Because Mara Told Me To

Mara reminded me that my blog doesn't need to be cool, hip, pinterest-worthy.  At this point just an online journal would be fine.  And that is true, and so I will try better.

I visited Mara in New Hampshire over the weekend.  It was so, so fun to spend the weekend with just Mara, not with other siblings (love you guys!) or my kids (you too!).  Just a sister weekend.  With her boyfriend and dog, too, but they were, respectively, our event coordinator/meat-griller extraordinaire and, I don't know, lap-warmer/scrap-eater/court jester.

New Hampshire is a lot more like Alaska than I could have imagined.  There were mountains and snow and lots of lakes and quirky little small towns with gun shops and gift shops and tiny organic food restaurants.

Mara and I cooked a lot of good food, which was one of the highlights of the weekend for me, no surprise there.  We made a caramelized onion and butternut squash galette that was amazing and an oh-so-good sweet potato pie.  Also gnocci in tomato broth and cheddar swirl buns.  Mmm.  I'm still dreaming about it.

Speaking of meals, I'm trying to be really good about meal planning lately, and I'm also trying to make food my family will eat but that will stretch the kids' palette's as well.  Here is the plan for this week:

Mon: Craig bought pizza since I wasn't home yet
Tues: black bean soup with chips and cheese/veggie plate
Wed: lasagne and salad (they eat salad now!  except Henry, who eats the carrots and cucumbers out of the salad.  thank you ranch, the gateway drug)
Thurs: burritos with the leftover soup/apple pie for pi day
Fri: white bean soup with potatoes and bacon/cheddar swirl buns
Sat: that galette I mentioned above (we'll see how it goes over with the kids)
Sun: thai yellow curry with potatoes and tofu (I predict Luke will eat only the rice)

So we will see how it goes!