Weekend Exploits: 8 Things

1) In an effort to make myself a more well-rounded person, I’ve decided to start going to sporting events.

NOT. We scored Diamond tickets to see the Astros and I was like well HELLO free food. Nice to see you again.

I’m sure the these buffet lines, classy-looking or not, are not designed to be gourmet culinary delights, but I could not get enough of these smoky, meaty roasted until nearly leathery beets! Those and the corn maque choux are making their way on my to-do list.

2) A study in focus. The left half is where my attention was for the grand majority of the 3-ish innings we sat through.

3) I spotted a hooligan scaling the fence outside my apartment the other day. Said hooligan might be someone’s boyfriend who scales fences so that someone else doesn’t have to walk down four flights of stairs to let him in. Said boyfriend might be the most considerate guy in the world and also an enabler (of laziness)

4) It was ON Friday night. Relaxation time, that is…

Homemade pizza dough, a little bit of white wine, and falling asleep after the first 20 minutes of “The Descendants.” The rest of our date plan (me learning how to hit balls at the driving range + a night-time dip in the pool) got rained out, as did our alternative date plan (a drive-in movie). I’m thinking we should start a date night blog?

This was not my favorite dough (although my friend’s version was delicious), but now I’m obsessed with thin, chewy crust and can’t wait to make this no-knead number. It only takes TWENTY AND A HALF HOURS. (Mostly waiting time).

5) We spent all of Saturday eating carbs. After buying two bikes and some bonus kitchen gadgets from a lovely couple we found on Craigslist, we polished off about five Mexican pastries from El Bolillo. (The couple, by the way–guess where they’re moving to? They don’t know. Just “somewhere in the Caribbean.” They’re scuba instructors. They go where they want.) Then pretended to move stuff at my apartment. Then ate leftover pizza. Then, what for dinner?

Strawberry, brie and chocolate paninis.

On homemade no-knead bread. It just sounded like a good idea. Plus a huuuuuuuuuuge Greek salad. And the rest of the white wine. And then we went out and (finally!) had a 21-year old worthy Saturday night.

6) THIS happened at the crack of dawn Sunday morning (10:30 a.m.)

How? I don’t know. Above: recipe girl’s cinnamon roll pancakes and these red velvet pancakes. A fab Sunday brunch, but I am doubling or tripling the amount of cocoa powder in the red velvet next time. And how to keep the sugar from burning when you flip the cinnamon roll pancakes? Mysteries of life.

7) And finally, all moved in to the new apartment after two days of semi-lazy moving, the first meal was…

White cheddar mac and cheese with corn, duh.

I <3 my apartment.

And number 8), not pictured, is the STRAWBERRY CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM WE MADE. Remember those “kitchen gadgets” I bought from the scuba couple? THAT INCLUDED AN ICE CREAM MAKER.

We used the easy vanilla ice cream recipe that came with the ice cream maker (it really was easy–no cooking, no egg yolks required) froze it according to the manufacturer’s directions, and added 2/3 cup melted chocolate chips + 5 chopped strawberries at the end.

Unfortunately, the manufacturer kind of sucks because our ice cream was basically slush. I’ll get it right, though–practice makes perfect 😉