I have so much to share for my Week In Review post today, I’ve decided to skip an intro altogether. This has nothing to do with the fact a simple intro is alluding me at the moment either. Writers block, schmock, spock, Star Trek, Trekkie, Ewoks, cute and cuddly…where was I?
Ah, my Week In Review. Even when my words become stilted, lists still flow.
Let’s get to it.
- I worked forty plus hours at my real job. This was a really interesting week since we moved into brand new digs. The view from my new office is spectacular, and I absolutely ate lunch one day, sitting in a sun patch, on my desk, overlooking the city. A girl could get used to this.
- I only worked out once, a Mixed Martial Arts class to be exact. What can I say? I had a busy week, and I was really active so normally I wouldn’t mind the low mileage, except I’m suppose to be training for a Tough Mudder. Uh oh; I need to get on that shit.
- I went strawberry picking (insert excited squeal enunciated with flailing arms and jazz hands). I was ridiculously eager and if I’m totally honest, I was a little worried they were going to run out of strawberries before I got there. Yeah, that was a misguided concern. I came home with roughly fifteen quarts of strawberry goodness.
- I froze almost half of my newly acquired strawberries over the weekend, and I’m planning to freeze the rest this week. Also, in my grand plan to freeze everything, except the Hubby and the felines, I made and froze garlic scape pesto as well. I’m picking up a standing deep freezer tonight from someone on Craigslist, and I want you to contact the authorities should I suddenly stop blogging. I’m suspicious of people who keep deep freezers large enough to store a body, unless of course, they are strawberry obsessed.
- I had date night with the Hubby at a new restaurant downtown, Ken Stewart’s. Bread, booze and veggies galore. Life doesn’t get much better than this. For my fellow food lovers, my entrée was Farro Risotto with baby kale, corn, edamame, roasted tomatoes and topped with baby swiss chard. C’est magnifique, and I’m not even French.
- I had porch beers on Saturday night with some new friends, which is exactly what it sounds like. In keeping with my current trend, I drank strawberry beer.
- I hit up the downtown farmers market because I can’t help myself. I scored some Lemon Zest cheese, and I’m already plotting ways to use it. I also saw the mother of all zucchini’s there. I’m not gonna lie; I was a little frightened. That’s a whole lot of zucchini for one girl to handle.
- I made banana muffins multiple times. Sometimes with strawberries and sometimes without. They were all good and are already gone.
- I planted more flowers and helped the Hubby wash the cars. Feel free to picture Tawny Kitaen in White Snake’s Here I Go Again video. I’m pretty sure I looked exactly like that; maybe even hotter, except without all the hair.
Alright enough about me. It’s time to hear from all of you.
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Interested in participating in the Week In Review…good, you should be.
Here’s how it works:
- Your post should be about all the things you accomplished in the last seven days or so.
- Your post can be about food, social outings, workouts, home improvement projects, fun excursions, none of the above, or all of the above. The idea is to recognize all the things you accomplished in the past seven days. It’s an ode to yourself, a celebration of sorts, and a virtual pat on the back. Plus you get to write in list form, which rocks my socks. Although if you want to stick to prose go ahead; it’s your world.
- Add the Week in Review button to your post, link back to Clean Eats, Fast Feets and get your list on.
What was your favorite part of the weekend? Have you ever been strawberry picking? Have you ever eaten faro risotto?
The farro risotto sounds incredible, Meghan! I’ll take it to go! 😉 Yes, I’ve been strawberry picking many years ago. I went with my sister and my niece who was about a year and a half old. She sat in the row while we picked. She ate them as fast as we picked them! Funny I don’t remember her getting sick from it. Wish I had a picture of her that day, covered in strawberry juice. She passed away in 2007. Thanks for bringing back that happy memory for me. I had forgotten about it. Have a great day!!
The faro risotto was incredible; so much flavor and so many different textures. You would have loved it.
I’m sorry to hear about your niece, although I’m glad you have such wonderful memories of her. Those are priceless.
That IS a lot of zucchini for one girl to handle… especially if that girl doesn’t happen to enjoy zucchini (ie: me). I -will- take some of those banana muffins, though 🙂
It’s been a really long while since I’ve been strawberry picking, and I keep telling myself that I’ll go every year (that and apple picking), but somehow it never ends up happening. Truth be told, I kind of hate the idea of having things sit in my freezer and feeling the pressure of using them up. Yeah, it’s strange. I did freeze some bananas this weekend, though… mostly because I love munching on the frozen chunks 🙂
That’s funny. I’m actually the opposite. I want to hold off on using things in the freezer for as long as possible because then I’ll have to replace it and where will I get fresh, local strawberries in the dead of winter. Maybe I need to get some more….
