Baking success and failure

Last weekend, I did something I haven’t done in a long, long time… I baked!  Truth be told, my freezer was starting to be overtaken by frozen bananas, so this baking experience was more to reclaim my freezer than anything else.  But any excuse works, especially if it turns out with something yummy.  The bread turned out PERFECT, although, I think after I let it cool, wrapped it and put it in the fridge (per my mom’s recipe…), it deflated a bit.  Odd.  Still tastes good, so I don’t mind so much.  My pictures didn’t turn out well, but since I’ve got more bananas, I plan to make another loaf (or two or three…)  Pictures and recipe to follow!

I also wanted to try out a bread machine.  My grandma had given me hers years ago, when she moved into her current apartment, but at the time, I was busy with classes, probably going through the divorce or something else like that, and the machine got pushed to the back of the storage cupboard.  So I pulled it out, did a little research to “healthy-ize” an old recipe, and gave it a shot!  And at this point, I need to decide whether to be honest or not. :-)  Ok, truth be told, the bread turned out like a solid brick.  Literally.  When I turned the pan upside down, it slid out and nearly cracked my countertop.  Not good.  I think I know what I did wrong – the cooking settings aren’t real clear when it comes to anything other than plain white bread, and I think I chose the wrong setting.  I will try again before passing judgment on bread machines…

I haven’t really mentioned it before, but the last two months have been pretty packed with fundraising efforts at the ambulance company.  Every year, the small mountain town I live in has a big arts and crafts festival, and the ambulance company sells homemade apple dumplings with a diabetic-coma inducing sugar syrup and ice cream.  It has become so successful that we pay for our annual mortgage payment off of this two-day event.  I am going to try to get the recipe for the dough and syrup, but if I can’t, I’ll be sure to at least post a few tips and how-to photos for you all.

And as an update to my running… as most remember, I have been training (not so consistently) for the Marine Corps Marathon.  Between the summer heat, some cracked ribs, and some ankle issues I’ve had on and off, my training has been… well, pathetic.  In the best interest of my health and well-being, I resignedly decided to defer my entry until 2012.  It just wasn’t safe for me to try to increase my mileage and speeds to the level I would’ve needed to.  But alas, I am not giving up on running, just taking a little longer to get to my goals.

For now, that's it, but be on the lookout for my apple dumpling post... coming soon!

Change

I know we all go through changes in life, but I’m not sure I like some of them…

First, I’ve always been a morning person.  I could stay up late, not set an alarm, and still be up and bright-eyed at oh-dark-thirty.  Lately, not so much.  I’ve actually slept through alarms twice this week.  And when I do wake up, I feel like a zombie for an hour or so, long after I’ve been up, showered, and eaten.  And let me tell you, there’s nothing pretty about a zombie running through the streets in the morning!

Next, I have lost my patience.  Not patients, at least at the time I dropped them at the ER.  But my patience – my understanding, my no-worries attitude.  I know when it started to erode away, but I thought I had stopped that.  Apparently not.  Lately, I have no patience for stupid people doing stupid things, for people who complain but aren’t willing to lift a finger to effect change, and for people who feel they are entitled to whatever they want.  I’m sorry, but just because you donated $20 to the ambulance company does not entitle you to free taxi rides to the hospital every time you sneeze.  You want a ride, you pay the bill.  If you don’t, the ambulance company will go bankrupt and then when you have a real emergency, you will die.  End of story.

On a side note, I am so excited that states are FINALLY starting to pass laws that allow EMS providers to refuse to transport patients – no more pointless taxi rides for me, thank you very much.

Finally, my lack of motivation.  I’ve always been an internally motivated person.  While my family has always supported me, it’s always felt like the support was surface deep… or only for the standard issues – sports, grades, etc.  But the second I try to go off-track and find my own solutions or outcomes, it feels like I am walking that path alone.  Lately, my inner motivation hasn’t been working too well.  It’s been far too easy to just predict and accept a failure, rather than getting up a little earlier, working harder, and such.  This applies to my marathon training, to the CIA, to the “to do” list, to my desire to find a job that I actually enjoy, and to a few other assorted areas.  The part that scares me is that I’m not sure how to reverse the trend, either.

