Opening Day

Don't you just love Opening Day? I don't know if I'm partial to the sport and times because my mom went into labor with me at a Cards' game (yet, since they had good seats, they didn't leave), but baseball season brings so many special memories:

Opening weekend games in the very last row and a temperature just barely above freezing

Enjoying College Night Happy Hour before the game

Taking my little cousins to their first professional baseball game (They weren't too happy about it. Quote of the Day by the 5-year-old: "This is not a real baseball game. The players are tiny. They look like mice.")

Although they did enjoy the kiddie area

90 minute rain delays

95-degree weather after the rain delay

Fireworks Fridays

 One of the many reasons I love living in KC is the cheap-as-dirt baseball tickets. Ten dollar, or even $5, tickets are easy to come by, for just about any game except the Cardinals or possibly the Yankees. This makes for easy, spur-of-the-moment date nights, especially when we also score free parking from B's dad (his company has season tickets).

 My favorite party of a baseball game is about the 6th or 7th inning when the sun has sunk below the bleachers, the lights illuminate the field, and the crowd is fully-enraptured in the game. There's something magical--romantic, even--about this time of the game, and it's this feeling that I love about baseball season.

Opening Day is more than just the start of baseball season, though. It means that the winter nastiness is finally over. Barbecues, pool parties, outside-run season, vacations, and more are not far now. This particular season will bring all sorts of excitement; by the World Series, I'll be married, living in a new apartment, with my own classroom (hopefully).

Take me out to the ballgame...

Two Cooks in the Kitchen

One thing B and I love to do is try a new recipe. When I was living in Kirksville and he'd drive up to visit for a weekend, we'd almost always try a new recipe. That's how we discovered one of our all time faves--a de-calorified version of Chicken Pot Pie from Hungry Girl (P.S. If you try this one, I use canned chicken to make it even easier). Hungry Girl is an old standby recipe source, but recently we've been turning to the Taste of Home Comfort Food Diet cookbook. My best friend gave it to me for Christmas, swearing that I'd love it, and she's right. So far, we've tried seven or eight of the recipes and they've all been a huge hit. The new Family Classics Collection is definitely on my wish list, as well.

We've had less opportunities to cook for ourselves recently, as I'm living with my parents (and if my mom's going to cook, we might as well eat her food!), and B stocks his fridge like any 26-year-old bachelor (the last time I opened his fridge he had beer, bagels, and barbecue sauce). But last Sunday night, my parents were eating with friends, and the weather was 75-degrees, so we treated ourselves to a new recipe enjoyed on the screened-in porch.

The meal was Roasted Vegetable Linguine with Torn Fresh Basil from Vegetarian Times magazine (no, neither of us are vegetarians, but we love lots of veggies, so I scope their website for recipes!). It calls for white wine, and since Rachel Ray says she would never cook with a wine she wouldn't drink, we enjoyed opening a bottle and sipping a glass while we roasted the veggies.

One thing that I've come to learn about myself is that I definitely have some difficulty surrendering control. But, B has convinced me that he is capable of helping me in the kitchen. And, although I like to give him a hard time about how long it takes him to do simple cooking tasks, I not only have learned to appreciate the help, but I really enjoy the time we spend cooking together. Plus, it meshes with my resolution of being GWTFEG.

See? I let him cut vegetables.

And what a fine job he did! Don't you just love the look of fresh vegetables? All those bright colors. What a great summery dish :-)

 I loved our Sunday night dinner. And it was the perfect way to spend an evening together before B's business trip.