KRAP Thanksgiving

This past weekend we had our first feast of the season..... its our second annual KRAP + friends Thanksgiving!
The four of us KRAP ladies (me, Rema, Alexa & Paula) got together early in the day to start the cooking and the wine drinking. I was in charge of the turkey and decorating the table- pretty easy deal if you ask me ;)
Here's Alexa & Paula cooking

And because I ALWAYS take pictures of my decorated table, but never do anything with the pictures, decided to share a little collage:

The four of us

Alexa's daughter Mila playing with my girls- so cute! They love each other already :)

Didn't get a group picture of all of us, because people were coming and going at all different times so it just never happened. I also forgot to take pictures of all the delicious food- probably was too distracted eating and drinking ;)
Such a fun tradition, hope to keep it up for years to come 

Friends

One of my good friends from highschool, Patty, came to visit last weekend with her family.

Steve was out of town on a fishing trip, which was a bummer, but it was so fun to finally meet Patty's sweet little girl and hang out!

We did a beach day:

 Then my other good friend from highschool (Jessica, who lives down in San Diego) came up with her little boy (I took his first bday pics!) so we had this fun little reunion with our babies as well.  But it was near impossible to get a good picture of everyone....

 Then trying to get one of the just the kiddos- forget about it! Jess is the only one who sat and posed :)

So fun to hang out with you, Patty, Chip & baby G!  Come back and visit again soon!!!!

Flourless Chocolate Goodness..... I mean, Cake

You will need:

6 tablespoons unsalted butter plus more for the pan

8 ounces chopped bittersweet chocolate (I used a combo of bakers chocolate & dark chocolate. Tasted good to me!)

6 large egg yolks

6 large egg whites

1/2 cup cane sugar (granulated sugar works well for normal not crazy sugar free diet like me people)

Confectioners sugar for dusting (on everyone's piece but mine)

Berries mixed with agave to top

Or Rice Dream Ice cream in mint :)

1.  First, be careful if cooking with wine
Wine IN the bowl is not a good thing

Preheat oven to 275 degrees.  Unless you have a ghetto oven like me, then do 300.  With the rack in center.  Butter a 9-inch springform pan. Place butter and chocolate in a large bowl. Microwave in 30 second increments, stirring each time, until melted: cool slightly.  Wisk in yolks.

2. In another bowl, beat egg whites to soft peaks.  Do this on a high speed- it will take a few minutes.  And then you'll feel like you belong on the Food Network.  Gradually add sugar: beat until stiff and glossy.  Whisk 1/4 of whites into chocolate mixture: gently fold mixture into remaining whites.  Learned how to do this from Chef Johnathon on my Napa trip.  Don't know how to explain it other than you are actually folding it gently into the mixture.  Do this slowly.  Again, you will feel like you deserve to be on the Food Network with your own show.  

3. Pour into prepared pan: smooth top.  Bake until cake pulls away from sides of pan and is just set in the center.  45 to 50 minutes.  Cool completely on a wire rack.  Serve dusted with confectioners sugar and mixed berries.  

YUM

{Pictures and recipe from my weekend in Napa.   Taught to us by Chef Jonathan Bodnar. 
I have since made the cake 2 more times, the second time turning out better, but both times delicious!}

Napa!

I just spent the most amazing weekend in Napa with 9 of my bestest girlfriends- friends from all stages in my life.  Starting with a kindergarten friend, to a mommy friend I met just a few years ago.

  So fun to get all these fabulous girls together!  

We are all turning (or already turned) the big 3-0 this year, so we decided to celebrate with style.

We stayed a my friend Jackie's family time share (AMAZING place), did a day of wine tasting in a limo, a day at the spa, and then did a cooking class at our house!

Finished it up with some shopping in my favorite city, San Fran.

The weather was out of control gorgeous, and I had an absolute blast catching up with my girlfriends.  

We need to do this more often!

Here are a few of my favorite group shots:

 (Notice how we lined up by height? Cause I'm a nerd like that.)

