I Can't Think of a Title!

Whew! I need to catch my breath a minute! I know I've gone missing for a bit, but rest assured it’s only temporary. Things have been a little hectic since just before the Thanksgiving Holiday and will continue to be a little hectic for me until the beginning of next week. yikes!

Thanksgiving was nice; I spent the day with my family. I only cooked two things for the occasion, manicotti and mashed potatoes, I know, not very exciting, but my Mom loves the way I make mashed potatoes and I love my Mom, so mashed potatoes it was. The manicotti I made was homemade all the way from the sauce to the crepes, I will one day write about this because making it from scratch is a lot of fun and quite easy! This batch of manicotti I made for my family was not my finest I'm sad to report. I forgot to add salt to the sauce, the crepes, and the filling, so everything came out bland. ugh I was forgiven of coarse, but I was disappointed in myself. I don't think I'm the greatest cook, but I do know I'm a step above boiling water, so forgetting to add salt to everything was just plain silly and embarrassing.

I spent the Friday after Thanksgiving cooking for a gathering at my Mother-in-Laws house on Saturday. I made homemade manicotti again and this time I remembered to salt everything. I also made buttermilk biscuits (I'm getting good at those) and scalloped potatoes with ham. At first I was a little intimidated to make the scalloped potatoes because I don't own a mandolin or other type of slicing gadget that would have enabled me to make thin uniform slices of potatoes. Then I thought "what the heck" and tried slicing the potatoes freehand. I mean, the worst that could have happened was what, a little blood? I'm glad to report that the mission was accomplished with no visible blood shed, cursing OR tears! go me! The scalloped potatoes came out delicious, so creamy and tender and because they were for the next day they were even better after having some sit time for the flavors to marry.

Saturday's gathering was good, a sort of post Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving, although a little un-traditional. We had another turkey with stuffing, contributed by my Sister-in-law, the food I cooked, and some pretty delicious Chinese home cooking contributed by my Mother-in-Law, not to mention a tasty apple pie cooked by Tom, although he claims it wasn't his best.

Since Saturday evening we've been at the new house. We've spent the last few days fixing and painting and unpacking and eating leftovers from two Thanksgivings. No television or internet access up there, only the radio or cd's. I have to admit it has been wonderful to be "unplugged" for a while. So much of my private life stuff and my work life is computer related that a break from it now and again is really good. It's amazing how much you can get done without those distractions.

The new kitchen is coming along...slowly, but it's coming along. Of the two colors of green I chose, one has now had two coats applied and is pretty much done except for where I need to go back and retouch my mistakes. The other color, the darker paint, isn't all that much darker than the lighter color, something I'm a little disappointed with but am hoping will be noticeably different once I apply the second coat. It's not easy painting at 33 weeks pregnant, so I've decided to stop the painting projects until after the baby is born. There are other less stressful/less strenuous things I can do in the house until I can paint again and since the house is my ongoing weekend fixer upper, I’m not in such a hurry to get everything done right away. The great news is…the fluorescents are gone! We replaced the fixtures with brand spanking new ones that use regular incandescent bulbs, we even splurged and got the ones with the blue filter so they simulate daylight. YAY The kitchen looks so nice bathed in non-fluorescent lighting. Now of course the ceiling needs to be spackled and painted, but I think Tom is taking care of that at some point. Sorry, there are no pictures right now, after I had finished painting I was very cranky, had low blood sugar and had to wee really bad so I was not in a picture taking kind of mood. Next time.

I'm back in Manhattan for one night then back up to the house for a day, then back in Manhattan for two days before going back to the house for the weekend. We're trying to get as much done at the house before I need to stay in and around the city until the baby comes, so blogging will be slow for the next few days, hopefully by next week I'll be able to get back to some serious cooking, after all, it is cookie season!

Written by Deb on December 2, 2003 12:20 AM