Marathon cooking is just as exhausting as marathon running. No, really. It is.

I woke up Sunday a bit under the weather (read between the lines here) and decided the best thing to do was get up off the couch and cook. And cook I did, deciding to make a new item halfway through preparing another, basically all day long. I don’t think I stepped out of the kitchen for more than 30 minutes the entire day, which rarely happens (and was awesome.) (I’ll take a marathon cooking day in favor of an actual marathon any day.)

The day started with bread. I knew I wanted to bake bread. I am not a baker, though, so I needed something relatively easy. I followed Betty Crocker’s recipe (from the cookbook, with paper and everything, I KNOW) for French bread and it was delicious.

I will definitely make it again and next time I’ll even let it sit in the fridge for the recommended 4 to 24 hours to develop its flavors. Not reading recipes in their entirety is maybe why I’m no good at baking. Perhaps?

We’d stocked up on farm-fresh strawberries and cherries the day before, so I decided a berry crumble of some kind was in order. Thank you(s) to Mama Bub and Carrie Murph for the recipes they shared (which were very similar): Mix oatmeal, flour, brown sugar, a shitton of butter, put on top of the berries/peaches/whatever, and bake till bubbly.

Pre-shitton of butter. Post-shitton of butter is IN MY BELLY.

Then, since the overflow of bags of chicken carcasses and vegetables in my freezer was PISSING ME OFF (they kept BRUSHING AGAINST THE DOOR EVERY TIME I OPENED IT AND ARGH!), I decided to make chicken stock. What’s more delightful on a hot summer’s day than hot, boiling liquid, am I right?

(No picture of stock, because c’mon.)

I knew I was going to make chicken cacciatore for dinner (all the better for dunking my bread into, of course), but I originally planned to make a sauce out of canned tomatoes. However, with my tomato plants growing beautifully in the garden (thanks, Elizabeth!), and seeing TheCLJ make her own sauce on Instagram/Twitter, I decided canned sauce was ridiculous, and so I decided to make my own.

Jessica’s recipe was simple: Just roast a bunch of tomatoes, onion, and garlic (covered with salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, and olive oil) low and slow (I did about 350 degrees for an hour), then puree when it’s cooled.

HELLO, TOMATOES.

You guys. YOU GUYS. Canned sauce? Never again. We almost ate an entire loaf of bread, dunking it in sauce, before dinner.

But now, after all this food, and the leftovers all week, I can’t seem to figure out why I’m so tired.

I’m getting enough sleep.

I’m working out.

Oh, I haven’t had a leafy green in days.

Those marathon cooking days, guys…Don’t let anyone tell you that they don’t take serious training, practice, and endurance.