Saturday, April 15, 2006

tax day, ewwwwww

I am on the internet, listening to a knitting podcast, watching tv with the sound off, and knitting all at the same time in an attempt to avoid doing my taxes. I have to do federal, mass non-resident and dc. Why do you have to have mass taxes taken if you don't live there and barely work there?????????
Anyway, I have discovered the joy of toe-up socks!! Now, this is not the toe-up found in slang, meaning extremely drunk or wasted. This refers to socks knitted from the toes up! At last I can try on socks while knitting without thinking boy, am I stretching the ribbing on so and so's socks.
I am also very happy to say I am 3lbs lighter!!! Regular meals and lots of water.
Yippeeeee!!

Monday, April 10, 2006

mmmmmmmmmmm............snackin' after midnight...

Just made the yummiest snack. It's like, 2:50 and I am still up. I need to be sleeping, but I can't. I am hungry and that I can fix. I was sitting here thinking I had nothing to eat in the house, when I spied the tiny bag of dried tortelini, a small cup of sundried tomatoes, onions, garlic and clarified butter. Instant snack! I cooked the pasta and dumped in a couple tomatoes to rehydrate/soften. I heated the butter and slowly browned the garlic and onions (both thinly sliced). I tossed in the drained rehydrated tomatoes for a couple of minutes. Drained the pasta, dumped it in a bowl, tossed it with the butter mix and some s & p. Yum. Now if only I could go to sleep...........

Sunday, April 09, 2006

Beautiful day


It's a beautiful day and I spent all of it inside. Well, I was sleeping for most of the day, which I think I needed to do. I haven't been sleeping well this week, due to a killer travel schedule. My plan is to spend a few hours this evening re-writting my schedule so I have a much lighter travel load for the rest of the month. The flight back from Louisville was awful. First there was the "everybody take shelter" announcement, followed by the "you can come out now, but be prepared to go back" announcement (there were 3 tornado cells in the area). This was followed by a very bumpy take-off, a scarily bumpy flight and an equally bumpy landing.
I had the niece and nephew this weekend. I had a disagreement with the niece. I spent several hours childishly not speaking with her. She has her moments when she is a real pain in the ass. Usually she is cool around me, but this weekend................... I guess it's part of being 14. Very glad to have the house to myself once more.
A little cleaning, a little knitting, a little meditation and maybe some yoga.

Thursday, April 06, 2006

a rainy day in ky

Well, it's drizzling here in louisville. I am exhausted. I couldn't get to sleep last night, too much on my mind. I need a nap now, but I just can't get myself to go to bed. I have no cash, and I want to go to the yarn shop. Having no cash is not a bad thing. My stash is way too big, and since I started knitting again, shopping has become an obsession. I have more yarn than I do projects and that ain't good. The stuff is just sitting around my house, attracting and collecting dust, which just aggravates my allergies. Somethings gotta go. I think I have hit the wall. Nap Time!!!

Sunday, April 02, 2006

ooooh, cake!

Today I made a cake for big sisters birthday. Well, actually I made two cakes, over the course of 48 hours. I made a strawberry and cream cake with vanilla whipped cream and strawberries macerated in Gran Marnier in the filling and chocolate dipped berries on the top. I also made a cake with two layers of Daquoise sandwiching a marnier syrup spiked genoise, all covered with a marnier spiked buttercream. It was delicious. Everyone loved both cakes. I especially loved the buttercream. It came out the way a buttercream should, like pure velvet with a light creamy buttery flavor. Much better than the recipe I have used at work.
This was the first time in a while I felt compelled to make a cake, let alone one so ambitious. It felt good, really good to make it and see the response from the group. I think I miss that connection with my 'customers', so to speak. It's what I really enjoyed about catering. Seeing that response to what you do, is food for the soul. Maybe that's what has been missing about this job. I make nothing with my own hands and I don't get that immediate feedback. It's not mine, so there is no connnection to the product. I need to get back into the kitchen, it's what I enjoy.