(no subject)
So given that I barely checked a computer during my winter break, much less checked livejournal I have quite of bit of catching up to do.
The break was pretty good though over too fast, as is often the way of these things. I fully admit to not getting an big projects done. Mostly because I was binge playing Dragon Age: Inquisition (finished it once with a mage character on casual..the character I'll probably carry to any later games...now playing a thief character on nightmare so it's going...slower)
So lets see, notable things that I did. I threw a Christmas eve party as I often do for my friends that were still local. This went pretty well though there is a story to tell:
I'd never done the entire thing myself before, honestly, I've always had roommates that would be around to point at and say, "Clean this thing while I do these other fifty things that I need to do" This proved a bit more challenging than anticipated though I was at least smart and made the desserts in the preceding days (desserts were: Peanut butter fudge, Maple ginger fudge, chocolate cayenne fudget, gingersnaps, and cranberry orange cookies)
Anyway, I did over do the menu planning with types of pasta but I figured that those would be easy things that people could help themselves to as they got hungry since I didn't really want to do a heavily formal dinner.
In any case the menu (with pictures linked to the things that I did make..not everything planned got made: more on that in a minute)
Curried butternut squash soup (mostly because I had four pounds of squash that needed to be used. Made my own curry powder mix for this)
Salad with radicchio, butternut lettuce, roasted beets and purple onions, pears and bleu cheese with a light lemon vinaigrette
Macaroni and cheese with cheddar and chipotle peppers
Macaroni and cheese with smoked gruyere
Kale and beet green pesto pasta with rosemary roasted chicken breast.
Note this last one doesn't have a picture.
Wait for it.
However have a bonus cookie picture because I got tired of frosting them in little swirls so I started amusing myself.
Anyway, since the soup could stay on low heat to keep warm pretty much all day I started that first along with roasting the beets and red onions. I have a bad habit of throwing peelings and tops of things into the sink while I'm cooking just because it's less messy than trying to do it over the trashcan. Often I'll scoop peels and stuff that might jam the garbage disposal out and toss them in the trash when I have a moment (though we do have a fairly robust disposal so I can sometimes use it for things that may be problematic at times)
Experienced cooks may note here that I am not mentioning doing this on this occasion. You may begin laughing and pointing fingers at me.
I was in a hurry, I just peeled the beets and looked at the sink full of peels from squash and beets stuff and thought, "Ah, it will be fine." And it was. Until the sink started backing up.
Note I mentioned there were beets involved.
Not only was the sink backing up with water. It was dark purple water.
Cue freak out as there's no time to call maintenance for our apartment and there's tons of things I'll need to do that will involve the sink. Nerve myself up to take care of it myself: I knew the PROCESS for doing so but given that one of the few perks of apartment living is that you can call people to fix shit I hadn't really ever done it.
Look under the sink. realize that the plastic pipes do not require pipe wrench (actually we have one but it was a relief not to have to deal with it) Empty under sink. Fetch bucket because I'm not going to be one of those stupid people that forgets that water will go SOMEWHERE when I pull part of the pipe with the clog out. Realize bucket does fit under said pipe. Sigh, fetch mixing bowl, put it under the pipe.
And here's where it went wrong. If I'd been thinking I'd have realized there was a good 10-12 cups of purple water in the sink. The intelligent thing to do, given that I had limited room in my catch all, would be to scoop as much of this water out of the sink so I'd have less run off. Did I do the intelligent thing?
I'm sure, gentle readers, you can answer that question yourself.
Unscrew pipe: Actually comes apart very easy. Go, fox, go! Pull it apart. Water runs from the now unclogged upper pipe directly into the bowl. Yay! Water promptly overflows said bowl and covers under the cupboard and the kitchen floor, including me as I'm laying on said floor, with purple water.
Not so yay.
Freak out, run to get towels and sop up mess. Left with a bowl overflowing with purple water than I just need to dump.
Normally you would dump this in the sink. The pipe is currently not there. Can't dump there. Also it has bits of stuff that clogged the pipe in the first place in it so dumping it down after I get the pipe cleaned and fixed, not really a good idea as we don't want to go round two with the mess. Bowl is in the way anyway so leaving it there until the sink is repaired not really an option.
If I'd been thinking I'd have dumped it into the bucket that I mentioned previously having fetched. Instead I grabbed a collender (at least I thought this far ahead) and as carefully as I could but still sloshing purple water everywhere, retreated to the bathroom to dump it into the bathtub.
Got pipe repaired, most things dryed, towels in the wash, resumed cooking. Finished everything but one planned pasta. Have embarrassing story to tell people for a couple of years to come.
The party itself was good fun, everyone enjoyed the food and the clean up wasn't even that hideous.
