Christmas at the Lake

It’s been awhile and I thought that Christmas would be a good place to recap.  This year was a pretty good Christmas.

Me and J spent the weekend having our own Christmas just the two of us before getting together with the family.  We celebrated on Sunday morning by opening our stockings in bed with coffee then the rest of our gifts after breakfast.

I’m not going to lie I really got the best present in the entire world.  Like literally.  The best.

Mostly all J got from me was clothes.  I know, so romantic. He tried to fool me by getting me a ton of little presents so I would think I wasn’t getting much, but it didn’t work because I loved everything! One of my favorites was a giraffe usb flash drive.  So cute.  But the best one of all was…..can you guess?…

How did you know?  I have seriously been wanting a Garmin 305 for ages and J got me the upgrade, a 410!  I know I haven’t been good enough to deserve it but for some reason J still loves me!  I couldn’t wait to take it for it’s first spin but since we were up at the Lake that night I didn’t get a chance for a run right away.  It had to be a walk.  I was a little bratty disappointed about it but so excited to use it! I even used my nike+ app to try and compare the two.  They were actually pretty off.  I’m not sure if it is because of the satellites and the gps in the mountains/trees.  But I took it for a 6.75 mile run on Christmas in the snow and it was wonderful!  They both lined up a little more that time.  I still have a lot to learn about it and syncing and all that but definitely the best present ever!

I spent a lot of the Sunday day baking and getting ready to have family Christmas up at the lake.  I haven’t really ever baked for Christmas before (without my mom) so it was stressful fun to do it this year.  I mostly made a lot of candy because that is the least time consuming and what I like best (obviously).  My favorite is the peanut brittle!

There was so much that I wanted to make and didn’t get a chance to!  Maybe next year.  We drove Sunday night so that we were there for Christmas Eve.  We had a “relaxing” day and then went to mass that night.  On Christmas I went for my run and then the rest of the family arrived that afternoon. We opened our gifts with some wine and cheese before we ate dinner.

I definitely got all of the best gifts this year.  So much running/gym gear it makes a girl wanna work out more.  Or just hang out on the couch eating chocolate in all my comfy workout clothes.

Honestly though, the best part of Christmas was just hanging out with everyone, telling that’s what she said jokes, being funny, drinking wine, playing Uno and hanging out by the best fire ever woodstove.  Big shout out to my mom and dad for letting us hang out with them at their awesome lake house, and to my mom for making such amazing food for us to eat!

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Byeee.

Gobble Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
I am stuffed full of turkey. And stuffing.
I went home for turkey day and saw some friends, family, some wine and golden blossoms and a lot of food.  My mom even made butternut squash even though she doesn’t like it! Score!
I didn’t feel too bad about all of the food I ate because I went on a turkey trot of my own. My mom said that she doesn’t think that I really run, that I just talk about it, so I took some proof photos. A ten miler for all of that extra junk we ate.

Mile 6 was a tough one, pretty much uphill the whole way.  Not the best route choice. But around mile 8 I was fine. Maybe because I was thinking about Eminem, or M&Ms I don’t know.

Now we are on our way up north to check out the lake house. Auto correct just write brew house, that would be pretty awesome too I think. We will be seeing more family and doing some outlet shopping but the most important part I’d the fire pit.  As long as there is a fire pit all is ok in the world.
Check ya later.

Gluttony.

So I promised you a birthday post.

I had quite the birthday weekend.  Yes.  Quite.  Saturday J had a dueling gig and I went to see him and celebrate Halloween My Birthday!  It was such a great night and I got to hang out with my BFF and my cousin and her hubby!  I had a blast and J was amazing!  It was so good to finally see him do his thing.

Rocking out!

Some more pics from the night..

It was literally one of the most fun nights I have had in awhile.  I was clearly a creepy, ghouly Alice in Wonderland.  Clearly.  That picture of me crying is just to show the hilarity that transpired during the night . Lots of craziness.  Two cousins together makes for a photoshoot of laughter.  I am not going to bore you with all 10,234,234 pictures that were taken of just the two of us. Especially because we had the worst photographer ever!

So I have been using my birthday and the hurricane as an excuse to pig out and eat everything in sight. First I made birthday cake and then some little pumpkin cake/cookies.  They were delicious.

