Past couple of days stuff

Last week was very busy. We seemed to be on the go almost non-stop. I've been having such muscle tension that I decided to go get a massage Saturday morning. It was good and did relieve some of the tightness, but unfortunately, by Sunday evening, it was all back. Although, I have to say, I haven't gotten the tension headache back yet, so it must not be as bad as it was before the massage. That was pretty much the excitement of Saturday. The rest of the day was just running errands, out to lunch and out to dinner.

Sunday I cleaned the house. Then I started preparing and cooking the meal I had planned for my mom's birthday. We had my mom, Randy and my Grandma over. I made quite the feast. I picked all new recipies that I've never made before (except my salad). I went to Foodnetwork.com and just randomly picked some stuff. I love the site because they have a lot of reviews of the recipies so you know if people liked it or not and also what they may have done differently to the recipie.

Anyway, I spent pretty much all afternoon cooking. It was a lot of work, but well worth it. The meal was great.

I made a salad that we enjoy with spring mix greens, red peppers, feta cheese, gold raisens and sunflower seeds tossed in a home-made balsamic vinegar dressing....very good!

Then the main course was Red Wine Marinated Flank Steak Filled with Prosciutto, Fontina and Basil. This was a Bobby Flay meal and very good! Tony grilled it perfectly. We all thought it was great, but I may subsitute the basil for spinach or something next time. The basil got to be a little much and there were so many flavors that we could do without the basil.

For sides, I made Neely's Zucchini Gratin which was very tasty. Wouldn't change a thing about the recipe. And Warm Potato-Tomato Salad with Dijon Vinaigrette. Everyone liked these pretty well, but I think the splash of red wine vinegar to the cooked potatoes made them too vinegary. Other than that, these were good too.

Then for desert, I opted not to make a cake since more than half would either go to waste or MY WAIST, neither of which would be good!!! So I made Strawberries-and-Cream Parfaits. These made a nice light summery dessert, but I had hoped the filling was more of a custard, but it turned out to be pretty much tapioca pudding.

So the meal was a success and everyone seemed to like everything real well, which was good when you made a meal full of things you've never tried before! Thank goodness the feedback on the website seemed true!

Mom opened her gifts with Hannah's help.

And then we hung out on the deck for a little while before they left. I pretty much collapsed on the couch around 9:00! What a day!

Nothing note-worthy about yesterday. A little funny that Hannah told Tony was in reference to brushing her teeth: "I don't use a lot of water. I'm saving the Earth"! Thank God for her!!!

Tonight after dinner, we played outside. It turned out to be such a nice day. Hannah and I drew on the driveway. Here's my picture of her:

Then she skinned her knee playing ball with daddy, so we had to use the new Boo-Boo Buddy she got. She loved it and it seemed to really help her boo boo feel better.

Then just one of us girls!

Have I ever mentioned how much I just love that kid?!!? Man, she's cool!