Out For The Night

These past few days have been full of homework, dancing, new friends, and baking.  I have gotten my cultural fact sheet assignment finished (due this coming Wednesday) and I have made significant progress on my cancer lab assignment (due on Tuesday).  I can’t finish the latter because I have to call the actual labs to get more information.  Sadly, and as predicted, they keep traditional business days [Monday thru Friday] but not business hours [usually they’re open from 7:30/8a-7/8p] which means I still need to wait until Monday to finish my spreadsheet.  Oh well, I did what I could right?

Last night Julie and I got our swing/salsa on at a local dance.  Every other dance was an opposite style, either salsa/bachata or west coast swing, and the floor ebbed and flowed with couples depending on who was in the mood for what type of music.  I danced a little in the beginning and then had an awful dance with an older gentleman who laughed at me, yes LAUGHED at me, three times in the course of a single dance when I missed something he was leading or turned the wrong way.  Last time I checked, the whole point of dancing was to have fun, not to be perfect.  That’s honestly why I love swing so much because if something does happen, something goes wrong or you miss your partner’s hands, you just thrown in some spins, maybe do some solo dancing for a few moments, and then BAM you’re back in step.  Easy peasy.  So anyways, after I got laughed at I genuinely wanted to go home but then a friend from my typical swing scene asked me to dance west coast and that got me back on track.  The rest of the night I was more active and I even led Julie in lindy to a faster west coast swing song.  All in all, it was a great night.

The night before, Thursday, I was invited out for drinks with Pam, a woman I met at the latest Supper Club, and her roommate Hellen.  It was a completely unexpected, spur of the moment, invite but I think that made it even cooler.  I was so excited.  I feel like this is the first time I was ever randomly invited out for a night when I could legitimately go (thanks to not having a patient to see the next morning).  Fun!  We ended up going to a locally originated brewhouse and ordered two appetizers to split: loaded tater tots and 7 tidals buffalo chicken dip.

Both were really good.  The chicken dip was nice and hot and the tater tots were perfectly crispy.  I ate my fair share of both.  I think actually preferred the celery in the dip over the chips, who knew?!  Pam had a Summer Shandy while Hellen had a glass of Moscato and I a whiskey and diet.  We actually ended up closing the restaurant unintentionally.  We didn’t know they closed at 11p and we showed up at 10:15p.  I enjoyed getting to know both of them and I look forward to hanging out with them more.  They live close to where I do so I think it’s safe to say we haven’t seen the last of each other.  Yay for new friends!

Also new to my life is my second-hand, never been used Cuisinart red ice cream maker named Irene.  She is a beauty and I have whipped up both pistachio ice cream and chocolate peanut butter cheesecake ice cream.  I substituted the chocolate milk for 1% and 4 tbsp of Hershey’s syrup and used PB2 for half the peanut butter it called for as well as whipped cream cheese instead of block.  It honestly turned out to be some of the greatest stuff I have ever tasted.  And the pistachio ice cream, holy cow.  So incredible.

In terms of eats for the past little while, they have been all over the map.  My cravings have been for all sorts of everything.  Let’s see, there was a cinnamon raisin English muffin spread with walnut butter and jam or walnut butter and fluff with a side of celery and cheesy hummus.

Cottage cheese with Stevia and both strawberries and pineapple.

Delicious, scrumptious layer cake from Mary.  She decided one day she wanted to make a layer cake and she went at it.  This beauty of a slice had a funfetti bottom layer, a homemade cookie butter layer, a brownie layer, and a caramel cake top layer.  The whole thing was frosted.  It was so good, let me just say.  Yum!  (Just imagine her cake and my ice cream…I smell a party coming on!)

Some yogurt with cereal mixed in.  Sadly the Boston Cream Pie yogurt was kind of flavorless.  It tasted like vanilla and that was it.  I was disappointed.

Chai protein pancakes smeared with peanut butter, walnut butter, and cookie butter with chia seeds and maple syrup.  I also seared some bananas in a bit of peanut oil.

I also have had some caramel corn rice cakes as snacks and carb fuel for afternoon workouts.

Cottage cheese and pineapple oats with cookie butter.

And finally, a fluffernutter sandwich with some tomatoes, oranges, and chex mix on the side.

Aside from eating, I have been baking up some scrumptious goodies too!  I made a full 13x9 tray of brownies from this recipe and frosted them using a recipe I found on Pinterest.  They are for the Easter Vigil service tonight at my home church.

And then I busted out my hand-me-down stand mixer from mom to make copy-cat Berger cookies to take to Bekah’s family tomorrow when I attend their Easter lunch.

In other news, I have signed up to do Foodie Penpals this month, a cool food exchange program between bloggers and readers put on by The Lean Green Bean.  Basically you have a $15 limit and with that you pack up and send a care package of sorts to your match.  It can include store bought things, homemade goodies, etc.  It also has to include a written something to your penpal.  I have made contact with my match for this month and I’m debating what I send.  I have a few days to figure it out so we’ll see how it goes. 

Tonight I’m out for the third night in a row.  This time it’s for Easter Vigil service at church.  I always love this mass because typically there are lots of candles and we have a baptism tonight so it should be great.  Plus, we have a dessert/coffee hour afterwards which should be fun.  Have a wonderful Easter everyone!  I’ll catch you on the flipside.

Friday French –>

NEW ONE
Phrase: Quel est votre type préféré de la danse swing?
Translation: What is your favorite type of swing dance?
Story: Last night, while dancing west coast swing, I got asked this questions a lot once it became apparent that I wasn’t the smoothest west coaster around.  I figured I should be able to ask the same thing to others…in French…so they won’t actually understand…haha.

Questions: Do you like cottage cheese?
Have you ever salsa danced?