You should go strawberry picking; it was actually a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed myself.
This is an awesome week! Those strawberries are such a gorgeous color. Muffins, beer, date night – I’m glad you’re enjoying summer 😀
Yep absolutely enjoying summer and ever chance I can get with my Hubby right now. I know you understand and pretty soon you’ll be reunited with yours.
Ah strawberry picking takes me back to my childhood days- we used to go every summer during our annual trips in London! It’s actually on my to-do list to do this summer while I’m there…and you’ve only gotten me more pumped :)!
Yes, you have to go and then send me pictures because I need to see what the London strawberries look like. 🙂
Hey girl! LOVE the view from your new office–much better than mine which is now actually lacking a window! booo!! 🙁 I am SOOOOO jealous of all your strawberries–I went to visit my aunt out in Madison yesterday and the thing I was looking most forward to was some yummy strawberries from one of the little markets along the way–too bad I made the mistake of stopping on my way home (instead of on my way there) and THEY WERE ALL OUT OF STRAWBERRIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (if I chose to pick them myself I am sure I could have, but I didn’t have time for that…boooo!!!!!!). So the farmer’s market downtown you refer to–are you talking about the Westside Market or do you walk all the way over to our old building to go to that one on Euclid now? I NEED some beautiful, fresh, scrumptious strawberries like ASAP!!!!!!!!!
It’s on Public Square, and we can go on Friday and get you some strawberries. Good times.
Absolutely! Can’t wait!!
I’m still impressed by the size of your zucchini. #thatswhatshesaid
Love it.
your concerns are common – I’m constantly worried that food will run out. Everywhere. All the time. Beautiful photos!
Right, this is legit stuff. I always need a back up handy too.
The view from your office is absolutely awesome! That would certainly make going to work a lot easier..especially on Mondays! 😉
It definitely helps.
Jealous jealous jealous. That’s all I can say about that first picture. I’d do anything to have access to a window. Or even a fake window would be fine. Maybe people? My cubicle is nice because I’m closed off from the rest of the world, but when I’m the phone with someone and they try to chit chat by asking about the weather I have to confess that I can’t see the outside so I honestly don’t know. That ends any hope of polite chatter right then and there. Why can’t I just lie and make something up like— OH, there’s a nasty storm brewing right now (and of course fake some thundering sounds by banging around my thermos full of soup)?
I half expected to see a #publiczucchini hashtag beneath that picture of you with the squash. 😉 I hope you bought that and make something huge and mind-blowing. Like a ginormous stuffed zucchini boat or something equally fantastic.
You should have seen our previous space. You wouldn’t have been jealous then. This is a huge step up, and I am relishing it.
I think you should stage a thunderstorm. Sounds like a great idea to me.
I didn’t buy the zucchini. Can you believe it?! The Hubby isn’t a huge fan (although I’m going to keep trying) and that’s a whole lotta squash for one girl to handle.
Busy busy! LOVE that new view! Totally worth all the moving hassle (or at least I hope so). Public zucchini may be (almost) as good as #publicbanana. Send some strawberries my way? Or maybe not, I’m holding out (and holding freezer space) for blueberries!
I’ll trade you some strawberries for a bag of those blueberries. This zucchini put some of my bananas to shame.
That view is incredible. I’m not quite sure I’d have a hard time getting myself to work everyday if I had that scenery to look at all day. Beautiful just like youuu!
Thanks love.
First the stats:
Despite what I thought was a light week, since it was all hot and muggy and I wasn’t up to walking often or long, I managed to log 12 work outs totaling 29.3 miles and 9.7 hours. I’d offer up the Triscuit count, but instead I’ll happily admit that 2 of those 12 workouts were walking to DQ for ice cream with the kids and dog. I’m pretty sure we’ll have more of those walks this summer, though we’ll need to start alternating with Graeter’s since we can walk to both quite easily.
What else? As you well know since you were right there encouraging and assisting me, I wrestled the beast of a recipe index into submission and now have a new and improved visual recipe index by ingredient. I very much prefer the “colorful veggies under the ground” category to the previous mash up, and I’m delighted that the entire lengthy title can fit under the photo. BTW–Chrome looks much better than IE, if you have to be not on an Apple Product using Safari or something.
If we can include this morning’s efforts, and it’s my comment so we can, I harvested the garlic and onion bed, emptied a compost bin all over my raised beds (gently, deliberately, but I did use all the compost so it’s ready to go again), planted 4 more fennel, 1 more pepper (yellow bell), 8 basil, 3 lantana, and 3 petunia plants here and there. I’ve got in mind a ‘how I get 2 harvests out of 1 raised bed’ post, since I’ve got the photo documentation, I just need to figure out where I could guest post it.
