The Accidental Boilermaker

Meredith will graduate in May from Purdue and she has rowed on the Crew team since she was a Freshman so when I came across this amazing tutorial on pinterest, I knew exactly what I wanted to make for my sister. I finished the blanket back in February and I'm not sure if we will be able to attend her graduation, so since she was nice enough to make dinner for Nate and I last Wednesday night, I decided to give it to her a little early. Meredith was super excited, especially when she saw the oar.  Puddles also seemed to approve right away of the blanket. Thanks again to A Handmade Year for helping me make this awesome graduation present.  Boiler Up!

What a whirlwind couple of days!  Nate successfully defended his dissertation on Thursday and while he  technically still has to complete his internship in order to fulfill all his doctoral requirements, I'm calling him Doctor anyway. While Nate was sweating it out in front of his committee, I was able to visit with some old friends.  Me and Avery got to be silly at Jump It and while adults aren't really supposed to play on the inflatable slides, Jennifer and I did anyway. We both knew that my mom was coming down from Chicago on Thursday, but neither me nor Nate knew Katherine coming! She surprised us Thursday night while we were out celebrating with friends. My Mimi and Grandpa even drove over on Friday to surprise Nate too.   Mimi also brought Dr. Bear with her, who wanted to congratulate Nate in person. Finally, a moment to relax and catch up on some basketball while enjoying fro-yo at Orange Leaf. And finally, a random sis...

Saw this on Pinterest the other day and then was reminded of it today while I was changing out of my work clothes into my running clothes inside a port-a-potty (a first for me).  I didn't want to drive all the way home just to drive back to the park where I run (and simply not running was not an option), so I brought my stuff with me.  To be honest, I was planning to change inside the real bathrooms located at the park, but they are "closed for winter."  But I had a really good run so it was all worth it.

Baked Pasta and Sauteed Kale - Quick and easy weekend meal Nate and I love baked pasta - so easy, so good.  Just cook the pasta and drain, mix with your favorite jarred sauce, top with parmesan and mozzarella cheese and bake till bubbly and melty.  Sauteed kale is also easy, tasty, and good for you.  I sauteed an onion in olive oil for about 5 minutes, added a couple cloves of minced garlic and 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes for 30 seconds and then added the kale and continued cooking for about 10 more minutes.  We ate all the kale in the first night.  The baked pasta lasted one more day.  So tonight we are having grilled chicken and sweet potato fries (not meatless - oh well) It is super gross outside today - cold, windy, rainy.  A little bit of freezing rain mixed in has left a decent layer on ice on the trees and fences. So after braving an 8 mile run, I started baking.  Chocolate Sugar Cookies (from my most recent Coo...

One pot pasta e fagioli from The Kitchn I didn't use bacon (even though we did have some), celery (because I don't really like it), or dried beans (because they take too much extra time).  Instead, I sauteed my onions with a couple carrots and then added 2 cans of drained and rinsed canned cannelloni beans. Finally, I added 4 cups of chicken stock and 4 cups of plain water with a whole box of pasta in the hopes of creating more of a stew instead of a soup and it worked pretty good.  There's some prep involved, but overall this is a simple yet very filling meal.

I told Nate that for his birthday we could either go out for dinner or I could make dinner for him.  So Nate requested home-made chicken parmesan (my specialty).  No vegetarian meal for the birthday boy.  And you'd think I force the poor guy to eat only vegetables because part of his present from my Mimi was two Kroger coupons specifically designated for the purchase of meat : ) For dessert, since Nate's not a huge cake fan, I made a blackberry-peach crisp .  We are stocking up on calories in case we have to dig ourselves out of a whole lot of snow later in the week.  Plus Nate decided to share his cold with me, so I think we both deserve a little something sweet.

Who doesn't want bacon, eggs, and hash browns after a 12 mile run?

A totally unsolicited post but I am in love with my new running app - Zombies, Run .  A friend from Indiana bought the app for me and after several calls to iTunes support, I finally got it on Tuesday and completed my first mission/run on Thursday.  It was so fun and so hard! Your job is to collect supplies and help rebuild Abel Township - a base struggling to survive the zombie apocalypse.  The game's story plays through your headphones and you collect supplies as you run.  When you're finished you distribute the supplies in order to strengthen the base.  The best part?  The zombie chases!  At random points during your run, the zombies will start chasing you and you have to sprint to escape.  If the zombies get too close, you "drop" some of your supplies to distract them.  I was wore out when I was done, but I also ran one of my faster times since moving to Virginia (all those hills took some getting used to).  If ...