Colorado Marathon

The Mr. and I made the trip to Fort Collins this past weekend to run the Colorado Marathon. Yeah! I was excited to cross another state off my 50 states list and having trained to just finish it without setting a PR or a certain goal, I knew I’d be able to enjoy the scenery of the Poudre Canyon and Colorado Mountains!

We got into Fort Collins a couple of days early to spend a little time with old friends and see the city. It was so nice to be able to bike every where we needed to go. There are days I long to live in a flat city where I could bike everywhere without sweating pounds of water as I bike up hills! Nonetheless, I love the hilly terrain of Fayetteville and don’t think I’d trade it for a flat city (…trading humid air for mountain air is a whole other story!). But over the weekend I enjoyed flat Ft. Collins for a few days, crisp mountain air, and the scenery of the Colorado mountains to my West!

We were able to shop and dine at their local places in Old Town and even took a tour of the New Belgium Brewery. I mean, who isn’t up for delicious vegan food and free beer before a race?! After a busy, but fun, couple days we were definately ready to get the run over with!

So, on Sunday morning our alarms sounded at 3:45 am and we gathered our gear and headed out to catch the bus that would take us the 26.2 miles into the canyon. I didn’t realize how much colder it was going to be at the start line than it was in town. We had about an hour to wait around for the race start and I spent most of that hour shivering! It was around 35 degrees at the start and I was longing for a sweat suit! At 6:15 the race was off!

The race runs down a ravine, so we start around 6000 ft and end in the city around 4000 ft (I think those are correct!). You run down hill the entire race except for a small uphill at mile 18. It was a beautiful, quiet course that followed the Cache La Poudre Riverdown the Poudre Canyon. We took it easy and just ran to enjoy the day! We made a pact to stay together the entire race, but the Mr. started to cramp up about mile 21. So, we did a bit of walking, stretching, trying not to get in a bad mood knowing there are about 5 miles left, and journeyed on. After about 3 miles of this it was hurting me more to walk/run than to just run and finish. So, I took off and ran a quick last 1.5 miles to stretch my legs and finished in 4:24. Brian came in at 4:31 and was done!

Now the fun part started – the journey back to the airport, a flight to Tulsa, and then a two-hour car ride home. Needless to say, we both felt like really old arthritic folks when we arrive home LATE Sunday night. Today we are both still sore (in fact, I can hear an Advil bottle being opened in the kitchen right now), but we are glad we did it and would recommend the course to anyone!

A few days break from running will do the trick and I’ll forget all about the pain and sign up for another marathon!

26.2 here we come!

Happy, but hurting after the race!

Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake

You know when you see an old friend and conversation picks back up right where it left off, even if it’s been months or years? Well…hello old friend!

It’s been a super busy couple months. Let’s see, the Mr. and I purchased a downtown lot where we plan to build our dream home (probably years from now, but hey, we do have .1 acre in our little nook of the world!), I’ve been traveling a bit with work this spring and that’s been good, and the shop turned 1 earlier this month! I feel like I’m always on the go, but that’s not a bad thing! I’ve still been baking, sewing (a little), running – we are going to Colorado this coming weekend to run the Colorado Marathon in Ft. Collins – reading and drinking good coffee. It’s been a good spring, but I am hoping for a little slower pace this summer (…and maybe for the weather to be mild!).

In true fashion with my normal weekend plans, I did a bit of baking. I needed to use my last bit of vegan cream cheese (the expiration date was creeping up on me…and using something after that date sort of creeps me out!), so I decided to go with a cheesecake recipe. I mean, when is cheesecake for dinner not a bad idea?! After searching my cabinets for what I had on hand, I decided to go with a chocolate peanut butter combo. Again, when is that not a bad idea?! So a bit of processing and watching the oven to make sure it cooked just perfectly and…ta da!

