Gearing Up

Looks like visitor season is about to start, and it isn’t even snowing yet. Jim’s contract is up in a few weeks and we’ve a couple important guests coming in over the next couple of weeks. Much is going on in our lives, as can be imagined.

While we drove 1,500 miles here with two teams of horses (horsepower) and two wagons (cars) stuffed to the gills, there’s no way we’d be able to leave that way. Promising ourselves not to purchase anything other than food, we slipped up a bit on that one. A few books, a guitar, larger bucket for dog food. If we’re migrating to another city next month, we’d rather sell the older car, pack the dog and our clothing in the newer one and send everything else on a truck. As it is, 98% of our stuff is in storage.

Jim’s parents are coming for a little over a week. Last time we toured we took ten days and saw New York State, Vermont and a bit of Ontario. Now those are some of my old stomping grounds, and the first trip of any kind with the in-laws so I wanted them to decide where to go and what to see. Then, because we had set start and end points for the flight home, when we chose an itinerary we had to find hotel rooms for the night so there was Jim on his cell phone trying to get online and book rooms.

This’ll be different because they’ll have a base to call home and can stay in the area to sight-see, take the free bus into town, or rent a car for a couple of days and drive to Moab or Yellowstone for a couple of days if they get bored here. Jim will be working all but the long weekend so I’ll take them around for a couple of days and then they’re on their own!

One of my most favorite things to do to prepare for guests is plan the menu. It’ll be easy to have breakfasts in the frig from our delivery service, which is where I get applewood smoked bacon, orange and apple juice, eggs and milk. Plus, I’d like to have a couple of things ready to just toss into the oven if we’ve a long day sightseeing. Of course it all depends upon the weather, which turned cool enough this weekend that we have the heat on at night (not great for the nasty flu I have, plus at 28% humidity for my new guitar) and Jim re-lit the pilot on the gas fireplace and we used it for a few moments to take off the chill Saturday morning.

If it’s very warm, I’d like to prepare a cold dinner beforehand (tuna salad, hard-boiled eggs, fresh tomatoes, cheese, ham, artisan bread…) but if it’s cold I’ll make a stew or Jim’s least favorite dish, Moussaka. He hates eggplant.

I’m learning to like my new iPhone 3G. It’s a refurb but today I downloaded some free apps including Epicurious. Remember, I don’t have a single one of my cookbooks with me here (very disciplined, I know) so when I want ideas I check this out and now I have it on the phone, which I’ve yet to try. For breakfast I thought of Julia Child’s “Uncle Hans’ City Scrapple” which I made for my cousins once many years ago, but I don’t have the recipe. It’s from The Way To Cook. If anyone can tell me the ingredients, I’ll figure it out. I know it’s cornmeal (don’t know fine or coarse) and sausage and you bake it as a loaf, then weight it down in the frig overnight. Then you slice it and dredge it in cornmeal and fry it to golden perfection. I have the book, but it’s in storage 1,500 miles away and I’m sure the publisher won’t help me, even though I own Mastering I and II plus several others and recently purchased My Life In France. Email to dee@cookingwithdee.net if you can help out. I’ll serve it with eggs (short-order) and baked tomatoes with toasted panko and parmigiano reggiano. Perhaps a few Southern biscuits as well.

So my To Do list includes: Don’t succumb to pneumonia, and get over this nasty cold/flu; clean house; move office out of dining room (to where, exactly?); deal with several months of receipts; get carpets cleaned; plan menus; set up guest room and find storage space (again, where?); find a cheap solution for printer/paper that doesn’t involve using the box in which we moved Jim’s PSIII; make more lists; bathe the dog and get her nails trimmed; shop; and pick folks up at the airport.

Oh, and maintain sanity at all costs. It’s a tough job but someone has to do it! Hope you had a great weekend. Mine was not one I want to remember, just get over this darned bug. Jim’s still feeling its effects, going to sleep around nine every night, and he went back to work on Wednesday. I didn’t come down with it until Wednesday night. Cheers, Dee