Personal Portobello Pizzas for Punks

Yes, I did add the punks in the title just for alliteration. What can I say, I'm a sucker for the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. I'm also a sucker for easy meals with few ingredients, which this one is. It's on the healthier side too, which doesn't hurt.

Ingredients
2 portobello mushroom caps, stems removed
a handful of tomatoes (I used grape and cherry heirloom), sliced
Mozzarella cheese
Pesto
Olive oil
salt & pepper

Directions
Preheat oven to 375. Lightly coat mushroom caps with EVOO and bake for five minutes.

Remove, and top the underside with pesto. Use as much or as little as you'd like. I think I used about a tablespoon for each side. Top with mozzarella cheese (I added two slices to each because cheese is life) and tomato slices.

Broil for an additional five minutes, keeping a close eye on it. That's it!

If it gets a little watery, just drain it off in between.

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Haikuesday

Mushrooms are fun guys.
They like pizza parties too. 
Fire up the oven.

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TWTW - the one with the tubing

Can we get excited about groceries for a minute? I know it's a lot to ask, but Friday two grocery miracles happened. 1) Amazon Fresh missed their 4-7 a.m. delivery window and fully refunded me $109, gave me an additional $25 credit, and told me to keep and use any groceries that were not affected by heat if they did happen to arrive (they attempted to cancel the order). Guess what? The groceries arrived and most were fine on the front step. It's like they paid me for their fuckup. 2) I found cucumber mint water at Target after work and bought all five cases like the psycho I am because I haven't been able to find this shit for a year and it's the only sparkling water I like. If you see it, pick some up...unless you live near me then mine mine mine. Also shown: $5 flowers of the week - I love carnations even though they're the plebe of flowers - painted nails (OPI Cajun Shrimp), and sun dappled Gussie.

Saturday morning MFD dropped me at the Langhorne Coffee House while he showed properties. I had a scrapple, egg, and cheese on a long roll and read my book. I also stared at the building across (est 1738) thinking about all the people that have been in there over the past 278 years, people watched, and sweat my ass off as there was no seating inside.

We were finally on our way to go tubing around 11:45. The drive there was nice until we were basically off roading due to a River Road detour. When we got there, I wanted to leave. LOL. It was disorganized and so fucking hot, everything was a million dollars, everyone was moving slowly, and a poor man fell and MFD had to help him up. Finally on the old ass school bus there was a breeze and my mood improved. It was a long ass float down the river. I think it took us about 3.5 hours with a stop at the world famous Hot Dog Man in the middle of it. I could have shaved two hours off and been totally fine with that. MFD had to pull us every once in a while to get us moving and he also MacGuyver'd his shoe laces in the middle of the river, asking a passerby in a kayak for a knife. Who asks strangers for knives? LOL for days. I'm glad we made it happen as it's on my 40 before 40 and if it didn't happen this weekend, it wasn't happening before 40. Local friends, we went with Delaware River Tubing out of Point Pleasant. Buy your tickets online so you don't have to stand in the longest line ever there, and make sure they give you a wristband for the Hot Dog Man event or that will be the most expensive hotdog you've ever eaten. Video here.

After a quick change in the grossly hot changing rooms, we tore ass out of there and refueled with water at Wawa, then stopped at the Pineville Tavern for dinner on a whim. This was my second time and MFD's first. The jalapeno fried oysters were delicious as was my ribeye - don't be alarmed, I just like to poke holes in it and add some butter to the top before eating. Heart attack city, but it's a rare treat.

We ended up bringing a good bit of our meals home because our intended destination before that little side track jobby was O Wow Cow in Carousel Village. And man, oh wow. My eyes were bigger than my stomach and I only ate half of this glorious sundae. I had the honey lavender ice cream topped with caramel and mixed berries with homemade whipped cream. It was amazing. Cash only locals! Try it, all ingredients are locally sourced and organic. You can buy pints and quarts too. It's connected to Organnons Natural Market so I picked up some mozzarella and tomatoes and we smelled soaps trying to gross each other out with the worst smelling one. Hashtag grownups.

