It's been a quiet weekend, just me and the cat. Saturday I had breakfast at Arlington Gardens with some of the usual suspects, as Kasia would say. They changed their menu a bit, but nothing too exotic. After breakfast I was off to find paper and ribbon for the Spiced Pumpkin Breads I am making for SCOR marketing. 40 loaves by Thursday! Better get busy, although my loaf pans have yet to arrive from King Arthur Flour. They should be here Monday.
I did make some Apricot Chews Saturday afternoon. They have diced dried apricots and coconut for flavoring. And they are moist and chewy. Otherwise I worked on recipes, etc. and did some reading.
Sunday (today), I finished what I could of the LAHI project. I'll have Jordan look at it then send it off to Ms Nyugen to see what she can add. I am done, at least in part, for now with that project. I baked some Pistachio and Dark Chocolate Toiles (a cross between a cookie and toffee) this afternoon. I am thinking of giving this as a Christmas gift, but needed to see how the recipe worked. The Toiles turned put to be quite tasty and I was amazed at how much flavor the pistachios added to the cookie. I think I chopped the dark chocolate a little too fine, so next time I will leave it in bigger chunks. All in all, a success, and an easy recipe.
I wrote an article for the examiner.com about Mark Estee's new restaurant, Campo. The grand opening is Wednesday, the 17th from 6pm to 9pm. There is an earlier press party from 4-6pm that I have been invited to attend and I will be going. It's free to the press, so I guess it's nice to get some perks, however small! Should be interesting. You otherwise have to have tickets to attend, which cost $20 and includes wine and beer and small bites. The proceeds are going to two charities, which is nice of Estee. Hope they get a good turnout.
Jordan didn't get home until almost 8pm! He was bumped off his United flight because it was overbooked. So he ended up buying a new ticket on Southwest. He says that's what he gets for letting other people buy his ticket.
Well, tomorrow is another day, with new adventures of it's own. But now, bedtime....
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Friday, November 11, 2011
Friday, November 11, 2011
Happy Veteran's Day with a salute to all those men and women who have given their time and effort to make sure we have continued freedom!
Did you ever notice that when you want to sleep in a little later that that will be the time you wake up early? That's what happened this morning. At least the cat seemed happy I was up as he had his first breakfast, then second breakfast in about an hour (sounds like a hobbit!).
Janell and I ran errands in the morning, had lunch at BJ's Brewery, ran a couple more errands and then came home. I have not been spending much time in store the last 6-9 months, unless you count grocery stores! Everyone has Christmas decorations up and I even heard a few Christmas songs! Janell told me about a cartoon she saw of a Thanksgiving turkey and Santa Claus. The turkey says to Santa-"back off fat boy , this is MY holiday!". Seems like a good attitude to have, lol. So many things are commercialized, my oh my.
I spent the afternoon finishing up my first go round with the LAHI list. Now I just need to add the hospitals from the EMS list that were not on the OSHPD list. It all gets very complicated.
I talked with Jordan. The faculty meeting went on all day! And tomorrow he was invited to attend the USC Homecoming game so that's what he'll be doing tomorrow. Me, I feel the need to bake and try a new recipe. But that's tomorrow and now it's bedtime...
Did you ever notice that when you want to sleep in a little later that that will be the time you wake up early? That's what happened this morning. At least the cat seemed happy I was up as he had his first breakfast, then second breakfast in about an hour (sounds like a hobbit!).
Janell and I ran errands in the morning, had lunch at BJ's Brewery, ran a couple more errands and then came home. I have not been spending much time in store the last 6-9 months, unless you count grocery stores! Everyone has Christmas decorations up and I even heard a few Christmas songs! Janell told me about a cartoon she saw of a Thanksgiving turkey and Santa Claus. The turkey says to Santa-"back off fat boy , this is MY holiday!". Seems like a good attitude to have, lol. So many things are commercialized, my oh my.
I spent the afternoon finishing up my first go round with the LAHI list. Now I just need to add the hospitals from the EMS list that were not on the OSHPD list. It all gets very complicated.
