Hamburger Pie, Hot Dogs and Super Storms

I haven't posted any recipes for awhile. Here's one I hadn't made in years. Hamburger Pie. It's perfect comfort food for a pre-apocalyptic meal.

 

This recipe is from an old Better Homes and Gardens Hamburger cook book I have. I think maybe my mom gave it to me? I'm not sure, but it's got some great recipes! And the recipe is online if you'd like to try it. It's super easy, and only has 5 ingredients. And I only use real potatoes, not fake ones. And I substituted baby carrots for the green beans, because certain people I live with don't like green beans... oh and I didn't put in onions either because of that same certain person.

Jenny got to suffer for her annual "Hot Dog" costume pose. She lasted about 23 seconds this year.

Stay safe everyone, Superstorm Sandy is probably going to affect most of my loyal blog readers in one way or another. I was shocked by the amount of people at the grocery stores today with full carts of bottled water. I didn't realize we were in the epi-center of the storm, but I suppose the weather folks and the media like to think that everybody should be prepared no matter what. I did get a small package of batteries for our flashlights, just in case we lose power. Other than that, I think we have enough food to last a week. Plus we live less than 5 minutes from 2 different Wegmans, a Price Chopper and a Tops, so I think we'll be ok.

Chauffeuring Lidia

 

So today I stopped by Bridge Street (and Ch. 9). I hadn't been there in 2 1/2 years, when I left for WCNY. It was strange being back. But nice to see all my old friends and co-workers.

 

And the reason I was there is because I was Lidia Bastianich's chauffeur!

 

Lidia was in town for a WCNY fundraising event last night, and while she was here, she had a bunch of other media commitments. And who better to escort her over to Bridge Street than me? I picked her up at her hotel this morning and drove her over to the Channel 9 studios.

 

She did a cooking segment on "Bridge Street" and talked about her new book, and her new pastas and sauces available at Tops.

She even had a wine with her name?!

After the show, we drove back to WCNY where she signed a bunch of books for us. I got one for myself too. I love all her recipes. And her show! What a fun day getting to hang out with a "celebrity"! (And if you don't know who Lidia Bastianich is, go do a web search... and start watching cooking shows on PBS! )

League Champs

 

Today was the CNYCL Championship.

 

Alex was hoping for a personal Top 10 finish. The team was looking to win the League title.

They've been back and forth with Baldwinsville all season.

 

Everybody raced their hearts out.

 

And all the goals were met. Alex placed 8th overall, which put him on the All-League First Team, and Liverpool beat Baldwinsville by a mere 2 points. Next week is when it really counts, at Sectionals. But the League title is nice to take home.

 

On a side note, Alex figured out that his time from today's race (16:06) would have put him in 2nd place at last year's CNYCL Championship meet. He placed 18th last year with a time of 16:55. With that time this year, he would have placed 27th. It just shows you how much everybody has improved this year and how competitive Section 3 is this year.

 

Fall

The tree in front of our house looked lovely yesterday. I'm thinking the raking will commence soon. Anyone want to help??

Manhattan

 

As you all probably know by now, Alex had a big meet in Manhattan this weekend. Alex rode down with the team, so Eric and I both took Friday off and went down. We had nice leisurely drive, stopped at a diner along the way for lunch. Then arrived at our hotel around 4:30.

We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott in Tarrytown. Which was a very nice hotel. They had a cafe/bar in the lobby where we enjoyed Happy Hour and dinner. We also were forced to watch the Yankees game, which was on every single TV in the hotel. We managed to survive...

Then Saturday morning, we got up and headed to the Bronx for the race. They didn't run until after 1:30, so again, we had a nice leisurely trip into the city. We arrived around 11 and after lots of stress trying to find a place to park, we paid a nice man $20 to park at the golf club next to the park. It was actually very convenient, and worked out fine. We probably would have still been looking for a place to park if we hadn't parked there...

 The race was held at Van Cortlandt Park next to Manhattan College. It was a beautiful area. And it was a gorgeous day. A little chilly at the start, but sunny and beautiful.

 



And leave it to Eric to always find interesting things to take pictures of. I'm not sure who this was, but it was in the middle of the park.

 

 

And this is when we ran into the team. I hadn't seen Alex since I dropped him off at school the day before. I'm glad they made it ok!

 

 

This was about how close I was allowed to get before the race. He was 'in the zone'... I steered clear as best I could... 

 

More interesting things to photograph.

 

 This is the start of the race.Way down there was the starting line. Spectators lined up on the side.

 

 And after the start of the race, the last time I saw them was at the finish. Not a real spectator friendly course, but it was a fast one. It was only 2.5 miles. Just enough time for all us slow pokes to trek across the park to the finish line!

 

 Alex had a fantastic day. He finished 23rd overall in his race and 3rd for the team, in a time of 13:37. The top 6 runners on their team all finished under 14:00. That's pretty good!

 

 

And it was good enough to earn them a #1 finish in their race. There were 31 teams in their race. And 7 varsity races overall. We're still waiting to see the results of all 7 races merged together. If you'd like to see results from their race, click here.

 

 

Eric took lots of pictures on the way home too... can you guess where this is??

 



 

 

And another week flies by...

And the last of the dual meets has passed. Liverpool ran against Syracuse West today. They treated it as a workout, not really a race.

 

And Alex decided to work out a little harder than the others I guess. He came in 1st for the team, and 2nd overall. Then they went and ran a Tempo workout on the track...

And Alex received this today. A nice letter from the Ithaca College Cross Country/Track coach! I guess the college search fun has begun. Wouldn't it be nice if he could get a little (or a lot of) financial help?...

It's Wednesday Already

 

There is only one more weekday dual meet after today. This season is flying right by! Today Liverpool ran against CNS up at Oneida Shores.

 

Alex had another great showing.

The top 5 runners are pretty set for the team, although they've been swapping positions, the 5 seem to have become the usual 5.

 

Running toward the finish...

And Alex finished 4th overall and 3rd for the team. With a time of 16:41 for the 5k course. Here are the results if you'd like to see them. There are no meets this weekend (just some birthdays to celebrate!), and next weekend we're heading to Manhattan! It's going to be a busy October.