Day 74 - Just Shoot Me

Croutons - pg. 58

I'm just miserable tonight. Husband is doing well, but our poor cat Maizie is not. After 4 or 5 days of slow but steady improvement, she is much worse tonight. We will take her into the emergency pet hospital tomorrow morning when the doctor who will be on duty then can do an ultrasound. She's been through so much the last 8 months or so. I feel so bad for her. She's a good cat and always a good patient. My heart is breaking.

The lack-of-principles nonsense I was whining about yesterday is still getting to me. I went to see "The Young Victoria" this afternoon just to lighten up. (When I obviously should have been home looking after my cat.) Afterwards, I looked up an experienced cat rescuer whom I trust and ran my concerns past her to see if she thought I was off track or not. Not. It makes me feel more secure in my own beliefs and principles, but still very sad that a volunteer or 2 are verging on making big trouble for NCHS/AFAR. Sigh. I'm having problems leaving it behind and moving on to other things. No doubt concern for hubby and kitty are impacting my outlook. Constant cold and cloudy skies and rain probably aren't helping.

But, ya gotta eat. Moving on to the bread chapter in Part I: Starting From Scratch, I realized that Alice first discusses croutons! I know these croutons! She talks about them in the sense of Catalon toasts, the most famous of Barcelona tapas. Heck, we ate a LOT of those while we were in Spain this fall. At the request of hubby, I made pate de haba gruesa con menta, fresh mint and bean pate, this morning, substituting canned fava beans for fresh which made the pate beige instead of white. Authentic stuff nonetheless. Rather than making finished toasts/croutons for just the 2 of us, I made plain garlic and olive oil toasts and laid out a variety of toppings for build-your-own. Smoked salmon, prosciutto, gruyere, tapenade, the bean pate, herb butter, and some lightly dressed spicy greens. Heavy on the proteins, but it was what was in the house and easy to put on the table. Tasty and very easy. I can knock another "recipe" in TAOSF off my list.

I've just finished Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma." I enjoyed Part I about industrial food and corn. It was very informative and gives me one more reason to learn to cook from scratch in a locavore sort of way, using the freshest, highest quality ingredients possible. Although, remember, I am not a purist. I lean more and more toward organic, free-range, grass-fed and all that, but those categories of food don't control my diet. Yet. Honestly, I found the rest of the book increasingly self-indulgent. I shlogged through it, though.

If the dilemma is to eat crap or good food, I will eat good food as much as possible. I hope this means that my diet will be increasingly good and decreasingly crap with time. Today I honestly can't remember when I last ate at McDonald's. But if the dilemma is meat or not, it will be meat. I feel no need to kill, pluck and clean my own chicken to earn the right to eat it. I do have serious concerns about how food animals and food-producing animals are treated during their lives, what they eat, and how they are slaughtered. That's as far as I will go.

I've been reading several blog entries wherein other omnivores talk about facing their dilemmas. I've come to the conclusion that my farm-oriented northern-Wisconsin upbringing of the 1950s has probably spared me a lot of the current angst, even as I guide my cooking and eating back toward my roots. We always ate seasonally then because that's what was available. We ate locally for the same reasons. All my family were farmers, hunters, fishers, cheese-makers, and feed-mill operators. As a child I saw curing cow-hides and headless chickens left outside to bleed out. Watched my grandmother prepare the chicken and my father make cheese at a small local dairy. Ate my aunt and uncle's canned venison and gravy. I've always known where food comes from and how we get it. Myself, I've grown fruits and vegetables, fished and, yes, even hunted.

So, for me, it will be easy to get back to my roots, I think. I love our local farmers' markets. I'm enjoying cooking things from scratch using the best ingredients I can find and afford. I'd rather eat at a good restaurant once a week than at McDonald's 3 or 4 times. I'm developing a love of all this good food and, quite frankly, a distaste for industrial crap. I study food labels. I'm throwing out crap from the pantry and frig that just doesn't work for me anymore.

Food is important. It's an important part of life, socially and aesthetically as well as practically. It's worth my time and effort. That's what I've decided. I can eat meat with a clear conscious, but I can only eat quality food without wincing. Does this mean I'll never eat another quarter-pounder? Unlikely. I will. But right now, a slab of home-baked bread spread with a pate of fava beans (preferably fresh), goat cheese (preferably local) and mint leaves (maybe home-grown?) sounds far more appealing. I am one happy omnivore.

50 recipes down; 255 to go -- This feels like a milestone!

Day 73 - Scones and Whine

Scones - pg. 275

And I do mean whine.

Maizie and Randy are both continuing on the road to recovery. It was rather a hectic morning for me getting all my morning chores accomplished and helping both of them, too. Another day on which I came, yet again, to grips with the fact that I was never, ever cut out for motherhood. Or anything that remotely resembles it.

Meanwhile, I had to waste hours of my time and lots of my energy trying to explain to 2 people who should know better why a no-kill private humane society should not ever accept support from nor lend support to a "pet store" that sells cats and dogs, kittens and puppies. Duh! You know what their argument is? "Times are tough, so throw out your principals and take free stuff anywhere you can get it." Which is partly how Hitler came to power. No wonder this country is going to hell. Don't people believe in anything any more? Are we all acting like politicians, selling out for a dollar at every moment? I'm pissed and disgusted. And people wonder why NCHS Board members aren't out there raising money every minute. It's because they have to waste their time dealing with crap like this. There. I've whined.

Now, on to the scones. My plan was to make TAOSF scones until I remembered an ancient box of scone mix in the pantry. I mean ancient. Guess what? Ancient boxes of baking mixes need to go to the garbage can. That's where all of mine are now. The new scones made from the ancient baking mix were beyond horrible, they were basically inedible.

So, Randy suggested lunch at Fig. Yippee! We hadn't been there for too long. We both had cassoulet and shared a piece of coconut cream pie. And we shared a table with a young man and woman who lunched on gorgeous Fig salads. We also shared a good conversation about issues raised in Michael Polin's "Omnivore's Dilemma." Fig is always good for the best in food and conversation.

This afternoon I was going to go to a movie, and to a reception and talk at the San Luis Obispo Art Center, but everything that's gone on in the last 2 days just had me worn out. So I took a nap instead. And woke up with a new attitude. Naps are good for attitude adjustment. Not to mention that I'm probably not yet totally over my own cold.

With a new attitude, I looked up cassoulet in Martha Stewart's Cooking School. I gotta do this. There's a place in NY that ships a cassoulet kit with all the correct ingredients. Pricey, but mouth-watering. After that, it would be fun to make a locavore version.

And then I made TAOSF scones. Pretty easy and quick. Delicious. Made with unbleached flour and heavy cream. I've eaten 2. So far. I can make more.

That's how I killed a day. Other than conquering scones, I did nothing even remotely constructive which just drives me crazy. I'm hoping for better tomorrow.

49 recipes constructed; 256 still in the dreaming stage

Day 72 - What A Day!

Herb Butter - pg. 48

Maizie the cat is doing better. Not well, but better. Not peeing all over the place, just in the litter box, so I know she's feeling better.

Randy had his knee surgery. All went well. He's high maintenance today, which is to be expected. He's maintained me under similar circumstances. I'm happy to be able to do the same for him.

I've done about a jillion and a half household and personal maintenance chores today, and done my best to stay on top of emails. While waiting to take Randy to the surgery center I caught up on household chores -- tried to clear my weekend calendar for him.

I feel like a juggler in a circus.

Nonetheless, my commitment to the cooking project continues. I managed to make Herb Butter today. Haven't used it, but I made it. This closes out the Four Essential Sauces chapter in Part I. Yippee! So, I got SOMETHING accomplished today other than basic life maintenance. Not enough, but something.

