Baltimore Lemon Sticks

Lemon sticks were popular in London in the 18th century. In this country, both Baltimore and Philadelphia lay claim to the sweet. (The Philly version uses lemon candy, and during Prohibition, it naughtily added vodka.)

MAKES 1 LEMON STICK

Ingredients

1 chilled lemon

1 peppermint stick (a porous stick, not a candy cane)

Instructions 

To make the lemon stick, roll a chilled lemon on a table to soften the pulp, then halve it crosswise. Insert the peppermint and suck, drawing the cool, tart juice through your minty, sugary straw.

Birthday Breakfast: Ricotta Pancakes With Blueberry Agrodolce Pancake Syrup

I’ve had this recipe from Cuisine At Home (Issue 115 February 2016) for quite awhile and decided it was time to give it a try for my special birthday breakfast today. 

We spent some time this morning picking wild raspberries and had them along side this amazing breakfast. 

I love to be in the kitchen, cooking and trying new recipes, and this one is unbelievably good. 

Sometimes I make something that’s so good, I can’t believe I actually made it myself. This recipe was simple, yet fancy. We pictured ourselves at a highend resort somewhere in Switzerland having breakfast on our balcony. 

The pancake recipe says it serves 6 and makes 12 pancakes. We actually made 11 pancakes, and between the two of us, we ate every-single-one-of-them (the pancakes were kind of small😋). What an amazing way to start the day ❤️

Blueberry Agrodolce Pancake Syrup

Makes about 1 3/4 cups
Total time: 20 minutes

Heat:
2 cups frozen blueberries
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
2 sprigs of thyme
1 cinnamon stick (3-inch)
Heat in a sauce pan over medium-high to a boil.
Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until syrup begins to thicken, 7-9 minutes.

Remove pan off heat, stir in
2 Tbsp. Unsalted butter
1 Tbsp white wine or Champagne vinegar
When butter melts, stir in 1/2 cup thawed blueberries and 1/4 tsp. Table salt

Serve syrup over pancakes

Ricotta Pancakes

Makes: 6 servings (12 pancakes) Total time: 30 minutes

WHISK:
3⁄4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1⁄2 tsp. table salt

WHISK:
1 cup Homemade Ricotta Cheese or purchased whole milk ricotta
1⁄2 cup whole milk
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
2 eggs, separated
1⁄2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
Minced zest of half a lemon

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl, then form a well in the center.

Whisk together ricotta, milk, sugar, butter, egg yolks, vanilla, and zest in a large measuring cup; pour into dry ingredients, stirring just until incorporated.

Whip egg whites with a hand mixer on high speed until firm peaks form, 2–3 minutes.
Stir one third of egg whites into the batter; fold in remaining whites in two additions.

Heat an electric griddle to 375° or a nonstick skillet over medium; coat with nonstick spray. Drop half the batter, by a scant ¼ cup per pancake, onto griddle; cook until bubbles appear on tops and bottoms brown, 4 minutes. Flip pancakes and cook until bottoms brown, 3 minutes more. Repeat with remaining batter.

Murphy's Law and Olive Avocado Toast

Murphy's law is an adage or epigram that is typically stated as: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

So what that means for this weekend is, if you have a sore toe, I will step on it.

If you went to the doctor and got a vaccine shot in the arm, I will slap you on that same arm while congratulating you.

And when my work starts a new fitness challenge to walk a minimum of 56,000 steps over the next 4 weeks, I will forget to wear the tracking device on my longest run of the weekend.

On a happier note, I've been training for an upcoming event, and it's going really welI, but I don't want to talk about it because of Murphy's Law. It seems like over the past year every time I talk about something I'm training for, it never works out. So instead, I'll share with you another great recipe we tried today. It's super easy!

Olive Avocado Toast (westphoria.sunset.com)

How to make it: toasted bread + diced avocado and chopped olives + parsley + extra virgin olive oil.

~Eve

Bart Bar Recipe

The recipe we have created has gone through many stages of experimentation, trial and error, delight and scorn, soggy and dry, ranging from disaster to perfection.  Bart-Bars consist of  natural ingredients that are tasty and provide high energy.

