I'm pretty sure the only thing that's more of a drag than counting calories is reading about someone else's efforts to count calories, so...I feel for you guys, is what I'm saying. But I think the time has come for me to stop attempting to re-gain all of my baby weight.
Don't worry, my first entry in this regard (
Greek pasta salad) isn't even terribly healthy, other than having a lot of veggies in it. It's even LESS terribly healthy if you, like I, interpret the instruction to add "as much of the dressing as you like" to mean "every last drop of the dressing."
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| She also shouldn't have included "or more to taste" in the step where cheese is added. Recipe error. |
Wait, wait, we should back up and discuss the Valentine's bacchanalia that helped necessitate this (surprisingly cheese-heavy) diet.
First, I found another way to use the ridiculous amount of rosemary simple syrup left over from
previous sun-drenched cocktails: mix it with lemon juice and prosecco.
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| Then call it a "sparkler" because that is highly festive. |
Next up:
steak tenderloin in a pink peppercorn sauce, sour cream mashed potatoes, "salad" consisting mostly of walnuts and blue cheese. I should note that I did not follow the instructions for cooking the steak as written in the recipe, because
Jen made a fortuitous comment about
cooking steaks in the oven right as I was getting everything prepped, and it was MUCH BETTER than the chewy disaster of badly cooked cow I usually end up with. Anyway. Sear then roast, I am a convert.
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| Saturated fats are for lovers. |
And THEN there were
deep dark chocolate cookies (good, good, good idea) and
raspberry-buttermilk ice cream. I have to admit that I did not do a very good job with this ice cream, it was more icy than creamy and just didn't come together right. Probably because Jen didn't miraculously show up on Twitter an hour before I was going to make it to advise me on the proper technique.
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| So, her bad. |
We did finally bribe Anna into a cheery Valentine mood with candles and a pre-dinner chocolate cookie.
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| Or a "this was her dinner" chocolate cookie, I don't know, semantics. |
In other good news, my friend Emily had her baaaaaaybeeeee finally! I know people have babies all the time, but I'm pretty sure Emily has been pregnant for a science-defying four years, so it's very special. We went to visit them in this hospital this morning, because what welcome (to the world) wagon would be complete without this face?
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| Scarlett's older brother is excited about her arrival, so Anna just wanted to offer another perspective. |
