A cooking weekend

Seems like I spent most of the weekend cooking--and I can't think of a better way to spend a weekend. Friday night, with two little boys for supper, I fixed hot dogs, canned corn, and potato chips (okay, that's not really cooking)--neither boy ate well, and it turned out that both had slight colds. By the next morning, Jacob was really sick but that's another story.
After Max went home and Jacob was settled I made peanut butter cookies, the old recipe that my mom handed down--gosh but they smell wonderful fresh out of the oven. And made myself salmon cakes for supper--have enjoyed them all weekend and am sad to say I was piggy enough to eat two for lunch today so they're all gone.
Saturday's big project was coq au vin made the old-fashioned way, so that it simmers a long time in the sauce. There's much reduction of sauces involved--something that my impatience usually makes difficult, but I did it right this time. One of the tedious things about this dish was chopping--carrots, celery, onions and eventualy mushrooms. But I got it all together, cooked it and put it in the fridge.
This morning I woke with the jitters--can't explain it, but I was just plain anxious. Cooking is often a good antidote, so after I talked to Jordan, found out Jacob had a 102 fever, and they weren't going to church, I finished off the coq au vin. Fished the chicken out, sauteed the mushrooms, reduced the sauce once again and put it all back together. And then back in the fridge. Spent the rest of the morning wrapping Christmas gifts. I'm way ahead of the game--not unusual for me.
Tonight, Jordan and Christian came with Jacob--now 102.9, though medicine took it down and he felt okay but not great. Did eat dinner with us, and Elizabeth came in from her yoga classes in time for supper. Chicken was so tender it fell off the bone--one piece (I had used thighs) literally did fall apart and got lost in the sauce, which was rich and good the way only a sauce cooked for hours can be. It was also chock full of  veggies--carrots, celery, onion and mushrooms. Christian of course wanted nothing to do with the veggies but the rest of us loved them.
My neighbors put new flickering white lights on the arbor outside my dining room window, and we lit the Christmas lights inside the house for the first time this season. I used my red-and-green plaid china, and we felt festive. Lovely evening--so nice to have family around and so nice to have Elizabeth as part of the family. Counting my blessings once again.
Tomorrow is a babysitting day, though he requires little attention. I shudder to admit I'll park him in front of the TV, but his parents will bring some movies, and maybe we'll do a puzzle or two, but, please Lord, not Spiderman again! Jacob can't go back to school until he's been fever-free for 24 hours.

HIghs and Lows

This morning Sue drove me to Weatherford to do a half-hour radio program live on KXQY--if you knew in advance you could follow it on an internet connection, but I doubt few did that. But it was a high--I felt I did well, was casual, informative, talkative but not too much so. And I got in a plug for my blog. Sue, who sat and listened, said she thought it was fine. One of the things we talked about was improvising, cooking off the top of your head.
Well that was not exactly a low but not great either. Tonight I had a nice piece of wild-caught salmon, and I planned to follow a Rachel Ray thing I saw on TV--sauteed the salmon, though I didn't use the seafood seasoning she reccommended--just salt and pepper. She had covered her salmon with a green sauce but I didn't get the ingredients, so I made a sauce of cottage cheese, yogurt, one anchovy filet, basil, scallion, and just enough white wine to turn it liquid--good but not great. Then I topped it with a salad of cucumber, tomato, red onion, and shallot--no dressing. It was good. Just not one of my best. I accompanied it with tiny asparagus spears, just barely roasted. I offered one to Jacob but he said, "It's yucky." He's stuck on chicken nuggets.
Another high--I got a critique comment on my mystery, Skeleton in a Dead Space, and it really made sense. I'll get a print-out of the mss. on Monday and dig in. I'm excited about it.
Of course Jacob is a high--he walked in the door saying, "Juju, I love you!" How can you beat that? We had a lovely evening, though he requires increasingly more attention, wants your every minute. I barely got dinner cooked, cleaned up, and some basiic table setting done for tomorrow night. I read two books to him, cuddled (his idea of cuddling is for you to lie there while he bounces around the bed playing with toys and occasionally bangs into you with an elbow, his head, or his foot--I am battered by a three-year-old!)
A big low: I left my Kindle in the loaner car I turned in to Volkswagen yesterday. After many calls, they found it, but by that time it was too late to go get it (I have no car seat for Jacob). I'll get it Monday, which is already shaping up to be a busy day.
Meantime, I'm going to try to finish going once more through my friend's manuscript and cook a casserole that will feed 12 gorillas.

Getting the Big Head

After a "photo shoot" Tuesday, today I made southwestern tuna salad this morning for a video for the TCU alumni magazine and online program. I had originally said I'd make Colin's queso, but it has 1 lb. hamburger, 1 lb. sausage, 1 lb. Velveeta, 1 can cream of mushroom soup, and 1 jar picante sauce. Delicious, but my goodness look at all those calories. So I switched to the tuna, which is a great variation on standard tuna. Here's the recipe:

7-1/2 oz. can albacore tuna in water
Juice of one good, juicy lime
2 Tbsp. chopped cilantro
1 Tbsp. capers
1/4 c. chopped celery
1.4 c. chopped red onion
pinch of cumin (I used more)
either canned chopped chillies (1 can) or a jalopeno (I much prefer the canned chillies)
Mayonnaise to bind (but don't make it soupy)

The recipe is in Cooking My Way through Life with Kids and Books.

I was very much like Martha Stewart--had the cilantro, celery, and onion cut up ahead of time and all the ingredients out on the counter. When it's online, I'll be sure to post a link here. Later it dawned on me that I'd worn my Med-Alert medallion the whole time. I think the segment should be titled "Old Lady Cooks!"
Then Melinda came at lunchtime to install Microsoft Office 2007 and Filemaker so I can do my TCU work from home. We had tuna, fresh tomato (from her garden--there is no beating the taste of fresh garden tomatoes!), and hearts of palm for lunch. And it was such a lovely cool day we ate on the porch. She had to uninstall my old Microsoft program to install the new one, and while she and the tech person at TCU were laughing over the phone I was worrying about my files--but they all made it intact. Installing Filemaker was much easier and quicker.
Tonight Betty and I went to Winslow's, a fashionable and crowded wine bar--we had salmon cakes with gorgonzola remoulade and grape tomato salad--delicious! A lovely pleasant evening, so it's been another good retirement day.
My email has been down for hours--most frustrating!