Saturday smells like...Bacon...and Chili...and Pancakes...and Bread Pudding

Today was a fabulously relaxing day--just what I've been needing.  After sleeping in a bit, then running to church for a quick errand, J and I settled into creating a grocery list and planning the rest of our day.  We spent the early afternoon at the Athens Schoolhouse Antique Show (you'll read more about that tomorrow), then we ran to Lowe's, and then we headed to Aldi for some grocery shopping.  (Side story:  For the last three to four weeks, I've been the primary grocery shopper, and I think I can finally relate to women who don't take their husbands shopping.  I've been incredibly successful at shopping within budget without J, but found myself using up our entire budget of $50 for the week, plus $8 that was left over from last week!  To be fair, much of what we purchased was meat, and much of what we purchased will last us into next week, too.)

After we got home from Aldi, the cooking commenced.  I cannot even describe to you how yummy our house smells today!  October is J's month to prepare breakfast at church, and it isn't enough for him to pick up bagels and fruit.  Each week this month he has prepared an egg casserole or two, and today was no different (the egg casserole has to be prepped the day before cooking).  In addition to the egg casserole, though, he decided to make pancakes and bread pudding.  Here's a shot of him with the filled pancake pens after making his batter:

It helps if you say "Go!" with the first picture and "Pancake!" with second to get the full appreciation of what was happening here.  I'm not sure what led to the pancake cheer, but it looked pretty cute.  Oh, and that is dried thinset on his shirt from last year's bathroom reno, not flour or pancake batter.  The bread pudding was made using raisin bread that was left over from last week's breakfast, and I think it is going to be pretty delicious!

After he finished preparing everything for Sunday's church breakfast, J moved on to making chili for the week and later, supper for me.  The chili was tasty, but the sandwich was simply amazing!  I'm mentioned before that J is pretty awesome at taking a basic idea and making it gourmet, and this is one of those cases.  I asked for "grilled cheese".  I got a pan grilled sandwich with a little sea salt on the outside, filled with melted provolone, finely diced red onion, and (best part of all) lightly peppered bacon.  The entire thing was so incredibly savory and delicious!  Together with a bowl of chili, this was just an awesome fall supper.