I think I'm going to end this here as it's approaching book length. More on the rest of the break in a bit.
The break was pretty good though over too fast, as is often the way of these things. I fully admit to not getting an big projects done. Mostly because I was binge playing Dragon Age: Inquisition (finished it once with a mage character on casual..the character I'll probably carry to any later games...now playing a thief character on nightmare so it's going...slower)
So lets see, notable things that I did. I threw a Christmas eve party as I often do for my friends that were still local. This went pretty well though there is a story to tell:
I'd never done the entire thing myself before, honestly, I've always had roommates that would be around to point at and say, "Clean this thing while I do these other fifty things that I need to do" This proved a bit more challenging than anticipated though I was at least smart and made the desserts in the preceding days (desserts were: Peanut butter fudge, Maple ginger fudge, chocolate cayenne fudget, gingersnaps, and cranberry orange cookies)
Anyway, I did over do the menu planning with types of pasta but I figured that those would be easy things that people could help themselves to as they got hungry since I didn't really want to do a heavily formal dinner.
In any case the menu (with pictures linked to the things that I did make..not everything planned got made: more on that in a minute)
Curried butternut squash soup (mostly because I had four pounds of squash that needed to be used. Made my own curry powder mix for this)
Salad with radicchio, butternut lettuce, roasted beets and purple onions, pears and bleu cheese with a light lemon vinaigrette
Macaroni and cheese with cheddar and chipotle peppers
Macaroni and cheese with smoked gruyere
Kale and beet green pesto pasta with rosemary roasted chicken breast.
Note this last one doesn't have a picture.
Wait for it.
However have a bonus cookie picture because I got tired of frosting them in little swirls so I started amusing myself.
Anyway, since the soup could stay on low heat to keep warm pretty much all day I started that first along with roasting the beets and red onions. I have a bad habit of throwing peelings and tops of things into the sink while I'm cooking just because it's less messy than trying to do it over the trashcan. Often I'll scoop peels and stuff that might jam the garbage disposal out and toss them in the trash when I have a moment (though we do have a fairly robust disposal so I can sometimes use it for things that may be problematic at times)
Experienced cooks may note here that I am not mentioning doing this on this occasion. You may begin laughing and pointing fingers at me.
I was in a hurry, I just peeled the beets and looked at the sink full of peels from squash and beets stuff and thought, "Ah, it will be fine." And it was. Until the sink started backing up.
Note I mentioned there were beets involved.
Not only was the sink backing up with water. It was dark purple water.
Cue freak out as there's no time to call maintenance for our apartment and there's tons of things I'll need to do that will involve the sink. Nerve myself up to take care of it myself: I knew the PROCESS for doing so but given that one of the few perks of apartment living is that you can call people to fix shit I hadn't really ever done it.
Look under the sink. realize that the plastic pipes do not require pipe wrench (actually we have one but it was a relief not to have to deal with it) Empty under sink. Fetch bucket because I'm not going to be one of those stupid people that forgets that water will go SOMEWHERE when I pull part of the pipe with the clog out. Realize bucket does fit under said pipe. Sigh, fetch mixing bowl, put it under the pipe.
And here's where it went wrong. If I'd been thinking I'd have realized there was a good 10-12 cups of purple water in the sink. The intelligent thing to do, given that I had limited room in my catch all, would be to scoop as much of this water out of the sink so I'd have less run off. Did I do the intelligent thing?
I'm sure, gentle readers, you can answer that question yourself.
Unscrew pipe: Actually comes apart very easy. Go, fox, go! Pull it apart. Water runs from the now unclogged upper pipe directly into the bowl. Yay! Water promptly overflows said bowl and covers under the cupboard and the kitchen floor, including me as I'm laying on said floor, with purple water.
Not so yay.
Freak out, run to get towels and sop up mess. Left with a bowl overflowing with purple water than I just need to dump.
Normally you would dump this in the sink. The pipe is currently not there. Can't dump there. Also it has bits of stuff that clogged the pipe in the first place in it so dumping it down after I get the pipe cleaned and fixed, not really a good idea as we don't want to go round two with the mess. Bowl is in the way anyway so leaving it there until the sink is repaired not really an option.
If I'd been thinking I'd have dumped it into the bucket that I mentioned previously having fetched. Instead I grabbed a collender (at least I thought this far ahead) and as carefully as I could but still sloshing purple water everywhere, retreated to the bathroom to dump it into the bathtub.
Got pipe repaired, most things dryed, towels in the wash, resumed cooking. Finished everything but one planned pasta. Have embarrassing story to tell people for a couple of years to come.
The party itself was good fun, everyone enjoyed the food and the clean up wasn't even that hideous.
I think I'm going to end this here as it's approaching book length. More on the rest of the break in a bit.