Scenes from the Weekend: Volume 6

We had a pretty low-key weekend.  Going to start with Thursday night.

I've been taking Pure Barre for awhile now, and I have been really wanting Marek to come and give it a try.  One of my best friends and my Pure Barre buddy had a fundraising class in Ohio and her husband went with her - I would have dragged Marek to that class if I could have but we couldn't make it there for the weekend.  Back at the studio I attend in Seattle, they had a "Bring on the Men" class, but it was on a Thursday night while I was travelling, so we didn't make it to that either.  I asked one of the teachers about a month ago if they'd be doing another one soon, and she said they'd most likely do one around Valentine's Day, so I got Marek to agree to go if they had one.

I had actually never taken an evening class at this Pure Barre studio - which is kind of funny because in Ohio and Arizona, I *only* took evening classes!  I met Marek at his office and we grabbed a bite to eat before class and then walked over.  Luckily for Marek, there were five other guys there and the class was fairly small, so he did not feel too conspicuous.  He cracked me up during the class at times - watching him doing some of the moves was a little funny (especially moves that are really coordinated to the beat or some of the trickier moves in general), but he made it through the whole class.  He says he has a newfound respect for what I am doing in class - and he said he might even go again if it's a small class or there are guys.

I almost wore a green tank to class - so glad I didn't!  We don't need to be all matchy-matchy!

After class they had treats - cupcakes, candy, strawberries, and champagne.  Yum!  I may have finally found a bubbly alcoholic drink for myself - the champagne was delicious!  We actually picked up a four-pack to keep at home. :)

Picture from Pure Barre's Facebook page

On Friday I had class again and then a meeting with a colleague.  Marek left work to catch a ride home with me and when we got home, we had these goodies waiting for us!

Some more Baked by Melissa cupcakes - two of the Valentine's Day flavors and then packs of my favorite flavors (red velvet, mint chocolate chip, and chocolate chip pancake).  I will definitely be savoring these!

Marek had some chocolate covered strawberries delivered from Edible Arrangements.  He had told me they were coming but I was not expecting the cute little bear (who has been named Strawberry).  A very nice surprise!

Marek is not big into celebrating holidays, especially Valentine's Day, so he let his sense of humor shine on the card that came with the berries. :)

Friday night I was going to make a pasta dish but didn't feel like cooking so we went to Red Robin instead.  When I checked in on FourSquare, it had a message for me - pretty sure we go there way too often!

Is that really something to be excited about?

On Saturday we headed over to Road Runner Sports to get some new running shoes for Marek.  They have a system called "Shoe Dog" that is supposed to help you get the right fit for your shoes.  I ended up getting fitted too - I've been skeptical of fittings because I seem to get a different fit every time I go.  I'm happy with the pair I got this weekend, so hopefully they work out (and if not, Road Runner has a great return policy).

I thought about ordering some wedding pictures this weekend.  I didn't, though.  We have an album included in our wedding photography package.  It's been almost five months and we haven't even really worked on picking out photos for it, which is strange to me - I thought we'd be diving in and trying to get that made as soon as possible.  All I've done so far is order one print for a wall of family wedding pictures, order a 5x7 of us for a nice frame we received as a wedding gift, and order a bunch of small 4x6s to send to my uncle and Marek's grandmother.  There are so many pictures and sometimes there are three or four of the same pose and it's hard to pick which one is "better" and sometimes I just don't have the patience for it.  So, our wedding photos are just languishing on hard drives and on the internet, waiting to be printed.

Saturday night I tried a new recipe - these were called Italian Love Nests, but it's basically angel hair pasta with meat and sauce, baked in a muffin tin.  I made a small change to the recipe and we really liked this dish.  I'll try to post the recipe this week.

Sunday morning I went to class and Marek and Claudius slept it - once they got up, we were going to go for a walk.  Unfortunately, we were about halfway into our walk when it started to rain, so we had to turn around. :(  Poor Claudius got all dressed up in his harness and bandoodle and then he barely got to wear them (although I don't think he minded too much).

The rest of Sunday was pretty much spent cooking!  I made homemade ice cream - basically a sweet cream ice cream and it came out so good.  I use the recipe from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams.  She has a lot of great flavors but provides a "base" recipe that is really just milk/cream/sugar so I just made the base and didn't add anything extra to it.  I love the taste of cream and now we can add whatever we like to the ice cream based on what we're craving.

Sunday dinner was stuffed peppers.  This was the first time I'd ever had stuffed peppers - or made them!  That's kind of wild to me.  We had them mostly as a way to use up what was in the fridge - peppers from last week that were never used, leftover sausage from the pasta cups, leftover onion from who knows when.  I made the brown rice early in the afternoon and added mushrooms to the filling as well, and then followed cooking instructions I found online, with a small modification.  I'll also try to post this recipe soon - it was so delicious!  We will definitely be having it again soon.

And then lastly, for dessert, we had profiteroles!  We don't have a lot of homemade desserts here (usually have some store bought cookies or sweets lying around), but I was feeling ambitious and wanted some profiteroles, thanks to the Barefoot Contessa's email.  (I ended up using a different recipe though since I didn't feel like using the food processor, which hers calls for.)

I made the shells right before I put the peppers in the oven (lucky that they cooked at the same/close temperature!), and they cooled while the peppers cooked and we ate.  After dinner, I made some chocolate ganache and then we put it all together for a truly homemade dessert.  Profiteroles are definitely one of my favorite desserts and I loved how it all came together.  I will also try to post the recipes for these as well.