STARTED GOING THROUGH THE GARAGE

 I worked so much today. I have to make sure I mark down all the things I did today.  It was a hard day for my client.  

I didn't get to cook until 4pm. I did the first part of a recipe that has to sit in the fridge for 24 hours. Hopefully it will work out. 

I did get to take Lucky for a little walk. 

When I took the garbage out tonight, I decided to start moving things around that I want to get rid of. I am going to do a trash pick up in a few weeks to get rid of all sorts of items that I don't need or want anymore. I can't wait.  I have been waiting until I could move my foster kids boxes so I had room to do this sort of clean out. I get two pick ups a year for free.  I can't wait.

Until tomorrow...

DAY ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY-ONE OF COOKING COURSE

 I can't believe how busy my work has suddenly gotten.  This time last year I was watching TV all day and now I am working many hours a day.  It is good to be kept busy.

I did have time to make another step of the cannoli dessert. I made Wine Zuppeta. It is a flavorful red wine soup.  It will be part of the dessert.  It is a sweet red wine taste.

I took a 3,000 step walk today.  It was a sunny and not too hot day and Lucky was with the dog walker.

The other day I was in the garage and I found an old metal container. This container has all the Disney characters on it.  It looks like it contained Disney cookies at one time. Now it has a bunch of hair clips and scrunchies. I was so happy to find it. Now that my hair is long, I needed more hair clips and scrunchies.  It also contained a silver hair clip that I got as a little girl with my name on it.  It was special to find that.

Until tomorrow...

DAY ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY OF COOKING COURSE

 Once again I worked in the morning and then I took Lucky for a walk.  I read somewhere that instead of taking one long walk a day it is better to take two or three walks a day.  I don't know if it is true but today I walked twice with Lucky for a total of 3,200 steps or 1.42 miles.  

I started making the cannoli dessert but it was just step one. I made the dough for the cannoli.  I then planted my new herbs.  I have an indoor herb garden and I recently got some dill and cilantro. I planted them today.

Until tomorrow...

BOK CHOY AND BAKED TOFU STIR-FRY IN GINGER-CITRUS SAUCE

 I wanted to use up all my veggies this time from my veggie box. Sometimes the veggies go bad before I can use them but this time I made a challenge out of it.  I did it.  I only have some lettuce, a red pepper and a celeriac left.  The celeriac will be used in my next cooking chapter Italian cooking.

I made bok choy and baked tofu stir-fry in ginger-citrus sauce tonight.  It is so good. It even looks good.

I worked with my new client today. 

Yesterday, Sunny the bird was screaming for an hour. Birds, if you don't have one, will sometimes scream. They do it for various reasons. Sometimes they are bored, upset, hungry. Basically, they are like people.  Sunny usually screams when he is hungry, when there is too much sun hitting him and he has a feather that is annoying him. Because of his overgrown beak, he is sometimes unable to pull out his own feathers so I have to do it. When I heard him screaming I went over to see if he was annoyed by something. He didn't have any feathers annoying him and he was fed.  Then I saw that since his wings had not been clipped in a long time, he was getting his wings caught on things in his cage. He was very unhappy about this. I took him out and let him climb on me for a little bit (the dog was put away to avoid a disastrous result) and calm down. Once I got him calm, I put him back. 

Today I took him to the bird store and arranged that the sales person would come outside and get him and have his "pedicure and manicure" as I call it. Wings clipped, beak trimmed and nails clipped. She was so nice and I waited outside. He is so quiet now. He always is after his trim. He doesn't like it one bit but is happy after it gets done. 

The sales person said when I need bird food I don't need to get it shipped, that she would come outside and bring it to me just like today. She was very nice.

Until tomorrow...

VEGAN LEMONY POTATO SALAD

 I have been craving potato salad for days and this recipe sounded great.  I made it today and it tastes lemony delicious. I used one of the last ripe lemons on my lemon tree. Almost all green unripe lemons left.

Besides laundry and a long talk with a friend who lives in Oregon, that is all I did today. 

Until tomorrow...

END-OF-SUMMER VEGETABLE SOUP

 It looked like it was going to rain today but it never did.  Lucky and I took a walk late in the day when the sun started to peak through the clouds.

I made a lovely soup this afternoon.  It is a End-of-Summer Vegetable Soup made from green beans, zucchini, yellow squash, corn, cannelloni beans, and fresh dill.  It is a very light and refreshing soup.  

