Weekend Scrapbook 2

Can you believe I took that picture with my cell phone?  Can you believe I had been carrying my phone in a ziploc, squished into the front of my sports bra, while running and getting completely soaked by sweat and humidity?  Sorry, that's a little gross.  But I strive to be open and honest, and hey, I'm certainly not perfume and roses even half the time.  Anyway, Rory and I ran twice this weekend on the Greenway - a set of forested paths about a mile from our house.

The paths mostly follow a creek and are paved except for the footbridges that cross over marsh and wetlands.  What you're staring at is a forest cloaked in 97% humidity.  Oh, yes.  That air out there was heavy.  My clothes were completely drenched, and it should be noted that running in humidity like that is exhausting.  It just saps all endurance and wears you out in no time flat.  Running a slow three miles in that feels like a fast five miles in cooler and dryer weather.  Which probably explains why we saw almost no one either day.  But I'm not complaining; it's really nice to have forested paths all to ourselves.  One of my favorite sounds is the hushed rhythm of footfalls in nature.



Rory gets tuckered out in the oppressive humidity too, so I stopped to let her take a mid-run swim break.  Actually, I had planned to stop to let her get a quick drink, but she ran and jumped right in and then swam around. 

Flowers?  Lovely.  Wet dog?  Not so much.

Bo has been dutifully tending to our back yard and patio garden, and these Zinnias are just one of the blooms thriving out there.  I haven't lifted a finger with anything regarding our backyard except to get inordinantly excited over picking out seed packets.  Which he then planted and grew for me.  Such a spoiled life I lead.

Of course, I then oblige when he asks me to make cookies. Cookies with more chocolate than usual.  Cookies made with my fancy-dancy Sarandipity melting chocolates.

I may or may not have eaten cookies for dinner last night, and nothing else.  Whoops.

Cooking with Sara: Congo Best Friends

I've lovingly dubbed these treats Best Friend Makers.  They're so perfectly yummy without being over the top, that anyone who eats one will be your instant best friend.  And if they don't love them to bits, well, you didn't want them as your best friend in the first place.  

Best Friend Makers on From Blah to Ta-Daa

Brown sugar, coconut, pecans, and white chocolate... Raise your hand if that's on your best friend criteria list!

Cooking with Sara: Valentine's Sugar Cookies

Those of you who've known me for a long while have seen these cookies up close and in person.  Oh yes, I make them fairly often, and especially for the holidays I have cookie cutters for :)  And then at Christmas, we get all kinds of fancy and sandwich them together with seedless raspberry jam and call them the exceedingly fancy name of "Jam Cookies."  My my, how I love these babies.  Which is 15% of the reason why I'm reposting the recipe today.  The other 85% is that I was way too busy to get a new recipe whipped up this week, and rather than post nothing, I thought I'd drag out my very first Blah post because it's festive and cute and who doesn't love cookies with frosting?  Also?  Cookies and frosting.  There's really nothing more to say.

Valentine's Sugar Cookies on From Blah to Ta-Daa

Cooking with Sara: Peanut Butter Balls




You get a double-dose of Cooking this week :)  Really, I just wanted to be sure to get this recipe into your grubby little paws before the holidays zipped on by.  These are seriously too easy to taste this yummy.  Seriously.  Who knew that peanut butter and powdered sugar would be a match made in heaven? 

And an added perk is that they're both dairy free and gluten free (completely vegan if you use dark chocolate for dipping).  We're going to pretend that they're also calorie free :)

Best Friends Peanut Butter Balls on From Blah to Ta-Daa

Cooking with Sara: Coconut Macaroons

It's Thursday!  Which means it's my day to cook for the food blog!

As promised, here is the link for this recipe!

Coconut Macaroons on From Blah to Ta-Da

These little treats are pretty easy to throw together, but taste amazing.  (They're also gluten-free if you're of that nature.)  Definitely include the lemon zest in the recipe; it adds another level of yum. I'm so, so glad that Marnie convinced me to keep it in.

Tomorrow I'll be posting the recipe from our Peanut Butter Balls.... :)