A New Look for Martha-in-Training!

I spent my first day of my week away from work and school by doing some house cleaning, both figuratively and literally. I literally cleaned up my place of residence by doing some (2 sinks full) dishes, putting away some clothes, and restocking and reorganizing my baking cupboard. I figuratively cleaned house by revamping the blog, as you can probably see.

New template (spent hours searching for a good one), added labels, followers and blogs I follow, and tidied up the labels I added to a bunch of blogs.

Trying to make it more user friendly little by little.

I also went out this morning and did a bigger than usual grocery shop. I got brown sugar and granulated sugar for my empty jars in the baking cupboard, bread flour for the ciabatta loaf I'm going to make tomorrow (once this time consuming sponge sits over night), and salami and some jalapeno havarti for a lunch sandwich:

Also with mayo, grainy mustard, lettuce, turkey breast, and a little ham.

I also picked up pork tenderloin to make some pulled pork one of these nights, and fontina cheese because it was priced well and I don't think I'd had it before until this afternoon. Verdict: it's good. And it has that red wax coating which sells me everytime.

I picked up some items for dinner including red and white potatoes, broccoli rabe aka rapini, yellow and green zucchini, lamb chops because they were on sale and I couldn't remember what they tasted like, couscous, and some mellow blue cheese.

It's been awhile since I've been home for dinner and have really put in time in the kitchen to cook up a delicious meal. I used everything pictured above to put together two crowded plates for myself and John.

I'll post the recipes tomorrow for the broccoli rabe (so easy and so good), and the most amazing side dish I've ever made in terms of taste and presentation: my spin on Martha's Pommes Annette.

I discovered I'm not crazy about lamb. I seared the chops in some olive oil with rosemary but there's just something about it that doesn't quite mesh with my tastebuds.

But I'm glad I got a little epicurious and bought them. At least I know now.

And that pork tenderloin is just sitting so patiently in the fridge....

I'm going to finish up and maybe upload the pctures from dinner.

John and I are heading out in a bit to go and see The Expendables and then tomorrow I'm off with my married friends to the Ex.

I don't know if anyone has given this as much thought as I have, but I'm curious as to what people's opinions are on this matter:

Of The Expendables, if they were all thrown into a cage match who would be the last man standing?

I personally think Bruce Willis would be first out (sorry Die Hard fans) and I know Ahhhnuld doesn't have the strength of his Mr. Universe days anymore... but I can't definitively say who would hang in the longest. Stallone? Jet Li because he's small and quick?

A question for the ages....

Let me know what you think!