christmas of 2011, all prepped and ready
kids are out of school this week. we had a mad rush this past week to get the christmas shopping done and presents wrapped. kat was happy with her ribbons, pretty paper and such.
12 years ago, kat worked at the PTO in northern virginia during the day. she commuted by train/metro; two hours in each direction. all while finishing her last year of law school, evenings classes at UB. we had one car and one infant. I stayed home with the infant and served as driver for the mad dashes to catch the train etc. I had a lot of time between train station/school runs to cook, while the daughter napped (wich was not frequent enough). I made elaborate meals for the weekends and big pots of food to serve as her weekly packed lunches.
kat remembered the chocolate dome cake I used to make. she decided to attempt to make it herself. they often say that cooking is an art and baking is a science. kat loves science. she is the scientist, I am the artist.
the perfectionist understands that if the directions are followed exactly, the results should be predictable. but, without much real baking experience, some things that may be intuitive for one baker are not so to her. I'm always surprised when she finds unexpected challenges from the recipe that seem clear to me.
the perfectionist follows a recipe and directions differently than how I would work it. she works each item to completion before advancing to the next instruction. experience teaches you that the double boiler required for a future step, should be started ahead of time. the recipe often doesn't spell it out. a recipe that might normally take an hour to complete often requires longer in the perfectionist's kitchen. it was a slow weekend, we had the time. it was fun.
there were a few speed bumps. I carefully lobbied the kitchenaid mixer to be a better option than the her breakfast bowl and hand whisk whipped cream method, the freshly melted chocolate setting up all the while.
end result looks delicious. can't wait to bust into that dome!
I love chocolate!
we enlisted the help of the daughter. SUCCESS! installed the split windshield in the dodge a100 hotrod van ourself.
we met kat at cuatro's friday evening. they now have touch screen computers embedded into the tables.
we sampled what the waitress described as a "cucumber gin margarita". I realize it's not a margarita at all having no tequila, but it was tasty and I will be experimenting on making a better (no high fructose corn syrup) version at home. stay tuned thirsty reader.
texas grown rio star ruby red gf! I hear the local HEB has 18lb bags on sale for $4.98! well known to annihilate cold and flu bugs, I'm heading to pick up a bag(s) soon as I hit this here publish buton.
this is my GF squisher (GF=grapefruit, not girlfriend) we get half a pint from each GF.
took the kids to Afin for the all day sunday happy hour. $2 kirin draft beer and half price sushi! sunday-funday just became cheap eats sushi good times day.
daughter performed with the hill country middle school orchestra.
the westlake performing arts center is a great venue.
rachel horwitz does a great job with these young musicians.
warm weather (high of 61) this weekend afforded us a leisurely stroll and shopping trip down south congress/soco. marvin wore his holiday best. he also graced the barton creek farmer's market with his canine charisma.
