Category Archives: photos

southern cookin’

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This is totally delayed, but better late than never, as the cliche goes.
This fabulous cafe was featured on the Food Network in a Bobby Flay Throwdown (Bobby lost). He takes on “the biscuit lady”, who we actually saw in the cafe. Seriously, I never thought I’d like okra, but it’s amazing what a little batter and some deep frying will do. The biscuits were absolutely amazing. Seriously. If I could marry a biscuit…

Thankfully, Megan was willing to share with me, so I was able to try lots of different delicious goodness. It’s probably a good thing I’m not moving to Nashville. I mean, you haven’t tasted barbecue until you’ve tasted southern barbecue. Absolutely sinful.

lemon truffle pie

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The lemon truffle pie is the one on the right…the other one is delicious, too. I’ll post the recipe and pictures soon.

I made this today for Katie’s baby shower (and again tonight for a work thing manana) and people asked me to post the recipe. It was originally posted here, but I found it here. I first made it for Easter. Since then, I have made it two more times and learned a few things. I have included some tips in italics.

Ingredients

  • 9″ pie crust, baked and cooled (normally, I’d bake my own, but it was nice that I didn’t have to)
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup cornstarch (this was originally 2 Tbsp. cornstarch and 2 Tbsp. flour, but it just didn’t set up for me)
  • 1 cup water
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1 Tbsp. butter
  • 1/3 cup lemon juice
  • 1-1/2 cups white chocolate chips
  • 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened

*Before you get started here is my suggestion, get the egg yolks, lemon juice, white chocolate, and cream cheese ready in SEPARATE bowls. Once you start cooking stuff, it moves pretty fast and you don’t have time to be squeezing lemons, etc.


Beat egg yolks in a small bowl. Combine sugar, cornstarch (and, if following original, flour) in a heavy saucepan. Using a wire whisk, stir in water until smooth. Cook this mixture over medium heat until boiling, stirring constantly.

Cook and stir for 2 minutes. Stir about 1/4 cup of cooked mixture into egg yolks and blend. (This is called tempering). Return egg yolk mixture to saucepan and cook 2 more minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in butter (in case you were wondering, the butter is what gives the filling a gloss of sorts) and lemon juice.

Transfer 1/2 cup of the cooked lemon filling to a small bowl with the white chocolate chips. Set rest of lemon filling aside. Microwave the chip mixture on low 1-2 minutes (1 minute is plenty) or until chips are melted, stirring until smooth. Beat cream cheese and add white chocolate chip-lemon filling mixture. Mix until smooth.


Spread over cooled crust (it is highly possible that you will have too much of the cream cheese mixture…don’t worry, it makes the best fruit dip you have every tasted). Spoon lemon mixture over the cream cheese layer. Refrigerate 4 hours to set.

plenty to say

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Just no real desire to say it. The photo? The fabulous food I ate after doing a little grocery shopping at Whole Foods in Los Altos. I love Whole Foods. Love. It. I can’t believe I haven’t posted about my trip to California. Maybe that’s because I’m sad to be back. I love it there. I know it’s expensive, but there’s a reason so many people want to live there.

Yes, Utah has some good qualities, and Amie was right, come spring (if it ever does come) I do like it here. But it’s just different. Utah will never feel like home to me. I’m a Bay Area girl, apparently.

And the cheeses? All local California cheeses.

the end

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If you are visiting from Runners’ Lounge, just check out the training segment (video number three). This is a quick (and funny) what not to do when training for your distance races. If you are preparing for your first long race and want a little knowledge about what it’s like (if you are slow and under trained), you can check out my other videos on this post and this post.

For the rest of you, just a warning before watching. All of these are kind of offensive. I sing in two of them (and it’s awful, out of breath, out of tune singing) and swear in one, and there’s a crazy old guy dancing in another. If you don’t want to watch them, that’s okay. They give even me nightmares. Although, the “training” video is pretty funny.

My personal favorite…the training segment. (Not for young ears…don’t tell my dad). My other favorite thing is the lame-o behind us at the end, hoping for 10 seconds of fame. Where? I don’t know. It’s not like my blog is going to make her famous. I have never understood people like that.

This is just some nut dancing at the end of the race. It’s kind of long and, at first, you can’t see him. But I still wanted to share.

Here we all are, the morning after; exhausted from both the race and our crazy hike after it (yes…we thought hiking to Delicate Arch would be a good idea).

Anne’s parents are my favorite. Seriously. They were fabulous for the marathon (the full in St. George) and it was so fun to drive up to Anne’s house and see this sign in the window! Thank you! Thank you!

And with that, I end my half-marathon posts (I still have some Moab stuff). I hope you have enjoyed the video journey of an under trained runner. If this has not convinced you to train before attempting distance races, I’m not sure what would. Although, hopefully, you can tell that I was enjoying myself.