Saturday Perfection

Today was a perfect Saturday – it involved teaching a group ex class, a great yoga practice, books, coffee, a good friend, cooking, baking, wine and awesome weather. What more could I possibly ask  for? I am a lucky girl.

My day started with a 6:30 a.m. wake up call. My class at the Y started at 8! I had coffee and toast for breakfast.

Whole wheat with almond butter and strawberry jam. Black coffee (And I’ve been asked why black. It’s just how I learned to drink coffee. My parents never put anything in theirs so I never really knew that cream and sugar was an option.)

How do you take your coffee?

I kind of had to choke down my breakfast because I was really nervous about my first class at this Y. I am happy to report that I survived the class and I think it went fairly well. I know it will just get easier and easier every time. Sarah was so sweet to come to support me and gave me some great constructive criticism over a lunch date. I really like receiving feedback on my classes. I am a firm believer in the motto that there is always room for improvement!

I booked it over to Y2 to catch a hot vinyasa class after I left the Y. I was a few minutes late but just jumped right in to the class. Although my shoulders were screaming at me during sun salutation repeaters, it felt so good to stretch my tired muscles after the tough strength workout.

Today’s class was 90 minutes and I love attending the longer classes because we usually have time to work on something that we wouldn’t in a normal 60 minute class. Today was mountain climbers.

I love doing this pose and today I worked on extending both legs a the same time. It wasn’t pretty but I did it! Hooray!

I was a sweaty, sweaty mess when I left yoga but embraced it and decided to grab a coffee and stop by my favorite used book store to pick up some new reading material.

I was craving an iced coffee so I stopped in Starbucks. And now I remember why I never go there. It was FOUR DOLLARS for a grande, nonfat, one-pump Pumpkin Spice latte. FOUR DOLLARS. I can buy coffee for a week from Trader Joe’s for that price!

Moving on…I headed over to Julia’s to browse through their used book selection. Charlotte readers – you must check out Julia’s in the Habitat Re-Store on Wendover. It’s a great little coffee house that sells used books. All of the proceeds benefit Habitat.

I got five new books for $16 dollars. (A much better deal with much more long standing benefits than my expensive Starbucks coffee 😉 ).

After I finish the books I usually donate them back to Julia’s so that they can sell them again!

I had a lunch date with Sarah at Luna’s Living Kitchen. It’s a raw, organic, vegan restaurant. They had a very interesting menu. I went with the sprouted quinoa-kamut veggie burger.

I forgot my camera and had to get a BlackBerry shot but the presentation was beautiful. I loved everything about this dish from the wonderfully dense sprouted bread to the avocado mash on top to the lovely side salad with tender greens and pears.

After lunch I plotted out my culinary exploits for the rest of the day. Brandon went to Athens for the Georgia/Tennessee game (UGA killed Tennessee – GO DAWGS!) and was going to get home around dinner time. I wanted to have a tasty and comforting Saturday dinner and was in the mood to cook something that took a while.

I decided on chicken and dumplings and a pumpkin tart with gingersnap crust. First, I got to work on the tart. The crust was a mixture of crushed gingersnaps and butter.

While I was crushing the gingersnaps I got the bright idea to top one with peanut butter as a snack.

Um, yeah. That turned into three of these delicious treats!

While the tart was in the oven I got to work on the chicken and dumplings. I was so excited about the recipe because it was all made from scratch – the chicken stock, the sauce and the dumplings. No canned stock, cream of crap soup or refrigerated biscuits. I will be blogging about this recipe very soon on Bakin’ and Eggs so stay tuned!

The tart came out of the oven looking pretty fabulous. I wanted to get it done before sunset so that I could grab some natural light shots for Bakin’ and Eggs.

And here is the photo shoot in progress. I’m fairly certain that my neighbors think that I’m crazy.

Me, Sullie and the tart on the front porch!

After I wrapped up the photography, I headed back in to finish up the chicken and dumplings.

One of my favorite things about making chicken and dumplings is dropping the dumplings in and watching them rise and puff to perfection. Yum.

I loved this recipe. Everything about it tasted 100% homemade and delicious. I will for sure be making this again this fall/winter.

And dessert…

I made whipped cream with a little sugar and bourbon to top the pumpkin tart. It was everything I hoped it would be and more. Brandon loved this and we both went back for seconds! 😳 Totally worth it! The gingersnap crust is what makes this tart. Such a fun spin on traditional pumpkin pie.

I’ve slept less than five hours the last two nights in a row so I am off to enjoy clean sheets and having no alarm set for Sunday morning.

Hope you’ve all had perfect Saturdays too!

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