Scenes From the Weekend

5K on Saturday AM

We left the house at 6:00 AM.  Hunter had the truck running and I had big plans of sneaking Wyatt out of the crib and into his car seat so he could keep sleeping on the way to the race.  He chattered the whole way there.  We had breakfast in the truck watching the sunrise on the beach and headed to the start line.  There were so many people.  I had a tough time swerving the stroller around all of the people.

Mile 1: 11:00 min/mile pace....walked as much as ran to avoid hitting people with my stroller
Mile 2: 10:15 min/mile pace....freeedom.....I can run
Mile 3: 11:15 min/mile pace....I am sooo out of shape. Why don't I run more often!??!

Fun race.  Happy Wyatt.  We made it home before first nap.  Let's do more of these.

The view after the race

Hunter requested fried chicken and mashed potatoes for his birthday.  For these, I went to America's Test Kitchen recipes.

Step 1:  Create a brine with salt, sugar, GARLIC, paprika, bay leaves and buttermilk, cut up your chicken, and submerge in the brine for a few hours

3 heads of garlic!!

Step 2: Allow the chicken to dry out in the fridge on a cookie rack / baking sheet setup for a few hours

Step 3:  Flour, egg wash, flour, and then FRY!

Fried Chicken

The chicken was great, although a tiny bit too salty.  Next time I will brine for 1 hour less.

I only had new potatoes instead of a high starch potato like a russett, so I used the America's Test Kitchen Smashed Potato recipe instead of a traditional mashed potato recipe.  You basically cook the whole potatoes until soft, drain them and allow to dry, and then smash them just enough to break the skin.  You pour in some goodies (melted butter, cream cheese, salt/pepper, and chives) and add about 1/4 cup of the water you boiled the potatoes in.  Stir until absorbed.  This was great too.  I was out of cream cheese so I used laughing cow swiss cheese wedges. 

Sunday was devoted to church, cleaning, and relaxing. 

Look what we got Wyatt to wear...a helmet!