Like They Do In Europe...

Instead of eating out tonight like we often do on Friday nights, I decided to focus on my meal plan. I did all my grocery shopping yesterday so all I had to do was decide what I thought would be a good Friday evening supper from the plan choices...

*Garlicky pasta with fresh tomatoes and basil
*Pepperoni, provolone and pesto stromboli
*Beef Daube provencal
*Chicken and barley stew

Hmm. After careful deliberation, I chose to go for the stromboli and a nice salad. A perfect choice for this warm winter evening. By 4:30 I had the dough covered and set for an hour to rise. A.J. came out from his office and I poured some wine. As we talked in the kitchen I happened to glance at my [circa 2004 Cooking Light] cookbook recipe and happened to notice that after the stromboli was assembled, it had to rise another half hour and then bake for 40 minutes! Ugh! I guess I forgot to read the entire recipes - mistake! When we had no kids we ate at 7:00 all the time, but it's different with kids (at least for us). So I told them tonight we'd be eating like the French do...you know, late. They're actually thrilled because we're letting them play on their playground set, still lit with Christmas lights, until it's time to eat. All I can say is this better be really good stromboli!

And now for a moment of shameless bragging...my Alex came home with his report card yesterday afternoon. Not only did he have great conduct marks, he also received straight A's for the six week period as well as for the first semester! We're so proud of him! He's a hard worker and such a great kid! I'm blessed he's mine! :)

Side Note:

The stromboli was a huge success! The men devoured it!