a99kitten’s Musings

Quick, easy and YUMMY dinner!

2 large (full) boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Mushrooms
Zucchini
Broccoli
Sliced water chestnuts (canned and sliced from grocery store – way easy)
whatever veggies you want really
Sesame seeds (located in our your spice aisle)

Cut up the chicken in bite-sized pieces and brown in a teeny bit of olive or vegetable oil. You do not want excess oil so I would say a tablespoon or so. I saute it in a wok over medium. Takes about 20 minutes between cutting and cooking. You do need a big pan as you will be adding the veggies to this.

Drain excess oil out if any.

Pour about 1/4 cup of peanut sauce into the chicken and stir so it’s all covered with it. And then cover the pan and simmer on loooow. You can make your own peanut sauce pretty easily or just buy it. I’ve done both and I like making it so I know the ingredients and fat count but during the week, it’s easier to use the store bought. I use Bangkok Padang Peanut Sauce. Quite tasty.

Cut up broccoli (I only use the florets) and slice zucchini and mushrooms. Pour a teeny bit of toasted sesame oil in a large pan and saute broccoli on medium-low. Then pour in mushrooms, water chestnuts (drained) and then zucchini. Use your judgment on when each is nearing done to add the next. Zucchini takes no time at all and broccoli takes the longest (to my taste anyway.) You might want to add a bit more toasted sesame oil over them all as you cook. This adds a lot of flavor, but also more fat :)

When they seem almost cooked, pour them into the chicken and sauce that is simmering and mix them all together, making sure to get the peanut sauce all mixed in with everything. You might need to add a bit more sauce to cover everything (that is a personal taste/dietary/volume of veggies choice.) Now cover and simmer for about 5-7 minutes.

Now top with sesame seeds and YUM! Easy peanut chicken.

I use Annie Chun’s Sticky White Rice bowls and pour the chicken over the sticky rice. I split 1 bowl for 2 people. If you are like me and will eat any and all carbs in your sight line, this is a great option to keep you honest :) You can buy them in packs of 6 on Amazon (I love Amazon!) But I think most big/decent grocery stores carry them now too. Best part – microwaveable! ALSO, it’s wheat and gluten free for those that care about/need that!

This is a yummy and pretty easy and quick meal that I LOVE! I love peanut chicken but in restaurants you can see the oil glistening off of it so I do tend to avoid it. At least at home you can control it for the most part. Especially if you make your own peanut sauce which is surprisingly pretty easy. But not quite easy enough for a work day dinner (by the time I get home and am starving my guts out anyway) :)

Now if I just had a Reese’s Peanut Butter cup laying around, my PB love would be complete!

Introducing Red Velvet Fried Chicken…

Red Velvet Fried Chicken

Fried chicken and waffles. So far, so good.

Red Velvet Fried Chicken, available at American Cupcake, 415-896-4217

What. The. Hell. You know I have to try this….

Last weekend I was going through my giant stack of non-cookbook recipes – torn out pages from magazines, printed from online sources, given to me, emailed to me, etc, etc. Plenty of them are yummy looking (obviously or I wouldn’t have kept them) but a lot of them are pasta ones or fatty-fatness ones that are no good for the beginning of bikini season!

I found one torn from a magazine that looked delicious. There is no notation printed on the page of where so I apologize to the original author of this as I can’t give credit.

Jalapeno Roast Chicken

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (packed) fresh oregano leaves
1 shallot
4 gloves of garlic
4 tbsp. unsalted butter
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 jalapeno pepper, stemmed and seeded
salt and pepper
1 5.5 lb whole roasting chicken
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup dry white wine

Now…this seemed an easy enough ingredient list. I kinda scanned the recipe too but went off the ingredient list when i went to the store. Mistake. I had half this stuff already and found the jalapeno, oregano and chicken. Nothing too hard to find. BUT…had I read the recipe thoroughly, I would have seen the need for kitchen string (wha?) I also needed a food processor and a roasting pan – I have those. But I also needed the rack for the roasting pan…doh. In Tahoe…Oh well. As it turned out, I think this allowed the chicken to suck in more moisture so was really genius on my part not to use the rack ;)

When I found the chicken at the meat counter, the outside of the packaging said “some of the giblets may not be contained inside” What do you mean by “some”? Because I want them all gone. Nada giblets. No such luck for me…

Also…had I read the recipe I would have seen the need for using my fingers to loosen the skin, but not detaching it, to spread the jalapeno paste I would be making. Ew.

