Maria Runs - Maria Runs

Starbucks freaked me out!!!

But as you will see, it has not stopped me visiting them…

Recently I have been having a Monday morning treat of a visit to Starbucks on my way to work- I am out of class and always have a mountain of paperwork to get through, so it is a nice treat.

They normally ask for your name now (did anyone see Dave Gorman’s thing about that? Worth a hunt on Dave if you didn’t- Modern Life is Goodish), but one week they didn’t ask me. When I got back to my car I noticed that they had written my name- creepy! I think this was my 5th Monday- not as if I was in there all the time!

Excuse the chipped nail varnish!

Later that week I was sent an email saying that I could get a bakery item for half price, and double stars. Andy was out on Thursday evening which meant cooking my own dinner before body pump, and I left work pretty late. I decided to pop on my way home to get a pre-pump drink, and a post-pump treat.

I did have a sensible dinner I promise!

Yummy bean and mint falafels with salad and hummus.

And this was waiting for me when I got home.

Then the other weekend after the 15k race (and slightly tricky journey home) I had to dash back to work on Saturday evening as there was a disco. By the time that finished it was after 6pm but Andy would not be back from football for another hour at least, so I popped in for a drink, and got us a cinnamon roll to share. When I got home I lay on the sofa with my laptop- what luxury! (Spot the glo-bracelet I was given at the disco!)

However, the staff redeemed themselves in the final week of half term. We had consultation evenings for two nights, which are just such tiring evenings (on top of full days of teaching) and by Thursday I was so tired, losing my voice, I got into my car to come home and realised I needed petrol. I drove to the petrol station near work, only to see it was all cordoned off. It was right by Starbucks, so I popped in for a drink to take home. I am sure I smiled (and I always say please and thank you) but I think I must have looked like I needed cheering up, as it was only when I got home that I noticed that someone had drawn a smiley. Starbucks staff take note- I much prefer a smiley to my name.

The petrol saga continued on Friday morning- I went to Asda before work, but it was cordoned off. Never mind, I thought, there is a new petrol station opening along the dual carriageway on my way to work, I can just go there. Well, when I got there the sign said “now open”, but the entrance was still fenced off! Argh! Luckily the petrol lasted until Saturday when I finally managed to find an open one!

Are you a fan of the name-on-the-cup fad? Any shops where you are a regular?

Edible Gifts for the festive season

Shhh, it is not many weeks until Christmas will be upon us.

With that in mind, Sainsbury’s asked for some ideas of pretty edible gifts that people could make, so here are my two.

First up, Marzipan Chocolates, because it isn’t Christmas without marzipan.

All you need for this is some chocolate- I used 200g dark chocolate, and some marzipan- around 50g.

Melt the chocolate (I do it in the microwave, but you can do it over a pan of boiling water if you prefer), and chop the marzipan into little pieces.

I have a chocolate mould from Lakeland, but you can use little cupcake cases instead.

Spoon a small amount of chocolate into each mould/ case, and leave to set for a few minutes.

Roll the marzipan into balls, and put one ball in each case.

Then top with the rest of the melted chocolate, and leave to harden.

Sorry for the picture- it was no longer daylight when I did this!

Then you can pop them out of the cases (or leave them in if you used paper cases) and put into little bags ready for giving away.

I got these little bags from ebay- check that they are suitable for food use when you buy them, as some are not.

I have also made these before and added in a dried cherry with the marzipan, or you could add in a whole almond to amp up the nut factor.

Next up, the king of edible sweets, Christmas Pudding Fudge.

I first made this a few years ago after seeing the idea of adding the pudding on The Pink Whisk website, although I use a different fudge recipe. It has become a festive regular for me as it is so lovely to give as a gift.

You will need:

100g butter

1 tin of light condensed milk

450g dark brown soft sugar

1 small (100g) ready-to-eat Christmas pudding

You will also need a sugar thermometer, and an electric whisk.

But, the key to this is in the preparation.

Put the butter, sugar and condensed milk in a pan.

Chop up the pudding (it does not need to be small pieces as the beating later on will blitz it down), line a brownie pan with baking paper, and get your electric whisk ready.

I also like to have a side plate ready to catch drips from the beaters.

Then, and only then, begin to make the fudge. Patience is also key here. Gently heat the mixture and stir frequently.

It will darken quite quickly, but don’t worry.

Keep stirring. Don’t worry about the bubbling around the edges, just keep stirring.

A few minutes more….

I have an electric thermometer, and I prefer to keep it on the F setting, as the C setting is not as accurate I don’t think. So the mixture needs to be heated until it reaches 235F (or 113C, or the soft ball stage if you don’t have one). Then take it off the heat, remove the thermometer and spatula (I put them on the side plate so they don’t stick to the work surface) and carefully add in the chopped up Christmas pudding.