Now that your mouth is watering, here is the recipe:

1 whole wheat vegan pie crust (you can make your own or use a graham cracker crust for a more traditional cheesecake feel)

1 12 oz container of extra firm silken tofu
1/2 cup of soy milk (I did use light vanilla)
1 8oz container of vegan cream cheese
3 tbsp ground flax-seed
3/4 cup of vegan sugar
2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. Process tofu and soy milk until smooth. Add the cream cheese and process until smooth. Add flax-seed, vegan sugar, lemon juice and 1/2 tsp vanilla. Process until very smooth. Take 1/2 that mixture and transfer it to another bowl (I usually eyeball things like this, so just split the mixture as close to half as possible and you’ll be fine!

1 cup of vegan chocolate chips, melted

In the processor mix 1/2 the tofu mixture with the melted vegan chocolate chips until smooth. Transfer to the bottom of the pie crust.

1/2 plus 2 tbsp chunky peanut butter

Add the remaining tofu mixture and the peanut butter (I also eyeballed the pb, so I believe that’s about what I used – between a 1/2 cup and 3/4 cup) – to a clean processor of course! Process until smooth. Spread the peanut butter mixture on top of the chocolate mixture. Bake for 55 minutes. Turn the oven off and then keep the pie in the oven another 10-15 minutes. Remove and let cool on a wire rack for at least an hour. I then put it in the fridge to chill. You can eat this warm also, which would probably be just as good.

I believe a scoop of peanut butter chocolate soy ice cream would have really made this awesome, but as it stands the pie along was super delicious!

I promise to not let time fly by between posts again! I promise lots of gorgeous Colorado pictures and race details from next weekend. After that I’m back in Nashville again and I’m sure something rad will happen (it always does in that city!). In fact, I was there last weekend for work and stayed to hang out with an old (awesome) friend…turns out Punch Brothers were playing, so we were able to catch a show from one of my favorite bands. So much fun! …now, I think I need a second piece of that pie…mmmmm…..

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

You probably think I’ve fallen off the face of the earth? Maybe I have, maybe I haven’t …but, I’m sure you are just dying to know what I’ve been up to (…I mean, who isn’t?!) Well, I spent the Christmas break with my family in Phoenix. Nice, warm, sunny Phoenix. I had a great time in the Valley of the Sun. We hiked a bit, visited all my favorite vintage and discount shops, and enjoyed time with family. What more can you ask for?

After the holidays it was back to the normal routine. Work and travel. Between a little work travel and a little fun travel, I’ve been keeping pretty busy. I spent a little time in Tennessee for work in early Jan. I always enjoy visiting Nashville and getting to spend a time with my childhood best friend. I love those friends where you can see them a few times a year and each time pick up exactly where you left off. I’d say those are the best kind of friends!

Then in mid-January, the Mister and I were able to take a little getaway to NYC. Earlier in the winter I found round trip tickets on the cheap! I always love an ‘excuse’ to get away to New York. While we were there we took in a Broadway show (run and go see Memphis if you haven’t! It was wonderful!), spent a bit of time running through Central Park, dining at our favorite vegan restaurant on the upper East side, and were even able to attend a show to see some of the fall collections of a few mens lines we carry at the shop. It was a chilly, but great and productive visit.

Now I’m getting ready to head a little north to the Kansas City area and then down South to Birmingham this week for work. I am looking forward to both trips and the evening I choose to spend perusing the shelves of the River Market Antique Mall!

But before I head out Monday morning, I’ve got 6 dresses/shirts to cut out for my spring handmade goods for the shop. I ordered some lovely Amy Butler fabric to use for my vintage patterns and can’t wait to get sewing! I’ll post some pictures over the next few weeks as I work on these. I’m hoping to finish them up by March 1, but we’ll see! My good intentions for sewing deadlines rarely take!

I thought I’d put together a little photo montage for your enjoyment!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

MMMmmm…Chocolate Eames Chairs!

These little beauties joined my collection of mid-century furniture today. I also have a desk on its way later this week! Stay tuned for more pictures….but for the meantime, you can admire these for a bit! (I think I just might fall asleep in one of them tonight!)

Is it really December?

I felt like yesterday was Thanksgiving. What happened to November, crisp mornings, and the leaves on trees? Things are bare here and the weather folks are even predicting a bit of winter snow in a couple of days! I believe today will be my last warm-ish run before this winter front comes through. So, as much as I just want to sit and sip on my pumpkin spice coffee, I know I need to lace up those running shoes before the rain comes in this afternoon!