Well..I had all the ingredients and I was standing in the kitchen ready to make it. So I would try this. If you cook a lot you are wondering why is any of this a big deal. Well…I can barely touch raw, boneless meat at all. I buy all of my chicken as skinless, boneless chicken breasts, all fish is filleted, all steaks are boneless and I eat nothing “weird.” If it looks like it was once living, I don’t want it. I’ll just eat rice….

So…I had to fish the giblets out of the chicken. Crap. I put on a new pair of dish-washing gloves and did it. I got grossed out and kinda wanted to cry. Yes, I’m a baby. Whatever. But it was done. Storm asked if he could help…

I can help...

Preparation:
1. preheat oven to 400. Place rack in center of oven.

2. combine the oregano, shallot (I cut up), garlic (I cut up), butter (cut in small pieces), olive oil, jalapeno (which I cut up), 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper in a food processor and mix to form a coarse paste.

3. pat the chicken dry and place, breast-side up, on a rack in a large roasting pan.

4. using your fingers, loosen the skin from the chicken breast, legs and thighs without detaching it. Spread half the jalapeno paste under the skin. (ick.)

5. tie chicken legs together with kitchen string (or not if you don’t have it..oops), then spread the remaining paste all over the outside of the chicken.

6. pour the chicken broth and white wine into roasting pan. (try not to drink the rest of wine as you cook ;) )

7. roast the chicken (basting with pan juices every 20 minutes and adding broth to the pan if it starts to dry out) for 1 hour and 30 minutes.

8. if there are juices in the pan, strain and pour over chicken.

I served with roasted asparagus, refried beans (if you use canned beans *Rosarito Spicy Jalapeno kind* you need to refry them yourself – not just warmed up from can in a pot or microwaved! EW! and mix in a bit of milk as you “fry” them so they are creamy but have the crisped outside as you cook them. trust me. mexican household secret from my in-laws) and warm corn tortillas that you cook with a SMALL touch of butter over a warm flat pan.

I’ve made homemade corn tortillas before and they SO much better than store bought. But did not do that today. Buy the Guerrero brand – best ones I have found unless you have access to fresh at a mexi-mart. me = not driving over the hill for tortillas….

The asparagus:
roll in olive oil so evenly covered
place on baking sheet
rub crushed garlic on the stalks
sprinkle with a dry cheese – shaved parmesan works best or mozzarella.
sprinkle with black pepper
Roast for 15 minutes at 450.

Was very, very delicious if I do say so myself (and husband agreed – huskies eat dead stuff found on the ground so their opinion is not as useful in this.) But then..I didn’t make it up or anything. I would make it again for sure. Although I would prefer if someone did the giblet removal in advance for me….thanks…

Out of the oven...

Further proof to me that if you can follow directions, you can cook. As long as you have a kitchen stocked with the basic tools. Maybe not create crazy dishes all on your own but eh – that’s why I pay a premium at restaurants when I go. And chefs are notoriously F’ed up so who needs that…

But here’s a hint…if someone just spent a couple hours of prep and cooking in the kitchen to make a nice dinner, do not complain that the carving knife set out to use isn’t the right one as you are given your one and only job of the meal. Because the carving knife can be used (and made to work even if not the “right” one) for other things…

And Storm appreciates the chicken he gets after waiting and smelling it cooking for so long :)

YUM! More?

Saw the Travel Channel’s show on the Jucy Lucy. Apparently, this burger is a Minnesota specialty. I guess several places there lay claim to inventing it but the place that seems like the original (Matt’s) started it due to a customer wanting cheese in between 2 patties and it was so yummy, the put up on their menu ASAP and misspelled juicy.)

I love cheeseburgers. LOVE them. I don’t eat them too often but aim to enjoy them fully when I do. So when I saw this show advertised I had to watch it. And after watching it, had to try making them. Watching the show, they simply use 2 pre-made burger patties and put a slice of American cheese (more melty than other cheeses) and kind squish the patties around the sides to seal them into 1 patty. And then season with salt and pepper and they cook on their fry/grill.  Seems simple.

The other restaurant that claims they invented it use thicker patties and 4 slices of cheese. That seemed a bit too much for me. I’m sure delicious but simply too much food.

