It’s not safe to leave me unsupervised …

It was around this time a year ago when Dan left me unattended and I took his crowbar to the cabinets which resulted in my redesigned kitchen; one would think he’d know better by now that when left alone, I get fun ideas and without a voice of reason there, I just go ahead and do whatever I’m thinking which typically results in A LOT of hard work … one would be wrong.

Fast forward a year: it was a normal Sunday morning in spring; we were going to rake the front yard, trim the hedges then go shopping for some annuals and veggie plants so I could spend the afternoon planting while Dan did whatever it is Dan does when I’m not looking, usually something non-destructive like playing with the dogs. We finished raking, Dan bagged leaves (the tree in our front yard drops leaves like it’s October, all.year.long!) while I weeded my flower beds and mourned the loss of my perennials that barely came up, bloomed way too early and didn’t last nearly as long as they should have. Dan went inside to refill our waters so I picked up the hedge trimmers to get started on that task … and it all went downhill from there.

By the time Dan came back outside, I’d “trimmed” off about half of one of our enormo hedges!! Dan sighed, shook his head, went into the garage and emerged with a super fun power tool for me to use to finish “trimming” off the hedges. Once I’d removed all the branches, he started tying them up into bunches for the trashmen to take away and I grabbed a shovel to dig out the root balls. Each of those massive hedges was 4 individual bushes that had grown together, who knew? Definitely not me, I was not aware that I’d be digging out so many root balls! While I was at it, I took down this ugly tree that I hated and tore out about 10 miles of nasty vines that I’m pretty sure were responsible for strangling and killing my perennials. I also tore out about 2ft worth of St. Augustine across the front of the house so I could extend my flower beds, yay!! The only things left are the cactus garden, some greenery along the driveway and our enormo 100yr old tree, everything else is gone!

By Sunday evening, after ~7hrs in the yard, I could barely lift my arms over my head so the last thing I was ready to do was cook and prep for my week. Thankfully I had some frozen tamales (thank you Bedford Farmers Market) that I could heat for dinner. Come Monday, I could barely walk. Thanks to the miracle of modern medicine (yay drugs!) and skipping the gym, I was able to get all my cooking and prep done for the week so that I don’t get off track. We have a lot to do this week, there are still two root balls that were just too strong for me that I need Dan to dig out and I need to figure out what the heck I’m going to do now that I’ve ripped everything out of my yard! It looks so clean and pretty that I almost just want to leave it that way, but we all know better than that … I think I’m going to do all pink and white with a splash of red (shhhh, don’t tell Dan) across the front of the house with bluebonnets in the little L shaped space by the porch, yellow and orange marigolds in the ring around the tree and maybe some nice greenery along the side of the house where I ripped out anything and everything that appeared to be growing there. The first step will be to get dirt, lots and lots and lots of dirt!! I want to build a short 4-6” retaining wall, out of what I still have no clue, and do raised beds across the front. I also need a bunch of dirt for the two raised garden bed boxes for my veggies in the back. Oh and we also have to paint; those enormo hedges were hiding the poor, poor shape of our shutters so we’ll be stripping and painting the shutters and once those are all fancy with a fresh coat, we’ll have to strip and paint the trim along the house and front entrance to match, right?? Sorry honey!!!!!!

So while we’ll be hard at work, I’ve planned a hearty (but healthy) menu to keep us going. Breakfasts, as usual, will be egg casserole; lunches will vary based upon leftovers and the contents of my freezer; dinners will be mostly grilled except for Thursday because the weather is supposed to be crappy.

Monday – pork tenderloin kebabs/kabobs – I threaded pieces of peppercorn marinated pork loin on skewers with chunks of zucchini and red pepper … fantastic!
Tuesday – flank steak with sweet potatoes & green beans
Wednesday – grilled blackened chicken with hungry girlfredo & peas
Thursday – chicken stuffed with ham and swiss (kind of like chicken cordon bleu but not), with roasted new potatoes, broccoli & carrots
Friday – grilled pizzas! We were supposed to do this last Friday but I had a really tough run and wasn’t in the mood so instead we made a simple whole wheat linguine with peas in a ricotta pesto sauce (1 cup ff ricotta + 2tbsp pesto = yum!) and grilled chicken

I also got a wild hair and tested out healthifying my normal recipe for scones and they were quite yummy. You may not know this, but I am 100% obsessed with the royal wedding and I am starting to test out the recipes for what I will be serving at the formal English tea party I’m having in its honor that morning. Of course, the only attendees will be Fredo and Gus as most normal people will be asleep or at work, but it will be fabulous nonetheless and yes, Gus will be wearing gloves and a hat. I still need to tweak the scones recipe some before I post it because I’d like them to be just a touch sweeter so stay tuned!!