You'll Be a Song I'll Sing

It's been nearly a week since my last update but I have not fallen off the face of the earth.

Last Saturday I did this. Sunday we celebrated Mother's Day by going to church and having lunch with my in-laws. Later that night my parents came over since my dad was to have surgery at a nearby hospital on Monday morning. My in-laws came over to see my parents and all six of us had dinner at Northstar.

On Monday morning Sammy went berserk when my mom woke up early. Unbeknownst to us, she'd fallen out of the guest bed, scraped her hand, banged up her knee and nearly broke her nose. She said it was the most comfortable bed she'd slept in for years. I was so exhausted from so little sleep I called in to work and slept most of the morning. In the afternoon I did go to the hospital to see my Dad. Monday night my brother and his wife came over to have Chinese food with us and Mom. It was their first visit to our house. Monday night Mom slept on the couch. Dad's surgery went well and he was released on Tuesday. My brother and his wife took my parents home that afternoon.

Wednesday night I was planning on seeing Amy Bloom speak but I was just so tired from having company, I took my laptop to the Grandview library and wrote. Spent the rest of the evening at home.

Last night was busy and a late evening. I don't remember if I mentioned it or not, but someone backed up into my husband's car in the parking garage and tore up part of the grill and headlight. We picked up the car in the morning. The body shop did the repairs, fixed a sideview mirror (we said we'd pay separate for it) and cleaned up some paint scrapes on the side and on the bumper. It looked better than before the accident and it cost less than the estimate. After work I went to the Terry Moore talk at the Wexner Center. About 100 people attended. I had him sign the first issue of Echo. One of the girls/women gave him her Katchoo license plate which had expired two years ago. He was so excited! He's one of the most gracious signers I've ever met. Terry spoke to everyone and signed whatever they wanted. Strangers in Paradise was a comic I connected with because the women were drawn realistically. Francine would go up and down in weight and Terry showed it with some extra fat around the face which is more subtle and realistic than showing her as a size 2 (which Francine could never be) in one issue and then a size 22 in another.

Afterwards we had dinner at one of the best restaurants in town. By best I mean where the chef cares about the food and uses fresh ingredients. I was worried about being in jeans but Jeff was in jeans and so was Terry. There were eight of us total and Vijaya joined us later. It was the last night of the Columbus Symphony (supposedly forever though they're advertising two more shows this month) and Yo-Yo Ma was the guest performer. The restaurant closes at 10pm but we were there until nearly midnight. I ate too much and dessert sent me over the edge into colon spasms which ended up okay but really had me worried there in the restaurant. (I don't think it was the sweetness of the maple syrup creme brulee - I think it was from eating very little during the day and then a lot in three hours.)

Two of the guys at work today were talking about marriage (one is in a wedding this weekend and attending a wedding next weekend). And the one who was saying negative looks over at me and said, "Not you, Amber. Nothing like that applies to you." He went on to say, "You and your husband are really happy together and it shows." We have misunderstandings and miscommunications just like other couples but we know we're in it for the long haul and it's too much of a fun ride to try and get off early.

Due to all this family time I've gotten behind in my goal of writing a short story a day during the month of May. I'm at 6 completed stories, 1 is 3/4s completed and another barely started. Wish me luck! We have company coming from out of town tomorrow. :)

Is it a crime to have not made tuna salad before the age of 36? 

Happy Easter! We celebrated the holiday the way we celebrate most holidays - by not celebrating. Sammy let us sleep in late (after 10am). After breakfast we saw Vantage Point then traveled to two Skylines hoping they'd be open for lunch. Wendy's was so they got our business. A nap was also on the agenda and I spent about an hour working on writing stuff (typing up or editing things I'd written the last two weeks). Then the Easter Miracle happened and fluffy flakes began falling from the sky.