Besides deciding I need a girls weekend away more often, I also realized that Steve and I need to do a weekend in Napa.

To all my besties who joined me, thank you so much, I had way too much fun. I love you all!

I did it!!!!!!

I ran my first 1/2 Marathon!!!!!! Yes, I said first- I plan to do it again. I have the running bug big time. I am loving it!

I signed up for the San Diego Rock & Roll 1/2 marathon back in January. I had gotten to my goal of running a 5k (the Oceanside Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning) and decided that I needed new goal.

My college roomies and I plan a get together every summer- every year since graduation (um, is that 6 years now??? I'm feeling old......). I lucked out that all of them are also doing the running thing and they agreed to run the 1/2 with me! I was going to be the only 1/2 marathon virgin going in to it, and they were all nice enough to agree to run my pace so I could actually finish it!

Dani & Amelia arrived Friday night (Julia had to pull out last minute. We missed her mucho!) Right away I was laughing so hard I almost peed my pants. Man, I love my college roomies.

We just chilled Saturday morning, and drank a ton of water. We left my house around 2 to head down to SD.

We checked into a fancy smancy hotel, Westgate hotel in Down town San Diego. FANCY. Like, too fancy for us rowdy girls. But we enjoyed- check out the view! And look Hammer, no marine layer!

We headed to the Expo to sign in and get our gear. Did a little shopping and browsing, then headed to Sammy's Woodfire Grill to carb up! I was able to get a gluten free, dairy free pizza there. And it tasted fabulous.

Walked back to the hotel, goofed around in our fancy hotel robes, and prepped for the next day.

We were asleep by 9:30 at the latest- we had to get up at 4:30 am for this dang race!!!!!! But we did it without grumbling, blasted some music and got ready!

We all ate our little breakfasts- mine was gluten free toast w/pb and 1/2 a banana. Then we walked to the start line- a nice little mile walk warm up. There were sooooooo many racers out walking around!

We managed to all get into coral 19 together. We decided to skip the porta potties, cause man- they stunk. And the lines were insane.

The energy was awesome, I loved seeing everyone that was racing. People from all over the country! Its so awesome to see how runners come in different shapes & sizes, and different levels of seriousness. So many silly costumes, and also some hard core runners!

I believe it was 30,000 runners. Thats insane. Dude, we even got to run on the 163 (thats the freeway for any non-locals reading)

We keep our pace up, only stopped for a quick pee break right before mile 8. Right after that we were cheered on by Steve, Jessica and Izzy. That seriously made my run- seeing them gave me the energy to finish the race, and I was so happy that they came to cheer me on! (They couldn't meet us at the finish line because it was too hard to get to with 2 young kiddos)

Check me out- I was smiling, must be having fun!

Mile 12 was the only mile that was really hard on me, and I think it was because we decided to pick up the pace AND I just wanted to be done! In my head (and, I won't lie, occasionally out oud, too) I started to give myself this pep talk "you pushed out a almost 10 pound baby WITH OUT DRUGS. You can run one more damn mile." My friend Amelia ran right next to me and kept saying encouraging words to me, and that helped me get that crazy jolt of energy that made me sprint across the finish line

(I love that I look like possesed in that picture)

I finished!!!!! And I immediately burst into tears.

Because thats how I roll

Finished in 2 hours, 22 minutes and 9 seconds. About a 10:50 mile pace. Pretty proud of myself considering I have only been running less than a year :)

We had to stop and take goofy pictures afterwards. Love my neon pink face.

This one was for Julia. We are good flexers. :)

Making fun of the crazy subleasing roomate we had one summer. Cause we're mature like that.

After we made it back to the hotel and showered up, we headed off to get some much deserved lunch

Mexican food and Margaritas!!!!!!!

I had an amazing time, and it was made even better by my friends doing it with me. I cannot get over how amazing the human body is- dude, running for 2 hours + strait, and still having energy for the rest of the day? Crazy!

I plan on doing more 1/2's, and maybe even a full one day???? And I really hope to do more with my college roomies. Julia, you must be with us next time!