Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix

Posted on February 14, 2016 by Kym Zest

I love coffee. But sometimes I want a hot beverage and I don’t want caffeine, and I don’t want tea, and I don’t want decaf coffee, and I don’t want super sugary syrupy café hot chocolate, and I don’t want flavorless weak powder crap, or delux expensive hot cocoa mix… gee, I am hard to please.

So I make my own.  It’s super easy.
Actually I’m enjoying some right now.  Just after a snowy winter evening run, what could be better than a mug of hot chocolate and pajamas?

The original recipe with all the good science is from Cooks Illustrated.  (A “duh” reference for regular readers.)
I just dump all the ingredients into my Ninja blender.
The bold items you shouldn’t skip or you’ll be sad.  The other ones are totally optional. Continue reading →

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Camping Thwarted

Posted on January 31, 2016 by Kym Zest

It wasn’t for lack of trying. It just felt particularly difficult this year. Type two fun still has to feel worth it. Sometimes being temporarily miserable doesn’t feel rewarding or satisfying. Not much camping occurred on this winter trip.

Will got wet from below.
We got wet from above.
I got an insufferable cough.
Ice was infuriating.
Fire was uncooperative.
The cabin was critical.

Last year the ice on the Kawishiwi gave us enough scares so this year we opted to start on Moose River which is tiny and slow. We figured it would have much more stable ice and even if it broke couldn’t be deep enough to cause worry.

Just two hours later Will broke through. Suddenly he was up to his chest. Not cool river, not cool.
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Continue reading →

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Ready for…?

Posted on January 22, 2016 by Kym Zest

We’re ready….

We’ve been towing weight around the track at the gym…  
I’ve towed 205lbs for a 1/2 mile.

I’ve deadlifted 200lbs once.

Now I feel somewhat prepared to haul Will out of the woods in an emergency.  Although he’s not bar shaped and we’ll certainly be more than a mile from help…

I’ve packed up tons of food.  It’s not even all pictured here.


There is: Steak and mushroom stroganoff, thanksgiving dinner (mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and chicken), mac and cheese and spam, kumla (pork and potato dumpling balls not pictured), homemade granola, oatmeal buckeyes (modified from my halloween buckeyes), cheese and meat, snicker bites, homemade hot coco (which deserves it’s own blog post), and it’s all supplemented with pizza rolls, taco rolls, quesadilla triangles, and breakfast nuggets.

We’re ready for our annual winter camping trip.  Like last year when we hauled the pulks, chopped wood, and tried building that damn igloo.

Or we’re ready to be stuck in bed… Will’s been sick, I’m getting sick… This could be entirely uneventful. Being sick doesn’t even make for type two fun stories.

Hopefully we’ll be back with great stories that do not involve phlegm.

Next in the winter camping storyline: Camping Thwarted

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Learning to Love Winter

Posted on January 10, 2016 by Kym Zest

Yay! It’s finally actually cold in Minnesota.  Which is the way it’s supposed to be.  calvin booger
I hate being cold and get cold easily.  Some people’s bodies and temperaments are built for the cold.  I am not one of them. I am prone to hypothermia, frost nip, bite, and chilblains.  While I don’t get sunburned easily, my skin gets chapped, cracked, and peels from the cold.  Yet I have learned to love Minnesota winters.

I love winter because I actually spend time outside and am rarely truly cold.  I go for walks, I bike commute, I run, and soon we’ll be camping.
This is 6 ways I make it work: Continue reading →

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Leftover remix

Posted on December 27, 2015 by Kym Zest

I love leftovers.  I survive on leftovers.  Unless it’s moldy or smelly I’ll heat it and eat it.  Sometimes I do end up with too many leftovers.  What a first world problem to have.   Sometimes I just freeze it and pull it out on a busy week.  Sometimes it needs a complete overhaul.  Recently the remix has been even better than the original.

I had an extra gallon of apple cider. 
And frozen pulled pork with pear and ginger and honey.
I turned it into stuffing, twice.

