The Roasted Turkey

I know we have awesome serving ware right? All our serving bowls recently cracked, so sad. Should have kept the melamine version. Anyway before I forget I roasted my first turkey and really it was the best I had ever had! We aren't planning on being home for Thanksgiving so when I found a frozen butterball on sale, I took the plunge. We were supposed to have company as well but they had to cancel on us. More turkey for us I guess.

So I rinsed the turkey removed the inerdz and such and patted it dry.
Then I shoved a spatula in between the skin and the meat and poured in olive oil.
 Next I rubbed it in and out with salt and pepper, lots of it, and the outside with rosemary and thyme.
 I squeezed some lemon juice inside and put half an onion chopped in quarters
Next I put it breast side down on a roaster for the recommended time at 350, I flipped it the last hour to let the breast brown.

It was the best turkey any of us have ever had, beginners luck I suppose. The gravy was delish, I made it from the drippings and some cornstarch mixed with water. I think I need to remove more of the fat from that next time but it was yum. Some of the onion fell out from the cavity and then made it's way to the gravy so good. I also cooked up some carrots, mashed potatoes and corn. Huds ate every bite and even requested if for breakfast.

Vibram Bikila

I wasn't going to run today but I guess my body needs exactly a day and a half after a half marathon to be chomping at the bit to run again.In honor of my Bikila's maiden voyage I matched my tank and went for a short run. They were heavenly granted I only did 1.5 miles in them, but it's safe to say so far I'm in LOVE.

 I've had them for a few weeks but everywhere I read people suggest this program or that to transition, plus I had some big races and still had regular shoes to wear down. I initially planned this transition in April but picked up an Ultra trail marathon in March and the conversion can be lengthy so I kept pushing it off, however during that time I converted my stride so that I land on the ball of my feet (forefoot I think?).   After having a running store put me in even greater pronation control than I was previously using and than suffering my first injury ever about 3 weeks after (I've been running regularly since I was 15) and than reading Born to Run I was sold on trying these, and I don't think they will disappoint.  There is significant evidence that the greater pronation control you use the greater the chance of injury, but I will let you research that yourself.

Somewhere between reading program after program to transition from regular shoes to minimalist shoes and massaging my feet for about 30 seconds (this is a suggestion from a program) I decided I just needed to go with my own intuition on the matter.  I'm taking it slow I'll probably do 2 miles in them next week or later this week and increase by a half a mile till I get to 3 and then level off there and wear them more often before I slowly increase from there.  Let me tell you the post run foot massage is better than a pre run one. Granted I did boss out a trail half marathon on Saturday in which I blew past a guy wearing Vibram's but I still have faith in them.  I'll let you know how it continues to goes. BTW I can't wait to get the pics back from the Golden Leaf Half. The leaves were golden up in Aspen and it was an amazing single track springy golden leaf covered trail, with panoramic views of Aspen (which is one of the most beautiful places in the world in my book).  More on that later and
Happy Running!

Homemade Peach Ice Cream

homemade Madigascarian Vanilla Bean Colorado Peach ice cream

My homemade Madagascarian Vanilla Bean Colorado Peach Ice Cream was inspired by my crew shown below it. We had such a great summer that year driving all over in the Scout with it's much bigger tires than pictured above. We camped, we hiked, we swam, we made yummy food and laughed a lot. One of my favorite memories was hiking down to the Punch Bowls at night from the hunting range with one flashlight and laying awake most of the night on them under the stars. I can't find any pictures of the Punch Bowls but they are these big boulders with waterfalls, you can sit on some of them. (That whole area recently got torched in the wild fires down there:-(.) The night entailed a snorefeast when we finally did fall asleep. The next day we all had to work so we hiked up and out with half a bottle of water in the blazing sun and were near dead by the time we got to our cars 2 hours later.

