Micromacreme - aw knots !

Check it out - this is one of the illustrations for Annika's book on micromacreme. Yes, I did this, and even though it's not finished I'm quite pleased with it. Annika is finishing up the writing portion as I write this and I've just got a couple of things to finish - this being one of them. So stay tuned, I'll update with publishing and release details as soon as I hear about them.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving
I must say a pleasant day, it's been too long since I've had the opportunity to cook for such an appreciative audience. Marcus and his mother were quite lovely and I will cheerfully cook for them whenever I can. Marcus brought two beautiful pies, and his mum did the sweet potatoes. It was a lusciously-lazy afternoon with the lot of us snoozing in front of the fireplace after dinner.

Once upon a time I wanted to be a chef. That was before I discovered that there is a world of difference between cooking for a living and loving to cook. I tried to work in a restaurant for a time, it was great fun until I killed a prime rib (it made a lovely pot roast) and made my boss cry. For food mangers out there a bit of advice - never leave a vegetarian in charge of an expensive cut of meat without very explicit instructions. So my cooking career went the way of my vegetarian diet - gone but often looked back on with fondness and a vague sense of longing.

I still love to cook, and love feeding people. Since I don't have a family to feed my friends get pressed into fulfilling my inner Grandmother tendencies. Come on over and the first words out of my mouth are, "Can I get you a cuppa tea?" Tea usually comes with whatever nibbles I have on hand, fresh fruit, cheese, and gluten-free goodies.

Speaking of nibbles I made the most amazing scones on Friday. Pamela's Baking Mix has been a sanity-saver and on the back of the package I found a recipe for scones (I love scones - and missed them terribly when I gave up gluten a couple of years ago), to which I then added a couple spoonfuls of cranberry-orange relish to the batter. Yum...I was in heaven. Try it with your own recipe, it rocks.

Monday, Monday

It's the first Monday in quite some time where I haven't had to drag myself out of bed and to work. I love my job, I do. But it's nice to be typing at the kitchen table with slightly-dated rock and roll playing in the background. Peaceful y'know. Our house lives out in the country, with older, somewhat neglected landscaping. Nothing pretentious, gnarly old apple trees, grapes that wrestle with the blackberries for dominance (with a little help from me and my pruning shears), rhodies, volunteer roses and asian plums. We didn't get any plums this year - the neighborhood raccoon swiped them all just as they were getting ripe. I don't mind, I'd much rather a vegetarian raccoon feasting on plums than a omnivore getting into the garbage and threatening the cats.

Vacation.....of a sort. I'm taking this week off to take care of all-sorts of neglected things. Including my blog. So stay tuned - I'm learning to use Adobe Illustrator and will be uploading some of my tests.
I'm also doing Thanksgiving this year - as a single person, cooking a turkey is normally an exercise in excess, but this year there's Jennifer, Rosie, Annika and a couple of friends coming over. So I've ordered the bird, and am planning the menu. I'm thinking a wild-rice risotto/stuffing dish, sweet potatoes, cranberry orange relish, a fluffy salad and snacks. Oh and mashed potatoes, just so there's something to put under the gravy. And how does one make gravy without the evil wheat you ask? Why with potato starch, it gives a smooth texture somewhere between cornstarch and regular flour and absorbs all the wonderful flavor from the drippings. And there is no learning curve, since it works about like a regular flour roux - in fact I've used potato starch to make a roux for cream-based soups, macaroni and cheese and other sauces. Even when I could eat wheat, I preferred it in soups, because of the creaminess. One note though, it seems to take less salt in the final product, so be gentle with the shaker. :)