Yesterday was a pretty good "getting things done" day. Had my radio show in the morning -- which was not my best show, I must confess; one of the three CD players was broken, which always makes it a challenge, but more than that I was just distracted by thoughts of everything I needed to get done before the holiday -- then spent the afternoon working and "reloading" the living room, as they say in Trading Spaces, by which I mean cleaning up and putting furniture and decorative things back. I only got one piece of art hung because I ran out of picture hanging hooks. But it is starting to look nice, if I do say so myself.
Next step: window coverings and lighting. I'd really like to add a couple of wall sconces on either side of the mantel, but my friend Marc advised not doing that with plaster walls. He said that you can easily damage the wall, and it's really hard to find someone to repair plaster. I kind of feel like I could repair it myself, with as much work as I've done replastering those walls. But that was all cracks and gouges; I'd have a harder time of it if I lost a big chunk of the plaster, down to the lathe.
After all the gourmet cooking (plus knowing I'd be making the stuffing and pie today for Thanksgiving dinner), I wasn't up to another elaborate meal. So last night we just had sausages sauteed with vegetables. I did use some of the duck fat we saved from the roast duck for the saute, which made everything taste nice and lush. And I must say, I think this is a new high in my experience of home cooking. Having a jar of freshly rendered duck fat in the fridge, that I can just throw into a saute.
I was thinking that it would be nice to make duck confit for Christmas Eve dinner. I had that at the Little Buddha Cafe in Vegas and it was fabulous, easily the best duck I've ever eaten. But I looked up the recipe (not Julia this time, but Tom Colicchio, head chef of Craft in NY) and a recipe that serves four calls for 4 cups of duck fat. Yes, 4 cups. Apparently duck confit is simply duck legs simmered in enough melted duck fat to cover them, for 3 hours. I'm glad I ate it before knowing that, because I would think it incredibly disgusting if I hadn't aready discovered how delicious it is. Anyway, the duck we roasted the other night produced about 1 cup of fat, and I don't know how long it would keep, so I think duck confit is out of my reach for the time being.
Speaking of gourmet food, which I seem to do all the time, I got a book on food photography from Amazon. I've always wanted to learn how to photograph food so that it doesn't look grotesque, and I thought that a trip to Morimoto was a good reason to learn. Unfortunately it's more of an idea book than a tutorial. Instead of saying "make sure the lighting is diffuse, light from this or that angle," etc etc., the book shows a series of food photographs with a diagram of the lighting and description of the shoot from the photographer.
It's inspiring, but I don't know how much it will help me learn how to photograph food in a restaurant where I'll have zero control over the lighting. Or anywhere else, seeing as I don't own any lighting equipment and don't plan to buy any. I guess the book was aimed at professionals. In any case, from the photos it looks like the dining area is softly lit, so I'm going to turn off my flash and hope for the best. I'll be sure to share the results if the photos aren't hideous (and maybe even if they are).
Today's gone pretty well, busier than I had hoped but not as stressful as last year. Took some bills to the post office this morning. The evil credit card companies time their billing cycles so that if I wrote the checks at the beginning of the month with everything else, I'd be late! I think they do that on purpose. They want me to be a few days late so they can jack up my interest rate, but I'm not falling for it. On the other hand, I've heard that some credit card companies make people mail their checks to the opposite coast to increase the chances of late payment. Mine at least don't do that.
Now the cornbread stuffing is made, the pumpkin pie is almost finished, the dogs are at the kennel, and Georg is making dinner. All I have left to do is pack. Oh, and wash my coat, which got a little musty in the closet.
2 Comments
Online banking is your key to inner peace. With an electronic billpaying system, you can set your bills to pay shortly before they're due, and bill-paying is so much faster that you could do biweekly bill sessions in less time than a monthly session now.
Alternately, you could call your credit card companies and ask them to change your due dates. They'll probably grumble, but they'll also probably agree to do so.
I have a credit union account, so I'm not sure if I can do online billpaying. I do check my account balance online, so I'll check and see about the bill paying.
Meanwhile I think I'll call about changing the due dates. One is around the 8th-10th; the other used to be around the 6th but has inched up to the 2nd-3rd or so. It would be a lot easier on me if they were both on the 15th so I could pay them with the rest of my bills.