Relaxing...Productive...Weekend? What is that???

The Holidays are here and there is something happening every weekend, almost every weekday, plus work, plus the everyday stuff, and it was beginning to be to much.  I needed a relaxing weekend to GET STUFF DONE and that is what I did.

I had the house to myself.  So it was pretty quiet, the TV was off most of the time, except for when I was watching Pretty Woman.

I achieved so much and now I can say I feel ready to take on all of our festivities.

Here are all of the items I checked off my To-Do List:

1. Went through my childhood boxes, consolidated 3 big tubs into one small shoe box of the best pictures. 

2. Dropped clothes, books, and toys off at the Good Will. 

3. Cleaned out my closet and rearranged my clothes in my drawer like they did here.

4. Made Home-Made Sausage and breakfast casserole for the week.

5. Ate Trade Joe's Joe-Joes and watched Pretty Woman.

6. Made Spaghetti Squash and Tomato sauce for the week. 

7. Cleaned my stove.  I placed the burners in ammonia.   I tried the all natural salt, vinegar, and baking soda for the stove top, but that didn't seem to work great, so I used 409 after.  It still isn't as clean as I would like on my main burner, but I will try again soon.  I need more vinegar and baking soda.

Ta da...

8. Cleaned my bath tub with Borax.  (The marks on the bottom are from a previous tenant and won't budge, any ideas?)

9. Made grain-free Pumpkin Pancakes and Apple Butter from Apple Hill.

African Night

Meet our African friend, Jack.  He likes elephants.  He spent a lot of his life in South Africa while his parents were working at an international school.  Now living in California, right down the street from us, he hasn't been able to enjoy some of his favorite African meals.  It was his night to cook and with the help of a small South African shop down in Orange County he was able to recreate an African meal for the rest of us.  

Our African meal consisted of Mieliepap, Sheba, Boerwors, and Kebabs.  

The mieliepap is a corn meal dish that is very similar to polenta, but a bit thicker and was topped with Sheba, an onion, tomato, and garlic sauce.  I think this was my favorite part of the meal.  The Boerwors is a very lean beef sausage with lots of spices and flavor.  It is a bit strange because the flavor doesn't come from the fat like most sausage I know topped with sautéed mushrooms.  And finally a kebab with chicken, peppers, and pineapple.  With the African music on in the background we enjoyed this great meal with out silverware, Jack said that is had the locals eat it.  

I hope we can make mieliepap and sheba more often, not just African Nights.  They were sooo good!  

Another great photo by Jack.