Let’s chat. Go grab a cup of coffee or whatever morning cocktail floats your boat. Pull up a chair and get comfortable because I think it’s time we had a talk.
I know my mad listing ways can come across as a little OCD and a lot Type A. It’s because they are. I also know I can push myself to the brink. It’s happened before and here’s to hoping it doesn’t happen again. Raise your mug up high for this one because as crazy as I can be, I also really do like sanity, at least a good solid dose of it. It’s kind of important.
You see as much as I preach moderation (“A-Men!” she shouts in her best gospel voice), I’m not always great at doing it. When it comes to food, no problem, but when it comes to regular old living, well I’m a go big or go home type girl, and I don’t want to go home. That’s not true. I love my home, and I could happily live there for the rest of my life, but you get where I’m going with this right?
For me, it’s all or nothing. If I’m doing something, I am ♫ Doin’ it and doin’ it and doin’ it well. I represent Queens she was raised out in Brooklyn. ♫ Dammnit, how did L.L. get in my head. It doesn’t matter, he could stay there all day if he wants; preferable topless and in the Hubby’s shadow, of course.
There is no rest for the wicked or the weary, and there are days I fall into both of those categories. I don’t know how to do things halfway. It’s not in my nature, and as a result, I’ve had to learn how to counter that. I’ve had to learn how to chill the Ef out.
A few years ago this concept was laughable, but now I can actually say, despite my type A ways, I know how to relax without a shred of guilt. The change wasn’t easy and it certainly didn’t happen overnight, although I am definitely better for it because as much as I like getting things done, I also respect the fact my mind and my body need nothingness time too. Which is exactly what I set out to do this past weekend.
Therefore, today’s Week In Review is going to be all about Chillin Like A Villian. Take it from me; I’m good at this. Obviously.
- First things first, I channeled my muses.
Brittany – this one (or six but who’s counting) is for you.
- I kicked off a fire, at 10 a.m. on Saturday morning. Genius idea. I did the same thing on Sunday morning too because the only thing better than being a genius once is being a genius twice. Duh, except I suspect geniuses don’t use words like Duh. Thwarted again.
- I casually made Saturday pancakes for breakfast and by casually I mean it took hours because I was waiting for the shredded zucchini to defrost. I know the Pancake Queen has all these new fangled and fancy recipes, but I will tell you what, I am a fan of her old school versions. You should check out these Zucchini Bread Pancakes. She made a believer out of me.
- I slept a combined nineteen hours in two nights. Yes, the heavens opened and the angels rejoiced, and that wasn’t even when was I was sleeping…if you catch my drift.
- I watched far too many hours of great television. God, I miss the Gilmore Girls. Why Amy Sherman-Palladino did you have to bring it to an end, and why did you have to keep your name, while taking his, making this sentence unbearable long, albeit necessary?
- I sat by someone else’s fire on Saturday night.
- I let that same somebody else cook my dinner and send me home with baked goods. The only thing better than homemade baked goods is being handed a platter of homemade baked goods to take with you on your way. Yes please and thank you very much.
- I took my fireplace lounging to a different scene, and I caught up on my BlogLovin. Since I was just shy of 200 posts to read and I’m down to sixty-six, I’d say I put a dent in that bad boy. Now if the rest of you could just not publish any more posts for the next couple of days, I’d really appreciate it. M’kay. 😉
- I made a salad. A three ingredient salad which requires little to no work, but is super posh anyway. Blue Cheese, Ripe Pears and Walnuts. Simple elegance. I’m telling you, serve this to people. They will think you’re a culinary wizard and really you’re just taking advantage of produce at its peak. Here’s to you Pears. Pretty soon you’ll be joined by a partridge, but not just yet. Thanksgiving first, people.
- I did a little of this and a little of that. By this and that, I mean a lot more nothing. Sheer nothingness bliss.
- I reread Friday’s post more than once and was pleased as punch to see my funny resurface. Who cares if it took potty humor to do it. ♫ I’m bringing funny back. With flatulence because that’s my facts. Them other bloggers don’t know how to ass. ♫ Sidetracked by a little J.T. this time. I can live with that.
