Slice of Life

I got to take the kids to our first farmer’s market of the season a couple of weeks ago. With three small kids in tow, it becomes less about fresh vegetables and more about the Hmong food truck, the ice cream cart, and folk singers. I’m not complaining.

One of our very best and oldest friends got married over the weekend, which sent us on a four day adventure to the north. We started with a night in Minneapolis where I had the pleasure of getting together with Liz of Carpe Season. We met at Copper Hen Kitchen and Cakery where we enjoyed the Farmhouse Salad, Black & White Pizza (OMG), and Salted Caramel Chocolate Mason Jar Cheesecake. I was even able to grab a gluten-free chocolate cupcake as a thank you for my sister-in-law who got stuck watching the kids (our husbands were doing business at the Needtobreathe concert across town).

After a delicious brunch at one of my favorite restaurants, Good Earth, on Friday we continued north to Duluth where it was unbelievably cold. For those of you who lives in those parts – is this normal? Forty five degrees and pounding rain in June? That’s just unnatural. Not my thing. The kids were crabby from a lack of naps and an unstructured eating schedule so I sprung them from the wedding rehearsal early and was asleep in our tiny hotel room by nine o’clock. Saturday proved to be even colder and rainier, which was perfect for an outdoor wedding on the north shore of Lake Superior (ummm, not). Again, my kids were done by dinner time and we all ducked out a little early, ending up eating so-so take-out Mexican food in our hotel room.

On Sunday we had a chance to enjoy the hotel pool before packing up and hitting the Twin Cities again for a late lunch with one of our favorites. He took us to Quang where we had the best Pad Thai. The kids were also pretty happy with it because they serve these vermicelli noodle salads which are basically plain noodles with shrimp and veggies (the veggies went tragically untouched). It was nice not to have to make dinner when we got home because everyone was so full and just ready to go to bed.

I mentioned the other day that I’ve been binge watching season two of Orange is the New Black. Which essentially means one or two episodes a night, or three if my husband gets his way. We both like to stay up late, but I know that if I do the next day will be rough, so I try to be responsible about it. We even watched it huddled on the bathroom floor of the hotel room while the kids slept Saturday night. I’ve been loving this season and am already mourning the time when I won’t have any more to watch. I’m a little disappointed with the rise of objectionable content this season. I felt like season one started out with a lot of sex and boobs and then let off quite a bit. This season has had a lot more “adult content,” which is disappointing, but I guess I’ll deal. We plan to watch the season finale tonight – that’s 90 minutes of some high stress.

My other current favorite is Fargo. Even though the finale was last night. So. Good. I kind of hate that I love it so much because I’m always complaining about how no one can do anything original any more. Everything is a sequel or a remake or a remake. While Fargo is based on the movie, it takes its own storyline. It’s so well written, produced, and acted that I just can’t believe it. I might like it more than LOST? That’s a heavy statement. If you haven’t seen any of it, find a way to start now. We watched an episode of Orange is the New Black before watching the Fargo finale last night, and let’s just say I was feeling a little paranoid and stressed out. What am I going to watch now that I’m done with these? Suggestions please.

Don’t forget to follow #theliveinkitchentonight on Twitter and Instagram to get some dinner inspiration from my kitchen each night! I’ve been a little spotty in getting it up because we’ve been traveling a lot, but things should be returning to normal for a while.

Do you have any big summer plans?