Foodie Friday – Margarita Cupcakes

I’ve made these a few times before but haven’t posted them here.  Hubby’s company had some clients coming in for a training during Cinco de Mayo and they were trying to figure out some way to incorporate it during their visit.  He mentioned to his boss that I make good margarita cupcakes, so there ya go!

Ingredients
For the Cupcakes:
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
Zest and juice of 1½ limes
2 tablespoons tequila
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup buttermilk

To Brush the cupcakes:
1-2 tablespoons tequila

For the Tequila-Lime Frosting:
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2¾ cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 tablespoons tequila
Pinch of coarse salt

Directions
1.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees and line cupcake tin with liners.

2.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.

3.  In an electric mixer on medium high speed, cream together the butter and sugar until pale, light and fluffy (about 5 minutes)
4.  Reduce the mixer speed and add the eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly before adding the next.
5.  Scrape the sides of the bowl and add the lime zest, lime juice, vanilla extract, and tequila.  Mix until combined.  Don’t worry if it starts to look curdled…it will come together!
6.  Reduce the speed to low and add the dry ingredients in three batches, alternating with the buttermilk in two batches.  Mix only just until incorporated, using a rubber spatula to give it one last mix by hand.

7.  Divide the batter between the cupcake liners.  Bake for approximately 25 minutes or until just slightly golden and a toothpick comes out clean.  I personally usually decrease the cooking temp to 300 degrees in my oven but cook them the whole time.  I also don’t turn the pan halfway through.  Make sure you fill the liners up with enough batter.  I didn’t in my first batch and the paper will start to peel away from the cake.

8.  Allow them to cool 5-10 minutes in the tin before transferring them to a cooling rack.  Brush the tops of the cupcakes with tequila and allow them to cool completely before frosting.

9.  To make the frosting, whip the butter on medium high using the whisk attachment for 5 minutes.  Reduce the speed to medium low and gradually add the powdered sugar.  Make sure you scrape the sides of the bowl.  Mix on medium high for 30 seconds, then add the tequila and lime juice.  Continue to mix on medium high until everything is incorporated and frosting is fluffy.  If it’s too soft, add powdered sugar one spoonful at a time until it’s thick enough for your liking. 

10.  Frost cupcakes and, if you like, garnish with some lime zest, some sea salt, and a thinly sliced wedge of lime.

You totally don’t have to use alcohol in these cupcakes.  If you do decide against it, add 1 tablespoon of vanilla to the frosting.

I had some left over so I took them to my office and my coworkers really enjoyed them. I haven’t heard yet from the hubby’s coworkers on what their clients thought of them. 

It’s definitely a great dessert to take to a summer get together with family and friends!

Until next time,

   

Recipe by Brown Eyed Baker

LiveJournal Tags: cupcakes,Foodie Friday,margarita,lime,Cinco de Mayo

New runDisney Anniversary Medals revealed!

I've said it before and I have to say it again...I've been a bad blogger lately.  I've been feeling a bit unmotivated with my writing and I'm hoping my upcoming training will help spark it back up.  What better way to start than to show you two anniversary medals that runDisney released this weekend at the DisneySMMom conference at Disneyland this weekend!

This is the 10th anniversary of Goofy's Race and a Half challenge - a half marathon on Saturday and a full marathon on Sunday.  I would love to do this one day, but I won't be partaking next year....maybe I'll hold off for the 15th anniversary?  But check out this medal....it's pretty sweet!  And the middle SPINS!

 (photos courtesy of runDisney)

Registration for the WDW Marathon weekend (January 8-11) opens next Tuesday, April 22nd.  You can get more information about the Goofy and a Half challenge as well as the other races for the weekend here.

The one I'm SUPER excited about (probably because it'll be hanging around my neck in less than 7 months) is the 5th anniversary Wine and Dine half marathon medal!

 (photos courtesy of runDisney)

I absolutely love how this medal combines parts of the older designs with the running Chef Mickey that was added to the medal last year.  This medal is also a spinner, but I'm partial to the Spaceship Earth side of the medal though :)  They also incorporated the charms that used to dangle and put them on the actual medal at the top.  The color appears that it will be a berry/wine color, which is perfect for this race. 

The 2014 Wine and Dine half marathon weekend is full for this year, but you can sign up for an email reminder at runDisney for when registration opens next year (generally in March).

Who is biting the bullet and signing up for Goofy?  Do you love the medals?

Until next time,

Drama Drama Drama…

We are all grown men and women, correct?  We all SHOULD know right from wrong, correct?  I’m pretty sure I graduated high school 14 years ago (okay that makes me feel REALLY old).  But this week there has been some major drama in the running community that I wanted to address and speak my opinions on.  I apologize in advice for the length of this post (maybe it makes up for my mini-hiatus?)