I stole the cake recipe from HERE and pretty much followed the recipe except for the frosting.  Instead, I made a marshmallowy topping since I don’t really like cool whip (I know I’m so weird).  It was a really good cake, I don’t know about better than anything, but it was good.  The toffee bits topping was the best part!  I wont tell you about the night that J and I just took a spoon to the top.

Now, the cookies were really easy, just half a can of pumpkin mixed with half a box of vanilla cake mix and some dark chocolate chips and extra bits of  Halloween candy thrown in (I chopped milk duds and whoppers)!  Yum! (J ate about 5 before I could even take that picture)

The next few birthday days were spent hanging out, surviving the hurricane (we had a lot of light flickering), scary movie marathons (I couldn’t get enough, J was really scared though), scrabble, eating(anything and everything) and drinking (J bought me a bottle of Belvedere for my birthday!) and just plain being fat.  On Wednesday J made me scrambly eggs for breakfast with our champagne!  Champagne is good at pretty much anytime of day.  I got lots of great presents/gadgets and I have the best Hubberoo ever!  He really made my birthday super special and I am glad we got to spend so much quality time together before he goes away.

We went out to dinner for our last night together/my ACTUAL birthday at a cute place down the street.   I decided to be a hippie and J wore his fangs.

I wear my sunglasses at night.

We were served by a nun who gave us free shots of tequila (I just remembered that right now as I am typing) and free scary candy when she had to tell us that they were out of dessert.  How can you be out of dessert?  I let it slide because all I actually wanted after dinner was a plate of fries (which they didn’t have either.  I guess they didn’t know that it was my birthday).  So we went off in search of some fries.  The great thing about this is that we have a billion restaurants/bars around us so we didn’t have to go far.  At our next stop we tried a crazy Japanese Single Malt which I think was called Yamazaki (but don’t take my word for it} and even though I really hate single malt, this one had more of a brandy flavor with a scotchy aftertaste.  It was really nice and I would definitely suggest. We didn’t stay out late because J had to catch a REALLY early flight in the morning (sadface).  Yes, he is leaving again, but only for a month this time.  I think I may live. Or not.  And don’t worry, on the way back from the airport I didn’t have to pick up any hitchhikers to take with me into the city, I made it back before 6am.

To sum it all up I had the best birthday/week and I can’t wait to do it again next year!

 

Byeeee.

Hurricane Sandy vs. Fort Tryon

We went for a walk today to see the damage done to our park… There are so many trees down it is crazy. We are so lucky that none of these came close to our building! We were also very lucky that our car was okay. We got a pretty good parking space and were fortunate enough not to have our window smashed in like some others on our road.

So we are safe and with power and lots of food and baked treats to keep us fat for ages! Unfortunately, J will not be here to help me finish all of the cake and cookies/candy since he is leaving after Wednesday. 😦

Birthday post coming soon..

Byeeee

Buy me a chiropractor please.

Well, I had a great Columbus Day Weekend how about you??  Me and J spent a lot of QT time together after a week of work.  It was a nice relaxing weekend but somehow still wasn’t long enough.  I made my first batch of granola and I must say it was pretty awesome.

 

I think I may have overcooked it a little but I know now for next time!  Maybe some PB Granola?!  Speaking of PB, I just tried Peanut Butter and Companies Cinnamon Raisin Swirl and I am in love.  I was unsure how I would feel about it when J forced me to put it in the shopping cart but it’s so good I’m pretty sure you should walk/run/drive/take the subway to your nearest store and buy some right now.

Pizza tends to happen on our relaxy quality time nights.

But let’s pretend it doesn’t and talk about my new crockpot usage instead.  On Monday I knew I had a long week ahead and some late nights where making dinner is out of the question so I got out our handy dandy crockpot,  It has been pretty chili here lately so I thought making some would be a good idea. 

Quinoa Chicken Chili.  I used this recipe from Sweet Treats & More.  Soo good. And it made a big batch so I had dinner when I got home late on Tuesday and Wednesday night!  I am loving the crockpot!  Plus it makes the apartment smell amazing!

Some more pics from the weekend.

