Best _____ That We'll Never Have Again.

End of February and I’m sick of the cold, the snow, and the ice. We had a thaw out last week at the end of the week but it seems that we are right back to where we were. I shoveled the driveway yesterday and was irritated. Polar vortex = stupid. I know we could be colder, could have more snow, could have more miserable, I just would like some days above freezing. Matt also feels his mood swings with the weather, particularly with the precipitation.

We had a productive weekend. Saturday, I woke up to Matt: It’s a great day to be a Remynse! I didn’t think we needed to be up so early but the shock of him being the first one out of bed may have jostled me a awake. I went out for breakfast for some much needed catch up time with friend, Becca. I hadn’t seen her since the wedding. We met at the bagel shop.

When I got home, Matt was blasting the music and straightening up a bit. This blasting (come from the speakers that were gifted to him by my mother) inspired the 90’s Music Off. We played music related to our past, specifically the 90’s but a few early 2000’s showed up in there. We took turns listening down memory lane. We did not keep score this time, so we’ll call it a draw. Could have gone on longer but I had to go pick up my bountiful basket.

We also did some brief running around for supplies as Matt began a new era on Saturday, February 22. Matt comes from 2 previous generations of pizza makers. His grandfather, Bob, started this and his father and uncles have continued creating an air of competition. Matt has now thrown his hat into the ring. We started out with a bang! Matt made the dough (with the help of my bread maker). He made the sauce from my canned tomatoes and using his father’s sauce as a start. And aside from pepperoni and cheese, we used homemade sweet Italian sausage from the hog that we butchered last month. I’m proud of pizza number 1. We took a few notes including that we need to put more toppings on but for a first attempt, we were very happy!

We did have a bit of an audience on the first try as we had Jess and Kay and the kids over too. We made an agreement that we’ll cook dinner if Jess and Chayden will help Matt fix the shower, which has been acting up over the past week. I can handle these deals! The night did end with a trip to Menards and us having to pick out a new shower set, but I guess if that’s the least of my troubles, we can’t be too bad.

Sunday was also a productive day. I broke my basket down and created California medley packs that I froze for later. I also decided to use up the tomatoes my mother gifted me and salsa’d them. I had an excellent kitchen helper. I got him chopper and in order to keep him moving and busy in the kitchen we got a little off the recipe. I did have a recipe that I used as a guideline, but mostly I wanted to use the items from my basket. We had garlic, celery, peppers, onion, a random chili that was in my asian add-on and then some stuff from my pantry: jalapenos, can of chilis, a jar of my tomatoes, and some random seasonings. Basically what I’m getting at is we’ll never have the salsa again because we don’t know how much we put in of things let alone what all the things were. In the end, we did end up adding some extra tomato sauce and paste, but I’m pretty happy with the end product. We canned them and ended up having 5 pints and 2 quarts!

We ended the weekend with Matt’s dinner. He cooked a roast and then we also had a side of mashed cauliflower, which we’ve wanted to try for awhile. I made the salad. It was a great meal.

Best meal: Matt’s pizza. The sausage was such a great addition to the amazing sauce and great dough.

Rarely, do we get to stare in the face of our aging future, Lola was able to.

Discussing a work related issue.
ALR: Well, I don’t think you are remembering that some people have feelings, that could be why they are upset.
MJR: What are you saying?
ALR: I’m saying that some people have emotions and feel things.
MJR (Stares)
ALR: You don’t have feelings, you don’t understand.
MJR: What?
ALR: Do you have feelings?
MJR: I don’t understand what the big deal is!
ALR: You didn’t answer the question, do you have feelings?
MJR: I can feel things!
ALR: But your one feeling rarely gets a work out, I’m just saying that some people aren’t as literal and are moved by their emotions.
MJR: Fine, Fine, Fine.