Adios for Now

This may be my last blog for awhile. We've had our breakfast and will be boarding ship (the Celebrity Century) after some last-minute site-seeing and lunch. Internet connection on board ship is a whopping 65 cents per minute which any dedicated web-surfer knows could mount up quickly.

Tomorrow we'll be in Cartagena Spain. Then a day-long stop at Gibraltar (UK) followed by a day at sea. Then we'll have 3 busy days with port stops and tours at Madeira Portugal, and Tenerife and LaPalma in the Canary Islands. Then those glorious 7 days at sea between disembarking in Miami and flying home.

I've missed cooking this last week, but I have beadwork and a good book with me, so hopefully I can do something creative during these next 2 weeks. I've missed making stuff very much these last many months.

Oh yes! Our Los Osos house is now on the market again, listed on Realtor.com as a new listing. We still don't know exactly what happened to our old buyer. Who knows, maybe there will be another offer soon and we'll be back in escrow by the time we get home. Hope springs eternal.

Carry on!

Architecture Day in Barcelona

After cafes con leche at our favorite nearby morning coffee spot (after 2 days here we have one), it was off via subway to Antoni Gaudi and friends' great Modernist masterpiece, The Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia. I've seen it and I still don't believe it. The interior is the most beautiful man-made thing I've ever experienced. In the works for over 100 years, it still isn't finished. Might be in another 10 to 30 years. Then we walked to Gaudi's Casa Batllo, perhaps more famous in the US for its whimsical facade. Casa Lleo Morera and Casa Amatller, the facades of which are other examples of Modernist architecture, are nearby. Then we moved on to La Pedrera, Gaudi's wavey apartment and office block where 5 families still live, although a good part of the building is open for the public. You can hang out on the roof, explore an exhibit about his work in the attic, and wander through one of the light and breezy residential apartments.

Sometime in there we squeezed in a rather non-descript lunch somewhere and, later, an equally non-descript coffee at Bracafe (at least I can remember the name of that place). Back in "our neighborhood" we found papabubble, a little shop where some delightful young people hand-make hard candy which they, in the eternally fractured English we find everywhere, insist on calling "caramels artensans." Artesanel, yes. Caramels, no. Of course we bought a bag of their offerings. Yum!

Dinner brought us back to Origens where we ate last night. What can I say? We love the place, the wait staff and the food. We shared a lentil salad. Randy ordered duck with peaches, while I dined on meatballs (more like a handmade sausage) and eggplant. Randy had almond cake with his espresso, while I stuck to a goat cheese "thing" slathered in walnuts and honey.

Would you believe that we walked even more and farther today than yesterday? And Randy isn't dead yet. He isn't even in a wheelchair. Man of steel.

Tomorrow we'll go to the Picasso Museum which is nearby. It mostly charts his earlier works since his later stuff is everywhere on the planet these days. Maybe lunch at Origens again? Then we board our cruise ship to s-l-o-w-l-y wend our way back to Miami. Oh joy. There are 5 port stops, if I remember correctly, the first week and then nothing but a solid uninterrupted week at sea. With food and a spa. And a butler. We'll have a butler. Oh joy.

Exploring Barcelona

Poor Randy. His knee is really bothering him. Still, he insists on walking, walking, walking all over Barcelona. With several rest stops, we had an enjoyable day, although I'll admit it didn't start for me until nearly noon. I slept. All this walking tires me, even if he's brave in the face of pain.

We started with the Museu D'Historia De Barcelona. It's one of the loveliest history musems I've ever seen, built in and around ancient Roman ruins and early historical buildings. Fascinating and beautiful.

After which we had a tapas (tostas, actually, to be precise) lunch at Evinia. I took photos of the tapas there yesterday, they're so attractive, so I was delighted to be able to lunch there today.

After that we walked. And walked. And walked. Stumbled on a huge shop selling made-in-Spain (and Portugal) dishes where we purchased 6 little tapas plates. Our souveneir of the trip. (Later note: that would be Art Escudellers at www.escudellers-art.com.) And then we walked. And walked. Explored 2 large fresh fruit/vegetable/meat/cheese/seafood markets. And walked. And walked. And stopped for coffee. And walked. And walked. And went back to our room for a rest because it was still too early to eat dinner.

Dinner was a Catalonian Alice Waters locavore delight. The restaurant is called "Origens." Check them out at www.lallavordelsorigens.com. They specialize in local seasonal ingredients and regional cuisine. Their menu is an entire magazine describing and educating the customer in all manner of food and related topics, including marvelous fractured-English descriptions of their offerings. The young wait staff is lots of fun. The food is good, if not great, and the entire experience was perhaps the best we've had here, especially since it tied right into my own explorations of locavore food and cooking. We may well eat dinner there tomorrow night, too.

So, Happy Thanksgiving to you all! And to all, a good night!

Barcelona

Honestly, nothing we ate today is worth mentioning. So I won't. But I was thinking about food all day -- half the photos I took were of food. Mouth-watering displays of tapas, chocolates enough to kill, meringues piled high in cupcake papers. I did have a "Spanish cake" with my afternoon cappucchino. Also called a Magdalena, it was a muffin-sized madelaine. I wonder, can I bake these myself?

(One thing: coffee at Restaurante Hegar in the Plaza Mayor before leaving Madrid. Notable for the facts that we coffeed with several dozen Madrid police officers, and that the barman looked like a young Sylvester Stallone.)

We took the high-speed train to Barcelona, a 3-hour trip. Just like my first train experience in China, it put me sound asleep. Like a baby being rocked to dreamland. I missed most of the countryside.

Our Barcelona hotel is a more modern place and a tad more spacious than in Madrid, nearly as large as my closet at home. It's half-price now for the off-season, so I'm not griping. Food and lodging in Europe is now ghastly expensive.

We wandered around the old section of town, which is the most interesting. Narrow cobbled streets crammed after 5 with locals and tourists, noticeably way more tourists than in the old section of Madrid. The first highlight was the Barcelona Cathedral. It's a genuine gothic cathedral with more and more-ornate side chapels than I've seen anywhere. The second highlight was an evening concert of Spanish guitar music: Manuel Gonzalez in a chapel of the Basilica Santa Maria Del Pi. An early concert by Spanish standards, starting at 9:00 p.m.

