Saturday morning chores

Laundry, having a mate round for Saturday drinks, mixing cocktails, making my bed, and cooking dinner. Oh, and the football season starts today.

I have a cocktail party to go to tonight

Homodepot was having a big sale on plants so I picked up a few for the side yard. I'll be a busy boy working outside all day, one of my favorite things to do.

That is a BIG dog! Ours weighs around 40-45 lbs. and I can tell you it's a real 'adventure' when I'm walking him and he spies a squirrel!!!

I always find the best cocktails are "champagne" cocktails, but I do have a fondness for eau de vie, especially strawberry.

Hah! Even my 30 lb. dog pulls like crazy when she sees a rabbit (we don't have squirrels at the moment - thank gawd).

Chores for today: I am doing laundry as we speak, going to the gym in 15 min and maybe later on I'll head out to home depot to check out if they have plants on sale here too! Then I'll chauffeur the kid to whatever places she need to go. I should be ironing as well *sigh* ....

I did laundry as well, finished all my chores, even took an hour nap. I’m ready for Saturday night, and if the boy stands me up again tonight he’s history.

cooking - making roasted cherry mustard soy chicken legs to package and freeze for future dinners. I've tried the recipe before, a month or so ago, and it turned out to be the best chicken I've eaten in a long time.

While that's going on, I'm making myself my tried and true spaghetti with a garlic/anchovy/olive oil/butter/rosemary/chile pepper/black pepper/clam sauce, via Craig Claiborne.

May do some photo scans..... not of the food, other stuff.

jcboy, that's right, don't let them treat you like a door mat - if he doesn't know your worth, it's not worthwhile for you.
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osso, that sounds so delicious, especially the spaghetti sauce.
I tried a new cake today, more like a custard cake with oats and apricot preserves. With a first try, you never know how it will turn out - I'll refine it a bit the next time, but it still was quite good.

Count me interested in a custard cake..

of course I agree for jc.

Here is the recipe


Set oven to 350 degrees . Butter a 10 inch cast iron pan or casserole
1 stick softened unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
5 eggs
2 cups cream of wheat (semolina)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 pint heavy whipping cream

Beat butter and sugar together until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating between each. Add vanilla, cream of wheat and cream. Beat until fully blended. Pour batter into buttered cast iron pan. Place on middle rack in 350 degree oven for 50 minutes . Top should be nicely browned, middle may be a touch soft still.

*Make the apricot sauce while the pudding cake is baking.

Apricot Sauce
1 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups water
1 cup apricot preserves
2 TBS grand Marnier ( or Cointreau or similar orange liquor)

Put all ingredients into a saucepan. Bring to a boil then take immediately down to a simmer for about 25 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Remove cake from oven, using a wooden spoon poke many holes over the surface of entire cake. Pour the apricot sauce over the cake. Let cake come to room temperature. Serve at room temp or just slightly warm.

Uh oh. That sounds like something I will just love.

I am sure you will, osso - I just had another piece, the longer it stands the
better it gets. I guess because the wheat of cream soaks up the apricot sauce
better, it becomes so moist and good...... it's worth the extra workout I have
to put in tomorrow morning

Hate them. On this Saturday I played all day and have been watching awful TV this evening

I suppose I should ask about fence posts.
Are they not in concrete, jc?

There is concrete on the base of the posts but the ground here is all sand. I put in two new posts yesterday and it seems to be pretty strong now. If that doesn’t work I may have to put Frankie on a diet lol.

I just can't get my head round the fact you call semolina 'wheat of cream.' It keeps conjuring up really wierd images, and I have to go back to remind myself what it is. Jamie Oliver uses about 1/5 semolina to 4/5 flour in his pizza dough recipes.

I make a bunch of italian rustic breads, and one of them, Pane Tipo Altamura, uses only semolina flour.. delicious.

Whenever I bake bread I always add the juice of a lemon per large loaf.

wow, good stuff here, we should have moved it to the cooking threads...

sorry jcboy, but sometimes we all get carried away and the conversations always stir towards comfort food - just like in real life: if you have a party in your house and everyone ends up in the kitchen - you know it is a good party!!