She had a good day

The only word that can describe my Saturday was . . . lazy!  I am so not like that.  I usually have a list of things I am going to cook up, chores that I want to get done, and well, that didn’t happen and it was a great day.  I woke up at 10:00 a.m.!  Lounged around on the computer and ended up baking up some biscuits.  I will be going to my Aunt’s river house this summer and there is going to be quite a crowd there and I am tweaking my biscuit recipe.  This time I used half lard and half butter, and OMG, these turned out so flakey and delicious!

• 2.5 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 stick butter, cold and shredded
• 1/4 cup lard
• 3/4 – 1 cup milk*

Mix the dry ingredients together.  In a separate bowl, mix the egg and 3/4 of the milk.  With your fingers, mix in the butter and the lard into the flour mixture then add in the egg and milk mixture.  You may need to add in the extra 1/4 cup of milk to get the dough the right consistency – not too wet and not too dry.  Bake at 425 for 12-15 minutes. I made these on my baking steel so the bottom crust was amazing.  Um, we may or may not have had these with a bit of butter and honey – so good! 

Saturday night we ended up going out to a new restaurant in our town called Cary Ale House.  We will definitely be going back!

The place was packed.  It’s only been open since the middle of April but I think it will do very well.  They had so many beers on tap it was kind of hard to choose which one.  Carrie, I could have used your advice!  I ended up with Anderson Valley Brewing Company’s Summer Solstice beer – so good, slightly sweet but definitely a great summer beer.  We ended up with a fried goat cheese appetizer, I had a grilled chicken salad with peppered bacon and crispy chick peas.  Jacob had a giant chicken sandwich and Hannah had a grown up grilled cheese with candied bacon. 

Hannah was so excited to give me my Momma Day Loot yesterday.  The kids woke up and went to Starbucks and got me a skinny vanilla latte.  Check out this loot!

She was too generous.  But here’s the thing with Hannah – she’s usually super organized so I am sure she started shopping for me a month ago, then every time she went shopping she kept picking up more things for me!  I told her next time only to shop the DAY before so she doesn’t overdo it.  But I am grateful Hannah! 

Hannah and I ended up surprising my Mom at church. 

We ended up going back to her house for party pizza Sunday.  I recreated the ricotta olive oil baby spinach pizza.  I brought my baking steel with me and we hung out and caught up and laughed like we do.

It’s funny because at one point after we’d been in her house a couple hours, she mentioned she had some stuff in the basement that she was going to be taking to Goodwill, and before she even finished her sentence, Hannah and I both bolted downstairs.  I ended up with a belt, a couple pairs of sleeping pants and my Mom had this for me – how did she know I liked snowmen?!

It was a great day.  But more importantly, my mother-in-law had a good day.  This obviously is her first Mothers Day without Tony.  She went to church and she said that everyone was kind to her.  My parents in law had a stone made that is laid on the grounds of their church.

After the church service, the went to the stone, then they went home and my FIL made her a delicious breakfast.  I wish I could have been there for her, but she did end up having a good day and I am thankful for that.

I am also thankful that my step-son Joe survived his Spartan race!  His was 8 miles long with 30 obstacles!  Here is is before the race with his friend on the right that did it with him.

He called my yesterday to wish me a Happy Momma day and he said while he was glad to have done it, he isn’t sure he’d do it again.  He said by the end his gloves were soaked and became useless to help with the rope climb, climbing walls, etc.  Before the race he had given up alcohol, pizza, burgers, etc. and was eating clean and then Saturday night went all out – he basically said the only thing he didn’t have was pizza!  So proud of you Joe!

So I went to do a weigh in this morning and somehow BOTH of my scales were dead.  I realized I didn’t have any batteries at home, so I decided I am not going to weigh in until after my Spartan race.  I did a bit of indulging this weekend with burgers, beer and pizza, but I am going to buckle down these next two weeks before my race. 

Alright, I literally have 10 minutes before I have to leave for work, guess I’ll be putting on my make up at work!  Hope you had a great weekend – make it a great day!