Nanny’s Pecan Sandie Roll-Outs {adapted from Jamie Border's Family recipe}

1/2 pound butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoon milk
2 teaspoons butter- vanilla emulsion
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
½ c finely chopped pecans

Cream together butter and powdered sugar. Add the milk and flavoring and mix well. Sift together flour and salt and add a half cupful at a time until well incorporated. Mix in pecans. If the dough is dry, add more milk as needed. Roll out and cut into shapes. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 325 for 8-10 minutes.


For the icing, I   used glaze because I know Nanny would have preferred it over royal icing.

Since I don't have much experience with glaze, I had to rely on the help of  two of my favorite glaze users, Amanda and Pam.  Using their recipes as a guide, I put together this icing.


Butter Vanilla Glaze Icing

2 cup Confectioners Sugar (powder sugar)
2 Tablespoon Milk
2 Tablespoon Light Corn Syrup
2 Teaspoons Butter Vanilla Baker’s Emulsion

Mix these together until a thick icing forms {for better instructions check out University of Cookie, Amanda does a video tutorial}

Backcountry skiing is becoming enormously popular in the mountain regions of the United States. Enthusiasts are demanding more from their ski equipment and in response, the ski industry has been constantly improving its products. Recently, bindings have become an important decision when purchasing a new alpine touring set-up. Consumers are looking for a binding that provides good control over the ski, lightweight, uphill efficiency, durability, and ease of use. Enter the Dynafit binding, a well-designed and lightweight binding choice with few limitations.

Dynafit bindings have gained popularity in the US after decades of development and use in Europe, mainly amongst ski mountaineer and randonee racers. In 1993 the Dynafit TLT type binding became the first available in North America. Today the company sells more than 13,000 pair a year and as many as 8 different models of bindings here in the US. Even after this type of popularity many new to the ski world have never seen this type of set-up.


After seeing my first pair of these bindings in use during a ski trip on the Haute Route of France I returned to the US sans my telemark bindings with my prized new Dynafit set-up. Simply put this binding offers the lightest option for ski touring and offers the downhill performance that most are looking for in the backcountry.


The Dynafit binding works by rather ingenious engineering. Unlike most AT (alpine touring) bindings that have a bar connecting the toe and heel plates, the Dynafit binding uses the entire boot to attach the two together through the rigid nature of plastic ski boots. This means that a specific Dynafit compatible boot is necessary for the system to be complete, where the toe and heel piece of the binding actually “prongs” itself into the boot. This eliminates much of the extra metal that would construct a binding made in the more classic downhill style.


Dynafit products have some small limitations. These are really limited to only a few problems including the overall release mechanism which can be somewhat trigger happy if you are a super aggressive cliff jumper and bump skier. The binding can also not provide enough power for a skier to handle a super fat ski. So if you are looking for a binding and boot combination for super fat, big mountain heli-skis you might look elsewhere. In terms of tourability this is the right choice for the touring-minded backcountry skier. For more information on Dynafit bindings online check out wildsnow.com or give our backcountry skiing courses a try!

-- Ben Traxler, AAI Guide

Det var en hel evighet sist, men idag hittade jag äntligen ett pass som gick att klämma in i min (förvisso inte alldeles överbelamrade) vardag. Body Balance. Underbart. Hur jag kunnat vara utan detta så länge är en gåta och nu ville jag aldrig att passet skulle ta slut. Eller jo, pilatesdelen där jag ju såklart får imporvisera ihop lite eget, kunde gärna få ta slut, men det tycker jag visserligen ganska ofta i vanliga fall också. Jag tycker inte att den har en lika självklar del i klassen som allt det andra.

Som väntat blev jag dödstrött av att, förutom själva träningen, åka över halva stan och tillbaka så lite middagsvila får jag nog ta nu. Jag sover oftast helt ok på nätterna men inatt var jag vaken mycket och drömde konstigt. Så idag känns det bra att kunna bestämma helt själv över varenda timme.

