What happiness feels like

I just love evenings like this.

Saint and I sitting here. Doing nothing. He watches tv. Right now it's some cop show. He is a bit obsessed with any kind of puzzle. He is working on finding a job as a fingerprint lab tech. Pretty cool. I am very impressed.

Tonight was cheese steak night. At our local sandwich shop. It's buy one, get one free. They are oh so good. Mine was meat and spaghetti sauce in this wonderful toasted hoagie. I think Saint had his usual - steak and cheese whiz stuff. Interesting, that's all I have to say about his. (cheese whiz, really?)

Then because Saint is always donating blood, he had a new coupon for a free pint of Baskin Robbins ice cream. YUM! I got to pick the flavor - snickers. Double yum!

Usually I read or play on my laptop. Though last night was good tv night with Two and a half men and Big Bang Theory. When we get up we tend to kiss each other. Or the occasional leg rub or arm pat. It's sweet. It feels like it should. This is what love feels like.

Happy. Peaceful. Easy.

Tonight, I'm sitting on the couch and he is resting against it on the floor. He really should turn in for bed, seeing how he has to be to work at 3:30am. Ugh. It's always so early. I think I am getting used to his schedule because I am usually awake for a bit after he leaves for work. I love that he wakes me up to say goodbye. Very sweet and touch romantic. He doesn't get ready in the dark, but does keep his stuff in the bathroom. Though he is such an expert at getting ready without me hearing anything.

Me? I can't sneak into my own place without making a ruckus. I always forget to do the things that will help make less noise. Things like fill up the humidifier. Put my pjs in the bathroom so I don't have to search for them. Then again, I can run into a chair with the lights on.

Sigh.

This is what happiness feels like.

Wordless Wednesday - hodge podge of pics

Saw this shopping one day. It basically describes exactly how I feel.


Beautiful moment -

Saint and I were talking about the new movie coming out. Couldn't remember if I'd seen Shrek 3 so when I went to search it, go distracted and made an ogre. Click here.


Visit other FUNtabulous photos at Wordless Wednesday

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Post It Note Tuesday

Martha Monday

Monday Martha is a reflection on something (anything) creative that you accomplished. It can be cooking, scrapbooking, sewing, gardening, home improvements, etc. Celebrate the time you took just to do something you love.

I wanted to do this because I love to be creative and I love all the awesome ideas that Martha Stewart comes up with. Last year I was given the book Martha Stewart Cooking School book. It has taken me this long to crack it open and start spending time learning something I love - cooking.

Feel free to GRAB THE BUTTON at the top of the post (right click & save) and link up (mr. linky at bottom of post). Express yourself and share your creative vibes.

Last week I made Roasted Pork Loin with Pancetta and Sage (pg 142 in the MSCS book). Here is what I did with my leftovers.

I heated up the pork, toasted the bread and made a sandwich melt then ate it with leftover potato salad. YuM!

This past week, I decided to conquer a BIG item that has always been on my list of things to cook.

RACK OF LAMB

When I went shopping, I know now to always walk into the grocery and go straight back to the meat department because if they do not have what I want I know I will have to go somewhere else. I do not want to buy all of my goodies without the main course. And since I have yet to become proficient in what is in season (maybe next lesson), I am just picking out a recipe I want to cook and then going from there.

The problem I had this time was I couldn't find the right spices. I have owned a spice rack for about six years now and I have only used two of the spices - cinnamon (for cinnamon and sugar toast) and paprika (for deviled eggs). This time the recipe required fresh mint leaves and fresh flat leaf parsley leaves. I did have crushed parsley, but no mint. I knew I could probably get away with the crushed parsley, but since I had to look for the mint . . . . I wish I could go online and create a spice rack that only sold the items I needed and used on a daily basis because obliviously the ones the pre-arranged rack don't work.

I made the lamb coating first which contained parsley, mint, lemon, lemon zest, EVOO, salt and bread crumbs.

I purchased TWO rack of lambs each a little over 1.5 lbs, but I was serving 4 people and two of them were men. I didn't want to short change my guests so I went for the two, instead of one rack.

I patted them both dry with paper towels then showered them in pepper and salt. I then, put them in the pan on the stove and seared both sides on med-high heat for about 2 minutes.

When they were done and cooled a bit, I covered them in greek-style yogurt (pretty liberally) and then poured the coating over it I patted it into the yogurt to make it compact. I then put them both in the oven for 24 minutes.

Peeking in the oven.

For the side, I decided on corn on the cobb. It is Saint's favorite recipe and I thought it would be a healthier choice than potatoes. I really wanted asparagus, but didn't want to cook two veggies. I bought corn on the cobb with the husks but because the husks wouldn't all fit in the pan at once, I peeled them. My dad says to let the corn on the cobb soak in water for 10 minutes before cooking.

Corn on the cobb was a lesson for me. I STARTED THE STOVE ON FIRE. Apparently, there was something on the burner. As the corn water boiled over a bit, a flame shot up and over the pot. I screamed and started hopping from foot to foot. I looked at Saint who was in the living room and while still hopping yelped, "FIRE!! FIRE, FIRE FIRE!!!" He jumped up and asked where. I pointed to the back of the boiling pot of water and he just kind of waved it off and said it would burn out. I, on the other hand, was freaking out. I looked at him and said, "well now that we are on the subject. WHAT DO I DO IF THERE IS A FIRE?" And he proceeded to show me where the fire extinguisher is in my new apartment (noting that it is ok to break the glass, better than the building burning down. He told me water is good for normal fires, but powder (like flour) is good for electrical fire. Again, emphasizing that clenaing up powder and water or ruining the food is not as bad as the place burning down.

The two racks actually took almost twice as long to cook being that I cooked them at the same time.

Saint was kind enough to cut them for me. There was a small bone that connected all the lamb together. It was very hard to cut through. Mental note, maybe pick up a meat cutter or knife.

Here is how pretty the table turned out. Now I really want to take some sort of table etiquette class so I know how to set a table.  Along with the rack of lamb, corn on the cobb. I provided a make your own salad with tomatoes, cheese, avocado, nuts and craisins. My mom brought oatmeal, raisin, chocolate chip cookies for dessert. We had a few glasses of wine before dinner (waiting for the meat to cook) and during because it was so pleasant.