Over Christmas, I mentioned to my Dad that, given my older sister’s incredible NY marathon experience, and my father’s past years of Peachtree road races, I wanted to attempt to follow in their footsteps. Note I said *attempt*. He offered to take me to Fleet Feet in Savannah to “get a real pair of running shoes from guys who know what the f*ck they’re talking about.” Back in December, I changed my mind and decided I had no interest in running. The bed was nice and comfortable, and I was on vacation. Who needs to run when you can sleep and be lazy? Exactly.
Well, now it’s June, and Katie and I signed up for a marathon. And I’m in Savannah for 3 months, instead of 2 weeks. I’m a wee bit stir-crazy, and there’s this dissertation thing I’m supposed to be writing. Enter my favorite pastime--- PROCRASTINATION!!!!!!!!!! You see, if I take up running, then I am bound to spend a few hours a week running, walking, or pondering exercise in general. This does not include putting on sunscreen, taking long showers, stretching, starting a blog, entering my training schedule into my gmail calendar so it pops up on my phone, figuring out how in the hell to get back to the house because I got lost on a random golf path and have no clue where anything is, creating playlists to keep me stoked… the possibilities are endless! As you can see, running can have the magical ability to occupy time and head-space that could be constructively used for dissertating. And since I’m exercising, then really I’m doing something good for myself, so it’s not really procrastinating, it’s more like maximizing oxygen flow in my brain for optimal dissertating performance….tomorrow. Or maybe the next day.
I took my Dad up on his generous offer to get me shoes. We dropped my mom off to get her hair done and trekked over to Fleet Feet, a small store chock-full of folks who enjoy running. It’s their hobby, not their way of avoiding other life tasks. There’s an entire area devoted to fitting women with the appropriate sports bra. As I found out via eavesdropping, the bra is possibly the most important article of clothing for the lady (or a dude with da man-boobs). Because size does matter, and you want to keep the ta-ta’s firmly in place so that (if you are voluptuous) you don’t get knocked out by a double D-cup to the face right when your hitting your runner’s high. That would be a tough one to explain when the EMTs show up thinking you have heatstroke, when really you have an over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder that would get a “needs improvement” on its support report card.
Anyway, I didn’t get a bra. I got these sweet kicks.
And would you believe they were running (no pun intended) a 10% off sale for Father’s Day?? So my Dad bought ME shoes for Father’s Day!!
How did I repay him, you may ask? Well, I woke up early this morning and peeled/diced apples and did homemade apple fritters. Growing up, my Dad would get us doughnuts from Food Lion every Sunday (they had the best in town). While Jessica and I reached for the maple frosted or the pink sprinkly doughnuts, we always knew our Dad loved the raspberry jelly-filled ones. We also knew that his absolute favorite seemed to be the apple fritters.
And I decided, since I’m training for a marathon, I can eat whatever in the hell I want. Especially if it’s fried. Here’s the recipe I used, in case you want to partake in the deliciousness that was our Father’s Day morning. We even delivered some to the neighbors. At the time of this writing, no one has died, so I assume they’re safe for human consumption.
Apple Fritters:
2 cups flour (it calls for sifted, but that’s a pain in the ass so I didn’t do it)
1 tsp salt
3 tsp baking powder (yeah I know that’s a lot- shut up and trust me)
Cinnamon and nutmeg (I shook a bunch in—sorry, I didn’t feel like measuring since I can do whatever the hell I want since I’m a runner now)
½ cup sugar
2/3 cup milk
Vanilla extract (see cinnamon/nutmeg for amount)
2 eggs
2 cups diced apples
Powdered sugar for “dusting” (I dumped it on, shook a little, and called it good)
So, mix the flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar together. Then add the milk, eggs, vanilla, and apples. Whisk or use a mixer to combine fully. Drop into hot hot hot oil and fry the hell out of one side, then flip over and make the other side nice and golden, too. I used the ½ cup measure I had for the milk to drop the batter, but you can do whatever size you would like. I mean, if you make the fritters, you’re driving the bus so they can be the size of Chick-Fil-A waffle fry “turds” or the size of your fist. Do what feels right to you. Once they are nice and golden (proper etiquette term for FRIED), let them dry on a paper towel, then put powdered sugar, cinnamon-sugar, or whatever topping you’d like on top. This batch made about a dozen doughnut-sized fritters. If you make them, let me know how yours turned out!!!
Happy Father's Day, Dad!! I love you! Thanks for putting up with me this summer (and all my life)!
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