Yes! I am alive! I've just been...what? Traveling to fabulous places? Uh, no. I've just been not cooking much, truth be told, so I haven't had much to write about. I did have another birthday celebration this week, however, with the Baseball Moms on Thursday night. Woo hoo! We met at McCoy's for our usual beer and snacks and I had such a blast! There's nothing like a night out with the girls - rowdy laughter, cackling gossip, funny-sweet cards, generous gifts (including this beautiful lariat necklace made by Kris), and plenty of ego-boosting flattery - to soften the blow of turning 40. It works! In fact, I've had so much fun celebrating it's made me almost glad to be 40. Almost. Thank you, ladies, for the lovely evening!

I don't know why I've been so uninspired in my cooking lately. Perhaps post-holiday-food-burnout? Could be. I'm firmly inspired to continue with my weight loss efforts, especially after the indulgences of Christmas + my birthday, now there's a deadly little combo, every year, ack. So I've been keeping it as light as possible. I made Julia Child's classic potage parmentier (potato-leek soup) for dinner on Thursday, always a lovely little meal. And I did pull together a yummy pork tenderloin roast on Tuesday night, delicious with leftover couscous. Last night I dined alone so took the opportunity to veg out with a steamed artichoke and roasted acorn squash, yum. And tonight I made avgolemono (Greek egg-lemon soup), one of Nathan's favorites and so insanely easy and delicious.

Hmmm, perhaps I'll get inspired tomorrow, I often do on Sundays. I poached a couple of chicken breasts tonight (used a bit in the soup)...a yummy chicken salad of sorts? An interesting stir-fry? Stay tuned...