I have turned off the heat here but it still bubbles a lot so be careful when you put the pudding in, as if it splashes on you it will really burn.

Then, get your beaters going.

This can take a while. It will go from very easy to mix, to feeling stiffer and leaving trails for longer in the mixture.

The longer you beat it, the crumblier it will be, but I prefer it to be softer, rather than crumbly like Scottish tablet, so you can always put a bit on the plate, leave to cool for a minute and see if it is the texture you like. If not, keep on beating.

I tend to stop when it leaves thick trails in the mixture, and when you stop some of it still clings to the beaters.

The stalactites stay there on the beaters as a cooks perk!

Then pour it into the lined pan, and leave to cool. The pan will be very hot, so make sure it is on a heat resistant surface when you leave it.

Leave overnight to cool, at room temperature, before slicing into small squares and bagging up ready for gifts.

I do sometimes use ribbon, but these bags came with little ties.

What edible gifts do you like to make/ receive?

Perfect start to the weekend

So, half time finally rolled around. What with extra meetings, parents evenings and other things, I was pretty shattered by the time it arrived. I was just imagining laying in bed all day (something I never do, but I sometimes like the idea of it) when I got a message from my dad asking me if I fancied parkrun in the morning. Well, I couldn’t refuse!

2014-10-25 15.25.30

Andy got me some flowers for Friday evening as the last week had been so manic.

He picked me up as we chose the newer one (I am on the way to that one, whereas I drove to the other one as I passed their house on the the way). This time I brought gloves with me, as it was a chilly morning. You have to park a little way from the start (7 min walk for us) so I wore my jacket and we left them in carrier bags near the start as we knew we would get cold on the walk back.

My dad got me into parkruns last year, but this year has had a knee injury (apparently at 60 he is too old for the op…) and over the summer had the OK to start running again. October was his parkrun target and we went a few weeks ago to the first Panshanger one, although he ran a bit ahead of me that time. This time we ran together – it was lovely to have a catch up and chat, and enjoy the beautiful views. He kept doing little spurts to overtake people, and I would catch up, but in the final half k he put on a great spurt and I could not keep up. The course is undulating, but finishes with a very steep climb, so I knew I could not catch him. There were less people at the start than the time we went before, but I was still surprised to have finisher token 81- normally I am in the high hundreds- my first ever one I finished number 82 but the weather that day was shocking so not many people came!

Dad had finished 3 places ahead, so we queued to have our chips scanned and then headed back to the car. It was just such a great start to the day- I am really pleased for my dad that he is back running again- he is not competative at all, but he really enjoyed doing parkruns and when he first got his injury that was what he wanted to get back to doing. I didn’t get a pb overall, but I did get a pb for the course (I didn’t realise that the parkrun stats keep the different courses separate to each other)- 29.32, which was still pleasing.

Ages ago I mentioned to Andy that I wanted to do 25 by Christmas. He took this to mean a sub- 25! I don’t think I could manage that (especially not on this course as it is more hilly and not on roads) – I meant doing 25 runs. Well, this weekend was my 23rd, so you would think I am well on track. But, we have a few weekends away (including a trip to Brighton for the 10k race there), and I am marshaling on one free weekend, so I think I only have 2 Saturday’s left between now and the end of the year! We shall have to see if I make the target or not.

I made myself caramel apple french toast for brunch- I have not had this in a few weeks! I made the french toast as usual, then chopped an apple and cooked it in the pan, and then drizzled with a little toffee sauce (from the Lake District). Delish.

Then I put on some music and spent a few hours cleaning and tidying- when work gets busy our house slowly turns into a tip so it was very therapeutic to return it to a livable state.

Someone at work gave me some beautiful flowers after our very busy week.

I even tidied my nail varnish collection!

A little later I went out to the shops.

The fountain in Welwyn is always dyed pink in October for Breast Cancer awareness, and it looked rather pretty in the autumn sunlight.

I had parked a bit of a way from the town centre, so I got a chai latte to drink on the walk back to the car, and enjoyed crunching all the leaves.

When I got home I got on with some work while I waited for Andy to get back from football- it was such a great start to the weekend as I felt like I achieved a lot, but also relaxed and had some good “me” time.

How have you been enjoying this wonderful weather? I am at a wedding tomorrow, but I am not sure that the lovely weather is going to last until then.

Poppy Run 2014

So whilst on a run last year I had run past Stanborough lakes in Welwyn and seen a sign saying “Poppy Run“- I had no money with me so no chance of entering, but I filed it away in my brain and this year signed up in advance.

The route started less than 2 miles from home, at 11am, and it was the day the clocks went back, so I had been up for a long time. I had porridge for breakfast, as although usually I don’t eat before I run, it was going to be a long time. Then I jogged down there for a gentle warm up.

