Weekend Miscellany

A random, but fun end to the weekend...

Matthew went to a dance on Saturday night. Thomas had his buddy Axa spend the night, as his parents were out of town for the weekend. Karri wasn't feeling well, so was in bed early (Victoria too) while I waited up for Matthew to get home.

I ended up watching 'Almost Famous' - a Cameron Crowe movie about a 15-year old rock critic in the 1970's. It's loosely based on Crowe's own childhood - he wrote for Rolling Stone magazine when he was a teenager, covering the Allman Brothers, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Neil Young and others. The movie had some odd parts but, overall, I really liked it.

We had a mostly lazy Sunday morning. Karri decided to go to the local urgent care center to get the seemingly inevitable sinus infection diagnosis and a prescription for antibiotics. We're hopeful that will get her healthy soon. I took Jack for a walk/run, then came home and made pancakes for the kids.

For some reason, I got the crazy idea that I was going to make chicken and sausage gumbo to have for dinner during the Super Bowl. I'm not a cook. I've never made gumbo before. In fact, the only soup/stew I think I've ever made has been out of a can. It just sounded really good, I thought the kids might like it, and I was hoping to give Karri a break and keep her out of the kitchen for the day. Our Cook's Illustrated cookbook had a recipe that sounded delicious and not too tough. So once I cleaned up after breakfast, I headed to the store with my shopping list.

Matthew was itching to get outfitted for lacrosse so, while I shopped, Karri took him to Sports Authority to buy some  equipment. A friend has loaned us some equipment that their son has outgrown, but we still needed a few other items. Fortunately, they were able to find everything (we think) he needs. Matthew is very excited!

All geared up and ready to go

I came home and got to work in the kitchen. It was a little stressful at times but overall a fun experience. I had definitely never browned flour in the oven before and was pleased that I did it without starting a fire (seriously)!

I served it up during the 2nd half of the Super Bowl. Everyone said they liked it... but they could have just been trying to not hurt my feelings. I have to say though that it was pretty tasty.

Chicken and sausage gumbo

A fun cap to the weekend.