Weekend Recap: In which I bake (twice!) and iron something.

Remember that recent incident with Costco and the Kitchenaid? Apparently, the hubs did some research and found that, even without the mail-in rebate, the price was a pretty good one. So he went back and bought me the mixer!! We're calling it an early Valentine's present and the color only makes it more appropriate - it's red! To match our kitchen.
I. Love. It.

To break it in, I decided to start with something quick-and-easy and you just can't argue with a double batch of Ghirardelli Triple-Chocolate Brownies. I know that some people wouldn't really consider this "baking" since it involves a mix but jumping into 'sourdough bread from scratch' with the machine right out of the box seemed a bit over the top.

Don't worry - I'm not about to turn into one of those bloggers who cooks and bakes all the time and then documents it for the world one step at a time. Just thinking about taking a picture of each and every ingredient as you add it to the mixing bowl wears me out. Not to mention the editing and the uploading... I have a lot of respect for those bloggers (and enjoy their recipes!) but I just don't have it in me. 
I'm also far too impatient for a blog post like that. Just ask my mom - I want to jump in, get it done, and enjoy the end result as soon as possible. And lick a beater dripping with brownie batter somewhere in the middle.
All that to say, the brownies are fantastic and I had enough faith in my new mixer to whip up some more banana bread to get me through the week. I'm sending the hubs to work with a plate-full so we don't eat them all. Having them for dinner was bad enough.

Oh, and I went to Disneyland with my mom. Again. I know, I'm spoiled.
Mickey on Small World (one of his favorite rides, I think):

I'm seriously considering creating a topiary like this one in my front yard:

No matter how many times I see them, I'm always excited when the bells chime and these little guys prance around the circle to mark the time:

Then I came home and did productive things. Like, "four loads of laundry and weeding in between rainstorms" kind of productive. And I was forced to iron the sleeves of a shirt because the makers didn't think it was important to sew the cuffs down. They flip inside-out every time. I loathe the iron. But Earnest wasn't about to help - he was too busy getting grey furballs all over the clean laundry.

And that's the weekend!
On to February!!



Images by me. Please don't use without asking first. Thanks!