I am so excited, I loooove it here! Considering I hadn't even seen it before moving, I'm so relieved that I love it so much! It's absolutely perfect - full of charm and it feels like a home even before my stuff is in. I love the hallway, all the closet space, and how it FEELS like a real house. The hardwood floors, garage, and real driveway are a HUGE bonus. The difference from my last two rentals to this one is astronomical! The living room, from just inside the front door. The window on the right faces the street.
All right, I know this is one of the controversial foods that people either love or HATE. I'm on the LOVE side. Part of the attraction to me is the ridiculousness of the entire concept. Candy shaped like corn, but doesn't taste like corn? How odd! I'm in! Of course the oddity lends itself well to humor about where candy corn comes from:
Okay, we all know I'm not a kid person. Not even remotely. But lately, several of my friends have had babies, and that means baby showers. Most people now do gift registries (thank you, from the gift-giving challenged for doing that!!!!) But I like giving handmade things as gifts, I think it's just a little bit more special. Plus, it turns out knitted baby hats are an awesome way to use up leftover yarn from adult knitted hats. ; ) And, because they are small, they only take a few evenings to make, which appeals to my need to accomplish things.
I'm not really a big soup person, but this was another of the recipes in my new Gordon Ramsey cookbook. Since the other recipe involved roasted chestnuts, and I was going through the trouble of roasting and peeling them, I thought I may as well make enough for both recipes. It's a super easy soup; the vegetables are sauteed in butter until slightly browned, then stock is added, and the soup is simmered until the vegetables are tender. Then it gets pureed (I used my fancy immersion blender that makes soup more fun to make) and finished off with heavy cream. That's it!
Last year, my boss approached me about relocating to the East Bay area. I laughed him off and told him I wasn't moving. I did think about it, but wasn't ready, for a million reasons. The most prevailing reason (which is very surprising, if you knew me from before) was the fear of change. It wasn't so much that I was afraid to move to a new area so much as I was afraid to not be exactly where I was, which is a known quantity to me. I can deal with a lot if I know what to expect, and moving upends that. So, I said no, and he continued to ask me periodically.
Wow, I should win an award for the longest blog post title! ; ) On one of my shopping sprees at my favorite exotic game / free range butchers, I had picked up a package of duck legs, and stashed them away in the freezer. Not for a rainy day, but a day where the temperature in LA dropped below 90 degrees. Needless to say, I've been waiting for MONTHS. And of course, I mistimed the day, because tomorrow it will be back up at 90, and Wednesday the high is going to be 93. Seriously, I'm trying to move into fall foods, but the weather is NOT cooperating!
I am going to need a pass for September projects, that was a crazy month I am just glad to have survived. The first week was tied up with finishing grad school; we finished the capstone project, and gave the presentation on the 5th. The project was an online project management system designed specifically for my company; it turned out really awesome. My birthday was halfway through the month, and food prep for the party took the better part of a week.
While I work, I am often thinking (fantasizing, whatever) about food. Sometimes, I try to come up with ideas of things I can make with ingredients I have on hand. Sometimes, often after I get excited about something to make, I realize I don't actually have the ingredients on hand that I thought I did. Those times do not rock. This however, was not one of those times. I was planning on make polenta fingers topped with sauteed mushrooms for dinner, but then I remembered I had a half pound of grass-fed beef I needed to cook.
I've never had knishes before, but I've always wanted to try them. I remember reading Judy Bloom novels as a teen, and she often worked Jewish themes into her books. For some reason, the talk about Yiddish and knishes and matzo ball soup seemed so exotic to me. I think it's important to state here that I grew up in a tiny, tiny town in Oregon where cows outnumber people and wheat fields are everywhere. Also, I really, really wanted to work at the flour mill when I grew up. We didn't have a Jewish deli in the tiny, tiny town, so I didn't have a chance to try the exotic knishes.
