Brunch at 2pm at the Egg and I. A metric buttload of food between the two of us, he had one of those skillet scramble things with the veggies and the cheese and the eggs, I had eggs commodore (eggs benedict but with sausage) and we shared a kamikaze pancake (a multi-grain pancake with walnuts, bananas and blueberries, I wish they put the fruit in the pancake instead of on top). I doused everything in Chilula hot sauce. My problem with Chilula is that I want to call it Cthulhu and I am afraid that one day I will accidentally ask for it and they’ll bring me a bottle stuffed with the tentacled lord of evil.
And that would totally suck.
After brunch we met up with David’s friend, Kasey, and I learned to play canasta and I won! I only won because I have beginners luck, I always do well the first time I try something and then get worse at it. It was fun to learn, though.
Took the dogs to the dog park, but the ground has turned into one unending sheet of ice. There is no where you can walk there that is not completely slick and dangerous. We only stayed about 20 minutes, but it was enough to knock Ghengis out. We kept Maddie on the leash this time so we could keep her out of trouble. This worked out fine until I was too far away from her and David so she pulled her head out of her collar so she could run to me and be at my side. There was also a huskie there, not the same one involved in the previous fracas, but Ghengis seemed to remember it was a huskie and decided he was gonna bark and show him how tough he was. Try keeping dogs apart and behaved on a sheet of ice! Luckily, Ghengis just wanted to bark and not fight.
I started the scarf, the big scarf project. I really want this to turn out well, I got nice yarn in a great color but now I don’t think I like the pattern so much. I’m about 10 inches into it and it’s just not as nice as i would have liked. I’m going to grab another ball of yarn and start on another pattern and see if I like that better. I’m going to have to pull out this one I’ve already done anyway, I made a big mistake at the beginning and the farther along I get the more glaringly obvious it is. I mean I always make a mistake in my work and usually I don’t mind, they add character, but this one is actually affecting the way it lays down. Crap.
Aw well, such is the life of a crocheter. or something.
I’m gonna go make some molasses oat bread so we can eat muscadine jelly with it. Yum.
Category Archives: Delicious
tandoori linens
Sometimes the nicest things are the goofiest.
David did not feel well, he stayed home and in bed resting. On my way home I picked up Indian food. When I got home we had a picnic in bed, all cuddled in eating tikka masala and veggie vindaloo and papri chat.
And this picnic was a testament to ghengis’ good behavior. A year ago he would hae ripped the bed apart to get the food, today he employed the more subtle “cute little fella” face.
Is a nice kind of date to have with someone.
who got a bread maker
I got a bread maker! And this is what I learned…
1) Do not set the delayed baking action timer to have the bread ready for you in the morning if you have two dogs who live only to protect you from loud kitchen demons. When the machine starts, they’ll freak, bark, run, growl and eventually lay on you.
2) don’t use yeast that is almost 3 years expired. If you do you will wake up to a very hard lump that smells like bread but is in every other way a breadlike stone.
3) it is a joy to make bread with a machine!
After my bread-lump disaster I headed to the store and bought new yeast. I made a loaf of focaccia to give to my dad to thank him for the machine and to thank him for driving me to the airport at 5 in the morning. Currently, I have a loaf of egg bread going in the machine. I hope the dog sitter likes egg bread!
When I get back I’ll make cinnamon rolls and focaccias and oatmeal molasses bread and cardamom, raisin, walnut bread….
HAPPY HAPPY
Last night was the maternal side of the family Christmas Dinner! I am officially exhausted.
* Cheese plate with Mirableu sheep’s milk blue from spain, Humboldt Fog chevre from California and an Irish cow’s milk cheddar. Whole grain and rosemary breads, olives, jams and truffles.
* Salad of mixed greens with roasted pears, roasted sweet potato, mirableu cheese, toasted walnuts and a spiced sherry vinaigrette.
* Bouillabaisse! I used the New York Times recipe, the recipe my mom uses. I followed it mostly, but was a tad heavy handed with the wine and used crab instead of lobster as I did not have the wherewithal to deal with a lobster. For David I made a tomato and bean soup with potatoes, carrots and kale.
* Dessert was a gingerbread trifle, the recipe was made up in my head the day before. Gingerbread drizzled with ginger syrup*, layered with chopped apple, pear, walnuts and dates (thanks to alex for suggesting the dates, they were a hit), the fruit had been mixed with some ginger syrup as well as fresh ginger, ground cardamom and allspice. Also in the layering was spiced (cardamom, nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon) whipped cream. The trifle seemed to be well liked.
My favorite gift of the evening was the definitive Dinosaur pop-up book!! OH MY GOD. This thing is just beautiful.
the flip side of everything is that I have 4.2 metric buttloads of dishes to wash. Sigh. I also have a healthy serving of bouillabaisse left over just for me!
*Ginger Syrup
Two thumbs worth of ginger, peeled and matchsticked
one cup sugar
one cup water
mix together, bring to boil. Simmer for 10 or 15 minutes, let cool. Strain. Also good mixed with vodka and lemon sour for a refreshing drink.
dirty
Yesterday, at the grocery store I was buying the required yogurts which I am supposed to add to my diet as the doctor freaked at how little calcium I ingested compared to how much acidic stuff I took in (lots of strong coffee and tea and usually one diet coke a day). Eventually, my bones will turn rubbery and my heart will beat erratically and I will die.
So I am on a strict regiment of calcium pills (okay I only take one a day, not the 2 she recommended) and I am to add yogurt to my daily diet to start adding calcium. I am supposed to also be adding cheese, but then we start getting into very expensive territory for me.
So, as I said, I was getting my yogurts for the week, most of them being the Blue Bunny Light 85 fat free/sugar free varieties to keep my caloric intake down. Of course, explaining to David was immediately followed with a query to him, “DO YOU LIKE EGG NOG?????”. So obviously I am not all that serious about the calorie thing.
Down the aisle they had the special, organic, hippie, moon yogurts. The Stonyfield Farms Fat Free Chocolate Underground yogurt was there! Wooo. This is good stuff, it’s like ‘fruit on the bottom’ yogurt except it’s more like ‘pudding on the bottom’, chocolate pudding!
But here’s the problem. Whenever I read the name “Chocolate Underground” I imagine the marketing dude in charge of naming the products. He did a great job with Banilla, that’s a great name for something, but chocolate underground? I’m pretty sure this guy and his assistant did…something… the night before, made a joke, “dude, we tunneled the chocolate underground” laughed really hard and then went to work the next day. As an inside joke and a gift to his assistant, he slapped the name on the yogurt and the rest is cooler case history.
It’s what I imagine happened. I could be wrong.