Copper Man Run (or walk in my case)

There is this tumblr that makes may day. Its called Text From Dog and its iPhone conversations between a guy and his dog. It is pretty funny. I guarantee it will make you smile.(if it doesn't make you smile then you are a. heartless or b. not a fan of dogs or humor).

Today was the Copper Man race. It had sounded really fun online when they were talking about it.  We got to dress up as lumberjacks though. (I enjoyed that part the most. I got so many complements on the beard and outfit all together).

We were supposed to be "husband and wife"

 We got bags that had a cool beer mug, a t-shirt, a couple snacks and a cape. I wore mine as a bib, while others let their dog wear it.

When we got up to Copper Mountain we looked at the course and thought we would run through the trees first and continue on. We were wrong. The first part of the course you had to run up a hill, I'm talking a huge freaking hill. Imagine you went skiing or snowboarding and you dropped your glove or hat and it is your favorite glove or hat and you are done for the day. You can see your glove or hat a little ways up the slope you had just come down, so you decided to walk up the hill to get it. It was like that, but much steeper, maybe a little less hard since we did it in combat boots.

we had to run along the slide if you can tell where that is

Once you got up the hill you then slide down it on your ass.  (I got video of mom sliding down on her ass, but mom did not get me sliding down unfortunately...)

We then ran through a bamboo pole forest and crawled through a tube.

 

 Its not a very big bamboo forest, nor was the tube.

We didn't get any pictures that are usable of going in the tube, but people could ski over the tube as you can see.
After the tube we had a little ways with out any obstacles besides the slushy snow/ice of the trail. We then came around a corner and had to climb over hay.

Mom climbed over, I was lazy and didn't

After the hay was another area without obstacles until you get to the beach ball pit.

Which you got to run through and kick the balls and have fun. After that we had to go through a maze/ choose a side. I choose right and won the maze. Mom went the wrong way and then climbed under the fence. After that we had to run for a ways (or walk because my lungs hate me at 9500 feet above sea level). In the forest (the regular one) they had a bunch of string which you had to climb through.

There we are climbing through. Mom got stuck and fell down and hurt her hand a little bit with a few scrapes. I made it through unscathed besides the whole lung issue. After the ropes we then were headed to the finish line and the "giant pit of 'hot' chocolate". (It was neither giant nor hot, thus the quotation marks.)

Mom Crossing the pit

Me crossing the pit

After the pit of hot chocolate there was very little distance to the finish line.

All done with that insane idea. (It was a good idea to me, until I actually got there and started it).


P.S. Mom pointed out to me that I messed up on one thing and that I forget something. Apparently in my oxygen deprived state I mixed up where the maze was at, it was actually after the rope climbing through area. The thing I left out is that we were not in fact last. I think that is a great accomplishment on my part since I wanted to quit around the hay stacks. (We had three people that finished way after we did).
Another thing that I left out but Mom didn't point out to me is that I got hurt before the race even began.  You know those things that you lean your skis up against while you go inside to get some hot cocoa or just to pee? Well at Copper Mountain there are some of those inside in a hallway. I had seen them when we were walking to get a locker, but I got distracted by a guy in a penguin suit. I walked straight into one. Normal people might get away with hitting it at a fattier part of their body, but I'm short and clumsy. I hit it so hard that I felt like I was going to puke from the pain. I did not puke but I did get a nice bruise from it on my bicep/triceps area (upper arm near the shoulder). It actually made my whole arm go numb for awhile.

Sour Cream Blueberry Crumb Cake

This week has been super crazy for me. I had a contract labor job on Thursday and made $80 for about seven hours of work so that was pretty awesome. My brother and his fiance drove in from Kansas City on Wednesday night and got here at about 2am on Thursday. Friday my marketing group had to film a commercial, it turned out better than I thought it would thanks to my brother, his fiance and his fiances sister, who helped us out. I'll post it after we present it to the class.

