Sunday Supper Club

G-man's cousin Elsa was visiting Dallas thIs weekend with her friend George, so they joined Ron and Los G' Tres for Sunday dinner. Broke out some go-to recipes and added some improv bits.

• Cheese tray with lemon Stilton, cranberry cheddar, and some other cheese with Whole Foods' pretzel baguette
• Salad of mixed citrus fruits with shaved fennel, parsley and a simple shallot vinaigrette (a riff on Judy Rodgers' Butter Lettuce with Oranges, Avocado & Shallot Vinaigrette from The Zuni Cafe Cookbook)
• Roti de Porc au Lait (from Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook)
• Gratin of summer squashes, red bell pepper, onion, and plum tomato layered with parmesan cheese and olive oil
• Broccoli with lemon
• Almond Cake (from Amanda Hesser's Cooking for Mr. Latte) with cherries in port reduction sauce
• Fudge Almond and Coconut Macaroons (from Cook's Illustrated online) - because the Almond Cake takes four egg yolks, and what else am I going to do with all of those leftover whites?

Started with good old Gin n Tonics, switched to a lovely bubbly Albrecht cremant for dinner, and chased it all with a drop of Averna.

Posted with Blogsy

Dinners, Old and New

Last night, we sat around watching pay-per-view with Uncle Ron, celebrated when it got to be 2011 in Argentina, and generally had a mellow time. Earlier in the day, Juj and I had been watching Food TV and, although I'm not really a big fan of the Neely's (too perky!), we were too lazy to change the channel when they came on (and that's pretty darn lazy, given that we have a remote). Then J decided that what they were cooking looked so good that he wanted it for diner.  I didn't make the whole menu but we did have:

• Get Yo' Man Chicken (*wince* see what I mean?)
• Southern Creamed Corn
• Steamed Broccoli
• Whole Foods Angel Food Cake with Berries, Whipped Cream, and Chocolate Ganache (had talked about making chocolate fondue but wasn't in the mood to deal with it after the movie)

This evening, the dinner plan is:

• Pork Chops (preparation  TBD, perhaps Smothered)
• Black Eyed Peas (in a sort of super simple Hoppin' John treatment, with bacon but no ham hock)
• Braised Greens with Bacon
• K & Paul's Corn Bread (close to this but slightly different in The Prudhomme Family Cookbook; I make a half recipe in a preheated cast iron skillet)
• Butter Lettuce with Oranges, Avocado & Shallot Vinaigrette (a Zuni Cafe Cookbook craving based on tasting the Cara Cara oranges now in season at the grocery store, but perhaps an odd note in this menu - may need to save it for Sunday - also neglected to buy any shallots - oops!)
• Leftover Angel Food Cake, or maybe Immaculate Baking Co. Gingerbread Cookies

So the new year will be off to a comforting (and porky) start...

Christmas Dinner

The G-man and I have been cooking Christmas dinner for extended family (usually his, on rare occasions mine) for about, oh, the past twenty years or so. The first year it was self-defense, as I was a bit overwhelmed by la familia Guerrero, and I found refuge in the kitchen. It's certainly no longer about hiding, but it is a nice (albeit sometimes tiring) tradition.

This year's menu for 17 adults (including the priest who baptized Juj) and 4 kids:

• Gin-n-Tonic, Sazaeracs with Blue Cheese Fig Savouries
• Apple-Fennel Salad with Walnuts
• Blanched and Sautéed Green Beans with Shallots, Thyme & Lemon Zest
• Chipotle Sweet Potato Gratin
• Rib Roast & Yorkshire Pudding and Gravy (pan drippings, flour, beef broth)
• Pear & Sour Cherry Brown Betty with Brandy Hard Sauce

UPDATE:  This qualified as one of the both better AND easier holiday dinners we've done.

