Tuesday, January 26, 2010

A great day behind me...





Today was a great day. I didn't get everything on my list done, I'm afraid, but I did get to spend a whole day doing things I love best. It felt a whole lot like nesting, as a matter of fact. I started off the morning with a steaming cup of Starbucks Sumatran. There is absolutely nothing like strong rich coffee from those islands! Is that Micronesia?? (Stimmy??) I don't have an atlas in front of me at the moment. I believe the island of Sumatra is volcanic, as well, and I think that adds to the soil making some kick-ass coffee growing conditions. (Or I could be full of misinformation...lol. )


After a few sips of that magickal brew, I made a list of things I hoped to accomplish today. I am a list maker, as you know. I think I did a whole post about that particular idiosyncrasy once. It's really just a way to help me feel productive. That list was a number of things I felt necessary to have done so I wouldn't have to do too much the next couple of days after tomorrow's surgery. I wanted to back-up the food supplies, have some ready made meals in hand, get all the laundry done, and certainly vacuum and dust. I made a good dent in it.

I started out the morning putting in a load of laundry. Then I turned to the cooking portion of the list. First things first, one of my sponsees was celebrating 19 years at our meeting tonight,. so I needed to bake her a cake. It's what I do. She said they could buy one. I said no, not as long as I can hop on one leg. lol She is a very special woman in my life, and so she got the best cake I make. I told her tonight that I don't make this cake for just anyone. It's especially labor intensive, all beating and whipping and separating egg whites and yolks, whipping the whites stiff, folding in ingredients by hand. ..you get the drift. It's an Italian Cream Cake. It is probably my piece de resistance. She was flamboozled by it. Everyone was. They always are. It's a beautiful cake, topped with a slightly sweet cream cheese frosting and toasted coconut and chopped pecans on top. And there was enough for her to take home a third of it as well. It has 5 eggs and 2 sticks of real butter and is simply marvelous.

So, after the cake was in the oven (prep time on the cake part alone is half an hour, minimum), I started peeling potatoes, cleaning carrots and celery and chopping onions to make a big pot of Cream of Potato Soup. It's my favorite comfort food, and is garlicky and rich and easy to heat up for a satisfying meal with a nice slice of honey oatmeal bread. I always saute the celery, carrots and garlic and onions in butter before putting them into the simmering diced potatoes, and it makes something wonderful happen. By the time all that was cooking away, I was ready for some brunch, so I ate a Pink Lady apple with sea salt. YUM!

While that cooked, I started chopping vegetables for a chicken pot pie. The Irishman loves this particular meal, so I always make it in a 9x13 baking dish so there are plenty of leftovers. It reheats marginally well in the microwave, and very well in the oven. Went out to the freezer and brought in a bag of boneless skinless chicken breasts, thawed out 3 of them and went to work building that bad boy. After I had the filling all made, I whipped up a couple of batches of basic pie crust to line the baking pan and make a cover for it as well. The cake was cooling by now, so into the oven it went. I love the look of a good piecrust....


Last night I made a chicken and rice casserole...one of those delectable things that cook for 3 hours at a low temperature. We had that for supper and of course the leftovers from it will make another meal. I did not get another loaf of bread made, and I did not get my vacuuming done. Ran out of time, as I had to be at the meeting by 7...and take a shower too.

So...a long day and I need to get in bed. But the furnace is playing games again, and now I've had to shut it off and try to restart it in about 10 minutes. It's cold tonight--about 22 out there. But the minute I get that bad boy going...look out sandman--here I come !! I have to be at the hospital by 10:30 in the morning, and the surgery is at 1. I am sooooooo ready to get this done.



Going to try to get the picture of the cake on here....we'll see what happens. lol Since I have to stay up now until the furnace cycles through. Arrgghhh.....it's annoying, and will work properly for days and days, and then do this again. I hate to call a repairman, because the last time, when he got here, it was working again.


Probably won't be posting tomorrow, but you never know. I am one determined woman sometimes....once the anesthesia wears off.*wink




Namaste.

8 comments:

Andrew said...

Oh, about your furnace, there is a thing called a thermocouple near the pilot that needs to detect a pilot light. They will fail, and when they do they shut everything down. And they are known to be intermittent, like you are describing.

It will fail totally eventually, so I would have it tested.

DJan said...

You make me tired just READING about your accomplishments yesterday. And all that food! I wonder if you have a problem with weight. I would, with all that wonderful stuff around. Will be thinking about you today, and looking forward to the post about it.

Anonymous said...

Oh gosh, I love Italian Cream Cheese cake!!! Sure would have loved to partake in your delicious dessert! I'm quite hungry now, after reading this post, LOL!!!

Have a great day :)

CiCi said...

You do get so much done in one day.
I will be waiting to hear how your surgery went. Hugs.

Mike said...

Sumatra's part of Indonesia. I remember how, back in the '90s, I made a point of telling friends at a coffee house that I would *not* order the Sumatran blend. East Timor, you know. Of course the long, murderous Indonesian occupation of East Timor ended a few years ago, so it's OK now.

Unknown said...

Your day sounds like bliss to me, I am thinking of you and hoping that you are feeling better and the anesthesia is wearing off now...
sending you healing and loving thoughts!
gabi

One Prayer Girl said...

Lord have mercy on me. Every time I read your blog I want to eat, eat, eat. I want to jump on a plane and come to your house for dinner. I wanted to be at that anniversary meeting and help celebrate by eating some of that fabulous cake. :)

I pray for your successful surgery and recovery.

Love and prayers,
PG

Cloudia said...

Thanks for sharing your everyday joys. Sorry about your heater..or whatever you mainland people call them :)


Aloha, Friend!


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