It was a lovely low key event- you queued up at the gazebo in the car park to collect your number and t-shirt (this was taken at the end!), and the start was right next to it. The t-shirt was cotton, and I don’t normally like to run in them, but I didn’t want to be “that person”- anyway I had on a long sleeved breathable top, so it went over the top of that just fine. I was wearing a jacket on the way, but it was way too warm for 3 layers so left my top in the gazebo while I ran- so much easier than a bag drop!

They didn’t have a warm up (thankfully) but they did have a man from the British Legion talking about their events, and the fundraising. The local MP (Grant Shapps) was there to start the race, and he told us all he was going to run it, but would take a short cut to ensure that he was back to give out the medals to all the finishers.

The route was around the lake- two laps of the lake, and then two shorter laps (there is a bridge that cut the lake in half so you did that for lap 3 and 4).

It was an interesting mix of people; lots of families and small children (including one with a very small child on a scooter- good plan!), but some club runners too. One lady was wearing a Yorkshire marathon finisher’s t-shirt, which did seem a bit like overkill for a 5k that was not even timed. One guy was running in shorts, club vest and a massive bobble hat. It was quite a cold morning!

We counted down from 10, and then we were off. I tried to stay fairly near the front, as the paths are fairly narrow and I didn’t want to get stuck behind people walking it. The runners thinned out fairly soon, and I got into a good rhythm. It is a small lake, but quite pretty, and I enjoyed the route. The MP overtook me on my second lap, and I didn’t see him again- I think that he may have had to finish to be there in time for the speediest runners.

I glanced at my watch a few times to see 9 something which was good, and all of a sudden it was my final lap and I was heading over the little bridge to the finish straight. As I stopped my hand was shaken, I was presented with a medal and told “15th finisher, well done”- that took me by surprise! Of course it was not a competitive race (no clock or chips etc) but there were quite a few club t-shirts and “serious” runners at the start, so I didn’t expect to be that high up!

The finish straight- Grant Shapps in his t-shirt and shorts handing out the medals.

I asked someone to take my picture (she had already done so for someone else!) and then picked up my jacket. My face matches the poppies!

I attempted another selfie to show that the running tights were finally out of the drawer- sad times.

I texted Andy as he said he would come and pick me up- I could have run the 2 miles home, but we had afternoon plans (well, tea and cake at John Lewis….) so didn’t want to get home too late. Although he couldn’t get to the car park so I ended up running a bit of the way home. It was only when I got in the car that I realised my Garmin was still going- whoops!

The goody bag was also really good- as well as snacks- nature valley bar, ritz biscuits, sweets, peanut butter, it had a poppy wrist band and pin.

The medal was good too. The t-shirt is cotton, so no good for running in really, but I have seen on their website that they have started making technical t-shirts too, so I wonder if next year they will up the entry fee (it was only £10, plus a booking fee, although you could donate more) and include one of those instead.

At some point I will try and work out my time, but really that was not what the run was about at all. I really enjoyed it and think that the event would be great for a first “race”, and equally would be enjoyed by seasoned runners. I am sure I will be back next year too, which is always the biggest test.

Are your running tights out yet? I though they were out for good, but on Tuesday morning I went for a run in capris and a vest as it was so warm!

Christmas pudding and Bakewell tart bars!

Last week I was kindly sent some new nakd bars for me to try for the blog.

I had already tried the Christmas Pud bar (Sainsbury’s stock them- I have found them in two so far), and although I liked it (fruit and spices are a good combo), it was not my favourite. I told Andy I thought I could taste the alcohol (he thinks I am ridiculous, but I did think that the hint of natural flavour was hinting at the alcoholic pudding).

But, the Bakewell tart ones, well, they might be my new favourite flavour. As someone who can happily cut a slice from a block of marzipan, I am rather fond of that almond extract flavour, and this bar has it. I thought it had dried cherries in there too, but it didn’t. I mean, I could go on for ages about the wonderful natural ingredients of dates, nuts, raisins and natural flavour, and how they survive a week being squashed in the bottom of my bag, and how they are the perfect snack size etc etc. But I am sure you all know how much I love them already, so I won’t.

Anyway, I loved it so much that I ordered a case on their website (they were having 20% off, although when I checked it had changed to a multi buy offer). I also bought a mixed box of Trek and nakd crunch bars, and they included a couple of freebies.

I tried the cocoa chaos bar- tasty. Although it made me think of Professor Chaos. Just me?

Do you like the sound of the new bars? I am thinking of wrapping one Christmas pud bar in marzipan to make a Christmas cake bar. Good plan.

* I was sent the bars to try, but all opinions are my own.