*KISS* from a stranger

While I have read a trio of books by writers on writing this past month while soaking in the tub a couple times a week, ( the only place I aalow myself to induldge myself lately), trying to keep at least my head in the game. One reminded me to basically --- Keep it simple stupid.




Yep, that about sums it up. Thanks for the smack to the back of my head Ms. Evanovich, point very much taken.

*sigh*

The weekend's food recap will be posted soon along with an interesting recent developement.

If it’s Monday …

It must be food! (Thanks to everyone for NOT pointing out that last Monday’s food pics were a bit on the, erm, lite? side. Long story short – no comment.)

So I tried something a little different this past week, I planned a bit ahead in the meals department. I normally do, but this time I took it one step further and did some of the cooking and prep work ahead of time on Friday.

It worked out pretty well, allowing me more time to be relaxed in the short space that is our weekends.

And a beautiful weekend it was, frosty nights and fairly warm, very sunny days, just the way I like them.

Saturday morning Hubster arrived after stopping downtown to pick up bagels for our breakfast. He and I had ours toasted with my homemade roasted garlic hummus, Swiss, tomatoes, arugala and red onion. Boy Wonder had both of his toasted, one with cream cheese blended with chopped jalapenos and black olives and the other with just the chopped black olives and jalapenos, tomatoes and Swiss.

Boy Wonder worked until nine PM so Hubster and I had a late lunch. Me; leftover carrot, potato, ginger cream soup and Hubster had some skinless chicken thighs that I grilled and seasoned along with the boneless chicken breasts I grilled for the chicken pot pie. They are seasoned quite simply with a drizzle of olive oil, kosher salt, cracked pepper and curry powder. Simple and tasty.

I usually load up the whole grill to have it on hand in the fridge for snacks, sandwiches and to put on salads.

After we were shocked by the appearance of Charlie Parker who had been MIA for three weeks, (he ate and then slept for three hours!) we had chicken potpie when Boy Wonder returned from work and watched the movie, Thank You for Smoking, terribly politically incorrect and VERY funny.

I start by following the recipe in the Betty Crocker cookbook and tweak it to my liking. My mother always added a small jar of pimentos so I added some chopped bits of the yellow, red and orange peepers I had roasted as well as some roasted garlic. Because what doesn’t taste better with roasted garlic? I made BW his own smaller pie because he likes his with broccoli and chicken only and the Hubster and I had the traditional, carrots and baby peas in ours.

We skipped dessert because it was so late and we were so full but that turned out okay as we had Saturday’s dessert for Sunday breakfast! I had made a bread and butter pudding on Friday from a recipe that I got from, The Take Home Chef, ‘s website.

It was made using croissants, which I bought from Dunkin Donuts, and I tweaked the custard by adding cinnamon, nutmeg and orange extract. I also used dried cranberries instead of raisins. I knew as I was following his recipe that there was way too much custard in comparison to the bread and ended up with baking a dish of plain custard in the oven alongside the bread pudding --- but who’s going cry over extra custard? Um, NOT me.

The bread pudding was topped with a rich brandy sauce to which I added fresh ground nutmeg and it tasted quite like this elusive sauce my Great grandmother use to serve on her apple dumplings. Thanks Grandma Nelson!

This bread pudding should come with a health warning. (Or as William H. Macy would prefer; a skull and crossbones! See that movie.) It uses nine whole eggs and nine additional egg yolks along with 3 cups of heavy cream and three cups of whole milk.

The brandy sauce only used four egg yolks.

But just in case we were not taxing our arteries and heart enough, I cooked up a pound of bacon to go with it!


To counter the effects of breakfast, at least psychologically, BW and I had salads with feta, and tuna. Hubster ran efficiently on nothing but bread pudding until dinnertime.

Dinner was the New England Pot-Roast I made on Friday and it hit all the right comfort zones on the way down. Betty Crocker got that one right and needs no further tweaking at all. If you haven’t made a pot-roast which includes rubbing the roast with an entire jar of good horseradish after browning it and before roasting --- you must try it.


After dinner we watched some television and found the most amazing thing by accident. On HBO they were broadcasting a boxing match that had been fought earlier in the day in Manchester England. Joe Calzaghe vs. Sakio Bika.

I haven’t had this much fun watching boxing in forever. We were shouting, laughing and the twelve rounds just flew by.

Calzaghe is a ballsy, showman with hands like lightning. As BW says, American boxing right now is like watching junior high kids slow dance. Lots of hugging and rocking that never leads anywhere. Bika was a bit of a dirty fighter but it just added to the excitement and Calzaghe took it in stride and adjusted his fight instead of going for the sympathy and whining we often see.

Calzaghe has been fighting for nine years and at 35, holds a record of 42 wins, (31 by KO) no losses and the World Super Middleweight Championship Belt.

He is looking to fight Bernard Hopkins who is currently retired but considering fighting again. He said he would gladly travel to the states for the fight and we would gladly cheer him on. BW and I will be following closely and if that fight happens we are so there!


2006 Dawn Marie Kelly all rights reserved

Is her head supposed to spin around like that?

