Let's group these by category, shall we?

Let's begin with pretty things, yes?

The sunset over the lake behind my house, as seen by Ricky in the kayak.

Making our way out to Navarre Beach today.

Seagull, taking a stroll. They don't want to fly all the time, you know.

Emerald waves.

Seashell naval adornment from a rather risqué position.

A beautiful photo I took of a gull flying over head. I love the way the sunlight comes in from the side of the frame.

Now on to food.

Saturday: I worked 11.5 hours at The Bucks, and came home to find that Ricky had made dinner. London Broil with onions, mashed potatoes, and salad. The leftover marinade cooked down into a lovely au jus.
Sunday: Birthday cake for Grace. My second time working with fondant, and first time with royal icing. A four layer chocolate cake with vanilla bean buttercream is under all that prettiness.
Sunday night: My recipe for cashew chicken (now a family favorite all the way to Washington) served this time in lettuce. Spicy and light, very satisfying for a warm Spring day when you don't feel like doing anything but heating a wok.
Monday: Grilled tuna steaks and grilled asparagus. The blob of green goodness is just a basic gremolata, made with Meyer Lemons.

Tuesday (tonight): Homemade pizza with onions, mushrooms, prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, and sliced tomato. I just seasoned some crushed San Marzano tomatoes for the base, and finished them with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
My uncle will be here tomorrow, I haven't seen him since I was a teenager. I'm really excited, and I need to get my house in order tonight so that I don't feel frantic in the morning.
Goodnight all.
♥

The sun was shining on the sea, shining with all it's might...

He did his very best to make the billows smooth and bright.
And this was odd because it was
The middle of the night.

Ricky and I both had today off. Two in a row! How nice.
He did some kayaking, which is shaping up to be one of his favorite things.
I made mussels for dinner.

I bought two pounds, and once all the slightly opened and cracked ones were discarded, I was still left with quite a few mussels. I cooked them in a a broth I made with shallots, garlic, tomatoes, fresh thyme, a teeny bit of smoked paprika, some saffron threads, butter, and Pinot Grigio. I would drink that stuff out of a mug.

They were amazing. To be honest, this was my first time using fresh mussels. I've always been a big baby and just bought frozen mussels on the half shell, and this time I bought fresh, live ones and scrubbed and de-bearded them myself. It was definitely worth it, they are so much more tender, and when they open they release this delicious ocean-y liquid into the broth.

I served them simply, garnished with parsley and with crusty bread and prosecco, which is sort of like Italian champagne I suppose.
Here's a helpful little trick: Both champagne and prosecco can lose their fizziness, but if you add a couple of raisins to the bottom of your glass or bottle, the grooves on the dried fruit will create friction, keeping your bubbly, well, bubbly.

We went through these bad boys pretty fast. Had there been a carpenter in the kitchen making dipping oil for bread with peppercorns and mustard seed, he would have been disappointed.
It totally reminded me of that scene in the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland, when the Walrus ate all the oysters.

Greedy pinniped bastard.

Dessert was a simple plate of sliced strawberries and some homemade vanilla bean whipped cream. And more prosecco.

Oh! The other day while killing time at TJ Maxx, I found that they had Caldrea products! Those that know me know how I am about good-smelling cleaners, so this was exciting. I got dish soap and counter top cleanser in Green Tea Patchouli, surface wipes in Sweet Pea, and some furniture polish made by Home and Body Co. that has the most amazing lavender fragrance. Very essential-oily.

If you live near a Starbucks, go buy these darling little cups. It's a set of nesting tea cups, and I'm in love with them.

This is how Maggie fell asleep today. She cracks me up.
I'm working at 5 am for the next few days, so I need to get to bed soon! Happy nearly Friday to those of you with regular work weeks!

Baby B and Food Remixes

I'm picking up Braden from daycare this week, and I'm pretty happy about it.
Him being the coolest baby in the world and all.

And being such a good picture-poser-for-er.

Then we had some tummy time! I ♥ him, he's awesome.

I wasn't going to be home when Ricky got home from work, so when I got home from work I went ahead and made dinner, covered it in foil, and left the heating instructions in a cute little card for Ricky.
Last night we had chicken, and I had some sauce leftover. I combined that with a couple of diced, cooked, chicken breasts, prosciutto, herbs, my one leftover zucchini, and red pepper flakes, tossed all of that with cooked penne, topped it with parmigiana reggiano and mozzarella cheeses, and that was it.
All Ricky had to do was heat the oven to 450º and bake it for 25-30 minutes.

Yes, it was chicken, pasta, and zucchini again, but it was hardly the same meal, and I think it was awesome for something that I needed to prep and leave in the fridge.

Buuut I got home earlier than expected, and ended up cooking myself anyway. Hahaha, at least I was there to take a picture!
Maggie May (smaller of the Westies) had a vet appointment today to get some medicine for her ear. Poor dear has some nastiness going on in there, and I got three different medications! A wash, an oozy cream medicine, and some anti-inflammatory pills. I also had them check out a pump she has on her side that Ricky and I just noticed; turns out it's a little skin growth, and it needs to be removed. The vet recommend having it taken off when the dogs get their teeth cleaned, since she'll be knocked out anyway.
Ricky and I are both off today, and we're off to Lowes to look at more house crap.
Hope everyone is having a wonderful Wednesday!
And that it's packed with amazing, awesome, alliteration!

