Thursday, January 17, 2008

Sunday Morning and Sunday Night

Sundays are bittersweet for me. I really enjoy the kind of lazy-feeling the day has but at the same time I'm kind of depressed that the weekend is almost over. Doug and I have a Sunday morning routine (most of the time). I'm almost always up by 7:00AM and then I browse the Commercial Appeal online before I go into the kitchen and start a pot of coffee. If Doug isn't awake by 8:00 I go pester him and ask when he's getting up. We like to watch CBS Sunday Morning and it starts at 8:00 so I try to get him up by then so I don't have to DVR it and wait until he gets up to watch it. This past Sunday I got the coffee going and set out our mugs, his is a Imus in the Morning one from the now defunct Don Imus MSNBC show and mine is a mug from 'A Prairie Home Companion'. Anyway, the sun looked so pretty coming in the kitchen I took a few pictures of it. Some weekend mornings I make elaborate breakfasts and other times we just eat oatmeal or cereal. This weekend we had leftover Blueberry-Banana Bread I had made a few days before. This recipe is here. (I omit the nuts & use 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour instead of all white)

I usually attempt my more 'complex' recipes. Things that require lots of prep work or extra steps. I made a simple quiche for dinner but for dessert I made Martha's Glazed Lemon Cakes with Meyer lemons. They were really, really, really good. They rival even the Molten Chocolate Cakes. Delicious, really. The zesting and juicing of 8 lemons did take some time though but it was well worth it because those cakes were so good. Completely unhealthy though.

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Apricot Love

I've gotten on a recent apricot kick. I've always loved dried apriocts, as well as fresh apricots and apricot jam, and most recently Bonne Maman Apricot Preserves. Pure heaven. It's the first jam/jelly/preserve I've actually eaten out the jar with a spoon. Yum! Apricot jam is great with pork too. Two of my favorite pork recipes have apricot jam with them. This Martha recipe for Crispy Apricot Porkchops is a staple of my weeknight meal rotation. And this Martha recipe for Apricot-Glazed Pork Tenderloin is delicious too. I'm collecting several more apricot-themed recipes to try out soon. Including:
Apricot Stuffed French Toast (apricot jam AND cream cheese!)