Packing up a house that you’ve lived in for eleven years, really makes you confront all manner of demons.

Especially if you spent some of those years going through the break-up of a marriage, a divorce, re-finding yourself, a new partner and marriage.


It’s too late for me but might I suggest for anyone else out there who might do this sort of thing at a later date, do not do this without the aid of a trained professional!

I know I tend to exaggerate on occasion. Right. Fine. At every opportunity, but I am dead on serious with this bit of advice, trust me.

Sixty-four years from now when I leave this earth, the Boy Wonder will need the help of an exorcist to go through all my crap because I am NEVER moving again.

Another observation.

Over these last six years since the Hubster arrived we have rented dumpsters/skips at least four times and filled them to capacity and had them hauled away.

The amount of crap that I am hauling to the dump during this process is astounding. Add to that the bags of clothes I’ve donated and the bins of stuff going into a yard sale and I have only one thought --- why the fuck do we have so much stuff?

I am now convinced that attics, garages and basements are the devils work. You don’t have to actually deal with anything. Just shove it into a box and put it aside to be promptly forgotten.


On a sunny note, I found an Amazon Rewards Certificate for $25 that hasn’t expired yet.

Yay for me!








And just so you know that I haven’t completely lost touch with the outside world --- Damn, this whole Foley fiasco is pissing me right the hell off!

2006 ~ Dawn Marie Kelly~ all rights reserved

Sawdust, cooking, sex and dancing in the dark

We are all so painfully aware of the constant whinging I do about the stress of this relocation business, but please also understand that I fully get that I put the stress on myself.

Hi, I’m Dawn and I have totally surrendered my power over to the situational black comedy that is my life. Now where are the damn donuts?

While awaiting delivery of said, (evil but delicious) donuts let’s go over a couple of my latest self-crazy observations shall we?

Oh please, stop rolling your eyes; you know you enjoy every bloody minute of the irrational chaos I create for myself. If for no other reason, it makes you feel better about yourself. And I’m okay with that, we all have our special gifts and this one is mine, so relax and enjoy the show.

And have a donut, that way you can at least smugly say that you are saving me from my inner obese self.

As if it hasn’t been hard enough these past two years with The Hubster living and working in NY six days a week and trying to fit in all our intimacy and coupling in a brief 38 hours --- eight to ten of those spent sleeping, now we have all this, packing, tossing, painting, sanding, windows out, windows in, shutters on, flowers out, flowers in, business on top of it.

So with all we are doing to prepare to put the house on market, that pretty much gives us two hours on Saturday night for dinner and, erm, um, stuff and two hours Sunday morning over bagels, coffee and e-mail, to confirm our couple ness.

My awkward contribution revolves around food and making sure the house is spotless and ready for the next step of the teardown, rebuild assault project on the list.

Yes, I fully get how idiotic it is to clean on Friday before the assault and then spend Monday cleaning the remains of the assault’s mess, but I digress as this is supposed to be about the mess I create in between.

So there I am doing my best impression of the perfect wife while I have The Hubster in audience; cooking, bringing tea and snacks, cooking, folding laundry, cooking and cleaning the kitchen every two minutes because of All THE BLOODY COOKING! All while wearing some flattering outfit for Hubster’s benefit and trying not to cover it in food and sludge.

When we finally sit down to dinner on Saturday night I am ready to talk about all those things that have been ruminating inside my blonde head all week and are now ready to be released with the help of the requisite bottle of red wine.

I am sure it would be better served if they didn’t all run together in a hyper escalated blur, but there you have it and major props to The Hubster for at least trying to keep up.

But in the middle of the madness sometimes for no apparent reason like this week, we end up dancing and I cannot for the life of me allow myself to be led. So again, major props go to The Hubster for allowing me to lead, (I know no real dancing with stars dances) and again, for at least trying to keep up.

And woman friends, let it be said --- Never underestimate the worth of a man who finds your silliness as equally as attractive as the rest of you. It the most liberating thing I know.

Since cooking really is the most Zen-full thing I do, as it only comes out right if I completely surrender myself over to it, kind of like sex, I’ve decided that I will share the weekend’s efforts --- the cooking, not the sex you pervs! --- with you all on Mondays.

And since this just came to me today – starting next week, I’ll include pictures.

Saturday’s dinner was clam sauce over pasta --- simple, yet incredibly yummy and satisfying.

Sunday morning, bagels brought in and piled with my homemade roasted garlic hummus, red onion, arugula, tomatoes and Swiss cheese.

All day Saturday and night, I had 5 lbs of sweet onions caramelizing in the crock-pot and made a batch of French Onion soup for lunch on Sunday. I did cheat and have The Hubster bring in a bakery loaf of rye to float on top of the soup and beneath the bubbling Swiss cheese. Still --- Very yum!

Of course, sometimes, like this weekend, I run out of steam, call a pass and order in Sunday night.

It had been a while since we had ordered in from our fab fave Thai place and somewhere between the steamed dumplings and red curry I let the guilt of not cooking slip away.

Happy Monday everyone!

2006 Dawn Marie Kelly all rights reserved

Photo Credits go to The Boy Wonder this week!