Monday, Monday...

It's Monday and I'm back at work again, but fortunately this week looks pretty mellow. I travelled for work for a few days last week and it's amazing how much that throws off your schedule! I went to the gym a grand total of 0 times last week, so I'm trying to get back on track. And break in the new gym membership of course! This morning I went to my first class at Pure (a body pump class), and seeing as it's been about a month since I last lifted, I'm sure I'll be good and sore tomorrow. But it was a good jump start to the week.

Our weekend was good... great, actually. The perfect blend of relaxing, fun, and productive. On Saturday we were going to head down to San Antonio to visit my friend Anne, but she called to say she was sick just as we were pulling out of the driveway. Since we were showered and ready to go before noon on a Saturday (which is pretty rare in our household), we figured we'd have an afternoon adventure anyway. So we headed west into hill country to explore. We stopped in Johnson City for lunch (home of LBJ... and, surprisingly, it was named Johnson City even before he was famous-- per Wikipedia... we were curious), and then headed towards Fredericksburg for some wine tasting. We stopped at our favorite vineyard, Pedernales Cellars, which was delish as usual, and then checked out couple new ones: Becker and Rancho Ponte Vineyards. Pedernales is still our fav, but it was fun to do some sampling. And it was even more fun to just have a totally unplanned afternoon to roam around in the beautiful countryside with no agenda-- I can't remember the last time we did that. Definitely good for the soul.

Saturday night we headed to a "couples dinner" organized by one of J's classmates at Austin's swanky downtown BBQ joint, Lambert's. The Salt Lick is still the best by far, but it was fun to check out another famous Austin spot and try their version of ribs, brisket, and BBQ chicken. And I may be considering reversing my previous stance on queso... the jalapeno cilantro queso at Lambert's was pretty irresistible. There were 6 couples there, so it was fun to mingle and meet some of the other spouses/significant others that I hadn't met yet.

Yesterday was my standard get-stuff-done Sunday. Boring, but effective. And oh so needed. I also got inspired to do some cooking and I made the Barefoot Contessa's dijon mustard and thyme marinated pork tenderloin roast, on top of a bed of roasted fennel, carrots, and new potatoes. Not to pat myself on the back too much, but it was out of this world. (Clearly all the credit goes to Ms. Ina Garten... I'm just good at following directions.) If you like pork tenderloin, I highly recommend this recipe. The dijon marinade is really mild-- it doesn't taste too mustardy; mostly it's just savory goodness. Unfortunately, I can't find it online right now, but I promise to copy it down from my cookbook and post it soon. I'm looking forward to leftovers tonight.

Hope your week is off to a good start!