Saturday and Sunday, July 30 & 31, 2011

Saturday I spent at home, cleaning my office, taking care of paperwork. I finally did hear from Mindy-no cookies needed. They had some left over so I will check back with her via email next Friday. Jordan made it safely to Escondido, although it sounds like it was not a very comfortable trip. Poor guy!

I talked with Jan about the website and our ad, I talked to my mom and my sister, Corie and I talked with my sister, Janell. Otherwise it was just me and Ah I did get two emails from an ad exec, asking if I would write an article for examiner.com on Chef Mark Estee, who is opening a new restaurant in downtown Reno. The woman who wrote to me said she followed my examiner articles. Who'd have thought?! She also asked me to consider writing about "Tractors and Truffles", an event in Fallon in October. It's another agri-tour event as well as lunch and dinner. Hmmmm..... We'll see what happens!

Sunday I cleaned! I cleaned and washed out the refrigerator, washed and dried dishes, and baked cookies, not for Thunderbird Lodge, but for my friend, Andy to eat on his drive back to Albuquerque, New Mexico. He leaves Tuesday. I also worked on the computer, rubbed the kitty's tummy and tried to relax. In other words, a quiet weekend.

Friday, July 29, 2011

I was up early (no sleeping in any more between Jordan and the cat, lol). I had a 9am appointment at Nevada State Bank. I decided to switch my banking to them. They are often complimented, so we'll see if they live up to their reputation. That took about an hour. I then drove over to Sparks to return a computer cable to Jim (for Jan's computer). I left Jordan at home to pack, run errands, etc before it was time for him to leave. He decided to take the Greyhound bus to San Diego. It will not be a good trip as he'll be up all night.

After my trip to Sparks, I went grocery shopping for the party tonight for Andy. I baked desserts yesterday-Tres Leche Cake, Key Lime Tart and Chocolate Chip toffee cookies. Today, I started marinating the chicken and the beef (London broil-couldn't find flank steak). The chicken had a yogurt, cilantro, garam marsala mixture, for the beef I used a Chipotle BBQ sauce. I then went through my list, making one recipe at a time: Tunisian Vegetable Salsa, White Bean Dip, Baked pita chips with oregano, Morrocan couscous, Greek Salad, and Apple Coleslaw (I used this recipe on Wednesday and really like it). In the middle of all this, I took Jordan to the bus station downtown. Hope he has a good trip!

At 4:45pm, I loaded everything into the car and drove out to Bordertown to Newt's house (where Andy has been living), which is on the opposite side of the street from Jan and Jim Loverin's ranch. I was the first one there so got everything set up. I thought Newt was going to BBQ, but it ended up being me!

I saw lots of people I had not seen in a while and everyone loved the food-which is always a good thing. I was home by 10:30pm-long day!

Thursday, July 28, 2011

I was up early so I could get my (routine) lab work done and not starve myself all day. I met Jan Loverin at Nevada State Bank, where we opened up a joint account to be used for "special events", like out farm to table dinner. I guess now that we bought ad time and opened a bank account to keep track of our spending and (hopefully) profits, this is really going to happen!

It seems I did busy office work in the morning and by afternoon, was ready to bake. I am making food for Andy Carey's going away party tomorrow but had not really decided on dessert(s). I did try out the breakfast cookie recipe I found. It turned out soft, had a nice texture, tasted good and wasn't too sweet. I'll see if I can drop some off for Lynne at the airport and see what she thinks. I did try wrapping them in various bags. The bags worked out well, but the glossy card stock ended up stained once again by the oils in the cookies. Bummer! Guess I'll have to find something else to use...

I also tried a new (to me) product called "Bestlife", which is suppose to take the place of butter and margarine. It was either endorsed by or developed by Bob Green (Oprah's original trainer). You use it the same way you use butter. I made milk chocolate toffee cookies. The dough did not taste as good as dough made with butter but the actual cookie tasted ok. I'll pass some around and see what people think. "best life" is suppose to have all good for you ingredients. And it's inexpensive as compared to butter or margarine. Huh.

I also baked a Tres Leche Cake and made a Key Lime Tart and on the savory side, made a white bean dip. Not sure if I'll do another dessert. I need to shop in the morning and start prepping. Jordan leaves tomorrow for Escondido to see his sister off as she leaves for Baku on Monday, August 1. She's very brave to live abroad!

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

A much quieter day. I started off by going to the store to buy the ingredients for Apple Coleslaw. I also bought ingredients for the Breakfast Cookie recipe I am going to try. Still no word from Lynne, who works for SSP at the airport. I totally forgot to make the Apple Coleslaw Tuesday as part of the meal plan for my client. Good thing he's a friend and very understanding! It tasted like a good make-again salad. The apple adds a lot to the coleslaw mix and the dressing isn't real soupy. My friend forgot the dressing for the Nicoise Salade so I took it to his work. The staff seemed very happy to see me, lol. Wonder why?

