This is the Title of an Uncreative Violinist.:)

I went home to Canton this past weekend to celebrate my grandmother's 96th birthday.  I TOTALLY forgot to bring my camera (and I don't have a smartphone *sads*) so there are no pictures of the wonderful dim sum meal we had in Cleveland, or of the smelly Asian market we shopped at; no taunting pictures of orange ricotta cupcakes I made or the heavenly, fluffy cake from Ninni's Italian bakery.  But rest assured...I ate, and ate...and ate.  I guess there's just nothing else to do in Canton, really. But back to real life.  I finally did a first this morning: I rowed a 10K on the rowing machine.  I'm not going to go so far to pat myself on the shoulder, because it really wasn't that hard, but my real issue with staying on the rower is that I get bored out of my mind.  So I always have to have a movie or a show on to keep my mind preoccupied.  Ryan tells me that if I worked just a little harder, my focus would zero in on my effort and I wouldn't need to ...

We celebrated V-day yesterday as I had the whole day off and was able to bake a cake, some cupcakes and have dinner ready by the time Ryan got home from work.  And since I was itching to give him his gift, we just did the gift exchange thing a little early.  I actually wasn't expecting anything as my Valentines gift last year was so awesome, I assumed it was good for at least a few years, lol.  But Ryan surprised me again.  This is what he got me: A HUGE canvas photo of our beloved Yorkie, Zoe!!  Seriously.  She is the love of our lives :P She couldn't care less that her image has been blown up for all to admire.  That's my  hand holding her still. I also baked my first cake from scratch.  A chocolate beet cake with beet cream cheese frosting that was heavenly.  Only had a tiny slice, though, as I'm trying to control portions. Tastes a lot better than it looks.  And yes, I know I did a sloppy job frosting it....

Some meals I made the past few days... Capellini with meat sauce  Moroccan Beef Stew Simple Salad w/ grape tomatoes, pecans and feta cheese   I've made pasta with meat sauce numerous times, but this time I mixed ground beef with pork and also chopped a bunch of veggies mixed in the sauce (I typically just dump tomato sauce and then add additional spices), and also used capellini pasta, which is thinner than what I normally use (just thin spaghetti).  I have to say, this has been my favorite meat sauce concoction, and I'm STILL eating leftovers three days later, and it's every bit as good as the first day. The Moroccan beef stew definitely whetted my appetite as all the spices and ingredients were marrying together in the dutch oven...but sadly, the chick peas ruined it for me.  I also like Kalamata olives, but not mixed in with other ingredients.  Ryan doesn't get it, but Mediterranean cuisine is probably my LEAST favorite, an...

Valentine's Day is coming up, and this year I really wanted to make sure that I could put something together for Ryan that he could look forward to and enjoy.  Most years, we haven't made a very big deal over this holiday--but I'm learning life is short...why not take advantage of those moments you can anticipate and that add zest to the otherwise mundane routine?! So after mulling over what I could possibly get for him, I decided to look out for his favorite beers (he had to give me a list since I'm not a beer connoisseur, so I guess he has an idea of what I have up my sleeve! oh well) and went to World Market today.  Does anyone else shop at WM?  I am addicted!  I bought a cute one-handle basket so I could fill it with goodies, including a 4-pack of one of his favorite beers: Unibroue Maudite A disgustingly huge V-day Toblerone (Ryan's fav) Another one of Ryan's fav candies I'll probably bake some cookies and maybe add a few other thin...

It seems like I've been doing a lot more baking than I have in the past.  I only started baking again a few years ago after a lifetime of presuming I was just bad at it, because a few attempts at cookie baking in my youth left me with sheets of burnt crisps.  Especially with the internet and a plethora of social media websites like Pinterest and food blogs galore, it seems to me like there really isn't an excuse anymore to avoid cooking well or baking well. So ever since I found  the best chocolate chip cookie recipe EVER , I've been a little more enthusiastic about the world of baking.  This past week, I had a craving for peanut butter cookies and just googled easy recipes that called for few ingredients [besides peanut butter, duh].  They were okay.  Good enough to crave my hankering for a peanut butter cookie--but next time, I think I'll search for one that's a little chewier and I'll probably use chunky peanut butter, so I can get bits of peanuts in i...

It's been snowing the past few days, and as we tend to do on snow days, a lot of lounging around the house has been happening.  It's a good thing we own a rowing machine, otherwise absolutely no physical activity would occur during days like these.  But to come completely clean, this week was not as good as last week in the working out department.  When I was doing double workouts last week, the energy from the first workout helped keep the momentum going for the second workout of the day; but then I skipped the weekend and totally lost that momentum. Yep.  Thereafter, it was just sporadic workouts again this week.  "Dislike".  What a huge slap in the forehead concerning consistency.  I really need to jump on the consistency bandwagon. It's Sunday morning, and Ryan suggested we go to church, as long as it wasn't the non denominational one I attended last week (he hates their music and charisma).  We looked into a Presbyterian one down the road t...