In recent news, I still can’t get enough of my foam roller, my body has been pretty painful, but I am loving dancing again.  It’s worth it I say!  But if anyone would like to buy me my own personal chiropractor I would be forever grateful,  I am in desperate need of a realignment. 

Lastly. next Tuesday is me and J’s 2nd anniversary and since I wont be home until after 10 we are celebrating on our Sunday!  I cannot wait.  He is keeping it secret where we are going for dinner because he knows I hate love secrets but it adds to all of the excitement.  He thinks he has to outdo last year when he flew from London to Myrtle Beach to surprise me and it actually worked, but I think just being together finally will be enough!  I’ll let you know how it goes! 

See you next time. Gobuysomecinnamonraisinswirlipromiseyoullloveitandafoamroller.

Byee

Cloisters, Renaissance, Birthdays..

Had a very fun exhausting weekend!

On Saturday my mom came down to the city and we went to NY city Center to see some dancing!  The overall performance was pretty great.  First, we went out to dinner (and dessert) at Seraphina’s and that was pretty amazing.  For dessert I ordered the chocolate soufflé topped with Nutella and vanilla ice cream on the side. (skipped telling you about dinner, clearly dessert is more important) Literally, the best thing I’ve ever tasted!  I have this crazy new love for anything chocolate.

After dinner we headed to the show.  We got to see Julliard, ABT performing Twyla Tharp Choreography, The Hong Kong Ballet and the Martha Graham Company.  We had seen the Twyla piece before and to be honest my favorite piece of the whole night was The Hong Kong Ballet.  The dancers were all ridiculously beautiful and I loved the music.  Amazing.

My mom stayed over and became our first overnight guest!!!

The next day we went over to our park next door to see the cloisters and there just happened to be a Renaissance Festival.  Our lucky day!  I unfortunately did NOT get to eat a big turkey leg and I was pretty disappointed.

We walked around the Cloisters first and J took lots of photos with his new birthday present that he wasn’t supposed to open yet.

The gardens were beautiful.

It was a really great weekend and I cant wait for my mom to come back for more visits!!!

I forgot to mention that it was J’s birthday on Tuesday and I was trying to make it a really special one because of the fact that we don’t get to spend many birthdays together on land.  It’s a whole nother experience. (Nother isn’t a word?) It was hard because Tuesday was my longest, latest night of work!  It was okay because I made his cupcakes the night before! These cupcakes!  SO good.  And then I made him breakfast in the morning.  He also still had pumpkin bread to finish!

 (my plan to fatten him up HAS to work!)

And because I couldn’t be home to make dinner and celebrate I put some stuff in the crockpot so he didn’t have to!  It was my first time using our crockpot (I know I’ve had it for ages) and it worked out really well!  I made a crazy mixture of chicken tacos.

Chicken, corn, black beans, and some salsa and spices. Throw it in a wrap and add some greek yogurt!  SO good and plenty of leftovers!!!  Thanks Patty!

It’s been pretty great, and I am so excited that October is here because that means fall and my birthday and most important Halloween!!!  I have been eating plenty of candy corn so don’t you worry.  I pick out the pumpkins..

What should I be for Halloween?  My girls have suggested fairy and princess.  I think that’s pretty lame so I am still searching for ideas and also, plans, so I can wear my costume somewhere other than my tiny apartment.  Please help.

Byee.

Pumpkin.

I baked again..

One of my September goals was to bake something with pumpkin.  Cross that off the list {That, and only that}.  I have never really had a lot of pumpkin flavored things so I am trying something new.  I decided on some bread!  I used the pumpkin bread with pepitas recipe from skinnytaste.

 

 

 

I must say it came out pretty fantastic!  I of course had to add some dark chocolate chunks into it because everything tastes better with chocolate.  I’m still awaiting the arrival of the hubman from work so he can give the approval {and tell me to stop making up words}.

My mom is coming down tomorrow so we can go see some dancing at New York City Center.  Hopefully I can get her to eat some of this bread so I don’t scarf it down all by myself!

SO far I think I like this pumpkin thing!  Next up..  Apples.

 

Byee.

