I had a wonderful weekend. It was the perfect balance of spending time with family, being bizzy in my kitchen and relaxing. And while I am sure the rest of the world is all about pumpkin spice season, I will always choose apple over pumpkin. Honeycrisp apples or Fuji apples would be great for this recipe. I used honeycrisp.
I have a slight love affair with all things Alouette cheese. It’s light, fluffy and only 1 point per tablespoon. Last week I must have gotten at least 100 direct messages saying “Biz – you need to find the caramel apple and pumpkin spice Alouette!” I found mine at Aldi for $3.29 each. Mariano’s also has a wonderful selection, but it’s $5.99 there. At Walmart it’s $2.99. No matter what store you get it at, the choice of flavors always varies. They have a pretty long fridge life unopened. It says to eat within 7 days of opening, but I’ve used it a couple weeks after opening, no problem.
Yet another recipe using leftover skinny pizza dough! I swear this dough is so versatile.
Saturday night we went to my Mom’s house to celebrate her birthday a week late – she’s 79 years young! I hardly took any pictures, but my brother-in-law makes a delicious chili – so good!
Some of the cousins – all getting grown up! Claire is the youngest and she’s just started her senior year in high school. Hannah and Claire are 10 years apart.
My friends Erica and Dan relocated to Florida and could not for the life of them sell their outdoor patio furniture. The only flaw was there was sun damage on the cushions, but other than that, this furniture is wonderful. We spent hours on our side deck this weekend and we hardly used this space the last 18 years. Um, turns out the dogs love it too.
Mr. and Mrs. Brown owned the house before we bought it and Mr. Brown thought he’d build a deck the summer before he and his wife were to retire – they had an RV in the back yard and were ready to travel the country. Unfortunately, the winter before they were to retire, they both passed away – Mrs. Brown from a brain tumor and her husband from advanced lung cancer (that had been priorly undiagnosed).
We let the children of the Brown’s leave the RV in our back yard until they could sell it. It took a couple months. When one daughter came to complete the sale transaction, as it drove away, she looked at me and said “my parents really didn’t do much because they were always planning for their retirement. It makes me sad that they never really lived an eventful life and were waiting so long for something that never happened.”
I think Mr. and Mrs. Brown will be happy we are using this space. Thank you Erica and Dan! Did I mention it also included this 8 piece dining table? And their gas grill?! I am blessed.
I hope you are prepared for the week. I did a whole inventory of all the food I have and I spent about $25 on fresh fruit and veggies and I will have protein to use for probably the next three weeks at least.
Happy Monday – make it a great day, and don’t eat like an asshole.
Love, Biz
Oh man, I’m so afraid of this happening to us. Julie has 4 more years and we’re moving to Naples( you’ll have to come visit us). She is technically retired now, but her pension money is being invested for her. In 4 more years, she’ll have about half a million cash in addition to her monthly pension. I hope we’ll live a long time to enjoy it. Now that I’m finished being a downer, I read that someone painted their outdoor furniture cushions. There is some type of paint you can use on it.
Hey Randi! Hope you are well. Yes, people have said there are fabric paints – not sure what I think about it. I would think the paint would crack over time??
Did you pass the bar? I kept meaning to ask you! Hugs 😀