Once upon a time on another occasion we somewhat begrudgingly took the Scout up past Woodland Park, I think to 7 Mile and camped. I say begrudgingly because of the 8 miles/gallon it got, even though gas was still close to a $1 yep you read that right $1 a gallon. It was like $35 to fill that thing versus $10 to fill up all our little economy cars. We stopped in a little town and got some homemade peach ice cream, it was the best thing I'd ever had till I created the above. We spent the rest of the summer with our infantile high school knowledge of cooking trying to recreate it at home. A couple years ago Chik-fil-a came out with a peach shake and I would drive across town just to enjoy such a delicacy. Now thanks to my mother-in-law, who gave me a Cuisinart ice cream maker, (yes the one I posted on my blog forever ago, she's pretty much the best I know), Madagascar's Vanilla Beans, and Colorado's amazing peaches, my craving has been beyond satisfied after 10ish years. Love you grown up kids!
And because I love you all here is the recipe:
1 1/2 cup whole milk
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
1 whole madigascarian vanilla bean
2 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
 Combine milk and cream in medium saucepan. Split vanilla bean in half length ways. Scrape out seeds. Stir bean and seeds into milk mixture. Bring to slow boil over medium heat, reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 mins., mix occasionally. Combine eggs, yolks, and sugar in med bowl. Beat with a mixer till mixture is thick and smooth and pale yellow about 2 mins. Remove pod from mixture. Pour 1 cup of hot liquid into egg mixture slowly beating to tempure the eggs, then add back to milk mixture and mix, cook until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Pour into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap directly on custard chill completely.

2 cups of ripe peaches
1/2 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Chop up peaches and combine, marinate for a couple hours, pour juice into custard right before the ice creaming process. Pour in ice cream maker for about 30 mins add peaches last 5 mins.
Enjoy!

Late Summer at Maroon Bells

Poor Sick Huds loved the leaves

Someday we will hire a real photographer

I'm kind of tempted to get a nice camera, maybe someday...

What we've been up to lately...

TJ's been driving for UPS

Labor Day in Moab

"Doh"= Dog in Hudson

we took pics without Huds while he napped in the car

crazy rain/wind storm, the tent prevailed

Dead Horse Pt

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Smores in Moab

down coat I love, hint hint TJ;-)

my first run 10,662 ft of Rocky Mtn Goodness

Ragnar tattoos

Van 2 Glenwood Gremlins finished 6th in division and 20th overall

Huds & Lily love

bear visit for dinner, he was double tagged so we didn't report him, his next strike takes him to the morgue

Moab 2028

Honoring 9/11 wow where did the last 11 years go?

Hansel and Gretal at Rock Bottom Ranch

I think Huds would take a pig too, he chased this guy through a chicken coup door

I haven't been the best blogger lately, I'm trying.  TJ is working a fairly normal schedule so we've had a fairly "normal" family life, whatever that means these days right?  Anyway, it's been awesome!  We've been maximizing our weekends and evenings, I feel like I have been taking way too much on in life, like supposed to be two places at once and showing up late because I was trying to get a real meal down everyone's throats kind of busy.  Recently I took on being captain of my relay team, starting a book club, a play group, and then being called to work with the young women in our church.  The things I do to avoid hulu addictions.  Anyway it's been fun but I miss our calm days at home and time with my hubs so now that my relay is over I'm trying to take it a little easier.  For those of you that know me, you know that this probably won't happen but I love my days home with Huds.  Honestly though I love my life, mostly because of my awesome little family and this beautiful place we have to live.  I can't really ask for anything more out of life.  Not that my life is perfect but I have what I wanted most in life my wonderful, handsome, and sweet husband and my awesome, cute, FUN son. 

