Oh great, I have to eat the chicken..

I've been neglecting my preshus bloggie. =( You'd think with all of the extra time of relaxation and leisure that I've enjoyed this past week while on vaykay that I'd be posting every day! Nope.. didn't quite work out that way - I had a Tartelette to keep me company for FIVE days!! And then the weather was gorgeous for the rest of the week so I spent most of my time putzin' around in the yard and playing with the dogs as well as catching up on some reading while lounging on our swing by our pond. Heaven. Absolute Heaven. *happy sigh* So what does one do with their very own Tartelette for five days? Well there's a lot of giggling that goes on.. and some huge belly laughs too. Of course there is cooking and baking - lots of cooking and baking. Some wine drinking, and by some I mean 7 dead soldiers laying in our recycle bin. You know, why the hell do they make the wine glasses SO BIG if they aren't going to Econo-size the fakkin bottles?? WTF? *ahem* Hubbs and I picked Helene up at the airport Thursday night and let me tell you, from the second I saw her standing on the curb I knew we were going to have a great time. Any nerves I had completely disappeared. Wanna know why? Because right from that moment I started laughing. Ohhh the look on her face when she saw our vehicle and me, most likely, with a huge slap-happy grin on my face pointing at her as if she was some cool animal on display at the zoo. "Look honey! Right there! Right there! There she is!!" She had this not-quite comprehending look on her face, as I'm jumping up and down in my car seat, as well as this half-wave, half uhhh-is-that-you? jesture going. Priceless. Simply priceless. Then she had to deal with him hitting the brakes and me jumping outta the car at her like some crazy woman. Had I been her, I probably would have dropped a load in my pants and started to cry for my mommie. I grabbed her and gave her a hug and Hubbs grabbed her bags and put them in the back, then we hopped back into the car and from that minute we started chirping. Dear Lord, if he wanted to get a word in he would have been highly disappointed. heee! I don't even remember what the hell we talked about on the way home, other than Paula Deen. Bless her, ya'll. =) Helene brought me Paula's magazine, which I had no idea existed! Me! Paula's number one fan and the woman that would like to take her out for a glass of butter! Course I flipped through the pages but didn't really comprehend much as I had HELENE in the back seat. Holy cow! We got home and she got a very quick introduction to Nigel and Chloe.. if I remember correctly, I don't think she even got in the door before they were all over her. So her first impression of my house was ca-razzeeee dogs (just like their mama) and me screaming at Chloe to "GET DOWN. FOR CHRISSAKES CHLOE GET DOWN!!" Yeah, we're an impressive bunch alright. Things are kinda blurry here too.. I don't know exactly what went on next.. I think there was wine involved. I know we went out to the back by the pond and sat on the swing for a bit.. and then it was like 9:30 already and we were hungry, so we took her to a lil grille and had a fabulous dinner of sauteed perch on their patio. For which half of it I had to stand as my lower back was screaming. That was the only suck thing about the whole time.. my back. Ugh. I still don't know how I hurt it, I was probably going one way and my flab went the other way causing my back to wrench. God. Anyhoo... home we went where Hubbs promptly went to bed (he had to work the next day - MUAHAHAHAHAHAA!!) and she and I stayed up until 1ish just chit chatting. Again, there might have been wine involved? Friday we putzed around and slowly got ready then off we went to the Trader Joe's. I was so focused on getting her there, because that was the one thing she wanted to do while up here, that I completely forgot right next to the TJ's was a Sur La Table.. I so forgot about it that I was kinda startled when she squealed and pointed to it. heheeee Luckily we found some good bargains - well some better than others as I spent $30.00 on a salad spinner that I probably could have got at Linens-N-Things for $20.00, but I was caught up in the awe and wonderment. So's we're browsing around the store looking high and low for good buys when I come to a display of KICK ASS glass tumblers (horrible picture of them) and margarita glasses.. hand blown glass, complete with the lil air bubbles that I love in glassware, as well as a ribbon of different colors blown in around the middle - gorgeous.. and so begging to feed my glassware addiction. I fondled a few of them - wanting very much to bring one up to my cheek for a cuddle, when the sales lady comes over and starts telling me how I "need" these glasses. Helene came over to see what I was drooling over and when I said, with eyes as big as saucers, "I covet these glasses", she joins in with the sales lady and tells me that I need them.. "Maybe I'll just buy two", I say. The whole time I'm wonderin' which method Hubbs will use when he kills me if I buy any more glassware.. but they were gorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrjusssssss. So the next thing I hear is Helene telling me that two wasn't enough and that I "needed" four - as she was putting them into our basket! It was like she knew I'd die a slow and painful death if I did not purchase those that I covet, so she made the decision for me. Bless her cotton socks. Not to mention, she was now my scapegoat when Hubbs saw them - "She MADE me do it!!!" heeee! She checks out first and she puts the glasses up on the counter and I'm like, "those are mine!" to the cashier, when Helene says, "Ohhh noooo I'm buying these for you!" and then this look comes across her face and she says, "What? Did you think I was actually forcing you to buy 4 glasses?" HAHAHAHAAA! Well no, I didn't really think she was forcing me, I really thought she just read my mind and new how sad I'd be if I didn't buy them so she just gave me that lil push I needed and dammit, I'd do that for a friend too! So's I try to explain that to her, trying not to sound like an asshole and