Family Ties

Saturday morning, Mom and Stephen came to watch me race a local 5K for the St. Paddy’s Day Parade. This is a huge event for our part of Mississippi and I was very excited to race this again.

Unfortunately, I do not have many pictures. I was too busy running! But the good news is, all the weeks of cross training and working on strength, agility, and fast twitch muscles paid off huge. I knocked 6 minutes off my previous 5K time. I was a little excited.

After the race, while I sat in a torturous ice bath to prevent that dreaded muscle soreness, Mom made omelets in her new sandwich maker.

I may need to get one of these for Christmas.

Then she decided to whip up some cheese straws for my sister. She already had my batch in a tin waiting for me when we got in Friday night. I have never made nor watched the process of cheese making. It’s pretty easy but I bet I could find a way to jack it all up.

Start with cheese, butter, flour, and cayenne powder. Throw it all in a mixer and let it mix.

Crumbly, but not done yet.

Done!. See how the mixture already looks like a compact cheese straw?

This is a cookie press from my Great-Grandmother.

Squish all that cheese into the top, put the lid on, make sure the plate is on the bottom of the press in the design.

Bake, then break apart into whatever size. I like the smaller pieces.

In between all the cooking and eating, we managed to find some time to enjoy Jackson.

I can’t believe how fast he is growing! He’s working on his 4th tooth and I promise I can hear him say “Aunt Kat”. Maybe I’m reaching a little on that one, but it won’t be long!

Overall, this was probably the best birthday I’ve ever had. In just a couple of days, I spent time with friends and my family. I got in some great workouts and had a great race. And, I shared some good food with everyone. It was a perfect birthday.