I guess it’s a good thing that nobody really reads this blog, because I divulge way more information that I should…

On a different note, I did try something new this week that I absolutely loved!  I roasted up a bunch of veggies for dinner on Tuesday night.

A good friend of mine raided her parents garden, and surrendered a few squash, zucchinis, and cucumbers.  I sliced them all up (practicing my “rustic cut”… yeah, I really need culinary school to teach me a thing or two…), threw them on a baking sheet, drizzled with some good EVOO, and let them bake for about half an hour.  One word.  MMmmmm.  I ate a big bowl for dinner, and still had a ton left over for lunches, which I have enjoyed since.  Thank you, Medic Sarah!  I can’t wait to try with some cauliflower, broccoli, and such.  Lovin’ my veggies…

One of those days...

A rare cup of coffee on my desk...

I had coffee this morning. You may ask why this is important, and in the grand scheme of things, it’s not. Unless you know that I’m not really fond of the flavor of coffee. The fact that I willingly went to the office kitchen and got a cup means one of two things: I am either sick and trying to cover the taste in my mouth with something only slightly-less disgusting, or I am exhausted beyond words. For the sake of argument, let’s assume it’s the second…

The ambulance station is going to be the death of me. Have I mentioned before that I volunteer at an ambulance station? Probably not, but I do. I started about eight years ago, and just recently completed my EMT-I coursework, so I can start running as a medic. I absolutely love the work, too. It’s so rewarding to walk into someone’s life when they are having the worst day ever, and to leave them a couple hours later knowing that I helped make it better. It is one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. But calls in the middle of the night make sleep really hard to come by! And unfortunately, I find myself drinking pop (soda for some of you…) in the middle of the night, eating food I know isn’t good for me only because it’s available and you never know when you can eat again. It makes being healthy difficult…

I haven’t really mentioned it here before, but I am also training for a marathon – the Marine Corps Marathon, to be specific.  And let’s just say, training isn’t going as well as I would like. I hurt my leg about two months ago, so I’ve really been taking it easy, and only started running again a week or two ago. And now, it’s so blasted hot outside, running seems like a suicide sentence. But the training has had me thinking a lot about food – what I eat, what I shouldn’t be eating, properly balancing meals while still maintaining flavor and excitement. The more I truly think about it and explore the intricacies of different spices and herbs, the more I fall in the love with the idea of becoming a chef.

No real reason for posting, just felt like babbling...

Bite the Bullet!

(2/23/11)
I had a mental relapse yesterday… I bit the proverbial bullet and registered for the Marine Corp Marathon, scheduled for October 30, 2011.

I had filled out the online registration form and was hovering over the “submit” button, and second guessed myself, so I canceled out. About twenty minutes later, I tried to do it again, but the website was experiencing heavy traffic and I could not get through. But that worked out in my favor – a coworker, Jeff, came back from his lunchtime run and I was able to bounce the marathon off of him, asking if I was being unrealistic or setting my goals too highly. He encouraged me to do it, stating that October would give me more than enough time to build up the mileage. So in the last ten minutes of the lunch hour, I logged back in, got into the website, and registered. I clicked the ‘submit’ button quickly, before I could think about what I was doing. Of course, then I spent the rest of the afternoon in a near-panic at the mere thought of what I had just committed to!

If nothing else, I can always defer the registration to next year if I have to…

The more this sinks in, though, the more I get this urge to go out and buy a complete new set of running gear – new shoes, new pants, new shorts, new shirts, all in bright colors, and made of some fancy, hard to pronounce material. But alas, my checkbook keeps that dream at bay!