well, my plans to do nothing all weekend did not go quite as planned. still, all in all i don't think i did too bad of a job.
friday night we stayed in. bryan braised beef shanks for dinner, and served that with a wonderful mash and some peas. he also reduced the braising liquid to serve as our sauce. super deliciousness. we stayed up late watching something, though i can't for the life of me remember what. i blame my memory issues the baby and him taking all my blood.
saturday morning, i stayed in bed until 8! i was pretty proud of myself. bryan and i ran out to the grocery store. i know i said i wasn't going to run any errands, but we were pretty much out of vegetables so it was a necessity. we were exploring a store close to my parents, so we stopped in at their house to say hi. mom was home but dad was out getting his tattoo ("26.2" on his left arm). once we got home, i got the laundry going and bryan needed to get some brush to the municipal yard. i took the opportunity to take a nice nap.
that evening, bryan made some fantastic grilled porterhouse chops and a butternut squash puree. i made a maple and cider sauce for the pork, and forced bryan to put brown sugar on the squash (i'm not much of a squash person). the pork was fantastic. those bad boys weren't joking around - check out that heft!
we watched
3:10 to yuma and we both enjoyed it immensely.
christian bale is one of my favorite actors; he may be a little weird but all his dedication to his roles really reflects in his acting.
i spent sunday afternoon shopping with mom. we had a lot of fun at the mall. got a few cute things, including a zip up hoodie for bryan (which he can never have enough of) and a really cute fleece outfit for ollie (one i had been eyeing and it was finally on sale!), as well as some holiday decorations to hang in the front hall (there's a narrow awkward space that needed *something*). also a few more frames, in my ever present mission to replace all the frames in the house with nicer ones, and yet another christmas gift for hannah (bryan and i have already though of so many things for her we've started her birthday gift list - for APRIL!). we really enjoyed our shopping trip together (even if mom bought stuff for shannon, who wasn't even there... spoiled little princess!! ;) and found some really awesome deals. my legs are still store from walking for 3 hours though. counting down the minutes until i can get home and into an epsom salt jacuzzi (i apologize in advance to oliver for the loud underwater noises).
mom and dad came over for dinner, and bryan made pollo verde. it was soooooooooo good. we had whole chicken legs, which he halved, and braised in beer and chicken stock along with some of his homemade tomatillo sauce.
the skin crisped up so nicely, and all the liquids cooked into quite a few of the "good bits" on the bottom of the pan (have i ever mentioned how much we *LOVE* our
cast iron?). he served that with some additional tomatillo sauce, and some rice with saffron, peas, and tomatoes. it was incredibly delicious and i wish we had leftover chicken but we scarfed it all down (see photo evidence below). mom and i had picked up some caramel cashew custard from
kopps on the way home, and served that along with a sugar cookie for dessert. positively delightful.
so, i didn't exactly stay at home on the couch, BUT i didn't accomplish much of anything either. so i'll still claim it as a win. :)
bryan and i are going to make one final effort this week to pack up some more freezer meals, and i'm also going to work on finishing packing my hospital bag. only 3 more weeks to go!! :) i plan on making another effort to relax next weekend. i'll get it right one of these days.
we ended up getting over 14" of snow yesterday. moose was thrilled; ally was not. bryan has cleared the driveway twice. as of this morning, the roads were still pretty crappy. thank goodness i have 4 wheel drive. hopefully the lingering ice has melted from the highways 
so that the drive home won't be too treacherous. i think we've reached our quota of snow for the year. i know i have. OVER IT. luckily, the storm has passed so we're not due for snow anytime soon. at least, not a lot of snow. we'll get some flurries this weekend it seems. but we won't get dumped on. everyone was saying it had been awhile since we had gotten so much snow. i seem to remember getting snow like this all the time when i was a kid; perhaps that is just because the large ones were the type to leave an impression.
our salsa burgers last night turned out pretty good. i made mini ones, since the buns we had were relatively small. i seasoned the meat with salt, pepper, garlic, and a touch of chili powder. i squoze some lime over the lettuce, and smushed the tops of the buns in to make a little bowl for the salsa (so as not to cause the burgers to be so tall as to fall apart). i served these with mexican style corn - mixed with mayo, lime, salt, and cracked black pepper. it was a nice little something different. my sense of smell and thus taste is still on the wobbly side, but bryan was a happy camper.
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