If this is "semi" I don't want to know what completely is...

I've been working on developing this attitude of seizing every Saturday--doing different things, things a little outside of my norm on many Saturdays.  Taking time to savor my one day off, no school and no church.

Parent-teacher conferences exhausted me.  To make it more convenient for "my" parents, I scheduled evening slots for every night this week, Monday through Thursday. Honestly, I'm getting old and that idea in practice just about killed me.  Anyway, we all were off on Friday, and, may I tell you, I read, napped, and had a massage that day; besides doing a few loads of laundry, I was in recuperating mode.

Therefore Saturday came, and I didn't know how to seize it.  I decided I'd work to get Brad outside and I'd make dinner.  I know, I know, you're thinking, "Big whoop," to both, right?  But Brad's back brought him to the hospital (again) this week, and I rarely make dinner (how did I get to 49 not knowing how to cook?), so these were both admirable goals.

Up at six (I hate my body clock), I sat with this cookbook I'd bought two years ago at our school book fair. 

"Semi-Homemade" is an important part of the title. (I know, I know, Sandra Lee is famous.  She's on television I hear.  But I don't cook, so I sure don't watch cooking shows.)  I bought it expressly for the lemon chicken recipe she lists in the "Asian" section, but which reminded me of a dish I often used to order at Luigi's House, an Italian restaurant.  So I checked my pantry and made my grocery list.  Lemon curd, eh?  Well, the people at Dominick's are incredibly helpful.  It's not like I had to know what I was buying, just want to ask for.

 

Brad and I went to Red Oak Nature Center and taking it easy we walked a bit in the afternoon, and then we hit Mr. D's (as Brad calls it.)  They are wonderfully helpful there.  Did you know lemon curd is in the jelly aisle?

Here are some of the ingredients,

And here is the finished product,

What I didn't capture is a photo of the ridiculous mess I made while cooking. Seriously, if this is semi, what's totally?  Is it the fact I didn't make my own lemon curd?  I still don't know what lemon curd is.  Is it that I opened a can of broth versus squeezing a chicken for its fat?  I had three pans going (one was a the broccoli steaming), a bowl with chicken soaking in buttermilk and lemon, and a shallow dish for flouring the chicken before frying it.  I had never fried before, by the way.  I don't cook, but this sure seemed like really homemade cooking.  Tell me, am I delusional?

What I will save you from is a photo of my tummy pooching out over the top of my brown cargo pants.  I am full. If I were a teacher sitting down with my mom right now (love the thought of that), I would give me a B+.  Of course, on my school's grading scale that's a "Beginning..."