Now you can find many variations of this recipe, also all claiming to be original, online. They have various spices, sauces, additions to the burger meat mixture. But I decided to keep it fairly simple for my first try.

I bought the lowest fat ground beef. And American cheese. The mixture I used was a combo of 2 recipes:

1.5 lbs ground beef (used the 96% lean to balance the heart attack factor!)
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
3/4 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
4 slices American cheese

This is for 4 servings/burgers.

Combine ground beef, Worcestershire sauce, garlic salt and pepper in a large bowl. Mix well. Form 8 thin patties. Each about the size of a slice of of cheese.

Pre-skooshing

Cut each slice of cheese into 4 equal pieces and stack the pieces in the middle of a patty and put another patty on top. Tightly pinch edges together to tightly seal the cheese within the meat. I skooshed (I am totally TMing this word) them together. Do this to create 4 complete burgers/patties.

Post-skooshing

Preheat a cast-iron or other heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat. Cook burgers until well browned, about 4 minutes(ish) on each side. Turn the burgers and prick the top of each to allow steam to escape – remember the cheese is HOT and melty inside.

If you bite into it and burn yourself – you will need to sue yourself…so remember, this could get pricey…

You need to cook these more medium to get the cheese fully melted and delicious. So no rare or medium rare burgers here. The melty delish cheese will make up for it :)

It’s cold, windy and cloudy today so I went partial-white trash dinner and paired these with tater tots but then fancified abit with a Blanc de Blancs from the Cupcake Vineyards. I saw the name of this place in some Wine newsletter and have been searching for it locally since pre-Christmas. I mean really? How perfect for me – Cupcake Vineyards? :)  Finally found it in a store a few weeks ago! It very delicious, especially for the price. And the bubly went very well with the burgers. As it does with anything :) http://www.cupcakevineyard.com/

If you like burgers like I do, I recommend trying these. Although I would probably use 2 pieces of cheese (per burger.) But I LOVE cheese :) And I used no other condiments. They aren’t difficult and they are delish. The funny thing is they remind me of a burger McDonald’s used to sell a loooong time ago. The Cheddar Melt. I LOVED those. Like LOVED them. It was a burger patty with melty Cheddar cheese (sauce?) on top. I was addicted. Probably a good thing they stopped selling them but now I have these….uh-oh :)

UPDATE: Made the 2 leftover burgers tonight and added another piece of cheese on top. HOLY HELL. This change made this burger my absolute favorite yumminess! Rule: Don’t skimp on the cheese. :)

Yes please…

I just ordered this. I have to try it – I LOVE the Bellinis by Cipriani.

Had a fantastic lunch at Harry Cipriani on my second trip to NYC (risotto followed by chocolate cake) and I think 4 (5?) Bellinis. Oops. Thankfully I was not paying, driving or needing to be anywhere important :)

Every time I visited NYC after that I ate there again or at Cipriani’s Downtown (I highly recommend eating dinner in the summer on the rooftop!) And always had the daily risotto and chocolate cake for dessert. Usually some fish entree thrown to add some protein. Oh…and 3 or 4 (or 5?) Bellinis :) They are just sooo easy to drink.

You cannot get better risotto or Bellinis than at a Cipriani location. I’ve tried. Although I can make a mean risotto…using the Cipriani recipe :)

I doubt this will taste quite the same since the real ones are made with fresh white peach puree but hopefully close enough to it to be equally delicious. I think I sense a risotto and Bellini meal coming up soon…..

http://www.newyorkfirst.com/store/display.cgi?page=m077.html

I love this pasta sauce – a lot! But I make it like once a year. First, because I try to limit the number of times I eat plates of pasta but also because it is so delicious due to the ridiculous fat content. Not a light, summer-time bikini-season meal for sure. But hey – it’s a cold and snowy February right now!

I found this recipe online and have tweaked it a bit for my own tastes since. But the body of it is as found online and I take no ownership of it other than my own minor tweaks due to personal taste.

When I went to the store yesterday to buy the ingredients I couldn’t find the pancetta. So the meat counter guy helped me and asked me what I was making. I said pasta. He looked at me quizzically. I said you know – spaghetti. He said Ahhh…”fancy” spaghetti. OK, OK. Pasta/Spaghetti, tomato/tomahtoe. I wasn’t calling the whole thing off :) I guessed by looking at him that I probably could have said macaroni and gravy and he probably would have known and maybe even given me some tips!

