Where, you ask? Yeah, I'd never heard of it either until the class I was supposed to take in my hometown didn't get enough participants and the closest alternative was Chelmsford, MA. There's not exactly much to do here, but I'm actually enjoying my "alone" time. After traveling for work quite a bit in the past 3 years, I've discovered that I don't mind being alone one bit. That may change when I'm not constantly with 5 other people, a cat, and a dog, but for now, I don't mind. Of course, my first choice would be to be with my family, but I'm having a glorious few days doing what I want when I want.
I don't even mind eating out alone - especially when it's on my company's dime. I usually treat myself to a glass of wine, read my e-mails, check my facebook, annoy the crap out of my husband by texting him photos of everything I'm eating and drinking, then read Kindle on my phone while I eat. Tonight I chatted with some fellow business-travelling ladies from Dallas sitting next to me (but I'm usually traditionally Yankee stand-off-ish and don't talk to anyone).
The first night here, I ate a yummy cherry pepper flatbread from Moonstones
I liked it so much that I skipped dinner last night and ate my leftovers.
Tonight, I ate at a place called Fishbones. Nice decor, don't you think?
Yummy blackened swordfish with pineapple salsa.
I also drank a bellitinitini.
Never had one before, but I was sold on the advertised peach puree. I managed to drink it, but I'm not sure it was really my thing. I didn't really need it, but I had a glass of Prosecco for dessert - my first white wine of the season.
I usually drink red when it's cold and white when it's warm. It was gorgeous and approaching 70 today. I think it was the first day in 6 months where I haven't been freezing my butt off.
The two drinks is probably what's making me brave enough to post a photo by myself. Here I am eating all by my lonesome.
I stumbled home on the lovely Bruce Freeman Rail Trail where I've been running/walking every day.
Other than that, I've been spending oodles of time surfing recipes and cooking blogs on the web. Do you have any favorites I should follow? I've been following Pioneer Woman, Smitten Kitchen, and Pinch My Salt for ages, but I just added as many as possible to my Feedly feed last night. I'm not positive that will still work after the Google Reader end of life. I still need to research that some more. What are you all going to do? I mostly used the Google Next button which I loved because it took me to the actual blog.
I'm still totally on a cooking kick. Here's what I made for meals last week.
Sunday: Barbeque Shrimp, Chips, Guacamole, corn, Poblano Jack Cheddar Beer Bread (if I make this again, I need to cook it longer) S'mores Cookies, Strawberry Chocolate Chip Ice Cream (I used Pioneer Woman's Blackberry Ice Cream recipe, but blackberries aren't exactly in season now, so I subbed strawberries.)
It was so good! We used chopped up Hershey bars leftover from the cookies. Does anyone know where you can get those flat square chips that you find in mint chocolate chip ice cream?
The S'more's Cookies were the third in our project to make I Heart Naptime's 50 favorite cookie repices. We all liked these. I might skip the cinnamon next time and maybe double or 1 1/2 the Hershey bars.
Next up are Cookies and Cream Cookies. Here's Addie picking the next recipe out of our basket of recipes.
and Frank carefully pressing the Hershey bars into the partially baked cookies.
Monday: Pretzel Chicken (again!). This time we used the Snyder's Honey Mustard and Onion Pieces for extra flavor. I'm not sure it really made that much difference. Crash Hot Potatoes (never any leftovers with these babies). Carrot Sticks.
Tuesday: Pork Satay with Peanut Sauce (this was so good - it converted my husband from his vegetarian ways - I feel a bit guilty), Quinoa Salad (I liked it well enough but not a big hit.)
Wednesday: Leftovers and my husband cooked up some pasta because the peanut sauce was just so damn good.
Friday night, I went a little crazy preparing for an overnight in Rangeley and made my new favorite Jacques Torres Infamous Chocolate chip cookies found on via I Heart Naptime. I'm really liking the Crepes of Wrath blog - home to these cookies - and have already marked a bunch of recipes to try.
I also made bagels and my favorite Pain a l'Ancienne from Peter Rheinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice.
I have a reprieve from cooking this week, since I'm out of town. Since I've had so much extra time on my hands, I think I just about have the next 3 weeks of meals planned. For me, that's almost the hardest part.
I originally had really good intentions of making a blouse for Spring Top Sewalong, and I was a good portion of the way there on Thursday night. I might have been able to finish by the deadline of Friday night, but then I remembered that I'm trying hard to be patient with myself. Rushing to finish a shirt didn't really fit in with that.
I also intended to cut out a bunch of things for Kids Clothing Week and to bring my sewing machine to Chelmsford with me. It was such a great idea, since, other than class, I have no commitments and could sew uninterrupted, but I had a chance to go to Rangeley for the night and hike with my girls on Sunday.
So I didn't have much time to prepare, and I decided that didn't fit in well with being patient with myself either. I am feeling a bit bummed about missing out on KCW especially seeing everyone else's posts about it, but I think I'll manage. I'll sew when the motivation and opportunity strikes and not worry about it other than that.
I'm not completely craftless. I brought my knitting. I'm working on a Judith sweater and finally started on one of the sleeves.
Hope you're well and enjoying KCW!
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