I worked on flyers for the Farm to Table dinner so I could give them to Jan when I meet her tomorrow morning. I also came up with some lunch options for my personal chef client (another thing I forgot!). I started to clear out the garage, picked up my office (I did not get to the desk however), cleaned the kitchen, did the dishes, bought some cat food and watered the plants in the back yard. I did manage to get in some TV watching.

Dinner was left overs-Jordan SO hates to throw away food and it does seem wasteful to do so. Lucky for me, they were all good leftovers, lol. A quiet evening all in all.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Four days to catch up on! I am very far behind!

Saturday I had lunch with Jan to go over our plans for a "Farm to Table" dinner in September. There is lots to do, lots to organize, permits to get, insurance to cover this event, a meal to plan, seating, linens, tableware, serving pieces, and that's not all of it! Jan and Jim would like to use their ranch as an event center, so doing something like this makes sense. The health Dept in California (where Jan and Jim technically live), calls this an "Agricultural event". Semantics, always interesting! I baked cookies after I got home. Thunderbird Lodge order four boxes of cookies instead of the usual two. Apparently the cookies were gone before the end of the week (good for me, good for them!). Jordan wrenched his back Saturday and was walking bent over, poor guy. He's better now.

Sunday, I made two layers of Almond Meringue as well as some Vanilla Buttercream. This buttercream used yolks and not meringue! I have to say though, that it was mighty tasty! Not at all too sweet. Then I packaged the cookies I made, after which we went to Jan and Jim's house to work on building a website for the Old 1862 Ranch ( and which you can see at www.theold1862ranch.com), get Jan on PayPal so we can collect money for our "Farm to Table Event" and to discuss further whether or not we want to go ahead with all this. We spent all afternoon at the Lovrerin's, although we did get to see Jim bailing hay, then loading it in stacks onto a special piece of equipment. Way cool! And we saw the llamas.

When Jordan and I got home, I checked the cookies and the backs (plain card stock) was stained from the butter in the cookies! I was so disappointed! I left the packages until morning to see how far they had stained and went to bed.

Monday morning the card stock behind the cookies looked terrible! So I felt I had no choice but to completely repackage them. Jordan went out and bought some glossy card stock and more blank labels. What a guy! He helped me repackage the cookies. It was easier to cut everything because if the paper cutter Janell bought last Monday (nice sister). I got everything repackaged but what a nightmare.

I partially assembled the Almond Meringue Cake then went shopping for food for my catering job for the partnership meeting for SCOR. The menu was Ratatioulle, Rolle Pork Florentine, Roasted Red Potatoes tossed with Smoky Paprika, ciabatta and Almond Meringue Cake with Peaches. I worked at NTI, although theymwere also getting ready for amcatering job Tuesday evening and there almost wasn't room for me to work! But I got it done and I guess the meal was a hit from what I understand.

Today I was back to my regular day for my personal chef client. I had to be there early as he was expecting someone to pick up and shred all his old files. Today I made Tuna Nicoise, mini quiche tarts, Tabbouleh, Poached Halibut with Oriental Stir fry Vegetables, ZgrilledmPork Steak withnpeaches and herb puree, Italian herbed vegetable ribbons, Chicken Carbonara, Oriental Beef Lettucemwrapsmans Field greens with Strawberries, Oranges and Chai Vinaigrette. All good stuff, lol. I left at 2pm, dropped off the big glass bowl I had borrowed from NTI, stopped by Trader Joe's to buy some things for Jordan, then on to SCOR to pick up my chaffing dishes. A busy day!

Now it's time for bed and I am very tired!

Friday, July 22, 2011

Let's see if I can catch you up on my week. I see I haven't written since Tuesday!

I had a doctor's appointment Wednesday morning (new doctor) then came home. I finished my "Cake Truffles" in the afternoon. They turned out pretty good! Once you get the hang of dipping, it can go fairly quickly. It is messy though! I've included pictures so you can see what I've been working on. Packaging has been a headache. How to package, what it looks like, is it appealing, how hard is it to get the goods wrapped up to be delivered. I want them to look good because people eat with their eyes first. If food and it's packaging does not look good, people may think the food inside the package does not taste good or is not worth buying. And it needs to look professional. I feel like I've spent hours online looking at packaging and trying to find packaging that is affordable, especially on a larger scale (which I hope to achieve!).

Wednesday evening, I went out to dinner and a movie with my sister, Janell and her friend, Janice. We had Chinese food for dinner, then saw the last Harry Potter movie. Janice's son works at the movie theater in Sparks so she and her friends (up to three other people) get in free. Free is good, lol! Really liked the movie. They did a good job.

