Today I taught, and my last student left after saying “That was a fun lesson!” I think I won today, at least a little bit. (And yes. Violin lessons should be fun.)

I could spend some time talking about my cat and her diet and how cute she is. But on second thought, I probably do that too much too. I should update my blog header to just pictures of her, shouldn’t I? Or rename the blog. Suggestions in comments please.

And then I made dinner. Pork chops and sweet potato fries from Trader Joe’s. It was pretty darned good.

(I made this picture for a friend who gave me the cross fit T- shirt. I do not do cross fit, I lift weights, but it is very soft.)

Dinner and a selfie, what could be better? Don’t tell that’s not a great smile. That’s the face I make when I’m lifting heavy stuff. Or lying on the couch wearing a crossfit t shirt after eating dinner. One of those.

A friend gave me two very ripe peaches so I thought I’d wing a peach crisp for dessert.  Note to readers: I am not actually a good enough baker to wing these things. I did not include butter in the topping (granted the internet recipe I loosely followed didn’t either) so it was kind of a fail until I worked with it a bit after 30 minutes.

Finally it looked like this in my bowl, and I did add milk. It was pretty tasty but next time I’ll do better.

Yeah, it looks pretty much like cat puke. That seems right, doesn’t it? There’s leftovers if anybody wants to try it.

I went to Central Table the other night with my friend April. It was pretty good, though in my opinion the menu was a bit overwhelming. So I just ended up ordering a salad and a pizza, which were tasty. A good friend of hers worked there and sent over dessert as well—the peanut butter pretzel gelato was a favorite.

Caesar Salad. It had little chopped up anchovies in it which were excellent though I could have handled a lot more!

Gooseberry and Lamb Pizza: gooseberry, lamb bacon, goat cheese. You had me at bacon. And goat cheese. And I learned about a new fruit. This was an excellent choice.

The aforementioned gelato. I actually typed vibrato first and had to edit. The peanut butter pretzel flavor was amazing (bottom right).

Last but not least: There’s been a lot of internet talk lately about introverts and extroverts and how to tell if you are one or the other, and I’m so glad I saw this today. Warning: a little bad language if that might offend you.

15 signs that you’re neither an introvert nor an extrovert, you’re just a human being with largely the same responses to social situations as everyone else.

Happy Friday, dear readers!

Hello dear readers.

As you know, I live in St Louis. One of the things about living here is that occasionally when I leave my house the air smells of yeast (I think it’s yeast) due to the proximity to the Budweiser Factory. Budweiser is a local brewery here that seems to do pretty good business. (We have other local breweries too, many many more, but if a measure of the taste of beer is equal to the brewery’s success, then obviously Budweiser is the best!

Anyway, while I was at the store the other day stocking up on healthy stuff like fruits and vegetables (true story!) I noticed a giant display of Bud Light Lime-A-Rita. I’m a huge fan of margaritas, so I decided it was time for me to try this particular beverage. I had been tempted to try it ever since another blogger had reviewed it recently.

The people in the grocery store parking lot looked at me funny when I took a long series of photos to capture the excitement, but hey! I don’t care!

Clarification: I had very low expectations for this drink, but I thought it would be fun to try. I did not actually think it would taste like a delicious margarita.

Serious pose. Please note I am wearing a very patriotic shirt. I take holidays seriously.

Verdict: surprisingly good! I hear there’s a strawberry flavor: I might have to try that next.

Have you tried the ‘Rita?

I don’t remember the first time I made this dessert, but it’s from a cookbook I got from my grandmother called “All Our Favorites: from a Mother’s heart” sold for a fundraiser for the MOPS (Mothers of preschoolers) at West Clinton Mennonite Church in Wauseon, Ohio. The original recipe is attributed to Staci Hartzler, and I’ve made a few small changes to the original. The edited one is below and I hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:

2 (3 oz.) packages of French Vanilla Instant Pudding

1 (9 oz.) tub Cool Whip

Whole graham crackers

1 can “ready to spread” chocolate frosting

3 cups milk

Directions:

Prepare pudding as directed on the package but with 3 cups of milk. Set aside. Line a 9 by 13 inch dish with crackers (whole, do not crumble) on bottom only. Mix Cool Whip with pudding. Pour 1/2 of this mixture over crackers.  Add another layer of graham crackers on top of the pudding mixture. Then spread the remaining pudding mixture over the cracker layer. Put one last layer of graham crackers on top.