Not Quite Cacciatore

Busy day! After work I had lots of vegetables to plant, scads of laundry to do, and two workouts to fit in. By the time Ricky was home I had totally spaced on dinner, all I had was some chicken thawed out. So I threw this together.

Chicken in a sauce of bacon, red bell pepper, onion, garlic, tomatoes, and red wine over whole grain rotini along with some sautéed zucchini. Not bad for last minute!

I just finished up these little lovelies!

Yeah, so I make short pastry from scratch and fill it with homemade Meyer lemon curd at 10 pm on Monday nights, what of it?

There's something seriously wrong with me.

The lemon curd is some of the best I've ever had. I've never made it myself before, but this was super simple. With the Meyer lemons being offered at the grocery store, I thought it was about time to give curd a try. Meyer lemons, egg yolks, sugar, and butter. And elbow grease.

Recipe to follow shortly on Ever So Sweet.

I'm off to bed. Goodnight interwebs!

Tea cupcakes, Mexican food, and spider cat

This, my friends, is a stiff peak.

It is important to achieve stiff peak status when making, say, Earl Grey meringue icing for some vanilla bean lavender angel food cupcakes.
A-like these.

Some big, some small, all adorable and delicious.
These were a snap to make, as was their egg-whitey icing. I'll be posting the recipe soon at Ever So Sweet.Dinner tonight was... awesome.
Skirt steak with my homemade salsa with pepitas, queso fresco, peppers, onions, and mushrooms, and our favorite Mexican beverages, Negra Modelo and Horchata.I finally found a pre-made Horchata that I love! Rice Dream Traditional Horchata. I don't know if this quart will make it through the night.
Now I just need to do dishes, work out, shower and do my hair, vacuum, do some reading and then go to bed! Sheesh!
I leave you with this:
Spider Cat, Spider Cat
Does whatever a Spider Cat does
Can she swing
From a web?
No she can't, cause she's a cat
Look ooooouuuuttt
it's Spider Cat.

Nahrung!

Last night's dinner: Chicken curry with basmati rice, naan, and cucumber raita.
My chicken curry is my mother's recipe, although it's probably more of a British curry than an Indian one, as it uses curry powder.

My favorite breakfast: Nonfat Greek yogurt topped with granola, agave, dried cherries, and flax seeds.

Tonight's dinner: Red potatoes roasted with herbes de provence, tilapia, and green beans in a brown butter-hazelnut-pepita-caper sauce.
I worked a 9.5 hour day today, and I didn't feel like making anything special. I love being able to pop some potatoes in the oven and finish the rest of the meal during the last 10 minutes of cooking.
I'm off to finish up housework and exercise. Woot!

Spring in full swing.

So Ricky has been home for a little over a week, and we're already busy with the house. We've chosen our new flooring (see the blog a couple down) and we're purchased half of it. Yes, half, as we don't have space for 123 cases of Pergo, ha. We're doing the whole shebang, all 2,000 square feet, including the kitchen and bathrooms. Quite an undertaking, but since we own the house we're thinking about resale value as well as the aesthetic aspect for us. I can't wait until it's done, the dusty blue walls in the living room will look so nice with hickory floors. Pergo was a good choice for us, what with future renters and present pets. =)
My garden has been started! Tomatoes, eggplant, yellow squash, zucchini, several different pepper varieties, sunflowers, cucumbers, lots of herbs, and lavender. I'd also like to start a trellis for green beans. I'm starting small, as I don't know what this Florida weather will permit as far as growing goes. I wonder if I can try my hand at a citrus tree again? Here's hoping.
The Spring cleaning has been done for a while. I spent a couple of weeks scrubbing floors, deep cleaning carpets, moving appliances and washing walls and windows both inside and out. It's nice to have it done so early, so that we can focus on other things (floors and lawn care, for example) now.
I want to find a good evergreen shrub to plant in front of my house. Three or four, something hardy and attractive. Any ideas, fellow gardeners? I was thinking maybe Indian Hawthorne...

Ricky and I have a busy summer coming up! In May we're driving down to the Florida Keys, as well as stopping by the Everglades and Manatee Beach, we have family and friends coming to visit in June, and then at the end of October we leave for Costa Rica. Speaking of which, I need a new passport. And to learn Spanish.
Beth! How much Spanish did you need to know?

I've been faithfully sticking to my workout routine, and I recently added Jillian's cardio DVD to the mix. Now I'm doing The 30 Day Shred 6 days a week and the cardio one 5 days a week. So on five days out of the week I'm working out for an hour and fifteen minutes. I love it. The 30 Day Shred is only 24 minutes, so it's perfect to do in the morning before work, although working out with Jillian Michaels at 3:30 am isn't the BEST way to start my day, hahaha.
I'm off to finish dinner, and I'm making some adorable surprise cupcakes tonight, too!
♥

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