want to say, “Thank You Legs, for not giving up out on me”. I am also appreciative of these lungs and this heart. They are hard workers and rarely ever complain. I have been incredibly lucky to be in good health and I realize it may not last forever. I am happy to have it while I do! My grandfather used to say if he had three wishes, they would be: To be Healthy, Wealthy and Wise. I am working on the other two, but the heath thing right now is great!

Hamming it up at the Newburyport Green Stride Half Marathon
#5: Librarians: Thanks to various libraries, I have saved approximately $357.35 on books this year. Not to mention the Audiobooks, DVDs and CDs that I borrowed. I guess the thanks also go to Your Tax Dollars at Work. Thanks to all of you for supporting my book habit in a round-about way. You are contributing to my education and entertainment. Due to a dearth of good books, I have also managed to avoid watching crappy TV. (You can see some of the books I have read this year on my Bookshelf)

My stack of To-Read library books
#6: People Like You: Yes, you. All of you. From people like my Grandma and ST (you know who you are), who never leave comments publicly but always send me notes of encouragement, to people who have never met me before who give advice and antidotes and support. To the runners, the writers, the readers and the everything-in-between-ers. I don’t know where I would be without you all. And to those bloggers who I have met up with, it was like we were old friends, meeting up after a separation. What a great feeling! I can’t wait to meet more old friends!

Blogger Meetup with Raquelita and Lisa in Minneapolis

Do you especially appreciate (or loathe) a particular body part of yours? Do you ever get books from the library? Have you ever met someone you knew from the internet? If so, how did it go? 
Ten Days of Thanksgiving: Days 1, 2 and 3

Ten Days of Thanksgiving: Days 1, 2 and 3

My friend Lisa is doing a list of 10 things she is thankful for and I thought that was such a great idea. She is actually doing one a day for 10 days, but since I was in questionable internet land, I didn't quite make it on time to do that, so I am going to do my 10 days of Thanksgiving in 4 days this year. Next year I will have to be more organized and make it in 10 days, but for now, this is what we have to work with. You will probably notice that my family and friends will not make it onto this list, but that is only becuase this is a given. Of course I am thankful for them! These 10 things will be more of things that I may not always remember to be thankful for.

So, without further ado, in no particular order, 10 things that I am thankful for, 2 at a time:

#1: Three Grandmas: I am lucky enough to have not one, not two, but three grandmas in my life still. All of them are kind and loving and two of them even know how to use email (which is something to be thankful for in itself!)  I try to see them as much as possible, but they are all busy ladies. Grandma D travels the world and I can never remember if she is in Florida or Spain this winter. Grandma B is an active participant in all the grand children's baseball, football, polo, soccer and hockey games. Grandma S goes to the gym, does volunteer work and makes quilts which are then auctioned off and the proceeds go to charity. They are all still very active!

Gma S and I having drinks on the screen porch by the pond

Gma B and my Bro in San Francisco

Gma D making dinner on a nice summer day
#2: Enough Electronics to Choke a Donkey: I love electronics, but they are not something I really spend money on for myself. I have been very lucky to have people in my life who make it their purpose to keep me in business, electronics-wise. So thanks to my brother, my parents and Mr. L, I am connected with the world, can read, can take photos and can track my running!  Without them I would probably have a free flip phone and a library card and would be running around in circles, lost.

One of my favorite toys

#3: Honorary Nieces and Nephews:  My friends have done me the favor of having kids so I don’t have to. Thanks to them, my Mom has lots of kid’s photos on her fridge. Also this gives me the opportunity to hug and kiss and rile up babies and then hand them back over when I am done. I think really it is a win-win situation overall. So, thanks for getting knocked up girls! You have really done me a favor! 

Little A

Little C
Compiling this list is really a great way to remember how many things there really are to be thankful for! I could probably name hundreds of things. I guess some of them will have to wait for next year! 

Do you still get to see your grandparents? What is your favorite electronic toy? Do you have kids? If not, do you have honorary nieces or nephews? Do you have real ones?
B is For Borrowing

B is For Borrowing


Sara did my job for me and put up a bunch of photos from Thanksgiving. There is even one of me making stuffing (or dressing, if you will) and Dad apparently showing me where the turkey's neck or other hole is. Also on her site is Mom massaging a turkey and a bunch of shots of various items of food going into people's mouths. Anyway, instead of me uploading a bunch more photos.....please go to her site to see our family photos! (in the photo above, thats Sara on the bottom, second from the right, in case you didn't know). Thanks Sara!!