Raclette Reprise

Raclette means "to scrape" and as 2007 winds to a close we're definitely ready to move into 2008, shedding as much of 2007 as possible. My mother was ill for six months. I got sick too basically for the entire season of fall. Work was tumultuous with big highs and lows. But we were grateful all year for a little more day-to-day stability - brought to us in part by the joy of NOT owning three houses.

Our break over the holidays has given us the chance to revive and to repair and reset things around the house. Right now Jac is installing my sweet new faucet and disposal. A year long quest ends with a compromise of sorts - I'll keep the old sink, live with having one bowl with a disposal and one without - but it will finally exist, in my house.

I've also begun the process of migrating from the land of PC over to the wonderful world of Apple everything. The iPhone can do that to a gal. It is astonishing the amount of crap I can cast off without the Treo and PC. Mac is just leaner. It is sleek and pretty and it works so you don't need 56 back up systems.

I do have to laboriously transfer 135 pages of recipes from PC to mac, but I'll live.

Tonight's big agenda is a dinner of raclette AND fondue. Raclette is basically like hibachi with good cheese and beef. And I can't resist a reason to melt cheese, so we're also having fondue. We will probably be awake at midnight and I'd say we'll be cautiously optimistic what the new year will bring.

Happy New Year.

Reset and Recovery

I'm still figuring out how to take a decent photo with the iPhone. That may take a while. We've been relaxing and generally refreshing ourselves over the holidays. I usually get a yen to make a few new things and this break is no exception. Friday I made butternut squash lasagna devised from some recipes on the web and a little creativity. There was a moment Friday morning when the golden stuff stopped being squash and became some kind of manna. The recipe involves plenty of ricotta and mozzarella cheese. Oh, and did I say whipping cream? But the real secret was infusing the cream with sage and garlic. Wow this was yummy.

Never Too Many Cookbooks

This Christmas a couple of people have commented on my burgeoning cookbook collection. We have a room at the river which is my little office/storage/library. I have a wall that I thought would give me plenty of room for all my cooking and knitting books which has already exceeded capacity. Lately I have been eyeing a wall of the dining room that would look wonderful with floor to ceiling bookcases filled with all these cooking tomes.

I am sitting here with my small stack of new reads looking for today's recipes. Jac surprised me with a book I hadn't wished for (how little I knew) - Alice Waters "The Art of Simple Food". It is a great book. I couldn't put it down last night. I have to go through it again today to re-find all the recipes I promised I'd make last night. There's one: Red Pepper Soup.

But today I'm looking for butternut squash lasagna. What I'd really like to find is a decadent recipe that's as tasty as the beef laden one I'll be making for Jac. When we were little, a family friend made a White Lasagna that was out of this world. I'd also like to make some bread today, but I better get on that since bread isn't much for instant baking.

'Twas the Night Before Christmas and...

moar cute puppy pictures

Christmas Eve Eve

Yesterday I woke up and Jac noticed I was "a little pink". We went to Walmart and people there were noticing I was "quite pink". As the day wore on the rash spread all over my body. I was mid-well by evening. And the bugger itched! I thought that one of the 77 conditions I've recently been diagnosed with had flared up because I missed a day of my mega-antibiotics dosing. I missed the day because I had part 2 of the Root Canal That Will Not End and that gave me pain which I treated with a single dose of a pain med that made me well, not confident that any antibiotic I might take would be in my body remotely long enough to enter my bloodstream.

So today, pink as can be, I put some ribs in the crockpot for a little gathering planned for tonight. I had several hors d'oeuvres planned for the night but when I finally broke down and asked Jac to take me to the ER - once again - those fell aside. The ER in the country is a whole other experience from the one in the city (where I've been 3 times in the last 2 months). Generally you can just about walk straight into an ER curtain area in the country, but today they place was REALLY jumping. I think it was the whole Monday/Tuesday holiday deal. The wait was kind of crazy and my nurse explained that they had two pneumonia cases, a heart attack and a stroke. That's basically a sweeps month episode for Rappahannock General Hospital. When my doctor finally arrived he diagnosed my allergic reaction to the drugs the city docs had given me to fight MRSA. I can't tell you how discomforting it is to learn that there's this supergerm that's resistant to like 80% of the antibiotics that exist and that my stupid body is allergic to a whole category of the few drugs that can actually fight the monster germ. "Classic case" he said. Luscious.

We headed back and the little party was already underway back at the homestead. Mom made sausage and peppers - Jac's special request. We brought the ribs over. And these Southern women sampled the ribs and declared them best ever. That is high praise coming from folks who know from ribs. I think the real secret was the extra hour they spent stewing in the crockpot while we waited in the ER, but I may have told them it was the dash of balsamic vinegar you put in the pot.

Mofotoblogger mania

Mofotoblogger mania
Originally uploaded by lakat18

Uh oh, real mobility

Subject: Uh oh, real mobility

I just added an iPhone to my world which means mobile blogging is now ridiculously easy!