We rubbed the roast the night before with basic cajun rub - two parts salt, one part each onion, garlic & mustard powders and black, red (cayenne) & white peppers - and had one of the aunties take it back out of the fridge at 7 AM on Christmas Day. Then we seared it on three sides before slow roasting at 250 degrees for about 3-4 hours. (Actually, we cut the one HUGE roast we had in half, and started one about an hour before the other, so that there would be some rarer meat for those that like it that way...like me.)

We also peeled the potatoes and made the Blue Cheese Fig Savories the day before, and bought pre-washed arugula and frozen haricots verts, which reduced the prep time further.  Still cooked from about 9 AM to 2 PM straight through on Christmas Day, but it was certainly less tense than some years!

There and Back Again...

Whizz - that was the sound of November!

Did my normal month close reporting the first week, spent a week in Colorado on business, came home for a week with my folks visiting that also included my birthday and cooking Thanksgiving dinner for seven adults and four kids, then back to Colorado for another week of business meetings.

Now I'm home, happy to be with my little family and enjoying the iPad I won. Yes, free iPad - not doing 3G or anything, but certainly having fun playing games and crawling blogs in bed. And if it had actually been delivered before I left for that second trip to Denver, I would've probably downloaded and watched some shows or movies. (Could've caught up on Glee!)

But it's maybe better that it didn't arrive until the day I left, because I ended up reading two good books instead: Take This Bread by Sara Miles, and Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert. Really enjoyed them both; very affirming. (Although I guess I could have ended up downloading and reading them as well.)  Anyway, now two more weeks of working and then two weeks of vacation and holidays, which I am very much looking forward to.

I love what Juj's teacher has assigned for the kids for these last two weeks before winter break: nine 'gifts of kindness' and then a secret present exchange.  There are ten kids in his class, and for the next two weeks, each one has to do an anonymous gift of kindness (free or under $1) for one person in the class each day, until they have done a gift of kindness for everyone. (She told them that they could skip themselves, since they should always be kind to themselves!) On the last day, they are doing some kind of white elephant or secret Santa exchange (under $10).  I think it's a great idea; perhaps I should try it at work the next ten days myself.

Finally, although we haven't decided on the Christmas menu -- we've cooked for G-man's extended family, up to 20 of us, for most of the past ten or more years -- we did have a lovely repast on turkey day:

• Blue Cheese & Pear Tart with caramelized shallots (adapted from the Nov 2010 Sunset magazine that my mom brought with her)
• Turducken Roll (which G-man built out of all breasts - turkey, duck, chicken - with three stuffings: one cornbread and one Andouille sausage adapted from Paul Prudhomme, and one rice & mushroom improv) and a couple of turkey thighs roasted on the side for dark meat lovers
• Gravy
• Orange Cranberry Sauce (homemade, with a hint of chile added)
• Roasted Sweet Potatoes Mashed with salt, butter, and cinnamon with three toppings: one-third Plain, one-third Pecan Streusel, one-third with mini-Marshmallows (inspired by this but not so sweet and ground pecans instead of flour)
• Brussels Sprouts Hash with Caramelized Shallots (have had it for most or all of the past four years - nearly guaranteed to win over 'sprouts haters!)
• Apple, Fennel Salad with Walnuts (also from Sunset)
• Pumpkin Cheesecake (Splenda sweetened, pecan crust - something I came up with a few years out of two or three other recipes)
• Bourbon and Chocolate Pecan Pie with Vanilla Ice Cream (OK, it was Jack Daniels, which some would say is NOT bourbon)

Mr. W brought the wines, so we had him, the three adorable W kiddos, my parents, Ron, Bill, and the G's Three.  And there was much feasting, drinking, playing, and a walk down the block to see an early Christmas lights extravaganza (a lot of folks in our neighborhood really go all out!) Really lovely afternoon and evening - although a Cherpumple did not get made.

Not quite Tur-duc-ken

The past weekend was a bit of a haze. Worked from home Thursday, while Juj stayed home with a cold.

Took a vacation day Friday and hung out with him again, except for the thirty minutes of parent-teacher conference which was why there was no school. (He's doing great, of course.) Caught Megamind (fun, cute) and had dinner at the Studio Movie Grill. (BTW, reserved seats with a required pre-purchased food credit rock!  Totally worth it.)

