Snippets of the Weekend 7.25.2022

Scary episode 1 of Stranger Things 4 has me out for the season. Four episodes of Euphoria season 1. Finished two books. DNF one book. Started another book. Paged through magazines for the first time in forever. 

Got a jump on weeds, laundry, and work Friday morning. Restorative, excellent massage and infrared treatment with Sarah at Blossom massage and Body work in Langhorne - check her out! Bad news: shore cleaning crew could not make Saturday. Good news: found a sub late in the day to save me a trip down to co-clean with MFD, who was doing turnover solo this week. 

Stayed inside to beat the heat wave temps.

Worked on my piles and small projects: cleaning this or that. Clearing the dining room table. Sorting and purging. Pantry clean out. Vacuuming. Errands. 

Lounging with dogs. Clean sheets. Face and eye masks. Coffee in silence. 30 year old t-shirts. 

Replacements found for: shore king quilts, dead Philly toaster my Pop found for us at a flea market over 10 years ago, 30 ounce tumblers.

Water, heavy on the lemons and limes. Tomatoes and burrata with balsamic glaze. Air fryer chicken thighs with steamed brussels sprouts. Macaroni salad with shrimp. PB&J cookies from Lou's Farm Market. Fresh local corn bought & put up to freeze for the winter.   

AND two naps. Safe because no one was in the house so I could wake up and be mean to the air.

In addition to snippets here, I've taken to doing weekending reels on Instagram if you are interested. 

Kick it up in the kitchen

Let's start this off by saying SEASON YOUR FOOD. 

Now that that's out of the way...I am not a spicy food person, but I do like a little kick now and then. It changes things up from my usual array of spices and my taste buds appreciate it. If you are also leery of food being too spicy, there are ways to add flavor and a little kick without burning your mouth off. And ways to season your food without overdoing it.

Check your Pantry

What spices do you have in your pantry? I hope you at least have a solid selection to season your food with, including some that are going to kick it up a notch to borrow an Emeril saying. Think about which spices you would prefer, and make sure you have them easily to hand as you cook. Chef  Curl Ardee is Black-woman owned spice company and her mild seasoning is kicky AF. I love Penzey's, of course - their Fox Point and Roasted Garlic are two of my favorite seasonings of all time.. I am also hugely into the McCormick blends, which I didn't even know existed until I started following Tabitha Brown on Instagram. 

Slow your Roll

When seasoning food, start slow, especially if it's spice you're adding. You can always add more but you can't subtract. Keep that in mind, because it can be all too easy for the spice to overpower the actual taste of the dish, and that is not what you want. Subtle and delicious is the goal. 

Understand How Spices Work Together

Spend some time considering how different spices work together. This will help you know something of equal importance - which ones simply don’t go together at all. Once you are clear on this, it'll be easier to create delicious meals that appeal to your palate. I promise you will look forward to vegetables more when they are seasoned well. 

Being Basic is Cool

A lot of cooking comes down to having the right sauce for the dish, which is why it’s important to be able to cook some of the most basic essential sauces out there, including ones you can add a spice to, like an aioli. MFD does like spicy food, and a sauce like this is a good way both of us can enjoy it - I can make it and split it and MFD can add more. This is a great, super simple recipe to make sriracha aioli from scratch. That can then be used as a side to so many dishes, or as a dip. Aioli is king, but it's a straightforward and easy thing to put together. If you add a feather to your cooking cap this year, let this be it. A nice sauce elevates boring old baked chicken breasts or pork loin, you know? Once you master this, move on to hot mustard - I'm going to try the one from Dwardcooks this year.

What new cooking ways are you trying this year?

 

Thursday Thoughts - day after day it reappears

Thrifted. I love my shore thrift store. I was going to drag my big ass iced tea maker down but I got this baby one for there and two round cake pans because I only have those at the shore and have to bring them back to Philly when I need them. 

Monday was a lovely weather day. The rest of this week, not so much. 

Show Us Your Books is Tuesday. I've had at least two long, out loud laughs at lines in this book. That's rare for me, and appreciated. 

This week is National Library Week. My love letter to libraries went on Instagram but I wanted to make sure to acknowledge it here. 

Abortion on demand, without apology. The laws close in, more and more anti-woman legislation. Zero legislation or provisions to care for children already here or coming. Pro-birth is fucked up. Oklahoma, you are the latest in the demonic and disappointing behavior of falsely moral legislators. Fuck all of you. 

