Salty olive foccacia & a shedding snake

What do these two things have in common? They were both a part of my last two days...




Like I said earlier, I was on my own this weekend, the fiancee was in the Poconos for the weekend with his bachelor's...... I don't ask questions.... I get my weekend in Ocean City, Maryland the first weekend of August :)




So, I woke up bright and early Saturday morning with all intentions of doing all kinds of stuff around the house while the man was gone. Some of it happened....




What did happen? I went to the gym for the longest workout of my short life. I was on the elliptical for 45 minutes and then I did 20 minutes of back exercises. It was glorious. I wish I had that kind of time during the week, but, alas, I do not...




Still not hungry for breakfast (will this ever change? I'm just not hungry until 11:30am-ish...?? Oh well.) By the time I got back from the gym I devoured a big bowl of pineapple and blueberries (NJ blueberries, of course).

And a turkey melt. That's not a burnt edge, the bread just wanted to be colorful. ;) Turkey slices on Wonder Smart bread - my new fav! - 1 Weight Watcher point for 2 slices,but it's soft and spongy just like white bread.... lurv lurv lurv.

Saturday afternoon was dedicated to making 300 wine charms for my wedding (that ended up taking all afternoon and much of the evening..ouch!) and my first ever attempt at baking homemade bread. I saw this recipe over at a wonderful website - The Pioneer Woman. I only added two of my final pictures because no pics of mine will ever compare to hers! She's a wonderful photographer and a cookbook author!

Behold....

Olive Foccacia -

The above was with parm cheese, the below with no parm cheese. The above is much much much better. The bottom loaf actually came out a little hard and crunchy instead of the above crunchy outside and soft and chewy inside.

The recipe calls for a sprinkling of sea salt of the outside of the loaf before baking, I would leave that step out. They came out a tad bit salty, but they were good! I would say it was a successful first bread baking attempt :)

A few pieces of foccacia later and I wasn't hungry for lunch, but dinner was a leftover pasta party. A very juicy (South Carolina...) peach and another piece of foccacia.

Sunday came and went without event, just some shopping for wedding stuff. I set my alarm Monday morning for 5:15am, but I snoozed until 6:30 and didn't feel a bit guilty. Sleep is more important sometimes. Tomorrow is a different story...

Dinner was sushi takeout! Super yummy! I have been craving good sushi for a while now - tonight was my breaking point. I HAD to have it! I ordered 3 rolls (spicy tuna, perfect roll and something else that I can't remember the name of...) Also some spicy Thai soup and a salad with ginger dressing. Delish!

Now onto the shedding snake. A few weeks ago a neighbor came over to tell us that his wife had seen a very big snake in our front yard. Um scary. Tonight the man noticed a piece of snake skin coming out of one of bushes..... um scarier...

See that straight thing that looks like a piece of fishnet? That's snake skin!

And when you look deep into the bush, this is what you see.....

I will have nightmares. I have already called animal control. I'm scared to walk out of my front door. I'm scared the snake will get into my house and eat my cat whole. Or the bunnies that run through our yard. Or the chipmunks. Oh my.

I called my dad. Because that's where I turn for advice. He said get a sharp shovel and take the snakes head off. WTH? I could never do that, I couldn't kill a snake. He said, "it's a snake, a reptile..." Whatever dad, he grew up on a farm, I guess that's how he was raised. Me, on the other hand, can't hurt a fly. Hopefully animal control will call tomorrow and come take the little (or huge) snake back to its normal habitat.

I will tell you all about my nightmares tomorrow. I could never live on a farm.