They Were His Idea, I Promise

Earlier today, my very sweet husband was doing the grocery shopping. While he was gone, I thought about how nice it would be to bake something yummy tonight, because of course in my quest to lose baby weight, the first thing I should be thinking about is dessert. So anyway, I thought I could do something really simple -- chocolate chip cookies -- because they're Bruce's favorite dessert. He's been so patient with my cupcakes and ice cream and whatever else I decide to bake, today he needed chocolate chip cookies.

I knew we only had one more egg in the fridge, so I called to see if he was still at the store. He was actually right outside our front door. Oh well! So when he came in, I said I'd called because I was thinking we could have chocolate chip cookies tonight, if only we had more eggs.

He said, "I can walk to Vons and get some eggs if you want them!"

I said, "Well OK honey, if you really want chocolate chip cookies tonight, I suppose I can make them if you go and get some eggs!"

See? His idea! :)

(As it turned out, the recipe we like most for chocolate chip cookies only calls for one egg. So he didn't actually need to go to the store. But hey, now I can make egg salad for lunch tomorrow. Or rather I could, if I had any mayonnaise. Hey, honey? Are you busy?)

(I'm kidding!)

(Also, he made the cookies while I fed Jarrod. What a nice husband I have.)

(I have nothing more to say here, I just wanted to add one more set of parentheses.)

***

I have decided that I am a total blog geek at this point. Why? Because I took a picture of our dinner tonight, just to post it here. I'm not even totally convinced it looks that appetizing, but trust me, it was delicious. The menu? Tilapia meuniere, roasted potatoes, roasted green beans. Behold:

Meuniere is one of my favorite things to make, because it takes less than 10 minutes from start to finish. It uses about $5 of ingredients and that's if I'm making enough for two. If this was ordered at a restaurant, it would be at least $18 if not over $20 per plate. Ridiculous!! If anyone wants the recipe, let me know. It's stunningly easy and quite tasty.

Capers! Yummy! I am pretty sure the Coy Household goes through more capers than any other home within a 10-mile radius.

***

On to a final topic, not related to food (amazing, I know). Lately, I have been itching... rather, aching to draw, paint, or otherwise create art. I've been fiddling around for a few weeks with watercolor but I'm being drawn big time into the soft pastel world. I have a Rembrandt 45-stick portrait set, a small Sennelier half-stick assortment, and a large box of NuPastels. I love the Rembrandts and am looking forward to my birthday when I get my already-picked-out gift of 90 landscape colors.

Anyway, yesterday Bruce took Jarrod out for a couple hours and left me to my pastels, and in that time I managed to produce this:
Not the best photo, but it gets the point across. Anyway, clearly I am a long way from being the next Degas, but I am pretty positive about my start and can't wait to get my hands back into those pastels. I do feel this is the medium I need to be using right now. I missed this art zone feeling so much! It's been years since I've had it, and I'm so glad it's back.

One note: that pastel painting is of a photo I found on Google Images. It might be copyrighted so just in case anyone happens to see it and get worked up about that, I'm not selling this piece or anything. No, I don't think everyone on the internet is reading our brand-new blog, but I have to CMA just in case!