Office day. I'm in the office today, which I had to mentally prepare for all day yesterday even though this was my standard routine for almost 12 years prior to Covid. My, how we've changed. My brain will never be the same. If the commute didn't suck so hard, I'd be in more.

Greed is destroying us. It's wild out there. 

This is from this day in history, but for tomorrow. 79 years ago on April 8.

Forward, always. No matter what.

This cat acts like it came from an alley instead of a bougie kittery. He is in everyone's business, is scrappy AF, hunts birds and squirrels, eats bugs alive, and helps himself to dog food and people food.

My wish for all people is to be willing to take a swing and live life off-recipe. This week I made trash can tacos (should I trademark?) in which everything immediately expired, about to expire, or taking up room in the fridge with 1/4 left in the container went into the mix and they were amazing. I also made some concoction with similar - a week expired pasta, a jar of DiBruno cheese spread, the end of an everything goat cheese log, some spinach, green onions about to go, the last 1/4 of the broccoli slaw bag, olive oil, and I forget what else - and that turned out fine. Two cheers for being resourceful and no food waste. With the price of food right now, it makes the idea of food waste even more repugnant to me. 

Recommend. 

Last food item. I ordered Jeni's for the strawberry pretzel but am head over heels for the pineapple upside down cake. 

Ukraine. What next. What next. It reminds me of that Men at Work Overkill lyric, "I can't get to sleep. I think about the implications..." 

Do one small thing. When I am sluggish or unmotivated, I do one small thing. Likewise, when the world feels heavy or overwhelming, I do one small thing. I cannot stop war, but I can advocate for peace. I cannot help all refugees, but I can sign up to host or donate to fund one. I cannot battle the government zealots intent on outlawing abortion everywhere, but I can provide resources and support for other women. I cannot cure childhood hunger but I can find mutual aid groups in neighborhoods near me and donate food, time, money. I cannot eradicate racism, but I can be loud about anti-racism.

Happy 8th Birthday to Eva, it was Tuesday.

The week in dogs. Bruce doesn't act the same in Philly, it takes him a few days to settle back in here and relax. Ben is comfortable destroying shit everywhere. And no one cares if humans need pillows.

Happy Friday eve!

What appears beyond the hyphen in Thursday Thoughts titles is what I'm listening to when I'm starting this - this week is Overkill by Men at Work

Tips for Anyone Switching to a Vegan Diet

There are lots of different reasons why you might want to switch to a vegan diet. Some people do it for health reasons, other for environmental or animal welfare reasons. Whether you’re trying it short-term or looking to make a more permanent kind of switch, it’s important to consider how this might work for you and how you can stick to the switch you’re looking to make. So read on and find out more about doing that.

Take the Time to Learn from Others Who’ve Been Vegans for Longer

First of all, you should talk to anyone you know who has already been a vegan for a long time. They’ll be able to teach you a lot about the process of making this transition and the challenges you’re likely to face along the way. Make the most of those people as they’ll save you a lot of mistakes.

Find Recipes for Inspiration

Finding inspiration from recipe books is one of the easiest ways to get acquainted with your new lifestyle and new ways of eating. Don’t try to force yourself to come up with new ways of cooking and new recipes on your own; there are so many recipes already out there that you can enjoy and that have been prepared by professional vegan chefs.

Find Out Which Vegan Replacements You Like and Which You Don’t

There are lots of vegan replacements and alternatives that you can try out if there are certain foods that you think you’re going to miss. There are obviously all kinds of meat replacement options that you might want to try. But one thing that lots of vegans miss is cheese. There are plenty of good alternatives out there these days, so try them out. You can even get cheesy vegan pizza.

Image Source - CC0 License

Eat Plenty of Whole Foods

It makes sense to focus first and foremost on eating whole foods because that’s what matters most when it comes to staying healthy. Don’t fall into the trap of buying lots of processed foods that are branded as vegan. It’s much easier and cleaner to eat whole foods that you can cook from scratch in your own time.

Take it a Day at a Time

Finally, it makes sense to take things a step at a time and a day at a time when you’re looking to make big lifestyle changes. You don’t want to overwhelm yourself or make your life more difficult than it needs to be. Focus on improving your cooking and if you do have a few slip-ups from time to time, just accept that as part of the wider process and not something that you need to worry about too much.

Be sure to make the most of the ideas above if you want to make a switch to a vegan diet and ensure you make the change a sustainable one. Making these changes only makes sense if you’re willing to stick to the changes you implement and make a real success of things.