48 recipes completed; 257 to go

Day 71 - Brussels Sprouts

Pan-Fried Lamb Chops - p.120

Sauteed Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Onions - p. 295

Yes, I know. There has been a gap. House guest. Cold. General headless-chickenitis. Poor Maizie Jane Valentine is now suffering from a urinary tract infection. There has been lots of housework to accomplish. Lots of NCHS work to accomplish. Lots of emails. Randy is having knee surgery tomorrow (at last), so I'm trying to prepare a bit for that by otherwise clearing my calendar for the weekend. I think it's called life. I haven't cooked. Or at very least haven't cooked much. A couple grilled cheese sandwiches a la TAOSF sans laminated sage leaves.

You know what? Yesterday I was running errands late into the early evening. I knew that Randy wouldn't be home for dinner. I hadn't eaten much all day. I tried to talk myself into stopping somewhere for a bite, and failed. I'd rather wait until I'm home and eat my own cooking. How weird is that?

Lamb chops. No one really talks about what to do with lamb chops other than grill them. This is February. Not prime grilling season. So, I pan-seared them and finished them in the oven (since they were about 7/8" thick). Nice change from pork chops, but I guess I actually prefer pork chops. I'm not counting this as a new recipe, just another protein that can be pan-fried.

We bought a small mountain of brussels sprouts at the Farmers' Market Saturday. They are at the height of their season here, massively plentiful and really inexpensive. Cheap, actually. They keep well. We love them. Tonight they were boiled, then sauteed with bacon and onions. Very rich. Very depth-of-winter. And it IS the depth of winter here. We're only getting up into the high 50s. Pity, isn't it?

Tomorrow is nick tuck day for Randy's right knee. Poor baby. And Randy will be in sad shape, too. Think good thoughts about Maizie; she's a pretty miserable kitty right now. We're waiting for those antibiotics to do their job.

47 recipes completed; 258 to go

Day 70 - Ginger and Fish

Baked Fish - pg. 329

Ginger Snaps - pg. 206

I baked halibut steaks! Might not seem like much to you, but I now know how to pan-fry fish in bread crumbs, poach fish, and bake fish. This is a big deal! No more fear of fish! I baked each halibut steak in its own little gratin dish, first salted and then laid on olive oil. I painted the tops with cocktail sauce, the kind you usually put on shrimp. I loved the taste. The sauce put a little zip in the fish and a lot of great color. The fish was served with leftover roasted vegetables and leftover pureed winter heirloom squash. You know: leftover management.

Ginger snaps! Lordy, lordy. These are the best ginger snaps I've ever had. Why? Butter. They're made with butter. Lots of butter. Not to mention that I was plenty generous with the vanilla and the ground ginger. Just rolled the dough into balls, dipped the balls into sugar, and squished the balls with a flat-bottomed glass. And parchment paper! Have I sung the praises of parchment paper? Nothing sticks to the cookie sheets and the cookie sheets need almost no cleaning.

Otherwise, I did my NCHS thing today and cleaned a bit, especially getting ready for my friend Carol's weekend visit. We had some sun today, but not enough. I'm still feeling kinda chilled. But it sure was fun to cook today, especially once I decided WHAT to cook! That becomes a bit more challenging as I get further into the project.

46 recipes completed and more-or-less mastered; 259 challenges to go!

Day 69 - State of the Union

No cooking today, either. We ate take-out while watching Obama's speech. Good speech. He didn't dodge anything, excuse or blame. He inspired. But I'm still waiting for results. Please! Someone!

Spent 3/4s of the day on NCHS work, the rest working on my own finances. But I did find time to set out ingredients for ginger snaps.

And did I mention that a hoard of workmen appeared on our doorstep at 7:45 a.m.? We did get a lot of little things done, but I'm so sick of wrapping up all these nit-picky house details. FINISH THE DAMN HOUSE ALREADY! Then go away. Please.

Day 68 - Polenta Torta Una Vez Mas

Leftovers. No complaints though! Served with a simple tossed green salad.

I've organized and relabeled all our spices and herbs to fit into the base cabinet pull-out drawer next to the cooktop. Another thing I can check off the move-in list. Yippee! (Yes, that means it was raining nearly all day. Again.)

The rest of the day was devoted to North County Humane Society work. A jillion emails. Organized all my paperwork and in-process tasks and projects before I completely lose touch with reality.

Now I will vegetate in front of the tube and quilt. Thank you very much.

Day 67 - Polenta Torta, Version #2

The first time I made this dish, my sauce was way too runny and I wasn't thrilled with the store-bought polenta I used for this application. Soooo, the other day I made a lot of polenta, spreading most of it out in a jelly roll pan. Today I cut that mega-piece of polenta into 3 pieces for the 3 layers of polenta in the torta. I confess that I used bottled tomato sauce from Trader Joe's, although at least it was organic. And I added some cooked hot Italian sausage. The result was just about perfect. I was pleased. So was Randy.

I got a lot accomplished today. Yippee! Some North County Humane Society work. Lots of cleaning, laundry and household chores and projects. A trip to Trader Joe's. Some work on the small quilt I'm finishing. And so on and so forth. A terrific Monday.

Day 66 - No Cooking Today

Just a relaxing day. I brought some pea soup out of the freezer for dinner. That's it.

Except that my friend Laurel gave me a Joy of Cooking 2010 calendar. Too cool! Lots of valuable cooking tips and insights, and a few interesting recipes, too. Thank you, Laurel!

UFO #3 Finished - Abandoned Rotten Bead Project

Yes, an abandoned project still counts. We've been through this before, remember?

I took a class on making a particular type of beaded bead. I never liked what I came up with. I made a practice bead in class. So-so. I made 3 and hung them on a picot neckpiece. Better, but not thrilling. (I gave that necklace to our cruise butler in December to give to his wife.) On the cruise I made another beaded bead and started one more (after numerous tear-outs-and-try-agains).

This afternoon my friend Laurel came over to bead with me. I took out this project and finally said, "Forget it. I don't like 'em. They're a PITA. I'm unhappy with the colors, the results, AND the process. This isn't fun any more." I gleefully proceeded to take apart the in-class practice bead as well as the finished and unfinished beads from the cruise. I tore up the instructions and sent them to the recycling bin. After which I picked up a truly satisfying UnFinished beading prOject, Melanie Doerman's Alien Star Garden bracelet. I LOVE Mel's designs. I spent another hour or 2 happily beading away.

And I'm happy to report that I'm about 1/3 of the way through quilting a small quilt that dates back to (gulp) 1999. You see my point? Gotta finish those UFOs!

Day 66 - Polenta!

Polenta - pg. 94

If you don't recall my earlier brush with polenta (10/28/09), you aren't missing much. Basically, I thought it would be faster to use store-bought polenta-in-a-roll when I was pressed for time to make a polenta torta, but I had to go to a couple stores and a store manager to find the darn stuff. Took longer than if I'd just made it myself. Tonight I took a crack at making it myself. Piece of cake!

I made a double batch. Part went underneath left-over sausage and left-over roasted veggies. Part is spread out on a jelly-roll pan to be used in another crack at polenta torta sometime later this week. Polenta is even easier than risotto which is also easy. Whom knew.

This morning I attended a long and VERY productive meeting of the North County Humane Society/AFAR Board of Directors. What a great group! I'm so proud to be one of them.

And, we had sun! Beautiful golden heat-giving sun. Clear blue skies. Gorgeous.

44 recipes completed; 261 to go

Day 65 - Roasted Vegetable Winter Salad

Went through a pile of emails this morning, getting ready for a NCHS/AFAR Board meeting tomorrow. Whew!

