My gourmet group met on Friday, and our theme this month was 'It Ain't Easy Being Green'. Each recipe featured a green ingredient, and I have to say our plates with all that color looked so pretty, and mostly healthy.
I made an interesting dessert which was a strawberry basil yogurt cake. It was slightly underdone in the very center, but the taste was nice. The basil was subtle, but definitely present. I'd make this again but would bake it a little longer. The recipe said 30-35 minutes and my oven normally cooks fast. I baked mine for 40 minutes and the edges were golden and pulled away from the springform pan, but it still needed another five I think for the center to be less gooey. The batter was a lovely spring green, and then you laid the strawberries on top before baking.
Wow, my photography skills have deteriorated this winter.
It really is a pretty shade of green. Pretend the weird lighting and shadows aren't there. And of course I forgot to take a photo of the finished product, but in my defense I was preoccupied with my home improvement project wrapping up mere minutes before people were due to arrive.
You'll be happy to know my wall has been repaired and looks brand new. Because it is. Our repairman did a great job matching paint, so no need to re-do the entire foyer-upstairs hall-family room this spring. He finished at 11 am Friday morning and my lunch guests arrived at 11:30, just as I was putting away the vacuum. Good times.
On Saturday we attended a Bat Mitzvah, and it was a really fun day. I hadn't been to a Bat Mitzvah since I was in high school, and it was so interesting. Our friend's daughter is adorable and she did a wonderful job leading the service, reading and reciting all the prayers in Hebrew, and sharing her own thoughts on reaching this milestone.
Afterwards they had a lovely celebration at a local restaurant complete with a party room for 80 kids, a DJ, and the biggest balloons you've ever seen (that were not attached to a basket carrying people I mean!).
I decided I need to have a party that requires ginormous balloons. I don't think these slightly blurry pictures do them justice so you'll have to take my word for it. Tres festive!
After that party ended we went back to our friend's house for more food and chatting. Our friend's cousin walked in with two of the most amazing trays of hand dipped pretzels, popcorn, potato chips, and bugles I have ever seen.
Who knew a bugle dipped in white chocolate could be so delicious?
The pretzels were either chocolate and carmel, Oreo, or peanut butter, and they really were a work of art. I cannot imagine how much time it took her to put all of this together, but rest assured her efforts did not go unappreciated. I only had a bite of the pretzel, but I could have eaten all the popcorn.
Didn't but I could have.
Long time friends from Maryland traveled up for the event, and they came back to our house to spend the night. Always fun catching up in person as we have daughters the same age.
I bought tulips to put in their room because some years we need to make our own spring.
This appears to be one of those years.
Three inches of snow in our Tuesday forecast. On the bright side, most of the snow on the grass has melted, so that's something. We still have small mountains here and there from the plow, but baby steps right?
Before our friends headed home on Sunday we all went to see a former work colleague of the guys. We had such a nice time sitting in their lovely den with a spectacular view of tinytown lake. It's still frozen and looked like a postcard. You'll once again have to use your imagination because I neglected to take a photo. I need spring to get here and clear out the cobwebs.
There's probably more, but I'm hosting my book club this evening, and am thinking I should be baking-cooking-cleaning as opposed to blogging the minutiae of my weekend.
Happy Monday everyone!
