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The Definition of Crazy

It's been so crazy busy lately that I need half the week to sum up what we do allllll weekend. But no more. Here's what we did this weekend, short version:

Friday:
• Tabby's babysitter was off on Fri, so Matt watched her in the morning and then I left work early and after lunch we had a 2 hour nap!!
• Holly and her boys came over for dinner (grilled pizza) and we went to the pool and played and then played at the playground in our PJs!

Saturday
• Matt let me sleep in
• Then we took off up into the mountains to do a nice (and muddy) hike at Guanella Pass
• then we had lunch at The Happy Cooker (home of the world's most fab home-made bread)
• and ice cream afterwards
• then we went home and I made the desserts for Father's Day
• then I went and met up with my mom's group for a really fun night of laughs at Wit's End
• then I came home and Matt and I finished up desserts and made potato bites for Father's Day … we were up 'til midnight

Sunday
• we woke up bright and early and collected grandpa and aunt gaga
• we had bagels
• and then headed up the mountain again for another hike
• Mount Evans.
• gorgeous hike, but Matt miscalculated the distance (or the start point?) and turned a 6 mi hike into an 8.5 mi hike. yikes.
• 4.5 hours later we were starved and tired, so we headed home
• and had a very nice father's day dinner
• now it's time to pass out

Happy Father's Day!!

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Other Goings-On

It's just been crazy busy around here. It feels like we go almost non-stop these days. Here's a sampling:

• I'm in the middle of reading Eat, Pray, Love. I've got another book to read for work, but I refuse to put down (turn off) Eat Pray Love until I'm done. Awesome book.
• Our CSA shares are finally supposed to start this week. Hope we get something good after this wait!
• Tabby is such a little person these days. She talks non-stop and we're getting more and more discernable words and phrases every day. “There it is!” is her newest. Cracks me up!
• I finally joined a nice mom's group. It's still hard for me to make events, but the organizer is letting me be a co-organizer and put some things together for weekends and evenings! We're going to the comedy club this Sat.
• The garden is doing … OK. It's sort of rallied since the hail and we even have quite a few teeny tomatoes on the vines. But my butternut squash (2 plants) are dead. It's one of my favorite veggies, so we plan to get more. My dill and chives are taking off like crazy! (more details here)
• Father's Day is this Sunday already!! I'm doing pretty well though and have gifts purchased (mostly). Just need to send off my FIL's gift. It wil probably be late because I doubt it's making it out today. I also have the meal all planed, thanks to Everyday food: Father's Day Feast AND two types of bar cookies (rocky road brownies and creamy lemon squares).
• Just ordered swimming suits from Athleta. I looked high and low but couldn't find one I liked in any store in town … that I could, y'know … TRY ON (granted, I'm probably being a bit overly picky, but my boobs have specific requirements!). So catalog it was. I hope I like one of them!!
• Tabby and I have been dancing to the goofy French Playground CD every night before bed. She loves it.
• Watched the most AWFUL (and therefore fascinating) episode of Supernanny last night!! These parents had their 14 and 17 year olds raising their little brothers (4-yo twins and a 3-yo), homeschooling themselves AND doing all of the housework. They weren't allowed to go out at night unless all their chores were done and their parents constantly criticized them. Wanted to reach through the screen several times and throttle these “adults.”

That's it for me! Happy hump-day, y'all.

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The Fun Continues

Sat morning Matt and I had gym date as we've been trying to do every Saturday for a few weeks now. The only difference was that Tabby wasn't with us. That was probably a good thing since she's not a huge fan of the nursery at the gym. So we went and ran and lifted weights. Then we picked up breakfast at the grocery store and headed off to go garage-saling. Three neighborhoods in our area (including ours) were having garage sales. We picked up some great stuff. A teeny stroller for Tabby's doll, an antique typewriter ($10), some kid books. Our two big buys were a dollhouse for Tabby … a giant wooden thing with 100+ all wood and cloth pieces to it … dolls and beds and a teeny vacuum. It's darling and was only $20. And the air compressor. Matt obsessed for a few hours about it (and placed phone calls to other guys to discuss its merits) before he decided to go for it. It is apparently a great deal … and it is now sitting in the garage looking large and industrial. Yay.

