Mid-Week Weekend

This week, Thursday was our weekend - aka, our day off together. Since we usually only get one day off together per week (if we're lucky), we try to make the most of it. Yesterday was one of those days.

I started the day off the best way that I know how - by making cookies! Shawn sometimes brings me home some leftover peanut butter chips and mini m&ms from work, so I tossed those into the batter this time, along with some oats. Lately, I've been straying from my tried-and-true chocolate chip cookie recipe and switching up various elements of it to see how it changes the outcome. This time I used a mix of bread flour and all-purpose flour, since I've heard that makes for chewier cookies. I also like to change the ratio of brown sugar to white sugar, also for chewier cookies. The addition of oats tends to make the cookies not spread as much, so that's why these look so tiny!

After the cookies came out of the oven, we walked down to our local movie theatre (it's less than half a mile up the road - how awesome is that?!) and saw our first movie in over three years: The Secret World of Arrietty. I'm glad it was just as beautiful as expected because it would have been a huge disappointment to break our three year no-theatre streak for a bad movie. We're both big fans of Miyazaki's animated films and this one definitely didn't disappoint.

Aside from the movie though, the highlight of yesterday was that I made my very first hard crusted bread loaf! A few weeks ago my mother found me this beautiful Le Creuset dutch oven that was just dying to have a loaf of bread baked in it. Well, Mom, I finally used it!



One of my favorite bakers/bloggers, Joy The Baker, posted a recipe for Spicy Garlic Bread and it looked and sounded far too good, so of course I just had to make it. Here's (some of) what goes into a spicy garlic loaf:


My loaf didn't turn out quite as pretty as hers, but dammit, it was just as tasty as I was hoping it would be! Also, I don't think it looks too bad for a first attempt! I just have to work on my smoothing & kneading skills... also, the loaf explodes in the oven! Look at how much bigger it is coming out than it was going in! (I'm sorry if that just sounds like a terrible dirty joke - keep it clean, folks!)


We enjoyed it with a chicken caesar salad for dinner (homemade bread and homemade dressing, that's just how we roll). There's nothing better than a simple meal with lots of garlic and fresh herbs and greens. At this rate, we could open up our own restaurant soon! ;)



...now for something completely different, here's a peek at what we had for dinner Wednesday night:


Tasty tasty burgers. But not just any burgers; these had cheese and onions sprinkled throughout. We're fancy like that; you should know this by now! Also, I seriously can't wait until we have a grill. Burgers on the stovetop just don't compare.

Have an amazing weekend!



PS. I want to say a big thank you to everyone who left me feedback on the sandals post. It was much appreciated. The general consensus were the Merrell Hennas, which as much as I love, I'm going to hold off on buying for now. I just can't fathom spending that much on sandals, no matter how amazing they are. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they go on sale some time over the next few months. In the mean time, my mom actually found the Simple sandals in purple on another website. I think those can hold me over until the Merrells go on sale :)