Weekend Odds-n-Ends
A. This is my vote for funniest blog name.
B. Remember my friend Sparkles? Sunday we met to explore all the goodness of Reston. Just in case you are not familiar, Reston was conceived as a planned community by Robert E. Simon. Founded on April 20, 1964 (Simon’s 50th birthday) and named for his initials, it was the first modern, post-war planned community in America, sparking a revival of the planned community concept. (source Wikipedia)
Sparkles and I met at the Trader Joe’s, because I was low on wine and you can’t get three-buck-chuck in Maryland. Stupid Maryland alcohol laws.
Tasty and frugal too
After TJs, we shopped the Town Center, also known as Yuppie Store Central. Anthropologie, Pottery Barn, J. Crew, The Paper Source (I had never even heard of this store!) and Sephora all clamoring for our plastic cash. We resisted their siren call. But, I had the pleasure of introducing Sparkles to SAMPLES from Sephora. Be still my beating heart.
I now have several contenders for a new summer fragrance. Weigh in if you please on any of these:
Clean: Simply Soap
Guerlain Aqua Allegoria: Mandarine Basilic
Fresh: Citron de Vigne
Dolce and Gabbana: Rose the One
This morning I tried Simply Soap. I found it simply meh. I’m not sure if anything will ever replace my current summer fave Aqua Allegoria Herba Fresca. Yummy, light, summery and unique. It has earned a semi-permanent spot in my collection of perfumes.
C. My pastor gave such an AWESOME sermon this past Sunday. If you are in Maryland and looking for a church you need to come to Calvary Community Church and check it out. I actually take notes on his sermons! If you’d like to see the sermon, click here and listen to the “Getting Fed” series.
D. I decided that I need more fish in my diet, so I’m trying to cook more of it. I didn’t grow up eating fish because my Dad hates the smell, so cooking fish is all new to me. I have a bag of frozen tilapia and whiting fillets. So far I’ve microwaved and poached the tilapia with mixed results. Any suggestions? Or how about a great and easy cookbook? Because you haven’t lived until you’ve cleaned overcooked tilapia off the sides of the microwave.
This doesn't count as "cooking" fish
E. Cecilia has been developing her inner diva again. Now she won’t eat her kibble unless there is a little sumpin-sumpin in there to sweeten the deal. Remember PW’s Chicken and Noodles that didn’t sit that well with me? It sits just fine with Cecilia. Today I was out of chicken, so Cecilia got some of the poaching water from tonight’s tilapia. Surprisingly, that worked too.
I spit on your plain kibble
all things juice 
I’m glad you got to stock up on cheap and cheerful wine. Sounds like a lovely weekend.
P.S. I don’t know how to cook fish, either. Sorry.
I grew up thinking that fish = fried. Seriously had no idea you could do anything else with it (and I wonder where my propensity for being overweight came from?). Now that I’m a grown up *snicker* I like to put a filet or two in some foil with a little butter, lemon & pepper seasoning, garlic, and onion. Wrap the foil into a packet and put in the oven at 400 for about 10 minutes. Quick and easy and muy tasty!! 🙂
Oh Jill I’m going to try this! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
mmmmmm microwaving fish sounds uber disgusting. I like Jill’s idea. It doesn’t take much to cook fish. You can broil it as well. A skillet may be a good approach. Timing is everything – don’t overcook it.
Check into your best basic cookbook and look up fish.
Here in Iowa we have a lot of sushi places on one hand and on the other hand is all the people who think that if shrimp doesn’t come with a coating on it, it is raw. I am not kidding. 🙂
Hey, I’m gonna try Jill’s idea too. But I was of the fried fish ilk too, and so I adapted it this way. Preheat pan at med-high, get it good and hot. Spray with pam and whatever seasoning you want. I love Mrs. Dash, or just garlic salt and pepper. Plop the fish filets in there. In however long (depending on thickness) you need (3-5 min) spray pam on top of filet and flip it over for 2-3 min. Gets a nice brown crust on it. I usually squeeze the lemon juice on the filets right in the pan because then it gets into the fish, and also loosens the brown bits in the pan. Yumm.
And darn it, Juice, you get me in trouble with all your crafty linky-love! I wrote about this in my blog today!
Holy cow, I actually can say more than ‘cute pics of cecilia..’ 😛
A. totally funny blog name!
B. Was just thinking to myself while I read the post that ‘Clean’ the fragrance – you get better results ACTUALLY using your soap. Never tried the Aqua Allegoria … will look for it the next time I’m at Sephora. Any of the Fresh scent just are misses for me… and D&G rose smells nice, but would smelling like roses all summer long get old? (Just a thought…)
C. I can duck from visiting Maryland to visit my in laws too much longer… I might take your suggestion up to visit your church.
D. Fish is tricky, however you bought white fish and they pretty much can take up any flavor you throw at it. I like the poaching in the foil with lemon and salt & pepper in over. NEVER MICROWAVE YOUR FISH. they taste gross… 😛 I also try to get my kids to eat the fish the the best way is to make fish tacos….
E. Ok… cute pic of cecilia!
Darn this typing in the dark thing…. I meant ” I can’t duck from visiting in laws…” and “poach in the oven”.
That’s just the typos, I’m too tired to edit anything else….
Geesh.
We love visiting Reston… I think my favorite part is Lake Anne and their run-down used bookstore. 🙂
Adele, we talked about visiting Lake Anne next time. Glad to have the endorsement!
sheesh. how can i possibly be sending you notes with my pedestrian “buckeye” moniker when i know good and well that i will forever be “sparkles” to a certain baltimore gal-pal and and our fellow aruba-trip-takin’ buddies?! my bad …
look at you looking up all the facts on restonia (as we like to call it)! clever girl. and thank you for the tip on the free samples. i’ve already been spreading the word. could you not hear the squeals of delight from my virginia girlfriends over the weekend?! LOL
next research project: bergamot. i think you’re giving it credit for being fancier than it really is 😉
love you gobs. xo
Sparkles, I thought you were posting as Buckeye to stay on the downlow. ‘Cause I roll shady like that.
And you are TOTALLY right – it’s bergamot rhymes with tater tot! Thanks to m-w.com…