Merry Sprengidagur!

As you all know, there is nothing on God's green earth that I love more than eggs cheese sitting down themes. But man, when it rains it pours, you know? I have to admit that with Lunar New Year, Shrove Tuesday/Mardi Gras, and Valentine's Day all happening in the span of five days, the calendar has almost gotten the better of me this week. Oh, I could not plan elaborate menus around each of these events, you say? Okay, cool, I'll just start raising money for my brain transplant because what are you even talking about.

Ahem. But we are going to split up the holidays to make them more manageable, so here we go, PANCAKE TUESDAY YAY! This morning Dan sleepily whipped up some Orange Cloud Pancakes and they were light and fluffy and holiday-worthy indeed.

I'd say this is Dan's favorite of all the Tuesdays.

I know there are other things afoot today, but we are SAVING that for next time. I am also INVESTIGATING this Bursting Day situation in anticipation of next year. Just for you.

And Sunday of course ushered in the Year of the Snake, so I gave the interwebs a quick once over and come up with Asian Slaw with Ginger Peanut Dressing plus Crispy Salt and Pepper Tofu and lo, it was good. Seriously, start coating your tofu in cornstarch and frying it up, this is Erica's Non-Joke Tip of the Day.

You only get one, use it wisely.

This is to appease those who were upset at my lack of eggs during Thai week: I was just saving them to cover up the spectacular jumble I made of these spaghetti squash cakes.

See what happens when a meal is non-themed? Disaster.

I might throw an egg on top of the Tuscan White Bean and Roasted Garlic Soup leftovers just to soak up a little bit of the extra garlic because whoops! By tripling the garlic in this recipe, I may have very slightly exceeded Ideal Garlic Balance for the first time in my personal history.

So maybe only 2.5 heads next time.

Oh, I did sneak a cookbook in on the sly, #18: Bread (Christine Ingram and Jennie Shapter, 2003). Provenance: Dan's pre-Erica bargain-bin spree. Previous recipes on this blog: none. Recipe: Anadama bread, featuring molasses and cornmeal. 

A loaf of random pantry ingredients!

Verdict: I like that the name of this book is "Bread." You pretty much know what you're getting into here. The loaf rose, the house smelled great, I honestly don't ask much of bread recipes. Once again worth $6, so Dan is two for two. We should celebrate with pancakes or something.

Hey, Ivy's BFF Scarlett turned one this weekend and look at the cute Pinteresty veggie cups!

I always suspected what our vegetable garden was lacking was "dip."

There was also a brand new and very cute playhouse in the backyard, although I didn't go inside it, as it appeared to be guarded by a rather cross troll of some type.

Well, I wanted to add a picture of Ivy, but I can't seem to find her anywhere.

I'm sure she'll turn up eventually.

Maybe we can even track down that troll.