Om man inte har tröttnat totalt på att läsa om The Nike Blast så kan man klicka här och läsa mitt livs första artikel. Själv ska jag som sagt sova lite.

*Warning if you are easily offended, stop now. I have definitely been reading my Amy Sedaris book. Come back tomorrow after my mom calls and threatens to wash my mouth out with soap, I will be back to my normal non-inflamitory self.

When I was younger and first moved out on my own, I said a lot of badwords. I don't know if it was the thrill of being able to, or one of the hazards of my close proximity to a bunch of sailors {seriously} but I learned, and used some doozies.

However, since I have kiddos now, and since cussing in a blog post feels similar to cussing loudly in a crowded waiting room, I just don't do it. Besides, like I mentioned before, my mom reads this, and even though I have almost reached the three decade mark, she WOULD NOT BE PLEASED.

I guess I could have changed the name of my icing altogether, but it wouldn't quite be the same.  People might not remember my point, nor would I get the guilty pleasure of still being able to say @#*! in my head.

All joking aside, that's really what I call this icing.  I have my own special curse word I say in my head, but you can choose yours =)

This is the consistency of royal icing I use when I do one of three things...{there's a few other things but they are kind of complicated for this post}

• Wait til last minute to start on a set of cookies I have to get done
• Screw up REALLY badly {think scrape off and start over}
• Get bitten by that lazy bug that's been wandering around my house for a few years

It is thick enough that it will hold a border, but thin enough that it will flood, which saves you the very time consuming step of filling and prepping bags when in a hurry.

Just for the record, I prefer the pipe and fill method any day of the week, but this is, real life happened, I refuse to quote that Larry Guy, get it done icing.

I came up with a wacky way to explain consistency after a phone conversation with my friend Kandle a few days back.

She was thrilled because after two years of asking me about RI, she had finally caught a re-run of Martha and figured out what she had been doing wrong .


The conversation went something like this:

Kandle: I watched Martha and I saw that the icing had to be like liquid to get it flat like you do.

Me: What were you doing before?

Kandle: I was spreading it with that little spatula and trying to get it flat...

Me: *slaps head* Oh, Kandlearia!


Then came my lightbulb moment.  VISUALS HELP! So, that's what I am going to do today.

Normally, I would use the honey or molasses to describe consistencies.  However, as I went through my house looking for  molasses, I realized that most people, other than us serious bakers, don't just keep molasses lying around , and although lots of people have honey,  it's often crystallized from sitting in their pantry for aeons.

So, I went on the hunt.  I looked all through my house for everyday liquids that others could use as a reference on the perfect consistency for "Oh, @#*!" Icing.

I think that most people have at least one of these products somewhere in their house to refer to...



My favorite comparable consistency was this stuff...



This is what it looked like as I experimented.


And for those of you who can't bear to waste the expensive, weird-flavored kiddie paste *me*, I found these cool little containers at Dollar Tree.  I'm thinkin' Loren and I shop at the same place, right L?

Monday - Noon: 7.5 miles (1,700') easy. Falls - Spring Creek - Stout - Towers - Herrington - Spring Creek - Soderberg. Gentle cruise to mark the beginning of the taper.

Tuesday - AM: 10.5 miles intervals. Met Jane's group at City Park for an early morning interval session. Cold as all get out again, but at least no wind. Anyway, the workout went: mile, 1,200, 1,000, mile fartlek, 1,200, 1,000, mile. Jogged three miles with Slush, Sarah and Celeste to warm up, and actually felt kind of spry from the get go - which is rare. Intervals went: 5:28, 3:58 (5:19), 3:18 (5:18), 5:22, 3:51 (5:09), 3:16 (5:15), 5:31 - w/ 3-5 minutes rest between.
Noon: 4.5 miles (900') easy. Falls loop.

Weds - AM: 6 miles (500') easy. Valley.
PM: 6 miles easy. Bike paths.

