“Around Town” is my code for we didn’t do much this weekend. I was feeling pretty lazy. But downtime is good, right?
In fact, Sunday was so lazy I didn’t even work out. Not one minute. Didn’t leave my house.
Come Monday the piper had to be paid though. I’ll be looking for the ibuprofen before long. That’s all another story though.
Here’s what is going on though.
Anthem’s Restaurants
Anthem is pretty well known for not-very-good eating-out choices. Everyone in our community has a story about one poor experience or another around here.
The picture above is the view from the Ironwood Club. Isn’t it gorgeous? Who wouldn’t want to eat there? And the other country club’s patio view is even prettier!
DF Connie’s hub Bob coined our local dining experience as “Anticipointment.” I love it and it is exactly right. You look forward to going out, maybe meeting friends, the lovely setting. And then. One mistake or another. Or a series of mistakes and by the time the evening is over, it’s less than wonderful.
But.
We have a new chef, new staff, a new menu. And. Drum roll, please. A new smoker.
Food and Bev Director, Anthony, could not have been a better host at lovely meeting at the club introducing all of the above and we are pretty excited to see the changes. This is his new pride and joy, the Smoker. Yes, I meant that capital “S.”
We are looking forward to report a happy dining experience very shortly.
Update on the VeggiChop
I did make tabbouleh this weekend and hauled out my little VeggiChop. I need to start using it more often.
Deciding to test it, I really packed it with parsley and didn’t do any pre-chopping. Separately, large hunks of cucumber and a couple of radishes went in. The cuc and radish took about seven pulls on the cord. The parsley took about double that.
All-in-all, everything came out the perfect size even if the presentation wasn’t all that lovely.
Kitty Play
I know, I know. But my cats don’t all play together that frequently, and I couldn’t resist. And, by the way, that was my early Saturday morning reading time. I got no reading done on Saturday at all. No fault of the cats.
What I’m Eating
Always on the hunt for Meatless Monday dishes, I found a new recipe for Mexican Pinto Bean Soup from ElaVegan’s site.
The recipe has an option for canned or dried beans and I used dried. After the beans soaked for a few hours they were cooked in the InstaPot. I did use canned tomatoes. A squeeze of lime before serving really added brightness to the flavor.
I thought this would be a really fast soup to put together, but it took longer to cook my vegetables tender than the recipe called for.
There were a LOT of dishes to do after making this. I used the blender and the InstaPot and a large pot. Way more than a quickie Monday lunch.
And because I ran out of time, I had a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich. Which I’m not complaining about.
That’s ok, because I’m betting this soup will be better tomorrow anyway. And the sample I had today was delish.
What I’m Reading
Yikes, I didn’t finish anything this week, but I think next post I’ll have a couple of good recommendations. Stand by, please.
Like so many of you, my heart is breaking on many fronts. My prayers are continuing, and I ask for God’s blessings on you and yours this week. XO