Surgeries, Travel, Great Movies, Mini-Golf, Father's Day, & A Hot Pink Mess

It has been something of a madhouse around here lately. Last week my dad had another stent put in, and of course that took 3 days instead of 2 because he was dehydrated and had to stay in the hospital for two nights instead of just one, and my mother stayed with me so she could stay with him before & during the procdure, and then pick him up from the hospital the next day without having to travel back to NJ.


("Why would you move so far uptown? Mike can still commute to the Bronx from below 96th street! It was so nice when you lived nearer your brother down in Gramercy..." Well, I guess living above 96th street has come rather in handy as I am now the way station between Columbia Presbyterian Hospital and NJ.)


My father came through it just fine, but the next day I had to travel to NJ to help my post-major-shoulder-surgery mom shift to their summer digs at the Jersey Shore, as she still can't lift anything with her right arm. So I helped haul bags, a 20 lb. cat, groceries, cat food, cookbooks, camera bags, and do a little cooking and food prep on the side. As a reward for Day 1 of hard work, on Friday night my mom and I  shared a Caprese salad as well as some brie and hard salami while watching Evil Under the Sun, which I have mentioned before as one of my favorite movies of all time.
(I am absolutely naming my next two cats Hercules Parrot and St. Gudrun the Inquisitive in homage to that movie... I guess I'll have to nickname them Parrot and Goody... mayhap I need to put a bit more thought into this.)
Blissfully, after a bit more food shopping and hauling on Day 2, there was also some down time reading a book on the porch to the sound of the ocean, which is pretty much heaven in my mind. The weekend was getting better every day.

Father's Day this year was celebrated, surprisingly, at the boardwalk where we ate horrible food, fried dough, got covered in powdered sugar, and played a round of mini golf.
And guess what?

I WON!!!

I never win at miniature golf. I usually do fairly well, but more often than not I land in the middle of the pack, so having won this game I had to keep the score card for posterity.

(Adorable/Nauseating side story: the first 3 times I played mini golf against the hubs we tied! We even have one of the score cards on our refrigerator as a keepsake. Nerds. Yes.)

If you check the score card above, you will see:

D = Dad - 49

C = me - 41

Mike = hubs - 51

J = my big bro - 47

Mom = self explanitory - 52

Whoohoo!!!
Also notice that the hubs, my bro, and my mom all scored a hole-in-one along the way. Nicely done. That is a skill/stroke of luck (ha!) that I don't believe I have ever acquired.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled (and previously written) posting, as I did not take pictures of myself making fish tacos w/ black bean & corn salsa from scratch over the weekend. 

(But it was good. Future post? I think so.)

I really love roasted beets. Their tenderness, their sweetness, the fact that they are full of vitamin C... the only negative would be the fact that they turn you and everything you don't even realize you have touched hot pink. But it's a mess that I will put up with for their tender sweet flesh.
Especially now that Fresh Direct makes a roasted beet "salad" that is delicious and does all the messy work for you. (Ok, not ALL the messy work. The liquid in the container of beets is magenta and will stain everything it touches, so be extra careful when you're prying the lid off should you purchase them...)

While I love roasted beets, I have not really come up with any more enlightened ways of eating them other than in a salad, preferably with a cheese of some sort tossed in the mix.

Which brings me to another Breakfast/Brunch post. Specifically this one.

I made another nice little mesclun salad, dressed it with lemon juice and olive oil and salt, and then topped it with diced beets. I did not, however, have any goat cheese on hand with which to finish the stereotype classic. Instead, that little white dollop you see is fromage blanc, which if you are not familiar with it is actually more of a yogurt in flavor and consistency, but as it is tangy and creamy, it had the desired effect  on the salad once mixed together.

I was so happy with my fluffy scrambled egg the other day that I made another one in order to round out my meal and provide the protein needed to start my day.

Simple, I know, but many good things are.