Otherwise, Randy's knee (torn meniscus) is a mess. And the sale of our old house appears to have fallen apart. Our realtor has put it back on the market. From the beginning I imagined this would happen since buyer's father is running the show and he's a major PITA, seemingly more interested in playing games than in actually helping his adult son buy a house. Oh well.

Now for some much needed sleep....

Museum Hopping in Madrid

We were up and out the door early this morning since the Prado opens at 9:00. Our favorite little breakfast place wasn't yet doing business when we arrived so we ate at a chain cafe, "Cafe & Te," nearby. With my brilliant Spanish I managed to order a cappuccino and a slice of cheesecake! Not the worst possible breakfast when you think about it.

A lovely stroll away, partly through a construction site, is the Museo Nacional Del Prado, one of the world's great art collections. Among other things, there are acres of Spanish paintings. Think El Greco, Ribera, Murillo, and Velazquez. There are over 100 Goyas and I'm pretty sure we saw most of them. Lots of other paintings you would instantly recognize, too, like Bosch's "The Garden of Earthly Delights." The holdings take you up to the end of the 19th century. We had lunch at the museum cafe, one of the best meals we've had here. Fruit! There was fruit! Fresh fruit! Jamon and melon.

Then on to the nearby Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum where I wanted to see the impressionists and post-impressionists especially. I was a little disappointed in the collection, but it was still fun. I think I most enjoyed the fauvist paintings and the modernists.

We were both in pretty pitiful condition after nearly 10 hours on stone floors and concrete sidewalks, but we made it to Faborit, Spain's answer to Starbuck's, for coffee and refreshments. After a great deal of debate on the way back to the area of our hotel, we decided just to dine on tapas at Mercado San Miguel again. It was the right decision. Since we were early (7:30 p.m.) we had no trouble finding standing room at the olive bar. We bought iberian jamon sliced paper thin, more of the seafood tapas we had last night, 2 euros worth of assorted olives, 2 little bread things (one was a chile empanada; the other had cheese), and 2 different cheese slices. Randy had wine while I reprised last night's fresh lemonade. Even though we ate standing up at the olive bar, we left feeling quite refreshed and relaxed. And stuffed.

In 2.5 days one can't even put the barest scratch into the surface of Madrid. It's a terrific city for tourists. There is so much street life! It's clean, safe, friendly and helpful. Although it's rather more modern than many European cities, there is still plenty of interesting architecture and dozens of museums of various kinds. This was a good time of year to come, jacket weather, although bullfight season ends in October.

Tomorrow we take the high-speed train to Barcelona.

Site-Seeing on a Bad Knee in Madrid

Randy's idea of travel is to walk up and down every single street in any given city. We pretty much did that today, although hampered by his bad knee. We did take in the Catedral de Nuestra Senora de la Almudena after breakfast. It's Madrid's version of the gigantic gothic cathedral, but wasn't built until the 1880s and finished just in 1992, so the religious art is quite modern and ornamentation rather minimal. Interesting nonetheless. Then we took the 20-room tour of the Palacio Real, the royal palace initiated by Felipe V, the first of Spain's Bourbon kings. It has 2800 rooms in all, but only 1/4 of what the original plans called for. Some rooms are still used for state functions, but the royals today live elsewhere in much more modest digs. The rooms have some beauty, and admirable craftsmanship, but are basically an exercise in wretched excess. Not to be missed in case you haven't seen many palaces. And I haven't.

We lunched at Cafe Vergara, selected totally at random. Randy's knee needed a sit-down. I had gazpacho (excellent), shrimp with garlic (good) and apple tart (so-so). Randy had a Spanish soup of some sort and sirlion with fries (Spanish fries?). Then we walked until the knee and its owner wiped out. He was so desperate to sit that we landed in a Starbuck's where he promptly fell asleep, poor thing. We walked back to the Hotel Plaza Mayor for a proper rest and then went out for more walking and a tapas dinner at Mercado San Miguel. It looks like the Mercado was supposed to be a neighbor grocery market of the upscale sort, but it has evolved into a very large tapas bar. It is THE place to be in the area. It really is lots of fun.

I'm totally intrigued by this whole tapas concept. Bought a cookbook of authentically Spanish recipes at the Palace gift shop, although I've seen a few American tapas cookbooks in the area, too. This is not the first time I've travelled out of North America, but I certainly have a whole new set of ideas about how people relate to food in various countries as a result of my recently TAOSF adventures and this mere 2-day visit to Madrid. It's all about respecting food and eating. Which Americans don't. If we did, we wouldn't be eating high-fructose corn syrup and all the other junk we eat in massive quantities. Not that this is a black-and-white matter, of course. We're eating plenty of seafood on this trip (like our whole tapas dinner tonight), but there's the issue of sustainable fisheries. For example, salmon is now a luxury where we live, but it's on every single menu here, as common as potatoes. Where are the Spanish getting all this salmon? Nothing's easy and no one seems to have all the answers.

More tomorrow!

Eating in Madrid

Yessiree, I'm blogging in Madrid! I love these beautiful old cities. Wish you all, whoever you are, were here with us to enjoy the scene and the scenery.

The flight(s) were unremarkable. American Airlines still feeds you on the way, but airline food hasn't improved a bit. Nor has my ability to sleep on a flight. I made up for that with 14 solid hours of zzzzzs last night. Now my body is pretty much rested and on local time. Long flights east-bound are tough since you arrive in the morning most of time, after a crappy night on the plane. Long flights west-bound I can live with since you usually arrive at night and can crawl right into bed when you get to your hotel.

Yesterday's highlight was the tappas bar crawl in our neighborhood around Plaza Mayor. It's like a giant singles bar. With food. It isn't easy to even get into a restaurant or bar, they're all so crowded. Great people watching. We lunched at La Peonza, one of many, many, many such establishments. We had sangria and cola, croquetas caseras, huevos manchegos, and tosta salmon with parmesan. All delicious! The ham here (jamon) is especially wonderful, not at all like ham that we know in the states. I intend to eat as much of it as possible.

We breakfasted at La Mallorquina this morning. I had a little jamon sandwhich on a bun. Randy had a chocolate croissant. And cafe con leche with sugar, of course, for us both. This establishment is a bakery and confectionary. You order and eat standing up at a coffee bar. It's so wonderful and so civilized. Food is respected here, as is dining in general. We've lost that in the USA, lost that simple respect for food and dining. No wonder Alice Waters gets so much flack from so many quarters.