Ingredients:
6 tablespoons butter
6 tablespoos extra-virgin olive oil
Small minced onion (changed from 1.5 cups minced red onion)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 pound ground beef
1 1/3 cups tomato paste
1/3 lb pancetta, minced
1.5 cups whole milk
2 cups red wine
2 2/3 cups tomatoes (I’m cheated and used canned)
4 cups meat stock (I cheated and bought it)
Kosher (coarse) salt
Freshly ground pepper
Shaved Parmesan
Ingredients from original recipe that I left out due to not liking them: 3/4 cups minced celery and 3/4 cup minced carrot

Directions:
Combine butter and olive oil in a large heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat (keep in mind you will have 2 quarts of liquid going in so I use a 4qt pan.) Add the onion. Season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring frequently until the onion (all veggies if including them) soften and begin to brown – about 15 minutes.

Add the garlic, then add the beef and pancetta. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the meat is thoroughly browned, about 25 minutes.

Stir in tomato paste and cook for 5 minutes. Add the milk and simmer actively until the milk reduces and is absorbed, about 15 minutes or so.

(I lower the temp to low and simmer longer than the original recipe for this part) Add the wine and simmer until the pan is once again almost dry (liquid reduced). This can take some time – 1 hour or even longer.

Post wine, pre-stock/tomatoes simmering

Add the tomatoes and stock, adjust the heat so the sauce gently simmers and cooks for about 3-4 hours.

Pour yourself a glass of the red wine you opened to use in this and sip as you stir and keep an eye on your sauce (yes, this is one of my personal tweaks ;) )

You can use any type of pasta noodles you want. Traditional spaghetti (but not angel hair), fettuccine or penne noodles work best with the sauce consistently (in my opinion.) Pour sauce over your noodles (after you’ve cooked them of course…) and top with Parmesan. Mixing the Parmesan in right away gets it all melty and gooey :)

All of the simmering times are going to vary a bit depending on your stove (gas or electric) and pan. So use your judgment and not just a timer. Simmering longer is always a better option with pasta sauce – always tastes better!

The recipe is officially a Bolognese sauce recipe. By keeping the carrots and celery out and using red wine I tweaked it from that a bit but I think can still fall in the category – especially for this non-Italian whiter than white girl! :) I will also try adding some porcini mushrooms next time!

As I was cooking this today, I was thinking I wanted to see The Godfather, or even The Sopranos. Badda-bing badda-boom – I turn on the TV and on AMC they are playing a Godfather marathon: kismet :) One of my all-time favorite movies – amazing film full of great story and even greater acting.

It’s not a hard meal to make – just time consuming. Good for a cold Sunday afternoon! And it is DEE-licious! As a side note – do not wear anything white while preparing this :)

Yum…

Pasta hittin' the table...

As husband was taking his plate to the table, he slipped on the wood floors in his socks and all of his pasta almost slid off his plate as he went down. Storm’s eyes were like saucers imagining his upcoming feast! But alas…husband recovered with only a slight Parmesan dusting of the floor which Storm cleaned up better than I could. Even though I spent all day preparing this dinner…that would have been dang funny and Storm would have had a full belly :)

Ok, party is tomorrow!! Oh yeah – so is the Superbowl :) Kinda sad really…it’s that same feeling that I get on December 24th. Loving Christmas so, so much but knowing it will all be over soon. Same thing with football season.

But oh fiddle-dee-dee, I’ll be Scarlett and think about that tomorrow! Menu will be:

Today’s Macaroni and Cheese (Rick Bayless recipe)
Jambalaya (scoured Internet for recipe – found on that sounds good on Food Network)
Hogs in a Blanket with cheesy dipping sauce
Buffalo Chicken Hot Wing Dip (Hungry Girl’s healthier version!)
Chips and Salsa
Ruffles with sour cream dip – always the first thing to be demolished no matter what
Various cheeses and crackers (courtesy of @missmelon)
Veggies (have to offer them even tho always the LAST thing to go no matter what!)
Homemade brownies (courtesy of @sonya415)
Beer (husband’s one job since I don’t drink beer)
And of course bubbly for me :)

People will bring stuff I imagine so I have no idea what else will be added to this but this is what I am making or know will be brought. I just need to figure out timing on making everything though…

Making Cipiriani’s pea risotto tonight with some chicken for dinner. I ate very little yesterday and won’t eat much today in preparation for dinner and tomorrow’s food fest. Yikes….my stepper will be my friend next week I guess.

