heather & olive

This weekend was an exercise in gluttony:

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Friday night MET and I venture to the Red Raven Gastropub (which is one of my absolute faves). We sat at the bar, drank Manhattans and stuffed our faces with bacon-butter brussel sprouts, sticky sesame wings, steak and fish tacos. It was heaven.

Saturday I was feeling rather hungover, and I met my sister for lunch. A bloody mary, tuna tartare, and giant burger later meant I was on the mend. (And I crushed all of those fries. CRUSHED THEM).

Saturday night I cooked up some french onion soup with crostini and gruyere (this is my favorite recipe if you can get your mitts on this jam).

And Sunday I baked some peanut butter cookies with peanut butter M&Ms and short ribs with mashed potatoes and garlic bread.

I'm eating vegetables the rest of the week.

Last Thursday was one of those nights where you don't feel like ordering in (because you know you have perfectly good food in the fridge) but you also don't feel like running out to the store for a few missing ingredients. I decided to make do with what I had in the kitchen and the results were absolutely delicious. I took some sad-looking sweet potatoes, gave them a good bake, and then topped with caramelized onions, balsamic mushrooms, crispy prosciutto and blue cheese crumbles.



What you need:

• Sweet Potato(es)
• Mushrooms (I used one container of pre-sliced buttons for two people)
• Garlic (1 clove minced)
• Prosciutto, chopped (I did around 1/4 lb.--all I had left in a package)
• Yellow onion (1 small)
• Blue cheese crumbles
• Olive oil and 1 tablespoon of butter
• Balsamic vinegar

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Oh, Monday. I had such big plans for this weekend on Friday, and it all turned to complete MUSH. The cabinets did not get painted (they are seriously the bane of my existence) and the only household accomplishment I had was folding the laundry I did on Thursday and washing my sheets. I suppose there's always next weekend. (I did do non-household-related fun things however, and that definitely counts for something),

Here's to a good and hopefully productive week!

Bunwarmer.

I don't know about you, but Friday couldn't get here fast enough. Getting back into a routine with work after a holiday break is always a struggle, but for some reason this year hit me hard. I'm so wiped, and the subzero temps aren't helping. Thankfully the new digs have forced hot air as the heating system, so I've been rather toasty. And Olive definitely appreciates it--as soon as we come in from a walk she beelines to the closest vent to warm her buns.

I'm looking forward to doing a whole lot of nothing this weekend, aside from painting my kitchen cabinets (which I've been putting off for weeks--I've come to really hate painting. It's not fun).

Happy weekend!

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I will:

• drink more water
• (doable.)
• lose some lbs. 
• (it's either that or buy an entire new wardrobe, and the thought alone exhausts me.)
• drink less alcohol. 
• (eh.)
• dress up more for work (once my pants fit)
• (doable.)
• bake more, but don't indulge in the fruits of my labor.
• (see pants, above.)

Oh, heyyyyy. I didn't mean to fall off the radar completely over the past two months, but I have a legitimate excuse: I bought a house.