Well, I'll bring my camera with me today as we're out and about and will take some photos to post when we're home. We are off to the palace this morning. Probably this will still be a relatively low-key day. Randy's knee, of course, still bothers him, and all those hours on the plane flights didn't do my back much good. But, who cares! We're in Madrid! I do hope some one somewhere is reading this and will comment, just so I know you're all there.

Ciao bella! Ooops, wrong country. Buenos dias!

Baba's Cafe

Spent the morning finishing packing and tying up yet more loose ends before departure. Randy had one last meeting at 2:30 so I had scheduled a pedicure for 2:00. Heaven. Pedicures are heaven. My color? OPI's "Barefoot in Barcelona." After which we grabbed lattes and hit the road to LAX. We're spending the night at the Hacienda which has stay-and-park for LAX. It's practically our home-away-from-home.

Dinner on the way was at Ali Baba's Mediterranean Cuisine Cafe in Newbury Park. I know it well since it's in the same strip mall as one of my favorite bead shops, Creative Castle. My friend Laurel and I make the trip down to Creative Castle about once a year or so for a beadwork class. We invariably get lunch take-out from Baba's Cafe. It's the standard fare: shawarmas and falafels and tabbouleh and such. Always good, although not quite up to the standard of Jaffa's Cafe in San Luis Obispo. The folks at Baba's are always kind and cheerful. Tonight Randy and I shared the Dinner For Two: chicken and beef shawarma, falafels, rice, salad and pitas. Good road food, familiar and comforting. Also VERY garlicky!! Yum!

Believe it or not, I miss cooking. I found myself one or twice or thrice this morning thinking, "Now, what shall I make for dinner?" Before remembering that I wouldn't be cooking for awhile. I had to settle for watching the assistant chef at Baba's cut carrots for a minute or two. Hey! I learned something! He cut them into very long diagonals, all evenly sized for even cooking, of course. Good knife skills, too.

If you have a Big Lots nearby, check the shelves for Starbuck's Chai Truffles. They are fabulous. Creamy, melty with that aromatic spice blend we love so well. Sort of reminds me of a good pumpkin pie baking.

Next time you hear from me, it will probably be from Madrid.

Prelude to New Adventures

Well, it was just leftovers and weird stuff in the frig for lunch today. No cooking. No time for that because today was a glorious run-up to New Adventures!

First I packed and tied up numerous loose ends in preparation for our Big Trip. Tomorrow we drive to LA. Saturday we fly out of LAX to Madrid. After 3 nights there we take the high speed train to Barcelona for 3 nights. Then onto a cruise ship for 2 glorious weeks. After stops in Cartegena, Gibraltar, Madeira, Tenerife and LaPalma, we have 7 -- count them: 7! -- uninterrupted days at sea before docking in Miami and flying/driving back home.

Getting ready for a Big Trip always stresses me so much that I find it impossible to get excited. Maybe that's a good thing. Anyway, I've a bunch of cooking-related reading to take along. And a couple of beading projects so, hopefully, I can get some Making Stuff accomplished. I certainly won't ever be bored. I'm curious to see if we have any fabulous, inspiring food on the trip. I'll let you know.

My other Big Adventure is that I will be serving on the Board of Directors of North County Humane Society next year. I've volunteered and worked at NCHS off and on for many years. I haven't had time to do so the last couple of years because we've been so busy with house construction. Now I live just a couple miles from the shelter. I've long planned to get involved again once we were in the new house, but I never thought I'd start that re-involvement by being Vice President of the Board! I'm excited. The Board is great. The staff is great. The cats are great. We do great work in our community on little or no money. (We're totally privately funded.) I attended my first Board meeting tonight, although it's still the "old" Board. I was so impressed. I love these people and their devotion to the animals.

Well, now I'm just babbling. For the time being, adios. I'll blog if I can while away, and I'll be back to cooking in 3+ weeks!

Day 35 - A New Sauce

Mushroom Ragu (pg. 228)

Pasta

It's in the sauce chapter! Alice says, "This is a rich, deep-flavored pasta sauce, like Bolognese - but meatless." Indeed, it would be a feast for vegetarians. And it was a feast for us. I wasn't paying total attention and forgot to chop the mushrooms after cooking them. It was okay. To me, it was obvious that top-quality ingredients would really make a difference in the end product. My carrot was mediocre at best. It would have been fun to have a more exotic blend of mushrooms. I had a bag of sliced brown and a bag of sliced white. Guess what!? The ultimate product was still delicious. Rich and deep-flavored just as Alice said. I made the version with peas. Alas, frozen. Not a purist. I am not a purist.

Randy and I brought up the very, very, very LAST items from the storage locker! Even though there is a lot of work ahead in unpacking everything and finding homes-within-our-home for it all, I am thrilled that all of our stuff is here. We're just one more (giant) step closer to being settled in. We also took a whole lot of cardboard to the recycling center, and ate lunch at Fig. I had a lovely lamb sandwich with fig chutney. Now I want to make about a gallon of fig chutney!

I'm all caught up on laundry, and have "cat-proofed" my closet a little better. Hannah Marie Pearl, our little white green-eyed feral angel, loves to sleep at night high up on the closet shelves. Which is okay except that everything up there tends to get coated with short white furs. So I'm trying to make special places for Pearl to hang out, thus discouraging her from sleeping everywhere.

And, I'm feeling sad tonight. A little. I've gotten a new report about my mother. It isn't good. It's never good. And there isn't a thing I can do about it. It's a long story. Just upsetting. Just upsetting.

Now I'm going to reveal a "secret". Day after tomorrow, Randy and I are going to Madrid for a few days, then Barcelona for a few more. In Barcelona we will board a cruise ship and spend 2 weeks at sea back to Miami. A very well earned trip. It will be pretty low key as Randy continues to nurse his damaged knee and I continue to (hopefully) heal my neck and butt. That's fine with me. We need to recuperate from all the stress and hard work we've undergone. Hopefully, when we get back we'll have our lives back. Of course, this means putting my cooking project on hold for 3 weeks. It also means that I can take some "making stuff" projects with me to work on, at least for that last entire week totally at sea.

