what i ate yesterday

yesterday we ordered chinese for lunch. the bamboo house is your typical unassuming chinese spot. it's been around at least as long as i have, has your standard $6.50 lunch buffet ($7.50 for dinner), and the hostess is so friendly and always smiling, making you feel like family. the hostess is always preparing some kind of fresh veg behind the counter, which is always a good sign (yesterday it was greens). the revelation came with lunch yesterday - won ton soup. i expected the won ton soup you get everywhere - pale brown broth, frozen won tons. what i got was entirely different. rich yellow stock, fresh cabbage, little mushrooms, water chestnuts, and - wait for it - homemade pork sausage dumplings. i am now a die hard convert to this restaurant. bryan and i realized we shouldn't be eating the buffet or ordering things we recognize. we should be asking the hostess what is good. i can't wait to go back.

the reason we ordered chinese in the first place is that we forgot to put the ribs in the smoker in the morning as we had planned. this was an experiment, since we had never tried using the smoker in 20 degree weather. turns out that is the perfect time to smoke things outside. the cold weather kept the smoker temp so low, the ribs smoked so slowly (but not all day slowly) - these were some of the best bryan's made. pink and uber tender. since the heat was so low, the spice rub didn't dry out or burn either, but created a nice, smoky, toothy crust. oh yea baby.

other than that, the weekend was pretty typical. we ran some errands saturday. luckily mom offered to watch ollie while we ran some; turns out the bookstore at the mall was a BAD idea - too many freaking people. we made it out alive though. yesterday i did some shopping, since nothing fits after having the baby (and it turns out it may never again). i am happy to have real pants to wear again, though i am not thrilled about the size nor the fact that my old pants don't fit (i had some great pants!!!). i'm doing my best not to think about it. all i have to do is look at my beautiful baby boy though and it's [mostly] all worth it.

working on finishing putting up the christmas decorations. christmas is my favorite holiday and as adrianne puts it, it looks like christmas threw up all over my house during the season. but tasteful and elegant, of course. we also got our christmas tree yesterday. it was WAAAAAAAAAAY huger than it looked on the lot! we actually have it blocking an entryway in our house since it's too big to fit where we thought it would. and we have to move the couch a bit. it's a beautiful tree though so i am thrilled (pictures are coming, check back to this post later). there actually is a great corner it would fit in and be perfect, but bryan doesn't want to have to move the 400 lb piano now and then back after the holidays. EVS. what a slacker.