This weekend was surprisingly slow-paced — at least once we got back to the house on Saturday.
Saturday morning it was: up, workout, shower, drive Dan to work — oh, yeah, Dan’s car broke down Friday night, JOY! — and take Flora and Kate to church by 9 a.m. for Kate’s First Reconciliation. That was a little bit of scrambling and running around. And at the last minute, Michael decided he didn’t want to go to church with us. Instead of fighting with him, I sent him to Bella and Tadone. (Oh, yeah, Bella and Tadone are back from Florida. They are glad to be home, but they would like warmer weather to GET HERE SOON, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.)
We had been having Internet connectivity issues, so I had scheduled a technician visit Saturday afternoon between the hours of 1 and 5 p.m. In my head, I pretty much blocked off that time, and made no plans.
Turns out the guy showed up around 12:50, and was gone by 1:30. The girls made themselves scarce by going next door to hang out with their cousins. Michael and I played a little bit, and I also made strawberry banana muffins to celebrate Kate’s reconciliation. I used my trusty Moosewood recipe, although I added too much milk (a cup instead of a 1/2 cup — not sure where my head was when I read that part), and had to start the wet ingredients over.
All in all, it was a quiet afternoon and evening. I didn’t even cook dinner, we just got a take-and-bake pizza, which seems to be our Saturday night dinner lately.
Sunday, however, I was determined to cook, and cook a lot. I had wanted to run to the store — we are badly in need of vegetables — but the weather precluded that nonsense.
So I stayed in and made mujadara from this recipe (h/t to @jonniker, who shared it on Twitter). I finished it in the rice cooker instead of on the stove top. I also topped with feta when I served it. It is DELICIOUS. Letting the onions cook for a long time is absolutely key, so make it when you have some time to caramelize.
I also made a three-bean chili because I didn’t have any soy crumbles. Basically: two cloves of garlic; three small carrots; chili powder to taste; a can each of garbanzo, black, and kidney beans, a can of diced tomatoes. I drained the garbanzo beans and kidney beans, but not the black beans or tomatoes. Turned out pretty good!
And then, for my finale, I made snickerdoodle cookies from this recipe (h/t @mindybakes), and you should do the same. They are wonderful.
What did you cook this weekend?
Red Pen Mama 