Roasted Garlic

Okay, so this isn't much of a recipe because its so simple.  I guess its more of a public service announcement?  Because garlic is awesome, especially when its roasted, so everyone should eat more of it because its delicious and I don't want to be the only one with crazy garlic breath.

I go through a ton of garlic, and I hate spending all my time peeling it so lately I've been buying the huge pre-peeled bag of it at Costco.  Its so worth it.

This garlic spread is super yummy when served with good bread.  I like using it with the best bread.

This spread is great for an appetizer, or I also like serving this with a big hearty bowl of black bean soup.


Roasted Garlic

Ingredients:

• peeled garlic
• olive oil
• salt
• black pepper
• basil
• oregano
• cayenne

Directions: 

1. Use whatever amounts you want of each ingredient and dump them all into a small oven safe container.  Quickly stir them up a bit to evenly mix the flavors together.
2. Bake at 325 degrees F for 60-75 minutes with your container loosely covered in foil.  The garlic is done when it is very tender and not too brown or firm.
3. Spread onto bread and enjoy!  It should spread like warm butter.  

Panna Cotta

Doesn't this just look so fancy?  Yeah, it took me a whooping 5 minutes to make.

Panna cotta is such a great dessert.  It's quick to make, it requires very few ingredients, it looks so fancy, it isn't messy to eat, you can make it a day ahead of time.  Shall I go on?  Oh, and obviously, it tastes great too.  If you aren't familiar with panna cotta, it's like a vanilla pudding, and means "cooked cream."

Since this is such a simple dessert you can change it up every time you make it.  You can either serve the panna cotta in a pretty glass or turn the dessert out from a fancy mold and serve on a plate.  There are many sauce and flavoring options as well.  Jeff is a big fan of strawberry, I love orange and cranberry.

I know my panna cotta is ready when I can turn the glass over and nothing moves.  It totally reminds me of getting a Blizzard at Diary Queen as a kid.  That was always my favorite part.  Wow!  It didn't fall out!  Hi.  I'm a grown up and still fascinated by that.

I love all things orange creamsicle.  This panna cotta isn't super pretty with the thin color on the top but I really don't care.  I wanted to infuse the orange flavor throughout so after about an hour and a half in the fridge I poured about a tablespoon of orange curd over the panna cotta and allowed it to sink to the bottom.  This way I had the layer of orange covering the bottom, but also got a hint of orange through.  Yummy!

I made my orange curd, but store bought is fine.  You could also try lemon curd, strawberry jam, a fruit compote, fresh fruit, chocolate sauce, etc.

This go around I used a cranberry pomegranate curd on the top, which I spread on after 4 hours.  I just love that bright color!

I like using a wide glass for the panna cotta so I get my fruity topping in every bite.

Panna Cotta
serves 6

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Cup milk
• 1 1/2 packets of unflavored gelatin
• 2 Cups heavy cream
• 1/3 Cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla paste or extract
• fruit topping of your choice

Directions:

1. Combine the milk and gelatin in a medium saucepan off the heat and allow to absorb for 5 minutes.
2. Add the cream, sugar, and vanilla and whisk continually on medium heat until sugar has fully dissolved and steam begins to rise over the pot.
3. Remove from heat and pour into 6 glasses.  Let cool on the counter for several minutes, then place in the fridge for at least 4 hours.  Add your choice of sauce, jam, compote, etc. in a thin layer on top of the panna cotta after 4 hours to keep it from sinking.

Note: This dessert can be made a day ahead of time and kept in the fridge until needed.  If you want to make panna cotta in molds and tip them out make sure to rub the inside of your molds in coconut oil before pouring the dessert in.  To remove the panna cotta simply run the outside of the molds briefly in hot water.

Also, I prefer my panna cotta on the thick side.  If you don't, use one gelatin packet instead of 1 1/2.  No problem.

my first half marathon

Its been so crazy around here lately.  I know I haven't posted in a while.  I've been so busy I've been making the same recipes over and over.  Boring, I know.  You know you've been swamped when you still have your Christmas lights up mid-January (eep!)

Part of the craziness involved training and packing for our weekend trip to Anaheim to run the Star Wars Half Marathon.  My first!  Somehow I managed to convince my dad to run with me.  He gripped about it for months, but ran it anyway, beating me by a half hour!  We can't wait to do another already.  Although we got separated around mile 3 or 4, we till had fun.  If you've never done a Disneyland race you're missing out big time.  We ran through both Disney parks (complete with Star Wars character photo-ops!), and the city streets along the route were packed with high school cheerleaders (doing flips!), marching bands (some playing Star Wars music), people cheering in full Star Wars costumes, people holding funny and encouraging signs, people giving out drinks and candy (some not even affiliated with the race), and let's not forget the awesome people watching of the runner themselves.  Most of us wore costumes.  IT was awesome.

I decided to dress as Han Solo and my dad was a stormtrooper.

The boys had a blast wandering around Downtown Disney and the Disneyland Hotel the day before the race, just exploring and taking our time.  I had hoped not to walk too far the day before, didn't want to tire my feet out too much, so of course we passed by fitbit daily goal by 50% accidentally!

Dad and me the morning of the race, waiting in our slow people corral at 4:30 in the morning, after walking over a mile already to get from our hotel across the street through all the pathways to get to our corral.

I just had to pause running every once in a while for photos.  I couldn't miss the sunrise over California Adventure.  So pretty!

Radiator Springs is pretty nice first thing in the morning too.

There were so many people running!  I think I read that almost 12,000 people raced with us!  Crazy.  There were definitely a few times I was forced to walk because I got squished many a huge crowd going slowly.

I wish I could had gotten a photo myself with BB-8.  He's just so cute and my boys love him.  But his line was crazy long and I didn't want my time to be really slow.

Yay!  I did it!  There were times I felt a little tired, but the fantastic crowd cheering us on almost the whole race, and the fun people watching helped a lot.  Since it was my first race I wasn't concentrating on speed, just not finishing last, and not hurting myself.

I am really glad my costume worked out fairly well.  I didn't know what to wear because the race started so early in the morning (5:30!) in January and I didn't want to be frozen.  I also didn't want to overheat too much.

I went for practical Han Solo.  My long sleeved running shirt with open black fleece vest, with navy compression capris (they had red electrical tape lines down the sides like Han's pants but those fell off around mile 2...).  My favorite part of my costume was my blaster holster.  I made it in 30 minutes the night before we left for the race.  No joke.  I wanted something to keep my phone, ipod, and hotel key in easily that fit in with my costume and wouldn't move or bounce.  This belt stayed in place great, perfectly held everything I wanted it to, and was really lightweight and comfortable to run in.

If you were interested in making your own holster here's how I made mine.  I used thick black elastic and cut a piece to fairly tightly fit around my waist.  I sewed the two edges to a black plastic clasp and covered the clasp with duct tape covered craft foam sheets (1 per side) in the shape of Han's buckle.  I cut out a holster in fake brown leather I found in the remnant bin at Joann forever ago in a shape that looked kind of like a holster, but would also fit my phone and ipod.  I cut out the top piece of leather a bit smaller, and also cut out two thin strips of leather to use for the snap closure.  Before I sewed the front and back leather pieces together I sewed a black elastic loop fit to go around my leg.  The whole thing took about half an hour to make and worked perfectly, even though it looks obviously a rush job.  If you want to make your own and have any questions, feel free to contact me!

Since all the photos of me wearing my belt are in the dark Liam is my model.  Can't you tell how excited he is about this?  :)

Oh, apparently Han roars at people so Liam told me I HAD to include this photo of him roaring.  With monster arms.  I'm pretty sure he has no idea who Han is...