Hey guys!

First off…HAPPY MONDAY!!

Secondly, puh-leeeeease forgive me for getting so far behind on the blog. While I always look forward to reading each and every one of your beautiful comments, this weekend, I felt it was time to take a bit of a break…

If you follow me on Instagram and Twitter, you may have seen that I announced on Friday afternoon that I would be taking the next couple of days to unplug.

Well, that had EVERY bit to do with the fact that the man-friend and I have spent hardly ANY time together over the last few weeks (thank you Mr. Peg Leg!) and a LITTLE bit to do with this…

Ohmigod, FINALLY!! 

And I have to say, every bit of the weekend was absi-tively, posi-lutely..

FAN-TABU-MARVA-LA-ISTIC!

As always, a BIG thank you to Katie from Healthy Diva Life for giving us a reason to look forward to Mondays by getting to relive our favorite things from the weekend! <3

Seriously, there was SO much going on this weekend that it is just TOO much for one post, so I decided to just focus on the best of the best of the BEST…for today. Oh yeah, you better BELIEVE I’ll be raving about this weekend in the coming days/weeks!

You’ve officially been warned! 😉

Besides just being able to spend time with the man-friend, catching up with each other, enjoying the sun, the farmer’s market, and even some motorcycle riding, if I had to pick the MOST marvelous thing from this weekend, the one that “took the cake” (tee hee!) if you will, would be his friend’s wedding we attended on Saturday night! It was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL ceremony held at the Union Station Hotel with a small group of friends and a reception (and dinner) that was…

OUT.OF.THIS.WORLD!

We started with hors-d’oeuvres of assorted cheeses, crackers, and fruit, honeydew melon with proscuitto, Greek-inspired artichoke-topped crostinis, and the best ceviche I’ve ever tasted in my life…and that’s saying something since this was like my SECOND time having it! 😉

After nibbling and mingling for a bit, it was time for dinner…

I had pre-selected the halibut dish while the man-friend decided to go with the steak. Both were amazing, but FIRST, let’s talk about that salad…

Mixed greens including the bitter frisee (which I usually don’t like), tender poached pears with cinnamon spice, candied walnuts, sweet mandarin oranges, dried cranberries, and mine AND the man-friend’s serving of gorgonzola cheese!

The man-friend is in no way a fan of bleu cheese and I’ll be honest, I’ve never thought of myself as a lover of the stinky stuff…

Until NOW!!

Ahh, Meghan would be so proud! 😉

This was actually the first time I’d had halibut in over 10 years! I don’t know why, but it’s never really a fish I think to prepare at home….again, until now! I didn’t really care for the fried potato-cake topper, but the fish itself had a hearty consistency (almost like meat) and I swear to you, it tasted straight up like BUTTER! The veggies were crisp yet tender and the beurre blanc (basically butter sauce) was seasoned to perfection! And I thought it was a nice touch that they garnished the plate with a bit of roe.

The man-friend’s filet mignon was the epitome of a well-served steak…a slight chew on the outside, yet melt-in-your-mouth, ohmigod-I-don’t-even-have-to-chew-this consistency on the inside. It was topped with crispy fried onions and served with steamed patty pan squash, zucchini, carrots, and a thick and creamy portion of garlicky whipped potatoes all drizzled with a gravy that was practically* LICKED from the plate!

*That IS why they served us dinner rolls, no? 😉

And of course, WHAT would a wedding be without some cake and
a bit of bubbly?

I’ll be honest, I’m not a big cake fan since they are normally too sweet for my tastes and this one was no exception…but don’t worry, the man-friend took care of that while I focussed my attention on how to get bubbles to go straight to my brain! 😉

But seriously, can we just appreciate the beauty of this thing? I was IN LOVE with the bride’s color scheme!! 😀

The rest of the night was FULL of singing, dancing (although my sad contribution was a few shoulder sways and some jazz hands), and otherwise, just practicing the art of marvelosity! 😉

But as for the second part of this title, and perhaps the REASON this weekend was so great, has to do with a little Friday afternoon baking…

For COOK series of Heather’s MMAZ link up from last week, I had quite the selection of avocado recipes to choose from…

While I kinda wanted to make my Avocado Cabbage Sushi again (#noshame), I figured the fact that I just happened to have bought a blood orange the day before Laura posted her recipe for her Blood Orange Avocado Scones was clearly a sign.

And well, I’ve never been one to fight destiny! 😉

Although I couldn’t help but make a few tiiiiiiiiiny changes…I used almond extract in place of the vanilla butter and added about 1/2 cup dried cranberries to the batter!

Just so you know, I was texting Laura as I was making these…

Rainbow…yeah, that’s TOTALLY what I meant to say! 😉

Now, hop on over to Better with Veggies and see what recipes everyone else is RAINBOW raving about!

What was the MOST marvelous thing from your weekend?

Have you ever baked with avocado?
I promise, you can’t even taste it! 😀