Busy day followed up by a delicious dinner

Where has the weekend gone? So busy today...ran this afternoon 4.2 miles which is my longest run after my year long hiatus. Then while reading/skimming through 2 books for my comps I worked on dinner. My version of Italian Stuffed Shells takes quite a while to put together but the end result is delicious. Spinach, ground meat, sauteed onions and mushrooms mixed together with some cream cheese, Parmesan cheese and a couple of eggs to bind it all together. So tasty! Plus I've found a trick to cooking the large shell pasta while keeping them intact. I use low fat cream cheese and only have of the usual ground meat, I substitute mushrooms for the other portion of meat. So all in all, not too bad for you. Don't forget about the spinach!

I tried cutting one in half to show the filling but I'm not sure the picture does it justice.

Oh how you've changed....

General Mills has been pushing this "right choice" thing on their commercials. Apparently Golden Grahams has made it into that category. I picked up a box because it was on sale on my local grocery store and I used to love these as a kid. But what happened? Where is the sugar clear coating that made them 1. tasty 2. crunchy in the milk. Now they are barely sweet and get soggy in like 2 seconds. Take back your check mark of goodness! I want my childhood cereal back!

Look what came in the mail today....

Tickets for Shakespeare at the Globe! Yay! I was so excited when I found out that Macbeth would be on schedule during the time we're in London this summer. It's one of the few plays that I have read. No thanks to years of torture from Liz, who never had us read the "normal" books in High School. But that's okay, I have taken it upon myself to read the classics in my free time. Which with graduate school hasn't been that often but I am making progress. Anyways..I digress. Macbeth is also neat b/c when we get up into Scotland we're gonna try and see Cawdor Castle (which actually was not built until the 15th cen. so there's no way the Macbeth or Duncan ever saw the thing). I think that I picked out pretty good seats. I did my research (of course! Who do you think you talking to?) and picked out which seats would offer the best views. According to the Globe's website, all seats will have some sort of fault. I was more concerned with me being short and being able to see over the person in front of me. So I picked tickets in the front. And I'm glad I got them early b/c tickets go fast! Our vacation cannot come soon enough!

More Birthday Festivities

Last night we went out for some Mexican food with friends. One of my favorite restaurants! And then we headed back to enjoy my cake! The chocolate cake was moist and delicious without being too sweet or chocolatey. Then the fudge icing was insane. It's just like you smothered this thing in homemade chocolate fudge.

So proud of this cake!

I found these cute candles at Target.

Pretty!

Delicious Fudge Cake! Yum!!!!

Happy Birthday to Me!

This recipe comes from Cook's Country (same people as America's Test Kitchen). It's a Wellesley Fudge Cake. Chocolate cake with a chocolate fudge icing.

Yum! You can see my dark chocolate cake and fudge icing. Note here I am in my running clothes. In order to eat this cake, I felt that I need to get a jog in today.

Tah Dah!

One small step....

Well today I turned in my rough draft. And while I should be doing cartwheels, I can't help but think about the masses of books that I have left to read for my comps. Ugh. But it's another step towards being finished. And hopefully I can relax some and enjoy my birthday this weekend.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I like Valentine's Day. It's such a cheerful day. David and I don't need a specific day to declare our love for each other, we do that every day. But it's just nice to have an extra reminder how lucky we both are to have found each other.

Beautiful flowers from David.

And Italian Lasagna for his dinner from me.

I waaant!

When we were in Japan, we saw these dogs everywhere! They are Japanese Shibas. So cute. They are about the size of a small beagle when full grown. There's a Japanese lady who walks in the park that I jog in who has 2 and they are soo cute! I waaaant! *grabby hands*

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Single Track Roads

So apparently the Scottish countryside has single track roads. For those of us who have never driven over there, the whole idea seems frightening. One lane, two-way traffic, plus the possibility of cows and sheep. Their solution to this is pull-off areas. If they are on your left hand side, you should be the one to slow down and pull over. Sounds simple huh? Not to mention we'll already be driving on the left hand side...sheesh. I really only foresee this being a problem in two places: the Isle of Skye and the Isle of Mull. The Isle of Mull should be extra fun because the main road going from the ferry from Oban to the ferry that takes you to Iona can have quite the tourist traffic....on a one lane road. Yay! I'm just thankful that we're paying extra for an automatic. It would be hilarious to manage all that and try and drive a manual.

I found this photo on Flickr, it's from Skye. Nice.