This recipe will make 32 - 1 1/2" x 2" Bart Bars.
Each Bart Bar will contain approximately
20 g protein, 40 g carbohydrates, 70 g sodium, 300 calories

When we use these on our runs, we cut one bar into 4 equal pieces, and eat one piece every 60 - 90 minutes (We call them Bart Bar Bites).

Here is the recipe, and the way we make it...

4 Cups Quaker Old Fashion Oats (NOT instant oats)
4 heaping tablespoons Nestles Cocoa
6 teaspoons Hammer Nutrition Endurolyte Powder
2 Cups NutriBiotic Rice Protein Vanilla
1 Cup Pecan pieces
1 Cup chopped Almonds
2 1/2 Cups raw Honey
2- 12 oz jars of MaraNatha, no stir, Almond Butter (we use MaraNatha because it has sufficient oil content making it much easier to work with. Other almond butter brands we've used in the past are drier and required the addition of olive oil)

Place the JARS of honey and almond butter (make sure the lids are loosened sightly) in a large pot with water. Bring water slowly to a boil. Just when it starts to boil, remove pot from heat and let stand.  We heat the honey and almond butter, so it makes mixing with the dry ingredients easier.

Mix all dry ingredients in a separate bowl and set to the side.

Place the heated honey and almond butter in a mixing bowl (be careful, jars will be hot) followed by the dry ingredients.

Mix slightly by hand prior to using the electric mixer.  

Note: your mix will be darker compared to the images below. They were taken before we started using cocoa.

Mix until all ingredients are thoroughly combined. We use a Kitchen-Aid mixer with the dough hook attachment.

Place the mixture in a slightly olive oil coated 9 x 13 inch glass baking dish and firmly press the mixture into place. To press in place, I first use a large serving spoon, followed by a large stainless steel spatula.

Refrigerate until cool than cut into desired size squares.  Keep Bart-Bars stored in the refrigerator.

Rooster Cogburn donning his mustache for Movember

Homemade Warm Blueberry Sauce

While we were on vacation in Colorado, we had the fortunate opportunity to try homemade plum sauce on pancakes. It was so good, and with thoughts on our minds of homemade recipes, and a gazillion blueberries in our freezer, we switched it up and made homemade blueberry sauce.

After searching the Internet for a recipe that uses less sugar, we came across this one on spoonful.com.  We primarily wanted this for pancakes, but being a sauce, it can be stirred into yogurt, added to smoothies, drizzled over plain cheesecake, or poured over ice cream.

The only mistake we made in making this, was not doubling the recipe!

Ready to make your own blueberry sauce?  Here ya go...

What you'll need

2 1/2 cups of fresh or individually frozen blueberries (not in juice)

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup orange juice 

1 tablespoon cornstarch

2 teaspoons lemon juice

How to make it

1 Combine the blueberries, sugar, and 1/4 cup of the orange juice in a medium-size saucepan. Warm the mixture over low heat, stirring it occasionally and mashing up some of the blueberries.

2 While the berries heat, blend the remaining orange juice into the cornstarch (remember wet on dry and you won't have impossible lumps to deal with)

3 Increase the heat under the pan and bring sauce to a boil. Stir the cornstarch mixture again and then stir it into the blueberry sauce. Cook the sauce at a low boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly.

4 Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the lemon juice. Cool the sauce for 5 to 10 minutes before serving (it will thicken as it cools). Makes about 2 cups

Homemade Crock Pot Apple Butter

We have an old apple tree on the property of our community that only one neighbor and several deer make good use of it's fruit, the rest just go to waste. So this year, Bart and I decided to pick some and try our hand at home made apple butter.  I searched the Internet for hours for a recipe that I felt would be the best tasting while using the least amount of sugar.  Based on reading many recipes and recipe reviews, I choose one from Betty Crocker, and I have to say, this is the best apple butter I've ever had. This is the first time Bart has ever tried apple butter, and he loves it too.  In fact it was so good, we made a second batch and canned it, so we can enjoy it all winter long. If it lasts that long :-) 

This recipe made approx 8-8 oz jars plus a little left over to keep in the fridge

no pesticides used on these babies

Not the prettiest apples in the world, but they just needed a little 

washing off

We always want to pass any recipe we love along to you, so here ya go...