I took my finished "Cake Truffles" to SCOR Thursday morning and got an order for a still to be determined number of 1/2 pound boxes (each 1/2 pound box olds 8 truffles). Those will be due in September. It was nice seeing some old friends too. From SCOR I went shopping as my personal chef day this week changed to Thursday. Had to go to two stores to find everything! Kinda crazy! I made Lamb Ribs roasted in rooter and soy, Portuguese rice, a watermelon, heirloom tomato and feta salad, Greek salad, East African Braised chicken thighs (yummy sauce!), wine poached figs, roasted figs filled with Gorgonzola then drizzled with honey, and a fresh pasta roll filled with ricotta and spinach served with a marinara sauce. A couple things were labor intensive, but well worth it (although my client will likely be the judge of that, lol).

I came home from cooking all day, then baked two batches of cookies (chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin) to take with me to the airport meeting. Finally stopped cooking/baking at 10:30pm!

Today, Jordan and I met with Linda, who works for SSP. They are the (UK based) company who takes care of all the food at the airport. The Peet's coffee (although that is still owned by Peet's), La Brea Bakery and Maxine's among others. SSP is always looking for new products and promote local artisans when they can (I guess I now fall into the artisan category-who'd have thought??). She was really nice and very excited. I also took some savory palmiers I made this morning so she could see I make some savory as well as sweet treats. She liked the savory palmier. The meeting took about an hour. We thought we were going to talk to her about potentially providing cookies for airlines, like Southwest, but she deals mainly with the airport. She took my samples and said she would talk to the "Brand partners" that have space in the airport to see if they would be willing to carry my products. Linda did ask that I come up with a breakfast cookie they could sell as well as some kind of granola/snack bar that perhaps would not be as sweet as a cookie. I'll be working on that over the next few days.

I came home afterwards, worked on finding good breakfast cookie recipes (and now will come the baking and trials), then went to lunch with Janell. We headed over to Sparks because I decided it was time to visit "One World Kitchen", the commercial kitchen over on Spice Island off of Greg Street. We met the owner, Sam. He opened last year and has two kitchens to rent and also a prep space. He charges $25 an hour to rent the kitchen so unless I can come up with some big business, sticking with NTI for now is good. Jay has given me the opportunity to work at NTI for free for a time, until I can build up my business. That has been very nice of him! But if I do get any big contracts, I will need a bigger kitchen as well as better hours for availability. Gotta check out options!

This afternoon, I heard from Mindy at Thunderbird. Apparently cookie sales were really good this week and they want FOUR boxes on Monday. Twice their usual order. Mindy also said the samples helped quite a bit so I will give them more samples Monday.

After talking to Linda, I have continued to look at packaging online, looking at self-sealing bags, different sizes, cheaper bags, etc. The expensive part is going to be the tab on top of the package. Still working on perfecting that. But now it's time to make dinner (steak, brocolini and baked potato).

Tomorrow I get together with Jan to talk about our "Farm to Table" dinner. I guess it's a go!

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

It was hard getting up this morning, lol! I worked on the computer all morning. I almost forgot I had paperwork to fill out for Mollen Immunization Clinic, for the job I start in September giving flu shots and pneumonia shots. They consider it part time seasonal work. That should allow me to continue cheffing. I also worked up a second menu for the "Farm to Table" dinner Jan and I would like to do. We may be doing only one dinner this year. Lots of red tape and permits to get. Kind of crazy, but understandable.

I had coffee with Andy Carey. We are throwing a going away party for him out at Newt's house. I'm doing the food, so we talked about the menu. A few of Andy's friends want to bring something and that's a good thing. That makes my job easier!

I also stopped by Walmart and picked up some chocolate for dipping the cake balls I am experimenting with (although I have officially renamed them "cake truffles"- it sounds so much better than cake balls and they are quite decadent!). I have not worked on them since last night, but they did get a couple of seals of approval. Jordan thought they were a little sweet so I may try a couple other things.

Otherwise, I ordered some flat bags for my cookies so I can try them instead of the gusseted bags I have been using. I think the flat bags will protect the cookies better. I'll have to wait to seemif Thunderbird Lodge continues to order cookies.

I also chatted online with my Aunt Lorine. She and my Uncle John seem to be doing well. Nice to hear! And she was quite encouraging when she told me to keep at it.

Maybe I can get to the cake truffles tomorrow!

Monday, July 18, 2011

Saturday while Carsley and Jordan took care of some family business, I read some of the book "Committed, A Love Story", written by the same woman who wrote "Eat, Pray, Love". I had no idea she had written more books! It is the continuing story of the author and Felipe, with whom she fell in love at the end of "Eat, Pray, Love". Seems pretty good so far....

Jordan and I left Escondido about noon to go to my sister's in Granada Hills (a 2 1/2 hour drive north toward LA). She was throwing a birthday party for Dylan, whose birthday was a week or so ago and it was also Mark's birthday (he turned 50!). The party was still going on when we got there. Lots of little boys running around while their moms stood around and talked. We had missed the food, so Michele fixed us a plate and we sat outside. Dylan got quite a few toys and enjoyed playing with his friends. Dylan went on a sleep over to the neighbors so Michele and I headed to the mall to look around while Jordan worked on grading tests for USC students. Mark was not feeling well so he rested. We were all going to go out for dinner for Mark's birthday but he declined as he still did not feel well. Jordan, Michele and I went out and had Mexican food. We had a nice time! Poor Michele was exhausticated by the time we got home, so she and I headed for bed while Jordan went back to grading student tests/papers.

