Surprise date night!

It's a really beautiful afternoon here in Washington and I am excited to surprise my husband with a simple but fun evening together.  Thursday evening: but we get a 4 day weekend together!  Woohoo!

My dear friend Libby has agreed to have Tirzah over for a dinner play date so Daniel and I can have the evening together.  I'm so excited!

The night is young 

& so are we-

will you walk hand in hand 

to Starbucks with me?

No Tirzah in tow,

it's just me & you-

We'll walk back home 

for dinner too.

Just a simple night really,

that's all it is-

so that in all things above, 

you may know of my respect,

appreciation, devotion, & love.

The dough is rising in the oven for some homemade (and made up??) focaccia bread with caramelized onions and sweet peppers.

I am going to try out this recipe here. . . I will let you know how it turns out.  I think I will serve it over a bed of wilted greens or mix in the wilted greens. . .

And then we are having some homemade ice cream fixed with our juicer.  Speaking of juicer, I wanted to share one recipe: it is our favorite concoction by far!  This is for those of you who have a juicer, and most especially for Renee:).  One of our favorite places in Tacoma is a deli/grocery store called Marlene's and they serve a juice called The Green Giant, and this is our attempt at re-creating their recipe.  I think it is quite close!  We have been having this every afternoon and we even had it last night for dessert!

4 stalks of kale

1/2-3/4 C parsley

1 large broccoli stalk

1 large celery stalk

1/2 cucumber

1-2 apples

1/8 of a lemon, peeled

Run through your juicer and enjoy!  I have learned to do leafy green items first, kale and parsley, followed by something more sturdy: celery or apple.  That will help all the pulp to push through.  It's simply the best!