make her think I thought she was forcing me.. and well.. I shut up and she bought me four TO DIE FOR glass tumblers that I covet (as well as fondle each day). Was that toooo sweet, or what?? Thank you Helene and B! I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new glasses. =) xoxo Next we went to the TJ's and had a blast in there.. she got some items that she could take back with her and I bought way too much, as per usual. We spent a good hour in there, I'd say, and once we finally left we decided we were hungry, so we drove over to a nearby Italian chain (Bravo!) for a nice lunch of fried calamari and chop salads. I was then going to take her to The West Side Market, but we were pretty much all shopped out so we went home.. Friday night was steaks on the grill with my sister joining us and I think there were potatoes and salad and uhh, definitely wine. After dinner we all retired to the back by the pond where Hubbs made a fire. My sis said she had a hankerin' for something sweet, so I told her I had caved the week before and bought the fixin's for s'mores. Ingredients were brought out and she and Helene started roasting their marshmallows. This might not sound very exciting, but it was Helene's first s'more ever!!! I was quite delighted to watch her eat her first s'more. And then her second s'more. Ohh there goes the third s'more! hahaha I guess I can say that she thoroughly enjoyed them. :D I didn't participate in s'more eating because my week of frantic cleaning and house project finishing finally caught up to me - as well as the back thing screaming, so I went to bed early. But from the look of my kitchen table the next morning (beer cans! shot glasses! wine glasses! a half bottle of Yukon Jack! My preshus Grand Marnier left OPEN!) I'd say they all had fun without me. :D Saturday we got to bakin'.. well.. I guess you could call it that. What normally would have taken 3 hours, tops, to complete the Daring Baker's challenge recipe, started around 1 pm (we had gossip to share! showers to take! e-mails to check! blogs to drool over!) and ended around 9:30ish. God. My feet were SCREAMING in protest. hahahaaa! I also taught her how to make my family's marinara and meatballs (ancient Italian secret - and no one had better tell my mom that I gave it to her! hahahaaa) in between making batter and baking, so it wasn't like just the one recipe was made in those 8.5 hours. *grin* Oh we had way too much fun - much more than 2 silly girls in a kitchen should have. =) Helene also gave me a present that afternoon. One of those band exerciser thingies? You know.. like a giant rubber band with handles on each end? Then she taught me several exercises with it, as well as how many I should do and for how long. Considering the very long road I've got ahead of me, this was the perfect choice in how to start out my exercise routine. The exercises are low impact and focus on working on the muscles, they get my heart beating and I can feel the burn - but not to the extent where I feel I'm going to have a heart attack. hahaha! Paired with walking each day (slowly but surely I am walking a little longer each afternoon), I am feeling really good about these new routines. :D From here on out she's going to send me new exercises and work out plans and hopefully by the time we make it to South Carolina, I'll be in, at least, a lil better shape! Thank you, SO MUCH, sweetie. =) Course dinner that night was spags & balls and uhhh, wine. I think we made it to around 1 am that night as well. Hubbs had left us girls the house (he ran away to his brother's, I think he was scared of being with the girls all weekend) so it was nice to just lounge in the living room, after a very long day in the kitchen, watching Anthony Bourdain (sexxxxy thing) eat cow snout. Sometimes Nigella will have this effect on you... Sunday we resumed our baking and finished the challenge recipe.. oh, I said our time in the kitchen ended around 9:30 the night before but I didn't exactly say we finished the challenge. ha! So we finished that, then we made the sorbet (see below) and she taught me how to make a gorgeous rose out of a pear of all things! Finally we got to what I had been dying to do.. the macarons. Oh yeah baby!! That was the coolest thing I've been taught in I can't tell ya how long.. we made 3 different flavors, (and by "we" I mean, SHE did most of the work - let's just say my piping skills are about as good as my frosting technique. har!) all of which were heavenly. I'm going to guest blog about them on her blog sometime next week - so be looking for it! :D Finally, we made dinner, which consisted of sesame seed encrusted teriyaki tuna steaks, Alanna's green bean salad and Helene's ratatouille (she'll be guest blogging right here about it next week as well! Yay!). Holy crap, I'd never had ratatouille before and OMG it was so good. SO GOOD! My mom and sister joined us and they both agreed how fakkin good it was. =) After everyone left and Hubbs went to bed (he had to work the next day MUAHAHAHAHAHAA) Helene and I stayed up until 3 a.m. working on lil projects - but I gotta tell you, I don't know how she was feeling, but I think I helped stretch out the night so long because I knew she'd be leaving the next day and I DIDN'T WANT HER TO GO. =( Two major dorks. :D So yeah, Monday came.. and we spent the morning drinking coffee and chatting until it was time for her to start packing and getting ready for the airport. Once we got there, I helped her get her bags out and gave her a great big hug and told her how much I loved her.. then I hadda get my vehicle outta the way, so I left. =( I was sad, but not as sad as I thought I'd be because seriously, the way we clicked from the minute I saw her throughout the rest of her stay, I knew we'd only grow stronger in our friendship and that this would not be the only time we'd spend together. Hubbs and I are planning a trip to South Carolina (hopefully this winter!) so we can also meet Helene's husband (who, btw, is HOTTT) and do some damage in her kitchen. :D The rest of my week was pretty much spent as I stated above, but every morning I wake up I wish she was still here. xoxo