Sunday we got up early and drove to Santa Barbara to have coffee with the woman Jordan used to rent a room from while he was working on his PhD. Her name is Audry and she's 90! We took her to a coffee shop called "Vices and Spices". They sell coffee, tea and spices as well as some knick knacks, dishes, etc. Very quaint place. After we dropped her back off at home, Jordan took me to a bakery called Jeanine's, still in Santa Barbara. Very nice place. We had lunch, then left to head home. We did take a somewhat circuitous route (Jordan still feels the need to explore places he's never been) but managed to get home around 10pm.

Monday morning, today, we slept in a little, but each of had work to do. My cookie order Needed to be baked and delivered to the Thunderbird Lodge offices. Upon opening the refrigerator, I discovered we had no butter, so off to the store before I start baking. I mixed up two batches of cookies, then baked a chocolate cake. I had to let the cookies cool before they could be packaged so when Janell called saying she was finished with work and wanted to get lunch, I said yes. I had a couple errands anyway. We came back at 1:30pm so I could package and deliver the cookie order. It took two hours to get them all packaged up! I changed the packaging from last week, but also changed my mind after I had put the cookies into a cellophane bag. I put some card stock behind the cookies to give them some support, folded over the tops and added a fold over topper to the bag. I'll have to add a picture. Then I placed them in a windowed box. They look pretty. I also made some samples for the staff to hand out to tourists to see if we can boost the sales. We'll see! Once the cookies were wrapped and boxed, Janell and I delivered them (Janell helped me bag and wrap the cookies). Once again, there was a check waiting for me! Yeah! Once we delivered the cookies, we checked out Resco to see if they carried any heat sealers (something I may need to use to seal cookie packages in the future). They did not...

After more errands, we went back to our house and I tried my hand at cake balls (cake pops without the stick). They looked intriguing so I decided to experiment a bit. I made my dark chocolate cake, crumbled it in the food processor, then mixed some cream cheese frosting into the cake crumbs until they were moist. I chilled them a bit, then took them out and using a cookie scoops, made little balls. I've decided that cake truffles is a much better choice of verbiage than cake balls, so that's what I'll call them, lol. I am trying out ideas for the fall marketing gift for SCOR. I did try to coat the chocolate balls in both white and semi-chocolate but did not get my chocolate hot enough nor did I have enough of the chocolates to do a good job, but I got to practice dipping the little chocolate balls.

I picked up Ah Choo from Janell's apartment when I finished and brought him home. He seemed happy to be home (as much as you can tell with a cat). Jordan was already home, so after watching the news, we had dinner and talked about our day. Almost time for bed again. I don't have to cook for Michael until Thursday so I'll work on menus and bookkeeping tomorrow.

Friday Evening, July 15, 2011

I walked around the Gaslamp district until it was time to meet Jordan at noon. I checked out some of the restaurants (reading menus when available) and looked around the Ralph's grocery store on 1st and Market. The deli section there puts Whole Foods to shame, which is saying something! While I waited for Jordan back at the Convention Center, a man, aided by his friends, needed to sit on the bench I was using as he hurt his ankle. I stayed with him while his friends called 911. Such excitement! (I don't miss it).

Jordan and I walked back to the Gaslamp district and had lunch at a Persian restaurant. Not bad although kind of a funky little place. Jordan had a vegetarian dish made with eggplant along with some basmati rice. I had rice, a roasted tomato and a long piece of ground beef they called a kabob. The beef looked like one of those Popsicle sticks kids eat, kind of strange. After lunch we walked back to the convention center and drove back to Escondido. I did some grocery shopping with Carsley when we got back while Jordan did some work.

We had three of Carsley's friends over for dinner-Elaine, Julie and Christie. We grilled some flank steak, roasted some fingerling potatoes, and made glazed carrots. Elaine and Christie brought over veggie kabobs and we grilled those too. For dessert I made Eton Mess which was a big hit (whipped cream, meringues and strawberries). It was a fun evening, laughing and telling stories.

I did hear back from the people at Thunderbird Lodge. They ordered more cookies. I hope sales increase. Midday wasn't sure if staff was buying cookies or if the tourists were buying the cookies, lol. She's checking on that. I also got a part time seasonal job starting in September. I'm going to give flu shots. The job is September through mid-November. Steady money! Yeah!!

Jordan and I are going to my sister, Michele's tomorrow. She's having a birthday party for Dylan (his birthday was a week ago) and it is my brother-in-law's birthday tomorrow, so we'll go out for dinner. Then back to Reno Sunday. Another long drive...