This evening we went to the neighbor's for a pot luck. Now, this is not your ordinary pot luck. These are 6 people, 3 couples, all of whom are cooks and major foodies. The host couple made chili (not your ordinary chili). The other guest couple brought corn bread and dessert. We brought a salad that I made this afternoon. From Martha Stewart's Cooking School. Roasted winter root vegetables on a bed of seasonal greens with Alice's mustard vinaigrette. Sprinkled with spicy toasted pepitas. I roasted mushrooms, carrots, parsnips, turnips, and shallots. Enough for the salad for 6 tonight and leftovers for tomorrow night. The whole meal was just fabulous. And we all are great company if I do say so myself.

One of us, Tom, makes ravioli and will teach me! The universe heard my pleas for help! Sometime soon we will do another pot luck at his house centered around making pasta and ravioli in particular. We'll all bring aprons and pitch in. Yippee! Tom reports that he makes his ravioli pasta Martha Stewart's way using a pasta machine, that it's darn near impossible to roll the stuff out thin enough by hand. No kidding.

(Yes, I do have a pasta machine....)

Lovely evening. Made a terrific new dish, even if it wasn't an Alice. It still fits into Alice's food and cooking philosophies.

Fundamentals

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

The animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren; they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth. -Henry Beston, naturalist and author (1888-1968)

Day 64 - Ravioli

Fresh Pasta: Ravioli - pgs. 89 and 90

Project Runway starts in 4 minutes, so I'll tell you all about the ravioli tomorrow. Let's say I don't see professional pasta-making in my future.

---------------

Well, I guess I'm feeling slightly better about the ravioli experiment now that it's "the morning after." The only thing I can say without hesitation is this: if you're making ravioli do NOT try to roll out the pasta dough by hand. Use a pasta machine, make pasta ribbons as wide as you can, and use those ribbons to make your ravioli. Ravioli pasta needs to be paper thin. You can't get to paper thin with a pastry cloth and rolling pin.

I stuffed mine with seasoned pureed squash. They tasted good, but were way too thick and probably needed to have cooked longer as they were plenty chewy. In Martha Stewart's Cooking School there are instructions for making ravioli using a pasta machine. USE IT, for heaven's sake! Our side dishes were leftover kashi and leftover long-cooked broccoli. I'm not impressed by the kashi, but the leftover broccoli was delicious.

It rained all day here again. I took advantage of the situation to accomplish another move-in task on my to-do list. I got my travel basics all reorganized for our next trip, where ever and when ever that may be. I pride myself on being able to get out the door to travel anywhere on earth in one hour or less. Of course, I usually take much longer. But I can do it in an hour and frequently do, especially for short trips.

Things that pissed me off today: the demise of Air America and the Supreme Court's ruling on corporate and union campaign contributions. I've always said that the primary reason for voting for Democratic presidents is the Supreme Court and this is a classic example. I don't want to hear any conservatives bitching about activist judges. This one takes the cake.

43 recipes attempted; 262 to go

Day 63 - Lots of Rain. Seriously, Lots of Rain

Did I mention that it rained off and on all day today? Mostly on? With high winds at our house? We just left it all to the cats. I went into San Luis Obispo with Randy when he went to work. Dropped him off and swam to Petsmart to get cat food (which we do NOT want to run out of -- ever). Then swam to Bed, Bath & Beyond to spend my Christmas gift card. Mostly on cooking gadgets. I'll let you know about them as I use them. Then I met a friend for lunch and a long talk about rescuing cats, a mutual interest. Then to Barnes & Noble to hang out and read (and a walk around downtown). Picked up Randy from work. We went out for coffee, and then for sushi. And then to a Kronos Quartet performance (we LOVE them!). It's late. I'm tired. Didn't cook today. More rain tomorrow. Sweet dreams.

Day 62 - Long Cooked Broccoli

Long Cooked Broccoli - pg. 294

Haven't we all learned to steam broccoli just until it's bright green, never beyond? So when I saw the title of this recipe in Alice Waters' cookbook, I wondered why Alice and I had been living on different planets all these years. Wuh!???? Wack up the broccoli and cook it for an hour? Beg pardon? Is this the 50s back in Wisconsin when and where I was raised? But, I have pledged to cook everything in TAOSF, so I dove in with abandon.

Basically, you create a near-puree seasoned with salt, garlic, and lemon juice. Then you toss it with cooked pasta. It was pretty good. I served it with kashi made with chicken broth. The kashi has a history itself. It's a box that has been sitting in our pantry for... oh... a very long time. Along with a few others. I probably should have tossed them when we moved, but I'm too cheap. Now I see them all as experiments I'm eager to try, just like all those recipes.

Otherwise? It rained a lot again this morning. My main project for the day was to finish the last organizing of my stuff in my closet. My jewelry. Sounds weird, I know, that it would take half of a day to organize one woman's jewelry, but ya gotta remember that I do beadwork. And I have friends who do beadwork. And a husband who knows that gifts of jewelry are always appropriate and appreciated. And I almost never send old stuff to the thrift shop. In the old house I had necklaces on a rack in my closet and lots of stuff in assorted boxes in dresser drawers and on my dresser. Here? No rack on the wall. No boxes in drawers. No dresser at all. Just shelves. And a nicer collection of boxes. You wouldn't believe how much junk I found in the old boxes. Maybe you would. The rest is all neat and lovely now.

42 recipes completed; 263 to go

Day 61 - LOTS of Cooking Goin' On Here Today!

Shallow-Poached Salmon - pg. 146

Leeks Vinaigrette - pg. 242

Strawberry Shortcake - pg. 365

made with

Cream Biscuits - pg. 275

AND, I made a loaf of bread-machine bread. .... Well, we got the anticipated heavy rain and high winds this morning. And Jim, the appliance repair guy, came to replace the drum on my dryer (this drum is a lot quieter than the first one). Actually, the appliance repair guy only comes to visit our cats. He loves cats. Jim and Nicholas are BFFs. Today, Jim also brought Roxanne and Fanny under his sway.

I did a little work for NCHS (North County Humane Society) and ran a few errands in the early afternoon when the skies were mostly blue and sunny. Then, I cooked like mad. I've never prepared leeks. I've never poached fish. And I don't think I've ever made biscuits from scratch either. I think Bisquick is the closest I've come, and they are NOTHING like Alice's Cream Biscuits which, indeed, are made with a cup of heavy cream. OMG. Can't wait to dive into the assembled short cake later this evening. Fresh strawberries. Local fresh strawberries. From farmers' market.

Yes, I did start that UFO last night. It's finishing a small quilt. Just needs a little "rustic" quilting and the binding put on.

41 recipes completed; 264 to go

Day 60 - Beans & Peas & Resumes

Rain today, which is supposed to go on all week. Yippee! We need it.

A quiet day here at the Knight Hacienda. We went out for breakfast and errands. I did my "ings." (Washing, vacuuming, ironing.) Planned this week's cooking. Went to Trader Joe's for a few groceries and CANDLES, which we will need if the power goes out this week, although I'm betting it won't. I shlogged my way through a stack of resumes in front of the fire with Roxanne W. Furrperson curled up asleep on my lap.

I finished the pea and bean soups. Two containers of pea soup went into the freezer along with 1 of bean soup. The rest of the bean soup was dinner with mandarins and bread. (I had to go to the local version of Whole Foods to find the dried split peas. Apparently they're not sold in regular groceries any more. Who knows what the beans are! Now they're just labeled "small white beans." Yah, I can see that....) I'm happy to report that because of my intense learn-to-cook project, I've really stepped it up a notch or 2 in the pea and bean soup arena. I was so much more aware of what I was doing and why this time. Nice, since I've been throwing these soups together for (gulp) 35+ years.

A nice quiet Sunday.

No UFOs were finished this week, unfortunately, but I have one ready to work on this week. I may even start working on it tonight. Maybe.

Day 59 - Endive and Strawberries

Poached Egg with Curly Endive Salad - pg. 143

Strawberries in Orange Juice - pg. 365

What a day! Always lots to do first thing in the morning, house keeping stuff. Then a trip to farmers' market whether we need anything or not. Just because. My becoming-favorite organic greens seller had a big basket of terrific looking endive, so I got a lot of it. And Dragon Spring Farms was there with their heirloom squashes.

