In Which I Buy Far Too Many Groceries...
Yesterday started off a bit early for me, but for a good reason. I had an interview for a temp job. It went well enough- I'm one of two candidates & the guy said he had no doubts I'd be able to do the job without any trouble, which was a nice change of pace after the computer place.
After that, I proceeded to do the grocery shopping I'd wanted to do all weekend. Mom gave me recipes for 3 different 0-Point soups she got off the Weight Watchers site, one "Asian inspired", one "Italian inspired & one "Mexican" inspired. First thing I realized is how far out of "shopping for actual cooking" mode I've become after so many years of not cooking regularly. Wow. Mom assumed I'd pick one of the soups to buy ingredients for. I mis-read the recipes & thought they only made 6 servings each, so I got stuff for all 3. I decided to try something a bit new with them & get the fresh herbs that the recipes called for rather than relying on the dried stuff in the jars. They're 0-points, after all, which means they're devoid of most of the things that give soups flavor. At some point I realized that the nifty but tiny little "two story" cart that I usually use was *not* going to hold everything, so I ended up wheeling it back out to the carts area & switching everything over to the much larger "normal" grocery cart, which I'm sure looked rather funny to the people who walked past me.
Two discoveries happened later on. First was Mom pointing out to me that the soups made 12 servings not six. The second was that neither Mom nor I have ever cooked with fresh herbs before. This discovery came about after Mom had had a rather lengthy conversation with Aunt D about plans for Grandma (who it turns out will be moving to the assisted living division, despite hating the idea thoroughly). My first inclination on any odd food question I have is to call jrtheotter, since he knows about food. Mom thought it was late to call & I'll admit that I'm not sure what time he goes to bed except that it's before I usually do, but that's true of many people. Still, it was before 11 & I was pretty sure he'd still be up. His answering machine message is hilarious- "I don't answer the phone. Usually I'm not even sure where it is." So I started to detail the nature of our question with the herbs (stems or not? On which ones?) to the machine until he found the phone. :-) He sounded awake, at least, & was amused at me having a food question for him.
Meanwhile, work on the crowns processes forward. His has the final polish on it that I'd wanted to do in the first place (which I had to do at school, since I don't have the specific patina here at home, nor do I have a buffing wheel to do a mirror-finish) & just needs the stones set. Hers I'm still soldering together & soldering the bezels for the stones. Something weird is happened with the deplating solution that afmetals gave me the recipe for. I pulled the crown out after soldering last night & instead of being all nicely bright brass, it was covered with what looked like sick green algae. The crud came off with some water & a toothbrush but the metal's still dark. I had that happen a little to one piece before & figured it meant that the solution was exhausted & made up a new batch. This batch I made up fresh last night so I'm not sure at all what happened there. afmetals, would you have any idea? Has it done that to you?
OK, back to the studio...
ETA: Oh, forgot to mention the big punchline in my getting enough stuff for all 3 soups. Mom made the Italian one last night & it filled *3* huge bowls. Just one soup would be enough for Mom & I to eat for a week & a half. And in further irony, what is my first thought when I eat it? "Man, some rolls would be great with this!"
After that, I proceeded to do the grocery shopping I'd wanted to do all weekend. Mom gave me recipes for 3 different 0-Point soups she got off the Weight Watchers site, one "Asian inspired", one "Italian inspired & one "Mexican" inspired. First thing I realized is how far out of "shopping for actual cooking" mode I've become after so many years of not cooking regularly. Wow. Mom assumed I'd pick one of the soups to buy ingredients for. I mis-read the recipes & thought they only made 6 servings each, so I got stuff for all 3. I decided to try something a bit new with them & get the fresh herbs that the recipes called for rather than relying on the dried stuff in the jars. They're 0-points, after all, which means they're devoid of most of the things that give soups flavor. At some point I realized that the nifty but tiny little "two story" cart that I usually use was *not* going to hold everything, so I ended up wheeling it back out to the carts area & switching everything over to the much larger "normal" grocery cart, which I'm sure looked rather funny to the people who walked past me.
Two discoveries happened later on. First was Mom pointing out to me that the soups made 12 servings not six. The second was that neither Mom nor I have ever cooked with fresh herbs before. This discovery came about after Mom had had a rather lengthy conversation with Aunt D about plans for Grandma (who it turns out will be moving to the assisted living division, despite hating the idea thoroughly). My first inclination on any odd food question I have is to call jrtheotter, since he knows about food. Mom thought it was late to call & I'll admit that I'm not sure what time he goes to bed except that it's before I usually do, but that's true of many people. Still, it was before 11 & I was pretty sure he'd still be up. His answering machine message is hilarious- "I don't answer the phone. Usually I'm not even sure where it is." So I started to detail the nature of our question with the herbs (stems or not? On which ones?) to the machine until he found the phone. :-) He sounded awake, at least, & was amused at me having a food question for him.
Meanwhile, work on the crowns processes forward. His has the final polish on it that I'd wanted to do in the first place (which I had to do at school, since I don't have the specific patina here at home, nor do I have a buffing wheel to do a mirror-finish) & just needs the stones set. Hers I'm still soldering together & soldering the bezels for the stones. Something weird is happened with the deplating solution that afmetals gave me the recipe for. I pulled the crown out after soldering last night & instead of being all nicely bright brass, it was covered with what looked like sick green algae. The crud came off with some water & a toothbrush but the metal's still dark. I had that happen a little to one piece before & figured it meant that the solution was exhausted & made up a new batch. This batch I made up fresh last night so I'm not sure at all what happened there. afmetals, would you have any idea? Has it done that to you?
OK, back to the studio...
ETA: Oh, forgot to mention the big punchline in my getting enough stuff for all 3 soups. Mom made the Italian one last night & it filled *3* huge bowls. Just one soup would be enough for Mom & I to eat for a week & a half. And in further irony, what is my first thought when I eat it? "Man, some rolls would be great with this!"