I also plan on getting back to photography for my blog when we get back. Seriously.

Life is good.

24 recipes completed, with 281 challenges to come -- bring 'em on!

Day 34 - Conquering Fear of Fish

Fish in Breadcrumbs (pg. 124)

Beet Greens with Gorgonzola

Leftover Marinated Beets

Olives

I LOVE fish! If someone else is cooking it. Like meat, I thought you had to make a pact with the devil to know how to cook fish. Well, one of the points of this project is to overcome all my food and cooking fears. Fish. Yes. I must confront fish.

For my first fish encounter I decided on (frozen) "pacific red snapper" (there is no such thing really) from Trader Joe's. I know, I know. Frozen. But fish is expensive. In case I had blown it, I didn't want to be putting $20.00 worth of fresh fish down the disposal. I pan-fried this stuff (rock fish? cod?) since I've had success with pan frying meat up until now (pork, beef and venison). Yeah, baby! It was pretty good. Just a tiny bit overcooked, perhaps, but better that than undercooked. Alice has you dredge the fillets in flour, then in egg, and finally in fine bread crumbs. Her secret then, is to chill them (they can't touch) in the frig for an hour for the crumbs to "dry." Well, whatever, you do end up with a perfect coating. I fried in canola oil and butter.

The beet greens? Just because I'm swimming in a sea of them. Unfortunately, I hadn't washed them off as well as I thought I had and they were somewhat gritty. Fortunately, I got most of the gritty part. Randy loved 'em. Alice isn't thrilled about beet stems, but I've found that you can use all the parts of the beet successfully. I learned this while we subscribed to a CSA in our former community.

Otherwise, I spent the day running various errands. I have just a few items to get out of the storage locker and then everything we own (except our old house) will be here in/at the new house. Yeah!!! A good, productive day. And it was a gorgeous day here, too.

23 recipes completed; 282 recipes to explore

Day 33 - My First Lunch for Guests

So what's the difference between a lunch and a luncheon? I served one of those to our old neighbors who brought Randy's little sailboat up to the new house. (Anyone want a little sailboat? Cheap?) It was fun to give them a tour of the house and property, even though our bathroom is still torn up (so is the balcony above now) while the project manager searches for the elusive leak.

Chard Frittata (reprised from November 3rd)

Light Rye Bread made in the Zojurushi bread machine

Marinated Beet Salad (pg. 244)

Mixed Greens with Vinaigrette

Chocolate truffles and meyer lemon cookies from Trader Joe's

The beets were marinated in rasberry white balsamic vinegar and walnut oil. I don't know if that was the best combination. I think the walnut oil, even though Alice recommends it, was lost. I need to try another batch with 1/2 using walnut oil and 1/2 using olive oil. They were delicious. Even the 2 beet dislikers liked them. The mixed greens including spicy mustard greens. Vinaigrette was lemon juice and olive oil.

As soon as our guests left I raced down the hill to retrieve another load from the storage locker. I'm a woman on a quest. And I'm tired. I'm going to watch Dancing With The Stars tonight while I knit another scarf.

My butt and neck X-rays revealed nothing amiss with the bones. So I'll have to give it some time, assuming it's a soft tissue injury and will clear up on its own. I hope.

22 recipes completed; 283 recipes yet to complete

Day 32 - Work, Movie and Leftovers

Started the day by organizing all the stuff in my closet. When we moved in, I just threw everything into drawers and on shelves. Since my closet holds all my clothes, plus sheets and towels, some rearranging from that state of chaos was mandatory. Kitties helped of course. Nicholas, for example, inspected each drawer. What dear little helpers....

We brought up 2 loads of boxes from the storage locker, followed by grease and chocolate at In-And-Out Burger. I stopped and got another load on the way to see 2012. Pretty cheesy, but cool special effects, which is why I went. The opening destruction-of-southern-California sequence was like a Disneyland ride. Think Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. I love that stuff.

After a side trip to Trader Joe's on the way home, we munched on leftovers. I found the last bit of beef stew in the back of the frig and added some mixed frozen vegetables (forgive me, Alice). We finished off the bread with slathers of goat cheese and olive oil. Randy made a mixed greens salad. I'm determined to use up as many perishables as possible before we leave on our vacation Friday. A serious planning challenge.

My other Big Objective is to empty the storage locker before we leave. We brought up 3 loads today. I'm guesstimating 4 more loads will do the job. Maybe with a smallish 5th load. Everything won't get unpacked until we return of course, but I can live with that. I'm just tired of paying rent on the locker, formerly lockers. Tired, too, of having the hauling job hanging over my head.

Nothing new with the house sale. The buyer needs to request an escrow extension and hasn't done so since they ran into trouble Tuesday. Our realtor is getting impatient. I'm predicting they will walk. Stay tuned for further exciting adventures.

Have a good week, Loyal Readers. Provided there are any Loyal Readers.

Day 31 - Cheese and Celery

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches (pg. 282)

Braised Celery (pg. 300)

After a week of mostly gloomy weather, grilled cheese sandwiches sounded like an appropriate comfort food. I used Jarlsberg since I could get it already sliced at Trader Joe's. I couldn't "very thinly slice" cheese if my life depended on it. Not without a food slicer. And maybe not even then. TJ's also provided sage leaves. Mine sort of laminated. I don't believe they added any flavor, but they were cute and fun.

Alice doesn't suggest a simmering time for the celery, so I had to wing it. My celery was a bit undercooked, but better that than overcooked. Again, TJ's provided thyme sprigs. The dish was quite tasty, to my surprise. I'd never thought of celery as a stand-alone vegetable. Wouldn't have chosen that recipe if left to my own devices. Which, of course, is the point of making EVERYTHING in TAOSF. Expansion of one's epicurian horizons. Or some such thing.

Quite the tasty dinner.

House sale (or lack thereof; we don't know at this point), hurting knee, and hurting back all continue on without change. We bought fruit, beets, beef, and lettuce at farmers' market. Brought home 2 loads of boxes from the storage locker. Randy stuck plants in the ground. I unpacked and knitted. It was a GREAT wildlife sighting day! Deer, turkey, an adorable skunk, and (just on the lot below ours) a lovely bobcat. That's my 6th bobcat sighting since we bought this property.