Somewhere along the line Mom and Kelly and Tabby came back over and met us and joined in the fun. Soon, Tabby got hungry and so we went to Daphne's for lunch and then wandered around the outdoor mall and checked out Borders for some new books. After that, Matt retreated to his wood shop to work on my spice rack (such a cliche, but that's really what he's working on!) and Mom and Kells and I took Tabby to our neighborhood pool for the first time this year. She had a blast running around the “sprayground” and toddling around the baby pool. Too bad the sun went behind a cloud and it got all windy about 20 min after we got there. She was shivering and rode home in her wagon wrapped head to toe in towels.

Sometime later after showers and a trip to Target, my dad arrived with pizza and we ate outside and had s'mores and a few rounds of MarioKart afterwards. Continue reading “The Fun Continues”

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Fab Friday

Ahhh… another weekend gone. At least it was a good one. Friday I got off work a bit early and headed off to FINALLY get my hair cut. Yay. There's a salon very near my house so I just had them get me an appointment with someone there. Luckily, I really liked her and think she did a great job. It's sort of a bob, but a bit longer. Probably doing a bad job of describing it. They also did a parafin dip on my hands while I was getting my cut. That was cool too. Then I went to pick up Tabby and we got to spend the whole afternoon together. We went to lunch at Panera (I had a salad, she had a PBJ) and then we went to pick up food for dinner. As an extra fun thing, we stopped at a really neat toy shop and played with lots of cool toys and I bought her a neat CD of French music.

Then we went home and got Tabby ready for her evening out. I took her over to my parents' house where she spent the night. They went out to our favorite Italian restaurant from when I was little and played and had pancakes in the morning. I hear it was fabulous.

Meanwhile, Matt arrived home from his business trip and we had a very nice date night in. We had salmon dip with pita chips to start and grilled steaks and vegetables and roasted potatoes for dinner. For dessert we roasted marshmallows on our fire pit and made s'mores. We hung out around the fire pit for a long long time, talking and drinking wine. It was a great evening. One I'd be happy to repeat any time.

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Flickr Mosaic Meme


The Questions:
1. What is your first name? Jess
2. What is your favorite food? strawberries (today anyhow)
3. What high school did you go to?
Wheat Ridge High (the corresponding photo is of the Wheat Ridge Grange)
4. What is your favorite color? green! (the apple was the prettiest shade of green supplied)
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Richard Blais (one of the guys on Top Chef)
6. Favorite drink? Sidecar (a drink made with lemon juice, brandy and contreau)
7. Dream vacation? Japan (though I only typed in Japan, when the image of the vending machines came up, I had to use it … because that is a big part of what I want to do if I were to go there … photograph vending machines)
8. Favorite dessert? chocolate peanut butter
9. What you want to be when you grow up? teacher (this is what I wanted to be when I was little)
10. What do you love most in life?
family (I loved the family of ugly dolls!)
11. One Word to describe you – silly (a silly cow? don't ask me )
12. Your Flickr name. Jesser (the photo was a trip to NYC with someone named Jesser) Continue reading “Flickr Mosaic Meme”

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Hail and Oher Miscellany

Ok, so apparently while I was at work today, minding my own business, mother nature decided to hurl ice cubes at my garden. And I'm rather ticked off at her. I don't know how extensive the damage is yet, but I am hoping not too bad … oy. I am home now and it is thundering ominously.

What else is going on? Just been your average busy week. Tabby has been hilariously tired when she gets home from daycare in the evenings. She went to bed at 6 PM one night this week (though we probably could have put her in bed around 5) and today she fell asleep in my car on the way home and I brought her in and put her on a blanket on the floor of our family room and she has proceeded to nap for about 30 min now. She gets so worn out playing outside and refusing take naps and all.

