Home Cookin'

1) Jim & Mindy posing for a dinner shot 2) The meal: Cornish hen, Scalloped potatoes, and asparagus 3) Bella called for this shot after seeing the sunny shadow cast from her sippy cup. She's certainly got an eye for art. I slept about as good as one could hope for Friday night. I didn’t fully open my eyes until almost 9am Saturday morning. That’s really late for me. The kids had been up for a while but were playing nicely in one or the other's bedroom. A check of my head thankfully confirmed the absence of any residual effect from the codeine I took on Thursday. I was able to leap out of bed full of piss and energy. It was the best that I'd felt in almost a week. I like to exercise without the presence of others, but this morning I had the kids at my feet and side as I carried out my morning ritual. However, all things considered, that was a small price for the precious extra long rest. By 9:30am I was walking Ykraps. He was more than ready. The morning air was brisker than it had been all week, and the sky was clouded over, too. It wasn’t supposed to be a banner weekend weatherwise by any means. I returned to some hot Starbucks. It was very tasty! Mindy finally made her way downstairs and we ended up sipping our morning coffee together. We reviewed our agenda which was relatively blank. We both agreed how nice that was. Mindy talked about going shopping for jeans later in the day, perhaps to Kohl’s. While I tinkeried on the computer, Mindy and the kids began taking ornaments off the Xmas tree in preparation for its dismantling. I readied for a run. I hit the door somewhere near 10:45am – a late run by any measure. I took the Trabue Rd route. There was nothing too memorable about the run other than it being a tick on the chart, and another opportunity to think about life and how fortunate I am. Mindy baked lemon poppy seed muffins while I was running. Once back, I couldn’t resist the urge. I had one or two. By now the tree was all but naked. The only decorations that remained were the lights, the new tree topper, and some spiraled tinsel. I retrieved the step ladder from the garage and finished the job. Next, I took down the Charlie Brown tree in the living room. That went quick. In the meantime, Mindy was busy packing away her manger scene. Now, the only remnant of Xmas was the wreath hanging from the balcony over the family room, but Mindy took care of that, too. The day was moving along lazily. I spent about an hour blogging Friday. It was already 1:30pm and we were both still unshowered – Mindy in her PJ’s and me in my running clothes. The kids played all afternoon while Mindy and I refereed. It felt really good to have such a day. Jacob watched football through the afternoon ( a college bowl) and kept on me about when the NFL playoff games would start. The kid loves his football! Mindy pulled some Cornish hens from the freezer around 1pm. We planned on making a nice home cooked dinner that evening. As the afternoon progressed, it became apparent that we’d be eating a late dinner – after the kids were fed. We concocted a list of items we needed from the grocery to round out the night’s menu. I agreed to do the shopping. I showered and left the house sometime around 4:45pm – just after the Colts game started. I decided to shop at Giant Eagle. There, I figured I stood the best chance of finding everything on our list. We were planning to make some gourmet scalloped potatoes to accompany our Cornish hens. The recipe called for gruyere cheese and shallots, among a rather lengthy list of other miscellaneous items. I found everything we needed but it seemed to take forever. When it was all said and done, I had spent $59. Ouch! I was home before 6pm. Mindy and Bella took Ykraps on his evening walk so that I could get busy with dinner. The first thing I did was prep the Cornish hens for baking. I had to rinse them under cool water for a few minutes since there was solid ice inside the body cavity. I had them ready for roasting in short order. It was nothing special, just garlic, salt, pepper, and butter inside and out. The potatoes took a while to prep as I was following a new recipe. I sautéed the shallots and garlic in butter before adding heavy whipping cream and milk. Eventually I added just under three pounds of redskin potatoes sliced at about 1/8 of an inch. I topped it off with four ounces of gruyere cheese and then about two tablespoons of grated parmesan. While all of that cooked, Mindy steamed some asparagus. It soon became a matter of good timing. Everything smelt terrific. I was especially eager to try those taters! We joked that they cost $30 to make. As the clock approached 8pm dinner was ready to eat – finally. We created two simple place settings then sat down to a quiet dinner for two. Everything was fantastic. We ate those hens down to the bare carcass. For entertainment, we threw the whole carcasses out back for the wildlife to enjoy. We were too full to cut into the keylime pie we bought. After cleaning up the dishes we watched the first half of the Dallas/Seattle game in the family room. Mindy was ready to crash. We headed to bed before 10pm. I got my second wind and ended up watching the entire second half from bed. I am glad that I did, too. It was an unlikely and exciting finish!