new year

Happy New Year! The verdict on my weigh in is no weight change over the holidays which I consider to be successful. I enjoyed getting back to working out in the comforts of the Rec Center this week. I've been able to get in there for 45 minutes every day this week.
Here's what we've been cooking the past 2 weeks:
My New Years Eve taco salad:
Enjoyed with 2 glasses of:
Anna and I managed to get out for a walk on the Lakewalk prior to dinner. Once Mikey got home we headed out to R.T.Quinlans bar to listen to 2 local bands- Accelerati and Black Eyed Snakes. We had a great time. We bumped into some Cafe peeps and Mike's college friend, Pete. It made us both really appreciate living in a place where we have so many friends (was not the case in The Cloud). Here's some shots of the scene:
Flash:
No Flash:
It was really hot and crowded. We were both a lil' sweaty (that's Pete with the dark hair behind us):
Mikey had New Years Day off of work. We went to Bruce and Nellie's house for their annual open house. We enjoyed some cassulet and snacks along with a few Newcastles (at 11am). We got to see some neighbors we haven't seen in a while in addition to meeting a few new ones. It was a nice sunny day so we decided to take a leisurely drive up the scenic highway to Two Harbors. Lake Superior in the winter is very mysterious looking especially when it is "steaming."
Before we left, we set out some walleye to thaw for dinner. I LOVE having Winnie walleye in the winter time. It's like stepping back to the warmth of summer. When we got home, the fish was perfectly thawed and we were ready to fire up the deep fryer. The secret spice was:
Perfection:
I ate way too many of these dipped in homemade tarter sauce:
Pretty Boy loves the smell of fish:
He was posing perfectly for this shot (on the dining room table no less).

We continued using up some stuff from our freezer on Monday night. Mikey made Steak Dianne and smashed potatoes. I ate about a third of this massive portion:
I had my first night of Improv for Business on Tuesday night. I was pretty nervous for the class but the instructor was great and had us practicing being "in the moment" and exuding confidence under pressure for 3+ hours. Being the introvert that I am, I was exhausted after class! Dinner consisted of toast and I headed straight to bed after that.

Being back in the swing of school, we try to make the most of our nights home together. So, Wednesday night we put our new pizza stone to work with a pepperoni, onion, garlic and spinach pizza. Here's the master doing his work (it's the first and likely last time we'll use a pre-made crust):
It tasted great but we both missed the flavor and texture of homemade pizza crust!
Tonight I had class again and had to basically ward off an anxiety attack in order to do a minute long speech on a topic that I picked out of a hat and then ran with. Will this EVER get easier?! Ugh... I hate the physiological response (sweaty palms, nervous energy and a racing heart) that accompanies public speaking. This class is surely teaching us to think on our feet.

The Fudala 'rents are coming up to visit this weekend. We've got some snowshoeing on the agenda. And lots of good eats and drinks of course.

We've had an interesting thing happening in our neighborhood this week. Here's a tease:
Nope, that's not dog poop. Stay tuned for a guest post from the other half of M&M!