I had a loss last week!  -.6, but I’ll take it.  Um, maybe there was some leftover wine from the celebration memorial for Jacob’s grandma, and maybe I had wine a couple nights last week.  

I am totally fine with it – while the scale is moving slower, today I am wearing a pair of pants that Hannah gave me for Christmas that I couldn’t zip up, so that’s progress. 

I ran a coupe errands after WW then drove to my Mom’s house for the first of two memorials I had this weekend.  My Mom made tomato soup, but I couldn’t each much of it, because it was chock full of onions.  Ew.  It tasted great besides that – she added pesto to the soup and that really kicked it up.  I’d make the recipe, except leave out the stinky onions. 

The Memorial on Saturday was an 82 year old man, who was from my Mom’s church and who I grew up with his kids.  So many flowers!  They had tons of pictures too, and they had one that said “World Traveler” and had dozens of places he’d traveled over the years – from Switzerland to China!  It was a lovely service and good to see some people I hadn’t seen in years.

It started snowing when I left my Mom’s house and it took me nearly an hour and forty minutes to get home.  Luckily my appetizer board didn’t take too long to put together.  Basically the only thing I cooked was the steak. I had mini Italian beef sandwiches, bread sticks, garlic green beans (which are great room temperature) nuts, apples, cheese slices, grapes and of course, Certified Angus Beef two ways – one was just sliced and the second was a steak crostini with roasted red pepper sauce and sauteed mushrooms.

Hannah made her famous sushi, Brett made teriyaki beef cups and shrimp, Amy made sour cream cheese balls and Robyn made a delicious crab dip.  It was a fun night and nice to catch up.

They had so many dogs!  Two were Robyn’s and the great dane is my neighbors – all so sweet.  Rummy and Roman smelled me for at least 30 minutes when I got home.

Sunday Hannah came with me for the second memorial – a woman on my Mom’s old block who battled brain cancer for the last three years – she was only 59.  Her kids and Hannah were block buddies growing up – they pretty much played outside all day long in the summer.

Mom suggested we go to Sen Sushi in Oak Park.  So good!  And why am I not drinking cucumber water every.single.day – delish.

We started with the chicken and cilantro wontons.  Perfection!  I had two and it was the perfect start to the meal.  

Mom and Hannah got the bento boxes, but I decided to start with the kabocha soup with Alaskan crab – so velvety good.  If I could have licked the bowl, I would have.

Then I finished my meal with the age-dashi tofu.  Drop the mic on this one – the broth was so complex, the tofu was so tender, yet crispy.   I will definitely go back – and next time Jacky, hopefully you will be in town the next time I come to Oak Park – I have the uncanny ability of going to Oak Park every time my friend Jacky is not there.

When I realized Brett made a shrimp dish, I didn’t put my shrimp cocktail out, so I had a lot leftover.  I found a way to make the best shrimp cocktail years ago and this recipe never fails – you can get it here.

Hannah and Jacob went to his grandpas house for dinner, so I was on my own.  I decided to make a Thai shrimp noodle soup for dinner.  I have no idea if this is remotely Thai, but that’s what I am calling it.

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It’s so simple, and a great way to use up leftover shrimp.

So while I had two memorials this weekend, it was nice spending time with my Mom and Hannah.  

We are supposed to have temps in the 50s the next couple days, but of course, rainy.  This is the time of year that my basement tends to flood because when the ground is still frozen and we get a lot of rain, there is no where for the rain water to go but in my basement.  But Hannah and Jacob are home, so I hope they can pay attention to the sump pumps in the basement – one has to manually be turned on.  Fingers crossed!

Happy Monday my friends – what was the highlight of your weekend?