Crazy Sunday Cooking

I am wrapping up one of the best weekends I have had in a long time.  It was one of those great weekends that starts off with a bunch of really junky bad for your food that is in the "sometimes" category from your kids introductory health class - aka the perfect chocolate milk shake.  Thank you Dan for reading my mind.  The bad for you meal was followed up with a shopping trip where the entire family got their Halloween costumes (myself included - pictures will follow this week).

The awesomeness (yes - I just made up that word) continued with a killer 16k run on Saturday morning that I did not wimp out on.  I did this run pretty much at my race pace - maybe a touch slower.  I know conventional runner wisdom says to have bursts of your race pace mixed in with a slower pace during your long runs in order to recover properly but... that don't make no sense to me.  I cannot get my head around the fact that if I can't maintain a certain pace during a training run that something will change on race day.  Maybe I'm missing some big picture but if I can't run a set pace in training; it won't miraculously be there on race day.  All that being said, I am happy with how I ran on Saturday.

To finish off the weekend - first of all it was sunny today - we saw the sun for the first time in 5 days!  I finished off all of my yard work for the year.  The flower beds are cleaned up, the garage is tidy and the shed has been locked up for the winter.  Then I went a little crazy in the kitchen....

I love cooking.  Its where I can express myself creatively.  I know that sounds weird, when I think of creativity I think painting, writing or dancing.  But sometimes with food magic can happen in my kitchen. 

So first I made these..

These are quiona cakes that I found the recipe for on this blog 101 cookbooks

I also made green tomato gratin, baked squash, carrot apple bread, chicken Parmesan for Dan and the girls.... and these....

Buttery Garlic Knots

Dough

1 &1/2 cups warm water

1 & 1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp sugar

4 cups flour (I used 2 cups whole wheat spelt and 2 cups white)

1 & 1/2 tsp yeast

Garlic Butter

2 cloves garlic minced

2 tbsp butter

Put all ingredients in your bread maker on the dough setting.  Once done, let dough sit for  10-15 minutes.  On floured surface, divide dough into 18 equal pieces.  Roll into about 10 inch "rope".  Tie in a knot and place on parchment lined cookie sheet.  Cover and let rise for 30 minutes. 

Meanwhile

Melt butter and saute garlic.  Brush knots with garlic butter.  Bake in 350 oven for 20-25 minutes or until the bread sounds hollow when tapped.