Tempura for One

Happy Friday!!! And congrats to me for making it through two days of the work week after getting back from my Polynesian vacation with Husband. Phew! I'm still on Maui time....

Apart from being whacked out time zone wise, and needing something to occupy my Thursday evening besides the primetime Obama bobble head bantering on about "job creation"blah blah, I needed something fried to fill my tummy. Husband was out last night for some lawyerly thing and obviously that was ticket to some fried goodness for dinner.

And being that we are going to attempt to do a "cleanse" after I get back from New Orleans next weekend in order to rid ourselves of all the Hawaiian tiki drinks and restaurant eatery ingredients clogging our arteries, this was my last time to binge without Husband's evil eye scolding my battered and fried shrimps bobbing away in the fryer. Holler. I am smart. Smart to cook these babies when he's out...

Don't limit tempura to your sushi restaurant outings. It's way easy to DIY. I just used the box tempura mix you can find in the baking aisle at the grocery.

If I can batter and fry while being a jetlagged zombie wishing I was still 6 times zones behind, then you can do it while in your correct timezone.

Next up to tempura.....all those lobster tails still sitting in the freezer. Bonus!

Chop.

Batter.

Fry.

Overeat.

Birthday wishes

Yesterday was my birthday. My 28th to be exact. And while I'm not really a "birthday person," I did kind of love the little unexpected sweet wishes that came my way during the day.

More importantly, I was greeted at my desk by a monstrous Starbucks bag overflowing with Majorca Sweetbreads from my friend Chris.

If you haven't indulged in these so called Starbucks Sweetbreads, whoa are you missing out. Like BIG TIME. Sugared dough baked then covered with powdered sugar. Sinful. Heavenly. Oh sweet addiction, you've got me!

My friend Chris knows I'm addicted to this pastry and poor him, he's usually the innocent bystander victim when I arrive at the Starbucks too late in the afternoon when there are none left and I have a near nuclear meltdown in the Starbucks queue....daily.

Did I mention that I love Majorca Sweetbreads?

And happy Friday...... we're celebrating with a large dinner party and champagne tonight. Probably not smart considering we are flying to Maui tomorrow at 11 am. Husband and I totally overbook ourselves. And we love it. And I'm fueled by Majorca Sweetbreads apparently.

Hippie Style for Cocktails

I met a friend for free champagne night at Greenstreet in the Grove a week or two ago. It's a usual favorite. Bubbly in the boiling Miami heat. What could be more fun. Seriously. It's pretty damn fab.

Usually I have to peel myself off the couch on a Friday after work in order to have cocktails unless I head out for Happy Hour RIGHT after work. Unfortunately my 4:59'er attitude doesn't quite match up with my CPA friend's work schedule. Workaholics. Please.

In order to get myself giddy again after sitting in traffic and then watching the 5:30 evening news (which was no less chock full of the day's shootings and impending hurricane paths), I decided to put on a fun outfit.

Being that it is currently 300 degrees in Miami during August, I opted for all cotton. You know, the fabric of our lives. Hippie style in my Free People apricot shorts and Joie peasant top. Oooooh floaty. Just like how I felt after taking down 3 glasses of bubbly.....yummy.

It's Friday. Get floaty however you like to.

Orchids

There is a nice man that sells fresh flowers in work parking garage every Friday. Roses, daisies, orchids, you get the picture. I never have cash. I mean I like NEVER have cash. It's a disease. Or as my parents always tell me, "not safe in case of emergency." Ha!

Well now that we are on the subject of emergencies, I came across one last Friday at the end of a rather annoying "just came back from vacay" hellish week at work. Orchids! Gorgeous light pink, blushing cut orchids. 12 stems in all. God. I WANTED. Wanted them so badly that I did a double take on my way to the parking garage elevator. Then, like some kind of miraculous omen, I realized that husband had remembered to go to the bank and get us cash that day before. Hallelujah. This was some emergency indeed. An emergency in need of such attention that I stopped my car on the way out of the garage to purchase these beauties while backing up all the exiting traffic out of the garage (not something you want to do at 5 pm on Friday if you want to continue to have friends at the workplace). Shame.

Happy Friday. Buy some flowers on your way home from work today. I declare it an emergency you do so.