Saturday 6...hurrah, I'm on top of it......

J

joanietoo

Well-known member
1 Packed clothing at the Red Cross for the Haitian Relief this week and had the best...yet prolly the worst lunches, there. Chicken, 'red sauce', dry brown rice'npeas (beans) and mixed frozen veg. But what fab people run this. I am in awe of their ability to keep on going while us volunteers worked in shifts. And it is not over by a long chalk.

2 Very pleased with the way the 1st cooking class went. Now really trying to market this. Two of the students were chefs on mega yachts and one of them said "I have learnt 4 things today I had no idea about. I so enjoyed the entire day"(Holding thumbs it will get off the ground)

3 Going to an Indian cooking class this am. I have diplomas in this cuisine but am always keen to learn more. Not sure if she does East Indian or West Indian, we will see.

4 Some mega yacht crew held a Haitian Relief Dock Party which we went to last night...YUM!!!! I could not get the two recipes I wanted from anyone......Ribs in a fantastic ginger marinade and chicken wings/legs in a wonderful blue cheese sauce. I think I can make up the blue cheese. A far cry above the local 'red sauce' they slather their grilled meat with. The potato salad had a great lemon flavour to the mayo and the vodka tings made it all go down so well.

5 Thank goodness I have been able to go to any/all of the above...I have just had a bout of tonsilitis ??? At this great age of mine, and I dont even have tonsils???? Antibiotics are a wonderful thing. Last time I had penicillin was about early teenage years for ?? tonsilitis.

6 Is my husband becoming a teenager too? He stays up till the early hours (working) and sleeps till about 10 am!!!!! I thought when we get older we need less sleep.

 
My weekend six

- started a pot of chicken stock in the oven overnight & have it on stovetop finishing it off this morning - house smells yummy
- one of DH's consultants from DC will be in town Tuesday & Wednesday so he's invited him over for dinner Tuessday night & DH wants me to serve my 'famous' chicken and dumplins but I'm trying to figure out a more well rounded menu & get a jump start on it
- Clean the house
- trying to find more recipes to fit into my 'as vegan as possible' before 6pm new years resolution - things I can make ahead and keep in fridge, easily take to work and nuke, etc.
- hmmm - want to make a nice fresh bread for Tuesday night so I need to research that
- it's warm (relatively speaking) though a little gloomy - makes me want to work on gardening stuff - determinted to have a garden this year DESPITE the deer and other critters so I am looking at ideas.

Pat - I have a professional scanner coming - should be here in the next week - so I can finally get rid of my magazines - plan to cut the binding and scan to cds to archive and get rid of all this stuff.

 
Weekend Six - no energy, won't get these all done today!

First of all, joanie - is "holding thumbs" anything like "fingers crossed?" - heheh, cute. Nice about helping out with the RC Haitian relief... watched some of the telethon last night but I wish there is more we could do besides just pledging $$.

1 - Pizza and wing party tonight. I'm making chocolate chip cookies to take - nothing else

2 - While driving to take DS to volleyball game this a.m., drove through a nearby village where they must have had a snowman-making contest earlier in the week. All sorts of creative entries, one in front of almost every house in town... snowpeople in a snowpew in front of the church, snowman with a walker in front of another, etc. Unexpected fun.

3 - A cooking class sounds good... will have to look up the local adult education class schedule

4 - Thinking up something to have while watching the play-offs between the Jets and the Colts tomorrow afternoon; NY is easy, Indianapolis is going to be difficult, just something simple with SIL and family coming over to watch. Food representative of Indianapolis?

5 - Bought a box of Truvia packets to try

6 - There must be a chicken and biscuit or chili dinner somewhere this week - in the mood for one soon

 
wigs could help, but I'm from IN too. Corn---chowder, muffins, fritters, cowboy caviar w/corn

popcorn(Valparaiso In---home of Orville R)sweet oven caramel and also a savory, pies of any kind, any casserole with "cream of" soup, onion dip/ruffles chips. have fun!

 
Sat Six

1. made sourdough bread (Hamelman's Vermont sourdough)

2. made Tuscan bread (Bread Baker's Apprentice)

3. grocery shopping for the week

4. did my exercises (1 hour core & weight training)

5. baked both loaves of bread

6. came to the lab to work for a couple of hours, but it's one of those experiments with little hands-on, lots of waiting, that equals "net surfing") smileys/smile.gif

 
My six

1. started the weekend last night with lovely folk festival music----free. such great talent and the headliner, Brother Mule, is terrific and worth catching if they're ever in your neck of the woods.
2. gathering up courage to take me dog to the dog park---it's still only zero out, but she(we) need the exercise
3. Baked the pound cake on pioneerwoman, used Fresca instead of 7up,LOL. also browned 1 stick of butter for flavor and used just 2 cups of sugar---3 cups was just too much. we'll see.
4, hoping my neighbors can join me for dinner tomorrow to try out the tomato sauce I posted down below. will search today for that fun pasta that SmittenKitchen used.
5. taking Christmas down today. golly.
6. might stop and catch some more music today at the festival.

