Baby It's Cold Outside!

BRRRRR... It feels very premature for the temps we've been hitting here in Western Pennsylvania recently! Being chilly also means that it's a great time to bake and heat up the house!

Homestead Phil typically plays the trombone during our church services. Recently, he was asked to start playing the electric base which he has not played for about 25 years! He watched some YouTube videos, practiced with the band on a Thursday night, and played with the band on that Sunday morning! I'm so proud of him. He is so musically talented. I have trouble changing stations on the satellite radio sometimes. That's about the extent of my musical talents! I know some of our church friends miss hearing him play on the trombone already. Homestead Phil tells me that they miss hearing the brass but they don't know that they already enjoy the bass. Right now, he's just blending in. I'm sure he'll have a solo in no time! :)

I say all of that to say ... he has been leaving EXTRA early for church services the last two Sundays. I don't need to arrive nearly 2 hours before service. That leaves me on animal duty. I mean.. I do have two extra hours, right? :) I snapped this selfie on Sunday morning while I was traipsing around the animal area making sure I didn't forget anyone! BRRRRR!

After church, this cutie came over to help bake some Pumpkin Rolls! She's my niece Mykala who prefers to be called Myki. After all these years, I still can't bring myself to call my baby girl niece Myki. She's cute and VERY helpful nonetheless! :) Her and older sister are coming over soon to have some girl time and some more baking fun!

I'm semi-famous for the pumpkin rolls. I used to sell them back in the day when I was Jenn The Baker. I could likely still sell them but no time. Back in the day, I would bake nearly if not more than 100 pumpkin rolls from end of October through end of December. Not bad for a little online baking business, right? :) I likely should have snapped a photo of them. Oops. At least I snapped some pics of the kiddo with me! Well... she doesn't prefer to actually take a nice photo so this is what the end result is :)

Running Update - November 21, 2018

Since my last running update, I've only been out two times. I'm still being very cautious to not cause more injury/injuries to my legs. The new fancy compression socks have been working wonders! I now have a pair to wear during recovery as well. I should have ran yesterday but alas I have a million reasons why I did not. Today, I was just far too busy and tomorrow is not going to be above freezing.

I was very pleased with my times and my lack of pain following the run. For those of you who are new to reading about my running adventures, I apply the Run / Walk / Run philosophy by Jeff Galloway. I'm currently pacing at running for 15 seconds followed by a brisk walk at 30 seconds. I'm not the fastest but I sure am faster than I would be if I tried to slowly jog the whole distance without any walk breaks.

Here's a pic of my fancy socks and new running shoes. It did take me about 8 photos to get even this one. It's hard to be working on a warm up walk and try to snap a photo at the same time! haha

And here's a snap shot of my distance and time. I feel like I'm on the upswing of my awful times from when I was in pain or trying to avoid injury albeit still a minute slower on the first mile than I'd like to be. At the same time, it's been in the 40s while out there. I hear that causes some slow down while running as well?

Running Update - November 9, 2018

I survived my "long run" last Saturday - 3 miles! My legs felt fairly good and my lungs held up! I was so pleased although my pace did slow as the miles continued. Considering I was on the injured list recently, I was very happy to get out there three times last week! I'm going to be brave and post my times! I warned you that I'm not a fast runner and it had been a month since my last "long run" of 2.5 miles. With using the Run / Walk / Run ratios, as long as my legs keep from hurting, I can go quite a long distance compared to if I just ran without the walk breaks.

I had been eying up a 5k race on the 10th. In order to have my "long run" day line up with the race day, I had to give myself an extra rest day after the long run. It made a lot of sense since I really don't want to be injured. So I took Sunday off and my legs felt great! I rested on Monday as well and my legs still felt great! I got ready for my run on Tuesday and my legs hurt before I even got ready for the run. :( I went anyway and my times were awful. I was slow because it wasn't comfortable. I've been in touch with my half marathon runner and blogger friend, Becky ('lil Burghers and MrsGregWillis.com). She recommended for me to purchase a roller of sorts for my legs. I also reached out to a high school friend regarding compression socks and she gave some great recommendations! First one being, take an ice cold bath to soak my legs after the run for 10-15 minutes. Say, what? She also recommended wearing a hoodie while soaking as it would be cold. Yes. It was. BUT it was magical! My legs felt better! Here's my times from that awful run on Tuesday: (I may need to add another topic to my blog as this run was not FUN!)

My legs were still a bit sore yesterday although I planned on running anyway BUT.. since it starts to get dark at like 3pm (I joke of course), I didn't make it out. It's been pouring down rain all day today and it's cold. (Am I making excuses?) We'll have to leave soon to visit our Amish friend. Maybe if we get back before dark, I'll make it out. Otherwise, my compression socks should arrive tomorrow so maybe I'll give my legs one more day to rest and get out tomorrow! My high school friend is in the compression socks industry but she has been ill. When she's feeling better, I'll disclose where I got the fancy socks from!

Needless to say, I won't be at the 5k race tomorrow. I think I need to just focus on keeping my legs healthy and enjoying the running. It's crazy that I actually do enjoy it and no one is chasing me! :)

Meal Planning Update - (Or lack thereof!)

