After many failed attempts, I have decided that weekend blogging just isn’t for me. Since I sit in front of the computer for 40+ hours Mon-Fri, I just don’t have the urge to stare at the screen on my days off. So I have now decided that weekends should be computer-less for sanity sake. 😉 And hey, this will just make for some more interesting Monday posts!
Speaking of Monday posts, I can’t believe it’s actually Monday already. Honestly, where did this weekend go?! Every week I try to plan for a full Sunday afternoon off to just vege and relax, but for some reason that just doesn’t happen! There’s always something that comes up and then bang! Monday morning is here!
So what did I do this weekend that made it fly by so fast?
Friday
I headed straight home after work with plans of being a little cleaning machine. I figured that if I got the bulk of the house work done Friday then we’d be more apt to have the free time that I was so desperately craving. I vacuumed, I dusted, I organized, and then even washed the floors. The main floor was spotless. Success!
While the cleaning went on, I whipped up a little gem..
Shelley – I promise I will post the recipe for you tonight
And then I went to prep my gorgeous spaghetti squash for baking. I still wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it for supper but was confident in my winging-it skills. 😉
That was until I picked up my gorgeous spaghetti squash and noticed this awful sour smell! I proceeded to stark poking with a fork to prep it for the oven until I flipped it over and my fork just sank in. The smell was horrible!!! My squash was bad 😦
So sad! We had only just purchased this baby the weekend before! I hate wasting food….
I was so upset about the squash that I felt completely defeated about what I would make for supper. We’ve been really good about only buying enough food to last us the week so we didn’t exactly have a lot hanging around. I then thought “oo why don’t I make some burritos?” I proceeded to take the ingredients out until I then discovered we were out of cheese. Another fail. 😦 It was after 7pm at this point, C was almost home and I had no idea what to make for supper. Once he got in the door we toyed with the idea of going out, but quickly axed the idea. We needed to stop spending so much going out. So we then decided on egg sandwiches with the leftover ham we had from C’s weekly cold-cuts.
As I started prepping supper, I didn’t want just an egg sandwich and then finally, what I had been waiting for – the light went off!
I had a zucchini that needed to be eaten… some mushrooms hanging around… an onion… a couple tomatoes! I quickly got my chopping on and sautéed them all together with the ham. I then served that with toast and dippy eggs! 🙂 Supper worked out. Phew!
Saturday
This was the day…. the day I planned to attack my back yard.
We got up early to get our groceries out-of-the-way and then instead of going for a late morning ride like I usually do, I decided something had to be done to the yard. I’m pretty particular about my garden, so I took advantage of the time I had while C was doing his workout. I like spending time out there on my own prettying things up so out I went!
Unfortunately with this time of year, there wasn’t going to be that much prettying up done – so lets say I did some tidying up. 😉
I started in the front cleaning up the masses of leaves that had accumulated in my garden. (I chose not to snap shots of my front for privacy sake) And then I headed to the back.
The disaster that is the back….
Notice how you can’t even really see the definition in my back garden because of the mass of leaves?
Well, I worked out there for a good 2 hours. I raked, weeded and raked some more. It’s not even close to being ready for winter yet, but it’s a start.
Can you believe that all of those leaves in that massive pile came out of my garden?! Yikes!
And you know what’s also not so great? I have a curly willow tree back there which has not even begun to change colours or drop leaves! It makes me think this leaf-raking thing will be a weekly occurence until snow hits!
Although on next weekend’s list – trimming my evergreens in my garden. I didn’t get a chance to really garden this year and things weren’t even close to as nice as they could have been. So I’m going to start now by trimming and tidying as much as I can this fall in hopes of a stellar garden in 2011. 🙂 Maybe I’ll have a nice lawn in 2011 too… damn my neighbour whose weed lawn spreads over to my house.
I was ready for a break after all of that work, so while C went out for a video game afternoon, I took the time to finally sit down and watch Sex and The City 2. BOO! I was so upset with that movie! Being a MASSIVE SATC fan, the movie was way too long and all over the place! Such a disappointment. 😦
Post movie, I met C over at our friends where we then had an awesome game night!
Sunday
After a day filled with mucking horse stalls, visits with both sets of parents, some last-minute errands and laundry… this baby was the star of my Sunday.
We had purchased 2 chickens last weekend as they were on sale – $4 each! Great deal! So yesterday morning before we left for the farm, I took one out of the freezer to start thawing. Come 5:30 I prepped this baby using my favourite roast chicken method – this has to be one of the easiest and most flavourful ways to roast a chicken folks. 🙂
Get your roasting pan and line with a sheet of parchment paper – this just makes your clean up 100% easier because you won’t be scrubbing up a storm. Roughly chop some onions, carrots, garlic and celery. Leave all the skins on! Makes it quick and easy and it’s all only for flavour anyway. Spread out your veggies evenly in your roasting pan and then set your chicken right on top. Smash 2 more cloves of garlic and put them inside the bird along with some fresh thyme and fresh rosemary. Rub about 1 tbsp of butter all over the chicken and now she’s ready to go!
Roast at 400 degrees for about 1 hour. Just keep your eye on her. Once the juices start flowing clear, she’s ready. 😉
Love it!!!
I served this with some barley pilaf and sautéed zucchini. I was starving at this point and completely forgot to snap any more shots. Oops!
Supper was fantastic though! A perfect way to finish a weekend.
P.s. If you roast a chicken like this, keep the carcass and veggies to make a stock! I started a stock after supper last night that will work it’s way into tonight’s supper. Stay tuned!
My Pink Thumb 