City Scapes and Sunday Sunshine

Today includes:

Homemade lattes on the couch

Cool breeze through the kitchen window

Cozy bathrobe

Clean dishes

Dreaming of a mint and basil filled window box

Instagram and PicTapGo photos

Procrastinating the following: running, cleaning, bill-paying

Brocolli cheddar omelettes 

Looking forward to: dinner and homemade mojitos with our friends

Pinterest kitchens, Pinterest recipes, Pinterest drooling.....

Honeysuckle candles

Sunshine. Lots of sunshine.

Cityscapes from April and May.

Lately

Loving: The warmer spring weather and all the flowers outside

Wearing: running shorts and a very old gray t-shirt.

Eating: Greek yogurt with bananas, cinnamon and honey.

Drinking: French press coffee. (While looking at the new espresso maker - we mastered steamed milk!)

Wishing: That I could go back to bed for another hour or two

Thinking: About how delightful this weeklong birthday is. I get to have two fabulous weekends of birthday celebration AND a work party too...

Excited: To be turning 25 on Saturday. And also for my new red shoes.

Listening: Fun is on repeat in my head right now. I know, how original of me.

Enjoying: Playing with the new puppy at work. He's a 3 legged bundle of cute and cuddly pit bull.




From Left to Right: Magnolias on Mile 5, Happy Puppies at work, Zack and I after our 10 mile race, More Magnolias, Friday night, Crab Apple Blossom, Crab Apple Tree (mile .3), Daffodil, Mile 7 

Spring in Black and White

A few weeks ago - before it started getting moderately warm out - I spent the afternoon at one of the best parks in our area: Liberty State Park.

Liberty State Park is technically in Jersey City, it's about 4 feet (slight exaggeration) from the Statue of Liberty and from lower Manhattan. Incredible views of the Freedom Tower, the Verrazano bridge, and the river. 

Windy and beautiful!  

In technicolor!

Defying Gravity

I wanted to share a few of my favorite photos from a recent hike. They're a bit silly - but that's the fun in it. To put them in context however, below is one of my favorite photos from about 4 years ago. It's one of my only published photos and was taken on an abandoned airstrip. This one was an accidental success, but the photos following are sillier interpretations of the gravity defying idea.

(c. 2009)

Super strength

Jedi mind tricks

Plank

Just for fun...

These two are just funny

Irish Soda Bread Scones

For some reason I had a craving for Irish Soda Bread today . . . I can't imagine why! I decided to alter the recipe a bit - because I am incapable of cooking or baking anything according to recipe. The results were a little more flaky and fluffy than traditional soda bread, and since I baked them in scone shape - maybe I should just give up on calling them soda bread at all. Anyhow, they were impressively delightful.

Here's my altered recipe - these were super easy, 20 minutes to prep and about 20 in the oven.

Irish Soda Bread Scones

Preheat oven to 400 

In a large bowl stir together:

1 1/2 cups flour (I used a combo of whole wheat pastry and white)

1/4 cup date sugar (or slightly less white sugar)

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Cut in: 

3/4 stick COLD butter

Mix the butter chunks into the flour mixture with your fingertips until the consistency is like grainy sand

Add: 

1/3 cup currants or raisins

Zest from one orange

Stir in:

1/2 cup buttermilk 

(for this step I added 1 tsp vinegar to 1/2 cup whole milk and let sit for 10 minutes because I didn't have any buttermilk on hand)

1 tsp vanilla

**Do not overmix! Once the flour mixture is fully incorporated, turn the dough onto a floured surface. Roll the dough over once or twice and form into a long rectangle about 1/2 inch thick. Cut into squares and cut squares on the diagonal.

Bake on a greased cookie sheet for 15-20 minutes - until golden.

Serve plain or with butter and marmalade!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Adventures with Sunsets and Landscapes

A nice part of my week off is discovering sunsets outdoors again. It's been a cold, dark winter and generally I see the sun setting through the blinds at the office or on a lucky day, while sitting in Lincoln Tunnel traffic. 

This week I decided to take advantage of the "golden hour" and get outdoors. It was seasonably pleasant out (I would say warm, but it was 50 degrees and the sun was setting so it wasn't quite WARM) and the light was just gorgeous. 

I took a mini tour of the little parks along the river near our house - below are my favorites:

Sunday Funday

What a beautiful weekend! 50+ degrees and sunny. This means actually enjoying my training runs outdoors!

I took a little detour at the end of my run today to take a few photos of the abandoned tracks by our house . . .