Home quick for lunch then off to the shelter where the Board president and the office manager and I interviewed 5 candidates to replace our departing office manager. What a great group of candidates! I hope we can keep them all with North County Humane Society as volunteers at the very least. Wonderful women, just wonderful.

Then home where I started some cooking. Our soon-to-be next door neighbors stopped by to get a tour of our finished house. I made dinner and afterwards started 2 pots of soup, 1 of split pea and 1 of "small white bean." I have 2 of those very old-fashioned Westbend bean pots that are just perfect for bean and pea soup. These were used before there was such a thing as slow-cookers and crock pots.

The salad was terrific. I beefed it up for an entree by poaching 4 eggs for the 2 of us. Since I used raspberry blush white balsamic vinegar in the dressing instead of red wine vinegar, I omitted the garlic. The baby frisees were so tender and flavorful!

Alice, bless her heart, reminds us that desserts need not be fancy to be wonderful. We are blessed to live in an area where we have fresh local strawberries year around. They may not be at their very best in the dead of winter, but they're still wonderful. The grower told me that a strawberry plant here produces nearly continuously for 3 years before having to be replaced. What's hard on strawberry crops is rain, which we are supposed to have a lot of this week. So this was a good day to buy strawberries. Anyway, I added some fresh mandarin sections and chopped dates to the mix. Quite yummy!

37 recipes accomplished; 268 yet to go

Day 58 - The Disappearing Cat

News? I now have a Facebook page. It's a long story. Basically, I'm dragging myself, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century, having skipped over the late 90s and the 00s. Just don't ask me to Twitter, okay? My thumbs are as old as the rest of me.

So, I generously volunteered to take the "Pet of the Week" from North County Humane Society to Dave Congalton's radio show on KVEC. We do this the 3rd Friday of each month, rotating with several other animal rescue organizations. (Web casts are available on the KVEC web site a few days after air day.) I met Megan there, since Megan actually does the show. But, Dave kindly invited me into the studio, too. Our Cat of the Week was Jasmine, a medium-hair blue (grey) lady with white boots and white whiskers. She is a beautiful cat. The carpet in Dave's studio (floor and wainscoting) is blue (grey), against which Jasmine practically disappears. And then Jasmine disappeared! Into the transmission equipment.

After 15 minutes of the 3 of us, plus the producer so make that 4, crawling around on our hands and knees hunting for the cat, Dave called for anyone within hearing to come to the studio with the correct hex wrench set to remove a panel behind which was the ever-popular Jasmine. We just barely got her out before the next segment started. It was a total circus. Megan, Dave and I truly had to wing it. Jasmine is back at the shelter, no worse for the wear.

I did not cook. Randy and I went to Joebella's for coffee and then Pier 46 for fish sandwiches. I need an advil....

Day 57 - Busy, Busy Day

Whew! From a regular meeting of the Central Coast Weavers to picking up medication for Maizie Jane Valentine (her Radiocat treatment overshot it; she has gone from being hyperthyroid to being hypothyroid) to attending a monthly mixer of the Templeton Chamber of Commerce on behalf of North County Humane Society, with numerous errands and side-trips and stops in between--- that was my day. Did I cook? No. Think about cooking? No. Did I eat a lot of good snacks? Yes. Aussie Bites from Costco and Pier 46 Seafood's little ahi tacos were the best. Ahhhh, it was a very good day.

Day 56 - Noodles and Chard

Spaghettini with Oil and Garlic - pg. 92

Wilted Chard with Onion - pg. 309

I picked off 2 of the easy recipes tonight since I was out running errands all day. The chard dish was really good. I made the pasta with Trader Joe's lemon pepper papparadella which is flavorful and lovely.

I made another loaf of bread-machine bread this evening, but also today bought a 6-quart enameled cast-iron pot to try Jim Lahey's slow-rise bread method which I THINK ... and HOPE ... will give me the rustic loaf I really want to make.

My most interesting moment today was lunch with my friend Wendy who has significant expertise in the governance of non-profits. We talked non-profits, food, and cats and dogs. Wendy is a terrific woman, just terrific. I love her company.

And I found 3 really good Wilton baking sheets at Ross Dress-for-Less. They are smallish, but have handles on both ends. I think they will be absolutely ideal for oven roasting vegetables.

And ya-da, ya-da, ya-da.

35 recipes completed; 270 recipes yet to cook

Day 55 - Leftover Management

I have no idea how Julie Powell managed all the FOOD she produced! She made nearly 2 recipes a day for a year. She fed only herself and her husband most days. WHAT did she do with all that FOOD?!? I had plans to cook today, but opening the frig ... it was all about leftovers, leftovers, leftovers. Leftover carrots. Leftover parsnips. Leftover risotto. Leftover Canadian bacon. Leftover bacon. Leftover tapenade. Leftover cilantro. Leftover polenta. Leftover pork chops. You get the picture. A little leftover management was in order. For lunch I had a leftover pork chop and leftover polenta. For dinner I reheated the last of the leftover asparagus and lemon risotto. I set out some leftover crackers and leftover goat cheese. I dressed a green salad with leftover vinaigrette.

The green salad was interesting. Organic baby spinach, arugula, and spicy mustard, with some curly parsley. I threw in some clementine segments, and coarsely chopped dates and pecans. It was delicious. Clearly, we do NOT need no stinkin' lettuce!

Here's a chuckle. I am a luddite to the core. The last on the planet to get a cell phone, for example, and then only because my architect made me when we started this house. Fifty bucks a month and it goes for DAYS without being used incoming or outgoing. Do you see links on this blog? No. I don't know how. Do you see photos on this blog? No. I knew how once, but I forgot. And so on. Well, after last night's information-sharing among North County Humane Society board members, I am emerging as the resident computer geek.

I volunteered to post kitty ads on Craig's List. I volunteered to set up a Facebook page for North County Humane Society. Which means I've had to start one of my own for practice. I volunteered to lead the effort to get NCHS on You Tube. Oh brother, Learn By Doing at it's finest or at its worst, I'm not sure which. We'll find out!

Day 54 - Nothing New

Nothing new today. I house-fraued most of the day. Cleaning. Laundry. Then the old and new Boards of Directors of North County Humane Society met here to bring the new Board up to speed about on-going projects and current directions. It was a great meeting. These are really fine people who are doing a lot of wonderful work. I'm proud to be on the new Board.

Day 53 - Searching for Eagles; Found Asparagus

Asparagus and Lemon Risotto - pg. 290

Our Big Adventure for today was a drive to nearby Lake San Antonio to look for eagles. Balds and goldens hang out there in the winter. The lake level is dreadfully low which is pretty scary for those of us who drink from it. But the place was darn near deserted this sunny day. It was 70 degrees and I was out in a T-shirt. We pretty much had the park all to ourselves. We only saw 1 (maybe 2) goldens, but it was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed our Trader Joe's picnic and just walking around. We saw lots of fat ground squirrels, a mob of turkeys, and lots of venison on the hoof.

Asparagus is still showing up at farmers' market every week. Who am I to argue? So tonight I made Asparagus and Lemon Risotto. I love risottos in the winter. Comfort food. I think I've made risotto once before in my life, but it was long ago and far away. Tonight's wasn't difficult to make, just took some time. The good part is that there will be plenty of leftovers, enough for at least one more dinner. Risottos also appear to be something that could be made ahead of time and reheated. Good to keep in mind since you can also put nearly anything that's in the frig into a risotto. Kind of like my approach to meat loaf.

