friends, (s)family, food, fun!

for the first time in a long time, i had a super awesome, jam-packed weekend that included some girl time, seeing friends i haven't seen in a while, pajama time with my family, and, of course, more cooking fun.

we got some unexpected extra time with the teen, who stayed with us through late saturday morning. bonus! her dad was out of town for work on friday, and she just bit the bullet and asked him if she could stay, since he wasn't going to be around anyway. and wonder of wonders, he actually let her. i was shocked, and so was the teen. this threw a little bit of a wrinkle in my plans, but one that was easy to fix.

i had a class reunion meeting that afternoon, and was all set to drop off the bean at the hub's grandparents' house for about an hour or so. the meeting was scheduled to start right at the time that i normally go to pick up the teen from school. and so that morning, i wrote her a note to pull her out of 6th period (which is her T.A. class anyway, so no biggie) and the new plan was for her to hang out with the bean at home. sounds simple, right? but we were a little nervous as this was the first time for them to be alone together for any period of time. i knew they'd be fine, and i was only down the street, so when it was time, the teen took her sister into her bedroom to play and i slipped right out the door.

the meeting was at the local corner bakery and ended up being just me and one other committee member, cornell. the other two ladies couldn't make it for different reasons, so the two of us caught up for a bit and then dug right in. we discussed possible venues, dates, vendors, and each took a list of assignments to tackle before the next meeting, which we scheduled for next month.

before i left, i placed an order for a late lunch for me and the teen. i ended up waiting for over ten minutes for it to be ready, and as i stood there looking exasperated, the manager came over to see if i was okay. i was nice about it, and he went right into the kitchen to crack some heads. turns out that both cooks thought the other was fulfilling my order. d-oh! i ended up walking outta there with my order and $10 in corner bakery bucks. sweet!

and the teen did a great job entertaining her sister for an hour-ish. she even said "we should do this more often, it was fun!" awwwww. they had some great bonding time. yay!

i got the chance to try out yet another chocolate chip cookie recipe before i had to leave to meet the girls for dinner. i'd heard great things about this recipe, so i was happy to try it out. and i followed it to the letter - i even rolled the dough in 1/2 cup-sized balls and broke them in half, which i thought was kind of strange, but whatever.

and they turned out PERFECTLY - a little crispy on the edges, chewy in the middle, and these were nice, big cookies. i'd say they were at least twice as big as what i usually produce. this was good, because it made it easier to stop at one cookie, rather than chowing through about three to get my fix. heh.

on my way to meet the girls for dinner at chaya downtown, i dropped off the teen at BFF's house. it'd been a while since they'd seen each other, and i was glad they were getting some time to hang out.

lucky for me, there was no traffic all the way to l.a., and i pulled into the parking lot just before 6. i managed to snag a sweet spot right next to the elevator (although i wasn't sure if that was the valet lot or not. oh, well), made sure to bring my ticket to have it validated, and made my way upstairs to the restaurant.

the gang was [almost] all there: amber, ann marie, insomniac, and diame. once the monkey arrived, the party was complete. we noshed on all sorts of yummy happy hour eats - sushi, calamari, bruschetta, cocktails. of course, i stuck to plain ol' coke, but it didn't lessen the fun at all. the conversation was lively and cheerful, and it was a great time. the monkey got a great group shot, and i'm sure she'll post it soon. so much fun!

on saturday, i decided to make more of those delightful æbleskivers, but this time i used one of the williams-sonoma recipes to make the batter from scratch. i'd been cheating and using simple pancake mix for my earlier endeavors, and since i had the whole family home and ready to eat, i thought it'd be nice to make the good stuff.

and what a difference! this batter was uber fluffy, thanks to the whipped egg whites that were folded in.

they even looked fluffy as they cooked in the pan.

i made a lemon cream cheese filling and dropped little spoonfuls in:

and then hoped for the best as i flipped. i learned that the "real" batter is ridiculously easy to flip over - maybe the pancake batter is just too heavy to do it right.

looks good, yes?

with the teen back at her dad's *tear* we busted out some fat ribeye steaks for dinner. i sauteed some veggies and made some rice to go with them, and it was all delicious. so delicious that i didn't even bother to take a picture - i just devoured it. after a week of no meat, i was excited to savor every bite of that steak. yum.

