Are Miles Mental?

I'm on a hot streak. No one can stop me.


Okay, well the blinking red hand at all of the crosswalks can but that's it.

And the cafe that has just fried up eight pounds of bacon every time I round the corner in the morning. But that's it, I swear.

Today was my second consecutive day of AM running. Yep, the girl who brought her junior year roommates to stage an intervention because she hit the snooze button so many times in the morning is running in the morning.

Read the post at The Yellow Tandem Bike >>

Late Night

I have to tell you all that I was tickled/thrilled/giddy after Friday's Oreo post. I guess all I have to do is make delicious food to get y'all talking. I got Mr. Social Media to grace the pages of Coffee for Lunch, and I also got my brother to think that he would maybe make something in his kitchen other than a slow-roasted barbecue pork shoulder.

Or "The Butt" as he likes to call it. It's his speciality. It's really the only thing that ever makes me want to eat meat.

My post is coming late tonight because I was out of town this weekend visiting some of my favorite people.

Lizaface!

Miss Lissa! I mean, Melissa.

Matt! I get that I look like I should be locked in a room with padded walls, but Matt looks nice!

Lots of coffee was drunk, lots of knitting was done, and much fun was had.

Highlights of the Weekend:

1) An Anecdote

Yesterday Matt and I attended a Thanksgiving Pre-Game with the other students in his Master's program. I was sitting on the couch in the living room while the football game was on, minding my own business, and someone I had just met walked in and said, "Katie, feel outta place?"

I was a little startled since this was my first time meeting any of these people, but upon taking in my surroundings, I realized that I was the only girl sitting in a room of about sixteen guys. My observant new friend said, "All of the girls are in the kitchen."

I jokingly said, "Hahaha story of my life," immediately thinking that my joke could be construed as more innuendo than simply an acknowledgement of my affinity for hanging out with dudes.

Let's Be Friends

Last time I gently hinted that I really like it when people comment on the blog, no one did.
Then, I got a wonderfully snarky message from my dearest sister:

"Awk that on the post where you said you were thankful for comments no one commented...I thought about leaving one and decided this was way better."

Thanks Liza.

Two days ago when I asked you guys for answers, feedback, and wisdom, no one offered any.

Sad face.

I just miss you is all.

So here's the deal: I made you guys Oreos. Okay, they don't have "Oreo" stamped onto each wonderfully crispy cookie half, and the creme in the middle doesn't stay on one half with the perfect twist.

But I made them from scratch. With my own two hands. For you. Because I like you. A lot.

This photo is weird, and why I'm buying a new camera. Yep, I'm buying a new camera for you too. Surprise! I hope you'll like it.

These cookies were more of an experiment than anything else. I had really been craving Oreos. Maybe it's a nostalga thing, but I love the ritual of twisting the cookie, dunking the clean side into your glass of milk until it is almost too soggy to stay together, and then eating the other half with the creme without dunking at all.

I also love finishing my glass of milk and seeing a stray chocolate cookie crumb or two that settled to the bottom during the dunking process. It reminds me of after school snacks and riding my Razor scooter around the cul de sac like 10,000 times.

I don't remember the last time I ate a real Oreo, though. It had to have been before I started reading about food, and before I actually cared about ingredient lists.

These aren't exactly the same as real Oreos. They don't have any hydrogenated soybean oil or thiamine mononitrate. So that's cool.

But if you like that stuff I'd say save yourself the trouble and buy a package of Double Stufs. These are a tad work intensive.

But they do have butter. Real butter. And real cocoa powder. And coffee. 'Cause coffee makes chocolate taste better. Trust me.

So can we be friends again? We'll ride our bikes and scooters around the cul de sac, watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Secret of the Ooze, and eat some Homemade Oreos. It'll be neat.

Homemade Oreos
Cookies adapted from Joy the Baker

For the Cookies:

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 cup plus 3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

3/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 Tablespoon espresso grounds

15 Tablespoons (7 1/2 ounces) unsalted butter, but into 3/4-inch cubes, at room temperature

For the Cookies:

Position the racks in the lower and upper thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt and espresso powder and mix on low speed.