Saturday was a blur of making paper airplanes, shopping and playing Wii Rock Band, mostly with Juj, because G-man had to work much of the day.

Sunday was my turn for the cold, and I spent much of the day in bed. Oh, except I played more Rock Band and blew out what was left of my voice. (I'm the vocalist in our trio, mostly because I'm too uncoordinated to play Wii guitar or drums.)

And made dinner, with the greatest of ease, thanks to Costco featuring stuffed chickens from La Boucherie (purveyors of turducken that we've had for more than one Thanksgiving, although this year the G-man is threatening to make one from scratch by his own self!)

• Chicken stuffed with Crawfish Jambalaya
• Sauteed Delicata Squash Rings with Browned Butter & Fresh Sage
• Blanched Broccoli and Peas
• Romaine & Spinach Salad with Carrots, Avocado & Sass
• Fresh Pineapple Brulee

Just don't ask about how the The Kitchen Cure is going...

Chicken Soup

Happy Halloween! I once again forgot to photograph the Juj in his costume (nothing new there), but we had a lovely time trick-or-treating around the neighborhood after a dinner of

Tortilla Soup:

• sauteed chopped vegies: half and onion, couple of carrots & stalks of celery, and a jalepeno (no seeds) with a bay leaf, oregano, red pepper flakes, new mexico chile powder
• added chopped raw chicken thighs and salt and pepper
• 2 chopped zucchini & 1 chopped yellow summer squash
• a can of chopped tomatoes and a chipotle in adobo sauce
• 5 cups of chicken stock
• some frozen corn

served with all the fixin's:

• tortillas that I sliced up, sprayed with cooking spray and toasted in a 350-degree oven
• grated cotilla cheese
• sliced avocado
• chopped cilantro
• raw radishes on the side

But I think I'm going to have a candy hangover. And probably eat soup for lunch more than once this week. And I need to remember a few things like

• do not process chiles with your bare fingers
• and especially don't touch your lips or rub your eyes if you do, even if you wash your hands first
• and NO COFFEE AFTER 11 AM! 

Although I did wash and fold four loads of laundry, watch and erase one of the five new episodes of Glee that had been languishing on the DVR (Rocky Horror, oh, yeah!) as well as an Outsourced.

Better Late Than Never

Just after I typed it, I realized the title could refer to so many things:
...like thinking *I* would be all organized and get the Juj to school on time this week while the hubby is away visiting his folks, so I could show him how easy it is (which I didn't and it's not!)
...or the fact we'll be having a certain September birthday boy's actual party in November (thanks to booking constraints).
...or the effects of perimenopause (short, normal, normal, long, short, long - did someone say this could go on for ten years?!)

But actually, I just meant dinner.

Dinner for Unca Ron, to be exact. Not only did we stand him up Sunday before last because we were having too much fun to come home on time, apparently we never made a special birthday dinner for him either. Back in March.

So this what I made on Sunday, mostly from Stephan Pyles' New Tastes From Texas:

• Southwestern Caesar Salad with Parmesan-Anchovy Wafers
• Cowboy Ribeye with Pinto-Wild Mushroom Ragout & Caramelized Onions with Chile
• Splenda Lemon Ricotta Cream over Fresh Raspberries with Dark Chocolate Garnish

And since I forgot that the amount of steak called for in the cookbook was for four servings of bone-in ribeye but I bought boneless -- plus, unbeknownst to me, Juj decided he no longer likes steak -- we ended up inviting Ron back for a second round on Monday evening.

Just realized one more thing about that title -- could be a comment on the timeliness of this post, too (hello, Thursday night!) Or the egg sandwich I promised J for dinner...30 minutes ago. Or maybe it's just my rhythm and I should accept it.

Dinner

Didn't go to church today, but I spent the day cooking a meal of communion -- fun to have a larger than usual gathering to share the Sunday supper. And it was delicious to boot. (Although I forgot my promise to myself to wear shoes for marathon cooking, since my feet and ankles aren't as young as they used to be. Ouch.) This must mean it's truly autumn...

