Weekend recap - RTT style

The backstory:
Keely start Random Tuesday Thoughts.
Everyone loved it.
Keely's life got busy.
Stacy graciously took over.
Everyone loves it.
Giving Keely a much needed break.
You got all that? Yeah, me too.
Let's get down to business


I made food this weekend.  This may not seem like a big deal but I've been gone quite a bit in the last few weeks so all cooking, painting and cleaning were put on hold. Since, I consider cooking a creative outlet, putting it on hold is very hard for me. But I'm back in the saddle and have come up with something I think will be awesome! An egg baked in an avocado half. Topped with a little lime and cilantro. In fact, I'm jonesing for it right now. Except it is Tuesday; I don't have any avocados right now, shopping day isn't until Saturday and this sounds like breakfast to me. Not that breakfast food can't be dinner. Damn! I'm now convincing myself to stop at the store.

Doesn't this look like dinner?

Oh look! The California Avocado Commission has a recipe. I think this will be on Saturday's breakfast menu with a few vegetarian tweaks. Considering my love of all things avocado, (except maybe the avocado colored appliances that my mother-in-law had...ewww..whoever though THAT was a good idea?) it looks like I'll be culling through their recipe website soon.

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I painted.

 I thought I was done with this but I want to fill in a little on Sprite's bow and Jen's shirt. Other than that I think it came out really well. It is hanging on my drying wall. Jen's wonderful husband John takes the most amazing and heartfelt photos that he could keep me busy for a year trying to paint them all. Damn.You.John! (and I mean that in the nicest way because I love all of you)

This gray scale is of a friend's sleeping baby. I adore the look of it. JR wasn't sure what it was at first and I LOVE that about this painting. You really sort of have to know what the subject matter is or unfocus a little to figure it out.

Next up is the "We can afford that" banner and one of JR's grandmother boarding a train back in 1910. I'm planning to paint that one in a post-impressionism style. That ought to really confuse JR.

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The weather was a little hot and muggy on Saturday which encouraged our hibiscus to bloom.

Thankfully, it cooled down. I'm seriously hoping that we don't start summer until at least May this year.

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I've been working out very consistently for the last week and a half. While my scale and I are not agreeing, I say I can see/feel the difference. My clothes are fitting a little better. After all the travel food I've been eating I needed to get back into shape. Eating all those calories isn't hard but burning them off sure is.

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I love yoga.

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Nessa is spoiled.

In a sweet cuddly fuzzy type of way that is impossible to resist.

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That is it for me. Please take a few minutes to pop over to Stacy's place to visit other RTT participants.

Love,
M

Happy Hour Dinner, Again?

Tuesday:
JR: That was a great idea to have happy hour food for dinner. We should do it again.
Me: Okay


Thursday:
JR: What are you planning for happy hour dinner this week?
Me: I don't know. I was thinking of not doing it on Sunday. I've got that big thing at work coming up on Monday and I'm not sure I'll have time.
JR: What! But it's a tradition.
Me: When did it become a tradition. We had it once.


Sunday morning:
JR: Have you got everything done for work?
Me: As done as I'll ever be.
JR: Great, that means you have time to make happy hour dinner.
Me: *sigh* Sure, I'll whip something up.









From top left clockwise:
Olive pasties, Avocado and Cream Cheese Roll, Spinach and Cheddar Dumplings.


With the holidays coming up I thought I'd start featuring recipes that can easily be made ahead and taken to all those potlucky type things that come up.



First up:

Avocado and Cream Cheese Roll

1/2 pound (8 ounces) of cream cheese, room temperature
2 small or 1 large avocado
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, diced (or sun-dried tomato pesto or tapenade, store-bought or homemade)
1 cup Cashews
Small crackers

1. Place the cream cheese between 2 pieces of parchment or waxed paper. Roll out to form a rectangle about 6 inches wide and 8 inches long. Remove the top sheet.

2. Sprinkle diced sun-dried tomatoes over cream cheese or spread pesto or tapenade. I happened to have tapenade in my refridgerator so that is what I used.

3. Remove the flesh from the avocado and smash until smooth. You can leave small chunks. Spread over sun-dried tomatoes and cheese.

4. Using the bottom sheet of parchment roll up the cream cheese to form a log. I found this to be the messy part of the procedure. You may have better luck at this then I did. Do what you can to make it log shaped.

5. Put cashews into a blender or food processor and grind up. You want fairly small pieces but not dust. Coat cream cheese log with cashews.

6. Roll up in parchment and park in your refrigerator for at least 15 minutes. You can make this 6 to 8 hours ahead of time then set out for 30 minutes before serving.

7. Serve with small crackers.

I hope you all enjoy it as much as we did. Besides the whole rolling it into a log shape it was really easy to make. I plan to take it to our holiday party at the library. I think it will travel well.

If you want the recipes for the other items please let me know. I'll write them out.

Remember it's Meatless Monday today and if Monday doesn't work for you any day is good.


Love,
M



PS: This is my four hundredth postaversary. I thought it completely fitting that it was a food related one.