And Now For Something Completely Different
Cut-tags, nothing but cut-tags!
First off: stuff I have done since last I posted properly (those tweets are a little cryptic, aren't they?)
Which is why I wasn't posting, I guess. I was busy. But good!busy.
So, in an effort to give my life some semblance of order, I seem to have decided to focus on baking. I say seem to, because this was not a conscious decision wherein I weighed my options and decided that baking was the best use of my time or the most important thing for me to focus on or the way to produce the greatest good or anything, you know, rational. It's just the thing that I have been consistently able to keep up for a while, now, so I'm going with that.
For some reason, I find tending my sourdough starter easier than going out and buying yeast when I need it, so I'm baking all sourdough everything all the time. Sunday nights I feed the starter, Monday I start the dough for the bagels or challah or whatever and turn the rest of the starter into quickbread of some sort. Tuesdays is full on baking of the whatever. Wednesdays, I have decided, I will pamper myself with self-administered pedicures and suchlike while I determine what groceries I need for the rest of the week. Thursdays I am dedicating to dumplings.
I'm very excited about this. I've never met a dumpling I didn't like, for one thing. Pelmeni are, like, my favorite food ever. When we lived a block from Kung's, DH and I got their dumplings with every meal* and once made a meal out of just several orders of dumpling appetizers and it was fabulous. So I got myself a copy of The Dumpling: A Seasonal Guide, in which the recipes are arranged by month and supposedly will be full of ingredients that are available in that month and appropriate to any holidays therein, so Thursdays I will be cooking from that. This week we're looking at Kletski.
Fridays I am trying to do the traditional thing and roast a chicken or at least have some sort of home-cooked meal. We're doing pretty well with lighting candles, if we can get the bread and grape juice back in there I'll be happy with our Shabbat observance. Our therapist seems to think we should be going to services every week, but, I don't know, I think the home-based rituals are more important to me. We'll want to join a synagogue at some point, I expect, but that means going to several to check them out and there's the whole wearing the right clothes aspect that I find so difficult and paying dues (which I don't begrudge, but I don't know whence in the budget that would come right now) and there are just more obstacles to be negotiated. So, I'm focusing on the food.
Saturdays, we are getting back to our weekly restaurant tradition. We used to go out once a week to a different nearby restaurant when we lived in Benicia, and that way learned our way around the Benicia restaurant scene very well. I've wanted to do the same thing here since we moved, but haven't been able to nail down a day. We've settled on Saturdays as being the most workable. I'm really looking forward to it, there's a new place that opened up a couple of months ago that we still haven't been to and many hole-in-the-walls that I just haven't tried yet and boy, I really want my local downtown businesses to stay open so I'd better get out there and spend some money in them, right? I've got the database all built with all the restaurants I could think of and a handy entry form for adding more. Minor geekdom + yummy food = joy.
I'm hoping we can start grilling on Sundays as the weather allows. DH enjoys it and it's our best avenue for entertaining - our patio is bigger than our living room.
And that covers the week. Anyone worried about the dinners not specifically mentioned above - we are still on Diet To Go for 4 lunches and dinners a week, so I don't even have to think about those. They are supposedly nutritionally balanced and calorie-restricted and they taste pretty okay, so that is working for us. And it gives me a little extra motivation to get to the gym once w a week, since that's where I pick up the meals. I still just pick up the meals and skip working out at least some of the time, but at least I am there and thinking about exercise a little.
* Every meal that we got from Kung's, I should say, which was not quite every meal we ate but was many of them. We used to joke that when we moved further away they would go out of business. I was very sad when that actually happened.
First off: stuff I have done since last I posted properly (those tweets are a little cryptic, aren't they?)
- Solo therapist appt: it went fine, she said a bunch of stuff that echoed a lot of what you smart people said, which gave me a little more confidence in her
- Weekend with my sister and her family and a lot of Mindfulness Based Improvisation (and some pie): fantastic
- Superbowl: still do not entirely believe that happened
- Saw Brimstone, a musical based on the Troubles in Belfast: kind of a downer, but good
- 41st Birthday, which was very pleasant and encompassed riding the train and yummy food including brownies. Maybe next year I will have some Answers, right?
