Monday, July 21, 2008

3 day weekend

So, last week I worked 10's so that I could have Friday off w/o dipping into my maternity leave time. My boss was very kind about it, but still, not thrilled about the whole thing, but was still gracious enough to do it. So, we celebrated Phillip's birthday Thursday night and had a bunch of friends over until late that night, and got to sleep in the next day. I haven't slept til 10:00 in a loooong time, and it was FANTASTIC!! But, let me go back to Phillip's birthday real quick. We had such a great meal. We had Tikha chicken, basmati rice, naan, curry potatoes, and some kind of pea/mushroom Indian concoction. I served a nice veggie tray as an appetizer (not Indian at all), and then Phillip's favorite cake (boxed yellow cake with chocolate icing) with strawberries for dessert. I gotta say, that was the best boxed cake I have ever made!! I tried to jazz it up by making my first homemade chocolate icing (I've made other homemade icing, but not chocolate) and it was quite the under taking. I found a Martha Stewart recipe, and thought for sure it had to be good! I made the first batch with too much butter, so I made two more batches (both of which burned), and then finally balanced out the first batch with the fourth try. It was very delicious, if you weren't looking for a milk chocolate kind of taste. It was made with unsweetened baking chocolates, and it would have been good on the strawberries, but not exactly what I wanted on a cake. I would definitely say to use it if you don't like milk chocolate. Here's the recipe:

  • 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 2 1/2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

  1. Place sugar and cream in a heavy-bottomed saucepan; bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to medium and simmer, without stirring, about 5 minutes.
  2. Remove saucepan from heat and stir in chocolate until melted. Stir in butter and vanilla until well combined. Chill, stirring occasionally, until cooled completely.

Anyway, we got to sleep in on Friday, and then went to Asheville to pick up my car from the dealer after a part had been recalled, and then went to watch the new Batman movie. It totally rocks by the way!! It's awesome! It's definitely supported by the little pitter-patter I've had in my heart for Christian Bale since his "Newsies" days :) Saturday was spent at the lake and lounging around. Afterwards, Phillip invited Colby and Richie (good friends of ours) for some good guy-time movie watching. I sat through a "Futurerama Movie", and then "The Golden Compass" (Lord help me!). Sunday was spent on the couch and sleeping with the dog. Speaking of the dog, we took her to the lake for the first time Saturday. I figured she would be ok, but not so much. She can swim, but only if she has to. Poor thing, once her feet dropped out from under her she was done. She wouldn't swim anymore. So, she perched her little self on top of my baby-bump and sailed around the lake with me and my noodles quite comfortably.

She doesn't ever stay still for the camera!


Excuse my fatness in these pics. I am just starting to see how much of a massive beast I am these days. Time to really have an expectant mommy cut-back on the intake . Other than that we had a great weekend! Gotta get back to work!

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