My Weekend....

Here's a very generic boring post about what I did all weekend, but it ends with a recipe, which is the point of this whole post.

Friday night...I had a hot date all lined up, but fell asleep on the couch instead. LOL, life with family and kids. In all seriousness, it was a nice evening. Jeff came home with a pizza and a 12 pack of Leine Big Butt (yes, that's what it's called!) After spending all day Thursday shoveling the driveway and then most of Friday shoveling the driveway and trampoline, I was beat. I had 2 beers, some pizza, and zonked out on the couch. Woke up at 8:45, did a crossword puzzle, and then went back to sleep. Not bad.

Saturday we had NO plans. Slept in, wandered downstairs for cereal and tea, and Jeff tells me he wants to take his truck in for an oil and fuel filter change. No biggie, but I wasn't too excited about driving over there, getting him, driving home, sitting for an hour, and then going back to get his truck. So, we ran by the mall to pick up some lotion. Not that I don't have enough lotion, but The BODY SHOP....yes, you read right, has a new Japanese Cherry Blossom out that I can't live without. So I defied my source of income and purchased from the competitor. Then we found out that Radio Disney was doing some sort of kids club thing, with games and prizes and dancing, so we checked that out. Maicy and I won a prize for dancing (HA!!) and then she won a drawing for the Twitches Two DVD. Emily won a hula hoop contest and got a autographed Hannah Montana card. Then they asked for one mom and one Dad to come up and compete in a game. Jeff was picked (volunteered by ME) and he went up on stage to compete in how fast he could unroll a roll of TP. And he won! Of course. It's a man thing. He won a Radio Disney backpack with a bunch of crap in it and a Hannah Montana DVD. Happiness reigns with the Bristol Family. Then it was off to get the truck from the dealer.

Saturday afternoon, Emily and Andrea went to Open Gym and I dragged Colleen to the gym to torture her for an hour. I inflicted all sorts of pain for a long time, and then made her do cardio. She's not thanking me today. But she wanted to go back!

Saturday night sounded like a good night for Outback and friends, so we got a babysitter and headed to BG with Paul and Colleen for a pre-Valentines Outback dinner. Good food, good friends, good beer, and good conversation. It was a nice, relaxing time.

Sunday of course was up and out of the house to lead my flock. I taught them the story of Jonah, and my contribution to the morning was to teach them to fake barf (you know, like the whale) on the count of 3. After church we grabbed lunch and headed down to Abt to get what every family on a limited income needs...a new Samsung 45" 1080 LCD tv. ARGH. I've been fighting thing TV tooth and nail for the past 18 months, and now is NOT the time to buy one. But he had it all laid out...where we were getting this money (NOT a charge card) how good of a deal this was, blah blah blah. I gave up. I drew the line and the fancy stand though, and he drew the line at my insistance of a wall mount ($399 for labor alone!!!). The TV is being delivered on Weds. Why didn't we just take it home? Because we had the van..because the TRUCK IS NOT RUNNING. ACK!!!! Something went wrong overnight, because it ran fine last night to Outback. So, now he's driving Paul and Colleen's extra vehicle.

Sunday night, Colleen had found a recipe on Rachel Ray that she wanted to try, but didn't want to cook it. She offered to buy all the stuff if Jeff and Lisa would make it. Lisa called me up and said "come over for Cuban hash..it's sausage, eggs, cheese, PICKLES, and mustard, all served over bread". I was like...uh....NO. We went anyways, because come on, free food, and OH MY GOD it was so good. We all devoured and went back for more. Wow. Here's the recipe.


Cubano Hash Melts with Egg
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
3/4 pound ground pork
1/3 pound (1/2 package) chorizo, peeled and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon cumin (1/3 palmful)
1/4 teaspoon allspice
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 bottle of beer
2 Portuguese rolls or 2 sandwich-size English muffins, split and toasted (we used Ciabatta rolls)
4 dill pickles, chopped
2 tablespoons yellow mustard
4 deli-cut slices of Swiss cheese (we used Cheddar)
2 tablespoons butter
4 large eggs

Pre-heat the oven to 400°F.

Heat a skillet over medium-high heat with the EVOO, one turn of the pan. Add pork and brown, 3-4 minutes. Add chorizo, onion and garlic and season mixture with cumin, allspice, salt and pepper and cook for 7-8 minutes. Stir in tomato paste, cook a minute longer, then add beer.

Arrange bread on baking sheet. Toast the split bread.

Coarsely chop the pickles, mix with mustard and reserve.

Cover bread with yellow mustard, then top with mounds of hash and a slice of cheese. Melt in oven.

Melt butter in medium size nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add eggs to melted butter and fry to desired doneness.

Top the hash with fried eggs and pickles and serve.

Here's a link with a picture.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_37309,00.html



Yes! It's good stuff!!! We had pears, apples, and cheese for an appetizer, and cinnamon pickles. And waaaay too much wine. We ate, watched a program on Ireland, did dishes, had cake and coffee, and that's it. My weekend, or should I say, a typical weekend in my life.