A Great Day with some Great News

So today started early. After dropping off Abigail at school, Zander and I headed out to do the weekly grocery shopping. We were back home by about 9:30 in the morning, which was good, since I had a little more cleaning to do before heading to the airport. Then around 9:42, the phone rang. It was my Mom. I really hesitated for a second at picking up the phone. Her and Dad have been spending the week with Grandma, and I really wasn't ready for that phone call. Yet I answered. "Good morning!" came from the other end. A happy good morning. She called to let me know that they were moving Grandma back home from the hospital, and that she was responding very well to the chemo. Incredibly well, in fact. We were bracing for the worst to happen this week. The outlook is still not great, but we get more time with Grandma, and she still has more chemo to undergo, so there's always a chance for it to do more. So yay!!!

Add to that that Andy went to work today, and I was in fantastic spirits. Zander and I picked up Andy's mom at the airport today, and we've alredy had a lovely time visiting. Zander warmed right up, and of course Abigail just loves her Grammy, so it will be a nice visit. So in honor of my fantastic mood, I thought I'd whip up a special treat for when Abigail came home from school. Fruit Pizza was the selection of the day.

So the picture is not the greatest. But the basic components are fruit and a sugar cookie dough. I started with a tube of Pillsbury sugar cookie dough. Not a regular in my kitchen, but fruit pizza works best with the dough in a tube. I baked that up on a pizza pan and let it cool. Next I took pineapple cream cheese, orange juice, and powdered sugar, and made a topping. Spread that on. Then came the chopped up fruit. In this case it was bananas, kiwi, grapes, apples, and pineapple. A sprinkling of alomds and a drizzle of melted raspberry chocolate chips completed the pizza. Zander enjoyed it, Mom enjoyed it, I enjoyed it. Abigail took one look at it and told me she wasn't hungry after all. :-o What is with my child these days?

Anyway, dinner tonight was a repeat of a beef stew I made a few weeks back. You can find it at the bottom of the page here. It was even better than I remember the first time. And this time there are leftovers, so I will get to find out how it is the next day- I will be sure and report back on that. I did try my hand at pairing wine with it tonight, and I think I did very well at suggesting that Andy pick up a Shiraz on his way home from work. With the assistance of the clerk at The Wine Premier, Andy brought this home:

A 2004 Shiraz from De Bortoli, an Australian wine. It was a very good wine, and seriously complemented the beef stew. And at $10 a bottle, it was a darn good steal as well.

So that's it for tonight. I don't know if I'll get a shot at posting tomorrow. We are planning a Penzey's run in the morning, followed by a stop at Toys R Us for Zander, and then we'll see how the day progresses. On tap for dinner tomorrow night is homemade pizza, and while very tasty, not really noteworthy or photoworthy. So until next time, happy eating!