the past week

has been a busy, stressful, but enjoyable one. My birthday with my parents was very nice. we went out to one of my favorite restaurants in Prescott- a little semi-hidden italian place called Papa's. very delicious. My cake was a good ol' baskin robbins ice cream cake with chocolate cake and mint chocolate chip ice cream. I got some wonderful cards from a few relatives and some super awesome gifts from my parents. First, a set of ten pound dumbells so that I can do my weights workouts at home! yay :) second, a lovely kitchenaid food processor- so that I no longer have to use the crappy 10 dollar one I got at goodwill that sprays everything in a ten foot radius every time you try to use it! and lastly, my very own, very beautiful, gleaming white kitchenaid stand mixer. If you guys read much P-Dub, you'll know that once every month or so she gives away two or three of these gorgeous things cause she loves 'em so much. I have been pining away for one ever since I first spotted them on her site, but of course she's got about 329486320497 million followers so it's just about impossible to be one of the lucky winners. I was SO excited when I got one for my birthday! It's like a god among electric mixers. Really.

 so... enough nerding out on kitchen appliances. The day after my birthday was my dad's birthday (crazy, yes). My dad and I went out and checked out some art galleries during the day and I baked him his fave bday cake- devils food with nutmeg frosting. That evening my parents and I went to the only indian restaurant in town which also happens to be my favorite in the world. It was super yummy and I ate way too much but I told myself it was ok because it was a vegan buffet after all ;)

the next few days I spent seriously deep cleaning my room. I had a whole bunch of stuff piled up in my dressing room that I wanted to get rid of, as well as an apartment's-worth of stuff in my car that needed to be unpacked. I now have about 5 laundry baskets full of clothes, books, and little odds and ends that I'm hoping to cart to a garage sale but for now have been stuck in my sister's room. I finally got everything out of my car yesterday so now I'm officially settled in for summer... or at least the 3 weeks I have left of it here in prescott.

Those next few weeks will be full of cooking. lots and lots of cooking. I've got 11 very complex meals to finish testing- each of which has a vegan/vegetarian version and a meat version. It's a lot of work and I'm a little nervous but I'm sure everything will come together beautifully.

other than that, I've spent a bit of time with friends around town and have basically just been getting used to being back in prescott sans stewart, which of course is really weird. I'm going to try really hard to post more regularly in the next few weeks between episodes of grey's and cooking experiments. I haven't been a very up-to-date blogger recently... I haven't even posted my easter pictures yet >.< ah, well. I love you all, bear with me as I get everything up and running again!

love,
em