Huds these days has been tackling people, he starts with a big bear hug from behind and than growls and takes other kids down, all of them have been older so far so it's ok right???  He loves putting on his shoes and giving me at least one of my shoes and heading for the door everyday.  He loves water and tries to jump in it everywhere we go including puddles, lakes, and ponds, I think we need to catch up on some pool visits, and after the puddle jumping I'm regretting returning his rain boots.  He also loves to grab anything above his sight, which happened to be knives a few times, mom has gotten smarter though don't worry, although after seeing him wield a butcher knife I think we might have to get him a toy sword for Christmas.  He also loves balls and anything that looks like one he will try to get or throw a fit.  He's got a pretty good arm as well.  Note to parents of ball loving children, don't take your kids to the Olympic Training Center, I'm pretty sure we almost left with Mia Hams soccer ball.  Huds is finally saying Mama but relates it mostly to being hungry.  He went through a peach phase, a raisin phase, and as of late opens the fridge and tells us what he wants, usually strawberries phase.  Anyone know where the name strawberry comes from, weird right?

TJ has been bossing it up in the brown as of late.  Huds and I have visted the big brown hub a few times, I'm pretty sure Huds wants to be a UPS driver when he grows up.  I finally convinced TJ to keep some sideburns, so you can call him Mr Burns now.  Now that TJ is working one job at a time and finished with school he's picked up things like camping again (Alleluia!) and fixing things on our car like the air filter and water pump.  I like a man who can fix a car, it makes me feel so secure after my turbulent history of breaking down cars.  The Carolla rocks by the way, Toyota is the best!  We've had our beauty 3 years now and all we've had to do is regular maintenance.

We've had more fun adventures but I'm too lazy to plug in my phone and download pics, so until next time thanks for tuning into the life of the Connolly's, Glenwood Style!

Smiles

Everyone says it over and over but being a mom really is the best thing.  I'm really blessed that I get to be home with my little boy.  There are so many little moments that just fill me with joy.  This morning I was putting Hudson down for a nap.  I was getting a little sleepy too and I may have dosed off for a bit, while he drank his bottle.  I woke up as he handed me his empty bottle rolled to his side, let out a sigh of contentment, and smiled a big smile as he fell asleep snuggled up to me.  It is a rare occasion for him to fall asleep cuddling with me these days, but it's an occasion I love!  I love my little family!

Oh I almost forgot that earlier this morning Hudson came up behind me in the kitchen while I was making breakfast and kept poking me with something sharp, I turned around and they were scissors, not sure where he got them, but he thought he was pretty funny poking mom with scissors.  

Brain picking

I kept a journal my whole life till I started blogging.  Originally I drew detailed sketches of the strays I would find,  renaming them what I would have named them and writing about the special connections I had with every dog I found, then I drew pictures of horses, then I wrote about liking every boy, then I wrote about dating boys, then I wrote about dating The Boy, now I blog about our family.  I don't blog too much about those personal thoughts I had everyday.  I wonder if I think those anymore.  I usually think; feed, clean, play, sleep, repeat.  However I do catch myself thinking deeper thoughts.

Like today I wondered what kind of mom does Hudson need.  He is super fun to play with but frankly I'm sick of building the same blocks, rolling the ball around, coloring, etc.. . . . I haven't grown sick of reading to him or taking him to the park.  Sometimes I feel guilty for not playing with him, sometimes I feel guilty for building blocks when my heart isn't in it.  He is pretty self-entertaining, and I don't think it's entirely healthy to have a mom all over you all the time, but I'm trying to think of what matters.  I can't wait to talk to him and pick his brain even more.

Little things about his personality come out, like yesterday at Costco, my friend let her son crawl down the isle to release some energy.  Hudson pointed and said oh oh oh oh, trying to get my attention.  Do I have the do gooder tattle-tale son, I think I might?  Or maybe he wanted to do it too, but really it seemed like the first.

Today I thought about how awesome it is that TJ has a normal schedule, like 9-6, it's so weird, I've looked forward to it for so long, going to bed together waking up together, but now I don't know what to look forward too, and I kind of miss having the whole family home all day together.  Also I thought of how as our kids grow up, I'll become a shuttle,  I'll have to get dressed every morning,  yuck, not looking forward to that but at least they will talk so I can pick their brains as I shuttle.