My cousin and I have had dates most weeks since I have moved to Maryland. We’d been doing that on Sundays, and over the past 6 weeks or so, Sundays have evolved into more of a family day where we all hang out together, enjoy a meal, and play some games. Which is great, and we all enjoy that. But she and I were beginning to miss having time just for ourselves. Since my new schedule leaves me free on Friday, we chatted early this week and decided that every other Friday would be our date day, and we’ll just continue Sundays as full-family. We went out today and did the thing we love to do: shop.
Now you need to know that we do not love to shop just any place. We love to shop in the thrift store and we love to shop in the grocery store All other shopping is more like a chore than fun. And you also need to know that when we shop together, we literally shop together, with each of us having one eye open for ourselves and the other open for the cousin. Today was a particularly good shopping day. The fu was strong. I’ll leave it for her to tell you what she scored, but these items were my major haul. That’s a leather Giani Bernini bag, and I gave $5.50 for it. It just needs some leather butter. And a very warm leather jacket for which I gave $11.50. It just needs dry cleaning. Have I mentioned that Friday is 50% off clothing day at the Salvation Army Thrift Store? Oh yeah. It is.
Underneath those goodies…well that, my lovelies is a double breasted men’s cashmere coat. It’s ankle length on me, scrumptiously soft, and fits me like a dream, except for the sleeves. No problem. At $40 for a freaking full-length cashmere coat, I will pay for the alteration.
After all that excitement, we went to Mecca. I mean Wegman’s. I bought ingredients–actual raw meat and fresh produce to turn into food. And I bought some spices. And I bought teas. And I bought good bread. And we talked and talked and talked. This has been a wonderful day.
Tomorrow, there will be slicing, dicing, and sauteing. I am planning a lovely beef stew with mushrooms, leeks, shallots, and garlic over spaetzle. I’ll serve roasted Brussels sprouts with that and sourdough rolls. It will be delicious. There will also be some pouring over cookbooks, looking for recipes that I think will convert to crock-pot use. I am tired of eating crappy food because I don’t have time to cook when I get home. My energy levels are down and I just don’t feel as good as I should, and I know it’s because I’m not fueling my body correctly. I also got easy, nutritious, grab-and-go foods for breakfast and lunch, because woman does not live by dinner alone. Not even when it includes sour dough bread.
Speaking of which, I need to get my starter going.