Food and Fumbles
4:07 p.m. - 2006-10-02


Joel's birthday dinner was on Saturday. He asked for roasted chicken, the kind you buy, to make it easier on my dad, with pesto fettucini and green salad. I went with my dad to Costco on Friday to put in an order for the chickens, and volunteered to pick them up on Saturday. My dad always orders too much, so I was supposed to pick up 14 roasted chickens. I was also going to supply the pesto as there was probably one more picking of basil in the garden. On Saturday afternoon I felt like making a cake so I tried a new recipe from Have Your Cake And Eat It Too. I made a chocolate cake which was interesting in its makeup in that it only had 1/3 cup of oil and only one egg yolk. It was a surprisingly tender and moist cake. I made a light chocolate frosting with a little cinnamon flavor in it. The whole dinner went off very well, and the fettucini was all eaten up, as was my cake. There were, however, 8 chickens left over which I consider an improvement over the time he bought 20 chickens and had tons more left over. Everyone took home some leftovers so it all worked out.

My dad has been anxious to clear out all the serving gear that my mom collected except for the stuff he actually uses for the birthday parties. We went through the cupboard and divided up all the stuff. I got some corningware casseroles for the girls, the French White stuff. I took several for myself, plus a tray for each girl. It will be nice for the girls to have something from their grandmother. They are very attractive casseroles, but I feel both happy and sad when I look at them.

At church the next day, we got to hear the new pastoral candidate. He actually looked a little like Allan, my brother-in-law in a taller beefier way, and was an excellent speaker, so I guess he gets my vote. Melissa whispered to me during the service that standing up there with the 'choir', she could hear the candidate's wife singing and tells me the wife cannot carry a tune. This must be a grave drawback for a pastor's wife, but I guess you could always just move your lips, that is if you knew you had this problem. Most people who can't carry a tune don't know it.

For Sunday dinner I made pot roast, and while it was simmering I got the idea to make berry muffins (a new recipe to try in Have Your Cake). I needed corn syrup for this recipe so made a quick trip to Safeway. The eggs were on sale, buy one get one free, so I got two 18-egg cartons. This would have been great if I hadn't fumbled the bags while trying to unlock the front door and dropped 36 eggs onto my feet. Luckily, they stayed in the cartons and bag, but a lot were cracked, so I changed my plans and made an angel food cake. I always use the Supreme Angel Food Cake recipe in the book, Cake Bakery, and it turned out as good as it ever does. This time I put in vanilla and a little coconut extract.

Today I had to clean the wall heater because the PG&E guy or gal is coming tomorrow to light the pilot light, then I cleaned up my potting and plant mess on the patio. After that fun I went into Almond River to see if I could find a shoulder pad device for my purse strap, because I like the new purse but the strap is too thin and uncomfortable after awhile. The spouse suggested the AAA store, which I didn't even know was there, and it had just what I needed. Since I also needed some plastic storage containers for my whole wheat flour, I went over to the Container Store and managed to find some. Some of the containers on display may work well but were so hard or complicated to get into that I passed them by. One had these latch things on all four sides of the top! When I want flour, I don't want to have to break into Fort Knox to get it. The ones I got are very nice, relatively cheap and Made In Australia!

Tonight is another Heroes! I have to record it while we watch Vanished, but it is all good.