Thurs - PM: 10 miles (1,800'). Towers TT. 29:26. Ran three with Eric B to warm up, then, after setting off 32 runners before me, headed out for what I figured would be a close-to-PR effort - if not time, given that it was pitch black out and there was likely ice on the trail. With the lack of depth perception that comes with running in a bubble of headlamp light, I stumbled my way across the Swan Johnson connector, but still managed to get to Towers in a very easy 2:45, which is just a hair over PR pace. I decided then to take the plunge and commit to a hard effort. At Stout I was still on PR pace at 8:43, and by Herrington I had gained a few seconds with a 16:43 split. Up to this point, the track had largely been snow and ice free and it remained that way past Mill Creek (24:45), but beyond Westridge, it was pretty icy and treacherous. Going around Kyle at the crest of the last grunt, I took a digger, landing hard on my knee, which cost seconds and energy, and then I slid a few more times before the summit. However, I still managed to top out in a reasonably controlled one second PR (29:26). Still way off Sam's 28:50 FKT, but probably pretty close to it had there been a dry track and sunlight. Looking forward to a spring assault, but for now I'll take this as a sign that I'm in great shape and ready to go hard in New Orleans.

Friday - Noon: 8 miles (1,650') easy. Falls - Spring Creek - Stout - Loggers - Herrington - Spring Creek - Soderberg - home.

Saturday - AM: 8 miles (900') easy. To Indian Summer on Bluesky and back. It was so nice out, I found myself scanning for snakes ... in January.
PM: 5 miles (1,600'). Hike to Horsetooth summit with Alistair.

Sunday 15 miles (1,500'). Frost Giant 5k/10k double. Certainly wasn't going to be laying down any PRs, but felt like I got the workout I was after, which was a tired 10k effort. Warmed up with 3.5, raced 3.1, cooled down with 1.75, raced 6, cooled down with 1.75.

Total: 80.5 miles (10,550')

My legs felt great all week, which is really encouraging considering this is the first week of the taper. I still plan on cutting back significantly next week and again the week of. Probably won't run much more than 75 miles over the next two weeks, so I should really be raring to go come race day.

Great to see Andy Henshaw busting out an impressive 2:26 in Miami this weekend. He looks to be in great shape for Mad City where I predict he'll get the spot he wants on the US 100k team. Andy beat me by less than a minute at the Salida Marathon last year, which means I should be ready to rock out a 2:27 in New Orleans ... or at least I think that's how it works.

Stacy from Wilderness Running, an online retailer of quality trail running gear, conducted a 4-question interview with me the other week. You can check it out here and if you want to save 10% on gear from Stacy's St. George headquarters, then check out the link on the sidebar.

It was around this time last year I went on a course. For those of you who don't know, I taught English and Literature for many years before deciding to pursue a career in writing. The course I'd signed up for was one in editing. Though I had spent years editing the work of my students, I wanted some help with the editing my own article writing. 

I knew going into this one that there wouldn't be a great deal of feedback to be had on the marathon-performance front, given that Estes Park sits at over 7,500' and that both races involve a lot of uphill work and considerable amounts of running through clumpy paddock, but I figured that if I raced both reasonably hard I could get a good late-marathon effort out of the 10k.

Alex and I carpooled up to Estes (which is an intriguing 50k from my house) with a ton of time to spare. Ryan B was at registration as Alex and I were picking up our race bibs, so the three of us headed out to run the 5k course as a warm up. It essentially involved a 1.5-mile, 250'-foot climb out of town to MacGregor Ranch on first asphalt and then gravely dirt, before cutting cross country on clumpy and pot-holed paddock for 3/4 of a mile and then rejoining MacGregor road for the one-mile, 150' descent to the finish.

