Just Lauren

This weekend was awesome.

First, Sidney made homemade pain au chocolate (croissant with chocolate). I’ve avoided making my own pastries before because it’s notoriously difficult so I was extremely happy that Sidney took it on and the results were delicious (I think they are way better the second day). She knows she has more to learn so she’ll make more at some point – score for me! While she was making those, I made homemade raspberry jam. The strawberry jam I made last summer was a hit and Gene had been mentioning that we didn’t have good jams anymore (apricot and grape from the store just don’t cut it) so I figured I could make some more homemade stuff.

The raspberry jam turned out great, still think I should do less sugar in these jams though. When spread on a bagel the color is a vibrant red, it looks fake, like food coloring was added but I promise it’s all authentic. I’m very pleased with how it turned out and how easy it is to make jam. Who knew. I received pickle cucumber seeds from the Botanic Gardens Boot Camp class so I’m really seeing canned pickles in my future too.

Saturday afternoon Josh and Brittany came over and we hung out and cross stitched. They told me about a succulent sale and show in April that I now plan on going to and Brittany made us vegan lasagna which paired perfectly with Gene’s homemade bread. It was so nice to not make dinner and the lasagna was decent, even tasty. I was surprised.

Sunday we watched Captain Marvel, ate at a new restaurant, and ran a Coke experiment. The movie was fine, definitely not my favorite Marvel movie but I liked Brie Larson in it, even if I didn’t feel very connected to her character. She had some bad ass scenes that were enjoyable to watch. It’s especially cool to see how technology has improved with making actors look younger – they’ve come a far way from just a few years ago when they made Robert Downy Jr. younger in one of the Avengers movies. While the characters in this movie who were made younger still looked a little off, they looked so much better and clearer. It was cool and I’m sure the actors loved it.

After the movie we went to Sabor Mexican Grill, a local fast(er) food type place that we’ve never been to before. It wasn’t anything special but I mention it because I’ve been writing google reviews for a while now and each review I write gives me points. The points don’t mean that much but I do get a few perks every once in a while and I get to gain levels. It gets harder and harder to go from one level to another so it’s my goal this year to make it up to the next level – level 7, baby! So I love going to new places as it means I can write more reviews.

Sidney procured three different Cokes through the week and on Sunday evening I ran a Coke experiment to see if Elisabeth, Sidney, and Gene knew their cokes in a blind taste test. They tried the different drinks two different times and it was so much fun. We have loads of these tiny plastic cups now so I see more experiments in our future. Dr. Pepper? Root beer? ORANGE JUICE (we can thank Sidney for that suggestion!)?

I also worked on my yard/garden plans which is time consuming but fun and invigorating and Sidney and I worked on spray painting the indoor planters I purchased to go by the kitchen sink. Come on spring, I’m ready for you!