33 recipes down; 272 recipes to go

Day 52 - Glazed Carrots

I've overbought carrots, so we're going to see some serious carrot cooking in the coming week. Maybe. Or not. Carrots keep quite well. Tonight, in addition to the same-old, same-old pan-fried pork loin chops, I briefly pan-fried some store-bought polenta from the organic foods section of the grocery which was quite tasty. My Big Adventure was glazing carrots. I still never believe that reductions are going to actually work, but son of a gun, this one did! And those carrots glazed up real nice.

Glazed Carrots - pg. 298

Other than the UFO #2 blogged earlier, my goal for today was to catch up with my email. Success! Okay, there might be one or two that still need to be killed off, but the worst of it is done. As well as the best of it. Upward and onward.

32 recipes completed; 273 challenges still to meet

UFO #2 Finished -Travel Memorabilia

Another ones bites the dust!

Okay, I had a box full of photos and memorabilia from trips to Bangkok, China, New Mexico and Spain. I actually thought I was going to scrapbook all this stuff. Ain't going to happen, folks. Trip to Bangkok was 10 years ago.... Need I say more?

So, I got a nice basket. Went through all the stuff to cull out important maps, photos, and brochures which were neatly filed into the basket. The rest? Recycling bin, please. The nice basket full of vaguely valuable stuff now lives in the library with the travel books. Poof! Another UFO bites the dust.

I rest my case.

Day 51 - The Kitchen Is Closed Today

We had a bite at our favorite casual mid-Eastern place, Jaffa, tonight after meeting at 5:00 for the usual late Friday afternoon lattes. Then on to a terrific piano recital! Terry Spiller, chair of the Cal Poly music department, gives a benefit recital the second Saturday of each new year for music department scholarships. We go every year. Dr. Spiller ripped up some terrific Bartok and Chopin this year, earning him multiple standing ovations from his loyal following.

Otherwise, I pecked away at the pile of paper on my desk and the slew of backed-up emails on my computer. Will I ever see daylight? Oh! And I unpacked one of the remaining boxes, which had more stuff in it that I had remembered. Onward and upward.

Day 50 - Roll On, Crimson Tide!

Terrific, interesting game. Now if I could just see a match-up between Boise State and Alabama, I'd be a happy collegiate football fan.

Dinner was that tasty fairytale pumpkin puree (with a little added cream) and pan-fried pork loin chops that were beyond delicious. My! How I love the taste of salt and fat!

Dinner, though, kind of interrupted the football game, so it was a simple meal. Nothing new cooked today. But, I'm feeling better than yesterday. And I actually got some work done in my studio today, other than unpacking boxes. Some REAL work! Oh joy! More tomorrow.

Day 49 - Musquee de Provence

Which is the French name for Fairytale Pumpkin Squash. And that's one of the reasons to shop at farmers' markets -- to find these wonderful, unusual eatables. I baked and pureed a 2.45 pound slice of Musquee de Provence. (A whole one weighs 15-20 pounds!) It's delicious as is, although there are other cool things I might do with it. In any event, this qualifies me to check one more recipe off the list:

Winter Squash Puree - pg. 324

Thanks to Dragon Spring Farm in Cambria for growing and selling Musquee de Provence!

I forced myself to go out and run some errands this afternoon, although I slept 'til nearly 10:30 this morning. I can't seem to shake the tail end of this cold. Very aggravating. Thankfully, there was still plenty of the curly kale and potato soup in the frig as well as the bread I made the other day. I whipped up a little vinaigrette for the last bit of lettuce that was lingering in the frig. And called it dinner. That's it for today. I suffer from brain death. There's bound to be some bowl game on TV tonight....

31 recipes completed; 274 yet to tackle

Day 48 - Fear of Fennel

Fennel Gratin - pg. 307

served with pan-fried chicken "tenderloins" and

a simple mushroom sauce

Ah, Loyal Readers, you may recall my fear of cauliflower, which I've overcome under Alice's guidance. All my long life I have always avoided fennel, too. I like licorice and anise well enough, but why would anyone eat that flavor in a vegetable? Made no sense to me. Alice, however, is quite fond of fennel. Fine. Just fine. There are 3 recipes for fennel in TAOSF. Fine. I started with the one that most buries the fennel bulbs under other stuff: fennel gratin. This variation buries the parboiled fennel quarters under a bechamel sauce made with parmesan, cayenne and ground nutmeg (I substituted ground allspice). Well, it wasn't half bad. I don't think fennel will ever be my favorite vegetable, but I'd make this recipe again. Now I must gird my loins, tender and otherwise, for the next 2 fennel recipes. They aren't buried.

Fortunately, Randy liked the fennel.

Interesting discovery: if you don't have something a recipe calls for, the internet will serve you up alternative/substitute ingredients in a nanosecond. Cool! How did I survive before Google?

As long as I was bechamelling, I made such a sauce with sliced mushrooms to serve over the pan-fried chicken tenderloins, of which I have purchased a frozen bagful. What the heck is a chicken tenderloin? Is this related to a chicken nugget? Oh well. It's a quick, easy way to get a little protein on the plate. I'm definitely into this pan-frying meat thing.

Otherwise, my day was beyond dull. Project #1: undecorate the tree and box up all the Christmas decorations, ready to put back in the storage closet tomorrow when the cats are napping. (I do NOT want feline assistance with that task.) Project #2: address next year's Christmas cards so if we travel in December next year we won't end up in a spat over the darn things like we did this year. They are ready to go.

I'm still thrilled with Boise State's remarkable win in yesterday's Fiesta Bowl. Those are my boys!

30 recipes accomplished; 275 yet to go

Day 47 - It's Soup!

Curly Kale and Potato Soup - pg. 254

I made mine with browned, sliced sausage. One of those horseshoe-shaped turkey things; not artisanal.... The soup was delicious and will be on another night, too. Alice has a lot of interesting soup recipes. We love soup, and most of them are relatively easy to make. I served the bowls tonight with crackers and chevre. You don't need a whole lot on the table with a good soup. Another reason why I love them. My favorite soups on our cruise ship were cold fruit soups. I'm looking forward to trying some of those this summer.

Otherwise, I'm pooped. I only have the last remnants of the cold today. But I woke up at 5:30. That's too early. I wrote a bunch of emails and did a bunch of little household chores. I got in a couple hours of a note card project before the appliance repair guy came. (His name is Jim. Jim loves our big white male cat, Nicky. Nicky loves Jim. It's a hoot to watch them interact.) We've had some problems with our dryer, the way the door latches. Or doesn't latch. And the refrigerator arrived with a small dent in one door. That was in, a-hem, July. The replacement door finally arrived and was installed today, 6 months later.

I brought the garbage and recycling cans in from the curb, which requires 2 hikes up to the nearest public road. Since it was sunny and warm out, I walked down our nature trail to the creek and back up. It's a long, steep walk on a dirt utility access road that conveniently starts at the base of our driveway. Good exercise on a beautiful day.

And then I made soup! Tonight I'm going to pretty much just veg. Take in the second half of the Fiesta Bowl (I was born near Boise). Yup; just veg.

29 recipes completed; 276 to go

Beans and Rice

Feeling much better today, although not yet 100%. Nevertheless... time to get moving. Christmas mop-up operations ensued. Thank you notes were written. Ornament boxes were brought down from the storage closet. And, I'm sending Randy back to school tomorrow, so there was laundry to do and shirts to "touch up." I've got a list. Got the 3 "A" priority items checked off. That's good.

A dear friend, Fran from San Antonio, called this afternoon just to say "hi." We've known each other forever. Or at least it feels that way. Maybe it's time for a visit this year. Maybe I can do that.

Dinner was a fall-back position. Rice and beans. Randy made the rice. Beans? Easy. One half chopped onion sauteed in olive oil. A can of black beans, well rinsed. And a healthy dose of Bronco Bob's roasted raspberry chipotle sauce. (One of only 2 bottled sauces that I actually like.) Some Trader Joe's roasted corn I found in the freezer. And a couple slices of the honey-preserved clementines I made up awhile back. Oh yum! Nothing Alice, but I wanted quick and brainless tonight. I may not do much better tomorrow since we're scheduled to have some repair work done on the refrigerator tomorrow afternoon. Oh my.