• Brisket with Parsnips & Leeks (this was awesome - and I got to use the Dutch oven I won from Pioneer Woman)
• Barley Pilaf
• Broccoli for the kiddos
• Salad (baby greens with herbs) for the adults
• All-time favorite almond cake from Amanda Hesser's Cooking for Mr. Latte

P.S.  And a happy Thanksgiving, my Canadian friends and colleagues!

Relax...have a steak

Last Sunday, I made a vegie & shrimp red Thai curry with brown rice (frozen cooked brown rice is a great if indulgent invention) and fresh figs with Greek yogurt and honey for dessert. Relatively healthy, relatively quick, relatively good. Which fit the bill, as I've been feeling kinda stressed as of late. G-man and I are both busy at work, and it wipes me out to the point where I have a hard time keeping up with the home front. But the weather continues to cool down -- I think it's dipped below 90 for the high some in the past week or so -- and that helps. Oh, and we got our HVAC system replaced, which helps, too, in a big way, since air conditioning is a necessity in summer in Texas in my opinion.

This weekend we had a wonderful unexpected albeit short overnight visit with our 2/3 of our family friends from OKC, en route to a fencing tournament in Houston. It was lovely to see them, and it also pushed me into cleaning up the guest room a bit. Which was great. Plus we had breakfast at our favorite, the Original Pancake House, before they left town Saturday morning.

For Sunday dinner today, I asked Juj if he wanted roasted chicken or baby back ribs (one is an old standby that I haven't made in a while, the other was a recipe I had downloaded to try), and he surprised me by saying ribs rather than chicken. But then he said "Can we have steak?" Wow - this from the kiddo who is not usually a big read meat fan! And since it so happened that I had some rib-eyes in the freezer that I'd bought on sale a while back, I pulled them out for a quick microwave defrost.

• BLT wedge salad with fresh buttermilk ranch dressing
• Sauteed spinach, steamed broccoli
• Seared & oven roasted steak
• Red fingerling potatoes pan-roasted in bacon fat with rosemary, salt & pepper
• Peaches poached in Teavana Orange Blossom tea with agave nectar (strained and reduced to a syrup with orange zest & juice after poaching)

Cold front!

Perhaps not *exactly* a cold front - but it didn't get up to 100F today, and tomorrow... a chilly 90!  (Hey, at this point, we'll take what we can get.)

Our lives? Freakin' busy! The newly renovated church was open for worship this weekend but G-man and the crew still have lots of details to tie up. The Juj enjoyed his first week back at school, now in the upper elementary class for most of the day. And it seems like things never slow down at the office for me.

But I did cook Sunday - improv:

• Seared scallops on sauteed spinach with a white wine, butter and lemon pan sauce
• Brown rice pilaf with peas and red bell pepper
• Mixed berry fool (lemon juice & zest flavored whipped cream with blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and Splenda)

Et voila!  It was also hotter than Hades this weekend, so we escaped to the dollar movies to see Prince of Persia on Saturday. Not bad, for a buck apiece. Also really enjoying the Netflix hook-up via the Wii's internet connection; been watching movies and TV shows on demand like crazy.  And since the heat makes me sleep poorly, I got to use it to watch Desk Set on Saturday -- at 5 AM.  Thanks to MrsF5 for that one!

Internet dinner

It's been an online cooking weekend. Well, not cooking online, but cooking recipes found online. Dinner tonight was as good as lunch yesterday, perhaps better because it included a cocktail (actually, two apiece; the Porch Swing is sweet and addictive, especially in this heat!)