21 recipes in the bag; 284 recipes yet to tackle

Day 30 - The Salad Was Composed Even If I Wasn't

I was up at 5 a.m., back hurting. OTOH, I now have my studio just that much more unpacked and set up. My studio mini kitchen is all in order: frig, microwave, sink. I'll never have to leave. Except to cook.

Randy and I had shopping to do this afternoon, so we started with a Pollo Loco lunch. My favorite fast food place. Mid-afternoon we had lattes and devoured, between us, an entire package of Trader Joe's Pecan Pralines. Soooo, I adjusted our dinner plans. I made a composed salad (see pg. 52 in TAOSF) of greens and leftovers. We can now see the back wall of the inside of the refrigerator. Red-leaf lettuce and flat-leaf parsley tossed with a bit of mandarin orange salad dressing. On the lettuce I put vegetables on 1/3 of the serving dish, 1/3 meat, and 1/3 fruit. The veggie segment was the last of the celery root remoulade. The meat was the last of the roast beef, sliced into thin strips. The fruit segment was celery sliced diagonally, a sliced persimmon, and the seeds of 1/2 of a pomegranate. Alice's example of a composed salad is a Greek salad, but that's a summer dish in our area. You really want the best possible tomatoes. So, I won't count my composed salad as an official "recipe completed," but I did make this salad differently with great success.

The house sale gets weirder and weirder. The other half of the mortgage crisis is lenders' unwillingness to make loans now. Our buyer is suddenly having difficulty getting his loan, in part because he is insisting on using a mortgage lender on the other end of the state rather than a local institution. Oh sigh. Meanwhile, we have learned that there is another party interested in the house, but that they didn't express serious interest until we were in escrow with the first buyer. So now we are feeling out the second buyer's current level of interest in case the first escrow falls through. All of this wouldn't be quite so interesting if it weren't for the fact that we are leaving the country for 3 weeks in 1 week. It wouldn't be impossible to start a new escrow from Europe, but it would be another adventure. Well, we're always up for an adventure.

Carry on!

Day 29 - Karma, Baby....

For 60 years I've been a pain in the butt and a pain in the neck. Now I HAVE a pain in the butt and a pain in the neck. For about a month now I've had a very sore tailbone and some right arm weakness and now neck pain. So, it was off to the Doc this morning. Who ordered butt X-rays and neck X-rays. Luckily, I was able to get an X-ray appointment for late afternoon, so I hung around town, shopping and reading cookbooks and cooking magazines until then. Not the most productive use of a day, but necessary. Anyway, I got to look at some of the neck X-ray images with the technician who pointed out a bone chip at the back of my neck. If that's what it is. Interesting. With luck, I'll hear from the Doc tomorrow since she'll have the radiologist's report then.

Randy's knee still sucks. The house sale is still in peril. The ceiling of my bathroom has been tore out. It's cloudy and drizzly. In spite of all that, I'm a happy camper. Tired, but happy. Randy heated up nearly-the-last of the leftover stew with some noodles and made a green salad. That was great beef stew! He also turned the fireplace in the great room on for the first time. The fire, semi-fake though it is (gas), absolutely transforms the space. Cozy, cozy, cozy.

I also was able to go to the monthly meeting of the Central Coast Weavers this morning. Although I probably won't be able to get back to weaving any time real soon, I'm excited to do so. Actually making fabric is just a magical experience.

Off to slumber land.

Day 28 - Randy Made Dinner, Inspired by Leftovers

Randy made dinner for us 3 or 4 nights a week for 20 years. Seriously. Now he's gone for nearly 4 weeks without cooking. Tonight, wanting to try his hand at roasting peppers on the cook top, he used those peppers and leftovers to make a wonderful innovative soup. He used the meat and vegetables from the 1 remaining braised chicken leg quarter along with the sauce from the beef stew (which was partly the sauce from the chicken leg braise) and added the roasted chopped peppers. My goodness, it was heaven! We continued to put away the celery root remoulade, and ate the last of the oatmeal bread. I cleaned up afterwards! The nice part about making a couple big meals, spending a couple days hard at it in the kitchen, is that you can coast on leftovers for days afterwards.

Well, in the "when will this s&*t ever end" department, we're running into yet more snags in selling the Los Osos house. It seems a new problem crops up just about every third day. This time the problem is in the buyer's lap and I'm sure he's not real happy about it. It's nothing we can do anything about. The deal might still fall through.

We've had to cancel our upcoming Mark Humphreys/Andrew Lorand house concert due to lack of interest. I'm really disappointed and saddened, but there's nothing I can do about it.

Randy and I both stayed home all day today which was nice, even though the skies are overcast and icky gray. He got to rest his knee. I unpacked, unpacked and unpacked some more in my studio. I'd say the job is nearly done except that I know how many more boxes are still in the storage locker. It's frightening. This is a big studio, but it has to suck up all my stuff that was all over the old house and garage. Serious stash reduction is in order. The good part is that I can know see and access that stash! Yippee!! So, I started knitting a little scarf. First time I've touched fiber (or anything related) in a creative way in months. It feels so good!

Carry on. (Sorry to say I finished off the apple crisp and creme fraiche at noon today.)

Day 27 - McDonald's!

I told you I wasn't a purist. After a day of paper-work and unpacking in my studio, I wanted to eat out on the cheap. For me, it was McNuggets (hey! even TAOSF has a recipe for fried chicken!) and a chocolate shake. Seriously, what are McNuggets other than fried chicken? No, I won't get into the sourcing of the chicken....

Lunch was fun. I used my bread from last night with some nice sandwich-sliced roast beef still in the fridge to make a sandwich. I added a healthy slug of the leftover celery root remoulade and (here's the surprise) a thin layer of blackberry preserves (homemade by my Bakersfield in-laws). This made for one very fine sandwich. For breakfast I had leftover apple crisp with creme fraiche. So, am I now forgiven for the McDonald's "slip?" ... Yeah, probably not.

Randy's knee is indeed shredded. He will have to have surgery. He is seeing my orthopedic surgeon, Ken Fryer, as soon as he gets insurance company approval. Dr. Fryer is a terrific guy and a very fine surgeon.