Recipe:

12 medium cooking apples, peeled and roughly chopped (you want to use enough apples to fill your crock pot. The apples from our tree are small, so we used about 30 of them)

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

1/2 cup apple juice

1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon ground allspice

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1. Mix all ingredients in 5 to 6 quart slow cooker

2. Cover and cook on low heat setting 8 to 10 hours or until apples are very tender

3. Mash apples with potato masher or large fork (we used our Immersion hand blender)

4. Cook uncovered on low heat setting for an additional 1 to 2  hours, stirring occasionally, until thick. cool about 2 hours

5. Spoon apple butter into container, cover and store in refrigerator up to 3 weeks

This can also be canned and stored up to one year. Click here for Water Bath Canning Instruction

Use enough apples to fill your crock pot

After cooking on low for 10 hours, we used our immersion blender 

to make it smooth

nom nom nom

Tomato Basil Pasta Recipe

This recipe is called the One Pot Wonder. It is super easy to make and delicious! The original recipe was from Martha Stewart Living Magazine, but we came across this modified version on apronstringsblog.com

To give you an idea how good this is, we made it twice in three days :-)

Serves 4 to 6 as an entree

12 ounces linguine pasta

1 can (15 ounces) diced tomatoes with juice

1 medium sweet onion (such as Vidalia)

4 cloves garlic very thinly sliced (we used 3)

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

2 teaspoons dried oregano leaves

4 1/2 cups vegetable broth

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

(We added a large handful of spinach)

1 bunch (about 10-12 leaves) basil, diced

Parmesan cheese for garnish

Place pasta, tomatoes, onion, and garlic in a large stock pot. Pour in vegetable broth. 

Sprinkle on top pepper flakes and oregano. Drizzle top with oil.

Cover pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a low simmer and keep covered. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes or so.  Cook until almost all liquid has evaporated - We left about an inch of liquid in the bottom of the pot.

Season with salt and pepper. Add basil leaves and stir pasta several times to distribute the liquid in the bottom of the pot evenly throughout the pasta as you are serving. Serve garnished with Parmesan cheese. 

Enjoy!

Eve & Bart

Homemade Dog Treats

We love to share recipes, so here's two yummy ones you can make for your furry family members: Healthy Doggie Cookies and Sweet Potato Chews...

Healthy Doggie Cookie:

2 1/2 C whole wheat flour

2 eggs

1 1/4 C canned pumpkin or sweet potato (not the pie filling kind)

1/4 C peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 C water

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Place all ingredients in a bowl and stir thoroughly. (it's okay to add more water if the dough is too dry)

Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness and cut with cookie cutter (tip: if the dough is sticky, sprinkle flour on the rolling pin and surface you are rolling it out on, I like to roll out the dough on parchment paper)

Place on greased cookie sheet

Bake for 20 minutes

Cool completely before serving

Sweet Potato Chew:

1 large Sweet Potato, washed and dried

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 250 degrees

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper

Cut the potato into 1/3 inch slices (no smaller than 1/4 inch)

Place them on prepared baking sheet

Bake for 3 hours, turning half way through

Cool completely before serving

Storing:

Refrigerate for up to 3 weeks

Shadow loves these treats, and he loves to share them with his buddy Max...

Baked Potatoes from the Crock Pot

This is a great recipe and is so easy plus no heat in the kitchen. I found this recipe on food.com in the wee hours of the morning when I was unable to sleep and so happy I found it.  We've already make this three times and wanted to pass it on to you...

Directions: 

1. Rinse potatoes and stab with fork several times

2. Spray foil with olive oil 

3. Sprinkle potatoes with salt

4. Wrap each potato in foil

5. Fill crock pot with potatoes

6. Cover and cook on High 2 1/2 to 4 hours (do not add water)

Tips: 

Make sure your potatoes are the same size

Cooking time depends on how big your potatoes are

It doesn't hurt to cook them for the 4 hours

You can cook 5 or 6 large potatoes on Low for 8 to 10 hours

Cook away my  little spuds...

Next time I want to add some Greek seasoning...

