Happy happy Monday, friends!
Oh man, is it a happy Monday for me. I don't know about anyone else, but last week was a rough one! The weekend could not come fast enough, and it more than made up for the rest of the week.
On Saturday, I headed to our neighborhood Trader Joe's to pick up wine for Sunday and Whole Foods to get food for the big fight that night. Since my boyfriend and I eat pretty clean on weekdays (no dairy, gluten, or alcohol), we get excited for our cheat meals on the weekend, and for Saturday we decided on cheeseburgers!
Since Trader Joe's always has fresh cut flowers inside the entrance, I decided I wanted a pick-me-up and bought a couple bundles to make my own bouquet. I got one bundle of baby's breath ($2.99), eucalyptus ($2.99) and white flowers ($3.99), and it puts a smile on my face every time I look over at them! I honestly love fresh cut flowers - they're simple, inexpensive, and really help brighten a room up.
As for the Whole Foods trip, I made sure that even though the burgers were technically a cheat meal, I grabbed good quality food for the night: organic butter lettuce, tomatoes, and red onion, grass-fed beef patties, goat cheese slices, and freshly baked brioche burger buns. We grilled the burgers and ate them with organic chips & salsa on the side. Everything turned out delicious and all of the fights that night did not disappoint!
For Sunday Funday, I put together a simple charcuterie board with a few bottles of wine for us to enjoy while starting the new wine appreciation class on Masterclass! I had previously got my boyfriend a year's subscription to Masterclass as a gift, and one of the features I love about it is you can watch its lessons through your AppleTV. Once we saw that there was a new class being offered on wine appreciation, we knew how we wanted to spend our Sunday.
For the charcuterie board, I put two meats (uncured & no nitrates pepperoni and salami), two cheeses (organic provolone and New Zealand cheddar from grass-fed cows), an organic pink lady apple, and a side of Trader Joe's grainy dijon mustard.
For the wine, we grabbed a bottle of pinot noir, sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, and a California red blend.
I honestly can't report back how much information we learned or retained, but we definitely had fun eating & drinking! (And that's all that really matters, right?)
For Sunday night dinner, we were both SO excited to try some steak from a gift my parents sent us. The D'Artagnan shipment came with a bunch of bone-in angus ribeyes and American Wagyu beef patties, and we defrosted two of the ribeyes to try out first. I usually like to marinate steak, but the included pamphlet recommended to simply season them, so seasoning it was!
We cooked the steak to a beautiful medium rare and they tasted SO. GOOD. With how awesome these turned out, we are sooooooo looking forward to the rest of the steak and trying out the wagyu burger patties!!
Reflection: This past week reminded me that rest & self care are just as important as hard work, and to not overlook the value of simplicity. It was the simple things this weekend that brought me the most joy: staying home and enjoying great food with the best company.
Have a great week!
With love,
Tara
P.S. Let me know how your weekend went in the comments below!
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