P.S. Who am I kidding, I haven’t been that busy, I’ve just been watching this video over and over again.

I spent a great long holiday weekend with family in Pittsburgh. I got into town around lunchtime on Friday and had lunch at Cafe Vita in Oakmont, a tiny, rustic Italian bistro. I had the beans and greens (something like this maybe ), which were so filling and delicious. I definitely need to try to make this dish sometime soon because simple meals like this are my favorite. Friday night was spent at the Frightened Rabbit/Wintersleep concert at Mr Smalls. An amazing show in an awesome, intimate setting: Mr Smalls was a church in a past life. I was a little bummed that Frightened Rabbit didn’t play my favorite song, but they had an amazing set full of energy. I definatley will be listening to them some more.

Saturday’s weather was perfect, and most of the day was spent in the Shadyside neighborhood, having a great lunch at Casbah and doing some shopping while soaking up some sunlight.

Then home to get ready for Easter brunch. So good as always. We feasted on ham, waffles, french toast, scrambled eggs, potatoes, asparagus, sausages, roasted red peppers, peas and pancetta, quiche, bread, cheese, fruit, mushrooms, and probably a few more things that I am forgetting. And carrot cake for dessert, iced by yours truly.

Up early on Monday to drive back across the state, and then I was a busy bee getting ready for another week with a trip to the grocery store and some much needed housework. I cleaned out my fridge and did a deep clean of the rest of the kitchen. So needed to do that. Another great weekend, and I’m super happy that I have a short work week ahead of me.

You can listen to this new playlist on Spotify.  Hope you enjoy it!

But since I had some fresh guacamole in the fridge and this month’s Bon Appetit had a great recipe for beans and rice, I decided to attempt my own burrito bowl.

I used black and kidney beans, and added some grilled chipotle lime chicken, and it was delicious. My rice came out a little overcooked and mushy, but I’ll definitely make this recipe agin. And the salsa was the best part. Since I am incapable of following a recipe as written, here’s the salsa I made to accompany my beans and rice.

Ingredients

• 2 jalapeños
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
• zest and juice of 2 limes
• 1/4 white onion
• 4 roma tomatoes
• cilantro
• salt
• pepper
• cumin

Instructions

1. Blend the first four ingredients: jalapeños, garlic, chipotle, lime zest, and lime juice in a blender or food processor.
2. Remove cores and seeds from tomatoes and cut into a small dice, and put into a medium sized bowl.
3. Chop onions into a small dice and add to tomatoes.
4. Add blended mixture to the tomatoes and onions, and add salt, pepper, cumin, and cilantro to taste. Stir to mix ingredients together.

It was sooo good and super easy!

Next I toasted up a few slices of bread for my ready to eat guacamole and scrambled up two eggs with some peppers and onions.  And a tiny bit of pepper jack cheese because it’s awesome, and it’s the weekend, go crazy.

And I finished the meal with a mango, lime, and coconut water smoothie.  This perfect brunch was enjoyed on the couch with last week’s episode of Scandal.  It was the best way to start my Saturday morning.

My simple breakfast turned into a a more complicated preparation, that took way more time to make than eat (and it also generated lots of dirty dishes that are still sitting on my kitchen counter).  But it was totally worth it.  It reminded me of the scene in Bridesmaids where Kristin Wiig meticulously crafts that gorgeous cupcake then admires it for a few seconds before eating it.  It’s an amazing scene.  There’s a lot to take away from that scene about Wiig’s character’s loneliness and melancholy, but even in the middle of her breakdown, she took the time to make something beautiful for herself and hopefully enjoy it. I like that.

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I couldn’t decide which color combo I liked better for this cross body.  Which one would you choose?