dolce vita

Tonight's Menu:

Potato Soup with Bacon from the Rock Cafe's cookbook (sent to me today with the Splendid Table newsletter, which you should definitely sign up for).

Broccoli Blasted, as previously discussed, the best damn broccoli you ever did try.

Chicken Piccata with Caper Browned Butter Sauce

I was too hungry to take pictures. Everything came out exquisite. I made lots of extras because I need leftovers for lunch tomorrow and Friday. I'm already excited about eating all of this again.

A very successful meal to finish a truly fabulous day. I went fabric shopping with the amazing designer who is making my wedding dress, and we found everything we wanted and got fantastic deals. We celebrated by shoe shopping. Then I ran into Hatch to get some paper cut and ended up visiting there for almost an hour. I miss that place. When I finally got to work Emily had saved me a delicious sandwich from Sub Stop, and I worked on entering checks the rest of the day, which is always soothing and gratifying. And then home with my Boo for a feast and a roaring fire in the fireplace. This is the sweet life, we're fully aware.

Luddites Unite!

Okay, so I dropped off the daily blogging train right at the homestretch. I forgive myself. The combination of sick and busy does not lend itself to interesting self-reporting.

This mystery illness, which may or may not exist, has manifested itself thusly: tired all the time, but unable to sleep in all weekend or get to bed before midnight on a school night. Baffling lack of appetite, which is a sad reality on Emma Bake Sale Day. Occasional bouts of phlegmishness, coughing, sniffling, sneezing, then periods of total calm. And the inability to concentrate on anything for more than ten minutes. Even wedding talk.

Speaking of, pretty much as soon as everyone left the house on Friday (well, really when I woke up Saturday), I realized, we've got a wedding to plan. Thanksgiving was the last big thing in between. Now it's December and that means Goals to be Accomplished. Clayton sent us the engagement pictures he took when we visited his family in Colorado in October; I put some of the best up here. I'm so completely thrilled with these photos and amazed by Clayton's talent. Austin's going to use these shots for our Save the Date cards, which we'll mail this month. I've been keeping myself busy tracking down addresses and updating the guest list with the wedding tools on Martha Stewart Weddings. I always say, that Martha, she's crazy, but she keeps me organized.

I've got Thanksgiving photos to share too, but the engagement pictures maxed out my Flickr account for this month already and I'm having trouble figuring the damn thing out. I even tried to pay to upgrade to a Pro account and it appears to have timed out or failed somehow. Flickr seems to be the prevalent choice for photo sharing, and I like the ease of linking directly from iPhoto, but I don't understand why it keeps directing me to my (nonexistent) Yahoo inbox. Annoying. I'll figure this out tomorrow and share photos of the feasting from Friday.

my face is failing

Success = Thanksgiving. Hands down, the best Thanksgiving we've ever hosted. I got so much of the cooking done ahead of time, had a killer game plan in place for today, and never got frazzled or stressed in the kitchen. We had the house sparkling clean by 11 am (that's mostly credit to the Boo, he worked his butt off the last two days) and the cooking schedule was so well organized I even had time to watch an episode of 30 Rock in the middle of the afternoon. Complete master of my menu domain.

Fail = sudden onset of cold/sinus/mystery illness symptoms. As in, spent the entire meal blowing my nose every two minutes and sniffling. Where did this come from? I've been feeling a tad feeble the last four or five days, just some sore throat and tiredness, but this new development came up fast and hard, precisely as our guests started arriving. My face appears to be disassembling to a liquid state.

My point here is that I've got pics and menu details to share of today's big feast, but right now, Sudafed and I are going to bed. Goodnight, sweethearts.

listmaking falls firmly in the first category

Things I Do Well:

1. Baking/Cooking in general (I follow a recipe well, so that's something)
2. Menu Planning
3. Makeup application
4. Give directions
5. Tetris/pack a suitcase/load a dishwasher/rearrange a refrigerator (all uses the same skill set)
6. Keep score at baseball games and stats for roller derby
7. Spot a cat in any landscape (highly honed kitty radar)
8. Quickbooks
9. Hosting
10. Supervising

Things I Do Poorly:

1. Wait tables.
2. Batting, fielding, catching, throwing, sprinting, shooting, or any other sportsy action.
3. Make rice. This is my major failure area in the kitchen. It shouldn't be this hard.
4. Drink alcohol
5. Fix hair
6. Throw things away/part with things
7. Get over sadness (although I can get over anger admirably fast)
8. Resist Mischa when she wants to sleep on the bed with us
9. Sudoku
10. Coming up with Halloween costumes.

I AM KING PRAWN!!!

Well, I spent a quiet night at home mentally composing a post for tonight, a list of Things I Do Well vs Things I Am Terrible At. But this is preempted by my unbridled affection for the Muppets:

(yanked from my darling girl Kelley)



Sam the Eagle! Animal! Bunsen Honeydew! You have to hang all the way til 3:58 to see my girl Miss Piggy, but totally worth it. And truly, is there a character, both real or fiction, in all history, with whom I relate more directly than the Swedish Chef? No. There is simply no way.

P.S. When we were in Seattle I made great pains to see the Jim Henson exhibit at Experience Music Project. I rerouted an entire day's plans, and went by myself while everyone else went to a pub. Casey said, "I think you have a different relationship with the Muppets than the rest of us." So be it.

excited about...

...being married in six months. All the time, I have to prevent myself from calling Austin my husband. We recently renewed our Frist membership, and they mailed the cards addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Austin Gray. I hung the label on the fridge. I'm gonna be a Mrs. Hooray!

...Thanksgiving. It's technically my favorite holiday. Even if we never observe it on the traditional Thursday. For the last three or four years, we've had everyone over on the Friday instead, so everyone can spend the holiday with their family and still come over for vast feasting. I don't break from the norm too much: turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, you know the drill. Some new things I'm trying this year: thyme-roasted apples and onions, cranberry-vanilla bean sorbet, Maple Apple Pandowdy.

...tuna casserole on Wednesday night. Because these things make me happy. That's gotta be the best pre-feasting series of leftovers possible.

...my new Adidas slides. I've had an ancient pair for at least five years that I wear every day. All the nubs have worn off. This is one of the least glamorous truths about me. Off Broadway has that lovely program where every purchase you make, you get 10% of that purchase towards a future visit. I still had a big receipt left from my failure of self-control back in January, plus a tiny one that I found when I was cleaning out the office, so I am the proud owner of a new pair of pink and black Adissages for $5.38. New shoes. Five dollars. New shoes.

...four and a half day weekend. Can't come soon enough.

Partial Self-Portrait Vol. 2

Tonight, while merrily disassembling broiled crab legs with herb butter at our kitchen counter, Austin sprayed me with a particularly enthusiastic wrenching of his crustacean. Considering the possibility for payback, I said:

"Have we ever had a food fight?"

Austin, without missing a beat, responds, "Nope, but I don't think people really do that anyway. Only in Smirnoff Ice commercials."