CLAMPDOWN

Tuesday night, I met some girlfriends for dinner.

Talk immediately turned to the wedding I just attended and the bridesmaid's dress. More importantly, appropriate foundations. We all grew up in a culture where women wore girdles while pregnant, to give you some background.

So, I told them the story of my amazing spandex garment, a vulcanized rubber (not really) contraption that got me through my own wedding, panties (hah!) going down to the thighs and up to just under the bra -- crotch cut out by moi for easy bathroom ventures (a trick I learned from my little sister, who went shopping with me for said garment).

Picture this: getting ready for a wedding in a wood-paneled motel room (clean and cute and roomy) with a tiny bathroom. The room had an air conditioner but it didn't sufficiently cool the bathroom. Not for the ensuing spandex contraption wrestling. So, there's Andy getting ready for the wedding in the room and me, looking at the dress, the spandex, the tiny bathroom and finally conceding that the contraption will have to be put on in the same room as my husband.

"Don't look!" I tell him, more like command him.

"What?" He says, turning around.

"YOU CAN'T LOOK! TURN AROUND!" I shriek.

After a good wrestle, I have the contraption on, but it needs a little something so, while standing behind Andy's back I instruct him not to look at me but to yank up the back of the contraption -- yes, without looking.

He obliges. I married a good one.

We laugh and laugh because, even if you have not been in that situation, you can imagine it.

Then everyone shares stories of spandex and I tell them that I have found the ultimate garment: a tunic-length camisole that sucks you in like no tomorrow! It's my new best friend.

The girls oh and ah at my find and make me promise to send them the det's (brand, store, etc) when I get home.

We talk about how we've been tempted to buy the "belly band" for our pants, even though we're not in the maternity way. I tell them how I'm tempted to send my jeans into that company that will convert them into maternity jeans with a simple addition of an elastic band. We laugh at the cute line of maternity clothes at Target -- that has a huge following of women who aren't pregnant. The only thing that stops us from purchasing such clothes is their popularity -- what would be worse than someone recognizing the clothing line?

That's when I decide to confess -- I am known for my confessions (always at my expense and the more embarrassing the better). I also bought, and was wearing, control-panel jeans. Which lead to many questions about their construction and the one pitfall -- yes, it sucks in the gut but it accentuates the muffin-top. Oh, the things we do to ourselves.

There's no turning back now!

NEVER GIVE YOU UP

There's nothing like a wedding to make you think about life and relationships and your own marriage and the marriages of those around you.

This weekend, I was honored to stand up in my good friend's wedding. It was a destination wedding and people literally took planes, trains and automobiles to get there. Nothing about this wedding was easy or convenient. However, my friend, the bride, was happy -- ecstatic -- and so content with her life that, no matter what, it was worth it. Her whirlwind romance surprised many mutual friends, who were not kind in their opinions but at least kind enough to, for the most part, keep them to themselves.

Andy and I have been married a little over 5 months now. We are finally planning our roadtrip honeymoon -- actually mapped out the route (more or less, since we like to be flexible and open to whatever comes our way) and bought the plane tickets for the starting and ending points (one end of the country to the other, and many places in between). I am really looking forward to this trip -- our trip. After last weekend, it just proves that we are so meant for each other, it's kinda sick.

I'm excited too because we've decided to "pull the goalie" and try and have a baby. So, I'm on a plan to get as healthy as possible and lose some extra weight to make things easier. I'm a little older and not sure how successful babymaking will be for us, but I won't know until I try.

I'm ready to try and so is he. Which is good, because he'd make a wonderful father and there's some kid out there who deserves to call him "dad".

The Best Medicine

Last night was "date night" for Andy and I, as we try to make every Wednesday. We've been doing that pretty much since we met -- now over 3 years ago! (Happy Anniversary to us.)

I made a vegetable ragout that included farmers' market finds (purple, orange and white cauliflower) and Swiss chard and herbs from our garden (chives, thyme, sage). It had every color of the rainbow, except blue. It was beautiful and tasty.

Then I surprised him with dessert -- macarons. They are my current obsession, ever since I put this book on Andy's amazon wishlist and he surprised me with it (subtle hints win again!):





This time, they were vanilla macarons with a raspberry & dark-chocolate ganache filling. I surprised Andy with 2 heart-shaped macarons. Actually, I surprised myself too since my piping worked and I was able to make 4 similarly-sized heart-shaped shells. Andy said they reminded him of the macarons we had on our honeymoon -- that I was finally getting it right.

Because macarons are difficult to make. Do any amount of internet research on the subject and see for yourself. Even the most seasoned pastry chefs see this confection as their Achilles heal.


So, naturally, I feel the need to conquer this. I'm going to make those macarons mine!


Much like the macarons, Andy and I had a great night as well. We didn't do anything special -- aside from turning off the t.v. and sitting on the couch, laughing. Laughing so hard and so much that we both made our stomachs hurt.


What was so funny? Food.


Yep, food. Specifically, memories of the foods from our childhood. Mere mention of my mom's salisbury steak (read giant dry hamburger) still brings my sister to tears! But nothing conjures up nightmares like the "Impossible Cheeseburger Pie" recipe from the back of the Bisquick box. We made the mistake of telling mom we liked it, and ended up eating it at least once weekly for too many months (those pancake mix boxes were huge!).


Andy moved on to cubed steak and then started in on the cereals. Both of us were allowed to eat the sugary kind. I believe it started with -- "remember waffelo's?" and "cookie crisp -- they did NOT taste like cookies!" I'm laughing to myself just remembering.


One thing's for sure -- if we ever have kids, they'll be able to have the sugary cereals too.

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Tomorrow I'm making framboise (raspberry) macarons with white chocolate ganache filling and lavender-vanilla macarons with homemade lemon curd for Mandy's birthday. Wish me luck!