Tubing wears you the F out. I was in bed before 10 p.m. and slept a solid nine. Sunday I had an 80 minute massage with a foot scrub treatment and half hour cold stone facial at 9. It was glorious. I carbed up at Panera after as is my custom. Sunday at home was a pretty slow day. I culled my nail polish collection (these got tossed), did a face mask and some other personal care-ish grooming, lounged on clean sheets and read, and did some food prep. I was in bed before 8:30 to read. Glory be.

Weekly food prep:
Breakfast is egg muffins with mushrooms, tomatoes, and cheese; lunches are baked chicken breasts and veggies (not pictured, not needed until Tuesday); dinners are a combination of caprese, roasted veggies I needed to use up, pork tenderloin, and salmon. I also made two dozen power breakfast muffins to freeze for snacks. Other snacks are cucumbers and strawberries as well as Nature's Valley roasted nut crunch bars. I also made a golden turmeric paste for dogs and humans. More to come on that - Geege was prescribed rimadyl for his arthritis and we had to take him off after five days - he was a totally different dog, not himself. AEB pointed me to the golden turmeric paste so I'm going to give that a try.

Sliding on into Monday, then. But first tell me about your weekend!

Linking up with Biana at B Loved Boston for Weekending

How to find the perfect engagement ring

If you saw that title, know me, and guessed that I did not write this post, you would be correct. Ah, engagement rings. For some people, the ring is the thing. For others, they might prefer new furniture or a trip to Africa (I may or may not be speaking about myself). Here's a post on how to find the perfect one from my friend Jesse across the pond.

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Proposing is definitely one of the most nerve racking moments in any relationship. Some decide to propose armed with an engagement ring but others decide it’s better to let their better half pick after the question has been popped. Picking an engagement ring is probably as important as the proposal itself; as they can be so expensive, it’s vital that the engagement ring is perfect. So here are three steps to outlining the perfect engagement ring for your special occasion.

Pick the Perfect Shop to Purchase Your Ring

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when deciding which shop to get your ring from, so it’s important that you research into it to ensure that you get exactly what you’re looking for. Where you decide to shop will vary depending on your budget and ideal ring, but make sure you pick somewhere with high quality materials and designs. You don’t even have to hit the mall as there are lots of websites on the internet that offer beautiful, high quality engagement rings at competitive prices. Check out this website for example.  So, start looking for your prefect engagement ring from the comfort of your couch!

Take a Quiz

You’re probably a bit intrigued by this, but there are lots of quizzes on the internet which can help you to figure out what your perfect engagement ring is. They can be a bit quirky and will bring the fun into choosing your ideal ring. It’s not just a bit of fun though, these quizzes are perfect for helping outline what you’d like in a ring. As it’s going to spend so much time on view, it’s important that the ring is a perfect suit, so why not try anything you can to find your perfect match.

Decide Your Ideal Stone and How Big You Want It

Around 90% of engagement rings sold are made with diamonds, but there are other choices too. Maybe you’re a bit unique and want to stand out from the crowd, or maybe you’d like to stick with the classic popular choice, either way it’s important to choose the stone you want. The size of the stone and type of stone you decide on will significantly affect the price that you pay, so when researching into stones make sure you have a budget in mind.

Engagement rings come in all shapes, sizes and price ranges. There’s so much to choose from that you can often feel overwhelmed and stressed during the process of finding and buying a ring. We all know how important engagement rings are when deciding it’s time to pop the question, so follow the three steps above and there’s no doubt you’ll be successful in your engagement ring quest. Don’t feel anxious or overwhelmed, this should be one of (if not the best!) shopping trips you’ll ever embark on. So if you’re about to propose, good luck, or if you’ve already got your desired answer, congratulations! It’s time to enjoy finding your perfect engagement ring. 

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Did you help pick your ring or were you surprised with it? 
If you're not engaged or married, would you like to pick it or be surprised?

If I knew Picasso, I would buy myself a gray guitar and play

Wednesday night after work I had some time to kill, so I submerged myself in the airless humidity of the grounds of the Philadelphia Museum of Art to check out the exterior sculpture garden behind the museum. The building itself is magnificent, I could walk all around and stare at it for hours.

Not to mention it has a killer view down the Parkway and the Rocky statue.

As well as a nice view over The Water Works. The sculpture garden is small but in general the exterior grounds of the Museum are a great place to wander, and it's free. Free is for me. Did I also mention it was hot? Hot is not for me.

