A Wintry Weekend

Happy weekend! Man, did I need a couple days off. It's been a crazy week at work with yet another crazy week coming up. We kicked things off with a quiet Friday evening at home. I tried a new recipe, a Smoky Minestrone Soup, that really hit the spot.

After dinner, we mixed ourselves a cocktail and watched The Five Year Engagement. I had heard mixed reviews, but I have to admit, I liked it. A little quirky, a little more serious in spots than I expected, but overall sweet and very funny. How perfect is their (spoiler alert!) wedding at the end of the movie?!

(photo still from The Five Year Engagement)

Saturday, my husband gently shook me awake, telling me it was snowing outside. For the first time this year, I was excited about the snow.  I jumped out of bed (ok, I slowly dragged myself out of bed), we poured ourselves big mugs of coffee, plugged in the Christmas tree lights, and admired the view.  It was lovely and magical, swirling outside the window and dusting our neighborhood.

After a quiet afternoon,  it was time to venture outside the house. We bundled up and headed into town to meet friends for dinner. We had a great time talking and catching up with Brent, Liz, and Peter, and most exciting of all, we got to meet Liz and Peter's adorable little newborn, Henry.

We kicked off Sunday morning with a favorite West Medford treat -- bacon, egg, and cheese bagel sandwiches from Magnificent Muffin and Bagel Shoppe. It's a tiny little shop, full of locals who seem to have known each other for years. The walls are lined with photos of neighborhood children, and the glass-front counter is full of the largest muffins you'll ever see. My favorite are the cranberry orange muffins, but I can rarely pass up an opportunity to get one of their bagel sandwiches.

The plan for this afternoon is to make a big batch of tortilla soup from Homesick Texan's cookbook (one of my absolute favorite blogs and cookbooks) to share with two friends who have recently welcomed sweet little babies into their families, and this evening I'm making a peach cobbler just for us, made from homemade canned peaches sent to us by a friend living in California. Some things are just too good to share!