The weekend and a little bit of spring.

Here's what we've been up to lately. First, spaghetti alla carbonara from The Kitchn:

A little bacon, a little egg, a squeeze of lemon, and sautéed arugula makes for a delicious comfort dinner after a long day in the lab. 

After dinner on Saturday, Mike pulled out three sticks of butter, a bunch of flour, chocolate and almond trail mix (seemed random), and a little bit of borrowed yeast from a friend. "What in the world could you be making?" I asked, shocked at the amount of butter softening on our kitchen table. 

"Guess."

"Is it for cinnamon rolls!?!" 

"Close...," Mike teased. After a while, I gave up and started reading my new book, A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. Great book so far. Have any of you read it?

Mike's "borrowed" timer kept going off throughout the evening, and he would get up, pull the dough out of the fridge, roll it out, and fold it over a couple times. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Finally, he asked me to help him. "Well, are you going to tell me what you're making?"

"Croissants!" That's right, chocolate and almond croissants. He separated the chocolate from the almonds because he didn't want to buy bags of each. He cut the rolled out dough into twelve rectangles, and we filled the middle with the chocolate or the almond spread. Then we rolled the dough over and let them rise overnight.

When I woke up in the morning, a little sleepy even though it was nine o'clock (stupid daylight savings time!), I could smell the croissants baking. It smelled like a French bakery, although I've never been in France or in a French bakery, but I imagine it would smell like croissants. 

I dragged myself (i.e., sprinted) out of bed and headed for the kitchen. And there they were, golden brown with chocolate or almond filling slightly flowing out of the ends. Which one did I choose to eat first? Chocolate, of course! Don't be silly. We paired our croissants with some delicious Tonx coffee and Rachel Martin on Weekend Edition Sunday in the background. Two croissants down, ten more to go...

Finally, a little bit of spring has popped up in our backyard. Last year I bought two ranunculus plants (what's the plural of ranunculus - ranunculi?), and I swiftly killed both of them. Or so I thought! One of the plants made a comeback when it rained this winter and now it's blooming again. Beautiful pink and white flowers. Have you started any seedlings for the coming gardening season? What do you normally plant or do you have a non-green thumb - would that be a red thumb or a black thumb?

Anyway...