Until tomorrow...

SLEPT LATE, LATE TO A MEETING

 I woke up and was late to a zoom meeting because I forgot to set an alarm.  It wasn't a meeting meeting but a group meeting so it wasn't super important but something I wanted to attend.  I missed half of it. Oh, well.  What can you do?  

I spent part of the day doing things like paying bills, doing a little work, figuring something out, etc.  Then suddenly it is noon.  I took a walk and mailed the bills.  I dropped off the last coconut cookie to my neighbor. 

I made a super great sandwich for lunch. They call it a toastie in some countries. I call it delicious.

My groceries came at 7:30pm and I have food again. The food to do the next chapter in the cooking course.

Until tomorrow...

VEGAN VEGGIE CHEESY PASTA CASSEROLE

 It was a busy day of shopping. I bought my fruits and veggies and then regular food.  I ordered all my regular food and then the information would not go through. It was so frustrating. It took hours to finally go through. 

I had a phone call with a friend and we caught up.

I made a dish I call Vegan Veggie Cheesy Pasta Casserole.  It has many veggies and tofu mixed with pasta and cheese sauce.  It is super tasty.

Lucky and I took a walk and saw a neighbor. He said he loved the pastries I dropped by yesterday. He liked the coconut shortcrust cookies with the passion fruit ganache the best. 

Until tomorrow...

NO BAKING BUT AN AWESOME SALAD

 I had another busy day.  It is fun after so much time with fairly idle days. I had a doctor's appointment with my gut doctor.  It was a check in and it went well.  She wants to schedule my endoscopy and colonoscopy but I am hesitant until we get this Covid thing under control. If I was alone in the place I would go but the place is an open room with only curtains between patients. That does not make me feel comfortable. 

Last night I took my first injection of Orencia in six weeks.  I ceased taking Orencia because of the covid booster and never started taking it again because I wasn't sure it was working.  I tried to get another RA doctor but I was turned down by the doctor. I wanted to get on another RA medicine but to do that I would probably need to get another RA doctor.  I decided that since I don't have a new doctor I would try going back on Orencia and see if it works better this time.  

Last night I also started my new menopause meds.  I started estrogen and progesterone last night. I don't feel any different so let's hope it stays that way.

I had a last minute work zoom with a client that went really well.  I had to do some work for another client. 

I didn't have time to do any cooking or baking today between everything. I have a picture of a salad that I made a while ago.

Then I took a plate of the Baba Napoletano to my next door neighbor and a plate of cookies and baba to my neighbor and his son down the street.  It feels good to give my treats away. My neighbor suggested I start a pop-up.  I said I am thinking of selling baked goods in the future. He said he would be happy to be a customer. 

I only did a small walk with everything going on today.  I didn't even have time to wash my sink full of dishes from yesterday!

Until tomorrow...

DAY ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY-NINE OF COOKING COURSE

 Today was a big day of baking.  I finally made the Baba Napoletano that I was going to bake on Saturday but realized I was missing an ingredient. Now that I have the ingredient, today was the day.  Baba Napoletano is small little balls of pastry that are infused with a fruity, spicy sauce made with rum.  The Baba pastry has a long history that dates back to an exiled Polish king.  

The Baba au Rhum (baba in rum), which I made a few months ago, originated in the region of Lorraine in France in the 18th century. But it is not the French who invented this sweet cake, but the exiled Polish king Stanislaus I who resided in Lorraine.  The story goes that the baba au rhum may have been an adaptation of the traditional Polish and German Kugelhupf cake. Stanislaus' daughter Marie married French King Louis XV and her father's patissier came with her to the royal French court. He baked the baba au rhum for the court and for the French people when he opened a patisserie in Paris.

The Baba then went to the South of Italy when the French chefs cooked for families in Naples. That is where the Baba changed to the Baba Napoletano and being soaked in the fruity and alcohol sauce.

My Baba Napoletano taste amazing.  They are soft and soaked in the sauce.  I am happy with the way they turned out.  I plated them with some of the passion fruit ganache that I had leftover. 

This second picture shows how I soaked the babas.  

Lucky and I took a walk today. It was very sunny and quite hot so we didn't go far. 

I had a networking meeting and a foster meeting today.  Busy day.

Until tomorrow...