Recipe of the Week!

Turkey Cheesecake

Don't know what to do with your leftover turkey from Thursday? Well this is delicious and different. This fabulous recipe is brought to you by the Rimkus Family. I know turkey cheesecake may not sound the most appealing, but trust me, it's good. This recipe is also very simple to make. The hardest part is waiting patiently for it to finish baking. It can also be made with chicken. If you have a springform pan, that would be the best thing to use. My mom didn't have one, so I just used a stone pie dish and it worked out just fine.

Ingredients:
12 oz. French onion dip
Three 8 oz. packages cream cheese
4 eggs
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp dill
1.5-2 pounds shredded, cooked turkey
Cranberry sauce

Directions:
Beat together cream cheese, onion dip, dill, and flour. Once combined beat in one egg at a time. Fold in turkey. Place batter in a lightly greased pan. Bake at 350 degrees for an hour and a half, or until a knife comes out clean. Serve with cranberry sauce on the side.

Thanksgiving!

My Entire Family

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving yesterday! For the first time in a long time every member of my family was home and we celebrated together. Our dinner was delicious and the company was even better. I only wish there was a videographer. I'm fairly certain the event could have been picked up as a reality show for Bravo. We are all very lucky to have each other and be able to celebrate as one large family.

The Girl Cousins 

To commemorate the occasion we had to take an entire family photo. Again, it should have been a video instead of a single picture. In case you are wondering who took the photo, it was the ever so lucky significant others of two of my cousins. I'm not positive they will be coming back for Christmas festivities. 

All the cousins and Grandma Nancy

Earlier in the morning some of us participated in the Pittsburgh Turkey Trot. I will be posting more about this as a part of Marathon Monday. It was MUCH better weather than last Thanksgiving. I was definitely thankful for that. It was also great to be able to work up an appetite for all the great food later in the day. Overall, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving with so much to be thankful for this year. More to come on other outings in Pittsburgh during our visit soon!!!

Marathon Monday

Last week I was busy racking up the miles. This week, not so much. Just a little over 13 miles total. My long run this past week was only to be six miles, a step back from last week's nine miler. That combined with the fact that we had some unseasonably COLD weather didn't prove well for even coming close to last week's accomplishments.

Sunday we did our 6 miles around my neighborhood. For a change of pace I decided we should do the route backwards. It's always so weird doing stuff like that. All the hills you think you are running up never seem hilly going down them, yet all the regular downhills seem like mountains to get up.

My other two runs, on the manageable weather days this week, were just as uneventful. I was pleased with my pace though. And it was exciting to use my new headphones, which very happily stayed in my ears. Upgrade! The two days included a little over three miles on Monday and four on Thursday leaving right from school to try to beat the sun setting. If nothing else it's nice to have somewhere different to run around rather than my neighborhood or my friend's.

The best part of this past running week was entering into the 4's on my countdown. Only 46 days until half marathon funsies!!!

Friday Love, On Saturday

I went out last night! I hardly ever (more like never) go to Happy Hour, especially on a Friday when I can barely make it to bed without falling asleep on the couch. So my {Friday Love} didn't get finished on Friday, here it is on a chilly Saturday morning. Have a great weekend!

{ONE}

Mr. Terupt Falls Again. I talked a little bit before about how I was starting book clubs at school this year. I LOVED my first one. We read 'Because of Mr. Terupt.' Last weekend I read the sequel, 'Mr. Terupt Falls Again.' Sadly I will not be reading this with my group (it has too many teenage issues), but I am looking forward to sharing the first Mr. Terupt book with a new group soon.

{TWO}

Cousins. I LOVE my cousins so, so much! I can't imagine my childhood, or life today, without them. I saw this {funny article} about which cousins are coming to Thanksgiving and it made me laugh. All my cousins are 'the good cousins' and we have the best time at every holiday. Can't wait til Thursday!

{THREE}

New Shoes. Brooks came out with their new Adrenaline running shoes a few weeks ago, and I was more than ready for a new pair of running shoes. The two pairs that I had been wearing were past their prime. I actually bought two new pairs due to the amount of miles that will be put on them the next six weeks. I love, love the colors they did this year! What a difference some cushioning can make :)

{FOUR}

Ciabatta, Pancetta, Chestnut Stuffing. I am a stuffing hater. I can't describe to you how much I dislike the stuff. It's always so mushy and chicken broth tasting. Then one fateful Thanksgiving years ago my sister made {this stuffing}. My life was changed. This stuff is good. So good. I'm telling you if you make this, you will never make another stuffing in your life. It has REAL bread, drastically improving the texture, and the flavor combination of the pancetta and rosemary can't be better. It's a Thanksgiving miracle!

