Productive Weekend

Now that I'm a full-time working mom, the times I cook dinner during the week are few and far between. I would like to say that I cook on weekends, but that's not always the case either. We like to be out of our apartment on weekends, so we often pick up food wherever we end up going or make dinner plans with friends at nearby restaurants.

This weekend was a perfect storm of being work-free and minimally scheduled, so I used it to cook. A lot. Every few months, I make some chicken tamales. Besides being delicious, they freeze exceptionally well, so one batch makes enough for about 6 dinners. On Mother's day, I tried (for the first time) a mole chicken tamale and I've been dreaming about them ever since. I made mole sauce back in the fall and it was a huge hit with PJO and I, so I thought, why not combine these two loves of mine and make two batches of tamales, one regular and one with mole?

Two friends of mine recently had babies, so I figured I would just give them some of my extra instead of freezing it all.

Oh, and then I thought that it just wouldn't be right to give them an entree with no side dish or dessert, so I decided to make some sweet corn cake, guacamole and strawberry cupcakes.

And since I was already going to have to clean the food processor and the cupcake tins, I decided to make a batch of the veggie muffins we had run out of a month or so ago.

Between the cooking, the baking and the dishes, this is how I ended up spending approximately 12 hours in the kitchen this weekend. My back was literally killing me at the end of it.

While I was in the kitchen, PJO was re-arranging the living room. We got rid of our china cabinet and moved our computer to our bedroom to make room for the glider and ottoman. We had to carefully wrap and pack away all the china and crystal and clean the layers of dust that had been untouched behind furniture for nearly two years.

I also did my share of a babysitting swap for a friend so that PJO and I can have a date night this Saturday (with free babysitting!!) and met up with my best friend from law school for brunch on Sunday before she moves out of state. Tired doesn't adequately describe how I feel today.

But I would say it was all worth it. We've been eating the "scraps" of my efforts for dinner the past two nights (mole with shredded chicken and cheese in corn tortillas) and the fridge is still full of tamales, plus our apartment is ever so slightly more organized and ready to accomodate baby #2.