what i did and didn't do

The great thing about working through the holidays is that when the holidays are over, it's not such a terrible thing to go back to work. people everywhere seem to be moping about the first monday post holidays but for me, i never got out of the rhythm and have to admit that it feels good not having to readjust.

I had a pretty unproductive weekend. Friday night the baumer came over for dinner. I made falafel from a box and sweet potato fries. the falafal was fine but next time i will try to make it from scratch since i really do love it and this just wasn't up to par.

Saturday i woke up and got the meatballs going for our dinner guests - M.'s friend from grad school, his wife and their ridiculously adorable baby, who actually does not eat meatballs yet. M. had been wanting to try cooking a braciole in the sauce so he went around the corner to the neighborhood butcher, who apparently barely spoke a lick of english, and came home with two huge pieces of "beautiful" beef filled with garlic, parmesan cheese and other tasty italian flavoring. M. was so excited about his butcher experience that i could have sworn he was channeling my maternal grandpa, grandpa chaimi, who made his living as a kosher butcher.

While the sauce simmered, M. did our unmanageable amount of laundry while i fretted about the use of public washing machines and opp (other people's pubes) getting mixed in with my whites. This new fear was prompted by our dear friend Juliette, who shared this scary "fact" with me after we both had a few glasses of wine. oy.

Despite feeling slightly under the weather, i bundled up and went out for a run, wearing my new winterized running gear, recommended to me by my sweet koob who trained for a marathon in switzerland, in the dead of winter. what a gal!

And then we got back to cooking for Zach and Amy, who literally churn their own butter, make all their own babyfood, and for all i know, milk their own cows. they are true gourmets so the pressure was on and i think we did ok. Here's our menu:

-homemade sauce and turkey meatballs (recipe care of Mama M.), sausage and braciole
-fresh rigatoni, made by a little italian lady down the street
-garlic bread made with whole wheat pizza dough from Tony's, our neighborhood pizza joint.
-roasted asparagus with fresh grated parmesan cheese
-and for dessert, i made Mama M.'s coffee cake and M.'s request (do you sense a pattern here?)

They seemed to really enjoy it! and we had a great time chowing down and watching the baby put her little feet in her mouth in between giggles.

Yesterday, i really did nothing. I moved from couch to bed and back again. well, i watched baby mama (not bad) but that was really it.