I am voting tomorrow, and I decided I am going to run to the polls.  I used mapmyrun.com, and it is 1.38 miles each way.  That is the perfect amount of exercising, and I have to vote anyway, so it’s win win!

I had a work meeting down in Auburn tonight from 5-9, I thought they’d be feeding us, but they didn’t!  Luckily, I had brought veggies in tupperware (baby carrots and red pepper slices).  Even luckier, we had a break mid way through at 7:30, so I ran down to the food court in the mall and grabbed a mini turkey sub from Subway. It’s a 4 inch sub, so it was only 200 or so calories, not much for dinner, that’s for sure.  When I got home at 10, I was still hungry.  There was lasagna in the fridge, and apple pie on the counter.  I thought to myself “Well, I am craving pie, so I could just have pie…. or I could have lasagna AND pie.”  I chose lasagna and pie, and I wish that I had only chosen pie.  Now it’s 10:50, and I’m overly full.  Blah.

Emiliano (who designs the look of my website) is suppose to be changing the layout, but it hasn’t happened yet.  He was working on it a bit last night, and ever since then, I keep checking back and hitting “refresh”  because I’m very excited about the new look.  I decided that the look of it now is too boring (it’s just black and white, with my pictures at the top!).  If I don’t add a photograph to my entry, it’s even more boring!  It needs color, and just needs to look more interesting.  More eye popping.  It needs eye popping graphics!  Until he changes it, I’m just going to keep hitting “refresh” incessantly. Oh, and I gave him more pictures for my banner.  They are all pictures I’ve taken in various parts of the country.  Actually, I think all the ones on it now I took in New Mexico.  Hahahaha.  So…. various parts of New Mexico. (If Megan would send me that one I took on the pier in England, then I could add that.  Hint. Hint.)

I’ve been reading the site Kath Eats Real Food a lot lately (I get it in my RSS feed).  She updates it about 3 times a day after every meal.  She takes beautiful pictures of the food she eats, and it sure does look great.  She even puts the food on her plate so it looks pretty.   I can’t imagine how she can find the time to take pictures of the food she eats at every meal, AND describe exactly what she’s eating.  Seriously, she will take a picture of every single item (one lunch she had a sandwich, carrot sticks, an apple, a yogurt, and a dum dum lollipop), and there is a picture of every item, PLUS all of them together, on the table.  Seriously.  Six pictures in total.

She does, however, eat amazing looking breakfasts.  Here are the ingredients:

1/3 cup oats, milk, water

1/2 large banana

Salt, vanilla

1 tbsp ground flax

2 tbsp wheatberries

1 tbsp raisins

1/3 crumbled Honest Foods Country Square Chocolate Brownie

Spoonful Butter Toffee PB

I would make this, but without the wheatberries (cause I don’t know what they are), the peanut butter, or the brownie (sometimes she adds a crumbled up granola bar).  Oh, and I would add a little granola.


Oh, and she drinks mini glasses of wine, unless she uses wine glasses made for giants (or unless she takes the picture after she’s already drunk 4 ounces).  I’ve checked, and they’re all this small!

Kath, I love looking at the pictures of your food, I really do.  And right now, I wish that I had taken these pictures, because they are so beautiful, and they’re going to make my blog entry look awesome.  Keep on with the real food,  it really is beautiful.  And yummy.  And that’s the best part.

I made an apple cranberry crisp last night.  It was deeeeelicious.

Apple Cranberry Crisp

• 2 pounds  apples - peeled, cored and thinly sliced
• 1 cup cranberries
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/3 cup quick-cooking oats
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup butter, cut into pieces
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C.) Butter an 8 inch square baking dish.
2. In a large bowl, mix together apples, cranberries, white sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Place evenly into baking dish.
3. In the same bowl, combine oats, flour and brown sugar. With a fork, mix in butter until crumbly. Stir in pecans. Sprinkle over apples.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until topping is golden brown, and apples are tender.

I have tons of apples hanging around the house, because our local apple orchard (Marshall Farm, or, as I call it, Bitchy Farm) is having an end of season sale.  Apples went from $1.59 to $.59  a pound (at the grocery store, they are $.99, and not from Fitchburg).  I went Friday afternoon, and bought 27 pounds of apples.  $16 worth of apples.  I bought a huge bag of Marshall McIntosh, and then a slightly smaller, but still large, bag of McCouns.  My mom doesn’t like the McCouns, so the smaller bag will be just for me.  We have lots of apples to eat, and bake with.  Today, my mom is baking two apple pies.  One to bake today, and one to freeze for later.

I LOVE baking new things, but don’t really like them hanging around for more than one day.  I have a WONDERFUL book, Small Batch Baking, it has recipes for making four brownies, or six cookies, or two small tarts (among many things).  It’s wonderful to make things that small, especially if I’m cooking for myself.  Anyway, I had probably two servings of the dessert after dinner (I had a small serving of lasagna and small salad to leave room!).  Then, I got hungry around 10, and had a couple more bites while I made popcorn.  Then, I went out with Niles at 11 to get a drink at Hooligans (he had called on his way home from work, and figured I could go out for a bit!).  Then I came home and had several more bites!!!!  It was very yummy, but I wrote a note on it asking my dad to “Bring this to work, and please don’t leave me any.”  I had already eaten probably 1/2 of the entire crisp!!!!  I don’t like things hanging around the house, cause I have absolutely no control over myself, and will just pick and pick and pick.  Dylan made brownies when he was home last weekend, and I told my mom to hide them, cause I couldn’t contain myself.  I would just rather things not hang around like that.  And that is why the small serving sizes are awesome.  Or, just bake sweets when we’re going to a dinner party, and then there won’t be left overs.

Luckily, I’m not crazy about apple pie (I like it, but I don’t love it).  I like more interesting things (crisps, crumbles, tarts, things with more than one fruit, or much more flavor).  I want to make Apple Pumpkin Bread next!