Friday, July 15, 2011

Thursday was a quiet day, Carsley worked on her to do list, I read, talked to Jan about our farm to table dinner (much more involved than you can imagine!) and continue to check out packaging for cookies. I did get a haircut ($16 at Great Clips) as it badly needed a trim. We went to the pool (I have color again!), shopped for dinner and picked up Jordan from the train station at 7pm. We had dinner at home.

As I write this entry, I am sitting outside at a cafe called Toscano ( how could I not?) drinking a cappuccino and eating a chocolate croissant. I am also people watching, although a huge beetle fly onto a nearby table (the kind of beetle you saw in "The Mummy" movie). I couldn't believe it. It moved on, but not before making a Japanese girl scream, lol. I am in the old Gaslamp district and will check out restaurant row before meeting up with Jordan at noon to return to Escondido. More later!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

This morning Julie picked me up and we went to a seminar on helping your memory that was given by the Oasis Group at the senior citizen center in Escondido. Never thought I'd end up there! The speaker was a woman and quite knowledgeable, I learned quite a few things about dementia and that basically, there are only four kinds (there actually are a few more but they constitute such a small percentage that they were not included in this lecture): 1. Parkinson's, 2. Lewie-Body, 3. Alzheimer's. 4.Vascular (strokes and TIAs). Alzheimer's makes up 70% of the dementia population. She called it an "equal opportunity disease"' meaning anyone can get it regardless of what you might do to prevent it or what your family history may be. Very interesting lecture.

I came back to Champagne Village with Carsley after the lecture and we had lunch with Jordan. He had elected not to go into the conference until afternoon but stayed here to work on his USC student lesson for this week. He's been so stressed out lately about work, I feel badly for him. After lunch, Carsley and I went to a couple of thrift stores so she could look for suitcases. She did not find one. After we got home, I went to the pool while she waited for Julie to pick her up and take her to Costco. The pool was great! It was 4pm, warm (80 degrees) and sunny. I stayed about an hour and when I got back to the house, Carsley was still waiting for Julie! She could have gone with me to the pool! Oh, well. Julie finally came and off they went. I read and before you knew it, Jordan was home.

We went out to a restaurant in Escondido called "Tango". Excellent food and Wednesdays is half off any bottle of wine! Cool! Jordan graciously bought everyone dinner. Now we are home and the house is nice and cool, perfect sleeping weather!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Jordan left later for the conference today as he decided to drive into San Diego rather than take public transportation and wanted to try and miss some of the heavier traffic. So I decided to sleep in. It's been a little cooler today, which is nice. I tried to talk Carsley into doing some of the things on her "to do" list and she leaves for Baku, in Azerbaijan in a little over two weeks. We went through her pile of things she was planning on taking and pared it down to fewer items. She made appointments and phone calls and got some things off her list. I met her friend Elaine, that I tried to hook up with in St Thomas (never worked out). Elaine is working for the Welk Resort again, selling time shares. She seems very nice. After Elaine left to go shopping at the thrift store, I looked online at packaging for cookies. I still am looking for just the right way to package and present them. I know I'll find just the right thing, it just may take me a while. The food and baked goods I sell need to take good, but if they don't look good, no one will buy them.

I did a little reading, we had a late lunch and then Julie came over (another friend of Carsley's). She wanted us to go with her to a talk tomorrow on working to improve your memory. Carsley has an appointment with the DMV, but I guess I'm going to go. Should be interesting. And she talked us into going to the "Moose" this evening. What is "the Moose" you ask??? Why the Escondido Moose Lodge. It was their Tuesday evening dinner and line dancing from 6-8pm. For $5 you get a meal (in this case mashed potatoes, meatloaf and gravy-no salad or veggies), then from 6:30-8:00pm you get to line dance. So I got hauled out onto the dance floor to learn line dancing (although a lot of the older people already know this stuff, they just come to dance). I also figured out this is perfect for husbands. They can take their wives out dancing but don't ever have to dance with them cause line dancing is done in a group! Everyone's happy! Jordan is thinking of moving down here, but I have to say, I feel a little too young to live here. Line dancing, game night, dinners, dancing, card games, exercise classes, etc. Lots of things planned for everyone here, if that's what they want.

It's been an interesting trip so far, but now it's bedtime. Jordan finally made it home, safe and sound, albeit late. And tomorrow is another day!

Monday, July 11, 2011

Guess what? I went to the line dancing class, lol! I think I was the youngest one there. Betty was the oldest, she's 87 and not ashamed to tell you that. All ages, all shapes, all sizes, men and women. Very interesting. We had class for an hour, breaks every 10-15 minutes. The ladies were amazed at how quickly I picked up the moves. Me, I didn't think I did that well.

After class, a tour of the clubhouse and a little sitting, Carsley took me on a tour of "Champagne Village", the "coach park" Lawrence Welk started years ago. Coach park is a fancy name for trailer park, or in some cases what they call manufactured housing. They look like ranch style homes and some of them here are quite gorgeous. The weather has been lovely, not too hot, cool at night and in the morning. Sure are a lot of homes here!

