weekend breakfast

The weekend is over and Monday is already in full swing. You might think I'm crazy but I'm actually a fan of Mondays! I like the routine of weekdays. Don't get me wrong.... I love a good weekend, but I'm not sad when Monday rolls back around. 

We had a relaxing, uneventful weekend. We slept in, watched tv and not much else. I was busy with a few projects but that's nothing new (notice the new buttons on the left?). I also got to spend some time in the kitchen! My favorite!

While trying to decide what to make for breakfast Saturday morning we realized that we had enough ingredients for omelets. I don't have much experience with omelet making but I was ready for the challenge.

I started by preparing my filling. We had onion, green bell pepper, ham, potato, and cheddar cheese.

First I cut the potato into small pieces, fried them, drained them, and set them aside.

Then I cut the onion and bell pepper into chunks and cooked them over medium heat until softened. I added the ham to warm it up. When that was done I set in aside in a bowl.

While I was doing this Nate was shredding the cheese. It's so much cheaper to do it yourself you know!

Then Nate whisked three eggs for me and I poured them into a hot skillet for the base of the omelet. I swirled the pan around to make sure I got a nice even disk of egg. When the eggs were mostly cooked I sprinkled it with cheese and added the potato, onion, pepper and ham.

Then came the tricky part. Folding it in half! First I ran a spatula around the egg so it was loose in the pan. Then I used the spatula to lift one half and drop it down on the other, holding my breath the whole time. Once it was folded I slid the omelet out on a baking sheet and topped it with some of the leftover filling and cheese. I popped it into a 200 degree oven to keep it warm while I made the next one.

I had a bit more trouble with the next omelet. The fold wasn't as nice as the first one and it fell apart a little when I took it out of the pan. Oh well. When you're not trying to impress it's alright to make a bit of a mess.

Yum yum yum! Delicious with sour cream and a cup of coffee.

I only got pictures of the perfect one because by the time I got my camera ready... the broken one was already being eaten! But thats okay. I didn't need photographic evidence of my mistake, hehehe.

How was your weekend??

let's go boating

I spent the weekend at my parent's house in the suburbs. On Saturday I had a dentist appointment and later that night we had a party for my aunt and uncle's 25th anniversary. I spent a lot of time with two of my cousins - who are really more like siblings/best friends. We were constantly together growing up and anytime we get together is always insanely fun. I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard on more than one occasion.

On Sunday we all (my parents and myself along with my aunt and uncle and two cousins) went to my parent's boat. My sister and I have spent every summer of our lives taking the hour long drive up to the lake. From infants when we had no choice, to children when we loved swimming in the water, to teens when we would have rather been out with friends. Now in my mid-twenties I'm back to going voluntarily. These days my sister isn't a big fan of the motion-sickness-inducing waves, and sadly opts out of the fun.

We boat in northern Illinois right near the border of Wisconsin. The Chain O'Lakes. Oh how to describe the chain... There is a touch of this:

and a much larger touch of this:

Either way it's the polar opposite of living in downtown Chicago but the change of scenery was nice. BTW I think with a bunch of fixing up that little house could be really cute..!

When I was younger I never cared about this history of the chain... history in any form was a bore. But it's suddenly a lot less boring when you find out that Al Capone had a summer house right on the water.
(Al Capone photo credit here, I took the photo of his house)

And for some reason we always swim right near his house. When I was in my teens I teased one of my cousins to be careful of all the dead bodies while swimming. She freaked out and asked my mother if there were actually bodies in the water to which she said "oh no"...she paused for dramatic effect..."they're skeletons by now."

Good one mom.