First off, let’s start with the “Bandit” or “Rogue Runner” of the Georgia Publix half marathon that occurred this past Sunday…a race that I, too, ran…a race that I, too, took selfies during…but also a race that I paid for!  The “Rogue Runner” (who I don’t even want to link you to after finding out she gets paid for the hits on her blog) copied the idea from the woman who ran the NYC half marathon a couple of weeks back and took selfies with hot guys during the race and posted them to Instagram.

The “Rogue Runner” claimed to have “attempted” to find a bib (someone later saw on her Facebook page that she asked if anyone wanted to GIVE her a bib) and after seeing how much registration was at the expo, she stated, and I quote - “So, being the rule breaker I am, I ran it anyway. Spend $100+ to run 13 miles? No thanks–I’ll save that Benjamin for booze and brunch afterward” (she later edited her blog post to remove this comment, but as a fellow runner and blogger found, Google cache does not forget).

And her selfies and captions were neither cute nor witty - Poking fun at a runner’s facial expression behind her, making fun of a “rent-a-cop” on the course, saying a guy almost raped her arm with his (rape jokes are not funny by the way), as well as a picture of her with an orange that was meant for runners who actually paid to run this race.  I have no idea whether or not she took a medal, but regardless, what she did was WRONG.

My entry fee went toward a variety of things – the permits to close the course and the police officers there for our safety, the on course refreshments – having someone reap the benefits without paying for an entry fee is, in my opinion, stealing.  Also, her being able to “sneak” into a corral without a bib number raises my eyebrow for security reasons.  If anyone can get into a corral and run 13.1 miles without a bib (still clueless as to how no one caught that) whose to say they don’t have harmful intentions???

She later posted a note at the bottom of her post once she saw all of the negative comments she had received -

*And to all the runners who have too much time on their hands and posted ridiculous hate comments below: A) Thanks for the page views. B) Please note I tried up until the night before to get a number. I didn’t even know if I would even finish the race–I just wanted to go out there, run on PUBLIC ROADS, show off our beautiful, amazing city, and make an entertaining blog post that was actually enjoyed by quite a few people who ran the race. And C) I’ve run this race two other times and paid for it and I plan to again. If you’re losing sleep over this, tell me where to send the check. I’ll take a selfie with it. LYLAS.

Why are people that call you out “haters”?  My argument to this would be that you obviously did not try hard enough as registration was open at the expo.  Also, although they may be public roads, they were closed for race participants…I saw plenty of runners who were not participating running on the sidewalks in many of the same areas as us, so I’m not sure why she thought she couldn’t do that as well.  And it doesn’t matter if you paid to run this particular race for the past 2 years…you didn’t pay for it this year!  I definitely haven’t lost any sleep over it, but maybe she could send that check to the race organizers.

I could go on and on about this, but a local running company, Big Peach Running Company, posted the following picture which I think sums it up perfectly -

Also, be sure to check out Mark Remy’s epic article I Stole Stuff From A Running Store.  I hope she enjoyed her 15 minutes of fame ::eye roll::

Now onto today’s topic of conversation -

I have been an on again, off again subscriber to SELF magazine for years, but after the stunt they pulled on a fellow runner, I will be off again very soon.  Monika of Glam Runners was contacted by the magazine and asked if they could use a picture of her and her friend wearing tutus during the LA marathon a couple of weeks ago.  What they failed to tell her what the context in which they intended to use the picture -

How in the hell is a women’s magazine going to make fun of what someone chooses to wear during a race??  Isn’t the purpose of SELF to encourage women to get out there and be active?  And, the icing on the cake, was the reason why Monika and her friend, Taramae, chose this as their race day outfit – this was Monika’s first full marathon since she was diagnosed with brain cancer.  She ran the LA marathon smack dab in the middle of chemotherapy!  She is truly a Wonder Woman in my eyes, as are all of the other amazing people I know who are doing this same thing.  Why is it someone else’s place to say what’s “legit” and what’s “lame” to wear for a race?  While I have never run in a tutu myself, I have run in other sparkly skirts and have many friends who have rocked a tutu.  I would hate to hear what they would have to say if they ever attended a runDisney race…

And I find the apology posted to SELF’s Facebook page to be too little, too late -

REALLY???  You claim this was done “inadvertently”?? You knew damn well what you were going to do with that photo when you asked for permission to use it, yet failed to let Monika know because you KNEW the answer would have been “no”. If I were her I would not take them up on the offer to cover her in a future issue, but that’s just me :)

With that being said, I will end my rant here and say that I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend.  I apologize for my hiatus – I feel like I needed to take a break from the blog for awhile, but I have a few things in the works and am planning to be back next week!