Yesterday we had friends over for dinner. The company was good and the dinner was yummy. We had beef brisket from Weiland's. I had considered making a lamb shoulder roast but could not find one at any market that morning. For dessert I tried to make a terrine but it wasn't as great as it could have been. I bought three kinds of ice cream from Jeni's and the bread pan only fit two pints of ice cream. Honey Vanilla Bean, ground cream sandwich cookies, Salty Carmel and more ground cream sandwich cookies. When it came time to cut it, I think I'd taken it out too early (some of the ice cream was melty soft) or it hadn't been frozen long enough to get solid. It was still tasty. Our friends threatened to sneak Sammy home under their coats. It was the first time I thought, "I think I like having him around." It must be the morning cuddle sessions. One time when we were talking in the living room he plopped down with one leg on the fireplace just like an Olan Mills pose. From the other angle it looked like he'd laid down to chat with our corgi figure.

My husband said his turning point was probably last weekend. I'd attempted to make sugar free jello squares but my recipe was completely off and it was much more like sugar free jello slivers. Hubby let Sammy eat some from his finger. Sammy seemed to like it so hubby set a bigger piece on the kitchen floor. Sammy licked at it and tried to eat it. Then he dive bombed and tried to roll in it. He missed. Sammy did the dive bomb move again and finally got some in his fur. It was one of those funny moments when you have no idea why it is happening and can only stand by and let it play out.

I think dinner is more beef brisket tonight unless hubby wants me to make Skyline. I know he prefers it the way the restaurant makes it to how I make it.

On Thursday my mother's surgery went well. She'd had the same thing done in December but the doctor seemed to make a mess of things. The biopsy so far shows no cancer. Hubby took Friday and tomorrow off work. We're talking about a vacation in April.

This weekend I bought new tennis shoes which feel so comfy. I know my in-laws have booked a vacation beach home for October. The bathing suit hunt began this weekend. (I haven't owned one that fit since college.)

 Last Saturday was one of the best days ever.  Mother Nature had a lot to do with it.  We had our level 2 snow emergency and everyone was pretty much stuck having to change plans they originally had for the weekend.  It was a good day to slow down and enjoy life.

 

I’d shoveled a little on Friday but it had snowed so much there was no evidence I had done anything.  Most mornings my favorite time of day is before it’s time to wake up.  Somehow I sense Sammy wants on the bed, I move over to let him jump up, and he snuggles.  Yes, the squirmy jumping corgi lies there peacefully while I pet his fur.  I just listen to what’s going on outside and don’t really think about anything.  I just am.  So Saturday we snuggled before hubby took Sammy for the morning walk.  All that snow was confusing to Sammy.  He didn’t know where to walk or where to pee.

 

We spent the morning putzing around the house until we decided it was time to shovel snow.  We did the front steps, the slate walk, the driveway, two sidewalks, half of an alleyway and the end of our street (when the plow dumped snow there).  It was the first time I’d seen many of my neighbors at one time.  Shoveling together, pushing cars, etc. – it was a real sense of community.

 

The afternoon walk with Sammy was fun.  We encountered several other people with their cameras.  It was understood that not many cars were out and it was okay to walk in the middle of the road. 

 

When I took my afternoon nap (Saturdays and Sundays usually bring a nap) I was so happy I didn’t think it could get any better.  Because of the snow, the flights to and from Columbus were cancelled and so were the movies at my husband’s work.  We brought three pints of Jeni’s ice cream to his coworker’s house (she lives a block away) where we met up with another co-worker, Bill Jones, Mark Flores, and Tom Kalin.  Tom was supposed to take a flight out that day and Bill was supposed to be at a book signing.

 

Dinner (and dessert) was informal and relaxing.  Conversation was free-flowing about academia gossip, travel horror stories, public transportation, plastic surgery, working process, porn titles, short stories, music, gallery works and so on.  Four hours later we tromped through the snow to get back home. 

 

I love my house and I love my life.

When it is cold I do not like to leave the building for lunch. Most days the last two weeks I've brought my lunch. Zuppa Catering has a kitchen next door and they come over to the lobby each day with an entree or two, two soups, salads, munchies, and sandwiches. I think the last month I've gone downstairs for lunch on Friday. They always keep one soup the same every day. Friday is Clam and Crab Bisque which is always a hit with me. It also seems like Pizza is the entree. One is always Sicilian and the other changes. One week it was veggie, another time it was a white pizza with spinach, and a third week it was sausage and onions. I had the white pizza. It was a quarter of a pie and I couldn't finish it. I've not had Sicilian Pizza for years. Zuppa always sells out of it and last week I was so close to getting a slice. The two women in front of me ordered for their office three slices of sicilian and one veggie. That was the last of the sicilian.