With the mixer running, add the butter a few pieces at a time. The mixture will have a sandy texture at first and then will begin to form pebble-sized pieces. As soon as the dough starts to come together, stop the mixer.

Form and roll the dough straight from the mixer.  You don't have to chill it, but if the dough gets sticky anywhere in the process, don't be afraid to put it in the freezer for a minute or so.

Transfer the dough to a board and use the heel of your hand or a pastry scraper to shape the dough into a block about 5 by 7 inches. Cut the block into two pieces.

One at a time, roll each block of dough between two pieces of lightly floured parchment paper or wax paper until about 1/8-inch thick. Using a cookie cutter (or a glass with about a two-inch opening) cut into 2 inch rounds. Place 1/2 to 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheet. You can form and roll the dough scraps once after the first roll.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through the baking. Remove from the oven and cool on the sheets for 2 to 5 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

For the Filling:

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened

1 and 2/3 cups confectioners sugar

1 Tablespoon milk (or cream)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

While cookies are baking, cream butter with a stand mixer or a hand mixer until smooth. Add sugar, milk, and vanilla. Blend until completely smooth.

To assemble Oreos:

After cookies have cooled completely, place a dollop of the creme in the center of a cookie. Then, take another cookie and place it on the other half. Twist the cookies, gently pushing them together in order to distribute the creme evenly.

Then dunk in a huge glass of milk.

Wednesday Thoughts

1) I've gotten really into drinking V8 in the morning since I've started work. I even like it without the vodka. They say girls start to turn into their mothers. In this instance, I'm certainly turning into my father.

I'm already my mother in most other instances.

2) I think I'm going to buy the Lumix DMC-G3. If one of you fabulous readers actually knows anything about cameras and wants to offer up some advice/recommendations, please do. I'm a newb who wants to take pretty pictures without a super-bulky dSLR.

3) The one product that I am most picky about is my toothpaste. I ran out of my tried-and-true, hands down favorite, Arm & Hammer Advance White Brilliant Sparkle (not the gel kind) this morning, and had to use my travel-sized Colgate Total.

I think my teeth are mad at me.

Growing Young

I started contributing to my 401k this past month. I'm 22 and I'm saving for retirement. You know, because it's the responsible thing to do.

For the majority of my life, I have felt as though the expectation is that I should be far more mature, self-actualized, and competent than my age would suggest. At 22, I'm supposed to save for retirement. As a college freshman at 18, I was expected to be as wise and profound as the seniors I encountered in play rehearsals. When I was twelve I went to Cotillion classes so that I knew how to lay my silverware on my plate in order to indicate that I was finished eating. I also learned how to Foxtrot.

Every responsible adult knows how to Foxtrot, right? I thought so.

The bottom line is that I think all of this acting mature and composed and self-actualized should also function as an investment. I'm being responsible by saving money now for when I'll want it when I'm retired, but I want my own "Irresponsible 401k". A 401k that calculates all of the responsible and mature things I've done, and then allows me to be irresponsible when I'm old.

Read the post at The Yellow Tandem Bike >>

Winter Weather Advisory

Okay, friends. We're talking about girly things today, since it's snowing outside and Dolvett Quince is nice to look at.

Yeah, that's right. There's a winter weather advisory out this morning. I'm expecting to see 2 to 4 inches of snow when I emerge from my basement lair for lunch.

And don't worry - we're not going to talk about girly girly things. We're just going to talk about shoes and boys and books.

Bergkonig Mountain King Run Recap

Yesterday I ran the Bergkonig Mountain King Trail Run 10k at Lapham Peak State Park in Delafield, WI.

Today my haunches are pretty sore due to the half-running, half-hiking, half-obstacle coursing that took place over those 6.2 miles.

I get that there is no such thing as having three halves. So it was technically part-running, part-hiking, part-obstacle coursing that I participated in. I'll throw in a part-mental test since we're already using fuzzy math.

The race started at 11 and the website said that bib pick-up went from 9 to 10:30, and since I'm a control freak planner, We left around 8:30 since we were driving from Madison and it was going to take about an hour.

When we pulled up to the state park, I was a little nervous because there was no signage for the race and the woman at the entrance didn't seem to know anything about the race. But she directed us to the hut above, so we checked it out.

