Kitchen Therapy

I love to cook, to bake, to try new recipes.  I have a friend who was fearful of yeast dough recipes so I gave her a certificate for "classes" for Christmas.  Since then she's been over a couple times for some basics.

Yesterday I was in the mood to play in the kitchen and challenge myself with something I hadn't made before.  I found a Danish Pastery recipe.  That was perfect since I had volunteered to bring something to a brunch this morning and it was a more advanced yeast dough. 

I called up my friend to see if she wanted to come over and play too.  So for a couple hours on a Sunday evening we visited and mixed.  Chatted about life and watched bread rise.  Talked about kids and rolled dough. Watched HandyMan finish up projects and shared memories.  We all gathered around the table for a shared dinner combined on the spur of the moment from both our kitchens.

We had a great time and we made some really good Danishes. (And I'm sure they would have been absolutely phenomenal had I remembered the almond extract-oops!)

Everyone has their space they find therapeutic:  the mall, the hair salon, the spa.  For me, a kitchen with friends will do it just about every time.

[Mostly] Media Free Sunday

Taking a moment to remember the graces of the day and week.

...insert DSL outage and relatively media free day here...

It was really refreshing!  HandyMan was home for the afternoon and evening.  He and GGirl worked on a painting project and he put the finishing touches on another project he's been working on.  I pulled up a new recipe on my kindle to try out and got some great play time in the kitchen with a friend. MMan is quickly getting the hang of crawling and learned how to get himself to standing while leaning on the guitar case.  He's just barely 7 months old.  Boy am I in trouble!

Another project I got to work on was updating our photo wall in the living room.  For a long time I've wanted to add more photos and this week I finally got frames and today I printed pictures.  I was reminded again of amazing family and friends, grand travels,  family time and fun memories.  So blessed!

All In A Saturday's Work

One of my tasks for one of my jobs is to write up the famous Sonlight Camp Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.  After writing it out about 10 times this morning I had to make cookies.  And they were yummy!

Just recently GGirl has begun mothering her buddies.  Today we found clothes for four of her current favorites.  I set her up with a diaper bag.  She found bibs, "food" spoons and diapers and was off adventuring around the house much of the afternoon.  They stopped for picnics, diaper changes and naps.  Quite the busy little one.

And MMan is just about to go nuts trying to master crawling.  He's good on the carpet but as soon as he hits the wood floors it's like Bambi on ice.  He us quite the determined one!

Livin' it up

Groceries.  Errands.  Leftovers. Work. Tax paperwork. 

Exciting day around here.  Let me tell ya!  I think the highlight of the day was going out for lunch at our favorite Mexican joint.

On a side note, I have to confess I'm slightly envious of all the FaceBook posts I saw this evening from Durango, Colorado's Snowdown party.  Wishing I was there.