UFO #1 Finished - Shades of Gray Scarf

For what it's worth -- it's the first Saturday of 2010 and I have finished the first UFO (that's UnFinished prOject) of the New Year. I am SO pleased! Now I'm going to take a bunch of cold medications and crawl into bed. Thank you very much.

Happy January 2!

Still feeling icky with a cold. It's so bad that I actually watched 2 entire bowl games yesterday, not feeling well enough to do anything else. Today? A little better, although dinner was Randy's creation. Three days of no cooking and I miss it. I'm not a good patient, in any event. I mean, I behave myself, take my pills, drink plenty of liquids, follow doctor's orders and all that -- but I HATE being sick and have little patience for it. I got some minor stuff done around the house, so the day wasn't a total loss.

I'm embarrassed to admit how many boxes of unfinished and pending projects I have now that the stuff in my studio is pretty well organized and those boxes are all neatly stacked together. Sooooo, another goal for 2010 is to finish one of those projects each week. This is a resolution I've made in past years, too; and I usually do pretty well, at least for a few months. I'll take what I can get. So, this afternoon I've been knitting like mad to see if I can finish a scarf of multi-value and silver-wrapped mohair and a grey variegated rayon ribbon. (I like my weeks to begin on Sunday and end on Saturday.) I'd better get to it! Won't knit itself. More tomorrow, of course.

Happy New Year!

Yes, yes. I know. I didn't blog yesterday. I've got a cold and felt really icky last night. Anyway, Randy and I engaged in our traditional New Year's Eve dinner. We buy a whole bunch of finger foods and just snack. Last night we held our picnic in front of the new big screen TV.

Let's see what I can remember of the spread. Proscuitto and mozarella roll. Salami. Sesame and honey cashews. Chocolate-covered espresso beans (on which the entire picnic is based). Bread. Fruitcake. Humus. Tapenade. California roll. Mustard. Crackers. Clementines. Apple. Pear. Sparkling apple juice. There may have been more. I can't remember. We'll be doing this again tonight since there are plenty of leftovers and I feel too crumby to cook.

Oh yes, as of today I am officially on the Board of Directors of North County Humane Society here in Atascadero. It's going to be a roller-coaster, but lots of fun, too. Now I'm going to watch the Rose Bowl and vegetate. Oh yes! I watched the Rose Parade this morning. Our nephew, Alex Knight, was on the Ronald McDonald House float. Cool!

Day 46 - Potato Gratin (again)

I'm sure you remember that on Day 18 (November 2, 2009) I made a potato gratin that didn't exactly thrill me. In fact, I thought it was yucky. So tonight I tried again with much success. Keeping it simple, the only thing I used other than butter, potatoes, milk, salt, and pepper was finely shopped fresh thyme. It was actually quite yummy. I'm feeling much better now, thank you very much.

I just paired the potato gratin with the other turkey tender, pan-fried again. Randy made a little green salad.

Otherwise, I continue unpacking and organizing. Ran another load of laundry. The usual stuff.

And, took a cat-care tour of North County Humane Society. I will be on the Board of Directors officially in 2 days. We have a lot of work to do since the economy has hit all of us non-profits so severely.

Went for a nice long walk with Randy this afternoon. Gee whiz, we live in a beautiful place.

Bottom line: no new recipes today, but I now feel confident about potato gratin

Day 45 - No Cooking Due to Avatar

Why is it that some mornings I wake up just filled with drive and enthusiasm, and other days I'm lucky to get out of my pajamas? Yesterday was the former type of day. Today was the latter. It was pressing on towards noon before I was finally dressed and busy working on the last pile of boxes in my studio.

Taking advantage of the week between Christmas and New Year's, that wonderful time when no one is expected to be anywhere doing anything especially useful, I took in a matinee of Avatar in 3D. I love scifi movies and action movies anyway, but this was really something. A nice story with a happy ending. Visually stunning. The last big Mano-a-Mano Fight Scene was too frenetic to follow. That was my only beef. I liked it alot. Good music, too.

After which I went to Barnes & Noble. Randy and I gave each other copies of Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle for Christmas. One copy in the house is sufficient, so I traded in mine (and a few bucks) for Martha Stewart's Cooking School. More supplemental reading. With pictures.

Randy had some Trader Joe's frozen biryani heated up for me when I got home, bless his heart.

Day 44 - Parsnips and Green Beans

Parsnip or Root Vegetable Puree - pg. 315

Green Beans with Toasted Almonds and Lemon - pg. 292

Pan-Fried Turkey "Tenders" - pg.231

It was a good, productive day. By the time I hit the sack tonight, my studio will be just about completely unpacked. I'm going to add some wall shelves and cabinets as soon as possible (another trip to Ikea; isn't that a shame?). Until then, some of my Barbies and my own art dolls will stay in boxes, but they'll all neatly be in file storage boxes. Of course I'll be moving stuff around and reorganizing for the entire new year, but that's anticipated. And I have to get my 3 floor looms put together and up and running. But that will be fun, not drudgery. Otherwise today? A couple loads of laundry. A grocery expedition to Trader Joe's. We are currently very well stocked with veggies, fruit, and proteins. I also discovered that our local woodpeckers are using the vertical pine posts outside the garage as graineries. They're storing acorns in them. Well, it's better than the bats we had in our ceiling in Los Osos. The birds will poop elsewhere.

Back to cooking tonight! I LOVE parsnips and was thrilled to see 6 recipes for them in the current issue of Fine Cooking. I made their Mashed Parsnips with Lemon and Herbs which is a slightly gussied up version of Alice's root vegetable puree. This veggie puree thing is new to me, and now I'm excited to try pureeing a whole range of root vegetables. FC's parsnip version adds creme fraiche, butter, lemon zest and lemon juice. And whatever chopped up green herbs you happen to have on hand. It was a major M.O. (mouth orgasm).

I also used the last of some green beans to make Green Beans with Toasted Almonds and Lemon, although I used pecans instead of almonds. Very tasty. Rounding out our plates were Pan-Fried Turkey "Tenders," whatever a tender is. I cut one tender in half horizontally to make 2 thin enough for pan frying.

Altogether, this was an excellent dinner, one I would serve guests. And I used my new warming drawer exactly the way I had planned. Instead of juggling 3 dishes simultaneously, I made the parsnips and put them in the drawer. Then I made the green beans and put them in the drawer. Then I made the turkey tenders. Everything was perfectly warm on the table simultaneously and I was cool as a cucumber.

28 recipes completed; 277 to go!

Day 43 - Leftovers, Leftovers and More Leftovers

Apparently one's Christmas dinner need not have been huge and elaborate for one to have tons of leftovers for days after. This is a good thing.

Breakfast was a sliced pear with a chunk of gingerbread cake and a little cream. Lunch was leftover squash mixed and reheated with leftover pasta and a few pecans. Very tasty. Dinner was the rest of the pozole and leftover bread-machine bread. Three excellent meals. Nothing new was made except the vinaigrette for the green salad with dinner.

I'm thinking that I'll push to finish my TAOS project by the end of 2010. Obviously I won't cook every day. Just as obviously, I'm going to go astray and cook from other source material. But if I stay on track, I ought to be able to conquer those remaining 279 recipes by 12/31/10, don't you think? That's like 3/4s of a recipe a day. Three recipes every four days. Five or 6 every week. How tough can that be? Guess we'll find out.

In Unpacking Land, I unpacked a goodly portion of my weaving yarn today. What got unpacked is now living in one of my Ikea counter cabinets. Yeah! And I unpacked some of my Barbie collection. Hey! It's never too late to have a happy childhood!