We had lunch at Souplantation (soup, salad and dessert for $8.49). Such a deal! Then a few errands for Carsley and home for a nap for Carsley, a couple phones for me.

We went to the Welk Farmer's Market that runs 3-7pm every Monday. They have crafts and lots of food (The French Connection chef was really French and a very good cook-he says he learned from his mother) but only a little produce, surprisingly enough. Carsley and Jordan both said there had been more produce at the last farmers' market. It's interesting to see when the produce is secondary to the "stuff" at the farmers' market. I did try a bite or two of everything the French chef had made. Yum-O as Rachel Ray would say.

We had dinner at the Welk Canyon Grill. The food was ok, the service not so good. It was the end of the evening and only two waiters, but it got busy at the end of the shift so we were slighted because we ate outside. Oh, well. We paid and left.

I love the way it cools off at night, great sleeping weather!

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Most of today was spent traveling. We did not get out of Reno until about noon, what with taking Ah Choo to my sister's house, watering outside plants and picking up a rental car (cheaper than a round trip ticket to San Diego and easier on our cars). Uneventful drive with just two stops, one to buy gas and eat and one to buy gas and take a potty break.

We got to Escondido a little after 10pm. We are staying in a Lawrence Welk community. If you don't know who Lawrence Welk is (and a one a and a two a...) then I am dating myself and won't be able to tell you much more. He had a variety type TV show that highlighted an orchestra, the Lennon sisters and many others. We used to watch him when I was a kid. We are staying with Jordan's sister, Carsley, this week. She's going to show me around this 55 and over community. There's line dancing classes at 9am tomorrow...... Oh, my......

Saturday, July 9, 2011

The morning was taken up with yard work. I planted some wildflower seeds along the concrete wall that are suppose to attract butterflies. Hopefully the birds won't eat them first! I pulled weeds, and pulled weeds and pruned plants (I know, wrong time of year but that's what I get for waiting for someone else to do the work!). When it got too hot, I came back in.

I am already looking at what to do for SCOR's quarterly marketing and I think I am going to suggest cake balls (cake pops without the sticks) and make them look like little bonbons. I'm going to try the recipe out first, but you can make em in whatever flavor you want. It's been very interesting checking all this out online. The person who apparently first made this popular was a woman who calls herself "Bakerella". She has a website and has written a book on cake pops. I have to say though, that there are a whole lot of blogs and websites with women who have made these. Even Starbucks sells them. One woman lamented that cake pops would become passé now that Starbucks was selling them. And people seem to LOVE them! So I think I need to make some. You can also make cake balls/pops out of cheesecake.

I made pesto tonight using fresh basil, fresh parsley, walnuts, garlic, Parmesan cheese and olive oil. I boiled up some fettuccine and tossed the pasta with pesto and served it with flank steak (leftovers) and asparagus. It was all good. I had cherries to use up before we leave for San Diego tomorrow, so I made a Sweet Polish Cherry Cake. It turned out quite nice. Nice texture-almost like a coffee cake.

Jordan worked all day and came home late so we ate late. I'm waiting for my stomach to digest a little before I lay down to sleep. Ugh! Not fun eating late! Whatta ya gonna do?

We leave for San Diego in the morning. Ah Choo will stay with Janell (and her two cats) while we are gone. At least there he has company 24/7. Hopefully we'll be on the road by 10am. Road trip!!

Friday, July 8, 2011

I went to Nothing To It this morning to bake cookies for my first delivery to Thunderbird Lodge (with a few side trips-no gas in Jordan's car and no pecans). The gals at NTI were prepping for a BBQ for 300 today (!) and a Saturday wedding. Lots of activity. I made my cookies then left (but not before finding out Jay and Lara ARE married!).

I came home and tried to figure out how to package the cookies and what label to put on them. I had thought I would carry a Thunderbird Lodge logo on the cookies, but as Sonja pointed out to me, why not get credit and some label recognition for the cookies? I did come up with a temporary label that is a form of a business card from Word and just copied it onto a full page sticky paper (technical, I know). When I went to package the cookies, I realized I had miscounted and so had to rush to make more (oh, no!). I was only a little late with my delivery but not very happy with the packaging. I am looking online for an alternative to what I currently use for wrapping cookies. I guess I'll try a few different things and see what happens and what the Thunderbird people think. Hopefully they will sell and I can continue to bake cookies (for profit). AND, they gave me a check on the spot! Yeah!

I did get a job offer from GI Consultants but the work is part time, which to them is four days a week. Do I want/need money that badly? Sometimes I think yes but then worry I will lose my focus on cooking and not do the things I really want to do. I told the woman who called that I will think about it. At least someone I contacted made me an offer, lol.

Janell and I went looking for camouflage material for Michele but couldn't find any. I did snag a few more boxes at JoAnn Fabrics so it was not a wasted trip. Then home and more online looking, looking, looking. Tomorrow I'll do some more baking....

