Busy Bee...

After my day of cooking, I was in a rush to get out of the house and go to my first sewing class. Well, it wasn't really a class - a few friends decided to get together for a sewing club. Since I don't really know anything about sewing, my dear friend Claudia gave me a quick lesson and extra attention during the evening.

For my first project, I am attempting to make an apron for my niece Sophia. I didn't use a pattern, so we'll see how well that turns out ;) but here's a picture of it in the works. I still have to add the straps and finish the edges.
The get together was a lot of fun. It was a few girls from high school and then another that Claudia knows from a class she's taught at Fancy Tiger. We each brought in some snacks to share and Claudia brought in a bottle of wine too! My kind of club! I'm looking forward to learning this new craft and already have plans for stocking stuffers!

Darren's Faves....

I was out of the house bright and early yesterday to take Mondo to the airport. The snow was coming in fast and thick, so I made a quick stop at the grocery store on my way home. Darren has been asking me to make potstickers and coconut shrimp (from my cooking class) for a while now and I thought, what the heck. So when I got home, I made the potsticker filling (which was a whole lot of filling) and used up all the wrappers I had bought. I made some right then and froze the rest (they freeze quite nicely). I told Darren he could have potstickers and coconut shrimp for lunch today.

It was a beautiful day today - the sun shining bright and the roads were nice and clear. But there was a blizzard just yesterday (welcome to Colorado) and I guess I kind of acted like I was still snowed in. I didn't mind cooking all day at all.

Anyway, Darren held me to it too. It was the first thing he asked me for this morning. But before anything, I made a batch of dough for pizza for dinner this evening. It came out really nice and I even added some herbs to the mix. The coconut shrimp was great - but I want to find a good dipping sauce to make with it next time. We had the pizza for dinner. Darren was in heaven and told me "I can't wait until you take your next cooking class!"

Book Club: The Glass Castle

The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls.

We met on it tonight and had hours of conversation. Mary joined our group and so did Sue's daughter, Stephanie. I think we all agreed how writing this memoir must have been therapeutic for the author - but I left finding how therapeutic it probably was for us just to be able to discuss it and open up with each other. I can't recommend this read enough for a Book Club.

Next read is Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo

Phantom of the Opera

If you know me, then you know I don't sing. But when Darren was born, I guess I wanted to try to do the motherly thing and try to sing him. I knew the words to about three songs and one of them was The Phantom of the Opera. So that's what I used to sing to him. Poor kid!

When he was about three, my dad said "Darren, will you sing a song for me?" and Darren said "What do you want me to sing Grandpa?" My dad said "How about Twinkle Twinkle Little Star?" and then Darren said "How about Phantom of the Opera?" and started to sing.

I love love love the Phantom of the Opera. Susan Kay wrote a book called Phantom that is a prequel to The Phantom of the Opera. I've read it at least a dozen times and I had seen the musical 4 times. So this year, when it came on tour to Denver again, I decided to take Darren to see it.

We got tickets with Mondo, JJ and Denise and their family. Before the show we went to dinner at the Aquarium. Darren liked it (probably not quite as much as me) and now we're reading the book together.

I heart 5280 Week

Can I just say I love love love 5280 Restaurant Week? And that the Capital Grille is one of my favorite restaurants!

Our 3rd through 5th's couldn't make it, so Mondo called our friend Mary at the last minute who was down to join us no questions asked. When we met up with her at the restaurant, she had a friend with her. Mary had just (like hours before) picked up Haley from the airport. She just moved to Colorado from California. Never even been here before. Crazy huh? She actually had never met Mary before either, they just have a mutual friend somewhere along the way. Well, whatever - it was a fun story and they were great company.

I have to note, on top of all the food that came on the 5280 menu, we also ordered a side of Lobster Mac and the Crème Brûlée for dessert. Thee-Best.