Where to start…

I have been so busy lately since I have started teaching and setting choreography.  It’s only been two weeks but I am already feeling like I have been doing so much.   I am sad that I am missing out on performing jobs but I know that this will make me better.  I have also been dancing for myself a lot more lately and while my foot may not be liking it, I am!  I am loving taking class from Kristen Sudeikis.  If you are a dancer in NYC I completely recommend taking her as often as possible.  She mostly teaches at Peridance.  I have also been doing a lot of other really fun things.  Movies and walks/runs with J, Brunch with cousins!

Heather Graham? No, Kiera Knightley.  Whatever, she’s pretty.

The other day J and I went on the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway starting from the beginning and walking all the way at Battery Park!

Good old GW Bridge.

It was a good 15 miles and I almost cannot believe that we did it.  We almost stopped at 10 but decided we wanted to make it all the way to Battery Park.

And that we did.

I think we look good for having just walked 15 miles.  Other than that just been a dancing fool.  My mom sent me this pretty awesome cartoon that is actually perfect.

I don’t know what you mean, that doesn’t sound like me at all.

I am getting pretty excited for the fact that Fall is here and that means Halloween! 

I cannot wait to decorate/dress up/celebrate my birthday!  And thankfully no one likes to take dance class on Halloween so I have the night off!  What should I be?! (I think I may be able to convince J to let me go trick-or-treating)

I have been having some pretty late nights and some really early mornings and I think I need some sleep but…… I am so excited for tomorrow.  Me and J are heading upstate (I can say that now that I live in the city) to visit the rents and go apple picking!  I will let you know how it goes.. Oh and soon I will be baking something pumpkin.  And probably something with apples. That’s all for now.

Byeee

Caught in the Rain.

Lately me and J have been running at night time which has really been keeping me awake so yesterday we went to the gym in the morning and did weights and then when he went to work I went for my run.
As I was nearing the end (thankfully) it started to rain. No not just rain. Pour, One of those rains when the sky is blue one second and then it just opens up on you the next. I wish I had a picture of myself running through the rain but I was too busy sprinting home! I guess I should have reveled in the beauty of it all, but I was to busy getting soaked. So I made it 5.3 miles before I had to stop.
I came home, had dinner, listened to some music and choreographed/danced around in my living room by myself for awhile while I baked some muffins!

My mom told me that I couldn’t even think about getting a really cool decorative muffin pan {like this} until I had used my regular muffin pan at least three times! And you know what I said? Challenge accepted. I have made cupcakes, Nutella brownies and now these apple cinnamon muffins. Technically that is three; however, I will count the cupcakes and the brownies as one because I made them on the same night. It’s okay because I already have something planned for my third use! You will just have to wait and see…

Also, I think I should tell everyone about the amazing smoothie I made the other day. If you know me at all then you know when I say the other day I usually mean yesterday. I am not very good at keeping track of days. Or time. So this smoothie… I make them all the time and just kind of go with the flow and and they usually taste pretty good (except for the time I put celery in. Definitely never again). This smoothie however was AHmazing. So let me tell you what was in it.

I made the Best Tasting Smoothie ever!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1 Kiwi (no skin)
1/2-3/4 scoop GNC Chocolate Caramel Protein powder(it’s my fave and Im pretty sure this makes it! But any protein powder will do.)
3-4 icecubes
1/2 cup water(I guessed this, because I’m not really sure.)
2 handfuls of Spinach (as much as you want)
1/2 tbs flax seeds

Now see I have one of these GNC blenders that make the smoothie right in the cup so this is the order I put it in and then it gets turned upside down. But if in a regular blender I would throw it in in the opposite order so that the flax and the spinach get smooshed into the blades and get shredded and crushed. I am pretty sure that this tasted peanut buttery even though there was no peanut butter. It was yum.
OK Byeee.

Peanut Butter Overload? Impossible.

I basically had the most amazing weekend.  Thursday, was hanging time with the rents while they checked out our new place, ate some of my zucchini coconut bread and then we drove them to the airport for their 40th Anniversary trip!  Yay for 40 years.  I am extremely jealous, but figure they deserve it.  Plus, J promised to take me somewhere really awesome when we have ours! {Hint: Greece would be nice.  End Hint.}

This also arrived..

We finally have a little place to eat dinner!  {It opens out on both sides to make a round table!}  It’s perfect for our apartment and I am so lucky that I have a handy man to put things together and fix things for me.