Thursday, July 7, 2011

I did "office work" this morning. It took until 1pm! Imagine my surprise! I really didn't think there'd be much in the way of office work with this business. I had to fill out papers for the Washoe County Assessor. They want to know how much I'm worth (not much) so they can assess taxes on my business. I had to look up receipts from equipment I've purchased for my business, although as a private chef, I use some of my clients utensils, etc. I did the assessment online which took about as long as if I'd hand written it. Then banking and bill paying (never a happy time to part with your money), checking emails, reworking colors for the logo Sonja is working on for my business and making phone calls. I did manage to give the cat some belly rubs in between, lol.

I met my friend, Jennifer (who still works at the surgery center I used to work at) at Silver Peak. We were going to meet at Jungle Vino for a glass of wine, but she wanted more substantial food than they offer. So we decided to try Zozo's for their twice a month wine tasting but they were sold out. So we decided to try Silver Peak. We both had the Thai Steak Salad-good, but I'm not sure why they call it a Thai salad. You don't really notice the oriental flavors and Jen asked if they had put dressing on the salad, lol, because she couldn't see any. We had a great time catching up, talking for over two hours. It was so nice, we sat outside. Not too windy, we sat in the shade, very nice.

I beat Jordan home, so he was working late. He bought a little square that plugs into my iPhone and allows me to accepts credit cards! How cool is that?! There is no monthly fees, no contracts and you pay on a per transaction basis (2.7%). BofA had told me most people prefer to pay with credit cards and will often not buy something if they have to pay cash. We'll see if that's true!

Tomorrow I go to Nothing To It to bake cookies for my first order for Thunderbird Lodge. Chocolate Chip Pecan cookies. I hope people buy them and this turns into a successful portion of my business. Just gotta wait and see. Wish me luck!!

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

So much for my plan to go back to writing every day!

Monday, July 4th, I ran a few errands with Janell, worked on menus and shopping lists for my Tuesday personal chef gig and baked a Fig-Almond Crostata (free form crust). Jordan and I spent a good part of the late afternoon, early evening with co-works of his from the Bureau at UNR. We had a nice time. Lots of academics, not always the most exciting people. Our hosts had a pool (nice as it was very hot) and some shady spots to sit. It was a potluck (which Jordan forgot to tell me until two hours before we were due to be there!!) and all I had on hand were some Healthy Oatmeal Raisin cookies, so I took those. The flour in the dough is made up mostly of ground oatmeal. They have a maple glaze on them also. We did not go see the fireworks this year, but I did hear a lot going off around the neighborhood.

Tuesday, July 5, was my marathon cooking day. I will be going with Jordan next week to San Diego for his ERSI convention so wouldn't be able to cook for Michael. So I cooked meals for two weeks for him. Artichoke heart, salmon and sea scallop Salad with Citrus vinaigrette, Orecchiette with shrimp and arugula, Candied Pecan and Strawberry Salad, Ginger-pistachio crusted chicken with tangerine sauce, Crispy cabbage, Mango and Red Onion Salad, Honey Bourbon Pork Tenderloin, Ratatouille, Apple, Dried Cherry and Pecan Salad, Farfalle pasta in a Creamy Asiago Sauce, Cherry, Papaya and Orzo Salad, Chicken and Spinach Wraps with a light sauce, Lamb Chops with Asparagus and Farro, Hangar Steak with a Port Cherry Sauce and Italian Sesame Goat Cheese Salad. Whew! Took me all day! It was fun though! When I got home from Michael's, I made a Savory Swiss Chard tart with swiss chard I had gotten in Davis at the Farmer's Market. It also had bacon, onions and Gruyere cheese. Yummy!

Today, Wednesday, July 6, I spent recovering from my marathon cooking day, although I woke up early. I've been doing computer work most of the day, looking for main dish salads and developing the menu for the partnership meeting July 25. I did some banking, took Michael some savory tart and rubbed the cat's tummy, lol (a job he thinks I was born to do). Dinner was grilled flank steak with Roasted Red Pepper Coulis, asparagus and potatoes. Jordan and I shared a piece of the fig tart (the rest went to my personal chef client). He thought it was sweet, I thought it was just right. Oh, well, can't please all the people....

Sunday, July 3, 2011

I went to Home Depot this morning so I could buy some plants for the back yard. I am tired of looking at it as there is little color in the raised garden. While at Home Depot, I ran into Lisa Springgate who invited Jordan and I to a BBQ at their house tonight. I had not seen Lisa in a while. I bought my plants and mulch and headed home to work on the back yard. By this time it was close to noon and it was in the 90's today. I planted for about an hour before it got too hot to work. It's a start! I'll finish tomorrow morning. I also got a couple of vegetable plants-tomatoes, red peppers and watermelon. I also bought rosemary and Italian parsley. Hopefully they will do well and not get eaten by Peter Rabbit!

