Alaskan Adventure: S'mores and Ice Cream

Basically there is nothing better than dessert after dinner. Especially when you're a little kid. Or when you're me and there are s'mores and ice cream involved.  

I love grabbing shots of the kids as they cram their mouths full of sweet stuff :)

Can you tell they are father and son?

Not a bad view to enjoy while chowing down on s'mores

The next evening entailed ice cream

I love how the simplest of treats can make kids so happy 

So much fun and so delicious:)

Alaskan Adventure: The Fish

One of the many activities people could take part in was fishing. They took a charter fishing boat out to get Halibut (where everyone got quite sea sick) and then on a different day they did some Salmon fishing.

The Halibut fishing was extremely successful and there was a TON of fish and it all needed to be vacuum packed and frozen for everyone to bring home with them.

This later became an excellent meal.

There was a bbq sugar or cracker crumb salmon to choose from or we had a spice rubbed halibut and my personal favorite was the buttered herb halibut

i.die.

It literally melted in your mouth. and coming from someone who usually doesn't enjoy fish, it was a nice surprise :)

Community Service

Wow, from the title of that post it seems as though I'm paying my debt to society. And maybe in a way, I am.

Since we've been at Denver Seminary we've been beyond blessed with an amazing group of friends. We share laughter, food, fellowship, and most importantly we share life.

We've become more like a surrogate family for each other and I really love that.

Throughout all of this life sharing I've come to realize how much I really enjoying having people over and a houseful of friends. I've also come to realize this is a direct result of growing up with my siblings friends flocking to our home to feed on my mothers amazing food. In essence, I've become my mother. Never letting anyone help, just needing their presence to feed my cooking frenzy.

I love it.

I love serving others with good food and a comfortable atmosphere.

I've also learned that I enjoy serving others that I don't know as well. On the first day of my summer class we had bread and grapes and were asked to serve others.

Everyday since then someone in the class has stepped up and brought a breakfast of some sort and it has been awesome to see people giving of their resources. We've been blessed with yogurt and fruit, breakfast burritos, and donuts. I have so enjoyed letting others serve me and in turn...

And I felt that call to bake.

80 muffins.

My sweet friend Rebekah helped out and is providing the coffee and milk for tomorrow's breakfast :)

While I lack my mother's raw cooking and baking talent, I think I'm beginning to understand why she enjoys ministering to others in this way.

There is NOTHING better than sharing a meal with others and I'm so grateful that life in Denver has shown that to me!

Strawberry Shortcake

Yes, you read that right. 

While I may have given up sweets for Lent, I found a way to make up for it during breakfast.

Last Friday after yoga-madness we had everyone over for our weekly dinner, and this week pancakes won out. And there were a lot left over. 

Not wanting to go the traditional route of pancakes in the morning I decided to spruce it up.

Greek honey yogurt, a smidge of honey, and strawberries.

What I ended up with was a delicious recreation of a (hopefully healthier) version of strawberry shortcake.

And the fact that it satisfies my sweet tooth is just an added benefit :)

All I can say is that in 5 days I will be in a very happy sugar-high state :)

South Platte River Half Marathon!

Today was the day ladies and gents!

I have to say the 1/2 totally took me by surprise, it didn't really hit me until I was actually at like mile 5 that I was really running the half marathon!

The forecast had been calling for rain, wind, and general nastiness for days.

To say I was dreading it would be an understatement.

However, this morning a clear blue sky greeted me!

There was still a lot of wind, but nothing to absolutely horrible.

Dan came to cheer me on, and to keep Jon company while he was spectating.

And I can't forget my favorite fan :)

Thankfully I wasn't running it alone!

Alison (on the left... or I guess my right in the picture) is an awesome women who I have the pleasure of sharing my counseling classes with :)

Vanessa is one of Ali's friends and is HILARIOUS seriously loved meeting her!

representin' DenSem!

The show offs... just runnin' out of control

Moseying along.

I was so proud of myself for starting at my own pace and running my race.

However, it was at this point (mile 1.5) that my bladder was SCREAMING... I thought I could make it, but 12 more miles with an extremely full bladder? 

Not

Happenin'

So I found a random porta on the side of the trail, unfortunately another guy had the same idea and he took his own sweet time. Another girl and I timed him... he made me miss a solid 2 minutes of my race...