This Friday as soon as I put my lunch bag in my backpack I thought, "Yeah! Today is pizza day!" My co-worker and I got downstairs before Zuppa even showed up. We waited for the lady to set up the cart, etc. and when we turned around there was a huge line already. Drats! Foiled again - the one Friday I can remember in a month where there was only one entree: Broiled Sole with Au Gratin. My co-worker ended up with Popeye's and I ate my sandwich. The sandwich was good but a disappointment because of what I'd been looking forward to having all morning.

I thought it would be funny to make Jaime Oliver's "American Pancakes" from one of his cookbooks. The first sign of trouble should have been when I separated the yolks from the whites. My first egg didn't crack very well and I ended up with some yolk with the white. No biggie to me. What was really the first sign was mixing everything else up. I was supposed to get a thick batter and it was a ball of dough. It became much more liquidy and batter-like after I added the beaten egg whites.

I should get some non-stick pans for foods such as pancakes. The cooking spray ended up burnt which made for some lovely black stuff on at least one side of the pancake. When not blackened, the pancakes were a nice yellow I'm not used to seeing in pancakes. They were really thick, even after the egg white was added so it was difficult to cook all the way through. One good thing about the pancakes... yummy blueberries. I picked some of them out just to eat.

This recipe isn't something I'm going to try again anytime soon.

I didn't make it to the movie last night. At home I gorged on 3 episodes of Dead Like Me, a nice juicy steak and fresh hand made baked french fries. It was all good.

Today I was up way too early at 9am. Sammy and I saw a blue jay and a cardinal on our walk. I put food out for Christmas but didn't see evidence of any of it being eaten. This afternoon I made certain the bird feeder was full. I don't think it's been touched but maybe tomorrow the birds will come and eat. It usually takes them a day or two to figure out where food can be found.

For dinner I browned a pound of country-style ribs in the oven then put them in the crockpot for about eight hours. I mixed them with a cup of original Gates Bar B. Q. sauce along with one cup of their extra hot sauce. It had some kick to it! My mouth was all tingly and I couldn't finish my last rib. (At Weiland's a pound came to three ribs so they were split evenly between the two of us.)

On our way to see Do The Right Thing my husband noticed something crossed the street ahead of us but didn't think it was a cat. He was right. While waiting for the light to change we watched a raccoon waddle across the grass and climb a tree. He was very slow and methodical about reaching up into the bark with his paws and pulling the rest of himself up. As my husband noted, the raccoon wasn't very svelte; he had to really work to pull himself up.

I'm always behind on reading newspapers and not so long ago there was a feature regarding National Soup Swap Day (1/23/08) where each person brings six quarts of frozen soup in one quart containers and swap with the other participants. It's suggested that it be one of those weeknight things were you have wine, cheese and crackers, tell the story behind the soup you brought, swap and get out of there. The most difficult part may be picking out the soup to make while the second difficult part would be making the soup.

To me, it seems a partial solution to my November food planning problem. After this last November I know the way to get ahead would be to plan meals ahead of time and freeze them. What better way to get some of the meals out of the way by having a soup swap? The idea just hits me as brilliant. Hubby has frozen (nutritious) meals ready for him to heat. He can decide before leaving for work what he would like to eat and start thawing it in the refrigerator before he leaves for the day. Add a sandwich and voila! I don't have to cook anything. There may even be something waiting for me to eat when I get home.

Last week I tried to make another baked potato in the microwave. It was close but still not perfect. On the two servings setting the potato ended up nearly the correct consistency on the inside but ended up burnt on the bottom.

And this weekend I learned how to properly sear a steak. Since it was a thinner steak it didn't end up medium-rare like I prefer but it was still better than the steak on the George Foreman grill.

