I had a half day of work and I bounded out of the office at 2pm to have lunch with the Boyfriend. The 84 degree temperature called my name and inspired the meal:

Grilled (on a George Foreman, yes) turkey hot dog from Applegate Farms on a piece of toast with spicy cheese! Paired with an orange. And a handful of The Boyfriend’s fries that went unpictured.

The Boyfriend threw some frozen French fries into the oven for lunch and I said didn’t want any because fries aren’t all that healthy. But I am of the mindset that sampling a few fries off of someone’s plate deletes any offending calories. For those of you who watch Scrubs, you may remember the episode where Carla snags fries off Turk’s plate after originally claiming she didn’t want any. “Baby, you know I can’t have fries,” she claims. Carla, I understand. It’s a good thing The Boyfriend understands, too.

I thoroughly enjoyed my sunny mid-day lunch break with The Boyf. Sid wanted in on it, too. Mr. Kitty is not allowed outside but he has serious spring fever and is constantly looking for a means to escape.

“Set me free!”

Luckily his escape through the bathroom window was deterred by my quick-thinking boyfriend.

After lunch The Boyfriend and I hit up the park for an adventure with the pup. While Jack romped at the dog park, I went for a quick jog around the park, which is quite small, so I didn’t cover much distance. It felt nice to run for the first time in a looooong time and I think I’m gonna get my butt up early for a morning run before work tomorrow.

Jack and I are recovering from the heat of the park with a little Charlie Rose. Martha Stewart is on, after all. I think she may be unexpected my role model. She’s unashamed of her success and wealth, which draws criticism from some and admiration from others. But the truth is the woman built an empire for herself and she has every right to be proud of the fact that she’s a household name. She went to jail and bounced back, for heaven’s sake. Lady Stewart’s all right in my book. And if she wants to have me on her show, I’m down with that.

I’m off to rehydrate. I forgot how thirsty warm weather makes me!

I started dinner after a frustrating trip to the supermarket where I was positively forced to spent $4 on an entire bag of lemons because the individual lemons looked like they had been grown in a basement. What do you do when life hands you (a lot of) lemons? You use them all up, otherwise you’ve wasted your money, honey! Anybody have any lemon-heavy recipes they’d like to share?

After I’d stopped my hissy fit over $4 worth of lemons, I got down to business. I made andouille with roasted Brussels Sprouts and a lemon/butter/garlic sauce over vegetable bow tie pasta.

To make roasted Brussels sprouts:

• 1 lb. Brussels sprouts, washed and with the stems cut off (*When buying Brussels sprouts, remember smaller is better!)
• 3 T olive oil
• Kosher salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Toss the sprouts in a bowl with the oil, salt and pepper and transfer to a baking sheet.  Roast for 20 minutes, stir them around a little, and roast for another 15-20 minutes (you want them roasted but not too brown).

While the sprouts are roasting, put a big pot of water on to boil.  With about ten minutes left on the sprouts, toss 1 lb. of pasta into the water.  I used vegetable bow ties I buy in bulk from our local co-op. Try new pasta with this dish — it’s hearty and needs something besides flimsy white pasta.  Vegetable pasta tastes no different, but it is bright and colorful.  Whole wheat pasta would work well, too.

While the pasta boils, heat 1 T olive oil in a pan and 4 links Applegate Farms spicy andouille (sliced down the middle so you have 8 strips) and 2 minced gloves of garlic.  Cook the andouille until the skin is slightly browned.

In the same pan as the andouille, melt 6 T butter (don’t be shy now!) and add the juice from 2 lemons.

Heat on medium low, stirring frequently, until the sauce begins to thicken.

Once the sauce is done, put the pasta in a serving dish and add the sausage and Brussels sprouts.  Pour the sauce over the pasta and shake a little crushed red pepper.  Enjoy, as I did, around a warm table with friends and loved ones.

I lied.  Truth time: I was in a terrible mood while making this and was therefore enjoying nothing but alone time in the kitchen.  I was tired and HUNGRY because I hadn’t gotten to start dinner until 9:07. I was missing the Office AND 30 Rock, my two favorite shows.  We were supposed to go out for The Roommate’s Boyfriend’s birthday, but I had no money and I had to get up early for work on Friday, which was making it difficult to feel festive.  And I just had so many damn lemons leering up at me from the fruit bowl.

Therefore, had you, like the poor Boyfriend, made the error of walking into the kitchen around this time, you would have found me muttering under my breath as I combined the sprouts, sausage, pasta, and sauce in serving dish.  I scooped some grumpy spoonfuls into bowls for us, grabbed a fork, shoved a bite in my mouth, and…. my frown melted away.  Seriously.  Ask The Boyfriend.  This dish is just THAT GOOD. It will improve your mood in an instant.  It’s just so dynamic: packed with flavor (red pepper! lemon! garlic!), is kind of healthy (veggies!), and definitely hearty (sausage! pasta! butter!).  I took a silent moment and enjoyed my bowl.  It was respite I needed from my day.

Make this yourself, or at least some version of it.  Treat yourself to something nice.  We all need something to make us stop and take a few deep breaths.  Perhaps a good meal can be that something.

Needless to say there has been a lot of running around, rearranging of the work schedule, and many a trip to the vet.  I’m just happy to have my little family intact again.

Let’s see what I have been up to four the past few days:

1. Dinner at the Melting Pot on Thursday night — Unfortunately the Melting Pot fundraiser coincided with the scariest part of Jack’s medical ordeal.  Jack had been admitted to the hospital that afternoon but we didn’t really know what was wrong with him, and I was on the phone with our vet until late that night.  All of this meant that I was barely aware of what I was eating that night.  I did snap a picture of this though:

Yin and Yang fondue, half white chocolate, half dark chocolate.  YUM.  Despite my deep concern, I was able to snag a few bites of strawberry dipped in this.  People cope in mysterious ways… Check out Ladies Night Out at the Melting Pot.  It’s a cheap and classy girls-only evening!

2. Lazy weekend — The Boyfriend and I were not feeling up to an exciting Saturday while our dog was recovering in the hospital, so we stayed in.  I enjoyed some leftover Chinese for lunch and leafed through the newest Real Simple (Real Simple fans: how do you feel about the new layout? I prefer the old one! Don’t get me wrong, though — it has not tainted my love for Real Simple.)

That night we channeled our inner teenager and wandered aimlessly through the mall.  And I lost The Boyfriend to a $1,000 massaging arm chair at Brookstone.

I was able to convince him to come home with me, but only with the promise of organic, uncured hot dogs from Applegate Farms.  These generous folks sent me a box of their sausages and hot dogs, so we got to work taste-testing.

Seriously, the Applegate Farms hot dogs are incredible.  We had a pack of “regular” hot dogs in the fridge, so I compared ingredients.  The first ingredient on the regular dogs was “mechanically-separated chicken.”  Insert many a ?!!?!!?!???!! here.  In the Applegate Farms’ dogs? Grass-fed beef.  Sea salt and spices.  Garlic, celery, and onion powders.  Paprika.  You know.  Stuff you’ve actually HEARD of.  If you’re concerned with fat content, these babies have only 8 grams, which is decent for a hot dog. They taste REAL.  And if you don’t do beef, check out the turkey or chicken hot dogs.  I’m really excited to get cookin’ with some of the sausages and kielbasa, so stay tuned for some yummy recipes!

I’m off to go make a quick n’ easy Sunday dinner for my family.  When the Roommate gets back from her weekend in Canada, we will all be under one roof again.  I’m sure there will be many cuddles to be had:

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