Thunderstruck Thursday

Can you guys tell that I listen to a lot of music on YouTube because my office blocks Pandora and I'm sick of all the music on my iPod?

It's been dark and stormy here all week. We were, if you will, Thunderstruck.

If this song brings up bad memories of four and a half minutes that led you to be more drunk than you've ever been before in your life, good for you. If it doesn't, then you were probably the girl holding your friends hair out of her face while she puked after playing this game, or you've just never witnessed this glorified chugging contest.

It's Thursday. I'm not going to sugarcoat it - Thursday can be a hard day. Sure you made it through the dreaded Wednesday, but there are inevitably more problems at work on Thursday because there has been one more day to create problems, and you still have to come in tomorrow because even though Friday is almost the weekend, it's still a work day. Thusday is also the day you realize that you need to do all of the stuff that you have been putting off every other day this week. Laundry, I'm talking about you.


Thirsty Thursday is a thing for a reason.

But Today! Today we're going to be positive. Today the sun is peeking out of a gray sky, I rearranged the office furniture in my dungeon of an office, and it's Thursday! Which means it's almost Friday, which is basically the weekend. (See, positivity!)

Because it's a Thursday in November, we're going to be thankful today. I've found that when I find myself in a conversation and everyone is complaining about how terrible life is, that it really puts things into perspective when you ask yourself what you are thankful for.

A scenario for you:

Thursday person: "I have too much work, I blew a fuse in my bathroom with my blowdryer, I found moldy cheese in my refigerator, I lost my iPod. Why me? I'm just going to crawl in my bed and never wake up."

Thankful Thursday person: "I have a job! I have an apartment with a circuit breaker! I have so much food that I forgot that the cheese was there! I can listen to music on the radio until I find my iPod! I'm so lucky to be so fortunate! I'm thankful that I have such a comfortable, cozy bed that provides me with a restful sleep!"

You get the picture. Being thankful makes you a happier person.

Thankful Things would probably make for a really good list.

Okay! A list it is.

1) I'm thankful for Pinterest.

I get that I'm way slow on the uptake with this one, but I could actually spend all of my time and money on the clever DIY projects and crafts I've found while surfing this cool manifestation of social media. Sort by the things you like to see (style, technology, home, crafts, puppies!) and voila! You're a kid in a candy store, but instead of candy, it's cute Christmas decorations and knitting projects.

I'm sure it could be candy if you wanted it to be, though.

For those of you looking for cool new ways to procrastinate (I'm looking at you, library table) this is for you.

2) I'm thankful for TOP CHEF TEXAS.




I know that they added Top Chef: Just Desserts to hold all of us die hard Top Chef fans over until they could crank out a new season of the original, but after watching all of the pastry chefs putting out sweet treats for 8 weeks or so, I'm so grateful that the savory stuff is back. I shamelessy watch quite a bit of reality TV (The Biggest Loser, Millionaire Matchmaker, Project Runway), but this is far and away my favorite. These are real people who are really talented and they make me want to cook all sorts of cool food.

Tom also asked a cocky chef to leave before he ever cooked a bite of food because he didn't know how to break down a primal cut of pork and totally hacked up the tenderloin. Thus proving that Tom Colicchio is a badass and has standards for the contestants. I love it.

3) I'm thankful for Butternut Squash Macaroni and Cheese.

I made this last night and it was delicious. I served it with a side of broccoli so that there was something green involved. Next time I'm going to just put the broccoli into the baking dish, and add more cheese. It definitely could have been cheesier. Although, that might just be my Wisconsin-induced elevated tolerance for cheese talking.

4) I'm thankful for comments.

Even if they are just my dad and Kilber bantering about Bruce Springsteen trivia. It makes me want to write more posts that people want to talk about.

5) I'm thankful that we're falling back this weekend.

Part of my mopiness has been caused by waking up and driving to work in the dark, working in a windowless basement, and then driving home in the dark. Falling back means that it will at least be light in the morning, which will be good incentive for me to get back in touch with my morning personhood. I miss the sun. I'm thankful that I'll get to see it soon.


That's the list! I feel happier already.