I have been taking a rest from running lately and have been doing more strength training or just long walks.  Friday was a rest day and me and J went for a walk running errands and around the park.

He went home to get ready for work and I continued on to do about 5.3 miles. But a nice pace. Some views..

 

 

 

 

Then I cam home made some Zucchini Chips and dinner.  They were burnt, but better that way.  Some of my eats..

Saturday we ran some errands for some special baking that I wanted to do, went for a walk and J went to do more work while I drove up to my parents for the weekend.  We had plans to get some more things from storage, put some back in, and hang out with some friends of ours to celebrate their recent engagement.

I got to my parents and took advantage of the neighborhood {not city} environment to go for a run.  I don’t usually try to go for speed in my runs, it is more about just running and how I feel but this time I figured since I had the opportunity of flatter ground to see if I could make it faster.  I did 6.3 miles at an average pace of 8.12.  Not too bad since I have been running slower lately. 

I got back and started my baking!  It was nice to be able to bake in a bigger kitchen.  And not so hot.  I made some Nutella Brownies from Hungry Meets Healthy.  I only made four of these because I was more excited about the other goodies and did not want to go too overboard.

These weren’t so bad. But not my favorite.  Nutella is difficult to work with!

Then I moved onto some Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes with peanut butter frosting!!  They were as good as they sound don’t you worry.  I wanted to bake cupcakes for my friends who just got engaged so these sounded perfect.  I got the recipe from Sweet Tooth Sweet Life.  Amazing!!

 

 

So.. you mix it up and then pop the Reese’s peanut butter cups in the center so they get all melty! Is melty not a word? Yes.. its ridiculously, amazingly, wonderfully good!

Next you make the frosting!  I wasn’t sure how this was going to go since I’m not really a baker,  but I figured I would try it.  And thank God I did! 

 

 

 

 

It is literally the best frosting I’ve ever tasted.  I halved the recipe so I actually ended up having to make a little more for the last few cupcakes.  I made fifteen total! We had some left over frosting which was pretty great because you can dip anything into it! Anything.

 

 

 

To complete the cupcakes you add some extra Reese’s on top! I really thought I would be peanut buttered out.  But I guess that isn’t possible.

{They look like little bowties!}

We didn’t end up seeing my friends so unfortunately we were stuck with all of these fantastic cupcakes to ourselves.  Sadface.  Notreally. Oh, and some champagne.  So instead we celebrated ourselves {because we are pretty awesome} with champagne, frozen pizza and PB cup chocolate cupcakes!  It was actually pretty wonderful!

So all in all the weekend was great!  Me and the Hubbso had some really great quality time together, we ate lots of cupcakes and sugar, watched the ending ceremonies of the olympics and some of the meteor shower! Lucky we were upstate! QT time well spent.

Oh and last night we went for a jog together.  It was weird but wonderful.  See, I can share.

Byee.

 

Just Call Me Susie.

I am so proud of myself today!  I had and amazing food day!  This morning I had my usual breakfast and then for lunch some PB on an english muffin with bananas.

I couldn’t decide so that is some regular PB and some Peanut Butter and Co. Dark Chocolate Dreams.  Amazing.

I decided to take the day off from running to give my knees and feet a break so I did an upper body workout at the gym and then biked for 25 minutes.  It was nice to get some strength training in again, I have been leaving my muscles out since I’ve been running so much.  Hopefully I will be feeling it tomorrow!

 

Crazy ab sweat!

Tonight for dinner I made this amazing jumble of food..

and then I put it in a tortilla and made it a taco with some greek yogurt!

Ground turkey, red and green peppers, black beans, onions, salsa and some other spices mixed in there.  Delish.

After dinner, while J was at work I decided to try out some baking!  Since it was National Zucchini Day,  YES, apparently they have a day for everything, AND zucchini is my favorite, I decided to try out a zucchini bread.

I mixed a little of this Coconut Zucchini Bread recipe with this Zucchini Oatmeal Bread recipe.

It tasted amazing!!!  When J came home it was just about done so we will have full bellies before bed. But it was so good I can’t even believe it!  And it’s good for you because it has zucchini in it!  No but really, no butter, no oil.  It’s not bad.

 He liked it!!!

