Rock 'n' Roll Marathon

Have you ever heard of the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon? I hadn't. #whoknew

I've heard of the Susan Komen Race for the Cure #whohasn't, the Santa Run, the Warrior Dash, and the Color Run, which I will actually be attending in February. That is the one where you wear all white and people throw colored cornstarch at you/on you as you are running past them. #whothinksthisstuffup

Well anyways, this past weekend the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon was in Las Vegas. And yours truly was a medical volunteer with two other people from the VMSN clinic. #seriousfun

They have a full marathon and a half marathon. It is at night. And the neat-o thing about it is they have stages set up every mile with local rock and roll bands playing. Some of the local bands were the Journey Experience, Kissed Alive (Kiss tribute), Drive (Cars tribute), Purple Haze Experience, and Sixtiesmania (Beatles cover).

(Taking pictures was limited because of our location and also because of HIPAA, so these first 7 pictures are from their website.)

How cool is that?? #very

Many people dress up, actually MOST of them do. The Las Vegas edition even promotes Running as Elvis.

They also have a Run Thru Wedding Ceremony! #onlyinLasVegas

The full marathoners start at LV Blvd and Hacienda, run south past Bali Hai, then back up north on The Strip, all through the Downtown area, up MLK Blvd to North Las Vegas, go down Carey then turn around and come back to LV Blvd, back through downtown, back down the Strip and then ending near Caesar's Palace. Whew.

Needless to say there are medical tents at the end. There were multiple tents throughout the race. We were in one of the three finish line tents...our tent saw HUNDREDS of people. Probably about 300 people...in less than 6 hours.

This is our tent and about half of our team.

Runners were hypothermic. Runners were nauseated, crampy, and getting confused from the loss of salt in their system. Runners were collapsing. Lots of vomit, sprains, joint aches, scrapes, cuts, blisters, and other various things.

We had many a male client come in requesting vaseline for...ummm...let's just say friction problems. It was a self application. Definitely a #DIY. That's all I'm going to say about that.

We had a team of about 30 people, and it really was a great time. Lots of work, but I would do it again in a heartbeat!

Graduation

Yeah, I wish. Not yet.

One. more. year.

But I DID graduate in the cake-making area.

'Member this little piece of work only a mother could love? (The husband loved it too.)

WELL, when Eric and I were on our little jaunt to Chalzstun, we were on a quest for coconut cake. I guess it's a Southern thing. Us west-coasters are apparently not-in-the-know. I thought it was just white cake with white icing and coconut stuck to it. Not so. It has cream of coconut in the cake batter and icing. I stuck my finger in the can of cream of coconut to see what I was dealing with before I dumped a bunch into the cake. #ermahgerd #justgivemeastraw

We finally found some at a little place called Toast. Very charming little cafe with really decent food. I bet the cake would have been great if it had just been made, but I think it had been refrigerated awhile.

Wish I had gotten a better picture of the cafe but it was POURING.

Before finding Toast, we had also tried other places. One of them being Kaminsky's. We went inside to get some. The nice young man behind the counter said they didn't have one out that day. #waaah 

I did spy one in the fridge. I asked him about it. #idontgiveupeasy He said they might have it out the next day. 

                           

They didn't. #boo 

So, we found Toast the next day.

Anyways, for Thanksgiving, I thought I would make a coconut cake. A new Thanksgiving tradition has been born.

I graduated from this...

to this...

Take THAT Kaminsky.

Happy Thanksgiving!

From our home to yours...Happy Thanksgiving!

a GREAT turkey brine

I'm thankful for you honey, love you!

mah turkey breast...mmm-mmm

Just in case you missed #themostimportantcondimentever

There's just nothing like Diesel helping out in the kitchen

Hope you all have a blessed Thanksgiving! :)

Winter Break!

I just finished my homework for the week (12 hours early #wootwoot) and Eric is still at work so I thought I would write a quick post!

I would rather update about a lot of other things, but of course school is on the brain so let me just get it out of the way. Winter break is almost here. I'm really excited about it. #ineedsomerest Finals are coming up after Thanksgiving. After this semester is over, I will have completed 40 of my 59 credits.

I mean 68 credits. Because I opted to take another 4 classes next year. #crazylikeafox

But it is for a really good reason. I take the classes, I teach for 4 years (while getting paid), and 85% of my loans will be forgiven. Can I get a what-what?

In other news, July through October has been a blur. These months included really hot days here in Vegas, one of my two best friends moving away, a quick trip to South Carolina to house hunt (don't think we are moving there), a Moberg family reunion, lots of busy days at work, a crazy school schedule, the start of a clinical rotation, and of course, my husband being the supportive, fantastic guy he is (couldn't do it without you, babe).

We wish you a blessed, restful Thanksgiving!

Peach-a-Palooza

We got peaches folks. Brought to you by E&B Farmers.

Double what's in the picture and that is how many we actually had.  

From a miniature peach tree that is about as high as my waist.

As a side note, we also had green onions that were about as tall as the peach tree. Some were over an inch in diameter. I had to cut off over a foot of the green part so they would fit in the veggie drawer. I felt bad about that but you can only use so much scallions. I made a green onion dip that was oh-so-good.  Eric has been enjoying cherry tomatoes, and I have been using the fresh basil and oregano.

Anyways, we have eaten a few peaches. (Well, Eric has...I don't care to bite into fuzzy fruit.) We have also given some away to friends. And we still had more than we could handle.  Last year, we didn't quite have this many even though we had more than we could eat before they spoiled. So we made frozen treats - peach sorbet, peach custard. And we also had about a half gallon of peach puree left over that stayed good throughout the year. I just made some more peach custard again about 3 weeks ago. Delicious.

I tried some different things this year. All of them including peeling, pitting and slicing the peaches. 

To make the peeling easier, I first scalded the peaches and then put them in an ice bath.

Then I peeled and pitted and sliced.  It's a little dangerous - they can be quite slippery. I don't know why there are 3 knives. I only used the one in the bottom corner of the picture.

I was up to my elbows in peaches. 

For starters, I made a peach cake. By Ina Garten. God bless her.

Of course I would forget to take a picture of mine so I copied this photo from 

Stirring the Pot's web page. Which also has the recipe. ;)

I froze some sliced peaches to use later on. Another peach cake maybe. 

And made peach jam.

And canned it. I used the peelings to make peach honey which I also canned. Bonus.

I am so glad to not have wasted all of that wonderful fruit!

Pomegranates at the end of the summer!