work…clean…plan…cook. That’s it right now.
An aunt and an uncle come in to town tonight for the party this weekend. I suspect that with the snow that came through, their travels will be a tad delayed, but maybe I will get to see them. If not I am going to spend the day tomorrow iwht my aunt Sue catching up on old times and cooking together.
So much cleaning to do. So not excited about it.
menu update…(not that I really think you’re interested…)
Veggie plate has been replaced with lettuce wraps as demand for the lettuce wraps was overwhelming
I decided the salmon will be served as smoked salmon and roasted sweet potato on curried mascarpone on crostini.
I may not do a big ham but do either ham stuffed croissants or puff pastry crocque monsieur. Everything else being served is finger food, able to be picked up directly off the platter. Serving up a ham with rolls requires things to be cut, added to rolls, condiments served…etc. It messes with the flow AND takes up too much space. Essentially, with this many people in such a small space, we need to keep people moving. Slicing ham and building little sandwiches would cause back up.
Okay, I’m off to round up the boy and clean. damn.

Why I like David so much, #456,983 in a series:
One plain frozen cheese pizza begging to be dressed up. On one side he adds golden raisins, sliced bananas, vindaloo and garam masala. On the other half he puts onion/garlic pistachios, artichoke spread, sliced boiled egg and spicy paprika.
It sounds terrible. If he’d mentioned it to me before he made it I would have given him the look.
But he experiments and you know what? Both sides were good! Weird in their own way, but very good.
I like that David experiments and the experiments turn out so well.

On we go with the party planning. Tentative menu is as follows:
* Spiced ham with rolls
* Salmon and lemon cream crostini
* Crostini with hazelnut pesto and roasted butternut squash
* Croissants stuffed with feta/dill/spinach and/or curried veggies
* Mini crabcakes with cilantro cream
* Veggie sushi
* Stuffed strawberries
* Veggie platter with dip (dip suggestions or ideas? hummus?)
* Cheese plate with 2 kinds of homemade bread, olives, spiced nuts, homemade cherry ginger jam
I’m still tweaking it. I’m still contemplating the lettuce wraps.
In non-food related news, I think I am destined to live a life with dogs who constantly have ear infections (of course it would help if I stopped adopting shar-peis and shar-pei mixes). I looked over at Hippo Head Jones when I got home and was greeted with a sore red ear. Damn. Crocodile Bob’s ear infection cleared up fine. It’s always with the ears. it’s always with the icky Q-Tips and the tube of goo. Luckily the vet gave me extra ear meds so I don’t have to keep coming in.
I’m making congee for our lunches. I should be making bread but I don’t feel like washing measuring cups.

