Fancy that

My sister cooks fancy.  There are courses to her meals, many steps to her recipes and a grand tradition of delicious holiday (or weeknight) dinners.

If I were to have a cooking philosophy it would roughly translate to "get 'er done".  No frills, lots of repeats.

Sometimes on weekends I put forth extra effort - try something new.  And on this Saturday, I think I found something that would even impress my sister, while still being relatively low maintenance.

This one's for you, sister:

Cabbage and Onion Torta - I followed the recipe pretty exactly, except I used white wine vinegar (I didn't have cider vinegar) and no ham, of course.

The finished product - It's as big as my sheet pan! 

I served it with salad - these slices were about 1/8 of the torta

This is life

I'm lazy.  I am often wasteful of resources, or do a subpar job at household tasks, simply to avoid expending too much time and effort.  But today I was sick of dog hair everywhere. Sick of salt and wet boot and paw marks on my floors.  So I meticulously vacuumed.  I moved furniture and even used attachments to get the pesky hairs hiding in corners and crevices.  We ran out of Swiffer wet mop pads, which hardly work anyway, so on my hands and knees I scrubbed the floor.  It was hard not to feel like my mother, using vinegar and water to clean my (faux) wood floor. Using a towel to keep my knees from bruising and to dry the water as I went.

And the entire time I felt eternally grateful.

To have a home that keeps me warm.

To have a dog who loves (and sheds) unconditionally.

To have parents who set examples for how to work hard and play in balanced measure (note: retire before you get old!)

To have in-laws who came and helped us build shelves.

To have a husband who cares so deeply about our family.

To have a nice table to gather friends and family near.

Chairs still forthcoming.

Come, have a toast with us to all life's blessings.