Birthday weekend in review: tattoos and tomato sauce.

I rang in my 36th birthday with a girls getaway weekend. A friend was turning 40 and wanted to mark the occasion with a tattoo, so we gathered the girls for support and headed to a friend's country house in the back woods of Dacusville, South Carolina, a half hour from one of the best Tattoo artists in the Upstate.  

I completely wigged out all people close to me by posting a pic on Facebook of Nicole getting a giant tattoo on her back.  No, I did not get a tattoo, but is that really so out of character for me? I now have a new appreciation for the art form.  Chuck (the amazing tattoo artist at East Coast Ink) spent two hours drawing and another three hours inking an amazingly detailed work of art: a heart with an S inside with my friends' 3 kids' names.  I told her she couldn't get rid of her kids now since their names are permanently tattooed on her back.  I was tempted to get one too, but haven't settled on anything yet.  A whisk?  A wooden spoon? A cupcake?  A measuring spoon?  Suggestions?

Griet and I have been friends since the 7th grade.  She was the wrangler of this weekend of craziness.  I made her an Orange Spice Rum Scrapcake...paper flower jobby being the scrap part. My signature thing. It was YUM.  Not the flower, the cake.   She gave me some very cool fabric scissors and a Rotary Cutter (with instructions not to cut off my fingers..she knows me well) so I can tackle the heart rug I found on Pinterest, among other things.

Parkay.  So we ate at this Mexican Restaurant for lunch on Saturday.  They actually brought Parkay to the table.  Who serves Parkay at a restaurant?!  I about fell out of the booth.  Parkay folks.  Seriously?

When I drug my sleep deprived body home Sunday, on my actual birthday, my husband had a present waiting for me!  Yea me!   Two DVD's: Bridesmaids and Hangover 2. And The Amateur Gourmet by Adam Roberts, my favorite food blogger who I stalk daily.  I dove in immediately.  (Then took a nap.)

Chapter one is about starting your culinary journey by mastering Tomato Sauce.  So I drove up the mountain on Tuesday to The Fresh Market in Hendersonville for some good quality canned whole tomatoes (I checked for the best brands on internet as I pursued the options), came home, opened a bottle of wine and danced around my kitchen while I chopped, boiled and smooshed the tomatoes, onions, garlic, olive oil and thyme into delicious heaven.  Mastered.

So I'm 36 and I've mastered basic Tomato Sauce.  Check.  Now what?  On to chapter 2.  The art of shopping.  Haven't we already established that I'm pretty dang good at food shopping?  We'll go ahead and give that one a check too.

Other things I want to accomplish this year:
I want to write 36 meaningful letters to people.
I want to volunteer 36 hours of my time to a cause I feel passionate about.
36 books?  Will I make it?  (If I don't finish the Game of Thrones series I won't be reading anything!  The books are piling up on my reader and side table.)

I'm working on the rest, but I know it will involve lots of cooking and blogging on my quest to cyberspace fame.

Peace out folks. Until next time.