Oh … CSA update. The hippies called to say that the problem is that we're not on their email list. Our blasted cool weather this year has caused them to postpone first pickup two weeks (until June 12th). I'm not THRILLED about the lack of communication, but at least there was a halfway decent reason. Oh … the reason that we're not on their email list? That would be because I could never get their crappy website to create me an account and they never answered my voicemail on the subject. Patience. Ohm.

Oh yea … and Continue reading “Hail and Oher Miscellany”

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Wee Weekend

This was a mad crazy weekend. I should actually stop commenting on this, since they've all been super busy lately and it would be more notable to have a calm weekend where we just stayed at home and shelled pecans or something. I will try not to bore you with the details, but I did want to share this with you … Tipsy Kentucky Bourbon Pecan Cake with Peach Sauce. This is the cake I made for mom's big day and it was really fun (if a bit labor intensive) and quite a hit. Continue reading “Wee Weekend”

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Tipsy Kentucky Bourbon Pecan Cake with Peach Sauce

from: The Birthday Cake Book

Ingredients
For the Cake
2-3 T soft unsalted butter and 2-3 T all-purpose flour for the pan
2 1/4 C sifted cake flour
1 T plus 1/8 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
16 T (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to the consistency of mayonnaise
1 1/2 C plus 1/2 C granulated sugar
5 extra-large eggs, warmed in their shells
3 fl. oz plus 1 C sipping-quality bourbon
2 C (7 oz) toasted pecan halves
mint sprigs and leaves for decoration

For the Sauce
1/4 C fresh orange juice
1 T fresh lemon juice
4 C peeled and coarsely chopped fresh peaches (6-8) or thawed drained premium-quality frozen peach slices

Directions
This cake is best if made 1-2 days before you plan to serve. To make the cake, set your oven to 350. Brush both bottom and sides of a bundt or tube pan with butter and coat with flour. Knock off the excess. Sift the four, baking powder and salt together in a bowl. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter on med speed until creamy. Continue beating while sprinkling in 1 1/2 C sugar a tablespoon at a time then beat until very light. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until blended after reach, then beat until very light and creamy. Add the flour in three parts (sprinkling i over the bowl), alternating with 3 oz bourbon in two parts – beat on the lowest speed possible and just until each addition disappears. Sprinkle over the pecans and fold the batter with a large flexible rubber spatula to finish blending thoroughly. Smooth into the pan, slightly pushing the batter up against the sides and the tube.

Bake in the middle of the oven until a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the cake, 55 to 60 min. Heat 1/2 C of the bourbon and 1/4 cup of the sugar together stirring until the sugar dissolves. Pierce the top of the cake with a fork then pour the syrup evenly over the cake. Cool 15 minutes in the pan on a rack then turn out onto the rack, rumpled side up, to cool completely. When cool, heat the rest of the bourbon and sugar as before. Set the cake smooth side up, pierce as before and pour over the syrup. Wrap air-tight and set in a cool place to mellow for up to 2 days before serving.

To make the sauce, in a food processor or mixing bowl, blend the orange and lemon juices and then add the preserves and briefly blend. Turn into a bowl, add the peaches and stir gently until each slice has been moistened. Chill, tightly covered, at least 1 hour. This is at its best for about 4 hours.

To assemble the cake, just before serving, unwrap the cake and set it, smooth side up, on a platter. Plant a banner of greeting and arrange the (peach colored) candles, tucking a mint leaf or two beside each candle. Garland the bottom with branches of mint. Serve each piece of cake on a plate, encircled with peach sauce.

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Happy 60th!

My beautiful mom turned 60 years young today. That sounds like a cliche made up to make people feel better about getting old, but with my mom, I feel it's especially true. I think it's her absolutely infectious laugh and kind nature (with an edge) that keep her young. She doesn't look 60 and she sure doesn't act 60!

It is a distinct privelege to have her for my mom and so amazing to watch her with Tabby … she's a wonderful wonderful grandma. To know her is to love her. Here's to many many more lovely ones, lady!! May we ALL be as vibrant, healthy and happy as you are when we're 60. Thanks so much for all you are and all you do.