Sent from my iPhone

Actual Knitting Happening

It's hard to believe that there has been actual knitting happening in my world, but I did get a chance to knit up this scarf for Christmas for Jac (an early present since it's chilly out) and one for my brother-in-law. These are knit sideways so each row is 200 stitches but they knit up quickly. My only real challenge was swapping three balls of yarn while sitting in an airplane seat and trying not to infuriate my seatmates.

Three Meals in the City

Yesterday I arrived in San Diego. I had a one hour meeting scheduled for today, but since I live on the whole other coast, it takes roughly 3 days to get here and back. I'd done my homework. I found an Italian restaurant that had crazy good reviews. Last night I ventured to Buon Appetito in Little Italy. That was one exquisitely good meal. I savored a Prosecco with fantastic crusty bread and this tomato tapenade stuff that was out of this world. It was a completely positive experience so things were bound to level off a bit.

I'll say. For lunch today I had a few hours available. I didn't have a keen notion of what I was looking for, but I have had a hankering for sopapillas. I passed Sammy's Woodfired Pizza by (we'd gone there when we were last in San Diego). There was a posh looking Mexican grill nearby. It was pretty inside. At chips and salsa I tasted soap. That would have been a good time to leave. There was one server working. There were 3 people working in the exposed kitchen. There were loud and giddy young girls who pronounced "Pollo" like the sport. When my fajitas (hey, it was the menu) arrived they were so incredibly not what I wanted that I bit my tongue not to ask for the box before she put them on the table. I nibbled, then I boxed.

 

As I left I seriously wondered if I should go have lunch somewhere. I knew I'd seek out a homeless person to give my leftovers to. I started looking. You can never actually find a homeless person when you are searching for one. And of course since I was planning to hand over my whole lunch to him, I'd better be darn sure he's actually homeless and not just cool before I do. 

She was standing in the doorway of a closed shop with a cart, unseasonable clothing, and two dogs. As I approached her I asked if she lives "here". When I saw her hands I knew the answer. I explained, as I have before, that I'd just left a restaurant and I had this meal that was still warm, and did she want it. She asked if the fajitas were spicy and I told her they weren't. Then she said she might give it to her dogs and I totally had to process that. Luckily I was somewhat functional and told her the dogs must not have any of the onions. 

But that wasn't the awkward moment. As I left her with the meal, I looked up and saw a woman sitting outside the shop I was about to enter who was watching me intently. She'd just seen my little visit with the dog lady. When you're trying to do something anonymously and then someone peers in, it's kind of weird. I felt her eyes on me. The crazy thing was that I was rrrreally not being nearly as nice as she thought I was. I was pawning off a meal I found unacceptable and overpriced on a woman who doesn't even like spicy things. Also, it is hardly charitable to wander around town for 20 minutes wondering to yourself, "Where the hell are all the indigents?" 

Once I left the area I had a veritable bounty of homeless options. Unfortunately I was out of unsatisfactory food. I headed off for an afternoon of work. 

But then it was time for dinner. I found myself back in Little Italy (GPS knew how to get there). I found myself standing outside Buon Appetito. I thought about going back in and ordering something radically different. But it's all still Italian and I'd been down that road. I wandered up and down the streets of Little Italy. Since San Diego is awfully temperate, there's outdoor dining in the middle of December. Along with outdoor tables there are outdoor hostesses hovering near the outdoor menus. This puts a LOT of pressure on a prospective diner. More so when they actually SEE you cross the street specifically to walk up and peruse their menu. When they actually greet you you can hear the beg to come in whispered. And then, just like that, you slash all their hopes and dreams, leaving another broken hostess in your wake.

So yeah, I looked everywhere in Little Italy, but having JUST had Italian food... So I got in the car with the absolute intent to find a section of the city that was not Little Italy or the Gaslamp District (site of the lunch fiasco where I had also hunted for a good place for an eternity). And I drove and drove in the city. I headed toward the tall buildings - people work, people gots to eat. But apparently they all eat at Subway. So I drove and drove.

That's when I noticed that San Diego has LONG red lights. I couldn't figure this out for a while... partially because I was obsessed with the vigor with which San Diegans apply the right to turn right on red and the right to turn left on red onto a one way street. Then I noticed that in some intersections pedestrians are allowed to cross diagonally. What in the name of all that is holy is that about? That means all lights for cars turn red so that pedestrians can party in the middle of the square for a while. But still, the lights here are damn long.

Anyway, so nothing - vast desert of dining establishments - and then there it was - a lighted mecca of restaurant goodness just off to my right. Turn. Turn. Turn. Holy crap it's the damn Lamplight District. Cut to - very long period of now searching for parking AND a restaurant. At this point I deserve a drink, and possibly a steak. Multiple attempted entries into dining establishments later I plunk myself into Donovan's Steak and Chophouse. It's McCormick and Schmicky and that's fine. Until. Gulp. My lil ole steak is gonna run me $38. That drinky is $9.50. At first I started thinking what the hell kind of baroness do I think I am going out for the poshy poshy dinner. Then I looked over at all the greying solo male diners and said effit. Well, effit to the extent that I put half the total on a gift card that's been hanging out in my purse for months and the rest on my company card.

