As I listened to the swing music, the Natty Beaux’s anyone??, and devoured those carbs, I finished off the amazing crazy strange funny book from Jenny Lawson - Let’s Pretend this Never Happened. That woman has the most interesting brain I have ever had the pleasure of delving into. Most of the insane stories were almost too crazy for me to find them funny, this is why I think I’m weird sometimes. Like how The Office can be too much? or too unrealistic that I just can’t bring myself to laugh.  Anyways, she is a hoot. There was one good quote at the end of the book, “Because you are defined not by life’s imperfect moments, but your reaction to them. Because there is joy embracing rather than running screaming from – the utter absurdity of life.” As I look back on my twenties, there have been MANY utterly absurd moments, but I have always left those events with a good dose of it happened for a reason all while being thankful. I’m happy with myself that I am starting to question or take a moment before I react too quickly to any situation and I know that is going to help me through my dirty thirties. (yeah they probably won’t be dirty, but it just sounds cool.)

And on that prophetical note, I leave you with this song that has make me feel so chill and cool this week and my weekly manicure. Peace baby, peace. Peace is coming my way and I am embracing it with a subtle smirk on my face.

Abuelita was channeling her inner Paula Deen layering on the butter for the french toast. NO wonder they tasted so good!!!  Yes I happily writing this blog post because I am surely recognizing that time spent with my mama and grandma is really the best way I can spend my time. AND, work is pretty calm and I’ve been exercising so much! Fingers crossed the rest of the week goes just as well. Go for the jump to see some more cute pictures and some delicious food.

Here is my lovely abuelita. I love that she always wears that flower barrette in her hair. She really loves me, did you know that?

And some lovely Wegmans sunflowers for the pretty lady.

and some cards from the grandchildren

I prepped the french toast batter and Scotty did the cooking. (4 eggs, 3/4 cup milk, 1/4 cup cream, tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp vanilla and blended it to kingdom come!)

And we had scones. Sour Lemon Scones I would say were to die for. I mean can my cousin Scotty be any more amazing?? Fabulous weather blogger and writer for the Baltimore Sun and an amazing baker to boot??? I love him. He got the recipe from the Baked boys. gooooooood recipe.

And voila! A beautiful brunch plate. Some fresh fruit, some french toast, our expertly cooked omelettes (filled with sliced ham, cheddar cheese, chives and sauteed onions and garlic).

The brunch food was really amazing. So much more cozy having it at home and the food was probably better than most places anyhow!  And Abuelita, had to add insult to injury, and fed us dessert – tres leches cake. We had good times looking at old pictures from Mexico and stalking our younger cousin Mikey and his recent prom pictures on facebook. What can I say? We are good facebook stalkers!

Here are two songs making me happy this week…. The first one is so poppy, but it gives me energy so thats cool!

This next video from the Shin’s is so well orchestrated and the song gives a welcome abandon kind of feeling. Love it!

And love all of the strawberries and Mexican food I got to eat last weekend! Did some outlet shopping, then made a nice meal for my roomie Jenn, and friends Allison and Rob. We had a really fun time walking around May Fest in Frederick and all of the fun activities that went along with that. I made a sweet three course meal for dinner and we got to eat al fresco! Go check out that meal below and see some shots from my Sunday Funday with Katie and Andrew!

I made pinto beans – refried frijole style from scratch and topped that on some homemade masa tortillas and then made them even more tasty with queso fresco and sliced up roasted poblano peppers. Because that appetizer was sooooo appetizing to me, I neglected to take a picture! Ha!

Then after stuffing ourselves with beans and cheese, we got started on the healthy entree. Rick Bayless’ Seared Halibut in Escabeche. Recipe here.

The sauce had so much flavor and it was cool making something called escabeche. I felt so latino!

And I paired that with some sauteed fresh corn and zucchini – a favorite summer staple of mi familia.

Then for dessert….

Strawberry Tart in a strawberry tart pan??? Could I be any more ironic!!

Vanilla pastry cream yummmm…. Recipe from Thomas Keller in Bouchon. Pastry cream here and crust recipe here.

This tart paired well with the frozen mousse dark chocolate FroZoe free from the little contest they had downtown that I surprisingly won!

So that meal went swimmingly. Glad we got to debut the first al fresco dining in our backyard for this season with something so delicious.  Oh but my good meals and good times did not stop on Saturday! Sunday morning as I walked downtown munching on half a chocolate chip muffin that I had picked up at the Frederick Farmer’s market on Saturday, I got to cheer on some friends as they ran the Frederick Half Marathon!! Good job Katy and Meg!  Then I headed to Baltimore and met KT and her new awesome beau Andrew at Little Havana’s.

We all had the cuban sandwich! I was a little peeved that their normal menu didn’t start until 3 pm. I was looking forward to a crab cake sandwich and sweet potato fries! Nonetheless, this afternoon in the sunshine on the porch was lovely as usual and we even had a cameo appearance from Laurita!

After that we strolled around Ft. McHenry and made it over to Fells to partake in more strolling, a Resurrection at One Eyed Mike’s and some delicious espresso/raspberry gelato at Pitango!

I love my city and I love my friends!! Happy Friday Ya’ll!

Making these simple peanut butter cookies was real fun. I saw the recipe from Cup of Jo and instantly thought, “oh! I could give them to my coworkers for all their help this week! and oh! I could give to my mom’s movers after all is said and done on Friday! and maybe there was an oh! I can eat some!”