****

This post was written with the Life According to Steph audience in mind

Nutrition for the whole family

Heyooh. Checking in from over here, where we have been riding the Sugar Dragon around the world. We've been talking a lot about what we eat, because let's face it is is easier to eat healthier when everyone in the household is on the same page.  

Protein is king

I personally cannot function well without starting my day with the correct amount of protein. You can get protein from lean meats, poultry, fish, tofu, legumes, eggs, and dairy products. I do best when I incorporate protein into every meal by having eggs, egg salad, or chicken salad for breakfast, adding chicken or tuna or hard boiled eggs to my salad at lunch, and having chicken thighs or fish or rice and beans for dinner.

What in the hell should we eat? 

One of the best ways to ensure I eat well is to plan and prep. If that's done, ordering out or resorting to like buttery noodles is not the game plan. I like to have stuff cooked and ready to go in the freezer, and veggies to cut up for snacks. 

Fruits And Vegetables

Fruits and vegetables are packed with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants essential for good health. I cannot even describe the difference in how I feel when I eat the appropriate amount of  vegetables for the day, something I've been focusing on since the beginning of February. I am looking for at least half of my plate to be filled with vegetables at every meal. They are so easy to incorporate into virtually anything - add diced tomatoes, grated carrots, grated zucchini, or sautéed mushrooms to spaghetti (the veggie meat sauce I make most frequently for one time use and large batches to freeze is based off this one from Budget Bytes) or mac and cheese. Soups and stews are amazing to add to also of course, like this delicious Italian barley soup recipe, to ensure the whole family gets their daily recommended intake. I always have frozen fruit on hand for a snack too. 

Stop Riding the Sugar Dragon

I am never looking to cut anything out, including sugar. I know how and who I am and it's not something that will be done. I am a person who can limit sugar treats and have been in the past, but not lately. Even just slowing down the Sugar Dragon ride is easier said than done. When it comes to sweets, moderation is key and moderation is exactly the opposite of what we've been doing here. Enjoy sugary treats in small amounts is the goal. 

Replace Alcohol And Fizzy Or Sugary Drink With Water

MFD doesn't drink period and I don't drink much, so this is more about his sugary drinks. Water is king for hydration of course. One of my best habits is taking down 100 ounces of water a day. When it starts to bore me, I add some slices of lemon or lime or orange. MFD says he's laying off the coke cans. We'll see! 

Easy swaps

Popcorn over chips, froyo over ice cream, eating at home to control what is in food. Small swaps go a long way.

Eating healthy doesn’t have to be boring or difficult. Even though disembarkation from the Sugar Dragon cruise can be. Our lady of victory, pray for us.

Resourceful to the bone - making the most of your leftovers and stretching your food budget

Everyone is feeling the cost of food rising. If you want to save or cut down on food waste, maximizing your food is the best place to start. Packaged, processed, and convenience food might seem easier, but it is absolutely not cheaper and it is 100% not more environmentally friendly. Individually packaged shit is yikes. With the cost of everything up, now is the time to make the food go further, and resourcefulness and leftovers are the best way to win this battle. 

People have a hard time finding the time to cook from scratch. This is not surprising given that most households are running 24/7. Here's an oldie but still relevant from me: my meal prep tips for an easier life. When we do have the opportunity to cook, we've got to make sure that those meals go further - cook once, eat twice or three times. Leftovers are an absolute treasure trove of opportunities. 

Redefine “Leftovers” As “Ingredients”

What you make the first time is not how you have to consume it the second or third time. When we have a bunch of leftover vegetables, this doesn't just have to be a side dish but can be the foundation for something else completely. For example, cooked vegetables and a can of tomatoes instantly create a healthy pasta sauce. You can blend your vegetables into an amazing soup or add vegetables to a frying pan with a few beaten eggs and you've got yourself a very healthy frittata. 

Ditch the Recipe and Use What You Have

You don't need to follow recipes exactly. Substitute with what you have in your fridge/freezer/pantry and wing it. It will be edible 90% of the time, I promise. 

Make Your Dinner Your Lunch

Another amazing way to save time and money with your leftovers is to leave a bit of your main meal aside so you've got some lunch for the next day. It only requires a little bit of extra planning and you can create a week's worth of healthy lunches for work or school. Even if you've got only a tiny bit left after your main meal, cook and add more vegetables, rice, quinoa, or pasta to bulk it out. 

