Manic Monday

Hi loves!
I hope everyone had a great weekend and is of to an easy start of the work week. My weekend was uber busy but pretty fun and very productive. I'm loving my work and the kids crack me up all the time, which is great, even if they don't get my humor in return....but I guess sarcasm isn't something you pick up in high school? I know I did, but then again I was never the "normal" high schooler.

And now, here is an update of my recent life via food:
This was a meal from last week when my internet was down and I was forced to take a hiatus from blogging. Most of my meals were pretty dull anyways so I just deiced to really take the week off. But after my Mom and I whipped up this meal of fettuccine Alfredo with zucchini and my homemade stew tomatoes I couldn't not document this winner of a meal. Wow. So good. So, I'm not sure what I had for breakfast on Saturday but I know it wasn't these gummy worms. Oh no, I had them as a prelude to my "lunch" which was really a random plate of leftovers from "Happy Hour" on Friday night. My parents started this tradition after I was in college of not having a meal on Fridays, instead just doing some light snacks and calling it Happy Hour. I decided if you can't beat em, join em, hence the drogging on Friday night. Stuffed mushrooms, baked cheesesticks with marinara and a few fat pieces of pickled okra. Another classic Weird Jess Combo. But it did the trick and held me over though some errands in Gville and Saturday evening mass, before I met up with some of my Gainseville Darlings for dinner out. Our favorite downtown Thai join has sadly gone to the wayside and is now a quick service tex mex place, so we oped for Dragonfly Sushi instead. I started off with one of their sake based cocktails:It was basically a Bloody Mary (one of my fave cocktails, if you haven't noticed already) with sake instead of vodka. Pretty tasty and the wasabi rim made it unique, but I wouldn't get it again.I ordered a bowl of edamae of our table of 5 to share. The funny thing is I snapped this picture after we'd consumed about 1/2 the bowl and it still doesn't look like it. So tasty. I've got to remember to start getting the frozen bags at Publix again. The lovely Christine and I each ordered 2 rolls and then split them. Or rather ate each others plates, since they don't play with the roll size at Dragonfly. No way either of us could have finished our portions. She got the KrispyKrunch (tuna, crab*, avocado, c.cheese, roe. fried with panko bread crumbs) and the Mango Tango (smoked salmon, mango, cream cheese and avocado topped with sweet potato curls and a mango plum sauce). I actually enjoyed the krunch roll more than the mango one to my surprise given my love of mango and general distaste for the fried sushi rolls. I did pick most of the breading off, but it was great.

I got the signature Dragonfly roll (tuna, yellow tail & scallions wrapped with grouper. baked
with spicy sauce then finished with eel sauce) which was tasty, but not in a sushi kind of way. It was like mini stuffed, baked fish and I really couldn't taste the yellow tail-which is my fave fish!- or the tuna to be honest. The real winner of the evening for me was the Bahamma Mama (conch, cucumber, scallions & fish roe with spicy sauce). I had never had conch aside from in fritter form and this was surpurp! So crunchy and fresh with just a hint of sweet. Oh man. Love. Even though we had stuffed our selves silly with delicious Jananese fare no even is complete without yogurt or gelatto in my crowd. So we wandered down to The Gelatto Company where I got a small trio of Chocolate Delight, Cake Batter and Blueberry White Chocolate. I was really only digging the blueberry and ended up trashing the other 2 flavors, but it was really about the flavor, cause lord knows my tummy was fullllllll at this point! A great night out with some old and new friends!

Sunday brought around a lot of work on the barn project. I'll update that segment of my blog another night, so stay tuned for that. Every good construction worker needs a hearty breakfast to start them off right and how could I say no to the lovely omelet that my mom whipped up using my produce! She loves having me around, since I buy all the "fun stuff" that my dad usually skips at the market.
This lovely was a combo of fresh spinach, mushrooms and some maters with Cabot cheddar! I had a slice of WG toast with some olive oil spread and raw honey, plus 1/3 of a peach. Yum. I love breakfast!

After being a hard working construction gal for nearly 5 hours I was about to gnaw on a hammer, but luckily we wrapped it up with time to relax by the pool. I also had my lunch poolside which was just some leftover Shrimp Chow Mein and fried rice from earlier in the week. Served up with a side of carrot juice and "The Kite Runner" which after a slowish start I am enjoying immensely. A complete review to come. I'm only about 1/3 through it at the moment. When some popcorn made it's way out the the pool I couldn't say no to a few handfuls from this basket!

Dinner was a simple but oh so satisfying affair. Grilled chicken with fresh green beans and mushrooms and a side salad. Of course I dipped my chicken in a blob of ranch, bbq and hot sauce, but found I was really enjoying the flavor on it's own. I really can't tell you how long it's been since I had just grilled chicken and it so hit the spot!Which brings us back to doe, a deer, a fem.....oh, excuse me, I mean Monday:

Plain old cheese (provolone) toast (whole grain) and water. Actually I had a lovely cup of mocha coffee too, but it was gone before the camera stumbled out of bed.
Leftover sushi for lunch, but don't you love how they packed it up? It's like I got sushi takeout! They gave me napkins, soy sauce, chopsticks and a fresh serving of wasabi and ginger too! So impressed with Dragonfly! (oh, I had a yummy peach too!)

Dinner was another simple but comforting meal of back beans over a small bed of rice. Topped with purple onion and some apple cider vinegar. I love black beans, which you probably have noticed already. But I do love stating the obvious too!
Phew! What a post. Long and fun filled. Just like my day was. Now I'm off in search of the perfect BioChemistry lab to do on Wednesday with my Bio kiddies and a new hairstyle. I finally am going to the hairdresser on Friday. I haven't been since April and um, it's pretty obvious. Yuck.

Love to all,
~A harried and crazy haired, Jess