Two firsts....

I forgot how much I love Audrey Hepburn until I started reading through some quotes tonight- and my girl crush is officially back in full force. I found this gem, and it pretty much sums up my post!

"Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible'!" 

— Audrey Hepburn

I had two big accomplishments since my last entry yesterday:

1. I conquered "THE HILL"

2. I baked my first cherry pie. From stratch. Boo yah.

Now for those of you that have known me for a long time, it's still probably weird that I'm domesticated, and by that I mean married and blog about cooking. But food really is a way for me to challenge myself, express my creativity, and unwind after a long day. I swear, I'll stop talking about cooking soon. But not tonight ;)

After I conquered the whole "pasta making" thing with some fabulous lasagna last week and delicious fettucini on Saturday night, I decided I'm a pasta expert and need to move on to the next challenge- baking! 

I had "cherry pie" on my list of things to make from the Southern Living cookbook, so I put my game face (and rubber gloves) on, pulled the cherries out of the fridge, and started the pitting process. Have you ever heard the phrase "100 ways to skin a cat?" Well, apparently there's "100 ways to pit a cherry". I decided to go with the "tweezer" method- after 20 or so cherries I finally got the hang of it.

45 minutes later- taaaaaa daaaaa!

4 cups of pitted cherries. Exciting, Eh?

While I was making the filling, I probably looked like a mad scientist. I really need to get over the whole "winging it" thing and follow recipes. I moved on to the pie crust... It was about the same as making pasta, but actually much less work! Once it balled up in the stand mixer, I rolled it into two balls, one for the bottom and one for the top (that's what she said), and put it in the fridge for 20 minutes to chill. Next task- make the balls into pie crusts.

I used an empty wine bottle as a rolling pin, and a cheese cutter as to make the edges round.
"Green" baking at it's finest ;)

It's much harder to get it in the damn pan then you would think!

The next steps are easy- pour the cherry mixture into the pie, cover with the top crust, and bake!

If you ever doubted my obsession with monograms, doubt no more.

We topped it with some vanilla bean ice cream and dug in. Next time I'll follow the recipe and use tapioca pudding in the filling, but nonetheless it was a success. Hubby was happy, so I was happy :)

On to the next one....

I ran up "THE HILL" without stopping.

Zeke is probably the only other person who will understand this accomplishment. I've taken up running again in preparation for the triathlon in August, and we found a great little loop that starts from the front of our apartment, goes 1.25 miles out, then 1.25 miles back . It doesn't sound like a lot, until you factor in THE HILL. 

I'm racking my brain to think of a comparison... but can't. A little over a mile into the run, there's a hill that's very much in your favor on the way out. So much that you have to lean waaaaaay back and slow down to keep from face planting in to the concrete. Then, at the bottom of the hill, you rest briefly, turn around, stare at the task ahead of you, get your bearings, then conquer the up-hill battle. 

Imagine putting the treadmill on the highest incline level possible.... then add a few notches more. 

Today was my fifth time to climb the beast. While I've made it up every single time, I have to stop and physically sit down to keep from passing out. But today, I was on a mission. 

Thanks to my "Mims" station on Pandora and a little bottle of water I brought along to keep me hydrated- I pushed through- and made it up the entire incline without stopping!!! I felt a bit like Rocky when he got to the top of the steps of the Museum of Art in Philly. 

I wish it was this cold vs. 95 degrees.

I'm all about celebrating the little things. Any firsts you're proud of this week?