11.16.2008

Domestic Weekend

Drank FAR too much on Friday night, went to bed at 4am, woke up at 7:30am to take Vivian for her 50k service and got back home by 8:15 unable to sleep. So, I spent the next three hours cleaning the apartment while Sebastian slept - tidied our wedding stuff, cleaned the kitchen and bathroom, dusted, vacuumed, started organizing my new recipes. You know, the usual Saturday morning. After all the cleaning, Sebastian woke up and we made "breakfast" somewhere around noon. Ah, the sweet glory of a little bit of grease and a little bit of coffee:


Cooked up a 3 egg white omelet with sauteed onions and fresh rosemary. Add to that wo pieces of bacon and a cappucino and I was set.

Continued my domesticity on Sunday. After being out late drinking again (I know, insanity!), woke up around 11am and went for one of the best runs I've had in a long time. 7.5 miles at a 8:50 pace, give or take. I would have kept going, but I was on a treadmill and figured I shouldn't burn myself out. Had some oatmeal when I got home and then an apple and some cheese before braving the terrors of a supermarket on a Sunday afternoon. It was rather horrifying, but, aside from realizing after I'd gotten home that my checkout girl had neglected to include all of my purchases in my cart (really? is that too much to ask? this has happened BOTH times I've shopped at that grocery store), it was a pretty successful trip. As the Steelers battled the Chargers, with no help from the officials, and Ted and Sebastian screamed at the TV, I spent some quality time in the kitchen. Over the next 5 hours, I made the following:

Turkey Chili (1 batch from Cook's Illustrated):


I realize the photo doesn't make it look very exciting, but I forgot to photograph it while it was in the Le Crueset dutch oven. This will be eaten over Thanksgiving weekend when our family is here.

Next up, candied orange peels, recipe from Whole Foods. I made 1/2 a batch b/c I didn't have enough sugar for a full batch. Used three large oranges:



Close up:



Then I made fudge with chopped walnuts from a recipe in my Recipe Keeper from Mom (This was 1 recipe batch):



THEN, I made banana walnut muffins (2 boxes of Betty Crocker boxed muffin mix):



That made 2 dozen muffins and I added the walnuts on top on a whim.

Last, but not least, I began the process of making sugared cranberries. They are currently sitting in their cinnamon/clove syrup in the fridge and will come out tomorrow for their sugaring. This was 1 batch and I used 1 full bag of cranberries from a recipe at Whole Foods:



One more:



Both the cranberries and orange peels produce flavored simple syrups and I can't wait to use those in some holiday cocktails!!

And a couple of cool shots:





Next up will be corn kernel cornbread and some lemon poppyseed muffins, to be made Monday and Tuesday night of next week. Then I think I'll be all set except for the main event: Thanksgiving dinner. I have the menu planned so I'll do my shopping on Monday of next week and then the prep work will happen on Tuesday and I can set the table Wednesday to be ready for Thursday. Fingers crossed!