We had the COZIEST weekend! Friday night I made veggie molé burritos, he played his zombie game and I worked on a new scarf for a coworker.
Saturday I got up early and met the Minnesota Jam Queen for breakfast. I ate the absolute BEST swedish pancakes I’d ever had. I could write poems about these things, light, decadently eggy without being dense, perfect. I was in heaven. Afterward we headed over to Penzeys for some much needed spice shopping. I’ve got my trips down to once a year. Mostly I just pick up replacement spices and herbs. I picked up some sweet curry and some of their chili con carne spice. Both of these have a lot of flavor without any heat. I appreciate that because it means I can make a dish to any heat level. I picked up some sanaam peppers (which have a medium heat rating) to use to heat things up as I need to. I also own their ground chipotle powder which is wonderfully smokey, but as such is kin dof limited in its application. It’s just not right in curries.
I kept my haul pretty low, though I did manage to fill a whole bag.
We then made a quick stop at the grocery store where I picked up three bags of flour to feed my bread machine addiction. 2 bags of bread flour and one whole wheat. I wanted to get some whole grains, but Kowalski’s, while hip and happy, is not so much into the whole grain thing. The few whole grain mixes and flours they had were exceptionally overpriced. I need to head over to the co-op and freak the bulk bin section.
The last stop was Brianno’s where we picked up the most delightful basil vinaigrette.
I got home and whipped up a quick lunch of sliced italian bread with the basil vinaigrette and tomatoes for the boy and I.
Then it hit. I’d noticed that the sausage with my breakfast was a tad underdone. I didn’t mind, I don’t get freaked out over the things that are a tad underdone. I know for as much as people freak, a little undercooked pork isn’t going to kill you. It will, however, give you an oogly belly for the rest of the day. I slid into bed around 3 hoping to sleep it off. Got up around 6:30 and knew it wasn’t going away. It wasn’t terrible, it was just unbalancing. So, I sent David out on his own to chill with his friends and I watched season two of Sealab 2021 while crocheting.
Before I went to bed I set up the bread machine with a loaf to be ready by 10:30 in the morning.
This morning we awoke to the lovely scent of fresh bread filling the house. After some lazy sunday morning cuddling, is there anything better than cuddling up with a boy and two dogs? on the most comfortable bed in the world?! It’s like you’re a little snuggle bunny and the whole world is working on keeping you warm and happy.
When I finally did extricate myself from the happy rumple, I went to make coffee and get the bread ready. David soon joined me and I got breakfast on the table. Fresh, hot bread, slathered with butter and the Jam Queen’s very own Cherry jam. So delicious. I’m a big fan of cherry jams and I like this one a lot as it’s not too sweet and it’s crammed full of cherries.
Over breakfast the Jam Queen and I discussed jam making. I have ideas for making jams and chutneys, things that would be very different and creative. The thing is, I’m afraid to preserve or can any of these things as I do not want to kill anyone. She assured me that I could not kill anyone with fruit jams and explained the various processes to me. It’s fairly easy and I feel confident enough to get started. I may not be super creative or confident, but the one thing I am good at in the kitchen is combining unlikely flavors. I can throw in an ingredient that is super subtle but would round out the high notes of a dish so you end up with a more full bodied flavor. I add different seasonings to things that will ‘sound’ at different moments so you’ll taste say something citrus, then cinnamon, then some ginger, then maybe the slow heat of a pepper.
I want to utilize this skill and make some jams, both sweet and savory.
I’ll keep you posted on the progress, I won’t tell you all the flavors I have in mind. If they don’t turn out I won’t tell you about them.
This afternoon I sent David to the store while I cleaned the kitchen and when he returned I made dinner. I made a 3 bean chili with fake meat (one of my dishes that showcases the way that I manipulate flavors) along with a loaf of jalapeño cheddar bread. Dinner was good and I have enough of everything to pack lunches for both of us.
Please note that I made two loaves of bread in a day. this is the problem with having a bread machine, you eat too damned much bread and butter.
After dinner I made a curly scarf for a certain little girl and I am searching for maybe a complimentary purse pattern.
An uneventful dog walk and now I am up way too late. This was my cozy weekend with the boy. It was so relaxing I really don’t want it to end.

Crap crap crap! Crap on a crap cracker!
My house REEKS of garlic. I mean offensively so. I’m so a-tarded. I went to go make a loaf of bread in the machine, I was thinking something savory to counterpoint the molasses oat bread of yesterday, so I settled on an olive oil, rosemary, garlic bread. I only had 2 cups of flour left (must go to store and buy bread flour, wheat flour, sugar, beer, ice cream, apples) so I had to make a smaller loaf.
David likes garlic. He loves garlic. I am firmly on the fence (ha!) with garlic. I do enjoy a bit of garlic now and then, a touch of garlic flavor is nice. I do not like things that taste strongly of garlic and I am super paranoid about smelling of garlic. I wanted to make a good bread that David would like so I just kept crushing cloves of garlic and throwing them in.
It’s the halfway point on the kneading cycle, we’re not even to baking and I think I made a terrible mistake. The warmth of the machine has drawn out the scent of the garlic and it permeates everthing. If it weren’t so damned cold out, I’d go site in the car.