I am soooooo stuffed...

This weekend was a bit on the damp and cold side. We didn't have much planned since my sister was to come to visit. Her boyfriend was ill so she didn't make the three hour drive down from Columbia. We settled in for a home-bound weekend of lazing on the couch and knocking out one food item after another.

I started off the weekend with homemade pasta and meatballs. My wife was out with friends Friday night, so it was just me and the kiddo. She planted herself in front of the TV, so I hit the kitchen.

Saturday, up early-ish and a breakfast at The Aviary crepe cafe. I always the get "The Farmer" when there, it's a sweet crepe with bacon and eggs inside and pomme frites (with no truffle oil) on the side. Bonus: magnetic poetry at your table. It can be pretty fun with a six-year-old.

Saturday evening I made chicken and dumplings. I grabbed a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store and made the noodles from scratch. I like noodle style dumplings over biscuit style. I also baked a couple of loaves of wheat peasant bread on that night.

Sunday morning I turned the bread into this bit of breakfast awesomeness, baked French toast with thick-cut bacon. It was pretty amazing. I got the bread recipe and French toast recipe from my cousin a couple of years ago. His dad gave him the bread recipe before that. I like that it's sort of an heirloom thing and probably the easiest bread recipe I've ever come across.

Sunday afternoon we had leftover pasta and chicken and dumplings, then I spent a few hours making scratch cinnamon rolls. I'd been wanting to attempt them for a while and finally had the free afternoon to mess with them. One of the perks of being an adult is getting to choose what you eat whenever. Screw social norms, if you want ice cream for breakfast, get after it! If you want to stuff your doughy face with four fresh-baked cinnamon rolls for dinner, by all means, do! I'll run it off tonight in my Advanced Cross Training class. I don't get it when people get all into working out and then drop eating fun things. It seems to me the point of working out should be more to counter the balance.

Also, somewhere along the weekend, my lovely wife came home with this - a cyser from a local meadery in Buffalo, Missouri. About 40 minutes north of Springfield. The smell alone was really nice. This stuff is really good. I need to make a trip up to the place soon. There will most certainly be a post about it when I do.