You wouldn’t even recognize me with all this cooking and baking!  Next time I will have to try it with some nuts or fruit or even chocolate!  We’ll see! {My sneaky plan to fatten J up is only just beginning!}

For now, it’s bedtime!

Byeee.

Today I danced.

Today was a fantastic day.  I started it off with a super awesome dance class! I haven’t danced in ages (about 2 or 3 months) which is ages to me.  I got to take from my friend Danielle who is amazing. Her choreo is crazy good and it felt so good to be dancing again. I am not going to lie but I was a little nervous to go, but it felt great!

After class I stopped in Fairway Market to get some more grapes to freeze and I bought some watermelon for after class.  I had an impulse moment walking to the register where I by accident picked up some chocolate covered caramels. By the time I had decided to put them back everyone was yelling “next in line” and there was no chance, so I had to take them. (Life is so hard)  Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.  Oh and I forgot the grapes.

Me and J had a really good chat today and it felt good to talk to my best friend. I got some things off my chest and it was nice.  Later, I went for another quick run that turned into 6 miles.  My new usual trail around Fort Tryon.

It was super hot and my legs were like lead from class today but the run felt so good.  And the sky was beautiful.

After my run I came home had dinner and some wine and then I baked cookies! WHO?! yeah. I really did.  They were really simple 5 ingredients only. I got the recipe from the blogger the girl who ate everything.

Umm they are brown because I used CHOCOLATE peanut butter mixed with regular crunchy. The light brown specs are peanuts.  I like to do it how I want okay?

SOOO I may have burnt them a little but it’s okay because that just makes them taste somewhat like peanut brittle.  Or at least that is what I tell myself.  Ask J, he had the first bite:

I really need to fatten him up.

Trust me, they were amazing.  With wine. And kettle corn.  And some Remy. What?

My stomach is happily protruding now, but I did do my 30 (girl) push ups for the day.  I know, I am supposed to call them modified according to my gym teacher from high school, but I do what I want. And I’m a girl. Okay?

I didn’t even mention the M&M’s.

so many new things today..

Hi!  Today was finally sunny and not so ridiculously hot as it has been the last few days so me and J decided to have a picnic lunch before he went to his gig in Port Jeff.  We made our lunch and walked next door find a spot in our park!

There he is.

After lunch we hung some pictures in our new apartment and tried to make it a little more homey.  J has this app called iheartradio and we listened to pretty much the coolest songs ever while unpacking/hanging.

WHen he left for work I decided to go for a long run since the weather had been so great! I also needed to try out my new shoes.

They worked.  So I was a little bit tired of all the hills in Fort Tryon and also running out of places to go honestly, so I thought I would venture somewhere a little bit different.  I ran to Inwood Hill Park instead.  It’s a little further north of our park and bigger! Once I had found it and ran inside the first thing I came to was, you guessed it, a great big hill!  So I guess no real difference there.  It was beautiful though.  I came out of the woodsy trail-y part and found this view.

breathtaking!

There were tennis courts and baseball fields and dog parks, oh my!  I can’t wait to bring J to explore more together!! Anyway, I ran and explored the new park for about 8.5 miles.  Which is a new record for me I must say I was pretty excited! I had to stop a few times on the account of all the hills and the fact that I didn’t really know where I was going. At one point I was lost and running up a teeny tiny trail along the highway, hoping I did not get poison ivy. But thank God for GPS (I was actually going the right way)!

The sun hit the water in just a perfect way!

So many amazing views!

I did make it home safely and was famished so I decided to try out our new stove top grill from crate and barrel that we had yet to dig out. I grilled a whole bunch of veggies (zucchinis, peppers, mushrooms, onions and garlic) and can I tell you it was pretty much the coolest thing ever!!  And the veggies were so good!

(best invention ever!)

I cooked up an egg and some egg whites and threw all of the veggies on top to make this crazy concoction!  I never really have any clue what I am doing, but it always tastes pretty great!  I guess I get that from my dad.  He thinks he is an iron chef.

After dinner I through together a blueberry/raspberry smoothie with some protein and peanut butter.  Again, just winging it.  Sooo good.

Overall I’d say it was a pretty great night! I’ll probably be feeling those hills tomorrow though…