Jordan said yes, so my entrance into the BBQ was cookies. As Lisa is eating a lot of gluten free, I made Oatmeal Raisin cookies that have half the fat and sugar of regular oatmeal cookies and only 3/4 cup of flour. The rest of the "flour" is oatmeal that has been ground in a food processor. They are surprisingly good cookies. As I had a lot of blueberries and strawberries left over from my tarts, I made Blueberry Crisp and took that to John and Lisa's. There were five couples total, including us. One woman is a physical therapist like Lisa and the other is in finance. Apparently they have all been friends for a while. And almost everyone seems to be a patient of Lisa's, lol! John grilled Tri-Tip which was excellent. It seemed to be a pot luck. The ladies brought salads. Everything was tasty!

When we got home, Jordan went back to work (he is behind on his USC class). I dealt with all the extra strawberries we had and made some jam. We'll see tomorrow morning how it turns out.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Saturday Jordan and I were up early. We drove to Davis, California to the Davis Farmer's Market. What beautiful fruit! I took pictures so I will post some. We bought some Mission figs (I am making a fig tart for my personal chef client), Swiss chard, California olive oil, a sticky bun for Jordan and a chocolate croissant for me. Not very croissanty (light, buttery and flaky) but tasty. I had to laugh, the bakery uses chocolate chips in the chocolate croissant, rather than a bar of chocolate. Ah, well. We tried to see our friend Christine who lives in Davis, but turns out she is in Germany for several weeks! (She's originally from Germany and still has friends and family in Germany).

We left the farmer's market and drove to the Bledsoe Walnut farm (friends of Jordan's) in the Capay Valley outside of Winter, California. Caroline fed us lunch, mostly leftovers, but very tasty. Caroline and her husband both used to teach but have retired recently. They remodeled the old farmhouse on the property and put in a new kitchen and dining area. There is a very large wooden farmhouse table and Caroline owns quite a few old serving pieces, etc that have come down through her family. The Bledsoes are leaving Thursday for a month in Canada, where they own a little cabin on a lake in Ontario province. We left after lunch.

On leaving the Bledsoes (not without a bag full of fresh walnuts and a bunch of lavender (they grow and sell lavender and walnuts), Jordan decided he wanted to see Clear Lake, the oldest fresh water lake in the U.S. I didn't realize until I looked at the GPS that that took us up into Napa. We covered a huge distance Saturday. From Clear Lake, we drove to Lake Berryessa, southeast of Clear Lake. We took what we thout was a county highway but when we got to one of the wildlife preserves, some portions of the road weren't paved! There were also quite a few streams that ran across the road and at certain times of the year, the roads are impassable due to high water. Quite the adventure! It was a pretty drive, though.

From Lake Berryessa, we drove to Jordan's daughter's house for a visit. Her husband lost his job a few months ago and has been unable to find work (he was a high level executive in a company that closed). He is now considering buying a business and moving to Southern California. Job and money troubles everywhere! We had dinner there (BBQ chicken and vegetables) and Jordan got to spend some time with his daughter and grandkids.

We drove home but didn't get home until midnight. I don't remember the entire drive, lol, I ended up falling asleep! It was a good day, though. Hot but sunny and still green (Northern California turns brown about the middle or end of July because of heat and little rain).

Friday, July 1, 2011

I thought I was going to stay home most of today but the day did not turn out like I thought it would (or the cat hoped it would, lol). During breakfast I got a call from Ric (he finally had some money for me for the catering job I did for Reno Silver Blades a couple of weeks ago) and met him for coffee at Backstube. Then I bought gas, dropped Summer Tomato Soup off for Michael, and returned a shirt to Kohl's. The shirt had been a present from Jordan but there was a hole in the Battenburg lace portion of it that I could not fix, so back it went. While I was at Kohl's, Janell called and wanted to go out to lunch. She met me at Kohl's and then we went to Sushi Rose. After lunch, I had time to stop at home, then met Kasia and Gary at the European Market on S. Virginia for pastry. Apparently Josef's Bakery has opened a second location in the European Market. Not bad, but the pastry is not as good as when Josef was alive and doing the baking.

I came home and worked on the computer. I got an email from Sonja who sent me seven logos to chose from. So I'll look those over with Jordan and see what he thinks. Decisions, decisions. I also got an email from Mindy saying they want to start getting cookies July 11! How exciting!

Dinner was leftovers from last night's dinner: Mediterranean Pork chops, herbed rice pilaf and brocolini. Topped off with a shared piece of Olive Oil Cake with Candied Oranges. I was surprised at Jordan. He was reluctant to try the cake because he didn't think olive oil belonged in a dessert! He didn't reject it but I'm not sure he'd want me to make it again for just the two of us. I thought it was tasty, myself. Ah, well, you're never going to please everyone!

Tomorrow we are driving to the Davis Farmer's Market, then having lunch with the Bledsoes, who own a walnut farm in California not too far from Davis. We've been wanting to see the farm for a while and the Bledsoe's are old friends of Jordan's. Should be a nice day. We'll be back home Saturday evening, so just a day trip.