I have delightful neighbors, and one came over and “edged” for me. The spouse has never done this, so I didn’t know what to expect.
That came out really wrong.
What I’m trying to say is, with the unexpected clumps of dirt and grass I made some additional layers to my other compost bin, and this morning when my daughter was watering in all the compost-mulched and planted beds she gave the compost a thorough soaking. I hope not to touch it for a month, because what with the base of mostly finished compost and the addition of soil micro- and macroorganisms (several roly poly bugs toddled around in my wheelbarrow) plus more shredded leaves, my compost pile should be a happy place quite soon.
I think those are enough laurels to rest on for the moment, besides, I treated myself to a trip to the library and have a stack of books.
Thanks, Meghan!
You are within walking distance of a Graeter’s. There was so much more to this comment, but I can’t get past the Graeter’s bit. Please go for me, weekly. That’s not too much to ask.
I might even help you edge in return.
Oh my gosh nothing beets freshly picked strawberries!!! I’m so so jealous, there’s no where to pick them around here.
Oh that’s really a shame. This was my first time picking strawberries and I loved every minute of it.
Ohhh man I hope that freezer is free of any dried blood…strawberry blood of course. Craigslist is so sketch, but SO good for finding things sometimes! All those strawberries look delicious! Along with the muffins. I am craving CARBS!
The freezer was spotless. With my crazy cleaning tendencies, I wouldn’t have bought anything less. Ha!
The best part of the weekend was a BBQ with my BFF and her adorable kids. Plus hanging with the family before my trip! I have been strawberry picking but we didn’t get that many berries. I LOVED blueberry picking and had frozen blueberries for years!
Ps Weeks with only 1 workout and multiple dozens of muffins are GREAT weeks!
Blueberry picking would be a fantastic time too. I’d love to do that as well, although I’m not sure how prevalent they are around here. I’m going to have to look into that.
Your barbeque sounds like it was a lot of fun.
Strawberries, date nights, beer and body-sized freezers… it sounds to me like you are enjoying a summer done right 😉
I’ve never been strawberry picking (though I did go apple picking once and it was fun!)
Also I’m glad you clarified that you’re NOT freezing the hubby and the cats… with the size of this freezer you’re getting I was worried for a minute 🙂
I finally finished freezing all the strawberries tonight, and they take up pretty much a whole shelf in my new freezer. The Hubby already thinks it’s going to be too small for me, but I think it’s just right!. This summer is going swimmingly.
I love the “porch beers” phrase! I’m going to start using that. And look at all those strawberries. I’ve never been strawberry picking, but I’d jump on the chance.
You should look into places in your area. I found a ton of farms near us that offer it.
I can no longer ever go strawberry picking again after my first job doing so. It was a nightmare yikes haha.
The view from your work office is awesome! If only I could have one as nice;)
Haha, and that is one giant…zucchini. I love the stuff, so I could easily handle all of that.
Why was it a nightmare?
It was too much zucchini for me, so I had to walk away. What a sad day.
15 quarts??? You’re a strawberry picking fiend! That’s awesome. I went strawberry picking over ten years ago and hated it. Haha. I was a young thing, but I specifically remember hating how much my back hurt after and how bad my sunburn was. I should try it again, though. 🙂
Those banana muffins look delicious. I swear I can smell them from here!
I’m concerned 15 quarts isn’t enough. Is that crazy?
I actually greased up with sunscreen prior to going and just sat in the dirt all day so it all worked out ok. Better than ok really because I got 15 quarts….but will they be enough….
Well, I see you’re stil alive so I gather the Craig’s List acquired deep freeze was a success? Seriously though, you damn near had me spitting all over my computer screen with that comment! Lol And the thought of your strawberry picking is making me anxious…I have a bad feeling that I missed my chance this year. I’ll have to see about stopping by today and scoping it out…I’m not above begging and pleading…or raiding someone’s deep freeze… 😉
Totally jealous of your view. Working in radiation kinda makes it impossible to get a window…much less one with something on the other side to look at! I call it my “CT Cave” for a reason.
That risotto looks divine!! I love risotto, but I absolutely HATE making it…I have no patience…or the bicep muscles for all that stirring! Lol
I really hope you can still pick them. I’ll cross my fingers and toes for you, and if worse comes to worse, I’ll share, but just a little bit. I’m already worried I didn’t get enough.
The first and only time I made risotto, I gave the Hubby the hard hitting task of stirring it. 😉
I missed it!!!! And I haven’t found any at the farmers’ market in over a MONTH! Waaaaaaaaaaaaah!! 🙁