And, we went to see another movie. George Clooney's _Up In The Air_. I thought it was funny. Randy thought it was depressing. Clearly a movie that will be interpreted differently by men and women, in my opinion. Clooney is one heck of an actor. He communicates more with his facial expressions than most actors can with an entire Shakespearian script.

That's it for today! Tomorrow I'm shooting for parsnips!

Day 42 - An OMG! Dinner at Villa Creek

Since we're usually Home Alone on Christmas day, Randy and I have long gone out for dinner rather than eat at home. But, as my standards have improved, my satisfaction with what's available on The Day has diminished. This year I suggested a good, simple meal at home on The Day (which we had and loved) followed by a meal out later. Which was today.

Being new to the north half of San Luis Obispo County, we're just learning the restaurants up here. Tonight we tried Villa Creek in Paso Robles. O.M.G. I had one of the best meals I've ever had in my life, no kidding! VC aims to be local, sustainable and organic. In addition, Executive Chef Tom Fundaro is putting out some really tasty food.

To start, the waitress brought a basket of small, warm flour tortillas with a deeply-flavored, smokey salsa. Since we demolished that in record time, another round was promptly served. Boy, this was way better than the usual bread and butter routine!

Randy started with "fuyu persimmon & bitter greens, Maytag blue cheese, spiced walnuts with apple balsamic vinaigrette." He would only have made the persimmon slices chunkier. My "winter squash soup with sage oil & toasted pumpkin seeds" was perfect. Truly flavorful.

Randy went on to "grilled pork tenderloin with cider mustard sauce, sauteed apples & roasted root vegetables, herbed potato puree." His plate was bare at the end of dinner. I think he even ate his parsley sprig.

You know I love, love, love venison, so I went straight for the "pan seared venison double chop, quinoa lentil stuffed pumpkin with cherry almond demi-glace & sage." There was also some wonderfully flavorful spinach on the plate. The meat for perfect, topped with the cherry sauce. The pumpkin stuffing was surprisingly spicy and lively. The tiny pumpkin was worthy of eating, too, although I only had a few bites and brought the rest home. Let me tell you, the plate was absolutely gorgeous as it was composed. The entree was, by itself, the single most satisfying thing I've ever been served.

Yes, we soldiered on through dessert and coffee. Randy had a fabulous fruit crisp with pecans and a richly scented vanilla gelato. I had an amazing chocolate torte that I nearly couldn't finished. Well, I forced myself. The coffee, unfortunately, was pretty weak-kneed, although generously served in a large French press. Only the coffee kept the entire meal from being nearly perfect.

Yup, the whole thing was pricey, but no worse than a full lunch at the Chez Panisse cafe. I'd rather eat out less often and eat better quality food when we do. I am a happy little foodie tonight.

Otherwise, I spent our cloudy, drizzly day reading and unpacking. The upstairs storage closet is FINISHED! The upstairs bathroom is FINISHED! And I made a major dent in the remaining boxes piled in my studio. YIPPEE!! Mind you, although my studio is large, it has to contain nearly everything that I had spread throughout our entire Los Osos house. I had a lot of my weaving stuff in the family room and garage. Tons more stuff, including all my dyeing stuff, in the garage. Everything else in the sewing room and its closet (which was stuffed to the gills). There was a loom in the living room with assorted stuff scattered about. The only rooms in that house that weren't full of my stuff were the kitchen, bathrooms, and our bedroom. I even had some of my books in Randy's office. Admittedly, I'm putting much of my weaving and knitting yarn into the upstairs storage closet at this house. But, that stuff will get "used up." I promise.

Oh yes, I'm making a quart of Honey-Preserved Clementines today. They have to sit in the frig for a week before using, so I'll let you know about this experiment next week!

Day 41 - A Christmas Miracle!

Hope everyone reading this is having a terrific day today whether or not you are celebrating Christmas. Randy and I have had a lovely peaceful day at home cooking, opening gifts, reading, and just generally poking around.

And, a Christmas miracle occurred! I unpacked the LAST downstairs box this afternoon! The very last. There is a good chance I'll reach my unpacking goal by January 1.

Oddly enough, there was a strong food and cooking theme under the tree this morning. Santa must know. Why else would the kitties give me salmon for Christmas? I'm sure Santa helped with the shopping....

Randy made a terrific pozole for Christmas dinner. He made it with a batch of Santa Fe red chile sauce, which he also made. He says he may adopt this pozole as his new signature dish (which for years has been his fish soup). I made bread-machine bread, and Gingerbread Cake with Root-Beer-Poached Pears for dessert. This is on page 57 of the current issue of Fine Cooking. NOT a simple dish since there are 3 parts to it: the cake, the whipped cream, and the poached pears with root beer sauce. But it sure was good. I'm not sure I've ever made real whipped cream before. Sheez.

I think I've listened to the NPR Christmas stories about 4 times today. Time to move on. Back to global misery and mayhem. And whatever joy you can create in your own little corner of the world.

Day 40 - Ho Ho Ho Eve

We did 2 remotely interesting things today. We had lunch at Hush Harbor. I ordered one of their daily specials, vaguely referred to as "Salmon Entree." One of the best meals I've had in recent memory, which is saying a lot. Perfect salmon atop perfect risotto, perfectly plated. Then we grocery shopped for stuff for tomorrow. Randy will make pozole. I'll take a stab at the ginger cake with root-beer poached pears in the current issue of Fine Cooking since we were gifted with a box of those fabulous Harry and David pears.

Otherwise, just same-old, same-old and other mop-up operations. Gift wrapping. Floor vacuuming. Pick-up-and-put-away. Last minute Christmas card writing. Tree ornament repair. Email catch up. Cat petting. Dish washing. Real life. No cooking accomplished since Randy made cream of wheat with bananas and raisins for breakfast and neither of us were particularly hungry after our Big Lunch. We just polished off the last of the brie, salami and crackers. I do my very best to keep my holiday expectations extremely low.

Last night I dreamed I had a dump truck. A real one. Now what was that all about? I'm wishing that Santa, and life in general, is treating you very well today.

Day 39 - Late Christmas Shopping!

I got something accomplished this morning -- I've nearly finished cleaning and straightening up the upstairs storage closet. Yippee!! One step closer to being moved in!!

Otherwise, Randy and I went our separate ways today to finish Christmas shopping. I'm usually done weeks before this, but not this year with our trip to Spain and cruise home. I can't share details in case Dear Hubby actually reads this, but I must reveal that after visiting at least 6 stores, I finally found a significant item on his wish list. Whew!! I didn't think I was going to come through which would have severely damaged my power-shopper reputation. It was a close call.

I've been reading a lot about food and cooking recently. Just finished Thomas McNamee's biography of Alice Waters. Tough to write about someone who is so ultra-private in spite of her high public profile. I read _Meat: A Love Story_ by Susan Bourette from the ship's library while at sea. A collection of individually well-written, semi-interesting essays, but without a clear point of view. The New Yorker had an entire issue in mid-November devoted to food which I read, literally, cover to cover. And I've discovered Holly Hughes's collections of "Best Food Writing," starting with the 2008 edition. (I believe that 2005 was the first.) Which has led me to, finally, pick up Michael Pollan's _Omnivore's Dilemma_, although what I really want to read is his _In Defense of Food_, a chapter of which appears in BFW 2008.

Sadly, I was reading OD in the middle of the night last night after waking up worrying about stuff I don't worry about during the day and shouldn't be worrying about at all. It doesn't help that December in general gets me crazy. I'd love if someone could put me in a deep freeze after Thanksgiving dinner and leave me there until a thawing scheduled for, oh, say, December 27. For all of you, I wish nights of good, restful sleep. Something we take for granted until it eludes us, but a great gift when we have it.

Oh yes! After shopping, I took in the movie, _Precious_. A must see. Heart-breaking, thought-provoking, but also bursting with the human spirit for survival.