It was Christmas for me today! My December holiday gift arrived -- a Pendleton wool blanket reversible jacket. I've wanted one forever. It's gorgeous. And a used, but pristine, copy of Julia Child's _The Way to Cook_ that I found on ebay. I figure it will be like reading _War and Peace_!

Tomorrow may be nothing but leftovers. We'll see. On the other hand, I'm making major progress getting my studio ready for making stuff, which is very, very exciting.

Day 26 - My First Dinner for Guests

Beef Stew (pg. 136)

served with egg noodles

Celery Root Remoulade (pg. 243)

Apple Crisp (again) for dessert

A Loaf of Bread-Machine Bread

Nibbles:

Cranberry Chevre on Pita Crackers

Warmed Olives

Salami

Tangerines

We had our neighbors over for dinner to thank them for taking care of our cats while we were in New Mexico. And because we like them and enjoy their company.

Following along in the Slow Cooking chapter, I made Beef Stew. Part of the cooking liquid was the sauce left over from last night's braised chicken legs. Talk about layering flavors! How much more complex can you get?! The wine part of the liquid was a Two Buck Chuck reduction. Can't say I've seen that on any menus anywhere. Anyway, it was excellent. I had a hard time keeping the stew from boiling in the oven; had to bring the temperature all the way down to 200 at the end. Nonetheless, the stew was excellent.

I used the celery root I bought at Andronico's in Berkeley for the remoulade. It was also very good and went well with the stew. I actually julienned the whole thing with my trusty knife. It wasn't as difficult as I had thought it was going to be. I guess my knife skills are improving. Or at least my knife confidence is increasing.

I also made a load of bread in my bread machine. Not an artisan french loaf, but good anyway. Just plain white bread with a couple handfuls of Quaker oats thrown in. Honestly, I love my bread machine. I made another pan of apple crisp, this time with mostly braeburns. Topped with creme fraiche. To die for.

Nibbles were slightly upscale. Cranberry chevre on pita crackers, salami, warmed olives and tangerines. There was wine, too, which I guess was good. Randy was in charge and I'm not much into the stuff, except for my Two Buck Chuck reduction.

Randy had his MRI for his knee today and sees his doc tomorrow. Some days he can walk and some days he can't.

Jim the appliance repair guy came and fixed the dryer door. Again. Hope we've got that problem straightened out now.

I ate too much. I'm tired. I literally cooked all day starting at about 8:30 a.m, although I did get some studio unpacking in early in the morning. Yippee! Every box counts!

19 recipes cooked; 286 recipes yet to explore

Day 25 - Chicken Leg Quarters -- Heaven!

Chicken Legs Braised with Tomatoes, Onions and Garlic (pg. 133)

Red-Leaf Lettuce with My Favorite Vinaigrette

I've never braised before. Heck, I didn't even know what braising was. I braised 5 of what they call "leg quarters", which is drumsticks with thighs attached. I think. Or something. I also added a few carrots to the braise since I only made the braise and a plain salad for dinner. Well, the legs and their veggies were just heaven. Alice has you goof around a bit more with the juices at the end of cooking, which I did not do. It was still heaven. Now I have to think of something to do with the leftover juices. Soup?

Otherwise I had a lazy Sunday morning with the newspaper and the leftovers from last night's Indian dinner. I spent the first part of the afternoon whipping my studio into shape. It has a very long ways to go to be done, but I did manage to put a major dent in the huge pile. The space looks considerably more civilized now.

After dinner we took out the garbage and clipped cat claws. What a romantic life.

17 recipes completed; 288 recipes to go

Day 24 - Forced to Eat Out on a Saturday Night

First, I have to apologize to the plumber for referring to him as the @#$%^&! plumber. When called yesterday early afternoon, he came immediately, diagnosed the problem, fetched the parts he needed, and fixed the problem. By 3 o'clock almost all was well. Except that the water to the house was turned off and could not be turned on again for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. Sigh. No cooking was going to be happening.

So, we rushed into SLO to see the movie, Men Who Stare at Goats, which was pretty funny. After which we bought cat food and kitty litter at my favorite pet store, Petsmart. Petsmart in SLO is very well managed. Unlike many other pet shops, they are ALWAYS fully stocked with everything I need, and usually have several additional things that I merely want. Plus, they assist various local cat rescue groups in placing kitties in permanent homes. And, it's a sparkling clean store, which I much appreciate.

After which, we were forced to eat dinner out. We chose Shalimar in SLO, a newer Indian restaurant. Prompt, cheerful service. A homey, comfortable atmosphere complete with Indian music videos playing on a big screen TV at the front. I thought that was a wonderful touch. My shish kabob and Randy's chicken biryana were both excellent. The garlic naan left something to be desired. It was kind of tough. Over-kneaded perhaps? Overall, it was an enjoyable experience and we'll definitely be going back. I had to admit to the manager that we are spoiled since we eat at Ajanta in Berkeley frequently. Randy, who has been to India and is generally a big fan of Indian food (we try Indian restaurants everywhere we go) has concluded that Ajanta is the best Indian restaurant. Period. The best. He frequently cooks from the Ajanta cookbook, much to my delight. I think it's the best Indian recipe book. The best. Period.

Stalling, we had lattes and madelines at my favorite Starbuck's on the way home, turned the water on at 9:45 p.m., happily discovering that the repair was securely holding. I wonder how Alice feels about those chicken leg quarters being salted and peppered TWO days before braising?

More later.

Day 23 - Scrambled Eggs and Scrambled Brains

Scrambled Eggs (pg. 240)

Yes indeed! Alice has the directions for scrambled eggs in TAOSF. You might think that a bit elementary, but I doubt that everyone actually knows how to cook scrambled eggs properly. It's one thing I already knew, but it was nice to learn that Alice and I see eye to eye on the subject. So, I made scrambled eggs for lunch, mostly to use up the egg white left over from making aioli. Scrambled eggs is like meatloaf -- good for using up dibs and dabs of stuff from the back of the frig. I accompanied the eggs with a couple slices of bacon and the other half of the avocado from the grapefruit and avocado salad. Quite the tasty and semi-elegant lunch.