Going in, I figured I'd race the 5k hard to work up a good amount of of lactic acid for the 10k effort. However, with the uphill start and the altitude, I was laboring almost immediately from the gun. Three guys got out in front of me with last year's winner Mark Saunders trailing two other guys that I didn't recognize. It took me about a half mile to get on the back of the pack, and I figured then that I would just race the 5k for positions and not worry about running as hard as possible, so I sat back and drafted at what seemed like an increasingly easy effort. Just before the mile, Mark decided to up the effort waving for me to come with him. I did and we immediately dropped the guy who had been setting the early pace. Through the first mile of asphalt and 150' of climbing we were at 5:40.

Once we hit the gravel road in MacGregor Ranch, the grade increased significantly and - not surprisingly - the pace dropped. We gained probably 100 feet over the next third of a mile before the road leveled out, and at the 90 degree turn onto the cross country section, I was able to get a look behind and saw that I'd built a decent gap on second (Peter Swank). Given that the paddock section was pretty pitted, I figured I should be careful and go easy to the road so as not to twist an ankle or do something else stupid. The 1.1 mile section in MacGregor Ranch split at 6:55.

The last mile was almost all downhill and all on asphalt, so I was able to cruise at a good speed into the finish with a 5:18 last mile and 17:55 overall. Ryan finished strong, almost picking off Peter Swank for second, but just running out of real estate.

Alex, Ryan and I reconvened shortly thereafter and went off to jog the first 1.5 miles and last half mile of the 10k course in a bid to keep loose in the 40 minutes between races. The first mile of the 10k course was very steep, with over 200 feet of climbing before dropping down for a quarter mile to rejoin the half-mile point of the 5k and then climbing back up to MacGreggor ranch for an additional 170 feet of ascending, so 400 feet of climbing in the first two miles. Nice.

From the gun, the race went out noticeably slower than the 5k, almost at a jog, so it was a fairly safe bet that most everyone in the 10k had also raced the 5k. Within 100 yards we were tucking into the first section of the opening one-mile climb, which was probably close to a 10 percent grade. Once things eased off a bit, I actually felt my legs tell me that they were comfortable and ready to run again, so I switched from just wanting to tempo the effort to feeling like I wanted to make this hard on myself to make it feel like the last 10k in New Orleans might. By mile one (6:24), I already had control of the race so concentrated on working a steadily hard, marathon'esque effort.

At the top of the second climb, which happened to coincide with the two mile marker (6:03), I was ready for some fun paddock action. The course repeated the 5k cross country section, then cut across Devil's Gulch Road at mile 3 (5:52) for two more miles of pretty serious cross country. Cutting back east up the Devil's Gulch fenceline and then south through some trees, the course climbed another 150' or so before dropping sharply through some dangerously low pine canopy and heavily pine-coned terrain. Out of the trees, the course had us run through some really tall grass with stretches of heavily off-cambered action thrown in for good measure before sending us back towards Devil's Gulch Road for the last mile of asphalt. Miss Colorado was directing traffic at the last cross-country turn, and I took it so tight that I almost sent her flying. Ooops. The splits through this section went 6:17 & 5:33 (mile 5 was obviously way short).

Once back on the road, I checked over the shoulder and saw Ryan a ways off in second. Knowing that the fifth mile was short, I took at a split at the 1 mile marker of the 5k course to see what I could push out for a last mile, which I covered in 5:25, crossing the line in 36:22, which surprised me. Figuring that the course was short then, I checked with Ryan and Alex who both had GPS watches on, and as suspected the course was .2 miles short at 6 miles. That said, the 5k course was a touch long, so I guess it all evens out in the wash. Ryan ran a strong 10k, finishing about a minute back on me and comfortably ahead of Mark Saunders in third and way ahead of the guy who had earlier beat him for second in the 5k.

I picked up a couple of pewter game trophies to add to my buffalo from the Antelope Island 50k last year. All I need now is a cougar.

But back to Angelina Ballerina. Your mum Mrs Mouseling and your teacher Miss Lilly have put up with your attitude for far too long. And if I see you around these parts again, you will be sorry.

Coming in a close second in the beloathed children's character is of course Stupid Haircut Dora.

The red eyes denotes that she is truly evil.

Which kid's entertainer do you despise?