  Continue reading →

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Cheeseburger Pasta

Posted on December 13, 2015 by Kym Zest

This isn’t healthy.  Well… it’s healthier than if came with fries, or tater tots, or onion rings.  Theoretically you could not have beer with it.  In theory cooking for yourself is healthier than going out to eat.  Unless you eat like 4 portions… which is what Will did with the leftovers.

Cheeseburger Pasta – a lovely one pot meal that feels fresher than the winter holiday turkey and potatoes and ham and squash and soups, but is still cozy for cold nights.

So freak’n easy too.

Continue reading →

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The Aftermath: B2B Race Epilogue

Posted on December 6, 2015 by Kym Zest

Oh sweet off-season.  Beer and sleeping and sugar and wine and pajamas… It’s been seven weeks since my Beach2Battleship Iron Distance Triathlon finish.  It was over four weeks before I could run pain free.  It was over three weeks before walking stopped hurting.  It was three days before I had a post-race depression meltdown over a lack of firewood and beer.  But the day after – that was awesome.

I woke up far too early and lounged in my finisher pajama bottoms and starting moose slippers.

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Continue reading →

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The Last Three Miles: B2B race report part 3

Posted on November 29, 2015 by Kym Zest

“Why is she so happy?” A friend asked Will.
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“I’m on the run!”  I told Will as I cruised by at an 8:00/mile pace.

Generally friends and family would not be dismayed to see me smiling.  They may have been less puzzled had I looked more haggard.  Will had been texting them my progress in the Beach2Battleship Triathlon for the last eight hours.  I had raced 114.4 miles and not much of it I’d call easy.  I had faced icky salt water, imaginary sea creatures, ferocious swimmers, and wash tub waves in the swim.  I had overcome discouraging passing and an unfortunate headwind on the bike.

But it was too early to feel anything but happy.  I had my first marathon to run.  Anything but happy would be a worry, a worm of doubt, a downward spiral, the beginning of the end.  I was at over 5 hours away from the end.  So I was ecstatic. Continue reading →

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Swim and Bike: B2B race report part 2

Posted on November 22, 2015 by Kym Zest

Saturday October 17th 2015 I was ready for my 4am alarm.  I ate, stretched, and pooped – ahhhh – all the important stuff out of the way.

Now to actually start the race.  In the grand scheme of things, this part seems relatively small and boring.  The training, the set backs, the anticipation, and the very end seem like much better stories to share.  But I suppose it’s this boring part – the majority of the race – that makes all the struggle before, and the struggle later make any sense at all.

It was still pitch black when we arrived at transition one (swim to bike) just after 5:30am.  I scrambled to run through my check list.  Around 6am I was ready to get shuttled out to the swim start. It would be a long cold morning to stand out there in just wetsuit so I got my thrift store cozy stuff on.B2B triathlonMoose slippers make it hard to take things too seriously. Continue reading →

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Long and Hard: B2B race report part 1

Posted on November 8, 2015 by Kym Zest

After three days of driving and camping we arrived at Wrightsville Beach for Beach2Battleship Iron Distance Triathlon.    B2B TriWoah – the ocean.  As we stared at it I felt like Nemo stating the obvious “It’s big… and blue.”

Which is also how I felt about talking about the race.  Everyone asking “How was it?  How was the biggest race of your life?”

Uhhhh “It was hard… and long.”

The whole experience felt so big I can’t seem to wrap my brain around the whole thing much less find the appropriate response to such a simple question.  There are so many inappropriate ways to respond.
“I peed on myself A LOT.”
“I’ve never been naked with my competition during a race.”
“The last three miles were fucking ugly.”
“I got sores in weird new places.”
Or just crying.

Can I just bust out crying when someone asks “How was it?”  Because it really was so big, and long.  And I’m so stinkin’ proud of myself, and I’m so touched by people caring, and so at a loss for what to say that I just think some crying would sum it up nicely.

But perhaps I can find some more words to tell this story. Continue reading →

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