Monday morning was spent baking and putting together Whoopie pies. The traditional chocolate Whoopie pies with a vanilla-marshmallow filling and the less traditional Pumpkin Whoopie pies with vanilla-cream cheese filling. They ARE labor intensive but the results are tasty. I found the chocolate pies filled with the vanilla-marshmallow filling to be a little too rich and sweet for my tastes. I had some vanilla cream cheese filling left over and put some of that filling in extra chocolate cookies I had left over and I thought that combination was much better. Once I was done baking and assembling and packaging attractively, I schlepped them all down to Anne at SCOR so they could make the final decision as to what they wanted to give for a marketing gift: Spiced Pumpkin Bread or Whoopie Pies (chocolate and pumpkin combo). Me, I vote for the pumpkin bread, lol. It tastes good and packages well and is much less labor intensive.
The afternoon was spent working on the LA hospital list for Jordan. It is crazy how much information is out there on the web and how much of it contradicts another source! I am probably a third of the way through the first and most important list (there are four).
For dinner I tried two of Martha Stewart's Everyday Food Magazine meal suggestions. There were about six recipes that revolved around salsa. For the first recipe, Creamy Salsa Soup, I combined a jar of Pace mild salsa (minus about 1/4 cup for my second dish) and 3 cups of chicken stock. I heated the soup to just boiling, then put the soup into the food processor (or blender) with 2 Tbsp cream and puréed the soup. I then returned it to the pot to reheat some. When it was time for dinner, I put the soup in a bowl and topped it with a bit of sour cream, a few diced avocados and some crisp tortilla chips. Very pretty! The soup was a little too spicy for me, even in it's milder form, but Jordan liked it well enough (no raves, lol). I also served a warm open-faced tuna sandwich. I took one can of tuna, drained it, then mixed it with 1/4 cup of mayonnaise and one cup of the mild salsa. You can add salt and pepper but I didn't think it needed it. I spread the tuna mix over a split section of baguette, put some sliced Manchego cheese on top and placed it under the broiler. The recipe said to try Pepper Jack cheese, but I didn't have that, so you use what you have. I topped the meal off with a Globe artichoke-easy to cook and tasty too!
Today, Tuesday, the morning was filled with PT, a teleconference call with one of the women that works for USC in the real estate department (who would have thought a university needed or even wanted a real estate dept?!) about the LAHI (Los Angeles Hospital Inventory) project USC is doing, and getting the oil changed in my car.
I had lunch with Janell (who was also at Big-O getting an oil change and new tires) at the Fifth Street Bakery (one 5th and Keystone). I had read about them some months ago and been wanting to try them. I had a Hot Pastrami sandwich with crispy hot fries and Janell had a Grilled Tuna sandwich with fries (here's were hot and crispy too, lol). The prices are all under $10 but it helped that I had a coupon from Living Social, the online site where they offer different discounts at different businesses everyday. Janell got a White Chocolate Macadamia Nut cookie to go and I bought a Caramel Apple Croissant. I haven't tried it yet, but I'll let you know how it tastes! All in the name of research, lol.
This afternoon will be more work on the hospital list. I haven't figured out dinner yet.....
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