Monday Musings

So it’s Sunday evening and I’m attempting to recuperate from a busy Easter weekend. I love having family around and all the controlled chaos that goes with grown kids, their spouses and grand babies. My daughter in laws birthday also landed on this weekend so it was just a whole lotta cooking and food and more food.

I know this.  My body just doesn’t dig the richer foods or extra it isn’t used to. I don’t mean I over eat, it’s just that nibbling on stuff never lets me be hungry. And of course, cooking, it  seems I’m sampling something, a hazard of the job I guess.

I was up late Saturday night assembling like… a zillion Easter baskets.  Yeah, all my kids are adults. Yeah, they all still expect Easter Bunny to deal up the goods. Last year I got all clever thinking I’d just do “couples” baskets for the married ones.

I almost had a revolt on my hands….sooooo… I didn’t do that this year 😛

But the candy… I’m always worried I won’t have enough and it will be midnight and I’ll be short on what I need and then I’ll find myself shaking old tic tacs out of my purse to fill in the gaps.

However, the opposite usually happens. I realize I have like 40lbs left after filling up everyone’s baskets ( this happens at Christmas too)

I’m so prepared. I’m turning into my mother.

So yeah, adequate sugar. Am I the only one who has thought that candy companies have us over a barrel from Halloween through Easter? I still have Christmas candy for heavens sake.

I’m  rather sick of it all.

I think the first few pieces are really the best, after that it’s just, well eaten ’cause it’s around. When I hold out and don’t have candy for awhile, especially chocolate, those first little pieces are always like euphoria.

Admit it, I’m right aren’t I?

Of course Easter morning always starts with homemade yeast cinnamon rolls.. if I’m lucky I get one to chase along with my coffee while I’m doing a hundred other things. My sons will arm wrestle for the last one in the pan….

Last year, I made beautiful cupcakes that were loaded with an obscene amount of cream cheese frosting in happy spring colors. Needless to say, the fam was asking if they were making an appearance again….

 

Anyway, overall, I’d say it was a successful Easter weekend. I made those amazing carrots again and I’ll add recipe at the end. I shared it in my spotlight on carrots post, if you missed it, find it here.  https://sassyfitnesschick.com/2018/03/02/spotlight-on-carrots/

I’m just ready to get back to eggs and veggies and zero sugar. What about you?

In other news of the week….

Kinda stoked over finishing the little 1930’s waterfall vanity I picked up a month ago. I really wanna post like….80 pics… but I’ll try and limit myself here haha

 

Belle was another one of those “better idea” projects someone had. As you can tell they had sanded top down but didn’t progress further than that.  It also had a broken drawer with a missing piece. It didn’t stop me from dragging it home. Hubby is pretty amazing and actually cut a fit a perfect piece to rebuild drawer. He also did the dovetailing on it too. He never ceases to amaze me and what he can do. I do like to maintain as much as possible on a piece, but sometimes human “help” or just time ( at close to 90 years old it can have some issues that need a current fix to make it usable again)

I’m so happy with how it came out. This is a piece I’m selling and hope finds a happy home to love her. I can’t tell you how satisfying it is to watch something old and tired, come to life again.

I have a couple other pieces on the verge of being revealed too. Like my sad, pathetic 10.00 table. Talk about someone’s “better idea” project. Poor thing.

I’ll keep you posted 😉

So my battery also decided to start dying in my phone….

I hadn’t planned on a new phone last week but long story short, it was more practical to do that than attempt to get the battery out of my not so very old phone to have a new one put in.  The upside to it? It does take some amazing photos ( as you can see with my Easter and cupcake pics and the pics of Belle)

Given I do photos for my blog, ( tell me you appreciate them!) and will be posting pics of my flipped furniture to sell, and well hey, selfies too ya know? ‘Cause I’m like “one of those people” haha

The phone is a definite bonus to also being able to communicate with people who want me.  Imagine that.

I never really thought much about how much I use my phone for when I’m out on the go. I ran into Starbucks for a coffee and was like…” Ah.. no phone. No app. No pay.”  I had to use my bank card/ aka cash.  So many other ways I use it that I became aware of not having it for awhile.  It’s weird how dependent we become on stuff like that, isn’t it?

And finally, how about some food?

I made a few new recipes this weekend I’ll share with you that were the bomb. Find them below….

I used this carrot recipe at lunch. I didn’t have maple syrup this time so I drizzled a little honey on them and it was just as tasty….

https://www.southyourmouth.com/2015/10/southern-style-green-beans-potatoes.html#_a5y_p=4748504

The fresh green bean recipe with red potatoes and crisp bacon bites was rather yummy. But the best part was the delicious chocolate cake I made for my daughter in laws birthday.

You just can’t go wrong with chocolate cake. It’s like… heaven. This recipe was so moist and the frosting was the kind you just wanted to slather all over you.

https://www.averiecooks.com/2017/05/best-triple-chocolate-layer-cake.html

Just note, I realized after I was starting the cake, it wasn’t a triple layer cake, only a 2 layer cake. It was really good though so I might overlook that 😉

We topped it off with coffee ice cream making it a perfect dessert, or so we believed.

And a last one… who doesn’t love a good roast? Who doesn’t love not having to labor forever over it? I used this recipe for Friday night dinner and it was amazing. The meat just fell apart. I thickened the broth right in crock pot and let it simmer a bit to make a gravy.

There were no left overs.  And once again, I’ll stress, with the beautiful weather and longer days, I want to be outside, not having to spend tons of time on food prep. Crockpot meals are where it’s at.

ok so share… how was your week? Do you use crockpots? if so, any favorite meals? How was your Easter?