Holiday? Today's a holiday?
We were supposed to be having people over today, but... One of SO's colleagues wanted to host a Fourth of July get-together, but his house/yard isn't very good for such an occasion (no trees for shade), so it was to be held at our house. Just 7-8 people total, several folks from SO's department, plus spouses/families. Friday night the colleague decided to put this party off till Monday instead.
Um, what? Now this is where it's complicated. The colleague's spouse is, shall we say, not good at social occasions, even if not actually hosting them hirself. But putting the event off by a day isn't going to alleviate any nervousness. Colleague's grandfather (in another country, in Europe) is apparently quite unwell (heat there not helping) and that is causing colleague stress, but again, a day's postponement doesn't seem like it would improve matters. It just rained again here, but there's the same chance of rain tomorrow too. So WTF? A Fourth of July celebration really should, you know, be held on the Fourth or it's kind of meaningless. SO and I put it at 3:2 that colleague will end up cancelling things altogether at the last minute tomorrow. *eyeroll*
So anyhow today it'll be just the two of us, eating potato salad and black bean salad and grilled sausages and blackberries from the CSA. This does not mean tons and tons of those salads around; colleague did at least change the schedule before I'd done final menu planning and grocery shopping. All we're supposed to provide for the party is fruit salad (for which I've purchased nectarines, plums, strawberries, blueberries, and grapes) and beer (also already purchased).
That brings me to this week's CSA: 2 pints blackberries, 1.2 lb. potatoes, .6 lb. carrots, 4 bulbs fennel, 2 heads garlic, 4 tomatoes, salad greens, 1 cucumber, 2 tiny green peppers. We're just eating the berries straight up. The potatoes went into the potato salad, and one of the peppers into the bean salad. I tried a new recipe with the fennel for last night: sliced thinly and roasted with the carrots and also the onions we got a couple of weeks ago which I hadn't yet used (toss w/ olive oil, roast, add a bit of balsamic vinegar for the last few minutes). That was quite good. Salad, natch, which we had some of on Friday and I used part of the cuke in too. Tomatoes I may just slice and serve later this week.
We also still had a few beets and a few turnips from a couple of weeks ago, so I boiled those (separately) yesterday and just put them in the fridge for later in the week. It's maybe one serving of beets and two of turnips; I like beets totally plain, but I drizzled a little olive oil over the turnips and I think I might chop a bit of fresh thyme to sprinkle over when I serve them. I made salmon dip yesterday too. Also started chicken marinating for java chicken, which I will grill today along with the sausages, and then pull off the bone for leftovers Tuesday and later (or Monday if the party's canceled). Uh... it just occurred to me that I don't have a starch side dish for with the chicken, but I can just make couscous or rice or something like that. Oh, yeah, and SO requested the green bean salad with fire walnuts, even though we didn't get beans this week, but one store had them on special so I'll make that today (although not put it together) and then will be pretty much set for the week.
How do people who won't eat leftovers cope? Good heavens, I can't even imagine having to cook everything fresh every night. As it is we don't eat until 7 at the very earliest, and that's when SO is home all day. He does nearly all the yard work, and cleans the floors inside, and deals with all the repair stuff, though, so it's not like he doesn't do anything - it's just that I really like to cook and so that's one of my big household contributions (along with laundry and finances). Oh, yeah, and speaking of repair stuff, our roof developed a leak over the kitchen yesterday. Yay. Not.
So anyhow, yesterday was a pretty standard Saturday as they will be for the foreseeable future. Yoga (9:30 am class - SO and I are both going, and it is strenuous); laundry (4 loads yesterday); grocery shopping; cooking. That does mean that Sunday's fairly relaxed. We went and saw Toy Story 3 today and enjoyed that (although man, I always forget how noisy audiences for G-rated movies are). I finally caught up on transcribing the little bit of dictation I did this week (um, like 2 drabble drafts, a few hundred words of the original novel, and a couple of LJ posts). I was planning to do some study clean-up this weekend, originally intended for Monday, but I guess I still have time to do a couple of hours now/tonight. If it doesn't rain again - it's stopped right now - we might try to go see the city fireworks later.
Tomorrow in the morning I need to clean the bathrooms and make fruit salad for the party. I may see if I can sneak out and see Shrek Forever After; there's a very early showing that would get me home by 2, when the party starts. And hopefully tomorrow get to bed early enough. I had 8 hours Friday night, and almost 9 Saturday, and I can really tell a difference in my overall well-being when I get at least 8 as opposed to between 6-7. But it is hard to be in bed and asleep by 9:30 on a weeknight, when I've only gotten home at 6:30, and want to a) make/eat dinner, b) spend time with SO and Juno, c) have some private/online time. *sighs* I will figure something out, I have to.