• Porch Swing (forgot to buy a cuke on Friday, too lazy to go get one at the last minute, but did make the homemade lemonade base)
• Smoky Pork Burgers with Fennel & Red Cabbage Slaw (open-faced, on ciabatta rolls)
• Sliced Avocados
• Wild Berry Basil Panna Cotta (made with blackberries, and we ate the lavender lovelies direct from the ramekins, no unmolding required: thumbs down from the Juj - no accounting for taste, enthusiastic thumbs up from Unca Ron although he wasn't totally enamored of the whole basil thing, G-man thought it was a bit salty, and I liked it but it was more mousse-y than panna cotta-y IMHO)

And now, back to the regular routine tomorrow, at least for the next few weeks.  (One more break planned before J's school restarts late in August.) Should be interesting, after two weeks off.

Delicious lunch

Thanks to Smitten Kitchen, we had a super-yummy Saturday lunch at home:

• Thai-Style Chicken Legs (which I roasted on a rack above a foil-lined baking sheet for easier clean-up)
• Mango Slaw with Cashews and Mint (except I was too lazy to add the cashews and mint, and added a bit of sweet chili sauce to the dressing)

Wanted to make this Thai Basil, Coconut & Lime Sorbet from food52, but although I bought the ingredients yesterday, I did not get it together to make this for lunch today... Will try to check it out soon, though!

Healthy dinner

We had a delicious, and fairly quick, Sunday supper of:

• Lime Shrimp Lettuce Wraps (used romaine leaves because I had them on hand - bit more like a taco than a wrap - and I did add cilantro, as some of the comments suggested)
• Asian Slaw (only red cabbage & purple carrots, no green cabbage or bean sprouts, also added cilantro, and next time would use a little less vinegar, a little more peanut butter, and perhaps a pinch of sugar in the dressing)
• Half an Avocado apiece, with Whole Foods Miso Ginger Dressing optional
• Boiled Edamame in the shell with tossed with a little coarse salt & red pepper flakes

Nice low-key day; just girding my loins for the week ahead (busiest work week of the month).

Tired redux

I know I used the 'Tired' title last week. But it just keeps being the dominant feeling. Perhaps watching all of season 2 of True Blood in less than two weeks was a bit much. Perhaps work is a bit much. Perhaps my weight is a bit much. Perhaps seeing the pain & effort that some of my IRL and mostly virtual friends are going through is a bit much.
But, I made a yummy dinner on Sunday:

• Thai Beef Salad, actually inspired by the recipe in this cookbook, but with way more vegies (romaine, cilantro, mint, cucumber, grated carrot, scallions, sesame seeds, avocado, red cabbage) and freshly cooked flap meat (which is way better than flank steak) that I marinated in Thai red curry paste, toasted sesame oil, lime juice, freshly grated ginger, and a bit of brown sugar and then cooked briefly in the grill pan
• Tequila Refresca Sorbet (2 cans classic Fresca, a big splash of Campari, a small splash of Cointreau, and bit of agave syrup muddle with mint, then frozen in the ice cream maker) with incredible fresh strawberries

Tired

Spent nine of the past ten days off work, mostly hanging with the Juj. Might should've spent a wee bit more time on my own (to recharge), but glad that I have the extra vacation and furlough time available this summer, so that he doesn't have to spend every single week in 'summer camp' at his school. Mostly, I think it's fine that we're a family where both parents work full-time; J's school is great, and we are both blessed with jobs that are flexible enough to afford us to work from home when he's sick or to spell off when the school has more holidays than our offices do. But the summer? That's when I feel a little bit bad about it, because *I* always looked forward to that time off as a kid. Oh, well.

Guess I shouldn't waste time regretting something that I'm not going to change for the foreseeable future, so on to tonight's dinner:

• Grilled (well, actually roasted in our case) Halibut with Fennel, Orange & Onion (well, actually shallots)
• Sauteed Broccoli
• Romaine Salad with Avocado, Radishes, Carrots & Fennel
• Baba Ghanoush & Pita Crisps (eggplant roasted, not grilled - and no pistachios!)
• Gin & Tonic Sorbet (dee-lish! made it with one part St. Germaine liqueur to two parts London Gin)

Besides, once they finally opened, we did have fun hitting some local pools / water parks -- and I have the sunburn, uh "tan" to prove it. ;-)

Sunday dinner...in another state

We drove up to spend time with dear friends in OKC this weekend. (My husband has known the other guy since kindergarten, the three of them knew each other in college, and I, the johnny-come-lately, have known them for about 20 years!) Another time, I might write a post on my musings about being the only person out of the six of us (two couples with a kid apiece) who is not an only child, but for now, how about what we ate?