Have a Leftovers Night

If you have a fridge stocked with bits and bobs of leftover foods, this is a money saving opportunity. Putting all those ingredients together may seem like a recipe for something particularly nasty, but creativity is the road to deliciousness. If you've got leftover ham, rather than slapping it in a sandwich with some mustard, turn it into a delicious bean soup. There are two ways to make 15 bean soup, including a crock pot. If you're short on time, take the easier route. All you need to do is put it on in the morning before you start your day and when you're done, it's done! 

Storing Your Leftovers Better

Food lasts longer if it's packaged to store correctly. Be savvy with how you store your leftovers. Freezing any leftover vegetables in airtight containers or ziploc bags is a simple way to ensure that you are storing everything and not wasting a signal morsel of food. Certain foods don't store in the freezer very well, but when it comes to vegetables, make sure that you label and date the contents so you can take them out and cook them up before they get that horrible freezer taste. 

Make Stock and Broth With Any Scraps

Bone broth is a very trendy food item these days, but rather than paying through the nose for it from a  store, make it yourself. Because bone broth is just something that everybody's grandparents made to ensure they ate nose to tail but is also an amazing way to ensure there's more flavor in your food. It's such a simple thing to do: all you need to do is keep any leftover bones and freeze them. When you have enough, take them out of the freezer and put them in a slow cooker for 24-hours with a bit of apple cider vinegar and a few herbs and you've got an amazing broth that can be a stock for soups and can even add flavor to your scrambled eggs. Let me know if you want to talk bone broth making.

Don't Throw Your Bread Away! 

If you buy high-quality bread it can lose its freshness after a couple of days. You can freeze it, or  salvage it as a side dish. Cut the loaf in half, drizzle some olive oil onto it, rub the side with half a ripe tomato, season it with some salt and pepper, and bake it in the oven until it's warm. Enjoy with soup or by itself.

It's the little things that add up to savings. What are some ways you're stretching your grocery budget right now?

Chicken. Eggs. Veggies.

Wednesday! I thought it was Tuesday for much of the morning, so yay? If you are here over the past two years you're basically getting a weekend post, Thursday Thoughts, a list of some sort, or random food talk. Today is random food talk.

I've been thinking about protein and veggies lately and how to get more of both, so this post is a meandering marriage all of those things. What came first, the chicken or the egg? Right, stop and get on with it.

Making good use of eggs

Aside from frying, boiling, poaching, and scrambling eggs, you can make a delicious crustless vegetarian quiche (like this spinach and mushroom one from Budget Bytes) or zucchini pie to get a good dose of protein and veggies in the morning. Both options require almost no preparation (well, aside from the zucchini prep) with most of the time going to the 40-45 minutes that it takes to cook it in the oven.

Adding Veggies

To breakfast, as above. To chili, last weekend. In veggie meat sauce, always. Leaning heavily on salads and roasted veggies with sheet pan dinners and raw veggies as snacks. How are you getting your veggies in?

Roast a whole chicken

I think chicken eaters avoid whole chickens a lot, and I'm not sure why. They are great and a good way to really use everything. I hate food waste in general, and if I'm eating an animal even more so. Don't toss away even a scrap. Roast it whole or carve it up and use all the pieces, anything you don’t have for dinner or prep to be used in the future can be put in the fridge for sandwiches the next day. As for the bones, you can use them to flavor a stew, making sure that you’re really using every single scrap of the bird.

Don't be afraid of thighs

The best chicken to cook with in my opinion is the delicious and flavorful thighs. They are one of the cheapest, too. I actually hate chicken breasts. I eat thighs most often by just making them solo or putting them in dishes as ingredients like in an instant pot kadai chicken, which my friend Kelly has been raving about. This loaded instant pot recipe also uses tomatoes and ginger, so good for you, and makes enough to feed the family for at least two days on it. My goal when making dinner is to always have an easy-reheat meal for lunch or dinner the next day.

Pick it all

Once the “best” cuts of meat are gone, you’re still going to have a lot of meat on that bird. Go over it with a carving knife or your clean hands, slicing and picking away what bits of  meat you can and shred them. This shredded chicken can then be used in foods like filling chicken enchiladas, which can be topped up with other filling ingredients such as spinach and tomatoes. You can also use shredded chicken in salads to get your veggies in and amp up the proteins.

Wing man

Freeze the wings from multiple birds until you have enough to make wings as an app for a Sunday afternoon. I love batch cooking them in the air fryer and then some can be plain, some can be korean BBQ style, some mildly spicy, and some hot buffalo. 

