Muffin Wednesday: Oatmeal Cranberry

In honor of Easter, I was going to bake Cadbury Creme Egg Muffins today. But when I went to WinCo last night to shop, they did not carry the mini creme eggs :(

So I poked around the Internet for an easy recipe without any strange ingredients, since I was already home from the store. I decided on Oatmeal Muffins from Hillbilly Housewife. She suggested adding raisins or chopped apple. I went with dried cranberries.

1 c oats
1 c sour milk, buttermilk or yogurt (I used sour milk)
1 egg
1/2 c brown or white sugar
1/3 c oil
1 1/4 c flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 t baking powder
1/2 dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large bowl combine the oats and milk. Let stand for a few minutes so the oatmeal can absorb some of the liquid. Add the egg, sugar and oil, beating well with a whisk.

Add the flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder. Combine but do not over mix. Fold in the cranberries or other add-ins.

Spoon the batter into greased muffin cups. Bake about 20 minutes. (mine were done after 15)

~~~~~~~~~~~
I doubled this recipe and made 30 yummy muffins. I liked this a lot - quick and easy, simple ingredients.

But I accidentally add too much sugar. Since I was doubling, I decided to use half brown sugar and half granulated (since it called for either). I dumped in the half-cup of white and promptly added another TWO half cups of brown. OOPS! But I suppose 33% more sugar can't be too horrible - and it wasn't ;)

Enjoy :)

Lunch with flying knives

While Dad was still in the dark about his birthday trip to Seattle, he requested birthday dinner at Benihana. Instead, we ate on the train home from the Mariners game... good, but not exactly Benihana.

So we went to lunch at the Japanese restaurant instead.
I don't like ginger... except for the salad dressing at Benihana - yum!
Sergio put on a good show while cooking our meal:
Shrimp and fried rice for me:
Then came Dad's birthday sundae:
He enjoyed it very much :)
But we laughed and laughed when his spoon came with something huge stuck to the back.
He ALWAYS gets the crusty silverware, glasses, plates, etc. when we eat out. In fact, if someone else gets a dirty utensil, we always say, "Look, I got Dad's knife!"

Happy Birthday, Dad!! :)

I ran in the sun today!

For a couple glorious days, the sun has been shining in the Portland area. It's not warm, but at least it's dry! I LOVE the rain and gray skies, but enough is enough. This is getting crazy.

I hadn't run in a week - lots of other fun things keeping me busy: spin class, biking and hiking! But I have another race in a couple weeks, so this is no time to slack.


After making my 10K goal on April 9, I decided to add some speed work to my routine before my next race, a quarter-marathon on Mother's Day. Until now, my focus was just on adding distance. Now I'd like to pick up the pace a bit.

I've never done speed work, but my trusty running book has a lot of information and offers a training guide. So here was my interval workout today:

10 minute warmup @ about 10-minute miles
3 minutes @ about 8-minute miles
2 minutes @ about 11-minute miles
2 minutes @ about 8-minute miles
2 minutes @ about 11-minute miles
1 minute @ about 8-minute miles
2 minutes @ about 11-minute miles
10 minutes @ about 10-minute miles

For a grand total of 3.35 miles in 32:23 minutes. That's a lot of 3s!

It felt pretty good, and I'm excited to do more and see what happens :)

Ruckel Ridge (4/16/11)

Ever have one of those days when you can't decide whether everything going wrong means you should throw in the towel... or whether it's a test of your perseverance?? That was my Saturday morning.

When two spots opened up on Saturday's BCEP hike, Brad and I jumped at the chance to join the class again on the trail. The plan was to tackle the Ruckel Ridge loop, deemed one of the toughest hikes in the Gorge.

(source)

It's one of the few that Brad and I haven't done, and we were psyched and ready to go... clothes laid out, bags packed, lunches made, alarms set. We even turned down a late Friday night bowling invite so we could get enough sleep for the big hike: 9+ miles and 3,700 feet.

I woke Saturday morning with my trick knee hurting. Then my stomach was giving me trouble. Then I found that my cat had just peed on my stack of hiking clothes. THEN I discovered that my Camelbak had leaked all over my backpack overnight. And by then it was too late to meet up with our friends to carpool to the trail head.