It’s been quite a couple of weeks since I last posted and I’ve done quite a bit of baking. The Mister and I stayed in Fayetteville for Thanksgiving and made our own little vegan thanksgiving dinner – complete with Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie and everything! In fact…I was just trying to find where I put my Mimi’s dressing recipe I made vegan a few minutes ago, but guess my ‘safe keeping’ spot was a little to ‘safe’ for my memory! I’ll post it in the next couple days when I locate it! In the meantime, I tried two Delicious new recipes for breakfast and dessert on Thanksgiving Day. We woke up to Vegan Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread (and I can’t locate the link for the recipe for this one either, but it was amazing…when I find it, I’ll post it). Then the pie for dessert was to die for – worth every calorie! This Peanut Butter Chocolate Mousse Pie turned out wonderful. So wonderful that we didn’t share any. Not one bite! This recipe should definitely make it into your recipe box!

For Thanksgiving dinner I made all the staple Southern cooking goods – homemade cornbread dressing, green beans, mashed potatoes, french bread….MMMmmm….

Since we have the shop now, Christmas kind of starts the day after Thanksgiving! We opened a bit earlier than normal that day and had a wonderful first holiday weekend at the shop. I was able to find a few 1950′s tinsel Christmas trees to decorate the windows with and found a few more in Tulsa last week that are on their way over with my in-laws today! Once they are all up in their wonderful shiny glory, I’ll post a few pictures of the shop windows. These little ladies are such beautiful trees – it’s a shame they went out of style in the 60′s! We also had our holiday open house on Thursday and I played Suzy-homemaker and baked three types of cupcakes for that – Vegan Crimson Velveteen Cupcakes with ‘Cream Cheese’ Frosting, Vegan Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Drizzled Chocolate Ganache, and Vegan Dark Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes with Peppermint ‘Butter’cream Frosting and Chocolate Ganache. Yum! It’s just breakfast now, but I think I can go for a sweet…what am I saying, I can always go for something sweet! All these recipes came from Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World – it’s my go to book for vegan cupcakes. I’ve never been disappointed with a recipe!

So…pictures! Here are all the lovely baking creations from the past two weeks. …I’ll try to find Mimi’s dressing recipe I made vegan in that ‘safe’ place I put it and post it soon!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

What do you do on a bad day?

…Bake!

Well, what did you do today…

If you must ask, I ran 26.2 miles…and I’m very tired! It was a gorgeous day in Charlotte, NC and I had a very beautiful run. However, the rolling hills got to me around mile 21 and things got rocky there. Well, let me back track – I started running at 7:45 this morning and it was a nice, clear, and dry day – which is great for a race! The temps were around freezing, but knowing they’d be in the mid-50′s by the time I finished, I opted for shorts (burr!). The first 12 miles went by really quickly. I was holding around a 9 min pace and chatting with a Charlotte local, which made time go by quickly.

By mile 13 the few hundred of us who were braving the full marathon split off from the thousands of half marathoners and things got pretty lonely. Lucky for me (or so I thought), I brough my iPod to help with the quietness. I quickly found out that somewhere between the charging and adding a special run mix to it and this point in the race, it had turned itself on and the battery had drained. Boo! So, musicless, but upbeat I continued on. I was still ahead of the 4:15 pace I was shooting for and still feeling good.

By mile 20 this started to change – the ol’ legs started to get tired. My mind was staying ‘go, go, go’ and my legs were sort of not complying with that command! I trudged on and the best surprise of the last 6 miles was when I got to mile 22, I thought I was just at 21, so having an ‘extra’ mile appear was the wonderful! However, that happiness was short-lived when the 4:15 pace group passed me and I knew I was a little behind my goal time! The last 4 miles were toughies, but a little walk/running and I crossed the finish line in 4:17 and was still able to get around and enjoy the rest of my day!

So, race number 17, state 16 (…I think!) is complete. Which puts only 34 more states to go! Now, I think a week of rest from running (if I can even make it that long from not taking a little short run) is just the ticket!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.