I on the other hand was in and out in 15 second... yes, I really am that fast.

Honestly, the race went by in  blur, before I knew it i was at mile 10 and I was feeling GOOD!

If you'll recall my Korea half it was mile 10 that my knee blew out and made running slightly more difficult.

Not this time.

I was truckin' along and feeling great!

I will say there was a killer hill at mile 12.25 for the next .5 miles, but I was able to catch Ali (who I hadn't seen since the first 5 minutes of the race) and we pumped each other up!

No walking here.

Before I knew it I could see the finish line and away I went!

Please ignore my heel striking the ground, but notice the smile on my face.

I was feeling AWESOME!!!

(and yes, I totally beat the girl in the blue... I have a bit of a competitive spirit)

After the race waiting for some food!

burgers and fondue

I was doing really well with the no dessert thing for lent.

but melting pot fondue?? I just ran 13.1 miles people!!! That and I've heard that some people don't even recognize sunday's for the lent sacrifice...

so there.

Overall, I finished 13.22 miles in 2:12:24 (according to my Garmin)

which puts me at 10:00 per mile!!! Right. on. target.

I also had negatives splits for the last 6 miles.

And I knocked about 2.5 minutes off of my previous half marathon time.

Although because of porta potty man something makes me think I could've finished at around 2:10.

I have NEVER felt this good after a long run, and I'm loving that.

Now it's time to get ready for the next one :)

I'm hoping for a sub 2:10!

Home-made Chicken Noodle Soup

A few weeks ago I found a burst of productivity and slammed out to massive meals in one fell swoop.

Why this productivity can't hit me all the time, I'll never know... but if it did I'm pretty sure I could solve world hunger...and peace.

Yes. I'm that productive.

It all started with the whole frozen chicken we got for free from Manna (an awesome program at a local church that provides us with free food! Score!)

I first decided to make a casserole (I'll be posting that later this week) and then I found that I had  A LOT of broth, and quite a bit of chicken left over.

Which meant...

chicken noodle soup.

What you need:

Whole Chicken

Water

Carrots (as many as you can handle)

Celery (same as above)

Onion (same as above)

butter (to saute celery and onions)

2-3 Eggs

Flour (no exact amount you'll see why later)

Parsley 

Salt

 Step 1:

fill up a large stock pot with water and place the chicken in.

make sure that the chicken is pretty much covered with water.

Bring it to a boil then drop it down to a simmer and let it sit with a lid on .

It took maybe 1.5- 2hours for my chicken to be done.

The legs will literally be falling off and the skin will come off easily.

When your chicken is done take it out and let it cool.

Step 2: 

Once the chicken has cooled start ripping the meat of the bone.

If you are a vegetarian the next picture may frighten you.

Your chicken will end up looking kind of like this. This was maybe 1/2 way through the process.

(I forgot to mention... the water you boiled your chicken in has now become your broth...so please don't toss it out!)

Step 3:

Chop up your veggies and add 'em in!

Step 4:

As for the celery and onions...

sauté them in some butter before adding them into the mix.

Why?

I'm not sure... my mom told me too.

But it did add some yummy buttery flavor to the pot!

Next come the "noodles" or as my mom calls them..

rivlets.

Step 5:

Take your eggs and beat them with a fork. Add in some salt and parsley and stir it all together.

Step 6:

Now you'll want to start adding in flour.

Keep mixing until the batter is quite thick. As in it takes like 3 minutes for a glop of it to fall off the fork :)

Ok... maybe not that thick. But it definitely should NOT be runny.

Just waiting for the Rivlets to arrive

Step 7:

Put your rivlet batter into a strainer (yes, it's weird. just do it. my mom said so.)

And start smashing it through.

You want little tiny dumplings in your soup, not great big ones.

Or maybe you do want great big ones... but for the purpose of this post, you want tiny ones.

I guarantee that your arms will start to hurt from holding the strainer and trying to smash the rivlet batter through the tiny holes.

I also guarantee that you will then make your husband do it while you steal the camera and get some awesome shots of the rivlets.

And this goes without saying... but all that work will have totally been worth it when this batch of soup feeds you, your husband, and friends for the next couple of days.

Super Easy. Super Delicious.

Enjoy!