What are your thoughts on both of these situations?

Until next time,

LiveJournal Tags: Georgia publix half marathon,selfies,rogue runner,bandit,blog,SELF magazine,tutus,marathon,half marathon

26.2 with Donna weekend recap

Time for another recap!

Ever since the Peachtree Road Race last year, my friends Marcia and Jill kept trying to get me to sign up for the half marathon portion of the 26.2 with Donna marathon weekend.  I waffled back and forth and decided about a month before the race to sign up!

To give you a little information about the race, it was started in 2008 and is a private, non-profit organization and is the only marathon in the United States dedicated solely to raising funds to end breast cancer.  100% of race entries goes towards breast cancer research (70%) and patient care (30%).  Donna Deegan, the brains and namesake of this amazing organization, is a three-time breast cancer survivor herself!

Jill and I drove down to Jacksonville Friday afternoon, and after meeting up with Katie to get a key to Marcia’s house, we picked Linzie up from the airport and headed to Al’s Pizza to meet Marcia and Katie for a late dinner.  After dinner we headed back to the house and settled in for the night.  Marcia and Linzie were running the 5k the next morning and Jill, Katie and myself had plans to sleep in.

Saturday morning we headed to the expo at around 9:30.  This was one of the best race expos I’ve been to!  Packet pick up was super easy and there were tons of great vendors to browse through.

 

After doing a little shopping and meeting up with other friends, we headed back to Marcia’s to start cooking our cab loading dinner – spaghetti with homemade meatballs!  Some of the crew had a dinner to go to that night but the rest of us enjoyed hanging out and visiting.  I even made my pink champagne cupcakes…and thankfully they were a hit :)

                                                  Cheers! (Thanks Jen for the photo)

Soon after we all headed to bed as we had an early wake up call…it would be time to runDONNA!!

Marcia has us on a strict schedule as she knew when roads were closing and how we needed to be at the starting area a little early.  When we got there it was a bit chilly so some of us opted to hang out in our cars to keep warm.

Once we ventured out into the cool air, we met up with the rest of the crew and chatted a bit.  I snagged a picture with my new friend, Elizabeth, and another friend, Ashley

 

When I saw the back bibs at the expo I knew I had to get one.  The first name on my bib is my Godmother, who is a survivor of over 20 years!  The second is of a friend whom although I have not met yet in person, she has inspired me during her fight of breast cancer (and can’t wait to meet her at the Wine and Dine half marathon later this year!).  The third name is the grandmother of one of my best friends who lost her battle to breast cancer a few years ago.

Soon after, we headed to our corrals and were sent out in a sea of pink confetti!  Ashley and I ran together for close to 2 miles but I sent her and her friend on their way…I don’t like to hold anyone back from running a race!

I was feeling pretty good during the first half of the race.  There were many spectators lined up along the road.  Once we got into the beach community it was so much fun to see the support they have for this race and the fight to finish breast cancer. 

I took a Huma gel at around mile 5 for a little boost :)

 
Soon after we hit mile 6 and headed onto the beach!

I started out okay on the sand, but this is where my race started to fall apart.  For the most part it was pretty compact, but since many many many people were in front of me it had started to loosen up a bit.  Combine that with a slant and my knees and ankles were HATING me. 

Just after mile 7, the half marathon runners broke away from the full marathon who kept running on the beach (I was happy to be back on a more steady surface).  They had a band playing and lots of spectators.  Miles 7-9 were decent.  I was passed by some of the elite marathon runners at my mile 8…their mile 20…I so admire them!  I was handed a Munchkin by one of the spectators, which was a nice little treat!

After mile 9, I felt like someone was stabbing my knee with a knife.  I was hurting so incredibly bad…at times I wanted to cry.  These signs did make me laugh though -

Just after the signs was mile 10…only a 5k to go.  I was determined to finish, even if I had to walk the rest of the race (which, sadly, is what I ended up doing).  At mile 12 we had to cross this monstrous bridge…compared to that, I will take some hills in Georgia any day!

By this time I could hear the finish line and was ready to be done.  I walked until I got close and then jogged it in.  It was by far my slowest half marathon yet, but when I think of all the women (and men!) who are fighting for their lives, what I went through on this day was nothing compared to what they go through every day.

