Feaster Five Re-Cap

For me, Thanksgiving is about spending time with family, drinking lots of wine and eating fabulous food.  Thus, it was pretty surprising when I did something this Thanksgiving that I never thought I'd do...run a road race!  In Andover, the Feaster Five is a major road race that takes place every Thanksgiving morning.  When a co-worker mentioned it to me, I thought I'd sign up for it, especially since the runners pass right by our house.  I managed to convince Bret to do it as well.

It was a beautiful but chilly morning on Thursday.  We were bundled up and ready to go!

I've run the course a handful of times on my own and it is a bit challenging.  There is a pretty steep hill in the first mile.  The rest of the course is mostly flat but after the third mile, the home stretch is another steep hill.  The first hill actually went really well.  I think I was encouraged by all of the runners around me and they helped push me faster than I would have run on my own.  The last hill was a bit challenging.  I was definitely tired but I probably could have pushed myself a little more.

Overall, I thought I ran at a pretty good pace even though the race was a bit of a mess.  Walkers, runners with strollers, runners with dogs, families running four or five across made it an obstacle course to tuck in and out around them.  Parts of the course were really narrow to make room for the 5-mile race so it got a bit hectic.  Still, I was happy with my end time of 35:04, especially since I was running 36-37 minutes on my own.  I wish that I had pushed myself a little harder to get under 35 minutes, but I guess this just gives me a goal for next year!

Bret's bib unfortunately tore during his run and as a result, his time never got recorded.  He was definitely bummed, especially since this was his first 5K.  He faithfully ran with me the entire time but I know that he could have easily run faster than me if he wanted to. 

I originally ran my first 5K in April because it was an item to cross off on my 30 by 30 list.  I never thought that I would keep signing up for more.  I definitely never thought that I would have run three 5Ks in a year, or that Bret and I would ever run a race together!  While I still wouldn't call myself a runner, I've definitely started enjoying challenging and pushing myself with each race.  Bret and I are already talking about doing another one in Andover in April. 

For Bret and I, running the 5K together might be a new Thanksgiving tradition.  Tell me, how was your Thanksgiving?  Was it filled with old traditions or are did you start any new traditions? 

Spicy Apple Orange Cranberry Sauce

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Thanksgiving Pumpkin Bread Pudding

Happy Thanksgiving!  I'm spending the day with my family and my fiance.  My mom is a phenomenal cook and she puts on quite the spread for Thanksgiving.  By the time you're reading this, I'll probably be in the kitchen doing whatever task I'm assigned.  My mom enjoys doing all of the cooking for Thanksgiving but I usually manage to sneak in at least one dessert.  This year, I decided to make King Arthur Flour's Pumpkin Bread Pudding from the Whole Grain Baking cookbook.

While the recipe calls for the use of whole wheat bread, I decided to substitute it with Nature's Pride's OvenClassics Oatmeal Bread.  I received a complimentary loaf of bread courtesy of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program and it has been sitting in my freezer for about a month.  On Monday night, I took half of the loaf out of the freezer and let it thaw and stale in the fridge for twenty-four hours.

On Tuesday night, I found that the bread wasn't quite as stale as I'd like it to be so I cubed it up and spread the pieces on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil.  The recipe called for six cups of stale bread but I had more like seven and a half cups.  I put the baking tray in the oven for eight minutes at 250 degrees and let it sit for an additional five minutes in the oven with the oven off.

While the bread was in the oven, I got the liquid ingredients of the pudding together:

• 1 cup raisins (I omitted this because I'm not a big fan of raisins)
• 1 can pumpkin puree
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup of packed light brown sugar (you can also use packed dark brown sugar)
• 2 cups half-and-half
• 2 tablespoons dark rum
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 tablespoons crystallized ginger (optional) (I omitted this since I didn't have it on hand)

In a medium bowl, I whisked together the pumpkin puree, eggs and light brown sugar.

I then whisked in the half-and-half, rum, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves to the pumpkin mixture.  You could definitely smell the rum and I liked that it would be a boozy bread pudding!

I took the stale bread out of the oven and put it in a large bowl.  Since the bread was warm, I put it in the fridge to cool down. 

When the bread felt like it was more at room temperature, I poured the pumpkin mixture onto the cubed bread.  I used a slotted spoon to make sure that all of the bread was coated.

I covered the bowl and let the mixture sit overnight in the fridge.  On Wednesday I took the pumpkin mixture out of the fridge and let it sit at room temperature.  I then got to work on the bread pudding topping by dicing up a generous 1/4 cup of pecans.  I then combined 1/4 cup whole wheat flour, 1/4 cup light sugar, and two tablespoons of unsalted butter in a bowl with my hands until it made a crumbly mixture.  I then stirred in the diced pecans.

I then pre-heated the oven at 350 degrees and greased a 9-inch round baking dish.  I gave the bread pudding a final stir and then poured it into the baking dish. 

I sprinkled the pecan topping evenly on top of the bread pudding and put it in the oven.

I let the bread pudding bake for forty minutes.  I wanted the bread pudding to bake through almost completely so that I could warm it up (and get the wonderful brown sugar color on top) on Thanksgiving at my parents' house.  I let it cool completely before I put the cover on and refrigerated it overnight.

The pumpkin bread pudding looked amazing and I hope that it tastes as good today as it looked last night!

Happy Thanksgiving!  What was the best part of your Thanksgiving?  And don't forget to enter my Dancing Deer giveaway, which ends at 11 PM EST tomorrow!

Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Maple Agave Syrup

This dish is a great alternative to sweet potato casserole that people often have as part of their Thanksgiving Feast. It's not as heavy since it doesn't have any eggs or cream but has the perfect amount of sweetness without loading it up with sugar. I added some marshmallows on top for presentation but I don't think it even needs that. Leave off the marshmallows and eat this any day of the year.

Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Maple Agave Syrup

Ingredients:

5 lbs. sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into large pieces
1 stick butter, softened
salt to taste
milk
3/4 cup Trader Joe's Maple Agave Syrup
mini marshmallows

Directions:

Boil sweet potatoes in salted boiling water until fork tender and drain well, add drained potatoes back into the same pot. Using a potato smasher (if you don't have one use a fork or wooden spoon)smash potatoes until there are no longer any lumps. Add butter to potatoes and smash them into the potatoes. Add milk a little at a time until it's a smooth creamy consistency. Add syrup (if you don't like it sweet you can leave this out or just add it 1/4 cup at a time and adjust according to your taste) and stir into the potatoes. Season with salt according to taste. Put potato mixture into a large casserole dish, if you want more marshmallow topping use a dish that is long and shallow. *See Note. Add a layer of mini marshmallows and bake at 350 until marshmallows are browned.

 

*If you want to make this ahead of time, stop here. Cool and refrigerate. Take potatoes out of the fridge and leave on the counter for at least one hour to get the chill out. If it's still cold when you want to bake it. Bake at 350 until heated through. Then put layer of marshmallows on top and bake or broil until browned.