Productive Weekend

It was definitely one of those weekends where I felt like I actually accomplished some things on my to-do list.  Saturday, despite pitiful weather, we managed to get the oil changed on both cars, get some groceries, and do some errand running.  I also managed to print off some pictures for the department that I'd been promising to print for months. Then, after a long day of running around, we relaxed a bit with some Top Chef.

Sunday was a day for gardening (and I've got the sunburn to prove it).  The weather was ideal for anything outdoor related, so we hooked up Cheese outside and tidied up our gardens in the backyard.  I pruned, trimmed, weeded, and raked and then planted wildflowers (fingers crossed that they actually grow) while Antoine worked on prepping our very large veggie garden box.  See, we had built the box and started digging/prepping the area but what with each having two jobs at the time we didn't make much progress!  But this year we are determined to get our veggie garden going.  And I think we are on our way!

Also, this weekend I tried out two new recipes.  First up, I made homemade bagels Saturday morning.  

They turned out alright, some better than others.  The strawberry ones were kind of gross, because I made the mistake of only adding strawberries and not any additional sugar (and sadly I made two of those).  The salt bagel was okay, nothing special.  The cheese bagel was delicious, but unfortunately I only made one and since that's Antoine's favorite kind of bagel he got it!  But I think my favorite was the honey walnut (again, I only made one because I'm not smart).  I'll definitely be experimenting again with this recipe.  I find it awesome that you can make one batch of dough and use that to make any kind of bagel you like!

The next recipe I attempted was a grilled salad with strawberry balsamic reduction.  It sounds and looks fancy, but the best part...it's easy!  And it only has like six ingredients.  I love strawberries and balsamic together, but this might have been the best combo yet!  By reducing the balsamic and cooking the strawberries in it, you're left with a mellow yet flavor packed dressing.  And it's a fairly healthy dressing considering there's no oil in the reduction.  And grilling the romaine lettuce is pure genius.  The recipe makes enough for 4 people...so lucky me, I've got some delicious leftover salad for lunch today.

Overall, it was a pretty great weekend, and I wasn't exactly happy to see Monday come.  Although my body is sore from all that gardening and I've got a giant callus on my hand, it felt so good to be outside and accomplish so much.  I hope you all had productive and/or relaxing weekends!