Happy Independence Day to the folks in/from the U.S., a belated happy Canada Day to those from there, and, uh, happy weekend to everyone else!
Um, what? Now this is where it's complicated. The colleague's spouse is, shall we say, not good at social occasions, even if not actually hosting them hirself. But putting the event off by a day isn't going to alleviate any nervousness. Colleague's grandfather (in another country, in Europe) is apparently quite unwell (heat there not helping) and that is causing colleague stress, but again, a day's postponement doesn't seem like it would improve matters. It just rained again here, but there's the same chance of rain tomorrow too. So WTF? A Fourth of July celebration really should, you know, be held on the Fourth or it's kind of meaningless. SO and I put it at 3:2 that colleague will end up cancelling things altogether at the last minute tomorrow. *eyeroll*
So anyhow today it'll be just the two of us, eating potato salad and black bean salad and grilled sausages and blackberries from the CSA. This does not mean tons and tons of those salads around; colleague did at least change the schedule before I'd done final menu planning and grocery shopping. All we're supposed to provide for the party is fruit salad (for which I've purchased nectarines, plums, strawberries, blueberries, and grapes) and beer (also already purchased).
That brings me to this week's CSA: 2 pints blackberries, 1.2 lb. potatoes, .6 lb. carrots, 4 bulbs fennel, 2 heads garlic, 4 tomatoes, salad greens, 1 cucumber, 2 tiny green peppers. We're just eating the berries straight up. The potatoes went into the potato salad, and one of the peppers into the bean salad. I tried a new recipe with the fennel for last night: sliced thinly and roasted with the carrots and also the onions we got a couple of weeks ago which I hadn't yet used (toss w/ olive oil, roast, add a bit of balsamic vinegar for the last few minutes). That was quite good. Salad, natch, which we had some of on Friday and I used part of the cuke in too. Tomatoes I may just slice and serve later this week.
We also still had a few beets and a few turnips from a couple of weeks ago, so I boiled those (separately) yesterday and just put them in the fridge for later in the week. It's maybe one serving of beets and two of turnips; I like beets totally plain, but I drizzled a little olive oil over the turnips and I think I might chop a bit of fresh thyme to sprinkle over when I serve them. I made salmon dip yesterday too. Also started chicken marinating for java chicken, which I will grill today along with the sausages, and then pull off the bone for leftovers Tuesday and later (or Monday if the party's canceled). Uh... it just occurred to me that I don't have a starch side dish for with the chicken, but I can just make couscous or rice or something like that. Oh, yeah, and SO requested the green bean salad with fire walnuts, even though we didn't get beans this week, but one store had them on special so I'll make that today (although not put it together) and then will be pretty much set for the week.
How do people who won't eat leftovers cope? Good heavens, I can't even imagine having to cook everything fresh every night. As it is we don't eat until 7 at the very earliest, and that's when SO is home all day. He does nearly all the yard work, and cleans the floors inside, and deals with all the repair stuff, though, so it's not like he doesn't do anything - it's just that I really like to cook and so that's one of my big household contributions (along with laundry and finances). Oh, yeah, and speaking of repair stuff, our roof developed a leak over the kitchen yesterday. Yay. Not.
So anyhow, yesterday was a pretty standard Saturday as they will be for the foreseeable future. Yoga (9:30 am class - SO and I are both going, and it is strenuous); laundry (4 loads yesterday); grocery shopping; cooking. That does mean that Sunday's fairly relaxed. We went and saw Toy Story 3 today and enjoyed that (although man, I always forget how noisy audiences for G-rated movies are). I finally caught up on transcribing the little bit of dictation I did this week (um, like 2 drabble drafts, a few hundred words of the original novel, and a couple of LJ posts). I was planning to do some study clean-up this weekend, originally intended for Monday, but I guess I still have time to do a couple of hours now/tonight. If it doesn't rain again - it's stopped right now - we might try to go see the city fireworks later.
Tomorrow in the morning I need to clean the bathrooms and make fruit salad for the party. I may see if I can sneak out and see Shrek Forever After; there's a very early showing that would get me home by 2, when the party starts. And hopefully tomorrow get to bed early enough. I had 8 hours Friday night, and almost 9 Saturday, and I can really tell a difference in my overall well-being when I get at least 8 as opposed to between 6-7. But it is hard to be in bed and asleep by 9:30 on a weeknight, when I've only gotten home at 6:30, and want to a) make/eat dinner, b) spend time with SO and Juno, c) have some private/online time. *sighs* I will figure something out, I have to.
Happy Independence Day to the folks in/from the U.S., a belated happy Canada Day to those from there, and, uh, happy weekend to everyone else!