We drove up Saturday, later than we had hoped, but before we left, I did manage to sell my old car to the mechanic who had done its state inspection, which it had not passed. His truck had a newly broken transmission, I didn't have to clean or inspect or list my car & talk to strangers, so I considered it a big win-win. But it did make us late getting out of Dodge -- or Dallas.

So, after we arrived and exchanged Christmas gifts -- we like to do it in person, but this year had really gotten away from us -- we went out for a delicious dinner. The boys (theirs starts high school in the fall, but still plays wonderfully with our Juj when we're around each other) ate too many chips and queso to make much of a dent in their quesadillas and nachos, and we all had to take a walk afterwards to avoid just beaching belly-up around their house.

Sunday had a lot of things on the agenda, and one of them was cooking. We made dinner:

• Coleslaw with Cumin-Lime Vinaigrette
• Warm New Potato-Green Bean Salad with Sweet Onions, Tomatoes & Mustard Vinaigrette
• Hamburgers with the Caramelized Chipotle Onions & Blue Cheese Spread from this recipe plus fresh packaged Guacamole because the avocados were rock-hard at the store & Lettuce & Tomato
• Whoopie Pies (three words: easy as pie, and three more words: to die for!)

Monday, after I had stayed up way too late reading one of the Christmas presents I had received, we went cheerfully off for brunch which was quite yummy, once the service issues were ironed out (long wait for the table we expected but really long wait at the table to have our order taken? Not so good.) Fortified with pancakes and migas and chinook eggs, we finally hit the road. And picked up take-out barbecue to complete the day at home.

So good to see our friends!

Now, it's back to work for a day for me, then spending the rest of the week home with the Juj. Since I had some extra time off to burn this summer (vacation carryover from the old company, plus some furlough days), and our school allows you to pick and choose which weeks of 'summer camp' to attend and pay for, I decided to spend some time at home together. Hope we manage to survive all that quality time! ;-)

Quickie

I have time for a quick Sunday supper post before I commute to the dining room and my office computer for the start of my work day.

• Teriyaki Salmon Burgers (courtesy of Whole Foods, but yum!)
• Sauteed Spinach with sesame oil, ginger & gomasio (no parenthetical comment except I think this was my favorite part of the meal)
• Sautéed String Beans (with a nod to Still Life with Menu - thanks, Mollie!)
• Tofu Fried Rice (this company makes UNBELIEVABLE tofu entrees, mostly Asian but also the tamales that shocked Los G's with their authentic tasting goodness - really!)
• Citrus Sparkler (supremes of grapefruit & orange, along with a bit of local fresh peach and julienned mint, served in a margarita glass with club soda over the top because we were out of Fresca & I didn't feel like opening a bottle of prosecco)

Preview: Dinner to get whacked for!

Tomorrow, we cook a long overdue offering we made at Horizon's fall service auction.  (J was sick when we had it originally scheduled.)  Seven guests paid good money (to the church) to dine with us, so we need to live up to our side of the bargain.

The only thing I really haven't decided on yet is...a signature cocktail to serve, along with beer.  I'm thinking mojitos or maybe a subtly exotic margarita (prickly pear?), but still toying with other ideas as well.  Any suggestions?

The meal is built around Puerco (or Cochinita) Pibil, banana-leaf-wrapped pork braised in achiote paste, as featured in the Robert Rodriguez movie Once Upon a Time in Mexico.

