Ironman Thank You's

The details will be coming but the important things first:

• Gabe, for pulling me from one light post to the next (no we didn't plan it but I'm so glad we finished together) - I love you and I am so proud of you.
• Mom, Dad, Jeanette, and Bob Nelson for the undenying parental support.
• Daryl for your amazing support, planning, guidance, and wisdom this last year (and the year prior that prepared me for this training) I started the day because of you and carried your words with me throughout the day.
• Polly, Judy, Robin, Jen, John, Nancy, and Nina for your cheers out on the course.  It was great to see the smiling faces
• All of my friends near and far that encouraged me along the way and watched the live feed/athlete tracker.
• And last, but definitely not least, Kyle, Gina, Lora, Jeanette, Carol, Roxie, Rusty, Andrea and Anna.  We trained hard and we all finished!  You are all my inspiration.

Ironman Athlete Tracker

In case anyone has the deep desire to track my every movement (minus porta pottie pit stops) during the race this Sunday I'm pretty sure you can do so here.  My bib # will be 2414 and Gabe's will be 636.

 Thanks Susan and Hunter for decorating the car!

Team Training Camp

Because I'm lazy and I'd like to just get this posted before the actual big day, I leave you with very few words and mostly just pictures.  Nine adults set out for Canada on a sunny Friday morning to live in very close (yet comfortable) quarters, share their quirks, and train like mad in the heat.  We swam, we biked, we swore (oh wait, that might have just been me...a lot), we ran.  But mostly we ate, we neurotisized (is that a word?  Sadly 'no' but it should be), we inspired, and we laughed.  It was an excellent trip and I couldn't have asked for a better group to go through this journey with.  Thank you Kyle, Gabe, Gina, Rusty, Roxie, Lora, Jeanette, and Carol (did you notice what order I did that in??).

I'm scared...I'm very scared.

Do we get satellite in Canada?

Those are some serious love handles, Kyle.  You better fix that situation before race day.  Oh, and the shameless plug for Fun with the Fuzz.

I can't find Lora!  Oh wait, that's because she's camo'ed out with her bike!

Is it weird that all I can think about is 'that's a lot of money right there'.

Awkward 'lean in' shot.

This Looks Promising

They Can't All Be Good

Let's just say this bunch is the laziest cupcake production to-date.  I basically swung by Haggen craving goodies and grabbed Reese's Pieces and yogurt covered pretzels and decided that those would go nicely in cupcakes.  Just throw them in there and call it a recipe.  LAME!  First off, Reese's Pieces sink to the bottom during baking thus making the cupcake stick to the pan and ruining it.  Not to mention they lose all of their coloring and look pretty darn disgusting.  I was a bit annoyed but mustered an awesome peanut butter buttercream frosting to cover the hideous pieces right up (sorry, no picture).

Next up, yogurt covered pretzel cupcakes.  Also LAME!  The pretzels dry out and become tasteless pieces of startchiness at the top of the cupcake.  I didn't even frost these bad boys.

The saving grace - the aforementioned peanut butter buttercream frosting.  It was AWESOME!  Let's put that on the mini Reese's Pieces cupcakes AND just a regular chocolate cupcake.  Soooo good!  Here's the recipe.

Recipe:

Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting - 

1 stick butter

2/3 cup creamy peanut butter (I'm sure you can use crunchy if you want)

3/4 cup powdered sugar (or enough to make it the right consistency)

Oh, and even though these aren't stellar cupcakes they still count for #'s 13, 14 and 15.  Halfway there!

Junior Mint Cupcakes

Best idea...EVER!  I love Junior Mints.  I can devour an entire package of these chocolaty candies in about a minute.  Therefore, it made perfect sense to make these in cupcake form and with the idea nicely planted by Gabe, it was on.  The brainchild, mini chocolate cupcakes, halved with mint buttercream in the center, put back together, and dipped completely in chocolate ganache.  MMMMMMM.

I used the standard chocolate cupcake recipe that I've used in all my previous chocolate cupcakes.  The mint buttercream is as follows:

Recipe:

Mint Buttercream Frosting - 

1/2 cup butter softened

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar (give or take - depends on the consistency that you like)

2 tblsp heavy cream (I think I used whipping cream)

1 tsp mint extract

The recipe for the chocolate ganache was one that I've used before.  So, the general gist is this - make mini cupcakes, let them cool.  Make the frosting.  Cut the cupcakes in half and put a dollop of frosting in between.  Make the ganache.  Stab the cupcake with a toothpick and dunk in hot ganache.  Let it chill on a rack.  Viola.  I had three variations - fully dipped, un-dipped and top dipped.  They were ALL excellent.  I think some moments I'd go fully dipped but I think the un-dipped fit the bill just fine. 