 
Ummmm...Yes!....

I do NOT want to be derogatory BUT....
I do NOT want to compare BUT

1st I have diplomas for Indian cooking, as I said. These courses were taken in a beautiful cooking school with air-conditioning....so it is a little unfair to go somewhere here expecting a similar set-up...but thinking the set-up would be ...perhaps a bit like mine or something a bit closer...and it is fun meeting like-minded new folk etc, etc....

She is a dear......a very nice person and one who could do very well if her circumstances were a huge bit better.

The classes (she wants a minimum of 10 persons a session, hopes for up to 20 at $35.00 per person each class! We were 14 today and that was FAR to many for the whole set-up)are held in the driveway of her house.
Parking was extremely difficult.
The driveway is sloped so the tables which were under a square gauze-like tent were at an angle which made her food run to one side almost spilling out (difficult for her to deal with)
So was the enormouse free range stove...causing some of the pots to cling on to the range.

Her food was great and she had quite a few dishes...but too salty and some very spicy for a number of the folk...(tissues came out to stop runny noses...I laughed...bad me but when my nose runs I feel I've eaten a good curry.)

We all had chairs but most were in the sun so a few stood closer...also to hear .....as she had her son putting up fans (outside) to cool everyone down....during this session, clambering all over hot and bothered folk at this stage was a bad idea.

She offered red wine with this meal out of plastic champagne glasses.
(Well, she doesnt drink )

She put in a huge amount of prep work having all dishes cooked and then demonstrating how they were made by cooking lesser quantities in front of us.....yet she kept mislaying things and she had two of her children doing the relaying of stuff into the house kitchen, also had a maid in and out.
The children...older teens..were delightful.

But doing this in a driveway with a rusty unused fridge to one side, moldy and cracked cement on which some of the 'gear' was put and the lack of a restroom just is not that easy to say...hurrah, let's do that again.

She was well prepared with all her ingredients on a nicely printed menu (but missed quite a few essential ingredients even so)

We did a mango Lassi with yoghurt
Onion Pakora
Jeera Rice
Butter Chicken
Palak Paneer
Masala Moong Dal
Raita
Carrot Halwa

I learnt nothing but had a fine time....and enjoyed the meal.

Her main goal is to show folk that a full on, if simple, Indian meal can be cooked in 2 hours or less 'once the hang of it is caught'!!
And THAT she did.

 
I'm looking at fencing options - I have a dream garden in my head

I am trying to decide how to do it and not have it look horrible or cost a fortune. Someone suggested a dog run. I have had this dream garden in my head that I saw in a country gardening type magazine about 15 years ago on some island off the coast of Washington state. They had deer problems too. It was a beautiful potager garden with a wooden fence, a little 'shack' in the center, a big tub that was a water trough. I really want to find that old magazine I kept somewhere and recreate that garden.

As for the scanner, mom had HP Purchase Edge points so I am getting the HP N6310 - flatbed, ADF, duplexing, 15ppm so I should be able to scan things pretty quickly to searchable PDF files.

 
My weekend - NFRC

Dear friends,

I am easily having one of the worst weeks of my life. I cannot talk about it here but I am very stressed and upset and anguished over a situation in my building.

All I have been doing is dealing with the matter while trying to keep my sanity and without tossing myself out the window, while battling the landlord to do his legal obligations.

While agnostic, I would appreciate any positive thoughts and prayers or whatever that I can keep the strength to deal with this matter and stay positive and that everything will be okay in the end. Your support and friendship over the years has meant so much to me and I am reaching out again because I feel so alone in this awful time. My family is far away and we all know how it feels to just want your mommy.

hugs to you all...

 
Heather,

I am sorry things are not going well for you right now, but from knowing you, you will prevail no matter what the outcome of your circumstances are. It doesn't make it any easier, but just know that from what I know of you, whatever happens you will land on all four.
I always tell my children, and myself, that there is a reason for all that happens, and you will be a stronger person in the end because of it. Life tests you for whatever reason, and I know you will get through it with flying colors. When you need some reassurance, you know where to find it. Check your pms. Hugs to you (((Heather))).

 
Heather, I'm sending you positive vibes - I know what it's like to go through cr*p with landlords -

I lived in Manhattan over 20 years, and believe me, I've had my share. I don't know exactly what your situation is, but you've got to fight for your rights, no matter what. There are people and organizations out there who will help tenants, so it would be a good idea to contact them ASAP. Tenants have more rights than they're aware of. (I was a tenant organizer way back when, ie, the president of a large tenants' organization). Let us know how you're doing. Lots of love to you. xxxooo
P.S. Feel free to PM me if you just want to talk. I'm here to listen (and I'm up late)!

 
Hang in there.....

.... things with neighbors are always a major pain.

we had three years of nightmare with a crazy man who used to live next door. If you can believe it, he cut one of our trees with a chainsaw in plain daylight, with other neighbors trying to stop him.

He finally moved out and sold the house 6 months ago....

I hope whatever you are dealing with will have a happy ending soon

 
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