A Paella Sunday, Normal Back To School Monday

Granny And The Boys

Paella

I was up at 6:20, the first one up.  Eventually, Beth and Marisa got up, the rest get to sleep in.  So here I am sitting, listening to Morning Joe talk politics, just as if I were back at the lake.  Only I am not, as Marisa is finishing breakfast, waiting for Beth to drive her to school, only a ten minute drive as long as they leave early enough.

Our Eighth Grader, Ready For School

Yesterday was not your typical Sunday for us, as we did not take a walk (though I walked Cody three times) and we did not have our big breakfast of eggs, bacon, and toast.  Instead, we had crepes, for the boys, just as good by the way as the big breakfast.  They used to be a big treat for our kids when we lived in Istanbul.  Around 10:30, the boys, Rami and I drove off to the mall as both needed clothes for school and J. Crew was having a 40% off everything sale.  We got there only to find some of the stores were not yet open but luckily, J. Crew was.  They shopped for a good half hour but had little luck finding their size as most of the sizes they needed were sold out.  I decided on a cool but expensive Corkcicle Artican coozy but it was the only thing in the store not on sale, so I didn't buy it...not a deal.

We then hit another couple of stores without much luck but I found what I thought was a neat cowl neck jacket with pockets, old man looking, no doubt, even professorial, so I bought it...half price.  We then headed up, the boys disappointed in that they only found a few things. When I got home, Evie laughed at my purchase, thinking I suppose it was too grandfatherly, but hey, I like it. And all I need is a pipe to complete the image.  We then spent the next couple of hours debating what to do with the afternoon, whether to go to a movie or not.  Rami decided against it because he was coming down with a cold and spent a good part of the afternoon in bed.

ShoppingAt Central Market With Tyler

Tomato Central

Since Evie had bought a paella pan, we decided that it would be a good dinner to make on a Sunday afternoon, since we were not going anywhere. So Tyler, Evie and I drove off to Central Market, a chain of upscale grocery stores in Dallas.  It's a great store, of course, with everything for a price and we were able to get everything we needed and then some, like a blueberry pie and ice cream for dessert as well as a couple of six packs of beer, Goose 312 Urban Wheat Ale, our current favorite.

Back To School

When we got home, Mitchell's buddy picked him up to take him back to school in Austin.  After about 10 minutes, we realized he had left his Mac Air behind so Marisa called him and fortunately they were not too far away to come back and get it.  Boys! I then took Cody for a walk.

An Enthusiastic Chef

When I got home, we decided it was time to start the paella so Tyler started browning the chicken thighs.  We then had various steps, browning the chorizo, then sauteing the garlic and onion, adding tomatoes and saffron, simmering it, then the rice, simmering it for  a half hour, and towards the end, adding shrimp and cooking the entire paella for another 15 minutes.  We finished it off with parsley and viola, we had a paella, more work then we thought.

Dinner' Almost Ready

We sat down to dinner around 6:30 and had our paella with a salad and buttermilk sourdough bread.  I regret to say the paella was only average, not anything special, just a stew of chorizo, chicken and shrimp on top of rice.  Maybe we did something wrong but the flavors were just not distinct, just average.  We ended the evening with blueberry pie and ice cream, also just average and no where near as good as Portage Pie in Westfield.  And we watched a couple more selected episodes from The Office with Tyler and Marisa before going up to bed early again, around 10:00.