Last week I rambled on about my hopeful plan of starting to meal plan including using up that 7.5# ham! Homestead Phil was out of town for 4 days so I lived on tortilla pizzas and cereal. OOPS! Here's how we munched on that ham for a week:
1. Homestead Phil participated in our church's Men's Annual Chili Cook-off. Chili is his thing so he looks forward to participating every year! It seems to be different every time he makes it so there will not be a recipe provided. :) This year conveniently had ham in it! haha

2. Scalloped Potatoes and Ham based on The Pioneer Women's recipe.

• 3 pounds Russet Or Yukon Gold Potatoes, Washed Thoroughly 
• 2 Tablespoons Butter 
• 1 whole Yellow Onion, Diced 
• 3 cups Diced Ham 
• 3 cups milk (I used 2%) 
• 1/4 cup Flour Black Pepper To Taste 
• 1 cup Grated Cheddar Cheese 
• 1 cup Grated Monterey Jack Cheese 
• Chopped Parsley (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a large casserole dish. Dice ham. Chop onion and slice potatoes thin. (I used my food processor for both.) While food processing, heat butter in a large skillet. Add onions and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, or until they start to turn translucent. Add ham and cook for 3 to 4 minutes until thoroughly heated. Remove from heat and set aside.
In a microwave-safe container and nuke for a minute or so, until no longer cold. Whisk in flour and black pepper until totally combined. Set aside. (You may add salt, but cheese and ham are salty, so add sparingly.)
Combine the two grated cheeses. Set aside.
Layer 1/3 of the potato slices in the buttered casserole dish. Sprinkle on 1/3 of the ham/onion mixture, then 1/3 of the cheese, then pour on 1/3 of the cream mixture.
Repeat this twice more, ending with a sprinkling of cheese and a pouring on of the rest of the cream mixture. I'm heavy handed with the cheese so I needed more than the 2 cups of cheese. It wasn't "au gratin" style as it was more scalloped than cheesy. Cover dish with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 20 minutes at least, or until bubbly and hot.
Cut into squares and serve. Sprinkle on chopped parsley if you'd like! (I didn't!)

3. Ham Potpie based on my step mom's recipe. It's one of those "Some of this. Some of that." recipes so I won't be sharing that today but it was delish! It finished up the ham though as we also had a few ham sandwiches and ham and eggs through the week :)

I did save the ham bone and didn't boil it very long for the ham potpie so I may toss that bone in the freezer to make more broth another day!

Meal Planning - I'm not great at it!

On Monday, at 6:30pm, I pulled a 7.5# ham from the freezer. I didn't have a plan but I quickly realized that we would NOT be having ham for dinner as it was going to take some time to defrost and then take about 2 hours to heat after defrosting.

I ended up making this DELICIOUS Buffalo Mac and Cheese recipe! A few notes:

• I forgot I am a blogger so I didn't take any photos
• I doubled the recipe except for the hot sauce because I don't really like spicy foods
• I used my fancy huge skillet from Pampered Chef similar to the one found here that can be used in the oven
• I didn't use the recipe's Planko recommendation and just liberally sprinkled Progressive Italian Breadcrumbs on top before baking

We still didn't eat until 9pm.

I cooked the ham the next night again not starting it until well after 6pm leaving dinner to be at 8pm and I failed at making any sides! We ended up with hot ham sandwiches. Legit ham but sandwiches nonetheless. Ironic that most people have ham sandwiches on the last day of finishing off a ham and I made them on the first night? :) I have high hopes for making three ham related recipes in the next few days plus we're having a pot luck at church on Sunday so I'm sure I'll take one of them!

• Cheesy Ham Potato Soup - Note: I don't boil the halves of potatoes separately. I chop all of them and pull out what I consider to be the quantity to match the halves. It cuts the cooking time down.
• Hearty Ham Potato Casserole - I've been making this one for a number of years and it is also DELISH! I double the recipe and we eat it for days!
• Ham & Scalloped Potatoes - I haven't made this one yet but I'm digging up recipes as someone recommended for me to make it when I posted about my ham dilemma above on Facebook. I'm up for the challenge but there are A LOT of ways to make it. With or without cheese? With a rue or without? I think I'm going to make it for dinner tonight once I find a recipe - It's only 6pm. Plenty of time for those raw potatoes to bake!

I've done some vague meal planning in the past. I think I should get back to it. It narrows down the grocery shopping and it cuts down on my brain power usage on a daily basis. Plus, Homestead Phil gets hungry about this time of the evening. It would be nice if I had some dinner ready sometime around now rather than at 8-9pm!

As a side note, I also have a running update! I went running (you know I use that term loosely!) twice this week. I stayed with my previous ratio of run 15 seconds / walk 30 seconds. I also used my new shoes with my old "old lady" inserts. PLUS, the dirt road near our homestead that received new rocks recently has now evened back out without large rocks randomly about. My times were a bit slower than my recent ratio but I'm still pleased. I think I'll stick with the 15/30 ratio for at least another week before changing my ratios again. Tomorrow is my "long run" of 3 miles! Praying my calves hold up and I can keep up this new hobby!

PS - I'll do better about taking pics for my blog throughout the week!

New Episodes Are Back!

I don't think I watch much TV but then new episodes start and I realize how much I enjoy a few TV shows and then watch others just because. I made a post here about my preferred watching. Update: We're still working through That 70's Show and I still LOVE This Is Us!

We've been binge watching Poldark on Amazon Prime. What a great show! (and Ross Poldark is fairly easy on the eyes! haha) It's adult content with some mild violence but the language is appropriate.

As for brand new shows that I'm enjoying:

The Cool Kids is a super funny show about older folks (who don't appear to be old enough to be at a retirement community but they live there anyway!) who break a lot of rules and have fun. I'm not giving the description very much justice so give it a try. It makes me belly laugh during each episode!

I'm also enjoying Single Parents. It's a hilariously funny show about single parents joining together to tag team raising kids with the support of other parents in the same boat. Also, the actor who played Raymond's brother in Everybody Loves Raymond plays in this show and he is so funny!

I tried to find a good movie or two to watch for movie night the other night. There are so many new series available on Netflix and Amazon Prime but not many movies. I cannot even start another series. Anyone have any hilarious can't miss movies available to stream? I'd love some recommendations!