Next up

Well, the Won Ton of Deliciousness tanked bigtime. My first mistake was - according to Shannon - buying won ton skin from Kroger, and in retrospect - DUH. Mr. Gillian and I are headed to the Farmer’s Market in Dekalb tomorrow, and maybe I can sneak in a quick trip to Buford Highway and some pho or amazing tofu.

Speaking of Shannon, a side note: Shannon has basically saved my sanity since I found out that my father had passed away. She fed me tofu that day, listens to my weeping, hung out with me on Buford Highway, took me to a shi-shi Asian Bakery, and you kids owe her your thanks. I would have gotten through it, true, but she made it so much bearable.

I need to shake down, er, ask nicely for some recipes from Aunt Dolly. Kristina - George’s wife - has told me Dolly cooks! And Uncle George referred to himself as a Hobo Cook which still makes me giggle. He sounds so much like Daddy when he says that.

I have the ingredients for key lime pie. That was Daddy’s favorite. And I think I will tackle chicken adobo this weekend. My cooking has taken a real dive - I have had more misses than hits. It’s frustrating, albeit understandable.

That said, I need a win, Coach. I am off today through next Tuesday. I have a new camera. I think I can get this back in gear.

And lastly, I’d like to thank Steven, my boss and Mary, both of whom have been great. I am so grateful that I work where I do. They’ve been funny and understanding and compassionate. How often do you get that from your co-workers? Speaking as someone who temped forEVER?

Rarely. I am one lucky girl.

As you know

I have been mad wicked busy. Also, I went to see my endocrinologist and got good news: I’ve lost weight! The downside of that is: I need to start monitoring myself more closely and carefully.

As much as I’d like to think I am smart enough and clever enough to post at least once a week, the truth of the matter is I’ve just spent 3o minutes trying to break into this account and the email account I set up for this account. Hmmm…. there HAS to be a better way to remember passwords. The Grand Poobah has been kind enough to grant permission to bring The Laptop of All Secrets to work, but sadly the current job is more fiddly than I am comfortable with.

Anyway, I am still committed to posting. I have ground pork and won ton skins thawing in my fridge even as I write this!

The biggest obstacle are the pictures. The cellphone takes adequate pictures, but then I have to manually transfer each one to the memory card then move it to the laptop, which in no way describes the many steps. Then I have to edit the picture, upload it then futz with picture in a graphics program. Then upload to WordPress… yada yada yada, blah, blah, blah.

You get the drift. I need to step back and get more organized. I actually have more recipes, more pictures, I just don’t have a decent methodology yet!

I can tell you, though, the Fabled Won Ton of Deliciousness is up next.

love,

mom

How Tos: Pizza

Let’s face it. Pizza ain’t hard. I started yesterday with making the pizza dough. I used Jay’s Signature Pizza Crust from Allrecipes.com. Because I’m running out of flour (surprise), I used a cup of whole wheat flour.

Yowsa. This is an excellent dough. It rose well, and if I had chosen a bigger pan it probably would have been even better.

I pulled it out today, and brought it back to room temperature in the cast iron skillet. When it finally came up to room temperature, I drizzled the whole thing with olive oil, then pre-baked it 450 for 7 minutes.

I slathered on sauce, toppings but no cheese. Here’s a picture of the crust with the toppings.

Baked for 12 minutes, then I topped it with the cheesy goodness. Ten more minutes, and life is good.

How Tos: Sweet Sushi part I

The sweet sushi was a no-brainer, so of course it nearly defeated me. I made a half batch of the rice crispy treats, and they were simple enough. Mr. Gillian #2 tasted the rice crispy doo-dads before I started messing with them, and pronounced them “yummy”.

HA!

But then I then started (struggling with) melting the stupid white chocolate and regular chocolate and trashed the kitchen and burnt my fingers trying to neatly dip the bases and got tired of waiting for the fuckers to set up and I swear to God, it was that stupid astronaut uniform for Tony’s Cabbage Patch Kid all. Over. Again. *

Overall, I am relatively satisfied with the final results. However, I got so stressed out I ate too much Hagan Daz Rocky Road Ice Cream and wasted spent time yelling at the Chargers for winning. That’s right, winning. If you are a Chargers fan, you understand. If not, well, sucks to be me. Stupid football. Why must you taunt me so?

As you can see from the picture, though, they look good. The ones pictured and the ones I ignored in my frustration are headed off to FP tomorrow. That’s right, I’m foisting them off on my unsuspecting co-workers. Suckers.

I feel like I should try this again, though, because if I were brave, I’d give you the link to the ones that inspired mine. Oh, what the hell, here you go. Go look. My ego can take it. Back? Had a good giggle? Be that way. See if I care! (okay, I do, but whatever)

*In 1986 Tony wanted an Astronaut Cabbage Patch Kid and I couldn’t find one. In my naiveté, I decided to make the uniform for him. And it was the hardest damn thing I’ve ever made! My old sewing machine - hell, all sewing machines - hate lame. I even quilted the helmet. He loved it, but oh, my Lord, it was a nightmare.