I talked with Jordan. The faculty meeting went on all day! And tomorrow he was invited to attend the USC Homecoming game so that's what he'll be doing tomorrow. Me, I feel the need to bake and try a new recipe. But that's tomorrow and now it's bedtime...
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Thursday, November 10, 2011
I had a dental appointment this morning. Now that I've had a partial knee replacement, I have to be premeditated with antibiotics before all dental procedures or anything they consider "invasive". Just four pills one hour before the procedure.
Once that was done, I did some grocery shopping at Trader Joe's although Jordan left for LA tonight for the biannual USC staff meeting so we didn't need much. He'll be back Sunday.
I also stopped by Hillbilly Hot Dogs. She owed me some money and wanted me to pick it up. She's had a harder time selling the Oatmeal Raisin cookies so if she needs some next week, I'll go back to making chocolate chip cookies. The public is fickle!
Most of the rest of the day was working on the LAHI project, no cooking, although I picked up a mini boule and used it for a bowl for Chicken Corn Chowder. Yum! I did make a loaf of no knead bread though. Love that stuff, it's just like artisan bread and so easy!
More work on the LAHI project tomorrow. It needs to be done by the first week in December. I think I will make cookies though.....
Once that was done, I did some grocery shopping at Trader Joe's although Jordan left for LA tonight for the biannual USC staff meeting so we didn't need much. He'll be back Sunday.
I also stopped by Hillbilly Hot Dogs. She owed me some money and wanted me to pick it up. She's had a harder time selling the Oatmeal Raisin cookies so if she needs some next week, I'll go back to making chocolate chip cookies. The public is fickle!
Most of the rest of the day was working on the LAHI project, no cooking, although I picked up a mini boule and used it for a bowl for Chicken Corn Chowder. Yum! I did make a loaf of no knead bread though. Love that stuff, it's just like artisan bread and so easy!
More work on the LAHI project tomorrow. It needs to be done by the first week in December. I think I will make cookies though.....
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
I was up at 4am this morning so I could be in Dayton by 6am. Wellness clinic at the Smith's on Hwy 50. I was a little late because it was further out than I remembered. Oh, well. The clinic ran over an hour-people kept coming and Robin (the lead) kept saying yes. More money for the both of us! I was home by about 2pm.
Spent the afternoon on various business calls, etc, then on to the LAHI list. I made it through Kaiser (not much info on the web about the individual Kaisers, just the Foundation in general.
Jordan taught til 8pm so I finished off some left overs (stuffed turkey breast, made new mashed potatoes, a salad and used the two leftover globe artichokes as a side). I am a tired puppy, so I am going to bed early. Tomorrow is another day!
Spent the afternoon on various business calls, etc, then on to the LAHI list. I made it through Kaiser (not much info on the web about the individual Kaisers, just the Foundation in general.
Jordan taught til 8pm so I finished off some left overs (stuffed turkey breast, made new mashed potatoes, a salad and used the two leftover globe artichokes as a side). I am a tired puppy, so I am going to bed early. Tomorrow is another day!
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
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.....
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.....
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Sunday, November 6, 2011
It was kinda cold this weekend so it was a good time to bake. I made Spiced Pumpkin Bread as a part of my marketing trials. I got this recipe from Michael's mother years ago and it is still good!
Spiced Pumpkin Bread
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/3 cup water
1tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour (you could use all all-purpose flour also)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
Method
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan and set aside.
Beat together the sugar and vegetable oil until well blended. Add in the eggs, pumpkin and water and beat again. Mix together all the dry
ingredients, then add to the pumpkin mixture. Mix only until ingredients are thoroughly mixed. Pour the pumpkin mixture into the prepared loaf pan and bake for about one hour or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the loaf pan comes out clean. Cool for 30 minutes in the loaf pan. After running a knife along the edges, turn the pumpkin bread out of the pan and continue to cool on a wire rack. Do not cut until it has cooled completely.