We ran some errands and went to farmers market this morning. Our plan was to go to a movie in San Luis Obispo this afternoon and stop at our favorite pet store for cat food and kitty litter. BUT... Randy discovered a serious plumbing problem right before lunch. There is water bubbling up from below ground right outside the kitchen window. This is a serious problem for any number of reasons, not the least of which is that the exterior walls in that area are straw bale. You do NOT want to soak your straw bale walls. The &%^$(#% plumber is on his way. I ask you, does this shit ever end??? I've never seen a new house with so many problems. Scratch the movie. Cat food will be fetched from my least favorite pet store, which is much closer, later this afternoon. A small bag to tide the little hairballs over.

16 recipes completed; 289 to go!

Day 22 - Meltdown Continues; Braising Begins

My general fed-up-with-all-this-crap meltdown continued today. My poor husband gets the brunt of it. He's doing everything possible to be supportive. He hung the Buddhist prayer flags for me this afternoon. He's putting my last Ikea cabinet together in my studio this evening. We had to go to the title company to have some house-selling paperwork notarized late this morning. Then went to Fig for lunch, did a little carnivorous grocery shopping, and got yet another load of boxes from the storage locker. This box batch was a heavy bottom layer, mostly books. Ooooph.

Fig merits some special attention. (And I've got to fig-ure out how to make links sometime very soon....) There has been no particularly good place for a foodie to eat here in Atascadero. No place with the right blend of locavorism, tasty food, decent prices, and a nice atmosphere. We've heard about this new little place, Fig, properly located downtown, that opened about 5 weeks ago. Limited hours. Small place doing mostly take-out, but with a couple tables. Our lunch was quite delicious and met all of the above criteria. The place was jam-packed with both taker-outers and eater-inners, proving that Atascaderans are desperate for this sort of place.

Then it was back home where our builders arrived to do yet more finishing work and repairs on this house. Will it never end????? And I melted down some more. And started tomorrow night's dinner. As a rather random choice, I've decided to next tackle the Slow Cooking chapter. I bought "leg quarters" (chicken) and chuck (beef). We'll start with Braised Chicken Legs, for which I have 5 of the "leg quarters". Alice wants these puppies salted and peppered the day before cooking, so I salted and peppered and stuck 'em back in the frig. The beef chuck for beef stew went into the freezer in case I don't get to it as quickly as I might like. That was my cooking for the day: seasoning chicken.

Mid-afternoon my friend Laurel joined me for a trek to the 3rd Annual Central Coast Handweavers Show and Sale. Since it's hard to tell when I'll have my own looms set up again, I went in search of dishtowels, of which I purchased 3. There is nothing like a handwoven dishtowel. Sturdy as hell, they last forever and perform like champs. I love, love, love them. You might think them a bit pricey at $20-25, but seriously-- they last forever. You'll use them every day, wash them a jillion times, and they'll still last well enough to perform equally for your children and their children and, probably, their children.

After the show and sale it was back to Fig for dinner! I had the polenta stack with a salad. Fabulous. Much tastier, actually, than the pulled pork sandwich I'd had for lunch. Laurel and I both had carrot cake cupcakes for dessert which were heaven. I had also had one after lunch. Shhhhh!!! Don't tell anyone!! We had a grand time talking with other diners and the owners. We were there 'til closing and after. I think it was the kind of atmosphere Alice Waters must have had in mind originally for Chez Panisse. A few of us Fig Fans considered starting the ADA, the Atascadero Dining Association. If it ever really happens, you first read about it here.

That's about it for today. Tomorrow I'll go on to actually braise those "leg quarters." And check out the farmers market. And I'll try to NOT be a basket case. Wish me luck. I hereby do the same for you.

Day 21 - No Cooking; A Movie Instead

No cooking today. I needed a mental health break. Went to the Cohen brothers new movie: A Serious Man. I feel like that guy today, so I appreciated the black comedy.

Not a good news day here at all. The son of a friend of mine has drowned. Very sad. He was a great guy, a third-generation local fisherman. We've been the lucky recipient of some of his catch. I feel a hole in my heart for his family.

The house sale has hit yet another major snag, this time a dead or at least dying leach field. I can't even begin to contemplate what fixing that one is going to entail and cost. OMG. Makes me want to slit my wrists. I'm so sick of this whole house building and moving and selling thing. I want my life back.

Our first house concert, scheduled for November 14, is turning out to be a bust. No one wants to come. So far we have reservations from exactly 2 people. To hear 4 musicians. I'm pretty sure this will get cancelled. Apparently people don't socialize anymore. Who knew.

I think I'm going to go drown my sorrows in popcorn. What a crappy day.

Day 20 Continued - What I Did With the Aioli

The aioli tasted better after 5-6 hours in the frig. The flavors had blended. Clearly, this is a situation where you want to use your "good" olive oil. The flavor of the olive oil would make a difference. Of course, you could add lemon juice instead of or in addition to the garlic . Same with mustard and so on.

So, what to do with the stuff. I made roast beef sandwiches. On toasted buns. With a little of that crumbled gorgonzola, some more-or-less carmelized onions, and a big dollop of aioli on top. NOT a low-fat entree. Served with mixed greens tossed with dressing from the back of the frig that has overstayed its welcome (I'm cheap, as well as whimpy).

A NOTE ON USING TAOSF TO LEARN TO COOK:

It works just fine for me. For other people with different temperaments, it wouldn't work at all. It's not the only way to learn to cook, not even the only cookbook from which one can learn to cook. Mastering the Art of French Cooking has been used. The Way to Cook (Childs) is a possibility. So are books by Martha Stewart and others. The Joy of Cooking is an old standard. There is at least 1 web-based cooking school. I just bought a copy of Cooking Light: Way to Cook. I freely use these resources and others to expand on what's in TAOSF.

Nor is TAOSF a cookbook of complex "fancy" recipes. If that's what you're looking for, look elsewhere. This cookbook addresses exactly what it says: SIMPLE food. The title is totally honest. I only mention this because of reviews on Amazon that complain about TAOSF being elementary. Yes, it is. So?

Clearly, making mayonnaise was the high point of my day. Mind if I go off somewhere and eat chocolate and lick my wounds?

Carry on.

Day 20- Aioli !!!!! (Garlic Mayonnaise !!!)

