dinner and drinks

i put together a sauce for tortellini last night with those mushrooms i bought, about a tablespoon of minced salt pork, a couple of tablespoons of minced shallots, a little sherry, some fresh thyme, light cream, and lots of freshly ground black pepper. it was very tasty, and i have enough leftovers for lunch! (it looks like the addition of Wellbutrin to the cocktail is reducing my appetite -- let's see, though, if it stays that way.)

in retrospect, i wish i'd left out the salt pork and added some meyer lemon zest, but i can always try that another time. the mushrooms, as advertised, lost very little of their size in cooking. they were a bit less tender than chanterelles, but similar in flavor -- quite strong, really; you could do well with only one of these and a few crimini or buttons. the best flavor was in the caps, of course, and with such small caps relative to the stalks, i think next time i'll make a point of choosing the ones with the largest caps.

after dinner, Warren and Shirley came over. i laid out slices of last night's baguette and some stoned wheat crackers with a variety of things for dipping -- balsamic vinegar, some of that provençal olive oil, some cheaper olive oil dressed up with a little garlic, oregano, and crushed red pepper, and some spicy red pepper dip. we drank cheap Mexican beer with lime and talked about all sorts of things. a good time was had by all, and i managed not to stress about it, which i consider a major triumph.

"Quest for Fire" was much better than i remembered, and much different. i think i must have seen it before at a party, and not been paying close attention. i ended up watching it again all the way through with the cast commentary, which was really entertaining.

today: um. no idea, really. i'd better do some laundry, though.

oh yeah, and

i bought a new messenger bag the other day. my cool orange one from Target is starting to fall apart from the inside, and as much as i love it, it's a little too small some days. the new one was only $20, and isn't of significantly better quality, but it's a little bigger and has lots of useful compartments. and because it's bigger, i can start carrying my digital camera with me, so i can actually take pictures of the things that grab my attention.

this will either be fun, or i'll just forget to ever actually take pictures.

yum

for breakfast i'm having kashi with boysenberry yogurt, tea, and a mix of juices from 2 oranges, 1 blood orange, and 1 meyer lemon. damn, that's good! nicely tart, with a sweet finish.

wow it's a beautiful day out. i don't dare go over to the other weekend event on Alemany -- the Sunday flea market. i'd spend money, and right now i need to not spend money. (Sheila at the video store actually offered to run me a tab so i don't have to eschew videos. how sweet is she? she said i've always been a good customer, and she trusts me. and i love it when she tucks a flower behind her ear.)

for dinner tonight i'm thinking about grilling up another little sirloin and having it with asparagus and fingerling potatoes. (god, i love the farmer's market.) it just seems like the right kind of day for it. obviously i need to involve meyer lemon in some way (gotta use them before they spoil!), but i'm thinking something lighter than the beurre blanc; i'll just toss the asparagus and potatoes with a little of that fancy olive oil and meyer lemon juice, and pepper them thoroughly. i wonder if i should do anything creative with the steak. i've got pink peppercorns...

my fascination with food is reaching legendary proportions. pretty soon, i really will be working seriously on that cookbook, i think. (and yes, swisscheesed, i would adore it if you'd do illos for me. hell, were it not for the impudent gesture, i'd use that pic of me you made as my author shot.) honestly, i really do believe i've got a great idea; all i need is to figure out how i'm going to structure it, and then start transcribing recipes and working on new ones. i think about it all the time, but i just haven't had the energy to do anything about it. but it's official: the medication increase is really, really helping. like, a lot.

i've called maintenance about the plumbing problem, but haven't heard back. i guess i'd better call again.

heh.

i was still waiting for maintenance, so i called the management office and left a message saying i couldn't reach maintenance and my kitchen was unusable.

30 seconds later, maintenance called. Rikki is replacing the pipe now. he says his pager doesn't always work, which i don't really believe, but he gave me his cellphone number for future emergencies.

assertiveness works! who knew?