Where did the week go?

October 25, 2007
Peoria, AZ

Wow, where did the week go? Seems like it was just Monday...

Monday and Tuesday, we hung around the house. I've been working through the planning on a couple of projects (posted separately), and Geri's caught up on some laundry and stuff. On Monday night we had a salad for dinner (mixed green and a small piece of sirloin, pan-seared and sliced thin across the grain) and I tried an Argentinian Malbec (Kawel Riserva 2005) from Costco with it. The salad was great and the wine wasn't bad, but was kind of flat and "flabby". We won't get that wine again, I suspect. Tuesday was "surprise night" in the dinner department, as we didn't have much planned and ran out of daylight before we realized it. Geri found a recipe for "Crispy Smashed Roasted Potatos" that she wanted to try, and it came out great. It's incredible simple (boil baby red potatos, flatten them with the blade of a large knife, and roast them with salt and EVOO), and could only get better with a sprinkle of grated Parmesean right before coming out of the oven. She remembered that she had some pre-made meatballs in the freezer, so we had "Italian meatballs Swedish style" with roasted zucchini. I opened a bottle of Screw Kappa Napa Cabernet, and it went well with the meal.

Yesterday, we did some running around. The pups went to a new groomers, and their practice is to have new dogs spend 1/2 day in "doggie day care" to get acclimated before gromming. That sounds like a way to grab some extra $$$ to me, but it was probably good for them, since we haven't had a chance to go to the dog park since we've been back due to the heat. While they were at grooming, we did some shopping. I was able to get most of the remaining materials I need for the DirecTV project, and we stopped at a new (to us) Italian Deli in Phoenix for cheese and stuff. We stopped in at one of the first wine shops we ever visited in Phoenix: Sportsman's. We stopped there years ago to pick up some wine when we were staying at the Phoenician resort and went to visit our friends Ana and Larry for dinner. I couldn't resist a couple of California Pinots from the Santa Rita Hills area and a coupl eof hard-to-find Australian Shiraz bottles. We did a little grocery shopping and, voila, it was time to pick up the pups. Another day filled...

For dinner, we made Skillet Lasagna, a recipe we've found works well in the coach. It's a one-skillet meal that takes less than an hour. Geri says she may never make traditional lasagna again, but I'm hoping that's not true. I realized I didn't haveany everyday Italian wine (bad planning!), so I found a Francesco Chianti Riserva 1997 in the wine box. It was quite good; you'd almost think Brunello.

We actually watched the Red Sox close out their series with the Indians and win World Series Game 1 last night, strangely enough. I grew up a Yankee fan, but living in the Hartford area for so long, plus spending so much time elsewhere (traveling, living in Jersey near Philly) seems to have tempered that. We never got into the Phillies, and the D-backs seem so far away when we're not here during the summers. So, "how 'bout dem Red Sox"? All in all, a good start to the week.