After my sweaty foray around the grounds, I UBER'd down to the waterfront to meet Debbie & Melissa. We took the RiverLink Ferry over to Camden for the Rob Thomas & Counting Crows concert. I will never drive to a concert in Camden again. The ferry is the way to go. Ten bucks a person and no stress. I had a peanut butter and nutella sandwich with strawberry as a topper for dinner from Lunch Box Philly and it was delicious.

Rob Thomas was already playing when we got there. He sounded good and seemed like a cool guy that we all agreed we'd be friends with. The Counting Crows didn't come on until after 9. They were really good musically and Adam sounded great. The last time I saw them I was in college, and they played the songs off of August & Everything After very differently than they were recorded. They took a lot of liberties so it sounded more like what you hear on their live CDs. They did that with some songs at this concert, but what they also did was stray from their hits to play some lesser known stuff. I enjoyed it. I like how it's not necessarily a sing along for every song, but more like a show and of them pushing the limits of their music. I dig it. They didn't play Mrs. Potter's Lullaby but you can't win 'em all.

Let's see, what else...we broke our asses sitting on the lawn for a zillion hours, saw some awesome non-concert attire, smelled a shit ton of weed, watched drunk people fight and lose things and almost fall, witnessed a domestic dispute on the ferry back, and sweat every spare ounce of water out of our bodies.

Not bad for a Wednesday. But now it's Friday. It's still hot as fuck, but the weekend is upon us and I wish you all a good one.

Thursday Thoughts - Halved-ish

1. Summer laziness is in full effect. On those nights where I really don't want to do a gaht damn thing, I set my timer and do what I can in those minutes. Sometimes it's 30, sometimes it's 15. On exceptionally lazy nights it's 10. Setting the timer gets me up and doing because I don't have to do all the things and I don't even have to work off of a list of things, I just have to do something for the set amount of minutes and then I can say fuck it. Which is what summer wants of me, to constantly say fuck it. p.s. I sacrificed two seconds of my precious 30 minutes on Tuesday night to snap this photo. You're welcome.

2. I am sick to death of Trump being lauded because he is not politically correct and says what he wants. Given what he's been spewing it is apparent he has zero respect for those he considers beneath him, including (like it or not) an opposing presidential candidate and former First Lady. People actually like that he is hateful and vitriolic and draws lines in the sand and insinuates that an elected Clinton or Supreme Court Justices could be taken care of by second amendment supporters. Of course, his team is excusing that like they excuse every vile statement this man utters or tweets. Unfortunately his supporters want to put him in the office of the President of the United States - one that demands the person in it act with respect and decorum even when they feel like throwing a hissy fit lest they incite riots and violence domestically and invite attacks from foreign entities. You know who gets to say whatever they want and throw hissy fits and not give a damn about the consequences? Toddlers. Not adults and certainly not the President. Grow up. There are situations in which you can speak and act freely without societal constraint or temperance and acting as the President of the United States of America is not one of them. Since when did being calm and respectful yet strong in the face of adversity make you a bad leader on any level? Since never. Diplomacy...it's a skill Ghengis Khan, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Pol Pot, Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un, Idi Amin, Vlad the Impaler, Mao Zedong, Saddam Hussein, and other leaders throughout history lacked as well. Is this the company we want our President to be in? Trump would like you to believe America is under attack from a great many forces...I'm saying the phone calls are coming from inside the house. Put the phone down and run.

3. It's been a sleepy week in our house. No one has wanted to get up. Me included. I'm hoping to sleep a lot this weekend. 

4. MFD went fishing Tuesday and caught a lot of flounder. Not my preference, but when fresh fish is caught you eat that fish. As you may know, MFD is a realtor. His hours are 100% irregular - which can mean cancelling plans at the last minute, missing family events, having to be on the phone at dinner, working on vacation if he has cell service, taking phone calls after 10 p.m., etc. We're used to it, that's his chosen profession and we know those things come with it. What also comes with it? The ability to work from a beach or a boat if you don't have showings. Sweet trade off. 

5. Today is Carol's birthday. Happy birthday Carol!! Love you, enjoy!

6. Reminder. Most things worth having aren't easy. 

7.  E-card of the week:

I have no 8-10 because the humidity has finally gotten to my brain. Stay cool out there my friends.