• Cochinita Pibil (this link includes the recipe as well as the 10-miunute cooking school video; very funny but not rated G!)
• Salad of avocados & citrus (will be consulting Judy Rodgers on this, and plan to create a citrus-cilantro dressing)
• Fried platanos (plantains, the yummy soft ripe ones, a la comida Cubana)
• Buttery white rice
• Black beans
• Corn tortillas from the local mercado
• Aztec Chocolate Pudding with vanilla ice cream
• settled on Tequila Refrescas

P.S. No pictures of the food, but did snap the tablescape...

Oh, and as for the cooking...

I woke up at 4 AM. I stayed in bed until 5:30. I read blogs until now. So here's a post of what we ate this weekend.

Saturday:

• Flap meat briefly marinated in spicy smoked sesame oil, grated garlic & ginger, soy, hoisin, thrown in the grill pan & finished in the oven
• Spicy hoisin glazed eggplant (under the broiler, not on the grill) - super yummy!
• Whole Foods Asian stir fry mix (carrots, celery, zucchini, mushrooms, bean sprouts), stir fried

This with Planet 51 on the video on demand. A quiet end to a busy day!

Sunday:

• Artichokes baked covered in the oven (45-60 minutes at 425; perhaps a bit too long but the "heart soft as pudding" was actually pretty good!) with lemon, fennel seeds, celery, and olive oil; I cut them in half lengthwise so they cook faster and put them cut-side down over the slice of lemon and celery
• Beef short ribs with dried herbs, slow-cooked with Luchador (how could I resist that label?! plus we like Shiraz), tomato paste and mirepoix, which I stick-blended into 'gravy' at the end - sort of inspired by this but with less liquid
• Polenta
• Kale sauteed with dried chilis & shallots, finished with a bit of balsamic vinegar
• Salad of red leaf lettuce, purple cabbage, and green onion
• Rogue Smokey Blue (cheese) with toasted walnuts and honey - OMG! - especially with more of the Luchador
• Quenelles of vanilla ice cream rolled in mini-semisweet chocolate chips or mini-marshmallows with a nice homemade caramel sauce

Speaking of movies, if you like anything by Joss Whedon (Buffy, Firefly, y'know) and/or you're a Neil Patrick Harris fan, you GOT to check out Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. (Frankly, if you like comic books, Glee, musicals, satire...you'll probably like it.) I realize I'm probably one of the last to the party on this, but the DVD was fun because it's got the typical bonus materials, but even watching it online, as it was originally released, would be pretty good (three 15 minute "acts"). Thanks to Uncle Ron for the tip!

Dinner...Chicken Dinner

Basically southwestern twist on 'chicken & dumplings' on Sunday:

• Chunks of boneless skinless chicken thighs & tenderloins, sauteed in butter with onions, chile powder, cumin (whole & powder), oregano, garlic, carrots, zucchini & red bell pepper. Added chicken stock, and made the cornmeal dumplings from this recipe (with polenta instead of cornmeal, water & stock instead of cooking liquid, and seasoned with smoked paprika & cumin). Chopped cilantro over the top. Yummy!
• Salad of red leaf lettuce, sliced radishes, a little bit of cilantro tossed in, chopped avocado.
• Leftover lemon-cherry sorbet (snow) from last week with another round of fresh strawberries.
• Delicious lukewarm mint tea with fresh-squeezed orange and lemon juice to kick it up (even better later when the ice cubes were frozen and ready to use.)

We actually had a fun although too busy weekend.

Saturday was mani-pedi, haircut, and take Juj to a birthday party at a roller rink for me (where I did lace up a pair of skates and relive my youth albeit sans much disco music); a full day's hard labor on the front yard (which looks MUCH better!) for Gilster. Then we hit the movies in the evening, and agree with so many who recommended How to Train Your Dragon (yes, fun for the whole family, except dad was so tired I think he did zzzz through a bit of it).

Tried to relax a bit more on Sunday, and did manage a little nap (or at least a rest) after Sunday school and grocery shopping, before making dinner. I am SHOCKED at how much work there is to be done as an adult and parent. Sometimes I miss being a kid, or even a double-income-no-kids. Youth is wasted on the young.

And now, it's late and so to bed... This quotidian post will have to do.