Weekend Warrior

What a weekend, what a weekend. Kind of like "What a man, what a man" if you are aware of that song, if not please disregard my nonsense. This weekend the girls and I painted the town red, much wilder than anything in "The Hangover". Like, we didn't make our beds (scandal!), we didn't cook (outrageous!), and we ate large amounts of vanilla ice cream (be jealous!). I would go into more detail but I don't want to scare away the kiddies. We also had to go to the Vet's office this weekend for the pooches annual check up. Regine weighs a wopping 4.5lbs now, she's so big! She has also learned how to sit (so smart) and how to hide her poo in the living room (brilliant and diabolical!)

But she's just so darn adorable! We'll give her one more week to shape up, after that she's up for grabs.

Snickers loves a cool breeze blowing through her ears, she's a supermodel in that regard. She's also on a diet, poor girl, all of those bones finally caught up with her.

While we may not have had much debauchery this weekend, we did have one very important thing, bread! On Friday I whipped up some amazing raisin bread (amazing is the subjective adjective that I would use, you could perhaps choose another if you were to be so bold).

I got to use my Mama's special plate from Poland! It's beautiful and a big part of my heritage

 (because I am a half polish girl)

Raisin Bread

1.25 cups water (heated to 100 degrees F)

2 Tbsp butter

1.5 tsp salt

4 cups bread flour

3 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp dry milk

1.5 tsp cinnamon

2.25 tsp active dry yeast

1 cup raisins

Layer ingredients as listed, leaving the yeast for last. Add the raisins at the raisin/nut signal, or whatever time is best recommended for your bread machine.

 I also found that raisin bread + almond butter + banana slices = a fantastic breakfast!

My Mom, Sister, and I also ventured to "Sweet Tomatoes" for a little adventure. It was the first time for all of us eating there, which just shows you how many times that we go out (womp womp). I loved this restaurant! It was heaven for a gal like me. There were so many vegetables that I was close to a veggie coma. My salad resembled a mountain more than anything else! My Mom and my Sister had appropriate sized salads. I also learned that these fantastic ladies have amazing capabilities in choosing delicious soups. They both chose a potato, spinach, and tomato soup which was so incredible. I chose a mediterranean garbanzo soup which was good, but not fantastic. Curse these taste buds. Oh well, one day I'll get it down. Or, I'll just stick to bread, because c'mon bread tops soup any day. Any. Day.

I whipped up a focaccia last night, which was a lot of fun (for me, but I'm special like that). It was so delicious, I could have just eaten that instead of the salad that my Mom had prepared. But I had a little voice in my head reminding me of a balanced diet and blah blah blah. So annoying. I caved into that little voice that I can only label as my conscious (blech).

Rosemary and coarse salt, so delicious!

My Sis informed me that I should start selling my bread, any takers? Just kidding! But it is pretty cool to see such pretty bread, bread that looks like it should belong in a froo froo bakery.

Rosemary Focaccia

3/4 cup water (heated to 100 degrees F)

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 cups bread flour

1 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1.5 tsp active dry yeast

Layer ingredients as listed. Let the bread machine do it's thing!

Lightly flour a counter top, with floured hands remove dough and place on counter, cover, let rise for 10 minutes.

Grease a large cookie sheet. Roll dough into a 12 inch circle. Place on cookie sheet. Make depressions with your fingers, about one inch apart for each poke.

Drizzle with 3 Tbsp olive oil and 2-3 Tbsp rosemary.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 15-18 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

This morning, after a long run, weight lifting, dog walking, kitchen/bed room cleaning, e-mail checking, my sister decided to grace me with her presence. We are a little bit opposite. I popped out of bed at 6:30am while she rolled out of bed at 11:30am. Then again, I'm sure that hardly anyone around my age was up at that time so really I'm just the black sheep of my generation. Since I had gotten my chores done, I offered to make my Sis a breakfast. She willingly obliged, plopped on the couch with a towering mug of hot coffee, flipped on "Fresh Prince" and reveled in the light of glamor. Her request was whole wheat waffles, does she have good taste or what? So I made the batter from scratch (thank you Betty Crocker cookbook) and went on a search for the long lost waffle iron. It turns out that I am a messy waffle maker. A messy cook is a happy cook!

Whole Wheat Waffles

2 eggs

2 cups whole wheat flour

1.75 cups milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 Tbsp sugar

4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Beat eggs, gradually add remaining ingredients.

Heat and grease waffle iron. Pour 3/4 cup of the batter onto the iron and bake for the appropriate time for your iron.

Serve with berries :)

Topped with fresh berries (the girl needs to eat fruit) and syrup (she's young, she can handle all of that sugar!) adds up to a breakfast fit for a princess (or a younger sibling).

The boys return home today! I can't wait to see them!

On to face the day, hoo haa!