Winter Staycation

The second half of a relaxing staycation...

Luke and I went on a couple of day-dates: seeing Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (let's discuss!) and sofa shopping.


Reading her new book from The Novel Neighbor.

A workout with my trainer, a pedicure, a massage, some sofa shopping... Trivia Night!

The team behind us wore Viking regalia and I love how it got into this Gracie pic...

And we won! My snack offerings for the table were brown butter cardamom banana bread and pig candy - caramelized bacon that is so delicious but so difficult to clean up after! (I might treat myself to a new wire rack).

Clem has been learning about the Winter Olympics at school.





On Saturday morning I made a Dutch baby for Luke and the girls

And joined the girls for Jenny's birthday brunch (birthday 1).

Sausage pizza with an egg.

Birthday 2 for our neighbor. This facility has a Little Ninja obstacle course class I'm interested in for the girls.

Birthday 3 at our cousin's. Arrived home after a full day to the beginnings of a light ice storm. We put the girls down and Luke went to a show in Maplewood. I started a new autobiography.

Woken up by this bride ballerina pegasus.

I cooked this pork belly in the sous vide earlier in the week and broiled it for an early lunch on Sunday...

Tucked into steamed buns with lettuce, pickles, and a reduction of the marinade folded into mayonnaise. (I'm really into the Serious Eats website these days. Eager to try some of these staff favorites.)

Clem drew during Josie's dance lesson.

"This is Josie doing ballet with her class."

Her turn. Josie colored a Lion Guard coloring book ("wy-un gawd") while Clem danced.

Sunday - if I'm organized - is meal prep day. I made breakfast meals of sausage and scrambled eggs, this 15 bean soup in the pressure cooker, and started pork carnitas in the sous vide. One great thing about sous vide cooking is the flexibility - as with the pork belly, once cooked, the carnitas can stay in the bag (chilled) for many days. All that's left to do is shred and broil when ready to eat. It also occurred to me to break out the large percolator we use at parties and brew many cups of coffee for our iced coffee. I'm focusing on food waste and unnecessary food expense this year - sometimes I make too much food and we don't eat it but the more typical scenario is purchasing too many perishable ingredients that I just don't feel like tackling later in the week. This week's menu is leftover soup; quesadillas; pork carnitas served as a taco or in a bowl; baked buffalo drumsticks; bags of freezer veggies - the steamable options seemed to have gotten a lot better. Pantry staples in case we eat everything and/or I lose the will to make anything new are cheese and water crackers; apple or banana with peanut butter; and (my new fave) Top Ramen with a 6 and a half minute egg sliced in half.

(This 15 bean soup looks limp and muddy but was so delicious. I served it with Jiffy mix cornbread muffins - Luke's first introduction "these are amazing." Northern cornbread >>> Southern cornbread. #sorrynotsorry).

While I cooked the girls played all afternoon and then wanted to listen to Swan Lake and the Nutcracker - it's truly amazing how well they know the music of the latter due to our many viewings of the ballet on YouTube. I remembered how we listened to The Nutcracker on the way to Elgin and I asked Clem "what is happening now?" and she said "the grandma and grandpa are dancing" and sure enough the radio display read "Grandfather Waltz".

Back to the grind!