Since my brother and his fiance were here this weekend we of course had to have everyone over for a big family gathering. In addition to the typical people we also had my brother's fiance's dad here, it was cool to see him again, he's a pretty cool guy. We had a big dinner and celebrated Easter a day early. I made a dessert as usual. This time everybody loved it, normally my Uncle doesn't like cake or frosting, and typically won't eat dessert. He loves blueberries though, and so I was going through one of my many cookbooks I saw a recipe for a coffee cake that had blueberries in it. I instantly knew that he would love it if I put enough blueberries in it (which I did). My main complaint about this recipe is that it uses like five bowls.

I hadn't planned on doubling the recipe. I didn't realize until I had gotten ingredients out that this only made a 9 inch square pan, and we had like 10 people coming over, so I needed to make more than what I was planning. We had enough of everything except sour cream. I being a genius and what not looked up substitutions for sour cream. I choose the yogurt and baking soda combination, for a cup of yogurt you add a teaspoon of baking soda. Which apparently when you mix those two things together it doubles in size, like when you mix baking soda and vinegar, but much thicker.


My brother told me that this was the best dessert that I have ever made. (That he has tasted, because I made a pretty awesome one in plated desserts class that he didn't get to try)

This recipe is coming to you from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle.

Sour Cream-Blueberry Crumb Cake
 Topping
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt (or a pinch)
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Cake
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup fresh or thawed frozen blueberries
1 cup sour cream ( or yogurt with 1 tsp of baking soda)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
10 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs

Instructions for the topping
In a medium bowl, stir the flour, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt until the butter is absorbed and the dry ingredients are uniformly moistened. Set aside

Instructions for cake
Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour the bottom and sides of a 9-inch square baking pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt until well blended.
In a medium bowl, toss the blueberries with 1 tbspof the flour mixture until the blueberries are coated; set aside. In a small bowl whisk together the sour cream and vanilla extract; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and granulated sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy, 4 to 5 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scrapping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. At low speed, beat in the flour mixture in three additions, alternating it with the sour cream in two additions. Using a rubber spatula, fold in blueberries. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a spatula.

Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the batter, breaking un any large lumps with your fingers.

Bake cake until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Place the cake in the pan on a wire rack and let cool completely.

Cut the cake into squares and serve from the pan.

  I had doubled the whole recipe which includes the topping. Looking back it seems like a lot of crumb topping and I don't know if I should have doubled the crumb topping because it turned out to be like half topping and half cake. I don't know if that is how the dessert is supposed to be or not. The cake batter would break free of the topping while baking and it would bubble up like the picture shows. Overall a really good cake. It can be either a dessert or a breakfast food. But then again most desserts can be (or at least by my standards) but this one is a coffee cake so it can be better justified in the morning than a huge slice of red velvet with a bunch of cream cheese frosting.

Peaches and Cream

I have a filling that does not like to stay put.I was flossing my teeth like I'm supposed to last night, when all of a sudden one of my back molars really started to hurt. I knew this feeling from somewhere when I realized I somehow pulled the filling off with my floss. Since my dentist isn't open on weekends I have to wait until tomorrow morning at the earliest to find out when I can be seen to get it filled again. This is the second time that this filling as come off in about two months I think. Its been hard eating and drinking things. If it is cold it hurts even if it isn't on that side of my mouth. Even breathing hurts sometimes.
I made an awesome dessert today. It was peaches and cream cake? I don't really know what to call it besides peaches and cream.

Peaches and Cream Dessert
3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 (4 oz) package cook and serve vanilla pudding mix

3 tbsp butter, melted
1/4 cup milk
1 egg

 1 (16 oz) can peaches, drained reserving 1/3 cup, chopped

1 8 oz package cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup reserved peach juice

Take some flour add vanilla cook and serve pudding mix and some baking powder. Mix those together add some melted butter, eggs and milk. Pour into a pan and sprinkle with peaches. Pour cream cheese mixture over top and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Enjoy warm or cold.