Microwave the icing until it is soft enough to pour over the top of the mixture (my microwave takes about 1 minute, but check often and stir. Caution: remove lid and foil lid first!) Once the icing is soft enough to pour, pour it over the top of the dessert, being sure to cover all the area.

Store in refrigerator 12 to 24 hours before serving.

I’ve made this a bunch, and this was the first time I divided it into two containers. Still good! If you can’t find french vanilla pudding, try another kind—perhaps regular vanilla or boston creme? You can eat it sooner than 12 hours but if you wait a day it’s even better!

This is not my original recipe idea. I don’t know where I got the idea for putting salsa over chicken in the crockpot, but I have given the idea to lots of friends…so I’ll just call it mine—that’s the internet way, right?

I took a picture that you can “pin” to your recipe boards and share with your friends!  Mmmmm…raw chicken. (Honestly, the finished product doesn’t look much better, but I am telling you, this is delicious AND healthy!)

Here’s the basic “recipe”:

Make this in a crockpot or slow cooker.

Take a jar of your choice of salsa (remember the salsa will greatly influence the flavor so use something that you like!).  Pour it on top of three to four frozen chicken breasts.

Cook for 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low. Shred chicken and serve over rice, vegetables, or on a tortilla.

Optional add ins: Corn, lime juice, cilantro, black beans, the possibilities are endless! 

For the above picture I used a jar of Market Pantry green salsa  (the Target store brand). I really enjoy Trader Joe’s green salsa (I guess I like my green salsas) but really any salsa will work.

I hope you all had a nice Easter.

I started my day playing for Easter Mass at St Francis de Sales Oratory.  It’s an amazing piece of architecture—evidently it is the only church in the area built in the German Gothic style and is based on the design of a church in Germany. There is a lot of interesting historic information on the church’s website as well as a virtual tour—and this is all within a few minutes of my house!

We were instructed to use practice mutes and play very softly if we wanted to warm up.

Sometimes living in St Louis I get caught up with the things that bother me and I forget about the things that I really like about it. I think it’s awesome how interesting and full of history the neighborhoods are, and it’s really fun to imagine how people used to live, and to think about how far we have come as a people yet how much we have lost.

I also tend to take things for granted, like the fact that I have (in addition to a wonderful husband and adorable cat) amazing friends. Since moving to St Louis we have made some of the best friends we’ve had, and the fact that we have friends we have spent three of the biggest holidays in the last year with is simply phenomenal to me. When I’m feeling like my life is lacking something, I need to remind myself that not everybody is so lucky to have so many good friends as I am (far more than I deserve, I’m sure!)

I was tasked with dessert for Easter Dinner. After some research and deep thought I decided to tackle a delicious looking recipe for Pineapple-Coconut Cheesecake.  I have only made one other cheesecake before (Natalie’s recipe for Caramel Apple Cheesecake Pie…mmm) and it was a challenge. I was looking forward to stretching my culinary boundaries a little (ha!) and, in the end, most looking forward to eating a delicious cheesecake.

I’d highly recommend the recipe. It turned out really well, was pretty easy overall to make, and there is a little bit left in our fridge still. I used real whipped cream rather than cool whip, and I did make my own crust.

My mouth is watering just looking at that again…

Good news: the weather is finally looking nice. Yesterday I went for a run in shorts and a tank top and while it isn’t quite as warm today, I find that I am far more interested in running when I don’t have to bundle up. Maybe I’m just a fair weather runner. Maybe I’m just lazy. Anyway, I’m heading out again after I finish this blog post…it may be too little too late for Sunday, but it’ll help out in the long run.

Oh, and I’m deliriously excited for my sister Leslie to visit this week. She’s been training really hard and properly for the marathon Sunday and is hoping for a PR. Maybe I’ll make her write a blog recap for you guys since she is an actual runner. She also has two cats and plays the violin and likes wine and sarcasm. In fact, she is me but perhaps better? I’m about two inches taller though, so I win…(I only have one cat but she is round and very needy and often seems like more than one cat).

What are you looking forward to this week? Do you have a favorite cheesecake recipe I should try?