Fourth of July

  Only a little late, I'm finally getting around to posting about our Fourth of July. This year, Patrick entered us in the lottery for the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta. We were in the lottery with Kat, Dave, and Stephen and much to my dismay, we won the lottery and were going to have to run in the race. I ended up with posterior tib tendonitis in my left foot and the doctor advised me not to run in the race, but didn't tell me I couldn't run the race. I pretty much stopped training at all for it and decided to just walk it. I ended up walking half of it and ran the other 5k and finished in an hour and twenty-three minutes. I know that's terrible, but I passed a whole bunch of people who had started way before I did (Pat and I started in the very last group because they moved up our start time). I'm hoping that I can actually run a bit before the race next year and can shave my time down to an hour or so and hopefully run the whole race.

Before the Peacthree

me and Pat after the race

BFF who kicked butt!!

  After the race and work (for Erin), we invited everyone over for a Fourth of July early dinner. I made a ton of food (Pat always says too much food), but man, it was all pretty good! Erin and Stephen made a great fresh fruit salad and Kathryn brought over homemade salsa with chips. Be very jealous!! For our main course, I made Pioneer Woman's Pork Sandwiches with Cilantro-Jalepeno Slaw. I cheated a little by using some bagged cole slaw, but it still turned out really yummy. You should go out and buy the ingredients to make this immediately. I also made Kathryn's baked beans and then the peach pie from Southern Living's July issue.

Stephen and Erin

me and Pat

Family portrait

Dave and Kat

  The last two desserts I made were supposed to be Martha Stewart's cookies from the July issue (obviously, Pat and I will never be cookie decorators) and some fantastic chocolate chip cookies. I want to try to make Martha's cookies again sometime because I didn't cut them all the same thickness so some cooked faster than others and the frosting was way too thick. However, they were okay for a first try and for making them the night before the Peachtree at 11pm!! This is the second time I've made these chocolate chip cookies and they are amazing!! If you don't try anything from this post, you must try this recipe!! I omitted the salt on top of the cookies, but they are superb. Super chocolate chip cookies from Picky Palate blog: http://picky-palate.com/2011/04/07/brown-butter-and-fleur-de-sel-chocolate-chip-cookies/