I like both teams. And would be happy for either team to win. I need a high-scoring game to win our office pool but doesn’t actually matter which teams wins – just lots and lots of points on the board! But Peyton Manning is my QB1 so I’m rooting for the Colts to win. And will be wearing my #18 jersey tomorrow!

I hope for a good game played by both teams. No blow outs. And of course looking forward to some good commercials. I always tear up at the National Anthem because I’m a goofball. But I hush everyone up for that and always stand for it – even in my living room. The half time show? Well…I’ll watch it I guess. I think I know a song or 2 by The Who. I think? I must, right?

Storm is quite excited for the Superbowl as well. He is strategizing his food stealing knowing that tomorrow’s guests will be easy targets :)

What are you doing for the Superbowl??

Husband brought home some lobster macaroni & cheese for me from a business dinner. He knows I LOVE mac&cheese.

It was ok. I mean even a “bad” mac&cheese is a good mac & cheese :)

Mac & cheese is like risotto it seems. Many chefs feel they need to fancify it for their foodie tastes. So they add all sorts of weird stuff that has no business in either of them.

I’ve had risotto that some people might rave about that I was pretty turned off by. But it’s the simple that I like – pea risotto made using the Cipriani recipe is better than any gross seafood risotto made by some stupid, self-important chef in SF.

And a simple baked, rich cheesy mac&cheese is way better than some over the top version looking to be less “middle-class”. I’ll be making a yummy one for my Superbowl party that’s much yummier…in my opinion. But truthfully…I prefer the Kraft blue box or Stouffer’s to most foodies desperate attempts to not be so middle class or regular. Meh.

Obviously this is a personal choice. Some people want the exotic. They choose the exotic or different when the simple is so much better.

So in the end, I had a couple bites but the huskies were pretty stoked on the doggie bag of fancy food. :)

What a stressful football weekend. My Gators won – yay! Keeping their perfect season alive and kicking. As Tebow keeps breaking moire records. I ordered my Tebow jersey last week – will be here this coming week – yay!

I won Survivor – chose MIN against DET. Should not have been a stressful pick at all. Although the first half was not so breezy. Won I survived. That’s what counts. But my last surviving opponent chose ARI and SEA looked like they were going to walk all over ARI at home…and then they started playing like SEA again :( So we both survived to pick next week – and we are getting down to the not so easy pickins’!!

In my weekly picks – I HAD chosen KC and GB to win when I made my picks on Tuesday night! But then I got stressed out since both OAK and KC suck but OAK is at home so went with the home team. Meh… And I bought the hype of DAL doing so well and coming back and blah blah. Should have known better. A Niners fan shouldn’t chose DAL…so lost weekly picks this week by 1 game when my original picks would have won easily. I also told my husband I wanted CIN over PIT today but took CIN. Again – dumb. Stupid. Idgit. Oh well.

In Fantasy – my 2 “star” wide receivers got me a combined score of 11 points. W.T.F? Hines Ward and Marques Colston = 11 points total. Thanks guys. I *almost* put in Cotchery or Bowe over Ward but then thought I’d be the idiot. No…would have been smarter.

Sidney Rice got me 80 points with 201 receiving yards. Amazing. Frackin’ amazing. And my BYE week pick-up of Ladell Betts looked dismal starting the day as he reportedly was still battling a sprained ankle…great…and then he got me 50 points! YAY! That’s more than any of my “star” RBs have gotten me all season. Nice.

My PIT defense got me 10 points. Not the 35ish they were projected. I swear if Polamalu isn’t playing (injured and out in 1st Q) the PIT D SUCKS!!!! Ugh.

Before the Sunday Night battle royale (IND vs NE), I made “The Waverly Inn Truffled Mac and Cheese”. Quite excited. Very simple recipe:

Ingredients:
1 lb. elbow macaroni
1 tbsp. salt
5 tbsp. unsalted butter
6 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1.5 tbsp. Dijon mustard
5 cups milk
8 oz. Monterey Jack cheese – shredded (2 cups)
8 oz. sharp cheddar cheese – shredded (2 cups)
1 tsp. table salt
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
White-Truffle oil to taste

1. Bring 4 quarts water to boil in Dutch over over high heat. Add macaroni and 1 tbsp. salt; cook until pasta is tender. Drain pasta and set aside in colander. Add a drop of olive oil to prevent sticking.

