Just hangin’ out...

Yesterday was a good day. Why? Because for the first time in weeks, if not months, we had nothing planned to do.

Now, that wasn’t the case last week, and it won’t be the case this week. Most nights we’re out doing something or other. Lately, it has often been soccer (four-year-old “amoeba” soccer), which EAToo coaches, or little league baseball. I love “my kids” desperately, and wouldn’t miss their games and things for anything, but who knew that a childless “aunt” could be almost as busy as the actual mom?

So it was lovely to actually have no plans at all for once. After sleeping in, we went and met the parents for brunch, at Bittersweet in Germantown. Bittersweet is interesting to me, if only because in 2005 the proprietor closed the original Bittersweet (in New Hampshire) after 44 years, in order to move to Memphis and escape the harsh New England winters. I’m not sure he traded up, but I am glad of the opportunity for a taste of New England without taking a long trip. I’ll definitely post more on our experience at Bittersweet after we’ve tried a meal other than brunch.

After lunch, we did some grocery shopping and ran a few other errands. Then we were able to just hang out at home for a while, which was nice. I got a few things done I’d been meaning to do at home, and got to spend some time writing afterward.

Then I actually got to spend some time in the kitchen, cooking something that didn’t come out of a box in the freezer. We tried a gnocchi recipe from Tyler’s Ultimate on the Food Network. I had made homemade gnocchi once before, years ago, and Tyler’s recipe was a lot easier than I remembered. It turned out really well — plus, there are plenty of leftovers for dinner before baseball tonight. I hope to have a chance soon to make the green summer minestrone Tyler made on the same episode. If you’re a beginner cook, I would definitely suggest checking out Tyler’s show — it’s great for learning basic techniques. And I can pretty much guarantee you’ll never hear him say “EVOO” like Rachael Ray.

After dinner we caught up on some television, including the season finales of “Numb3rs” (which seemed to end at sort of an odd place) and “Smallville” (which was just beautiful, especially Lana’s sendoff).

There was only one thing I meant to do yesterday that I didn’t get around to, and that was blogging. I’ve been a very bad blogger lately, but hopefully this summer will allow me more time to blog, and cook, and read, and all sorts of other things I’ve been neglecting lately. And if not, maybe I’ll at least have some more days like yesterday.