Use it all 

The rest of the meat left on the chicken, the cartilage, soft wobbly bits, and little shreds of dark meat is still worth keeping around. This makes chicken stock or broth with a depth of flavor you absolutely cannot get from a box or can. This can then be used as the base of future soups or to add plenty of that rich chicken flavor to other meals, as well as adding a punch of protein to meals that you might not be having any meat with otherwise.

I'm cooking off old recipes, which you can find here. What's your best use of chicken right now?

Foodie Tuesday

Is Foodie Tuesday a thing? I don't know, but I'm dumping my food stuff here because I was thinking about it last night. Feel free to do the same. I used to post about cooking and recipes so much more. I still have some from like 2019 that I never put up. I might get back into that. 

I know many of you out there are planning out your Christmas cookies. I'm not a baker, but I do accept cookies insert LOL face here. Nevertheless, I am ruminating on holiday foods as one does at this time of year. Mimi's bacon breakfast muffins are always a hit, but I might give the sausage and pancake muffin bites with maple butter by That's What She Eats a go this year too.

My main holiday requirements are easy/can be prepped ahead and put out at a moment's notice. Sometimes things are up in the air and it makes sense to me to have things on hand even if I don't end up using them in December. 

I am big on app spreads around holidays and lean heavily on DiBruno Brothers Prima Donna gouda, pepper shooters, nuts, cold shrimp with cocktail sauce, olives, etc. Veggies and dip - if you ever come to anything I ever have and there's no veggies and dip, you'll know someone is wearing my body as a disguise and it's not really me. I am also a fool for crackers topped with a bit of cream cheese and a delicious jelly. I like to make hot brie bites with jelly/jam/what have you too - Bucks County friends, I highly recommend this from Shady Brook.

Outside of holiday food, I'm trying to introduce variety but not difficulty with year end foods, so checking out posts like casseroles and crock-pots - heavier on the casseroles since I am not a huge fan of the crock-pot. My ideal thing is something easy and heavy on vegetables. Do you have anything you've made recently that would fit the bill?

I'm back into soups. Next week I'll make turkey stock and I'll probably end up doing a take on creamy turkey and wild rice soup with that. Paired with a salad, that's a perfect December meal I can prep ahead of time and just heat and eat. I also adore veggie beef barley - this is a link to that and three of my other top soups.

Food-adjacent: I brushed up on my knife skills with this video. I watch videos like that every once in a while as I'm not a chef by trade and I can get sloppy. I also checked out this post for how to cut a pomegranate. My skills with pomegranates and mangos are very poor and I want them not to be.

What have you made that's good lately? What do you keep on hand in the pantry, freezer, and fridge in advance of the holidays? 

Last day of November...I feel like this year has slipped through my fingers slash blended straight in with 2020. 

5 easy tips to help with healthier eating

Planning healthy meals for your family allows you to get creative but can also be challenging, especially when you have a busy schedule and don’t know where to start or are extremely bored with all of your typical options like I am after the past year and a half of eating mostly at home. As America shifts again through the pandemic and the pace picks up for many, other options such as fast food and grab and go have become even more popular and convenient. It takes a conscious effort to make time to ensure your family eats well. Research reveals that about only 30% of families often have dinner together, and we are typically not in that percentage. Whether you’re able to eat together every day or a few times during the week, here are some ways to ensure that you and your family have some healthy, enjoyable meals. 

Get creative with some new recipes

I know, is "new recipes" a joke at this point in the year of our lord 2021? Trying to eat healthily can get boring sometimes, but one great way to make things more interesting is to try out some new healthy recipes together. Thankfully, there are many videos and recipes online to help you prepare various healthy and tasty meals. I love Budget Bytes - which speak to a smaller budget and can be healthified (that is a technical term, look it up) if they are not already. This year I've also started following Dwardcooks (that's his site, his Instagram is good as well) who does healthy comfort food (and models on WW for those of you into that). I found him through That's What She Eats for grill stuff and general prep ideas, then realized Ed is local and comes to OCNJ a lot so that's fun. And I found That's What She Eats through Audrey. So if you follow someone you get food inspo from, hook me up.

Also remember healthier doesn't mean never eating treats. If you’re getting into the holiday mood or want to try something fun during the week, this crustless pumpkin pie recipe doesn't require much time. I am always down for crustless because I dislike making them, not because I do low carb. I don't believe in that.

Prep your meals in advance

A lot of my food woes this past year can be laid at the feet of me abandoning weekly food prep on Sundays when the world changed. Meal prep is an excellent way to consciously plan your meals and incorporate healthier options such as fruits and veggies. It also helps save costs as it enables you to avoid impulse buying and know what you want when you go grocery shopping. It takes the daily what are we eating out of the equation too. I've returned to bulk prepping breakfasts and cutting up veggies for lunches and that has made a huge difference.