Day 38 - Phooey 2

Good comment about the mushrooms, Georg! Thank you! Nope, I don't season them before sauteeing, and only damply wipe the crud off. So I'm not sure what accounted for success this time. However, I have another 1 and 1/2 packages of mushrooms in the frig, so there will be further experimentation. I'll be reporting here. Come to think of it, you have to wipe beef dry before browning, so maybe the same holds true for mushrooms -- that they need to be thoroughly dried off before hitting the oil. Maybe my mushrooms WERE drier than usual after cleaning this time and I just didn't realize it.

Anyway, I'm definitely feeling better today, but still not great. I slept until 10 a.m., which maybe helped beat back the bad bugs. Had a terrific breakfast of warmed-up pizza. One of my guilty pleasures. Dinner was snacks, which we often indulge in over the holidays. Such things as thinly-sliced salami, brie, crackers, dates, mandarin oranges, and goat cheese. I like to play with my food. I LOVE finger food. These "winter picnics" always seem the height of luxury to me. We usually do it up big time on New Year's Eve, adding treats like shrimp, smoked salmon, and chocolate-covered espresso beans. Ah, bliss.

The only other thing to report is that we now have $5,000 to help pay for all the additional repairs we had to make on our Los Osos in order to sell it. Like a new leach field.... The buyer has entirely backed out and has left his deposit behind. I would rather have sold the house by now, but will settle for being rid of this guy. Our landscaper will be doing some repair work to the front garden, bringing it at least close to its former glory. Then the house will truly be in near-perfect condition for a REAL buyer! And we will have all the misery totally behind us. So, I guess that's a good thing.

I also started work on moving into/unpacking the rest of the upstairs now that the downstairs is pretty much under control. January 1 for totally moved in (mostly) or bust!

Day 37 - Phooey

Phooey. I have a cold. I'm in the tired, head-achy, ache-all-over phase. I hope it doesn't get any worse than that. Apparently there is also an infected salivary gland in the mix, too -- something which I am oddly prone to for some strange reason. I always get the weird stuff.

Nonetheless, the tyranny of Christmas goes on. We got about 50 Christmas cards out in the mail today. All in one day from start to finish.

I made poached eggs on an English muffin for breakfast. Had Randy bring me a burger and soda for lunch. Dinner was take-out pizza and eggnog. So much for healthy cooking and eating.

Tomorrow, my dear, is another day.

Day 36 - Mushrooms and Winter Squash

Sauteed Mushrooms - pg. 313

Roasted Butternut Squash - pg. 324

You would think that at my age I would be able to simply saute mushrooms successfully. I've done it at least 200 times. But mine usually end up soggy, awash in a sea of mushroom juice. This morning I was making myself a somewhat fancy brunch: thick-cut smoked bacon with scrambled eggs. Since I'd found some at a fabulous marked-down price at the supermarket earlier this week, I decided to add a few (7, to be specific) sliced mushrooms to the eggs. As long as it was in the pan after cooking the bacon, I threw the mushrooms into the bacon fat to saute. Whatever it was (the pan? the heat? the bacon grease? just a few slices in the pan?), the mushrooms sauteed perfectly to a golden brown, nice and dry, just greasy and delicious. I proceeded to scramble the eggs right in the same pan after adding a little butter for total decadence. So at least once in my life I've successfully sauteed mushrooms.

I'm taking it easy today, having detected a somewhat scratchy throat last night. It figures that after 3 weeks of travel, it was probably the flight home from Miami that did me in. Airplanes, especially in winter, are like epidemic wards. Give me a long flight and you'll usually give me a cold. Well, with luck and good behavior, I might be able to fight it off.

Nevertheless, we went to a movie this afternoon. "Invictus" with Morgan Freeman playing Nelson Mandela. I suppose that after playing God a couple times, there's nowhere up to go but to play Mr. Mandela. It's a well-crafted (except for some overlong, under-explained rugby scenes), feel-good movie, perfect for the holidays. I know I can't watch "It's a Wonderful Life" one more time.... But I don't mind at all basking for a couple hours in the public persona of Mr. Mandela.

Randy made a simple, tasty pasta dish with the last of the Costco roasted chicken. That chicken yielded 3 or 4 meals! And was tasty, too. I followed Alice's recommendations for making Roasted Butternut Squash, although I used herbs de provence rather than sage. I also used a locally grown heirloom squash, Sucrine du Berry, grown and sold by Dragon Spring Farm in Cambria. Sucrine du Berry is from France, is larger, and has a darker interior color (much like a good carrot) than our well-known butternut, although it's from the same group of squash and has the same shape. I cooked 2 pounds of the stuff, so there will be plenty of leftovers. It was very good, although I probably overdid the herbs. I'm not sure it was really necessary to cut it into 1/4" dice, either. That's a lot of cutting!

So happy to be back to cooking! Who knew it would be so?

26 recipes down; 279 recipes to go

Home

We've been home for almost exactly 1 week. Time enough to:

unpack

do many, many loads of laundry

nearly catch up on mail and email

clean the house thoroughly, especially of cat fur

unpack everything downstairs except art, including 50 boxes of books in the library

resupply with groceries

run numerous errands

get a Christmas tree and decorate it

get my body's clock back on Pacific Standard Time

and whatever else I've been doing all week.

The cruise was fun and relaxing. We're not the social butterflies that one really needs to be to get the most out of these kinds of cruises, but we enjoyed the port stops, especially in the Canary Islands, met some good people and ate lots of good food. I especially appreciated the 7 at-sea days of pure relaxation. I was actually able to do a little beading, lots of reading, and watched several movies.

Randy's knee, it turns out, has a torn meniscus in 2 places, rather than just 1 place. He has scheduled surgery for February 4 in the hope that it will improve between now and then. Yeah. Right.

The sale of our Los Osos house has fallen through although the would-be buyer is now being difficult about wrapping things up so we can get on with another sale. Figures.

The cats are well. Other than Randy's knee, we are well. I can't believe we've done all this traveling this month without either one of us catching a virus of one sort or another. Must be some kind of record.

Since my goal is to be entirely unpacked and organized in our new house by January 1, I hit the ground running when we returned, unpacking the entire library in the first 2 days we were home. My studio is a mass/mess of boxes, but the storage closet upstairs will get cleaned out and straightened up first since that's where all the Christmas decorations are stored. I have hope. I haven't gotten back into the swing of my cooking project yet, but we did get to farmers' market this morning so I'm stocked again with veggies, including 2 kinds of heirloom winter squash that I'm anxious to try.

Poached eggs have been my thing this week. On the cruise ship there was a lovely lady chef who made fancy poached egg dishes at breakfast time. Fancy as in, well, my favorite had caviar on top! Unfortunately I didn't home in on her cooking station until the very end of the cruise after being enticed by several rounds of eggs benedict in the main dining room. At least I vowed to learn to poach eggs, something I've never before done in my entire life. I bought 2 of those versatile silicon egg-poaching cups earlier this week. I know that's cheating a little, but these are my baby steps. By my 3rd breakfast of poached eggs on English muffin this week I had the technique and timing down to my satisfaction. You want to "grease" the cups with butter before adding the eggs. My cooktop has a "simmer" setting on 2 of the burners, which is actually just a little cooler than what I consider a true simmer. Nine minutes, maybe 8.5, seems to be the perfect time at a simmer. This with the lid on the saucepan so the tops of the eggs cook, too. Of course I'll also take a stab at poaching eggs the hard way, but even Julia Childs uses those little perforated poaching baskets and even does a little pre-boil in-the-shell, so who am I to expect miracles of myself? On the other hand, Julia also makes those fancy decorated poached eggs in aspic.... Well, that's another chapter altogether.

Onward and upward and back to real life. Refreshed, renewed, cleaned, unpacked and organized.

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