It hit the fan

Sometimes I'll be doing something totally normal and then all of a sudden I get a huge realization about something. Like I was eating a fattening brownie and looking at my stats about how many people have viewed my blog, and I was like it says September 2009. I think to myself of course, has it really almost been three years? I really don't believe that I've been in college for almost three years now. I graduate next year, and I'm supposed to be some grown-up that has their shit together and be a functioning adult, or something that resembles that. I still have no idea what I really want to do in life. There are elements that I know I want, but I don't know if I want to own my own place or if I'll be content working for someone else.
It just seems like a really big deal to me, really quite overwhelming at times.
On a somewhat pastry related topic. I was eating an ultimate brownie and I had ice cream on top of it, made it more delicious. And it was hurting my teeth because of the cold. My teeth are sensitive since I don't really floss because doesn't seem to matter how much I floss that my gums always bleed. So I had quite a few cavities ( I mostly blame being a baker and loving sweets). I had to have eleven filled plus one that had previously been filled had fallen out or broken off, something like that.
On a random tangent, I am in love with the Hunger Games books by Suzanne Collins, (who isn't?) I don't remember a time when I've read a book so quickly. I would have finished it by now if I hadn't gone and done things I needed to do, like exercising in preparation for CopperMan or going to class. Which by the way is an awesome class. It is called brewing arts and is all about beer and related drinks. We got out early because of some mix up and we ended up not having beer to sip and spit with. Sip and spit is the only way that we are allowed to do this class, (my campus is a dry campus) and there are about 7 of us that are under 21. If we were 21 or older we would have the option to either write a paper or brew our own beer. But for those of us under 21 we have the option of either writing the research paper or not doing anything and getting a lower grade. I turn 21, two days after classes end, on graduation day for other people besides me.
Back to reading the Hunger Games, even though I know how this book ends, I still must find out how it gets to that point. It is such a good book. I'm so in love with it. My mom bought me the first one on Tuesday, and I read most of it last night, so on my way home from beer class this evening I had to stop into a store and buy the last two, even though it probably could have waited until tomorrow. I didn't want to wait because I know I'll be finishing the first one tonight. 

CopperMan

In a few weeks I am going to be running the CopperMan race, which is a 3k obstacle course. For most people 3k is no big deal, but I hate running. I have no clue why I got it in my head that I should run this race, maybe it was the idea of running through a giant pit of hot chocolate and having bragging rights to that. I don't know. Anyway, I am having a hard time getting motivated to get up off my ass and go for a run today, or even a bike ride. I have no excuses, except that I don't want to.
Remember a couple days ago when I posted about the ultimate brownies? Well they are slowly killing me with their chocolatey goodness, and really killing my want to exercise. The brownies make it more of a need, and I feel pressure to do so, which just turns into a sneaky hate spiral. My suggestion is to not make the brownies unless you are having a party or plan on selling them, because for a family of three (one that doesn't like chocolate) it is going to take forever to eat those brownies, unless we give them away or sell them or do something. If I eat the rest of that pan of brownies I will gain at least ten pounds because that is how heavy the pan feels.
Tomorrow is my second class of brewing arts and I'm kind of excited about it. Last class was a lot of fun, I'm hoping they stay fun. My hospitality law class is a lot of fun too. I think my law professor looks a lot like Jamie Lee Curtis, and she is a really fun professor. I actually pay attention in her class. After her class I have been going and sitting outside because the weather has been gorgeous, and Nick is good company to sit outside in the sunshine with. I help him with his Spanish homework, sorta. I've forgotten most of my Spanish. Its kind of sad but I already have a slight tan line and its only March... I want my snow to come back, I want to go snowboarding more. I have to go two more times at least before the season is over.

The Ultimate Brownie

There isn't much to report, other than classes started this week and I can't believe its only been a week. It feels like a lot longer. I only have three days where I am in class. Thursdays are more like a day off because I don't have class until 6pm. I was in class the other day and one of my friends was looking at this website and I looked over and there was this picture of brownies and they looked delicious. I asked him what the website was and if the recipe was there. He told me that there was a recipe. Of course I decided I had to make those brownies. They are awesome. I had to bake them for a bit longer than the recipe says. I don't like how the recipe doesn't say what temperature to bake them at, so I guessed and used 350. Death by chocolate is what I would call these because you would keep eating them until you died. I was going to take a picture but I couldn't get it out of the pan without it falling apart. Also I couldn't control myself and just attacked it with a fork. The recipe I used was from Like They Do. It has a picture so if you want to see it go there. I highly recommend this recipe if you are a huge chocolate lover.

