This weekend was a perfect combination of lazy and productive.  Saturday Tony and I went out to eat near where he grew up.  The Village Tavern is known for their chicken fingers.  I wasn’t planning on getting them, until I saw that they offered BUFFALO fingers on their appetizer menu.

Silly me thought it would be a smaller portions since it was an appetizer portion.  Wrong!  I hate two and a half chicken fingers, and this is that I came home with!

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I weighed the leftovers when I got home, and it was 13 ounces of chicken – there was probably a pound in the whole order!   We went grocery shopping and after I put all the groceries away when I got home, I decided to catch up on American Idol instead of doing laundry. Open-mouthed smile  I have to say that this season the women are amazeballs, but I like this “guy” Jda. 

Not sure how to describe him.  He wears make-up and glitter yet has a mustache and beard. He wears dresses and high heels, but I really liked his performance.  Tony keeps telling me that the ratings on that show are tanking this year, but I still like watching it. Open-mouthed smile

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I still had dough leftover from last week, so I made another deep dish pizza for dinner Saturday night – one piece was plenty for both of us.

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Yesterday morning I got up and starting making coffee, getting the paper, etc.  I had no idea what time it was, but it felt like I slept in late because I was really rested.  When I looked at the clock it was only 8:15!  I finished putting my SIL’s food together for the week, and yesterday I made up for my lazy day on Saturday.  I was a cleaning fool, we went to Sam’s Club – if you make as much bread as I do, the cheapest bread by far is at Sam’s Club – a 25 pound bag of bread flour is only $8!  I have a giant bin in my pantry with a sealed top to store it.

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I always make bread for my SIL each week.  When I got ready to form the dough to bake it, I realized I was out of parchment paper.  I wasn’t sure foil would work, but I gave it a try.  I decided to sprinkle corn meal on the bottom of the foil, and lay the dough on that to transfer the bread in and out of the Dutch oven.  It worked!  It didn’t stick at all.

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My SIL was going to be picking up her food right around dinner time, so I invited her to stay for dinner.  I’ve always liked the idea of Sunday dinner.  We always ate dinner at the dining room table.  We never sat in front of the t.v.  These days, the only time we do use the dining room table is when we have company over.

I may reinstate the Sunday dinner just so I can eat at my dining room table once a week! Open-mouthed smile  Last week I bought giant bone in chicken breasts to make chicken vesuvio, which is one of Tony’s favorite dishes.  I was happy when I found this straight forward recipe for the dish.  I, of course, left out the onions.  I also reduced the amount of olive oil substantially – down to 2 tablespoons – 1 tablespoon to brown the chicken, and 1 tablespoon to brown the potatoes.  I also thought I had frozen peas, but I didn’t, so canned peas were added in the last five minutes of baking.

The chicken was heavily seasoned with salt, pepper and Italian seasoning.

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Since the breasts were so big, I cut them in half.  While this picture doesn’t do the dish much justice, this was a winner.  The chicken was tender and perfectly cooked, the potatoes melted in your mouth – once I took the chicken and potatoes out, I mixed 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with water and thickened the broth/wine sauce, and then added a squeeze of lemon and lemon zest to finish it off.

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I’ll definitely make this one again!  Question of the Day:  How often do you use your dining room table?

Tony and I have always had U.S. Cellular as our cell phone carrier.  Living out in the “sticks” it was the only phone that gave us great reception in the house.  Tony’s phone is up for renewal so we went to get him a new phone, only to find out that U.S. Cellular is getting bought out by Sprint, and Sprint service sucks ass in our area.

When we were at Sam’s Club yesterday, we checked out Verizon, and guess what I got?

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Yep, I got an iPhone 4!  It was only .96 cents with a 2 year contract – and the plan is nearly identical to what we had at U.S. Cell.  The only problem is that since we switched carriers, I need to add in my contacts, but other than that, I really like it so far.  So tell me, what are you favorite apps?  So far I just have my beloved Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, WordPress and Nike.

And you can see that I do actually write my posts before work – it is now 7:34 a.m. and I leave my house at 8:05 – plenty of time to get my workout bag and food together for the day.  Come back tomorrow, I made a broccoli cheddar soup using unsweetened almond milk – I’ll be posting the recipe tomorrow. Open-mouthed smile

Make it a great day!