2. In the now-empty Dutch oven, heat butter over medium-high heat until foaming. Add flour and mustard and whisk well to combine. Continue whisking until mixture becomes fragrant and deepens in color, about 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk; bring mixture to boil, whisking constantly (mixture must reach full boil to fully thicken). reduce heat to medium and simmer, whisking occasionally, until thickened to consistency of heavy cream, about 5 minutes.

Off heat, whisk in cheeses and 1 tsp. salt until fully melted. Add pasta and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is heated through.

3. Top with bread crumbs and broil until crumbs are deep golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Drizzle truffle oil to taste. Cool about 5 minutes, then serve.

I made this with come cheeseburgers. YUM!! This was quite a tasty meal. And the mac & cheese was quite simple compared to some others.

Going into tonight’s game ahead by 30 points. I have my star TE – Dallas Clark. My opponent has Joseph Addai though. Stress….

I am watching tonight’s game wearing my Peyton Manning jersey :) GO CLARK! GO COLTS!

After trying the mac & cheese, I feel it is not as good as the others I have tried (all from my mac&cheese cookbook). Kinda bland. It’s mac & cheese. I’ll still eat it. It’s better than most food. But not OMGI”LLDIEYUM if you know what I mean :)

Good day today! A great walk with the buds to start it.  It was a gorgeous day out.  Blue sky with a few light, wispy clouds. Then the sun came up. Was breezy but not windy. The waves were crazy. Tons of sets coming in – great whitecaps and crashing into the rocks. Hard to get a good photo as the waves were much bigger IRL but I tried…

Waves 11.7.09

Then drove into SF and saw Wicked. My girlfriends and I have been trying to pick a date to see this show for months but something always came up.  But we finally just picked a date and did it. Not everyone could come :( but we ended up getting PERFECT seats! I think my friend Helen will never want to volunteer to be in charge of the ticket procuring again but she scored great tickets for this!! Center orchestra seats. Perfect view of everything. Close enough to see all details on every costume but not in the first section so you miss anything on the sides. So perfect. Yay for the flu (the original buyer of these tix had 3 of their 4 get the flu so they had to sell.)

The sick people behind us should have sold their tickets and stayed home as well. At least 3 of the people sitting directly behind us kept coughing. And not even bothering to cover their mouths. Who does this? Really? Were you people raised by savages? They were clearly not too bright as they were surprised by the some of the “reveals” of the play. Again…….Really? Yes…these are the same people that vote. Sigh….

But the show was too good and fun for that to effect the mood!

Seats for Wicked

The actress who played Elphaba (aka The Wicked Witch of the West) was so, so good. Her voice was so awesome. She was actually the Standby too. Amazing. Glinda was great too. Was imagining how Kristin Chenoweth was on Broadway – she must have been great in that role!  The cast really did a great job.  Didn’t like Nessarose (character or actress) much though – but since she was the Wicked Witch of the East, I guess that’s right.

I would see this show again. Thoroughly enjoyable. And it did remind me how much I love seeing plays and  musicals. I *hate* going into the city for any reason whatsoever but I would volunteer for a good show. The last play we saw in the city was Phantom. Front row balcony seats – perfect view. Husband fell asleep (?) So now I will just go with friends :)

Going back to the parking lot, we had to take an elevator from street level. The stairwells were locked to, I assume, keep the homeless out (man, I love the cesspool…I mean city…) Apparently we were riding with people who were raised by the same savages. This guy kept squeezing against me to let more people in. If he would have made one more move – I would have clocked him. As it was as soon as soon the elevator door opened I pushed him forward to “help him out.” My friends were across from me so they saw my face. Glad I provided amusement for them :)

After the show, we went and had dinner at Q. Very, very yummy. I got a spinach salad to add a healthy component to my mac and cheese with tater tots entree :)  But I didn’t eat dinner on Friday night and hadn’t eaten yet today so the calorie intake *must* have balanced out somehow, right? :)

Mac & Cheese with tots at Q

Came home to very happy to see me doggies. So I’m just hanging out with them now.  Why a matinee show and early dinner is great – not home too late so doggie time after!!  A great, fun day and then football tomorrow. YAY!