I love productive Sundays.

But I hate PCs, and so this is a bittersweet day...Mac made an evil noise and shocked my thigh before going to a blank screen last night, so she needs a trip to the ER...but since I live in the middle of nowhere, the closest Mac store is in Santa Barbara or LA, both a good 2 hour trip away. Boooo. Anyway, I'm thankful we bought the hubby a new laptop last month...not thankful it wasn't a mac. Sigh.

But yes, it was a good day. Slept in, made a fantastic egg white, cheese, and turkey bacon omelette for breakfast (my new trick is a pinch of rosemary to the eggs before cooking). Also led to awesome quote of the day...
Pammy: The bacon seems so violent the way it pops like that.
Husband: It's angry.
Pammy: It DOES seem angry.
Husband: ...Angry it's not real bacon.

I don't buy real bacon. Kind of like how I don't buy real half and half. Or full fat fudgesicles. Sorry, honey. Just not worth it.

So I had my omelette, he had his turkey/bacon sandwich, we cleaned the house, and we got ready to go. I love when stuff is happening around town on days we're off together, and this weekend was Via Arte, which is an annual chalk drawing exhibition of sorts at the outdoor mall on this end of town.

The stuff is fantastic, and since chalk is close to charcoal, which is my favorite medium, it strikes close to home. I also love that the show is put on by the local museum of art, which, I am embarrassed to say, I've never visited. I tried once, but they were closed, and I never made it back. I worked at the San Diego Museum of Art for a couple years, and I'm spoiled. I'm afraid to go and be disappointed, so I don't go.

It's sort of my MO for anything here in Bakersfield, and, yes, I really need to get over it. Baby steps.

Anyway, we got there, grabbed some Starbucks (iced chai latte for him, skinny sugar-free London Fog latte for me-thanks for the gift cards, Mom!) and wandered around on an absolutely gorgeous day. High seventies, clear, just awesome. We sat and people watched, then decided a better thing to do would be to relocate to Elephant Bar for appetizers and a drink. Which turned into a giant appetizer plate and several rounds. Not that I should be surprised. We're troopers like that. Anyone with Stella and Sierra Nevada on tap can hold our attention for hours.

My favorite part was that the busser brought us 3 plates. Like it takes three people to eat this? Please.

Eventually we decided a trip to the grocery store would be cheaper than another round, so we packed it up and hit the market. Not the best idea after a couple beers during Halloween season. Talk about kids in a candy store. But seriously...they had Now and Laters. How long has it been since you had Now and Later??? Apple and banana are my favorite, and I'm really not looking forward to looking up the calorie count on them, cause that just seems mean right now.

So then, as we rooted for the Yankees to beat the Twins (I want a Yankee/Angels match up...that was the first major league game I ever went to, so both teams hold a special place in my heart...though really, I just want either of them to crush the Dodgers. Yeah, I said it.) we got ready for dinner, which was steak, stanky brussel sprouts, and fancy salad.



I haven't covered stanky fries yet, which is a recipe I recreated from Prime Cut, a local steakhouse, but it's roughly the same recipe as these brussel sprouts-just cook some frozen steak fries instead of the sprouts and the rest is the same. So good it's evil.


Stanky Brussels
At least 6 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped (some chopped, some sliced)
brussel sprouts, brown ends trimmed off (I used a 16oz bag from trader joes)
olive oil spray
1/4 cup gorgonzola cheese (or blue cheese)
1/4 cup parmesan cheese

Wash and halve the sprouts, spread in oven safe, oiled pan, and spray with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast at 400 for 15 minutes. In the meantime, spray small pan with oil, and lightly saute garlic for about a minute. Pull sprouts out, sprinkle evenly with garlic, gorgonzola, and parmesan, and return to oven for 5 minutes.

If you wanna be fat kids like us and split this in half, it's about 200 calories, 8g fat, 22g carbs, 8g fiber, 14g protein