Hahahahahahahahaha. See, I Told You Guys.

Overheard in my house last night:

"Honey, have you checked if Bird needs water lately?" said Mike, casually.

"Uh, not for a few days." I responded. Just as casually. (In my head I'm doing the Champion Dance, but I don't dare crack a smile or let on that I noticed he just called our plant by name.)

* * *

We had friends over for dinner last Friday night, and the menu was fabulous: Mike made steamed calamari and prawns, baked Tilapia fillets; I made steamed asparagus, jasmine rice and fruit pizza for dessert; and one of our guests TJ (who is Mike's new shopmate) brought over "Lion's Mane" mushrooms that he just grew. And then we served it all with local organic red wines. It was a feast! And an absolute success!

Our friend Ted took this photo of us, which he then gave us a copy of:



It was a wonderful night that reminded us of the important things in life: family, and the moments you have where you get to enjoy one another's company (as well as eat delicious food, let's be honest here, who doesn't love that).

* * *

I had wanted to make this recipe, but got kicked out of the oven (when I was recipe planning I heard Mike say he was frying the Tilapia but he was baking it, so fine, I'm nothing if not flexible), so I steamed my asparagus instead. I had leftover uncooked asparagus, so I made the roasted sesame asparagus for part of our dinner last night; and it was really easy and really delicious. So here's the recipe, try it and love it:

Roasted Sesame Asparagus

Ingredients

•1 lb asparagus, washed and trimmed
•1 teaspoon sesame oil
•1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Rinse asparagus and pat dry.
Place on jelly roll pan or a pan with sides.
Drizzle sesame oil onto asparagus, tossing to coat, then sprinkle with salt.
Roast for 10 - 15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the asparagus. I like the ends to be a little crispy.

Note: I drizzled about 2 teaspoons worth of sesame oil and did not measure the salt at all, just eyeballed it. Super easy, and tastes awesome. Enjoy! (Oh and I bet it also works well with broccoli.)

The other part of dinner last night was something Mike and I made up together that we are sort of calling "gumbalaya" and/or "mush," though mush is deceiving as it tastes awesome and is super easy, so here it is:

Ingredients:
Rice of your choice (we used jasmine rice)
Black-eyed peas (the canned kind is just as delicious but you can also do the dry kind)
Sausage of your choice (we used sun-dried tomato chicken sausage)
Rita's Hot Salsa (okay, Rita's is a local thing so for you Wisconsin folks, just try to find a red-pepper based salsa that is blended and saucy)

Directions:
Cook rice in pot
Cook beans in a different pot - spice beans with cumin and garlic if desired
Slice and fry sausage in skillet (use oil if necessary and/or desired)
When everything is cooked add the rice and beans to the hot skillet where the sausage is, toss it to get the flavors all mixed together
Mix in salsa to taste

Eat and enjoy! It's yummy.