Fabulous Day

A winter storm blew through yesterday, and dumped about 9 inches of wet, heavy snow on us. We've had barely any snow this year, which is unusual for Minnesota, and I was starting to think that winter was probably over before it even began! Not that I really mind. As I grow older, I don't find extreme cold, or huge amounts of snow as appealing as when I was younger. But, will I move away? Probably not.

My main concern from the storm, though, was if the roads would be drivable by early afternoon. I had an appointment to have the stitches removed from my basal cell carcinoma procedure, and I didn't want that to be postponed! The roads ended up fine, though, because heavy rain followed the heavy snow, and temperatures stayed above freezing, so it all shrunk down quite nicely.

The nurse told me that my surgical site looked beautiful! She said they can tell if someone has taken good care of the site, and that I obviously had. That felt good to hear. A few steri-strips on it for a couple of days, and I'm good to go! I asked about when I could start massaging the area to help flatten the scar, and she said that they recommended something called ScarAway Silicone Sheets, which I will look into.

Oh, yeah 

And then off to Perkins with Bruce for a late lunch. My current favorite meal there is the Senior Eggs Benedict, plus it was also Free Pie Day. We both took our French Silk pie home to eat tonight, while we watch Young Sheldon. 

And then Katie stopped by after we got home to show us her new car. She gave us a ride in it, and then we went back to the house to have tea and lemon Girl Scout Cookies. Today is a fabulous day, I said!

pie looks a little weird, but it'll be delicious

A Belated Anniversary Celebration

excited for our evening!

never knew she wrote so many well known songs

medium rare, perfect

To celebrate our 37th wedding anniversary this year, we went to see Beautiful, The Carole King Musical at the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre.  It was a fun show, and also a fun evening to share with the others at our table. The guy sitting next to Bruce reminded us of Scott, an old friend of Bruce's, and the woman sitting next to me told funny stories of the farm she grew up on. We both had their grilled top sirloin dinner, which was cooked just right, and split a fudge sundae for dessert. The Chanhassen Dinner Theatre is one of our favorite places to go to!   

St. Paddy's Day Dinner

Some years ago, I started having an annual corned beef and cabbage dinner for the family. Sometimes it didn't work to have it right on St. Patrick's Day, so it was just called a Corned Beef and Cabbage Dinner. But after Dad got sick, gatherings slowed down some as they just didn't feel the same. This year I decided it was time to try again, and Debbie was our special guest of honor! 💕 🎉 💕 🎉

The Green Jello

St. Paddy's Day Feast

salad, homemade bread, and Irish butter

Of course, we had corned beef. And butter cabbage. But I also made a pan of Shepherd's Pie which is considered to be Irish, and something that the family seems to enjoy. There was no shortage of desserts, either, as Avi surprised us with an apple pie and box of Danish to share, along with the lemon cake and 7 layer bars already here! In the end, there were still so many sweets left over, that we decided to gift some to Mom and the staff at Elder Homestead.

Debbie told me that it was nice to see everybody talking with each other instead of sitting and staring at their phones. She's right about that, they usually do talk. And, I love that!

butter cabbage in the crockpot

March Book Club Beauties

Two Tone Tommy

We had our March Book Club gathering at Cathy's this month. After a feast of ham & broccoli quiche, hash browns, bacon, strawberries and cream cheese dip, blueberry muffins, chocolate chip cookies, lemon bars, and a sweet bread that I believe had grapefruit in it, Cathy told us all about her recent trip to the UK. The subject of British Afternoon Tea came up, and wouldn't you know that Cathy was able to attend one at The Grand Hotel while they were there?

so pretty

yummy!!!

I mentioned that Debbie was planning a Fancy Afternoon Tea in honor of her mom soon, and that we'd also been discussing in great detail about what to serve. Savories, Scones, and Sweets plus tea, of course! Mona remembered that she had a silver 3-tier serving stand that Debbie could borrow, plus a pink cake pedestal stand. This was much appreciated. 

Cathy shared the next three photos from her trip ...

how posh!

clotted cream on the top

savories, scones, and sweets

Our upcoming April Book Club Beauties will be held at Mona's, and our next book selection will be Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. 

the monthly selfie 💚

It's A Match

🎉🎉🎉

Eggplant Parmigiana

We ate family style

Baby Daniel

Uncle Jake, Aunt Brianna, and Baby Daniel

The Dolce Platter of Desserts

A taste of whipped cream for Baby Daniel

It was a fine day on the Ides of March (also known as Match Day) when Brianna found out that she had matched with the University of Minnesota for her residency program in pathology! 🎉 Jake then treated us to a "Reveal Party" at Buca di Beppo Italian Restaurant in downtown Minneapolis, and we heard the good news. 🎉 Brianna's parents, Beth and Jerry, were there, as well as her brother, Sam. I think I can speak for the whole family when I say that we are all delighted they'll be staying here in Minnesota. 💕

The Noble Egg

I love soft boiled eggs. My dad used to make dip it eggs for us when we were little, which were soft boiled eggs that had strips of buttered toast dipped into them, yum. When you were finished with your strips of toast, you would spoon out the rest of the egg to eat. With more salt and pepper, of course. 

We've watched as many free episodes of Doc Martin that we've been able to, and it was common to see people on the show eating dip it eggs, or toasty soldiers as the British say. I noticed that they put their soft boiled egg into an egg cup, and I wondered why I'd never thought about that before. Brilliant! So, I looked around online for some interesting egg cups, and found beautiful colored glass ones. Which made me happy because I love colored glass. 

I ordered two sets. One for me and one for Katie, as a thank you for sharing her Reiki knowledge with me. Little boy loved eating his soft boiled egg out of his pink egg cup!

💙💚💛💜