My Weekend Six

D

dawnnys

Well-known member
...started Friday by picking blueberries at my favorite sopt - only $2 a quart! And so fresh and good when eaten out of hand, still warm from the sun. Did a search here for "blueberries" and my name, and came up with at least 3 pages of posts. I think I am blueberry OCD ;o) I really love them though, and the growing season is so short here.

Then yesterday morning at the farmer's market, I looked around for prepared food ideas for Dawn_MO. I saw bottled mustards, herbed soaps, maple syrup products, and Amish baked goods, but nothing really ready-to-eat, except for the hot bagels.

I did get a carton of figs from one stand, nice local tomatoes from one table then saw nicer Beefsteak ones a few yards down the aisle at half the price!, and an elbow in the back from a guy standing in the middle of the aisle (I hate the crowds). Note to self: don't buy at the first stand in the row - better deals are in the middle...

Breakfast with the family was pumpkin pancakes - 8 inches in diameter, no kidding - at the restaurant next door from the market. Took half of it home and still had enough for 4 regular-sized pancakes for breakfast this morning, eith cream cheese, raspberries, and what else, blueberries.

Classic car show this weekend, DH and friends there while I am home weeding out the herb and "flowerless" tomato garden.

Planning on making Dawn_MO's creamy enchiladas in the crockpot for tonight. Cooler, but still too warm to use to oven.

 
My Weekend Six

1. Friday...made pizza Margherita for the family
2. Made a mascarpone cheesecake for party on Saturday
3. Made balsamic strawberries to garnish the cheesecake on Saturday
4. Went to the dinner party to serve a dinner for 10. As part of a charity silent auction, we offered this as a package. They got a fabulous deal for a $300 donation!
5. I apparently was named head chef and garnisher, so I roasted the marinated beef tenderloin, steamed the asparagus, heated the hollandaise, garnished the gazpacho, arranged the appetizers, and cut the cheesecake.
6. We received a round of applause before we left the home...so I guess we did a good job!

I'll attach a link to the cheesecake recipe and some table photos...

http://thatskinnychickcanbake.blogspot.com/2010/07/mascarpone-cheesecake.html

 
My Weekend Six...

First of all: I got a job! Yipee!

I feel so relieved, and so grateful to be employed. The nice place I was temping called me back for a possible temp-to-permanent placement and after they interviewed an excruciating long stream of cute, well dressed people, they offered the job to me. It is a nice place and I'm learning the ropes and I really like my coworkers and the partners and managers. (WHEW)

So I just finished my second week of work, and yesterday I took at six hour nap. Plus a full night's sleep. I guess work is more tiring than I remembered smileys/smile.gif

Yesterday I thawed out a lamb shank from a butchery demonstration I went to in April by an amazing blogger, Hank Shaw (see link). Yes, that's me in the corner studiously taking notes. I butchered a sheep once but now I know how to do seam butchery, which is where you "free the meat" along the seams of the muscle groups, it's efficient and preserves the nice cuts of meat. Anyway, I browned the shank in my Le Crueset tomato pot, and added onion, cabbage, celery, tomatoes and leftover red wine and let it braise for a couple of hours before my epic nap. It was so delicious and tender, and I couldn't eat it all!

This morning I made a nice breakfast for myself and the sun came out and lightened my spirits so I wrote a little pieced about my breakfast eccentricities for my blog.

My friend gave me her antique Victorian settee on Thursday night, so today I am going to clean the heck out of it. So far I have vacuumed it within an inch of its life and washed away the cobwebs etc. I sprayed it with 2 large bottles of alcohol to attempt to kill the mildew that I think is inside the upholstery, it smells like mildew but there is none visible. I have Woolite spray foam and will try that. I can't afford a professional cleaner (yet) but I don't think I can live with mildew spores in the house. Sadness. Please keep your fingers crossed for me. The cat likes it a lot!
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4135/4801980121_3ecc4b14c8.jpg

Tonight I am making James Beard's mom's cream of tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches (Dubliner cheddar and bacon jam inside on sourdough) and champagne. I'm still celebrating, after all!

I feel like I live on a different planet than you all, weather wise. It's summer, I hear, but I still have lots of fog over my house, the air is quite chilled, and I'm wearing merino socks.

I think brownies are in order tonight. I came up with an idea for a food product to sell with a friend. I'm going to make a test batch, and then if it goes over well amongst my friends, then I will price out the cost and see how it works to use La Cocina's space to make it. It's a combination of bacon with nuts and a few other things that would be a great topping for ice cream, brownies (hence tonight's baking) and who knows what else.... I need to go grocery shopping.

Or, maybe I'll just take another nap!

Hope you all are doing well, I am looking forward to hanging out here more, now that I can afford to buy groceries and am not doing "sustenance cooking" any more.

http://honest-food.net/2010/05/10/lamb-butchering-free-the-meat/

 
So great to hear Heather! I feel so relieved for you and now if more

businesses would just start loosening up and hire more!

 
Thank you! I know, huh, the unemployment rate here is so awful and so many have lost

their benefits. I was in a company offsite meeting and they are calling last year "The Crash" which was rather startling. I think the news is minimizing it, but the reality is so many people don't have any money or a job of any kind. It took me 18 months, and this is just for simple secretarial work, and I was looking so hard and trying everything.

All I can say is WHEW!

I hope my friends here who are still looking for work and otherwise struggling find relief soon....

 
Hooray! I am so happy for you, Heather! Throw that burden of worry off of your shoulders, and hug

the cat for me. Whoopie, DH and I are so happy for you that we are dancing a little jig! Much love to you, our wonderful San Francisco Ambassador!

 
so happy to hear your good news. Your mentin of cat head biscuits and the (more)

subsequent baking earned me a blue ribbon for biscuits @ the Marin Fair.
PM me and I may have info on a source to market some of your ideas (even before you use La Cocina)

 
Wow, Darice, that's fantastic! Congratulations!

That is quite the accomplishment! I am sorry I missed the fair this year, I will send you a note- thank you for any and all suggestions smileys/smile.gif

 
Thanks Dawn! And Kendall, I am just so curious, is it your own wolf's poop or just the neighborhood

wild wolves in the area?

 
Congratulations Heather!! I love your pretty settee and your cat. Funny enough,

my Scottish parents never got past the word settee even if we had a sofa way back when.

 
Yay! So glad to hear your good news.

I'm not surprised you took a six-hour nap. I think being unemployed is very stressful; your system is probably going to take a long time to relax.

Love your couch!

 
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