Outings!

My day was jam packed with events. In an effort to start acclimating myself to actually waking up and going to work again, I am trying to get up earlier (than 11, which is my current wake-up time...) Yesterday I set the alarm for 7:45. I got up around 10. There are two ways to look at this situation. You could say I failed, as I got out of bed over two hours after my alarm clock went off, or you can say I was successful because I still woke up an hour earlier than I usually do. If I am trying to start waking up earlier, clearly I achieved that goal.

I had a lunch date with my college roommate and her newborn, and then a dinner date with one of my HS friends. Both outings were fun. As far as the actual food is concerned, lunch was eh, but dinner was excellent. There were only two tables at the restaurant where we ate lunch, and it took a really long time to get anything. We waited for a long time to order, and then to get food. Our food came out at nowhere near the same time. Jen was almost finished with her pizza before my sandwich came out. (She even waited, until I realized that is what she was doing and told her to eat, so be sure to add on the several minutes she waited to the total delivery time.) It is an Italian restaurant and I ordered mac and cheese as a side with my sandwich. It was Kraft Mac 'n Cheese, from a box. We were always out of water. I would be a lot more sympathetic if it were busy, or if it looked as though we came in right after a busy spell, but it wasn't and we didn't. Grr.

For dinner, I went to a Japanese Sushi place. I have gotten really into the restaurant.com. If you create an account, which is free, they will periodically send you coupons to get certificates at an even more discounted rate, like $25 certificates for $3.We like it because we save money, but it also forces us to try new places. I had said coupon for the Sushi place, so that is where Grace and I went. I don't like the raw fish aspect of sushi, but I like everything else they have there... It isn't that I am opposed to eating raw fish, as I eat my meat practically raw, but the texture of it weirds me out. I don't like smoked salmon for the same reason. I love salmon, but the texture of smoked salmon, even when I slather it with cream cheese and capers and sandwich it between two sides of bagel, still makes me cringe.

We had some shrimp, and soft shell crab rolls, some dragon rolls, and some Philly rolls, some tempura and some crab cakes. Yum. All for the bargain basement price of $35 after coupon.

For supper for Brad, I used up some freezer supplies. I made pierogies and sausages. The sausages were from a meat market (http://www.swissmeats.com/) we visited when we took our mini trip to Hermann after Christmas. This particular package of sausage was a garlic herb chicken sausage. I defrosted the sausages in the microwave, then put them in a hot skillet. I poured 1/2 cup water into the skillet and covered it. When all of the water evaporated out, I uncovered the skillet, and browned the sausages on each side.

Pierogies...(I am slowly going through not one, but two huge boxes from Costco that I have. I bought one, not realizing I already had one. Oops)

Pierogies
1 large or 2 small onions, sliced like an orange
1 1/2 Tablespoon butter

Bring an appropriate sized saucepan of water to a full boil. Drop desired number of frozen pierogies into the water. Like tortellini, once they are floating on top of the water, they are done. This takes anywhere from 4-8 minutes depending on how many pierogies you are making much surface area you have in your pot.

Meanwhile, melt butter in a large skillet. Add onion slices. Saute on medium for about 2 minutes. Add pierogies and saute until browned and crispy on the outside.


This was good, not too difficult, didn't dirty too many dishes, AND used up freezer items.

Tonight I see some sort of salad in our future - nice green salad with veggies and homemade croutons. Yummmm...