{FIVE}

Sport Clip Earbuds. You might remember the tragic story of my headphones breaking mid-run last weekend. Thankfully, I was able to find myself a new pair and they are quite an improvement. They stay in my ears without me having to adjust them regularly. It's great!

Marathon Monday

Last Sunday started my training week off strong. My running partner and I planned to do eight miles around the lovely rolling hills of Bristow complete with water stop and bathroom break. We started off with our typical five mile loop around my neighborhood. We stopped back at my house for what was supposed to be just a couple minutes, but for some reason decided to take our good old time having snacks and chatting. Once we finally went back outside to do the remaining three miles, starting straight uphill, three more miles seemed like a lot. Ironically, though, at the last minute we decided to tack on an extra mile at the end to give us nine for the day!

We had last Tuesday off for Veteran's Day so we decided to take advantage of our daylight hours and do another five or so miles. I went to my friend's neighborhood this day. She decided to try to change our route. I swear to you it was all uphill. I felt like I was on one of those switchback roads going up a mountain. I was struggling. Looking back, though, it might not have been the smartest to do 5.61 miles after doing our longest training run a few days before. A three mile run might have been a better decision. Lesson learned.

I ended my training week with two shorter runs. Friday I went immediately after school for a little over three miles. Not only are we suffering from what I feel like are extremely short days, but a serious cold front took over at the end of last week. Friday evening's run was COLD. My legs and arms were so cold by the time I was done, but I kept reminding myself that anything is better than those hot, summer runs.

Saturday afternoon I kinda forced myself to do 3.5 more miles to get myself over 20 miles for the week. I was moving along the first half mile when my RunKeeper lady told me that I was actually moving along quite quickly. I decided I would try to break my pace record at this point. So I got myself in the zone. I was still doing well about a mile and a half in when tragedy occurred. My headphones cut out in one ear. I tried to jiggle the wire around to fix it. That's when the other ear cut out. I stopped to try to fix everything, but they were officially dead. This not only means I couldn't hear my RunKeeper lady that helps me know how I am doing, but also my music which helps me keep my mind off the ideas that I might be dying. It was a challenge, but I was determined and I beat my former fastest pace/mile by 18 seconds! It was exciting. I was also excited to purchase new headphones the next day. Whats even more exciting is that Saturday's run bumped me up to 21.35 miles for the week, and there's only 53 more days until Florida (next week the days will start with a 4)!!!!!!!!

Recipe of the Week!

Pizza Bombs

So a couple weeks ago Penn State had a night game and I decided this warranted eventful cooking. Cooking that Matt should also be involved in...I told him he should pick a recipe and we could make it for the game. He chose these pizza bombs. I thought it sounded easy and it was good football food. What could go wrong? Wellllll apparently quite a bit. I will never make these again. I like the idea, but the ingredients were all wrong. The dough portion was the worst part. There was no way to seal the cheese and pepperoni inside. I was expecting these to be more of a stuffed dough ball, but in reality it was more like pepperoni and cheese on a dry bun. Lesson learned...don't believe the internet and trust your own culinary skills. I'm sure this little story just convinced you to make these so the recipe in below :)

Ingredients:
12 frozen white dinner rolls
1/2 stick butter, melted
1/2 cup fresh shredded Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon dried Italian seasoning
1 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
24 bite size pieces of mozzarella
1 package pepperoni
Marinara for serving

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350° F. Place 12 dinner rolls in the microwave on defrost for about 2 minutes (or until dough is no longer frozen, but not cooked). Cut dinner rolls in half. Cut the mozzarella cheese into 24 even pieces, about ½ ounce each.

In a large bowl melt butter. Add Italian seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder and salt. Stir to combine. Set aside.

Flatten and stretch each piece of dough. Add pepperoni and a piece of cheese. Pull the edges of the dough together to create a ball. 

Place pizza bombs in the bowl with the butter mixture. Lightly toss to coat. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese (reserving a little for the last few minutes in the oven). Place pizza bombs in prepared dish. Bake for 30-35 minutes until the tops are golden brown. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese the last 5 minutes of bake time. Remove from oven and serve with marinara or alone. 