Set regular and consistent mealtimes

I like being an adult and eating whenever the F I want but in reality having regular eating times helps me be more conscious about what I take in and reduces excessive snacking which is good because guess what I'M BORED WITH ALL MY SNACKS TOO. I also need to know I'm getting in the right amount of veggies and protein and set plans and times helps.

Reduce screen time during meals

Never a bad idea to reduce screen time and encourage actual conversation.

Reduce sugary drinks and snacks

I rode the Sugar Dragon through 2020 Corona Land and needed to way back off on the sugary stuff. I am huge into Aldi frozen mixed berries and Hershey's kisses or a few peanut M&Ms when I get the itch. I am not into cutting out anything, I think it's unrealistic and ridiculous, but I know when I need to cut back.

Any healthy-ish and good recipes or snack ideas to share?

Happy birthday to my cousin and Straight Outta today!

Foods I could live off of

If meals were outlawed and energy wasn't attributable to eating certain foods, I could live off of 

Strawberries

Cheese - preferences for gouda not smoked, brie, extra sharp cheddar, havarti - and thin triscuits (no sawdust choke)

Hard salami

Raw veggie crudité platters but really just cucumbers, bell peppers, cauliflower, snap peas and dip

Kalamata and green olives

Grape tomatoes

Mild banana pepper rings

Cold pick & peel shrimp

Stone fruits (must be hard) - peaches, nectarines, plums

Herr's cheese curls

Gooey brownies - we all eat most of a pan when made anyway, right? Just us?

Grands layered biscuits slathered in butter

Caprese - mozzarella, a slice of fresh tomato, salt, basil if I have it, olive oil, and Cento italian glaze

Frozen mixed berries from ALDI 

Dried mango from ALDI

Salted dry peanuts

French onion dip and Herr's plain chips or Wavy Lays

Ranch dip and Splits extra salt pretzels

Luna lemon and blueberry bars

Devilled eggs

Snickers ice cream bars

Saltines & butter

You? 

TWTW - February times

Friday Who likes starting the day with an internet visit? Not me. I did paint my nails while it was down so all was not lost. Lunchtime beach walk with the best friend dogs, and I tapped out of work at 4 after the week from hell. I finished a book and started another. I did chicken in the air fryer and MFD supplied mac & cheese and carrots. Bruce and I did sunset, then I read while MFD watched more Gold Rush, which I cannot stand. 

 

Saturday Up around 5 with the old man dog so I was busting out by 9 to go to HomeGoods, gas up my car, and get myself some grocery flowers. It was so nice to be out of the house alone for hours, driving and singing and the sun shining. In the afternoon MFD and I took all the dogs to the North End but the wind was something so we didn't stay long. They were enamored with tiny marshmallow treats back at home. We ate apps for dinner, more idiot Gold Rush while I read, and then I fell asleep on the couch. Woke up at 12:45 and walked the dogs, then stayed up until 3 finishing a book. 

Sunday We slept in due to the 1 am dog walk/my 3 am bedtime and woke up at 10 to rain. I got bagel sandwiches from Dead End Bakehouse, started a new book, showered and did a peeling solution, then we took B&B to the beach when it was snowing. Saturday 45 and sunny, Sunday snow and cold. Dinner was ordered from Randazzo's because I was feeling unapologetically lazy. MFD and the old dogs left around 8. 

Meanwhile projects pile up around me and I think of them and say next weekend. 

Show Us Your Books is tomorrow! See you back here for that. 

TWTW - not much happening in January

Outside. Beach time Friday morning, Saturday midday, Sunday at sunset. 

Inside. Friday night nails (Essie suits you swell) and tea since Friday was so raw out. Cleaning and errands Saturday morning. Sunday Mama Lew's hot chocolate cupcakes with marshmallow frosting on Sunday night for no reason. Pepper Thai's scalloped potatoes with a big salad on Saturday. Reading in the sun. Drinking the required amount of water both days. Taking vitamins. Getting rest. Sunday dinner takeout from Boyar's.

Some work on Sunday. Research on this website. Canada buying (learn more). Hawaii browsing, never knew this existed https://soldiertosoldierhawaii.com/ 

Two seasons of Derry Girls. Finished a book, read another, started a third. 

Tomorrow is Show Us Your Books. See you here for that!