Our Disney adventures

I have been trying to blog more--or at least to blog more than once every six months. I've got to admit, though, this is hard. When I started this blog (in its glory days, if you will), I was unemployed and full of the kind of joy that comes from realizing that if you watch the Olympics on your laptop, you can keep watching gymnastics no matter where you are cooking or folding laundry. Suffice it to say, I needed something to do. This is the same malaise that prompted Lilly Pulitzer (RIP) to start a juice stand and then a wildly successful fashion company. I am not that good at sewing.

So I started blogging, and soon afterward my life became so much busier. I started working; Andrew and I started leaving town on the weekends (a habit that we just can't seem to shake); and in January I started taking part-time classes for my MBA.

Life is busy now. I used to start the day by pulling all my cookbooks off the shelf and deciding what I wanted to make for dinner. Now, I'm lucky if I eat something that isn't pasta cooked at 9:00 at night after I get home from class. (Seriously though, guys, spaghetti tossed in olive oil, chopped garlic and red pepper flakes is super simple and delicious. Add Parmesan cheese to show you mean business.) However, I miss blogging, so I'm going to try to take this into a more personal direction. What's more personal than eating? you ask. Well, nothing is, but maybe my trademark gift for wit will carry us through the days I don't take pictures of my food. Inspired by this new mysterious blog by someone I sure wish were my BFF in real life, I'm going to try to post adventures and life updates in addition to your favorite recipes.

Today's adventure is happy, because I've actually been feeling pretty down most of the day and I think positivity will help. Andrew and I went to Disney this weekend to celebrate our anniversary. Yes, it's two weeks away, but we're still celebrating and it was the last weekend we could use up our Florida resident passes. We got "Happy Anniversary" buttons at the entrance to Epcot on Friday and people were wishing us a happy anniversary left and right, both cast members and other guests. When we got to the America pavilion, an older man in a suit pulled us into a side room, saying "Someone from Disney wants to speak to you." Andrew thought he was going to get in trouble for that apple pie he grabbed at lunch before abandoning it at the drink station. Turns out it was Mickey and Minnie, who he put on speakerphone to sing Happy Anniversary to us! He also gave us a personalized certificate wishing us a happy anniversary from Disney. But things really picked up when we got to Italy, where these street performers pulled us into the spotlight and re-enacted our wedding! I will say, although our flower girls were very sweet in their Minnie Mouse ears, our actual flower girl, Margaret, was cuter. Andrew and I never get picked for audience participation and we were very excited. Finally, for dinner we got fish and chips from England--and were joined at our table by a couple celebrating their 47th anniversary! They are from California but are originally Dutch. They were truly lovely people and we were all so excited to have run into each other.

We met Alice after dinner!

Tuna Salad
Today's recipe, if you can call it that, is a tuna salad I invented at 7:35 this morning. I love having celery in my tuna salad, but the celery in the fridge had gone all limp and gross. If I'd listened to Pinterest and stored it standing upright in a glass of water instead of, you know, in the vegetable crisper with other vegetables, I wouldn't have this problem. But I went ahead and opened my can of tuna, and I brainstormed what else to throw in. (Andrew prefers just tuna with mayonnaise but quite frankly I can't handle mayonnaise in that kind of leading role.) So I did mix in the mayo to what I consider normal proportions, but then I added a little bit (maybe 1/4 teaspoon) of honey mustard dressing and about 1 teaspoon relish.

Inspired. I don't even normally like mustard and relish, but it added the flavor dimension and texture my tuna needed. I brought it in to work in its own little container (to avoid sogging) and toasted the bread before I made my sandwich. Side dishes were a key lime pie Yoplait and an apple. See, I told you my everyday meals aren't all that exciting...