Angela Law

animal lover, gardener, knitter, and gourmet cook
 

dinner with the parents

Today was our annual “Dinner with the Parents”. After two days of cooking, I’m finally getting a chance to sit down (incidentally, just in time for The Sopranos). I’m freaking beat, but it was worth it. Everyone seemed to have a good time (and, more importantly, enjoyed the food). We started off with some appetizers (sausage-stuffed mushrooms, peppered garlic confit with prosciutto on Italian bread, garlic-stuffed olives, pepperoncini, and soppressata). After this, I wasn’t even hungry, but I ate anyway. What are you to do? The main course was herb roasted cornish hens along with the sides of lemony asparagus-mushroom stir fry, sage risotto with fresh mozzarella and prosciutto, and a Moorish-style salad with cumin and smoked paprika. All of this was washed down with some Pinot Noir (from Pepperwood Grove and Brancott Vineyards) and Chardonnay (from Monkey Bay). The Chardonnay was particularly good. And, to think I almost didn’t buy it because it had a monkey on the label! Almost forgot…I made a white cake with Italian meringue icing for dessert. I have yet to have my dessert (maybe tomorrow for breakfast).

I went all-out for this dinner. It was definitely more work than when I cook for a holiday, but I only do this once a year so it’s kind of fun for me. Jake and Brian were gone all day yesterday, so it gave me a chance to hang out in the kitchen all day and work without interruption. In the past, I used to go all-out every time we entertained, but I usually ended up tired and irritable and that is no way to be when you are having guests. I have since learned to put forth a more balanced effort and this makes the rest of our entertaining more fun for me. But, this one time of the year, I like to show off my skills. And, I know our parents appreciate the effort, so who better an audience?

the talented mr. ripley

We watched this movie last night. It was the last of my Blockbuster Online movies. That was fun while it lasted. I’m definitely going to sign up again next winter.

Anyway, the movie was ok. Nothing spectacular. I don’t particularly care for Matt Damon or Jude Law, so that was two strikes against it. In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, we had a Margarita while watching the movie (limes are green, you know).

I would write more about it, but I have to go. Tomorrow, we’re having our annual “Dinner with the Parents”, so I have to go as I have much cleaning and even more cooking to do in preparation.

was that a bear?

On Monday night, I let Lizzy into Jake’s room at bed time. She kept looking out the window and growling. All I could see was a bag of trash laying in the neighbor’s driveway. It looked like maybe his trash can blew over and the garbage bag fell out and something got into it.

Last night, I was in the living room and saw an ambulance stop in front of our house. They were shining their light towards the houses on our street–we assumed they were searching for a house number. A little while later, the ambulance was back and a police car was sitting right in front of our house. Brian went out to see what was going on. It turns out that a bear has been wandering around our neighborhood lately. Last night, someone on Goucher Street hit it with their car, so now it was wandering around, injured. So, the authorities were searching for it.

Now I’m thinking that maybe the bear got into the neighbor’s garbage on Monday night and Lizzy isn’t as dumb as she looks.

We’ve had quite an array of wildlife on our street in the almost 10 years we’ve lived here–groundhogs, raccoons, deer, bear, and a ringneck pheasant. You’d think we lived in the woods or something. If only.

i came. i sewed. i conquered.

I finally took the plunge today and hemmed my shower curtain on my sewing machine. Brian’s mom came over yesterday and gave me some sewing pointers which enabled me to do the job. It turned out pretty good. Granted, it’s not the straightest hem ever to be hemmed, but it works. I mean, I won’t be hemming Brian’s pants anytime soon, but it’s a shower curtain for goodness sake.

Jake wants me to make him a shop apron. So, I guess I’ll have to go to JoAnn Fabrics at some point and see if I can find some plans for one. Also on my list–a runner for my sideboard (and maybe the mantel), napkins, placemats, and curtains (gasp). The curtains are a long way off because Brian needs to re-trim the windows first. And seeing that there’s already trim on the windows (albeit crappy trim) and not trim pretty much everywhere, he’s going to tackle the places that don’t have trim first. But, I found these cool curtains that I like and they look like they’d be pretty easy to make. So, someday I’ll make them. For now, they’re sitting in the project file.

house of 1000 freezers

We got the new freezer installed this evening. You wouldn’t think this would be worth blogging about, but that just means that you’re not as well-acquainted with Murphy as we are.

Before moving it into our utility room, we eyed it up. Things didn’t look good so Brian broke out the measuring tape and confirmed our suspicions–it was going to be a tight fit.

We took off the utility room door and then tried to squeeze the freezer through a number of times–each time removing something else. First went the hinges. Next the door stop. It would’ve fit at this point if not for the tube running down the back. I told Brian to tilt it up and this was enough to squeeze it through. Phew! Of course, it didn’t fit nicely in the spot where I wanted, so we had to swap places with the refrigerator. That seemed to do the trick. I fired it up so it’ll be ready for my frozen food tomorrow.

If anyone’s looking for a good, used chest freezer (around 5-7 cubic feet in size), let me know. Otherwise, it’ll be going in the Trader’s Guide next week.