With the new house came new pots and pans. We'd had the same set since we'd gotten married in 1994. (Yes, I've been married for a while.) On the advice of the Restaurant Widow I bought a Kirkland set from Costco. They are stainless steel and I think the core is copper and aluminum. Cooking has been quite an adventure here with the switch in cookware and method. I've grown up using electric and the stove/oven in this house uses gas.

As you can imagine I end up with a lot of burnt food. The Bon Ami has been doing a good job at keeping the pots and pans newish looking but every now and then is a stubborn mark that I need to really work at.

I made a variation of the Dragonbreath Chili recommended by themosh. I forget what kind of chili I used but I poured boiling water of it to make the pepper juice and didn't use the chili garlic sauce. Hubby was stirring it now and then so I thought he had it under control. During the last 20 minutes or so no one touched it. The chili powder never got added. At that point it was decision time "The bottom stuff is burned so do we eat that or do we throw it all away?" Since it was New Year's Eve and close to 11pm or so we ate what we could. Even with the added smokiness it was really tasty.

Another night I made Herb-marinated Grilled Chicken Paillards with Pan Sauce (which is a fancy way of saying chicken breasts with a sauce) along with the roasted potatoes from the same Gourmet Next Door episode. I used two chicken breasts instead of four and used only Yukon golds for the side dish. The chives had been purchased the day before but I'd foolishly left them in the cupboard instead of in the fridge so there weren't many nice green pieces. I didn't put enough oil into the pan so the breasts were a little bit burnt. I didn't use the white wine with the sauce (I don't remember seeing it on the episode) and I'd made a similar pan sauce before so I kind of eyeballed all of the ingredients to make it. I used a nonstick spatula that's supposed to withstand 500 degrees to get all the crispy chicken bits off the bottom of the pan. It's slightly bent now so I'm thinking the pan or the sauce was superhot. Overall, it was tasty. The biggest burn victim was not the chickens. Or even the spatula. It was the wooden cutting board I had used to chop the herbs. One burner had the teapot on it and the other two were kind of taken up with the pizza stone so I set the pan on the cutting board. It was a cutting board given to me as a birthday gift from my brother and sister-in-law. (One year they got me a little basket with crackers, cheese, wine and the board.) I threw away the glass one from the old apartment. You know how they have four little plastic knobby things to keep it off the countertop? One had melted off and I just haven't found any I liked.

And of course there is the night I got the call about Sammy and let the Skyline boil over.

We had a Christmas potluck at work and I brought my famous chocolate chip cookies. The first batch... well... was extremely pale and barely cooked. This was the first time I'd made anything in the oven. There is a thermometer stuck to the side and I need a flashlight to read it. The rest of the cookies after that were good. It takes forever for the oven to heat up so anytime I know I'll be using it I turn it on and give it at least 20 minutes to heat up.

Getting a new stove/oven is one of the things we'd like to do in the kitchen sooner rather than later. It seems a decent gas stove can be had for a few hundred dollars. Our stove is self-lighting but sometimes likes to stick and the burners don't come on right away.

With the house came a microwave oven installed above the stove. One of my standbys when I'm having a Crohn's flare-up is a baked potato. The old microwave had a baked potato setting that was awesome. So far I've not been able to make a decent one with the new microwave. It has a baked potato setting but comes out not fully cooked. Maybe it's meant for a regular potato from one of those bags and not a baking potato that I picked out for an especially yummy treat.

I heard some rustling from downstairs. This could only mean Sammy was up to something. That something was the remnants of my baked potato from Wendy's.

I found no evidence whatsover of the food itself. The bottom container was on the floor while the lid was on my chair at the dining room table. Some items that had been on the table were on the floor. No smeared butter, no skin, no potato bits. No evidence of the actual potato at all. He looked up at me with a big grin and slowly wagged his tail from side to side.

I put the baby gate at the top of the stairs and he's been running up and down the hallway. Now I've got him trapped in the office with me. He keeps looking out of the baby gate like my husband will come and save him. Little does he know hubby won't be home for at least one more hour.

I really have to make a Sammy icon with devil horns.