Long Weekend

I took Monday off so it's been a nice long weekend. It probably seems really soon to take it after Thanksgiving, but I had my annual physical on Monday so I figured why not? Saturday was personal errands, groceries, and a great new hair color and cut, but Sunday was the day where Things Got Accomplished.

We decided to re-arrange the living room first; moving around the TV and the couch to different walls. It freed up a lot of space, more than we expected. Cleaning out all the corners helped; I think I finally convinced my husband to decrease the number of cat chairs in the room so they are lower than the number of human chairs.

I'm not kidding about that. This is what we had.



Total: two perches, one sofa (yes!), two beds.The humans only had a couch and a recliner. And the cats prefer laying on us in our human chairs most of the time anyway.

Freeing up the space showed us that we could easily fit two chairs by the window; we'll have to replace the recliner with something smaller but it's all worn out anyway so it's time. I've actually been perusing the La-z-boy site; who knew that they had such great furniture, and so many choices of fabric? There's a huge showroom near us, so I am checking it out ASAP. These are among my favorites so far; we shall see if I am still feeling the love after I try sitting in them. :)

That one is a recliner!

I do like a nice colorful piece of furniture. Our couch is deep red.

We also decided that we need an ottoman/storage bin as a coffee table, and Target appears to be the best source for that. So many options! I also need to hunt down some DVD boxes for the TV stand; I wanted to use these but they don't fit a DVD case. Dang it!

Besides redecorating, I also did some cooking on Saturday. First up was a quiche; I used the left-over pie shell and eggs from Thanksgiving, and added a dollop of skim milk, leeks, a box of spinach, chopped bacon, and lots of shredded swiss, cheddar and parmesan cheese. Relatively health-conscious, but more importantly delicious and filling. One piece is all you need.



The next one is healthy, and also delicious. It's a recipe I made up myself, after consulting the internet and not quite finding the idea in my head that I wanted to make. This is a big step for me; I always, always use a recipe. I even used one for the cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving!

This time I flew solo, and I made roasted butternut squash soup. So good!

First, I roasted a butternut squash. No seasonings, although I could have added some herbs or spices. I just cut the squash, scooped out the seeds, and roasted it in a pan with a 1/4-inch of water for an hour at 350 degrees. When it comes out, try to be stronger than I am and not poke it with your finger. :)




Onto the soup!
Heat up olive oil in a soup pot, then add:
-small onion, diced
-couple stalks of celery, diced
-carrots, diced (I added extra because I like them)

Saute the veggies for 5 minutes until it softens. Add minced garlic, and a small diced Yukon gold potato (adds thickening and creaminess without adding cream). While those are cooking, scoop out the squash from the rind and add it to the mix. Season with kosher salt, pepper, Worchestershire sauce and some Northwoods seasoning (optional). Let it cook up a few minutes more, then add a box of chicken stock. Bring to a boil, then let simmer for 15-20 minutes so everything cooks enough. Use an immersion blender to puree, or add to a blender in batches.

I added a piece of bacon on top of mine. Otherwise it was just vegetable soup! :)




This and a slice of quiche will be filling me up for days.

The last day of my long weekend was spent at the doctor for my annual physical (I'm healthy, but fat. Yeah, that's pretty much what she said, but nicely. Time to kick the foodstyle into high gear.) I then started to put up decorations for the holiday, but the big tree was too big, and the small tree is missing a stand. I give up on that for the night!

Back to work on Tuesday, and back to daily photos. Promise!