My dedicated parents

My mom and dad just got home from their last meet-the-teacher night ever. (My little brother is a senior in high school.) It was a little bittersweet, but I think mostly sweet. She calcultated that she's been to 42 meet-the- teacher nights. That includes a span of 18 years, during which there were three kids who each went to preschool, kindergarden, and grades 1-12.

I said "42!? That's so many. But surely you didn't go to all of them."
"I sure did!" My mom said proudly. "I went to every single one."

Isn't she fantastic!?

Crêpes

Wednesdays are my day off. So after my best efforts to sleep in (I have about an 80% failure rate) I usually take the liberty of eating something more interesting than my usual breakfast fare. This morning I made crêpes! We used to have these all the time as kids, and they were known to us as Swedish pancakes.

The recipe is easy: 1/3c flour, 1 egg, and 1/3c milk or buttermilk. Then grease a circular frying pan and pour in a tiny amount of batter-- when you tilt the pan around, the batter should just barely cover the surface. I cook it at relatively high heat until the egdes curl up a little and the underside is crispy. Then flip and repeat. It's a pretty easy concept but there's some finesse involved in making them perfect. We (my brother and sister and I) used to eat these with maple syrup but this morning I went for nutella and bananas. YUM!

Life in a Northern Town

It was unseasonably warm and very windy tonight: eerily gorgeous. I couldn't resist a little run after dinner!

On my ipod:

Weekend

Sweet weekend! On Saturday, I watched Jason, Marc, and Stash compete in the Full moon Vista cyclocross race at Ellison Park, though I guess in retrospect I really should have carved out some time for Fight Gone Bad, as I'm getting sh*t for not participating. (sorry!) But the bike race was so exciting! After hearing about cross racing for years from Jordan I have finally seen it for myself! If I had a million dollars- or just a couple thousand- I would definitely buy a bike and join them. Actually, let's be honest; I'd buy a new kayak first and then a cross bike.

Here I am with Coby, Jason's dog, who was my best friend while Jason was out racing.

When not watching races, I was reading Gone With the Wind. Can you believe I have never read it before? Since I just finished Moby Dick and Anna Karenina, I thought Gone With the Wind would be a nice change of pace. I'm in love. Last night I dug out my down comforter from the closet, opened my window to let in the cold air, turned on my christmas lights, and sat engulfed in blanket and engrossed in my book for 3 hours. *swoon*

The other awesome part of the weekend was my sister Anna, who came home from college for a visit! I love when my whole family is together. We went apple picking. If you can correctly guess the number of pounds of apples we picked, you win a prize. (Hint: it's well over 25lbs.)

Also, if anyone would like to buy a delicious, homemade apple pie, I am making them for $12. Proceeds benefit my Olympic journey! Email me at emily [dot] mary [dot] wright [at] gmail [dot] com!

Friday night hilarity ensues.

"The zucchini was homegrown. If you needed any further incentive to cultivate your own fruits and vegetables, here it is: defense."

P.S. I love nutella

Happy Autumnal Equinox!!

Ain't that the truth

Evil food

Jim calls desserts "evil food," and I think it's hilarious. Lately I've been trying to steer away from baking evil food, but today I couldn't resist autumn's calling, and whipped up a batch of pumpkin chocolate chip muffins.

I changed the recipe quite a bit to make it more healthy.

Instead of 4 eggs I used 2 eggs and 1/2c eggbeaters.
Instead of 1.5c canola oil, I used 1c applesauce and .5c canola oil.
Instead of 1.5c sugar, I used 1c sugar.
Instead of 2c chocolate chips I used 1c mini chocolate chips.

This made a significant difference in the nutritional breakdown.

147 calories vs. 254 calories
6g fat vs 16g fat
22g carbs vs 27g carbs
2g protein (same)