Nostalgia

This weekend was all about being back in my undergraduate town.

I got to see people I haven’t seen in a while.  I got to go places I haven’t been.  And best of all, I got to stay with my best friend and his parents, whom, you’ve guessed it, I hadn’t seen in a while.

It all started on Friday when I drove up to where I used to go to school.  I worked the whole day beforehand (logged around 7.5 hours) so I didn’t end up pulling into Joshua’s driveway until 6:30p.  When I did arrive we unloaded Greta (my precious car) and then headed right back out to try out a new Indian place.  They started us off with their version of chips and salsa (cilantro sauce and some awesome Indian barbeque something).

Then we moved on to the entrees.  I got the vegetable kofta and Joshua got the shrimp madras.  We also split onion naan.

We, of course, shared our dishes so I had a bit of everything over some delightfully clove (maybe all-spice or something else) infused rice.  Don’t worry, times this plate by like four and that’s what I ate.

My dish was incredible.  Only sad part: I only got four of these small balls of greatness.  Just look at the insides!

For dessert that night we headed to a new frozen yogurt place.  The sign outside boasted 21 flavors of yogurt and 50 toppings.  Can you say “yes, please”??

I ended up with peanut butter, Oreleans praline, birthday cake, and espresso frozen yogurt topped with everything from yogurt covered pretzels, Reese’s, Kit-Kats, and Twiz to sprinkles, caramel, fudge, and whipped cream.

Delightful!  It is both a good and a bad thing that I no longer live around this place.  Bad because I can’t scarf it down whenever I want and good for just that same reason…

Saturday consisted of the majority of my nostalgia in the form of dinner and dancing.  For the last few years my old swing club has done a Thanksgiving/Christmas/Festivus style dinner to provide a chance for everyone to sit down with each other while enjoying good food and good company.  Joshua has always been the chef in charge and I play his sous chef pretty frequently.  This year was no exception.  We cooked/baked up a storm and even managed to fit in a 4 mile run!

In the end, the spread included turkey, stuffing/dressing, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce (from scratch), corn pudding, mac and cheese, and a cheeseball with crackers.  For dessert we made an apple crisp, derby pie, pumpkin pie, fudge, and the much requested homemade vanilla ice cream.

Joshua and I had bits and bites of just about the entire spread (gladly!) and we split a dessert plate.

All of it was amazing.  Sadly, we cooked for 30 and 11 (including us) showed.  So, needless-to-say, we had WAYYYYYYYYYYYY too much food and subsequently a ton of leftovers.  Oh well.  At least it all tasted good so I don’t think Joshua’s family will mind the leftovers.

The dancing was also great.  I had some stellar dances with some super people.  I miss dancing with them for sure.

I thought I would include one of my new favorite blues songs as of last night.  Skip forward to about 1:30 and have a listen.  It’s a live version but you get the idea.  =D

This morning Joshua and I attended church.  We joined my old Episcopal congregation to celebrate the 5th week of advent.  We both had a great time though I could have used a different sermon personally.  I always his that particular priest’s homilies to be sort of disjointed and lacking clear, central thought.  Anyways, after church ended I headed out on a long list of errands.  My list:

• Winding Way health food store for fantastically priced bulk chia seeds ($6.59/lb)
• Goodwill store for cookie tins and dress pants (actually found two pairs!)
• Trader Joe’s for things like cheese and tempeh (<—trying for the first time)
• Good Earth health food store for great bulk rolled oats ($0.90/lb)
• Aldi for groceries

Four hours later I crossed everything off and had to take two trips from my car to my apartment to get everything.  Haha.  Worst part was that it rained the whole time. Blah.  Anyways, here are some other miscellaneous eats from the weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am in the middle of working on my final video-taped role play prep at the moment so I should get back to it.  I hope everyone’s upcoming week is looking alright.  I know for me, and almost all other students, this is the last week of classes so it’s gonna be intense and then exams follow shortly after.  Lord help us all during the next 14 days!

Questions: Have you ever tried tempeh? Recipes?
Where is your nostalgic place?