- I truly did very little cooking this weekend, except well, I made this specialty Mac & Cheese. From Stephanie Stiavetti and Garrett McCord’s cookbook: Melt: The Art of Macaroni and Cheese.
Recipe is coming soon to a blog near you. Stay tuned. Maybe I can even get L.L. and J.T. to help me promote it. Now that would be genius. Duh….Foiled again.
Enough about me. Let’s hear from you.
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Interested in participating in the Week In Review?
The Week In Review is a list, in its purest form, not of the things you still need to do, but of all the things you have done in the past seven days. It’s an achievement list and one with the sole purpose of bringing pleasure. Want in? Grab the Week in Review button for your post, link back to Clean Eats, Fast Feets and get your list on. For more details, click here.
Link up and get your list on.
How do you like to relax? Can you successfully do it without feeling guilty? For days on end?
This post is linked with Tasty Tuesday’s.
I finally did it! I joined WIR again 😀
Amen to your request for bloggers to not post again for a few days. I say let’s just go crazy and push that number to a full week. It’s not even funny how many tabs I have up and how little of a dent I have made.
Nothing is better than somebody else’s fire and cookies 🙂
Really though, getting handed a plate full of cookies/candy/etc. when you left grandma’s house as a child, and knowing they were all for you? Smiles from ear to ear I tell ya.
You sure are a funny one 😉
Welcome home Madison. i’m glad to have you back.
I opted not to publish a Wednesday blog just for you. It’s a holiday week; I say we give everybody a break. 🙂 Although I’ll be back on Friday because I have a recipe to share, and of course it was supposed to be up sometime in October and November so Friday it is. Nothing like leaving things to the last minute.
I hope you are enjoying your school break and having a great Thanksgiving with the family. I can’t wait to check out your WIR.
Relaxing is the best. But for the moment I have work to do! 😉 Funny thing on the LL front. Many years ago, VH1 ran a marathon of Cop Rock. Ok, don’t judge, I loved it. Best I can figure from commercials for movies coming out is that it was 1997. The commercials were great. There was Bryan Cranston as spokesperson for TGIFriday’s. Very funny. But the best was a series of Gap commercials. One was David Arquette. But the other, The Other was LL. He was doing what seemed like an impromptu rap. It was and he is so adorable. Just had to tell you that. Have a great day, Meghan!!
I remember LL’s Gap commercial. He was great, even if he was clothed. 😉
Have a great week Fran.
Ho’ cow that mac and cheese. Is that your photo?? Please tell me you’re submitting that one to Foodgawker! And then giving them a face full of mac n’ cheese when they reject it for being too tight or a little bit of a prude or something like that. I claim to not be that big of a cheese fan, and then I show up (after a week or so of comment slacking) and can’t do anything but drool over pear salads and pasta-cheesy goodness. Working on getting my relax on myself–spent yesterday reading in various sunny spots around the house, positively cat-like–but today’s an early Thanksgiving so I suppose I have to do something that involves cooking and being active…
Aw welcome back sunshine! It’s nice to see you again. I hope this means you’re getting settled and finding a nice new routine.
That is my Mac & Cheese picture!! I’m actually pleased as punch with how the photos came out, so as soon as the recipe goes up (Friday..cough, cough… Friday), I will be submitting it to Food Gawker. Thanks for the vote of confidence though; it’s nice to know I’m not alone with my huge ego.
Enjoy your holiday!
You know I’m always here to back up your ego 🙂
It sounds like you had an awesome weekend!! I’m sitting here by the fire right now and it’s just the bomb.
xo
Good god I love fireplaces. And wine. And wine by the fireplace. 🙂
That mac n cheese and that salad have me straight up droolin’. My goodness. And I feel ya on the bloglovin. As soon as I put a dent in it you silly people post more! What’s a girl to do? 😉
Right?! I took Wednesday off just to give you all a break. See – I give the people what they want. I’m in touch with my audience. Have a great holiday.
One of the qualities I love most in people is self-awareness. You can be as neurotic and crazy as they come but if you’re aware of it then amen! Monday morning bloglovin gives me anxiety. I’m impressed with your dent! And that 3-ingredient salad. 3 of the best ingredients ever!