And the best thing I've tasted in San Diego is the free bread and tomato dip at Buon Appetito. Here's where I recommend the book 

For the Love of Cheese, Pass the Gratin

When the winter air finally sets in in this town, it is time for the real menus to get dusted off. Recently we had dinner at Bistro 123 and I had pommes lyonnais with my meal. They were delicious, but a hankering for potatoes with cheese set in that could not be ignored. My new food processor was practically begging to slice and shred things so I gave it potatoes, gruyere and a couple onions. I'd made gratin dauphinois back in May, so I felt like some onion would give this a little something special. The potatoes were tender, creamy and sumptuously cheesy, but I suddenly wished I'd kept the onions on the side. It's just awfully hard to compete with potatoes and cheese. 

Tis the Season of Slack

Yeah, it's been a while since I've blogged. It's been difficult to a)write b)write about anything other than the personal and gross subject of being ill. I have been blessed (I recently discovered) with an usually healthy life. Then two months ago I had a bump on my head, then there were these spots on my shoulders, then there was some sort of UTI action, then a kidney stone, then the discovery of another one, then fever and chills, then mystery pain, then a toothache that led to my first root canal, and then - then I got this bump in my armpit which the doc calls "a severe abscess" and which he dispatched yesterday in his office after he told me I either would or would not have sepsis (which for the record has always preceded "and then he died" in stories I've heard).

The doctor numbed the area. The numbing process is not as pleasant as one might think - couldn't there be some pre-numbing before the needle-jamming? Don't call that swap of whatever pre-numbing either. The numbing stuff kicked in and I thought, "Oh this is going to be a breeze, I should do this all the time". That's about when the Inexplicable Poking started and all that numbing went away. I must have looked somewhat "What the hell are you doing?" because that is when Dr. Wei said "Oh mow puss come out." Gross. Then Dr. Wei had to show me my puss in the syringe all close up. And I have to say I could have lived my whole life without seeing that. I asked Dr. Wei if it was going to keep hurting and that's when he shuffled me out the door with an antibiotic prescription.

Tomorrow when I see Dr. Wei to have the skankiest bandage in America removed (and I know from skanky bandages) - I am going to tell his ass that you do not slice open someone's arm and send them packing with nothing for pain. Jac would second that having heard me howl like a wounded animal last night at the thought of delicately adjusting my bandage.

We're off to visit Jac's family for early Christmas this weekend. I'm hoping that all my armpits will be suitable for visitin'. After that I head to San Diego for a client meeting I wouldn't necessarily have wanted to do the week before Christmas. Then it's root canal part II, an office Christmas, and heading to the river for hopefully several days of serious R&R.

No Way. Way!

It's amazing to think that 2007 is on its way out, that there are just a few weeks and a few dozen holidays left before we're ringing in 2008. We're a year older and I'm gonna be so bold as to say we're at least a year wiser.

I've been listening to Channel 2, the Sirius radio Christmas station to get in the groove. Today we were treated to an early snowfall. It was one of the good ones - early enough that I wasn't clinging to hope that anything would get closed, and just pleasantly pretty. It was an excellent day for sauteeing and simmering French Onion soup, so that's just what I did.

I was able to indulge in genuine weekday cooking because I spent some quality time selling to the government today, spent some time in the office, and because last night I finished "requested knitting project #1".

Holy Blogging! Do I realize that I provided evidence of both cooking AND knitting happening in my life? What is going on here? Well... I'm feeling better. The heinous phrase "kidney stones" rarely passes through my little head. We fired a client this week and that feels Oh So GOOD. In a couple short weeks, all our business with those people will be done and I will not cringe on opening my email at the sheer number of ! labelled messages all from the same source. Like all good terminations, the office jokes about their heiniosity has already begun. The month of December is shaping up to be a little quieter than I'd planned and although that can be scary when you have a small business, the calm is actually quite welcome and refreshing right now.

Jac and I are big ass cheaters and we have already exchanged our "big" presents for Christmas. (If this is what we do for Christmas #8 I can only imagine what 20 will be like.) Jac gave me an ipod Touch and I want to touch it all the time. It only points up the limited access to Wi-Fi in the world. We were in seriously downtown DC the other night and I couldn't find a network while trying to show of the sheer awesomeness of my device. That made the thing look significantly less awesome. I got Jac (and my ears) a new LCD HDTV for the living room in our city house. The old one was from my college days and it had recently started humming. Jac has an astounding ability to tune things out, but the humming was like death sirens to me. The new tv has brought us together before the glowing tube. We have been watching (big gasp) programs of mutual interest. This is notable because I like shows about cooking, knitting and elderly crime solving and Jac likes screaming so it's no small feat to unite us in blissful television consumption.