sunday, as the hub jumped in the shower to take the bean to church, i got her ready and put her in one of my favorite dresses:

she always crouches down whenever i do, so that's the best shot i have. you don't even get to see the fabulous hot pink satin lining that peeks out from underneath the dress. ah, well.

when they left, i got myself ready too - for the baby shower that we were throwing for our dear friend lilcee. she's expecting a girl in late may, and i was excited to see her and the rest of the girls. we don't get to see each other often enough.

i couldn't find a single fucking thing to wear that i liked. but i ran out of time, so i ended up settling on a dress i've had for a few years and pairing it with my knee-high slut boots. klassy, eh?

on my way to the venue, i swung by to scoop up lilcee, and we had fun chatting and laughing in the car. when we opened the door and walked in, i was delighted to be greeted by tater and nanette, who'd also brought her gorgeous little em dash:

those eyes! so beautiful.

our table was sporting these pretty little flower arrangements, courtesy of venn:

and we loved watching these two sweet, well-behaved SFAMily babies munch on their toes, babble, and smile:

r certainly had a way with both of them - they loved her lots.

we had three menus to pick from - breakfast, brunch, and lunch. i opted for a ham, cheese and mushroom omelet with hash browns - and chose silver dollar pancakes instead of toast. yum! and because i could, i got a side of bacon, too.

we even shared dessert! there was apple pie, cheesecake, creme brulee, and lemon meringue pie. the latter two were my favorites.

check out the cuteness of our mommy-to-be!

it was over all too soon. we made our rounds with hugs and goodbyes, and then we all went our separate ways.

i went home to relax, and then decided to make some more cookies - chocolate with peanut butter chips this time. hey, the other ones were all gone.

while i worked, the bean found a new place to play.

i hate applebee's. it's one of the few chains that i really think is shitty. but i found a recipe for asian chicken salad online, and i thought it would make a perfect, light sunday night dinner. and it did!

whew. it was such a lovely weekend! and now, i must brainstorm for ideas on how to celebrate the hub's 30th birthday...this week. shit.

eat your greens!

even though i haven't done much shopping in quite a while (*tear*), i still get a shitton of catalogs in the mail almost every freaking day. i guess it's a good thing we live in a place the size of a thimble, with no room to put shit away in, because i shouldn't be buying anything anyway.

in the last williams-sonoma catalog i got, i flipped through the pages, oohing and aahing at all the fun kitchen stuff in there. and then i turned a page and saw this:
i'm totally drooling all over myself again just at the sight of it. cute little puffy pancakes, filled with chocolate, drizzled with even more chocolate, and served with a dollop of sweet whipped cream. and this is breakfast. niiiiice. i tossed that catalog in the recycle bin and forgot all about it until i was browsing on amazon, and found a cheaper version of the puff pancake pan. um, with free shipping. sold!

yesterday, i decided to give it a shot. i googled for recipes and learned that they're actually called æbleskivers, a dutch treat typically served at christmas breakfast. they can be sweet - filled with chocolate, jam, cream cheese, or savory - stuffed with cheese, veggies, bacon. i picked a simple recipe from the williams-sonoma website and busted out the nutella to use as my filling.

i put little dabs of butter in each well:

filled them with batter, and then dropped in a tablespoonful of nutella:

flipping them over was a little tricky, but with the nonstick surface (and that lovely coating of butter), i got the hang of it after the first couple of tries.

when they were a nice shade of golden brown, i put them on a plate and sprinkled some powdered sugar on top.

these are so much fun, and really yummy. hopefully, my next attempts won't be as misshapen. i can't wait till the teen gets home so i can try out a lemon mascarpone-stuffed version! well, and maybe one with bacon bits too. gotta have the right balance of sweet and salty, right? heh.

i'd gone to costco and picked up a 2-pound bag of asparagus. inexplicably, i LOVE asparagus. i don't know what it is about it, but it's my very favorite vegetable. and corner bakery used to serve a really delicious cream of asparagus soup, but they haven't offered it in a couple of years. so i decided to make my own, and went with this recipe.

it was surprisingly easy, and with a few tweaks here and there, i ended up with a pot simmering on the stove that was chock-full of creamy asparagus-y goodness.

i served it with my favorite spinach salad, and it made for a really yummy dinner. i guess i could've saved it for st. patty's day, since everything's such a lovely shade of green, but i refuse to serve anything but corned beef and cabbage on this holiday.

ah, how i love to cook.