Clearly, the hike was not meant to be.

But... my very supportive husband came to the rescue and fixed all my problems, including my attitude :) He even cleaned the pee off the carpet and loaded the car while I found some other clothes to wear. He grabbed one of his (dry!) backpacks for me to use and helped me transfer my stuff. He called the hike leader and said we'd meet them at the trail head... and we were off!


The hike starts at the Eagle Creek parking lot and heads up (UP!) Ruckel Ridge, across the creek and down the Ruckel Creek trail. No one in our group was certain of the route, so we made a couple wrong turns, but nothing major.

It was raining almost the entire time, providing a good test for our gear. Luckily, it wasn't particularly cold, so as long as we kept moving, we were OK. The wind also kicked up a few times for added excitement.

It was a very steep scramble up the ridge, including the infamous catwalk. First you climb up this pile of basalt:


Then there's the very narrow stretch with considerable exposure:


There was an easier walk around, which I decided to take because the rock was so wet and I was wearing my giant ski mittens - not the best conditions for rock climbing :)

We finally reached the plateau at the top, which was completely snow covered. We were a bit unsure of the route and wondered along the creek for a while before finding a suitable log for crossing. The snow was soft, and we were post holing a lot, especially the heavier guys in our group.

After some more route finding in the snow, we found ourselves back on the trail and headed down toward the cars.

Because of the large group (12 hikers), the wrong turns, wet rocks, snow at the top and route finding, the projected 5- or 6-hour hike ended up taking 9 hours! We were soaked and pretty pooped when we finally finished.

Still, it was a great trail with amazing views (or so we assumed... we were totally socked in the whole time). We are excited to try it again on a nice warm, dry, snow-free day when we can move a little faster.

:)

Cap and gown

Skyler graduated from high school today!!!!!!!! Congrats, Skyler :)

Zzzzzzzzz

We decided Eryn might be narcoleptic :)
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz :)

Birthday at the ballpark

When we saw that the Mariners were home on Dad's birthday (April 10), we knew we should surprise him with a trip to Seattle. Mom woke him up early Sunday and told him to put on his Mariners shirt... it was time to leave for the train!

Free parking and slightly cheaper tickets convinced us to depart from Vancouver, Wash., instead of Portland.Getting up early made us goofy, and we immediately started taking a lot of self portraits.
Then Dad made this face... and we all totally lost it!
We laughed so hard that we deemed it our ab workout for the morning. Tears streamed down our faces.
All aboard!
We snagged a table so we could play cards on the trip north.
Made it to Seattle:
Dad reenacted "the face" in the Seattle station. Someone's excited :)
We had about 90 minutes before game time so we walked across the street to our favorite thrift store to hunt for bargains.
Closed Sundays?? Bummer. (I think we've been through this before...)
The stadium roof was closed when we arrived but opened during our walk across the street from the Salvation Army store:
Umm... little kid butt crack. Nice.
They were doing a live broadcast when we arrived. Took me back to my TV days.
Nice view from our seats:
Rally monkeys!!
The rain returned, and they closed the roof. I'd never seen a game at Safeco with the roof closed. Kinda weird.
The M's starting pitcher really sucked it up, and Cleveland took a large, early lead. We rallied toward the end but lost 4-6. Mariners' seventh loss in a row - nice way to start the season, fellas!
A few more self portraits before we left for some shopping and then our train ride home. Notice my M's jersey? I found it this summer at Value Village for $7! It's a kid's size but fits great - and it's in perfect condition. SCORE!!!!
Outside the stadium was a Pepsi Max giveaway, and we found tons of full, unopened cans discarded on the street and in a nearby souvenir shop. Of course, I took them home!
Dinnertime came while we were riding the rails, so we bought food in the dining car. A vegan burger for me (SO GOOD! - and only $4.50):
Cheese and crackers for Mom and Dad:
And Ivar's clam chowder for Eryn:
Happy Birthday, Dad! Thanks for sharing your special day with us :)