Fully dipped

Top dipped

And...because I got tired of the mini cupcakes I decided to use the rest of the batter and make double chocolate cupcakes.  Basically it was just the chocolate cupcake recipe with the ganache as the frosting.  I'm counting it as a separate recipe though.  :)  Sneaky!  The picture doesn't do it justice as it just looks like a boring chocolate cupcake but I think these rank up there.  You can't go wrong with straight chocolate.

Sugar Free Strawberry Shortcake Cucpakes

We are on to #11  folks.  That's not too bad and yes, I'm behind in posting the recipes and the pictures.  So, to get us caught up here is my sugar free strawberry shortcake recipe.  The 'sugar free' option was because I was trying out the sugar free week - total failure but this recipe is decent. 

Recipe:

Sugar Free Cupcakes - 

2/3 cup milk

2/3 cup honey/agave

1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

1 1/3 cup flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

Sugar Free Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting - 

8 oz cream cheese

1/3 cup honey

2 tsp vanilla

fresh strawberries (I used about a cup)

Prep:

1. Preheat oven to 325

2. Mix milk and vinegar in a bowl and let curdle

3. Beat agave, oil, and extracts together.

4. Sift in flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

5. Add milk.

6. Fill cupcake liners at least 3/4 full (these don't rise as much so you can get it pretty close to full).

7. Bake at 325 for about 22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

8. Combine all frosting ingredients together and mix.  Because you are using honey instead of granular sugar this frosting will be a bit more runny to start but will still set up.  You could probably use more cream cheese to thicken but then you have to offset with strawberries.  I wasn't a complete fan of this frosting.

9. Garnish with slices of strawberries.  It would have been nice to slice the strawberry and then fan it out but I'm not that fancy.

Overall the cupcakes were good.  I thought they were surprisingly light and flavorful given the sugar free nature and I actually liked how small they turned out.  The sugar free cream cheese frosting I could do without.

Here are the pictures.

Priorities

It turns out that this last month my priorities for checking things off my '30 while 30' list has slipped to the bottom.  Instead my focus has been on...wait, can you guess?  That's right, Ironman training.  It's all about what I'm going to eat, how long is it going to take me to do the swim, when am I going to fit that training in, what route should I take, when can we get up to Canada to ride the course, blah, blah, blah.  THAT list gets longer and more prominent by the minute.  So sadly things remain much the same as my last update from some time ago.  I think the only thing that has been accomplished is the making/creating of cupcakes.  

Man I have a long way to go...

1. Compete in Ironman Canada (counting down the days.)
2. Sing Karaoke
3. Meditate at least 3-4 times a week (still failing miserably...pretty sure I don't even try.  If I sat down that long I'm usually just asleep).
4. Create 30 different flavors of cupcakes (16 down, 14 to go)
5. Go gluten free for a month
6. Join Servas and host someone
7. Read Tolstoy's War and Peace
8. Try Bikram Yoga
9. Exhibit my artwork (anywhere) (making 'some' headway.  Plan to refocus after IMC.)
10. Work from a different state
11. Donate blood
12. Host a dinner party
13. Take sailing lessons
14. Submit a written piece to a triathlon magazine
15. Travel somewhere new by myself  
16. Enforce 'No technology night' (I think we're still doing okay on this...)
17. Actually 'do' stretching/core/balance work (I don't care how often, just do it) (doing it)
18. Run a qualifying time for Boston (I can't believe they just changed the times!) 
19. Create a financial plan 
20. Learn a language 
21. Stop using plastic bags from the grocery store (might be 'forced' to do this soon...but for now we are 'mostly' doing this)
22. Attend an 'Icognito Dinner' with Ciao Thyme catering 
23. Purchase a piece of original artwork 
24. Teach Zoey sign language (I think I missed the boat on this one.  She already has her first word.)
25. Try a week of sugar free (Tried and failed miserably.  Decided I didn't 'want' to do this one so I stopped about 2 days in).
26. Take a yoga class from Shiva Rae (totally cheating on this one because I just signed up for one) 
27. Give my time to a charity (doesn't matter how much or how little) (Fun with the Fuzz)
28. Scan all of my Semester at Sea pictures into the computer and then make a scrap book (it's only been 9 years!) (Started and am about half way through the pictures.)
29. Since we're on the 'picture' kick - print and frame my wedding pictures.  (Printed ONE of them.  Now I just need a frame!)
30. Lay the groundwork for bringing the 70.3 triathlon distance to Whatcom County.