ilovebuckykatt

This past week, I put in my resignation at my job.  It was a big step for me, but an important one to take.  I have discovered that I don't function well at the big company, and I was burning myself out at an alarming rate.

So, after the 30th of May, I will officially be unemployed.  I have lots of plans for my time off, and maybe I'll even eventually blog about some of them.  I'm wanting take on some remodeling projects around our house.  I need to clean up our ivy-infested back yard.  I'm really having fun digging into web development.  I need to go through our old vacation stuff and turn it into something other than a pile of crap in a box.  The list could go on and on.

Most of you that know me know that I'm not much of a sharer.  I may have a few public posts here and there, but most of them will likely be locked down to friends-only.  (So ... if you really care, make yourself an ID and be my friend)

We finished our Grand Canyon rim to river hike this past Saturday.  We went down the South Kaibab trail (~6.7 miles) and up the Bright Angel trail (~9.4 miles).  After hiking down on the first day, we spent the next day at the bottom of the canyon, and then spent the last two days hiking out.  While we weren't those hard-core people who went down and back in one day, I'm still very proud to have completed the hike.  It was tough, but incredibly beautiful, and I'm definitely looking forward to our next backpacking adventure.

*S* bought very nice pasta recently, so I've made tomato sauce to go with it (canned tomatoes, fresh garlic and onion, red wine, a little bit of chicken broth, dried basil and oregano [b/c that's all i had]... oh and salt and pepper). Topped with stravecchio cheese. In addition to pasta, had greens tossed in balsamic vinaigrette and topped with chopped prosciutto. Also had one cut up peach.



(i babelfished my subject line from english "impostor chef makes tomato sauce" to italian b/c i thought it was cute, but when i babelfished the italian back the other way it no longer made sense )

got my cholesterol checked for the first time ever this past week ... despite a somewhat sedentary lifestyle (i blame the office job!) and love of (and indulgence in) such bad-for-me things as bourbon, wine, cheese, creamy soups, and creme brulee, my cholesterol is pretty decent.

to celebrate, i made breakfast ... heh ...

made little cups (sorta) out of proscuitto (greased muffin tin, stuck prosciutto in and baked till crisp) ... poached eggs ... discovered fancy prosciutto cups were too small to hold poached eggs ... laid flat fancy prosciutto cups and stuck poached egg artfully on top ... topped with hollandaise.
also made hoe cakes ... they're these kinda cornbread fritter things ... *S*'s parents got the mix for us when they visited savannah, GA ... did i mention that these are more or less deep fried?
anyhow, i was so proud of my poaching job, that i had *S* take one picture without the sauce and one with.

so ...

found the serrano ham that i couldn't find last week for the malaga scallops.
(they're very nice about letting you try the different meats and stuff at central market - one lady gave us a slice of some kind of salami to try just b/c we were watching her cutting it)
had some leftover cornbread dressing.
at central market found nice looking dulce peppers (mild like bell peppers, but sweeter and very meaty - interesting flavor).
had leftover greens as well and one chicken breast in the freezer.
always have more cheese in the refrigerator than i know what to do with.

dinner became:
(1) chicken roulades (chicken breast pounded flat, layered with fontina cheese and serrano ham, rolled, seasoned with salt and pepper, browned on all sides in a pan, chucking in the oven for a few mins to finish cooking, then cut into fancy little slices)
(2) stuffed dulce peppers (dulce pepper sliced in half, stuffed with leftover cornbread dressing mixed with a little fontina cheese and eggwhite for a binder, shoved in the oven till set and then topped with leftover compound butter [butter, roasted jalapeno, lemon juice, smoked salt, sage, pepper])
(3) fancy little greens tossed with storebought balsamic vinaigrette



and now, *S* and i are trying out different cocktails ... we made him mojitos (didn't turn out as well as we'd hoped - i don't think we got good rum - any suggestions?) and i'm working on a decent sazarac ... i really dug the one at starlite, but i don't remember it well enough to make it again. (ranks up there with the manhattan i had at Etta's in Seattle ... best frickin' manhattan i've ever had ... couldn't re-create it if i tried)

dinner tonight wasn't pretty enough for pictures ...
but it had a good personality ... so ...

we had fish (some kinda perch) salted and peppered on both sides, sprayed with a bit of oil, then covered in thinly sliced yukon gold potatoes ... sauteed on both sides till done then drizzled ever-so-lighly with truffle oil ... mmmmmmm.

also, after eating at wink and enjoying some of *S*'s very yummy braised leeks, i thought i would try it out.
bought four leeks - the smallest i could find ... cut off the tops and the roots, cut them in half lengthwise and washed the hell out of 'em ... sauteed in butter till pretty and brown, then squeezed a lemon on top of 'em ... once the lemon juice was all cooked off, i dumped in enough chicken stock to nearly cover the leeks, covered them up and let 'em cook till the liquid was preeeeeetty much gone ... added salt and pepper.
they had a nice flavor but their texture was sort of unpleasant (at least to me) ... *S* suggests cutting 'em into thinner strands ... might try that next time - the flavor really was quite good.

finished with yummy white-flesh peaches (the only ones at the store that smelled good), cut up and stirred lightly with just a bit of brown sugar.

we had tapas at malaga last weekend ... pretty yummy stuff ... tried to make a few of the dishes at home ...
(1) scallops with fresh basil and what should have been serrano ham (but was *actually* prosciutto)(toss scallops in olive oil, sprinkle 'em with chopped fresh basil, wrap in the ham, and grill till done but not overdone).
(2) nibble plate with spanish dry-cured chorizo, stravecchio cheese, fontina cheese, roasted peppers with no goat cheese.
(3) roasted peppers stuffed with goat cheese (purchased bottled piquante peppers drained and stuffed with fresh pure luck goat cheese, drizzled in olive oil, sprinkle with capers).
it wasn't identical, but it was pretty darned tasty ... *S*'s quite pleased with his grilling prowess.

the grill was still hot, so we went ahead and grilled a marinated pork loin as well ... butterflied it so it would cook more evenly ... evidently, butterflied pork loin vaguely resembles a fish.

i haven't decided yet if i blog ... i'm not really a sharer ... at least not a broadcast sharer.
i have gotten some voyeuristic enjoyment out of reading other ppl's blogs, and that seemed a little selfish of me.
so ... will try it for a little while and see how it suits.