It's Me!

Ok ok ok. It's been a minute. I've been otherwise occupied. Being a mom to a toddler is rather consuming, plus we've had several snow days, I've been working on a car and playing domestic diva. Let's see... What to talk about....

I know!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I heart Valentine's day. 11 years ago this evening, my beloved husband asked me if I wanted to be his girlfriend. *sigh* He can be so darn romantic!  Years ago, we abandoned going out to eat on this heart-y day- too many people to fight and generally poor service.  So instead, we go out another night, but I like to make some nice dinner for the day. Soo.... Here's my proposed meal plan for tonight.  I loove cooking, so it makes me happy. And this year we'll have a little bear to enjoy the dinner with us!

Appetizer:  I'm drawing a blank. I'll have to revisit this.

Salad:  Caesar salad, bagged salad that is. :o) Gotta conserve time when possible, right?

Main course:  Shrimp and salmon over couscous with a cream sauce. Rolls (yes premade. sheesh. doughs haven't liked me much lately). Roasted potatoes.

Dessert:  Chocolate dipped strawberries and homemade whipped cream.


Sounds yummy, right? Need to decide on the cream sauce. Do I want just a basic cream or do I want more of a buerre blanc? He prefers the buerre blanc, but that means I'll need to pick up wine and butter.  And a shallot or two. That's fine. he loves it, and it would be a nice topper for the seafood.

Sunshine, oh bitterly cold sunshine

Finally. January is over. I feel so relieved, as I always do after another January has passed.  Today has been a good day. It's sunny, but incredibly cold outside.  So, PJ and I are having a jammies day. Which we have most days anyway, but it's special because I'm officially designating it a jammies day. I'm working on making some homemade bread today, and I can't wait for it to go in the oven.  Parmesan and cracked pepper loaves. :)  Yum. I worried about having enough flour, but of course that wasn't until after I'd committed and had it in the mixer.  The dough didn't kead out as smooth as I'd like, but it felt pretty good after it rose. We'll see how it turns out. It isn't like I'm out any real amount of money. It's bread, after all.


I find my mind wandering a lot today. I daydream about having one of my closest friends living closer, and all the play dates and lunches and dinners and everything we could share.  I watch pj intently playing with his kitchenette and eagerly anticipate the day when he is able to help make cookies and breads and all manner of yummy things.  I think he's going to be a good cook like his mommy.


With any luck, he and I will be driving the 90 minutes down to my dad's house to spend the day and night.  I'm looking forward to that as well. I miss my dad, and I especially miss his and my step-mom's awesome food. Not that the tummy needs it. I'm not doing great on losing weight. But January is never a good month for me to start anything. I'm going to try to do better this month. I will do better because I want to look cute in a bikini again.


Guess that's it, just random bumbling along. :)