This morning I popped out of bed and got started on a breakfast I've been looking forward to for days. Green eggs & ham (sans ham for me). I remembered having a delicious arugula & garlic pesto omelet in Vermont a few months ago and decided to recreate it for the fam today. I used basil pesto and added goat cheese and arugula on top, and it was fantastic. Matt added some chopped up corned beef to his as well. Pesto isn't quite Irish, but still festive.
Although this is a short weekend for me, it's been a really nice one so far. Yesterday we spent the morning doing things around the house before going out for a food shopping trip in the afternoon. Breakfast and lunches were per the usual...
Strawberry-banana Greek yogurt and a green salad with salmon sums up the morning and mid-day meals. All week long Matt and I had planned to take a half hour drive up to Shrewsbury to stock up on supplies at the closest Trader Joe's. It was a cold and snowy day and I love driving in snow flurries, so I was excited for our afternoon out. We loaded up on everything from produce and cheese to nuts and coffee.
Some of my favorite goodies were sunflower seed butter (haven't had it in forever, and I love the stuff!), freeze dried bananas (mainly for Riker, but I snagged a few too), some amazing organic, fair trade dark roast coffee that we sampled at the store and had to have, and a month's worth of organic dark chocolate. I adore dark chocolate, and one square of it can cure my worst sweet tooth and I can't wait to try some of the fun ones I found at TJ's. I also made a giant bowl of mixed nuts with all the different bags we picked up - macadamias, pecans, almonds and pumpkin seeds.
Our next stop was to the local fish monger to pick up fresh locally caught seafood for the week, and then we made a stop at Silverton Farms for eggs and other veggies. Unfortunately they were closed so we had to pick up the rest of our groceries at ShopRite. We certainly don't have time to do a triple store shopping trip every week, or even every other week, but I love to do it when we can. It feels so great to buy as much of our food organic and locally grown, caught and raised as possible.
After our food shopping adventures finally ended, we headed over to Matt's parents' house for his sister's birthday dinner. She turned 32 last week and last night was the first chance we had to get together.
Before dinner was ready we chatted over wine and hors d'oeuvres. I skipped the snacks but did help myself to a glass of cabernet to end the week. I sipped my wine and listened to MomMom tell stories about her German grandparents and stories of growing up.
My impending trip to Munich spurred tales of her childhood and the foods they used to eat, and she ran to her bedroom to pull out stacks of old photographs. I absolutely love hearing her old stories and looking at these photos. It amazes me how long she's held onto them, and sometimes I wonder what our kids will think when we share them another generation later.
She showed us old postcards her grandparents had brought from Germany back in the 1920s, and she even still had her grandfather's immigration papers from when he moved to Philadelphia. So cool!
For dinner Matt's mom made chicken parm with homemade marinara, but with soy "chicken" for me. I also had a smidge of spaghetti, some broccoli, garlic asparagus, and a bowl of salad.
Nothing says birthday like sprinkles!
Now it's time to start packing and get ready for my trip. My flight isn't until this evening so I still have a few more hours of the weekend to soak up before my voyage to Bavaria. I won't be blogging for a few days, but have a special post coming later today with a fun giveaway, so make sure to come back and check it out!
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