Aioli (which is garlic mayonnaise) (pg. 47)

Okay. I'm a whimp. Fear of failure. Not a good trait for someone who wants to learn to cook. A cook must be courageous. I've been tip-toeing around the 3rd of Alice's Four Essential Sauces. Finally this morning I screwed up my resolve and made an attempt at mayonnaise. Slowly -- almost painfully -- whisking in those drips, drips, drips of olive oil. Whisking like a mad woman all the while. Considering that I've never been much good at multitasking, this was a serious challenge. But I did it! I made mayonnaise! Garlic mayonnaise, aioli, to be precise since I also pounded the heck out of some garlic cloves and added that to the mix.

I think tonight we'll have simple Dagwood sandwiches, slathered in aioli.

Am I the last person on the planet to have actually made mayonnaise?

15 recipes down; 290 recipes to go.

Day 19 - Eggs!

Chard Frittata (pg. 166)

Like many novice cooks, eggs make me nervous. And I don't always like eating eggs. Face it: after 60 years of eggs, I find them kind of boring. Intimidating and boring. Enter Alice Waters' chard frittata. It was delicious! And beautiful! I so love that Alice is as concerned with what food looks like as how it tastes. I finished the frittata in the oven (fear of egg-flipping remains) and sprinkled it with just a little crumbled gorganzola when it came out. The whole thing slid neatly out of my (new!) calphalon 10" pan (from Ross Dress-for-Less; I'm such a snob...) onto a Fiestaware plate. I sliced it into 4 servings. Randy and I ate the whole thing.

If, as a cook, you're looking for absolute precision in recipes, you may have a problem with TAOSF. Chard frittata calls for "1 bunch of chard." Dah. How much chard is that exactly? My bunch from Saturday's farmers market was huge. I used only 1/2 of it tonight. Another example: "Cook until the leaves are tender." What does that mean? I cooked 'em until they would fit back into my 10" pan since the leaves were so voluminous I had to move the whole operation to a much larger pan for that phase. Nor did I have to wring excess moisture out of the cooked leaves. The mixture was nicely dry at that point. Measure olive oil into teaspoons and tablespoons? Nah. I just sling the stuff around with such panache you'd thing I knew what I was doing.

This was a slightly complicated recipe, but I'm sure would/will become easier as I try it with other veggies. It was mighty tasty and pretty economical. I've become quite a fan of chard since a neighbor and I split a CSA share for awhile a couple years ago. Chard was new to both of us, as was kale, and we ended up in serious negotiations for both of them each week they appeared in our market basket. And she was a vegetarian! That CSA experience convinced me of the value of at least trying new veggies.

Otherwise, it was another day of unpacking, washing quilts, putting stuff away. Arranging and rearranging. Organizing and reorganizing. I can finally say that I've pretty much got the downstairs of the new house under control. There is much to be done there yet, but it no longer seems like total chaos. The upstairs is another matter altogether.

No news on the house-selling front today, which means I have nothing to get pissed off about today which is a very good thing indeed.

Is anyone reading this stuff???

14 recipes down; 291 recipes to go!

Day 18 - We Ate Bambi's Mother....

Pan-Fried New Zealand Venison Loin Chops with Salsa Verde

Potato Gratin with Mushrooms and Parmesan (pg 318)

Persimmon and Pomegranate Salad (pg 240)

Leftover Apple Crisp and Espresso

My Big Project for today was to finish unpacking and putting away all the rest of the kitchen stuff. Which I pretty much did. There's a little tweaking to accomplish, but not much. Does it put the size of the task in perspective if I tell you that I/we have 8 sets of dishes? For aesthetic, not dietary reasons. Three are depression era. There's new and vintage Fiesta Ware. Basic sets in black, brown, and blue. And some interesting vintage Japan ware. That's downstairs. I have additional dishes upstairs for my studio....

My Small Project for today was to wash and dry all my quilts. I haven't counted recently, but suffice it to say that we always sleep under quilts I've made. Most are 100 inches square. There are maybe a dozen? Fifteen? Something like that. They get grubby, mostly full of cat hair. I've been waiting, patiently, to be in the new house with the new washer and dryer, to launder all of them. There are only a couple to go. The new appliances do a jim-dandy job of it.

Now, for dinner. Venison from New Zealand is hardly local, but I did buy these chops at the Templeton farmers market. I LOVE venison! The chops were totally delicious, although pricey as all get out. Took just a few minutes to pan fry them. I love this pan frying meat thing. Easy, fast, tasty.

I wasn't thrilled with the potatoes gratin. The potatoes were elderly. I used skim milk. I don't know. Something just didn't thrill me. Randy liked them, but I need to try again. Maybe the mushrooms and parmesan with the potatoes wasn't the best idea. Well, there are so many variations, it won't be difficult to make them again. And again. And again.

The persimmon and pomegranate salad was excellent. It's kinda messy to get the seeds out of the pomegranate. I now have little red spots all over a couple pages in my TAOSF. Even the red wine vinegar vinaigrette was good. A successful salad. Anyway, you know I love fruit in salads.

When Randy makes us espresso at 8:00 (a nightly ritual), I'll warm up some leftover apple crisp. It's almost gone. I may have to make another. I can't believe how tasty it is. Magic.

The pending sale of the old house continues to be a real PITA. Thank heaven for a wonderful realtor, Jerry Gregory, who is earning his commission on this one and then some.

13 recipes completed; 292 recipes to go

Carry on. More tomorrow.

Day 17 - No Cooking Today

I did not cook today. Yikes! Randy and I both worked our butts off all day today. Our eternal attempts to get unpacked and settled into the new house. Plus laundry and many other sundry essentials. We ate lunch at my favorite seafood place, Pier 46 in Templeton. I had a shark sandwich. Randy had fish tacos. Lunch was late today. We were both still feeling stuffed at dinnertime, so it was every man, woman and child for himself. Randy made himself a nice, healthy salad. I snacked on goat cheese, bread and salami. With olives.

Although we are still in escrow to sell the old house in Los Osos, we are going round and round with the buyer and it all just keeps getting more and more complicated. If this sale goes through, I'll be surprised. Our poor real estate agent is certainly earning his commission on this one -- provided it sells. Details I won't bother sharing here, but it made me feel really depressed today. I wonder, truly, if we'll ever have anything like a normal life again. This build-and-move saga has sucked my brain dry for 3 years now. Enough!

Well, Rhett, just remember that tomorrow is another day. Or something like that. Carry on.