I saw this dude at the finish line (apparently he went by Bob) and grabbed a quick selfie -

I was handed my medal and found Jill and Jen at the finish line.  We stood and chatted and then they met me over in the runners village so i could grab my bag.  We headed to the beer tent where we nestled into a spot.  I finally took a picture with the beautiful medal we got -

About 15 minutes later, it started to rain.  Jill grabbed us a couple of chairs and we hung out for a bit, waiting on our marathoners to finish.  Shortly after, this alert popped up on my phone -

NO!!  We were already feeling horrible that they were having to run in the rain, but for them to have to close the course for the runners’ safety and having no idea where they were was disheartening.  Jill had gone to the finish and was waiting for them and texting me with updates.  Marcia was the first to make it in, followed by Joe.  At this point, they were clearing all of us out of the family reunion area and directed into the hospital lobby.  Marcia and Joe came in and were shivering.  Jen and I gave them towels that we had to try and warm them up.  Kira came in next, followed by Linzie and Katie.  We all hung out in the lobby and the staff was fantastic.  They gave lots of updates on medals, checked bags, etc.  As soon as we were given the okay, we headed to the bus to take us to our cars to get back to Marcia’s.  Unfortunately, she had to stay at the race as she is runDONNA’s “social media butterfly” and needed to help out (which we all completely understood).

We headed back and got showered and packed up, cleaned her house the best we could, but had to hit the road.  Linzie had a flight to catch and Katie, Jill and I had to make the long drive back to Atlanta.

I had an absolutely fantastic weekend and am so glad that I did this race.  Although it’s not the race that I wanted for myself, I’m proud for finishing something that I started and know that I will have to come back for a redemption run on this course.

Marcia – thank you so much for your hospitality over the course of the weekend.  You are an amazing person and I cannot wait to see you again.

If you’re looking for a flat half marathon (with the exception of a bridge at the end) where 100% of your race entry goes towards a fantastic cause, 26.2 with Donna is a great choice!  The date for next year’s race is 2.15.2015.

Have you run the 5k, half or full marathon of the 26.2 with Donna race weekend?  Is it one you would add to your calendar for next year?

Until next time,

Wine and Dine Bound!

You might remember when my hubby surprised me with this for Christmas -

Today registration opened for the Wine and Dine half marathon, and I am IN!

I have been wanting to do this race so incredibly bad and I cannot wait to run with my runDisney family in November!

We will also be celebrating my birthday while we’re there! (It’s on November 12 so it’s close enough).

I’ve also seen that since it’s the 5th anniversary of the race, there will be a newly designed medal! :)

It’s filling up fast!  Here’s the info for all of the weekend events, prices and deadlines if you want to register. (Information from runDisney’s website)

Entry Fees and Deadlines

Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon

• $185 by April 1, 2014
• $200 between April 2 and May 13, 2014
• $215 on or after May 14, 2014

Mickey's Jingle Jungle 5K

• $55 by August 19, 2014
• $65 on or after August 20, 2014

runDisney Kids' Races

• $15 by August 19, 2014
• $20 on or after August 20, 2014

runDisney 1-Mile Run

• $30 by August 19, 2014
• $35 on or after August 20, 2014

Disney Wine & Dine Pre-Race Taste Tickets

• $79 for Adults (ages3 and up)
• Children under 3 do not need a ticket

Finish Line Party Tickets

• $75 by August 12, 2014
• $85 between August 13 and October 28, 2014
• $95 on or after October 29, 2014

Who will I see at Disney World for Wine and Dine half weekend?

Until next time,

LiveJournal Tags: runDisney,half marathon,Wine and Dine,Disney World,birthday,5k

Foodie Friday – Philly Cheese steak Sloppy Joes

Sorry I’ve been quiet!  I’m a crappy blogger.  Maybe this recipe will make it up to you!

I like Sloppy Joes…my hubby does not.  We were at the gun range with some friends and got into a discussion about them, and they introduced us to the Philly Cheese steak Sloppy Joes.  They’re a tasty twist on the traditional recipe!

Ingredients
1 lb ground beef
1 onion
1 green bell pepper
1 cup beef broth
A1 steak sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
Provolone cheese
Buns

Directions
1.  Sauté the bell pepper and onions in olive oil for 5 minutes.

2.  Add the ground beef and cook until no longer pink.

3.  Once the ground beef has been browned, add the beef broth, steak sauce, salt, and pepper.  I also add some chili powder and garlic powder.

4.  Simmer until the liquid is almost gone.
 

5.  I toast the buns, add a little mayo, and spoon the meat onto the buns.  Put a slice of provolone cheese on top, put the sandwich into the oven to melt the cheese a bit. 

These are a quick and easy dinner!  Hubby suggested that next time I get hoagies so it’s more like an actual Philly cheese steak sandwich.

I had an absolute blast in Jacksonville at the 26.2 with Donna half marathon and will have my recap up this weekend.  My next half marathon is the Georgia Publix half marathon at the end of March, so after a week of recovery I’m gonna hit the pavement next week.

Have a great weekend!

Until next time,