11.Eleven.11, Three Years Later

Three years ago today Matthew and I got engaged. (I really feels like it's been so much longer!) It was quite an eventful day. You can read about it {here}. It's my very favorite blog post. I am happy to say that today I woke up feeling MUCH better than I did on November 11, 2011. We celebrated by going to lunch and to the movies. 

Marathon Monday

This week in training started off with a lot of drama. Weeks ago, before things got serious, I might have suggested we go hike Bull Run Mountain with some friends. Matt decided to hold me to that idea. I was forced to go hiking even though it was SO COLD and I was in serious fear of injuring myself and thus forfeiting all the training I have been working on. I was not even close to a happy hiker that day. I might have had a point, though. I slipped about 34 times and full out fell down good old Bull Run mountain during the course of the morning. Luckily, I came out mostly unscathed. I was glad that was over. In any event that hike counts toward my miles for the week.

Tuesday I had a different work schedule because of conferences. I was able to do five miles before going into work for the day. It was great to be able to do that since the daylight is hard to come by recently. This daylight savings business is really, really putting a major damper on things. That was pretty much the theme of the rest of the week. Both Wednesday and Friday I planned to do at least three miles after school. Even with trying to leave in a timely fashion after putting everyone on the bus and going to my running buddy's neighborhood closer to school, three miles still ends in the dark, which is scary and not fun.

I guess you could say it's been a week of lows (daylight savings and that rough hike) and highs (multiple days of buddy running!). This week did not contain a long run, but I still covered 16.47 miles. Only 60 days left until Disney, which seems so close (and SO EXCITING)!

Friday Love

{ONE}

Humans of New York. Occasionally I scroll by a post by them on Facebook. I enjoy reading the stories. I saw {this one} earlier this week and it made me laugh. 

{TWO}

Holiday Cups & Holiday Drinks at Starbucks. Even though I don't frequent Starbucks, or even drink much caffeine anymore, the appearance of the holiday cups at Starbucks is still exciting. I had a good excuse to stop by this week and have one :) 

{THREE}

Masterchef Junior. A new season of the show premiered this week. I have never regularly watched Masterchef or Masterchef Junior, but Wednesday night's viewing was a gem. These kids make my recipes look like a joke. They mean business. Their stuff is restaurant quality and it's seriously beautiful. There are also two girls on there that are just too much. Abby and Oona...check them out. 

{FOUR}

Kitchen Library. Two of my favorite things combined. What a {great idea}. 

{FIVE}

Facebook Messenger. Seriously. I've read some articles about how people HATE messenger with a violent passion. I, however, don't know if I could go on without it. It's free texting, friends! This statement may be dramatic, but there was a time when I was in big trouble for over texting people out of network. Facebook messenger has saved me. Thank you Mark Zuckerberg. 

Marathon Monday

I swear the fall foliage was better looking than this.

Last week started with my Sunday long run. My goal was to do eight miles. In reality I was OK with only getting to six, so my goal was really more like at least six, no more than eight. I also asked Matt if he wanted to come along, and he surprisingly said yes. Historically, running together has not gone well. He goes too fast, I go too long. It's never worked out, but I am happy to report this time things went quite smoothly. At least the running together. I, however, was struggling. I knew two miles in that I was dehydrated, but kept making myself go. Really not the best idea. I ended up having to stop and collect myself a couple times. We stopped at about seven miles when I could take no more. 

Tuesday after school I was really not feeling it, but knew I needed to do something. I wanted to just get a couple miles in, but as I was gallivanting my neighborhood I started thinking about the rest of my week and realized that time was limited the rest of my days. I forced myself into doing a little over four miles because I knew the time wouldn't be there later in the week. Toward the end, some lady started being my cheerleader. She was telling me what a great job I was doing and then telling me all about the other places she had seen me that afternoon. 

Thursday I had a whole bunch of stuff to do, so I left school pretty quickly and got my run out of the way. I was super excited about my pace, one second off my fastest pace ever. I think I should run under pressure more often. 

This weekend we had Sunday plans to go hiking, so I did my long run on Saturday. Two long runs in one week technically. Matt joined me again for this one. I made up a new route and hoped for the best. After getting through the first couple miles things were going really well. I felt super good and the temperature was much cooler than the weekend before. I ended up getting my fastest pace for six miles which was exciting. This brought me up to 20.39 miles for the week. Only 67 days left until Disney...seems so close, yet so far!!!