Thankfully, I only had the actual “feeling crappy” stage of the bug for about 24 hours (hi everyone, thanks for the good wishes!), because we had a second round of weekend house guests who arrived on Saturday. It was loads of fun to have them here, and we made some pretty good food (along with the eternal 2 layer chocolate cake, thanks to this recipe cheat sheet at angry chicken). We had:
Butternut squash/apple/parmesan soup with homemade bread (white and wheat) for grilled cheese sammiches. Wine (x2) No recipe to give, it’s made up from stuff on hand.
Biscuits (made with White Lily flour, imported from the South especially by my mom–recipe from back of bag)
Lunch from a local bakery (divine croissants!)
Mushroom risotto made with homemade turkey stock from our TG turkey inspired from this post by Michael Ruhlman, and angry chicken chocolate cake. Beer (Fantome, Rare Vos, Hennepin) and wine
Breakfast today was chocolate cake and breads (King Arthur Flour cookbooks for general and whole grain baking).
Homemade pizzas using the pain a l’ancienne recipe from Bread Baker’s Apprentice
I know I have mentioned how much I have really been getting into cooking lately, but with the all the stomach issues I had the day before they arrived, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to do anything really yummy. It was actually kind of nice to know that I have made enough things now to have a pretty good idea of when/how/why I need to be doing things so that they actually happen and turn out the way they’re supposed to. As I was making Jack’s baby food (zucchini and sweet potato, to be frozen), it occurred to me that I didn’t mind because I really enjoyed even doing something so simple as chopping that sh!t up and steaming it, and then whirring it to pieces with the stick blender.
We have another set of house guests coming on Friday to stay the weekend, and I am wondering what’s going to be on the menu. I think three weeks in a row of chocolate cake, no matter how easy, is probably pushing it. Maybe. The only food restrictions for this coming weekend will be a) no macadamia nuts and b) no red peppers. I think that can be accomplished.
In other news, I am waiting on a new metal closed-toe darning foot and bobbin holder (with special tension setting! have your eyes glazed over yet?) for my sewing machine to finish up their quilt. I finally finished up the acres of quilted grid, and now am waiting for the darning foot to do the free-motion design and the border. I really hopeI finish this soon, because, um, I don’t think I can work on this another summer! That would be 3, and you can tell the hiatuses have wreaked havoc on some of the things lining up that are supposed to.
But oh… I have other projects in my head right now, like fabric collages and “pictures”, put together with my stash. And another quilt, this one for a gift for friends who just got married. I need to make Jack a doll, and I found a great tutorial for a rocket ship that I want to make him, too. I still need to bust out my new paints and easel, too. So much to try and do!