Most of Friday was spent doing projects for Jordan. Coming up with a lunch menu for an Excell class (easier to use data everyone can relate to rather than finding some other data more common), calling hospitals in LA county to confirm their addresses and phone numbers for the LAHI project (which needs to be finished).
I did get some baking in-a new recipe for shortbread. This recipe is from Lorraine Pasquale of Simply Baking on the Cooking Channel. She uses part rice flour in her recipe in addition to all-purpose flour, butter, granulated sugar (some bakers use confectioner's or powdered sugar). The texture was flakey but the flavor was quite good. I still like Ina Garten's Shortbread cookie recipe!
I also did laundry and picked Jordan up at the airport (in the pouring rain-a rare occurrance for Reno!). He made it back in one piece, tired, but ok otherwise.
Today I made a mini-Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting for his birthday, which was Wednesday, but since he was out of town, we decided to wait on the birthday cake. It looks so cute! I used two four inch cake pans. I bought "Small Batch Baking" by Debby Maugans last year, but have just this year started using it. It really is amazing what you can make for just one or two people-and without making a huge dessert (with leftovers you feel obligated to eat!). I used it a time or two while in Hawaii, but will certainly be using it more. I like how she encourages you to use empty food cans for cakes and other baked goods, rather than going out and buying little pans (I just happen to love gadgets, so I already have small pans, lol). She has small batch recipes for cakes, cookies, pies, tarts, crisps, crumbles, breakfast sweet breads and special sweets for romantic occasions!
For lunch I reheated some Ribollita soup (with added Italian sausage in my case). I LOVE this soup recipe from Giada de Laurentis. It is so easy and uses mostly pantry items. You can make it strictly vegetarian or add meat to it. It's all good! Sprinkle a little grated Parmesan cheese over it, then serve with a salad or crusty bread-YUM!
The rest of the afternoon was filled with more phone calls to LA hospitals to confirm addresses and phone numbers. I am amazed at the numbers of people who don't know the address of the place they work. I guess you just drive to work or take the bus and you've done it so much you don't even think about it.
Ah Choo was most content to sleep next to me as I worked on the computer-see?
Dinner at Hobey's tonight. Corned Beef and Cabbage with a pint of Guinness. If you don't like to drink your Guinness, Nigella Lawson has a great chocolate cake recipe that uses Guinness. Either way, it works!
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