Self-awareness…hmm, I never thought of it in quite those terms, but you hit the nail on the head exactly. I really respect that quality in other people, and I guess I try to embody it myself. Nobody is perfect so learn how to either work around your flaws or embrace our crazy.
I embrace my crazy!
Yes – pears, blue cheese and walnuts are divine together.
Holy mac and cheese! Everything about that picture looks incredible and I can only imagine how good your kitchen smelled…
I love the amount of time you spent in front of fires, that sounds like a fabulous way to enjoy the weekend (especially if its been even half as cold in Cleveland as it has in Chicago).
Actually there was no baking involved so the kitchen wasn’t super fragrant although the dish was incredible good.
I heart fires. All the time. I think I might be a pyromaniac.
Ok, I just have to say…I FREAKING LOVE YOU!! How you ask? Allow me to count the ways:
1. Snarky bed humor hidden within the lines of a seemingly innocent FOOD blog.
2. The fact that you said “thwart” <- I'm not sure why, but that word just looks so wrong to me.
3. Referring to LL topless as opposed to SHIRTLESS is also doing weird things to my mind at 3am! 😉
4. You waited for zucchini to thaw for MY pancakes?! With the aforementioned lack of patience, that is basically equivalent to an airplane spelling out messages of love in the sky!
5. Your Gilmore girl mini-rant…I always say you can never trust a woman with a hyphenated name!
6. Omg, I cannot even TELL you how many times I've cleared out my reader and thought, ok people just quit posting for ONE MINUTE! Haha! I'm actually loving that I'm almost caught up now BEFORE the holiday! Haha!
7. Flatulence! Lol
8. I don't even like macaroni and cheese but you're making me want a bite of THAT!
Oh and I know that the case/conjugation of all of those points don't really go together, but I'm having a hard time right now with comprehending how to fix that so just go with it and pretend that my geniusness is far to great for me to worry about such petty disturbances in my speech!
I hope you have a very happy Thanksgiving love! I miss you like CRAZY!!!!
Happy Thanksgiving to you too m’dear. I hope you’re feeding your family something super healthy in disguise. I’m bring savory sweet potatoes. There may be anarchy. We’ll see.
Thwart seems dirty because it’s so close to thrust. That has to be it right?!
Your pancakes were good. I mean really good. I would make those any day of the week, and they were 100% worth the wait. Make more of those with your fancy ingredients please. 🙂
Is it selfish that I’m disappointed in this week’s A Bombing of CEFF? Here’s to hoping there would be a plethora of posts 😉
Just kidding, I enjoy all your posts even if you post once a month (don’t).
Thats so great that you have been able to combat the type A trait- The actual notion of chilling is something I am working on- I find it so hard to relax and feel I should constantly be doing something. For example, amongst my friends, they all consider the perfect holiday to be lying on a beach doing nothing. That actually sounds borderline hellish to me!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again- shredded zucchini needs to come in packages 😉
Yes, you’re right. Shredded zucchini should come in packages although you should know the liquid drained super easily out of the frozen zucchini. It was a lot better than trying to get all the liquid out when it’s fresh.
Making time to relax, then actually doing it, and then doing it guilt free was really hard for me at first. It was counterintuitive to how I usually operate, but I’m so much better for learning how to do it and sticking it with it. Now when I get stressed, I make it point to chill instead of simply working more or harder. Somehow everything still gets done, but I’m in a better mental place doing it. You should really give it a try.
Oh my gosh I am obsessed with Gilmore Girls! My friend got me all of the seasons a couple of years back so I’m pretty sure I can recite each episode. It’s one of those shows I can have on in the background while I’m blogging or doing things around the apartment since I’ve seen it so many times I don’t need to sit down and actually watch it.
Also that macaroni looks insane.
I love Gilmore Girls. I would watch it every day if I could. Such a great show!
This post is one of 270 that I am getting caught up on, so I’m glad I’m not the only one to let posts pile up. The spouse just doesn’t quite get it, and now that he’s back to work . . . .
The spouse often doesn’t, at least not when blogging is involved. They don’t realize the work put in outside of what appears on your own blog pages.