Triple Chocolate Cupcakes with Caramel Frosting

Since my last posting I have been a busy woman. I baked a bunch of cupcakes for my mom to take to work for her last day of the rotation as she usually does. I went to Garden of the Gods, Seven Falls and the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. I went snowboarding today, and classes start up again tomorrow.

Garden of the Gods

Yesterday was Monday and the last official day of Spring Break. Today was just my day off from classes because I don't have Tuesday classes anymore! yay! My friend Andy and I went down to Colorado Springs to see Garden of the Gods and it was a GORGEOUS day. We drove through because we were lazy like that, we stopped at a couple of the rock formations, like Balanced Rock. Where were almost saw a deer get hit by a car.

Seven Falls

After Garden of the Gods we went to Seven Falls, where we were told that they elevator would not be open and the stairs would be open in about a half hour or so. We walked around and found random things in the cliff walls. It was fun. When the stairs opened up we slowly made our way up the 224 steps according to the sign or 223 according to us because we counted them, twice.  When we were looking at all the really expensive stuff in the gift shop we heard that they were opening the elevator, so after we climbed up to the top of the falls we rode the elevator up so we could take this picture.
 

The view from the top of the zoo

The bears that knew their names

 We were going to drive up Pikes Peak but the road would have been closed by the time we got to it, so we decided to go to the zoo. This zoo is amazing, it is huge and has a lot of animals. I got to feed the giraffes, it was cool and gross. They would see you get the food and come over and start sticking their tongues out trying to get the food from you. There was a couple giraffes that thought the wood of their cage was better tasting and one actually pulled a huge piece off and was trying to eat it. We went into the monkey habitat and saw this pair of gibbons that are both missing their left hands, but you wouldn't know it unless someone pointed it out to you. Those gibbons were getting along just fine. We also went and visited the bears and there was a plaque that had a paragraph on each of the bears and what their names are. So Andy and I started calling their names and they actually turned and looked at us.
Monday was an awesome day.

 Today was also an awesome day. I got to go snowboarding. It was another beautiful day out. Sunny, not really cloudy, but the wind was killer. We made seven runs, which  might not sound like much until you know that each run is about two miles long. My face got sunburned and windburned, I kind of have raccoon eyes. Two things I found interesting today was that there was a guy who only had one leg and he was skiing. I was in awe by this, I sat down and watched him go sailing down the mountain, just like any other skier. The other thing I found interesting is there was a woman that I met a lunch that skies or snowboards while carrying her three month old baby. Since Loveland requires you carry them in a pack she was taking turns with her husband as to who was sitting with the baby because they didn't have a pack for her. 
I made the cupcakes on Sunday because Mom needed them for Monday. I had given her a bunch of choices and of course she loves chocolate so she picked the chocolate one. This recipe is from 175 best babycakes recipes by Kathy Moore and Roxanne Wyss.
Triple Chocolate Cupcakes
1 cup flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup softened butter
2 eggs at room temp
2 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

In a small bowl whisk together flour cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside
In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer on medium high speed, beat the sugars and butter for 1 to 2 minutes or until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in melted chocolate and vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk making three additions of flour and two of buttermilk and beating on low speed until smooth. Gently stir in chocolate chips.
If you have a babycakes maker then you can just bake them like any other cupcake. If not then you should be able to bake at 325F until a toothpick or knife comes out clean. This is supposed to make 32 to 36 babycakes, even if I measure I don't seem to get the right number...

Caramel Frosting, from the same book as the cupcakes
1/4 cup butter softened
1/4 cup shortening
3 tbsp caramel syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 tbsp milk (optional)


In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer on medium high speed, beat butter and shortening for 1 minute or until light and creamy. Beat in caramel syrup, vanilla and salt. Gradually beat in sugar until blended. Beat in milk if thinner frosting is desired.