Menu-Plan Monday, March 31

 

This is the cabin in Montebello, Virginia, where I spent Easter with my Mom and two sisters.  Isn’t it cute?  It’s main part was built 170 years ago.  A kitchen and bath were added to the back, giving one all the modern conveniences.  (Although the only heat is from the wood stove, and it did get a little chilly at night.)  We did a bit of hiking in Natural Bridge, VA, and also took in the sights along the Blue Ridge Parkway.  I spent three years living in Lexington, VA (for law school), and find this part of the country to be quite beautiful and peaceful.

         

     

Natural Bridge, VA

 

View from the Blue Ridge Parkway near Montebello, VA

       

This week’s menu swap is hosted by Gluten Free Mommy, and the ingredient of the week is lemon.  I’ve discovered that our local whole food store carries local, grass-fed beef, and I’m looking forward to trying it.  I think the same farm also supplies them with pork and chicken. 

    

 

    

Here’s my menu for the week:

Monday:
Feta-topped Chicken with Veggies
(I never got to that last week)

Tuesday:
Out to Dinner

Wednesday:
Lemony Shrimp Salad
with Tomato, Avocado and Bacon

Thursday:
Greek Rigatoni
(Pasta with Feta, Sun-dried Tomatoes, and Olives)

Friday:
Chicken Parmesan
Carrie’s Lemon Butter Chicken
Gnocchi, Veggie (of some kind)

Saturday:
Grilled Steak (local and grass-fed)
Baked Sweet Potato, Salad

  

And the most important this happening this week is that the Sox start the season - again.  They are playing the A’s up in Oakland on April 1; Matzusaka for the Sox, Blanton for the A’s.  Then on the 2nd, Lester and Harden.  GO SOX!!!

 

 

Breakfast with the Champions

PLAY BALL!

 

 

  

Yes, I did get up at 6 am this morning to watch my Boston Red Sox take on the Oakland A’s live from Japan.  I was a little worried that I shouldn’t have bothered.  Daisuke looked a little shaky.  Okay, let’s be honest, he looked terrible in the first couple of innings.  He just couldn’t find the strike zone.  (Reminds me of the line in Bull Durham when Crash tells LaLoosh that he couldn’t hit the water falling out of a boat.)  But he settled down and got the ball over the plate without doing any more damage.  He didn’t look great, but better.  He’ll be fine.  Snyder didn’t help the cause any, but the rest of the pitching staff was able to hold it together. 

Fortunately, our offense managed to step up to the plate (literally) and clean up the mess.  And yeah for Brandon Moss!  Getting his first big league home run on opening day in the 9th inning to tie the game - talk about clutch!  (It is a little worrying that Drew is hurt - again - as that seems to be a recurring problem for him.)  And of course, what would a game be without Manny being Manny, driving in the game winning runs?

Unfortunately, I was only able to watch the first half of the game before I had to leave for work.  It was tied 2-2 when I left, and then I had no TV or radio, MLB gameday was down and ESPN’s live game tracker was lagging, so I had no idea what was going on.  Boo.

But Good job Sox!  (The final score was 6-5, by the way.)  1 game down, 161 to go.  Now maybe they could try to play tomorrow’s game in only 9 innings and keep the drama to a minimum.  I’ll be up again at 6 am to watch!

 

“Peep” Show

see more crazy cat pics

 

Happy New Year!

I think I need to catch to breath.

It’s been a crazy month. I have so much to tell you all - so many stories, so many pictures. (By the way, you can see all the pictures in my album that I posted on the blog, top-left side.) I don’t quite know where to start.

I got home from Australia on New Year’s Eve at about 10:30 pm. I’ve since managed to get a nasty cold, so I’m not getting this year off to such a great start. At least it has no where to go but up!

I’ve had a little time to browse some of your blogs - it looks like everyone had a great holiday season. I missed everyone while I was gone! I’ll probably get to read most, but probably not comment on anything. I don’t want to say that I’m not looking back, because I obviously will be, but I think I’ll mostly just jump on in to 2008 will all that it has to offer - the good, the bad, the unexpected. (I’m not a fan of change, or the unexpected, but this year will bring, at the very least, a change in jobs for me.)

I’ll slowly get back into cooking and baking. Over the few weeks, I’ll be going through my recipes and thinking of all sorts of fun things to experiment with. I got several new cookbooks for Christmas, as well as a renewal of my Food and Wine Magazine. And I’ll be using that survey I did as a rough guide for posts.

And I promise to tell you all about my travels, I just wanted to get a post up to say “hello” and “Happy New Year” to all! I’ve missed you!