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On my way into the office today (yes, it is my off-Friday) I stopped by Valley Fair to return some pants I bought from BR which, when I tried them on looked like I had sacks on my legs. Go in, return the pants, walk out, that was my intention. But for those of you who know me well, you can guess what happened.

I decided to wander around to hopefully finish off my Christmas shopping list and that’s when something disconcerting happened. As I was walking, all these people manning those kiosks would suddenly get in front of me and try to push something for “my special lady.” I’m all like WTF and after the 3rd time it happened I realized I was carrying around a bright pink Juicy Couture bag. Heh, if only they knew what was inside it…

I originally allocated 1 hour for this whole endeavor, but yeah…that didn’t happen. But I did manage to escape without buying anything for myself which is almost miraculous. Though I came really close at the True Religion store and at Guess and I’ll probably stop by tomorrow to pick up something Jan showed me for my mom.

Let’s hope my resolve is as good tomorrow…

The ticking of the cuckoo clock is the only sound in the room. The smell of braising short ribs is cut by the scent of vanilla wafting from my teacup. The sky is grey, the lights are one and I am feeling at peace. As I mentioned in my previous post, this is the first weekend in a very long time where I really have no excuse to leave the house and I am enjoying every minute of it. Though I did leave the house earlier today to pick up some food supplies at Whole Foods in Los Gatos, but that doesn’t count

My life really only has two speeds: idleness and craziness. Either everything is moving forward like an urbanite on the streets of Manhattan or slows down to the idyllic life I imagine exists in the French countryside. There is no in between with me and frankly, that’s the way I like it. I like to keep myself busy (who doesn’t?) but every once in a while, a weekend filled with nothing but tea, scones, quiet and a few good books refreshes me. Too many of those and I start to get antsy and agitated, but more often the opposite is the norm. Which is ok as I am comforted by feeling satisfied with my life.

I spent some time this morning to look through my various recipe storage devices to think about what I want to make this weekend. I had come up with this: Hamilton Squash from Jamie Oliver’s Happy Days with the Naked Chef, Braised Short Ribs with Red Wine Sauce by Traci Des Jardins, Apricot and Walnut Vareniki from Deb @ Smitten Kitten and Mini-Scones à la Carotte et au Romarin (or simply Carrot and Rosemary Mini-Scones) from Clotilde @ Chocolate and Zucchini. The meat and vegetable dish would be dinner while the dessert and breakfast item would be saved for tomorrow. Great plan, eh?

Except that I’m an idiot and realized after the short ribs had been in the oven for 30 minutes that the Squash dish required roasting at a higher temperature. Bah! Also, I can’t seem to find any light whipping cream (though finding chickpea flour was a cinch) anywhere. Man, I wish I had a double oven

Maybe I’ll take pictures of the finished products. Or maybe you’ll just have to use your imagination (or come over tonight for dinner–there will be plenty.)

What’s left for the day? My tea, of course. Maybe a Greek play (Sophocles? Euripides? Aeschylus?) or some English lit (George Elliot). Maybe I’ll go contemporary or just forgo the book for mindless TV. Regardless of what I choose, my batteries will be refreshing themselves and peace will fill my soul…

For the first time in seemingly forever, my calendar for this weekend is completely free. No dinner parties to plan, no wine tastings to host, no teenagers to babysit, no meetings to attend, no evening plans, early morning hikes, nothing. You know what this means, right?

Exactly.

It’s time to test some new recipes. I’ll spend a few hours tonight or Friday pouring through my cookbooks and binders and del.icio.us bookmarks and pull a few candidates to try over the course of the weekend. My goals are one dessert, one breakfast food, one hearty main dish and one side dish. If all goes well, I’ll be in leftover heaven for the next week.

It’s been a long, LONG time since I’ve made anything new from a recipe. Sure, the dinner party I held two weeks ago featured a beet salad and lamb shank main course which I never made before. But I chose those on the basis of what I had at home or would receive from my CSA delivery (which sadly, will end next week). I’m hoping to choose a recipe on the pure basis of “damn that looks good” and then try to find all the ingredients for it. I’ll try to document the process and results as well as I can (if I remember).

Ahh, an empty weekend to do nothing but relax, cook, bake and eat. Life is good.

It’s November and I just spent the day quite warm and toasty in a t-shirt and jeans. Where’s my sweater weather???

Those of you who’ve spoken to me over the past six weeks or so know that lately work has been marked with periods of extreme boredom with the hours passing at a snails pace at times. But over the past two weeks, the days have passed fairly quickly with lunch time and quitting time sort of sneaking up on me. Why is this you ask?

NPR

I know that I’m late to the game, but I’ve only just recently discovered NPR podcasts on iTunes. My sister has been an NPR fan for a long time, finding it the preferred station on her Sirius satellite radio for her commutes. I’ve never been a fan of talk radio, preferring to listen to music during those hours I waste stuck on 101, navigating the 87/280 interchange and the rest of the nasty Bay Area commute. Before I dived into the world of XM Satellite Radio, I was always station surfing trying to find a station with music. Car => Music. Simple.

My sister’s iPod completely changed that paradigm.

So when my sister and I were both in NY, I was playing around with her new iPod Nano and I saw an episode of “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me”. So I put it on and was throughly entertained for the next 40 some-odd minutes. I had no idea that they had podcasts, so when I came back to California I logged onto iTunes and boom, there it was, hours and hours of public radio nirvana. Digging around a little, I found podcasts from American Public Media and soon I found myself subscribed to 12 podcasts with no end in sight. From Fresh Air, to Day-to-Day to
The Splendid Table to Car Talk and the aforementioned Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me, I have an endless repository of humor, current events, arts & entertainment, religion and of course, food talk.

Oh Public Radio, where have you been all my life?