Mike and his dad went golfing, while Rose and I joined Marsha (Grammy) and Anne (Trula) at the State Fair.
-chocolate milk
-poutine
-cheese curds
-honey ice cream (two flavors)
-french toast bites
-bacon maple BLT
-spicy pork bowl
-blueberry lemonade
-cheesy bread
-corn dog
-malts (two flavors)
-cotton candy
-sweet corn
And we had a lot of fun:
-riding the ferris wheel
-going down the giant slide (twice for Rose)
-petting horses
-looking at rabbits
-watching butter sculptures being carved
-touring a Christmas light display
-looking at arts and crafts
-spinning the Medica trivia/freebie wheel
-playing the midway duck game
-looking at different dog breeds
-riding the bus to and from the park and ride
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| Rose and Grammy at the top green stripe on the far right |
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| "I had ice cream TWICE today!!!" |
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| First ever taste of cotton candy. (She's in love.) |
Sounds silly, but we enjoyed taking care of business on Sunday. Mike and I each did some "homework" in the morning, then he did some yard work while Rose and I ran errands. (Did you know that vacuums require a belt to, well, vacuum? I'm a little embarrassed to admit how long I was perplexed by our vacuum not working properly. I had cleaned the hose multiple times, to no avail. And our carpet kept looking dirtier and dirtier. Sigh.) So Rose and I bought a new vacuum belt at Sears, and also did some other shopping at MOA: Lands End, LLBean, the Lego store, and the Disney store -- I'll let you guess who picked which stores.
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| Making her own princesses and castle. |
And when I'm stressed, I bake. So after we got home I whipped up a new recipe - maple cake with maple frosting. I'm not super impressed with it (it's fine and all), but I think in retrospect I was really wanting more of a spice cake with maple frosting...maybe next weekend that will be my goal! (Actually, upon further reflection I think I might attempt a Black Forest Cake for myself for my birthday!!)
Since one meal of pasta clearly wasn't enough, Rose requested "long noodles with just a little bit of sauce and lots of cheese" for dinner. Mike and I were happy to comply (despite the 80-degree heat) since she so rarely requests ANYTHING other than "mac and cheese." Yes, I know that pasta with red sauce is really not THAT different from M&C, but I'll take what I can get.
To make it a little more exciting than our typical weeknight pomodoro, I decided to branch out and attempt a Bolognese. Having never made one before, I naturally read about 50 recipes (to figure out what seem to be the necessary components) and then made a weird amalgamation (choosing what optional add-ins sounded good to me) of all of those. We didn't have carrots or celery in the house (time to go to grocery store...), but otherwise my version was closest to these:
Marcella Hazan
Pioneer Woman
Now, I don't want to toot my own horn or anything, (warning! Tooting ahead!!) but this sauce was AMAZEBALLS. Totally worth the ~2 hours it took. And we have a cup or two leftover that will be GREAT to pull out of the freezer one cold winter night. :)
Here's my attempt at writing out my version from memory:
Steph's Bolognese
- Olive Oil to coat the bottom of the le creuset
- 1 small onion, Diced (or half of a large one)
- Many cloves of Garlic, Minced
- 3/4 -1 # grass fed Ground Beef
- Dried Oregano and Thyme
- A dash of cayenne
- a handful of Fresh Basil, chopped up
- a big glug or two of Wine (I used some of the box of pinot noir I was drinking from)
- 1 big can (28 Ounce) Organic Crushed Tomatoes
- 1 small can (15 oz?) Organic Diced Tomatoes
- 1 Tablespoon sugar
- 1 cup Whole Milk
- Sea Salt And Pepper, to taste
- Fresh Parmesan Cheese
Heat oil in a large Dutch oven or skillet over medium heat. Add
onions and cook until translucent. Add the garlic and cook about 30 more seconds.
Make a well in
the center, then add the ground beef. Cook until brown.
Add the herbs and spices. A minute or two later, add the wine (about a cup?). Let the wine simmer off, then add the cans of tomatoes (not drained - add it all) and an additional ~cup of water.
Let it simmer, stirring occasionally, for about an hour so it's nice and thick. At some point in there, add a little sugar. (Meanwhile, start boiling some water for your pasta.)
About 10 minutes before you want to eat (e.g., just before you add your box of linguine that takes ~10 min to cook), add 1 cup of milk. Let it simmer for those 10 minutes. At the very end, stir in 1/4 c parmesan cheese.
Serve with your pasta of choice and a generous sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.
Serve with your pasta of choice and a generous sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.
MONDAY
There was a HUGE storm last night, so I watched the lightning and sheets of rain for quite awhile around 3am last night. It didn't help that I was still worried about Rose and that spoon that she swallowed. Ugh. So when Little Miss finally ventured out of her room with her typical greeting ("Is it morning time yet?"), I was exhausted but thrilled to see her. And thrilled not to see any bruising, coughing, etc.
So we celebrated with a Dutch Baby! I love oven pancakes / yorkshire pudding / German pancakes / popovers / whatever you want to call these things. (I'm really not a fan of traditional American pancakes, unless they are more like crepes.) Next time I need to plan ahead a bit more so my ingredients are all at room temperature, but it was still delicious today even without a big "puff" to it.
The rest of the day was incredible because I felt BORED for the first time in I can't ever remember how long. I did my grocery shopping, cleaning a little bit, researched some cake recipes, bought some embroidery floss, baked brownies to bring to work tomorrow, and prepped some dinners for the week. It is SOOOO nice to feel relaxed!!!
Hope you all have had a wonderful long weekend too!!
