Too much time.....

Okay, the end of school was really long and tiring. the weekend was really more of eating leftovers and subs than anything special...however this week...Wow! lots of time, cooked dinner for the girl, her father and my mom. really simple this time but it worked out really well.
salmon fillets with 1T butter, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste wrapped in filo brushed with butter and baked at 350 until brown. that was served with mashed potatoes (baking potatoes boiled) made with butter, cream and fresh ground rosemary, formed into balls, and baked with the fish. the fish wasn't what trevor's was but it was really good. also steamed green beans, and steamed butternut squash. after dinner we talked and gave out presents. everyone ahd fun, mom was surprised with her feather bed (which is better than ours :( ) but the biggest surprise was at the beginning of the evening when i was finally able to show the girl what i did to the bed.

So i got this Ikea bed (Dalselv i think) which is unfinished wood, and it's really nice. but the last time the girl and i were together she said once that she has always wanted a four-poster canopy bed. so i went to home depot got some 2x2 and 1x2's, carriage bolts, washers and nuts, and hooks. i decided taht i had to make the thing so it could be taken apart easily cause we're still renting. basically i just extended the frame up and took muslin (at the store it said "special" muslin, i think that meant that it rode the smaller bus to school) four seven yard lengths and draped then across, having some 15 inches hanging over the the equivalent of the ends of the bed. staple gun, sanding before assembly, some drilling in the original bed, put some vinyl tubing on the hooks to silence them and voila! instant canopy bed. i guess she liked it cause she started crying.

well, on to today. we got up early and served food to old people at a community dinner at a church in my mom's neighborhood. the lady who was running it last year was kinda mean and yelled at me so i said that if anyone yelled at me this year i was out of there. and it was my job to make gravy. cause that seems to be my job everywhere. took the pan drippings that i got from people, used the bags of stuff that comes with the turkeys, added about 1 quart of water ( i ended up making about 4 gallons of gravy) and as much chicken stock i could get my hands on. made a simple roue from flour and butter but i did change it bu adding corn starch right away. i cup flour i stick butter in a hot pan, whisk until all of a sudden the butter is completely melted and the flour will just create like cookie dough consistency. well, the whole thing went in. 8T black pepper, use the pre-ground stuff cause no one is going to grind that much pepper. then i just kept whisking it over a medium high flame until it started foaming, lowered teh flame and started adding a cornstarch slurry until it was the right consistency.... don't tell anyone that i used chicken stock.
well that was a big hit. oops forgot the usual salt to taste.

i've just thought that this recipe won't help anyone at all cause it's for about 120 people so forget all that. large ammounts of gravy are easy cause the volume gives you more lee-way so yeah whatever.

BIG SPECIAL THANKYOU TO MY SIS RACHEL FOR COMING AND HELPING TO SERVE FOOD. she even didn't go to her family until this afternoon instead of last night so she could do it. LARISSA YOU ARE ON MY SHIT LIST!

well, again fell asleep early for a while i i'm awake pretty late. ordered xmen 2 which was really good, watching somebody's "the secret agent" which could be better, come hoskins, youre a good actor, start directing something with a more engaging plot.

p.s. don't start playing be-jewelled online, it'll take up hours without you knowing it.

happy winter holiday.