Wednesdays

Wednesdays have become a favorite day of mine. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love cooking, menu planning, and creating new, original recipes. I really feel like it's one of the only things that I'm good at...my only "talent", if you will. I'm not exactly sure where this skill came from. I grew with NOTHING homemade :) I guess I just kind of developed it on my own.
Anyhoo, on Tuesday afternoons I get my CSA veggie box. Which means on Wednesdays I get to start figuring out what to do with all of my weekly goodies! Many of the spring veggies (kale, arugula, watercress, lambs quarter, sorrel) I've never used before, so it's been a learning experience.

Today I had some fresh green beans that we bought last week that needed to be used up. So, I created a green bean/kale dish that we'll have with dinner tonight. I sauted red onions and garlic in olive oil, added the green beans and sauted until tender, then added the chopped kale until just wilted. Of course, you have to season well with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Done! I think it would have been good with some freshly squeezed lemon juice too, but I didn't have any lemons.

Next, for the arugula. I've always wanted to try it-its an Italian green with a spicy, peppery taste to it. I also used some ingredients I had on hand and created a summer salad that I'll have for lunch today. I combined the arugula, feta cheese, blanched asparagus, cherry tomatoes, some leftover cooked egg noodles, green peppers, green onions. For the dressing I combined some italian dressing and Dijon mustard. I haven't tried it yet but it looks delicious!

Bon Appetit!

Great Weekend

I had much needed weekend packed full of "me time". Unfortunately, I'm still tired from it :) Friday night I dropped the kids off at my parent's house and went.....to a pole dancing class. Yep, you heard me. Pole dancing. ME! This is something I never ever thought I would do. A new facility opened up in Hudson (http://www.lady-katherine.net/) and the mom's group set up a group class for us. We learned some of the basics of pole dancing and strip tease. It was actually a lot of fun, and I'd love to go back and take some classes! The kids ended up spending the night at my parent's house so I came home and had some drinks and relaxed.

On Saturday I went to a spa party/sleepover at a girl's house that I knew in high school. There were a couple of old high school friends there and a bunch of people I didn't know. I hadn't seen the high school friends in 16 years! This too was something out of character for me-to go somewhere by myself where I really didn't know anyone too well. It was a lot of fun. Lots of good food, drinks, and spa stuff. I drank a little too much and didn't sleep that great, but it was so nice to get away and not have to worry about all of my responsibilities!

Good times!

I ♥ Etsy.com

Have you been to http://etsy.com/? It's a website where people sell their handmade items-you'll find everything and anything there! I LOVE, love, love online shopping to begin with and love the idea of supporting small artisan businesses over large chain companies. Every time I go to Etsy I find more things I want! They also have a great feature where you can post requests for custom items-if you have a specific idea of what you want-and people can submit their bids to you.

Here are a few pieces of jewelry on my wish list:

New Template!

How do you like my new template? Now that I know how to use non-blogger.con templates I think I'll try out some new ones here and there! I like this one for now-I just can't seem to find a font color that you can actually read in the paragraph over the picture....

8 Things

I don't have anything terribly exciting to blog about so I thought I'd do this....

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To:
1. Going to a sleepover next weekend!
2. Getting our landscaping fixed (hopefully) this summer.
3. Taking the kids to Disney World next spring.
4. Losing weight
5. My garden growing
6. Picking berries from my backyard
7. Camping trip in July
8. Girls weekend away in June

8 Things I did Yesterday:
1. Babysat
2. Played outside
3. Ate dinner at Subway (didn't feel like cooking)
4. Talked to leah on the phone
5. Cried (don't ask)
6. Took my last exam of the semester
7. Watched Prison Break (LOVE Wentworth Miller)
8. Did some transcription work

8 Things I Wish I Could Do
1. Speak Italian
2. Travel the world...Italy, Greece, Africa, etc
3. Live someplace warm with a swimming pool in my backyard
4. Build a log cabin "up north".
5. Be a "super Mom"
6. Be more even-tempered
7. Get more sleep
8. Lose weight easily/have more self control

8 Shows I have Watched
1. Prison Break
2. Lost
3. Law and Order
4. The Office
5. Ghost Whisperer
6. King of Queens
7. Days of Our Lives
8. The People's Court

Play along if you like!!

More veggies!

I have a garden! We spent Saturday clearing out an area of our yard to put a veggie garden and then went to Fleet Farm and stocked up on veggie plants! I'm so excited to try to grow stuff (though I'm not really expecting a lot of it to make it). We planted rhubarb, strawberries, tomatoes, bell peppers, a few variety of hot peppers, brussel sprouts, celery, asparagus, watermelon, pumpkin, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers, zucchini. I'm also looking forward to our fruit trees this year-we have plums, pears, apples, and the raspberry bushes. I'm turning into a farmer :) Now, if only I could commit to becoming a vegetarian!!!