I made three smaller loaves to see how many this recipe would make. It helps me figure out how much to charge for each loaf. I used paper baking pans from King Arthur Flour and I must say, they are great to use. They look nice (dark brown with a gold pattern on them) and stand up well to baking. They also help with the packaging as well. I am offering two types of wrap and SCOR can chose which one they want. One is wrapped like a present in waxed paper with a thin ribbon wrapped twice around the long way. The other is wrapped in cellophane with a four inch wide piece of pretty tissue paper around it's middle and a ribbon around that (ala Martha Stewart. Say what you will, the woman has some great ideas! Either her or the people around her.). I'll make Pumpkin Whoopie Pies Monday to add to the offerings and let Anne chose which one she would like. Apparently Whoopie Pies are the new cupcakes according to some people!
Whoopie Pies originated in New England and are historically chocolate cake-like cookies filled with a vanilla cream filling. Some also say they originated in Pennsylvania from the Pennsylvania Dutch folks. The women would sometimes make these as a treat for their husbands and pack them in their lunch bags. When the husbands saw these treats, they said "Whoopie!". The people in Pennsylvania, however, call their Whoopie Pies, "Gobs". Don't know where that name came from!
Once Jordan finished teaching this morning, we went to brunch at the El Dorado. Nice buffet and Jordan's favorite. We stopped by the grocery store on the way home, but I forgot to buy more pumpkin so couldn't work on the Pumpkin Whoopie Pies. And with the time change, it's bedtime early tonight, lol.
Spiced Pumpkin Bread
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/3 cup water
1tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour (you could use all all-purpose flour also)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
Method
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan and set aside.
Beat together the sugar and vegetable oil until well blended. Add in the eggs, pumpkin and water and beat again. Mix together all the dry
ingredients, then add to the pumpkin mixture. Mix only until ingredients are thoroughly mixed. Pour the pumpkin mixture into the prepared loaf pan and bake for about one hour or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the loaf pan comes out clean. Cool for 30 minutes in the loaf pan. After running a knife along the edges, turn the pumpkin bread out of the pan and continue to cool on a wire rack. Do not cut until it has cooled completely.
I made three smaller loaves to see how many this recipe would make. It helps me figure out how much to charge for each loaf. I used paper baking pans from King Arthur Flour and I must say, they are great to use. They look nice (dark brown with a gold pattern on them) and stand up well to baking. They also help with the packaging as well. I am offering two types of wrap and SCOR can chose which one they want. One is wrapped like a present in waxed paper with a thin ribbon wrapped twice around the long way. The other is wrapped in cellophane with a four inch wide piece of pretty tissue paper around it's middle and a ribbon around that (ala Martha Stewart. Say what you will, the woman has some great ideas! Either her or the people around her.). I'll make Pumpkin Whoopie Pies Monday to add to the offerings and let Anne chose which one she would like. Apparently Whoopie Pies are the new cupcakes according to some people!
Whoopie Pies originated in New England and are historically chocolate cake-like cookies filled with a vanilla cream filling. Some also say they originated in Pennsylvania from the Pennsylvania Dutch folks. The women would sometimes make these as a treat for their husbands and pack them in their lunch bags. When the husbands saw these treats, they said "Whoopie!". The people in Pennsylvania, however, call their Whoopie Pies, "Gobs". Don't know where that name came from!
Once Jordan finished teaching this morning, we went to brunch at the El Dorado. Nice buffet and Jordan's favorite. We stopped by the grocery store on the way home, but I forgot to buy more pumpkin so couldn't work on the Pumpkin Whoopie Pies. And with the time change, it's bedtime early tonight, lol.
Friday, November 4, 2011
Friday, November 4, 2011
I spent the day at Walmart at their flu shot clinic. A long day, mainly because from 9am to 1:30pm, I had no patients! I gave my fist flu vaccine at 1:30. Bummer... I did end up giving 17 flu shots. Otherwise I spent the day reading, people watching and checking emails. Not too exciting, although I took Martha Stewart's Everyday Food with me and got some good cooking ideas. It even inspired me to buy some salsa so I could try a couple recipes. I'll let you know how they turn out.
Not much else to report other than I am going to Maui December 8-23 for a private chef gig. How exciting!!
Not much else to report other than I am going to Maui December 8-23 for a private chef gig. How exciting!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)