Thanksgiving

All weekend long, the things I'm grateful for have been swirling around in my head. In celebration for having way too many to count, I've decided to list off 100 of them, in no particular order.

1. Warm rain
2. Nutella
3. Yoga
   
4. Wireless internet
5. Sweaters
6. My husband
   
7. Dairy products
8. Wrinkle-free fabric
9. Hand lotion
10. My family
    
11. My Mac's VoiceOver function
12. Cartoons
    
13. Swimming pools
    
14. Coffee - especially Costa Rican
    
15. Friends that are adopted siblings
16. Siblings that are friends
17. NPR
18. Down Comforters 
19. Effective cancer treatments
    
20. Dark chocolate
21. Machines that wash and/or dry
    
22. Remote controls
23. Canvas bags
24. Fire and Fireplaces
25. Books
26. Life jackets
27. Scissors
28. Sunblock
29. Toothpaste
30. Children
    
31. Backpacks
32. Laptops
    
33. Dental floss
34. Sunny days with cool breezes
35. Q-tips
    
36. Fire extinguishers
37. Hand sanitizer
    
38. Highlighters
39. Medicinal herbs
40. Keys
41. Postal service
42. Love
43. Wine
44. Post it notes
45. Kitchen utensils
46. Public parks
47. High efficiency light bulbs
48. Tweezers
49. My health
50. Saint Augustine grass
51. Caribbean beaches
52. Speed dial
53. Spices
    
54. Car heaters
55. Evergreens
    
56. Vaccinations
57. Pillows
    
58. Ice
59. Shelter
    
60. Clean rivers
61. Variety of languages and cultures
    
62. Cool fonts
63. Color safe bleach
64. Board games
65. Peaceful people
66. Oven mitts and hot pads
67. Straws
68. Beauty
69. Naps
70. Funny people
71. The golden mean
72. Music
    
73. Hydrogen
74. Googone
75. Modern Transportation
    
76. Traffic lights
77. Luggage
78. Time
79. Central heating and a/c
    
80. Animal companions
81. Cloths hangers
82. Mechanical pencils
83. Phones
84. Changing leaves
85. The moon
86. Sour fruits
87. Elevators
88. Wisdom of the elderly
    
89. Can openers
90. Movies
91. Candles
92. Seatbelts
93. Research
94. Refrigeration
95. Adhesives
    
96. Daydreams
97. Printers
98. Perfume and deodorant
99. Curiosity
100. Innumerable things to be grateful for
     

Romanian Food Festival

I love sarmale. That's right, food talk first. The Romanian Food Festival held in Colleyville at St. Mary's Romanian Orthodox Church is small, but well organized with plenty of food. It reminds me in a way of a tiny ren festival without the bad English accents. You park in the grass, there's a row of food vendors, constant live music, pick nick tables, and people in costume walking about--but instead of pirates and women in bodices you have dancers in traditional Romanian outfits and little girls in their gymnastics cloths.


Today was the perfect day to play outside. It was almost 80 degrees, sunny, and breezy. That's the weather, now back to the food.

Sarmale are cooked sour cabbage rolls stuffed with finely ground pork and rice, covered with tomato sauce. Good stuff. We passed on the corn, beans, and cabbage salad. Today was definitely a naughty day. We continued on the carnivorous track we had set out on today and had  the mititei, a grilled a skinless sausage (probably pork as well) served with mustard. That's all I could handle. Hubby had a bit of grilled lamb as  well.

The only non-meat dish we had was an enormous chunk of bread and a pastry that I thought was an enormous goldfish, but was actually supposed to be shaped like Romania. It tasted sort of like a semisweet glazed donut with lemon zest. Yum.

You'd think that would be enough, but no. About four hours after we left the festival we ended up eating tacos. Unless the salsa and the onion and cilantro toppings count as salad, it was a meat and tortillas feast. I enjoyed every minute. I feel incredibly heavy and sleepy (shocker), but I don't care. It was good!

Tomorrow we have a couple of festive and naughty things to attend as well, so I suspect this coming week I'll be living on juice and attempting to digest the weekend.