Thanksgiving Gluttony

I'm finally pulling out of my food coma from Thursday night's excuse for eating until stuffed...and then having dessert! We had a yummy Thanksgiving dinner at the McLarty house...Dad cooked a juicy smoked turkey and amazing beer bread, Jan made a chestnut stuffing and cranberry sauce, I baked my yearly scalloped potatoes - a yummy butternut squash bisque - and some tasty green beans, Mom dished out a home grown citrus medley, Grandma baked an apple cake, and Dustin churned a home made ice cream!
I have no idea where I fit all the food that I ate, but it was fun to be with family and cook like mad! We finished off the evening by collapsing in front of the TV for a viewing of the Da Vinci Code...my opinion was: "Just read the book!"
It was a bit hard to stay awake through the whole movie even though I took a mid-day nap. My excuse is: I was awake at 6am to head over to Sperling Sports Complex to help registration at the Turkey Trot...and then I ran the whole 10 MILE Turkey Trot before breakfast! That's a long way down and back on Marsh Road...even though I took a detour at the .75 mile mark to run into the house for a bathroom-pit-stop (the line for the restroom at Sperling was a mile long and it wasn't like I was running for a big prize). I actually think my pit stop kept me from hurting myself like I did in last year's Turkey Trot...because I stopped for 5 minutes, I was not near the other people running my pace and I never felt like I was "in a race". Instead, I kept good form and cheered on all the people I ran past.
Today I got back to work on my cookie-baking-spree for the Children's Home Christmas presents. I've got to bake over 1000 cookies to fill the Christmas tins for each kid. Mom has chosen to tie-dye pillowcases and give each kid a new pillow and case. We are going to learn the 'official' way to tie-dye later this week...so I'll be more than ready when that fashion statement comes back 'in'!:)
So far, I've baked 6 types of cookies...regular chocolate chip and pecan; Christmas sugar; Cinnamon and sugar; white-chip brownies; pumpkin-pie spice; and Mom made sugar/pecan. I've got some Crunch Bars ready for my batch of Krispy's tonight...maybe tomorrow I'll find time for my Ying~Yang cookies and a ginger snap or butterscotch variety.

Christmas Come Early

Ummmm...today is Thanksgiving...but I'll take presents!!!
My totally awesome brother just gave me my Christmas present....one guess....A NEW DIGITAL CAMERA!!
It's waterproof, shockproof, silver, pocket-size, cute, fast, high quality, free (to me), and from my bro!! IT'S PERFECT!!
Thanks so much Dustin...now I can finally take my own photos again (instead of waiting 6 months for some other people to get their disposable cameras developed) and capture memories and fun moments!

I'm Thankful for totally awesome family!

Opening Day in VAIL!!!

Cliff, Sam, and I on the top of WildWood on Friday, November, 17th, 2006!! Fresh powder, beautiful gorrmed runs, and warm sun shine were the highlights to a fantastic day of skiing!

Blogging from Katie's House

I've been having a great (and busy) time house sitting for my good friend Katie Baker. She's currently in Australia helping Team USA at the Long Distance ITU World Championships. I've been making sure Victor the Cat is well fed and warm during the snow storms that keep hitting COS.
We had a cold (but very fun) night last night celebrating the official end of the '06 Triathlon Season. All my teammates who raced in the New Zealand world cup arrived safe and sound back in COS. What's the first thing we did? We headed out to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants for dinner and then to some clubs in downtown for dancing and chatting:). We left the OTC and it was a very pleasant temperature...unfortunately, as we were eating yummy Mexican, someone noticed the SNOW falling outside the window! So the rest of the night we spent as little time outside as possible!
I'm currently sitting at Katie's house, using her computer, waiting for my Walnut-Molasses Pie to finish baking! The day before Timmy O. departed for his last 2 races, I was reading the newspaper and saw a yummy looking recipe for this pie. I showed it to him, he started salivating, so I promised that I would make him a fresh/home-baked pie when he was done racing:) Pretty much, I've just been looking for excuses to cook and bake...I can't eat it all so I have to find friends (and foes) to dump my creations off on!
Tomorrow is going to be an exciting day because it will be the start of my first official ski trip this winter! Sam McGlone and I (and anyone else who wants to join us) are going to drive to the outlet malls in Castle Rock after all morning training. The guys are going to leave later in the day and we are all going to meet near the ski resorts for dinner. Find a cheap hotel for the night, wake up early, and get a full day on the slopes!! The last time I wanted to go ski...I was all by myself, only a few runs were open, and it was yucky weather. This time, I've got company, more runs are open, and the sun might be shinning on Friday:) (keep your fingers crossed for me (and the weather:).
The Pie only needs a few more minutes so I'm going to start packing up my cooking supplies and head back to the OTC for dinner. All the triathletes will be finishing dinner early so that we can fast for 12 hours before a blood draw at 7 am tomorrow. I can't wait to see what my iron level is (and I'm not looking forward to seeing my cholesteral ...I blame it on my family:).

Sara's Successful Dinner Party

Yummy, yummy, yummy! I just finished cleaning all the dishes after my 'home-baked' dinner for my friends at Katie Baker's house. I started last night with some pre-cooking steps like shopping for all my ingredints and pre-mixing the dry stuff.
This morning I started with a great (and very hard) swim practice...thanks to Cliff for making me think I was a swimmer again, even if it was only for 1 hour and 15 minutes:). After I got out of the water...I gathered up all the other triathletes at the OTC (now there are officialy 3 of us...instead of just me) and we headed up to Manitou Springs for a fantastic brunch at the Adam's Mountain Cafe. It was my first visit to Adam's...and I can guarantee that I will be returning many times in the future! I enjoyed a few relaxing minutes with my good friends (Cliff, Haven, Mike, and Dave) over good food (Italian Omelet).
Mid-day I headed out into the beautiful Colorado Springs weather for a bike ride. The temperature actually reached 82 degrees when I rode by the flashing sign that shows the temperature. There was not a single cloud in the sky and I enjoyed a few loops around the Garden of the Gods.
When I got back to the OTC, I hit a quick strength session in the gym and my training was finished for the day. I gathered up all my cookbooks and headed over to Katie Baker's house to start preparing dinner.
I started with a Butternut Squash and Tomato Bisque. It was the first time that I've attemted tackling a raw squash and turning it into something eat-able...after a lot of trial and error, I managed to get enough of the insides scraped out for the bisque. Next, I tackled the cinnamon/sugar/baguette crutons for the top of the bisque. They were pretty easy and all I had to do was lightly cook them in the oven right before dinner time.
With the dry ingrediants I set out last night, I mixed together a Cranberry Bread and got that started in the oven for dessert. The easiest and quicked item that I served for dinner was a Spinach salad with craisins, banana slices, pecans, and crumbled feta cheese.
Jessica and Luca showed up right on time. Mike and Dave weren't far behind. We chilled out and chatted while eating...I got quite a few complememts on my cooking creations and then I even got some help with the dishes!
Now I'm chilling on Katie's computer and watching Scrubs on TV. I'm actually wondering where Victor (Katie's cat) is tonight...he should be back in the apartment so that I can lock up and leave to sleep in my own bed:)
Other than that...life here in COS is good...we are waiting for the next big snow so that more ski runs will open up and make the 2.5 hour drive to the mountains worth the while.