Guacamole Dip Recipe

You know we love to pass on our favorite recipes, so it's time to share our "Rockin' Guac" guacamole dip recipe! Hope ya love it like we do!...

Ingredients:
3 ripe Avocados, pitted, peeled and mashed
1 can (10 oz.) Ro-Tel Diced Tomatoes & Green Chilies (Original or Mild), drained
3/4 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon lemon or lime juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
Ground black pepper
Tortilla chips, optional

For those who don't know how to pit and peel an avocado, don't fret about it, just click here to find out how!

Directions:
1. Mix avocados, drained tomatoes, onion, lemon juice and salt in medium bowl until well blended. Season with pepper to taste.

2 Serve with tortilla chips, if desired

3 ripe avocados, pitted, peeled and mashed

3/4 cup chopped onion

Mix avocados, drained tomatoes, onion, lemon juice, salt and 

pepper.  

 It's that easy!

Mom's Spaghetti Sauce & Meatballs!

Connie Thompson's Spaghetti Sauce & Meatball Recipe

We always like to eat a plate of pasta the night before a long event.  Tonight's carbo-loaded pasta was topped with Eve's mother's homemade spaghetti sauce...


This spaghetti sauce is very mild.  Our dish included "Nate's Meatless Meatballs, Zesty Italian flavor". We haven't eaten meat in years, but we'll provide Mom's recipe for meatballs also because they are really very good... Oh yea and this makes a ton of sauce because Mom was cooking for seven!

Sauce:
2-12oz cans tomato paste
12 cups of water
1 small to medium sized onion, chopped
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 package or teaspoon beef bouillon (we used one teaspoon "Better Than Bouillon, Organic Vegetable Base)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons Italian Seasoning
3 teaspoons dried basil
4 teaspoon dried oregano
1 dried bay leaf

Saute onion in olive oil until tender, add tomato paste and water, blend well
Simmer for 45 minutes
Add all other ingredients and meatballs (if you are using "meatless" meatballs, add them in during the last 5-10 minutes, you don't want to over cook them)
Simmer 1/2 hour longer or until as thick as you like (the longer it simmers, the thicker it gets)
Salt and pepper to taste
Remove bay leaf  before serving (cuz it's yucky if you eat it)

Meatballs:
preheat oven to 400 degrees
1-2 lbs ground beef
1 egg
Mix well
Add 1/4 cup of water and mix well.  You want the mixture to be rather soft, so you may need to add more water
Now add 1/2 cup plain bread crumbs and 1/2 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
Mix well, shape into meatballs
Place meatballs on a "Pam" sprayed cookie sheet and bake in oven until they look brown
Add to spaghetti sauce during the last 30 minutes of cooking

Now, cook up some pasta and eat!

Hope you enjoy it!

Bart & Eve
sure do miss you mom...

Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice

It's that time of the year again when everywhere we turn some one's coughing, sniffling or sneezing!  Although there are no guarantees to prevent catching a cold, washing your hands regularly and getting a daily dose of  Vitamin C has been shown to improve your odds. We want to do what ever it takes to help us stay healthy, active and enjoy running through the cold season. Our favorite way to get our Vitamin C is by making fresh squeezed orange juice.  Here's how we have progressed through the years in making our OJ!

Healthy Start: Maple-Nut Granola

We have yet to grow tired of this recipe since we first tried it in 2010.  It's so quick, easy and delicious. We double the recipe every time!

This granola has less oil than most, plus healthy fat from nuts.  Serve it with low-fat yogurt and fruit or our daily favorite, vanilla flavored almond milk.

Everyday Food, January/February 2010

Tuscany Bread! A Quick and Easy Post Run Meal

I was given this recipe years ago.  It's pretty much a staple in our diet because it's so quick and easy to put together.  It's our go to recipe for after a long run when we want something substantial in our bellies and really need something in a hurry!  Hope you enjoy it also!

Fresh Basil Pesto! Pre or Post Run Meal

Do you love basil?  Do you love garlic? Then you're gonna love this! Fresh Basil Pesto adds a powerful flavorful punch to any pre or post run meal!  Serve with pasta, over baked potatoes, or spread over toasted baguette slices and you won't want to stop eating it.