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Monday, January 11, 2010

Perfect Weekend

They're rare, but sometimes the weekend shapes up to be the perfect blend of the necessary stuff and the fun stuff. This weekend definitely qualified as such.

Errands and such: We got the last few holiday returns completed and I made one large grocery run to get us through the weekend. I also caught up on all of the laundry and straigtened up the house a bit. Boring, but needed.

Reading: Finished Will Grayson, Will Grayson, thanks to Jessica who has organized an ARC Tour of the book amongst a group of us book nerds. I'll be doing a guest post on her blog about the book soon, but the short version is that it's awesome and I haven't laughed that hard while reading in a long time.

Cooking: OMG, we ate really well this weekend. And I'm not even including the impromtu breakfast I threw together Sunday morning. I'm really trying to get more mileage out of my fun cookbooks, so I'm making a point to make at least one "fancy" meal a weekend. This weekend, though, I eeked out two!

First up, T-Bone Fiorentina with Sauteed Spinach from Mario Batali Italian Grill. I couldn't find the huge 3" T-bone steak that is called for, but we made due with a smaller steak instead. I unfortunately over-salted the meat a bit (still edible, but not perfect), but the spinach was fabulous. We both agreed that we need to try it all again with the correct cut of beef.

For dessert, I tried out my new mini chocolate fondue pot and we had a little fondue spread. Simple, but yummy.
The second dinner was the Chicken Pot Pie from the Ad Hoc at Home cookbook. This was a much more labor-intensive meal than the roasted chicken I made earlier this month - the pie crust and bechamel sauce are both from scratch and each vegetable is cooked individually before being added to the pie - but it's so worth all the time and effort.


This was AH-MAZ-ING! And Jim whole-heartedly agrees. He had a whole bowl of it and then went back for seconds. We were thrilled that there were leftovers the next day.

If you have this cookbook, set aside a day and make this dish - you can thank me later. ;)

Working out: Took a circuit class and a step class - both taught by the owner of my gym, who I just love. The circuit class was a zoo, like folks actually had to be turned away, but it was still a lot of fun. I'm getting my exercise groove back and it feels really good.

Sewing: I finally used my new cutting table and it was like the angels came out singing. ;) It makes this whole sewing thing that much more enjoyable and I was thrilled to be able to spend a large part of my weekend in my sewing room*. I finished two skirts (one just needed a hem), cut out some sleep shorts and got about halfway through a cardi-wrap for a friend's mom. More detailed posts once I have pictures of stuff to share.

If only every weekend could be as fun and relaxing as this one....

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* Nanette had asked me for pictures of my sewing room and I will share them as soon as I finish getting myself organized. Right now I have no good place for my fabric stash - which has grown by leaps and bounds over the past few months - so it's all just in piles on the floor. So ugly. I plan on getting it in check later this month and then I'll post pics. :)

17 comments:

  1. Dude! Is there anything that you can't do?! So talented!

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  2. Wow! I can't believe you made pot pie from scratch! Can I please be you when I grow up? :-)

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  3. what weez said. what a fabulous, productive weekend.

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  4. You are quite the renaissance woman! For gRRRRReat cuts of meat, I like 2 butchers in the SGV: Taylor's in Sierra Madre and Alexander's in San Gabriel. They're both kind of pricey, but the steaks are totally worth it.

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  5. nothing beats a fun AND productive weekend! the food looks AMAZING.

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  6. Yummy! Great pics showing the stages before the finished product.

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  7. If you and Jim ever decide to adopt, Brent, Em and I are first on the list, m'kay?

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  8. awesome! you are officially my hero.

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  9. Yay weekend! I'm glad the book was a part of it. :-D

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  10. Sounds like a fantastic weekend! I love steak, I want a mini fondue pot, I have chicken potpie on my cooking schedule, and hoooooooray for getting back into the exercise groove!

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  11. Wow. You are so talented! The chicken pot pie looks soooooo good.

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  12. beautiful! The food looks fab... and I agree, simple weekends filled with the "good stuff" are the best ones ever..

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  13. ditt weemo re: i think you are super woman. i am looking forward to sewing room pics and there better be piles so i feel like a normal human being :)

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  14. Dang dude. You're like Martha Stewart, but I don't even think *she* can sew.

    I need some better hobbies than watching TV.

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