Don't miss my adventures! Come find me. My new blog is at EnduranceMeg.com.

Larabar giveaway!!

Still following this blog? I just wanted to remind you that I moved. So... you should follow my new Wordpress blog. Better get over there, because I'm having a LARABAR giveaway right now!!!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes...

Unfortunately, I now have that David Bowie song in my head. And you probably do, too.

Sorry to break it to you like this but, "It's not you, it's me." No, I don't want to lose you, but I'm afraid some of you might feel this is a bit harsh and unwarranted. Trust me, it's not. It's nothing personal. I love each and every one of you. I want you to join with me in my fun adventures wherever I go. But I must move on...

To Wordpress, that is. It seems as though the Blogger world doesn't allow me to have as much freedom with my blog as I would like. I want multiple columns, I want menus, I want I want I want. And I got.

So, please- don't stop following me. Just change that blog feed under my name to the WP icon instead.

http:www.megankillian.wordpress.com - and I'm getting a domain, too [that will come before the end of the week]. Going big, not going home. Ok, just kidding... I'm already home. Going to bed.

UPDATE! My new website has launched!! http://www.endurancemeg.com

Making sugar cookies from scratch. Gluten free. without a recipe.

I should say, recipe for disaster.

Let me preface this post with "I am not Suzy Homemaker"- I'm not even her distant cousin. I love to bake, and I am usually decent at it, when I am marginally following a recipe.

Today, I decided to throw all caution into the wind and replicate the sugar cookies from a box that we had a few weeks ago. The cookies were goooood... but they were $6 a box for about a dozen and a half cookies, so I just couldn't bring myself to buy another box. I tried to remember the appropriate ratio of wet-to-dry ingredients, and may have sneaked a peak at the back of the box last time I was at Econo Foods.

So I started with a stick of Jilbert's butter (that's half a cup), a quarter-cup of Jilbert's skim milk, and two eggs. Beat this with my Kitchenaid and streamed in ~1c cane sugar. I then mixed the dry ingredients in a bowl- 1/2c Bob's brown rice flour, 1/2c tapioca flour, and 1/2c cornstarch, with ~1tbsp potato starch. I flaked off the insides of one vanilla bean, and added another 3/4c or so of cane sugar to the mix. Mixed the dry into the wet ingredients, and the soupy-mix was scooped into spoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet. Baked at 375F.

Try #1- Cookie Smudged.
The cookies completely converged. The cookie sheet was just a smear of cookie mess. Tasted good though.

Try #2- added about a 1/2c rice flour to the mix. Re-scooped on the cookie sheet. The cookies still smeared a lot, but looked ok... until I tried to take them off the cookie sheet. That's the way the cookies crumbled.

Try #3- Chillin' the dough. I threw the dough in the fridge for a good half hour. Didn't change a damn thing.

So, anyone got any ideas? What did I do wrong?!
It's worth noting that I love cookie dough and cookie crumbs, so it wasn't a total waste!

Ahh, snow.

The weather this week was interesting. Apparently, the UP received the "storm of the century"- but I don't remember it being all THAT bad. Sure, there was snow. Lots of snow. And wind, can't forget that. It was cold, it was icy, and most importantly- it was snowy! I love snow.

It was nice to get dumped on. We went from having no snow, to having blankets of the white fluffy stuff. YAY! That to me means cross-country skiing, trail shoes, and snowshoeing.


It wasn't all smiles and laughs, though. Seriously, it snowed for six days straight. It really never stopped. If it did stop, you couldn't tell, because the wind was whirring up the snow that had fallen earier. It was definitely winter parka weather.

It was miserable walking home from campus, but it was better than having to scrape off seven inches of snow after being parked for a few hours.

It was totally worth getting out and doing stuff! Yesterday, I went for an early-morning jog around Houghotn, and it was nice to get the glow of street lights reflecting off the snow. Holiday decorations were out and people were up and at'em, shoveling and snowblowing their driveways. The coolest thing was probably the army of snowplows on Montezuma I saw as I headed up Bridge Street. One after the other charging through the snow, lining up piles of snow in the middle of the busiest street in the Keweenaw. So cool. I definitely had to head out prepared, though. I wore my headlamp and several layers! Get ready to get cold, girlfriend!

Today was absolutely beautiful. The Michigan Tech Huskies had their season opener for Nordic. Sure, it was a little squeaky and sticky for skate, but my kick today was awesome (I classical skied... ).

Adam and I tried out our new headgear that we bought from Sauce (formerly SOS headgear), which was started by a friend of mine and current professional skier, Shayla Swanson (Canada National Team). I met Shayla when I lived in Bozeman [she was roommies with my girl, Karin C.]. Both girls are kick-ass skiers. I love that Shayla sells these hats as a way to represent the ski community and support herself financially. Seriously, it's really hard to find a perfect hat for xc-skiing (or running, for that matter). Some are way too warm for aerobic activities, some are not wind resistant at all, and some just sorta inch their way off your melon as you move around. The Sauce hats (like the Swift Toque)  and headbands are sweet, because they are tight around the ears but not too tight, cover more surface area (ie. skin!) and they don't leave you exposed to the elements. Plus, they hats are supa-styling. Mocha polka pattern looks soooo sweet [that's the pattern I've got, pictured below]! I really like how easy these are to take care of, too. The tassel is removable, so I just pull a string and the top of the hat opens up and the tassel comes off. Way convenient for washing it, so I don't have to worry about the tassel getting all gnarly in the washnig machine at the laundromat. Extra bonus.

So today, Adam and I just skied around on the trails after watching the men's race finish. The trails were awesome, 24Km all packed and groomed.  I pulled something in my inner thigh while out on Portage loop, hopefully its nothing and I can get back out there tomorrow and get some more skiing in. I love to classic ski! Here's a video of me out on core loop:




After I pulled my adductor or whatever I did, I dinked around behind Adam a bit and did some videography. Sorry if its a little bumpy, but you gotta see how awesome the trails look :-D I loooove the UP.


That's all I got for now! Get outside, folks! It'll make you feel better :-D