Well the last one has already happened, and then first one went well, now its just that middle one that will prove to be an adventure all weekend. So go for the jump to see more cookie stuff that and just go have an awesome end of April adventure this weekend! And shout out to Beffy – it’s her birthday! Happy Birthday Beffy!!!

Cookie scooped peanut butter balls. sounds weird right.

Fork pressed! There is something about the look of fork pressed cookies that just reminds me of my childhood hanging with my mama.

and I made sure to put a nice smathering of vanilla sugar atop each one.

Cooling Cookies! Super good. Kinda sandy/dry on the outside but then kinda chewy on the inside. Maybe next time I would only cook them 13 minutes, instead of 15 to make them chewier. Either way, super easy recipe and it resulted in good flavor and a perfectly good peanut butter cookie.

And then this post wouldn’t be complete without detailing the song that brought me to joyous tears at the concert.

Keep Your Eyes Open…

If you could soldier on
Headstrong into the storm
I’ll be here waiting on the other side
Don’t look back
The road is long
The first days of the war are gone
Take back your former throne and turn the tide

Cause if you never leave home, never let go
You’ll never make it to the great unknown till you
Keep your eyes open, my love
So tell me you’re strong, tell me you see
I need to hear it, can you promise me to
Keep your eyes open, my love

Just past the circumstance
The first light, a second chance
No child could ever dance the way you do, oh
Tear down the prison walls
Don’t start the curtain call
Your chains will never fall until you do

Don’t let the night become the day
Don’t take the darkness to the grave
I know pain is just a place
The will has been broken
Don’t let the fear become the hate
Don’t take the sadness to the grave
I know the fight is on the way
When the sides have been chosen

Cause if you never leave home, never let go
You’ll never make it to the great unknown
Open up your eyes
Keep your eyes open
So tell me you’re strong, tell me you see
I need to hear it, can you promise me to
Keep your eyes open, my love
So show me your fire, show me your heart
You know I’ll never let you fall apart if you
Keep your eyes open, my love

Isn’t it purty? Yeah and all it took was two ingredients! Greek yogurt and strawberry freezer jam. And some time in the cold spinning machine.  Speaking of spinning… hope we have some fun spinning around the kitchen dance floor at Beth’s tonight for cookbook club. Alayne and I really feel its necessary to get our dance on at least for a little while each session of cookbook club. Love dancing with my ladies and really looking forward to all of this awesome pizza.   And maybe while dancing to this song.. pretty fun right?

Speaking of fun, (do you like how I’m doing this transitions??) I’ve been seeing this smart lady here in Frederick and she has been helping me learn how to treat myself better in my head. And although it has been making me cry tears of truth realization, it has been fun actually seeing these new thoughts actually working for what I want in my life.

Go for the jump to read more about my thoughts and to see more of the strawberry jam and my simple dinner from this week!

My favorite new smart lady suggested I read this book, Women, Food and God. I had heard about this book through Oprah awhile back. It has really helped me critically think about the way that I have been taking out my unhappiness with aspects of my life on my body… and that is through mindless eating. There has been stress, well there has always been stress, but its mostly coming from work and not exactly know what my plan is going to be in life. Auntie Helen is helping me to realize that I don’t need to have a plan, I just need to be happily content exactly where I am in life. So I’m working on that! And being happy right now is going to more feasible if I stop overeating and exercising more. Well I’m currently in the process of rereading that book and some key points have stuck with me. That voice, that awful voice in my head, that criticizes the current state of my body is not really me talking! I don’t actually think that way and continuing to listen to that voice is going to get me nowhere. I have started to shut out that awful voice and instead listen to the loving one. “Trust the longing, trust the love that can be translated into action without the threat of punishment. Trust that you will not destroy what matters most. Give yourself that much.”  It’s working. I haven’t given up on myself and sought out food for comfort, instead just actual nourishment this week. That doesn’t mean that I won’t ever go there again, but I’m rewarding myself with good healthy loving behavior and it just feels right.

And while we’re on the subject of self empowerment, go listen to this song while you read the rest of this post!

So anyways, back to the food… the healthy food!

Here is the strawberry jam that has been sitting in my freezer for nearly two years! Go here to see the recipe for that.

And then we have cheap perfect good Wegman’s greek yogurt. Normally I buy the fancy Chobani vanilla flavor to make my nightly chocolate sauce/mini-chocolate chips and aforesaid yogurt sundae, but for this, I went simple.

Mix them both together and into the ice cream maker! Gosh I never use this thing, and I stole it by default from Voldemort. Glad I got to keep it!!

To jazz it up just a bit, I added some sprinkles! Sprinkles are just the best.  One thing to note about this frozen yogurt, the eatability of it really is best right after you make it. Jen, my cousin, had warned that putting it in the freezer could make it reallly hard. So I split it into four containers. Reheating one container in the microwave the next night did help with the very hard texture, so I would try that also if you want to make this to last more than one dessert sitting!

And to be fair, I did cook one other thing this week. A simple roast of two bunches of asparagus and 1 pint of grape tomatoes, with lots of s&p with evoo. Then I boiled up half a box of whole wheat farfalle and then threw all of those things together with 4 oz of creme fraiche, a splash of lemon juice, and lots of dried parsley and roasted ground coriander.

Hooray for good health! And Fun Friday nights! Hope yours is good too.