Only One Thing Missing. .. and final DietBet WI

I had a great weekend.  The weather was awesome on Saturday and for the first time in a while, I had the whole house to myself until nearly 2 p.m. in the afternoon!  Both Hannah and Jacob were working, so I slept in until about 8:30, made my coffee and of course, started getting bizzy in my kitchen.  I was finishing up my meal plan for the week when I realized that I had a pint of blueberries I hadn’t done anything with, so I immediately decided to make scones.  Sorry, but I won’t be posting this recipe today, but you’ll have to drool until tomorrow.  I took several to Hannah’s coffee shop and the girls said that my scones were better than the ones they sell – #winning!

After seeing Hannah, I went to the store, did some outside chores for a while (need to figure out how to start the mower by myself!) and around 5:00 I called it quits and sat outside while the grills got going to finish off the ribs I was making for dinner, and had some wine and read this months Food Network magazine.

It’s easy to keep myself busy with things, but as I took my first sip of wine and sat back in my chair, this is what I saw.

It’s Tony’s chair.  And it’s empty.  Right then and there tears started to fall down my face.  I can hold it together pretty much all day until I go to bed, but I had a tiny cry fest because it’s not fair that he’s not here to enjoy this spring weather.  I just imagined him with his cigar, wearing a heavy coat even though it was 65 degrees because he’d be cold.  It’s sucks.  He was the only thing missing from a great weekend.

I got it together by the time the kids came out to join me.  Hannah, who doesn’t like pork mind you, loves ribs, but she has to have the skinny side of the rack and they have to be fall off the bone tender.  My secret?  I dry rub my ribs, wrap them in foil and bake at 250 for 3 hours.  Doesn’t matter how many racks you back either.  I had two racks because baby back ribs were on sale for $2.99 this weekend!

That top rack is Hannah’s, because it’s the skinny part.   I finished them off over high heat coals with my copycat Rudy’s BBQ sauce.

Sunday my SIL got together and walked the trail by my house.  We are walking a 5k in May and she wanted to get more distance walking in.

It was a gorgeous morning and perfect timing because the afternoon and evening it rained steadily.   Before Jody arrived though, I got to making biscuits.  I saw on Jessica’s blog last week that she made havarti, bacon and jalapeno biscuits.  What the what?!  I was reading her recipe and thought that I may have a bit of wiggle room on making these a teeny tine bit more healthy.  I decided to skip the bacon in the biscuits so I could have a slice in my breakfast sammie, and as much as I would have LOVED to put jalapenos in the biscuit, no one would eat them but me.  And because I am a Cabot cheese lover, I used their everything bagel cheese for my cheese.  Um, Hannah may have over organized my stuff, because for the life of me I could not fine my biscuit cutters, so a White Sox glass had to stand in.  The picture on the top right is actually shredded butter – I shred the butter and it incorporates into the flour so much faster and less hands on so the butter stays cold.

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Jody stayed for brunch, and I was able to feed Hannah before she went to work – these biscuits were amazing.  I baked them on my baking steel so they had an amazing crust.  These are a winner and I can’t wait to make these at my Aunt’s river house this summer when I visit.

I am running out of time before having to get ready for work – I’ll have to blog about my Mom’s concert and our dinner last night tomorrow, but today marks the end of my DietBet!  I had to wait until this morning to weigh in because they email me my final “weigh in” word – which for me is hockey.  Drum roll please . . . .

I LOST 8 POUNDS!!  My starting weight was 175.4 and I could not be happier.  I do think the extra protein is helping me not even think of food in between meals because I am so satisfied.  That and getting in a lot of steps in during the week, and not treating the weekend as a free for all like I normally do.

Alright, I have to get this show on the road, I have not packed my gym bag or put my food together and I have 20 minutes to get out the door.  Come back tomorrow for the scone recipe and the recap of my Mom’s concert.  You can clearly tell my Mom is most excited about having dinner with her favorite daughter!