- Outfitted DH with bonsai growing equipment and got myself some wisteria to fill out the potato vine trellis. Need to plant that.
- Day trip to San Jose to see the Trek exhibit at the Tech Museum, which was fun, and also yummy New Orleans food at the Poor House Bistro, a visit to the Municipal Rose Garden (one single solitary bloom, but still a pretty place) and the Egyptian and Rosicrucian museum (which we will have to go back to, didn't see it all)
- Valentines Day cruise on the Lady of Suisun paddlewheel down through the marsh. Lots of fun, beautiful boat, gorgeous sunset, two thumbs up
Which is why I wasn't posting, I guess. I was busy. But good!busy.
So, in an effort to give my life some semblance of order, I seem to have decided to focus on baking. I say seem to, because this was not a conscious decision wherein I weighed my options and decided that baking was the best use of my time or the most important thing for me to focus on or the way to produce the greatest good or anything, you know, rational. It's just the thing that I have been consistently able to keep up for a while, now, so I'm going with that.
For some reason, I find tending my sourdough starter easier than going out and buying yeast when I need it, so I'm baking all sourdough everything all the time. Sunday nights I feed the starter, Monday I start the dough for the bagels or challah or whatever and turn the rest of the starter into quickbread of some sort. Tuesdays is full on baking of the whatever. Wednesdays, I have decided, I will pamper myself with self-administered pedicures and suchlike while I determine what groceries I need for the rest of the week. Thursdays I am dedicating to dumplings.
I'm very excited about this. I've never met a dumpling I didn't like, for one thing. Pelmeni are, like, my favorite food ever. When we lived a block from Kung's, DH and I got their dumplings with every meal* and once made a meal out of just several orders of dumpling appetizers and it was fabulous. So I got myself a copy of The Dumpling: A Seasonal Guide, in which the recipes are arranged by month and supposedly will be full of ingredients that are available in that month and appropriate to any holidays therein, so Thursdays I will be cooking from that. This week we're looking at Kletski.
Fridays I am trying to do the traditional thing and roast a chicken or at least have some sort of home-cooked meal. We're doing pretty well with lighting candles, if we can get the bread and grape juice back in there I'll be happy with our Shabbat observance. Our therapist seems to think we should be going to services every week, but, I don't know, I think the home-based rituals are more important to me. We'll want to join a synagogue at some point, I expect, but that means going to several to check them out and there's the whole wearing the right clothes aspect that I find so difficult and paying dues (which I don't begrudge, but I don't know whence in the budget that would come right now) and there are just more obstacles to be negotiated. So, I'm focusing on the food.
Saturdays, we are getting back to our weekly restaurant tradition. We used to go out once a week to a different nearby restaurant when we lived in Benicia, and that way learned our way around the Benicia restaurant scene very well. I've wanted to do the same thing here since we moved, but haven't been able to nail down a day. We've settled on Saturdays as being the most workable. I'm really looking forward to it, there's a new place that opened up a couple of months ago that we still haven't been to and many hole-in-the-walls that I just haven't tried yet and boy, I really want my local downtown businesses to stay open so I'd better get out there and spend some money in them, right? I've got the database all built with all the restaurants I could think of and a handy entry form for adding more. Minor geekdom + yummy food = joy.
I'm hoping we can start grilling on Sundays as the weather allows. DH enjoys it and it's our best avenue for entertaining - our patio is bigger than our living room.
And that covers the week. Anyone worried about the dinners not specifically mentioned above - we are still on Diet To Go for 4 lunches and dinners a week, so I don't even have to think about those. They are supposedly nutritionally balanced and calorie-restricted and they taste pretty okay, so that is working for us. And it gives me a little extra motivation to get to the gym once w a week, since that's where I pick up the meals. I still just pick up the meals and skip working out at least some of the time, but at least I am there and thinking about exercise a little.
* Every meal that we got from Kung's, I should say, which was not quite every meal we ate but was many of them. We used to joke that when we moved further away they would go out of business. I was very sad when that actually happened.