Delightful Weekend

This past weekend was a good one. I like good ones.

Although part of it’s goodness came from the record breaking high temperatures – upper 60s. Which is lovely but in truth evidence that the planet is on fire. So the appreciation of the nice weather is…short-lived I guess

On Friday night I tried a new recipe. I had some almond flour from when I made the Swiss Brunsli for Christmas, so I wanted to see what else I could make with it. The Ricciardelli Almond Cookies were amazing (if I do say so myself). They are chewy with a nice crackle top and a bit of a shell. Good stuff.

During the day Saturday I had Little with me. I hadn’t anticipated the abnormally warm weather, but when I presented various options to her, she chose the indoor ones.

So, we started by filling out kid-friendly worksheets that had us reflecting on the past year. Then we made a collage about the coming year, filled with pictures and colors we like, and with words on it that inspire us. The pages I had were huge and I knew smaller ones would be easier to fill up, so I suggested that we each do one half, so when they were joined together, they said “2020”

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After we completed the collages and had some lunch – outside on the porch in January – we pulled out the hand-crank “torch” that I found the other day at a going out-of-business craft store. We had great fun figuring out the directions, and it was cool to see Little gain some confidence using a teeny tiny screwdriver. I’m glad I have another kit for another time.

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Saturday night I had dinner followed by dinner with Mom and Dad. During dinner I talked their ears off like I always do, and we thought a bit about our sweet friend Edie, who Mom and Dad have known, along with her husband Bill, since Christopher was a baby. When we were young, we used to go to their house for brunch of Christmas day. We did that for many years and it’s such a nice memory. Edie, who was a real estate agent, helped me find my house, too.

She died on Friday after many years with Alzheimer’s. I’m so grateful to have not only this lovely cutting board, a gift from her, to remember her by, but also many stories she told me about her life, including the one about how she and Bill met. She was dragged to a social dance by friends. She was shy because she’d just lost a tooth somehow and hadn’t had a replacement put in yet by a dentist. When Bill came to talk to her she tried not to smile, but eventually, they both did, and in doing so, he revealed that he too was missing a tooth!

I love that story! She was a sweet woman and we’ll all miss her.

On Sunday it was unseasonably warm again, and I took Harlow for a nice long hike. When we got back, my friend Amy and CJ, along with their kids Vivian and Finley, came by and CJ kindly replaced my broken kitchen faucet with a new one.

It’s so exciting to have a functioning faucet and now scald myself anymore and I feel so lucky to have such generous (and skilled!) friends.

“Which way is burning hot?” Little would ask for a reminder before trying it.

I want to work on my cooking some more, so I tried a steak marinade in the crockpot. The marinade was clearly too acidic with it’s lime and balsamic, so a few hours before it was to come out, I put some brown sugar in there which cut the sharpness a bit. I didn’t love the results but I’m still glad I tried it.

Last week I made a creamy pan seared Tuscan salmon recipe which was amazing. I’ll definitely be doing that one again!

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