Red Letter Days and Houseguests

Today was a red letter day. Today Isabel became my first student ever to have no trouble whatsoever with the introduction of the 3/4 time signature. She didn't add a single imaginary fourth beat of rest anywhere, not even once. She was already among my favorites, and this may have sealed the deal.

Another red letter day occurred recently, when FavoriteBoy willingly (with only a bit of persuasion) sat down and wrote a thank you note.

So as you can see, lots of exciting things happening here in Beverly, MA.

Also, Kate was here for five days and nights, and then Cara was here for one night, and then Holly was here for three nights. Whew. During Kate's stay here we were quite busy with graduation activities, but during Holly's stay I had time to do lots of cooking. Among other things, I made pizza (pepperoni, peppers and onions, and Hawaiian) with the pizza stone my parents gave Nathan for graduation and ice cream (sweet cream with Heath bar chunks) with the ice cream maker Nathan's parents gave him for graduation. The vodka cream pasta I made once before also made another appearance on the dinner table, along with an appetizer of bruschetta (which turned out to be simply delicious). Holly and I also made "Oreos" a la Smitten Kitchen, which, while not entirely Oreo-ish, were still good. (Although I must admit that I bake sweets largely for the joy of watching other people eat them, since I'm not much of a sweet-tooth myself.)

And finally, tonight marked my maiden voyage into the fine art of making buffalo wings. Except instead of wings, I used chicken breasts. I tenderized them and sliced them into strips and coated them in a flour mixture and sprayed them lightly with cooking spray so they'd crisp up. I baked them in a glass pan, then brushed them with the buffalo sauce I made. Finally I broiled them briefly to make them extra crispy. The result was extremely spicy and overall quite satisfactory. (And much healthier than a deep-fried restaurant-style alternative.)

So I can now say I have made homeade pizza and homeade buffalo chicken and homeade ice cream, which I think makes me a proper and altogether suitable wife for FavoriteBoy. He'll never have to go hungry.